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Disclaimer:
This question contains unmarked spoilers for season six of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. By now, most people should have seen the episodes here discussed, but just in case avoid the question if you fear spoilers.

Before season six come in, most people assumed that there were two kinds of alicorns:

  • born alicorns like Luna and Celestia
  • turned alicorns, is ponies that weren't born as alicorns but become alicorns due to some deed they performed (Twily).

In the season six premiere, we meet a new "born alicorn" - Flurry Heart, Cadence daughter. In that scene, Celestia says the following words:

"The birth of an alicorn is something Equestria has never seen"

Those word were taken as an indication that not even Celestia and Luna were born as alicorn but instead turned into alicorn afterwards. This would make Flurry Heart the first "natural" alicorn in the series.

But... is this really the case? Does the aforementioned quote really imply that Celestia and Luna weren't alicorn at birth? As far as I get it, this only implies that during the existence of Equestria, no new alicorns were born. When Equestria was first founded, its flag already featured the two sisters (see season 2 ep 11 - Hearth's Warming Eve) so even by disregarding the Journal of the Two Sisters (which canon status isn't really agreed upon by everyone) we have an in-show reference to alicorns existence before Equestria. Celestia words could simply mean that since Equestria was created, no new alicorn was born, indicating that she and her sister were the ast two of their kind.

Am I forgetting something in my analysis? Or does this really mean that the common conclusion many made after that episode is flawed? Are there any additional source on the matter? Did season six really "rewrite" the two sister origin and implied they too were regular ponies at some point?

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  • well, I suppose I could if you feel that would be better @KutuluMike . The problem is that basically all the question is centered on that spoiler so I would probably end up marking all the text...
    – SPArcheon
    Dec 27, 2016 at 19:14

3 Answers 3

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Amy Keating Rogers, a former writer for the show (she wrote 17 episodes in seasons 1-5 before leaving Hasbro Studios to work for Disney) was asked basically this exact question on a panel at GalaCon 2016, after the season six premiere had aired:

Oh, is the Journal of the Two Sisters considered canon? [...] And I guess what you're probably referring to is the whole "the first time an alicorn has been born in Equestria". Yes?

Her response was that, in her opinion, and according to what she discussed with Lauren Faust (who originally created the Friendship is Magic TV series, but is no longer involved with the show as of season 3) Celestia and Luna were born as alicorns.

Quote:

Celestia and Luna were born, in my opinion, born alicorns. They are from, this is something that Lauren and I discussed, they are from a race of alicorns. They're from a race of alicorns that were not from Equestria because Equestria did not exist.

Amy goes on to explain that, as was shown in The Journal of the Two Sisters (a book that Amy herself wrote), Celestia and Luna came from a land outside Equestria and became the rulers of Equestria at the request of the ponies living there when it was founded. Flurry Heart's birth in S6E1&2 The Crystalling was surprising to Celestia and Luna not because they'd never heard of an alicorn being born before, but because they'd never heard of an alicorn being born before in Equestria:

At this point no natural born alicorns have occurred because we're not in the land of the alicorns. Okay. And then suddenly, Flurry Heart's born it's like "Woah! That blows my mind! We have not seen that happen in Equestria." Here. Here [Amy gestures to the land of the Alicorns] it's been going on for a long time. Here [Amy gestures to Equestria] not so much. So these chicks [Celestia and Luna] who have been alive for a long time haven't seen it.

It's worth noting though that in that same panel, Amy also affirmed that "the truest of true canon is the show", so if the show ever does contradict this explanation, the show would "win" as it were and The Journal of the Two Sisters would become non-canon. As of season 6 however, this has not yet happened, and thus Journal of the Two Sisters is still considered canon (along with all that implies about the origins of Celestia and Luna).

You can listen to Amy's full explanation in this video of her on the panel at GalaCon 2016. And, just for completeness, here's Amy saying basically the same thing on Twitter.

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  • I agree with you, but to be honest that was the whole point of the question. Does the season six premiere render Faust original vision obsolete and the Journal "non canon"? Or are the conclusions that the shows implies that the two sisters aren't "natural alicorn" void of any actual proof? I don't see why it should be the case, but I could have missed some details.
    – SPArcheon
    Jan 2, 2017 at 20:38
  • @SPArchaeologist Whoops sorry. I guess my answer isn't quite as clear as I thought it was. Amy was explicitly addressing the question of whether or not Journal of the Two Sisters is canon with that quote, as a response to exactly that scene you named in the season 6 premiere. I guess I should include a bit more context to make that clear.
    – Ajedi32
    Jan 2, 2017 at 23:25
  • @SPArchaeologist In particular, when I wrote "Flurry Heart's birth in S6E2 The Crystalling was surprising to Celestia and Luna not because they'd never heard of an alicorn being born before, but because they'd never heard of an alicorn being born before in Equestria" I wasn't just stating my opinion, but Amy Keating Rogers' opinion as well. I thought I'd made that clear in my answer, but upon rereading it I realize that wasn't clear at all. Fixed now.
    – Ajedi32
    Jan 3, 2017 at 17:56
  • Yep, I guess I was pretty unclear too. My point was that as you also stated Amy actually left the show staff. I am wondering if so far any of the current staff members (or at least the ones that were still in the staff when the episode aired) ever commented or wrote any post that confirms that they are going to change Lauren original vision about alicorns and the two sisters. Anyway, will probably accept this for now if nothing more precise comes in.
    – SPArcheon
    Jan 3, 2017 at 20:32
  • @SPArchaeologist Yes, I realize that Amy leaving Hasbro means that her awareness of and ability to impact the future direction of the show is rather limited, that's why I mentioned her leaving in my answer. To my knowledge, no current staff at Hasbro have provided any additional information about that scene, otherwise I would have mentioned that. Rebecca Shoichet, a current staff member at Hasbro who plays Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer's singing voices, was also present on the panel when Amy made these comments and she didn't object, but that's obviously not proof of anything.
    – Ajedi32
    Jan 3, 2017 at 20:59
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I think that Celestia and Luna were not born alicorns as in Season 6, Episode 1 Parts 1-2 the Crystalling, Cadence and Shining Armour’s baby Princess Flurry Heart is born an alicorn. Luna and Celstia confirm that this has never been heard of before assuming that they were born somewhat royal but were unicorns or Pegasi. Wonder if you can only become an alicorn if you are currently a unicorn. I think that Celestia and Luna were not born alicorns, but I may be wrong!

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    That episode is what the question is based on; the point of the question is if that is a recent change, or if it has always been that way.
    – DavidW
    Mar 31, 2020 at 20:11
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i think they were born unicorns because celestia was the only pony of her time that could raise the sun without draining her magic

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    Why would that mean they were born as unicorns and not alicorns?
    – F1Krazy
    Jul 27 at 10:10

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