Another one I wrote a while ago and intended to make visuals for. Perhaps one day.
(NOTE: I took heavy inspiration from Angry19’s Petra fluffies in my interpretation of micros, but hopefully I’ve done enough to make it not seem like a weird rip off.)
Micros:
Micros are a later development in the fluffy creation process, where hasbio or whoever noticed some of the weird kinks in fluffy psychology and programming and hoped to iron some of it out for the micro line.
Not to make them smart mind you, they’re still very far from it, but more so to avoid specific undesirable behaviors that could be tweaked. This is focused on curbing poopie bullying and instilling strong sense of group loyalty and empathy. With micros the color selection is way less important due to their sheer numbers and profits being less disparate between “good and bad” colors. They also don’t need the mares to weed out undesirable colors in the factories, so the behavior is targeted but could not be entirely removed. They’re purely concerned with mass production and selling as many micros as possible.
Micros in my canon have larger brains that regular fluffies relative to their total size, allowing for more room to tweak their programming and instincts. Micros are basically the Guinea pigs for improved fluffy behavior in the testing phase following the initial release of fluffies. Difference is that when they get loose, they have the more developed genetics by default whereas the regular fluffies didn’t quite get there on a larger scale.
(In my canon, truly bad fluffies are less common in an attempt to avoid bland hellgremlin shit.)
One aspect targeted early on for healthy colony dynamics is a natural aversion to smarty syndrome the same way many show fear or hatred of alicorns. Not smarty friends but smarty syndrome specifically, with all the attitude and tendency to be violent. They still tend to respond to confident leaders but are much more weary of tyrannical behavior. When a bestest babbeh is identified or general favoritism among a brood, the micro colony will naturally trigger an
aggressive “correction” response, punishing the mummah and/or the foal in question. This is meant as a preventative to stop any budding superiority feelings or identify unfit parents. If a grown fluffy or foal calls itself smarty openly, then they will be fully exiled from the colony if not outright killed.
Smarty syndrome in and of itself is rare despite micros having much larger litters and shorter gestation periods than full sized fluffs. The sheer amount of foals per brood also makes it so when bad babbehs are identified, they are more easily parted with in the colony. It’s a sad but necessary sacrifice for the betterment of the group. They’re more proactive in watching for signs of bad behavior that could threaten the herd, with such behavior being actively loathed among micros.
On the subject of alicorns, micros are a bit more naturally accepting of alicorns, as micros are not built with the same internal hierarchy of fur colors and breeds.
This is because their specific breed and variant matters way less for micros, but mainly as a direct response to the noticed uncanny valley effect of alicorns that can lead to fear and aggression.
While they’re still way less valuable than real alicorns, micro alicorns still do fetch a slightly higher price due to the consumer culture around fluffies. This also serves as a test for regular fluffies, as there is the need to minimize stupid loss of valuable inventory. Micros’ purpose and market is very different from regular fluffies, with fluffies made to be designer pets and companions for a long time, while micros are much more disposable and take on more insect-like behavior in their colonies.
As previously stated, they’re designed to be herd animals by nature whereas regular fluffies are just very social and form herds as a byproduct of their programmed need for interaction, companionship and procreation. They’re even more social and empathetic than normal fluffies as a requirement to survive and cooperate effectively. They’re not devoid of fluffy selfishness by any means, but they generally are programmed to be a bit more group oriented.
Some will still exhibit shitty behavior but like with smarties, that triggers an aggression response. Since they’re utterly harmless to humans, aggressive tendencies are common for them to police themselves more effectively as they pose no real threat to anyone else. This has the unintended side effect of making micros less docile and more inclined to “trial by fire” colony dynamics and hazing as a response to bad behavior. It has the bonus of making direct owner intervention much less necessary.
A key difference in their programming is that “poopie fluffy/babbeh” is coded into their mind as a derogatory call to action rather than something for discipline or fear. There’s usually no point in singling out bad fluffies to discipline in a colony because they’re so fragile you can just kill it and be done with it, or trust the group to whip them into shape. So instead of it making them cry and submit to the bullying or attempted discpine from perceived inferiority and shame, they get pissed and fight back against the bully. Their increased empathy and interpersonal bonds lead to others in the colony being more inclined to help the victim of bullying. They don’t see dummehs or poopies getting picked on but instead a friend and asset to the herd being attacked.