^^And on boorus there are Panty and Stocking versions of everything.
So, I guess, their crossing was inevitable.

Arguably, she's more of a grad student, currently conducting a research project on a generous stipend.

Twilight is probably the most powerful pony we've seen other than the princesses. I think it makes sense for Celestia to be interested in helping her cultivate her abilities.

This is even more plausible if you buy into the that Twilight's magic has increased in power since she started making friends. After all, friendship is magic.

Good point. She seems to have more responsibilities and experience than it would really make sense for a Grad student to have though.

That also makes sense, though after the first episode I'm not sure what the writers really plan on doing with the Elements. The major conflict was resolved in the Pilot! What else is there to do other than go about daily life?

Oh god, I'm so confuzzled!!

Pp	Pe	Pu
Ep	Ee	Eu
Up	Ue	Uu

I'm not sure I agree that Twilight has more responsibilities than the average student. The only things we've really seen her officially responsible for, as far as I can remember, is overseeing the Summer Solstice Festival (or whatever it was called) and moving the Dragon in Dragonshy, which she could have just taken upon herself after speaking with the princess.

Well, I guess that would mean that she does have more responsibilities, but she still seems a lot like a student. She blows off a party in the beginning because she has to study, and she claims to study a LOT throughout the show. Add this to the fact that Celestia addresses her as 'My Faithful Student', and I think that Twilight is in fact a student, she just happens to be Celstia's private student, or her apprentice. It may just have been that she did so well in her classes that Celestia suggested giving her extra work, or Twilight requested it, and eventually she just started learning from Celestia privately. In that regard, the extra responsibilities make sense, since that's the sort of things private teachers and master would reasonably do - have their students do field research, or give them small responsibilities the master would otherwise do on their own. After all, she's staying in Ponyville under the pretense of 'studying friendship and the magical properties thereof', and she's shown to study in other fields, likely taking other classes through correspondence.

Ok back to the genetics lesson.

Since we have three traits, we have six alleles. Dominant Unicorn, recessive Unicorn, and so on.

If you had four babies from a Pe and Pu parents, the eu baby would be 50/50 unicorn or earth.

Well, yeah, it's just...mixing the breeds seems wrong to me. Luna and Celestia are unicorn Pegasi, sure, but they're GODDESSES. Supposed to embody all three pony types, etc etc. As far as we know, it just doesn't happen otherwise. Having a Pony that blends two races could lead to a lot of what might be considered defects, like a horn but no magic, or wings that can't fly...hence my original issue. Although, I don't think we've ever seen a cannon couple of mixed breeds, so maybe it's verboten in Equestria, perhaps for that exact reason.

Of course, that's a really broad generalization, since there isn't just one 'human' gene, or for the matter, one 'race' gene (I assume, since there are a lot of cosmetic differences, at least). Wings and horns are presumably only one part of what makes a unicorn a unicorn and a Pegasus a Pegasus. One might be able to produce a child with the endurance of a earth pony with a Pegasus's wings, or just the opposite...which would mean that somewhere out there there's what could only be called a 'mundane' pony, which seems terribly unfair...oh my.

edited 17th Mar '11 9:12:19 PM by kegisak

Something tells me that it's just plain impossible to "mix" the two. Or at least, very very hard. It's kind of like genders: the majority of the time, either boy or girl. One way or the other, no inbetween.

And Celestia and Luna are basically just freaky genetic mutations: the hermaphrodites, if I really must continue with this metaphor.

That's my point: When Ori said that an eu pony would be 50/50 unicorn and earth, I assumed he meant it would be 50% earth and 50% unicorn...the alternative interpretation being that it would have a 50% chance of being either Earth or Unicorn, and (Again, it's been a while since Bio, so I could be wrong) GENETICS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY.

edited 17th Mar '11 9:35:00 PM by kegisak

Now, just thrown in the third trait, Pegasi, and watch as genetics gets screwed in the ear. Muffins!

If I might offer a simpler explanation: all three are entirely different species, with sufficiently different genes such that a mating between two different kinds (say, a unicorn and a pegasus pony) can produce no offspring of any sort.

And Dinky was adopted.

Here's a nice explanation:
Zeromaeus: Dinky is Derpy's child.
Person: Gee, Zeromaeus. How's that possible?
Zeromaeus: MAGIC!
Person: Gee willikers, I never thought of that. Hey, where's my wallet?
Zeromaeus (from far away): MAGIC!

oh, but that's boring!

We just had a huge conversation about the breeding of three feet tall, pastel ponies, that brought actual genetics into it. Did you really think A Wizard Did It would be good enough? Overthinking things is fun.

Remember kids, nothing in this world is more exciting than pony sex!

It wears thin after a while though, in my opinion. Possibly because it started getting too convoluted (and as someone else suggested, possibly a bit factually wrong). My last post was more for the benefit of my own sanity than anything else, to be honest.

And so help me, I almost typed "somepony".

-picks through kegisak's wallet-
Obviously my distraction was a success.
Now for something completely different:

So, how bout them monsters...

Don't feel ashamed, everypony's doing it nowadays!

This thread needs to be 20% cooler.◊

GAH.

Even though it isn't good formal wear, the Rainbow Armor is pretty awesome.

@ kegisak: The more obvious answer: "Friendship did it!"

Oy, now I want see a reference to this show pop out of Tea at some point. >_<

edited 17th Mar '11 11:26:44 PM by SpaceJawa

Ori is a girl, just by the way.

I find it amusing that pretty much the only thing that has managed to shut down 4Chan even for a little while was My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Everyone else who has tried was shut down themselves.

@Deathonabun: Indeed. It may not be fit for a dance, but it's just perfect for beating up bad guys. All she needs is the Warhammer of Zillyhoo◊, and she's all set.