Illegal Immigration, as it exists in your world, only makes sense in a case of population diffusion. That is, a location banning new immigrants on the grounds that there’s just too many in a single location. However, as I understand it, the most populated places in your world have no such limitation.

It seems to be a matter of nationalism; a country wanting- and forcing, its citizens to be part of an inescapable collective whole. Done to the detriment of those who are considered “different”.

Of course, Equestria had closed its borders to the griffon nation; making immigration illegal. But this was done to protect itself until the country became stable again; it was never intended to be permanent.

And! The upcoming Equestria Games holds the important distinction of lifting that ban and opening its borders once more to griffon immigrants or visitors!

Lyra: Before we begin, I’d like to welcome back S and thank him for finding time in his busy schedule to come on down and field a question for us. Thank you, S! It’s been a while!

S: And inversely, I would like to apologize for having rescheduled this appointment more than once. I believe you’ve been holding on to this question for a few days now.

Lyra: No trouble at all! Always happy to have you!

S: Pleasantries aside, I’d like to dive right into this. Firstly, there’s been some- while I wouldn’t yet call it miscommunication (we’ll get to that part later), critical details left missing from our present situation. You see, griffons did not suddenly stop using ponies as a source of nourishment. Ascension is neither an equal process nor can it function independently of the many other circumstances required for a species to grow into an organized society.

S: There have long since been “wild” ponies living within the borders of the griffons’ claimed lands. Though not a primary food source by any modern means, they were consumed on a semi-regular basis, dependent on the income of the family unit in question. For most, it was a treat; something to be savored on special occasions.

S: The ponies themselves had every bit the potential for intelligence that we take for granted, but without the downtime necessary to create or maintain a society. The unfortunate incident often cited on this webpage was the drastic result of a civilization (griffons) facing the extinction of an exotic, upper-class food source (ponies). As the upper-class, who so often control who is in power, were the primary consumers of this food source, it should take little imagination to discern a motive for those involved.

S: This brings us to the aforementioned miscommunication. Of which there have been several. Who exactly is at fault is not so easily discerned. Ignoring the fault of wildlife researchers for failing to properly gauge the rate of the local population’s decline, of hunters for remaining silent despite clear signs of said decline, processors for leaving hunters contractually obligated to deliver a product, and even the public for forcing such a high demand on the processors, there remain many mysteries.

S: There has yet to be any clear line of communication between any griffon leader and those involved in the trading of narcotics for Equestrian ponies. This will undoubtably leave a dark spot in griffon history, considering the executions that took place. Which brings me to my next point.

S: Griffons do not hate Equestrian ponies. To hate something requires putting enough thought and effort into something to return with a negative conclusion. Griffons just don’t generally care about Equestrian ponies. The key word being “generally”.

S: The riotous backlash and executions, some of which were public, was not the result of a society’s outrage at an eliminated food supply. It was retribution for feeding the public daughters and sons- mothers and fathers. Rather than being fed animals, griffons had been eating, as the word originates from their tongue, “people”. The whole of the griffon lands cried out in ravenous blind fury, “How dare you turn us into monsters?”

S: The situation, as it stands at present, is that pony meat has not only been absent in griffon society for years, it’s actually been outlawed. In the few cases in which any piece of a pony’s body is discovered and deemed to be within the possession of another individual, having been consumed or not, it is treated as bodily desecration in a court of law.

1) Probably.

We’re a quiet, vegetarian species that mostly lives within our own borders, which just so happens to be largely docile forests and rolling, green hills. There are some intimidating species and climates out there.

2) Deflation implies a change in the economic value of money and goods. There really hasn’t been one here; things are just valued differently. That could change. There’s been talks for a while about altering the way our current legal tender works, but nothing has happened yet. At least as far as I know.

3) Exactly! What if those caverns were just mined out from a past civilization? Diamond Dogs couldn’t have done it; Griffon history began tracking the caverns before they ever ascended. Griffons and Dragons couldn’t have done it all, right? I mean, it’s all over the world!

4) Bon-Bon: Well- not that there’s anything wrong with it, dear. But I’m not really a wallflower myself. Lyra just tends to steal the show.

Bon-Bon: Largely novels by pony authors; I don’t think you’d know any of them. There’s this author, Anaphora Syntax, that writes these stories with similar themes. They all take place in popular religious settings, but from the view point of average folks. I’ve read a bunch of hers. The one I’m on right now- the perspective just changed for the third time. It’s been going down the line from mother to daughter. The second mother just died and her daughter, the new main character, hasn’t found out yet.

1) There have been efforts recently to negotiate with the current griffon ruler, but for now completely. Only griffons that have entered Equestria in the past with no serious criminal record are free to come and go.

2) The lonely night seems to do that to some ponies. Tomorrow is a brighter day!

3) Lyra: Hey! It’s not my fault the vacuum suddenly didn’t want to start!

Bon-Bon: But it is my fault the vacuum suddenly did want to start. And whatever you did, it better not happen again!

Lyra: … Hate that stupid vacuum…

4) What’s Labor Day?

Why would they study your eye?

5) The trend seems to be toward Kindergarten and the Sped department in primary schools. I do get to sit in on music classes sometimes, but I’m not really supposed to do anything unless there’s a problem.

There was this one time where I got to play a tambourine and the music teacher was pleased.

1) Woah there, friend. You might need to slow down.

Bad stuff can only happen because of good stuff. If you know about bad stuff, there must be good things for you to contrast them against. Removing all the bad would remove all the good too. We just need to bring more good into the world. And we can all do that!

Let’s get creative! Just don’t eat a heart. (May be disturbing to younger viewers. Also totally unrelated to the message behind this answer.)

2) I’ve touched upon this before. I might be now. There’s just certain things I wouldn’t want foals exposed to, even if an adult willingly chooses to ingest something illegal.

3) I would say an adjustment to the marriage law would probably be more likely. Not that I consider that particularly likely either.

4) Nonsense. Hiding Discord there wouldn’t have been a very good disguise if other statues were criminals too. And really, who else would require such an imprisonment? Discord is immeasurably powerful.

5) The drugs were finally traced back to the Griffon nation. Borders were closed. A few well placed raids and a little time and there was nothing left.

See, the biggest narcotic in Equestria during that time was a salt-like rock called Arid. To the pony body it could serve as a replacement for salt, only it was a poisonous hallucinogenic as well. But the main ingredients for it don’t form in Equestria.

Edit: Oh yeah! Fuselight came over and we did a few asks with him as a guest! Those will show up in the morning queue starting Monday.

Big question with a big answer after the break. Lots of information, though!

Keep reading

1) And who does get to make that decision? You, who weren’t even present? Get a real stance or expect to be left unanswered. As one can imagine, I don’t care for the subject.

2) Walked right into that one, didn’t I?

3) Probably not, as I don’t care for the source material and I typically listen to the source around fifty times during the process of recording. Plus, it’s missing the notes for the lyrics, rendering it incomplete. But my disposition can change with the breeze; I’ll hold onto it.

Also, what the [omitted] tempo is “deceptively happy?” Is there a swing to that?

4) No you wouldn’t. If you were in my position you’d be right where I am. Because you’d be me.

Do feel the need to remind my followers that mental asylums aren’t really around even in your world anymore. Patients that require continuous monitoring and care, both mentally and physically, typically live in a specialized wing in hospitals, if not with family.

5) Who? I mean, I recognize the name. I’ve heard it before, but…

6) Okay… When I do a search on Circle Family I get links back related to healthcare. And wouldn’t Lasagna Cat just be Garfield?

7) Griffons are rare in Equestria because they don’t like us. From your perspective, think about if the majority of chickens in your world became sentient, fought back, and raised their own country. To griffons, the staple of their diet was suddenly (at least from a historical standpoint) crippled. In all the time that’s passed since our ascension, they still haven’t recovered.

1) Well I don’t want you to cram. I’d rather you be at ease when I see you than shell-shocked. Great news about those days off, though!

2) She knew. I don’t know how long she knew, but long before I ever got wrapped up in things. As for when, that’s actually easy to trace. When she closed the borders between us and the griffon nation it cut both ends of the supply-line. Nothing to gain on either side anymore, so the gangs starved.

3) The origins of the phrase are funnier yet, if you consider how anypony could ever use it seriously.

4) Of course not. You didn’t choose your life anymore than I did. You haven’t squandered opportunity anymore than I have. Those opportunities and their potential outcomes may have a difference of night and day, but you can’t control that anymore than the next pony. Live your life. Do with it as you wish, so long as you harm nopony but yourself. But if you live with regret or hate, you’ve nopony but yourself to blame.

5) No no. CUE certainly had an impact on my life, but B was never that involved. He was around, but he had different tasks to attend to. He’s just a friend.

6) Looks like somepony needs a reminder.

Well, there’s a long answer and a short answer. The short answer is because, that’s what Griffons called us. As for the long answer, well…

Worlds with multiple sentient species don’t just become intellectually advanced all at once. I don’t know that your world keeps track of this sort of thing, because you’re the only ones, but the process in our world is called ascension. It’s not the most popular subject among ponykind because we weren’t the first to ascend. We weren’t even the second.

To be considered an ascended species requires several things. You have to be capable of organized thought exchange, both verbally and in writing, amongst yourselves and other ascended species. You have to be capable of sustaining yourself in an isolated environment indefinitely (a nomadic lifestyle must be a choice, not a requirement). You have to be capable of creating shelter from raw materials and defend yourself from harsh environmental conditions. And I’m sure I’m missing some, but the most difficult is that you must be able to prove that you, or a community of your peers, can protect themselves against a staged attack by a malicious entity.

It’s debated pretty fiercely between dragons and griffons which ascended first, but we definitely came after both. There will always be those that argue, but there’s pretty definitive evidence. As we were hunted by them, griffons also studied us. When pegasus and unicorns first appeared, they observed pegasus manipulating rainfall to yield more substantial wild growth, and reported mild, though varied magical ability in us long before our recorded history began.

Griffons named us unicorns, which in their language at the time (they’ve gone through a few) meant one-horned, and pegasus were called pterippus- which I’m fortunate enough to be able to manually type out, because I can’t even pronounce that. After our ascension began we kept our name, but the pegasus didn’t.

The story goes that a “hero” by the name of Pegasus united or conquered, depending on interpretation, every major pterippus community and changed the entire species’ name to his own. He did some other stuff but I’m not all that into specifics. To that end, pegasus were the first pony species considered to be ascended, though at that time the term had yet to be defined.

Our hornless, terrestrial cousins have an interesting story. Pony roughly means small horse. Earth ponies were so named once unicorns and pegasus started appearing, as a way of further defining them, because we’re all ponies. But when our ascension began, one group of grounded ponies relied on hard work and close ties to the earth. They became what we recognize today as earth ponies.

Meanwhile the other group, fascinated with magic and the desire to harness it, called themselves crystal ponies. They somehow found that crystals were easier to store magic in and harness magic out of than anything else in the world. They even somehow used magic infused into crystals to create the artifact known as the Crystal Heart. When earth, unicorn, and pegasus ponies had to unite in order to survive, timelines show that crystal ponies had no need for outside help. Though the other three had lost contact with them, crystal ponies were already decades ahead of their time through magically-aided technological advancement. At least, so the story goes.

While on the subject, the last species to be considered ascended were cattle. Both goats and sheep are in the process of ascension.

1) What does that have to do with who set the cameras up?

2) That’s an expensive habit there, buddy.

3) Non-ponies are fully capable of filling earth and pegasus pony positions. It’s just that too many typical unicorns can’t.

4) Sure. Sounds like a hoot.

5) Maybe not as far as a hope, but I certainly wouldn’t have to worry about Sweetie’s career taking off.

6) Used to be. And it’s because Princess Celestia wanted to find the source. If all she did was clean up the streets, whatever was causing the gang lifestyle to flourish would have moved elsewhere, where it would take longer to find again and be harder to track. Everyday the Princess had to make conscious decisions that I’d never want to make, but they had to be done.

And the source was found and eliminated. It led back to the former griffon government, hence the rocky political situation between us.

7) Don’t be silly! Ah-ha! I’m fine! I’m on top of things like a cake topper!

Delightful, considering I used to be forced into theft.

Dragons stay at bay because of our magically capable numbers, but back before the formation of Equestria even pegasus and earth ponies were capable of deterring dragons.

And the only strength leaders possess is what their followers give them. Griffon history is the perfect example of what happens when leaders take advantage of their subjects. Riddled with assassinations, rebellions, and governments overthrown overnight. Why? Because their leaders don’t respect the power their followers possess, which is far greater than their own. And those followers remove them.

Even Princess Celestia only rules over us because we allow her to do so. Even with her being immortal to anything we’re capable of, she and Princess Luna could still be removed from power. Our numbers and individual strength are far too great to defend against.

Leadership is only a byproduct of society, and society is formed around ponies working together to specialize in their craft, field, or talent. Unity is our strength.