TAgate's Vigil
MLP: FiM
Adventure
A filly trying to escape from the Crystal Empire's takeover by Sombra gets lost in the north, eventually discovering a strange tribe of ponies.
Death
Alt. Universe
OC
Cadance
Shining Armor
Crystal Ponies
Wingnut · 496k words · 328 5 · 4k views

Snowpony lore dump · 5:49pm Mar 4th, 2022

So the snowpony phenomenon exploded out of /mlp/ last year. It slowed down significantly by now, but during it's peak, people were making everything from music and stories to snowpony tea and patches.

There was a massive frenzy of lore creation and worldbuilding, spread out over more than a dozen snowpony threads on 4chan, with lots of discussion, debating/discarding ideas, and the... occasional shitpost. Some people interested in making more snowpony content that missed the ride were asking for a unified lore dump so they don't have to trawl though dozens of archived threads and pick out the little lore nuggets one by one. (If you do feel like doing that, the journey begins here. )

Lore #1: snowponies are FLUFFY

This is going to be image-heavy, because a fairly large amount of worldbuilding didn't come from people coming up with cool ideas and then artists getting inspired and drawing them, but the opposite. Artists drew a lot of snowponies, which sparked a lot of discussion and creation of new ideas. Further images are going to be linked, though.

Anyway, here goes: As stated before, snowponies are fluffy. Their coats are noticeably thicker and longer, much like the yakutian horses they're based off of. Their coats and manes are also quite often gradient, and more often than not, they have socks, muzzle markings, and other variations in coat colors. This carries over to the snowponies, including their earthy colors. There are no blue, pink, purple, or any other kind of non-earthy colored snowponies. Scholars have theorized that such adaptation happened due to such colors standing out far too much in the snowy tundra and taiga, making them vulnerable to predators.

So, what are they and how did they come to be?

Snowponies are an offshoot of the earth pony tribe. There are no winged or horned snowponies. During the windigo winter, before the mass pony migration south to what became Equestria, a tribe of northern ponies instead fled further north. There's some debate whether they did it on purpose or simply got lost somehow, but they made their way far further where any pony ever went, settling past Mt. Everhoof, beyond even where the Crystal Empire currently stands. Their territories are not explored much yet, and there are only very rough maps of how widely they have spread out over the tundra, taiga, and even the icy glaciers of the far north.

However, they are not simply fluffy earth ponies. They have developed different skills, abilities and magics from their southern cousins. Besides the obvious resistance to cold, the most basic - and critical - one is called "snowwalking". As the name implies, they are able to walk on snow without sinking through. In regions where snow gets piled up higher than they are tall, it's an essential skill. Unlike the pegasine cloudwalking ability, though, this skill is not in-born. It has to be learned, with the best of those being able to gallop across the snow without disturbing a single snowflake, while those that have not learned yet having to plow through. There is a similar skill for walking on ice, as well.

There are those of their tribes that practice shamanic magic. They are able to craft magic amulets, runes, and charms made from their own highly magic coat hairs, as well as communicate with the spirits of the world, including the lost spirits of dead ponies. While Equestrians balk at such blatant use of "necromancy", for the snowponies, the mere thought of leaving the spirits of their kin to eternally wander the icy wastes without leading them home so they are able to say goodbye before moving on to the afterlife is considered unspeakable.

While they eat the grasses, roots, numerous berries, pine nuts, seaweed, mushrooms, and all other plants depending on the region they live in, they also enjoy fish. A lot. Mmmmmm. It is an important addition to their diets, especially during winter.

They have spread far and wide over the northern reaches, adapting to their harsh environment as necessary. There are permanent villages with log houses in the more southern taiga forests, nomadic groups living in tents in the tundra plains, and igloo villages in the deep north. Currently, only a couple villages are known, with Snowpitt being the most important one. It is said to be the first settlement of the snowponies, older than anyone can remember. All of the separate tribes gather at Snowpitt for various important ceremonies and festivals, especially during the long polar nights, where the sky turns entirely dark for the longest time.

Snowponies are very welcoming to visitors. They place immense importance on the rules of sacred hospitality, no doubt the consequence of living in such harsh environments for so long. Some have also theorized that it is due to the fact that the deepest northern reaches are still a home to the windigoes, and any discord would likely invite a swift frozen death to any pony holding hatred in their hearts. The relation between windigoes and snowponies is... complicated.

However, that does not mean they are pushovers. There are plenty of monsters of all kinds in the north, which get progressively worse the further north you go. And while ponies accept death as a natural part of life, they also understand that nature is a struggle to be strong, prevail and survive. As such, they struggle and fight to the bitter end. Their shamares are able to make enchanted ice spears that are hard as the hardest steel, which their warriors and explorers use to great effect.

Some tribes living near the seas and oceans have been known to tame seals, while those living in the forests were able to befriend the mighty northern wolves.

Some Equestrian scholars have wondered what causes the north to have such an abundance of magical beings and spirits, including why the spirits of dead ponies are so restless in those regions. One theory is that the world's magitic field manifests the strongest in the poles, and so the magic field is much stronger in those regions, which allows many kinds of spirits to exist without the aid of a body to sustain them. That would mean that the true North Pole is an immeasurable fount of magic, the exploration of which is a tempting prospect for many individuals, for very differing reasons. However, the snowponies warn travelers of an impenetrable maze, filled with terrible leviathans frozen in the glaciers, and utterly swarming with windigoes. Any hateful, evil person seeking to claim it for themselves would more than likely get swarmed by a thousand windigoes the moment they stepped anywhere remotely near the maze, and the others respect the snowponies' firm requests to stay away from the place.

That is more or less all of it. There are a few more small nuggets, such as Cirrus Wisp. Have fun discovering them.

Here's a small tl;dr version. As the last lines there say, Not all lore is "hard". What's 99% settled is their abilities (fluffy, very cold resistant coats, snowwalking, shamanic abilities), while traditions and other bits of lore are flexible. Locations, extremely so.

Feel free to make your own stories and add to the lore and history of the snowponies.

Report Wingnut · 1,694 views · Story: Agate's Vigil · #snowponies #worldbuilding #snowpony #lore

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