One of Lauren Faust's goals with Friendship is Magic was to reintroduce the idea that the ponies are...well, ponies. The original G1 cartoon followed this principle to an extent, but subsequent series gradually moved more and more towards the characters just being humans in pony suits, capable of standing on two legs and holding objects in their hooves without difficulty. And while FiM has adopted more anthropomorphic traits as its run has continued, there are still numerous real-life behaviors and movements that are emulated by the cast.
And that's what this post is about: cataloging what traits are exhibited and how they impact the ponies and our works.
Basic Anatomy
* The ponies are all quadrupedal by nature, and adhere to the usual rules regarding gaits. When the ponies are walking, they move in a four-beat sequence, although the show doesn't always have their heads bobbing up and down to maintain balance. When trotting, they switch to a two-beat sequence, moving their legs in matching diagonal patterns. The show has only occasionally shown the ponies in a three-beat canter, but they have been seen galloping, and are usually shown using the correct movements, alternating between what hoof is on the ground and being briefly suspended in the air. Furthermore, galloping is only used for short periods of time, either when covering short distances quickly or fleeing from danger, and the ponies are very visibly exhausted after a sustained gallop like this.
* The ponies have been shown to be capable of assuming more human-like poses, including extended periods of standing unsupported on their hind legs and posing in such a manner. Particularly egregious examples include the old “Bridlemaids” billboard advertisement and Scootaloo leaning against a log in “Sleepless in Ponyville.” In real life, horses and ponies are incapable of supporting these ponies due to their weight and bone structure; that's part of the reason why a horse breaking a leg is a mortal injury, as the broken bone would be crushed completely under the horse's mass and lead to a far more painful and agonizing end.
* Real life horses have their eyes located on the sides of their heads. This sacrifices frontal vision in favor of greater peripheral vision, which is perfect for locating threats. The show has been a bit inconsistent about this, with profile shots having the eyes on the side and frontal shots showing them up front.
* During “Art of the Dress,” Rarity mentions several body parts, including the croup, dock, haunch, shoulders and hip. All of these are basic parts of a horse's body, in particular the back and side areas that the Gala dresses would be covering. It can thus be inferred that ponies have adopted the same terminology for their own bodies that humans have ascribed to them in the real world. The only difference is flank; the actual flank is the side of the pony's midsection, while Cutie Marks actually appear on their hip/rear end.
* Ponies use their mouths and hooves to carry out daily tasks. In the first season, the mouth was used almost entirely, as it is what horses are most capable of utilizing to grab objects in the real world. As the show continued, however, hooves were shown to be more versatile and capable of grasping objects as well, although this is most commonly shown being utilized by applying pressure to both sides of an object to keep it from sliding. This is mostly a necessary evil, however, as the series simply would be much harder to write for if only 1/3 of the cast didn't have to rely on their oral entries to perform mundane tasks.
* Strength-wise, the ponies (much like the real-life equivalents) are stockier than actual horses, but also surprisingly strong for their size. They cannot be ridden by anything that weighs more than a young human (unless they're sufficiently large enough, like Big Macintosh or the Princesses), but they are capable of pulling large carts with relative ease. Applejack (who has worked on a farm her whole life, and thus has had to build up her muscles more than the rest of the Mane 6) is capable of hauling several small carts of apples at once in “Party of One.” Likewise, Sweetie Belle was able to carry large amounts of luggage in “Sisterhooves Social,” and during “Sleepless in Ponyville” carted Rarity's camping supplies, albeit with a great deal of exertion and effort. (Scootaloo had difficulty carrying the same load, but this can be attributed to her sleep deprivation reducing her energy.)
* Ponies can sleep both lying down and standing up, as Applejack did in “Applebuck Season.” However, the ponies on the show prefer to sleep in beds and on their backs, no doubt caused by their more civilized status than real-life horses. In addition, the reason horses sleep standing up is so they can be better prepared to flee from predators; in a world where ponies have more or less become a dominant species, this is hardly as large an issue.
* Ponies have a large range of body language, which is used in real life to denote affection, aggression and their current feelings about a situation. Their ears are capable of moving forwards and back, both to home in on noises and to express their emotions. The movement of their legs is another indication, including kicking at the ground to signal an upcoming charge or to denote frustration or anger. And then there's nuzzling, which is used to express affection and more or less replaces general hugs and kisses in most instances. (Pinkie gives Twilight a small nuzzle in “Lesson Zero,” while Cadance and Shining Armor practically nuzzle each other's entire body in “A Canterlot Wedding.”)
* The show's foals differ greatly from real-life ones. While both develop the ability to walk very soon after birth (real life foals are able to do so mere minutes into their lives), cartoon ponies begin life in a relatively human-esque baby proportion to adults. Real life foals are much larger, with most of their development being muscle growth and enlargement of their upper bodies. FiM ponies do seem to develop faster than human infants, though, although just what this indicates about their life span is unclear. (Granny Smith and other elderly ponies seem to indicate that, at the very least, these ponies outlive real-life ones by decades.)
DIET
* As in real life, the ponies are all herbivores. The stables of their diets includes various plants, shrubs, grasses, and hay, which are then mixed into a variety of dishes.
* Contrary to popular belief, real-life horses can eat meat. (Indeed, farm horses eating baby chicks is not unheard of.) Their bodies are not used to handling it, however, so it has very limited nutritional value. This somewhat reduces the squickiness of the ham sandwich in “A Bird in the Hoof.”
* The show's ponies are capable of eating foods that are normally toxic to horses, including chocolate. They can also easily digest large quantities at a time, while real-life horses have fairly small stomachs and can easily overeat. Also, the ponies have a gag reflex and can vomit, something real-life horses cannot, and thus will not die because they ate something they are incapable of digesting.
SOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND INTELLIGENCE
* Much like humans, horses are social creatures, and actively seek out other members of their species for companionship and protection. FiM's ponies behave in much the same way, forming close bonds and friendships with each other.
* Herds are typically matriarchal in nature, with the herd's stallion providing security for the mares. Equestria's population seems to indicate that it's far more heavily weighted towards females, and its leaders are almost all female as well. Meanwhile, the Royal Guard is seemingly entirely male, reflecting the stallion's purpose of protecting the herd. On a closer level, however, the show's ponies frequently break away from these roles, and the stated reason for so many female ponies is because of the show's target demographic. Still, it lines up very well.
* Horses are programmed heavily towards the “flight” part of the fight-or-flight response. This is reflected in the show, where the ponies will usually flee from their attackers unless they know they can take them or there is no other options available. In addition, the FiM ponies are easily panicked and spooked, mistrust anything that's not a pony, and can be driven to hysterics over absolutely nothing. At the same time, though, real-life horses are naturally curious, and will try to judge for themselves whether something is an immediate danger or just a rabbit scurrying across the valley. This is shown again in many of the ponies, especially Twilight Sparkle.
* Contrary to popular belief, horses are not unintelligent. While they lack higher-level reasoning and complex problem solving, they are capable of recognizing patterns, understanding communication, and memorizing routines and techniques. The FiM ponies, however, have been upgraded to human intelligence, albeit tempered by their magical environment, and have a great number of inventions and convenience objects to make it through their lives. The FiM ponies are also capable of speech and language, while real-life horses use grunts and whinnies to communicate moods and desires.
---
I know there is probably even more layers I can dig through, but I am not an experienced zoologist, so this is the best I could come up with. It's fascinating how the show's production staff tried to emulate as many real-life horse traits and behaviors as they could, giving things a bit of a realistic flair while remaining very magical and mysterious. It's this level of dedication that has helped the show grow beyond a simple girl's cartoon and into something more.
So, how can this be used in fan works? Well, there are a couple of options available:
1. Get a chart of the parts of the pony body. This one here is actually a really good reference, as it also includes the terminology for pegasus wings and unicorn horns. So when something happens to a specific part of a pony's body, feel free to mention the name.
2. A lot of fics recently have been exploring the idea of a female-dominated society and how stallions are treated by Equestria at large. While this can be a bit of a minefield to stumble into, this is still a topic that's worth exploring if one feels brave enough to tackle it. As mentioned, there are surface similarities between Equestrian society and real-life herd behaviors, but there are also enough differences that a direct parallel isn't really possible.
3. You might have noticed I never mentioned heat. That's because it's never brought up in the show and exists solely as a magnification of a real-life biological function on the ponies. While the idea itself isn't impossible (the ponies have been confirmed to reproduce via mammalian means, unlike the G3.5 ponies who were delivered via mystical forces), it's used far more often for cheap sex and rape jokes. Just be smart with it.
4. The key thing to remember with including pony-like actions and social behaviors is that, while they are horses, they have had their intelligence and reasoning skills raised to human levels. Thus, it is important not to get held down in the ticky-tacky specifics, but instead just use these notes as a guideline.
And that's that. Hope this helped you all.
No comments:
Post a Comment