In the show, characters are female by default. Male characters only appear when masculinity is called for, like Celestia's guards, or when it would be funny, like the waiter at the cafe.I thought I'd give the male cast some much-needed attention. Starting with Caramel, the orange pony with the blue horseshoe cutie mark. We first see Caramel in Winter Wrap Up. He has no lines, but is identified by name. He's the one who lost the grass seeds. Again.Isn't he cute? Fanfic writers were slashing him with Big Macintosh right off the bat. Apparently no one is straight in Ponyville.We see a lot of male ponies for the first time in Winter Wrap Up. It started the trend of male ponies appearing as manual labor/pack animals. I also suspect the animators were just working out how to draw an average male pony. Evidence for that theory is in the opening credits.Take a look. The color scheme and cutie mark match Caramel. But the body dimensions are like Big Macintosh. I'm guessing the animators started with Mac as the default male, but later decided not to make all the male ponies that big and butch.Oh, but the story gets weirder. In Over a Barrel, we see a female version of Caramel.To be fair, there were wild west versions of a lot of familiar background ponies in that episode. Caramel was just the only one to be gender-bent. (In fact we see a male Caramel in that same episode.)Caramel's gender confusion is irresistible to fanfic writers and artists.Apparently, the idea of a transgender pony appealed to a lot of people.This theory was kinda shot down in Best Night Ever. Caramel is one of the ponies that Rarity persuades to give them all a lift to the Gala.He actually has a line in that episode, and his voice is shockingly deep and gravelly.Ah, well. There's still the twin sister theory.