Pony "genes"

[jojodeen]

I've been wondering about pony "genes" for a while for fun because I noticed that with the toys and in the TV shows certain ponies can only get certain kind of pony babies. For example, you never see an earth pony with a pegasus baby. In FiM Twilight Sparkle's parents were both unicorns and everyone in Applejack's family is an earth pony etc etc. It would seem like these three different pony types don't really mix.
If I remember correctly the G1 pony families were all earth ponies as well.


So I was wondering, what do you think would happen if a pegasus pony and an earth pony mixed? Would the babies "type" be random or are wings a dominant gene in ponies? Haha. Or are mixed pony couples just something that would never happen?


Back when my sister and me were small we would always couple different types of ponies up and because we thought it wasn't okay for a baby pony to have no mother we created family ties between ponies depending on what colour they were instead of type. Did anyone else do this as children or do you still couple certain ponies up in your shelf in a certain way?
Maybe certain ponies find only certain kinda pony types attractive and this is why all couples are only of the same type? Like you know.. in the same way Mickey Mouse isn't going out with Daisy Duck?


Hope this isn't totally stupid to think about. Hehe, I thought it'd be fun to discuss this for a while and see what thoughts other pony fans have.

[Icecrystalline]

That is such an awesome question! I reckon wings would be dominant and earth recessive, unicorn probably dominant, I reckon the 'extras' are dominant? xxx

[jojodeen]

That is such an awesome question! I reckon wings would be dominant and earth recessive, unicorn probably dominant, I reckon the 'extras' are dominant? xxx

Heh, I was thinking that as well. That the extras would be dominant. But would that mean that in the far pony future, it would be harder to come across earth ponies? Like they say about humans, that in the far future, red heads and blondes will be even rarer and more people will have black hair.

[Icecrystalline]

Haha, that's a good point!

[Filthy]

Unicorn and pegasus genes are recessive, at least if looking at FiM genetics. Earth ponies Mr. and Mrs. Cake had 2 babies, one was a unicorn and the other a pegasus and they explained they had some distant relatives of those breeds in their lines.

[jojodeen]

Ah right! I've yet to watch that episode. At least in the FiM universe mixing is something that happens. Interesting to think that wings and horns would be the rarer things.
Come to think of it, aren't there more earth ponies in the G3 toy line as well?

[Filthy]

Also some of the G1 TAF babies were different breed than their mothers. 

[Elisto]

I have a theory that only really applies to G1...female ponies can apparently reproduce through parthenogenesis (clone themselves) since they can have babies that are identical to them. Also, there were no unicorn or pegasis males, so I think those traits are only seen in females. Si I think the variations in ponies...unicorns, pegs, TEs, rainbow hair, TAF patterns, etc. all come from recombination of genes through regular reproduction between males and females.

FiM would be a totally different story.

[jojodeen]

Haha, so basically, if you wanted to fill an island with ponies, all you need to do is place one female pony there and they'll fill the island with their lcones? Like a komodo dragon. Interesting theory but it does make sense as there are "clone babies" in G1.

[ApertureScience]

G3 Genetics were really questionable.  If I remember, we never saw a single male pony in that line, in figures or in animation. o_O  There of course wasn't any cloning either...

[lovesbabysquirmy]

I would have thought extra traits would be dominant - as flight and "winking" would prove useful escape skills in survival mode.

[StarDragon]

I love thinking about pony families and genetics! Awesome theories so far.

[Shelltoon]

G3 Genetics were really questionable.  If I remember, we never saw a single male pony in that line, in figures or in animation. o_O  There of course wasn't any cloning either...

Well... according to that dreaded Newborn Cuties animation, Sweetie Belle was born from a double rainbow. Also, in The Runaway Rainbow, not only is the rainbow all the wrong colors, but if they don't get the first rainbow of the year to appear, Rainbow Dash's mane goes white. The only solution I can come up with is G3 ponies are made of 100% pure magic and are born in the event of a double rainbow, which is rare in their world.

Somehow the G1 magic mirror doesn't sound crazy anymore, does it?

[ApertureScience]

Well... according to that dreaded Newborn Cuties animation, Sweetie Belle was born from a double rainbow. Also, in The Runaway Rainbow, not only is the rainbow all the wrong colors, but if they don't get the first rainbow of the year to appear, Rainbow Dash's mane goes white. The only solution I can come up with is G3 ponies are made of 100% pure magic and are born in the event of a double rainbow, which is rare in their world.

Somehow the G1 magic mirror doesn't sound crazy anymore, does it?

Not at all.  I never knew that.  That's just... lame.  Thank god the male ponies came back in G4.

[Cool.Breeze]

I think you might enjoy this a great deal! Someone on DA who is awesome made an illustration explaining pony genes: http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&global=1&q=biology+is+magic#/d4mifq4