So, throughout my exposure in the pony fandom, I’ve noticed something.
There seems to be a lack of earth pony OCs that people make for themselves.
An article in Equestria Daily explores this, and most people are either unicorns, or more commonly, pegasuses.
I’m totally guilty of that by the way,
But why is it like this?
Well, from my understanding, there seems to be no clear advantages of having an earth pony OC.
Unicorns can do magic and levitation, pegasus can obviously fly, but what can earth ponies do?
I know Lauren has had her say about this, but let’s just look at the series itself.
It’s been inferred by the fandom that earth ponies are the strongest, for one thing.
Let’s use Twilight as example to demonstrate that.
She clearly had trouble pushing that snow plow of hers in Winter Wrap-up,
and even though the rest of the ponies who are plowing are all stallions,
It’s implied that Applejack is capable of jumping in if she needs to
as that’s probably why she’s in charge.
Also, if she wasn’t capable, then she probably wouldn’t have had made all those comments about Twilight being a weak pony.
But, again, even though the audience is given an implication that earth ponies are the strongest
With more examples like Applejack rounding cows and harvesting apples in general,
It is not directly stated that this is the case. So some can only guess that this trait is in fact true or not.
Another trait that the fandom gives earth ponies is that they seem to be more in tuned with the Earth.
What does that even mean?
Well, you know that idea that animals can sense changes in weather and environment better than humans?
This theory goes along with that.
This comes from “Feeling Pinkie Keen” where Pinkie can sense changes in the environment more so than say Twilight.
As much of a cool theory this is, we only really see it in Pinkie.
Applejack never really has these instances, so I’m excusing this as Pinkie just being Pinkie for now.
So, why do people interpret that earth ponies have these traits in the first place?
It’s because some like to think that earth ponies have an advantage to other breeds in certain areas, as mentioned earlier.
Why?
To help earth ponies feel socially equal to other breeds
And that they can do something special too!
But why do not as many bronies choose to be portrayed as an Earth pony?
Well, my thinking is that that the limited traits that Earth ponies have aren’t really that appealing to people.
Why be an earth pony when you can either fly or use magic?
But not both
Even assuming the traits that the fandom gives earth ponies are accurate
Is our modern society really in touch with the earth?
Is today’s population doing as much physical labor as we were half a century ago. Longer?
It’s harder to connect to nature than ever before, and that’s also a factor.
So, does it just roll down to the fact that earth pony traits are not attractive to the modern brony?
Does this have any deeper meaning?
Will the number of earth pony OCs increase in the future?
I guess we'll see
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