"When I submitted the premise for the pilot, there was concern that facing a Manticore would be too scary for kids, so I designed him kind of dopey to help ease worry. Imagine my surprise when I got the note that he didn't look threatening enough! It's not often that you're happy to get a note, but I was. I like the final one better."
"To address worry that things would be too scary, I skewed the dragons kind of pretty at first. Might have been an interesting direction...."
"These were just random Fillydelphia residents. I wanted Ponyville to be Fillydelphia originally. Obviously that didn't pan out, but I was glad we got to use the name somewhere else."
"Her original name was indeed Appleseed. Ran into some copyright issues, and now she is Apple Bloom. In the original bible, she was solo in her quest for a Cutie Mark, and "seed" signified that she still needed to grow. CMC's Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were developed later."
Flutterstare.
Fluttershy looking at a birdy.
"I heard Snow White going "oh!" when I drew this one."
"You all have seen Pinkie as a Pegasus, now see Fluttershy when she was an Earth pony."
"I imagined she was telling RD how cockamamy her idea was..."
"This sketch was based off a fantastic sketch Paul Rudish did for me!"
"I have no idea how she uses that shovel..."
Applejack and the frog.
Up late studying.
"Note original cutie mark--- a variation of the 80's Moondancer, which I always liked as a kid."