Lurks-no-More
Relic Unicorn
@Gemstone
They’re using “moons” exactly because it’s such a vague and unclear unit that it could mean almost anything. :)
However, I tend to think it’s basically equivalent to “month”. In that case, the thirty-moon cycle of the portal mirror in Equestria Girls is close to three years, which while not a huge length of time, is certainly a long time to spend trapped in a strange world away from your home and friends.
Going by the “moon” = “month” equivalency, the Apple family reunions would then be eight and one-third of a year apart, which makes sense; that way, Applebloom would have been very young during the last one, and Applejack and Big Mac would have been children or young teens at most. That way, AJ would certainly have memories of the previous reunion, but wouldn’t really have been involved in planning and organizing it.
Finally, and this is my pet peeve, nothing in the show actually suggests a radically compacted timescale where S1 to S5, or just S1-3, take place in just a year or two. The comment by Celestia that people keep referring to does not actually say that it’s the first SSC after Nightmare Moon’s defeat, merely that it’s the first where Luna is participating. The various seasonal and holiday episodes over the seasons suggest that at least a couple of years pass between Twilight’s arrival in Ponyville and her ascension at the end of S3. (It’s notable that pretty much nobody suggested such a short timeline before Princess Twilight!) “One season” = “approximately one year in the setting” is my preferred rate, but I admit there are good arguments to be made for a shorter timeline. Not so short as just one or two years, however! (If nothing else, it would be absurdly eventual year or two; the fandom makes a lot of jokes about life in Ponyville having turned much too interesting ever since Twilight moved in, but there’s a limit to everything. ;) )
As for Tanks for the Memories, it doesn’t really fit into any coherent chronology you might make, if only because there already was a winter episode after “May the Best Pet Win”. And it doesn’t quite make sense as an out-of-order episode transplanted out of S2 either, because of the character development both Dash and especially Fluttershy show. It’s a good episode, but it really is an anachronism. :)
They’re using “moons” exactly because it’s such a vague and unclear unit that it could mean almost anything. :)
However, I tend to think it’s basically equivalent to “month”. In that case, the thirty-moon cycle of the portal mirror in Equestria Girls is close to three years, which while not a huge length of time, is certainly a long time to spend trapped in a strange world away from your home and friends.
Going by the “moon” = “month” equivalency, the Apple family reunions would then be eight and one-third of a year apart, which makes sense; that way, Applebloom would have been very young during the last one, and Applejack and Big Mac would have been children or young teens at most. That way, AJ would certainly have memories of the previous reunion, but wouldn’t really have been involved in planning and organizing it.
Finally, and this is my pet peeve, nothing in the show actually suggests a radically compacted timescale where S1 to S5, or just S1-3, take place in just a year or two. The comment by Celestia that people keep referring to does not actually say that it’s the first SSC after Nightmare Moon’s defeat, merely that it’s the first where Luna is participating. The various seasonal and holiday episodes over the seasons suggest that at least a couple of years pass between Twilight’s arrival in Ponyville and her ascension at the end of S3. (It’s notable that pretty much nobody suggested such a short timeline before Princess Twilight!) “One season” = “approximately one year in the setting” is my preferred rate, but I admit there are good arguments to be made for a shorter timeline. Not so short as just one or two years, however! (If nothing else, it would be absurdly eventual year or two; the fandom makes a lot of jokes about life in Ponyville having turned much too interesting ever since Twilight moved in, but there’s a limit to everything. ;) )
As for Tanks for the Memories, it doesn’t really fit into any coherent chronology you might make, if only because there already was a winter episode after “May the Best Pet Win”. And it doesn’t quite make sense as an out-of-order episode transplanted out of S2 either, because of the character development both Dash and especially Fluttershy show. It’s a good episode, but it really is an anachronism. :)