So I was inspired by a comment Oculus made about horse herds being matriarchal. I’ve known this for a while, but for whatever reason it never occurred to me to apply it to fluffies.
I decided to use it as inspiration for this headcanon post.
Feral fluffy herds are typically patriarchal. Their leader is called the “Smarty Friend” (often shortened to “Smarty”) and depending on the herd, he could be a truly intelligent (for a fluffy) and capable leader, a violent and ruthless dictator, or even just an average fluffy who got lucky.
He is typically the father of many of the foals in the herd (or most/all of them if he is a tyrant).
Second in command are a few other stallions called Toughies. There are usually two of these, though there are occasionally herds with more.
Assuming they aren’t of the dictator type, both the Smarty Friend and his Toughies guard and protect their herd from threats.
Occasionally you will see a matriarchal fluffy herd. The leader here is still called the “Smarty Friend”, and the structure is mostly the same apart from the gender of the Smarty Friend and possibly the Toughies.
The female Smarty Friend typically has at least one male Toughie to take over for her in case both she and any female Toughies become pregnant, although some matriarchal fluffy herds have a “trade-off” system when it comes to this and thus a male Toughie is not necessary.
In either case, herds lead by compassionate and intelligent Smarty Friends last the longest and are the most likely to further evolve, whereas herds lead by dictator Smarties typically die out before their foals grow up.
Feral fuzzy herds, though rarer than feral fluffy herds, also exist.
They are typically descended from the more outdoor-inclined ranch fuzzies (officially dubbed “Fuzzy Ranch Ponies” by Mattel Bio), and all of the founding members were previously taught about reproduction (per their species’s requirement). Occasionally a normal fuzzy may find their way into a feral herd, but they may not ever be able to breed.
Fuzzy herds are all matriarchal. Their leader is called the “Big Mama”, and she is usually the oldest mare in the herd. She is always the most experienced fuzzy in the herd.
The Big Mama will have one to two second-in-commands called “Deputies” (a holdover from their ranch fuzzy roots). These are virtually always stallions, but there has been at least one case where a particularly strong mare was a Deputy. Similar to Toughies, Deputies guard and protect their herd from threats.
If a fluffy herd and a fuzzy herd meet, one of three things will happen: they will socialize with each other, they will fight, or they will simply pass each other by.
This depends a lot on the dispositions of both the Smarty Friend and Big Mama, as well as those of their respective enforcers.
For example, if an intelligent Smarty Friend runs into an intelligent Big Mama, the two and their respective herds will most likely cooperate with each other and possibly even ally.
Meanwhile, a dictator Smarty and his Toughies will try to intimidate the fuzzy herd into leaving, and a fluffy-aversed Big Mama will order her Deputies to drive out the fluffy herd. In both cases, the conflict can very quickly become violent, and almost certainly will in the case of a conflict between a dictator Smarty and a fluffy-aversed Big Mama.
Luckily, violent conflicts are rare, as fluffy-aversion is increasingly rare in feral fuzzy herds, and fluffy herds run by dictator Smarties typically don’t last long as previously mentioned.