Random with pony

One more full day, one more sleep. And then I'm on break.

I did get the introduction for the paper rewritten (and it is much better now) yesterday. I guess I still can't compose at the computer screen; I need to write stuff out longhand first. And I need to have all my notes, and stop periodically, and go through them to find the information I need to add in from the previously-published papers.

This morning I need to mow the lawn in preparation for being away for a while. I sprayed the poison ivy last night (I found an herbicide supposedly specially rated for it, so we'll see how effective it was). I wonder how long it takes after poison ivy dies for it to stop being poisonous? I'd like to cut the stuff out after it dies but if it's still active, no.

Anyway, the pony. I always said I didn't care a bit for Trixie, despite the fact that there seems to be a certain degree of Brony love for her. Part of that is, as I said, she reminds me of every Mean Girl I went to school with, everyone who trumpeted how Smart or how Athletic or how Fashionable they were (and because if someone isn't a good example, I tend to take them as a horrible warning, so I have a hard time speaking positively of my own accomplishments....actually not at all unlike Twilight in the first Trixie episode ever)

Anyway. Then one of the fan artists produces this comic and it changes things. (Dangit, now I feel SORRY for Trixie. Because I can totally headcanon how she was sort of ignored and neglected as a filly, and now feels the need to point her greatness out to others in the hopes of getting attention).

It's funny how easily things enter headcanon. (And I wonder what happens when something in  a future episode changes headcanon). We've seen Rarity's parents and Twilight's and Pinkie's family. We got a glimpse of Rainbow Dash's dad. But we don't know a whole lot about their families (to the point where there was some consternation, a couple of seasons ago, when Twilight was suddenly revealed to have a brother with whom she was allegedly close, but who had never been mentioned up to that moment).

There's some fanon about the Apple family: the general conclusion is the parents of AJ, Big Mac, and Apple Bloom are deceased, which is why they live with their Granny. (I suppose there are other, less-depressing options: they are traveling apple researchers who go around Equestria and are never home. Or they have their own farm elsewhere but knew Granny needed help to run the traditional family farm.) But anyway, the first explanation seems most plausible though I bet it will never be explicitly mentioned (too sad) in the show.

However, we've also never really seen family for the two Pegasus ponies. Rainbow Dash's father is briefly shown in a flashback (holding RD on top of his head). My headcanon - and I suspect a few fans share in this - is that she grew up in a family with a lot of older brothers who taught her how to fly and flying tricks and were kind of protective of her when she was little (and because of all the brothers, that's why she comes off as a tomboy).

Even though I once said I suspected Cloudsdale of being like Sparta, where young Pegasus were taken from their families and trained up in the art of weather-manipulation (and apparently, in the Pony Past, the art of war), I have to admit I like better the idea of RD coming from a large and loving and slightly rough-and-tumble family. (I knew kids growing up who had lots of siblings - I only had one - and I admit at times I envied the kids with older siblings, partly because sometimes a big brother would look out for you a little, and you could learn the social ropes from a big sister. Hm. I wonder if there are higher rates of social awkwardness among oldest children; I know I always felt like I was having to learn all the social "rules" on the fly - I was an oldest child)

Fluttershy, my personal headcanon is that she grew up being raised by an older (unmarried) female relative. Either a widowed grandmother or perhaps an older maiden aunt. And this pony, although a Pegasus, didn't fly much any more, so Fluttershy didn't get quite the same flight training when young, and therefore turned out to be a weak flyer. (Fluttershy wouldn't have to be an orphan. In fact, I like the idea of her parents being a team of Magical Creature Researchers, off looking at Breezies and three-headed dogs and whatever other mystical beings inhabit the outer reaches of Equestria, but they knew there was no way they could bring a child along).

Alternate headcanon: Fluttershy's parents are present and she grows up in their household but they are both extreme introverts and weak flyers and do something like teach Ancient History or Dead Pony Languages at the Pony University....and so she grows up kind of quiet and sheltered.

But yeah. The idea of Trixie being overlooked by her (too busy? Too important?) parents as a child changes how I feel about her a little bit.

Edited to add: depending on what yarn I obtain (I'm planning on a Michael's run when I get up to Illinois), I may consider doing the unicorn as a chibi Trixie. She would be different from the other ponies I've made, but, eh, Big Mac is a lot different from the other ponies I've made.