Culture, Biology, and Dietary Headcanons

I know it’s just cause of anthromoropomorism I was just trying to find some kind of in universe explanation
 
@SD50-2  
I like the cutie mark idea btw

@Ansi-Marelina  
The magic thing seems to be a pretty good handwave for that. Sounds good to me.

I think that the ponies are omnivores, given the time that Rarity and sweetie Belle had eggs for breakfast.

@Zaknel  
Grazing actually doesn’t provide enough energy for sapience.

@Wiimeiser  
So, they need meat?

@Zaknel  
Not necessarily, AFAIK they just need enough of the proper nutrients, I mean, some humans are vegetarian.

@Wiimeiser  
I believe that vegetarians have to find a substitute for the proteins that they get from meat.

@Zaknel  
Found this on TV Tropes:  

 
So omnivorous ponies are a thing. I say Littlepip loves pork and hates cheval.

@Wiimeiser  
Aren’t equines (at least horses) naturally opportunistic omnivores anyways? I wouldn’t be surprised if the magical, talking, sapient ponies shown in MLP are more omnivorous (such as maybe being at least pescaltairians as they are shown to know how to fish in the show), and given the fact that they have leather (likely from pigs as discussed earlier), they may eat pork as well.
 
There could also potentially be some kind of social stigma against eating meat openly, and as such, ponies often dress-up/hide any meat in meals, which could be why we don’t see them eating meat as much in the show.

@SD50-2  

 
Yes, it turns out

@Wiimeiser
 
It is a fairly commonly accepted belief in the scientific community that one of the big steps towards human sapience started when our (and chimps’) ancestors started eating meat, especially bone marrow. Brains need a lot of fat to grow properly.
 
Dairy and eggs would still be just a good a way of getting that sort of thing as meat, though. Given how much the ponies eat in the way of cake and other such confectionery, which of course is made with eggs, I figure they probably have a lot more fat in their diet than real horses.

Real life ponies look like a mix of >>1703898 (deleted), >>1096204, and this monstrosity

@Wiimeiser
 
Thanks i’m going to have nightmares now.
 
@Frustration in Excelsis
 
Lol in that case cats should rule the world not humans. They are obligate carnivores how come they aren’t sapient. (Or…are they…?)
 
Also I can never settle in my mind just what the heck dogs are. they aren’t obligate carnivores but I don’t think they are omnivores either…so are they opportunistic carnivores? Dogs need meat but cats need meat.
 
By and large I think ponies are omnivores but that just means they eat eggs and dairy products. About 80 to 90% of the species won’t eat meat in a normal situation by choice. I choose to believe that it is based on biology and not just social stigma. Though stigma does play a big part. I still think ponies have normal flat horse teeth, and not the teeth for tearing meat.

@Ranch  
Cats don’t want us to know their secrets.
 
I can’t really tell what dogs are either. My dog loved eating fruit but you’re right, they kind of need meat in order to live.
 
And I think that makes sense. Their teeth don’t seem to have any fangs or anything. I like the idea that a majority of them are vegitarians with maybe a smaller pool of them here and there that like eating meat occassionally.

@SD50-2
 
I searched for like a full 20 minutes for what pescaltairians were and got nothing. But then I shortened it to pescal and got a lot of pics of fishermen and people holding fish. Where Google failed me Bing pulled through and apparently it’s pescatarianism. And thats…pretty interesting. So it is a vegetarian who will eat seafood but no other source of meat.
 
Just like my headcanon for coastal and island ponies!! Sweet.

@Ranch  
Which picture specifically scared you?
 
Also, some horses do have canines. In fact, they actually have more than we do.

@Wiimeiser  
I can’t speak for her but the latter two are rather creepy. They look so…off. Uncanny Valley hits pretty hard there.

 
Horsos with doggo mouth
 
EDIT: I admit I know nothing about horse teeth so I just went to wikipedia.

@Ranch  
Now that’s creepy.

@Wiimeiser  
It is. But now I want to see a dog with a horse mouth (which would likely be creepy as well).

Okay. Just recently this GIF popped up:  
 
And it got me thinking. Tirek was sucking the magic out of them and after that, they dropped like flies and couldn’t fly anymore. This proves that flying is a part of Pegasus magic. Them flapping their wings alone won’t do anything.
 
I wonder if other winged creatures like Dragons, Changelings, Griffons, etc. need magic to fly too or if they can fly “naturally” without the aid of magic. What do you guys think?

@mjangelvortex
 
I’m sure that a few of them need magic; with changelings for example, their wings look too weak and small to sustain flight.
 
Dragons, however, probably could fly naturally.

@mjangelvortex
 
It makes sense; measurements would probably show that a pegasus’ wingspan isn’t nearly large enough to support true flight (maybe Celestia’s is, though).

@YetAnotherBrony  
@Mildgyth  
Good points.
 
Griffons and Hippogriffs seem to have pretty big wings too so maybe they can fly naturally too. I kinda like the idea that outside of walking on clouds that Gryphons are like “muggles” in the MLP universe so they don’t have much (if any) natural magic outside of that.
 
Speaking of “muggles,” I liked the idea of Saddle Arabian horses not having any magic. They don’t have Cutie Marks and the ones revealed to us don’t have horns or wings. So I like to think of them as normal, not even having the strength of an Earth Pony or their elemental connections to nature. ^{_{inb4 the episode where Trixie goes to Saddle Arabia proves my theory wrong.}}

@mjangelvortex  
@Mildgyth
 
Changelings, I agree, are probably dependent on magic for flight like pegasi are. Especially before their reformation, those hole-punched wings of theirs couldn’t possibly keep them aloft on their own.
 
I disagree about the dragons, though, largely because of how big, bulky and armor-plated they’re portrayed as. Take Torch – he’s bulky, muscular and absolutely gigantic, likely enormously heavy, and his wingspan is proportionally very small, too small to keep him aloft by itself.
 
Weight is a big factor in whether something can stay airborne, as is the lift provided by the wings. Flying animals, especially big ones, need to make sure they’re as light as possible to keep themselves in the air. With real-life flyers, a consistent trend is that the really big ones – albatrosses, condors, extinct animals like teratorns and giant pterosaurs – tend to have both very slight bodies, which in addition to things like large air sacs and hollow bones keep their weight down, and huge, broad wings several times wider than the rest of their body. Dragons, I think, would require some degree of magic to counteract their weight. They may still be able to fly or glide without it, but probably not very well.
 
Considering the degree of physical variation that seems typical of dragons, though, I could see different individuals being more or less dependent on magic to fly. Torch likely cannot fly under muscle power alone, he’s way too big, but it may be that more slender and large-winged dragons might.
 
@mjangelvortex  

 
This sounds likely enough. Griffons do have proportionally much bigger wings than pegasi do, and they’ve never been portrayed as a particularly “magical” race.