Rainbow Dash's Family · 6:24pm Feb 4th, 2016
Introduction
There is remarkably little information on Rainbow Dash's family. There is more than there is on Fluttershy's family, about which there is absolutely nothing. We can compare this with the families of Twilight Sparkle (two parents, elder brother and younger adoptive brother), Rarity Belle (two parents and younger sister), Applejack (grandmother, older brother and younger sister, numerous other kin mentioned or shown) and Pinkie Pie (two parents, three sisters and some other kin mentioned). No one in-show ever asks either Dashie or Shy about their families, nor do they regard it as at all strange that they never mention them.
I. Possible Reasons
A. Pegasus Self-Reliance Versus Familial Reliance
One possibility is that this is a Pegasus thing. The Pegasi seem more wild and self-reliant than the other two main Kinds, and there is the known example of Scootaloo as the only Cutie Mark Crusader who has never been shown to have any family (save perhaps Bulk Biceps). It may be that Pegasi let their children run wild as soon as they approach adolescence, under the theory that if they have raised them right they have taught them the skills of survival, and if they haven't it's better not to be encumbered with their problems. A corollary of this could be that Pegasi marriages are less stable than those of Unicorns or Earth Pony, and furthermore that a lot of Pegasi mothers never bothered to get married in the first place.
If this is the case, then Pegasi may feel publicly acknowledging their parents, save on formal occasions, as being in a "parental" relationship to them, is somewhat embarrassing. How would you feel if your mom or dad showed up at your job or school, pinching your cheeks and showing baby pictures? It may be that any reference to parents may similarly challenge adult or even adolescent Pegasi, bearing with it the implication that one is still childish. (Though Spitfire, uber-cool leader of the Wonderbolts, isn't at all ashamed to acknowledge her relationship with her mother Stormy Flare).
There is reason to believe that the Earth Ponies are the most reliant on family, followed by the Unicorns. Applejack still lives and works with her family, even though she's now a full adult. Pinkie Pie doesn't only because her particular Talent is of no use for rock farming, and two of her sisters still live at home with their parents (and Maud frequently returns to visit). In contrast, none of Twilight Velvet and Night Light's two (or three, depending on how you count Spike) children live at home any more; Rarity Belle has moved out and her sister Sweetie Belle seems to spend at least half her time at the Carousel Boutique (strong sibling affection may be a Unicorn thing).
A very common Pegasus relationship may be of protector-protege. If Pegasi are turned out into the cruel cold world as pre-adolescents or adolescents and expected to survive, an important figure in their lives would be their protectors -- older or tougher Pegasi, in some cases also minor children, who would take the younger Pegasi under their protection and tutelage. This might or might not involve sexual affect, but whether or not it did, the relationship would probably be romanticized.
We very strongly see this with Rainbow Dash. We do not know that she has ever had a particular protector, but we have seen her adopt the mentor role with three characters in-show: Fluttershy, Gilda and Scootaloo. She displays some romantic affect towards Fluttershy; Gilda displays some toward Dashie; and Scootaloo seems to treat Rainbow Dash as a surrogate older sister or even mother.
The protector relationship may sometimes be abusive, though this is unwise long-term -- the obvious reason why one would want to be a protector in socially-strategic terms is to acquire long-term allies or followers. For instance, Fluttershy's friendship with Rainbow Dash seems unbreakable, and Dashie has recently reconciled with Gilda. But then, people sometimes do things that are unwise in the long run. It's obvious, though, that Rainbow Dash genuinely loves those whom she protects.
What mitigates to some extent against abuse is that it's also mutually voluntary. A seriously-abused protege could simply fly away and find another protector. The abusive protector would have trouble keeping proteges, though some Ponies are masochists and hence she might eventually find somepony who liked being maltreated.
II. Her Parents
Rainbow Dash's probable mother is Rainbowshine
who is an incredibly hard-working Pegasus: she works at both the Rainbow Factory and for the Ponyville Weather Patrol. Her specialty seems to be cloud formation and clearance, especially the latter. She is a highly-organized Pony, and seems nice enough, though very professional.
The similarity with Rainbow Dash here is her obvious pursuit of excellence. Rainbow Dash can be a slacker, but only in her off-hours -- when she's actually working, Dashie puts forth an unstinting effort until she succeeds at her task.
Oddly, we never see Rainbowshine even talking to Rainbow Dash -- even in situations where Rainbowshine is present and one would think that Rainbowshine would want to encourage her daughter ("Sonic Rainboom"). If she is Dashie's mother, it's a very emotionally-distant maternal relationship, even by Pegasus standards.
Rainbow Dash's probable father is Rainbow Blaze
about whom we know little save that he is a supportive stallion, loves Rainbow Dash, and is the one who actually taught Rainbow Dash many of her flying skills. We can deduce from this that he is a strong and skilled flyer -- possibly military, scout or courier service. He does seem prouder of her than is her mother Rainbowshine.
A strange thing about her parents is that they have never been shown together save (very briefly) in the same flashback whic his Rainbow Blaze's sole appearance, despite the fact that BOTH Rainbowshine and Rainbow Dash spend a LOT of time in the same town (Ponyville). We may perhaps conclude from this that they are divorced or never-married, and that they don't like each other very much any more.
Rainbowshine and Rainbowblaze are obviously both of the Rainbow family. It is likely that they are some sort of cousins, who met and fell in love (one hopes) at some sort of family get-together. We see similar attractions for Big Mac on the part of some of his Apple cousins, and between Big Mac and his (possibly) fifth cousin Marble Pie.
Conclusions
There really isn't all that much evidence to go on, but it's obvious that Rainbow Dash isn't despised by the Rainbows the way my Fluttershy Wind is by the Winds. I'm likely to go with the broken marriage (which is one of the reasons why Rainbow Dash cares so much for Loyalty -- she's seen it break down in her own home) with the cause of the divorce being that Rainbow Blaze was too laid back and easy-going (or "sloppy and careless") for the organized and driven (or "compulsive and nagging") Rainbowshine. This would also explain Dashie's combination of a rather hard and tough exterior with a soft and gooey center: her loneliness and obvious desire to be loved.
What do you all think?
You forgot Twilight's sister-in-law.
Also as a side note there is a rumored episode for season 6 that will involve an older brother of Fluttershy so we'll see how that pans out as well.
I think it's due to their families living in Cloudsdale and the two of them being adults. This answer DOESN'T work with Scootaloo since it would make no sense for her to live in Cloudsdale and go to school in Ponyville (and clearly has her home on the ground).
The text got cut off here.
In any case, pegasus family dynamics do seem weak, especially in comparison to the other tribes. Heck, even Scootaloo suffers from uncertain parentage. (Personally, I assign Dizzy Twister as her mother, though the orphan route remains popular even after we got to see her house.) I attribute this to the lingering cultural influence of the quasi-Spartan culture of Pegasopolis. They probably weren't abandoning foals on mountaintops to see which ones were worthy of living, but they were definitely harsher than modern pegasi. Because cloud cities necessarily have little cultural crossover with the other tribes, those same values of early independence and protector-mentors still persist to a large degree.
As for Spitfire, openly acknowledging her mother may actually be a sign of her strength. She's so tough, so high-status, that Stormy Flare can watch her practice without damaging her standing. Sort of a "real men wear pink" principle; Spitfire is confident enough that she doesn't need to posture.
3732800 Older brother of Fluttershy? You mean the one that showed up at Cranky's wedding?
Gotta say, I love when you post a blog on headcanon, world building, or fan theory, cause they always make sense. Some people will say "what if so-and-so did such-and-such and was related to this-person-here", and I have to tilt my head and wonder how that would even work. You however, post whole dang mini-thesis' on the subject at hand, and make them sound plausible.
One thing that you can't help but have noticed over the last five years or so is that Rainbow Dash only reluctantly puts hoof to actual soil. What this tells me is that somewhere in Cloudsdale, there are a couple of Pegasi who would LOOOOOOOVE to visit their child but just have a teensy problem with, you know, touching DIRT. Cue Rarity laughing herself sick about the irony of that.
3732858
That drone was only as big as the foals. Clearly one of Shy's younger siblings.
I really never gave it much thought, the closest l think l have on RD's parentage would be the father you mentioned above and (possibly) G1 Firefly either being her full mother or her "big sister" similar to
and
but an interesting post none the less
I think this fandom wouldn't be the same without you. Nobody else puts as much thought into these things than you.
This sounds like a very real possibility to me. I never thought about Dash's parents myself, and took it for granted that they were either dead or that she wasn't close to them. (Now watch, in season 6 we'll see that they're very close and she just never brought them up before!)
Of course there was that one story where we see why Dash doesn't talk about her family. Besides her, they're basically a bunch of 'Christmas Ties' as in 'Loud and Tasteless' -- and so very, very uncool by Dashie's standards. I.e,, her father tries the 'Pull my finger' routine on Pinkie Pie. So Dash did NOT want them to show up in their cloud-trailer home to embarrass her in front of her friends.
3733441
Why, thank you.
3733601
It'll turn out that Rainbow Dash has an elder male sibling whom she idealizes, and she'll sing a little song about it ... "Elder male sibling, most affectionate companion forever .." or something like that.
3732856
Fixed the cut by adding what I originally wanted to say after that. Thanks for pointing this out!
Even today, the Pegasi may pay for this with higher rates of child mortality and separation anxiety induced insanity (*waves 'hi' to Winningverse Cloud Kicker*). They, of course, would see this as weeding out the unfit -- and if a child whom they thought 'unfit' survives anyway, clearly this meant that she was not 'unfit' and now deserves her life (*waves 'hi' to Derpy Hooves, no longer known as 'Ditzy Doo' because the Doos rejected her).
Mind you, this also may be a bit of a dying custom among the Pegasi of Equestria. A lot of Pegasus families seem to be closer to what we could consider "normal" -- interestingly, these tend to be Background Ponies. In terms of fanon, I've adopted a lot of Sketcha-Holic's, so I'd also point to Cirrus and Nimbus, who are close with their parents, and whose parents are still married.
That's a good point. The Captain of the Wonderbolts really doesn't have to prove she's tough and capable to anypony -- she's already proved it. And I get the impression that Stormy Flare was no weak sister either.
3732800
Cadance was born a Pegasus. We haven't seen any of her birth family, but we know little about her origin. IIRC her family wasn't even shown in IDW's "Neigh Anything," where you might have expected them to put in an appearance.
3733992
the lifelong friends and immediate family who pop out of nowhere does get annoying.
Ironically... in a fanfic of mine once, (though others will claim status of ownership considering various things) I gave Amy Rose of Sonic The Hedgehog a little brother... but this had more to do with the story theme being people turning into Sonic character and going to the Sonic verse to fill out those roles that were now mysterious vacant, so might better to say "Amy Rose has a little brother NOW."
3734121 I'm thinking it also maybe a even older survival trait. If Pegasi in the past where the main military and forward scouts; they may have had high mortality rates, so to pass on skills and to make sure Pegasus foals had someone to take care of them they encouraged community raising. In fact it might even be rare for any of those old Pegasi to have both parents by the time they reached adulthood. There may not have been many old pegasi, due to dragon raids, rouge weather and who knows what. The would have to grow up fast and breed often.
Foals who may not be able to learn from their parents could find strong and skilled protectors who would be able to help then live. In turn the protectors would show command ability and maybe even mating desirability if many of there proteges went on to greatness. .
Private Pansy may actually have been Hurricane's protege.
I have just spent the last hour or so crawling through a lot of the blog posts you've made about the world-building hidden in the background of in your stories, and I have to say you've done a wonderful job of making a detailed and interesting setting. My favorites would have to be the ones about class differences and family relationships.
I have to wonder though, have you considered consolidating your world-building posts into an official story of some sort? I mean, just taking the direct text of your blogs and posting them as chapters (maybe as a collection of papers written by a pony named Cultural Historian?). This way if your readers want to know more about a particular social custom or historical nuance in your stories, they can look at the chapter titles and easily find what they are interested in instead of having to spend time looking back through all of your older postings. Just something to keep in mind.
I have a pet theory that Pegasi don't have traditional families.
Given that no pegasus parents have been shown (AFAIK) in the cartoon, and that they stem from a militarized greek/roman-like culture I suggested that they have either institutionalized or communal rearing of the foals.
That is, either everyone goes into boarding schools where they live separately from their families, or every foal is raised by every available adult of the respective community.
Don't think it's especially likely that it's true, and I think it doesn't jive well with Cadance's backstory (she was, if I recall correctly said to be an orphan pegasus), but it does allow, if one wants to, to underscore the difference between Equestrians and mainstream human culture.
3742777
I've had that thought myself, but have avoided making it so in my Equestria because it's very likely to get jossed.
What I do think is true, even in the show, is that Pegasi give over their children to school or to run free (depending on the social status and wealth of the family in question) much younger than is the case for the children of the other Kinds. By my chronology. The kids at Flight Camp seem as young as 7-8, and 8 would be a nice round age for Pegasi to send children to start living away from home at least part-time if one is working within a quarternary number system (as the Ponies probably are), it's "20."
This would of course mean less pressure and incentive in Pegasus cultures for long-term marriages. There might be a tendency for marriages which only lasted, on the average, 8-12 years -- enough time to have a child, raise it to the point of relative independence, and see it off on its launch into the world. I kind of imply that with my Fluttershy Wind and Rainbow Dash: Fluttershy's mother's marriage is a complete failure (Fluttershy herself is a bastard) and Rainbow Dash's parents are divorced. In contrast, the marriages of the parents of all four other members of the Mane Six seem to be successful, and stable over multiple decades.
Strong caveat here. The Mane Six are not normal Ponies, and Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash not normal Pegasi, so what one can infer from the conditions of their families must be understood to be only a small and probably atypical sample. Fluttershy in particular is a serious weirdo, and shows obvious signs of emotional damage. Still, if Rainbow Dash does come from a broken family, and doesn't think this is strange, this implies something.
Note that Rainbow Dash is not entirely undamaged. In vanilla canon, her reaction to having to be without Tank for one season is over-the-top to the point of temporary insanity. Some of this may be a reaction to the stress of fighting sanity-destroying things like Tirek, but some of this may well be abandonment issues related to her parents' divorce.
Long before "Tanks for the Memories" aired, my wife had Rainbow Dash pegged as somepony who would deal very poorly with perceived abandonment or disloyalty by others. This was one of the big reasons I went with the option of showing Dashie as sexually fairly chaste: I can't see her being able to handle a string of casual love affairs, given her displayed reaction to Tank not being there for one season of the year. Generally speaking, I pay serious attention to my wife's intuitions; she was dead right on this.
The weird thing is that the Winningverse version of Dashie is also fairly chaste -- even more so than mine -- though of course in the Winningverse, this is seen as one of her flaws.
Note though that the Ponies in general tend to start supporting themselves earlier and otherwise being more independent, than is the case in the modern West -- I get the impression that around 12-16, most Ponies end school forever and enter into their careers, if they didn't apprentice as soon as they got their Cutie Marks. This is one of the reasons why I model Equestrian culture on that of the West ~ 1850-1925 instead of today -- it's a trait of a pre Information Age civilization.
3742959
I kind of disagree with you there. Inasmuch as you can talk about "normal" Pegasi/Unicorns/Earth Ponies in a strongly intermixed culture, that's precisely what the Mane Six are. They are the quintessential representatives of their respective tribes. That is strongly implied by the Hearth Warming episode.
This is not very evident in the example of Fluttershy, but that's simply because she represents a perfectly valid type of pegasus that is not defined by their ability to fly.
.
Quirks. The word you're looking for is quirks. It is not seen as strictly negative, more like someone who never ate ice cream - you sort of voluntarily pass on a pretty big chunk of pleasurable experiences.
3742976
I doubt very much that 100% of Pegasus marriages break up within two decades.
Also, the long-term trend in vanilla Equestria is probably for the Kinds to become more culturally-similar. In my Equestria, this is true of the Ponies who remain on Earth or colonize the surfaces of most Earthlike planets; though new cultures develop on the various worlds the Ponies colonize.
"New Virtues for a new world," as Dusk Skyshine's spirit puts it to Luna when he first shows her the Lunar Sapling of Harmony, in an unpublished story of mine.
3742976
My Dashie simply has the weakest sex drive of any member of the Mane Six (even Twilight Sparkle, who very much enjoys erotic romance novels and is capable of strong sexual affect toward someone she loves). She's not internally aromantic, though, and she's extremely loyal toward anypony she does romantically love.
3742992 as we both agreed, there is little indication in canon one way or the other. If pegasi culture even recognizes the concept of a monogamous closed marriage, then I guess there would be some marriages that endure, but that hardly makes a lot of difference to the topic at hand.
3742992
Puh-lease. That is just proportionate excitability of a cartoon character her weight and size. Twilight, Fluttershy and Pinkie all went way further off the rails with less provocation.
I do believe that is merely a normal part of pony psychology. They are intrinsically prone to maniacal/depressive episodes.
3743008
Traditional Pegasus culture from Tribal times may well have not had wholly-monogamous marriage. The Pegasus culture we see now is what evolved from a thousand years of winnowing by Discord and fifteen hundred years of the Realm of Equestria. The reason why customs would have converged is very simple: sometimes Pegasi would have married non-Pegasi.
3743016
It's possible. One thing Ponies are definitely more prone toward than Humans is mass hysteria.
3743018 yes, but that can still be "the earth pony thing" even if some pegasi do that.
It's like many Jews celebrate Christmas or New Year, but it does not make it part of jewish culture.
Ehhhh... not really. Ohh, I think that pegasi are fairly "Free range" minded in regards to parenting (as in "Oh, got shocked did you? Hurts huh? Guess you wont be kicking clouds like a dope will you?") but you failed to keep in mind their deep sense of tribal pride and tendency towards civil service (military and weather service) which entails and lot of commitment and discipline. And of course making sure that the young dopes don't get to out of line and off themselves in their endeavors.
3767853
Everything you've said is quite true, but I don't know why you thought I didn't already realize it. I didn't mention it because I was talking about Pegsus families and their relationship to their children, not the relationship between society as a whole and young Pegasi.
The model is Spartan, and remember -- the Spartans were the most militaristic and socialist of the ancient Greek city-states. The Pegasi are similar compared to Equestria as a whole -- and were much more similar before the Unification of Equestria.
3767862 ,
Well... that's the thing. Unless they were unbelievably more brutal way back when, they would have definitely gone through reformations. The Great and Glorious Pegasopolis couldn't feed itself, and since most would have rather died then lower themselves to such horrid and lowly things as merchants and farmers, would have had to come down and have their culture exposed to the soft hearted fools who didn't chuck their new borns off the side of cliffs because some old fart said too, or who didn't automatically resort to heavy hoofed tactics at the drop of a hat. And once exposed, finding the experience of actually having family... pleasant.
Of course thats post unification up to Discord. Personally I like to think Hurricane was the centrist of the council, lobbying for the welfare of all (reforms in both the unicorns and pegasi in regards to earth pony treatment, maybe the drafting of a charter Republic style_
3767880
Probable sequence of cultural relations between the Pegasi and the other Two Tribes, particularly in the SWSV. (And note, we are specifically talking about the Pegasopolitan Pegasi, the nation that became one of the Three Tribes and was eventually Unified into Equestria, rather than all Pegasi everywhere on Earth):
(1) Raiding: Pegasi raid the Earth Ponies for food and other moveable goods. At this point, the Pegasi regard the other Kinds as subponies. Here the only influence would come from slaves, and for physical reasons the Pegasi could only use Earth Pony slaves in their ground settlements (probably located in places accessible only by flight).
(2) Tribute: Relationship changes to regular tribute, where at least the weaker Earth Pony polities give regular gifts of food and other goods and in turn receive an increasing degree of protection. At this point, Earth Pony cultural influence starts to increase, as contacts become regular and more sociable.
(3) Alliance: Formal alliance and marriages between at least some Pegasi and Earth Ponies, formalized by the sex ritual of the Marriage of Earth and Sky (referred to by Sunset Shimmer and Celestia in An Equestrian Gentlemare). At this point, mutual cultural influences become strong, as Pegasi now acknowledge Earth Pony kin.
(4) Federation: Formal confederation of the Three Tribes created, with negotiated tributes and trades replacing extorted tributes. At this point, while national cultural differences are strong, the webwork of mutual kinships and friendships increase, and with it influence. This is also around when Crystal-Imperial culture starts to penetrate Tri-Tribal Lands.
(5) The Great Migration: Both centrifugal and centripetal influences affect the Tri-Tribal culture. Some towns are multi-kind; others more segregated. Derecho founded as a military ally of the Crystal Empire. Lith founded as a "pure" Earth Pony city. The Heartspire first founded as an alliance of all three Kinds, but in time the Pegasi are driven off and the Earth Ponies enslaved, by increasingly elitist Unicorns under their White Queen. In what is now Central to Eastern Equestria, the nascent culture of modern Equestria emerges.
(6) The Age of Discord: All large-scale polities in North Amareica break down aside from the Crystal Empire, Derecho, Lith, and the Heartspire. The Flutter Ponies are Twisted into the Changelings and hide from everypony; the Sea Ponies retreat into the deep oceans, sheltering with other races including the Deep Ones (protected by Cthulhu). The Three Kinds are alike subject to the Pliant Tyrant in what is today Equestria.
(7) The Realm of Equestria: Celestia and Luna defeat Discord and spend centuries unifying Equestria. Luna becomes Commander of the Pegasi. Luna goes mad and is exiled to the Moon. After some chaos and the "Lunar Rebellion," the Pegasi are completely subjugated under Celestia and her Realm. Centuries pass; most Pegasi only sentimentally remember that they used to be separate. Windvane's memory is more than sentimental, and he lays his plans of rebellion, a rebellion to be spearheaded by the Rainbow of Darkness, powered by the Pegasus Device ...
3767903
Annnnddd we forget the most important aspect: ponies are individuals. its hard to make blanket statements about any one tribe. I'd imagine earth keep theirs close to the herd, unicorns, because of their youths magic and proclivities, are sort of helicopter parents, and pegasi again free range.
Thestrals would probably be a more conservative type of household, more inclined to mountains and nesting in the great trees of hollow shades if not outright forming communities with earth ponies, and changelings would probably have small family units scattered across the land, one tiger to a hill as it were
3767919
Well yes ... these are necessarily blanket statements. Rainbow Dash, Cloud Kicker, and Ditzy Doo are all pure-blooded Pegasi; their personalities and behavior are quite distinct.
I like the notion of the Nocturnae aka Thestrals aka Night Pegasi having a very traditional and family-oriented culture. I get this from Georg.
My Changelings are normally semi-eusocial (more so than the other Pony kinds, about as much so as naked molerats, less so than ants or bees).
But Scootaloo is pretty much all but explicitly stated to be an orphan. Her bedroom as we've seen it is very institutional, not a very personal one.
I don't have many strong feelings about this save for wondering where the hell you got romance from Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash's relationship, or Big Mac having eyes for pretty much anyone but Cheerilee or Marble.
And given Gilda's intensity I think it's a lot more likely in the vein of your thoughts here that their relationship was reversed. Filly Dash does seem smaller than all the other ponies, and Junior Speedsters sounds like juvie to me.
3768025
I go with her being an orphan, but one being taken care of by a relative -- one who doesn't actually care about her one way or another, beyond "make sure she keeps on living, in reasonably good conditions." In any case, she has a lot of time on her hooves.
Rainbow Dash is very strongly protective of Fluttershy in a lot of episodes, and there are a couple of points where this seems more than a bit romantic (in the sense of at least Courtly Love, with Dashie as Knight and Shy as Lady). I go into this a lot in Dragonshyness.
The attraction is more on the part of some of his female cousins for Mackie than the other way round, though I do postulate that he had a crush on one of them, Apple Fritter, at one point. We see Mackie's cousins swooning over him the very first time we see him on screen, S1E01.
We know from "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone" that Dashie was at first protecting Gilda. It is certainly possible that the roles reversed over time. In any case, it looks like love, though not necessarily sexual love.
3768035 I like to ascribe to Georg's thought that she's under the care of her Auntie Quick Fix. Hence why she's implied to have her own set of tools suitable for the repair/assembly of an internal combustion engine.
3767929
Well... personally I'm going of my own stuff, so we may see things differently (http://www.fimfiction.net/story/152184/sisu Winningverse crossover with Assassin's creed. Humans activated some ancient whatcha majigger and get slid sideways to Equestria just after Lunar rebellion. Its pretty much "Getting to know you" without the siamese children.)
And said humans sort of throw a curve ball into everything... poor winter wrap up. Once a human noble exposed how much damage that dopey holiday did to the local farm communities... yeah, it fell to the wayside pretty quickly, much to many an earth ponies wounded pride
3767929
it also should be noted this.... is my biggest problem as a writer, aside from little things like grammar and just plain being a horrible person for daring to sully Equestria with ugly evil hoo mans. I really have a problem making blanket like this because... they're usually not right. People, whether a group or individual, are rarely what others claim they are.
Also... these are ponies. Waist high or chest high, big eyed, cupie doll adorable cute as a button ponies. They may be at times tribalist and speciesist bints, but out right cruel and ugly? Never mind being herding species... So, I don't know. Maybe at one point they were like this, but it sounds like it would be generally regarded as a thing of shame and something pegasususes are trying to live down, like nipple piercing or pedophilia, if we're keeping the greek parallels.
3769617
To say anything meaningful about any group, it is necessary to abstract and generalize. It is also necessary to speak in comparatives. If I say "Pegasi tend to be more promiscuous than Earth Ponies," for instance, I most certainly do not mean that every single Pegasus is more promiscuous than every single Earth Pony. Nor should it be assumed that I mean that Pegasi are promiscuous by our standards. It is a general comparative statement between two groups, and in fact in modern Equestria there is considerable cultural overlap between the Three Kinds on most measurements.
As to the Ponies being nice. Yes. They are. On the average, the Ponies are less violent and cruel than Humans, less capable of serious evil (the flip side is that, on the average, they also have less initiative: than do Humans). But that does not mean that there are not plenty of specific Ponies who are nastier than specfic Humans. The Ponies have free will, and some of them make evil choices.
3769705
Also, and I just thought of this, it really makes them look like complete assholes. Like... lets say some legionaire makes some farm filly his old lady right? So... like, if one foals a unicorn and the others a pegasus, does he treat them the same or love one over the other, or seem to with his treatment? And what, they disregard their spouses position on the matter or their cultural difference because some demented iron age savage couldn't be bothered to stallion up and act like a fucking parent because... reasons?
It just seems like a lot of uneccessary heart ache and trouble that does little good.
3769752
It's a cultural tendency, not an ironclad code of behavior. Or, to be precise, nowadays it's not an ironclad code of behavior. And the reason why it's just a tendency now is exactly the sort of interactions you've described. Over the millennia, the cultures of the Three Kinds have merged because of marriages, love affairs and friendships between Pegasi, Unicorns and Earth Ponies.
But yes, from the POV of the Earth Ponies and Unicorns, some Pegasi come across as irresponsible jerks, and even cads or sluts. From the POV of the Pegasi, some Earth Ponies come across as pathetic prudes who never really get away from the leading-strings of their families, and some Unicorns as conniving schemers who wed for family and personal advantage rather than love and then cheat on their spouses.
And yes, when we're dealing with bigoted Ponies, they tend to assume that the worst stereotypes about the other Kinds are universally true. That's how bigotry works, tautologically.
Keep in mind that the experiential gaps between Pegasi, Unicorns and Earth Ponies are wider than those between any real Human races. Pegasi can fly and cloudwalk, which fundamentally changes the way they perceive and use distance and terrain. Unicorns can do precision telekinetic manipulation and some can do advanced magic. Earth Ponies can subconsciously sense and change their environments in subtle ways. All have defensive telekinesis, but in different ways -- Pegasi have flightfields, Unicorns consciously project shields, and Earth Ponies have what amounts to telekinetic structural reinforcement of their own bodies.
Imagine if whites, blacks and East Asians differed this dramatically! We would see much more cultural variation between races than we see in our world. And we would see much more entrenched racial bigotry, because each race would laud its own abilities and belittle those of the others.
That's the situation with the Ponies. It is a testament to their fundamental niceness that the Kinds have been able to cooperate to the extent that they historically have and build coherent multi-Kind societies.
3769752
Oh, and in the period before the Three Tribes federated, when the Tribes fought and raided? They were Iron Age barbarians, recovering from the Cataclysm, which then had happened less than a thousand years ago. By the time of the Great Migration, they were already literate and civilized by standards other than the snobbish and self-serving ones of the Crystal Empire. Their federation almost came apart under the stresses of the Migration, but it held together long enough to avoid outright large-scale warfare between the Tribes.
The Crystal Ponies, of course, were bigoted against anypony who wasn't part of their Empire, regardless of Kind. Their bigotry was ethnocentric in nature.
3769770
or a testament to a big enough mommy to sit her sun dappled butt in that austhetically pleasing gold throne and make everyone play nice
3769787
Well yes -- Celestia's influence has most definitely changed Equestrian culture over the centuries, and mostly much to the better. In general, Celestia has been a very good influence on Equestria. One of the reasons why the Lunaverse (the one where Celestia went mad and Luna had to rule alone for over a thousand years) is a nastier place than the main worldline Equestrias is that Luna -- while she's a good Pony -- is not as competent at social manipulation as is her Sister.
3769705
Amen to that brother Jordan... To quote the Lady Protector Shadow from my au "Give yon two legs a knife and a patch of forest, and they'd build us a table and a house to put it in."
Or. to put it another way...