noise."Worldbuilding VI: Think like a pony · 12:48am Aug 21st, 2017
I touched upon this a little bit in my Barcast interview (it's somewhere amongst all the various technical difficulties).
Source
If you want to write a good PoE fic, you've got to focus on the little stuff. Forget about the big stuff; that's been done. Ponies saying "Ermagerd, they eat meat" is old hat.
Yes, you can have that in your story. Maybe you should, in fact, because that could either be a big thing to the ponies or something hardly worth mentioning . . . but if all you've got for your story conflicts is that, you probably ought to really think about what kind of story you intend to write.
See, the thing is that all the low-hanging fruit has already been picked. If you're looking to write a story that's going to be interesting for people to read, you really need to focus on the smaller details.
I think that anyone reading this blog is going to know and understand that our human world was pretty much built for us humans, and little furry quadrupeds aren't going to be a good fit for everything. Those of you who read Silver Glow's Journal know that she often complained about some bit of human tech that didn't make sense for her, or was hard to use for her. In fact, most bits of everyday life were a bit of a challenge--microwave buttons that weren't hoof-friendly, or hotels that didn't have windows that opened, requiring her to use the stairs or elevator like a common mudpony.
And I've said a time or two that you really need to think of the environment that your protagonist is in as another character in the story. We've all read stories where the airplane or the car or the house is somewhat personified and has its own personality quirks . . . well, I happen to think that that's good writing. Because cars and houses and airplanes and boats and pretty much everything that people build do wind up with personality quirks. Maybe it's the handle on my toilet that you have to jiggle just right, or the lock on the sliding door on my van that works sometimes and not other times; maybe it's that little sputtering hiccup when you start that Pratt and Whitney radial engine on the B-17 . . . it's never let you down, so you don't worry too much about it. Things that are just a little bit worn out, or a little bit odd.
Expand that out a little bit, and start to really examine the design of things. They have a purpose; most buildings didn't just spring into being. Someone designed them for a specific purpose. Things were put where they were for a reason. It might be a design reason, it might be an aesthetic reason. It might be a compromise, or it might be the best place to multipurpose something--those of you who were at Bronycon might have noticed how at the Pratt St. entrance, there were ticket booths built underneath the escalator, making otherwise wasted space useful.
But that's all for humans. The Hyatt Regency in Baltimore was built for the use of, and enjoyment of, humans. Nobody who built that thing gave a moment's thought about how the design might work with ponies. How any particular design feature might be beneficial, or problematic. What they might like or what they might not.
Of course, I don't know, either. I can guess; I can rely on my experience studying the show and writing what might be the longest PoE on FimFiction, but I don't know. Just the same, I think it's a valuable exercise.
So what I'm gonna do here is give you a series of pictures, and I'm going to tell you what a pony might think of them. And then I'm gonna add some more in at the end, and let you look a them and then think about how you might approach it, if you were writing a PoE.
We're gonna start with a bit of a softball.
This is the four little squeeze bottles of shampoo and conditioner that came with our room. Neither of us used any of it; if we had, I assume that housekeeping would have replaced the empty bottles . . . both myself and my roommate are long-haired hippie freaks, and that's probably barely enough for us. For a pony, not even close.
Now, we could have requested more, I'm sure. One phone call to the front desk would have brought more shampoo . . . but how much more?
What if there were four or more ponies sharing a room? How many bottles are they going to need?
And what about those bottles? Are they going to be friendly for a pony to use? A unicorn could probably squeeze them out pretty efficiently, but what about the other tribes? Maybe a group shower would work out all right; a pony could squeeze it in her mouth, but what if it's a solo pony in the room? How's she going to use it? Sit on her rump and lift her forelegs over her head, and hope for the best?
This right here is the main lobby. The photograph was taken from a fourth-floor balcony.
To me, it's pretty obvious that if a pegasus is at this level and wants to get to a different one that's open, she's gonna fly. No need to bother with the elevator; it's a short glide to the restaurant (on the right side of the photo, one floor down), and probably a really fun dive to get out the front door, by way of the opening where the escalators are.
Furthermore, all those columns would be fun--if there are a couple of pegasi, having a slalom around them would be really entertaining.
It also would be a good weather-spotting place. All those windows give you a quick view of what's going on outside, and would almost certainly make a pegasus happy. In fact, that wide-open area could have been designed to make a pegasus feel at home.
Here's another view of it. You can see off on the right two of the elevator cars--they're glass on three sides, which is also good for a pegasus. Silver Glow often complained that elevators should have windows in them; these do.
That might be less comfortable to a grounded pony. I would think that some of them probably aren't all that comfortable with heights and would rather keep their hooves on the ground. They don't really have to think about how high they are when they have enclosed elevators, but they can't help but look when they've got glass-walled elevators.
And here's another little detail--you see those cement flat beams that attach the columns to the walkway? Perfect pegasus landing spots. The openings in the balcony wall are too small for a pony to squeeze through, but she could easily fly over and then just sit on them, giving her good flight access to any parts of the hotel that you see in this picture or the previous one.
One danger is the elevator cars--if she isn't careful, she can fly into the path of one, and either be struck from above or below.
This is the 300 club at breakfast. They have a breakfast buffet.
You can get a rough estimate from the guy in the picture how high that table is. Will an Earth pony or a pegasus be able to access the food? Might they burn their muzzles on steam when they open the silver food warmers? And what about using the serving utensils? I'd assume they'd use them by mouth, but how are the other hotel guests going to feel about that?
Since they're probably not all that good at being bipedal, holding the plate will be a challenge. I think non-unicorns would probably leave it on the counter, and slide it along as they put food on it. Then, once they've got everything they want on their plate, they'd pick it up by mouth and go back to their table.
Sneeze guards are probably a complete mystery to ponies. It wouldn't be unreasonable to believe that they protect the food from rain (although that would seem an odd detail inside a building). A tribalist ground pony might think that it prevents pegasi from swooping down and snatching food off the table.
And look at the bagels and breads in the glass case. What's that there for? Does that mean that you're not allowed to eat the bread; that it's only there as a display? Or is it put there to keep vermin from getting at the bread? Is there a vermin problem in Equestria?
One of the public bathrooms in the hotel. Would that work as a hoof dryer? Do ponies even wash their hooves after using the bathroom?
How would they feel about a hot-air dryer? Is that more or less practical than towels?
And one more picture, in the same public bathroom. As you can see, they have TVs mounted behind the mirror, showing through it. When the TVs aren't on, you can't see them--I could see that being interesting to a pony, especially if they haven't seen that kind of human tech before (have you ever seen a TV mounted behind a mirror before?).
But it's also worth noting the sinks. Like many public bathrooms, they're the kind where you wave your hand in front of a sensor and they turn on for a little bit. What would a pony think of that? Would they be able to reach far enough to work it reliably? If they'd never seen one before, how would they make it go?
I didn't get a picture under the counter, which I now regret. Oftentimes, there are shutoff valves for the faucets under the counter, and while that's a bit too low for your average person to notice, it might be the first thing a pony sees, and I can imagine a pony going through the entire bathroom, turning all the shutoffs, and finally concluding that all the sinks are broken . . . and of course, after that if a person tried to use them, they wouldn't produce water, thus validating the pony's belief.
And the more you look at those pictures, the more details you're going to notice. What does NSF on the hand drier mean? Why are all the televisions around the hotel tuned to the same channel? What's so important about that channel that they need to show it everywhere, even the bathrooms and the elevators? The television in the hotel rooms shows other channels. Why did they make the floor out of slippery tiles instead of carpet or something else that a hoof can get a good bite on? Are the circles in the carpet spots that should remain clear so pegasi can land there?
Of course, if you're writing a HiE, you've got to approach it the opposite way--everything in Equestria was presumably built for ponies (assuming that they're in the pony lands and not the griffon lands). What kind of design features that are pony friendly might a human struggle with? What things might be obvious to a pony but not to a human?
So now it's your turn--I'm going to include a few more pictures of the hotel and its surroundings, and let you think about how a pony might view it.
The swimming pool and patio, which is built on top of the parking garage.
A real tree in a planter filled with red glass beads
A view from above of the 300 Club. The brown area off to the right is a water feature, with fountains.
A row of plants in the open patio area between the Hyatt and the convention center.
Well, I'm pretty sure at least some ponies would try to drink out of the fountain, and they would probably snack on any flowers they see.
As someone who finds the real world so pathologically boring that I'm physically incapable of keeping a journal, my interest tends more towards the HiE side of this equation.
Are we allowed to post our thoughts on how we think ponies might view your examples, or is it meant to be more of a private exercise?
Thank you for putting this up. I'm going to make on blog about this with HiE and why don't authors think of this. In truth, a PoE would be a alien in a alien universe. Everything is different. Any story where the pony or human comes into the other world, and is somehow better then the natives at everything, stinks of the old 'white man's burden' crap.
I am human, I live in north-america, I've been growing up surrounded by tech and all the way we use it, I'm familiar with the local culture. And even then, I still find stuff that baffle me. Those mirror TV are just the most recent exemple.
So for a completly foreing pony, it'll probably be worse.
And it is indeed that kind of detailed world building that caugth my attention when I first read your stories.
And pony fic aside, imagining how any alien (as in, a being not from here, even if that other place is china) migth react to some of the quirk of our society, even the banal ones, is a very intriguing excercise.
4642441
Oh yeah, I'd imagine so. There might be rules in Ponyville about what flowers you can eat and what ones you can't--like, public flowers are okay, but it's not polite to snack out of somebody's window box.
4642445
The same rules essentially apply, although reversed, of course.
Believe me, if I had a series of actual photos from Equestria, I'd have put them up.
That's completely up to you. You can post your thoughts if you want, or even have photographs of other everyday things and how ponies might react to them.
4642474
Yeah, a lot of authors don't consider the little stuff, and that's really what makes your day-to-day life work. Think about how out of sorts most people get when the power's out, or the internet doesn't work . . . we have trouble coping with that. Or how vexing it is when you find a faucet where the hot and cold handles are reversed. Now imagine that nothing in the world is familiar.
Oh, yeah. There's like a zero percent chance that could happen. Everything is just way different.
I've said it before on HiE fics, but the default thought is 'hands are better than hooves.' That may be true on Earth, but in Equestria, everything is meant to be used by hoof, mouth, or magic. Nothing was designed for hands.
4642477
Yeah, if you really pay attention to details, you always find new stuff (I kind of like the mirror TVs, but they also say something about American culture. Why do you really need TVs in the bathroom?
Every little thing would be new and different. Things like signs . . . there's standard iconography; that would mean nothing to a pony.
There's a lot of good stuff you can find out reading cultural anthropology books (like the case of an Asian student who never though of identifying people by their hair color, since in his home country, that wasn't a useful trait for identification). Or just looking at everyday objects and imagining what you'd make of them if you didn't know what they were.
4642492
One could theoretically do this by just using screenshots as a visual aid while you mention various things we don't really think about. It would just take longer.
In the case of the tree in a planter of glass beads, using established characters as easy mouthpieces:
Applejack raises all the eyebrows, then about five minutes later drags the tree outside so it can actually live. A small international incident possibly occurs when she makes a tree that doesn't look native to Baltimore grow healthily and flourish in a functionally alien biome.
Spike assumes it's a free sample bucket with floral centerpiece and is very confused about factory-made glass. Possible parallels to low-quality chocolate production, with him being more surprised at the cheapness of the hotel rather than offended.
Maud would be confused. Deeply, deeply confused. After about ten minutes of staring at the planter, she kicks it over without a word and leaves.
Nice mustache! I think that ponies would be mystified by so much of our technology and think it being a form of magic and be confused why we claim we don't have magic. Seriously the internet would floor Twilight with the amount of information available and I would wonder how she would handle all the adult material as well.
If you go with the ponies being roughly four feet or so to the top of their head, they going to have a whole lot of problems.
Watch young kids trying to interact with a world built for adults. Granted their bipedal but they still struggle.
It would be like having a great dane.
Thinking of the environment as a character is sound advice for any genre, not just EiH. :D
No. o.o When did that become a thing? I don't want the news people watching me pee D:
4642516
You could, yes, although they're not entirely reliable, IMHO. They use commonly-recognizable objects for the benefit of the target audience, rather than specific drawings of how a pony world would actually operate. That's one thing I always consider when I'm worldbuilding, anyways.
Yeah, the tree's totally not native. I don't know what it is, but it's not a tree that belongs in Baltimore.
I didn't include the picture, but behind that tree was a 'planter' full of fake, plastic plants.
"These are the worst gems ever. They really cheaped out."
The other planter (the one I don't have a picture of) had dark, polished river-stones in it. Not sure what kind . . . she might like those. You can't make out details, but it's the zig-zag planter by the elevator shafts.
Would ponies polish rocks? Or do they occur naturally polished?
4642529
Thank you! I have a glorious full beard as well, although you can't really see it in that picture.
I totally agree. I think that in some ways, our tech is inseparable from their magic. Both sides would be wondering how the other managed to do what they do.
As for the adult material . . . well, some of that depends on your view of Equestria. Nudity, at least, wouldn't be weird to them at all. Pictures of naked people wouldn't even raise an eyebrow (assuming that they knew what a naked person looked like, anyways). As for porn, I guess that would depend on the pony attitude of sex . . . that's probably something that the show is never going to explain.
4642545
Yeah, that's the general fanon height, which puts eyes and muzzle at about crotch-level . . . all sorts of things just aren't built for ponies (or people) that height.
Also, people with various handicaps that are trying to interact with a world that wasn't built with them in mind. That having been said, those people can overcome their limitations; there's an episode of Penn and Teller Fool Us where a magician with no hands performs slight-of-hand tricks, and another with a blind card mechanic. Which means it's possible.
4642556
Yes and no. Basically every gem we've ever seen mined seems to manifest fully formed as a professionally cut beauty with sparkling facets, but every non-gem rock not only appears non-polished, but doesn't appear to ever get polished. Boulder in particular, whom one would assume would get polished at some point (even if solely by the constant friction of Maud's dress pocket) appears to still be rather rough and ragged, if smooth around the edges.
Unless someone can point me at a screencap of a polished rock in Equestria, I have to assume they just don't do that. I could tell you why they don't, but first I'd have to know why we do.
4642547
I agree, but lots of people don't do it. If I might quote a couple comments on one of my fics:
They're judging you.
Fascinating food for thought, and a great exercise for putting yourself behind an alien pair of eyes. Thanks for it.
4642567
Agreed. Bolder ought to be polished by constant wear in Maud's frock.
Well, we do it because they look prettier and shinier. Iv'e got polished magnetite on my tool box that my buddy brought back from Alaska. Also, river rocks are often naturally polished, and it's possible that some people wanted to imitate that look.
4642577
You're welcome!
I thought I'd put it out there because in a way, it's foreign territory for me, as well, so it's easier to spot the details. Plus Shachza and I were talking about it. . . .
4642578
Simple, then. The following explanation is severely tribe-biased for the purposes of brevity, so I hope you'll excuse me.
Unicorn culture, particularly Canterlot, puts far too much emphasis on beauty to settle for polished rocks, especially in a world where perfect gems naturally occur. The entire pegasus way of life may as well have been specifically engineered to minimize contact with the ground, and any ground enthusiast would more than likely view the alteration of their precious rock collection as some form of sacrilege.
As for earth ponies, function over form. Plant farmers view rocks as an obstacle, or in a pinch a handy weapon against predators. Rock farmers sell rocks to such a degree that they make money off of the sale of rocks, implying either a much more healthy economic relationship with dragons than Celestia and Luna's complete ignorance on dragons seems to suggest, or that Equestria hasn't actually developed most traditional means of determining a rock's mineral composition. Possible offshoot from this: Equestria's entire concept of knowing about minerals and the applications thereof is entirely thanks to earth ponies.
Therefore, if we assume the Pie family rock farm is more of a scarcity-eliminating infinitely regenerating source of fossil fuels, building materials and also some shinies, that doesn't leave a lot of market (or time) for polishing rocks.
Boulder is a paradox, though. Shall we assume Maud uses earth pony magic to make him friction-resistant? Or better yet, shall we assume Boulder is some kind of unclassified super-rock with entirely unknown properties, thus explaining how Maud can use him to break out of a cave without shattering Boulder with that move?
Those red glass beads.
Spike: Look at all these rubies! Are they for everypony to snack on? BLEUGH! Tastes terrible!
About HiE: What a lot of people forget is how lower everything would be. Not just the doorways and ceilings but showers, chairs, tables, countertops and toilets. What would that do to your back and posture having to bend over for everything? Pony buildings would be a bit claustrophobic for humans.
In Xenophilia, utensils have a strap to help ponies use them.
4642561
Cool! I rock a nice goatee.
At least in more prosperous places, humans do a lot of very silly things that confuse other humans, much less alien ponies.
If a pony asked me about the chunks of glass around the potted tree (lucky Ti "bamboo" plant?), I wouldn't have an answer beyond, "Maybe somebody thought it looked nice."
Of course, I'd make up my own reasons for the water features. I'd say they were there to help keep the air moist and cool. Who knows? Maybe I'd be half right.
In an HiE story... I'd try to figure out how ponies don't get their hooves dirty just walking across their kitchens. The fan-canon telekinetic fields on their hooves are probably involved. The ponies' hooves aren't actually touching the floor!
Those new hand-driers in the BCC toilets - those are *insane*, and I couldn't figure out how to get them to actually dry hands. I suspect they were the idea of somebody's nephew, and bought for nepotistic and box-checking purposes. Because *somebody* got bored of the old-fashioned functional hand-driers. Which probably didn't check off enough 'sustainability' boxes on the form anymore.
I'd like to think that Horse Wife is in the same universe as OPP, further down the line. Watch out for Changelings posing as baked goods, Dale!
4642565
One of my coworkers was born without thumbs, so his index fingers were surgically altered to do the job. One time, he said as a joke, "Why do all these gloves have extra fingers?"
He's a cool guy.
Also, as to ponies washing their hooves... I think that that would depend on how much they know about microscopic organisms, and, if so, how germophobic they are. I'm personally inclined toward the idea that they would be less concerned and generally more robust in the bacterial acclimation area, since they do occasionally munch on flowers straight from the dirt.
The tree one is in my opinion, the biggest challenge for ponies to wrap their heads around.
Assuming, of course that the decorative rocks aren't assumed to be a type of food for dragons or a strangely placed rock candy bowl
, I can easily see a botany-oriented pony having a minor freakout at the thought if humans growing trees in glass. Adding to the problem is what happens if they ask a human what that tree is, as I have been around enough decorative plant features in malls and airports to think that's a ficus.
Botany Pony (BP): Excuse me, Mr. Human, may I ask what that is? (Motions to tree)
Me (Me) : Hmm? That? (Notices glass in planter) Probably a ficus.
BP: A what? Is it common to this world?
Me: It's a fake tree. So they-
BP: Fake! (Splutters)
Me: Yeah. It's just for decoration, it's not real. (Knocks on trunk) That way they don't have to water it.
BP: (Has Twilight Zone style breakdown.)
"Water feature". You mean pegasus bath?
With the open spaces with Pillars cutting through them. I do wonder of the manuvrability and wing span of an average Pegasus. Rather than being perfect for them they might actually make the area seem like a death trap. Sure Dash would probably love them but she's far from normal, Ditzy and Twilight might well have problems getting about by wing and your normal Pegasus might find it challenging.
An interesting thought about size, is Canterlot Castle built to Alicorn or normal pony specification? Does Celestia (and to a lesser extent Luna) have to constantly deal with everything being small to them or do all the servants have to live with things being oversized (It might have an interesting effect of making them and visitors feel a little like foals, which might be a psychological effect Celestia might be going for).
Pictures:
"Free water!"
"Free candy!"
"I can't fly in that mess!"
"Free food!"
In all seriousness, I do like how you consider these differences as inconveniences and not impossibilities. Because I've read quite a few fics in which ponies are basically completely unable to do certain tasks. And... I find that hard to believe for a couple reasons, 1: in the show, we almost never see anypony being unable to do something just because they're not a unicorn (except being able to fly to places), and 2: I had a friend who was born with severely underdeveloped arms, he basically had no forearms, and no hands, and this motherfucker could still pull a credit card out of his wallet, play video games, and text on his cell phone. Really, after seeing that, having hooves instead of hands doesn't really seem like much of a setback.
But I get your point about the world being designed for horses or humans. I think the height of things would probably be the biggest issue. Like tables.
Interesting though is that Equestria seems to be at least a little multicultural. There's probably some griffon in Manehatten who's always complaining about, I dunno, a lack of silverware at restaurants. And meat. Further, even the differences between pony tribes is an odd thing to consider when making any place or thing in Equestria. Would tall buildings have dedicated balconies for pegasi to land and take off from? Would it be considered rude to give a dirt pony silverware? And how the fuck do they use a typewriter with TWO FUCKING KEYS?
The world may never know...
I think that ponies would be familiar with an awful lot of the human world, considering so many human artifacts that exist in their world. Like doorknobs. There's a TON of stuff that is familiar to us, but was obviously not invented by quadrupeds.
But the design of objects is very interesting. I actually teach a class on it. I'd recommend a book called "The Evolution of Useful Things" by Henry Petroski. It gives a lot of perspective on exactly how things came to be what they are.
Silver Glow is an asshole!
What a great thought exercise.
• The shampoo and conditioner containers are a rich source of mental pictures.
• Depending on the pony's talents, the red beads could lead to an assumption that the hotel sometimes has diamond dogs and dragons as guests, since real gems would naturally be picked up as a snack by the dragons and only diamond dogs would appreciate such garish ornamentation on a plant pot.
• The lobby picture would probably cause positive thoughts of "How nice, they've made this area accessible for all of the tribes."
• The breakfast buffet would just be disastrous, especially considering the pony habit of using their (perfectly sanitary) mouths to pick things up. Seeing a pony try to use the tongs would be like watching someone encounter chopsticks for the first time.
• The bathrooms would be an exercise in frustration with the sink basins being too high -- not even mentioning the difficulty they'd have in using a standard western toilet -- although the sad clunking sounds as the pony struggles to use the hand dryer would be amusing for a minute or two.
After reading Starscribes "The Last Pony on Earth", I'd given some thought to how ponies would handle things in our world.
It'd be very interesting.
I did come to the conclusion that pegasi and griffons would love the convenience of balconies in apartment buildings and if the power's gone, the other two tribes would loath having to climb all those stairs.
4642561
I'd expect a fair bit of head-tilting as the pony tries to figure out just what's going on.
They're not very good at leapfrog... Are they dancing or- Oh, this must be what they meant by the horizontal tango!
4642950
Ficus =/= fake
Ficus are real trees! It's just that a lot of fake trees mimic them. In fact, if you've ever had Fig Newtons, you've eaten the fruit of a ficus.
joyusgarden.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/P1050861_new.jpg
4643613
Huh. Did not know that.
My point still stands, though. I'd probably call it a ficus (meaning fake) , and if the ficus is a real tree in Equestria as well, I can only imagine the chaos that would cause.
That's . . . actually horrifying. I don't think those were there when you and I went.
What is it they're so desperate for us to see . . . ?
4642613
I know, right? It's cruel to taunt a dragon like that (and fake flowers, too . . . Earth ponies would be so upset).
Actually, in canon the height of doorways is usually taller than ponies, to the point where a pony standing on her hind legs could walk through the door that way . . . so ceiling height might not be an issue (that's the tack I've taken in CSI/OPP and Sam and Rose). There could be several reasons to explain that--they might like higher ceilings that feel less confined, they might want them to be high enough for pegasi to fly, or they might build them that way in case Princess Celestia ever comes over for tea.
As for everything else, though . . . yeah, it's all going to be built pony-height. Chairs, tables, cupboards, stoves, sinks, toilets, they're all going to be the wrong size for a person.
I think that's reasonable. I often just describe things as being 'hoof-friendly,' without going into too many specifics, but straps would certainly work, and I think in canon when they were using the apple slicer (the episode with the buffalo), it was strapped to a hoof.
4642640
Goatees are fun, but I've always preferred a full beard.
4642784
It does look nice, actually.
I think it's another bit of asthetics. An older building, before modern heat and A/C, maybe it could be used to keep the air moist and cool, but I don't see that being the reason why they put it in this building.
That's possible, or else they sweep a lot. They probably also have bristly mats outside their houses to scrape the gunk off their hooves, and maybe the more fastidious ponies keep hoof-picks by the door, too. They could also have little hoof-baths inside the doorway. A lot of it might depend on the pony, and what she does for a living. Rarity probably doesn't usually get her hooves very dirty, whereas Applejack does.
4642791
I didn't try them myself--just stuck with the good old-fashioned paper towels.
4642847
I suppose it could be. Maybe I'll give Brownie Bun (as a young filly) a cameo in some chapter.
4642869
A lot of people with various disabilities are. I think it might be part of their way of dealing with it. I knew a guy who looked kind of like Billy Mays who lost a leg in a motorcycle accident . . . the next Halloween, he dressed up as pirate Billy Mays.
It's possible that there aren't any worrysome microscopic organisms in Equestria, or that the ones that can infect ponies are easily dealt with by unicorn doctors. Or they've got good immunity--that's another possibility.
I have considered writing a HiE where a human gets fleas from a pony, and also a story where as part of a normal doctor's appointment, ponies get wormed.
4642950
If you look closely, you can see the inner pot, which is what the tree's actually growing in. That detail might be lost on the pony, though.
I wonder if in Equestria there are plants which grow in gems? I think we can't rule that out.
As 4643613 pointed out, ficuses are real trees (although of course there are lots of fake ones for sale). In fact, one type is Ficus Lyrata, which I think is kind of cool.
4643025
Yes, it could be that as well. And I can just imagine a bunch of pegasi splashing around in it and getting yelled at by the hotel staff.
4643032
Fanon size with canon wingspan and maneuverability, most pegasi wouldn't have too much problem navigating them (the trusses along the sloped window are a different matter entirely). Although you raise a good point--there are probably pegasi who wouldn't like that kind of crowding. And of course, if you imagine ponies as being larger, or having a more realistic wingspan, the columns would pose a problem.
It would actually be a pretty tight squeeze above the escalators, and you'd have to stop quick at the bottom, but I think adventurous pegasi would love it.
I think that it's probably a mix. The Royal Sister's thrones are obviously alicorn sized, and I would assume that everything that they normally interact with would be as well--their bedrooms, bathrooms, and so forth. By contrast, the parts of the castle that are for the servants and suchlike are most likely built normal pony sized--the kitchen being the most obvious example.
I do imagine that all of the public areas and some of the working areas (again, the kitchen) probably have high enough ceilings for the Sisters, but there could well be some corridors in the bowels of the castle that aren't large enough for Princess Celestia to comfortably navigate.
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I've decided to accept the advice from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and carry a towel with me.
No, really. Not joking.
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I think that's an important point. In Silver Glow's Journal, there were a few things she wasn't able to do (for example, she couldn't use the little sample cups for tea at the tea shop in Disney Springs) and a few things that had to be modified for her to use (like her snowboard), but for the most part, she could use human stuff. Often not as efficiently as a human, obviously, but she could figure it out if she really wanted to. And of course if it was something she used a lot, she got better and better at it.
That's really going to be a major thing--practice makes perfect. Your friend obviously wasn't just going to sit there and feel sorry for himself; he wanted to do stuff, so he figured out how, and I think that for the most part, ponies would be able to do that on Earth, if they practiced at it. Heck, I saw a guy with no hands fool Penn and Teller with his slight-of-hand card tricks.
Yeah, I think so too. Silver Glow often flew up and stood on the counter to use the stove or make food. Probably other ponies who spent more time in the kitchen (Silver Glow is a bad cook) had little stepstools.
I'd think that they'd have silverware for all the snooty unicorns. And I also think a lot of restaurants would serve fish for the pegasi.
Yup! I think that most structures that can be landed on are designed so that a pegasus can land on them (fenceposts, lifting beams, roofs, train car roofs, balconies, etc.) and I also think that a lot of public buildings would have pegasus entrances higher up (basically, balconies). Ponies actually seem to love balconies; the freaking treebury had them.
I think it would be rude to give a dirt pony silverware, unless she asked for it.
Left forehoof on one key, right forehoof on the other, and they type in pony Morse code. Later on, when that's typeset, the typesetter translates.
Or else they're tilting keys. If each could be tilted eight ways, that would give you 64 characters; add a shift key, and you've got 128 which should be plenty for an alphabet, punctuation, and then some. Plus, you can double up a little bit. Use lower case Ls in place of ones, that kind of thing.
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If you take a literal interpretation of the show, then you're forced to conclude that either there were ancient humans who left all that stuff for the ponies, or it was invented by minotaurs and the ponies are too lazy to change the design to something more suitable. Or else you can just assume that what we see sometimes in the show is symbolic, so that the target demographic will easily be able to understand 'that's a shovel,' and come up with a pony design on your own that makes more sense (which is what I usually do).
Ooh, that sounds good. I've read a couple of Petroski's books and really liked them. I own To Engineer is Human, and I think one other book (but I can't remember which one).
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I can imagine dozens of empty bottles after a pony's done showering.
I hadn't even considered non-pony Equestrian species. I could see Diamond Dogs just taking them all out of the planter and hoarding them. Dragons are probably smarter, and would eat one at most before realizing that it wasn't very good food.
I've got to imagine that some of the classier ponies would use the tongs (possibly even Applejack, since she spent some time in Manehattan). Other ponies might not bother . . . I can't recall if we've ever seen how ponies serve themselves or each other at a buffet.
Yeah, that would be a room of torture for them. Lots of struggles there. Unicorns would probably have it easiest, but the handleless faucets would surely vex their horns. Maybe a unicorn who's been on Earth long enough would have figured out how to use her horn to activate them, which would be interesting to see.
Some men's rooms have one or two low mounted urinals for people of short stature. That probably woudn't really help the ponies much, though.
Oh yeah, I think so. Silver Glow often flew off balconies and rooftops when she had the opportunity, and she picked her two apartments largely because they had balconies.
I suppose a lot of it would depend on the particular pictures. Usually, the 'fun bits' are on prominent display, so you can get a good idea what's going on. Um, I've heard. So I think they wouldn't have too much trouble figuring out what was going on.
Now, if they made the assumption that that was how humans normally reproduced . . . I'm not sure what conclusions they'd draw from that.