Pony

The Pony is a species of odd toed ungulate from the equine family.

Characteristics
Ponies have 4 legs with a single hoof in each. Some races may have a pair of wings as well, which may be covered in fur or feathers. Some races may have a twisted horn which can be used to cast spells from.

Hair
The skin of Ponies is covered in a coat of hair. Ponies also have additional hair of a different color on the top and back of their head (mane), tail and sometimes chin.

The color of a Pony's coat is determined by three separate traits: the red pigmentation, the green pigmentation and the blue pigmentation. Each can be expressed in low, medium or high levels, resulting in 27 possible coat colors.

The color of additional hair is similarly determined by a separate trio of traits, although the resulting pigmentation is denser resulting in darker colors.

Eyes
The iris of ponies has a range of colors from orange to magenta, excluding red.

The basic trait is aqua, which can be replaced by orange or magenta traits with different degrees of expression.

The degree of expression of orange traits offsets that of magenta traits and vice versa. This, combined with the higher amounts of orange and magenta traits needed to create pure orange and magenta makes iris colors close to aqua more common than those close to orange or magenta.

Subdivisions
There are 6 identified Pony races: Alicorns, Earth Ponies, Pegasi, Unicorns, Batponies and Tulpars.

Pony races are commonly told apart by the existence of specific traits.

Alicorn
Alicorns are ponies which can express both a horn and wings. The trait that enables these traits to not be mutually exclusive also lessens their bounds on magic power and lifespan, enabling Alicorns to live longer than most ponies and perform more powerful magic.

The Alicorn trait is exclusively found in noble families.

Earth Pony
Earth Ponies exhibit neither horns nor wings.

Pegasus
Pegasi express wings and feathers but no horn.

Unicorn
Unicorns express a horn but no wings.

The horn in Unicorns (which they share with Alicorns) is twisted and it's usually dextral, but Ponies with situs inversus can have sinistral horns.

Batpony
Batponies express wings but lack the feathered trait that Pegasi have, exhibiting featherless wings.

Batpony eyes are adapted to dark environments.

Although their diet is not hematophagic, Batpony saliva has anticoagulant properties and has found uses in traditional Equestrian medicine because of it.

Tulpar
Tulpars have feathered wings like Pegasi, but lack the capability to sustain flight. Instead, their wings are adapted to favor life in mountainous areas where they are used to favor travel up slopes and soften jumps to lower surfaces.

Notable individuals

 * Cadence, Crystalline princess, married to Shining Armor
 * Celestia, Equestrian princess
 * Luna, Equestrian princess
 * Shining Armor, Crystalline prince, married to Cadence and brother of Twilight Sparkle
 * Sombra, Crystalline king
 * Starswirl the Bearded, wizard
 * Twilight Sparkle, Equestrian princess and sister of Shining Armor