How I See My Little Pony

Chapter 1: Lunar Ponies and Solar Ponies

I like to split the Ponies, especially the Mane Six, into Solar and Lunar. Solar Ponies are of course the daydwellers, while Lunar Ponies are nocturnal.

• Lunar Pegasi have bat wings

• Lunar Earth Ponies have paws rather than hooves

• Lunar Unicorns have curved horns

• Lunar Ponies in general have small fangs, are slightly furrier, and can make their eyes go slit like a cat

I've toyed with the idea that Solar and Lunar Ponies look the same during the day but Lunars transform at night, but I'm unsure. As well, I need some sort of advantage to give Solars (maybe they're more numerous, maybe they function better in the light, maybe I can literally do stuff like Lunars being allergic to garlic, etc) so that the two sides are more well-balanced.

The Lunar Ponies were often treated as monsters throughout history, which now plays into Luna's motive — she wasn't just upset that the night is shunned, but that night Ponies are shunned. After the whole banished-to-the-moon thing, Celestia works hard to fix Lunar-Solar relations, with problems between the two being almost nonexistent in modern times.

The Mane Six are split like this:

• Applejack and Rainbow Dash are obvious choices for Solar, I think.

• Twilight is literally star-themed, so her being the Lunar apprentice to the Solar Princess just fits perfectly.

• Rarity admittedly could've worked for Lunar just as well, but I really wanted to do an even split between the Mane Six, and she doesn't not work for Solar so... She's Solar.

• Pinkie Pie is Lunar because A) the rest of her family really work with it, B) her being basically a werewolf is hilarious, and C) it helps make clear that Lunar ≠ gloomy or evil.

• Fluttershy once got turned into a Batpony. She canonly has a fang. She lives alone on the border of the Everfree and is dating the monstrously mismatched Spirit of Chaos. Animals exist at night just as well as day. She is 100% a Lunar Pegasus, and no-one can change my mind.

Other Characters:

• Celestia is Solar, Luna is Lunar, for very obvious reasons.

• Sweetie Bell and Apple Bloom are both Solar, because their sisters are. I haven't decided on Scootaloo yet, but I'm leaning towards Lunar as a counterpart to RD and because of her darker color scheme. Thoughts?

• Diamond Tiara is Solar while Silver Spoon is Lunar, mostly because they just give me those vibes.

• Big Mac is Solar, of course, but Granny Smith might be Lunar — it would fit with her napping all the time, at least. I haven't decided for Sugar Belle (is she Sugar Apple after marrying Big Mac??) yet, as she honestly could go either way.

• Starlight and Trixie are both Solar Ponies, obviously... JK, they're as Lunar as they come.

• As stated before, Pinkie's entire family are Lunar Ponies, because it just fits them so very well. Cheese Sandwich is a trickier choice, though — on one hoof, he's very day colored and it would be a good counterpoint to Pinkie, but on the other he's specifically known for running parties that last all night.

Chapter 2: Fluttershy

Backstory

Fluttershy Breeze is a tall, lanky Lunar Pegasus from Cloudsdale. Her easily-frightened nature, awkward appearance, and abysmal flying skills often made her the target of bullying in her youth.

One day, Fluttershy's cousin Rainbow Dash challenged some of those bullies to a race in an attempt to make them leave her alone. It... Sorta worked?

During the race, Fluttershy was knocked off a cloud and she fell to the ground. Luckily, she was saved from harm by a group of butterflies.

Fluttershy immediately became enamored by all the different animals that lived so close to the ground, even the sorts of animals most would be frightened of, such as a bear whom she dubbed Harry. And, to her delight, the animals liked her back!

Then a giant exploding rainbow scared off all the animals. Though of course Fluttershy was scared as well, her concern for her new animal friends overrode her fright, leading her to gently coax them out of their hiding places once she was certain the danger had passed.

Helping and interacting with so many animals at once, Fluttershy feels neither overwhelmed nor out of place. In fact, she feels like this is exactly what she's meant to do in her life–!

On the day of the Rainboom, Fluttershy gains her Cutie Mark. And, with it, the ability to better communicate with and understand her beloved animals.

Fluttershy would eventually convince her parents to let her move to the ground in her early or mid teens, citing the height phobia she's gained from falling so many times as a good reason. Her parents, being Ponies and not humans, consider letting their teenaged daughter move to another city mostly filled with Earth Ponies to be an excellent idea.

Rainbow Dash, ever the protective older cousin, moves with Fluttershy. They live together in a run-down old cottage on the border of the Everfree Forest, fixing it up and making a life for themselves. As Fluttershy settles more and more into life on the ground with her animals, Rainbow eventually decides to move into a more actually-made-for-Pegasi house in the nearby village of Ponyville.

Fluttershy led a quiet, calm, peaceful life. With a few bumps — like that overenthusiastic Earth Pony that insisted on being her friend, or discovering she had hypnotic powers, or her special favorite animal Angel Bunny's regular attempts to make her interact with the (loud, pushy, terrifying) villagers. Oh, and Nightmare Night, can't forget that particular reoccurring bump.

But yeah, her life was more-or-less a gentle one.

Until she was nineteen years old and it was the 1,000th Summer Sun and apparently now she's the embodiment of an ancient magical Element????

Actually, her life is still pretty gentle. Whenever it's not being insane.

NOTES

With the change of RD being Fluttershy's cousin's, Zephyr's flirting obviously has been changed as well. Whether I'll change it to something platonic (like trying to impress RD) or just switch the target of his flirting, I'm unsure.

Angel Bunny is softened somewhat in the sense that his rough and demanding nature is used as a way to get Fluttershy out of her shell. He wants to help her face the world, even if he has to pull her kicking and screaming to do it. Even his demands regarding how his salad is made are a way to force her to brave grocery shopping. And if he's actually rude and picky and rough? Well people, and rabbits, are complicated.

Fluttershy once stated that she's a year older than Pinkie Pie. I see Pinkie Pie as eighteen (maybe bordering nineteen) at the beginning of the series, so nineteen for Fluttershy it is!

Chapter 3: Art!

Mane 6 + Spike, human(ish) forms! Made with AI. A lot of the art after this came before it, but I just had to put this first. I love it so much, it took me SO LONG to get them all right. I don't think I've ever had to do this much editing on AI art before... 😅

Human Forms! Made by AI, though I did edit it a bit

Fluttershy and Flutterbat! I'm really proud of these redesigns. A glitch on my art app means I don't know how long these took me to draw, but it was a while.

Fluttershy in a village at day, drawn by me.

Flutterbat in a village at night, drawn by me.

Fluttershy and RD, as done by AI. Am I the only one who thinks Dash would have tattoos on her shoulder/upper arm? Maybe even wing tattoos on her back?

Flutterbat as a human! Done with AI.

Celestia human form. Made with AI. Luna will be added... eventually.

Comparison! What do you think? I personally think I did Angel Bunny waaay better.

Some of my attempts to figure out how in the world Fluttershy's wings work XD

This next batch are official artwork I took and edited to help me figure out some designs.

(I think I might've run this one through AI, actually, because those goggles and jacket aren't exactly in my artstyle...)

I've changed my views on how some of these characters look since then (especially Twilight and Pinkie Pie's eyes, lol)

My Little Sister as a My Little Pony! Made with AI :)

Myself as a Pony! Made with AI :)

One of my many attempts to draw my own Cutie Mark, + one of the results from running through AI. It's a blue quill drawing a sun :D It as well looks a bit like a bird's eye, which wasn't intentional but I love 💙 Someday I will perfect it and get it tattooed (I only get tattoos when I can draw the design myself, with the singular exception of my family crest which was my first tattoo)

Fanmade Fluttercord child. Drawn by me.

Different fanmade Fluttercord child. Drawn by me as well. I think I might call her Autumn. 😊

Random Pony design. Drawn by me.

Triplets! Drawn by me. They mostly fit how I see the different Pony castes, but this was from my 'all unicorns have curved horns' era. I as well tend to see Earthies as big and bulky, Pegasi as small and aerodynamic, and Unicorns as tall and slender — but they're triplets, so...

Celestia, Luna, and Discord's clones! Long story. Drawn by me. Aurora's horn should be straight and Selene should have bat wings, but they're mostly right otherwise.

Mira, a Draconequus OC who is perfectly symmetrical due to... something (it changes). Drawn by me, and woah am I proud of it. It's my favorite out of all the MLP fanart I've ever drawn. I love it so much 😍 

Without shading↑

An old attempt at human Twilight (+not-so-human Spike). Drawn by me.

One of my many pictures of a Draconequus. Drawn by me. You ever notice that Discord's tail is red like his eyes (though not quite the same shade), his tail spikes are pink, and his torso is red-brown? That's my rule of thumb for Draconequui now, that color consistency. It really helps make the design feel right, even with the mismatched limbs and such.

Another Draconequus. Drawn by me :)

An old attempt at teenaged royal sisters, Discord, and an OC. Drawn by me, it's an AU where Discord befriended the royal sisters in his youth and never went evil.

A male Alicorn. The design is a little clunky, but I still like the concept. He was once an Earth Pony– well, actually, he was once Doctor Whooves, but he both does and doesn't remember that. Cracking the secrets of time has made his thinking a little... nonlinear. Minkie is a mutated Bubbles/Derpy. There's way too much lore for this guy, lol.

This next batch are a collection of old Mane Six redesigns I did.

Some of my ideas for their designs have changed since these, but I'm still fairly proud of them 😁 

One of those base chart things. Drawn by me! Again, I've changed some of my ideas about how the Ponies look like exactly, but it's still cool.

An OC. Drawn by me, he's one of my favorites. Isn't he neat?

(Sorry for the blurriness, this and some of the others were rescued from a broken phone via messenger, so the quality is a bit degraded...)