Yes I know I kind of did an experimental piece with my headcanon on donkeys and mules in MLP:FIM back in 2022 but I wanted to make another one with more varied designs
Long story short I've always disliked the designs of the donkeys and mules in MLP (like Cranky, Matilda, and Mulia Mild). Personally it's not fair that the ponies look round and cute while the donkeys/mules are portrayed as conventionally "ugly" and slightly more realistic.
And it makes even less ense that somehow even Zecora doesn't look hideously out of place even though zebras are more related to donkeys than they are to horses/ponies.
Real donkeys/mules are actually very cute, so my headcanon portrays them in a similar art style to the ponies
Redid a very old MLP OC from more than a decade ago, and admittedly it's a bit of an odd one
Her old version was just a pony. Her new version is a mule who guards her home from dangerous predators and literally wears their bones as a trophy to show she's not fucking around. (Kind of based off those guard donkeys that farmers sometimes use in place of guard dogs)
My friend starb on Discord suggested Memento Mori as a name for her which fits super well so I'm using it
Correct me if im wrong, but I do believe this is the only mule in the entire series. Mules are horse x donkey....WHY DID HE LOOK SO PREDOMINANTLY DONKEY??
And for that matter, why are donkeys and kirin the only pony-types without cutie marks? Like, Kirin you can make an argument for with the whole dragon thing. But the donkeys?? They 1000% should have cutie marks. And so should Cletus.
We see him near the apple farm if im remembering correctly, so I've given him an agricultural type cutie mark, he probably keeps to himself a lot, but he loves both sides of his family. Whoever they are 😂
ignore that last post. here are my design notes on how i draw + portray mules, plus some explantions/info/headcanons that didn't fit on the sheet under the cut
so the mules we have in canon arent all that great . they look identical to donkeys (and are always the punchline to a joke like our poor friend here)
so like a sane mlp fan i sunk 2 hours into designing a mule !
i used a random background mare and cranky doodle as refs bc mules are a male donkey and a female horse. i tried to pick a couple of the most notable traits from each.
then i put the donkey legs on the front bc of this quote i found on wikipedia while researching about mules (and hinnies, which are a female donkey + male horse)
i was a little conflicted on how the face would look but i decided to lean more pony like because i like the idea of a mule being able to pass as a pony from a distance. i suspect some mules do pass as ponies with if their coats are light enough and their snouts lean a little more ponylike...*cough cough wink wink*
on that note, smthn i also didnt get to mention is that a mule's mane tends to curl ! i based this on mulia and matilda's manes (even though matilda's mane is straight in her flashback but shh.)
as for naming conventions, i'd guess that there are a lot of second generation mules with names like miracle, serendipity, and blessing bc their births are a big deal. first gen mules seem to favor m sounds in canon (mulia). with most of the mothers of mules being earth ponies i can see ponylike names being quite popular for their babies
heres my take on mules while i'm redesigning the animals that appear in the show lol
references + explanations for design under the cut (mostly abt the muzzle lol)
so i had this infographic in mind when thinking about how mules were gonna look in the face. to me most mules just look like weird horses so thats why mine is so pony like lol. in the show donkeys have a really pronounced silhouette so instead of trying to blend it with a pony's i just made it to where a mule Could pass as a pony from a distance
the mules in the show just look like donkeys ?? if i asked which was the mule and which was the donkey no one would even KNOW . one thing i didn't add to the sketch though was the larger nostrils they have bc i forgot and im too lazy to fix it rn. i did take their coat colors and tendencies toward lighter body + darker mane, but with a bit of a twist bc ponies are so colorful
i also gave them the visible hoofline bc i think theyd have mostly earth pony mothers and they tend toward those, esp the Big ponies . i think a mule would be very Strong for their size
i dont think all mules would look like either . some would have that curved back and more donkey like limbs
Stuff happened irl that tripped me up with my goretober prompt pumpin machine -v-" I had to tke some time off. I have one halfway done for Decapitation, but I have to skip Acid and Skinning. Anyways, take a consolation prize in the form of my remade ponysona lol. Drew em while watching the new mlp movie.
