My Little Pony XXXIII: Happy Birthday Pony[thread]!

[Newman]

I for one think Fluttershy is a government-paid "gamekeeper". I ship her with Hagrid.

[Thanqol]

Ah, I finally have the second (and last) chapter of Music to My Ears complete. For those interested, you may read it here. I encourage reviews, positive or negative (as long as negative reviews are constructive, of course).

Chapter 1 thoughts:

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Intro is really turning me off. It's heavy on the telling and light on the showing and I'm not really getting any details that set the scene for me. You're leaning too heavily on people knowing what you're talking about.

Octavia speaks really awkwardly. Is this an intentional choice? Try reading that sentence out loud, including punctuation.

Also, who's story is this? Who's viewpoint are we following? Pick a character, narrow it down, and colour all the descriptive text through their eyes. "Sugarcube corner" to a generic, impersonal audience is generic and impersonal. Octavia's opinion of Sugarcube Corner is fascinating.

"Blegh. I hate wagon rides," the purple harpist complained. "I am feeling nauseous."

Try reading that out loud. It sounds robotic.

"When Nightmare Moon was sent to the moon. Yes, I know about the legends. They're not exactly uncommon knowledge," Octavia replied. "Plus, we were there for both of their freedoms. Do you know how hard it is to practice my cello when all the music sheets have been flipped backwards? And every note hangs in the air for hours? And the strings make a different noise every time I run across them? Still, I didn't even get the worst of it. Some ponies themselves got, as the term goes, 'Discorded'. Did you hear about poor Screwball?"

Holy expositionblock batman. That's a lot of very specific information to be volunteering with virtually no prompting. Makes Octy sound like a self-absorbed jerk.

"I'm going to go up there and have them turn it down a few decibals. I shall be back in a moment," she said. Forte merely nodded.

Awfully crisp for being woken up in the middle of the night.


And this is about the point where my real issue with this piece has fully formed. Who's story is it? Everypony's being written like they're NPCs or bit players. We don't know anything about any of them. With a character like Octavia, she's a blank slate except for the personality the fanon gives her, and thus far you haven't given her a personality. You need to define her, everything about her, through your writing.

Take her perspective. Understand her mind. What does she think of what's happening around her? How does she feel? Has she seen this before? Will she see this again? Figure out the shape of her mind and put yourself there and then write everything like she was telling you about it.

Every word and descriptive detail should tell us about the character.

Octavia signed it, every now and then glancing at the odd pony. She then handed it back, and Lyra got hearts in her eyes.

Visual gags in a written medium simply do not work.


My overall recommendation is to do a character study and some immersion exercises. Try roleplaying. Try thinking like someone else, try being someone else. Work out what words and phrases and idioms they use. This is a hard and complicated thing to do, but it's a skill absolutely worth learning. PBPs are a good format for training this.

[Gaelbert]

That could work too. I was working under the assumption that Ponyville had a moder capitalist economy. Mainly I was responding to the contention that, on the surface, the main cast could not afford their housing.

No no no no. Equestria definitely does not have anything resembling a modern capitalist economy. Equestria doesn't have an economy resembling anything I can think of, honestly. Some weird blend of feudalism and early stage capitalism with some communitarianism thrown in. I haven't looked at it in depth, but I can tell it's something of a mess.
Just going off the top of my head, in Applebuck Season Twilight, using magic, in a few seconds did the equivalent of several earthpony days of working.

Now Rarity here's the thing. Putting aside anyone owning their own small business, its not that small. Carosel Boutique is enormous. Even putting aside the Tardis architecture... look at the size of its kitchen! Its laundry room is big enough to be a reasonable bedroom in an upper middle-class home. The place manages to be the sort of home anypony could be satisfied with the size of... on top of its absolutely ginormous gallery business front.

Check out the amount of some small businesses, like a clothing shop at the mall. Even more space consuming businesses like restaurants, their dining room is fully half of their space and everything else is crammed in to what's left.

So what you're saying is that her clothing business is actually a front for something much shadier?
(I know that has nothing to do with what you're saying, I just like the idea)

aye. Ponies are, as a culture, naive. I extrapolate this to mean that most sociopolitical pressures that would promote cynicism are mostly non-existent / rare. Sure, there is some bullying, but not only does it seem to be isolated, the expected responses are different. Pinkie Pie throwing a party for Gilda was honestly how pony best behavior goes.

Really, it's interesting to think about how we can have a utopian society where distress between friends is as / more important than a raging typhoon, and full of naivete and cuddles, and still allow for the citizens of said utopia to cope with harsher, outside civilizations.

I'd shy away from the use of "utopian" when describing their government. Historically, proposed utopias have almost always been dictatorships. We simply don't see that in Equestria. (And no, I'm not a fan of the Iron Hoof theories.)

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Fridge Logic: Twilight didn't take Spike to Fluttershy because she's scared of dragons.

Please put this in spoilers, I put them in for this quote, but we haven't hit Tuesday yet. Don't want to ruin something for anypony.

[Callos_DeTerran]

Fridge Logic: Twilight didn't take Spike to Fluttershy because she's scared of dragons.

You mean Fridge Brilliance. Fridge Logic is the opposite, when it seems to make sense but when you think about it then it really doesn't.

[Kindablue]

I'd shy away from the use of "utopian" when describing their government. Historically, proposed utopias have almost always been dictatorships. We simply don't see that in Equestria. (And no, I'm not a fan of the Iron Hoof theories.)

"Utopia" is Greek for there is no place, so I think the word describes any magical land of talking animals pretty well, regardless of their chosen form of government.

[the_druid_droid]

"Utopia" is Greek for there is no place, so I think the word describes any magical land of talking animals pretty well, regardless of their chosen form of government.

Says you. I'm keeping up my search for magical lands like that...I just need more funding!

[Thanqol]

I'd shy away from the use of "utopian" when describing their government. Historically, proposed utopias have almost always been dictatorships. We simply don't see that in Equestria. (And no, I'm not a fan of the Iron Hoof theories.)

There's such a thing as a benevolent dictatorship, which is pretty much exactly what we got going here. You can't say Equestria's not a dictatorship until you show me the parliament.

The purpose of a republic is to prevent corrupt or incompetent people from holding supreme power. When there's no way for corrupt or incompetent ponies to seize power then there's no need for a republic.

[Mando Knight]

Historically, proposed utopias have almost always been dictatorships. We simply don't see that in Equestria. (And no, I'm not a fan of the Iron Hoof theories.)

A dictatorship is often, in effect, a monarchy by another name. Celestia (and possibly Luna, but we have no idea in canon, outside of her getting to ham it up all across Ponyville...) holds supreme power, though she is rather laissez-faire about it.

[Gaelbert]

There's such a thing as a benevolent dictatorship, which is pretty much exactly what we got going here. You can't say Equestria's not a dictatorship until you show me the parliament.

I should have specified "totalitarian dictatorships of a scale we've never seen, ever." Take a look at proposed utopias from the 18th century. The level of social engineering in those is immense, far beyond the capability of any modern government, and I've seen little to no evidence of that within Equestria. Unless, of course, the social engineering was implemented thousands of years before and was so successful that it took hold for every generation thereafter. But then our "evidence" is having no visible evidence, which doesn't fly for me.

The purpose of a republic is to prevent corrupt or incompetent people from holding supreme power. When there's no way for corrupt or incompetent ponies to seize power then there's no need for a republic.

I'd love to discuss this further with you, as I have a different perspective on the matter, but I'm afraid much more and we'll be over the line as far as the forum rules go.

[Kindablue]

Says you. I'm keeping up my search for magical lands like that...I just need more funding!

You're a fool, Droid!

There's such a thing as a benevolent dictatorship, which is pretty much exactly what we got going here. You can't say Equestria's not a dictatorship until you show me the parliament.

The purpose of a republic is to prevent corrupt or incompetent people from holding supreme power. When there's no way for corrupt or incompetent ponies to seize power then there's no need for a republic.

Right. I mean, I don't think that there was ever a writer's meeting, say, that discussed this, but yeah.

[Spamotron]

I don't think Celestia is a Supreme Dictator because of how she behaves towards them Elements of Harmony. She wants them to grow as ponies by having them fight their own battles and learn from their mistakes. Only stepping in when she absolutely has to. It's also clear that she doesn't like the wall that her status puts between her and other ponies and wishes she could be treated as just one of the girls when she's with them.

Extrapolating from her shown personality Celestia would likely want mortal ponies to handle as much of their own government as they possibly can and not depend on her absolutely. Also its been demonstrated that there are forces in the ponies world as strong as she is and while she's likely immortal she's not invincible and she's too smart not to have redundancy in the government and a solid plan B just in case she runs into something she isn't going to walk away from. Finally she just doesn't want power and is likely to delegate away as much as she can get away with.

[Thanqol]

I should have specified "totalitarian dictatorships of a scale we've never seen, ever." Take a look at proposed utopias from the 18th century. The level of social engineering in those is immense, far beyond the capability of any modern government, and I've seen little to no evidence of that within Equestria. Unless, of course, the social engineering was implemented thousands of years before and was so successful that it took hold for every generation thereafter. But then our "evidence" is having no visible evidence, which doesn't fly for me.

The utopias you're discussing involve social engineering to fundamentally change human nature. With ponies, there's no human nature to change, so we can have a utopia right off the bat.

I'd love to discuss this further with you, as I have a different perspective on the matter, but I'm afraid much more and we'll be over the line as far as the forum rules go.

The actual ideal form of government is a magic based meritocracy, where sorcery is used to determine the best possible application of your life. In a lot of ways, that's what Equestria has. If I was guaranteed a career out of doing the thing I love to do the most, I'd be very happy.

The closest we have to that in the real world is a technocracy, where highly skilled experts are given control over a country. Technocracies have problems in themselves, particularly lack of legitimacy amongst the people and the corruption and fallibility of the technocrats themselves, i.e. failing to understand the limits of their disciplines etc. But the idea of a government by experts is the ideal.

The republic is intended to make rulers accountable and allow the circulation of new ideas. As a form of government it is designed to enable the best possible governance by being adaptable and representative, bringing out truth through debate and constant criticism of power. The republic is like an enormous crucible, both cynical and optimistic. By questioning the lie, we destroy it, and seek the truth. The republic intends a government of experts by solving the problem of who appoints the experts.

In a world where we have what is pretty much objectively the best possible application of resources and government, and the happiest possible populace, then there is no need for a republic. If you want to suggest that a feature of the republic is the inherent freedom implied by allowing anyone to seek the highest office, I'll disagree with you intensely. Leadership is not a privilege, and anyone who seeks it knowing that they will do an objectively worse job than the one already there is by definition being selfish. Pursuit of happiness is a worthy goal, pursuit of power is not.

Celestia's laissez faire attitude inherently allows born leaders to do their bit. Mayor Mare probably isn't elected, she just gravitated to that position because it was her talent. She administers her territory and does it well; presumably the same happens elsewhere due to the inherent ease of the pony meritocracy. The system is in it's best possible manifestation.

Right. I mean, I don't think that there was ever a writer's meeting, say, that discussed this, but yeah.

"So, who's the ruler of the magical land of ponies?"
"A princess."
"Sounds about right."

[Tiki Snakes]

There's nothing weird about the ruler of Equestria being a Princess. It just means that properly speaking, it is (or perhaps was?) a Principality.

And yeah, Celestia is over a thousand years old. I'm not going to buy the horse-lifespan concept anytime soon.

[Thanqol]

There's nothing weird about the ruler of Equestria being a Princess. It just means that properly speaking, it is (or perhaps was?) a Principality.

And yeah, Celestia is over a thousand years old. I'm not going to buy the horse-lifespan concept anytime soon.

Oh yes, on that topic I refuse to believe ponies live for less than humans. All speculation otherwise shall be ignored by me.

[Kindablue]

Oh yes, on that topic I refuse to believe ponies live for less than humans. All speculation otherwise shall be ignored by me.

I agree.

Edit. Not enough pony in this post.

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That's better.

[Excession]

Sometimes I just really like the art that this fandom produces (S2E10 minor spoiler):

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Edit: added soundtrack. Just imagine it's Octavia playing.

1920x1080 version here. Desktop'ed in ten seconds flat.

[Thanqol]

I need to practise my ponies. Can I get some ideas for characters to draw? OCs or otherwise, whatever, post descriptions here and I'll add 'em to a list. My current pony art is somewhere around this level.

More detail is better than less. Personality details are major plusses.

[TheAmishPirate]

I need to practise my ponies. Can I get some ideas for characters to draw? OCs or otherwise, whatever, post descriptions here and I'll add 'em to a list. My current pony art is somewhere around this level.

More detail is better than less. Personality details are major plusses.

Meh. I'm awake this late anyway, may as well potentially reap the benefits of something or other.

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Name: Sandy Shores
Race: Unicorn
Special Talent: Sand-sculpting/Sandy working. Sand-based spells come easy to him, and his specialty is hardening sand and sculpting it. ("I just remind the sand it used to be a rock, and there you go.") His cutie mark is a calm shoreline, think a flat wave washing up on a beach. If that's too complicated, a sandcastle could work too.
Coat Color: Pale Blue
Mane Color: Sandy-tan, with darker flecks strewn about. Gives it a sorta grainy appearance. Tail can be the same, or just normal tan is cool too.
Eye Color: Haven't thought that deeply about it. Your choice.
Other Notable descriptions: He's a bit on the short side.

Background: He's a southern, Appleousan-type pony who went away for his degree in beach maintenance, seeing how it was the best job he could find that'd let him work with sand a lot. His accent is all but gone, but he still tends towards the phrases of his hometown.

Personality: Sandy is a hopelessly lost straight man pony amid a world of comical marshmellow ponies. This tends to leave him overreacting over first impressions of a situation. That said, he is rather competent under such stress.

When he's not flipping out over a perceived crisis, he's a stalwart friend who makes a point of always keeping his word, and is rather personable. He loathes arguments, and avoids them at all costs, which usually means stepping down and letting somepony else get their way.



I hope that's not too eclectic. It's a short evalutation of my main RP pony done at 4 in the morning, but I'm trying my best.

[Excession]

I need to practise my ponies. Can I get some ideas for characters to draw? OCs or otherwise, whatever, post descriptions here and I'll add 'em to a list. My current pony art is somewhere around this level.

More detail is better than less. Personality details are major plusses.

Ok. Here's an OC that's been trotting around in my head for a bit.

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Name: Silver Dove
Race: Pegasus
Special Talent: Joinery, cabinet making, and carpentry. All in wood.
Coat: silver grey.
Mane/tail: Teal green with stripes or something of grey-violet.
Eyes: Orange.
So in colours he basically looks like a pigeon. And yes, he's heard all the jokes.
Cutie Mark: A dovetail joint.
Build: Big and tall. More heavy-lift than speed, and his strength was earned in hard work rather than (as he sees it) flapping around in the sky for fun.

Manehatten born pegasus, so he's never quite fit in with his surroundings (except the pigeons). Wings can be pretty useful in an earth pony city though, and he started working in construction even before he got his cutie mark for woodworking. He prefers the finer cabinetry work, but construction was always a good way to earn the bits that his family never had many of.

He has some of Applejack's stubborn belief in hard work and paying his own way, but his artistic side comes through in his quality work when he can afford the raw materials or get a commission. Can be quick to anger, especially when somepony questions his talent because of his race.

He recently moved to Ponyville to try and set up on his own. He'd heard there's a frequent demand for building work out there.

[Thanqol]

Before I start on these I should deal with my backlog, which consists mostly of Wet Mane Midnight.

I'm a man of my worrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd

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EDIT: Aha, there's pictures of the NSW meetup

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Blastech is the handsome devil in the brown jacket. You should be able to recognise my hat. The guy holding the flag is some random we grabbed off the street.

"What is this, like, a rock and roll concert thing?"
"Yeah. Something like that."

He was weirdly understanding when we told him we were into ponies.

[Also, Blastech, if you've got access to more photos could you link them?

Also also, I'm reminded - the song I was recommending, Something Broke. ]

[Newman]

... So no love for Fluttershy/Hagrid?

I mean, just look at them: kind, shy, emotional folks who live in some isolation and like children, they love to take care of wild creatures, are extremely nurturing and tender-hearted, always expect the best out of everyone, and are one-of-a-kind in their respective species. The interesting part, the source of conflict, is that Hagrid loves huge intimidating animals, and the huger they are the nicer he thinks they are, while Fluttershy focuses on cutesy wootsey little critters and is very scared of the big 'uns (unless her friends' lives are on the line, then there's an internal limit break of sorts).

Ponyfy Hagrid and make him a Ranger assigned to Everfree (and he'd be so happy there, it's about as bad awesome as the Forbidden Forest, or humanize Fluttershy and... give her whatever role at Hogwarts (seriously, that school is dangerous)l

[Deadly]

Rainbow D'awww! Seriously, this thing is the best!

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(source)

I think you are underestimating the sort of effect that accelerating development of pony lives to be quicker then humans would have. Because it would have to underpin every single element of pony society and psychology. Can we plausibly have ponies with as much in common with humans in their approach even to a single day when they have a third of the time frame to live their lives in?

Think about it, age underpins an enormous amount of the mindset for humanity, with highly anthropomorphic creatures it only makes sense to pin their lives to human-esque spans.

You forget that it is only fairly recently that humans, or at least most humans, have had any hope of living as long as we do. Perhaps those who were fairly well off could live long, but the majority probably didn't live much longer than 40 I imagine. Don't quote me on the exact numbers, but something like that.

In the pre-modern times people probably squeezed a lot more out of their time. The successful ones anyway, the struggling masses didn't have much choice in what to do with their time except work, work, work. But seriously, just stop for a moment and consider how much of your time you "waste" sitting here discussing fantasies about magical ponies which doesn't matter one bit. I know that personally I spend way too much time on that, time I could have spent studying and making something of my life. Not saying my time is wasted (sometimes, probably) but it's definitely not used as ruthlessly effectively as it could be without modern distractions.

Also look how I extended equestrian expected lifespans to around 60, which is not too far from human lifespans.

Observation is generally a slower way of learning things then being taught it. So it just takes up time.



But I like your second idea. I don't think the adult ponies do outgrow this attitude except in rare cases. Look at the background ponies when they mobbed Twilight for a ticket to the GGG or how they panicked about Zecora to bunny stampede.

Depends on how you learn. The assumption here is that Equestrian foals have some magical super learning ability, where everything they observe simply sticks. This is not the case with humans, we have to see and experience things over and over again before it really sticks. There are a few people who suffer from the inability to forget things, and of course there are people with eidetic memory and stuff like that. Something similar for ponies is what I imagine.

I am confused. See, absent any reason to think otherwise...

Couldn't a pony literally just build a house wherever and live in it? Especially Dashie. Her cloud house is the Pegasus version of a log cabin. She did a little study, gathered up cloudstuff, and made it herself.

I could easily see Ponyville running as a pseudocommune of sorts, where so long as you put into the pot you can take from the pot. Bits are a side currency used for exchange between cities, bu in Ponyville Rarity could sit and eat at any resturaunt she chooses, because everypony knows her, and that she deals with clothing, decoration, and fashion in general. And almost any ponycan daunted up and ask for help; they only have to pay for the premium stuff, like a Gala-worthy dress.

I like this idea. I like it a lot.

Oh yes, on that topic I refuse to believe ponies live for less than humans. All speculation otherwise shall be ignored by me.

Why? I mean, really, the princesses are obviously way beyond comparison. They're completely outside this discussion. Just because there are immortal god-like beings doesn't mean ponies have to live longer than humans. That doesn't follow.

While I seriously doubt that death and the loss of loved ones will ever be a topic of a lesson in the show, it's an important one that ideally should be examined.

[Bayonet Priest]

Before I start on these I should deal with my backlog, which consists mostly of Wet Mane Midnight.

I'm a man of my worrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd

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Midnight is annoyed. Methinks Blueblood II is responsible for this incident.

EDIT: Aha, there's pictures of the NSW meetup

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Blastech is the handsome devil in the brown jacket. You should be able to recognise my hat. The guy holding the flag is some random we grabbed off the street.

"What is this, like, a rock and roll concert thing?"
"Yeah. Something like that."

He was weirdly understanding when we told him we were into ponies.

I never get tired of that sweet hat Thanqol. And I love that you picked up some random person on the street to hold the flag. Wasn't it you who went around campus and kept asking the student government folks questions about ponies?

[Thanqol]

Why? I mean, really, the princesses are obviously way beyond comparison. They're completely outside this discussion. Just because there are immortal god-like beings doesn't mean ponies have to live longer than humans. That doesn't follow.

While I seriously doubt that death and the loss of loved ones will ever be a topic of a lesson in the show, it's an important one that ideally should be examined.

In my magical pony utopia, ponies live just as long as humans. I'm not saying there should be no death, and I'm going to be investigating that topic myself, but there's no reason to have them die 'early' even if that's relative. It's not a coherent and reasoned opinion, but I don't think it needs to be.

Midnight is annoyed. Methinks Blueblood II is responsible for this incident.

"The Guide to Dating told me that wet manes are sexy, so maybe THIS will get my beloved in the mood!"

I never get tired of that sweet hat Thanqol. And I love that you picked up some random person on the street to hold the flag. Wasn't it you who went around campus and kept asking the student government folks questions about ponies?

That's me, yo. That's what I do.

[Jahkaivah]

Sometimes I just really like the art that this fandom produces (S2E10 minor spoiler):

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Edit: added soundtrack. Just imagine it's Octavia playing.

1920x1080 version here. Desktop'ed in ten seconds flat.

You've Been Hit By
You've Been Hit By
A Smooth Cheerilee

[Deadly]

In my magical pony utopia, ponies live just as long as humans. I'm not saying there should be no death, and I'm going to be investigating that topic myself, but there's no reason to have them die 'early' even if that's relative. It's not a coherent and reasoned opinion, but I don't think it needs to be.

Just a personal preference then. Fair enough.

I personally try to use real world horses as a base assumption wherever possible.

Sometimes I just really like the art that this fandom produces (S2E10 minor spoiler):

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Edit: added soundtrack. Just imagine it's Octavia playing.

1920x1080 version here. Desktop'ed in ten seconds flat.

That thing is beyond cool, and totally replaced my previous background in 10 seconds flat! Actually... a lot faster than that

Also I love creative uses for classical instruments

[Aotrs Commander]

Incidently, one more point to consider is that if ponies have real-world-pony lifespans, they are also going to need to use real-world pony breeding techniques, because they aren't going to be able to rely on finding their One True Partner in one-third the time (human struggle enough as it is...)

At the very least the urge to mate MUST be more MUCH important, as they have far less time to do it in, a vastly smaller window of opportunity. It simply can't work any other way and them still be a viable species. The shorter a creature's lifespan, the more important mating becomes. Creature with shorter lifespans mate sooner and much more often than creatures with longer one.

Which means a) we're likely back to real-world equine harems and going into heat and b) raises the uncomfortable spectre of Rarity becoming "interested" in Spike (a male she has an already standing emotional connection with) and getting the (strong) urges to mate while he's still young...

Incidently, real-world equines are also phyically capable of reproduction at the age of eighteen months (and even domesticated horses start to be bred at age three). Four is generally considered adult, six full adult growth. Which means the CMC are already well into their puberty and sexual maturity, which ever way you look at it. (From the looks of horse-breeding stuff I googled, three would seem to be the generally considered minimum age, and so I would say that would be a good point to extrapolate an age-of-consent for Equestria using real-world equine lifespans.)

Maximum breeding age is also about twenty for horses - so the mane cast are right in the middle of their fertility cycle as "young adults" and all that entails.



And, as I've mentioned before, real-world horses also do not sleep at night (unlike ponies do); they sleep throughout the day and night in small stretches standing up (about three hours per day, with lying down REM sleep and hour or two every few days). Which is again, an adaption of their faster life cycle and requirement for constant grazing, and not one mirrored by ponies (though when they sleep could be explained by the change in diet and lifestyle, the amount they need wouldn't increase).

[Tectonic Robot]

So guys what's going on in-

*Everyone is discussing the nature of the best and proper government.*

*The argument flies above my head*
...I suppose I'll just sit in the corner, then. Don't mind me...

[Titanium Fox]

SO. RANDOM NEWS. I can now be reached by all American and Canadian numbers, for free, at...

*Drum Roll*

(781)-309-PONY

I am way to excited about this. (If you have my old number it still works, don't worry.)

---

My view about pony money:

Pinkie: The cakes likely pay her for the bakings and the cakes seem to put up well with her shenanigans. Aside from being like family, Pinkie also brings in a lot of catering work and renting the shop for parties to justify her paycheck.

Rarity: By this point Rarity has to be a well-payed designer and can sell off gems if she needs money. She has 'lines' and designs for the most famous ponies.

Applejack: Obvious sources. Profits may seem a bit thin at times, but you'll notice she doesn't spend much on herself.

Twilight: Government job, plain and simple. Likely with an expense account that helps with the 'mass destruction of all the locals hold dear'.

Rainbow Dash: Working for those that control the weather coordinating the big stuff and taking care of general clouditude solo.

Fluttershy: Park ranger, guide, and veterinarian. She may be one to spend lots of bits taking care of animals, but that in turn brings people to keep their pets healthy.

Except we see in the new episode Fluttershy can't be the town's veterinarian, since there's another pony that was introduced for that. Even though that pony is very much less competent at animals than Fluttershy.

Well the fact that Equestria's rulers have absolute control of the Sun and the Moon probably helps. And the ponies themselves are pretty hardcore. The average pony has both supernatural strength and durability by our standards even non athletes like Rarity and Twilight Sparkle. A quarter to a third of the population has spell casting ability on some level.

I think its just that any local civilizations stupid enough to pick a fight with Equestria were wiped out generations ago.

Now there's an idea a "Ferengi" style race that realizes that it would be crushed in direct conflict but tries to exploit the Ponies naivety and generally trusting nature's to swindle Equestria out of every last bit.

This. So much this. Since they no longer have to fight outside forces whatsoever, the Equestrian society has become naive and almost childlike. And you know what they say, if children ran the world...

Let's not forget the Ponyville has a lot of money coming in from the massive every-other-week millions of bits in princess funded repairs. The royal accountants are not happy, mostly Luna and her abacus.

I would honestly think that Equestrian society is in some form socialist. Ponies can and do make their own money via the free market, however instead of each town collecting taxes, it seems as though all 'government' money flows from one big pot from Celestia herself, who governs who needs what and how much. A very micromanagey approach to money distribution. She's had thousands of years to learn perfect economics.

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Fridge Logic: Twilight didn't take Spike to Fluttershy because she's scared of dragons.

Spoilers, please.

Anyways, you are honestly most likely right.

I for one think Fluttershy is a government-paid "gamekeeper". I ship her with Hagrid.

This is my new fanon.

And yeah, Celestia is over a thousand years old. I'm not going to buy the horse-lifespan concept anytime soon.

I more attribute that to her status as 'magical alicorn of the sun', and less to anything to do with mere mortals.

Sometimes I just really like the art that this fandom produces (S2E10 minor spoiler):

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Edit: added soundtrack. Just imagine it's Octavia playing.

1920x1080 version here. Desktop'ed in ten seconds flat.

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You've Been Hit By
You've Been Hit By
A Smooth Cheerilee

...

Somepony needs to ponify this entire song. And animate dat Cheerilee.

[Deadly]

Incidently, one more point to consider is that is ponies have real-world-pony lifespans, they are also going to need to use real-world pony breeding techniques, because they aren't going to be able to rely on finding their One True Partner in one-third the time (human struggle enough as it is...)

At the very least the urge to mate MUST be more MUCH important, as they have far less time to do it in, a vastly smaller window of opportunity. It simply can't work any other way and them still be a viable species. The shorter a creature's lifespan, the more important mating becomes. Creature with shorter lifespans mate sooner and much more often than creatures with longer one.

Which means a) we're likely back to real-world equine harems and going into heat and b) raises the uncomfortable spectre of Rarity becoming "interested" in Spike (a male she has an already standing emotional connection with) and getting the (strong) urges to mate while he's still young...

Incidently, real-world equines are also phyically capable of reproduction at the age of eighteen months (and even domesticated horses start to be bred at age three). Four is generally considered adult, six full adult growth. Which means the CMC are already well into their puberty and sexual maturity, which ever way you look at it. (From the looks of horse-breeding stuff I googled, three would seem to be the generally considered minimum age, and so I would say that would be a good point to extrapolate an age-of-consent for Equestria using real-world equine lifespans.)

Maximum breeding age is also about twenty for horses - so the mane cast are right in the middle of their fertility cycle as "young adults" and all that entails.



And, as I've mentioned before, real-world horses also do not sleep at night (unlike ponies do); they sleep throughout the day and night in small stretches standing up (about three hours per day, with lying down REM sleep and hour or two every few days). Which is again, an adaption of their faster life cycle and requirement for constant grazing, and not one mirrored by ponies (though when they sleep could be explained by the change in diet and lifestyle, the amount they need wouldn't increase).

Spoilered for... discussion of equine reproduction

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I have no problem with them being romantically and sexually active. I mean, we love shipping don't we?

I still don't get your fascination with RarityxSpike. I just can't see it. But whatever, we can and do ship anything the hay we want around here.

Just a few quick thoughts on the topic. If they are mature around age 3-4 that does imply they can start mating around that age. Seems perfectly logical and reasonable to me. I've always assumed the mane 6 were in the prime age for that sort of thing, and that the CMCs were just around puberty (cutie marks representing the point of maturity, roughly). I have no problem with this.

It's worth considering how humans are able to get by with very few children on average, because of how technology has removed a lot of the threats and struggles of previous times (where it was very common to have tons of children because many died or because many were needed to work the farms and whatever, also in great part a cultural development). Equestrian ponies, having a very developed society, probably has it much the same, getting only the absolute minimum number of children needed to sustain the race. Or even fewer, as is increasingly the case for modern humans in the western world.

I've kinda been thinking maybe harems aren't uncommon, the idea that one or more of the mane 6 (usually either Pinkie, Dash or Twilight in my head) are very promiscuous