@Meresflut
All we have been told about pony ages so far is that Celestia is over 1000 years old, and Granny Smith is hundreds of years old. And the Cake twins are at least a month old, though I doubt that’s terribly relevant.
@Background Pony Number 17
I very much want to agree with this, but I think it’s pretty clear that, at least with Nightmare Moon, there was definite, non-vague math involved in Twilight going from the prophecy of her return on the longest day of the thousandth year to, “Oh, my gosh, that means she’s returning exactly tomorrow!”
I guess you could say it was more complex than that and what we saw was some sort of translation convention, but if we start going with that, then we can’t take anything in the show as meaningful within the context of the show.
Ponies, like small children, have no concept of historical time. Terms like “banished to the Moon for a thousand years” or “taking a hundred year nap” should not be taken literally. For ponies, anything that occurred before living memory happened “a thousand years ago”. For example, Nightmare Moon’s banishment, King Sombra’s sealing and the disappearance of the Crystal Empire, and Discord’s first imprisonment all occurred in some indefinite time in Equestria’s history. Exactly when is anypony’s guess. Celestia and Luna probably know, but even their memories about the events may be hazy.
Likewise, “a hundred years” is just shorthand for “a really long time”, longer than the ponies can readily think of. Recall how in Winter Wrap-Up, Twilight Sparkle says Ponyville was founded centuries ago, and yet Granny Smith is one of the village founders. Ponies just don’t keep that accurate track of the passage of time.
We have no idea how old Celestia and Luna actually are, probably because they themselves might not be aware of it–certainly their subjects have no clue. And there’s no reason to assume Spike or Twilight Sparkle will have lifespans any longer than their friends.
@Formido Even better, they get it by becoming world-spanning computers in the belly of giant ships! In the grim future of equinity there is only Poni-Culture. @Drasvin
Could be worse. You could Go Greek and just become a huge favouritism-plying asshole.
Imagine if Discord singled out Twi as Bestpony, but considered one of her friends Worstpony, constantly setting them against one another in subtle ways, or creating challenges designed to make them butt heads (especially if he decided worstpony was Applejack, that’d lead to a whole lot of conflict ah reckon!)
@Zennistrad
Yeah, I remember that episode. Certainly, a little vulnerability helped Q to learn a few new emotions, like empathy and gratitude.
But I think Q’s statement is a little misleading. Power, on its own, doesn’t directly determine one’s orientation toward good or evil, or whether or not one shows interest in the affairs of lesser beings. Just look at us; we are very much above the common animal, but we can care very strongly about them, and often show them compassion and love.
It seems as though people always regarded Discord as a nuisance at best, or a horrifying tyrant at worst. That’s no excuse for his behavior, but I doubt it helped much either.
@t260g
Make since, though becoming inured to grief does pose a different potential problem to an immortal. There is the possibility of becoming cynical and closed in(“Why should I go through the trouble of always making new friends, since they are but mayflies compared to me.”) or callous (“Why should I take the time and trouble to save this person’s life? He’ll die soon or later anyway, and I can always make new friends.”) I know it’s not something that is guaranteed, but is a possibility. As a person becomes numb to the pain of losing friends, they run risk of losing value in friends and/or their lives.
I fail to see the difference myself, unless you stop making new friends you simply cannot outlive everyone you’ve ever known (And also excluding the fantasy constant of other immortals like Celestia and Luna). It’s entirely possible for you to outlive everyone you’ve known from your generation, and it does happen to older people and it does come with some degree of alienation, but it isn’t crushingly debilitating. Certainly none of the numerous older people I’ve known in my life ever fretted overmuch about it. Interviews with the oldest men and women in the world rarely have them weeping uncontrollably about the friends they’ve lost.
Certainly I can imagine a certain chilliness to outliving your own children, but that’s hardly a position unique to the immortal, and it comes with an easy opt out of not having children, as Celestia and her sister have clearly avoided. Furthermore it’s not relavent to Spike, since any children he has would be century spanning anyways, and would likely outlive him.
In life, you are going to outlive some of your friends, and some of your friends are going to outlive you. That’s just how it is. I know the teenagers who write this sort of thing are just discovering this train of thought, but to anyone who’s been around for a while and experienced death-related grief more than once, we’ve long since been inured to this reality.
TL:DR Immortality blues falters because the immortal ones have more experience with handling with grief through than anyone else. It’s not going to paralyze them.
