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// Character Notes 
// Story: Finding Home, Discovering Life 
// by That Colt 
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Character Notes:


General: When envisioning the Equestria featured in this story, I wanted to do a study in character interaction/development as well as world building. So I started first with the characters we all know and love, as I have stated a few times the primary inspiration for the look of the ponies in the story comes from the Guardinials, a race of extra-planar beings from Elysium featured in 3.5 and 4.0 Edition D&D.  Specifically the Equinials, It is from the Equininals that these ponies are getting their size. I decided to use my own height as a reference, I stand six feet, six inches. Just over two meters tall. Vas, the human character in the story is a tad shorter than I am, about the height of my brother, at six feet,four inches or just under two meters. Using these heights as a reference, I decided that the average pony would range from a little under two and a quarter meters tall, about seven feet, three inches to the extremes like Big Mac or Shining Armor at two and a half meters. A towering eight feet, three inches! Using Pinkie as an example, who I chose to make the shortest of the Ponies at exactly 7’3” is barely a head taller than Vas while Big Mac would tower over him by a good half meter. The only pony to break this range in my story is the Princess Celestia, I based her size off the leader of the Equininals. I see her at three meters tall. (Towering over everyone at roughly 9ft 8in, even Luna and Cadence. She is the only one.)  

Now, on to more general anatomy of the Ponies then to the character descriptions that I have prepared. When looking for body structure of the ponies, I went over lots of concept art for video games I’ve worked on before having to take time off for my cancer treatment. I eventually decided on adapting the body type, just not as stylized, of the Draenei from Blizzards World of Warcraft. I liked the idea of my anthroponies still having hooves, but also hands, just not the exaggerated ass out, boobs to face gait of the space goats. I drew leg structure from them mostly. Moving on to Earth Ponies, Earth Ponies are shown to have a connection to the land, often stronger than their size would permit in the show. I use Earth Ponies as the base in the story, they run the gamut of size and shape, everything I base size in the story off of I am using an Earth pony as a reference when not using Vas. Pegasai on the other hand, I envision being very, very lean, but not willowy in most cases. The most significant feature of a Pegasai would have to be their wings. Going back to D&D any creature with feathered wings, normally has a wing span of about twice their body height with some variation. I ran with this too, for both the Pegasai and Alicorns. Finally, Unicorns. The Horn of the Unicorn is much the same as it is in the show, a focus for magic; This will come into play in the story later.  But on to the individual notes:




The Mane Six:


Princess Twilight Sparkle
Height: 2.28 Meters (7ft 6in)
Twilight’s appearance straddles the median of the Mane Six. She’s nowhere near as waifish as Rarity or as Voluptuous as Fluttershy, nor is she as muscular as Applejack or as athletic as Rainbow Dash. If anything she is closer to Pinkie in body type, though with less adipose tissue due to a healthier diet. Personality wise; I have done my best to present how I see Twilight in the series, competent, intelligent, but highly neurotic.  Because I chose to set this story prior to the events of the last season finale, Twilight is still dealing with her insecurities as a princess.

Pinkie Pie
Height: 2.21 Meters (7ft, 3in)
I chose to make Pinkie the shortest pony in the mane six arbitrarily, however as I fleshed out her appearance I found that with her “chubby cute” body type, a term coined by Natasha Allegiri for Fiona of Fiona and Cake, it allowed me to create a puckish almost impish appearance to go along with her personality. Pinkie is wider than most of the Mane Six, but not to the point of being overweight. My intention is what extra weight she does have she carries remarkably well. I’ve done my best to leave her personality mostly alone, but she is difficult to write for without getting too absurd. 

Rainbow Dash
Height: 2.26Meters (7ft 5in)
Rainbow Dash is second in line for Shortest Pony, appearance wise I envision her with the build of an Olympic runner. Lots of lean muscle, defined bone structure and chiseled abs; Rainbow’s wings are by far her most striking physical feature. I’ve chosen to give Rainbow slightly oversized wings for her body size, along with a very muscular back to highlight a life time spent honing an already impressive physical talent. The general idea is that Rainbow can fly longer, faster and pull more power from her wings than other pegasai—But at the same time, the size disparity can cause her to over or under compensate, hence her crashing. Personality wise, I wanted to keep Rainbow the same egotistical yet loyal individual she is in the show; I added in her lechery for humor. I find the concept amusing personally. And I think it compliments her love of pranks making other ponies uncomfortable at times, this will be touched on later in the story with greater detail. 

Fluttershy
Height: 2.30 Meters (7ft 6 ½ in)
Fluttershy was an interesting pony for me to envision, I’m sure we’ve all heard of “Hootershy” before, I’m not going to lie, that humor inspired this pony’s appearance. But, I wanted less Jessica Rabbit, more Marilyn Monroe. Hence, Fluttershy of this story is tall, but not a twig, her waist is significantly smaller than her shoulders and hips, but not to the point of crushing her internal organs. She does have the largest bust of the Mane Six, a natural G cup. This does not exist in a vacuum however, she does not have a “flat” stomach, and there is adipose tissue there, not as much as Pinkie has but it is present. She also has “foal birthing hips” as I would call it as well as healthy thighs and healthy plot. Due to her fear of heights, I see her wings as not being nearly as developed as Dash’s making her a poor endurance flyer. Personality wise, I’m doing my best to reflect a post Iron Will Fluttershy; she’s timid and fearful, but not incapable of asserting herself. 

Rarity
Height: 2.34 Meters (7ft 8in)
Rarity was another interesting pony to envision; I decided to go with what I would call “Almost a Model” as her body type. She’s tall, second tallest of the mane six. She’s very thin, waifish or willowy, heh, nothing like the current cover art. She has a well-defined bone structure and takes very good care of herself physically, as someone in tune with the fashion industry would; but ultimately is just, and only just too healthy to make it as a mainstream model out of the occasional showing of her own designs. Personality wise, I see Rarity as enjoyable collection of conflicts. She’s confident, able to stare down Diamond Dogs one moment before falling into hysteria over a chipped hoof. Fearless when her friends are in danger, before being caught in the grips of terror when faced with a fashion faux paus. And ultimately generous with advice to her friends.

Applejack
Height: 2.41 Meters (7ft 11in)
My favorite Pony, Applejack. I chose to make Applejack the tallest of the Mane Six, just under 8ft tall. She’s built too, almost like Wonder Woman, but without the super defined abs. She spends her days working, lifting, bucking, pulling, pushing, digging, planting, etc. But ends these days with a hearty meal giving her only the slightest bit of cushion. When I have the new cover art drawn, I intend to point out that Applejack’s face should be one step down from the normal feminine; but nowhere close to masculine. I see Applejack as having a rustic beauty; someone who thanks to her genes turns heads wherever she goes and thanks to her lifestyle can turn them right back with one arm. Applejack personality wise is identical to her counterpart on the TV lookie box, Honest, down to earth and prone to over complication or worry at times. But I’ve added in a touch of insecurity; I’ll touch on that in the story down the road.




Other Characters:


Vasili  “Vas” Anatolyevich Maksimov
Height: 1.93 Meters (6ft 4in)
Vas is an interesting character to describe; he’s very clearly got three distinct blood lines. He’s Slavic, big, barrel chested, hairy with broad shoulders and thick bones, but definitely has some Nordic blood in him as told by his dirty blonde hair, fair skin and height. While select features in his face and way his beard grow in betray the Ashkenazim blood of his ancestors. He’s got the body of someone who “was” an Athlete; he’s no super hero, soldier or body builder. As for his personality, I’ll leave that to the story.