--Thunder Bolt--

Anime Anakin can't emote either.

Once, an Alien and an ODST trooper had a love child...

"Holding the ears down like this is how a unicorn flips you off."

I think the odds are fairly good that it's coincidence.  Keep in mind that FiM has a fairly small stable of voice actors.  They overlap in the Mane 6 (one VA doing more than one character), so it's not much of a surprise that a one-off character (Flash Sentry) might be the same voice as a rarely-recurring one (Prince Blueblood).  Especially since most (all?) of their VA's are women, and not all of them are necessarily going to be good at doing male voices.  So, the available "pool" to select VA's for male characters from on FiM is very small, so the likelyhood of any given pair of male characters being voiced by the same person is fairly high.

See this face?  Do I look impressed?

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Mare

"You say you like fast girls?  Catch me if you can!"

@@Concord,

I would say go for it, follow your creative inspiration.  I don't understand why anyone would hate an alicorn ponysona.  It seems to me that a ponysona is wish-fulfillment, by definition.  "I wish I was a pony [or dragon, griffin, etc.] in Equestria, and this is what s/he looks like."  AFAICT the only reason I can see for complaint is if someone thinks, 'I love gardening and hiking in the forest, so behold, my beautiful Earth Ponysona, Faerie Leaf!¹  Oh, what's this?  An Alicorn ponysona?  What, does somebody think they're better than me?!'  I would say, no, their Equestrian wish-fulfillment just comes in a different shape.  Why compare? 

I've seen a lot of anime-girl avatars here and have yet to encounter anyone saying, "AY!  NO HUMANS IN EQUESTRIA!  FAUST HATH SPOKEN!"  So why not an AlicAvatar?  At least, it wouldn't bother me--but then, maybe I am not yet enough of a brony to understand the true meaning of a ponysona to the community.  Disclosure: I don't have one myself, yet.  You can also cheat: if your avatar is a close-up of the head, "What a lovely unicorn!"  Flying, but with the forelock/mane just happening to flow in such a way as to conceal the horn: "Nice pegasus!"  This gets a bit harder if your Alicorn has the Astral Mane and Tail² and the long, pointed horn like Celestia and Luna.  Even so, a close-up of the face that doesn't show the whole horn or enough of the mane to reveal its Astral nature would probably let you "be" your Alicorn ponysona without getting other Members' knickers in a knot.

RP's and Fanfics:

This is a bigger problem because your Alicorn ponysona/character is in direct interaction with other, ordinary ponies.  If s/he is a full-on divine Alicorn like Celestia and Luna, then s/he will very likely be OP for the game, hence the "No Alicorns" rule in most RP's.  Possible solution: start an RP about Alicorns, with challenges set to their power level.  Remember Eleazar's First Rule of Fanfiction:
 

Rule One: If you do anything to increase the protagonist's power, or make their life easier, you must also amplify their opponent or add extra difficulties to their life. You can't make Frodo a Jedi unless you give Sauron the Death Star. Otherwise, even if it is well-written in all other ways, your story will suck because the reader will know to expect an unending string of easy victories, leading them to neither wonder or care about what happens next. The Mary Sue is not defined by her power being too strong, but by her challenges being too easily overcome.

 

--Source

I have to admit, this thread has me thinking, 'Hmmm, interesting challenge.  How could I go about making a compelling Alicorn OC?'  I already have a few ideas...

NOTES:

1. Any resemblance to any actual OC or ponysona named "Faerie Leaf" is unintentional and entirely coincidental.  I just pulled the name from my posterior without any thoughts about or intent to reference, any actual OC or ponysona or Forum member. 

2. I don't know if there's a proper term for the kind of mane/tail that Luna and Celestia have, that other Alicorns like Twilight and Cadence don't.

"The Tapeworm!  It's crawling into my ear!!!"

"Have you ever seen one of those Tasmanian wolves?  They can open their mouths thiiiiis wide!"

"Your Honor, in the case of California v. Jacobson, the Ninth Circuit Court held that, while the defense counsel's possession of a pony does not render the prosecution's argument invalid per se, it does provide a prima facie case for the defendant's innocence, which the prosecution must effectively rebut before they can proceed to meet their burden of proof."

[scientist voice]

Unlike those of terrestrial equines, the hooves of most members of the three Equus equstrialis sapiens subspecies are fully covered by dermis and coat, producing what some refer to as the 'marshmallow' appearance of their appendages.  The fine hairs of their hoof-coat are able to generate powerful Van der Waals forces, in similar fashion to the fibers of a gecko's feet.  Through means we do not yet fully understand, the 'ponies' of Equestria are able to achieve remarkable levels of fine motor control by selectively amplifying and dampening these forces in differential patterns across the surface of the hoof.

[/scientist voice]

Or...

You've hit my problem XD. I'm writing a Highlander crossover and I've been trying to work out how non-unicorns would duel with blades.

"In the end, there can be only one!"

"Indeed.  Draw your sword!"

*Both attempt to draw, fumble, drop their blades*

"...You know what?  Screw it.  I mean, as long as we don't go around trying to chop each other's heads off, we can all just go on being immortal, accumulating vast fortunes and all the rest, right?  Life is good."

...

...

...

"You've got a point there.  Love and tolerate!"

"Love and tolerate.  See you around."  /)*(\

Heh.  That's one way to get people to draw an OC for you.  Clever.    Still, I could use the pony-drawing practice.  I still haven't gotten around to making pics of my own OC's yet, lol.

Sunyatay felt relief wash over her when Starshine replied.  He wasn't being mean after all!  Taking strength from his kind replies, she was able to steel herself to restore her prior level of translucency.  "You're still welcome to stay in my place," she said, "or we can go see Atlas' garden if you prefer," she said.

"I'm from Quebec. But either way, my name wont be said anywhere...I'm a bookstore owner who plays music. Not...a great discoverer."

"Oh, sorry!" Katarzhyna said, blushing a little.  "But you are a great discoverer now.  What you are seeing, no humans but us have ever seen.  When you get home, you will have great stories to tell."  Speaking of which, Katarzhyna thought, slipping the Shard into a jacket pocket and reaching for her mobile.  The screen was cracked, but thankfully the device had survived the crash.  While the others talked about Tartarus, she activated its video camera and started panning around the scene.  As she reached Aramok, she zoomed in to fill the screen with his bulk and hesitated long enough to catch his breathing and movement before continuing to pan.  Noticing oddly angular shapes in the clouds hovering over a mountain, she aimed and zoomed to full magnification.  The image on her screen was blurry and shaky, but with her eyes, it almost looked...like a Hellenistic city.  Olympus?  she thought.  She zoomed back out and continued to pan until she spotted what looked like a walled settlement.  She zoomed in again to capture it, then switched to still photos for higher resolution.  One of the walled city, one of the cloud city and, pulse pounding, a quick shot of Amarok.  Then she shut off her phone and stowed it carefully.  I will have to use its battery life carefully.  Maybe I can find more cameras.  Does anyone use Polaroids anymore?  Or a film camera without delicate electronics.  A writing tablet and pen would also be good. And maybe a bag to keep a few samples of rocks and plants. 

Ellie Arroway, the protagonist of Contact had taken the most incredible journey in the history of humankind: interstellar travel to encounter alien life...and returned with absolutely nothing to show for it.  As a result, she'd ended up with what amounted to the most expensive dream about a deceased relative, ever.  Her whole life's work of seeking contact with extraterrestrial life ripped from her grasp, she was publicly accused of lying about the whole thing and reduced to pleading with others to accept her story on faith.  Katarzhyna would not share that fate, if she had anything to say about it!

@@Starshine,

"Titans...like Medusa?"  Katarzhyna had seen the original version of Clash of the Titans on TV once.  Its stop-motion animation of the mythical creatures was a bit cheesy compared to modern CGI, but was probably considered fantastic when the film was made.  "Prometheus, was he also a Titan?" she asked.  Zeus was not always such a great guy.  Perhaps we do not want to be on his side... she thought, but kept it to herself.  Best to confirm that they were really living in the world of Greek mythology before spreading possible cause for worry.

"Can we walk and talk? I don't like standing around places with burning bodies and disappearing netherworld portals."

"I don't either.  But we need to find as much for survival as we can before we go.  We do not know what we will encounter.  Weather could change, or we could be teleported to other places.  We must try to prepare for everything," she said as she started searching luggage for anything she could find.  A disturbing thought occurred to her, and she pulled out the Shard.

@@Shanashie,

"Tiffany...can you hear me?  Do you know about microbes on this world?  Do you know if anything here could infect us, or if our germs could harm native life?"  In theory, the life here should have had a completely different evolutionary history than life on Earth. Pathogens adapted to the life forms of one biosphere should (probably) not be able to infect life from the other, for the same reason that humans don't catch Dutch Elm disease, and trees don't catch colds.  On the other hand, if this was where Greek mythology came from, this world and Earth might have more in common than just stories and place-names.

"The avatar above me has a psycho Pinkie Pie stalking him...what if there's also a Crazy Twilight?" *looks around nervously*

"The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades"

"The Lady of the Lake, clad in purest shimmering samite, held forth the sword Excalibur, signifying by Divine Right that I, Arthur, am your king!"

"Strange women, lyin' in ponds, distribu'in swords is no basis for a system of government!  You need a mandate from the masses, not some farcical aquatic ceremony!  Why if I went around, sayin' I was an Emperor, 'cause some moistened tart threw a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!"

"Do you ever hear that little voice in your head that says to kill your friends, before they kill you?"

"Why would I be making an argument about Chew-bacca?  It doesn't make any sense!  An' if it doesn't make any sense, you have to acquit!  Look at the little pony!"

I like materialism. I like having my own stuff like electronic entertainment. I like being able to go out and purchase whatever i want.

 

But I refuse to live in a world without cars.

Sorry I took so long to respond to this.  If you read the posts about "materialism," he isn't talking about everyone becoming monks or not being able to have nice things.  To the contrary, the author argues that in a post-Heroic Materialist culture we'll actually be able to have nicer things (he emphasizes clothes, food, and architecture).  The term "Heroic Materialism" is the name given for the current era by Kenneth Clarke in his multi-episode documentary, Civilization.  The aspects of it the articles I linked to talk about mostly are the giant freeway overpass/clover-leaf constructs, Brutalist apartment blocks, and other Big!Big!Big! elements of the stark, utilitarian modern built environment.  He summarizes the contrast this way:

It's not about machines and concrete-pouring and technology. It is about fun and creativity, and people being together and having a good time.

Anyway, if you love automobiles and suburbia and Heroic Materialism in general, I'm going to guess that you're not one of the bronies who would jump at the chance to go off and be a pony in Equestria, and who lament the shape of the world we currently live in.

You see, due to the fact that Equestria has magic and ponies instead of electronics and people, we can't really be the same or make a utopia like Equestria.

I'm not talking about making a "utopia" exactly like Equestria.  I'm talking about seeing if we can select out the things that (for those bronies who think so) make Equestria such a better place than our world that they "don't want to live on this planet anymore," and create real-world, human versions of them.

For starters, their magic makes it easier for them to do things, to communicate, etc. Their magic has no pollution either, or a fuel source other than food. They have no need for massive oil refineries or nuclear plants for their magic, but they can still communicate almost instantaneously with it.

On the other hand, they're limited to hand-written text, and we've only seen one pony who has access to a baby dragon to belch out incoming texts.  Our communications technology is far more ubiquitous and versatile.  Most of the time, unicorn magic is used to do things we can do with our hands, like manipulate objects and carry things.  Magic runs on food.  "Food" gets its energy from growing plants, which get their energy from the Sun.  In short: Equestria runs on solar power.  Can we do the same?  I think so, but we would have to have built environments more like those of Equestria.

 Also, ponies have much higher stamina than humans, thus disabling their need for cars. They can run pretty fast, and for a decent time too. A human would simply keel over and die.

The reason ponies don't need cars isn't because they have superhuman speed and stamina.  It's because they build their cities and towns around ponies, rather than cars.  Humans have built cities and towns people can live in without cars for more than ten thousand years.  It isn't rocket science.  The formula is simple:

1) Typical [street] width of about 10-30 feet building to building

2) Buildings side by side (little to no side setback) with no setback or greenery in front

3) No central automobile roadway and sidewalks. The street is flat from one side to the other, although a sort of shoulder is often delineated by a paint stripe.

4) No street parking. You can stop a vehicle for deliveries and dropoffs.

 

You can drive on these streets. There's no rule that says you can't. However, there isn't much auto traffic because driving is very slow, and people are walking in the middle of the street. Automobiles generally stay where they have dedicated automobile roadways, what I call "arterial streets."

 

--Source

It is possible to create built environments for humans and still have cars.  But, as we pass the peak of conventional (read, "cheap, high energy return on energy investment") oil, and governments continue to lack the funds to maintain all of that vast, incredibly-expensive automobile-oriented infrastructure, it would be a good thing if we could start creating built environments where you don't need a car to get where you want to go.  And lets face it: our automobile-centric built environments are Butt. Ugly in comparison to places designed for people to inhabit, instead of speed past in a car.

Cars create the need for cars.  Any "decent" automobile roadway has to be wide, at least wide enough for two trucks to pass in opposite directions.  But you need somewhere to park a car when you get where you're going.  So now the street has to be wider, to accommodate another row of parked automobiles on each side, and/or the places people actually go to need to have parking lots.  Now that the streets are full of fast-moving heavy machinery, pedestrians (also known as "people") need someplace else to walk: sidewalks.  All of this extra street width, parking area, and sidewalk area is "Non-Place"--that is, not somewhere anyone ever goes, but space you have to cross to get where you're actually going.  A Place is a destination, like a home, shop, park, restaurant, etc..  "Non-Place" is all that other stuff. 

So now getting around on foot or bike is more difficult because the distances from where you're at to where you want to be are all longer.  More people get into cars, which means more congested streets and more difficult parking.  So now you need bigger parking lots and more lanes of roadway.  No one wants a storefront or living room set right up to a roadway full of roaring machines, so now you need to start creating buffers of greenery (shrubs, lawns, and trees), usually called "green space" between Places and the automobile roadways.  This "green space" isn't an actual Place, like a park where people go; it's just there to make the auto-scape more tolerable.  Start adding in islands and turn lanes and overpasses and clover-leafs to manage all the traffic flow, and now you've got a built environment that is inimical to anything but cars.

However, without electricity, humans wouldn't be stuck inside all day, we'd have reason to go outside and play, and move. We'd be stronger, and have somewhat higher stamina and strength.

I don't see a reason for us to be "without electricity."  We can generate electricity from renewable sources, and we already have the technology to produce a comfortable existence while using a lot less of it than we currently do.  The average New Yorker uses a third less energy per capita than the average American, and that's without even trying for energy efficiency.  Nonetheless, if we had built environments that were welcoming to people not wrapped in 4,000 pounds of powered combat armor on wheels, we would "go outside and play" more, and be healthier.  Like they do in Europe and Japan.

A horse drawn carriage or even bicycles wouldn't be bad things to convert to.

I'm against horse-drawn carriages as utilitarian transport.  It takes a lot of time to harness horses.  You have to have a place to keep them when they're not pulling the carriage, and they have to eat every day whether you use them or not.  In addition, when you have lots of horses in a city, they create a massive manure problem.  When automobiles were invented, they represented a major reduction in urban pollution compared to mass horse-powered transport.  Nowadays, we have a wide range of other options, like subways, trolleys, cable cars, monorails, trains, and aerial ropeways (like a ski lift tram) for longer-distance travel.  All of these can be operated on electricity, from solar, wind, or other renewable sources.  Our electronic technology (email, video-conferencing, etc.) can also be used to reduce the need for transport (e.g. business travel) so that we can accomplish our goals with less energy.

Perhaps we could even come up with better man-powered vehicles if we weren't so focused on making cars less bad for the environment.

We already have them: velomobiles.  They can be equipped with a battery to provide electrical boost for climbing hills, and they can be as much as 80 times more efficient than electric cars.  Those are the hardcore sports versions.  At the other end of the spectrum, you can also DIY-build a range of human and electric-powered personal vehicles, cargo-haulers, and now a basic utility velomobile from salvaged and/or off-the-shelf parts.

Without electricity, we'd have no way of communication with others at the speed we do now, which may not be a bad thing. We'd be outside more, interacting with others. We'd read more, play more, socialize more. Community strength would grow, perhaps to the level of ponyville, where everypony knows everypony else. We'd have less reach but stronger bonds, and without instant messaging to hold us back we could go outside to talk to friends, speak face to face. This would build confidence, which appears to have gone from an all around average level, to extremes on both ends, with most people either being extremely confident or extremely inconfident. Perhaps then, with all this, we wouldn't have to conform to society's standards since we'd, for the most part, be our own society inside of a larger one. The basic principles of the larger still apply but with our own rules, instead of letting the rest of the world dictate us.

I don't think we need to go without electricity to accomplish these goals, or at least get a lot more of them.  What if we built our cities and towns to look like this:

Or this:

Do you think people might want to "get out and play" more?

And so, Squidward-shaped night vision goggles joined the Edsel and Chia Heads on the list of famous marketing disasters.

FlutterSmeagol? 

Atlas shook his head. "N-No, s-some p-plants d-dangerous. P-Poisonous e-even. A-And n-not s-sure i-if s-sleeping u-under m-me i-is b-best i-idea..." There was a moment of silence, before... "S-So...g-garden? O-Or S-Sultana's h-house?" he asked, still not able to pronounce Sunyatay's name correctly.

Is he making fun of me? Sunyatay thought, feeling a twinge of worry.  But he gave me the flower...and he has a hard time talking.  And my name is pretty weird...for Equestrian ponies...  Nopony would have difficulty pronouncing it in Coltcutta, where most names were almost aggressively rich in syllables.  She struggled to fight off memories of mean foals in her Manehattan school making fun of her name by deliberately mispronouncing it, or making up little chants...

Sunyatay, Sunyatay,

Why won't you just go away?

"An inn?" Starshine chirped, a bit confused. "You would need a much bigger house for that. And a lot of bits just to keep it going, not to mention this part wasn't exactly a traveler's best choice if they want to go somewhere. Why do you want to meet with ponies, anyway?"

"I didn't mean...that...fancy" Sunyatay said, her voice fading away as she vanished.  The flower wobbled as her telekinesis weakened, but she seized it, almost like a lifeline, to keep it from falling.  She felt a powerful urge to just run away, never let them see her again.  Get away now, before the meanness and laughter started.  No!  They might be the closest thing to friends I'll ever have.  Atlas...might understand, and Starshine...hasn't really been mean yet, just...critical.  She couldn't tell him why she wanted to meet ponies, obviously.  How would it not sound utterly pathetic?  No.  He thinks I mean a big place with a staff, lots of rooms, and a restaurant.  I guess I did use the wrong word...  Summoning her courage, she tried to explain:  "I meant...just a bigger, stronger shelter...that I could tend to myself...and people like you could stay in and feel safe." her voice said faintly from the air.

Good points regarding Discord.  With that in mind, it's remarkable that the Elements of Harmony, artifacts wielded by ordinary well, OK, fairly extraordinary, but still--ponies--can affect him.

Returning to the original topic though, it's pretty obvious that Zod & Co. would squash Sunset Shimmer like a bug.