New Chapters and Unrelated Canon Musings · 5:57pm Sep 25th, 2014
So The Most Unlikely Places has been updated, but there are two separate chapters. The first is very expository, and doesn't really flow well with the second, so I decided to break them up into separate chapters and just post them both at the same time.
The second chapter is cloppy, so keep that in mind when you go to read it.
And now for some off-hand musings on developing new canon from random minute pony puns expressed by the characters in the show.
So in Suited for Success, Twilight closes her letter to Celestia by saying "You shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth." This is a supremely odd adage for a society of what are, after all, just small, sentient horses. They make horse puns all the time, but this one seems out of place purely by the implications it expresses. It suggests that it is possible to 'give' a horse as a gift, and that--true to the original intent of the adage--it's possible for some horses to make better gifts than others.
To whit, I propose this small segment of as-yet-not-official canon to consider.
In addition to the sentient society of small horses who make up the population of Equestria, there exists a race of 'normal' sized horses who are equally intelligent, but lack the magical powers of their Equestrian analogues. Like cows and sheep, both species who have proven to possess sentient intelligence but are still 'owned' and farmed by ponies, these horses must exist in large numbers, and are 'owned' by Equestrians to do odd jobs and such, specifically by unicorns, who are ill-equipped to the grueling task of plowing, hauling, and general physical labor. Obviously where there exist earth ponies, horses aren't necessary, so in an earth pony settlement like Ponyville, you won't see any. Appleloosa is another earth pony town, and also doesn't need horses. Canterlot is on a mountainside, and doesn't do much farming, and Manehattan is obviously a metropolis, where horses wouldn't exactly fit in. This explains why we don't see any horses in the show itself. I suspect there would be smaller unicorn settlements elsewhere that would do their own farming, and would need horses for that. The song "Hearts Strong as Horses" relays the implication that horses are unusually strong by pony standards (with the possible exception of earth ponies, whose strength is magical in origin), further supporting the theory.
Now, why would ponies 'enslave' a race so similar to themselves? Well, for the same reason they might 'enslave' cows and sheep. In a world full of magical threats--timber wolves, changelings, and various magical villains--a non-magical creature is bound to be enslaved or slain by something. It's a dangerous world, and ponies are the only species with the magical power to resist it. We've seen over the course of four seasons that crazy things happen all the time in Equestria. If horses, sheep, cattle, or even bison are to survive the random whims of a magically unstable world, they need someone to protect them. Enter ponies, who--at least in the unicorns' case--possess exactly that kind of power and ability, but are exceptionally fragile and weak and exhaust easily. As a result, somewhere along the line ponies made a pact with horses like they made with cattle, sheep, and all the other creatures they care for: trade your freedom for security.
So, ponies own horses, they can trade, sell, or gift them as needed (hence Twilight's quip about 'gift horses'), and these horses are enormous and powerful, at least by pony standards, hence the Crusaders' adoration of them. And, based on the shadow the Crusaders cast, horses must look a lot like ponies.
Food for thought.
Interesting.
They would be large by pony standards, since ponies are a breed of equine... bred (I wish I could come up with a bbetter way to word that.) to be under a certain height.
One problem: ponies actually are stronger.
Also "I'm so hungry I could eat a-" Finish it Jackie...
And the quick subversion of "kicking a dead... tree".
Quite astute, sir.
2482723
Yeah, my thought process is basically that pegasi are fragile and light because they fly, and unicorns are fragile and weak because they rely on magic, but that earth ponies are extra-super-strong because that's their magical ability.
So fields tilled by earth ponies are better, because they're strong and faster than horses, but horses will do in a pinch.
2482789
People tend to disagree with my generalization of body types.
Especially when I write anthro ponies; Earth Ponies are tall and tend to a more muscular build, Pegasi are stringy and wiry, and unicorns tend to be small and pudgy. Because levitation.
There's also the Saddle Arabians in Magic Duel who have a kind of distinct body shape from normal ponies.
The idea of ponies owning horses is sort of super creepy. But then, so is the same with cows or sheep, so I don't know! (And pigs? Why would you even have a pig if you weren't going to eat it?)
2482854
Yeah, I dunno what to think about them, exactly. I mean, most normal ponies don't look anything like RL horses, which suggests that Saddle Arabians may actually be the equivalent of ponies to THEM, i.e., just small versions of actual horses. Perhaps they simply found a place where the magical threat is much lower, so they can live safely without magic. Maybe it's just sort of a 'horse sanctuary'. It's an interesting element to consider.
Yay cloppy