My Little Pony XIV: Boots on Hooves / Bikinis on Top

[Thanqol]

Overtly ambitious project: Complete! Have some fanart, pony thread.

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[Grif]

Wow, mate. I'm a touch worried about ye. Maybe... Maybe Lyra stalking Twilight Sparkle is the problem, not the solution?

Oh, nonono. I feel perfectly fine. Well, as fine as a mint coloured unicorn can be. With strange obsessions over another lavender unicorn. And routinely mistakes her daughter for the said unicorn. Yep, perfectly fine here.

@^
Sweet.

[Gadora]

I was thinking the webcomic thing. It was a joke (sorry if ive offended ye, by the bye. Twerent intentional) and then the pony thread [I\sssllooowweededdd dddooowwwnnn[/I]. So aye, I like me crow medium rare win a side of friendly ribbing, and some sauce to help it go down.

Nah, no offense taken. As a rule of thumb, I don't take offense to things on the internet (I'm most generous in giving people the benefit of the doubt), and in the rare case I do, I (with but a single exception) simply don't respond to it. I think the problem is that text lacks vocal tone, and I failed to get across that I was asking out of simple curiosity.

Spoilered for me sleepily babbling/complaining about my webcomic reading list.

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I am, however, serious about my webcomics taking longer to get caught up on than pony thread. To give you an idea of how many are currently on my list, I'll simply tell you that it's hard to get an accurate count as to how many are still updating, but my current estimate would put it somewhere between 150-200.

Factor in that getting caught up on webcomics is going to wait for me getting caught up on pony-thread, and that I'm currently planning on alternating days of digging through my deviantWATCH folder(at this point, I'm probably just going to drop the prolific group I'm watching) with actually reading webcomics. A mitigating factor that I should probably mention is that I'll most likely be identifying a bunch of comics that I've only been reading out of inertia, and should be shortening my list considerably, even before you factor in webcomics going on hiatus/being abandoned/ending. Things would be much worse off if I hadn't pruned away a few dozen comics over the past few months.

And now I find that it's coming up on three thirty in the morning,* and I can feel coherence fleeing by the minute, so I think it probably best that I go get some sleep.

*Spoilered due to a short, sleepy, rant.

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No, I haven't been binging on pony-thread, I've been trying to figure out how to force an RPG system to let me make a half-decent Jedi.

Burn me, but I dislike this system. It's a Star Wars RPG for crying out loud; being asked to stat up a Jedi shouldn't feel like punishment! Oh well, at least I don't have to play a pilot.

[Thanqol]

Okay, this is the best pony dub I've seen in a while.

[Grif]

Okay, this is the best pony dub I've seen in a while.

Don't know, didn't tickle my funny bone. A lot of the jokes seemed to fall flat. (what's with the eye-candy bit?) It is well-synced, I give it that, but I prefer this one.

The polka song was awesome though. I didn't know it was a rendition of Friday.

[Thanqol]

Don't know, didn't tickle my funny bone. A lot of the jokes seemed to fall flat. (what's with the eye-candy bit?) It is well-synced, I give it that, but I prefer this one.

The polka song was awesome though. I didn't know it was a rendition of Friday.

Yeah, I downgraded it from 'best' midway through. Some of the jokes really worked (I cackled like a madman at the banner), some of them didn't. Still definitely worth the time but could have done with an editor.

[Aotrs Commander]

interesting. What do you keep from 4e, and Pathfinder? 4e I like but pathfinder I couldn't get passed the 'read the rulebook' phase. I've only ever considered playing it recently, and then only if I could be a pony. Feel free to be as elaborate as you want.

A few idea here and there. For PF, we've nicked their way of doing skill points (1 point/level, and if it's a class skill it's +3, no synergy bonuses, no cross-class skills, Int skill points are retroactive (it's just a bit more elegant; the only things that lose out are first level characters with very low Int (e.g. NPC warriors, who get less skills, but sometimes are better at them, because they can only have one skill, not suck a 2-4., plus I've combined a couple of skills (not quite the same ones they did, but stuff like Spot+Listen into perception). We nicked ther rules for death when it arose, too (because levelling down is just a pain).

4E's major contribution was the solo and minion templates. I've been abusing my version of the former (though I've not tried out my version of the matter yet). In 3.Aotrs, the Defiant template is a stackable template you slap on stuff. Each one increments the creature's hit points and gives it a free reroll (but it basically gets a negative level when it uses one). It can also expend a full block of hit points to negate what basically are SoD/SoL conditions. This means that SoDs are not negated, and still contribute, but won't be battle-winners until the end of the fight, and the monsters have enough hit points to stand against a whole party of six (that are horribly munchkinned out becuase the DM was too lazy to cenvert the treasure from AD&D to 3.x and it snowballed...)



As for making a pony-related contribution to the thread:

...

Wooo, ponies!

...

Yeah, I got nuthin'.

[ScionoftheVoid]

Jade.

That could easily work, it's supposed to be a name which isn't obviously western rather than being explicitly eastern (which is part of the reason why I didn't respond to the other ideas, that and there are going to be more posts by the time I've finished this response anyway).

I'm sure you totally are a seductress, dude dudette. Because you're still a mare, at last reckoning.

There was a reason I was only fairly sure. So I'm still a mare, eh? Huh.

I'm comin' aboard for this'n, me buck-o.

Excellent, glad to-

Wait, whose side am I on again?

Oh wait. MINE!

*SiuiS cackles on the prow of a ship made of cast of dreams and old bed sheets, flying on the earnest wishes of goodly folk. As the ship turns away, both contenders see Monocle!Luna sitting at a low table, having tea with Midnight*

Ye'll Ne'er catch the Neo Nemo!
Amish party! Prepare sails to hit the dreamscape! We'll be divin' past the nightmare Vortices!

Mwahahahahaha!

*GASP* Traitor! And if you have Luna, who do I have here?

Meanwhile, in a field between two battle-scarred airships, a pizza party breaks out.

Now Void. You may know why I called this meeting. We seem to have a problem. It will both of our skillsets and at least a majority of our cunning to rescue the fair princess. As part of the cooperation agreement, we should agree that this will end in one of those full-circle endings where one of us escapes with the princess and the other curses the former and chases after.

*swirls some Dr. Ponyper in a glass like it were brandy*

I do wish we ordered stuffed crust, however.

A temporary truce, then. Unfortunately, they have headed into the dreamscape, so it'll be harder to chase them and my powers are neutralised near the nightmare vorticles. Fortunately, I have some additional... leverage.

So, here's my thing. Using the magic of spoiler blocks, I'm perfectly a-ok dragging this out for days so everyone who wants to join in, can. I plan on hiring/bribing DBC to be Celestia at the head of the royal navy, fruit to get her sister back. I can see you coming along to prevent the Star systems from skipping a beat. Etc.

The thing of import being, I am planning on doing this in addition to standard pony conversation. Is this doable, mates?

OOC: Probably, I had to sleep and subsequently read the five pages you spawned in my absence, but I can at least try to keep up. (Note: I'll be gone for an hour or so after making this post and reading anything that's been written in the mean time, so don't expect a lightning fast response). But if we're going to be doing this for a while I need an in character colour.

So, who do we have here then?*grins manaically*

Who have I captured? Why were there crickets and tumbleweed in the Void? Will the rival, love-struck ponies' truce hold?

Find out next time in
The Court-'Ship of Luna!

[EsperDerek]

Hah, feeling much better today, still pretty achey but a whole lot less 'wanting to die from exhaustion'.

Also, Thanqol, I'm absolutely tickled by that picture, just like I said in your art thread.

[ScionoftheVoid]

Oh, by the way, my pony profile:

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Flock Leadwing, a spindly and sickly-looking pegasus. May or may not have Void powers, depending on the story (in The Court-'Ship of Luna he has them). Void powers basically mean ability to dissolve into the Void (like the Plane of Shadow in D&D), negative energy attacks at touch range and minor to medium control of the environment in the Void (this is how my airship was built, and said airship partially relies on frequent trips to the Void so it doesn't just start falling out of the air - lacking a lot of its propulsion outside of the Void). Void powers are cancelled near nightmare vorticles and on planes of existence not coterminous to the standard, and weakened on any but the standard (and the Void itself, obviously). Owns a page of the Ship Note, on which two ships have been written, leaving room for about 35 more if he writes carefully, 40 if he doesn't have to use his mouth (being in the Void helps) - counting both sides of the page. Usually male, currently genderbent. Sometimes succumbs to the phenomenon Thanquol fears.

[MCerberus]

One devious pizza party later-

Ah, the dreamscape. They were wise to escape Scion through here. The Socks glides through the 'air' alone, being the only dream-capable ship. They should remember though, this is the realm of the Pink. They think they can hide in the nightmares, well, it's time to invite them to the party.

Scion better not be double crossing him... yet.

The cupcake ammo screams past the any nightmare vortex in its path, leaving the darkness destroyed with only a small giggle. Have to aim for the guns as there is precious cargo to be saved and a dream-engine explosion can't be risked.

[ScionoftheVoid]

I, and my crazed crew, are belowdecks - keeping guard over our "guest" and waiting for the opportunity to do something.

[Kris Strife]

*mathsnip*

How big is Big Mac, going off this?

You seem to have stumbled onto my standard naming scheme; if possible, name it Bob.

It is always possible to name something Bob.

Ive got it!

Hello, Ponyville. I am an emissary frome the Solar Corps to maintain celestial peace and unity, by force. My name is *lion roars, horse whinnied, eagle screams*.
Ponies: AAAAAAAH!!
... but you can call me Sunny *cheesy grin- which further scares the ponies. Spike laughs*

While I'm not sold on the name Sunny, I declare the rest to be canon.

[Trobby]

HellO TherE, BronieS! TrolL IntrobuluS HerE, BringinG YoU SomethinG...Speci4L~! =3333

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[Welf]

The 15th will be Brony appreciation day according to Hasbro, and something gives me the feeling something special will happen.

Aww. And exactly in that week where I only have access to a very instable and slow internet access.

Yeah, I downgraded it from 'best' midway through. Some of the jokes really worked (I cackled like a madman at the banner), some of them didn't. Still definitely worth the time but could have done with an editor.

That was my impression, too. Hearing a POV with female voices is just different, it gets closer to the original and makes the set-up for jokes better. I also liked their interpretation of Fluttershy.

[Kairaven]

~snip~ Pony size

Here is a comparison picture someon eelse did.

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[TheAmishPirate]

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"Aye, aye cap'n!"

The newly-promoted robot quartermaster dons an extremely baroque iron cowboy hat, covered in cogs and pipe flanges, then heads belowdecks. After stumbling across Midnight, Luna, Grif!Lyra, Phoe, etc. he decides that in the absence of a manifest it's too hard to find stowaways. Instead, he finds the closet full of Thanqolizers and decides that together they weigh about as much as an average pony. Climbing back to the bridge he shouts:

"Time to lighten the load!"

before throwing the entire sackful of Thanqolizers overboard. (sorry Amish...)

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Amish stared as his precious supply of pills were tossed cavalierly like so much ballast. He reached out a hoof, as if they could be plucked from their descent with so little a motion. He forced himself to turn his focus back to the rigging. After all, this ship was his life, was it not? He could not truly be destined to ship in that sense of the word. The pills were unnecessary. It was time to close that little chapter of his life for good. Time to show what a stallion of the skies could do under fire. Time to...wonder why the ship seemed so far away now?

He took stock of his surroundings, and found himself hurtling through the dreamscape clutching a grappling hook, rapidly gaining on the sack of pills.

Well...that was interesting.

[mikeejimbo]

I found both of the videos to be about equally entertaining and amusing.

[Vent Reynolt]

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Since the dawn of Friendship is Magic, we have known that our little ponies are, in fact, little. But how little? The problem has been what to use as a baseline. Trees don't have a set height. Items in their houses would, of course, be scaled to their size. Dog breeds, bunny breeds and cat breeds vary in size.

And then I realized my point of comparison. The cows that Applejack deflected from trampling Ponyville have the coloring of Holstein cattle. That means we know the breed!

According to Wikipedia, a Holstein cow, at maturity, is about 58 inches (147 cm) at the shoulder.

I found a good shot of Applejack standing next to one of the cows in roughly the same pose.

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http://i738.photobucket.com/albums/x.../Capture-1.png

Now, the cow in the picture has a stylized tiny shoulder and a weirdly tall projection where its tail connects to the body. Going by this, though

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Where you measure the cow at the hip is roughly equivalent to the height of its front hoof to the top of its back. And Holsteins have a fairly flat back.

So, going by these numbers. On my screen, the front hoof to top of back on the cow is 2 5/8 inches tall. Applejack is 1 1/4.

58 inches/2.625inches = 22.1
22.1 * 1.25 inches = 27.6 inches (70 CM)

Now to put this in perspective. The Shetland Pony is the smallest horse breed in the world, and individuals of that breed are described as:



Rounding up, Applejack is the size of the smallest individuals OF THE SMALLEST PONY BREED IN THE WORLD.

So the answer is: they are very little ponies indeed.

(and before someone says hip measurement doesn't equal shoulder measurement, you're right. Hip measurement, from what I saw, is roughly two inches taller than shoulder measurement on cows. The difference this makes is that Applejack no longer is rounded up to be the size of a Shetland pony. However, I found no definite hip measurement for Holsteins. In addition, Applejack is slightly in the foreground, which would artificially inflate her size in my screen measurement. Whether these cancel out or not, I don't know. Still, VERY LITTLE PONIES).

I actually did a size comparison like this a while back. Let's see if I can dig it up... Okay, here it is:

Using This screenshot as a comparison:

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Including her tail and mane, Fluttershy is only about 4.5 Angels long and less than three Angels tall (About 2 at the shoulder). If we assume that Angel is 15 inches tall (a bit large, but normal for a rabbit), then she is about 5.7 feet long (Mane and tail included) and 3.7 feet tall (This included her wings, but she is closer to 30 inches at the shoulder).

A medium sized Pony according to the SRD is under 5 feet tall at the shoulder. Now that I think about it, this might be a good argument for these ponies to actually be small-sized using D&D 3.5 rules.

I added a bit more relevant info, but our measurements come out to be almost exactly the same!

Okay, this is the best pony dub I've seen in a while.

While I think that it was hilarious in the beginning, the main problem with it is the pacing. Overall, most of the characters simply speak too slowly. This works for Fluttershy, the adorable evil overlord that she is, but for Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash: not so much. The jokes also tended to came out a bit too slowly to keep the audience laughing.

On a more positive side, it did several things very well. I especially liked the use of evil overlord Fluttershy, Princess Molestia, and the Spike abuse.


Oh yeah, I'm back after almost 20 pages. Darn thread moves so fast that half the time, I can just barely catch up on what has been posted before I have to leave again.

[Level8Mudcrab]

I successfully managed to convert the first of my friends to ponies today. My influence is spreading, and inevitably they will all experience the magic of friendship and be assimilated into the herd. /manic laugh

HellO TherE, BronieS! TrolL IntrobuluS HerE, BringinG YoU SomethinG...Speci4L~! =3333

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*Snip*[/IMG]

That's some nice Homestuck ponies.

[the_druid_droid]

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Amish stared as his precious supply of pills were tossed cavalierly like so much ballast. He reached out a hoof, as if they could be plucked from their descent with so little a motion. He forced himself to turn his focus back to the rigging. After all, this ship was his life, was it not? He could not truly be destined to ship in that sense of the word. The pills were unnecessary. It was time to close that little chapter of his life for good. Time to show what a stallion of the skies could do under fire. Time to...wonder why the ship seemed so far away now?

He took stock of his surroundings, and found himself hurtling through the dreamscape clutching a grappling hook, rapidly gaining on the sack of pills.

Well...that was interesting.

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The jauntily-hatted little droid turned to watch as the odd blue Amish pony leaped overboard. A moment's processing suggested that although his decision might lighten the load still further, it was probably unwise to sacrifice capable crew members so nonchalantly. His mind made up, the droid grabbed the free end of the rope the Amish pony had leapt overboard with and held on like grim death.

"Cap'n SiuiS, methinks our rigger took your suggestion about lightening the load a mite too seriously!"

[darthbobcat]

Well, as for Big Mac's relative height.

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Zoomed in, Applejack is 1 3/8 to Big Macintosh's 1 5/8 inches

Recall that my number was 28 inches for AJ at the shoulder.

28/1.375 = 20.36(repeating)
20.36(repeating) * 1.625 = 33.1 inches.

So Big Macintosh isn't that much taller at the shoulder... but his body length and bulk is considerably bigger. I'm sticking to "at the shoulder" measures because that's how you measure horses and it's less varied by pose (hence WHY that's how you measure horses).

And while I'm at it, let's figure out Celestia and the average filly's height.

Filly first.

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Rainbow Dash: 1 3/8 inches
Sweetie Belle: 1 inch

28/1.375 = 20.36 (repeating) *1 = 20.36 (repeating).

So fillies are 20.4 inches at the shoulder.

And now Celestia.

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Twilight Sparkle 1 5/8
Celestia 2 3/4

So

28/1.625 = 17.23
17.23 * 2.75 = 47.4

So, Princess Celestia still isn't as tall as a cow.

[Alabenson]

While I would love to join in the airship chase, my airship is unfortunately the Disk Enhanced Robotic Ponified Yacht from Equestrian Innovations...
*looks out over the side*
I really have no idea where I am right now...

[Irbis]

What are you guys, talking about, anyway? And did Irbis bring it up?

One time someone remembers me is to blame me for something I can't even take credit for

ScionoftheVoid, Amish pirate, Druid Droid, Raz_Fox, SSJ4Vegeta, Kairaven, KrisStrife, Alterform, Irbis, Trixie, Crown of Thorns, and Jakhaivah are beyond my Ken.

I'm a cat... Two kittehs!

...Let's just assume Irbises, like Zebras, have lands somewhere, perhaps covering Himarelaya mountains, and I'm just sort of spy reporter trying to sow dissent by spreading happiness :P

Speaking of which!

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Finding pictures of sad Luna is getting seriously hard, I might go out of business :/

[darthbobcat]

http://my.deviantart.com/messages/#/d3lljdp Press button, get Derpy.

[Irbis]

Darth, even from looking at the link you posted it should have hit you it might be somewhat... wrong :P

Also, who are ponies in fanart at the top of this page?

[Betropper]

HellO TherE, BronieS! TrolL IntrobuluS HerE, BringinG YoU SomethinG...Speci4L~! =3333

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Do you happen to know who made that last Jack Noir pony? I'd like to ask them permission to use it as my avy...

[Aotrs Commander]

-Height calcs-

Not to rain on your parade, but I'd look at doing a comparison to some other things as well, rather than working solely on the basis of one (equally fantasy) species of cattle. Basing your size calcs on the colouration of an sentient herbivore species we see once isn't a good way to make assumptions. (I.e., just because they have the same colouration as real species of cattle doesn't mean they'd be the same size. I certainly wouldn't make that the lynchpin of yoru working.)

For a kick-off, what about the buffalo? A very quick examination of the one image I found shows to show they're about 2.5 times Pinkie's shoulder height (very rough, you could probably find a better example); given the wikia size of bison (i.e. Amercian "buffalo" which is what they seem to most resemble), i.e. 6'6" this would seem to be roughly consistent with your 2.5' shoulder height.

On the downside, using the same logic, if you were to use Zecora as your measuing stick, the ponies would come out much taller (since she's pony-sized, and zebras are about 3.5-4.5' tall).

You might want to compare the size of Applejack to an apple (since there's no reason to assume that an apple would be wildly different in size, on the basis they don't appear to be different to real apples). I think you actually do need to compare the ponies to the size of the other animals; the size of Fluttershy's chickens and Angel (or other similar animals; Winona, Owlowlicious (are however we're spelling that!), the pigs maybe?

Now, by eye judgement, I don't think you'll find you are far wrong, actually; but your case will be better with some more concrete base assumptions. (Best case, you can get a minimum and maximum range.)

(A point to note is that from your shoulder measurements, pony head size will be about 9-10 inches or so, or at least within ballpark size of a human's, which at least from my perspective makes sense, because they're big enough to house complex brains.)

[darthbobcat]

Not to rain on your parade, but I'd look at doing a comparison to some other things as well, rather than working solely on the basis of one (equally fantasy) species of cattle. Basing your size calcs on the colouration of an sentient herbivore species we see once isn't a good way to make assumptions. (I.e., just because they have the same colouration as real species of cattle doesn't mean they'd be the same size. I certainly wouldn't make that the lynchpin of yoru working.)

For a kick-off, what about the buffalo? A very quick examination of the one image I found shows to show they're about 2.5 times Pinkie's shoulder height (very rough, you could probably find a better example); given the wikia size of bison (i.e. Amercian "buffalo" which is what they seem to most resemble), i.e. 6'6" this would seem to be roughly consistent with your 2.5' shoulder height.

On the downside, using the same logic, if you were to use Zecora as your measuing stick, the ponies would come out much taller (since she's pony-sized, and zebras are about 3.5-4.5' tall).

You might want to compare the size of Applejack to an apple (since there's no reason to assume that an apple would be wildly different in size, on the basis they don't appear to be different to real apples). I think you actually do need to compare the ponies to the size of the other animals; the size of Fluttershy's chickens and Angel (or other similar animals; Winona, Owlowlicious (are however we're spelling that!), the pigs maybe?

Now, by eye judgement, I don't think you'll find you are far wrong, actually; but your case will be better with some more concrete base assumptions. (Best case, you can get a minimum and maximum range.)

The cow was chosen for the reason that it's something with the same basic body shape and an easy comparison because everywhere I went gave it the same definition of the breed's height. The fact that the bunny comparison came up with a similar number means that I'm willing to call myself close enough.

I didn't use the buffalo because the size of their back hump would confound the measuring issue.

I mean, it's not like apples have a standard height, especially without knowing the variety. I'd tried to come up with something I could use as a baseline and the cow was the best I could come up with.

Also Zecora a My Little Zebra, so I don't think she's a good baseline either.

[Kyouhen]

Hey there pony thread, how's it...
*Looks at page count*
And that's what I get for being occupied with something other than ponies for the last two days.

In unrelated news, I went to a Magic: The Gathering prerelease last night. My deck had a pair of this guy in it:

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I was deeply saddened that my erasable marker had recently dried up because I had an overwhelming urge to draw Pinkie Pie over the card. But that's fine, I'll fix that for next week.