Pony Bowling · 8:52pm Mar 11th, 2015
I started writing a scene today that involved bowling. I love bowling, so it's a fun topic for me to get into, and I feel justified since the CMC had bowling in, um... man, which episode was it? That one where they were trying to get their cutie marks is so... inexact.
Well, whatever. They had a bowling scene. However, I ran into kind of a mental snag. I realized after writing part of the scene that I'd designed it around actual bowling, but Apple Bloom picks the ball up with her mouth and throws it. I'd interpreted that as the CMC just generally being bad at stuff, but while writing this, I started to wonder if that's just what pony bowling is. I mean, they use their mouths for a lot of things, and walking on two legs would unnatural for them. Not that it stops them from doing it from time to time, but still.
So what do you guys think? Is pony bowling a four-hooves-on-the-ground kind of thing, or do you think they'd bowl the way that we do? Seems like it would be hard to have any kind of ball control with a mouth release, but we're already talking about magical talking ponies, so reality is secondary, really. But I have a little conversation about how Cheerilee's form is wrong because she's throwing the ball poorly, and it only makes sense if she's throwing the ball like we do.
I can't think of even a pony mouth being able to hold a bowling ball, that has to be bad for teeth. I figure they kind of balance the bowling ball in one hoof and throw it, rather like caber-tossing for humans. At least, that's how earth ponies do it. If you see finger-holes in the bowling ball, that's just because they were imported from the minotaurs, who make very good bowling balls.
For the record, it was the opening of "Cutie Pox."
As for the logistics of pony bowling, I'm honestly not sure. Maybe Scootaloo had the right idea and they kick it?
Unicorn advantage
Actual Equestrian bowling is entirely different from human style-bowling, and Studio B had to adapt the episode so it would make sense to Earth audiences.
(I guess they kick or shove the ball, or something.)
I'd go with various forms of kicking. Some ponies do it soccer-style with a front leg, some turn around and back leg kick it. The really timid probably just give it a push with their nose. Pegasus ponies might do a woosh-and-release flying move where they hold it with their front hooves and then let go just at the line as they swoop down for the forward motion. Maybe some ponies do it with their tails? Applejack, at least, has shown to have pretty good strength and control with her tail.
2868247 That's actually the direction that I was leaning. Most of the ponies have shown that they have a prehensile tail at some point, so why not use it. It's interesting, to say the least. Other than that, I suppose they could just hold it in one hoof and approach with the other three. I hate the animations that they use where the ponies are holding something and walking, but the animators are apparently adamant in using it, even though it defies physics.
I think this is a case of doing the same thing as humans makes sense, but changes the action. In other words either way earth pony bowlers are much better athletes, either because they're kicking a heavy ball down the lane with little momentum to help them or are indeed balancing on two legs with a heave ball, which is anything but easy. Pegasi have it easier in that they grab it will all four hooves. of coruse just like real bowling you have to release before the line. The Unicorns have to follow the same rule as well, though Twilight can probably just launch it with enough force to make a hole int he back wall even if she stops using magic on it well before it reaches the line.
I'm pretty sure Apple Bloom's technique was done for the comic and "d'awww!" effect. My guess is that ponies bowl like we do. Looking the scene over, I saw at least two unicorns (three if you count Sweetie Belle) and the rest were earth ponies, so it's not an earth pony-only sport, as I first supposed.
The funny thing here is that's exactly what Applebloom did when they were bowling.
Sorry, but saying that is lazy, especially for you as an author.
If they throw the balls with their mouth, they have of course some way of controlling it, otherwise, it wouldn't make sense for them to do so.
And since Applebloom used her mouth, it's not unlikely that this is at least one way how they do it. Since they use their mouth for a lot of things and that for many generations, they sure have mouths that are better suited for that than human mouths in some way.
Hmmm
Maybe they could use those beginner's slopes (y'know you put the ball on the top and it and it just rolls down.)
Or levitation? But that doesn't help your Cheeriliee situation...
Ehh, I reckon if they did, they'd go on all fours, facing the pins (of course) and bowl the ball by drawing their head to one side, towards their 'flank' before whipping their head back up and around being sure to release the ball at the bottom of the arc at roughly 45-degrees from the ground.
OR...
They could do it Applejack style! Placing the ball on some kinda holder or something in the ground (small well, whatever) then give the ball a well-placed buck to send it gliding down the alley ^.^
2869324 You know what? I don't really appreciate being called lazy. This is the exact opposite of lazy. Lazy would have been to slap down whatever notion as at the forefront of my brain without giving it any thought. Instead, I pulled back and ran the scenarios through my mind for about half an hour. Then I posted this to see what people thought about it. Then I went back and wrote three different intros using various bowling techniques to see how the felt to me.
I put an incredible amount of time, dedication and effort into this stuff. If there is one thing that I absolutely am not, it is lazy, and neither is performing thought experiments like the one above.
2869845
What I referred to as "lazy" was your argument in regards to them being magical talking ponies.
That came across like "Uh, how does it matter how they do it? It's a world full of magic, nothing makes sense there anyway! So why bother trying to figure out how they do it?"
Because this whole "With magic!" argument is commonly used by people who don't take the time to think of an explanation for something that we see in the show and who don't take life in Equestria serious.
If you have put thoughts into it how they exactly do it, it's something you should rather avoid saying, because it gives a wrong impression of you, since there ARE people out there who are too lazy to think of something and saying that makes you look like you're one of those people.
I just read the Cheerilee's Thousand scrap about bowling, which reminded me of this. Maybe a little more workable/human-bowling-like than the "caber-tossing" approach of 2868012 is to have them hold the ball in the nook of a curled-up hoof? That way they have a limited amount of grip.
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My headcanon is that prehensile tails are an Apple family mutation.
3076726 But Twilight has a prehensile tail. She uses it in the very first episode. Spike jumps off her back, and she catches him with her tail for a second to break his fall. Rarity also uses her tail to carry the cake in Party of One. Sweetie Belle sweeps with her tail in Sisterhoof Social. They've all got the mutation!
This can only mean one thing: Everypony is a member of the Apple family!
3076731 But Rarity cuts off her tail in the second episode... my god, Steven Magnet is wearing pony flesh on his face! He'll develop a taste for equine blood! It's a good thing they decided to skip the first-season episode where Rarity has to slay the very dragon she made a pony-eater when she was just trying to be generous, or the other one where she works through her self-mutilatory urges. Those would have been a scoche dark.
Okay, "prehensile" isn't the right word -- I'm thinking about whether there's flesh and bone all the way to the tip, or just a nub with long hair coming out of it (as real horses have). The latter could certainly be used for sweeping, cushioning, or (at a stretch) hanging from a tree branch once you factor in the incredible dexterity necessary to be a civilized race without hands, but you'd need the former to do stuff like lifting weights (as Apple Bloom does in "The Cutie Pox").
...Or carrying a cake with the very same tale you once cut completely off. What the hell is Rarity's deal? I'm assuming she uses a nanobot-enhanced mane and tail shampoo until proven otherwise.
3076758 Ponies don't have flesh all the way to the tip of the tail. There's some episode where I remember seeing the flesh part of the tail without the hair, and thinking "Oh, it is like a horse's tail. I'm going to use the catch-all "It's magic!"
As for strength, Apple Bloom uses her tail to carry the other crusaders in For Whom The Sweetie Belle Toils. It's pretty strong.
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3076758 I think mares might have longer tails than stallions. We seen Snips, Snails and Trouble shoes with short tails, and all the fancy tail tricks we've seen were done by mares.
3076776 "It's magic", huh? Maybe tails are just as powerful as unicorn horns, but everyone's too embarrassed to shoot spells out of their butt!
3076868 Babs has a short tail...
3076902 Applejack uses her tail to playfully brush off Rainbow in Fall Weather Friends. She less embarrassed because she's a farm pony and doesn't have no use for that modesty stuff. She ain't afraid to use some tail magic.
Twilight: "Wow, you sure are good with your, um, tail, Applejack."
Applejack: "Yup. It's handy to have an extra hoof around the farm. I call it my plot device."
Twilight: ::Facehoof::
3078448 No comment.