Melo’s Magic Ponies

OK so starting off with species differences:

I make it a point to make each species unique from one another with different tail + ear shape for each kind of pony

in order to explain away how do ponies in this iteration get conveniently matching body markings, I imagine that fillies are born without markings but slowly get them after receiving their cutie mark. the markings slowly leaves changes on the coat/mane as they grow into adulthood :D

also gave all species hoof markings, the shape of the hoof corresponds with the pony's cutie mark

for unicorns– they also have horn markings that correspond with their cutie mark. OH and, horn magic color corresponds with the color of the pony's eyes

for pegasi– the tips of their wings would match with the color of their manes

not mentioned in the images attached but the eye light shape also corresponds with the ponies' cutie mark >_< (fillies just have regular circles until after they get their cutie marks-)

misc feature: ponies may or may not have leg tuffs, like with some ponies you'll see below, some may have fuller leg tuffs that goes all the way around.

Alright now that you know more about the species design notes, I'll get into each ponies' design choices

Pinkie Pie

Starting off with Pinkie, I made her coat fluffy, matching her mane, her mane was shorten a bit and also gave her a white streak in her bangs + added a hair accessory + confetti in her hair from throwing parties (my headcanon is that she doesn't bother to pick them out so she just leaves em there)

she has pebble shaped markings on her face and coat running down her back. In her pink form, those markings are commonly mistaken as large freckles

her desaturated form takes inspo from how she looks as a filly, also her mane shape may or may not have been inspired by the shape of pinata paper strips.

Among all the ponies, Pinkie is also the shortest. I try my best to give each pony a different height, hope that was noticeable haha

Applejack

Next up, Applejack, now for her design (+ most of the mane 6's designs) there isn't too much change. For her, I gave her coat more texture akin to actual patterns from real horses. Similar to pinkie, Applejack's back has pebble-shaped spots (feel free to believe that I intentionally added it there to link AJ + Pinkie as distant relatives haha)

In comparison to pinkie though, I used a lot of sharp lines while drawing AJ, also made her look more muscular / "box" shaped compared to the other ponies. (which fits too as I imagine her farm work made her pretty fit)

As mentioned, AJ's hoof tuffs go all around

Twilight Sparkle

For twilight, I tweaked her colors to be more Purple and included a bit of orange to create a small contrast as I noticed her OG palette was a lot of Purple. (cool colors) + I wanted her palette to resemble more of a twilight color (?)

I also noted that some other people felt that Twilight doesn't match the archetype she was meant to represent so I gave her glasses in an attempt to make her appear more "studious"

Her unicorn form is also shorter compared to her alicorn form. (gave her slightly shorter horn + legs)

Rarity

Okay Rarity's has to be my favourite redesign HAHA. I also have a feeling a lot of you will point out she resembles the last unicorn a lot 🥲 to that, i'm deeply sorryy

Anyway, for Rarity I changed her palette a lot more compared to the others because I wanted her palette to match her name sake 'Rarity', so what better way to set her apart as being a pony with a different mane/tail color!! + heterochromia which means her horn magic is 2 different colors. (that's my headcanon of what might constitute as 'rare' in pony genetics. ALSO off topic but is it just me or has there never been a pony in the show that actually has heterochromia? 🤔 tbh I can't remember)

I also gave her some gem accessories that she wears as a necklace, oh and a matching earring as well

Fluttershy

ah yes, my other favourite design. For Fluttershy, I softened her colors and also added some green

also, among rainbow and twilight, Fluttershy's wings are purposely designed to be fluffier. I imagine as opposed to rainbow who actively trains her wings for athletic flying > sharpens them to become aerodynamic, when fluttershy flies, she takes her time, so they aren't as worn down as RD's.

I imagine Fluttershy uses floral-scented shampoo that she handmakes with flowers from her own garden which attracts the butterflies that rest in her mane

I also purposely designed fluttershy's ears to be down on default, playing into her 'shyness'

Rainbow Dash

last but not least, rainbow underwent a few changes. Firstly you'll notice I shortened her hair + added white streak bangs & side tendrils that cup her face. (now that I'm looking at it, her hair resembles the pony life RD 😭)

Additionally, RD's wings are sharper, more chipped due to active use.

also among the rest of the ponies, Rainbow is also on the shorter side but she's also more lean/fit. I took into consideration her being an athlete (and a flyer at that) would influence her body shape, I feel that in order for her to fly fast, her body shape suited her nicely.

I also gave RD some googles as accessories.

Anyway, congrats on making it to the end! here's a height lineup ref for the mane 6!!

OK! starting off with twilight's family, I tried to keep her parents' colors close with her own colors, I took both twilight's and shining's colors to match along with their mom and dad. I think Night Light is the most noticeably different of all the parents so far??

shining's colors are quite good but I guess I make it a point to give some siblings matching coat patterns to relate them to each other haha

also I had to add spike. He is apart of the family after all <3

For Rarity's family, I really took a lot of creative liberties haha

I kept Sweetie Belle's colors quite similar but yeah, tweaked it to match more in her sister's color scheme and gave her shared coat patterns with Rarity.

Rarity's parents also underwent some tweaks HAHA (i swear, every time I give the mlp character a unique coat pattern, they turn out looking so different but good??)

Fluttershy's family still looks relatively the same just with a few tweaks to the colors. (Fluttershy definitely gets her soft wings from her mom hehe)

I gave Zephyr a tattoo which I imagine he got in his youth while figuring himself out, thought it would complement his 'surfer?? chill bro' character

Also, fun detail: the tips of Fluttershy and Zephyr's wings compliment/relate back to each other which I think is really neat

Rainbow's family is quite self-explanatory, not a whole lot of difference HAHA

I think I let myself have a little bit of fun when redesigning the Apples. Idk why I thought it'd be interesting to add a bit of green to Pear Butter but ye??

I also kept Pear Butter as having a more petite frame as my personal handcanon is that while she did do farm work, she mostly did the less intensive work like watering the crops or something ahaha

neat detail: Applebloom inherited her eye color from granny smith, thought it'd be interesting to link them together

And last but not least, the Pie familyyy

As Pinkie and Marble are twins, I modelled Marble directly off Pinkie's desaturated form but gave her a longer mane. Other then that, I tried making them look as similar as possible

It's not very noticeable but I also gave Pinkie's dad a bit more pink in his colour scheme to show where she could've gotten her pink genes from. (I want to believe that in the past Igneous Rock had a pink mane before it turned grey from age)

also out of topic but I have this personal headcanon that the pie sisters are actually quadruplets with pinkie being the only one out of the 4 having her recessive pink gene, thought it would be fun to share.