“Okay, time for Tribe Hybrids!” Twilight said, tapping her pointing stick on a board behind her. On it were six circles arranged equidistant from each other, with one more in the center. Together, they showed the possible tribe combinations (or lack thereof).
“First and foremost, there are three pony tribes. Earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns. Most ponies are just one of these. However, occasionally, a hybrid of two tribes will be born, and yes, a pony’s tribe or tribes is always determined in the womb. Unless they ascend to alicornhood.”
The chalk floated up and drew lines connecting “earth pony” and “pegasus” to a circle in between them. “First off, we have the heavy pegasi, or earth pony and pegasus hybrids. These ponies are typically a bit slower and clumsier in the air than their pegasi counterparts, but between their magics they’re absurdly durable. A good example of a heavy pegasus is…”
A blond-maned, gray-coated pegasus flew into the scene and landed, her wall-eyes looking gleefully at the audience. “Hello everypony!”
“Hi Ditzy Doo!” Twilight smiled. “Still on the mail route?”
“Yup! Good thing I got the job when I did, too. They’re cutting the pensions of the newer guys…”
Twilight cringed. I wonder if I can do anything about something like that. “Ouch. Well, there’s that. How’s Dinky?”
“She’s doing good! She’s got a scholarship to Manehatten University! Good thing, too. I kinda doubt I’d be able to afford it otherwise. Still, I knew she’d be okay. She’s a smart filly.”
“That she is!” Twilight turned back to the camera. “Anyway, Ditzy Doo here, aka Derpy, is a ‘heavy pegasus,’ and they’re called that no matter what their real weight is, although they do tend to have more mass than ‘normal’ pegasi. Also, out of all pegasi, about one in twenty are this type. This ratio has gone up a bit in the last few hundred years but has since leveled out. They have all the plant growing abilities of earth ponies, and can fly like pegasi, although they aren’t considered the best flyers out there. Still, that’s a trend, not a rule. Practice can overcome a lot. Thanks for coming, Ditzy!”
The heavy pegasus saluted. “Yes ma’am! And thank you for the muffins!” She then leapt into the air and flew out the door, narrowly avoiding crashing into the door along the way.
Twilight smiled. “She’s gotten better! Okay, next up, we have the earth unicorns. And I’m proud to say that we have a second newly-featured character for Rites to demonstrate them! Everyone, please welcome the singing sensation Crystal Belle!”
An adult, white unicorn mare with a long, curly, purple and pink mane stepped into view. Inside her meticulously styled mane was a bevy of blue crystals chiming amongst each other, turning her very movements into song.
“Thank you for inviting me, Twilight,” she said with a bow and a smile. “I was worried I’d never get to be on anything in Rites. Although, you can call me Sweetie Belle. My friends from Ponyville are much too important to use that stage name.” Her new voice was as smooth as polished ice, and much lower and operatic than the one she had as a little filly.
“Alright, fair enough. And thank you for coming!” Twilight turned back to her audience. “Okay everypony, Sweetie Belle here is an earth unicorn, a hybrid of earth pony and unicorn.” The chalk floated up and drew two more lines.
Twilight continued, “They tend to be stronger and sturdier than regular unicorns, and like their earth pony cousins, are capable of using their magic to help plants grow! Hence, they can make excellent farmers, having both unicorn and earth only magic. In addition, earth unicorn doctors are also widely sought after! Their healing magic is beyond compare. Naturally, though, this doesn’t mean they have to go into those fields,” she winked at her guest.
“I’m glad I didn’t! It took me long enough to find my cutie mark!” She looked over at her flank, where a blue, crystal bell with a pink ribbon and a music note was emblazoned. “Getting one in biology? Not exactly my strong suit. I’d’ve been miserable!”
Twilight couldn’t help but grow a smile. “Didn’t I tell you it would come in time? Anyway, once again, thank you for appearing!”
“It’s my pleasure, Twilight! Come see one of my shows sometime! A Grand Mage should rate some VIP tickets, I think!” She winked and started walking off stage.
“I’ll take you up on that offer!” Twilight drew two more lines on the board, this time connecting “unicorn” and “pegasus” to a circle labeled “winged unicorn.”
“Okay, last up, we have the winged unicorns, second only to alicorns in how rare they are.” Twilight looked up at the ceiling. “Cadence, you can come down now!”
A pink winged unicorn circled in the air, eventually coming to a light landing on one hoof. “Hello, Twilight! As the others did, I must thank you for inviting me! Not that there are many other winged unicorns…”
“This is true.” Twilight cleared her throat. “In fact, in all of Equestria, there are only a few dozen in existence. The reason why, we’ll get to in a moment. For now, winged unicorn basics.”
Cadence sat down and opened her wings. “Although we have both pegasus and unicorn magic, our wellspring sizes vary at about the same spread as that of a normal unicorn. I’m well above average, obviously, but this is not the case for all of us. We do, however, possess the capability to use much more magic at once than most unicorns, but this comes with a risk. If we overextend our wellsprings by pulling magic from them too quickly when they’re empty, we suffer something called ‘horn blow out.’ It’s the same as taking a large magical blast to the tip of our horn, and is a serious medical emergency. Though death from it is rare, it can lead to crippling complications if not treated.”
Twilight picked up the thread. “As for pegasus magic, they’re more or less normal pegasi. However, with that out of the way, we now have to talk about the why of tribe hybrids. Specifically, why some are hybrids, but most aren’t. Although heavy pegasi and earth unicorns aren’t anywhere remotely as rare as winged unicorns, they still don’t make up as much of the population that simple genetics would suggest.”
Cadence smiled. “You always did like lecturing, Twily. How’s it feel to be a professor of sorts?”
Twilight ducked down and blushed. “... Cadence, come on. Not you too!”
“Hehe. Sorry, Twilight. I couldn’t resist! Please, continue.”
“Right, well…” She took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. “Okay, the reason is, actually, just like alicorn gains attributes of the other races during ascension, so too does the magic from a hybrid’s wellspring matter. In fact, there are many ponies out there with the genetic markers for being a hybrid, yet they aren’t. The answer lies in something called ‘wellspring geometry.’
“A pony’s wellspring doesn’t begin to form until a couple months into gestation in its mother’s womb. The process for it to form fully takes a bit more time, and during that, the leylines in its body begin to connect to the wellspring. Only specific configurations will work for hybrids. If the geometry of the wellspring doesn’t form in just the right way, the leylines won’t connect, and that part of the wellspring will grow dark, and the other’s leylines will fade. They’ll only receive the magic and physical traits of the connections that do form. There are relatively few valid geometry configurations for hybrids. In fact, for winged unicorns, there are only three, compared to dozens for other hybrids and hundreds for non-hybrids of all types. This is why they are so rare.”
Cadence flapped her wings a little. “‘Tis a shame. I would have liked to have grown up with somepony else like myself, but I do admit to enjoying being somewhat special.”
“That’s not what makes you special, Cadence.”
The two turned their heads to the side, finding Shining striding into the room. “Your kindness, love, and work for your ponies as Princess of the Lost is what makes you special. Others would adore you just the same even without the wings, or the horn.”
“Awww!” Cadence began to tear up, and gave him a giant hug. “That’s so sweet! Thank you, Shining!”
He smirked. “That, and you have an amazingly hot pair of flanks. I mean, wow.”
“And don’t you forget it, mister!” she laughed into his ear.
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Okay, that’s enough for this entry, we’re already over our time limit. Thanks everyone for reading, and don’t forget to comment and vote!”
Nothing new unlocked this time.
==Pony Genetics==Stock Ponies and Draft PoniesTribe Hybrids
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==Magic Items==
Enchanted Objects
Cored Artifacts
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==Royal Guard Overview==
Senechals [LOCKED UNTIL: SOMETIME IN BLOCK 4]
Royal Guard [LOCKED UNTIL: SOMETIME IN BLOCK 4]
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==Equestrian Politics==
The Inner Council
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==Wings==
Wing types overview
Flight characteristics
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==Culture==
Languages
Technology Level
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==Higher Power==Pony spirituality
Alicorn worship
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One vote for wing types.
i would like to vote for == Technology Level== thank you and great chapter
Interesting, I too have headcanoned that tribe hybrids have unique names, my term and my suggestion for earth unicorn is this, Terran Unicorn, Terran meaning "of earth". For the next chapter, I vote for Wing Types Overview.
Let's go with... Equestrian Politics for $200, CV.
Magic Items plox.
But... but the next Genetics entry isn't plot-locked! Can I file a bug report or something?
In any case, while Ditzy as heavy
weapons guypegasus makes sense, why did you chose Sweetie Belle for a... does "stonehorn" sound cheesy?Ah well, good to see best pony, and to hear that best filly got into a good college. Looking forward to more. Let's go with ==Wing types overview==.
4220215 Her father is an earth pony :)
Cored Artifacts gets my next votes
Twilight's internal thought there is presented as narration.
Well... I guess I won't be able to continue spamming that boring old genetics vote after all. So...
==Wings==!!
Magic items, because I just can't stop reading Rites stuff.
I'd vote for politics next.
Enchanted items sounds like a good place to start.
You have no idea how much I want to make particle physics jokes about "heavy unicorns" and "heavy pegasi" being in the next-heavier triplet (with "heavy earth ponies" being hypothetical but so-far unobserved).
You can make similar physics jokes if you tie the tribes to the classical elements. Pegasi have air, unicorns have fire, earth ponies have earth, but water is either a linear combination in one of the other tribes, or a linear combination with _all_ of the tribes. The fact that alicorns don't have flippers suggests that seaponies don't exist as a tribe in the Rites-verse.
Twilight's chart also looks a bit like one of the diagrams in the Eightfold Way. If she starts using the words "hypermagic" and "isoflight" when describing tribes and hybrids, it's time to switch her to decaf.
My vote remains unchanged.
==Magic Items==
For Unicorn/Earth hybrids, maybe a Solid Horn or Green Horn (a play on green thumbs)? Seeing as they have the earth/plant/life affinity of earth ponies with more active magical powers.
Vote for Magical Items.
Sweetie Belle as a Hybrid...
I like her better as an Android!
Once again I would vote for languages.
If you are willing to go with a Punny name for Earth Unicorns, you could always use Hedge Unicorn, other than that your simplistic naming scheme for the others would force one of the two names you mentioned unless you want to go for the absurd like Mage-Pony.
==Magic Items==
Also I agree with 4220629, Green Horns is a great species name/word play but not for the reason he suggested.
Equestrian Politics: The Inner Council
I still want wings...please?
4220711 4220153
I second both Green Horn and Terran Unicorn. Perhaps the second is the "politically correct" term while Green Horn is more casual?
Voting for Wings yet again, bringing the current votes too...
Magic items:7
Wings: 6
Politics: 3
Leaving Tech level and Languages at 1 vote apiece.
And a few people didn't vote in their comments! Keep voting people! I want Wings to win!
==Magic Items==
This is my vote
Not going to give up until we learn about Cored Objects (which I know would take 2 voting with Magic Items winning to see)
Definitely an interesting bit of genetics and biology, the bit about how there are only a few configurations for the internal leylines for hybrids makes sense.
And I vote for ==Magic Items==
As before, I'd like to vote for ==Equestrian Politics==
I'd like wings next. I also like green horn.
Just so you know, you will break existing links if you insert chapters in the middle of a story. For example, in the index, "pony spirituality" actually links back to this page (everything past the <story_id>/<chapter_id> in the URL is ignored). Something to be aware of when doing this format.
==Items What are Magial==, please sir
Vote for Enchanted Objects
And on a other note:
What?
My vote goes to Culture, either one's fine.
I think you're missing either an 'an' or a 's' there.
Concerning the earth-unicorns-thing, I'd probably go with something like Terracorn. Boring, I know, but Green Horns sounds like an insult due to how we're using it (maybe some ponies could actually use it like that, like mud ponies for earth ponies? Or what about mud horns?).
I'll vote for ==Culture== after all the hints and info you got us in the latest chapter I'm curious to know more!
For that naming request I think we should take something emblematic from the cultivation aspect for the earth pony part so I present you the "cornicorn"!
img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130622192847/gravityfalls/images/3/32/S1e18_cornicorn.png
jokes aside I was thinking of something connecting the unicorn with the earth element of his being, what better than a root? I think "Radix Unicorn" or "Stem Unicorn" would sound reasonably scientific while conserving the general sense of "Earth Unicorn"
Magics of the items, I want conanthemook to suffer.
Wingboners! ...
oh wait ...
nevermind ...
==Wings==
Consistently, ==Culture==!
Ill take wings for $500 CV
I vote magic items for the next.
also, I agree with 'Terran Unicorns' for earth pony-unicorn hybrids.
As well, a more common term for winged unicorns would be 'pegacorns', just to mention, though that doesn't necessarily have to be the common term in this universe.
Technology Level, which currently counts toward Languages, 4220851 .
Also wanna point out that the "Pony Genetics" list is broken. Dunno if you explained why.
And interesting that you broke chronology for this. I mean, I can guess you didn't want to have "Obsidian" show up here, but now I wanna see these ponies acknowledge something about this. (QUICK HOW DO I REDACT IN BLACK)
4221900 I would have
I think this was supposed to be 'pony'? It could be interpreted as is, but I think you meant to say 'pony'.
Anyway, I've always thought of Blueblood as being a earth-unicorn hybrid, simply because he is visibly stockier than most of the other unicorns in the show. He is, of course, firmly in denial of this fact, and thinks he's just naturally handsome.
==Magic Items==
4223108 well we didn't learn anything special about the future exept what Sweetie is a singer?... yeah like that was a shocker.
==Wings==
Wings!
Wing types please! Oh and great job as always Cv.
I vote for magic items! I always want to know more about magic. Magic all the time for everyone ever!
Technology Level
==Magic Items==
How about...wings type overview?
Magic Items, please?
Good to know, I think I would like to learn more about technologies.
Magic Items, please!