@Background Pony #9657
I agree! XD

No! That’s a trap!

Hahaha! Great idea and art

fried bug in 3…2…1

This DESPERATELY needs a followup image.

@AzriBoss
Oh it won’t end there. That’s just the beginning.

This will ended in to trip to toilet

@Adusak
Curse you, continuity!!!

Maybe Chrysalis can take it if she turns into a kirin herself.

This wil be painful >_<

@Adusak
Well, she is half lion…

@ABronyAccount
Gilda from season 1 would disagree about being immune to spicy food

@radpanic
Well apparently you don’t know mammals very well, which is strange considering you are one (we all are). If the capsaicin concentration was meant to discourage mammals as you say, then it wouldn’t be safe for us humans to consume. And yet chili peppers have been domesticated and consumed for thousands of years my friend, going all the way back to the Inca and Maya kingdoms. Naturally the peppers spread around the world when the Spanish came over and started trading with the natives, finding the peppers to be a curious oddity in the New World. The capsaicin gave the plant a unique flavor unlike any other found in Europe or Asia, and it quickly became popular as a spice additive in various dishes around the world.

As for the Carolina Reaper in particular, that’s actually a man-made variety of pepper, one that has far more capsaicin than peppers do out in the wild. As such, its coloration is certainly no adaptation for birds. However, the habanero pepper, the spiciest wild pepper there is, certainly could have adapted for this purpose. The habanero was one of the two pepper types that was used to create the Reaper, after all (the other being the Naga Viper pepper).

Chryssie is about to experience what hellfire tastes and feels like

Some honey should cool that right down…

@Eragor14
I don’t know how often birds eat peppers, counting from the birds’ point of view—but from the chili plants’ point of view, it’s super important. The birds are a huge help for dispersing the plant: when they eat peppers, they swallow the seeds whole, then poop them out after flying miles away. And the birds’ digestive system makes the seeds more likely to germinate than they would on their own. In contrast, when mammals eat fruit like peppers, they tend to chew up the seeds and ruin their chances of growing into a new plant.

So the generally accepted explanation is that chili peppers’ bright red color is an adaptation to encourage birds to eat them—and the high capsaicin concentration is an adaptation to discourage mammals.

Quick, somepony get Rarity’s ice cream dealer on the horn. 🔥 in the hole!

@Rare bruh
Gnilegnahc. 😏

@ABronyAccount
True, though I don’t think they would eat that type of food on a daily basis. Real life birds tend to eat seeds and insects a lot more (at least in regards to smaller birds like chickadees and sparrows), and larger birds may also eat fish as well. Neither of those things are particularly spicy.

@Derpyfan
Fun fact: a cup of apple seeds have enough cyanide to kill a person, but you could swallow that cup of seeds without issue due to humans being unable to digest the outer shell of the seed.
If you crushed the seeds beforehand, though, that’s where the danger begins.

@Adusak
And griffons and hippogriffs are both part bird, so probably resistant.

Autumn Blaze, only kirins (and probably dragons) are immune to fire and spicy food silly

@Eragor14
Actually cyanide is only found in the seeds of an apple.

Oh no.

And then Chrysalis experienced the phenomenon known as the burning ring of fiiiiiiiiiire……