Genetics, Souls, and Magic in the Somniverse · 1:20am Jan 24th, 2022
Hello everypony,
2022/02/19: I changed some of the details within the story, so I've adjusted this post accordingly.
Since I bothered to make this little info-sheet, I decided to share it with everypony. In case you are severely autistic, I'm going to leave this reminder:
EVERYTHING PRESENTED IS WHAT I WILL BE USING IN MY STORIES, IT ISN'T SOME DEFINITIVE TRUTH THAT MUST BE UPHELD BY EVERYONE ELSE. IT'S ALSO NOT CANON, IT IS MERELY A WAY OF DESCRIBING THE CANON QUESTION RELATED TO THE CAKE TWINS AND FLURRY HEART
Let me know if I am an idiot or need therapy. Enjoy!
I won't explain this in the stories, at least not until super late, but the issues conceiving has to do with the process of kind selection. The actual genetic mechanisms for every other gene (outside of kind selection) don't differ too much from IRL, although it certainly would be alien to us if we ever found it.
U - E vs A - E
When selecting the first case, it is pretty much random (although it is more complicated than that. More genes related and the majority wins; see below). The second case gets stuck at the process, unable to proceed. The alicorn genetics are unable to be activated without a massive input in magic or dumb luck. They are so overwhelming that the earth pony genes aren't even considered by the proteins, unless magic is used to force the earth pony genes to the forefront.
U – E -> E
U – E -> U
U – P -> P
A – B -> A, but enough other genes activate to be valid (although may result in magic-related birth defects if the amount is high enough. See also: Scootaloo, who in my upcoming story actually possess a massive number of alicorn genes)
P – U -> P
This is just a representation of partially active genes, since all ponies possess all six kinds plus two unique kinds. Therefore, it is possible to force an earth ponies with no active pegasus genes to birth a pegasus through intensive magical fertility treatments. Or a seapony. Or any other kind. For the above example, the resultant pony is a pegasus despite the parents being a unicorn and an earth pony.
U – E -> p*
The p* is a forced pegasus gene added, made possible through magic. It will need to be reinforced into a full P for any subsequent births otherwise it will randomly flip. If it was either U or E, it would follow the dominance criteria. U* or e* respectively. The e* will either flip into U or E for the next generations, if it isn't reinforced. There is one exception, and that is A / TA.
U – E -> P!
The P! is a random mutation. Always will be dominant over the overwritten genetics.
As a case study, let’s have a look at the above in a longer form
U – E -> E
U – E -> U
U – P -> P
A – B -> A
P – U -> P
U – E -> U
U – E -> U
P – A -> A -> p*
E – B -> S!
P – B -> P*
The first round is a tie, giving a 50-50 chance of either a pegasus or unicorn. The bottom most was a forced selection by the (theoretical) doctors, and since neither of the genes are dominant the P* is a full P*. After treatment to exclude an alicorn gene, the result is definitively a pegasus. If the next child doesn’t receive the treatment to reinforce the gene, the p* will always be replaced by A. If it does, it is permanently converted to P. This only occurs with A genes, except in the fringe case of TA, the ‘True Alicorn’ situation, which I will explain below.
Genetic Dominance determined via magical presence:
A >>> U = C = K > P = B > S = E = Z >>> TA ~ A
The entire system can be overhauled by adding a second or third layer, making genetics very complicated for ponies, since all eight normal cases are fully dominant with no room for partial expression. Two unicorns having a child will have a fairly high chance having a unicorn foal of their own, with other genes pushed to the wayside. Similarly, two earth ponies having a child have the slim possibility of that child being a thestral even if neither had a thestral in their family trees for ten generations.
### True Alicorns (TA) and their abilities ###
A True Alicorn is an Alicorn with all eight forms of pony’s abilities and characteristics. Omnivorous, night-vision, underwater breathing, all senses enhanced due to their respective kind, hair which forms to the body to create an aquadynamic and aerodynamic body, wings made of a specific form of material that is useful in the air and water, the magical abilities of flight, connection to the planet in all three ways, shapeshifting, silent movements, bio-morphing (seaponies), nirik-form capable, and a horn for direct use.
A normal alicorn has three, one in each section (such as U-P-E or C-B-Z). TA acts nearly identically to A except that it can flip nearby genetics (not A or TA) to any of the other genes due to instability in being alone. It will flip to A eventually if it is juxtaposed by something that is not another TA, making it the only recessive gene for kind selection. It is a completely theoretical form of pony, except in one instance long lost to modern pony history.
##### Magic and the Soul #####
A pony’s soul is a bit less genetics-y.
25% Father
25% Mother
50% Raw
0% Unique
This is the conception situation for all living things (via sexual reproduction). It cannot be changed by medical magic, nor can it be overwritten except by an extraordinary amount of magic used by somepony who knows what they are doing. As their life continues, the Unique category grows while shrinking the others. Unique slowly grows until death or until both the mother and father are below 5% and Raw is 0%.
I had a full sheet equation for power expectations at birth all put together, but it was boring and confusing me. Let's just say that the parent's are not equal to Raw in terms of power. The percentages measure 'area', not the 'contents'. The 'contents' are the raw magical energy (in 'swirls', a made-up unit of measurement).
Of course a pony can have their magical energy boosted externally, but this is a rough estimate used by the doctor's of Equestria to determine the rough magical potential of a pony at birth (if the parents care about that sort of thing (most don't).
Hope you found this interesting! I was procrastinating on chapter 4 of an upcoming story, so I decided to write this. Please let me know if you recommend a different system or if there are flaws in this. I came up with it over to course of an hour, so I don't really know
