Reddit Reposting, Episode 3: Pony skin & coat colors? · 1:59am Jul 25th, 2022
This one was more of a request for opinions than a theory post, so there's no conclusive worldbuilding for you to carry forward. The commentary I received back in 2017 was short and scattered, so there's no deep consensus wisdom to uncover.
Without further ado, here it is in mostly-original form.
As we all know, the little ponies we all love and enjoy are not drawn with any differentiation between their coat and the skin on their muzzles. However, it also seems unlikely that they are actually covered in a homogeneous coat over the entirety of their body, so the lack of differentiation can be assumed to be artistic simplification.
That said, there are two main options for what we can assume their muzzle colorations to be:
- Similar to IRL equines: mostly black but occasionally pink, per this Wikipedia article on equine coat colors. Here, the show simply omits that coloration entirely as part of its aesthetic.
- Ponies have a skin color similar to their coat color. With this option, the show would be assumed to do less artistic editing of how the ponies "actually" look.
I got to thinking of this because I was specifically curious about Celestia and Rarity, since they have white coats. Would they have pink noses, light grey noses, or something altogether different?
A third hybrid option would be that there are more skin colors than just black and pink but fewer than the number of coat colors, so each skin color has several coat colors it is typically associated with.
What are your thoughts on this subject?
Personally, I think that (assuming option 1):
- Celestia would have a pink nose
- Luna would have a black nose
- Rarity would have a black nose as well (she's technically not a true white horse)
