MLP: FiM Theory Time: What Makes an Alicorn Special?

Just what are the alicorns? These beings in My Little Pony that seem…..special, compared to normal ponies. With the mane character becoming an alicorn in the latest episode, there has been a lot of discussion and theories about alicorns in the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fandom. With that in mind, I thought a lot about alicorns too, and what they might be, and thought to release my own thoughts on the matter; what I think alicorns are, and how it ties into the 4 alicorn princesses, and makes them the way they are. So without further ado, here is my theory on the secret of Alicorns:

Connection

I think the core trait that makes an alicorn a, well, alicorn, is that it has a connection, a special connection, that normal ponies lack. A connection to what you ask? Well it’s simple, a connection to what their destiny as an alicorn is, what their cutie mark is.

If you think about it, the cutie mark of just about every pony we’ve seen is something that you can find a lot of in the world. The mane 6 have balloons, butterflies, jewels, apples, and clouds and lightning, all of which, there is much of in the world. Some have flowers, some carrots, some an item or animal, but all ponies have a cutie mark that can be said to be something in the world, but not something inherently special. There are many balloons after all, and butterflies. But if you look at the cutie mark of the alicorns, you will notice that their cutie mark is something that has only one form of existence in the world, one significant connection.

Celestia and Luna’s cutie marks are the sun and moon. And there is only one of these. We also know that Celestia and Luna have a special connection to the sun and moon, since they are the only ponies able to let them rise and fall. 

Cadence is similar, what is Cadence’s cutie mark? The Crystal Heart, an item that we learned of in The Crystal Empire. There is also only one of this item in existence, and it exists within the crystal empire, and Cadence is the princess of this empire, coincidence?

If you go back to The Crystal Empire episodes, you will notice that Cadence is the one who ultimately got it and was able to place it back in its rightful place, leading me to believe that Cadence has a sort of special connection with the crystal heart, as shown in her cutie mark. She is able to harness its power to defeat Sombra in The Crystal Empire, and one might even argue that when the Crystal Heart glows with delight and sends out a beam in Games Ponies Play, this was Cadence’s doing, only she is able to harness the true power of The Crystal Heart.

But then, what of Twilight Sparkle? At first I thought her cutie mark was magic or friendship, which wouldn’t really work since there’s a lot of that and it isn’t really connected to one central source. But then it hit me that Twilight’s cutie mark isn’t magic, no, what Twilight’s cutie mark is, is the element of magic itself, among the elements of harmony. With the 5 dots around the cutie mark, it’s clear that Twilight’s great connection is with the element of magic. Not only does Twilight have a great amount of magic inside her, but we also see that she is the only one who is able to use the element of magic, Twilight has a special connection with it.

Okay, so yes this connection theory seems plausible, but doesn’t this seem a little obvious? Does this really shed any sort of light on the alicorns? Well, keep up with me here, there’s another part of this theory that I quite liked, because it explains the big question we all have with regards to alicorns, or at least, part of it; why are Celestia and Luna immortal, while Cadence and Twilight are not?

Simple, take a look at the items they’re connected to. Celestia and Luna are connected to the sun and moon, and how long have the sun and moon been around? For over one thousand years; the reason Celestia and Luna have been alive for so long, is because the items they have a special connection with have been around for that long as well.

But that’s not the end of it, think about it. Cadence and Twilight are connected to The Crystal Heart and The Element of Magic….how long have those been around? They hadn’t, unlike the sun and the moon, both the crystal heart and the element of magic had disappeared a thousand years ago, when the crystal empire fell, and when Celestia sealed Luna into the moon.

And is it really just a mere coincidence that when The Crystal Heart and The Element of Magic return, a pony with them as their cutie mark happens to be born into the world as well? I would think not, something tells me that Celestia knew of Cadence and Twilight’s alicorn destinies right when she laid eyes upon their cutie mark. No doubt that was the reason Cadence was sent to The Crystal Empire when it returned, and Twilight was given the mission of making friends for the elements of harmony.

My Alicorn theory is that each alicorn is connected to a sacred or special item. This item has a special connection with a pony that bears the item as their cutie mark, but where does this connection begin? Well, I’ve come up with 2 possibilities: either A) when this item is soon to reappear, a pony will be born with it as their cutie mark, perhaps from its energy as it returns, or B) when a pony appears and does happen to bear the item’s cutie mark, this sort of connection between the 2 triggers the item to return. I find that either works fine, and explain a bit more about how the MLP world works.

Regardless, this explains why Cadence and Twilight are alicorns despite still being quite young compared to Celestia and Luna, the items they are connected to are still young, and have only just returned, and only if The Element of Magic and The Crystal Heart can live for as long as the sun and the moon, can Twilight and Cadence hope to live as long as Celestia an Luna. Will they be around long? Who can say, but regardless, this concludes my alicorn theory. I hope you enjoyed it, and maybe even started thinking of alicorns in a different light after this. One thing I can say for certain is, I can’t wait to learn more about them in the 4^th Season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, till then, ta ta!

Oh yes, and one last thing: this theory of mine also explains why only Twilight is an alicorn from the mane 6, since only she bears the elements of harmony on her flank, while the other 5 do not. Interesting eh?