Shouldn't we have gotten bat ponies by now?

[Denim&Venöm 18,723]

Just now, bornAgainEquestrian said:

Still, after so many head-CANON's building around him, there was no way they were going to bring him in as a character without taking a huge risk. Same goes for a lot of the BG ponies, really, and they weren't worried about making Slice of Life.

SoL and Starswirl didn't exactly confirm or deny head cannons. SoL especially was a way to give subtle nods to fan interpretations. 

But with bat ponies, you have essentially a whole race created by the fandom. Entirely new ponies and a whole mythos were made just for the thestrals. Hasbro subtly built their own cannon w/ Starswirl. They've done nothing for bat pones, so anything they do now will conflict with the fans that have. So unless they just say screw it and make the thestrals radically different than fan interpretations, I don't think we're gonna see them. 

[Lord Midnight Madness 1,543]

I think bat ponies would be cool. I actually have a bat pony figure made by Hasbro, so they were in the show but didn't have a speaking line. We already have Kirin now we should have bat ponies  next season at least.

Edited September 30, 2018 by Lord Midnight Madness

[BornAgainBrony 2,397]

17 minutes ago, DonMaguz said:

What can be told about these bat ponies?

Which main character(s) would interact with them?

Other than fan pandering, what can be gained from their introduction instead of the expansion of an already introduced species?

I think that introducing bat ponies could be good, but I would rather have an expansion on changelings, kirins or gryphons (which seem to keep being a distrustful society), than another "new" species.

It could have been really interesting if they had done it earlier, but the time for that has kind of passed now. I'm reminded of the prologue for that Luna "Come Little Children" fanvid from years ago. The young one saying something to the effect of, "Nopony knows we still exist, the children of the night." It could have set off a really cool split in Pony culture at the time Luna was banished, if a bit more forethought had been given to it. Imagine if the whole fanmade "Solar Empire vs Lunar Republic" thing had been a short-lived civil war before Luna was banished. The end result, Luna's followers being forced to retreat into the dark to await her return, and during that time, the effects of the strange magicks of the underground combined with natural evolution, bring about an entirely new kind of Pony. Luna returns and eventually, so do they, and slowly learn to adapt to life on the surface, and co-exist with the Ponies that they cut themselves off from so long ago. There's a LOT that could be done there. Another possibility is that they went into hiding during some other Cataclysm, such as Discord, or even the Long Winter in the Hearthswarming tale. They could've been sealed (accidentally or intentionally) in a sustainable subterranean eco-system. But I'm a bit biased towards H.G. Wells and I see this as being a kind of (much less violent) Eloi vs. Morlok concept. It's really a shame. A missed opportunity.

16 minutes ago, Denim&Venom said:

SoL and Starswirl didn't exactly confirm or deny head cannons. SoL especially was a way to give subtle nods to fan interpretations. 

But with bat ponies, you have essentially a whole race created by the fandom. Entirely new ponies and a whole mythos were made just for the thestrals. Hasbro subtly built their own cannon w/ Starswirl. They've done nothing for bat pones, so anything they do now will conflict with the fans that have. So unless they just say screw it and make the thestrals radically different than fan interpretations, I don't think we're gonna see them. 

I'd like to know why they got completely abandoned when there at least some material written for them. Even going so far as to bring them back for the alternate timeline is very peculiar.
 

Edited September 30, 2018 by bornAgainEquestrian

[Denim&Venöm 18,723]

2 minutes ago, bornAgainEquestrian said:

I'd like to know why they got completely abandoned when there at least some material written for them. Even going so far as to bring them back for the alternate timeline is very peculiar.

They were supposed to be in SoL, but were cut for time. 

[ManaMinori 4,145]

33 minutes ago, Rainbow heart 55 said:

Wasn’t flutterbat already a bat pony.

no. She was a vampire fruit bat pony

[BornAgainBrony 2,397]

Another thing I'd like to see explained. The Flutterbat phenomenon.

[Steve Piranha 29,419]

14 minutes ago, Nightmare Muffin said:

no. She was a vampire fruit bat pony

Not to mention she was a result of a magical accident. This is about natural bats, and alicorn bats wouldn't hurt either 

[CypherHoof 26,482]

Another couple of bits of canon to consider though.

We know during "luna eclipsed" we had what looked like batpony guards escorting luna - way back in S2

-but-

We also have the example of Fluttershy being able to obtain and use bat-wing shaped wing covers (and fly while wearing them) during "scare master" so possibly they are a popular nightmare night accessory

If we assume that those are readily available, then it could go either way - either luna's guardponies were actually pegasi wearing wing covers, or bat ponies DO exist in equestia, but on those rare occasions they are seen (after all, almost all ponies sleep during Luna's beautiful night) are just mistaken for pegasi wearing wing covers....

[titanhades 3]

Rainbow Dash confirms that there never was any bat ponies and thwt its just a glamour that makes normal ponies look like that,

But after Luna became accepted by ponies, she stopped using it.

[Steve Piranha 29,419]

15 hours ago, titanhades said:

Rainbow Dash confirms that there never was any bat ponies and thwt its just a glamour that makes normal ponies look like that,

But after Luna became accepted by ponies, she stopped using it.

Except that the other guards still have the fur on the tip of their ears 

[titanhades 3]

Then you got the fact they have stated over and over that there are only 4 types of ponies. Period. Unicorn,  Earth pony, Pegasus, and Alicorn.

 

Bat features are only a glamour spell.

[Steve Piranha 29,419]

14 minutes ago, titanhades said:

Then you got the fact they have stated over and over that there are only 4 types of ponies. Period. Unicorn,  Earth pony, Pegasus, and Alicorn.

 

Bat features are only a glamour spell.

These guys say hi  

[EpicEnergy 23,176]

I agree, I would have loved to see bat ponies appear in the show! It would have been amazing!