Are Sphinx's know for their treachery and their tricks?

>>30916099
Ponies are notorious pussies that run and flee at the first sign of their opponent fighting back.

>>30916111
Forward facing eyes

>>30916111
>Anon faces the Sphinx
>The Sphinx releases a mighty roar
>Anon stands his ground
>The Sphinx is confused
>This is normally the part where they run away
>When Anon starts throwing rocks, she freaks out a bit and starts running
>Anon chases, throwing more rocks
>As he chases her in circles around her chamber, the ponies watching from the sidelines are befuddled

>>30916120
Will you shut up about that? That isn't the end-all be-all for determining prey and predators.

Have you not noticed monkeys and apes also have forward eyes, and aren't predatory in any way? We have them because we have hands with which to grab branches/manipulate the environment. We needed eyes that can focus on what's in front of us.

Besides forward eyes are just kinda the "default". The only reason prey animals have eyes on the side of their head is because they NEED them to watch for predators. Animals with forward eyes can be predator or prey.

>>30916111
I'm talking about the Sphinx
She didn't choose to fight

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>>30916162
>aren't predatory in any way
You sure about that?

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>>30916162
>apes
>humans technically apes
>not predatory

anon, are you mentally retarded?

>>30916191
Not him, but they're really more opportunistic scavengers. If an easy meal comes their way, they aren't going to turn it down, even if they have to get their paws dirty.

>>30916099
>>30916176
Sphinxes aren't known for treachery or tricks; if you answer their riddle right, they won't attack you. It's pretty straightforward.

On the other hand, they are clever. Especially in the realm of enigmas, being extremely adept at any sort of puzzle, like navigating a labyrinth or intuiting wordplay.

>>30916176
I was referring to how the pony army immediately shit its pants and stood down instead of fighting her when she grabbed the prince and did a light show. They never actually even tried to attack her.

For all we know they could have beat her they just pussied out at the site of her doing a show of force. So its not really easy to gauge how "powerful" she was when the enemy she was pitted against kept chickening out.

>>30916210
>if you answer their riddle right, they won't attack you
So Sphinx's do have a fondness for Riddles?

>>30916210
So they are like lawyers.

>>30916162
Shut up you faggot vegan.

>>30916141
>Rocks.
>Not a sandal on a stick.

>>30916141
>throwing rocks
Very effective anon, a flying creature that outsizes you by a large margic, capable of fire and magic, and you're going with rocks.

>>30916294
Well, making it chase a laser pointer into a wall would be cruel.

>>30916191
>chooses a monkey that hunts, when most of them eat nuts and foliage

>>30916195
Are YOU retarded? Humans are hardly 'predators' in the traditional sense, despite the fact that it feeds their ego to think they are. Humans are their own category.

We're large-ish animals that evolved to be intelligent, which is why we're not often prey. But that doesn't automatically make us predators. Yes, humans evolved to digest meat, yes, they hunt, yes, they obviously fuck up the environment, but just look at a lion. Now back at us.
We have soft skin, round, pathetic nails, poor smell, tiny, blunt teeth, and a diet that is 80-90% herbivorous by nature. And when we do eat meat, we have to cook that shit or else we get diseases and fucking die. What part of that screams, "predator"?
Hunting was rare for most of human history, and although some tribes do it today, the vast majority of the world relies on agriculture.

The truth is that humans just plain break a lot of the established rules of nature. We use our intelligence to fuck up the Earth, we can kill a bird or whatever if we feel like it, but we can't do shit if we're suddenly locked in a room with a lion or a venomous snake. Humans are less "predators" and more "assholes".

>>30916099
why did her wings work in the pyramid?

>>30916294
For real. Just bring your super soaker. The one with the backpack so you can go longer between reloading

>>30916374
>feeds their ego
>Humans are their own category

Calling the kettle black

>>30916231
Would you try to fight something 5x your size?

>>30916374
Are you fucking retarded? EVERYTHING about human physiology evolved to be predators; are bodies are designed for long running endurance-- We evolved that so we could run down our prey over a long period of time back when we only had sharpened sticks to kill with. We'd track the prey until they dropped dead of exaustion. THAT is a predatory evolution to be predators. The long range endurance is of small use for being a gatherer of berries, it evolved SPECIFICALLY to hunt and kill. Additionally, look at our arm sockets; they're fucking weird, no other ape has anything like our arm sockets. They may be bigger, but Gorillas can't throw for shit, while we can; WHY? once more, PREDATOR. Our earliest method of killing was to literally throw shit at things; Rocks, sharpened sticks, you name it. Our bodies EVOLVED to be able to kill other things to eat.

Additionally, our very brains require us to be predators; the human brain requires a fucking ton of calories to work. You can only really get that in nature by being a predator. Our need to hunt and kill went hand in hand with our evolution into predators.

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>>30916425
I would like to try to fuck something 5x my size.

>>30916408
Blocks Pegasi magic, like the Changeling throne blocks outside magic but not Changeling magic
Tbh I just stole this dudes answer >>30915800

>>30916435
pegasi don't have magic

>>30916249
>>30916210
pla answer

>>30916440
All equestrians have innate magic. You think wings that small could lift a pony's weight on it's own?

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>>30916425
If you outnumber it about a thousand to one? Yeah.

>>30916456
earth ponies don't.

>>30916456
According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway. As does the pegasus.

>>30916249
>>30916266
The sphinx was from Greek mythology, where it was just "the sphinx" as there was only one of them. (Lions were found throughout Europe until we caused their extinction there.) This particular sphinx was very famous for its riddles, not letting anyone past until its riddles were solved, eating anyone who guessed them wrong, and killing herself when one of her riddles was finally solved.

The Egyptians took the sphinx and adapted it, hence the great sphinx of Giza. THESE sphinxes were said to be helpful, and were used to guard treasure and royal dwellings. (Remember, they worshiped cats.) However, Egyptian sphinxes can suddenly turn ferocious, and they will eat anyone who tries to go after whatever they're guarding.

Obviously the sphinx from MLP comes from more of an Egyptian-style town, but seems like it's more inspired by the Greek sphinx if anything, especially since that one was female, and the Egyptian ones don't have a connection with riddles. To be honest through popular culture just kinda blends the two sphinxes into one thing anyway.

>>30916374
>chooses a monkey that hunts, when most of them eat nuts and foliage
Yeah, I did, because you said that they weren't "predatory in any way". Apes and monkeys will kill anything they can get their hands on if its smaller than them. Monkeys will grab fish for example to eat, and that's meat. And that's not just "opportunism", that's literally fishing/grabbing fish out of the water. Hell, the species of apes that are able to swim have been observed going into the water to catch fish.
That's called being an omnivorous predator, like a bear.

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Apparently a male sphinx is called an androsphinx mfw looking up sphinx physiology for Venezuelan soap carving forum

>>30916462
Have you not noticed that Earth horses have fur and eyes that can be any color? They're kinda obviously magic, even if they don't actually perform it.

>>30916195
Not only are we predators - we prey on each other. For fun and profit.

>>30916466
Myth: Bumblebee’s shouldn’t be able to fly.

There’s an oft repeated “fact” that the humble bumblebee defies all known laws of physics every time it flaps its tiny little bee wings and ascends to the sky. Now obviously this is false, since, well, bumblebees fly all the time and if every time a bee took off it was tearing physics apart, we’d probably realize that was the case when two thirds of our population disappeared after being pulled into tiny, bee-shaped black holes. And, certainly if this was the case, every physicist dreaming of a Nobel Prize would be devoting all their time to breaking the code of bumblebee flight in order to disprove some bit of our understanding of physics. That being said, if you work out the math behind the flight of the bumblebee, you’ll find that it actually shouldn’t be able to fly… so long as you don’t take into account all the relevant factors, which seems to be how this myth got started. Basically, if you calculate it all assuming bumblebees fly like airplanes, then sure, the bumblebee shouldn’t be able to fly. But, of course, bumblebees don’t fly like airplanes.

So where and when did this myth start? The often repeated story goes that many years ago an engineer and a biologist were having dinner and a few drinks, after the topic of conversation turned to each person’s respective field. The biologist asked the engineer to work out how a bee flew- scientists partied wicked hard back in those days. The engineer, keen to show off his skills, quickly jotted down a few calculations and came to the conclusion, that holy crap, a bee shouldn’t be able to fly.

>>30916374
>they obviously fuck up the environment
Found the vegan!

>>30916492


Today, the story is fully ingrained in pop culture and many sites and people without looking into the matter, repeat it as fact, even though one wonders how such a drunken mathematician had the pertinent numbers on hand to perform such calculations on the spot… Hell, the Dreamworks Animation film, Bee Movie, with a budget of $150 million apparently couldn’t spare a few bucks to consult a physicist on the matter, and opened with a variation of the “bee’s shouldn’t be able to fly” myth on a title card, and that’s a film aimed at children, in 2007! Man, we really should be investing more money in schools or at least more factually accurate bee based movies.

As to the origin, it’s always possible, albeit somewhat unlikely, that a drunken scientist did indeed make a “back of an envelope (in some versions it’s a napkin) calculation” that proved bee’s shouldn’t be able to fly. An origin theory with a tad more documented evidence behind it, pins it on a French book published in 1934, Le vol des insectes, which makes passing reference to that fact that simple calculations yield a result that suggests insects, not just bumblebees, shouldn’t be able to fly. Some say it was German physicist Ludwig Prandtl who was responsible for popularising and spreading the myth amongst his peers, whereas others claim that the original calculations were made by one Jacob Ackeret, a Swiss gas dynamicist.

In the aforementioned earliest known reference to such an idea, Le vol des insectes, Antoine Magnan, the author, claims the calculations, in regards to insects disobeying the laws of physics, were made by his friend and assistant, André Sainte-Laguë. Of course, the author should have been skeptical on the accuracy of his friend’s calculations and assumptions given that many insects can fly, but here we are.

>>30916496
So while we can’t be sure he was truly the first, the first known calculations on the subject were made by Sainte-Laguë, though this fact doesn’t necessarily mean that another physicist didn’t do similar calculations during a drunken argument, which is good because we like that part of the story. What isn’t known is how the fact first eked into the public consciousness, and it’s likely we’ll never find out due to it being so long ago.

As for the calculations themselves, scientists, engineers and entomologists have gone to great lengths to discredit them, as the original calculations failed to take into account a number of facts about the bee. Most pertinent of these is that bumblebees don’t fly like a plane and they don’t have stiff, rigid wings. With that in mind, the original calculations, which were based mostly on the surface area of the bee’s wings and its weight, aren’t really applicable, since they neglect several factors that need to be taken into account for an accurate calculation. For example, “the effect of dynamic stall“, which would take too long to explain in this article, which is already creeping up on “too long”. So I’ll just briefly say that “Aerodynamic bodies subjected to pitching motions or oscillations exhibit a stalling behavior different from that observed when the flow over a wing at a fixed angle of attack separates” and then refer you to the following if you’re interested in reading up on the subject, which is actually pretty surprisingly interesting; although I was technically being paid to read it, so perhaps that coloured my view on it: Dynamic Stall

The reality is that bees and comparable insects fly in an incredibly complex way that utilises, get this, mini hurricanes!

>>30916503
We’ll link all this stuff at the bottom in the references if you’re interesting in the nitty gritty physics, but in lay terms, bees fly by rotating their wings, which creates pockets of low air pressure, which in turn create small eddies above the bee’s wing which lift it into the air and, thus, grant it the ability to fly.

To find this out, scientists have conducted a variety of tests using bees, the most awesome one being by Chinese scientist, Lijang Zeng and his team, who devised system comprised of lasers and tiny mirrors glued to bees back in 2001. This experiment was deemed superior to previous tests, as it didn’t need to use tethered bees (which fly differently) and because it contained lasers, which is of course super cool. We’re fairly certain that a laboratory full of Asian scientists firing tiny laser beams at bees covered in shiny body armour is going to be the next big Syfy channel hit, so remember that you heard about it here first.

In fact, the way bees and other comparable creatures fly is so efficient and causes so little drag, that research into the subject has been backed by various militaries in an attempt to mimic this method of flight with our own tiny insect-like robots, which is just a recipe for another Syfy hit.

So, around 80 years ago a scientists or mathematician of some sort made a rough, mistake filled calculation that claimed bees couldn’t fly. Fast forward almost a century and scientists today are still trying to erase that mistake from the public consciousness with increasingly complex experiments to prove the simple fact that bumblebees can, in fact, fly, and that this doesn’t violate any of our understanding of the laws of physics.

>>30916466
So yes, bees can fly without violating the laws of aviation. Pegasi on the other hand use magic.

>>30916511
>Pegasi on the other hand use magic.
[citation needed]
real world physics don't apply to cartoons

The question really is; do Equestrian bees ACTUALLY break the laws of physics and require magic (like pegasi) to fly, or are just just like our bees?

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>>30916468
Thanks a bunch for the explanation anon.
I don't know much about Sphinx's, and sort of wondered why she had a fondness for Riddles, when it seemed like she was capable of ruling the Village by force.
It seemed like she gave that up to try and game the village though. As in, if it weren't for her posing the riddle, she likely could have kept ruling that village

>>30916231
Well we're basically saying a similar thing. The Sphinx was in control because Ponies were presumably scared of what she could do and her power.

I was just wondering what prompted the Sphinx to put that power aside and choose to engage in a battle of wits by posing a riddle, because that riddle was her downfall


Actually, maybe the Sphinx was actually retreating when the Ponies stood up to her? Perhaps she thought she couldn't win the battle so she retreated back to the temple with a prisoner?

>>30916549
I think the MLP sphinx either ate or threatened to eat some Ponies behind the scenes. It ruled the entire town, and demanded crops. They clearly couldn't fight it, but they probably tried to at some point.

>>30916541
>or are just just like our bees?
Dying?

>>30916632
>get beesy living or get beesy dying

>>30916374
>blunt teeth

They're not. They, like our jaws, shrunk over time and became small. If you scaled it up, our canines would be a much ghastlier sight. It's also our predatory nature which allowed us to evolve larger brains. We developed different methods of hunting, both throwing rocks (https://what-if.xkcd.com/44) and tracking down prey in a battle to see who would collapse from heat exhaustion first. This is what we used in our earliest state, when even tools weren't really a thing; our natural state. Also scavenging, which isn't hunting but involved eating carcasses.

Your faulty narrative assumes humans just existed one day with all the answers.

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>>30916578
Maybe this last attempt actually was threatening to the Sphinx though?
If you look at what she did, she effectively grabbed a hostage to escape a situation, maybe a situation that was dangerous for her.

Or, since Sphinx's are fond of Riddles, she decided to play that game with them by capturing the Prince
What does our resident Sphinx expert think >>30916468?

why the cat so dam big?

>>30916704
Huge pussy.

>>30916431
>>30916672
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFlOZFSIsMQ

>>30916721
i fukn chukld m8

you woudlent breed a sphinx...

>>30916231
>>30916673
I think that sphinx has a big ego. She's a real, "do what I say and worship me, for I am your God!" type. Also, I think she's a bit sadistic. I'm certain she could have just eaten them all, being a flying lion the size of a house. But she wanted to play with her food. She wanted to punish and emotionally toy with them all for defying her.

If she had killed them all, she wouldn't really gain anything. But by kidnapping someone and flying away, she both punishes the one who stood up to her, and either delays or completely avoids a fight. She also asserts her grandiosity this way, painting herself as someone who will hurt you and your loved ones at the first sign of disobedience.

>>30916771
You underestimate a great many people here.

>>30916955
I hate macro. It's just so cringy, I mean sure it's canon in this case, but still.
I want a pone or even Celestia size ejeptkitty.

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>>30916771
The fuck I wouldn't you astounding homoqueer.

>>30916968
But cats have very small vaginas. The only way you'd be able to fuck spinxponer is if she really was that much larger.

>>30916985
What makes you think she has a cat puss? She's half horse as well, you know.

>>30916420
>"I SHALL DEVOUR YOUR SOUL- hggrk!"
>Squirt
"Bad sphinx."
>"YOU LITTLE- fffbbpptt, stop that!"
"Sit in the corner and think about what you've done."
>"I AM A GOD YOU FOOL- khaawf!"
"Don't make me get out the rolled up newspaper."
>"Anything but that! It's filled with popsicle-tier riddles!"
"And then you'll have two servings of broccoli for dinner and no dessert."
>"This is cruel and unusual!"

>>30916985
Interesting, did not know that. Makes it a bit better, she's still like 40ft tall though.

>>30917024
Is she? What makes you think she's half pone?

>>30917038
The horse head and ears, for starters.

>>30917038
Her design is so similar to pone I believe one of her parents was a cat and the other a pegasus.

>>30917038
A sphinx is a sphinx because it's a lion with a human head. In Ponyverse, it's a Pony head. You really didn't notice she has the head of a mare? Plus her coat isn't the color of a normal lion, so its color can probably be anything like a Pony's.

>>30917054
Or she's just a mythological, magical beast whom is the result of a Magical Fuck-up™

>>30917054
You'd be closer to say a pone and a griffin, but traditionally that would make a hippogriff.

I think in this universe sphinxes were created with experimental magic or magical crossbreeding. If something is a chimera, there must have been magic involved in creating it.
That goes for otherwise natural creatures too, like griffins. I'm not sure why magic would cause two non-magic species to hybridize into a chimera in nature though.

>>30917048
>>30917054
>>30917055
Sure, but what created her? Not many cats around to fug.
I'm leaning towards;
>>30917062
but, I'd like to ask our resident sphinxfetis-- I mean sphinx expert, how was the Greek and Egyptian sphinx created, in myth?

>>30917072
>hippogriff
whats the "definition" of hippogriff? just any cross? or is that a chimera?

also theres the case of the female chimera we've seen in the show, origins for her?

>>30917077
>Not many cats around to fug
Whatever race Katarina and Capper are from.

>>30917098
Also there's Bastet from the comics.

>>30917098
>inb4 B A R R B E D

>>30917111
>Rara gives birth to a sphinx
>She comes to you and sphinxwife for advice
>You think about making Catfuckers Club Unanimous

>>30917087
The prefix hippo- means horse. (Whoever named the hippopotamus was an idiot.) A hippogriff is a when a griffin breeds with a mare, you get a griffin with the back legs and tail of a horse, which is more docile than a griffin.

>>30917077
Perhaps unicorn magic can achieve magical hybridizations?

Also as the sphinxfetis- I MEAN EXPERT, in Greek mythology it was the offspring of Orthrus (two-headed dog, we've seen it in MLP,) and either Echidna, (half woman half snake,) or the Chimera, depending on the source. It was part of the story of Oedipus. (Tragic hero, tried to break a prophesy, ends up fulfilling it anyway and getting with his mom hence 'oedipus complex'.)

>>30917136
>Whoever named the hippopotamus was an idiot
Water Horse?

I don't know, maybe they thought hippos looked similar to horses when they canter out of the water with their tails swinging about.

>>30917149
It's latin for 'fat piece of shit' horse

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>>30917164
>'fat piece of shit'
The Greek word for that is Tumblr.

In fact we've seen a hippopotamus in the show already.

>>30917178
>nature_is_fascinating.jpg

Reminder that Evolution as the origin of life is pseudoscience and anti-scientific.

>>30917208
*tips fedora*

>>30917208
Well no shit, Jimmy.
Evolution is what happens after abiogenesis gets the whole life thing going.

>>30916099
They sure are known for being qt as fuck.

>>30917208
Of course it is. Evolution is about describing things that are already alive, not about where life came from in the first place.

>>30917208
Because evolution is about the evolution, not about the origin of life, faggot
SCHOOL TIME

>>30916162
yeah weren't uh chimps reported to rape their victim animals before eating them?

>>30917504
hot

>>30916456
Not to mention, Dash can become faster without using her wings when performing the Sonic Rainboom

>>30917504
Somehow I'm not surprised by this.

>>30917580
>bbbraaaappppppp

>>30917504
>rape their victim animals before eating them
It's like an older, more primitive version of /k/

>>30916926
Good point desu

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>>30916462
>>30916515
And that's why the magic-eating Tirek went after pegasi and earth ponies, right?

>>30919440
Earth ponies have CUTIE mark magic; an innate magic that tells them what they're best at in life. That is shared by every single pony of every race in the show. That is what tirek drained from them.

They have no racial magic.

>>30919679
>Princess Celestia: Tirek has stolen enough magic that he now has the strength to steal flight as well. Without Pegasi to control the weather, there will be no rain in Equestria. There is word he has gone after Earth ponies as well. Without their strength, they will not be able to tend the land.
ok dude

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>>30919679
>They have no racial magic.
How about you watch the show before talking out your ass, champ?

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>>30916926
>I'm certain she could have just eaten them all, being a flying lion the size of a house.
You know, at first I was annoyed that they designed a giant lion with a pony-shaped head. But then I remembered that sphinxes from real-world mythology have human heads, so a pony head on a lion body is just another way of avoiding humans in the setting.

It's certainly more creative than the show's earlier depiction of the sphinx, back in Castle Sweet Castle.

>>30916099
In mythology, Sphinxes are known for their challenges/riddles. When their riddle in answered, they kill themselves.

>>30920875
>In Jean Cocteau's retelling of the Oedipus legend, The Infernal Machine, the Sphinx tells Oedipus the answer to the riddle in order to kill herself so that she did not have to kill anymore, and also to make him love her
Awww
>She strangled and devoured anyone who could not answer
Brutal

https://derpibooru.org/1530259
https://derpibooru.org/1533274
https://derpibooru.org/1533277

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>>30921427

>>30921427
I'd worship her cock
No homo

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>>30916462

>>30921427
>leg job
MUH DICK

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>>30917208

>>30922463
>loli sphinx
Everything is amazing forever.

>>30922463
Cute, I'd hit it.

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>>30921427
>https://derpibooru.org/1533274
>slimed with cum
This is the exact kind of lewd I never knew I wanted!

>>30916120
But their not... Haven't you seen any view looking downward at them? Their eyes are on opposite sides

>>30916294
Rock attacks are supereffective against flying types.

>>30925294
Anon stop playing videogames

>>30916099
Rise.

>>30926520
anon stop mobileposting

>>30928890
I assure you I'm not. False accusations won't get you very far anon.

>>30931046
It's very easy to prove. Take a screenshot and post it.

>>30931150
How do we know your not mobile posting either?

>>30916141
Good

>>30931150
My word should be enough, aren't we all friends here?

You guys reckon Spinxh's still roam around Equestria?

>>30930099
Any other cool art from the ep?

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>>30936421

>>30936875
Pretty good
Kind of a weird blindfold though, artist probably didn't want to cover his work

>>30937065
I imagine he just wanted to show her worried expression.

>>30937065
Pretty sure it's a thin veil, same material as her dress-thing.

>>30934236
Depending on mythical creature lifespan, THAT sphinx could still be roaming Equestria.