[Fan Fiction] Question: Equestrian Terminology

[Sunderbraze 12]

Hey all. Sunderbraze here. For anyone who missed my introduction post, I'm primarily a fanfic author, and as I'm working on my current fic I find myself with a few questions regarding the show's grammar. Part of this is Microsoft Word being belligerent, but it raises an interesting question:

 

Tl;dr: What are the proper capitalization rules regarding “Pegasus” and “Unicorn”?

 

 

MS Word seems insistent that “Pegasus” be capitalized, while it seems fine with “Unicorn” being lower case. I theorize that Word is assuming I’m referring to the creature of Greek mythology, which was not the name of a race, but the proper name of the creature himself:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus

 

“Unicorn” does not seem to refer to any specific creature, but instead a mythological race of creatures. In the MLP universe, as we all know, the “Pegasus” or "Pegasus pony" is the name of a race of ponies, as well as “Unicorn” and “Earth Pony”.

 

Normally when faced with a question like this, I’d check the MLP Wiki. However, they both display inconsistencies in the capitalization of the terms, and neither have rules about it:

http://mlp.wikia.com.../Pegasus_ponies

http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Unicorns

 

Capitalization with a fictional race appears to be a grey area. In Star Trek, it seems that the “Klingon” is always capitalized, while in Harry Potter, “house elves” are a race of creatures that are referred to in the lower case:

http://harrypotter.w.../wiki/House-elf

http://en.memory-alp...rg/wiki/Klingon

 

So I now ask the community here, what do you think the rules should be?

I don’t have a degree in English—anypony who does, are there rules about this?

Thanks all <3

[Chigens and Kay 3,832]

I prefer the capitals.

 

I say Unicorn, Pegasus, Earth Pony...Seems proper to me.

[Nightfall 3,950]

Frankly (Why not Stevely? Honestly...), I use "pegasus" and "unicorn" lower case, like the word "bananas." Don't ask... it's the first word that came to mind. I don't know the rules... and right now, I couldn't care less. Maybe we all should in this case...

NOTE: Google Chrome's spell-check says "pegasus" should be capitalized... SHUT UP, CHROME!

[Tom 891]

It should be lower case, as the names of species aren't proper nouns.

Much in the same way cats or dogs aren't capitalized.

[WhiteLightning 339]

Should be written in lower case. Like Tom said; they aren't proper nouns.