How Many Breeds of Pony are There?

[Aczom2 15]

My copy of the Elements of Harmony guidebook showed up yesterday, and while reading a certain page I remembered a question I thought of a while back when season 3 started.

 

In the descriptions of all of the villains and antagonists, it says that Changelings are “grotesque shape-shifting ponies,” ending the age-old debate and proving that they are, in fact, a breed of pony!

But exactly how many breeds of pony are there in the wide world of My Little Pony?

 

Do crystal ponies count as earth ponies, or are they a different breed? And if they are, do the unicorns and pegasi (and of course Cadence) count as different breeds when they’re crystalized? Is Sombra a regular unicorn, or some kind of shadow pony? Do zebras count? Do Luna’s guards with bat/dragon wings count as regular pegasi or another breed? Are sea ponies and flutterponies (as well as any other past gen ponies I don’t know about) canon?

 

I know a lot of those are far-fetched, but I would like to know other peoples’ opinions! How many ponies are there?

[Jokuc 8,173]

I would not say Zebras are ponies, they are Zebras. (Obviously)

 

I made this amazing house here

 

But I guess there's a lot of different ponies that we don't know about yet.

[~StatesTheOblivious~ 1,795]

I always asked myself, if there is some possibility of cross-species-breeding, too.

Like half-Zebras, or half-horses (Saddle-Arabians).

Or even some sort of Kirin. Half Dragon, half Pony... That would be fun. 

 

I think some things like Twilight's "kind" of Alicorns, the bat-ponies of Luna's guard and Sombra's appearance are merely caused by magic and not what somebody could consider a real genetic, heredity caused breed.

[Spring Storm 276]

It's hard to say. I definitely think Crystal Ponies are their own breed, as they've been shown to retain some of their crystal looks outside of the Crystal Empire. I think their magic relates to love, much like Earth Pony magic relates to growing and making food, Pegasi magic relates to the weather and flying, and Unicorns have stronger magic in all sorts of things. One thing, that a line from the Crystal Heart Spell book seemed to hint at, was that the magic of the Crystal Heart temporarily crystallized the ponies who weren't already Crystal to begin with. So they weren't a different breed of pony - they were merely crystallized Pegasi, Unicorns, Earth Ponies, and an Alicorn.

 

Sombra is some sort of shadow pony, but I don't think any other shadow ponies exist. I think he became the way he was because of his overuse of dark magic and his evil ways.

 

Zebras might count. Either they're their own thing, separate from a pony, or they're like the Saddle Arabians - they're the type of equine who inhabit the pony universe's equivalent of Africa, and they count as a breed of pony. We don't know much about the Saddle Arabians - if they're another breed of pony, or if they're just like Equestrian ponies with minor differences. I could see Zebras as their own breed, definitely, as they seem to also have their own form of magic (herbal and potion based), but we haven't seen Saddle Arabian magic thus far, so it's too early to tell with them.

 

I personally am very interested to know whether Luna's bat ponies are their own breed or not. It's a possibility, but like others have said, Luna probably used magic to alter them, both for Nightmare Night and for dramatic effect.

 

Sea and Flutter ponies, so far, aren't canon. Personally, I'd love to see them both at some point, because I'm a fan of the older gens. Keeping Flutter ponies tiny would be cool, and some Shoo Bee Doo in gen 4 would be fun. They would also let Hasbro milk the cash cow some more, and as a blind bag collector, some of that cash would come from me. So, for me, it's win-win. But I digress; the two haven't been seen in the show so far, and thus aren't canon yet.

 

In conclusion, we have Earth Ponies, Unicorns, Pegasi, Alicorns, Crystal Ponies, and Changelings that are officially confirmed as breeds. That's six definite breeds of pony.

Edited June 15, 2013 by Spring Storm

[Rayna 44]

I would not say Zebras are ponies, they are Zebras. (Obviously)

 

I made this amazing house here

 

But I guess there's a lot of different ponies that we don't know about yet.

 

Sorry, but what are Flutter ponies? Can you give an example of who is a Flutter pony, if there is one?

 

Also I am interested on how you came up with this diagram?

[Jokuc 8,173]

Sorry, but what are Flutter ponies? Can you give an example of who is a Flutter pony, if there is one?

 

Also I am interested on how you came up with this diagram?

 

Ponies with butterfly-like wings. They are seen in Generation 1 for example.

 

Changelings are also a mix of these dark-typ unicorns and a flutterpony (and some sort of insect I'd guess)

 

 

 

 

Edited June 14, 2013 by Jokuc

[Cwanky 17,572]

Ponies with butterfly-like wings. They are seen in Generation 1 for example.

 

Changelings are also a mix of these dark-typ unicorns and a flutterpony (and some sort of insect I'd guess)

 

 

So according to Hasbro, wouldn't that make Twilight a flutter alicorn pony, as opposed to the default pony? 

Its also very odd how Hasbro portrays her in the toys. She doesn't look remotely like the alicorn Twilight we see in the show, everything down to her cutie mark. Also I've noticed that Twilight looks significantly different to the other alicorns in the show as of yet. Different as in she doesn't have that thin elongated body and limbs. I actually like the way she looks now as an alicorn and hopefully they don't change that as she ages.

 

I'm inclined to believe that other nonpony as in outside the 3 pony races, can be genetically similar, related and often compatible to them, but not necessarily of the same breed. If we take Twilight's words to be true in Bridle Gossip then we can indeed assume that Zecora and thus zebras are not ponies and hence a different species (this causes a shit ton of problems that another topic will cover). Saddle Arabians are more difficult to discern. We don't really know whether they are the same species of ponies but a different breed, but the animators did say they were deliberately drawn differently like Zecora and modeled after Arabian horses.

 

Also: mules. We know that donkeys based on Cranky Doodle Donkey, Matilda and Cranky's clone in Dragon Quest, they are officially canon. Let's just go off this definition 1st:

  mule1  [myool]  Show IPA

noun

any hybrid between the donkey and the horse.

 

We don't actually know for sure whether horses are canon, despite the Saddle Arabians. Moreover we'll probably never know whether mules in MLP are generally fertile, namely the males due to the PG 13 nature of the show. For all we know horses may exist in Equestria itself and that's how mules came about. We don't know for sure either whether donkeys and ponies can produce offspring so the possibilities there get more interesting. Hell the show hasn't ruled out unicorn and pegasus horses, both the original definitions and models for those animals in lore, or alicorn horses for that matter.

 

That's a lotta food for thought and we just touched on only the equines. Wait until we discuss the other 90% of Equestria and beyond... 

[Scootalove 10,689]

I think the amount of breeds of ponies are pretty huge.

 

 

Alicorns, Pegasi, Shadow Unicorns, Earth Ponies, Crystal Ponies, Sea Ponies, and Changelings.

 

Basically, what Jokuc said.

[Jokuc 8,173]

I think the amount of breeds of ponies are pretty huge.

 

 

Alicorns, Pegasi, Shadow Unicorns, Earth Ponies, Crystal Ponies, Sea Ponies, and Changelings.

 

Basically, what Jokuc said.

1. Yeah and there are like different types within the breeds I guess

 

2. I bet there are more that we don't know about yet. I hope we get to see more in S4. (oh dear please no sea ponies..)

 

3. I refer to the quote in my signature.

[DarligPegasi 315]

In my opinion there are only five breeds: Alicorns, Unicorns, Pegasi, Earth Ponies and Changelings. I think crystal ponies are just earth ponies because if they weren't then when Cadence and Shining Armor went to rule them, wouldn't they loose their horns (and Cadence's wings) to turn into crystal ponies? Instead of just getting crystallized. And also if they are an actual race, then it wouldn't have been so easy for the Mane 6 to get crystallized. I think they're just really shiny.

Edited June 14, 2013 by DarligPegasi

[Fhaolan 4,483]

The official three are, of course, Earth Pony, Unicorn, and Pegasis. We've seen a lot of odd variants however.

 

Alicorns appear to not be a breed/race on their own. At least two cases of them being 'ascended' puts them into a special category.

 

The Crystal Ponies all appear to be Earth Ponies, but under the influence of the Crystal Heart. Note that all the ponies in the area were crystalized went he Crystal Heart 'went off', however for none-Crystal ponies that effect wore off. The actual Crystal Ponies however, have odd eye glimmers and a slightly different texture even before the crystallization wave, so likely they're a sub-type of Earth Pony.

 

Batponies, seen only once pulling Luna's chariot, appear to be pegasis variants. We have seen something else similar though: Sombra has all the appearance of being a unicorn version of those same batponies. Makes me wonder if there's an Earth Pony version running around somewhere.

 

Changelings seem to change (ha!) depending on the source. Some places mark them down as some bizarre mutation of a pony, while others say they're convergent evolution, and they just happen to resemble ponies. (ha again!) They don't seem to have cutie-marks at all though, which makes me think they're a relatively distant relation if at all.

 

Sea Ponies existed in prior generations, and are apparently the subject of one of the newer books. They may or may not be cannon.

 

Flutterponies existed in prior generations, and Rarity's butterfly wings were supposedly a call-back to them. Oddly, some of the Princess Twilight toys seem to use butterfly-like wings, which is confusing.

 

Zebras may or may not be 'ponies'. We've only got one example to go off of. That example appears to have a cutie-mark, but it appears quite different from other ponies. Zecora also displays direct magical abilities, which runs counter to the Earth Pony she otherwise resembles.

 

Donkeys, Mules, and Horses have appeared, but none of them seem to have cutie-marks, so they're probably not 'ponies' in the same way Changelings aren't.

 

That's al we've seen, I believe.

Edited June 14, 2013 by Fhaolan