Pretty much what it says on the tin - talk about what kinds of ponies there are in your headcanon.

Aright. Here we go.

Because I'm never going to write this fic, here's my one-stop dump for bat ponies (because, re: thread title, seaponies got usurped by hippogriffs and that's the only other type of pony I can really see existing).

So. Long ago, the night ponies were a fourth tribe who were somewhat reviled by the other three because they were nocturnal and whatnot. They weren't involved in the founding of Equestria, but did eventually trickle into the new place, happy to find a land where the pony tribes could live in harmony. And while at first the old prejudices reared their ugly heads, the ascension of the alicorns brought the night ponies a new purpose. Their nocturnal natures made them perfect fits as guardians of the night. Luna also saw how they were having trouble fitting in and gave them something to do that would better help them mesh with Equestrian society at large.

Earth ponies till the fields. Pegasi control the weather. Unicorns raise and lower the sun oh sorry, we have alicorns doing that, unicorns are actually just useless relics of the previous age.

And night ponies are pranksters.

The purpose of a night pony is to prank and frighten their fellow pony, not out of malice, but out of a need to keep them from growing complacent with their lot in life. Before Equestria, there were lots of dangers in the world, beasts which preyed upon ponies and could not be easily combatted. With a valley and new land to call their own, the ponies of Equestria were quickly growing soft, and Luna wanted to make sure their instincts would not dull in the lap of this new luxury.

So while many of the other ponies found this annoying or even frightening at first, after a while, the night ponies' antics began to be appreciated by the populace at large. Night ponies had other roles, as guardians of the night and messengers, but the pranks were a way for day ponies and night ponies to bond with each other: either the day pony got pranked and had a small reminder to stay on their toes, or they dodged the prank and the night pony vowed 'revenge'.

Unfortunately, everything changed during Nightmare Moon's rise. While many night ponies were excited at the idea of having more night to live in, the majority of them were distressed by the harsh bent their princess was taking. They had but a few generations ago found a way to fit in with their brethren; they didn't want to lose that. And so, when Luna tried to take over Equestria and bring night eternal, most night ponies fled the heart of Equestria for a place to hide.

This is where the name of Hollow Shades would usually be invoked, but it's real hard to say what's up with that place after season 7.

Point is, after Nightmare Moon's banishment, night ponies were gone. Those who supported her were rounded up and arrested, banished or imprisoned for life. Those who fled feared reprisals, the return of the old prejudices from before Equestria's founding. (Things wouldn't have been that bad, but they had no way to know.) And so, the night ponies vowed to remain hidden away. Equestrians grew softer under Celestia's rule for a thousand years.

And then Nightmare Moon came back, and nopony knew what to do. Luna did eventually seek them out, but the fact is, the night ponies are nearly extinct. (The condition of Hollow Shades is likely a testament to this.) They fled the safety of Equestria and suffered for it. The two guards we saw in Luna Eclipsed were in fact not night ponies. Luna enchanted the Night Guards' armor in tribute to her lost people, something we can see carried over into the Nightmare Moon future of The Cutie Re-Mark.

Man, that got real tragic there. But what can you expect from me, I mean really?

Well, we see Crystal Ponies and Kirin seem vaguely Equine. There are also vaguely Equine Changelings. I suspect they're mutated, cursed G1 Flutterponies. After Chrysalis's fall to darkness and transformation she spawned the Changeling race, but she was originally a Flutterpony. Flutterponies are still reclusive, but they're around. They just don't leave their valley all that much. Kirin are the result of Dragon-Pony mating over thousands of years leading to a new hybrid race. (In Equestria, only love is required for reproduction.)

The misfortunes and wanderings of the Crystal tribe could fill a volume, but to summarize they evolved in the harsh climate of the Wild North, developing crystal coats to keep out the cold. They developed ice arrows, defeated the other aggressive northern tribes and on the backs of this achievement built an empire. An alliance with the Pegasi would lead to the development of the House of Amore-the royal line from whence Cadence comes. King Sombra went mad and enslaved them (a foreigner wed to the Crystal Empress he could never call himself emperor) and his daughter was thrown through the time stream to protect her. That daughter's name was Cadence.

The Crystal Heart was made by the finest magicians of the Empire to keep the ceaseless winter from the city, giving them an advantage. While the other northern tribes fell to savagery and war, the Crystal Empire reached a high level of civilization which would only be rivaled by the Caribou (whom the Crystal Empire soundly defeated.)

7039022
Hmm... we see at least one crystal pegasus. No unicorns, though, besides Sombra. And of course, everypony goes crystal temporarily in the Heart's light - which suggests that the "real" ones are just a result of long-term/pre-natal exposure. But then, Flurry Heart isn't either - does the alicorn part cancel that out?

I'm harsher with cross-species reproduction, but it's possible some couple found a way - would explain why they're so rare. Perhaps Rain Shine was the original and the others are all her (infertile?) children.

7039038
Rain Shine?

EDIT: Holy crap, I didn't know Kirinlestia had an actual name.

7039052
Like Chrysalis, it didn't come up in the actual show.

7039054
...Come to think of it when was she first called Chrysalis?

7039055
In-show? At the episode break of Cutie Re-Mark.

Pinkie Pie: Silence, changeling!
Fluttershy: All servants of Queen Chrysalis found in these woods must be... destroyed!

Whoa, that's surprisingly brutal now that I think about it. Especially considering where changelings have gone since.

7039117
That was a surprisingly brutal episode.

That depends on your perspective, really. While some are closer related than others, most equines can freely interbreed. The term 'pony' is really more of a political term than a scientific term. Before the Crystal Empire became a part of Equestria, for example, many ponies in Equestria didn't consider the crystal ponies to be ponies at all! Even the changelings could be considered ponies, if it weren't for the fact that they haven't been on good terms with Equestria in... well, ever.

7039999
What about the part where they're not even mammals?

7040171
Are they though?

7040213
Their native form, original and new, seems insectoid without a doubt.

7040219
It also seems equine, but I doubt it's the result of a pony getting it on with a giant beetle of some kind. This is a setting with actual magic and creatures that don't follow ordinary biological sense.

7040222
Maybe. But I think the equine shape is more likely to be the coincidence (or adaptation to match prey) than them being ex-mammals.

My answer is yes. Bat ponies and Kirin are two examples. Crystal ponies are just ponies that have been exposed to the Crystal Heart a significant amount. The fact that they are seen as different is just unjust prejudice. The changelings are not, however. Alicorns are. Originally they were a bizarre genetic mutation with normal life spans. To get it you had to have both parents have genes from each of the three main tribes. Ascended Alicorns came later via a magical spell. The spell only works on those with genes from all three of the main tribes. Since it is a magical enhancement it comes with a lot of magically induced perks if you will. Ascended Alicrons were discovered by accident and it was something that StarSwirl wanted to study.

History time! So what happened to the Kirin, bat ponies and alicorns that made them pretty much disappear? Per the Hearthwarming story, the alicorns were a 4th tribe in ancient times and seen as the top tribe. However, by the time of the Hearthwarming story the tribe had mostly died out. Why is due to horrible events that lead to Discord's rise to power. In my headcanon Discord himself did not do any of it however he did exploit it to come to power. A massive and very drawn out series of fights between several of the ancient enemies of the pony race and the ponies had led to the targeting of any and all alicorns by those enemies to wipe them out as they were seen as natural leaders by the other pony tribes. The weakest part of my headcanon here is that a curse was also put on ponykind to make natural alicorn's next to impossible to be born. Both of these combined had resulted in the near-complete wiping out of the alicorn tribe by the time of the Hearthwarming story. In fact, the only two relatively young alicorns left were Celestia and Luna. The rest were very elderly and couldn't force Discord out of power. Instead, they trained Celestia and Luna to the point where they could, with Starswirl doing most of the training under their guidence. It took a 2nd try but the plan eventually worked. That is my headcanon on alicorns.

Bat ponies my headcanon largely mirrors what was said about them disappearing after Nightmare Moon with a few differences otherwise. First, they were a 5th tribe that never was as plenty as the main 3 but always more than alicorns. Due to ancient political and racial infighting amongst the tribes, they got the harshest treatment outside of the Kirin and grew more into solitude away from the other tribes until shortly after the Hearthwarming incident where Luna gave them a home in Equestria. After the NM incident, they largely dispersed for the reasons given above and have largely been in solitude since with a massive majority denying Luna's newer offer to come back to Equestria. Luna is keeping that offer open so long as she lives.

The Kirin are a 6th pony tribe. Due to some unknown reason, they have a much lower success rate for getting pregnant which keeps their numbers very low relative to the other tribes. Their low numbers combined with their uniqueness to the other tribes meant that they got the harshest treatment of all from the racial bickering between all of the tribes in ancient times. Thus before the Hearthwarming event, they asked the alicorn tribe if they could separate from the rest of the pony tribes and live on their own. The request was granted and the Kirin largely faded into lore. They denied Celestia's and Luna's offers to return to Equestria after they came to power. The reason for this was because the 3 main tribes still viewed them with racial prejudice hence the description of the Kirin on the ancient shield.

7041628
I agree with the crystal ponies' origins, but I feel they have a fair bit of pride in themselves as such and would probably be more offended to not be considered different.

And so interbreeding plants the seeds for alicorns? Interesting...

7042254

I didn't think about it from the crystal ponies perspective. I agree, at least to a degree, especially considering that they have been "lost" for quite some time. That said how strong is that feeling I don't know if we can say for certain.

It makes sense to me as a possibility. What would happen when things got that mixed? Also, how would the baby be determined between the different types? Which race gets the genetic superiority over the rest? In terms of how that could produce an alicorn naturally let us say that one parent is ab and the other is either ac or bc. That presents the genetic possibility of a mutation of abc together. We know that it is a genetic mutation for humans to occasionally end up with an extra x or y chromosome. So what happens if you were to get said mutation in Equestrian ponies regarding their race? Hence me thinking that alicorns are a possible natural genetic mutation.

7042726
Of course, that implies mixed ancestry for both Twilight and Cadance - maybe even Cozy, although that was hardly a normal ascension. But given that the tribes have lived together for over a millennium, it could be there are more with alicorn potential than without.

Possibly, yes. As I said natural alicorn required the abc mutation. What I didn't specify, and should have, is that the magical ascension requires it too. Thus the possibility is high but the likelihood remains low.

7042739
At least, unless Twilight can figure out a way to force it safely.

7042747

This just made me realize that Twilight doing such a thing would be genetic manipulation if what I said is how it works. That makes me wonder how genetic manipulation is viewed in Equestria.

7046975
Well, remember the orange-frog?

7046978

How much genetic engineering is a transfiguration spell on a living creature?

7047115
Dunno - depends how deep the changes go, I guess, and if it counts as "engineering" whaen done half-blind.

Depends. I do think clarification should be made between Ponies who have flowing hair and those who do not given the various implications (Cozy Glow is turned into a Alicorns but she doesn't have flowing hair until she absorbed Discord's magic) contrary wise we see two ponies Mistmane and Gusty the Great both depicted with flowing hair despite not being Alicorns what's that about.

7239582
Well given it seems to be aquirred, I'm guessing it's either a kind of magical mutation or a spell - depends how delibrate you want it, I guess.

7239680
I think it's a side effect of ponies being continually being taped into a source of powerfully magic, while still retaining control over it.

7239809
Could be - but what powers Mistmane?

7239827
The life force of nature perhaps? She spends a lot of time outside tending to her gardens, so it makes sense she might have a connection to the outdoors, and the energy and organisms contained there.

7239848
Could be - her item was a flower. I wonder how she unlocked it, and if it has any side effects besides the obvious.

7239859
I always found it interesting how she was able to give up her beauty, without supposedly sacrificing her youth, though that could've been the nature of the spells at play.

7239894
It might be related to the mystery that is age spells.

Edit after the fact: Beware. Wall of text incoming.[/edit]

I had a good chuckle right now. I read PresentPerfects comment on bat ponies and my grin grew and by the end of it, I thought 'that's, like, ninety percent of what I adopted for my own head-canon as well'. Funny.

So yeah. Bat ponies were a thing once. Nocturnal. Good sneaks. Very good spies, too. (We don't talk about assassinations.) But they have always been a tribe low in numbers. In my head(-canon), when Nightmare Moon rose, the bat ponies had some difficult choices to make. I imagine this conflict was a very short, very brutal affair. But it wasn't a thing done and dusted in one night. Some bat ponies fought against the Nightmare, seeing what she had become. Some fled to hidden areas beyond Equestrian borders. Some were loyal to the end and stood by her side. The latter had... unfortunate fates. What is that saying again? 'Those who pick up a sword will die by a sword'? Something like that, wasn't it? Anyway. This escalated into a civil war of sorts, and the bat ponies took a massive hit. Low in numbers to begin with, fighting each other on top of that. Few ever emerged from that conflict, and they simply died out over very few generations. What remained of their entire race were the ones smart enough to flee when the conflict became clear. After Luna's return, she sought them out and corralled them once more. She tried to make amends. She’s still trying. There's a lot of hurt that has to be overcome, and trust needs to be rebuilt.

And I, too, went with the 'but she was very grateful for their service and so worked an illusion into Night Guard armor to make them look like bat ponies'-version. I actually go a step beyond that and claim the same for Day Guard armor. That's why so many of them look the same. It's not a lazy copy & paste, naaaahhh. It's an enchantment designed to protect the identity of the guard doing his job. (Hard to hold a grudge against an individual if you don't know what they actually look or sound like.)

And I guess this is as good a point as I will get to talk about changelings. Whoop whoop. In my version, they're not exactly from 'round these parts. And to talk about them, I have to talk about the dreamscape. Long explanation incoming.

The dreamscape is a separate realm. Within it, force of will is the most important thing. You don't 'move' forward. You will yourself forward, and that makes you move. The realm is relatively featureless. An empty void. But with enough willpower, you can force your imagination into reality and 'paint' it. That's what Luna does. She makes it look like the night sky. Because she thinks it's pretty. (And hey, she's right.) Without her present, the dreamscape is just an empty void again.

Little is known about this plane of existence. It is the place where the consciousness of dreamers go. Each dreamer is represented by something that appears as a large soap bubble. When the creature is awake, the bubble is in an inactive state, gray and barely moving. When the creature sleeps, the bubble has a colorful swirl inside. Studying those colors can give you a general feeling about the nature of the dream.

Those who have dream magic can enter these bubbles, and thereby enter the dreams of dreamers. It allows Luna to help distressed ponies deal with fears and the like. But few are aware that she actually helps other dreamers, too. Dragons dream. Griffons dream. Yaks dream. And since the dreamscape is all about force of will, Luna can change her appearance and abilities 'at will'. She can appear as a Yak to a Yak if she deems that more promising to solve the task at hoof. She can make herself into an earth pony if that would help. If her will is strong enough to overpower the will of the dreamer, she can reshape the dream itself. Make trees less scary. Let the sun rise on a scary night. But she has to be careful about how much she changes, and how suddenly. After all, the dreamer could become aware of the dream, and that might startle the dreamer enough to wake up.

Luna doesn't like entering the dreams of powerful creatures, like older dragons. Or her sister's. Because she can get trapped in there, if her own willpower isn't sufficient to overpower that of the dreamer.

Dream bubbles can merge, creating 'shared dreams'. Lucid dreamers are a thing as well, being able to control their dreams to varying extents.

The other prominent feature of the dreamscape are the creatures native to it. They don't have a physical form in the regular sense. The dreamscape doesn't sport any concept of 'matter'. A pony looking at a dreamscape creature might see a small, translucent rabbit. The reason is simple. The pony's mind tries to comprehend what it is perceiving. (No matter means no eyes. Perception is a funny thing here.) A dreamscape creature appearing as a rabbit is perceived by the pony's mind as something young (as they grow with age) and harmless. But everyone has to eat something, right? The same pony might see another creature and it appears as a wolf. Because the pony's mind understands: This is a predator to me. It is dangerous.

It gets even more confusing if you have two ponies in there. Both look at the supposed wolf. One sees a regular old wolf, the other sees a timberwolf. Why the difference? Because the second one feels more threatened by a timberwolf than a regular wolf, and the first one has never seen or heard of timberwolves. So how you perceive these creatures depends on your understanding, your memories, your knowledge.

Most dreamscape creatures interact with dreams. They latch onto them and feed off the specific emotions in the dream. (It's unclear if it is a matter of taste or how it is determined which creature eats which emotions.) This process diminishes the emotions in the dreamer, which sounds awful, but can actually be beneficial. Reducing anger and hatred doesn't seem so bad, does it? And the dreamer doesn't notice it until he wakes up and feels less angry about that thing that riled him up last evening. Problem is, that works for love and joy as well. That's why most feel so 'emotionally balanced/neutral' when waking up.

Some are smart enough to become 'farmers', trying to manipulate dreams to sow what they intend to harvest. Problem is, few of those creatures understand 'this strange other realm' they see in those dreams they feed on. Some get curious about that. Most don't.

It is almost impossible for dreamscape creatures to pass over into the material realm. And each and every time that happens, it's a world-threatening disaster. The creature is suddenly thrust under a very different set of natural laws. Its entire existence is bent and broken and reformed to fit these rules. Few survive this process with their sanity intact. Some possess nearby things. Trees. Stones. Ponies. Whatever they reach first. Which has created some interesting creatures, curses and effects in the past. Some materialize bodies for themselves out of magic. Once again: Some interesting creations. The latter is where changelings come from. Originally, they were dreamscape creatures feeding on positive emotions, love, devotion, joy. A single one crossed over. And became the first changeling queen. It created its body according to imagery it had remembered from nightmares it had seen. Some poor sod had dreamed about horrible, horrible bug ponies. And that made a horrible, horrible bug pony very real. As a dreamscape creature, it had magic in spades and continued to feed on emotions, like all dreamscape creatures do. And in time, it created more of its kind. Lesser versions. Serviceable tools to gather even more food.

Funny sidenote. Windigos were once dreamscape creatures as well. They fed on hatred, anger and disharmony. And once again, they carried their hunger over after passing into the material realm.

Sooo. Yeah. Changelings are a dream come true. Literally. Which, of course, means that they have a very different origin than ponies. They are neither insectoid, nor equine, per se.

7689760
Well, if we're going to talk about close headcanon matching... well, my dreamscape was already like yours, and probably even the dream creatures were there, even if I hadn't thought about them in much detail. But despite all the fuss about the Tantabus maybe breaking loose, I hadn't thought of using them as an origin.

I'll have to consider if I want to adopt this... but changeling-wise, it arguably fits canon's sole hive even better than your many. And could be used to reframe Chrysalis as Luna's nemesis as much as she is already Cadance's and Celestia's... hmm, now we just need a way to make her Twilight's foil and we're set!

7689825
Well. You're welcome to pick and choose whatever you like. I think that's what all this is about anyway.

I'm not entirely sure how the other queens came to be myself, just yet. I'm gonna call it a 'work in progress'. After all. Stories evolve.

I'm sure there are more creatures closely connected to emotions. I plan on taking a look at those eventually. Maybe they fit the bill as well.