I swear, when I read about this I thought it as something Estee would write about as a palate cleanser between his usual FiM entries. Where Celestia just takes some time off in the Hooman world, strolling, looking, relaxing.
https://imgur.com/gallery/4DFS734
Just me?

7122198
It does read a little like an Estee story. It's sad but sweet. Thanks for sharing.

Ngl, when I first skimmed the title my heart jumped thinking something had happened to them irl though. Glad to be wrong on that.

7122198
Not the sequel to A Horse Called Sunbutt I expected, but I like it.

7122238
Not nearly big enough to be Sunbutt Celestia. There she's the tallest horse ever.

7122296
She's the tallest pony ever; just wait until she gets her full growth.

7123009
We're talking about A Horse Called Sunbutt, which is its own weird thing. There Celestia's "twenty-one, possibly twenty-two hands high:" The tallest horse ever recorded was Sampson/Mammoth at 21 hands 2.5 inches.

7123081
Yes, I know. I was making a joking reference to the following passage from the chapter Establishing Locations:

"Horse?" he said with a light mirth which didn't do anything for the upcoming situation either. "Why, that's a pony! You should see her when she gets her -- full... growth..."

7124000
Ooooohhh. It's been a while since I read through it, forgot that bit.

7124105
Np, I reread it with some frequency and have a memory for individual scenes as it is. (Though, I personally thought that was a great line in the story, too, so I assumed it would've been more readily identified.)

7124000
Was Estee under the impression that ponies were juvenile horses?

7127706

I think it was supposed to entirely be an in-universe joke. Maybe the character in question thought that a pony was a young horse but it was probably just a further part of the joke.

7127854
I'd concur. It's probably a combination of a wink-and-a-nod to the readers (it is "My Little Pony", after all) and Rarity's attempt at levity before undergoing medical treatment. I honestly couldn't say if he (Rarity) is aware of the pony/horse differentiation and Dr. Turner might or might not as well. The joke falls flat in-universe as it is:

The thin man hadn't blinked during the entire attempt to produce the stillborn corpse of a joke, which was admittedly one of the better responses he usually got.

The humor is probably directed entirely at the audience, imo.