@Background Pony #C3B4  
Well, Doctor Who has 50 years worth of episodes, audio-plays, spinoffs, and other stuff.
 
Each My Little Pony gen is self-contained, with their completely different style of drawing and universe. Doctor Who just changes their actor with a slightly younger actor, get a new cute girl to board the TARDIS, and have a few unique schticks. But it was still in the same “canon”, with each incarnation of the Doctor being the same man at different points in the timeline, and Sarah Jane returning as a middle-aged woman who clearly was the same journalist as when she was in her late twenties.
 
You cannot say the same with G3 Pinkie Pie and G4 Pinkie Pie, they have the same name, are both dark pink with blue eyes, both have 3 balloons on their butts (two blue and one yellow), and they’re both high-pitched party girls who like to break the fourth wall, and also look vaguely like horses, but they have completely different backstories, hair-colors (near-white in g3 and fuchsia in g4), and the g4 one is much more energetic than the g3 one.

Grotesque?  
Really?  
Doesn’t that sound a bit excessive?

I’d be more worried about the part where it says they can change into ANYTHING. Think about it, you thought they were scary enough when they could change to look like your best friend, think about it if they had the ability to turn into that end table you just walked past…

@Soarin_the_Pegasus  
Pegasus, Unicorn, Earth Pony, Alicorn, Crystal Pony, Changeling, Zebra, Night Pony*, Glimmer Wings, Seaponies, and so on…
 
there might even be 100 types of ponies!
 
 
*Luna s’ guards

(skipping the arguments about canon hierarchy)
 
It’s just semantics. Orcs, Vulcans, and Wookiees, are often considered “humanoid” even though they aren’t actually humans. Changelings are roughly the same dimensions and body structure of the ponies, so calling them “ponies” isn’t too much of a stretch.
 
And besides, this doesn’t violate my corrupted Flutter Pony headcanon. Heh.

@Background Pony  
This is what I get for making comments at 1am

@Wilhelm II, Kaiser  
You are using Doctor Who as an example, a show in where Atlantis had 3 different explanations, two different Loch Ness Monster explanations, and continuity changes within each era of said show. A better example might have been Star Wars.
 
It seems that the general consensus is that Continuity in FiM follows a sort of Star Wars like Continuity System:
 
Show > Official Novels and Comics ≥ Word of God > Toys, Gameloft, etc.
 
Stuff like “No Way Too Far” and other Magazine comics seems to be (rightfully) non canon. Books like Crystal Heart Spell and the IDW Comic series are both book canon which can be overridden by show canon. Word of God is on almost equal footing as book canon, unless its directly contradicted (something I do not believe happened as of yet). A book like Elements of Harmony (having Word of God as an intentional element) Would be the book closest to show canon.
 
TL;DR: Doctor Who was a bad example. Most logical Continuity scale:  
Show > EoH Guidebook ≥ Official Novels and IDW Comics ≥ Word of God > Toys, Gameloft, Magazine Comics, etc.

Phenotypically they’re pretty equinish.

@Dr Outback  
Forgot about them…below comics, I guess

Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle.

@Wilhelm II, Kaiser  
where do Toys and there descriptions go in that list?

@Hollow_Shades_resident  
So?
 
The staff of Doctor who can say something, but it wouldn’t be canon till it appeared in an episode.
 
The same thing applies here, only stuff shown in the show counts.

@Wilhelm II, Kaiser  
You didn’t actually answer my question. This is a book with behind the scenes info from the actual SHOW STAFF.

… Here we go.

@DasHiveMind  

@Wilhelm II, Kaiser  

@Hollow_Shades_resident  
If it is on the show, it is 100% canon.
 
Show > Offical books > Offical comics > Fanstuff

@Wilhelm II, Kaiser  
You mean the book with bts info and quotes from the show staff?

That would be headcanon destroying…if it was canon.
 
But, seeing as books aren’t the same as show canon… :p

@Soarin_the_Pegasus  
inb4 this was never Fausts vision.

So would we consider them another pony “sepcies”?
 
Pegasus, unicorn, earth, alicorn, changeling?

I kept saying they where a bug-pony-thing, more bug like but never said they where not ponies.

Grotesque?

Works for me.