Description:
Pt One maybe: The Basics
I must have baby fever or something because here's more babies!! I'll do another one on magic development.
Ponies/Zebras/Zonies/Other Similar Ungulates:
-Gestation is 9-12 months (or moons in pony-talk); there is natural variation between pregnancies. On average, earth ponies have the shortest gestation period.
-Pony babies are considered semi-precocial, meaning they're able to be up and running within an hour after birth
-They drink their mama's milk or a taro-based substitute for 4-6 moons
-Ponies age like people - sort of - and are capable of more complex tasks at a year old, like puzzle-solving and friendship skills. Usually puzzle-solving comes first, and talking comes later, so it was no concern to Sweetie Bell when her daughter didn't speak until she was three.
-Finally, baby ponies are often covered in a silky "down" when they're born and they will shed it after their first birthday
Draconequus (just Larkspur really)
-In many ways, Larkspur was an utter mystery to Fluttershy. She knew a lot about pony babies, but this was just...there were no resources to prepare her for this. Fluttershy kept copious notes documenting her son's behavior, and every day seemed to bring something new. Unfortunately Discord's advice was, in general, unreliable. Discord himself was more blase about the whole affair, and honestly considered his son a bit...boring at times. A wonderful miracle that made Discord question everything he thought had meaning before this, but still boring sometimes. It's just the nature of babies, he supposed.
-Lark popped out after only 6 months. It was the shortest pregnancy ever, and boy did it ever shock Fluttershy, who just so happened to be home alone when it happened.
-Lark was a tiny altricial bean that needed his parents for just about everything. He was born blind and could barely crawl. However, he could hear and his tail behaved as if it had a mind of its own, bapping whatever or whoever it perceived as a threat.
-Like his father, Lark fancies a nice bag of fresh anchovies. Fluttershy was fine with this, but it certainly made it difficult to explain when someone else had to babysit him. Ponies are pretty paranoid about blood and vicious snarling and the gnashing of sharp teeth against flesh.
Dragons:
-Eggs are typically laid and simply left behind in the colony's egg pits. They need extreme heat to develop, and the sex of the offspring produced depends on the temperature. It can take forty years for an egg to hatch. Spike's egg was tucked away in Celestia's bedroom for 35 years before she provided it the heat it needed to hatch. Twilight's magical spark was so extremely hot, Spike was able to hatch early before he could develop fire.
-The reason incubation takes so long is so minerals have time to develop and provide nutrients for the growing embryo. This first fire breath, called the "breath of life" by ponies, or as dragons call it, "initiation," is expelled involuntarily by the hatchling. (Sort of like baby's first poop lol) Of course, these fire-spitting babies gave ponies a very uneducated impression of dragons being vicious monsters from birth. Dragons do enjoy playing into this fear, but this has come at the cost of superstitious ponies stealing their eggs for power and status. For dragons, this first fire is where they usually get their names: Smolder got her name after she billowed smoke for hours following the smol flash of flame.
-In order to breathe fire, dragons need gems and limestone. They effortlessly consume minerals and rocks with hardened teeth and digestive systems. They can basically consume anything, but babies are typically fed exclusively gems fortified by their parents. Their parents keep the gems in their crops, soaking them in a nutritious milk-like substance until the milk-gem mixture is then regurgitated for the hatchling to feed.
-All dragons are born without wings, and will not grow their wings until "the molt"
-A dragon grows depending largely on environmental factors. Spike was considered a "baby" for almost all of Twilight's childhood to early adulthood, but once he was exposed to a massive amount of crystal (i.e. Twilight's Castle and the School of Friendship) it triggered his molt. It was then he was considered adolescent, and on his way to adulthood. As long as Spike sticks around the Castle and the School, his growth will be quicker than the average dragon. Similar with Smolder, who will get to Ember's "age" in no time. Point is, dragons can live a long, long, long time. Longer than any pony, including Celestia and they will only change in body depending on the amount of resources they have. In fact, no one knows if dragons can even die of old age. No one's lived long enough to see it happen.
-“Greed-aging” is unique as it only occurs when dragons feel pent-up greed and an unrelenting thirst for things. Dragons do tend to have an inherent lust for a hoard (usually because it’s among the softest bedding that doesn’t ignite) but greed is seen as a hormonal imbalance caused by some childhood irregularity. Basically, Spike undergoes greed-aging because he was raised by ponies and had never had an appropriate outlet before. Luckily, it’s easily reversible when the dragon gets their shit back together.
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