I noticed all Crystal Ponies seem to be Earth Ponies... after talking with a friend, I started to wonder, are there any other Elemental Ponies based on the other two tribes? What would A Pegasus equivalent be? Cloud Ponies? And what of Unicorns? Would they be pure Ether or Mana? Are these natural creatures, or do they also have some kind of Equestrian Beneficial Artifact along the lines of the Crystal heart that they center around?

To that point, can Crystal Ponies LEAVE the vicinity of the Heart?

What are you guys' thoughts?

Well, there were a few crystal ponies in the season 3 finale. So I think that they can leave the Heart. But as for the other "tribes", we can imagine that if they went as far to make crystal ponies that there might be other breeds out there (sea ponies).

1097225
Flutter Ponies for pegasi. That leaves seaponies, but they don't have horns...

>>>Crystal Empire Thread

We already have a "Variant" of pegasi: Batponies.

So that make an earth pony variant and pegasi variant. I like to think there's a sub-tribe of unicorns that we'll see in season 4. If we continue the theme of sub-tribes being badass, as we've seen so far, I'll probably be something like "Magmacorns"

1097252 Pffff. Necrocorns would be awesome.
[youtube=VZlWXNoDlIg]

1097448
Interesting theory.

1097387
Strangely zombie ponies and necromancers sounds like a decent villain for S4.

EVOLUTION! It is the only answer.

Every pony generated from their ancestors, and in this case Crystal Ponies are the ancestors of Earth Ponies. I stay by my theory. :/

Love the responses! How about whatever Sombra is being a derivative of a Unicorn? Obviously he's different physically, curved horn being the least of his differences... any ideas?

1097448 Zebras aren't ponies at all, as Twilight told us in Bridle Gossip. So their being connected to unicorn ponies seems unlikely.

1097577 Celestia refers to Sombra as a unicorn in her expository speech on the Crystal Empire. I think it's more likely that his unprecedented physical traits are unique to him than that he's a member of a whole separate subspecies.

As for other variant subspecies that might exist, the bat ponies (Night's Favored Child calls them tulpar, a mythical name for a winged horse as hunting animal derived from Central Asian mythology, which I think is awesome) are a good example (if we assume that they are a subspecies rather than an illusionary appearance granted to Night Guard pegasi), and seaponies, while not being obvious extensions of any of the three known tribes, would fit with the overall schema of Equestria and its surrounding realm (where there is nature, there will be sapients to guide it, most likely at least vaguely equine in nature). I'm not sure it makes sense to assume that additional subspecies would all be connected to one or more of the three "main" tribes, let alone that each "main" tribe would have the same number of connected subspecies, though.

Flutterponies might be a good explanation for the prevailing winds within Equestria's setting, since we've seen pegasus ponies do all sorts of things with weather, but wind isn't among them. (Interestingly, producing powerful wind was an effect we saw Rarity's enchantment-granted wings perform, even without deliberate intent or significant effort. Perhaps those wings were patterned on those of the flutterponies when the spell to grant them was written?)

We should probably include alicorns in the tally as well. Maybe even changelings, if we assume that the form the average changeling took during the invasion was their natural one, and not one composited from unicorn, earth pony and pegasus attributes for use against ponies in combat.

1097518 Evolution in fantasy is boring and uncreative. But sure, go ahead believe what you like.

1097985 I've never heard of a Tulpar, but in my mind I always refer to the batponies as Longma, which is a chines mythological animal of a dragon combined with a horse. They have more dragon traits than bat traits, with their frills, leathery wings, fangs, and slitted eyes. I always saw more dragon that bat. As for whether this is the alternate form of pegasi, who knows.

1099946
...
OK, that's awesome.