WMG / My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic Setting Other Species

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Shared Universes, Ponies, Equestria, Equestrian Culture, Science and Magic, Other Species (Changelings, Dragons)

Ponies aren't the only inhabitants of Equestria that inspire mysteries.

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Intelligent races

Griffons and Ponies crossbreed, all Pegasus Ponies are descended from Griffons.

In Mythology, a griffon and a mare can breed to make a Hippogriff. It's not a far stretch to assume it's also possible in this universe, too.

Some of the pegasus ponies seen so far have sharper features, longer wings, more pointed ears and almost beak-like mouths. (Case in point: The jock ponies from Sonic Rainboom.) This means they have griffon/hippogriff ancestry.

Now, following this line of logic, it's possible that all pegasus ponies are descended from intermarrying of griffons and ponies.

• The traits you were talking about seem to be typical of male pegasi, and stallions in general.

Zebras also come in unicorn and pegasus forms, as well as multiple colours.

Zecora is simply a black-and-white earth zebra. If ponies can come in all sorts of colours, there's no reason zebras can't, so in Zecora's home country, there would be zebras with blue and pink stripes, yellow and green stripes, and every colour stripe you can make in flash. Also, some zebras have horns, and others have wings.

• While the Ponies of Equestria earn their cutie marks, the Zebra foals earn their stripes!

There is actually some circumstantial evidence for this in the show itself. Zecora has a cutie mark, indicating that zebras have some facets in common with ponies. She also has quite an affinity for plants, which is generally an earth pony thing; this suggests she's an earth zebra.

• This troper always assumed this; showing a winged zebra would be weird without seeing any Earth first, anyway. Zecora is simply a non-European/American(??) pony.

• There is an African equivalent to the unicorn, the abada, so they may appear. I don't know about winged African horses though.
  • Pegasi aithiopes fit the bill.

Horses and ponies are different species.

Everypony, including adults, are called ponies (young ponies are "little ponies"). Mules (Horse/donkey) are shown and mentioned, and Rarity acts as though they are all ugly or bad in some way. The "Yah, mule!" reference suggests mules do mostly manual labor. Unless Rarity and others are racist against biracial ponies, then horses must be different than ponies. This is backed up by the fact that IRL ponies don't talk or use tools.

• Are you under the impression that "pony" is a synonym for "foal" rather than a class of short horse breeds?
  • Aside from the fact that the terms aren't synonymous, the transformed mouse-horses on the Season 1 finale didn't seem to be entirely sapient. Then again, they were still behaving more-or-less like mice.
• May be confirmed by Magic Duel, which features ostensibly foreign characters that are about the size of an alicorn and their legs and snouts look leaner than those of ponies.
• Confirmed; Saddle Arabian horses are technicolor like ponies, but have totally different hooves from ponies (more like actual hooves) and don't appear to have cutie marks (strangely enough, as zebras are way less similar to ponies in real life but in the show they are pony-sized and shaped and have unique cutie marks.) They're also much stronger than ponies, if the song "hearts as strong as horses" is anything to go by.
• Honestly kind of doubtful — given evidence throughout the series, it's likely that ponies are just very varied in body size and build, and "horse" is just a name for big ponies, in the inverse of how it works in real life. The hooves thing is far from unusual — having visible hooves that don't blend into the rest of the leg seems to just be something that comes with a pony being big: besides Luna and Celestia (who were all introduced very early on, so Early-Installment Weirdness may be in play), this kind of visible hooves is present in nearly all ponies above a certain size — even Big Mac, Blueblood and Shining Armor, who are just a bit tall, have them. The Saddle Arabians are very slender, but so are alicorns and many unicorns like Fleur de Lis and Sassy Saddles. As for the size, characters who are clearly ponies, like Troubleshoes and Rockhoof, are just as tall as the Saddle Arabians — Troubleshoes may be taller, if anything — but are actually bigger than them, as they're much more heavily built. As for the strength, if horses are technically earth ponies (Troubleshoes and Rockhoof are, and some Saddle Arabians are hornless while others are clearly unicorns) it may just be a derivative of earth pony strength combined with increased size. There isn't really much evidence to argue that horses and ponies are separate species — while some sort of difference almost certainly exists, it's nothing that as of now wouldn't be more easily explained by them simply being a variant of pony.

Every sentient race follows the same Earth-Air-Magic dynamic as Equestria.

It's been suggested elsewhere on this page that dragons come in different varieties (with Spike being a different breed from the ones we've seen), and it's been posited that "zebra" forms of unicorns and pegasi also exist. This could extend to all the races we've seen, from griffons to bovines to even the Diamond Dogs. It could go something like this. (Warning: Fan Wank ahoy)...

• Ponies (technicolor): Earth Ponies, Unicorns, Pegasi
• Ponies (African): Zebras, Abada, Pegasi Aithiopes
• Ponies (Asian?): Mongolian wild horses, Qilin, Tulpar
• Griffons: Hieracosphinx, Keythong (yes, the name is real), Standard griffon
• Dragons: Earth Dragons, Magic Dragons (Spike's breed?), "Standard" dragons
  • No, dragons are: Earth dragons (Spike), Winged dragons, and Asian dragons (Discord and the sea serpent from the second episode)
    • It's doubtful that Spike is a different breed from other dragons, as the only physical difference, his winglessness, is due explicitly to his youth — in "Molt Down", he molts and gains wings, and it's revealed that all dragons are born wingless and gain the extra limbs in their puberty.

Alternate Concepts

• Dogs: Diamond Dogs (Earth), Scurvy Dogs (water), Foo Dogs/Blink Dogs (magic), Black Dogs (air), Hellhounds (fire, may need a rename), Cerberus (Alicorn)

Feel free to add more for the varieties of other creatures, or suggest different line-ups.

• I'd say dragons likely include Water instead of Earth. Steven Magnet, the Sea Serpent is a dragon in this lineup (though Fluttershy doesn't know that Sea Serpents are a dragon subspecies), and we have Water-Magic-Air.
• Sea serpents might constitute their own group. So far, we've seen the Hydra and Steven Magnet. They might count as the "Earth" and "Magic" varieties, respectively (Steven is pretty magical). Now all we need is a flying sea-serpent…
  • Steven's pretty clearly an Asian-style dragon. Notice how much his emo-fest was stirring up the river? That's actually rather typical.
• Seeing Spike's adult form in "Secret of My Excess", it is confirmed that Spike will not grow any wings like the other dragons shown so far.
  • Jossed with the Season 8 episode "Molt Down", where Spike gets his wings. It's explained that at a certain age, all dragons go through a molt during which they get wings, whereas the greed-induced growth is something different, unrelated to the natural aging process.
• I'd call the dogs of the air Canes Majores, after the Ursa Major.
• There are hippocampi out there, along with the kin of Sleipnir. Count on it.
  • Confirmed for the hippocampi.
• Tauren (the minotaur race) only have two subspecies: Minotaurs (earth) and Satyrs (magic). Should they need flight or weather control they'd either get assistance from griffins or use the "Wings of Daedalus". Alicorn variant would be either Apis or the Bronze Bulls.
  • The Storm King's species, whatever it is, could be the air-specific variant of satyrs, considering he has weather-related powers.
    • The Storm King does not, however, have any weather-related magic or indeed any magic at all — his primary motivation in the movie is to gain magic to begin with in order to actually be able to create and control storms, which he cannot by himself do.

Magic causes creatures to become an Amazing Technicolor Population.

A wide array of creatures that explicitly make use of magic and/or some supernatural power (ponies, dragons, etc.) have been shown to come in wildly different colors. Meanwhile, creatures that come in "mundane" colors, such as Zecora, are shown to use little to no magic (Zecora gets her "magic" by using various magical plants). Even the Poison Joke, a practically-magical poisonous plant, is pretty vibrant for what is essentially an exotic ivy.

• Also worth noting: hippogriffs/seaponies display a greater degree of magic than most other races — chiefly in the form of shapeshifting, thanks to the pearl and the necklaces made from it — and are much more colorful than the decidedly non-magical griffons are.

Hippogriffs and other pony/hybrid species exist in the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic universe.

• Since we know that mules, a horse-donkey hybrid, exist in the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic universe, it's not too much of a stretch to assume that other hybrid species exist. Griffins also exist, which could imply the possibility of Interspecies Romance between two non-pony species. In Real Life, there are zebra-horse hybrids, and since zebras exist in the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic universe it's also no stretch that they could breed with ponies.
  • Or that mules in Equestria aren't bred like mules in our world.
  • Hippogriffs are confirmed to exist in the 2017 movie, but they appear to be a naturally occurring and self-sustaining species.

Zebras come in other colors in the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic universe.

• Past My Little Pony franchises feature zebras that come in bright colors just like the ponies. Since Zecora is the only zebra we've seen in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic so far, there's no reason to believe that there are no brightly colored zebras.

Every sentient species has its own Physical God.

Considering that Princess Celestia and Luna are the only Alicorns in series so far, there may be other god-like rulers for each sentient species.

• Of course, there comes the question of what those would be. Is there an Eastern dragon watching over Spike's ilk? Do the Diamond Dogs answer to the great and mighty Snoop Dog?
  • I laughed at the Snoop Dog part, perhaps he can voice the Diamond Dogs' leader. The buffalo's Physical God could be a white buffalo, considering to be sacred among the plains Indians.
    • Diamond Dogs would be led by David Bowwow.
    • Presumably alongside his younger brother, Lil' Bow Wow?
  • A good name for the ruler of the Diamond Dogs might be Rex — firstly because it's one of the most archetypal names out there for the larger sorts of dogs, and secondly because it's straight up the Latin word for "king".
• Griffins: Ziz, a griffin like beast large enough to block out the sun and is considered the lord of the sky.
• Hippocamps/Sea dwellers: Leviathan
• Underworld: The Deep One

Griffons and ponies are locked in Fantastic Racism, with an angry peace at best and war at worst.

It's a common fandom idea that, if griffons have a civilization, it's against the ponies, and griffon wars tend to factor in the general pony-past, or even the pony-present, in fanworks. It certainly has precedence; in mythology, griffons ate horses, and animosity toward a pony culture would be the closest thing.

• I'm skeptical about this, at least the modern antagonism between the two cultures, seeing as how Gilda was able to walk around unmolested and her treatment of Ponyville seemed more about how it was a small boring town (she came during a slow week), and she was allowed to attend Junior Speedsters Flight Camp (or Rainbow Dash was... its location isn't quite made clear). I'd say they have a neutral stance in modern times, but they are kept apart because the two cultures freak each other out (which is why Griffons are unrecognized by Pinkie and considered rare by Rarity). Griffons are likely carnivores, but have the same cultural opposition to eating sentient creatures as we would, and pretty much every animal in Equestria qualifies. Meanwhile, because Equestrians are fairly isolationist, they probably wouldn't realize animals outside their lands can't hold conversations. To keep the Griffon/Horse dichotomy, Griffons likely raise (non-sentient) horses, something that is viewed by Ponies like Westerners view eating Great Apes at best (and allows for the existence of phrases like "gift horse" without referring to slavery).
  • It's also possible that Gilda is a Griffin ambassador in Equestria without telling to Rainbow Dash, and just like the bad guy from Lethal Weapon 2, she had diplomatic immunity, and was abusing it.
• My personal canon is that the Griffon-Pony War ended a few years ago; Gilda is of the first generation to grow up knowing peace. but she still picked up on her parents' quiet animosity towards ponies, and so she hates them as well, with one exception. Meanwhile, Ponyville is in the shadow of Canterlot, the capital city. Since a country usually spreads out from the capital, and I imagine the war was sen mostly at the border between the two counties, it may be that none of them actually saw the war, meaning that it was too distant for them to develop emotional feelings against griffons. I'm not sure where the Young Fliers Camp would be located, but since the war is over they had no reason to bar griffons from joining. Gilda may have gotten some flak from the poinis that came from the border, but Rainbow Dash likely defended her like she did Flutershy at Flight School, which may be why they became friends in the first place. And this suddenly became an impromptu fanfic.
• Jossed in "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone" — there doesn't seem to have been any bad blood between the original Griffon kingdom and Equestria, and modern Griffonstone is barely holding itself together and in no condition to wage war against anyone. Further, the lack of information in Equestria about modern conditions in Griffonstone likely means there has been very little interaction between the two nations in recent times.

Griffons aren't themselves a race.

Note that Rainbow Dash had to explain to Pinkie Pie just what Gilda was, whereas everyone understands what a dragon is right away. It's possible griffons aren't a race at all, and Gilda is the quintessential result of a lion and eagle getting familiar, thus a unique creature in Equestria.

• Possibly supported by Rarity's interest when talking to Applejack at Pinkie's party:
  I hear she's an old friend of Rainbow Dash; a griffin! So rare!
  • We have a griffon in "MMMMystery on the Friendship Express", but he's French. Might support the idea that griffons are simply non-natives.
• Jossed as of "Equestria Games". Not only are the griffons populous enough to field their own team for the games, they appear to have their own city-state within Equestria itself. Further, "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone" makes it clear griffons can at least breed true, as evidenced by Gilda's griffon Grandpa Gruff.

There are other species that use magic.

But they are few and far between, which is why we haven't seen any other species besides unicorns that can directly use and control magic. Magic-using species could include kitsune, eastern dragons, (as they're generally depicted as having a variety of magical abilities) kirins, and perhaps even others. Different species may have different specialties of magic, like kitsune being able to shapeshift.

• Confirmed insofar as changelings (shapeshifting, telekinesis, emotion draining), seaponies/hippogriffs (shapeshifting) and kirin (limited anger-fueled shapeshifting, telekinesis) go.

Mules are Equestria's go-to source for migrant labor.

Combine the place of donkeys and mules within stereotypical Mexican culture, the fact that the only mule we saw was on Sweet Apple Acres, and the Real Life migrant work situation in the US.

Seaponies are mythological

• If this means mythical or fictional, then jossed by the movie. They really do exist.

Zebras do have cutie marks.

However, they are more simplistic than the ones the pony species have. They are the same color as their stripes and they tend to resemble various tribal symbols.

• Furthermore, unlike ponies, zebras are born with their cutie marks, and so know right away what their lot in life shall be.
• Zecora's trading card calls the design on her butt a cutie mark, so zebras possessing them is at least confirmed. Any differences between zebra and pony marks are so far unknown, however.

There are other nations in the world of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.

Some nations have populations of mostly Ponies and include the Precursor nation seen in "Hearth's Warming Eve", reformed after the Windigo attacks, and the other nations are nations of Griffins, Minotaurs, Higher-Tech Species forms of the cows seen in "The Last Roundup" (which would explain Pipsqueak), Seaponies, Dragons, Buffaloes/Bison, Higher-Tech Species forms of the sheep also seen in "The Last Roundup", Higher-Tech Species forms of Phoenixes, and a collective of Changelings who have settled down in various locations around the world.

• Some nations are friendlier to Equestria than others, and would immediately rush to her aid if Princess Celestia or Princess Luna (or anypony, really) were to ever pull an instance of Gondor Calls for Aid, while others would be like the Soviet Union was to the United States, except open war is likely and will be conventional in that sense.
• Confirmed, by and large. The griffons have the city-state of Griffonstone, the yaks have Yakyakistan, and the seaponies/hippogriffs have their own kingdom on Mount Aris. The dragons don't seem to have an actual state per se, but they do have their own society and rulers.

Minotaurs are male cows.

We usually think of minotaurs as half-man, half-bull, but there don't seem to be humans in Equestria. However, we've never seen any bulls, either — the only cows we've seen are female. It's possible that in Equestria, the male of the species is bipedal, and is called a "minotaur" rather than a "bull".

Qilins/Kirins exist in the MLP verse

Their country exists to the Far East of Equestria, and they're pretty much the Fantasy Counterpart Culture of Asians. They represent not just China, but other parts of Asia like Korea, Japan, and the Philippines, but in separate communities as to avoid an Interchangeable Asian Cultures scenario.

• Or they'll be villains, ruled by a literal dragon emperor who may be Spike's father. They will have pony samurai and pony mecha!
• King Sombra had a Kirin-ish horn. Maybe that's where he hails from?
  • In his case, no, in show canon he is (well, was) a perfectly normal unicorn.
• Confirmed in "Sounds of Silence", although they live to Equestria's south rather than its east.

Hippogriffs exist in the MLP universe.

Hippogriffs do exist, but they are extremely rare, and perhaps extinct. In most Mythology, Hippogriffs are created when a horse (or, in this case, pony) and griffon mate. It should be self-explanitory why they're such a rare find.

• Confirmed that they exist; semi-confirmed that they're quite rare (at least, there only seems to be a single city-state of them far beyond Equestria); jossed that they're pony/griffon hybrids — they seem to breed true.

Griffons have a different view of insults and bullying than ponies

In Equestria, it's like being a bully makes you worse than someone who brings about the apocalypse. There have been numerous reasons presented offered in other WMGs, like how with horse society, horses who are ostracized are worse off than those who are physically struck. Perhaps in a species that is a hybrid of two apex predators, they have a different view of things, as insults and throwing one's weight around is akin to a civilized equivalent of a threat display, keeping the social order because when the claws come out, things get real.

Okapis, Giraffes, and Deer/Gazelles also exist in the MLP universe.

• I take this WMG assumes they are sentient.
  • Of course, that's why I put it in this folder.
    • "Filli Vanilli" shows a pair of Deer that are treated as pets and frankly just don't like sentient in the slightest.
• "Fluttershy Leans In" includes both a deer and a giraffe among the animals in Doctor Fauna's care, and both are presented as pretty clearly being animals, so for those two species at least this has been jossed.

Diamond Dogs are a Servant Race created by the Crystal Empire.

Someone had to have mined all those crystals. It would explain their obsession with precious stones, too.

Griffons in Equestria tend toward large port cities.

Rarity's comment about griffon rarity is more a reference to them being in central Equestria. Griffons have a preference toward meat-based diets, while most ponies won't get near meat-based foods unless it's to feed their pets. As a result, animal-based foods except pet food and eggs are hard to come by the deeper you get into Equestria as most places won't stock them. However, fish can be found in relatively abundant supply on the Equestrian coasts, since the population only uses them to feed animals. Plenty of griffons can find work supplying the pet food industry since the demand is pretty high, but few ponies are willing to work fishing and gutting the fish, while griffons can supply their own tools by means of their claws. Also, griffons, being part-lion, are opportunistic scavengers, so they also have the added benefit of not minding the smell of rotting fish. As a result, griffons can find decent-paying jobs (decent demand with few ponies who like doing it) in low-cost areas (the smell of rotting fish is not pleasant to ponies while griffons don't mind).

• Jossed in one instance. Season 5 introduces Griffonstone, the heart of the Griffon Kingdom and located on a high mountain.

Breezies' dependence on Pegasi and/or Griffons (and/or Pegasi Aithiopes if they exist) was Discord's doing.

Only he can't remember now.

Sapient non-pony species have magic of their own, including a cutie mark equivalent.

Even though the show's population is primarily ponies, other species (such as donkeys, griffons, and minotaurs) have some form of magic of their own, whether passive or active. Additionally, they also have a way of finding what makes them special, though it's not as easily visible as the cutie marks of ponies. Otherwise, it seems like only a sizable portion of the population (i.e. the pony population) has something to strive for in life. I raise this mostly because Twilight's Kingdom had Tirek drain the magic of mostly ponies, but it made me question how the rest of Equestria was impacted? What about the griffons, or the zebras, or the donkeys? Why didn't they fight back? Did they have their magic drained, too?

Zebras are secretly the fourth pony race.

Unicorns have magic, pegasi have flight, and earth ponies have strength. What do zebras have? Superior intelligence when it comes to minerals and nature, which is why Zecora is so good at brewing potions.

The theft of the Idol of Boreas was masterminded by a pony.

The lightning strike that sent both Arimaspi and the Idol plummeting into the Abyss is a bit too convenient to be simply a matter of bad luck. It struck a stone bridge, cleanly, precisely and with impeccable timing. Pegasi are quite capable of launching lightning bolts from clouds with a good degree of accuracy, as demonstrated by Rainbow Dash's Nightmare Night pranks. The scenario goes like this: for whatever reason, a pegasus (or a group of ponies) decides that Griffonstone's unity has to be destroyed. (Perhaps they feel threatened by the griffin nation, perhaps there are territory issues, etc.) Knowing that this unity derives from the griffins' sacred artifact, they set out to remove it without being implicated themselves. Arimapsi is somehow persuaded to do the dirty work, at which he succeeds quite well. When he tries to make his escape, however, a well-aimed lightning strike sends him into the Abyss, thus eliminating both the troublesome artifact and the potential loose end in one fell swoop, and leaving the masterminds with clean hooves.

"Non-sapient" ungulates just don't speak pony language.

This explains why the pigs aren't shown as sapient, even though they are ungulates.

• For instance, hardly anypony understands the pigs, because they only speak Latin.

Donkeys and zebras are from the same place.

Corvids are sapient.

They are quite close to being sapient in Real Life, and other animals are quite intelligent.

Donkey and magpie culture is very high tech.

They are smarter than Real Life horses, so they might be smarter than ponies.

Hippogriffs started out as hybrids, but could breed true and established a self-sustaining population.

(Pre-scriptum for due credit: credit for the original idea goes to the user Scrounge, on the Derpibooru forums.)

It's clear that hippogriffs can and do give birth to hippogriffs — see Princess Skystar's/Silverstream's shared and all-hippogriff biological family. That being said, their past and origins are just as obscure as any of MLP's species. This theory, then, is that the very first first hippogriffs were pony/griffon hybrids like in the myths: these would have been clearer bird-in-front and horse-behind chimeras like mythological hippogriffs (or fanon hippogriffs like Silver Quill). These first-generation hybrids turned out to be fertile (like some hybrids are in real life, although this does usually require very closely related parent species). These hippogriffs were eventually able to establish a self-sustaining population, so that after a while more and more hippogriffs were born to hippogriff parents than to pony and griffon couples. As time passed, this also resulted in the pony and griffon features "blending", resulting in the less visibly chimeric, pale-colored, brightly crested and eared hippogriffs of the show's canon. They settled Mt. Aris, established their nation there, and the rest is history.

First-generation hippogriffs, looking like "classical" hippogriffs do, are still born from time to time, of course. There are issues with Fantastic Racism between them and non-hybrid hippogriffs, however — many (not all, but more than a few) "true" hippogriffs look down on the hybrids, seeing them as not "real" hippogriffs and treating them with a measure of contempt and condescension. There are also issues with cultural divides — the hybrid hippogriffs, obviously, are raised as part of their parents' pony and/or griffon cultures, and as such have little connection — starting out, at least — with the hippogriff culture that developed among the Mt. Aris hippogriffs over the centuries.

The Klugetown residents are Uplifted Animals.

• Klugetown in the movie is inhabited by all sorts of anthropomorphic animals, including cats (Capper), parrots (the pirates), pigs, rodents, lizards, tortoises and fish, all of which are established to exist in non-sapient form in Equestria. Perhaps they are all the result of a freak magical experiment by an unicorn sorcerer which made them sapient and anthropomorphic, but then they got out of control of their original creator and turned their home into a Wretched Hive?

The Breezies' Universe is G3

• Not just because Breezies were originated from G3, but also despite G3 having some dangers, it's much safer than any of My Little Pony's other incarnations (besides Tales but that world is too urban for Breezies).

Animals

The Ponies raise pigs to feed their carnivorous pets with.

The Ponies have been shown to own dogs, cats, and even alligators, and they must eat something. It's just strange to imagine a butcher pony.

• It's why Fluttershy is so timid.
• Fluttershy did feed fish to Ferrets.
• According to Word of God, ponies really like truffles, enough to provide free room & board. Cows aren't so lucky.
  • Wait, aren't truffles just fungi?
  • Yes. In RL, pigs are used to find truffles, because they're typically buried.
  • The cows are there because the ponies use milk.
  • Presumably the same thing can be said for the chickens, although that raises the question of whether ponies can consume eggs. They must use them in baking.
    • In one episode, Pinkie gives Spike a quiche. Quiches need eggs, so yes, ponies eat eggs.
    • Presumably they also raise chickens for feathers, since we see that they have pillows.
  • And now it's been confirmed that ponies definitely eat eggs.
• Pigs are also raised for leather.

For an animal, to become a pet is the greatest honor one can be bestowed.

Despite being taken care of by the ponies, wild animals still live without names, without homes, and often, without real respect from the ponies. To be a pet, however, is to get all of that and more. You receive a name, which ponies use to distinguish you from every other often-identical member of your species; you receive a comfortable home; and best of all, you get a pony who respects you, not as an animal, but as a friend. That's why Rainbow Dash's test was such a big deal for those animals, especially the tortoise: it's a chance to be somebody for somepony, not just another face in the forest.

Pigs are non-sapient

Unlike all the other animals with hooves on the show, pigs are the only creatures who actually act like normal pigs. Most of the other animals with hooves, which are buffalo, cows, donkeys, sheep, Zecora the zebra, that one mule, and of course ponies, are all capable of speech with cows and sheep probably knowing they are merely livestock to the pony race in a mutually beneficial relationship and lampshading it whenever possible. The goats working for Iron Will, on the other hand, despite not talking are shown to be at least intelligent enough to function as normal people within pony society with Iron Will one the few people that can translate goat speak.

Pigs, however, whenever they are shown do not talk at all and act like pigs in the real world, except a bit more friendlier. This may have something to do with the omnivorous nature of pigs as the only hooved creatures that can survive purely on meat.

• Before anyone points it out, yes ponies have been shown to eat eggs. This mostly comes from the probable higher protein and nutrition requirements magical ponies need and they don't technically count was meet since the eggs are unfertilized.
• How do you explain the diamond dogs? They're as sapient (sentience is merely being conscious) as ponies, but they're dogs and thus, more carnivorous. Not to mention dragons. I don't see too much of a co-relation between a creature's diet and how sapient a creature is.
• I'm talking about animals WITH HOOVES. I even said so in the first sentence!

Goats are non-sapient.

All of the sapient animals talk, but the goats just make goat noises. Fluttershy also has one with her pets. The ones that Iron Will has are just very well trained.

The butterflies that catch Fluttershy are trained/bred/magicked for that purpose.

They display incredible coordination in catching her, which is remarkable for a species that doesn't normally swarm, and even with that coordination they're safety-net act is physically impossible without magic. This makes sense when you think about it, since a school for pegasus foals just learning to fly would be insanely dangerous without some kind of safety precautions. This also explains why no one tries to catch Fluttershy; they were all confident that the butterflies would take care of the situation.

Beavers are either equally or more foul mouthed than...

Kenny, you can't understand them so they can say the dirtiest things imaginable and still get away with it.

Pun-based Animals

We have Timber Wolves and Fruit Bats, why not add some more? Give a name and a description.

• Mountain Lion: Similar to Timber Wolves, only made of rock from mountains. They can be beaten like Antaeus.
  • On a similar note, Snow Leopards made of animated snow with icicles for teeth and claws (pulling this from Rainbooms and Royalty).
• Dogwood: Domesticated Timberwolves.
• Flying Fox: Foxes with wings. Not much to say outside of that.
• Spider Wolves, or since wolves have been used already, Spider Monkeys.
  • Shouldn't that be Wolf Spiders?
• Turtle Doves: Shelled birds.
• Bull Frogs: Big, horned toads.
• Tiger Beetle: Giant (for an insect; around the size of a Goliath beetle) beetles with tiger stripes and a nasty roar.
• Rock Lobsters: Great big lobsters made from animated stone, possibly found in an underwater kingdom.
• Catfish and Dogfish: The cat and dog equivalents of mermaids, possibly kept as pets by aquatic sapients.
• Crabapples: Crustacean planimal pests found in apple orchards.
• Snakebirds ^note another name for darters or anhingas: Serpentine, legless birds, sort of like a Feathered Serpent, just with more bird and less serpent.
• Sand Cats: Cats made of animated sand that inhabit desert areas. They attack by turning themselves into living sandstorms, or by ambush while lurking inside dunes.
• Fire ants: Aggressive ants with the ability to coat their bites and stings with flame — a flightless, fire-based version of flash bees, essentially. Prone to causing wildfires.

Ponies conduct uplift programs.

That's why some animals seem fully sentient, while others aren't. The Crystal Empire was lost for a millennium, so their sheep haven't achieved sentience yet, while Equestrian sheep can outright talk (they probably developed it in the last thousand years). That's also why some goats seem animalistic while others come across as fully sentient.

Hippocampi/merponies/seaponies exist...

But they're nonsentient (though intelligent). Maybe someday we'll get a Beach Episode where some hippocampi appear.

• Jossed by the 2017 movie. Seaponies exist, and they're an intelligent, civilized race.

All sapient races have their own languages.

There would be languages spoken primarily by:

• Donkeys and zebras.
• Ponies, griffons, diamond dogs and dragons.
• Hippos, cetaceans and sea serpents.
• Sheep, goats and cows.
• Pigs.

This would explain why some ungulates are non-sentient.

• ...it would?

There is some sort of lady-like bug out there.

Called a ladybug.

Giraffes are the Equestrian equivalent of chimpanzees.

A giraffe appears in "Fluttershy Leans In" as one of the animals at Fluttershy's animal sanctuary. However, unlike the other animals, it has the same detailed eyes as ponies, zebras, and other sentient beings. Maybe ponies and giraffes in the MLP universe have a similar biological dynamic to humans and chimps in the real world.

All ungulate species are, without exception, sapient.

But ones like giraffes, goats, pigs and deer are rare enough that your average pony may not know they are. The seemingly non-sapient ungulates we see with Fluttershy and Applejack are either hired help that simply aren't particularly talkative or con artists taking advantage of the fact that their sapience is not common knowledge to receive free room and board.

Plants

The Poison Joke in Bridle Gossip came from Discord.

They were one of his past crimes. After he was put in his stone prison, the Canterlot citizens got rid of the Poison Joke, except in places where ponies are not found. Like the Everfree Forest!

The Everfree Forest came from Discord.

When Discord was defeated by Celestia and Luna, he left a parting gift: a seed/curse/his other tooth. It did nothing at first, but when the time was right, this gift exploded into a mass of plant matter. The sisters' magic, the Royal Guards, and even the pony folk could do nothing to stop it, and things only got worse when terrifying monsters came with the greenery. Eventually, the grand metropolis of Everfree was abandoned, and left to its own devices, grew into the massive shrine to pony-free chaos that is the Everfree Forest.

The origin of Zap Apples

They are stated to be unlike any other apples seen due to their magical nature. And the color of the apples and the way in which the growth cycle happens to look a little bit familiar. The creation of a brand new magical fruit would be a pretty good way to get into legends, while the extremely small time frame to collect them could cause some doubt in the story.

Rocks are edible

We know Pinkie's got an Iron Stomach, with her ability to eat spicy food and burnt food, who's to say she didn't get it eating rocks on her family's rock farm?

In the FIM universe, gems grow like plants.

There's a lot of evidence to suggest this. One, gems seem to be in GREAT abundance. Still considered valuable (likely for their beauty, and from what we've seen, some gems are rarer than others) but Rarity can obtain them easily enough to cover her designs in them. There are apparently plenty buried just a few inches under ground. No one has a problem with Spike or other dragons eating gems, and Mr. and Mrs. Cake even made him a cupcake covered in Sapphires. Considering that dragons seem to subsist heavily on gems, there's likely some replenishing source. During "The Secret of My Excess", Spike mentions aging a Fire Ruby for months, which implies putting some control over it's qualities like size. Then, in "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000", Spike makes a reference to "sapphire season", which implies a certain time of the year when it's best to get sapphires. How would that be possible if sapphires didn't grow or replenish in some way?

• If this is canon, then the rock farm in Pinkie Pie's flashback would finally make sense. Maybe all mineral formations grow like plants. We've already seen that nature in Equestria doesn't work like it does in our world, after all.
• In Trixie's flashback in "Magic Duel" she is shown splitting a hollow rock on the rock farm, and the farmet then points her at a larger rock. Presumably they were hoping for gems in the rock like the one shown in Rarity's backstory.
  • It could be that only unicorns can tell if there are gems inside a rock, and Trixie didn't know the spell or have any way to learn it.
• In light of there being an entire species — the dragons — that seems to subsist on an entirely or chiefly gem-based diet, it would make sense for gems and stones to be able to grow like plants. Dragons have been consistently shown as being big (and thus logically needing a lot of food to power such large bodies), numerous and quite capable and willing of eating a lot of gems in any one sitting. It's difficult to see how this could possibly work or even come about if gem supplies couldn't be replenished.

The Seeds of Truth only bloom when someone confesses their lie.

It won't bloom simply by stating a fact. Applejack rarely lies, and at the time the Seeds were planted, she had nothing that needed confessing.

• Which raises the question: just how many corn-cakes did Pinkie eat?
  • More than six.
  • 40 cakes. That's as many as four tens.
    • And That's Terrible.
  • All the corn-cakes. All of them.
    • All.

The Heart's Desire was responsible for the Cutie Pox.

Some people say the plant could not have caused the Cutie Pox because only Applebloom has the "heart's desire" to get a Cutie Mark. But there's a very simple explanation for this. The fact that her desire was simply to have a Cutie Mark was purely coincidental - the Heart's Desire always gives a Cutie Mark outbreak because what it actually does is dig through your mind for every single talent you dream or have ever dreamt of having, and gives you all of those talents. All of them. That's why it's called the Heart's Desire - it makes you really good at doing everything you've ever wanted to do. Y'know, aside from this nasty "contradictory compulsion" thing.

This theory also explains the fanmade Gloomy Town, the counterpart to Sunny Town. Why is it that they "don't know how to die"? Because they all have the talent of immortality - something which pretty much every sentient being has at some point dreamt of having.

Monsters

The Cockatrice from "The Stare Master" was originally from Fluttershy's place.

Since she keeps chickens and an assortment of other animals, it wouldn't be a huge stretch if she had a rooster, that managed to lay an egg, which then happened to be incubated by a toad. The cockatrice was hatched from the egg and then left to live in the Everfree Forest.

• I think it would be a pretty big stretch for one of her roosters to have laid an egg.
  • No offense, but doesn't a chicken egg hatched beneath a toad make a basilisk?
    • No offense taken, but roosters are male. They don't lay eggs.
    • That's the whole point. A rooster laying an egg would be EXTREMELY rare. Otherwise, cockatrice would be more common.
  • Not really. A basilisk is born from a snake or toad egg hatched beneath a rooster. The reverse of a cockatrice basically.
    • The basilisk and the cockatrice are the exact same thing, just with different names. It's like comparing a pegasus to a tulpar, except even more ridiculous since they stem from the same legends. And yes, the half-chicken thing you saw was what a basilisk is supposed to look like—Harry Potter sized it up for the same reason Jurassic Park sized up the velociraptors.
    • There are actually a fair number of differences between them. For instance, cockatrices are often said to turn people to stone instead of killing them. Basilisks were described as "kings of serpents" as far back as the sixth century. The mere presence of a basilisk would kill the plants nearby, and it was so poisonous that Pliny said that if a man stabbed one with a spear, the poison would travel up the shafted and strike him dead on the spot. Basilisks have a long history of being depicted as snakes, or as many-legged reptiles, while cockatrices are depicted as (short version) dragons with chicken heads (although basilisks are described like that sometimes, too). They are often described as the same creature because the English translation of De proprietatibus rerum mistranslated 'basiliscus' as 'cockatrice'. They are similar, but distinctly separate, creatures.
• Actually the eggs cockatrice hatch from are eggs that have no yolk, which were believed to be laid by roosters.
• The origin of cockatrices is not necessarily the same in Equestria. Since Fluttershy threatens the creature to tell its parents what it's been up to, this implies that there may be a naturally occurring cockatrice species which makes babies the good old-fashioned way.

The Cockatrice from "The Stare Master" is a baby, or at least young.

The size of the Cockatrice is... underwhelming to say the least, and Fluttershy does call it "young man" and threatens to tell its "mother". An adult would be many times this size and possibly would have a gaze many times more powerful, but thankfully they're not particularly aggressive.

• No, that is an adult sized cockatrice. A common predator of the cockatrice is the weasel. Somehow they are immune to the cockatrice's glace, which could be where Fluttershy learned the stare. If cockatrice were bigger, then that would make it all fall apart, unless you were to introduce Ichneumon, which would be a dragon sized weasel.
  • In what world? Every legend I've read said that cockatrices/basilisks were merely afraid of weasels, not predated by them.

Parasprites were created to end predation.

They're a non-sentient or minimally sentient food source for carnivores. Take a pound of vegetables, set a parasprite on it, wait a few minutes, and you have a pound of meat with practically zero waste... that was the idea, anyway.

Parasprites hibernate.

If they didn't, the first outbreak ever would've been the last; they'd have stripped the continent and starved or been wiped out trying. The one that came to Fluttershy may have lain buried for hundreds or thousands of years; it may have been a lone survivor, or it may have been an early riser from a still-sleeping swarm.

• It's been mentioned that Parasprites may be native to the Everfree forest, where they're the prey to just about everything in there. The Ursa Major alone could probably eat several hundred thousand in one night (that is, if they ate Parasprites). And so began a bizarre cycle: everything eats Parasprites, so they became explosive breeders to adapt.

Parasprites spell doom, but not (just) for the obvious reasons.

Outside Celestia's protection, creatures do what they have to to protect themselves. Dragons depend on the food chain like anyone, so when something threatens it, they don't take chances.

Phoenixes eat Parasprites.

How is it that Parasprites haven't devoured the entire world yet? Maybe they've got an immortal predator.

• Why does it have to be phoenixes or why does the predator have to be immortal? One could imagine a creature like an Ursa Major eats the things like how whales eat krill. Heck, they could serve as the foundation for much of the predatory species in the Everfree.

Parasprites serve as the basis of Everfree Forest's food web.

By itself, the Everfree Forest suffers from a classic case of More Predators Than Prey — it teems with a great diversity of ferocious meat-eating beasts, but lacks any real source of food for them to sustain themselves on outside of small birds and woodland animals or the irregular pony visitor. Parasprites solve this problem rather neatly, being able to very quickly transform massive amounts of vegetable matter into equal amount of swarming, defenseless, ready-to-eat meat on the wing. As small as individual parasprites are, through sheer numbers they can easily provide enough food to sustain large numbers of manticores, cragadiles, cockatrices, puckwudgies and so on. Even ursas — assuming they eat meat, or eat anything at all — can live off of them in roughly the same manner as whales live off of swarms of krill.

This also explains how parasprites can exist unsupervised without exploding into plagues on a daily basis — no matter how fast they breed, the Everfree's hordes of predators can eat them just as quickly.

A Draconequus is the result of a pony and a dragon loving each other very much.

When Discord's species is mentioned, one of the first things said about him is that he has the head of a pony and the body of a dragon. Perhaps his parents were a dragon and a pony?

• Oh God Spike/Rarity's children!
  • Discord is the son of Spike & Rarity... from the future, who traveled to the ancient past and was imprisoned for his mischief.
    • Why does this make so much sense?
    • No it doesn't. It makes absolutely no sense. Which is why it's perfect for Discord.
    • It actually helps when you remember the Hedge Maze mind-warping. How did the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony get to the other ponies? He made them think that everything they believed in was wrong (Truth only brings pain, Laughter hurts the person being laughed at, Loyalty always comes with a price). What did he do to warp Rarity's mind? He gave her EXACTLY WHAT SHE WANTED. Sure, it was an illusion, but he made her happy, never telling her that Generosity was bad, merely giving her a big heaping diamond. Perhaps he was giving a little mercy for his birth mother, instead of warping her mind, simply giving her what she wants and letting it play out?
    • Makes perfect sense if he was raised by PINKIE PIE!!!! but never really learned any morals from her.
    • Mind Screw!
    • When he mentioned that he removed everypony's wings and horns to prevent cheating, he elbowed Applejack... Perhaps he was referring to the events of Fall Weather Friends, which he had heard the story of growing up!
    • It also explains how he knows so much about the Mane Six.

Discord is the draconequus equivalent of Celestia and Luna.

The Princess' are a combination of traits of all three types of ponies, and are extremely powerful compared to any one of them as a result. Discord is a combination of all types of ponies, as well as all types of dragons, making him correspondingly more powerful. At some point in time, we'll see a non-evil draconequus with normal levels of power.

Music has no effect on parasprites.

Possible explanations for what happened:

• (1) Pinkie was in amoral-trickster-goddess mode and concealing her powers in the most needlessly elaborate way possible.
• (2) They were a magic feather that she didn't know she didn't need.
• (3) Music helps her focus her powers. Usually just singing as she works is enough, but a mass mind control spell needs something more.

The Windigos came from Discord.

Discord created them to spread chaos, naturally.

• How could they create chaos if everypony was frozen solid? I think Discord wouldn't like that.

Alternatively, Discord accidentally lured in the Windigos.

Discord's chaos and destruction led the Windigos to early/pre-Equestria.

• Alternatively alternatively, it happened the other way around. The chaos of the Windigos' rampage and the general confusion of a nation-wide exodus and resettlement were what first drew Discord's attention to that particular neck of the woods.

Timber Wolves aren't individual creatures, but constructs embodying the will of the Everfree Forest itself.

They can rebuild themselves after being smashed, and appear to be built out of random debris from the forest. Furthermore, three Timber Wolves can be rebuilt into a single creature. This suggests that they have no individual identity, and are just clumps of wood held together by some kind of animating force. That force, naturally, is whatever dark sentience the Everfree Forest possesses.

Timber Wolves are the spirits of wolves possessing nature.

When a wolf dies, its spirit can linger. This causes the spirit to inhabit the sticks and stones of its forest home to form into a mimicry of its former body. This is why Timber Wolves have such bad breath. Timber Wolves still instinctually eat even though their wooden bodies don't need to. They have no means of digesting their meals, so the meat sits in their pseudo-stomachs and decays.

What Ursas are

Their description in "Boast Busters" implies that they're a species of beings, rather than singular individuals — Twilight describes the small one as an Ursa Minor, and is then asked what an Ursa Major would be like, rather than these being described as the Ursa Minor and the Ursa Major. However, they're later only seen or mentioned rarely — the only "real" one seen afterwards is the one from Tempest's backstory in the movie. Consequently, they are probably a full species but one that is very rare.

Their appearance raises more questions, as they do not seem to be natural beings and are certainly not flesh-and-blood ones. They seem instead to be animated masses of stars and the night sky. They almost certainly have a direct connection to the stars and constellations, then, but a specific link is up to guesswork. They may originate from stars that fell to earth, or may have been first created by powerful magic shaping them out of the essence of the night sky — perhaps they may even be connected to Princess Luna/Nightmare Moon.

Other Star Beasts

Potential constellation creatures beyond Ursa Majors and Ursa Minors:

• Scorpii: immense star scorpions, typically red in color; mostly found in southern Equestria and the Bone Dry Desert. Predators, but too large to really bother with pony-sized creatures.
• Cygni: gigantic swans, usually found around very large lakes.
• Cancri, Pisci and Cetoi: star-crabs, star-fish and star-whales, mostly taking the role of assorted sea monsters. Cetoi more closely resemble Monster Whales from medieval maps that any flesh-and-blood cetacean, and are the largest creatures in existence anywhere.
• Aquilae: eagles much larger than any roc, which roost on the highest mountain peaks.
• Leos: leonine creatures found rarely in the zebra homelands. They are the only star creatures to live in groups.
• Star creatures that resembles sapient races — such as the bovine Tauri, ovine Arietes, and Dracos — are themselves intelligent and are the rarest of all constellation creatures.

Humans

There ARE humans in Equestria, but...

They are cavemen proto-humans. They aren't smart enough to utilize the tools around them, They also have a natural fear instinct of anything they do not understand and live in the "wastelands" where nopony goes anyway.

• Alternatively, humans are at a similarly advanced as ponykind, but the two species keep separate due to mutual racial tension. (Perhaps they've waged war on each other in the past, and the odd mixtures of technology and fairy-tale magic are inevitable cultural osmosis?)
• Or humans have a Medieval Europe type society, but were forced to migrate to warmer regions following the great blizzard.
• Or they are actually animalistic proto-cavemen, and some species with neither magic nor hands (zebras (humans did after all evolve in the same places zebras come from), maybe some outlying donkey or earth pony settlements, etc.) keep them around as mildly useful if difficult to train pack animals, like the Yahoos in Gulliver's Travels.

Humans and ponies both coexist on Earth in the future.

After ponies became an intelligent species due to science, they were kept for scientific experiments for a while, and some were used as unpaid servants. After the Supreme Court ruled that ponies were free American citizens, they lived that way for a while, but many were not happy. Thus, some land was purchased and was offered to the ponies as a place to live free of human society. Some ponies accepted, and Equestria was born. It still contains some elements of the world that spawned it, as the ponies learned everything about civilization from humans. They replicated various great cities and structures, such as the Statue of Liberty, but with a pony theme of course. The ponies also do some trade with the outside world, but not much. For example, in Episode 15, Twilight is clearly using present-day equipment to run tests on Pinkie Pie, but most technology can be replaced by magic, which the ponies were created with, and still maintain the ability to use. As new intelligent species are created (like the smart buffalo, dragons, or smart zebras), some move to Equestria, which can lead to a lot of tension before they are accepted into society. The Everfree Forest is simply a boundary that was planted to separate the rest of the world from Equestria, and part of the original deal was that they weren't allowed to manipulate it, or any area past it, with magic. All ponies are still aware of humans, but most don't know just how dominant they are, assuming they are just another of the intelligent races, which explains why humans haven't been mentioned.
There, we have a reasonable, but non-scary, origin story.

There are humans

But they aren't allowed to visit because the human to pony scale is the same as the human to pony toy scale.

• Or it's the other way around. Because that would be funny.
• The Cinemare Sins episode on "Secret of My Excess" states that a 20 carat ruby can fit a ring; and therefore the characters can fit in a cupped palm.

What really happened to the humans

Humans and ponies once coexisted, but then one pony accidentally discovered how delicious they were. The ponies soon ate up most of them, and the rest fled. Every once in a while, a human will be sent back to see if it's safe, and the ponies will capture them and make them into cupcakes, muffins, etc.

• This is scarily like a dream I had after reading Cupcakes (Sergeant Sprinkles) for the first time, that repeated and expanded on itself for several nights.

Minotaurs are half Human!

When I first saw the character Iron Will, I noticed he was bipedal but didn't really think much of it, and just assumed he was a bull. However, the characters specifically refer to him as a Minotaur. Minotaurs are by definition half bull, and half Human. Iron Will therefore implies the existence of Human beings in the Equestrian world. I suppose it's possible that in their world a Minotaur is simply a humanoid bull and that they could still have no knowledge of Humanity. But Griffons exist, and Rainbow Dash clearly defines a Griffon as being half eagle and half lion. Since Griffons remain true to their mythological roots, then why not Minotaurs?

• Then that means the reason they called him a monster is because he's half human.
• If Iron Will is half Human, his father might have been Jordan Chase.
• Technically, griffins weren't the offspring of eagle-lion pairings in the original myths, just chimeric creatures (and they've been shown to be the same in the show by now). There's nothing much preventing a race of humanoid bulls from simply being a thing in the MLP 'verse.

Humans exist but we'll never see them

I'm presuming that humans and ponies exist separate from each other, similar to G1. Humans aren't fictional but they're non-magical and simply don't live near the fantastical animals.

Humans exist in small numbers.

There are small enclaves of humans. They don't interact with the ponies very often, and when they do, they are likely to result in an ongoing conflict over resources/living space. Both sides may find each other frightening, but for different reasons. Humans might view ponies as terrifying beings led by borderline gods and capable of using Gaia's Wrath as a weapon, while ponies fear the human's 'soulless' technology and willingness to engage in total war.

All advanced technology is imported from humans

Ponies are magical, but not that scientifically advanced. Humans can't use magic and developed science more rapidly. We never see them because they live on another continent, but some ponies like human technology and have it imported. For example Vinyl Scratch's turntable and speakers.

Humans live in alternate universe opposite to ponies...

...and when they somehow end up in Equestria the human(s) go insane and they end up becoming the ponies' version of Slenderman.

• As of Equestria Girls, the first part of this is confirmed.

Humans and Ponies live on separate planets in the FreeSpace Universe... But there is a secret settlement of Humans on Equestria that have been undiscovered so far, brought to their world by The Ancient Ones.

It's the only logical explanation as to why we haven't seen any Humans in the show, and it's very possible that those Humans that did end up leaving this settlement ended up creating the first Minotaurs on Equestria.

Humans are mythological creatures in the MLP universe

It may seem strange, but since the MLP universe is home to certain creatures from different mythologies as well as some original creatures exclusive to the show, it might make sense (in an ironic way) if Ponies do know about humans, but only in tales of Equestrian mythology, just as creatures like Unicorns, Griffons, and Minotaur in our world are but part of mythology to us.

Humans are Ponies. Just in the far future.

Obviously, ponies are human who were turned into horse-like beings for some reason. Why i think so? Let's face the first fact - horses cannot vomit. Humans can just fine. Second: you saw how pony babies look like, well Cutie Mark Crusaders give us look of the elder kids, then we saw teenage Fluttershy and then Granny Smith. Foals of real horses are born with legs a little too long for their bodies and they can follow their moms in several minutes after birth. Human babies aren't that cool and barely can crawl. Then again, human babies are chubby and foals are not. Pony babies are somewhere in between - sure they are very active being only a month old but they are still pretty much helpless. Okay, what Granny Smith has to do with it? People, have you ever seen a wrinkled horse??? I bet no. Humans on the other hand...Well, you get it. Next - horse do not have mustaches or beards or sideburns. Ever. How did humans end up like this? Hmm...I have several theories about this:

• 1. It could be Discord. He turned humans into ponies, gryphons, zebras and etc. Then he got bored and went away. Newly made species were left on their own and evolved into what we know today.
• 2. Some good deity could change humans into ponies to teach them a lesson and to prevent themselves from repeating past mistakes.
• 3. Humans did it to themselves by an accident or as a last attempt to save themselves and a planet. Either way results are quite nice.
• 4. One day our world crashed into a magic universe and magical fallout happened. Ponies and other sentient species are result of humanity's adaptation towards magic.

Humans Are Cthulhu.

Humans live deep underground.

They are an isolated species from the rest of the world, having forgotten the surface, as their society dug deep into the bowels of Equestria's land to search for resources (Fossil Fuels). Similar to dwarves.

Nightmare is actually from an extinct species.

And the only reason she needed Luna is to help with her evoloution. So that her offsprings can go around without having to posses a body.Also the male term for Nightmares is called a Knightmar.

Post apocalyptic? Magic vs. technology interference?

• And Celestia is LordGenome? Fund it!

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