Does anyone else find it really awkward that ponies and zebras have cutie marks but horses◊ don't? Ponies are a breed of horses and far more distantly related to zebras... But the lattter has marks and the former doesn't?

Voiced by Matt Smith. ;)

My fanon on that note is that those two are the 'gods' of Saddle Arabia, and have simply forgone cutie marks, possibly for cultural reasons. Or on that line, perhaps they've been covered for cultural reasons.

It's also kinda questionable whether or not Zecora actually has a cutie mark proper.

edited 16th Apr '13 1:42:45 PM by kegisak

Admittedly, I did find that weird. Maybe the common ancestor had cutie marks and they were lost in horses and donkeys?

EDIT:@Kegi: The horse gods aren't any bigger than Celestia? Also, it's unusual for the gods to be the dellegates. I assumed that the horses' rulers would be about three times Celestias size.

edited 16th Apr '13 1:44:59 PM by Sereg

@Rhyme: These ponies are multicolored and have magic. It's so far away from real biology that it's best not to think too hard about it.

Maybe it's an animation error as the cloth thing could have been meant to conceal a cutie mark but it was misplaced. Is that at all likely?

Thanks guys.

Those pony eating plants btw. Think badass ponies would hunt them?

But trying to understand the biology of fiction is something I love to do! It comes from me studying to be a biologist.

EDIT:As much as they'd do any other monster slaying, which admittedly is less than humans would based on how pony culture seems to work.

edited 16th Apr '13 1:49:22 PM by Sereg

It's not even for the sake of realism like the donkey design. The mare is pink with a purple mane for crying out loud.

@Sereg: No, because their not horse gods, but pony gods. Hence why they're the same size and build as her, roughly speaking. Saddle Arabia in my fanon is an offshoot of El'bia, an earth-pony only country. After the 'death' of their first god, Amos of the shifting sands(Not to mention the related political issues), the country underwent a small schism and a small faction seceded and declared itself independent, taking on a couple 'ambitious' small-time old souls as their patrons. Part of Celestia making base with them was to keep the politics of the region stable(As Equestria was already a trading partner with El'bia), and partly to fully integrate the new gods into the cosmic council... and keep an eye on them. They're the youngest gods after Celestia and Luna, so they seemed to be the most likely to keep them calm, as opposed to say the roughly-50-thousand year old Ciel of the Sky and her extended family, or the moderately younger but rather imposing duo from their neighboring country, Ferghus of Iron and Simon of Stone.

@ Sereg

Since the ponies could eat them, it could be a form of hunting.

The two emissaries are Spice Manna addicts. Sufficient consumption of Manna enables non-Unicorns to practice magic, but at the cost of their special talent, basically making them Jacks of All Trades.

edited 16th Apr '13 2:04:03 PM by SantosLHalper

Please let that be canon.

@Kegi: Ah. Cool. But they seem to have diferent snouts from the ponies. Also:

Um... Aren't you forgetting a certain pink princess? (Interesting that you see Celestia and Luna as right at the bottom though. I consider them reasonably high up, but not near the top).

@Applelight: Hmm. I guess so. All right.

This had better not turn into another power level discussion.

a pony bumps into Celestia while she's dancing

Celestia: "Dude, you threw off my groove!"

Guard: "Sorry, but you threw off the Princess's groove."

pony gets thrown off the mountain

Or even better:

Twi and Pinkie go down to the lab below the library

Twilight: "Pull the lever, Pinkie!"

Pinkie pulls lever, Twi falls down trap hole

Twilight: "WRONG LEVEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeee-" splash

edited 16th Apr '13 2:22:46 PM by IrishZombie

Like peanut butter.

@Sereg: Oh. Hm. Umm...

Cadence may be a goddess, she isn't technically a part of the cosmic council yet. She'll be officially included at the same time as the Saddle Arabian Delegates. For the moment they're just letting her ease into the Crystal kingdom, and they'll see if it recovers enough to become a new country, and therefore she'd be deemed a Regal Old Soul and made a part of the council, or if it remains a city-state, In which case previously she would have been moved to take control of El'bia as it's new leader, though there's a fraction of the council that desires to respect Amos's last wishes and not have a new council member take the throne, and Celestia would push for Twilight to take over after a while to keep Cadence from having to relocate, since the Crystal Ponies view her as a hero.

So she doesn't 'count' because she's not in control of a country and therefore still on the same level as basic old souls - who are not necessarily lesser than the council. The strongest Old Soul in existence generally wants nothing to do with the council, and the feeling is mostly mutual.

(Also, considering Luna and Celestia as the youngest doesn't necessarily make them the bottom, but they're far from the top - it was a narrative device used to demonstrate that there are ranks on the totem pole much higher and more dangerous than them.)

edited 16th Apr '13 2:34:50 PM by kegisak

@Irish: "Why do we even have that lever?"

Ponies eat plants all the time. Not sure why they'd be hunted though.

@ story

These plants can move, and are hostile and dangerous.

@Story: The comic has carnivorous plants. You've got to wonder whether the ponies would eat them. It certainly raises the interesting question of whether they grill up plant steaks or something.

@ JT

Veggie sausages? Are they a thing?

Any vegans in here?

I drew an Ass while waiting on hold for a Doctor's office.◊

I know, I just got a little confused by Applelight's Ambiguous Grammar and decided to joke about it.