You know, there are times when I wish I could just write some musing down, for others to see. Some place where my head canon can be laughed at and seen by a nice group of people, of whom aren’t in a bar.
OH WAIT I DO! IT’S CALLED A MOD BLOG!!
Anyway, as musings go, this one is a little strained, so bear with me.
I was looking over references for Princess Celestia, and I started to notice her necklace was unusually thick. And large. It wasn’t until several bored hours later during homework that I developed this hypothesis.
Celestia’s vestments from top to bottom are her crown, her gaudy necklace, and her shoeses. Now, the crown we see is but a small tiara, just the right size for a princess of her authority. However, my theory goes a bit farther. On the Hearth’s Warming Eve episode, we see costumes of the three pony tribes. Who among them is wearing a crown?
Now think for a moment. I realize that Earth Ponies are essentially paupers of the land, and the Pegasi are the military, but that’s what makes this so obvious. The crown is representative of her acceptance by the Unicorn tribe. It’s perched high on her head and accentuates her horn. Even the color has specific meaning. In the story, we’re told that the unicorns magically control the sun and the moon. The element most related to both of these is, wait for it, Platinum. But Celestia’s crown is golden! This makes it all the more endearing: she originally split the rule of day and night with her sister, and never in that 1000 years did she change from her gold. She never actually replaced her sister.
The second item is her necklace. Look closer. It’s a ceremonial Yoke.
A simpler yoke than we see on Big Macintosh, but it’s still there. It’s the representation of her acceptance by the Earth Pony tribe, heavy and large like her responsibility over the land itself. Again, it’s gold, so there’s her restatement of the dominion over the sun.
Amusingly, ancient sun gods traditionally carried the sun across the heavens on a chariot pulled by (4-6 usually) horses. Could this also be a representation of that? For she guides the sun across the sky, like the Earth Pony does a plow with which to sow food? I like to think so.
Finally, the coup de grace is her shoes/slippers/footsies. These are the most difficult to place. The only evidence we are given is that during the play, the costumes of the Pegasi guards had similar shoes (Albeit black in color).
And yet, her shoes specifically have a decorative fleur-de-lis on the front. Now, this symbol is usually recognized as aristocratic in nature. French Kings have been known to decorate their coat of arms with fleu-de-lis, the lily flower symbolizing purity. A gold lily on the hooves of a pure white alicorn, this makes it quite obvious.
However, how it links to the pegasi is too tangential for me to stand by. There are a few sources here and there that try to say that the fleur-de-lis is for courageous warriors or the high elite, but that’s simply speculation (as if none of the rest of this is!). Take what you will with a grain of salt.
But! There is one thing to note: the pegasi and guards in general are known to carry spears. There is a debatable line of thought that the fleur-de-lis can also stand for the French Angon, or throwing spear. This could easily be a callback to that.
Whatever the case, her golden hooves bear a mark of acceptance to her authority. Whether it’s from the pegasi (who are more often known to shun walking, hence the likelihood of precious metals used in horseshoes) or it’s for some other reason is likely up to debate.
Thus, her three tiers of vestments are proof of the three tribes’ acceptance of her rule over them.
So then, that’s my musings as a crazy person. What say you?
