Pony Genealogy · 4:32am May 4th, 2013

OC:

The second follow-up to “The Best of All Possible Worlds” should start posting in a day or two at the most. Below you will see one of many distractions that kept it from being posted sooner:

My father's side of my family is very interested in genealogy, so I picked up the basics when very young. I've never been very into in it myself, but it did occur to me that the old-fashioned sort of unicorns are probably obsessed with it, and that led me to work out a system that could be used for applying genealogy to ponies. I've deliberately mixed more than one formal system into this, including genogram's use of relationships other than adoption or by blood.

Since the subject is rather dull, I've decided to present it as a source document from the era when pony genealogy was all the rage...

IC:

McPoodle here (just in case Twilight has been posting behind my back again). I've stumbled across a “fun” little find from the Canterlot Archives that I'd like to share with you, a pamphlet designed to introduce foals to the glory that are family history diagrams. I think even pre-Voltaire’d Eveningstar would have been shocked by the casual breedism on display four years before the Frenchman visited Equestria. Oh, and I've followed it by the appendix that was tacked onto the second edition of the pamphlet, to show how fast opinions changed in that era. Enjoy, and be sure to look out for where the author snuck herself into her work.

Become a Friendship History Detective!

(or: Climbing Genealogical Trees Is Fun for Fillies and Colts)

By Saltarello, Concertmaster for Her Royal Highness, Princess Celestia of Equestria

Written in the Equestrian Year 6760

Introduction

Have you ever wondered where you came from? What sort of ponies came before you? Were they heroes? Scoundrels? Unicorns, Pegasi or Earth Ponies? And once you do find out these things, how can you organize them in a way that looks really pretty in tapestry form?

That’s where genealogies come in. Yes, genealogies, which neatly array all of your friends and ancestors into a comprehensive whole that reveals your fixed place in the universe. Once the most-closely guarded secret of the Unicorn Kingdom, genealogies are now available for the use of every pony in Equestria.

Even you!

How Does a Genealogy Work?

A genealogy is made up of symbols, which represent individual ponies, adornments, which show the natural order the symbol belongs in, and relationship lines, which show...relationships.

What’s a Symbol?

The symbol is designed to present enough information to know precisely which pony you are talking about.

You could do this by making a little drawing of the entire pony in miniature, but that is far too much work.

In fact for the vast majority of ponies, all that is needed is to reproduce the cutie mark, the coat color, and indicate the pony’s gender.

Let us take for example the case of the current Duke of Canterlot, Prince Blueblood XV:

The square border indicates that the prince is male. Symbols for females have a round border. It is easy to remember which is which if you imagine the shapes of male versus female muzzles. If, in researching your genealogy, you encounter an individual where you are uncertain of their gender (or anything else), simply use an empty circle.

The light gray fill of the symbol indicates the prince’s coat color. Although there are individuals with more than one mane color, so far as I am aware, no pony naturally possesses more than one coat color. Nevertheless, if such individuals are later proven to exist, then the color of the fill to be used in the symbol shall be the color of the coat under the cutie mark.

The cutie mark takes up the majority of the symbol. For those ponies with asymmetrical cutie marks, use the mark on the pony’s left flank.

What are the Adornments?

Adornments are added to the symbol to distinguish unicorns from pegasi, both of these from earth ponies, and all three from the one and only Winged Unicorn.

A noble triangle [1] is the adornment of a unicorn, representing the horn. It always goes in the upper-left hoof corner of the symbol. This goes along with the convention of using the cutie mark from the left flank—if you imagine you’re looking at a unicorn positioned so that the left flank is the part of the pony closest to you, then the horn will naturally be oriented up and to the left.

Translator’s Note #1: Seeing as a two-dimensional representation of a unicorn’s horn was an isosceles triangle, and seeing how unicorns were pompous asses at the time, the name they gave to this shape in the Pre-Classical Era was the “noble triangle”. The pegasi and earth ponies, on the other hand, called it the “donkey triangle”, a term of uncertain origin but obvious contempt.

Two half circles are the adornment of a pegasus, representing the wings.

Two gutter pipes [2] are the adornment of an earth pony, representing the hooves they spend all their time on.

Translator’s Note #2: Trapezoids. Nothing further need be said.

Here are examples of adorned symbols for unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies:

And here is the full symbol for our Princess, which combines the adornments of all three breeds:

The Princess’ symbol should go at the top of every genealogy, as She is Mother of all Equestrians. If at all possible, use actual gold in the paint of Her sacred cutie mark, and white lead [3] paint for Her coat color, and make sure a ray of sunlight shines upon it for at least an hour each day.

Translator’s Note #3: Needless to say, handling white lead is not much fun for filies or colts.

What are the Relationship Lines?

Between members of the same generation, a solid horizontal line indicates a life-long peer relationship, such as marriage or membership in the Royal Guard. Especially strong friendships are also drawn this way.

A dashed horizontal line indicates a short-term peer relationship, such as most friendships.

A solid vertical line indicates a long-term care relationship. Frequently, but not always, this means a parent-child relationship, including both natural and adopted versions.

If a care relationship is borne or shared between members of a peer relationship, then the vertical line of the care relationship descends from the horizontal line of the peer relationship. If there are multiple dependents contained in the same relationship, then the vertical line meets a horizontal tree line, from which descends the vertical lines of each dependent.

A dashed vertical line indicates a short-term care or instructional relationship, such as that between a teacher and a student.

When it comes to ordering symbols for relationship lines, first only use lines to denote the most-significant relationships. A family tree is a story in pictorial form, and the relationship lines tell the most important parts of that story.

Next, order symbols so to make the diagram as simple as possible.

Finally, when those two rules are obeyed, order symbols so that females and elders are to the left of males and juniors. The ordering of breeds should be obvious.

Here is an example of both peer and care relationships: Morningstar, Fellstaff and Cognizant Sparkle, with a hypothetical elder sister added to show a tree relationship:

Conclusion

And that’s it! With these simple tools, you can now diagram the relationships between all ponies ever! Have fun!

Appendix: On Other Races

(Added in the Equestrian Year 6765 and written for the guidance of parents.)

I have received numerous inquiries in the past few months on ways to include non-ponies into genealogical diagrams.

There is no official consensus on this. Dragons in particular have their own system of tracing clan loyalties that are believed to use colors not even visible to pony eyes. Also, they tend to be made out of precious gems and embedded in the far back wall of their lairs, so they are not easily examined by pony genealogists.

Consider the following, then, as personal suggestions, that you are free to modify as you wish. In general, the parts of the symbols for non-ponies are oriented so they are looking at the viewer, rather than away. This is because their distinguishing features are not on their flanks.

Dragons

Instead of a cutie mark, an escutcheon in the shape of a cough drop [4], filled with the dragon clan’s color, is used. The fill of the symbol behind the escutcheon remains the primary color, in this case of the dragon’s scales. The adornment is a gout of flame in the upper-right corner.

Translator Note #4: Humans tend to call this a “shield”. If they must use the term “cough drop”, then the adjective “melted” is usually prefixed to it.

Here is an example of a dragon symbol, for the infamous failed diplomat Botvinnik of the Purple Clan:

Griffons

Instead of a cutie mark, griffons are distinguished by the colors of their eagle and lion halves, plus the mask that appears over their eyes. Therefore, the symbol of a griffon consists of a drawing of that mask (the one over the left eye if they are asymmetrical) on a field divided by a diagonal line into two unequal parts: the greater for the eagle half’s color, and the lesser for the lion half’s color. The adornment consists of the standard wing symbols, paired with a couple of eagle legs.

Here is an example of a griffon symbol, that of the renowned mathematician Kosinus:

Diamond Dogs

Unfortunately, I have found no consistent way to distinguish Diamond Dogs that can be conveyed via simple symbols. They employ a small number of coat colors, and have no additional distinguishing visual characteristics. I hesitantly suggest either a drawing of the dog’s head, or simply writing out the name.

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