//------------------------------// // Failed Footnotes #2 (Lore) // Story: Missing Pages & Scrawled Footnotes // by Ice Star //------------------------------// The word 'xenophile' would has a double-meaning in the context of relationships to sentient species, but not to the point of being considered obscene. It would describe not just a creature fond of travel, other cultures, and places but any creature who also possessed the preference/openness to relationships with sapient species different from and other than their own. This would help differentiate it from zoophilia/beastiality (a crime against non-sapient species). However, unlike pansexulity in the context of the world, it would only be used to describe or label those who were monosexual (i.e. just homo/heterosexual). A pansexual griffon would not be considered a xenophile but somepony like Celestia who wouldn't fit the definition of pansexuality would easily be described as a xenophile. --- Adding to the bit with Fluttershy's early life in the previous part: I've actually found Zephyr Breeze an amusing suck-y sibling and contrast to Fluttershy. So, he'd most likely exist and be very similar to his in-show self, but have no connection to Fluttershy beyond blood because both would've been raised in separate foster homes, thus being entirely unaware of one another unless they wanted to look into their records. --- Ponies with 'human-esque' names would've been a notable part of history, but with limits and context. The names would've been more prominent in older societies (like that of the Tribal Era ponies) and a sign of notable heritage (not exclusively nobility, though). Sigurd Goldenrod (Through the Snow) would be an example of the kind of 'format' to the name, though in the present-day it would generally be seen as uncommon and somewhat out of fashion (but not terribly so) which means that ponies who have names like Gaylord Blueblood would be flexing antiquity and a long-running family tree while trying to prevent members of the family from having the exact same name, even if they went by a 'common name' or 'clan name' (i.e. all ponies holding the Duchy of Canterlot going by Duke/Duchess Blueblood). The names would be limited, though. Names like Lyra, Leo, Perseus, Roland, Amira, Griselda, Sakura, or even William would be expected or normal, but ponies exceedingly human names (c'mon, I'm sure you can imagine what those would be like) wouldn't pop up. --- Scootaloo has parents who she lives with in Ponyville. They aren't abusive, cruel, or even remotely awful to her. She hasn't suffered any devastating injury or trauma. In fact, her parents are astoundingly normal Equestrians, they just are very dedicated to demanding jobs and providing for their only daughter in the long run that they have little time to be with her. As a result, she's essentially grown up via loosely 'free-range' parenting and as an outdoorsy filly (who just happens to be really good at escaping her foalsitters too, she has crusading to do!). --- Because ponies and most creatures don't usually wear collars and full-on suits, terms like white/blue collar (especially in the context of 'white collar crime') wouldn't exist using collar. Instead, they'd use 'tie' instead. --- A notable subculture in Equestria for LGBT ponies would be mares who realized that they were gay because of how they thought of Princess Celestia - much like how many same-gender attracted people realize they're so because of a famous or iconic person that they discover they felt attracted to. Celestia (unknowingly) would have made generations of young mares realize their attraction for other mares once they sorted out that their admiration and loyalty to her was beyond how a subject would see their ruler. She'd be the notable first puppy love/celebrity crush of many who would (loosely) see her as a credit to discovering and cementing their identity, even if they never truly met her. The subculture would be called 'Celestial lesbians' (and of course, it'd be capital, seeing as these mares wouldn't exactly be extraterrestrial in any sense, and wouldn't be the same as other identifiers that could be used in tandem (butch, femme, lipstick lesbian) but largely based in fashions, literature, and aesthetics that really honed the 'Celestial' part of the name, using Princess Celestia as a source of inspiration for highly feminine, regal, and posh looks derived from observable aspects of Celestia herself. (Considering the source of inspiration and styles of Celestia, it'd still be very likely that the Celestial lesbian looks would fall more neatly under femme and lipstick lesbian fashion than anything else,) (Side note: Raven would be considered a Celestial lesbian.) --- Ponies and Alicorns are egalitarian in culture, nature, and how they run things. Family names can be taken on from either a male or female and are not considered any more special for any particular order. Masculine and feminine roles would still exist, but they would be blurred and not fussed over nearly as much. Very few occupations would have a one-gender majority, and gender rations in crime would generally be more evened out from a societal and cultural point. (Example: a stallion or mare could be equally likely to be seen as a murderer, but obvious things, like victims of matricide would obviously only be female and somepony who were to victimize others in an area that happened to have a higher population of one gender - but not base their victim profiles on gender - wouldn't be committing crimes because of gender bias and sexism but out of fucking convenience.) --- With the exception of Platinum and Clover, all of the Founders of First Equestria did go on to have foals. Their bloodlines still exist today, but seeing that there's over a thousand years between them and their modern legacies, very few would be anywhere near as famous as their ancestors. In fact, the ponies whose blood is distantly shared with the Founders would have about as much collective infamy as a grocery store clerk. Filthy Rich would be more well-known. None of their bloodlines presently would intersect with any of the Mane Six, either. --- Pony lifespans don't exceed 250~ years, including all mortal races. The founding of Ponyville really did happen a few centuries ago; Granny was right (and she's really old)! Their age of majority (which has cropped up in my stories numerous times, but whatever) is sixteen, and Alicorns would have it the same, at least once they reach the mortal year equivalency of sixteen. (Something of an allusion to how real-life horses are full-grown at six years old, too.) The longest lived pony known on record would undoubtedly be somepony's grandmother or grandfather who would've proudly held onto this fact like the feather in their cap that it would be to them. But they wouldn't really be the longest-lived pony. That would go to Freyja Blueblood, a mare nopony would've really heard of. The firstborn, first member of what would go to onto become the House Blueblood, one of the longest-lasting mortal houses in the known world, one favored by royalty itself. Freyja Blueblood was born to Sigurd Goldenrod, a Tribal Era unicorn lord, and Celestia when she was still under Starswirl's hoof. Unable and unwilling to keep the foal, young Celestia wanted to spare the young one from Starswirl and make sure one less thing kept her from a future in politics. Sigurd was a stallion who had a young lover's fondness for her, something she returned. While not as keen of mind compared to Celestia, the fellow was good at heart and offered her stability that came from being a good lad who was level-headed. He hung around the Unicorn Court on a lord's soldier duties, where the young heir wasn't regarded as highly as his more senior unicorns, and there he and Celestia hit it off. Compared to the (sometimes older) stallions more intent on manipulating, discarding, and not giving the young mare (though, to be fair she would've been hanging around that Court since she was a teen, sometimes getting her heart broken in the process) the seriousness she rarely found in her time with them. Her rampant attraction to quite a few stallions she found to be noble, well-groomed, politically intriguing, hot, and was quick to fall into flings and intense dalliances with strings of stallions she deemed heart-throbs that went about as soundly as her mental health. A young mare with progressive politics she yearned to express from an abusive foster household had all but fallen into a pit of snakes that were only pleased depending on how she twisted the knife of whatever persona she crafted - or drifted into - and an intense need for any kind of company or attention and risky, somewhat hedonistic flairs was far from a good place. However, a country bumpkin of a noble with a real liking to her and real faith in some of her ideas offered a safe space she hadn't previously had, and her taste in stallions had turned up a good catch. Sigurd was deployed in inter-tribal wars often, and there were times when Celestia wouldn't get to see him while he managed the borders, his country estate, and fought in battles. This put a lot of strain on the already stressed and unwell Celestia, and when the two had periods when they were reunited, there was always some desperation about whether Sigurd would come home. Then Celestia found out that she was with foal - obviously not something the young Alicorn would've considered - and Sigurd, who had to learn so from a panicked young Celestia, was soon to be sent out on duty again. Needing Sigurd and knowing he, a young lord, could provide for a foal where she could not, Celestia made no small trip through the peasant country of the Unicorns, going alone and having to avoid anything more than the poorest villages if she could, after preparing herself for a leave of Court and coming up with sufficient excuses for such a trip. Freyja Blueblood was born at Sigurd's manor, and was left there with instruction from Celestia. Among her words was to never let the foal know her true parentage, to disguise that she wasn't a lawful heir, and that they absolutely could not maintain a relationship anymore, whether they loved one another or not. Celestia was horribly unlucky to have to make what was already a traumatic journey to the estate back to the capital city of the unicorns; back to Starswirl and his rage, a sister she couldn't stand and didn't want, and a life she would claw herself from with every effort to clutch a crown one day. Freyja Blueblood was lucky both her parents were white-coated unicorns and that shortly thereafter her father would marry a unicorn mare with a white coat, who could easily pass as the mother of white-coated, silver-freckled, green-eyed, pink-maned, little Freyja - and she did, until the day she died. Sigurd had his happy wife, Freyja went on to carry on a new name: Blueblood, not Goldenrod. She lived to migrate to new, united Equestria in the Tribal Exodus. Her (step)mother lived to see the time of Discord, while Sigurd himself died when Equestria was still under the Triarchy's reign, never having any contact with Celestia again. Freyja was a peaceful soul who went on to live alone and content for an outstandingly long time, the Alicorn blood doubling her pony lifespan in ways nothing else ever could and allowing her to live to a little over four hundred years old. This made her something of a real-life folk figure in the rural area she lived in, and drew quite a bit of speculation and awe in other towns. Eventually, word of this mare would've reached Celestia, who post-Discord and pre-NMM would have initially been confused, knowing nopony could live so long. Worried that remaining magic from Discord could be making something about the mare seem like more than she is, possibly making her ill and playing tricks on the ponies who live in the thriving countryside she hails from. Celestia travels to see the house of this elderly mare, trying to find any explanation, including thinking that the elderly unicorn is just another pony trying to set up a hoax by claiming to be so old due to the general lack of records in the era. When the mare introduces herself as Freyja Blueblood, a widow whose foals have all left her, Celestia internally knows the mare is telling the truth... and that she can never let this be known. Freyja continues to take tea with Celestia, never knowing the Alicorn mare is her daughter, nor does Celestia ever act in any way that suggest she is more than a friendly ruler to the mare, and Celestia listens to all the mare's stories of her early life in the Tribelands and her time with her beloved family. This gives Celestia a secondhand and totally unasked for chance to 'catch up' on what Sigurd did with the rest of his life, and the happy times he had with his wife while Celestia pursued a life under the crown. She leaves, shaken by the meeting but relieved her secrecy is intact, and returns to the Everfree. Shortly after, she receives news of Freyja Blueblood's death, and returns to the mare's home region once again, where she ensures that the mare's approximate age at death is 'corrected' and Freyja Blueblood is laid to rest with an unquestioned, utterly normal mortal lifespan upon her grave. Celestia attends the funeral, wishing prosperity to the Blueblood House. She leaves, once again. Only this time, she keeps track of the House Blueblood and the ponies in it. After Luna is banished, and Celestia returns from her journey north in Autophobia, she finds the current Blueblood ponies and invites them to Canterlot, offering to adopt the head of the Bluebloods at the time as an honorary 'niece/nephew' and grant them a lavish estate in the new layer of modern Canterlot, and to pass the title and wealth they will garner from such favor down for generations. --- 'Mage' is a title only applicable to unicorns, as it is a magical profession that could only be realistically filled by a unicorn - or, by extent, a demon, Alicorn, demigod, draconequus, etc. Zebra, earth, crystal, and pegasus ponies could not be Mages, nor could creatures like dragons, goats, minotaurs, or horses. --- Ponies are obligate ovi-lacto-vegetarians. Other equines, like Alicorns, breezies, zebra, horses, mules, donkeys, are the same. However, other equines like demons, sea ponies, and sirens are different, while Alicorns do not necessarily need to eat. Cattle, minotaur, buffalo, deer, moose, yak are also ovi-lacto-vegetarians. Jackalope and sheep are obligate herbivores. Reapers have an unknown diet, if they eat at all. Ghosts don't eat shit, they're fucking dead. Timberwolves will attack ponies and other creatures, but whether they'll actually eat anything is a mystery, but to be called 'timberwolf food' would be a common saying interchangeable with 'wolf/buzzard food'. The same goes for jinni, who are unlikely to eat. Undead would not consume anything that conventionally be considered food, if they had any need to devour at all. Cragadile, manticore, hydra, Quarray eels, sea/lake serpents, giant spiders, and Tatzlwurm are obligate carnivores. Windigo feed off very potent hatred when held en masse. Diamond Dogs eat gems, and so do some breeds of dragon, though many dragons also eat meat (unfortunately, this means barbaric dragons can and will eat ponies). Ahuizotl, bugbears, normal bears, chimera, cockatrice, Arimaspi, bats (fruit, vampire fruit, regular), hippogriffs, griffons, Cerberus, orthros, phoenix, pigs (winged or otherwise), sirens, sea ponies, demons, star beasts, and twittermites are all omnivores. Draconequui, parasprites, and goats will eat anything. Fear them. Changelings get no nourishment from anything but love, or lust, if they are corrupted. Because of this, ponies and horses would rarely come into contact with any creatures that are not vegetarian or omnivores, and still have reason to be wary of some species. Meat-repulsion and fear of fangs and claws would not be an uncommon or abnormal behavior to see, especially in foals. As they are still prey animals, common, primal pony and horse nightmares would include sharp-toothed, meat-eating monsters. Real-life horses have been noted to eat meat, but are still classified as herbivores for a reason. The circumstances where they eat meat are noted to involve abnormal levels of aggression, inappropriate placement of human foods, not enough food of their own, desperation, starvation, snooping around mixed foods (fish in a salad), uncharacteristic aggression, yearning for salt, and other abnormal circumstances. It is also noted that horses who ate meat rarely repeated the behavior (or never did), that they were often ill afterwards because their bodies (teeth and whole-ass digestive system) were not made for any meat consumption, and that one of the most common situations where horses would even touch meat is after they attacked and killed an animal in a fight. (Huge amounts of aggression right there.) The behavior is described as a learned one, not an innate one, and horses are observed to not seek meat out. For thousands of years, meat-eating horses are hailed as an item of myth. (Probably the most well-known example is this one.) For ponies, hearing that another pony was eating meat wouldn't be anything to just bat an eye at. Not only would their pony pal become physically ill, but if they were going out of their way to do so, then they wouldn't be right in the head. A pony eating meat, just like a real horse eating meat, would have their behavior rooted in the same kind of aggressive, abnormal drive - just one far more warped, in the sense that their actions and the stigma from them would have human parallels in the form of: being a cannibal (meat-eating certainly isn't taboo for humans, nor does it have a sickening impact on you to grab a burger, but eating a person and the illness that results is something else) or Renfield's syndrome (probably the most non-graphic thing I can find explaining it). It doesn't help that most of the species in the world are sapient, either... (One thing to note would be that part of why Sombra is so feared in some ways isn't because he's just an omnivore/has fangs, but because of how he is shaped more like a pony than anything else. Knowing that Cerberus could maul a pony to death and gobble them up, just like he could a granola bar you dropped on your way to eternal torment, but that same factor applied to something that looks like a pony becomes far creepier - even if it still carries obvious influences of prejudice and ignoring other facts about Sombra and his values. After all, what is more unsettling, a crocodile that swallowed some idiot Florida tourist whole, or Albert Fish - I'm not linking shit with him - being pleased to eat you?) I'll probably just leave that one there. --- End #2