Pony Variants

[Fhaolan 4,484]

Hi, I'm new to this forum, so I may be repeating stuff that has come up before. Sorry about that. My attempts to search has failed, probably because I'm not sure what search terms to use.

 

In any case, I had some odd speculation cross my mind around the various types of ponies seen in the show, and specifically the variants to the normal Earth/Unicorn/Pegasis triad that the show normally has. I'm the kind of person who is endlessly curious about world-building in fiction, so this kind of thing fascinates me.

 

So, to set the bar, I've seen:

 

Alicorns or 'winged unicorns' - three so far in the show, and they are very much individuals. Other than wings, horn, and general slim design their abilities and nature are not consistent with each other. Celestia is seemingly immortal and unchanging. Luna's apparant physical age changes rapidly over a short period of time, but is supposedly as immortal as her sister. Cadance appears to age at the same rate as other ponies, and although is called 'princess' is definately not in the same league as Celstia and Luna.. Other powers and abilities are equally widely variant.

 

Zebras - Appears to be an Earth Pony variant. Only 1 appearing so far. Zecora is obviously more mystic than Earth Ponies, but that might be her rather than an attribute of Zebras as a whole. Zecora also has a cutie-mark, athough it appears to be using a different system of symbology than the 'local' ponies.

 

Bat Ponies - appear to be a variant of Pegasus. 2 appear pulling Luna's chariot in one episode. Might be a costume. Tuffed ears, bat wings, slit eyes. Didn't see pointed teeth, but wouldn't be surprising if I just mised it. Might be draconic instead of 'bat', given the slit eyes. I couldn't see cutie-marks due to the armor.

 

Crystal Ponies - appear to be nominally a variant of Earth Pony, as I didn't notice any unicorn or pegasis ponies in the Crystal Empire during the episodes. I could easily have missed that though. Their 'crystal' nature also appears to be an additional layer that can be suppressed, and this nature can be temporarily put on top of any other creature (since Spike got crystalized along with the rest of the Mane 6). So I'm not sure this is a 'race' as such, as more an effect of their locale.

 

Sombra - actually tagged as a unicorn in-show, but has some physical differences from normal unicorns. Curved horn, slit eyes, pointed teeth. Mane covered ears, so can't tell if there was anything odd going on there. While introduced along with Crystal Ponies, does not appear to be one of them. Again, might be dragon-blood causing this variation as with the Bat Ponies. Didn't see a cutie mark in the short time he was corporeal due to the armor.

 

Donkeys, Saddle Arabian Horses, & Changlings - Don't appear to have cutie marks as such, so I'm not going to count these as pony variants.

 

Have I missed any other variants?

 

Now, as to speculation: If Sombra isn't just an odd individual, but is actually a member of a unicorn variant race (let's call them shadowponies for lack of a better term), I can see a lot of co-relation between batpony/pegasus and shadowpony/unicorn. Both appear to be 'dark' or draconic variants, with gray/black-leaning coloration, slit eyes, and the like. If so, is there a yet-unseen earth pony 'dark' variant?

 

Anyway. I just felt like I had to put this down somewhere. Thanks for reading my rambles.

[Tall_But_Short_37 233]

Hi, I'm new to this forum, so I may be repeating stuff that has come up before. Sorry about that. My attempts to search has failed, probably because I'm not sure what search terms to use.

 

In any case, I had some odd speculation cross my mind around the various types of ponies seen in the show, and specifically the variants to the normal Earth/Unicorn/Pegasis triad that the show normally has. I'm the kind of person who is endlessly curious about world-building in fiction, so this kind of thing fascinates me.

 

So, to set the bar, I've seen:

 

Alicorns or 'winged unicorns' - three so far in the show, and they are very much individuals. Other than wings, horn, and general slim design their abilities and nature are not consistent with each other. Celestia is seemingly immortal and unchanging. Luna's apparant physical age changes rapidly over a short period of time, but is supposedly as immortal as her sister. Cadance appears to age at the same rate as other ponies, and although is called 'princess' is definately not in the same league as Celstia and Luna.. Other powers and abilities are equally widely variant.

 

Zebras - Appears to be an Earth Pony variant. Only 1 appearing so far. Zecora is obviously more mystic than Earth Ponies, but that might be her rather than an attribute of Zebras as a whole. Zecora also has a cutie-mark, athough it appears to be using a different system of symbology than the 'local' ponies.

 

Bat Ponies - appear to be a variant of Pegasus. 2 appear pulling Luna's chariot in one episode. Might be a costume. Tuffed ears, bat wings, slit eyes. Didn't see pointed teeth, but wouldn't be surprising if I just mised it. Might be draconic instead of 'bat', given the slit eyes. I couldn't see cutie-marks due to the armor.

 

Crystal Ponies - appear to be nominally a variant of Earth Pony, as I didn't notice any unicorn or pegasis ponies in the Crystal Empire during the episodes. I could easily have missed that though. Their 'crystal' nature also appears to be an additional layer that can be suppressed, and this nature can be temporarily put on top of any other creature (since Spike got crystalized along with the rest of the Mane 6). So I'm not sure this is a 'race' as such, as more an effect of their locale.

 

Sombra - actually tagged as a unicorn in-show, but has some physical differences from normal unicorns. Curved horn, slit eyes, pointed teeth. Mane covered ears, so can't tell if there was anything odd going on there. While introduced along with Crystal Ponies, does not appear to be one of them. Again, might be dragon-blood causing this variation as with the Bat Ponies. Didn't see a cutie mark in the short time he was corporeal due to the armor.

 

Donkeys, Saddle Arabian Horses, & Changlings - Don't appear to have cutie marks as such, so I'm not going to count these as pony variants.

 

Have I missed any other variants?

 

Now, as to speculation: If Sombra isn't just an odd individual, but is actually a member of a unicorn variant race (let's call them shadowponies for lack of a better term), I can see a lot of co-relation between batpony/pegasus and shadowpony/unicorn. Both appear to be 'dark' or draconic variants, with gray/black-leaning coloration, slit eyes, and the like. If so, is there a yet-unseen earth pony 'dark' variant?

 

Anyway. I just felt like I had to put this down somewhere. Thanks for reading my rambles.

Interesting topic! I had not thought about those "bat ponies" you mentioned before! I'll have to go back and look at them!

 

A possibility for Sombra, he could be a normal unicorn, but after being trapped in a non-pony form for so long, he's lost some of the original characteristics (a la Voldemort). His body could've also changed because of his dark magic.

[I used to be a stranger 7,994]

I put together a picture to see what I thought (or agreed on other's art) an MLP giraffe would look like.

 

Giraffes probably won't appear in the show not for some racial problem, but because they would be logistically difficult to animate and contextualize into the environment.

Scenes would have to either have very wide angles to accommodate a full giraffe character, always have a Reifenstahl angle (which would repeatedly reiterate how tall that character was, which would be annoying), or always have their head in a seperate shot than the other characters. Such would just be problems for having a giraffe character standing still. Different ones arise if the character was moving, interacting with another character or interacting with the scene.

 

Similar problems would exist for other disproportionate character potentials, such as Rhinoceroses, Hippopotamuses, Elephants or other large mammals. Elk, Moose and other varieties of ungulates and deer probably could show up, but they'd have to be downsized to fit alongside other characters, like how Zecora is.

Edited December 31, 2012 by Blue

[Fhaolan 4,484]

This multi-quote feature is cool. I wish other forums had this.

 

A possibility for Sombra, he could be a normal unicorn, but after being trapped in a non-pony form for so long, he's lost some of the original characteristics (a la Voldemort). His body could've also changed because of his dark magic.

 

Interesting. So his modified form might be an actualized self-image, in the same manner as Nightmare Moon's sharp teeth, slitted eyes and such-like.

 

I put together a picture to see what I thought (or agreed on other's art) an MLP giraffe would look like.

 

Scenes would have to either have very wide angles to accommodate a full giraffe character, always have a Reifenstahl angle (which would repeatedly reiterate how tall that character was, which would be annoying), or always have their head in a seperate shot than the other characters. Such would just be problems for having a giraffe character standing still. Different ones arise if the character was moving, interacting with another character or interacting with the scene.

 

Similar problems would exist for other disproportionate character potentials, such as Rhinoceroses, Hippopotamuses, Elephants or other large mammals. Elk, Moose and other varieties of ungulates and deer probably could show up, but they'd have to be downsized to fit alongside other characters, like how Zecora is.

 

In RL, the Plains Zebras are about average for a pony, depending on how you are defining pony. A lot of people mistake miniature horses as ponies but technically those are a special category of their own. (I deal with horses in RL a lot, as my wife trains vaulting horses. ) Mountain Zebras are even smaller, while the rarer Imperial Zebra is more horse-sized. So I was fascinated by the artist's decision to have Zecora slightly taller than the rest of the mane cast. Again this is the difficulty of a sample-size of one, it's hard to know what traits are Zebras and which are specific to Zecora herself.

 

In any case, I really like that artist's depiction of a mlp-type giraffe. Although having one in-scene constantly would be annoying, animation-wise, I could easily see them appearing in the background along with such creatures as camels, antelope, elk, etc. if the show ever travels to foreign lands. An episode based on surviving a whirlwhind ambassador tour trying to keep up with what Celestia & Luna are up to all the times they're simply not around when disaster strikes, maybe.