Well, looking at the services Rarity provides I think that she would need her customers to pay her. A barter system for her job wouldn't work that well as she needs both supplies and time. However, for weather jobs like the ones Dash does may fall under the non-profit variety but she is still given some sort of payment perhaps in the form of discounts at various stores and the like.

On another matter altogether, how did Derpy, a Pegasus, give birth to Dinky Doo, a unicorn? o_O

Well, obviously the father was a unicorn. Obviously.

Hmm, doesn't sound likely. Considering this is Derpy we're dealing with, Derpy's husband would probably be an earth pony. Which would explain why their daughter is a unicorn.

That makes a lot of sense in how much it doesn't.

Ah, but I didn't say Derpy's husband, now, did I? I said her daughter's father!

(I wonder what the pony equivalent of The Maury Povich Show is.)

I wouldn't be surprised if Derpy had a kid by herself (a unicorn kid, mind you) simply because she didn't know it was impossible.

Kind of like this.

Thank you, Sand, for bringing up the issue of genetics. Admittedly, they were kinda bothering me anyways...I mean, which racial traits are dominant? Like, in any given permutation of relationships, which is the resulting race of the child? Earth would be the strongest, presumably, since they seem to be the most common, but it also raises the issue that there needs to be a balance between races, based on the control of the environment, and any race with dominant genes is going to end up being the only one eventually...if the genes mix, every subsequent iteration is always going to be watered down...Then only option that could perpetuate each race evenly is Gender Equals Breed. Well, unless of course Ponyville is more Earth-pony centric, and other places are more unicorn or Pegasus heavy. and that's not getting started on colour...

MST3K, MST3K, MST3K...

edited 16th Mar '11 11:38:10 PM by kegisak

That could bring in an interesting argument about certain cutie marks being genetic. However, if Gender did in fact determine which variety your child would become with almost three quarters of Equestria's population being female and most pony males being earth ponies, one does wonder how it works out.

Exactly!

edited 16th Mar '11 11:59:37 PM by SandJosieph

ok here's my summation.

It's past midnight, so this may get long.

Earth ponies, Pegasus ponies and Unicorns are all equal traits:

A Pegasus pony mates with another Pegasus. Now this Pegasus had a great aunt who was an earth pony. She doesn't know it, but she is carrying the earth allele recessively. She's Pe. the other Pegasus is a Pp, double Pegasus. Therefore, all of their children will be Pegasi, with some possibly carrying the e allele, because the first P is dominant. But then, their child mates with an earth pony, one of a long line of earth ponies. Ee. Pe and Ee have children and some of them those that carry the E gene will be earth. I think you need both to be that type of pony.

Don't ask me about the unisus please.

Now for Cutie Marks. Cutie marks are talents, which means they are not completely genetic but also influenced by your environment. If a pony who lives in the snow comes from a family of surfers and fishermen, she will not develop a surfing talent or suddenly want to take up sailing—her talent will lie in snowboarding or icefishing, most likely.

There are Always exceptions.

If a pony like Applebloom grows up in a family which loves and respects it's Apple orchard, there's a strong chance she will also find something she is best at when it comes to apples or growing things. That's not because apples are "in her blood" it's because she was raised on an apple orchard. Granted, there will be rare talents that have nothing to do with their environments—like Sparkle's talent, but that right there is what makes her gift notable, as has been pointed out on the show.

That said—has it already been asked what everybody thinks the crusaders Cuties will turn out to be?

I think Sweetie Belle will have to do with singing, Scootaloo with scooter tricks, and Applebloom with flowers or decoration.

I figure Twilight and Fluttershy (and Rainbow Dash, for that matter) are employed by the State - what they do is a public service, after all (public library, animal service, weather control).

okay, it's been a while since I took bio, so my Punnett Square theory might not be up to snuff. Let me see if I've got this straight: A unicorn with a pure unicorn and pure Pegasus parents (Up) and a unicorn with pure unicorn and earth parents (Ue) mate. There are four children, who are Uu, Up, Ue, and ep, respectively. The first three are all unicorns, but if the last one has two recessive genes, which wins out?

Okay, backing up: From what you had, I assumed that each 'purebred' contained a dominant and recessive allelle in their gene. This explains the initial mutations - there's a 50-50 chance of a uni/peg offspring being born one or the other. The issue then occurs when they take two dominants or two recessives - which will occur 50% of the time; one set of genes needs to be above the others.

again, it's been years since I took anything Biology related, but, unless I've missed something, any given relationship is going to have two out of four unfeasible offspring. Which isn't impossible, it would just mean that the resulting Punnett Squares for them would be different. Which is a shame, because think of all the fun that could come from two Pegasi with recessive unicorn allelles they don't know about getting together.

Y'know, I don't think anypony has ever used the library aside from Twilight ever since she moved in.

That does open up the possibility of Derpy having a unicorn child if both she and her earth pony husband had a recessive unicorn gene.

I don't think we know enough in concrete terms to start speculating on Pony genetics. All that could just be a result of the (very) local population in what appears to be a rural area. But it's an interesting question, no doubt, albeit not one I can see somehow divining an answer for unless Lauren Faust and her crew plan on showing us a mated pair of two different races along with their child.

Remember that the only real sample we have to judge is restricted to Ponyville. It doesn't at all have to be indicative of the rest of Equestrian society. The most we can say is that based on what inferences we can make and what we can derive from the evidence, things seem to work like they do ONLY here in Ponyville. It's about the size of a small town by the looks of it, it's not hard to think that things would work differently from say a big city like Canterlot in terms ranging from sociology to economics to demographics.

Come to think of it, Ponyville is an Earth pony town is it not? I think this is mentioned in Winter Wrap-up where the whole ritual to bring the Spring in is historically an exclusively Earth pony event. It's part of why Twilight didn't want to use her Magic to help fix things up quicker. This all makes sense considering the majority of the population appear to be Earth ponies and if the town was founded originally by Earth pony settlers, because they would not have had Magic of their own.

Also, isn't Celestia the only Unicorn/Pegasus?

Also again, the Cutie marks interest me immensely but for quite a different reason than their genetics.

Also again again (goddamnit) I too think that Fluttershy, Twilight, Dash do government work. Fluttershy seems to be in the position of a groundskeeper and animal behaviorist, working to keep the flora, fauna and general ecology in hand. She was in charge of organizing the animals in Winter Wrap-up and that was an official town events with (dis)organized teams that had their own colored uniforms and armbands and shit.

Rainbow Dash, when she's not lazing about, looks to do aerial work clearing away the clouds. I'd also imagine she'd be good at running messages and other errands but as far as I know that's speculation.

Twilight is an interesting case. At the beginning of the series we see she works in the capitol, likely a book-keeper or what passes in Equestria for a lower-level bureaucrat. Her obsessiveness with rules and procedure bear this theory out, but she's seen as willing to get her hands dirty so I suppose she's quite an effective bureaucrat. The Equestrian government seems quite efficient if Twilight is anything to judge by. She also clearly has experience organizing ponies as seen at the end of Winter Wrap-up and is a natural leader and a mediator. Perhaps she was a diplomatic functionary. an envoy? She's also a rationalist and a skeptic, qualities that make sense for someone coming from the big city in to some podunk town in the middle of the Equestrian countryside (that has it's share of superstitions and xenophobia, Zacora etc). Perhaps a scientist then? A scholar? Or would that be just a hobby?

Yeah, you can tell I've got a shit-ton on this show. I think it's a testament to its quality that it can keep me interested and get me to write so much on it.

edited 17th Mar '11 4:29:38 AM by Gault

Through a strange turn of events, somehow a version of "Giggle at the Ghostie" was posted on the Hub without background music. It's an interesting look on how the situation would have appeared in-universe.

In short, how it would sound in reality which is nice but a little strange.

I think that's fucking hi-larious. Nice catch. You can then infer that the music is in fact just in her head, which makes perfect sense. Unlike her.

edited 17th Mar '11 5:04:07 AM by Gault

The clip actually made me start thinking; bursting into song like that in reality would result in some rather odd looks to say the least. It's easy to end up being rather self-conscious about it. It kind of makes me hope Pinkie will help Sweetie Belle get over her fear of singing in front of large audiences.

Speaking of songs and at least part of them being in the girls' heads, I've been wondering if the "Art Of The Dress" reprise was something only the audience saw and Rarity's friends didn't. It would make sense, seeing as how they'd have to pretty blind not to notice her losing it.

The girls decide to play D&D.

It's time for a new Super Ponybeat today!

Yaaaaaaay!

Ah, I just can't get enough of those super pony beats. I just went to grab everything I could find.

Somehow, breaking into song without any sort of musical accompaniment seems entirely in character for Pinkie Pie. (And for me, but that's another thread)

... So, has Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt infected this fandom, or vice-versa?

There are ponies of everything now. I'm almost not exaggerating. They need to reserve a number and make that a new rule of the internet. (You know, the thing that goes, "If it exists, there is pony of it. No exceptions.")