Unpopular opinion time

@Brass Beau  
I personally consider zebras, kirin and kelpies to be ponies who get marked, too, but that’s just pure fanon speculation…

@Brass Beau  
I wish the show would’ve explored horses a little more in the show. Was Trouble Shoes supposed to be a horse or an earth pony? I like to headcanon horses as the ancient ancestors of ponies, and that alicorns are taller because they are returning to their ancient roots. And all 3 pony races have “scientific” theories about which of them are the closest related to the horse since there is a prestige to connecting oneself to such an esteemed race.

@Cosmas-the-Explorer  
Well that’s just it - by our world’s current standard, they are offensive and inappropriate racial humour. But Equestria is a bit backwards in racial integration as well as technology, and it’s only in later seasons - long after the mule jokes - that the show starts pushing against that, albiet in a rather missionary way.
 
I’m sure that mules aren’t exactly pleased to hear that sort of thing, and it could have made a good and progressive moral about microagressions. But the show isn’t quite so daring, I’m afraid.
 
 
@Brass Beau  
No apparent magic either, and such dull coats… is it a wonder ponies mock them?

@Wiimeiser  
I kinda get why kirin, kelpies, hippogriffs and hippocampi don’t have a cutie mark since they’re traditionally part dragon, made of water, part eagle and part fish, respectively. The exclusion of donkeys seems kinda arbitrary.
 
@Cosmas-the-Explorer  
Trouble Shoes has to be a horse and likely Big Mac is, too. Ponies are supposed to be about four feet tall and if Trouble Shoes is the max limit, that’d make the CMC smaller than most foals.
 
@Latecomer  
And don’t forget that real life miles are infertile so I’d imagine they’re fairly rare in Equestria. The one we saw could be the only mule for hundreds of miles for all we know.

@Brass Beau  
Yes - a rare, sterile and discriminated byproduct of the occaisonal love between a mare and a donkey.

@Latecomer  
A forbidden romance between a stallion and a jenny is a popular subgenre of romance in Equestria.

@Brass Beau  
I think that gets you a hinny - hills optional.

In classical mythology, gryphons ate horses. Also in classical mythology, a hippogriff comes from mating a gryphon and horse. Hippogriffs have the front half of an eagle and the back half of a horse. Hippocampi have the front half of a horse and back half of a fish. In the show and movie, when a hippogriff goes from one form to the other, their beaks become muzzles. I have so many questions about how all of that comes together.

@Cosmas-the-Explorer  

 
Eyup

@Brass Beau  
Wow, I surely learned something today.
 
I mean that in a good way btw, I really didn’t know that.

 
Considering that the earlier aforementioned episode (Applebuck Season) established them as sapient, I’m not sure the writer thought that through, in all likelihood, lol… especially considering Amy Keating Rogers was credited for both of them.

@AC97
 
That’s one of the reasons why Rarity was seen as a racist in season 1. The other was with Zecora, as Rarity was the only one who was put off by her appearance rather than her mannerisms.

@AC97  
And with mules being so rare, one wonders how they got such a bad reputation.

@Spinny
 
…huh, that episode, too, was written by the same writer.
 
Hmm… maybe there is a bit of substance to that one.
 

@AC97  
I wonder how much of a coincidence it is, if at all, that Rarity is a white pony.

Still bugs me that we never figure out more about the specie, kingdom or anything that comes from Captain Celaeno and her crew of anthro parrots

@[Ω]  
Or the cat people of Abbyssinia. Kinda weird that there’s cat people but Rarity owns a pet cat.

@Brass Beau  
Or anybody from Klugetown.

@[Ω]  
And where did the Storm King come from? Why was he on a conquest? What was he, some kinda lemur?

@Brass Beau  
I figured Storm King was the same as his soldiers, yetis.  
Intrestingly,some reports of yetis in real life have noted that the creatures have tails.

@Dex Stewart  
I thought his soldiers were giant hedgehogs.

@Brass Beau  
Somewhere I have a bunch of trading cards for the movie,and I think they called his minions yetis.

@Dex Stewart  
Weird how they changed their depiction of yetis for the movie.

@Brass Beau  
Officially, it’s pity - if only their mother had chosen a proper father, they wouldn’t be denied the magic and mark that are their birthright, as well as any chance at foals of their own. Unofficially, many who look down on mules don’t think much of donkeys either - they’re basically just earth ponies without any of the pony perks, after all.
 
 
@Spinny  
Some mild internlised racism is more likely than not for characters of their apparent class, especially the most class-aspirant among them.

@Latecomer  
So, the ponies of Equestria are specisist, classist, (possibly) mildly androgynistic and ruled by a monarchy that may or may not be the figure of their religious beliefs… yeah, I’d still live there.