Vree
That is a really great question, and I think it’s not one easy to answer because there is a sort of semantic question here. On one hand, it is obviously a country; people talk about “the founding of Equestria” (that’s the whole play on Heart Warming Eve is about, giving it clear borders and a starting point in time), characters use the phrase “all over Equestria” in context where using it for the world wouldn’t make sense (eg. TS complaining about dragon smoke covering all of it in Dragonshy).
But on the other hand, it HAS to mean the entire world of ponies because we just don’t have a better word for it. You’ve got Middle-Earth, and then you’ve got Equestria, where the ponies live. It makes sense. So maybe it does stand for the country AND the universe.
But then again people usually don’t name the worlds they live in. Some fantasy writers do, but it is less than widespread. Many universes in fact take their name after a character or feature like the Duck universe or the Harry Potter universe or the Buffyverse. Actually it’s notable that Dream Valley was an even smaller location than Equestria is and it never had issues with applying that name to the brand in general.
It’s actually funny how places like Dream Valley manage to be little self contained universes in fiction, almost, without apparently needing any kind of world around them to support them as such.
So yes in the end I have to say it’s definitely a name for the country.
And for whether it is placed on a fantasy world (which could be flat or infinite or whatever for all we know), or a planet, or nowhere in particular (in a sort of self-contained universe):
FiM clearly takes place in a more modern mindset, so I’d say it’s definitely a planet.
(which is unnamed; while phrases like “the planet of Equestria” or “the world of Equestria” may get used for these those are only to mean “the planet (or world) where our home country Equestria is located” and not as in the name of the actual planet; the planet is unnamed.)
For starters, what’s your fanon on what Equestria actually is? A country? A continent? A planet? Is there a griffin/zebra/changeling/diamond-dog nation elsewhere? When Celestia says that G4!Tirek and G4!Scorpan came from a distant land, are these some demon-run lands on the other side of the planet?
That is a really great question, and I think it’s not one easy to answer because there is a sort of semantic question here. On one hand, it is obviously a country; people talk about “the founding of Equestria” (that’s the whole play on Heart Warming Eve is about, giving it clear borders and a starting point in time), characters use the phrase “all over Equestria” in context where using it for the world wouldn’t make sense (eg. TS complaining about dragon smoke covering all of it in Dragonshy).
But on the other hand, it HAS to mean the entire world of ponies because we just don’t have a better word for it. You’ve got Middle-Earth, and then you’ve got Equestria, where the ponies live. It makes sense. So maybe it does stand for the country AND the universe.
But then again people usually don’t name the worlds they live in. Some fantasy writers do, but it is less than widespread. Many universes in fact take their name after a character or feature like the Duck universe or the Harry Potter universe or the Buffyverse. Actually it’s notable that Dream Valley was an even smaller location than Equestria is and it never had issues with applying that name to the brand in general.
It’s actually funny how places like Dream Valley manage to be little self contained universes in fiction, almost, without apparently needing any kind of world around them to support them as such.
So yes in the end I have to say it’s definitely a name for the country.
And for whether it is placed on a fantasy world (which could be flat or infinite or whatever for all we know), or a planet, or nowhere in particular (in a sort of self-contained universe):
FiM clearly takes place in a more modern mindset, so I’d say it’s definitely a planet.
(which is unnamed; while phrases like “the planet of Equestria” or “the world of Equestria” may get used for these those are only to mean “the planet (or world) where our home country Equestria is located” and not as in the name of the actual planet; the planet is unnamed.)