Aug
29th
2015
The Age of the Sirens · 11:40pm Aug 29th, 2015
This image.
It's cute. I can't deny that. But it got me thinking. Why does everybody assume that the Sirens are a thousand years old and run with it? So, in a fashion not unlike my previous post, here's what we know:
Movie
• Banished to the HSAU "ages ago" by Starswirl.
• That's all they wrote.
Comic
• Banished directly to what looks like at most days before the movie starts.
• "There's still a whisper of magic left in our pendants."
• It's night when they arrive, and the movie starts at night — it could very be directly before the start.
As before, I'll leave the conclusions to the reader. Please put yours in the comments, if you have any.
The comic is considered duetro-canon. That is to say, if the show says something different, dump the comic.
To be fair, the movies are (also) commonly considered duetro-canon, since the show itself has yet to reference them. However, due to having the same art group working on the movies and the show, the movies are considered closer to the source and therefore trump the comic.
In canon, Star-swirl the Bearded existed before Luna became Nightmare Moon, placing him a thousand years prior to the show at the bare minimum. There is a little wiggle room--we don't know pony lifespan, when he died, or if he magicked himself to the future somehow--but for the most part he's presumed to have died around the time Luna was banished, if not before. Ergo, any actions attributed to him must have happened within the same time frame.
Now, it is possible that the Sirens were banished a thousand years ago and somehow remained in transit within the portal until the time of Rainbow Rocks. However, the portal is not shown to have any time-warping capabilities within the movies. Movies trump comics, as I've said, and while there is no negative to disprove the positive it's at least implied that the magic of the mirror works consistently during its uses. Thus, it's easier to assume that the Sirens arrived in ancient times and somehow managed to survive to the present day.
3356437 Yeah. Somehow they manage to survive as for all intents and purposes humans. For a thousand years. Humans that cause violent conflict wherever they go.
I said I wouldn't do this in the blog post itself but this is the comment section nyeh.
3356447
Indeed. It is a conundrum. Speaking of which, have you read that fic where Sunset and the gals sneak into Prinicpal Celestia's family reunion?
3356458 The one where they're basically Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny? Oh yes.
But yeah. A conundrum indeed. On the other hand, The movie and comic are in your own words both deuterocanon, so why not acknowledge the comic's timeskip thing? If anypony'd know how to adjust the mirror's target time, it'd be Starswirl.
If you want my opinion this is how I see it. Time moves differently between the 2 worlds. On Equestria's side the Sirens were banished 1000 years ago and must have been flung 1000 years into the future, on the Equestrian Earth side probably days before Equestria Girls happened causing the time confusion. If so then on Equestria's side they are indeed 1000+ years old. But on Equestrian Earth, the exact age still they were when they were first banished since they didn't age any. Then they just had to be at the right place, right time to see Sunset Succubus's downfall, the giant rainbow laser of harmony we all know and love. Since Rainbow Rocks happens days after the first movie, seeing how the wall has been fully repaired by then, which takes a lot of time to do assuming days at least, that gives plenty of time for the Dazzlings to gear up on their modern appearance we see through the rest of the movie.
Since The portal opens every 30 moons naturally, it's possible a few years like maybe 2-3 went by since Sunset ran away on Equestrian Earth while plenty more went by in Equestria, assuming Twilight was still a filly at the time up to the time of the show's start. Since we don't know how old Twilight and Sunset actually are like an exact number it's hard to calculate the exact number of years difference time went by between the worlds exactly from When Sunset left and Twilight went to Ponyville.
Also This would be before Nightmare Moon happened but Starswirl would still be alive afterwards as he was seen in the comics after the tragedy, comforting Celestia and meeting Mirror King Sombra in Mirror Equestria with her. Then getting angry with her for using the mirror that led to Mirror Equestria repeatedly despite the possible danger of instability being a thing.
I'm of the theory that Star Swirl, when he sent them to the human world, also sent them forward in time. Why he did this, I have no clue, but it fits with the information that we have available.