Essays Index
Species series: Part 1 - Equines | Part 2 - Equine Chimeras

Yep. Still doing this.

Equines:
All modern equines are descendants of the mesohippus, a now-exinct species of prehistoric horse that lived in the age before the continents broke apart. They had soul marks, like most modern equines, but lacked many of the traits of their descendants. They lived in caves, gathered in large herds, and used primitive tools, but didn't have much in the way of magical abilities. Aside from their limitations of magic and intelligence, mesohippus were closer to modern ponies than any of their other descendants, and so are classed as an extinct type of pony in modern Equestrian academia, but this is not truly accurate.

Although the various equine species have many differences, there are some commonalities. Most prominent of these is that ponies, zebras, and donkeys alike all possess an ability known as tactile telekinesis. This is a skill wherein an equine will use their hooves to pick up objects merely by their touch alone, making said objects stick to their hooves, as if by static electricity. This is an active ability, as equines must consciously choose to use their hooves this way, and it is also a learned skill, usually acquired in foalhood. Most equines are capable of learning this, and most do, but a rare few who are physically incapable of tactile telekinesis do exist. This condition, considered a disability in Equestrian society, is most prevalent among mules.

Ponies, zebras, and donkeys also share dietary and reproductive habits. They are all optional omnivores that are socially inclined towards exclusively vegetarian diets, but are capable of eating a wide variety of things from all the major food groups. As for reproduction, while the three have different gestation periods, they all reproduce through typical mammalian sex, which must take place during a female's estrus for her to become impregnated. The frequency and length of estrus also varies between species, but another commonality between them is that while a male's sex drive remains the same all year round, for females, it is practically nonexistent except during heat, when it becomes more comparable to the sex drive of an average human female.

Pony:
Ponies are a varied species, existing in a wide variety of colours, sizes, and phenotypes, but are most easily divided into four races - alicorns, unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi. While there are many different pony ethnic groups across the globe, such as the horses of Saddle Arabia, and the mustangs of Mustangia, they are mostly distinguished by their cultural and linguistic differences, rather than by any significant genetic ones. Horses are among the few with a notable genetic difference, in that they are noticeably larger than most ponies. Pintos are another notable group for their odd coat patterns.

Reproduction in ponies differs from other equines in that ponies have an eleven month gestation period, and have a much higher rate of multiple births than others. Twins and triplets account for almost twenty percent of Equestria's pony population, and this is not considered unusual. Ponies also have a somewhat different digestive system to zebras and donkeys, adapted for a much higher sugar intake.

The most significant characteristic of ponies is that they are a very social species, and thus also very magical. Exactly how magical they are is a big factor in determining a pony's lifespan, as the immune system of a pony is augmented by their magic, and thus a more magical pony is less likely to get sick so long as they do not live an especially unhealthy lifestyle. Particularly magical ponies can live until a hundred and fifty, even without age spells, but the average pony lifespan is closer to eighty-eight years. Alicorns live the longest on average by a significant degree, but for the primary three races, the difference in average lifespan isn't as pronounced.

All ponies share several magical abilities. The first and most obvious of these is the passive ability to manifest a cutie mark on both their flanks, which are of course created based on the magical signature of their souls. Ponies tend to define themselves by their talents and virtues, due to these being relevant to their roles in harmonious pony society, and so their cutie marks are typically visual depictions of their so-called "special talents." A pony cutie mark also acts as an amplifier for these talents, channeling magic like an internalised spell to increase a pony's effectiveness while performing a task related to their talent.

Ponies also channel a small amount of magic through their hair and eyes, which they passively use to make themselves more colourful and vibrant. Without magic, ponies would lose their eye colour; biologically, ponies only have white eyes, but channel magic to colour their irises. A pony's eyes are typically the same colour as their magic, but not always. A loss of magic would also cause a pony's coat, mane, tail, and facial hair to lose a lot of their lustre over time, or sometimes even change colour completely in one or more areas, although a complete colour change is rare.

A side effect of this magical colouring is that excessive use of active magic can result in magical leakage through these additional channeling points. Examples of this include a unicorn's eyes glowing white when performing a powerful spell, an alicorn's mane becoming constantly wavy and shifting if they use a lot of magic frequently, or pegasus tails leaving a contrail behind them when they fly especially fast.

Not all magical abilties are common to all races of pony, however.

Unicorns have horns, which allow them to easily perform spellwork. Spellcasting for a unicorn is as simple as following the correct thought patterns while channeling magic, and most unicorns know at least a few spells relating to their special talents, as the soul signatures used to create their cutie marks can also be used as the basis for a spell's framework. Almost all unicorns can also learn to use telekinesis, an extremely versatile spell, thanks to its simplicity.

Pegasi have highly dexterous wings, through which they channel magic to create a "flight field" around themselves. This flight field is invisible (though it can be observed interacting with the atmosphere when moving at high speeds), and is used to compensate for the pegasus's natural flying disadvantages, such as their weight and their lack of an aerodynamic body shape. Flight fields also provide protection against high-speed collision, allowing pegasi to survive crashes that should be fatal otherwise, and even allowing more magical pegasi to deliberately use their bodies as battering rams without harm to themselves. However, flight fields are active magic that must be consciously generated, so accidents are still possible.

Earth ponies lack both wings and horns, but channel magic through their muscles to achieve a naturally greater level of physical strength and endurance, allowing them to perform physical labour more easily. For most earth ponies, this strength must be actively channeled, but others do it subconsciously on a near-constant basis. Earth ponies are also known for having stronger digestive and immune systems, making them less vulnerable to sickness on average, as well as able to more easily process food that would normally be unpalatable to ponies, such as rotten or diseased organic matter, or in extreme cases, even rocks and gemstones, like dragons eat.

Ponies can also have secondary abilities which are typically associated with only a single race, but which are not genetically restricted to them. While pegasi are known for their ability to control the weather, unicorns are associated with spellcraft, and earth ponies are supposed to have a natural affinity for nature which allows them to easily communicate with animals and tend to plants, none of these traits are exclusive to them. Casting spells through ritual is possible for anypony, the earth pony affinity for nature can also be inherited by the other races, and certain spells can also allow others to manipulate the weather and cloud-walk.

However, it is the alicorns that have the most interesting magical abilities. In addition to having the physical features, abilities, and traits of all three other races, alicorns also age far slower than most ponies. This also includes their mental development (though it is accelerated more in some aspects than others). They learn and mature at almost the same rate as normal ponies, but do not typically get cutie marks until well into their twenties. Like other ponies, their lifespan varies depending on how magical they are, but with alicorns, the upper limit is measured in millennia rather than years.

Alicorns also have an inherent affinity for the heavenly spheres, which they can move with a level of ease that unicorns can only dream of. This is because alicorns have the natural, subconscious ability to tap into the heavenly spheres themselves while moving them, so as to draw additional magic from them to augment their own. This means that while unicorns will simply exhaust their magic in the course of such a task, alicorns can instead actually become more powerful from it.

Additionally, alicorns have an affinity for order magic, due to their origins as creations of Order. Order magic is often referred to simply as "alicorn magic" for this reason, despite it not being associated with only them.

Zebra:
Zebras are physiologically very similar to ponies, and have many of the same traits and features as them. Like ponies, zebras channel magic through their eyes and hair to give them their colouration, and have a similarly magical immune system which makes their lifespan dependant on their magical potential. They also have soul marks, just like ponies do, although due to cultural differences in zebra and pony mentality, zebra glyph-marks tend to be more abstract than cutie marks, and act as amplifiers of intelligence and knowledge rather than skill.

However, zebras also have many notable differences to ponies. Most immediately apparent is that they lack the diversity of ponies in their colouration. While different tribes and individuals might use magic to alter the colours and patterns of their coats, for the most part, all zebras have black and white stripes all over them. These stripes can vary in their exact pattern, frequency, and shades, and observing the subtle differences between stripes is the primary way to differentiate between individual zebras at a glance, in absence of the more obvious differences that ponies use to identify each other.

Zebras also obviously lack the division of races that ponies have. While self-alteration through magic is possible, zebras normally lack both horns and wings, and do not have especially strong muscles either. However, what they do have is a similar affinity for nature as earth ponies, only much more potent due to the nature of zebra glyph-marks. This affinity makes ritual magic and alchemy a much easier task for a zebra than it is for a pony.

Donkey:
Like the zebras, donkeys lack the wide range of magical abilities available to ponies, although they too still have magical eye colouring. What is especially different about donkeys, however, is that sometime in their history, they lost the ability to manifest a soul mark, even though they are descended from a mark-bearing species.

This is a tremendous disadvantage to donkeys when comparing them to other equines, as the lack of a soul mark also means that their knowledge and skills are not magically amplified. Life as a donkey is difficult because of this, but it also means that donkeys generally do not ever require magic to get by like ponies do, as all the skill and intuition that a donkey gains over a lifetime is acquired through entirely natural means. For a donkey, losing their magic completely would not be nearly as crippling as it would be for a pony.

Donkeys are also differentiated by a longer gestation period during pregnancy, which lasts for over a year, and a longer average lifespan as well. The average donkey can expect to live for one hundred and twenty-four years, and the oldest donkey in recorded history made it to one hundred and seventy-two, even without the assistance of an age spell.

Hybrids:
As ponies, zebras, and donkeys are all equines, they are all capable of interbreeding. The hybrid species that result are not classified as chimeras, as they are naturally occurring species, unlike those created by the gods. There are three recognised hybrid species. These are the mules (pony + donkey), the zonies (pony + zebra), and the zonkeys (zebra + donkey). All are naturally infertile, but can breed with magical assistance.

Mules and zonkeys both lack soul marks, and take more after their donkey parents. They tend to be longer-lived because of this, but mules also cannot inherit the primary racial abilities of ponies as a result (though secondary abilities such as nature affinity are still available to them). Zonies, however, take more after their pony parents, and do inherit primary racial abilities.

Acknowledgements:
-The mesohippus existing in Equestria's world as an ancestor of ponies was taken from The Mentally Advanced Series by Dawn Somewhere.
-The concept of tactile telekinesis is something that I believe I took from FanOfMostEverything and his Friendship is Card Games blogs.
-Ponies having estrus, while not exactly uncommon fanon, was something I was first exposed to through Beating the Heat by Andrew Joshua Talon.
-Pony digestive systems being specially adapted for sugar intake was first suggested by Oliver, possibly in one of his Points of Canon blogs.
-The concept of the flight field comes from Jordan179, who spoke about it in one of his Rage Reviews.
-Zebras having glyph-marks instead of cutie marks comes from Fallout: Equestria by Kkat.
-The existence of zonies is canon now through the Friends Forever comics, but at the time of writing this essay, my primary inspiration for including them in the Borderworld was Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons by Somber.