Footnotes for The Xenophile's Guide to Equestria
by archonix
Chapters
Introduction
[1] Equinas, Chasing the Dragon - The Ageless Philosophy of the Flying Lizard (Victor Plebia Books, 1194)
[2] Glint Eastwither, The Everfree Forest and why every bloody thing turns up there (Canterlot University Press, 1188)
[3] Archaeological studies in the Zebrican homeland recently uncovered an extinct relative of the Gracile Plains Ape, Pan Pediobates, that appears sufficiently differentiated from other members of panini to require the reorganisation of the family heminidae[4] with a new subfamily, tentatively named hemininae. The presence of this and other modern equivalent species on Lero’s Earth appears to raise fairly fundamental questions about the similarities between our world and that of the Humans. However, the limitations of space and scope prevent a detailed analysis of such questions.
[4] Ancient Equestrian: “Soil dwellers”
Taken for Granted
[1] Hooves, Spangle and Theroy, Public and social attitudes toward novel species in the context of clothing (Seams and Seats - the national journal of dressmakers, designers, tailors and cutters, 1217, Issue 9233)
[2] Survey data available on request
[3] Fancy Pants et al, Clothing and Class - perceptions of social status in modern society and their influence on social mobility (The Journal of Social Economics, June 1204 AC issue 877)
[4] ibid
[5] ‘...those of the aristocracy who appear to be the very core of Equestrian nobility, they who embody the idyll of the noble ruralist so beloved of Russét and Les Romantiques. Rarely do their great halls open more than a dozen rooms, preferring as they do to prudently keep the majority of their palatial piles in storage. Often they are seen plodding through muddy fields, tweeded and booted, tending hobby farms that would put the great industrial farmsteads of the Whitetail Provinces to shame in their prodigious scale, whilst a single servant cares for the worn carpeting and collected dust of a hundred or more generations in the quietly mouldering family home. Only the quality of their boots and their accent sets them apart from the commoner, despite their wealth and position in society. They nibble toast when other, lesser personages lay on lavish feasts, and take tea in the kitchen in preference to the plush rooms historically set aside for the purpose, considering the practicality of a hot cuppa in a cracked mug more desirable than the socially acceptable lukewarm tiffin received on an ancient noble seat. Truly only the unbelievably rich can afford to be so poor.’ - Tarry, The Guardians of Society (Roundworld Books, 1209)
[6] Aegidienberger, Walking with Humans (Canterlot Times Books, 1217)
Taxonomic Moments
[1] Spiniform Wingroot and The Unicorn’s Curse (more accurately known as an Inverse coniformic magum teratoma) are just two possible congenital defects thought to be caused by partial expression of vestigial magical organs. The former usually manifests as harmless nubs or spines behind the scapula, which can be removed with relatively simple surgery, though they can be dangerous to a pegasus in their more extreme form. The Unicorn’s Curse, the growth of a vestigial corniform structure in the forebrain and an associated build-up of magical potential, is invariably fatal.
[2] “The study revealed that nearly 70% of male pregnancies either miscarry within a few days of fertilisation, or are a peculiar form of triploid that first divides into two structures, each containing a stable diploid, one containing the male sex chromosome and one the female, before ejecting the cells containing the male sex chromosome in the second week of the pregnancy.” Snugglepuff, Alondro - High incidences of spontaneous abortion and sterility in male offspring and their likely causes - Harmony and Nature (1176, issue 787, p 21).
The Unicorns Curse is blatantly stolen from The All American Girl side stories.
Ponies Behaving Badly
[1] Double Lock - The Revolutionary Mark (Victor Plebia Books, 1176)
[2] Cloaked Stone - Toward the Freedom of the Common Pony: A treatise on the means by which the Mark of Slavery shall be eradicated and all ponies rendered equal in their own sight (Pangolin reprint, 1048)
[3] Tingul Shiver - Window of the Soul (Pangolin, 1162)
[4] Anonymous - The Struggle of Pony Kind (Hockenstabilsbösenherausgeber, 1106)
[5] Inevitable Ascent - On the Origin of Cutie Marks (Oddjob Books, 1132)
[6] Rocky Riverbed - The Universal Mark (The effects of the background magical field on sapient species) (Trottingham University Press, 1177)
[7] Tamare Hensfilly - The Evolution and Classification of the Dragon (Cavelbridge University Press, 1187)
[8] Hippian - History of the Unicorn Kingdoms
[9] Starswirl the Bearded - Starswirl the Bearded: The Most Handsome Stallion In All The World (an autobiography) - 1500th anniversary edition (Canterlot University Press 1152)
[10] Professor Star Sparkle - Zebrican Tribal Mythologies (Cavelbridge University Press, 1191)
[11] Bon Cellesti - All In The Family: Uncanny Resemblances Between the Guild System and Organised Crime (Victor Plebia Books, 1160)
[12] A practice many times satirised by the Roaman poet Coltulus, most famously in Tears for Pegalopolis’s Sparrow.
[13] Sunset Aura - The Gemwing Wars: The Definitive History (Oddjob Stable, 1162)
[14] Superior Conjunction - The Earth Pony: The fertiliser from which the rose of culture grows (Reed River, 1144)
[15] Professor Star Sparkle - Three Days, Six Hours and Eleven Minutes with the Ngulube Tribe and Not a Moment Longer (Canterlot University Press, 1189)
[16] Dusty Tomes - The Heraldic Elements of the Sanguis Signii (Reed River, 1104)
[17] Sunset Aura - The Warrior Culture and the Modern Pegasus (Oddjob Stable, 1178)
Herds
[1] Schlenker argues that the Stallion as sexual object occupies a position lower than the "cooler" in what he terms the Choice/Worth Hierarchy; as a sapient being who is required to sexually service mares, the Stallion is denied the choice of consent and identity, in the process becoming the passive victim of the mare's oppressive desire; whilst the cooler, as non-sapient, non-sentient entity, has no will and thus is not required to suppress its identity in order to feign consent under duress.
[2] Fuhr d'Plot, The Consensual Herd: Equestria's Society as a Superset of Herding Behaviour (Oddjob Stable, 1178)
[3] Gilded Lilly, The Equestrian Model: The Princess as Stallion (Victor Plebia, 1163)
[4] Tarry, The Guardians of Society (Roundworld Books, 1209)
[5] Despite the references in Chapter 10, the study which identified Snugglepuff-Alondro syndrome as the cause of the Pony gender imbalance was severely flawed and utilised incorrect statistical methods. Current research indicates that the identified cause - the triploid foetus - was part of a longer process of “correction” to apparently non-viable foetuses that appears to repair missing or damaged genetic material through a process of transgenic cloning from the closest viable source, usually the mother. The effect is not environmental: ponies appear to express the same symptoms wherever and whenever they conceive. It is also indiscriminate and, once active, has a high probability of replacing the male sex chromosome with the female equivalent after apparently interpreting the male chromosome as damaged in some way. Why this would be so has yet to be determined.
The effect has been provisionally named Berry-Baltimare’s Post-meiotic Nucleic Restructural Transgenesis, based on studies by Professor Tinkling Berry and Doctor Buddy ‘Cuddles’ Baltimare of St Furrowfoal’s University Hospital.
[6] Detail of the Tripartite Herd (Canterlot University Press, 1062)
[7] Superior Conjunction, Stallion, Mare, Herd: The Tribes as components of the Equestria's Unity and the role they shall play within the Great Plan (Reed River, 1120)
[8] Kinstrong, Sands, Legger et al, Failures of the Tripartite Model and Potential Improvements (Social Theorist, 1189, issue 4, p32)
[9] Greta Kinstrong et al - The Septet Herd: A model of Equestrian Herd Behaviour (Den Sozialhistoriker, 1196, issue 477)
[10] Rider Gentle, The Paradise of the Stallion-free Herd: Journeys through the Equestrian Hinterlands (Victor Plebia, 1199)
[11] Aegidienberger, Tribe and Culture (Hocksford, 1190)
[12] Part of a series of Paeans to the Pony Species, also including such works as To Ride Beneath Their Wings, the prose tale The Pony Upon Whom All Great Achievement Fell, And The Life And Times Thereof, and the epic poem The Cycle of The Three Sisters, published over the course of several years toward the end of Sandalwood's life, starting in 1016 with Confessions of an Equine Nature.
[13] The idealised traits of each tribe were compared to the six Muses - not to be confused with the Muses of the ancient Roaman tradition - often associated with the Elements of Harmony, though they are not particularly closely related. The Muses, by tribe, are: Pegasus - Duty and Chivalry; Unicorn - Benevolence and Wisdom; Earth Pony - Diligence and Craft.
[14] Holly Oak, The Embodiment of the Pony: The Masculine and Feminine aspects of Sun and Moon, (Hocksford University Press, 1215)
[15] A typical example is found in the PRINCESS2 project management methodology, which posits that the management of personality is at least as important as the management of ability in successful project completion, and proposes a number of solutions, including the "Winning Pit" team-building exercise, in which members of the group are pitted against one another in competitive sparring until one is left standing, after which she is ritually pelted with flour. What this has to do with personality management is never explained.
[16] Ddiweddeb fy Cariad, The Invitation, the Inclusion, the Love Illusion (Reed River, 1066)
[17] Or complain about the noise - TS
[18] Glint Eastwither, Oversexed, Overfamiliar and All Over My Tomato Patch (Canterlot Times Books, 1192)
[19][20] Left Hook, Slap! Intraherd Violence in Contemporary Society and Possible Solutions (Victor Plebia, 1192)
[21] Baltimare in particular is famous for its early history as an earth-pony city that was almost exclusively female for over a hundred years after its foundation. The city is most famous for the invention of the cooler, as well as the rather less popular "icepacker".
[22] Statistics demonstrate that the number of murders blamed on "insurmountable differences in a herd" has averaged between one and two every twenty years for much of the Unification period. No statistics are available prior to 220CE - Data supplied by the Home Office Department of Species Statistics
[23] Apple Stalk, Maintaining the Water Supply for a Well-kept Garden so that it may Produce in Quantity to the Glory of Celestia (Tract printed in 402)
It is unclear whether this was a tract on reproduction or an actual gardening manual. I have assumed it must be the former, as even I know there is no conceivable way a potato could be used like that - TS
[24] Sunset Aura, Herd and Family in the Pegasi City State (Oddjob Stable, 1168)
[25] Herd and Family in the Pegasi City State (page 96)
[26] See The Crown vs Sixrow, Olli, Herta, Elrose, Abee, Brier, Laycee and Golden Promise (1026) 9 PBD 177, where a herd was successfully prosecuted for bringing their eldest colt back as a stallion, "denying his choice" and "denying other mares his use".
[27] Best exemplified by the fictional account The Adventures of Hinnyburro Jennet, which documented the adventures of the titular character as she travelled from the fictional border town of Potters Mountain to Manehattan and back. (Ares Twine, The Adventures of Hinnyburro Jennet (Pangolin Reprint, 1197))
[28] Aegidienberger, Across the Divide - Everything you wanted to know about interspecies romance but were afraid to ask (Canterlot University and Times Books, 1193)
[29] Ignoring the obvious example, the aforementioned Greta Kinstrong has maintained a relationship with two of her colleagues (Professors Double Blind and Merry Cox-Apple) for nearly eleven years, though it was kept hidden for much of that time.
[30] The criticisms are too numerous to mention, except by reference to their particular focus. In Foalish Behaviour, and similar works, the complaint is that tactile behaviour encourages early sexuality in "innocent" foals that leads to a promiscuous and disease-ridden society, whilst in works such as Intimacy in Separation, the argument is that society lacks the ability to understand true intimacy because if a lack of "separateness" and intolerance of isolation.
[31] Most notable is the Duchy of Canterlot, which has been held by the male line of Blueblood for much of the Unification Period, following the transfer of the capital in 232CE