>>48942880Not him, but asking for a darwinian evolution reasoning to a creature that didn't evolve that way in real life(or exist at all) for a basis doesn't really make sense, even if it's the general way regional variants go. Ponyta and Rapidash already had fairy tale/mythological inspiration from unicorn elements like the horn on their head or being fiery steeds, so going with a closely related fairy tale horse like a pegasus or alicorn is far from a stretch and close enough to justify as a regional variant rather than a split evolution(or just regional cross gen evo I guess). Going from fire to cotton candy flavor alone doesn't add much to justify the change, even by regional variant standards. Even worse is that realistically, the kantonian variants getting into glimwood tangle would've just burned the forest down over enough time for darwinian evolution to happen.
Pegasus/Alicorn Rapidash makes more sense than what we got, especially if it could go to somewhere like the cliffs/desert near stow on side where it'd be close to the fairy area and use wings to better navigate the hot, steep area without burning the place down.
