Artist’s description from DA:

The first pony sketches I made on my tablet is when I first hooked it up and used it, and now I’m here again. memories ;w;

Anyways, I’ve been working on the map of Equestria for my comic, which includes a lot of new locations, both in places you’ve seen and places you haven’t. Now, wether or not the map is 100% finished in unclear, there’s a lot of empty spaces here and there that I might consider filling out, however I don’t want to add new locations just for the sake of fleshing out the map, I want to add them because they’ll be explored in some way in the comic. We’ll see what happens once I get into the latter part of the comic (there’s a big timejump between chapter 10 and 11, where in chapter 11 things are much different. There will be much more exploring of the world then.)

BUUUUT with the new map and new locations, means a ton of new races and other species! There’s moose, giraffes, zebras, reindeer, hippocampus, sealions, a BIG bunch of new dragon races, and even perytons are canon now. So to get used to drawing them I had to do some concept sketches to see if these species would fit my artstyle. I think they do ^{^}

Now technically, giraffes have made an appearance before as an animal that Fluttershy took care of. I’ve decided to make giraffes an intelligent race for this AU, who live together with zebras in Zebrabwe. And because I like giraffes. .w.

Moose and Reindeer are also a thing, where I kind of had an idea that their kingdom would be a bit like Sweden which is where I’m from and where moose and reindeer are common. Problem is, the moose’s kingdom is to the far northwest and the reindeer lands are to the far northeast. Sweden’s been split in two, lol

So to combat this, I have to whip out my good ol’ map-making arguement: the map is not 100% based on the real-life world map. That’s… basically impossible for this kind of world, lmao

Top right dude is an OC named Raycraft, an old hippogriff OC that I recolored. The two horned bois (the red and grey dragon-pony and the yellow and brown bunny pony) are also OCs, who are shapeshifters. BuT wHAt aRe ShAPeSHIftErS I hear you say, wellwell my son, you see this AU is part of a universe my friend and I have created. I’ve mixed the MLP universe together with an original universe for funsies. And, in our universe, there’s multiple dimensions. From those various dimensions there are many, many MANY species floating around in the galaxies. One of which, are Shapeshifters: Shapeshifter ref. Sheet

Shapeshifters are a species I’ve made for our universe (or well, MULTIverse) called the Primoverse. And since this AU of Equestria is part of OUR universe, it means that some original species from out universe will be present in Equestria as well. Does that make sense? Kind of? Great

So the two horned bois on this are named Mitch and CJ as humans. These two are their pony-selves, considering that every universe in the Primoverse has an alternate doppelganger to every person. Copies of each other, in each universe, the same person just slightly different in each world.

bUT wHy dO ThEY LooK lIkE PonIES If tHEY’Re hUManoIDs I hear you say, WELL MY SON THERE IS AN EXPLANATION FOR THAT AS WELL, LAD

So, there are different kinds of species. Yeah they have categories of what kind of species they are (demons, mimics, psychics, empaths, whatever), but there’s also categories for where they’re from. Currently, there is two Alpha types of species out there.The first type is the type of species that only comes from one specific universe, the locked species (proper name unfinished). For example, Ponies from Equestria and all the other races that live there as well. They are only exclusive to their universe, because that’s how that universe is programmed to run. If they were to go to another universe, they would turn to the default species: humans. Ponies are the equivalent of humans in Equestria, therefor they will become human if they enter another universe. Ponies do not naturally come from another universe, which makes them a locked species.Then there’s the second Alpha type, which is the unlocked species (proper name unfinished). The species of this kind aren’t bound to just one universe. They, depending on the level of Limbo in each universe, come from their respective homeplanets in each universe and can live in every one of them. They’re species like carnals, shapeshifters, sirens, and so on.

There are two subcategories to the Unlocked species which are important to note. The first subcategory is the type of species that can change form to a locked species’ form when entering a new universe. For example, if a shapeshifter enters into Equestria, then that shapeshifter will form into a pony. Shapeshifters, among other humanoids, have that privilege when entering a new world where their bodies fit the criteria of being completely changed in the matter of nanoseconds. Then there’s also the second subcategory which are the species who DON’T do this. If they enter a world that forces your physical form into another species’ form fitting to that universe, they aren’t able to change because their base is simply too far away from “human” to be able to have the flexibility and privilege to change their form. If they remain in the universe for a short while not much will happen, however if they stay for long they may experience fatigue, migraines, shortness of breath, heart palpitations and a platitude of other symptoms. And if they remain for around 24 earth-hours they may begin to experience vomiting and nausea, dizziness, loss of conscience and eventually death. Species like these include the Bulwarki, Voltues, Drakkhens, etc. (basically, it’s the species that are just too far away from being humanoid enough.)

So that’s the current reasoning, the Mitch and CJ that come from Equestria have the form of a pony since ponies are the default to humans, which is why they look like that. However, they still posess the abilities of their other selves since Shapeshifters are an unlocked species and doesn’t change no matter the universe you’re in. Only thing that really changes is the animals that they can shift into (equestrian animals), but that’s it.

Sorry if this got really long, but I’ve thought lnog and hard about this multiverse and I want it to work and make sense! I AM A BIG FAN OF LOGIC