Announcing the Moss Ponies! · 12:57am Dec 22nd, 2021
Hello all, I'm happy to announce my new tribe of cryptid ponies is now live! Both here on Fimfiction and when it gets approved, a non-Equestria version on Offprint!
So, while I was doing NaNoWriMo 2021, my mind wandered as it often does. This past November was also Animal Crossing New Horizon's 2.0 update, and one of the things that was added was this brand new plant material called glowing moss (pictured on the right).
It's this neat little patch of luminescent moss and ferns that glows at night, and releases glowing spores when stepped on. So, as my random brain often does, it made some weird connections with ponies, and thus: the Moss Ponies were born!
As my world-building self is often wont to do, I wrote out their entire culture while I was at it:
Moss Ponies love to live in the deepest recesses of the forests, preferably of temperate, moist climates where moss grows the best. They’re skittish around outside creatures, and use their mossy manes and natural-colored coats to hide.
Moss Ponies themselves have coats in a wide variety of natural shades – greens, browns, and greys. These coats are thick and shaggy around their cloven hooves – built to keep heat in and dampness and coldness out. This means they also welcome hugs! Their cloven hooves are meant for digging and climbing. Their tails are long, with the green hair resembling the fan of fern leaves. Their manes are made up of a special luminous moss that, while always green, glows a different color at night. Yellows, purples, blues, pinks, and reds, as well as greens, have been reported.
Moss Ponies have a chieftain society, with one elder who looks after all the others. This elder also determines who is allowed to see the Moss Pony village they’re in charge of, and doles out roles when work needs to be done around the village.
Moss Ponies tend to live in the shadows of mountains. For a coming of age ritual, young Moss Ponies must scale a mountain to a suitable enough height so come evening, their glowing moss can spread its spores on the winds that will carry them the furthest. Analysis of these spores has revealed that they’re of common varieties, depending on the region they’re found in, and it’s believed some sort of latent magic in the Moss Ponies is what makes them glow.
Moss Ponies have a diet of mostly plants. Leaves, nuts, berries, roots, and vegetables are gathered from the forest, while tasty mushrooms like shitake and chanterelle are cultivated on special farms in the Moss Pony village. Moss Ponies usually cook their food over fire—mostly mushrooms, nuts, and roots—while eating leaves, vegetables, and berries in delicious salads. Spices and condiments are always welcome by the Moss Pony tribes as gifts, but they serve little use as bait for a Moss Pony, as they have no inclinations of stealing things that aren’t theirs.
Moss Pony houses are primarily made of wood, with a stone foundation covered in moss. Similarly, their furniture is also comprised of wood and stone, while they use stone picks and wooden shovels to help with tasks such as farming, gardening, and gathering. The villages cultivate local flora, such as ferns, shrubs, and trees, in such a way to help hide their villages from outside prying eyes.
In the winter, Moss Ponies scavenge less and rely more on a built-up storage of food that a selected Moss Pony or selected Moss Ponies are in charge of stockpiling. They also accumulate a lot of dead leaves and wood debris such as sticks and branches to help maintain the wintertime fires.
In the human world, Moss Ponies prefer the deepest of forests, often near sources of fresh water and in damp climates where moss grows plentiful. They’re scattered all across America, usually close to mountain ranges such as the Appalachia Mountains or the Rocky Mountains towards the northwest corner of the map.
In Equestria, Moss Ponies live in a thriving village deep within the forests, not too far from the Peaks of Peril. On a map, these forests surround an area known as Elderrock Glade, which is known for breathtaking scenery such as cascading waterfalls, lush, verdant forests, and bioluminescent moss and fungi at night. Much like their Earth counterparts, Moss Ponies tend to keep to themselves, especially after their Kirin neighbors underwent the Vow of Silence.
Hopefully, I'll write more Moss Pony stuff in the future. For now, I hope you enjoy. 
-yours truly,
The Legendary Bill Cipher, Equestria Enthusiast
Creator of the Moss Ponies.
Bill makes Bad Deals do not trust him!