So how do y'all feel about ponies using curse words from our world? I bought this up because only one fic, Drefsab's Sophistication and Betrayal has cursing ponies.

Personally, I'm fine with it as long as they don't have any references to religion (not because I am religious but because they make no sense in the context of the world).

Obviously, this should be restricted to fics rated PG-13 and up.

294230
Me and a friend of mine was discussing the Trixie vs Twilight edition of epic rap battles of Equestria and he felt that while Trixie could very well be a potty-mouth, Twilight would never swear. I disagreed, I could totally see Twilight spit some venom when angry.

Me, I have Trixie swear in her internal monolouge in one of my stories, a big hearthy "FUCK!" and since that's the only swear word in the story, it counts as a precision F-strike.

But I think the funniest way to deal with swear words is have the character use show-appropriate swears, but have the character REACT to them as if they where genuine swearwords. Alternatively, you can go the Fantastic Mr. Fox-route an have the curse-words litteraly be "Cuss" or "Cussing".

Personally, I think it's a little stupid if you consider that isn't how they speak in the show. If anything, it often comes across as an author trying to sound 'edgy' or 'HARDCOR3!!11'. Most of the time, it just makes the author look like he/she has a lack of a proper vocabulary. It all depends on the usage, of course, but I think that the author in question should keep something cultural like curse words out of a pony story... it just drains out all of the atmosphere are world construction that the show has created.

...Wow. I must sound like such a prude.

294233
Yes, I mean, the reason they dont swear on the show has more to do with TV restrictions than it being an actual part of the world. And most swear-words aren't really culture-specific. I mean, don't practically every culture use anatomical or sexual swear-words in some way?

That being said, I see your point tough. It's a terrible habit of writers of both original and fanfic to think that "dark" or "mature" means "use 'fuck' like a comma". But that has more to do with shallow storytelling than anything inherently bad about words like shit, cunt or fuck.

294241
Well, language-specific anyway. A lot of the cursing in the pony world seems to have already been established as being pun-related substitutes. For example, saying 'buck' instead of 'fuck' is one I see a lot. As cheesy as it might sound, it fits the world, just like the canonical 'everypony'.

Then again, it's whatever the author's interpretation is.

294244
Yeah, makes sense. I don't think I really like the buck/fuck substitute tough, cus if you make that a part of the universe, then ponies are really going to stare oddly at the Apple Family when they announce that it's apple-bucking season....

294256 I've always thought of buck being a replacement for fuck that we would recognize, but not having the same definition. For a curse word with that definition in the MLP universe, I'd probably use "rut".

294260 So for them, "bucking" would be closer to "bloody" in UK-english?

294278 That's actually a good comparison. I didn't have a specific curse in mind for "buck" to correspond to definition-wise, but "bloody" seems generic enough to fill that role. Strength-wise, though, "buck" would probably be a stronger curse than "bloody", but not as strong as "rut".

Then again, this is just my mental interpretation. You can interpret the MLP universe swears however you like.

They already use an impressive amount of obvious profanity replacements in the show as it is. I mean, what else could "a flying feather" possibly be? Aside from that epic one, we've got "horse apples", "what the hay", and "who in the hoof" right off the top of my head. Just get creative, and you can easily convey profanity in-universe without breaking the spirit of the source material.

294330
I 'd actually really respect an author who would write a genuinely dark and edgy story and restricy themselves to show-aproriate swearing, if nothing else, it'd be pretty amusing.

To be honest, I've never really thought about this until now. I've used swear words in my stories and always felt that they were a bit... out of place in the pony-verse. I don't mind swearing in other stories either, but I think it would be interesting to go back through and change all the swears in my story to more show-appropriate substitutes.

294330 Perhaps we should make an official Pony Swears List? It would certainly make for some interesting material...

When I use swears in my fic, I typically keep it to the older characters, such as Macintosh, Zecora, or Braeburn. Not that swearing is a sign of maturity, but it just seems that once they get past the main 6's age, swearing is just a bit more approiate in that universe. Especially since I've been around farmers. They give sailors a run for their money, and I assume pony farmers would be the same.

The biggest problem with swearing is... well, the fact that a good lot of authors don`t know how to swear.

Yes, sometimes we get a kid-authored writing where everypony drops a fuck every five minutes. That`s one of the prime examples of such.
Another extreme is a story where a moment clearly appropriate for swearing is instead treated with soap - simply because author either genuinely would not swear in the situation or can`t present an expression that to them would be fathomable.

Good practice is a mean between the two. Swearing is a rather powerful form of attention request. It portrays the feelings of alarm, urgency, frustration, excitement, fear, threat and anger rather vividly. An appropriately used profanity can contribute to the scene much more then a whole paragraph describing the feelings of character.

However, and it`s an important however, a lot of profanity in the language is formed by current societal beliefs and prejudices. As such, profanities in fictional universes need to be appropriately adjusted for the realities of the universe in question.

For example, word "bitch" would be a rather powerful profanity for ponies, as it implies the person it`s addressed to is a canine. Given that dogs are either pets or pests, it would be an effective way to cuss somepony out.
On the flip side, "philistine" would be meaningless for ponies - as their culture had neither Bible, nor canaanite/philistine conflict per ce, and therefore no reason as to why an ancient culture would be considered offensive.

This isn't precisely related to swearing,but it IS related to prejudges in speech. It is common practice to use "everypony", but in a word that has donkeys, griffins, goats and changelings, as well as minotaurs and dragons, all of them apparently sapient, how do they feel about being excluded from the definition like that?

294256
Touche. You got me there. Ah well, I suppose it might all depend on the context in which the word is used, but it's pretty much open to whatever the hay the author wants to do.

you think the cold winter's gonna last forever?
Ooh ooh, colts, now's the time for all the ponies to get together
Outside

Cause it's the first of May, first of May
Outdoor bucking starts today
So bring your favorite mare
I think she'll like it here

On the subject of bucking... It does not necessary have to carry sexual connotation in all cases, you see.

Point one - buck may be an euphemism for fuck, an expression as common as "to sleep with someone" meaning sex despite the fact that verb "to sleep" on it`s own is entirely parliamentary.

Point two - it does not have to be sex-related to be a cuss. For example, I can vividly see Applejack characterizing someone behaving stupidly as "bucked in the head".

294649

I guess it makes sens,e like how "pounding" can mean to hit something, but it could also mean to hit someone, in the biblical sense...

Sounds like you do have to take care with the word however, remember that tough its similar to in sound, its not identical in use. "bucked" would mean something close to trashed, or destroyed but "bucking" should be a positive word, shouldnt it, since it implies that hatever is being described is doing the kicking, presumably of ass?

294686

It depends on the context. Being on receiving end of some harm may prompt the usage of "bucking" as negative adjective in regards to the object that put that harm on you.

For example, in Feeling Pinkie Keen Twilight is hit by falling objects several times, often ridiculously so. It wouldn`t be unseemly to have someone refer to it like "And then that bucking anvil came out of nowhere, I tell you, and smacked her straight on the head! Cra-zee!"

294230 kinda touchy for me. I will occasionally use damn, but other than that I mainly use stuff like bucking, horse-apples, and pony-feathers. It just seems to make more sense to me, but I won't go nuts if you use real world curse words.

Hope this helps

294800
What I find funny in these cases is that the punny words occupy about the same niche i the language, but for entierly different reasons.

Bucking for example, is a strong word cus it implies that something is capable of hitting quite hard, both good or bad. Foal for example is a curse because it implies that the person is like a small kid, either in weakness or immaturity.

295916

And in the same time., "foal" can be used as a term of endearment.

295920 Yeah, that's prolly the reason it pays to keep in mind the plausible etymology of the ponies swear words, cus their use might not totally overlap with their homophones.

295921

Not to mention, getting creative with it all.

Really, it just depends on the context of the situation. IMO, you shouldn't censor yourself, we use words like that all the time, and the words alone aren't bad, it's the context in which they are said (which by that logic means replacing them with a word is still cursing.)

Now, constantly using them over and over uselessly is just tactless in my opinion, but using them when it could be appropriate is a perfectly fine idea.

I.E. in my story, Rarity punches a drunken AJ after she causes a mess and asks her to stop acting like a bitch.

another example, if some very deadly situation happens and the character's running away scared, I'm pretty sure he/she isn't caring about the appropriate use of the words he/she's thinking/saying, in fact, they may find those words quite appropriate for that exact moment.

Our swears are from our world. Naturally, ponies would have developed their own naughty words, and since we're from different dimensions, they would not know them. Unless a certain HiE OC comes in and teaches them...

327638 Our language also comes from our world. The ponies would most likely speak in a language of whinnies, whickers and neighs in-universe. However, they speak English to the viewers, and use common English phrases, for our benefit. As such, swear words could be transferred to their nearest equivalent swear, just as happens with human-to-human translations.

Though I agree with the sentiment that religious swears aren't a good idea. Partially for convenience, one conworld of mine contains a dragoness goddess, worshiped by deer, called Gaia. Her name is the source of "Goodbye" (from "God be with ye" in our universe, "Gaia be with ye" in theirs), Rainbow's "Gesundheit" and "Ohmygosh"es, and any other phrases used in canon that are derived from the Lord's name in any way. Characters, particularly and almost exclusively deer, will say "Oh Gaia" or "For Gaia's sake" as a replacement for similar phrases. Of course, this isn't entirely necessary, as the show uses "Celestia" as a replacement for "God" pretty often.

332862That makes quite a lot of sense. But have you ever felt...eh...irked...from hearing Celestia this, Celestia that? It's quite a mouthful and quite...eh...irking.

334223 Yes, and writers very often try to avoid this. Shortskirtsandexplosions, in particular, has characters use Luna's name in Background Pony. One more syllable, but hey, same problem with Gaia.

Not to mention the fact that "No way in Hell" is a lot shorter than "No way in Tartarus" ("No way in hay" doesn't work).

My two bits: In my years of writing, and roleplaying with various groups, I have always felt that the harsher four-letter words utterly assassinate any class or poise the story had. That goes for pony and non-pony stories. I've been known to use the occasional "damn" for an expletive, but I really don't care for swearing in any lengths beyond that.

It has nothing to do with morality or anything, either. I'm a trucker, I swear in RL... A LOT.......A LOT... but swearing is just a base instinctual tool used to manifest the more primitive emotions into speech and/or (and this is more the point) to be more hip and cool among ones peers or enemies.

We are Wordcrafters, Verse-Smiths... such base crutches should be beneath us in our works. In the FiM setting, I see no need for human swear words when the cannon writers have provided us with an amusing abundance of pony swears right in the show. Applejack swears just as much as I do, a fact that I find amusing beyond reason... she just does it with Equestrian curses.

Two cents:

I think it's entirely reasonable that some human swears exist in Equestria. "Damn" is basically a stronger way of saying "curse," for example, and "crap" (or even "shit") could be seen as a quicker, cruder way of saying "horseapples," which itself sounds pretty crass. "Ponyfeathers" already seems to be the in-universe substitute for several uses of "fuck," and the fanon definition of "buck" seems to cover the rest. "Piss" probably exists, too, as do various words for male and female genitalia.

That said, the use of those words is probably only reserved for really rare occasions. If we accept the show's language as the "normal" level of obscenity for Equestria, rather than being a PG-rated interpretation, then a pony dropping the word "damn" would be a pretty rare occurrence.

However, when dealing with settings outside the parts of Equestria we've seen (say, Fillydelphia), it's entirely possible that the local dialect uses a different set of curse words. For example, in my version of Filly, ponies adopted the use of the word "hell" (a griffon philosophical/religious concept) in place of "hay," because I was writing a pulp noir-style story and having my hardboiled gumhoof say "shut the hay up" sounded silly. Same reason I actually used the word "fuck" to describe what a character's marefriend did with another colt behind his back. Given the tone of the story, and given that the characters I created had no inherent bias against using them, it seemed more appropriate to use heavy, human swears than comparatively light pony swears. The words I chose better expressed the mood and the feeling I was trying to evoke.

After all, language is just a means of communicating ideas. Ideally, we'd all be telepathic and able to tell eachother exactly what we think, feel, and mean. Since we're not, though, we have to learn how to manipulate and craft words to communicate our intent as effectively as possible. This, by the way, is why I think Cee Lo Green's "Fuck You" is a masterpiece. Those two words, interpreted through the lense of the music, his voice, and his expression (if you watch the video), express so much more than the surface sentiment of "I am displeased with you." Through this combination of elements, he conveys the true essence of what he's trying to say in a way that our limited language alone cannot.

(This is also why the radio version, "Forget You," is an abomination that must die.)

To get to something resembling a point: I feel that cussing is just another tool in a writer's toolbox. If it's the right tool for the job, use it. If it's not, well, don't use a screwdriver to hammer in a nail.

294233 In the show, ponies don't ever date, or get drunk (not really), or screw, or do a lot of other things that we like them to do. My take is that fanfiction is an opportunity to alter the canon material into a style you like better, and for that reason I'm totally okay with swearing in fics.

Glad to find a thread that is sort of related to what I want to ask.

What would be the MLP version of the swear word "bitch"? We already know what "f**k", "s**t", "damn", "hell", "Christ", "ass" are in their universe, to say. I want to use in a fan-fic I might write but want to keep the foul language to the same use in the show. So what would be the equilant to that swear word?

492759

In the show they often use use words that *had* stronger connotations a century ago but are considered very lame nowadays. Bitch itself can have many meanings. So

Bitch -> I.e. loose female -> hussy, floozie, etc
Bitch -> nasty female -> harridan, harpy, etc.

The thing is to th.e audience for these fictions is NOT little girls, so I sort of feel the author should decide more based on the type of story and what words would be appropriate in those contexts.

PS - I hardly ever swear in RL (it's not a religious thing, just personal preference) and so my characters don't generally swear in my fics.

492999

Thanks for the info.

294230
(Replying to an old thread FTW! )

I'm fine with it. I mean, I don't like swears in general, but I'm fine with real-world swears.