Link is dead.

@platypus-in-a-can  

 
Touche.
 
 
@Ebonysdagger  

 
And if you factor in the EQG movies, you get a better idea. The first movie takes places a minimum of three years after the series began, as the mirror only activates that often. And while it doesn’t affect the series, at least three years had passed prior to that as Sunset predated Twilight as Celestia’s pupil and went through the mirror and had been at the school for three years, per her gala wins.
 
In the behind-the-scenes commentary for Rainbow Rocks, they said it was six months between it and the first movie. The beginning with the Sirens seeing the orbital friendship cannon was a flashback, and then it skips forward six months. They wanted this made more obvious, but it got left out in editing. The idea was it would take the Sirens some time to get into the school. They couldn’t just show up the next day.
 
So three and a half years just based on the first two movies.

I don’t consider it to be seven years in-universe. 2 or 3, perhaps 4, but not seven.

It’s not too bad if you consider them as having gone from 9 to 16. Though they really should start using some slightly older models. I mean, they’ve got cutie marks and act a bit more mature, so…
 
But we’ve rarely, if ever seen that sort of intermediate pony model. Except maybe that nerd pony Rarity bribed for some vegetables.

@Vinyl Fluff
 
@Machiavellian Mythos  
I see your Bart Simpson and Ash Ketchum and raise you to Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts- they were all kids for nearly 50 years

In the show we have evidence of at least two years having actually passed (Two Summer Sun Celebrations, Two Nightmare Nights, Two Hearthwarming Eves, Two Hearts and Hooves Days) for everyone in it. So they are clearly not still twelve. If you consider each season an actual year then they are quite a bit older than even that.

I think they’ve had plenty of clear and real growth, even if not physically, and it’s reasonable to say they’ve gone from 8 or 9 to 14 or 15, in age, based on all about their development but the physical. Yeah, anyway, the fan’s typical portrayal of them as younger than they are, along with the staff’s reluctance to let them physically graduate from this stage is kinda funny.

Could be worse. Could be Bart Simpson and be 12 for twenty+ years.