Add some human DNA and pony DNA, and then stir over low heat. · 7:51pm May 29th, 2015
The offspring of humans and ponies are often referred to as Satyrs in MLP fics, although the title is misleading as Satyrs are half man and half goat according to mythology. Still, human and pony hybrids have found a home and loving creators on fimfiction and there are people who love to read about the lovechild between a human and a pony and the challenges they face being two species in one package. Genetic incompatibility is usually not a problem in stories as magic can often help the couple conceiving a child.
Most satyrs have the lower half of a pony and upper body of a human, effectively splitting them in half at the waist (the 50/50 configuration). This was also the case of the main character, Magnus, in my story The Last descendant. He looked quite ordinary, and wasn't original at all and I was happy with this as I wrote my story. That was about to change.
One day I came over a story about a satyr, the child between a mare and a man. However, this child didn't grow up with a loving mother and protective father. No, this child was malformed and mentally disabled and the mare who birthed him got so scared that she abandoned the child in the Everfree forest, believing he would never survive anyway. But the child didn't die, it survived the harsh conditions and grew older. I can't remember the name of the story or the name of the author, unfortunately.
After reading this story, I checked out a blog post the author wrote and the reason behind the story and his/her arguments was quite compelling. Human and animal hybrids can't happen because of the genetic incompatibility. True, hybrids does exist but the species must be very closely related to each other. But a human and a tiny horse? Nope. Anyway, his arguments was so well delivered that he completely destroyed my urge to write my story and I stopped writing for about three months, thinking that my story sucked and that I had to find something else to write about.
One day I saw this documentary on youtube about some genetic experiments the Soviet Union performed during the cold war. The goal of the experiments was to create a human and gorilla hybrid to act as some kind of super soldier in the event of war. The experiment was shut down due to its morally gray line and unethical medical procedures. However, rumors say that the scientists managed to create one fetus that would've been able to live, had it not been terminated when the project shut down.
This was all the incentive I needed to sit down and continue writing. I had finally found my muse again. But I had changes I wanted to make. First off, I wanted to alter my satyr. The 50/50 model works okay and I have nothing against them, but when it comes to hybrids the changes are all over the body, not split in half. And so I began remodeling Magnus.
I wanted him to have hooves and a horn, that much was obvious, but I wanted more too. I then figured out that he had to have fur, to better showcase his coat. His ears came next, a rounded shape but also pointy, showing off his heritage. It's subtle, but it's there. His ankles and lower arms are also thicker, as ponies have almost equally thick forelegs and hindlegs. Due to having hooves, he has Unguligrade legs. Then it's his hands. I haven't revealed why his hands are a little bit bigger and fingers thicker but It'll be revealed in due time. His hooves and horn is also larger than the normal pony, due to humans being taller than ponies in my story, Magnus is even taller than Celestia. It's really hard to find the real height of the ponies of MLP due to scale inconsistency.
That about sums it up how Magnus was born (or created) and I hope you all found this interesting. And if you thought his changes was all on the outside, be prepared for a wild ride. Do you have ideas for human/pony hybrids or know about a story that explores these anatomical differences? I you do, please direct me in the right direction.
Interestingly, although this is a story of fantasy / science fiction is not necessary that stick to reality, the important thing is to build a convincing world
and I also read that story, very tragic, there are several natural barriers such events
for example
the egg is protected by a layer of protein incompatible with other species, although closely related species barrier serves not
I remember a story somewhere else, where magic was integral to biological level, this would allow to appear hybrids
what fun
hybrids were human
human biology did not need magic to work, this would allow them had major reserves of magic to be used
My first point; the greek version of satyrs had horse features, rather than goat ones. It's the roman version that brings in the goat features. The roman culture, being the more recent, has a bigger impact on modern society than the greek does. It doesn't help that the roman uses a lot of the greek things so they get interchanged a lot. It's further complicated with the fact that the greek deity figure associated with them is actually a faun (goat featured) rather than typical satyr (horse features).
(Wiki and personal research on the topic for various reason.)
Honestly, pesky reality gets in the way of a lot of things. Hybrids don't work well in real life. Most of them just plain don't conceive, either from the 'they just won't do the horizontal tango' or the 'those eggs just won't fertilize' angles. The ones they do often don't have viable fetuses, have defects that cause them to die (or 'expire' if you want to be clinical) young. The ones that do are often infertile.
Reality likes to take the fun out of things...
That's were magic comes in! Let's all sorts of possibilities... possibly. Well, magic or SAT (sufficiently advanced technology). I like the 'satyr' in your story. I'm pretty sure I mentioned it before, but it's closer to what I think a viable hybrid would come out as. Not a cut and paste, but more of a moulding and blending of features of both. The generalities. Magnus is more like what an ungulate might evolve into if it attained bipedalism. Including the thicker hooves. Plantigrade locomotion has that lovely surface area for distribution of weight.
I haven't really seen many stories with satyrs that did anything different aside from the standard half and half, so I can't help on that side, unfortunately. I would be interested in seeing that story. It sounds... curious and troubling at the same time.
Am I correct to presume that the story you are referring to is "Faun" by PresentPerfect? I saw it while skimming for interesting stories to read. I kinda cheated and listened to the reading of it by ObabScribbler. An real dark interesting take on the hybrid scenario.
However, I believe that should not affect how YOU write your fictions nor what you want to share with your peers. The is true strength of fiction. You get show your love for said fandom, opinons, or even disgust. Sometimes it takes a bit of a curveball to send us to enlightning thoughts that bring up the true muse of inspiration. Make of that what you will. In the mean time, I shall continue to enjoying such great stories, including yours. Take care now.
3109263 Your're right. Faun was the name and the author is PresentPerfect. Although dark and according to the author, it's a spitefic, it's still a very good story, showingcasing what might be the child of a human and pony if things did not turn out all fluffy and rainbows. Still, I feel like I should thank Presentperfect for making me rethink my story, which in turn made me redesign how Magnus should look like.
Still, my story is from the view of a human and as such he will see, think and act as a human in a world where the laws of our universe can be ignored is bent to the will of ponies. In other words, Magnus will struggle for a while.
Care to elaborate?
3292827 Years ago I played World of Warcraft and during my last year playing, I changed to an RP server. I soon found a guild to join, mainly Forsaken RP. The guild was small, but friendly and my guildies were a nice bunch of people. Often I would log on and they were talking about ponies. I didn't mention it at first but over time I grew curious and one day I asked what they were talking about. A new show, they said, My little pony: friendship is magic. I remember the ads from the late 80's and early 90's and all I could think of was those little brushable dolls. I grew up with G.I. Joe Real American Hero and girly stuff wasn't for me and I told them so. One of the guildies told me to watch the show and even provided me a link to where I could see the first five episodes. If I saw the first five episodes and could say honestly, and with my hand over my heart that I didn't like it, she would give me 30,000 gold. If I liked it, I would get nothing.
I saw the first five episodes and later looked up the remaining episodes. This was late in season 1.
And that's how Cup of Coffee became a fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.