My random headcanons II.

Alicorn mane and tail


Okay, this one’s just a quickie.

Since the beginning of the show, we know alicorns are different than other ponies. That stands for their mane and tail as well. This was among the very appealing factors of MLP FiM for me when I joined the Herd. I personally think Celestia and Luna have awesome visual character designs.

But I’ve always wondered why their mane and tail acts the way it does? It billows all the time, like if they were out in the open, enjoying the soft breeze. It’s sparkly and a bit transparent, it almost looks like a veil. Why is that so?

My first thought occurred to me when I first saw Nightmare Moon. In her case, her mane and tail seems to have practical function, not just a cool visual effect. When she promises everlasting night, her mane begins to swirl and she seems to be unleashing darkness with the help of her “hair”. Furthermore, she seems to be using it for other purposes as well, such as teleportation, object manipulation, phasing through solid matter, and creating illusions. Can Celestia also do these things?

Wish I could teleport with my hair like that...

So I thought the alicorn’s mane and tail consists of pure solar and lunar energies. But, when Nightmare Moon was defeated, and reverted to Luna, she didn’t seem to have such mane as her older sister.

Later on, in Luna Eclipsed, the Princess of the Night returns with a redesigned visual appearance and she has that awesome billowing mane too! Sweet! So it does consist of pure lunar energy! Well, not much later at the end of the episode, this headcanon seemed to have disproven. Why? Because Pipsqueak grabs Luna’s tale which acts مزید like rubber یا nylon. Even the background sound effect is similar to that. It is possible that the outer matter is some kind of gauzy protection shell, (similar to a jellyfish) and the lunar energy is that dark blue matter inside?

Following this train of thought another obstacle emerges in our efforts to find the answer. Celestia’s mane and tail are utterly different! It consists of four layers: one pink, one turquoise and two sky blue. That doesn’t look like pure solar energy… What the hay? I really have no idea what it is, یا does it have such functions, like in the case of Nightmare Moon? Maybe we’ll see Celly in action in Season 4, and we’ll find out. That would be awesome in my opinion. Also, this is just another speculation, but Cadence (and now Twilight) seem to have normal hair, so I figured the coolness of having an ever flowing mane and tail comes with age. A few centuries perhaps? یا maybe they don't have such manes because they were not born as alicorns? Cadence was a pegasus, Twilight was a unicorn originally, they were turned into alicorns سے طرف کی some kind of powerful magic (probably Celestia's) so maybe that's why their hair remained normal.

To sum up, one last thing: I have this concept - which I use in my fanfics many times – that the color and the intensity of the billowing of the alicorn’s mane and tail also depends on their mood. For example if they feeling sad, their mane barely moves and turns opalescent, filled with paler, darker color tones. If they’re happy, their mane is sparkly with vivid colors, if they’re angry their mane swirls rapidly with warm colors, and small lightnings inside.

What do آپ think?