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@ Alex
That Dash face…

@ Roids

@Lunar Protege

Good work otherwise, but I think you made the hand a bit too gigantic.

I once again took the liberty of editing things:

You'll notice that a forearm is thinner at the wrist. Remember that in the future.

As for the palm of the hand, if you go back to the earliest version, you'll notice it is rather odd looking, far too round. Your new version didn't have that problem quite as prominently, though.

In the future, be prepared to scrutinize the hands and mercilessly start over when flaws are found. We humans are very intimately familiar with the shape and function of hands, so any errors stick out like a sore thumb, if you'll pardon the pun.

Fun fact, that's part of the reason many folks purposefully draw hands with a finger or two missing. Not only is it easier, since there's less to draw, but it also makes any errors harder to spot, since the average brain registers it as a hand-like appendage rather than an actual hand.

Down with Molestia was only conceived out of boredom from no pone for 9 months. This Button Mash boycott was only conceived because anyone with a brain just stopped giving a fuck about Down with Molestia after a few days. Instead let's just laugh, just laugh and don't look back.

LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH
I tried to find a picture of Molestia laughing to add a little insult to injury but no, only Celestia and Trollestia.

@Molestia laughing: She's always laughing.

This is now a Molestia thread page.

Well at least make this a scootaloo page. Sweetie Belle can have the next one.

I don't know which is funnier, the fact that the Button Mash video in question's like six months old and they're only just now getting butthurt about it, or the fact that the video they linked to is a repost and isn't even the original one.

@Brownmane

Ironically the way you've edited it makes me wonder why the middle finger isn't much longer, if at all than the others. And also why the pinkie is so long.

…But otherwise, it's an incredibly useful set of pointers.

Thank you. Hopefully I should be able to handle it from here.

… Now excuse me, I have visitors… Again.

• My life.

(For everyone else, here's a generic image of Pinkie Pie with fingers because I mentioned "Pinkie Fingers".)

After clicking on both the spoiler tags SCOOTALOO THREAD YOU SAY?!

Hot Diggedy Daffodil let's begin!

Nope. This is clearly a Babs thread.

NO. It's Scootaloo thread, it's a special occasion. You can have your Babs Seed thread if she returns.

To be fair, the idea of a cute little kid raping his mother is, you know, kind of terrible. I'm not saying that a bunch of adults shouldn't be allowed to enjoy what they find amusing, but I think it's understandable that people should have a kneejerk reaction against this kind of thing.

I think everyone is well within their rights to enjoy the fucked up Buttonmash stuff, but maybe we ought to consider whether this is the kind of thing we want the fandom becoming known for. Just something to think about.

@Fifths

I'm with you on this one.

We may be able to agree that the social justice warfare against some frivolous poor-taste joke and/or the Internets typical machinations is stupid and pointless. And also that the characters that are typically making this noise are less than respectable

However, at the same time I find that the people who create all the art and animations featuring actual rape are even less respectable and if the SJW's successfully run them all out of town, I wont think this fandom has lost anything of importance.

Molestia was a really dumb target to boycott. So are harmless jokes like rape faces and >ra3p. But that's not to distract from other cases in this fandom where pro-rape attitudes actually do get reflected.

One example once appeared on the image gallery. Someone posted an NSFW comic where a drunk humanized fluttershy walks into dark alley and some random dudes see her and think "hmm, drunk chick with visible panties…guess I'm obligated to rape this! WOOHOO" and the comic generally painted this as awesome

I'm all for making sweet love to Fluttershy, but I didn't find it funny, or sexy. It made me angry. And everyone who commented on it, calling it "hot" also made my blood boil. Art like that and those attitudes really are the reason why "rape culture" became a thing

The Buttonmash rape animation isn't quite that nasty. It's a joke after all. But a rather unfunny joke that panders to the immature crowd. I wish the creators would stick to Buttonmash doing cute things with Sweetie Belle. This fandom isn't winning any extra points having that crap in it any more than having the flag-waving killjoys

/thread

I win.

ARE YOU PEOPLE READY FOR THIS EPISODE?!

<div class=spoiler title="Slight Spoilers">

This would line up with those 'mysterious numbers' that Meghan posted a few days ago, too, so I think we can expect a song tomorrow!
First of the season!

I'M NOT SLEEPING TONIGHT!

(Best Luna comic cover ever!)

Now now guys, kiss and make up!

Or better yet, we have just one when you can have both?

Fifths said:

…but maybe we ought to consider whether this is the kind of thing we want the fandom becoming known for.

All fandoms have their dark side. I could point you to half a dozen Lion King fanfics that are horrifying--including one that has a female cub raped and then eaten, and one that has a giant snake have sex with lionesses before vore ensues. Not to mention the comic series where cub!Kiara's a serial killer obsessed with Kovu who keeps the body parts of her victims in a cave a la Cupcakes.

As for the fandom's PR, the dark side is just that: dark. The average person isn't just going to stumble upon the >rape. They have to be looking for it. I also find it silly that we need to be worried about our "image." I already don't give a shit about what people think with regards to me watching ponies, why would I care if they suddenly despise the fandom?

Deadparrot222 said:

God, they're gonna make Scootaloo crippled, aren't they? I can already see images like this flooding the Gallery

Not to mention Fimfiction becoming a wasteland with Scootabuse getting a canonical boost.

That second picture actually makes me want a MLP/CatDog crossover.

@Button Mash Thing:

Look, if you don't like it, ignore it. It's just some thing that was did by a guy as a joke. I personally find it bretty funny, but I don't think we need a whole shitstorm over this. I mean, it's S4, can't everyone just get along?

Anyway, grown up fillies:

@Crash, Because like Friendship is Witchcraft already said: Scootaloo's the orange one. Not Babs Seed.

@New episode. Cool, I just spent the last five minutes making this thing.

Yeah, I had my alarm set to 10 minutes before the episode would air. But as it went off it woke up that bitch my girlfriend and she turned it off. Dear single people, stay single. Relationships ruin poni time. Well, see you all in how many hours until these douchebags release the episode in HD before this thread turns into Scootaloo episode spoiler central.

@New Episode

So they kicked the can down the road a bit on officially declaring Scootaloo grounded, but the fact that they even directly acknowledged the possibility is a pretty big step, though they implied the flightless outcome pretty heavily.
All around, I think they handled a potentially touchy subject (one that I never expected them to even approach) pretty darn well!

Also,

Yay!

I saw this right before the episode started:
BIGGER

Now it's even sadder…

<div class=spoiler title="And as for next week…">

Oh… my… god…
They actually did it…
FlutterHulk lives!

She might not be homeless, but she lives in an orphanage!

The feels would be overwhelming if she was in an orphanage………

Well, couldn't let Pony withdrawal get to me so I watched the episode on Youtube….in low quality (it feels like my eyes are bleeding) and I have to say….the episode was pretty good. That fucking cocktease of an ending though!

Also, nice to see where Scootaloo lives….generic background house #42. Does this mean if they introduce Scoot's parents they would probably be Generic Background Ponies #12 and #82 respectively?

Scootaloo actually has a bretty nice house.

I mean, check out those columns.

Doesn't look like an orphanage to me!

That second picture actually makes me want a MLP/CatDog crossover.

There actually are a few on Derpibooru, though most under the tag are just more double-ended ponies like that.

Sneaky sneaky Meghan, she thought we wouldn't believe her lies….or truths….foreshadowing.

Eh, I think you're approaching the subject with some bad attitudes. I don't understand how it follows that because all fandoms have something of a dark side that we should therefore not even try to curb ours. Other fandoms doing fucked up shit doesn't justify our doing fucked up shit, nor is the fact that every fandom will, at least to some extent, have a darkside justification for doing nothing to try to minimize ours and make the fandom something less than something completely loathsome.

And as far as the whole "I don't give a shit what people think about me watching colorful horses, why should I give a shit about what people think about me watching colorful horses rape each other," I think that's a really bad way to look at it. The reason you shouldn't give a fuck about what people say about you liking colorful horses is because those people really don't have other reasons for disparaging you other than "PONEEZ R 4 LITTLE GIRLZ U FAG!!!"

Feminists and the like who deride Button Mash and Molestia are arguing that they are making the pony fandom less accessible to a female audience and encouraging a rape culture. Now I don't think either of those claims are necessarily the case, but they at the very least invite us as decent human beings to solemnly examine the issue to make sure we aren't perpetrating something harmful. I don't think you need to capitulate to these claims, but you should at least have the dignity to consider them.

@New episode

To speak nothing of the story, did anyone notice the music and animation for this episode was pretty freaking excellent? Really catchy song and stylish visuals.

Dat horse march.

@The horse song

This makes me wonder – what exactly is a "horse" in this context? I mean, is it a synonym for a pony, or are they being treated as a separate race entirely (like the donkeys)? I mean, if they are comparing themselves to horses like it's a big boast then they must be some different thing, and probably also very strong if the boast is going to mean anything. Are the delegates from Saddle Arabia horses?

This lyric is so confusing!

I love this episode. Scootaloo is best cutie mark crusader

I think the Saddle Arabians fit best into the "horse" category. In the real world, Arabian horses are pretty much what anyone thinks of when you ask about endurance in different breeds, and Arabs can be found in almost every major breed's bloodline.

Besides that, their height in the show (assuming the two shown aren't of a "royal" status similar to the Princesses) shows them to be taller, also indicating a different race. The major problem here is that I believe any size of Arabian horse is considered a horse – they don't have a specific size that puts them into the "pony" category.



If you want to push more into the subject, the windigos had much of the same horsey shape to their bodies, notably the elongated muzzled and broader breast also seen in the Saddle Arabians. It could be that when ponies refer to "horses" outside of their own standards, they're talking about very old breeds of horses, those that lead into the windigos and Saddle Arabians, but aren't as notable in the Equestria class of equine.

I've seen it meantioned before that the Princesses are large enough to be horses, not ponies, so maybe it's simply that Saddle Arabia is inhabited by horses, not ponies? especialyl when Saddle Arabian fahsions seem to include headgear looking a lot like a bridle w/o reins.

>inb4 parents are both earth ponies and Pegasus doesn't run deep in their blood, yet Rainbow Dash is like Scoots 3rd cousin or something.

Yet that would make for some pretty sweet dialogue:
Parents: "That's it Scootaloo, you're grounded!"
Scoots: "Why u do dis?"

Want to take a guess on what the other characters will get for superpowers?

Twilight – Telekinesis
Rainbow Dash – Super Speed (Both Land and Air)
Pinkie Pie – Invisibility
Applejack – Pyrokinesis
Rarity – Nothing

don't knock non-superpowered heroes. Batman has been described by Superman as the most dangerous member of the League. ( and with good reason- he was saying it to a group of Martians that had just overrun the Justice League. Batman beat them in about five minutes. To be honest thouhg, I would peg Twilight as the batman-type, not Rarity.

I like the idea of the various species of ponies being descended from an elder race of horses, the primordial blueprint for all of Equestria's equines. Would make the CMC's little song a cool bit of ancestor reverence. I also like the idea of the proud saddle-Arabians being able to trace their lineage more strongly to the elder race.

So…..

New Dashface. Will this be just a simple fad for a few days or will it still be used a week from now like the last Dashface from last week (Huh, two Dashfaces in two weeks. Who knew?)

Forget Dash, did you see the facial animation on Miss. Harshwhinney in that scene? It was pretty freaking awesome. I don't know what the animators have been smoking, but the quality seems to have really shot up this season.

@Dashface

I like this face best

Good new episode, but because I am quickly getting known as that one cynical dickwad who likes to criticize everything involving the show, I guess I'll list my pet peeves:

• The scene where Scootaloo is bullied for not being able to fly. Let me just say, as somebody who has been personally bullied like that, shit hits HARD. This kinda feeling always leads you to walk away, and start crying for about 5 minutes or so. And, once I saw this happen in the show, and I saw the look in Scootaloo's face, I was like "HOLY CRAP EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT YES YES", and then 5 seconds later she's like "LOL DUN CARE GONNA LEARN TO FLY FEGGETS". Let me just say that, when you are bullied about not being able to do things, you go through more of a stage of "Face it, they're right. I'm worthless" and not a stage of "LOL IS COOL GONNA FLY MANG". Maybe I get overly emotional and other people actually act more like Scoots here, but yeah.

• The ending where the game lady (I'll just call her Bobette) starts acting "unprofessional". It was coming from a mile away, it was incredibly cheesy, yeah. Also, I kinda hoped that would be a secondary moral about how you shouldn't let standards dictate who you are. But nope, just a device for a joke.

• Just a minor one; The main lyric in the song. "Hearts as strong as horses."
  But you don't refer to anything as "horses".
  I thought everything in this universe was "ponies".
  And technically, horses are the general group that counts ALL these ponies.
  So when they say that lyric, they could be implying they have hearts as strong as newborn foals, and it would technically make sense.

But, good episode. I enjoyed it.

Kewln00baloo said:

Yeah, I had my alarm set to 10 minutes before the episode would air. But as it went off it woke up that bitch my girlfriend and she turned it off. Dear single people, stay single. Relationships ruin poni time. Well, see you all in how many hours until these douchebags release the episode in HD before this thread turns into Scootaloo episode spoiler central.

>waking up at 10:20
>watching a livestream that crashes/lags
>sitting through commercials
>not waking up at three and watching HD Youtube rip immediately

One more reason staying awake till 7 AM is awesome.

Fifths said:

. I don’t understand how it follows that because all fandoms have something of a dark side that we should therefore not even try to curb ours.

And I will counter with "Why should we curb ours?" The only reasons that are given is "Improve our public image" and "Rape's bad." Everyone who isn't trolling or evil already agrees with the later. Real rape is a terrible thing Fictional rape of cartoon horses? Still not pretty, but is several orders of magnitude less bad. Fictional rape of cartoon horses that provides an interesting story or art? Definitely not.

I don’t give a shit what people think about me watching colorful horses, why should I give a shit about what people think about me watching colorful horses rape each other,

Nice strawman.

Feminists and the like who deride Button Mash and Molestia are arguing that they are making the pony fandom less accessible to a female audience and encouraging a rape culture.

I've never understood the concept of "rape culture." Rape has for millennia been considered a vile and evil thing in Western Society. Want to make your villain a real bad guy? Have them rape someone. Killing people is something everyone does in media, but only the bad guys rape. Convicted rapists hold stigmas that follow them (rightfully) for the rest of their lives and if they raped a kid/old lady? They won't have to worry about that stigma for long since prison will likely take care of them. The Rape of Nanking is held up in infamy for it's war crimes, but no one ever seems to mention the Manila massacre, Sook Ching massacre, or the Three Alls Policy.

…but they at the very least invite us as decent human beings to solemnly examine the issue to make sure we aren’t perpetrating something harmful. I don’t think you need to capitulate to these claims, but you should at least have the dignity to consider them.

The root of their argument is "don't do/allow this because some people are offended by it." In both of their cases (Molestia, Button Mash), they're arguing against things which are being used for comedy. Many forms of comedy are offensive in nature. Whether they play on stereotypes, or horrible events (What's the difference between a Jew and a pizza? A pizza doesn't scream when it's put in an oven). Humor is, by it's very nature, subjective. Some people may not enjoy the rape jokes, they may find them "immature," but others do, and that includes rape victims.

That's another part of it. Humor = tragedy + time. While it may not be true for everyone, some can find great relieve in making light of bad situations, including rape, that have befallen them and we, as humans, can find a little glimmer of hope and happiness in an otherwise horrible incident. As Bill Cosby said, "You can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find humor in anything, even poverty, you can survive it."

The third part is very simple. They want it to be addressed because some people get offended. There's a very old fanfiction phrase that can sum up my response: "don't like, don't read." If people get offended, then stop viewing the thing that's offending you. Tumblr feminists have this strange "baby complex" that everyone needs to be coddled and protected. "We have to save the rape victims from being traumatized by the evils of Molestia/Button Mash!" This, despite the fact that, when I checked the #dwm hashtag on Tumlbr (because when I need to get my masochistic urges a scratching I just go on Tumblr for a few minutes), self-professed rape victims were 5-2 against #dwm. That number includes Pinkie Pony.

This "baby complex" can be seen even more with the "think of the children!" fallacy. Personal responsibility is something that seems to continue to erode in modern society. It's not their job to stop themselves from looking at the >rape, it's our job. We need to censor ourselves and stifle creativity because they're too lazy to move their mouse three inches and click the back button. Because they have to spend hours upon hours railing over something that's completely meaningless and harmless and will be forgotten in a few years while idiots in Africa rape fifteen year old virgins because they think it'll cure their AIDS.

That's why I don't bother with their argument.

@Episode
Twas good. I'm really glad they didn't bother fully addressing the flight issue. I wasn't prepared for the glut of Scootabuse that would have followed had she been crippled. It also appears they're laying the foundation for some future episodes (fully addressing the flight issue [and possibly cutie mark] and the Equestria Games). I also liked that the song was a march. Not a genre that's used too often outside of High School and military settings. Now, hopefully the dubstep remixes won't say "screw that" and get rid if it in favor of that damn background beat that 70% of fandom songs use.

7.5/10.

…am I the only one who noticed Miss Harshwhinny went from "Games Inspector" to "Chairpony of the IOC"?

You know, for a filly that's considered the most annoying of the CMCs among certain groups of fans, Scootaloo really does have some of the best episodes under her belt. I love that they actually touched upon such a sensitive subject without going too far overboard, making it too heavy for the kids watching, but also making it so that they still understand the issue at hand. This show has always shined its brightest when it can be easily enjoyed by both the younger and older audience, and I feel this episode captured that perfectly. I also love that Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon have that moment of confusion and panic when they realize the blank flank jab isn't working anymore and had to go to more personal insults to make any sort of impact. It sort of further pushes my own observations that Diamond and Spoon are not only shallow but completely lack self confidence (I guess I would too if my special talent was coming from a rich family) while also highlighting how confident the CMCs are in themselves (and each other) even though they do not have their marks. By the way, the song in this episode was a pretty strong start to what I hope will be a continuing stream of strong songs in S4. The line "hearts as strong as horses" certainly is a confusing one, though. I guess going by the silhouette we see in the first chorus they mean large adult horses (like Big Mac and Snowflake).

Moving on, the return of big sister Rainbow Dash (in her adorable coach outfit, no less) was awesome and it was also cool seeing Mrs. Harshwhinny have so much character shine through as opposed to the slightly-kinda-stuck-up pony we saw in Games Ponies Play. I think the only thing I wish I saw in this episode was the performance that Diamond a Spoon put on. It seemed obvious by the need to bully that they were not all that confident in their own performance, and with those ridiculously frilly outfits it's easy to imagine they probably made a joke of themselves onstage. It would have also added a small level of suspense of who was gonna win the competition if we saw more than just the CMCs performance.

@ButtonMash/Molestia/"rape culture" in fandoms:
I'm not going to say much (ok, yes I am), but I mostly am going to side with xTSGx on this. There are a million things about this fandom that I don't like (as with any fandom), but if I acted like it was my responsibility to stop anything I didn't like happening within the fandom I would both be wasting my time and making enemies that I did not need to make. Of course, there will always be one or two things that I feel I should speak up about and I will. For instance, if I were to have seen the drunk Fluttershy image BSOD mentioned I would stand up and say how wrong I feel the idea of this being considered "hot" is. And of course everyone has their own opinion on what is and is not worth standing up for and they should speak up for what they believe in. Still, the rest of this fandom is in no way my responsibility. Should I feel guilty that I'm in the same group of people as the guy that made a video about Button raping his mother? I don't think so, because he is just a stranger to me. As much as we like to think we are in a family of like minded people, we aren't. We may all like the same show, but that does not mean the actions of others who like the same show should reflect on us, and I refuse to let the actions of those people reflect on me. If I take issue with any of these things, I do it as a human being, not as a fan concerned about the fandom's image.

@ButtonMash/Molestia/“rape culture” in fandoms:

We've had this exact same discussion previously when the DWM issue cropped up.

I think all agree that it's not important for us to feel like we have a responsibility or an obligation to keep this entire community clean of any kind of depiction, joke or otherwise, that could offend some individuals. Furthermore nobody should have to tell the creators of content what they can and cannot do with their characters and we certainly have no right to do so

Nobody here is being asked to rally alongside SJW to try and stop other people from making the content they enjoy, whether it's controversial or not. Nor is anyone saying that we should take down this or feel shame over that

But one new point has been brought to the table though: we don't need to defend the subject matter either.

I denounced the allegations against Molestia as I see the Molestia blog as a work of parody that is not really guilty of the claims against it. It was like saying that Team America was offensive to Americans

But this time I'm not going to defend the rape scene involving Buttonmash and his mom because…frankly IMO….it was kinda tasteless and unfunny and I don't think that literal depictions of rape like it are worth fighting to protect.

The first point that Fifths made, summed it all up:

the idea of a cute little kid raping his mother is, you know, kind of terrible

RD101 Wrote

The scene where Scootaloo is bullied for not being able to fly. Let me just say, as somebody who has been personally bullied like that, shit hits HARD. This kinda feeling always leads you to walk away, and start crying for about 5 minutes or so. And, once I saw this happen in the show, and I saw the look in Scootaloo’s face, I was like “HOLY CRAP EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT YES YES”, and then 5 seconds later she’s like “LOL DUN CARE GONNA LEARN TO FLY FEGGETS”. Let me just say that, when you are bullied about not being able to do things, you go through more of a stage of “Face it, they’re right. I’m worthless” and not a stage of “LOL IS COOL GONNA FLY MANG”. Maybe I get overly emotional and other people actually act more like Scoots here, but yeah.

While that fact works on an emotional level, the fact is that not everyone is going to let others see them act the way they feel like they want to act. And in fact, they may not want to see themselves act that way.

This kind of "False strength" made by trying to act differently than one feels so as to appear stronger is common enough that it has a few names… It's called a Facade. Also known as a Persona, both by psychoanalysts using one meaning, and by culture experts using a similar but slightly different meaning.

As such, realistically if the writers were to throw in an internal monologue, Scootaloo would indeed be thinking of doing that, but would be reassuring herself that she shouldn't act that way in front of her friends or her tormentors… or anyone really.

Its surprising how much one can get through when they use coping mechanisms like this.

HERE COMES STUNTHEAD, FLYING IN TO GIVE HIS THOUGHTS ON THE NEW EPISODE!

…Well, more like post a bunch of random images and point out stuff that I liked. Deal? Deal.

Great episode! I know I've said that about every episode this series – but this series has been perfect so far!

I loved the song in the episode, CMC do sound great together, this episode was really touching, and I'm surprised with how it ended, I just assumed that she'd learn that she doesn't need to fly to be a great pony and then against all odds she'll start flying, but I'm glad they didn't go down that road like most cartoons would, I think the whole episode's point would be lost if it did go down that route, and what it stands for is much stronger with her being different and still being awesome despite it.

@chowzburgerz
If the ponies had superpowers, well they already kind of do but I'd probably pitch it out like this:

Princess Twilight – Witchcraft (Magic and Sorcery), Ability Creation, Spell Creation, Twilight Embodiment.
Rainbow Dash – Super Speed, Weather Manipulation, Centrifugal Force Manipulation, Enhanced Athleticism.
Pinkie Pie – Enhanced Jump, Space and Time Manipulation (Constant breaking the fourth wall).
Applejack – Super Strength, Enhanced Athleticism, Truth Inducement (Lasso of Truth).
CMC – Ability to not gain their Cutie-Marks.
Fluttershy – Invisibility, Zoolingualism, Telepathy, Empathy, Healing, Animal Manipulation and/or Animal Morphing.
Rarity – Telekinesis, Empathy, Emotional Manipulation, Object Creation (Explains how she can spawn objects like sofas out of nowhere)
Shining Armor – Energy Shield Construction.
Princess Cadence – Witchcraft, Ability Creation, Spell Creation, Love Embodiment
Princess Celestia – Immortality, Witchcraft, Ability Creation, Spell Creation, Solar Embodiment.
Princess Luna – Immortality, Witchcraft, Dream Walker, Eternal Night Inducement, Night Embodiment.

(I've clearly put a lot of thought into this)

Really? I'd vouch for AJ being Batmare. I mean, think about it. Badass Normal, parents are dead… she's basically asking for it.

As for the others, I think Rarity would have the power of ice for some reason. Or maybe crystallization. Yeah.

yes, but Batrman is rich. AJ isn't.

Applejack is the element of Honesty, and she has a lasso… Cough Wonder Woman cough Though I'm happy with Batmare Applejack, Spike = Alfred, I'm sure Cathy Weseluck could do a killer Michael Caine impression.

As far as non-powered super heroes go, considering how Rarity is a creative person, and she spends majority of time building and designing costumes and outfits, maybe she might design one particular outfit out of iron, and use that outfit to fight crime as Iron mare!

You don't know that. For all you know, she could be a multimillionaire putting up a facade.

@Rarity as Iron Mare: Yes.

um, the Element of honesty putting up a facade of being poor, even to the extent of a family member suffering unnessecarily due to lack of funds? When they rely on the cider harvest to see them through the winter?

Oh, and also, I am related to a farmer not dissimilar to AJ- the margins are tight in arable farming, which is what AJ does. Indeed, for a small family farm, if you grow crops, you're doing well to break even. AJ primarily sells apples from her orcahrd, whihc helps, but I would still guess she doesn't make much more that $10,000 per year. ( that's not her salary, by the way, that is the profits from the entire business) Out of that she has to feed a family of four. I can only conclude thta prices for food are significantly cheaper in Equestria.

@Applejack's Paycheck and Batman

Don't forget her family happens to sell some one of a kind merchandise (Zap Apples) for a large profit to a wealthy business Pony, who is essentially their partner in some aspects of their business venture.

…Now… One can draw one of two conclusions when considering the paycheck in the light of possible Batman AJ.

1: Zap Apple Jam is expensive enough that the Apple Family is richer than they look, deciding to spend the money on more important things than family comfort, such as becoming Batman.

2: Mr Filthy Rich pays for all of Applejack's fancy Batman esque tech for her, as a kind of "Thank You that I am rich and for your continued service to give me my most profitable product."

So if AJ is Batman, Filthy Rich is Bruce Wane AND Alfred.