The Alicorn Solution

Although we have a much shorter frame of reference in the current generation of ponies, we have reason to believe that Princess Luna has been alive for as long as Princess Celestia. There are numerous accounts of Princess Luna in her current fully matured adult body having been the age her body halted at over a thousand years ago. Princess Celestia similarly stopped aging since the beginning of recorded time; based on what depictions we do have of the two sisters since Equestrian history began, they have always been fully matured adults, excepting Princess Luna when she was reborn from the husk of Nightmare Moon. I have numerous hypotheses about Princess Luna’s younger appearance initially, but that will come later.

For pony’s sake, is this really what I’ve become? A bumbling old scholar, reduced to taking studious notes on all steps of this journey? I understand accuracy of the science, but there are points where one has to realize that note-taking is counterproductive.

I guess I want to have a legacy left behind in the end. Call me vain if you will; I don’t want to die a nameless nothing, as so many others have before me. I want to crack the alicorn gene wide open and spread the information to all ponies.

Admittedly, I do wish there were another pony I could share this pursuit of mine with. Were I not so utterly alone, if there were another scientist to whom I could show my findings, a pony who would understand what I say and view it, not as a political or influential gain, but as a thirst for knowledge, I would be far happier in doing this. Princess Twilight Sparkle immediately leaps to mind, but I can be certain that she would tell Princess Celestia of her findings. That is, by and large, my greatest fear.

The bastard still holds my wary eye. He comes and pokes his nose in near-daily. I am not even three days into my initial speculations, more at a brainstorming phase than anything else, and already he is becoming too nosy for his own good. He seems to have a dangerously curious mind; I can think of a few uses for a guinea pig, but none at this point. Maybe I’ll invite him in for my experiments to make him more receptive at a later date. I doubt my tests will ever come to that, but it will be nice to have somepony to talk to, if nothing else.

As our control group, we have Princesses Cadance and Twilight to observe. Princess Cadance, while an obvious candidate for pony gigantism, also appears to be unaware of any aging effects on her. She has taken an average unicorn as her husband without any observed fear of his perishing before her; this, of course, would more likely be something done behind closed doors.

In fact, the only real comparison that we have from Princess Cadance to another pony is currently Princess Luna. Luna, when she emerged from the husk of Nightmare Moon, was reported by Ponyville eyewitnesses to be young again, no older than the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, yet a full head taller than any of them. No more than two months later, reports were rampant that she was a spitting image of the Princess of the Night, her mane and tail having reformed to have the same flowing properties that her sister had, the prior solid purple color replaced by a midnight blue studded with sparkles that were reminiscent of stars. Based on this two-month aging period, we can formulate a very stringent hypothesis that Princess Luna and her sister both age very, very quickly compared to normal ponies, then the accelerated body maturity halts at a specific age.

Princess Cadance, on the other hoof, largely appears to have matured in the manner expected of an average pony. She is well within the boundaries of standard maturity growth. The only abnormality I can observe in her development is the gigantism that is present in all alicorns thus far.

Princess Twilight Sparkle, only having recently become an alicorn, has not had any observable changes apart from the established changes of (believed, but still unproven) earth pony magic and (far easier to observe) pegasus wings and magic. There have not yet been any observations of gigantism, nor have there been any signs of aging demarcation. She is, to the best of my knowledge, just a unicorn and a pegasus in a single average pony, not the borderline goddess we’ve been led to believe.

Based on official public reports of Lord Tirek’s near-domination of Equestria, he first stole unicorn magic before growing powerful enough to steal pegasus magic, then again grew powerful enough to steal earth pony magic, finally reaching the height of his power to steal alicorn magic. There’s a few whispered reports of him stealing Discord’s magic, but I find that laughable. Until multiple eyewitnesses can confirm that a non-pony near-deity had their magic stolen by Tirek, I can’t believe that.

Discord rumors aside, the ponies of Ponyville claimed in multiple reports that a great battle took place near the town. Nopony saw the fight, but all of them say they heard it clearly. I know not what to make of this, or of the new “castle” which has been created. It can’t be written out entirely, but based on occurrences so far, it’s unlikely that castles are something inherently necessary for alicorns—probably some secretive “coming of age” tradition that Princesses Celestia and Luna decided upon. Ignoring the castle hypothesis (which I may not even expand upon), I question just how powerful an alicorn truly is. Tirek absorbed the magic of thousands of ponies, and a single alicorn was able to hold their own against Tirek for several minutes at least. This appears to be a massive strengthening of magic in both the wings of the pegasus and the horn of the unicorn. Perhaps in the earth pony’s hooves as well? It’s a shame there is no eyewitness other than Twilight Sparkle and—Tirek.

I’ll send word to Cut Diamond. Perhaps we can arrange an interview.