4410095 (Chatoyance' first post here in this thread)

Put even more simply: your Newfoal 'Funny Uncle' relative is still an unpleasant asshole, but as a pony, he cannot truly hurt you anymore. He can't even consider stealing your bank account to run to the racetrack, you will never find him buggering your infant son or daughter in the dark. He'll never end up in court barely getting off of a charge of drug-related murder again. But he can still be his usual annoying self during family reunions.

After some thinking, I think this assholeness will fade away with time. Probably not completely, but ..
Why humans are assholess today?

1) some chemical/neural disbalance -> it will be 'cured' by transformation process ....
2) Because they had memory about how untrusted other humans can be, for real -> this memory will stay, but it will be slowly surrounded by memories of other types of interactions, typical for Equestria and not for Earth.
3) because whole operative empathy never developed or was dumbed down -> actually, I think there might be at least two different modes/kinds of empathy - one is stationary 'gravity field' working in all times in background, and another type, type of intelligence specialized in analyzing/improving understanding of current situation, so you will learn what other ponies (and non-ponies) want, why, when, with whom, how all this change over long life, etc, etc. And this second, more fluid process will slowly push our Uncle to reconsidering things he never considered before.. like, how his actions affect others ..and then, as pony he will have means to change a lot of situation, both inside himself and outside.
4) because a lot of our times usually occuppied by things we not really like to do - alienated labor and all this. Equestria , especially in Chatoyance view is NOT even same cosmos, so this problem finally will be effectively solved.
5) Because various miscommunications, blockages etc (inside person's brain) -> well, if you have 100+ years to even just sort all this while living good-> better type of life.. It might be worked out too.
6) Because humans fear incoming death/declining health -> again, in Chatoyenceverse (at least TCB part of it) humans-turned-ponies not die same way as they die on Earth .... after this realization finally occured.. well, without increased empathy result will be non-fun (for example newfoals overloading 'shadow'/second/post life area of Equestra before it become ready as real world stage, not just reduced-reality part-life place).
7) Even simply fact their (newfoals) health will be restored to nearly never-experienced levels surely will have consequences..yes, psychological inertia will play its role, but for how long?

In other words, I claim even unpretty damn well beat-down humans will recover in truely different environment. because they will have some forces inside them and outside them promoting such recovery.

4446744

If Twilight is an alicorn, a true alicorn, and not just a unicorn with wings, then she would be, in my vision of Equestria, an energy being. She would not be biological. She would be like Celestia and Luna.

But on the show, alicorn Twilight has nothing about her that would connote demigod qualities. Her mane is still hair, and not waving, glowing energy like Luna and Celestia. She doesn't seem to be the same species of creature at all. She is presented as just a unicorn with wings.

Couldn't it just be that Twilight's only a baby Alicorn? And therefore, is more akin to a normal pony then to an adult Alicorn?

In other words: Give Twilight a few centuries to grow up, before we expect her to be some super-powerful energy being.

6954052
This would work according to my own story Code: Majeste. In that story, it is demonstrated that a proto-alicorn gradually comes into their power as the carbuncle - a red organ directly under the horn, set into the brain - slowly hardens into a solid crystaline form of concretonized magic. At the moment it reaches absolute crystal status, the alicorn inverts from matter to energy and becomes a godlike entity beyond time and space. All that is needed is to suggest a vastly slower process for this to apply to Twilight.

So... very good point and insight!

4410095

There is one thing I am curious about, what percentage of people are transformed into unicorns, what percentage are transformed into pegasi and what percentage are transformed into earth ponies? What human characteristics determine this? Are smarter people transformed into unicorns or is the ponification process completely random?

7108664
IIRC there was something about looking at genetics and predispositions, to try and pick the "right" tribe. Details would be nice though!

7108810

It would be very nice. I could see the most intelligent people becoming unicorns, I could see the most athletic becoming pegasi while the rest would be transformed into earth ponies....in an ideal world you'd get to pick the type of pony you want to become but I don't think it works that way or you'd have a ton of pegasi and unicorns being created......I for one would want to be a unicorn for the magic....especially the telekinesis....no having to write or pick things up with my mouth.

7108664

7108810

It's been a while, but if I remember correctly, the breakdown is this:

50% probability of becoming an Earthpony
30% probability of becoming a Unicorn
20% probability of becoming a Pegasus

There is a correlation between personality and what a human transforms into. Highly intelligent, technical, scientific or artistic people often become unicorns. Athletic, creative, emotional, sensual and high-strung personalities often become pegasai. Athletic, strong, less imaginative, 'ordinary', practical and average sorts commonly become earthponies. There are always exceptions, some striking in their deviation, but on average... this seems to fit.

The division of probabilities matches the needed roles within Equestria. In Equestria, ponies ARE nature. They must physically, personally manufacture and clean up the seasons and tend to the garden that is the world. Weather will not happen on its own. The world has no automation to it, no 'natural laws' governing how nature works. Ponies create what happens mechanistically on earth.

The breakdown of roles is similar to the breakdown of roles in a medieval society: peasants, craftspeople, lesser nobility.

Earthponies are the peasants, they plow the fields, grow the crops and make the food. They do the heavy labor.

Unicorns are the craftspeople, their telekinesis allows them to make tools, work with metals and gems and perform finely detailed works.

Pegasai control, manufacture and manipulate the weather. They shift clouds to provide rain, block or allow sunlight to generate winds, and manufacture the conditions for ice and snow... or heat and sunshine.

Of course, individuals may choose not to follow these careers, but most must do so, at least part-time, just to keep the world working. Even if a pegasus - for example - has another job or interest most of the time, when there is a weather issue, they need to help... it is in the interest of every living thing. Likewise, even if an earthpony has chosen a technical or artistic career, if there is an issue with the food supply, they are expected to help when help is needed. And unicorns, even if they want nothing to do with magic or complex detail, if there is a problem only their fine control can fix, they must help out. Because there is no 'natural world' to leave survival to. They, personally and collectively, ARE that world.

Alicorns, following the medieval analogy, are the true royalty. They are also demigods, or even gods, in that they can control reality at a base level itself. They are what determine where the mountains and oceans go. They make the new life-forms and bring them into existence. They keep time and space together. But their weakness is that their vast power only works on cosmic scales. They can move the disk of the sun in the vast crystal dome of the sky, but they cannot dare to move the clouds below. The merest effort would unleash such force that hurricane winds would slaughter every living thing and polish the mountains flat. That... is why they appear so vulnerable and weak. They cannot act with their true power, because to do so would reshape the world they have spent so many thousands of years gradually bringing to life.

In my stories, only Discord has that kind of fine control over vast power, and the reason for that, for what he is and why he is, and why Celestia, Luna and Equestria itself exist at all, is told in my final book, 'Fiddler's Green'. In a nutshell, Equestria is an artificial pocket universe created by a multiversal-level Elder Race. The 'ship' that becomes Equestria 'crashes' on something native to the interstice between universes, and the Elder beings on board are killed. Several onboard intelligent systems - Navigation, Environment, and the ship's Control Interface are freed by the crash, and uninhibited, develop full sapience and free will. They become Luna, Celestia, and Discord... in that order. They create Equestria as a replacement 'interior' for the destroyed multiverse-ship, based on the only model they have: glimpses of our earth, in our universe, which they do not completely understand at all.

I hope this answers things?