An Understanding of Equine Behavior

AKA: The Big Mac on Campus theorem

((Note: I do not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. This is a fan-based analysis meant to apply real life knowledge and other speculation upon aspects of the show.))

It should be noted, when approaching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, is that the creator, Lauren Faust, has commented that the ponies are ponies. They eat things like grass and flowers, typically being vegetarian outside of the use of eggs and dairy products. They typically use their mouths to move things as opposed to using their hooves as hands (though the hoof hand concept has become much more acceptable recently). They also do not wear clothes except for the sake of affectations of social status definers. They are not pony people, I believe I remember reading in an interview. They are ponies. They were meant for pony behavior and not to be overly personified outside of the realm of sentience.

This actually proves much deeper than preferring to be in groups and eating grass, however. It should be noted that all of the leaders, from Celestia to the mayor of Ponyville, are female. This is keeping in accordance to fact that horses and other equines in real life often have their herds led by a lead mare. That's right! Females are the government in real life amongst ponies just like in this series of animation. I'm not sure if Lauren Faust was specifically intending for this due to such knowledge. It is fact, though. Males just don't run things (that's why King Sombra proved such a terrible leader, I suppose).

Now, this isn't to be sexist or anything. This is to lead up to what this portion of the analysis is about. Outside of the Canterlot Guard and the episode "Hearts and Hooves Day", the typical ratio observed between stallions and mares is roughly 1:10 to 1:20. This is actually much like real life equine society again. The following is a quote from Wikipedia from the article on "Equine Behavior":

"Biologically, and depending on the physical environment available to a herd in the wild, there is only a need for one stallion for every 10 to 20 mares, though most bands are smaller than this. Domesticated stallions, with careful human management, often "cover" more mares in a year than is possible in the wild. Traditionally, Thoroughbred stud farms limited stallions to breeding between 40 and 60 mares a year."

Now, supposing that the ponies are technically domesticated without human hands, this is going a little far with the latter sentence. However, the former note upon wild populations is highly applicable. Let me spell this out clearly:

This is the reason this analysis is rated K+ as opposed to K. I am inferring that My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic could support the natural practice of equine polygyny. I apologize if this offends anyone in the crowd. This is applying logical fact to known fiction. You do not need to read this as canon for the show. In fact, you do not need to read this at all. I am not saying that Lauren Faust condones this practice.

Now that I've got this out of the way, it is time to explain my lame pun of a subtitle for this section. There really aren't a lot of named males on the show which make recurrent appearances. In fact, there are only two which stand out forefront in most people's minds: Spike and Big Mac. Spike is of questionable age, however, being anywhere from six to twelve years younger than Twilight as ages are quite obscure and unspecified in the show.

So, this leaves us with Big Mac as the most apparent pairing male in the series. There is roughly 1,750 stories on fanfiction alone which deal with Big Macintosh romances. Considering that there are roughly 11,181 stories for MLP:FIM without crossovers on fanfiction, this means that about 15.65% of the stories are Big Mac love stories on fanfiction. He has also been commonly poked fun at on DeviantArt and is several Youtube publications, not counting forum chats, for the fact that he is so often used as the "breeding stud", if you will.

Of course, there are still plenty of other stallions out there. It should just be noted that, if it is plausible that Rainbow Dash has obscure preferences, this shouldn't be a rolled under the rug theorem either. I'm not trying to be homophobic with this suggestion. I am placing a potential theory.

Now, I will write a brief excerpt for an exampling of this theorem. It seems apparent that monogamy is the norm, given the royal wedding of Shining Armor and Princess Cadence, but there are older and more worldly stallions out there than Twilight's older brother.

Besides, there had to be some basis for a certain piece of Gabby Gums' column during "Ponyville Confidential". What picture could have implied such an article?

…

Pinkie Pie clip-clopped her way through Sugarcube Corner as was her typical regimen for any given day, when she wasn't out exploring with her friends. After all, she still had to work for the Cakes. It was a very usual thing. Not all time was playtime, after all.

The foals were put up for a nap upstairs, and Mrs. Cup Cake was tending to the register. It was a usual day. Not too slow, but not too busy, it was the perfect sort of day for the younger mare to talk with her female employer.

"Gee, Mr. Cake sure has been gone for a while," Pinkie Pie noted. "I guess he really had to cater some really big party this time." She smiled as she turned to Mrs. Cake. "So, where did he go this time, Mrs. C?"

"Oh, you know. He's over at Dodge Junction, seeing to Mrs. Cherry Jubilee," the blue mare replied absentmindedly to the youthful employee.

Pinkie Pie gasped. "Oh! I know her! I know her! Applejack used to work for her!" Pinkie Pie hopped up and down in place. "She really knew how to make cherry pies and cherry cakes and all sorts of baked goods like that!" She pouted. "I never got to pitch my cherry-changa to her. Or maybe Chimi-cherry would be better. Rarity never really told me."

With a flinch, Mrs. Cake realized what she had said. "Y-you know Cherry Jubilee?"

"Yeah." Pinkie Pie nodded. She paused. "Hey, wait a minute. What's Mr. C doing, visiting her?" She sat down and thought. "It's not like she really needs catering. She makes all of that good stuff already!" She placed a hoof on her chin in thought.

Mrs. Cake grinned awkwardly. She had remembered getting the letter about Applejack working for Cherry several months back. She should have realized that Pinkie Pie would meet her. What was she supposed to say now, though? Pinkie Pie was really so innocent. Would she understand, if she explained things to her? Certainly, Twilight would have understood. She seemed like a smart girl. Even Applejack would have understood and probably already knew. However, Pinkie Pie was a far cry from a romantic, let alone a flirt. The ideas of marriage only crossed her mind when she went to Twilight Sparkle's brother's wedding. She wasn't sure if the pink mare even fully understood, then. "Well, you see, Pinkie," she began to explain.

"They're exchanging recipes, aren't they?!" Pinkie cheered. "It only makes sense! After all, we don't get a lot of cherries here in Ponyville. They're always running out at the market. Can you believe that one merchant guy keeps trying to sell them one at a time? It seems downright outrageous to me."

"Well, yes, but Pinkie," Mrs. Cake attempted to interject.

"Maybe that's why Mr. Cake always seems to be traveling to bakeries around Equestria. He always seems to be swapping recipes or attending seminars or those cake conferences."

The blue mare palmed her face. "Pinkie…" How was she going to explain this now? Granted, she was the first wife, but she was also the financial officer of the whole conglomerate. After all, it was easier to look like a bunch of mom-and-pop stores along with 'a woman's touch' bakeries than factories to get business from the public. In the mare-dominated world of business, Mr. Cake was lucky to even be considered much of a baker at all. At least, on a commercial scale. She let out a heavy sigh.

"So, do you think Mr. Cake would take my chimi-cherry-changa idea to Mrs. Cherry Jubilee sometime?" Pinkie Pie grinned broadly and batted her eyes at her landlady.

Mrs. Cup Cake looked at Pinkie sternly. She sighed and slumped her shoulders. "I'll see what I can convince him to do," she relinquished.

"Fantastic! Now I just have to write it up!" Pinkie Pie jumped high in the air and flew out the door. "Applejack! I need you to help me with a recipe!"

Mrs. Cake sighed as she tended to the counter by herself. There were no big events coming up, so Mr. Cake wasn't needed for the week he'd be gone. She could still read a cookbook to keep stock fresh, after all.

However, she really worried about Pinkie Pie now. She did come from a monogamist family, but that was mostly due to the anti-social nature of Clyde, her father. Being one of three sisters with no brother to heir the rock farm, it was always a question of whether the girls of the rock farm would marry separately or share a stallion to continue the family farm, keeping it effectively in the family. Only time would tell now. After all, Pinkie Pie was no romantic.

…

To be blunt, I fully acknowledge that there is no real chance of equine polygyny to be particularly effective or present in the series, despite the accuracy to equine behavior and odd gender ratio. It'd just be considered too racy by the public to ever be on a children's show. This is more of a justification concept than to be taken seriously or as a canon explanation for anything. Read into it what you will.