Mrs. Cake cheated on Mr. Cake

[Shanks 10,811]

That would explain why the milk man is there so much? Oh okay seriously though maybe what makes someone an earth pony, unicorn or a pegasus has something to do with dominant and recessive genes. The recessive unicorn and pegasus genes in the Cake Family line might have just decided to manifest themselves in the cake twins.

[WriteCodes46 178]

We have no evidence that Pony reproduction is anything like real animal/human reproduction. For all we know, babies could just magically appear in the belly of a mare in a relationship, like a Cutie Mark, and have a 33.3~∞% chance of being any of the 3 races.

[Puzzle 11]

in this case the "h" and "w" variants must be reasonably common, because otherwise you couldn't explain the large number of unicorn and pegasus ponies you see in the show.

 

Don't forget about the pegasus ponies and unicorn ponies - they are probably having most of the unicorn and pegasus children.

 

Of course, in the show - we can assume that each race usually comes from parents that match. Otherwise, people wouldn't be questioning or trying to explain how earth ponies had non-earth children. However, I hope everyone agrees that the chances the writers considered any "cannon" explanation of how this works is practically nill. That being said, I prefer something like the explanation below, but with percentages favoring the race of the parents. So if you stay in a relationship too long, - pony magic might decide it's time for you to be a parent! In all likelihood, if the writers were ever pressed to explain, there's probably a stork pony or something. You just don't question the stork. Or stork-pony, in this case.

 

We have no evidence that Pony reproduction is anything like real animal/human reproduction. For all we know, babies could just magically appear in the belly of a mare in a relationship, like a Cutie Mark, and have a 33.3~∞% chance of being any of the 3 races.

--------------------

 

I am impressed with whomever came up with this

[the pictogram with Twilight explaining things].

However, this hinges on the assumption that pony race is hinged on a single gene.

It actually uses two genes. Their example just has only 3 alleles in total, because each gene had 2 allele options, but the allele they named "u" was identical for gene I and gene II. (But I'm guessing your point was more about how they made it too simple. My example explanation pictogram also makes it very simple.)

 

I think it's possible that pony race could also be affected by multiple genes, hypothetically. Then again, something like hair color is something that exists in a spectrum of colors, not simply a few easily named ones. Pony race, on the other hand, is very black and white, unlike the color of eyes or skin. (No pun intended.) You don't see any ponies with half-wings or half-horns or anything like that. They're either a unicorn, a pegasus, an earth pony or an alicorn, period.

Yes, definitely. Examples can be made up involving many genes, and/or multiple alleles. Examples can also be made up using only one gene with 3 alleles. Most physical traits (phenotypes) can be traced to variation in multiple genes, like those you listed. However, it is possible to have such a feature be regulated by one gene, even though it is complex. For example, you might have hundreds of genes that are needed to create the wings in a pegasus, but it only takes a single gene to activate or cancel the sequence to develop that wing in the embryo. A complex trait involving thousands of genes can be "turned off" by a single allele (from a single gene). I'm not disagreeing with Clover Heart, merely adding to her commentary.

Edited February 27, 2015 by Puzzle

[Zabby 0]

Seeing as the show makes a reference to a very dark and adult movie (Requiem for a Dream) in the very same episode, (among various other references throughout the show) I can easily believe they would slip something like that into the show. 

   Along with how nervous Mr. Cake was acting, he could be either trying to dampen his worries about a cheating wife or to through off any suspicions that him and his wife have a cuckhold relationship which ended up with her getting pregnant.

 

But that's just a theory, A Game Theory! 

[Props Valroa 25,971]

It would be interesting, though there could be a male alicorn out there somewhere we just haven't seen them yet.

[Meushell 52]

Genes don’t always do what we think they’ll do. My husband and I both have blue eyes. Our son has green eyes. According to online charts, the chances of that were like 1%.

[Kolombo 8]

Fix me If I'm wrong,but the show hasn't showed us diverse species pony parents, I mean, both of Twilight's parents are unicorns, Both of Fluttershy parent's are pegasus and so on.

Honestly, I didn't wonder on the cake twins and whether Mrs. Cheated or not. Twilight didn't broach the subject in the episode, but I guess she had enough brain to stay silent about it, anyway. Nevertheless, Pumpkin's mane is similar to Mr. Cake's one. Technically, they much more similar to him than their mother. So everything is possible.