Wingie Headcanons (Star-The-Alicorn)

When a fluffy is first born, no matter its breed, it is born without wings. Pegasi and alicorns don’t start growing their wings in until a few weeks after their birth.

This causes them great pain, and usually the only way to ease this pain is to feed them fluffy-safe painkillers and massage their backs. Pulling on/messing with the growing wing stubs is a bad idea, as this can cause extreme pain and permanent damage to the wing. The bones in the wing are rubbery and delicate until they are properly exercised. When the wing stubs (The flesh and bone) themselves are fully grown, the feathers start to come in. This is a very itchy process.

Often, the foals will ask their owners and/or parents to pet or gently scratch their new wings. Either that, or the foals will rear up on their hind legs and scratch their backs on any available surface like a bear does.

The mother (And father fluffy, if he is around) will aid the foals in learning to preen their new feathers. This can be done by the fluffy lapping or nibbling at the feather-buds. If a feather-bud is bitten too hard, it will bleed and cause pain.

If the adult fluffies are too frightened of an alicorn foal to teach it to preen, this can either teach the foal to become independent by learning on its own, or the alicorn foal never learns to preen and therefore lives with scruffy-looking wings. Obviously, the second option isn’t optimal for breeders, as they want their fluffies looking as clean as possible.

Once the feathers are grown in, they can look quite beautiful. The primaries are the color of their hooves and horn. The feathers closest to the wing stub itself are the color of their mane and tail. The feathers covering the stub are the color of the fluffy’s fur.

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This is a cute idea. I’ve always had it that they start with nubs and pin feathers like altricial bird babies, but I might consider this as an alternative.

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Definitely some interesting ideas here. I like the thought you’ve put into it.

What happens to ferals without access to human-made pain killers? Since anything and everything can happen to fluffies in the wild (due to their own stupidity or incompetence) are there many feral pegasi with clean, functional (not flying of course) wings? Or do you only see good looking pegasi amongst breeders?

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Thanks!

I’m thinking some of the smarter ferals, ones that live in the forest, could concoct some kind of painkiller from herbs. It wouldn’t work nearly as well as a human’s, but it’d help at least a little bit.

And I’ve been thinking about how a fluffy could potentially learn to use tools. Perhaps a thorny stick could help comb the feathers? And since I headcanon pegasi to have bird dna, they could have a preening gland. They could use that oil to keep their feathers hydrated and strong.

(Ofc, one good way to tell an owned fluffy from a feral is by the condition of its wings. That’s a good idea too, because that also opens up a lot of doors.)

Those questions really got my brain gears turning! Thank you for helping me come up with more depth to this idea. (My brain ran with this, sorry it’s so long)

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