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Writer of the episode “Pinkie Pride” says the cake is possibly a lie and Rainbow Dash may not actually be 21.

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Ping_chan
Wallet After Summer Sale -
Not a Llama - Happy April Fools Day!
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

Pretty soft for a Sony.
Goodness my head wobbled a lot while reading these comments, also for those who really tried to read the candles on Dashies cake, it really brings new meaning to ‘the cake is a lie’!
Background Pony #8C9B
@Background Pony #2735  
In the sense that taking that line literally contradicts so much prior canon that you effectively have to consider season 4 a new, rebooted version of the series, yes.
Ping_chan
Wallet After Summer Sale -
Not a Llama - Happy April Fools Day!
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

Pretty soft for a Sony.
Deae God these comments were fun to read!  
My take on these points,  
The shows production staff likes to keep things flexible, which annoys those who love to collect facts and details.  
People tend to reject episodes/canonical details they don’t like and substitute their own headcanon.  
I personally think that the best solution to any of the problems suggested by these comments posts are “its a magical world populated by magical ponies and one very chaotic random Discord”  
That or “timey wimey”.
Background Pony #3EB6
Here’s the way I see it.  
Rainbow Dash: Quite young to get her cutie mark. She said she was one of the first in her class to get it. Had a squeaky voice and everything. I’d say she was around kindergarten age when she got hers, so about 5-6. She participated in the young flyers competition. We know she dropped out of school and has her first job established at the beginning of the series, so I’d say about the equivalent of 18. One year later she is 19.  
Twilight: Supposedly entering magic kindergarten as well, making her around Dash’s age. So 5-6. She seems to be a new college student at the beginning of the series, so 18 as well. 19 a year later.  
Rarity: Performing in a school play over summer, so she is at least 1 year ahead of Twilight and Dash. However, she is also quite small and squeaky voiced, so I’d keep it at 1 year. So 6-7 years. She owns a business, sure, but it’s a new business. You can tell because she is desperately seeking recognition to make her business a success. And she seems so much more mature because of her “lady” code. So 19 at the beginning, 20 now.  
Pinkie: The hardest to figure out. She didn’t attend a school in the flashback, so it’s hard to tell. And she acts like a child when she is an adult. I’d put her around Rarity’s age though, so like 6-7. Followed by 19, and then 20 a year later.  
Applejack: older because she said she was the last in her class to receive a cutie mark, so at least 1 grade above Rarity, making her 7-8. 20 at the series beginning, 21 a year later.  
Fluttershy: Looks significantly older than the rest in her flashback, but has to be within a year of Pinkie at some point, so I’d say 8-9. this would make her 20-21 at the beginning, 21-22 a year later.  
Spike: Easy. Subtract Twilight’s current age from her flashback age. So about 13 at the series beginning, which makes sense with the whole puberty thing. 14 later on.  
CMC: They seem to be about the age Applejack was when she got her cutie mark, so like 7 at the beginning, 8 later on. (Sweetie might be younger, because of her size and voice).  
Cheerilee: everything about her screams new teacher, so it would not be surprising to learn she is Rarity or AJ’s age. So about 6-8 in flashback, 19-20 in the beginning, and 21 now.  
Big Mac: looks to be about Fluttershy’s size in flashback, and seems to be only slightly older than AJ, so 8-9. 21 at the beginning, 22 a year later.  
Shining Armor: a teenager when Twilight was a filly. He is almost adult size, so he has passed puberty. I’d say about 13-14 in flashback. 26 at the beginning, 27 later on.  
Cadance: a teenager as well, but I want to say one year younger than Shining. So 13-13. 25 at the beginning, 26 later on.
 
TL;DR Version.  
Current Ages:  
Rainbow: 19  
Twilight: 19  
Rarity: 20  
Pinkie: 20  
Applejack: 21  
Fluttershy: 22  
Spike: 14  
CMC: 8  
Cheerilee: 21  
Big Mac: 22  
Shining: 27  
Cadance: 26
beast0r
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

I just assumed they put a bunch of candles on the cake like that so she could fly around it and put them out to look cool.
Japanese Teeth
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Wallet After Summer Sale -
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

Clock. Is. Ticking.
@Ferrotter  
Just to nitpick, it was before Twilight’s entrance exam to Celestia’s School. She might very well have been attending another school before that, or being homeschooled.
Ferrotter
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

@Ferrotter  
Actually, I retract some of that. Pinkie Pie has to be comparable to Applejack at high 20 to maybe 21. Otherwise she’d be too young compared to her canonical one year younger than Fluttershy. Pinkie Pie was homeschooled on a rock farm way outside town, and therefore wasn’t in Applejack’s class.
Ferrotter
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

@Fortune  
We know Fluttershy is one year older than Pinkie Pie. We also know from the size difference that she’s at least a year older than Rainbow Dash. We also know that Fluttershy, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash were all in school (in some grade at least) at the time they got their cutie marks. And that Twilight Sparkle got hers before starting school (during her entrance exam specifically). Given the size difference, Fluttershy is probably at least a year older than Rarity and Applejack too. And I agree Rarity seems more mature than Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie. But while it can’t be ignored, personality may overshadow chronology there. Lastly, we know Applejack was the last in her class to get her cutie mark. Meaning she had to be older, by at least one school year, than Rarity, who got her cutie mark at the same time. Had she been in Rarity’s class (or younger than Rarity) then she could not have gotten her cutie mark later than other foals, since Rarity got hers at the exact same moment.
 
I think the simple physical fact that Fluttershy was the largest foal (by a wide margin bigger than any other female foal we’ve ever seen except 80’s Cheerilee), and is canonically older than both Dash and Pinkie Pie tops the list. Fluttershy is the oldest of the Mane Six. Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie are probably all one year younger, give or take a few months between them. Rainbow Dash is probably between one and two years younger than Fluttershy, leaning more towards the two years younger end. And Twilight Sparkle is probably two to three years younger than Fluttershy, but possibly younger than Rainbow Dash by just enough to enroll in school one year later without being a full year younger. That said, she looked smaller and so is probably closer to a full year younger than Rainbow Dash, if not more than a full year younger.
 
So if we take Twilight Sparkle as 18 when the show started (which seems reasonable since she has a job and lives independently), Rainbow Dash is probably 19, Pinkie Pie and Rarity are both 20, Applejack is at least six months to maybe a year older than Rarity so high 20 to pushing 21 (and therefore one grade ahead of the other two), and Fluttershy is on the high end of 21 to maybe 22. Taking Rainbow Dash as 21 based on this episode pushes everypony else up by 2 years too.
Fortune
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

@Dr Outback  
The age difference between Dash and Fluttershy is the only thing I can’t reconcile at all.  
By the way I view it, it means that Fluttershy had to be protected from bullies by someone 4 years younger than her.
 
Who really knows? “Young adults who occasionally behave like teens” is really the best answer for ages.
Dr Outback
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@Fortune  
I also think Fluttershy might not be much older than Dash. She was just very lanky as a filly. Makes sense if Rainbow and Pinkie are only a few months apart in age.
Background Pony #8C9B
You’d think someone would have asked Meghan by now about the one-year thing. Does anyone in this thread use Twitter?
Fortune
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

@Dr Outback  
I see her firmly in “Never grew up”, so that the actual age is kind of irrelevant.
 
But then, having her be on the older end while being a kid at heart lends more weight to episodes like “Party of One” and “Pinkie Pride”. She’s wrapped so much of her life into making others happy that it really is an extreme crash when that’s put to the test.
 
Really, I place her where I place because she’s the only one with an actual relative age, being a year younger than Fluttershy. Wherever you place Fluttershy, you kind of have to place Pinkie directly below her.
CocoaNut

@Fortune
 
I made a post on Ponychan’s /pony/ board a long time ago where I posited Applejack as the oldest and Rainbow Dash as the youngest due to the claims made in Call of the Cutie. A fair counterpoint is that they weren’t all in the same class, but it seems to me that Fluttershy would have to have been exceptionally late getting her cutie mark, since they seem to happen around the same age with a normal distribution and a standard deviation of several months (or possibly a year or more).
Fortune
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

@Dr Outback  
I have a bizarre, not entirely convincing, logic behind why.
 
Rarity runs her own business and tends to skew a little more mature…sometimes. Plus, she says that she didn’t get a Cutie Mark for a long time despite knowing exactly what she wanted to do.  
Fluttershy looked the oldest as a filly.  
Pinkie is a year younger than Fluttershy.  
Twilight’s a grad student more or less.  
Dash just comes off as the youngest to me due to her character archetype.  
Applejack is the real biggest “Pulled a number out of my ass”.
 
As you can see, there’s reasons. Not particularly good ones, but I have them. Numbers come from that 16 to 25 ballpark I mentioned, as they seem more like young adults than teens.