My Little Pony XIX: I Emptied Your Thread

[dromer]

ohgodno


I have four!
Ebony, who is a selfish bitch who will /eat your soul/ if you get in her way or hurt someone she cares about.
Ciflaina, who is a cheerful, hyperactive pervert.
Metela, who is a long suffering mothering type
And Dream, who is quiet and lonely and has oh god so many complexes.

Not related to Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way, I suppose?

Apparently enough doom to kill the thread for a bit. And for me to get ninja'd twice

Refining the earlier chapters of Blue Moon in a Red Sky, sorry. Who knew that three characters can make a sentence a mile better?

[SiuiS]

Confound you ponies and your lives and your fruitful schedules. *faux-glare*

Spoiler

Show

so, What Hath Science & Long-Remembered In-Jokes Wrought? There are all sorts of ways this could have gone; The Midnight Crew having a ménage a Moi¹ is a rather unexpected way for this to go, since I'm not the one who started it.

Sadly, this little saga will probably be over by the time I can get to it in earnest, but the reward will be twofold! Interaction with midnight without any distractions from the midnight crew, and a story! Yay story!

Stupid work being two cities away. To the bus stop!

1: known colloquially as a "Me-some" in most circles.

[Nomar]

When I first joined this thread, I did point out that there actually is a much higher ratio of mares to stallions in wild equines. They form harems of 3-35, consisting of one dominant mare, one "lead" stallion and umpteen other mares and immature foals, plus the occasional non-dominant stallion at the fringes.

So mares really should out-number stallions, by something like 2-6 to 1; and canon, as I pointed out at the time, largely bears out a disparity of at least some scale. So, no, it's actually not unlikely at all.

(Heck, it's even consistent in the prior generations too. It may be coincidental, but that doesn't mean it's any less realistic or plausible.)

Note that this is independant of current social structure, in the likelihood harems are no longer a function of society (though I'd hazard pony society would be liable to be much more tolerant to multiple lovers). The genetics would remain still. (Actually the harem/herd model is quite common among many mammal herd animals, not just equines.)

There was a fanon theory on Ponychan (I think) that the ponies have bachelor herds like RL horses, and they are Equestria's armed forces. I guess it fits well with the general “Equestria cannot possibly be as nice as depicted” theme in fandom.

Equestria seems to be based on human society to a ridiculous degree, but we've never seen the influence of real life horse social norms (that I know of), so there's no reason to assume that they would suddenly take after them on sex.

Even most adult-oriented SF is incapable of imagining non-human societies other than rescaled insects or reskinned humans, and MLP is targeted at children. If we want to explore what a society of sapient magical equines really is like (and I would certainly consider that a worthy project!), then I'm afraid we'll have to ignore some of the show's canon.

Ah, but let's have ourselves a looksie at horse GENETICS. Horses do indeed use the XX/XY sex chromosomes (I figured they would, but I made doubly sure).

That means that we have three choices: statistically, a roughly equal number of males and females are born across Equestria, or else some sort of gender discriminatory birth control is practiced and practiced HARD, or these cute little ponies drive away large numbers of stallions at adulthood. Take your choice, but I prefer number 1.

Unless someone more knowledgeable about horses knows of a mechanism (like, a chemical mechanism or something) that results in an uneven number of live births, those are our three options.

I recall that decade or so ago there was concern over pollution of the oceans with certain chemicals that were close enough to estrogen to significantly skew the sex ratio among sea life. I don't know what became of that, but if you want a mechanism, there it is.

Could just be that sperm with one chromosome is weaker than another, or more numerous or something.

I don't see a reason to. I'm not aware of any placental mammals in the real world that function that way, and seriously, the longer the show goes on, the more the background mix hits a ratio of 1:1.

We are talking about magical and sapient ponies living in a world that requires manual intervention to maintain even functions as basic as the seasons or the day–night–cycle. Conventional genetics need not apply, and if they do then the ponies need not be closely related to RL ponies at all.

[Lix Lorn]

I stay in one of those all the time. It's the only way to stay safe around this thread. It's how I've prevented myself from going ponysane and imagining Shadowy following me arou-

Sorry I'm late.

...Well poop.

(Ships with Shadowy)

Not related to Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way, I suppose?

(Twitch)
No. She's a black furred espeon.

[erikun]

Come on, everypony! It's not like the Midnights are shipping on sight or anything! Now if you'll excuse me, I need to beat a hasty retreat for this hole in the ground, which is definitely NOT a ship-proof bunker.

*awaaaaaay!*

And then one of the Midnights went back in time, shipping the amish with some pirates to get one poster in particular.

What, didn't your parents ever tell you how they met?

I recall that decade or so ago there was concern over pollution of the oceans with certain chemicals that were close enough to estrogen to significantly skew the sex ratio among sea life. I don't know what became of that, but if you want a mechanism, there it is.

Sea life is a lot more receptive to changes in their environment, especially ones that lay eggs.

[tonberrian]

I'm just glad nopony has shipped me with anything. You'd think that someone would have tried after I started Shotgrif, but apparently I'm too obscure, and you ponies have never heard of me.

[erikun]

I'm just glad nopony has shipped me with anything. You'd think that someone would have tried after I started Shotgrif, but apparently I'm too obscure, and you ponies have never heard of me.

Was that a subtle request to be shipped with hipster WJMill?

[Etcetera]

I'm just glad nopony has shipped me with anything. You'd think that someone would have tried after I started Shotgrif, but apparently I'm too obscure, and you ponies have never heard of me.

I was shipping tonberrian way before it was co-
wait, you planned this didn't you.

[darthbobcat]

There was a fanon theory on Ponychan (I think) that the ponies have bachelor herds like RL horses, and they are Equestria's armed forces. I guess it fits well with the general “Equestria cannot possibly be as nice as depicted” theme in fandom.



Even most adult-oriented SF is incapable of imagining non-human societies other than rescaled insects or reskinned humans, and MLP is targeted at children. If we want to explore what a society of sapient magical equines really is like (and I would certainly consider that a worthy project!), then I'm afraid we'll have to ignore some of the show's canon.



I recall that decade or so ago there was concern over pollution of the oceans with certain chemicals that were close enough to estrogen to significantly skew the sex ratio among sea life. I don't know what became of that, but if you want a mechanism, there it is.





We are talking about magical and sapient ponies living in a world that requires manual intervention to maintain even functions as basic as the seasons or the day–night–cycle. Conventional genetics need not apply, and if they do then the ponies need not be closely related to RL ponies at all.

But wouldn't that mechanism require that somewhere in ponyland, someone is dumping massive amounts of pollutants?

I tend to assume that ponyworld operates like our world until I see some evidence to the contrary.

Moreover, I'm going to just lay it out there, I don't WANT ponyland to have a skewed gender ratio. It just seems bizarre, it disturbs me on a deep level, and all of the ways it would happen with the above assumption involve things that seem out of keeping with pony world. We see mostly girls in the show because it's aimed at girls, much the way that GI Joe and Transformers are made up of mostly males because they're aimed at boys.

[the_druid_droid]

Once again, my owlskin cloak that I certainly do not fly around in and use to devour the dreams of sleeping innocents has come in handy. He'll never see me up here.

*continues searching for Raz, refusing to look up like all classic movie villains/victims*

[Lix Lorn]

I'm just glad nopony has shipped me with anything. You'd think that someone would have tried after I started Shotgrif, but apparently I'm too obscure, and you ponies have never heard of me.

(Ships with Tonberrian)

[Capt. Ido Nos]

Wow, so I didn't end up posting or reading any of this thread at ALL this weekend! Guess it's time to catch up...

In the meanwhile, I definitely was playing tf2 with some of my non-brony friends, and when we started a match opening scout rush, I sort of kind of shouted "SCOOTALOO!!!" as a battle cry into steam chat >_>

Got away with it!

Also, new Eurobeat song out! Great as always.

[tonberrian]

(Ships with Tonberrian)

"Can't let you do that, Star Lix!"

"Big Mac has ordered me to ignore that ship."

"Lixie! Long time no see!"

"Big Mac's ship is my ship!"

And for the finale...

"You can't beat me! I've got a better ship!"

That setup was all for that final line. The fact that Lixie responded was icing on the Star Wolf-flavored cake.

3-die stunt on a mental parry, right there.

[Gamerlord]

Glad to see Pwny Lord has yet to be shipped with any- AH CELESTIA DAMN IT, I JUST TEMPTED FATE DIDN'T I?

[Etcetera]

Glad to see Pwny Lord has yet to be shipped with any- AH CELESTIA DAMN IT, I JUST TEMPTED FATE DIDN'T I?

PwnyLordxGordonFreemane

so it begins

[Shadowy]

Glad to see Pwny Lord has yet to be shipped with any- AH CELESTIA DAMN IT, I JUST TEMPTED FATE DIDN'T I?

*rams you with a cruise liner*

Am I doing it right?

[Gamerlord]

*rams you with a cruise liner*

Am I doing it right?

Ouch.

Spoiler

Show

[Lix Lorn]

"Can't let you do that, Star Lix!"

"Big Mac has ordered me to ignore that ship."

"Lixie! Long time no see!"

"Big Mac's ship is my ship!"

And for the finale...

"You can't beat me! I've got a better ship!"

That setup was all for that final line. The fact that Lixie responded was icing on the Star Wolf-flavored cake.

3-die stunt on a mental parry, right there.

I use the BOOST to get through!

(SHIP SHIP SHIP SHIP)

I make my attack unblockable. ;P

[Etcetera]

*rams you with a cruise liner*

Am I doing it right?

Freemane, I love you! But what will the administrator say about our forbidden liason?!

...

Of course! Perfect! We shall run away to Xen and build ourselves a love nest there!

...

You will be my beau and I will be you beau, and we will live forever in romantic harmony! Kiss me now!

...

Be that way then.

And then they fought off the alien invaders

phew this shipping thing is harder than it looks

[tonberrian]

I use the BOOST to get through!

(SHIP SHIP SHIP SHIP)

I make my attack unblockable. ;P

"Do a barrel roll!"

I dodge!

[dromer]

There was a fanon theory on Ponychan (I think) that the ponies have bachelor herds like RL horses, and they are Equestria's armed forces.

Fanon: MLP is set in Equestria during WWII. More evidence for Rick Blaine!Scoot.

[Lix Lorn]

"Do a barrel roll!"

I dodge!

Save your Bombs!

I flurry a second ship, which is unblockable AND undodgeable!

[darthbobcat]

Another theory I heard is that the guys are busy out in the Ponyville fields a lot of the time.

[tonberrian]

Save your Bombs!

I flurry a second ship, which is unblockable AND undodgeable!

"Shoot it down, we're being marked!"

I'll use the last of my motes on Counter-Pronouncement of Enthymemic Law: Big Macxtonberrian 4eva.

[erikun]

I'll use the last of my motes on Counter-Pronouncement of Enthymemic Law: Big Macxtonberrian 4eva.

Silly tonberrian, what makes you think polygamy isn't an option?

MacxtonxTon it is!

[Lix Lorn]

"Shoot it down, we're being marked!"

I'll use the last of my motes on Counter-Pronouncement of Enthymemic Law: Big Macxtonberrian 4eva.

...aha, but-

Silly tonberrian, what makes you think polygamy isn't an option?

MacxtonxTon it is!

...this is better than my reply. That!

[Aotrs Commander]

See, this is why we need a dedicated comparitively sane person on the thread.

[Lix Lorn]

See, this is why we need a dedicated comparitively sane person on the thread.

Aotrs! Honey!
(appears behind and drapes arms around)
You're back from your space trip!

[darthbobcat]

See, this is why we need a dedicated comparitively sane person on the thread.

I'm doing the best I can... I've just been busy for days. Best to wear two cowboy hats for a bit.

[RdMarquis]

I'd volunteer for the position, but work is keeping me away from this thread. Also, I'm not sure how long I could keep from going ponysane after being exposed to you guys.