Ponified Language and/or Characterization · 11:18pm Aug 15th, 2018
Just some thoughts on the subject.
So obviously the characters are speaking Equish, not English. It's a common global language. And one odd feature of Equestrian Equish is that it has pronoun suffixes to refer to the species you are talking about. This gives you opportunities to play with things.
For example: Tempest, who hasn't lived in Equestria for most of her life, doesn't use them. And when I write her she still doesn't use them after she rejoins society, because she's from diverse places like Kludgetown and finds it a bit racist.
Changelings, of course, don't think in Equestrian. But they do speak it when infiltrating. It's annoying to keep track of...
Equestrian used to have suffixes for the different races of ponies as well, but after Unification using them is going to get a very strong negative reaction.
"Buck" is a swear word, but it's not a synonym for anything in English. It's literal. So "Buck it to Tartarus" and "Buck me in the face" and "Buck me" are all rude, but not unprintable for a kid's show if you wrote them in English. Slightly nonsensical, but that's why no-one translates swear words: the intent matters more than the content, unless you're getting creative.
Ponies just love puns. It's a cultural thing. So utter groaners like Manehattan and Baltimare are definitely puns in Equish, are completely normal, and any humans should keep their snickers to themselves thank you.
