Fluttershy Stinks

[Jokuc 8,174]

Well besides the fact that she is a pony and therefore should smell somewhat like a horse to begin with, taking a bath does not always remove the smell properly. A reaction from any of her friends -- or for that sake, any other pony -- would signify that she does in fact have an animal smell to her. However, I doubt that any of the writers ever thought of the question before.. ..and because I go by what's said officially in the show, no I don't think she's smelling. At least not enough to make it catch someone's attention.

[YadaYadaFireBurn 7]

Since all of them are ponies, I'm sure they'd all smell bad. But I don't think if Fluttershy was a human she would, because my best friend is the vet's daughter and she works in the clinic with animals and has tons of pets, and she smells good, like all the time. She showers. Maybe that's why she doesn't smell like animals.

[Grumpy Enchantress 586]

It wasn't enough that she has no personality or character development, but now she smells to? Yup, worst pony.

[Spikey-Wikey 378]

....are....you.....kidding me ...? No really...

[ZooZLight 64]

Fluttershy? Nooo!! You know shower? Water?

[I used to be a stranger 7,993]

You do realize that the entire show is about barnyard animals and/or mythological animals right?

 

They're ponies.

They're little horses, which would poop and fart and not-use-pitstick just like cattle or pigs.

 

The only creatures I could think of in all of My Little Pony that wouldn't smell would be Rarity and other ponies prone to scents, and Discord when he was made of stone.

Edited May 4, 2014 by Blue

[ZooZLight 64]

You do realize that the entire show is about barnyard animals and/or mythological animals right?

 

They're ponies.

They're little horses, which would poop and fart and not-use-pitstick just like cattle or pigs.

They are talking ponys... They live in a house (or tree)

They can think like humans!

They not just normal ponys...

[I used to be a stranger 7,993]

They are talking ponys... They live in a house (or tree)

They can think like humans!

They not just normal ponys...

Yes but due to reasons which are entirely logical considering the Universe (one which exists for our entertainment to service small story arcs) hygiene is never brought up.

 

Chekhov's Gun is a type of logical razor for story creation: "If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there." -- Anton Chekhov (S. Shchukin, Memoirs. 1911.) If something is not relevant to the plot or does not enhance or benefit the description of the story's universe, then it should not be mentioned or addressed in the stories. The point of this is to prevent the audience from becoming bored with unnecessary details, or distracting them with information that does not bring attention to plot-important information. The biggest reason for such a logical razor is so that it remains entertainment, rather than documentary. It ignores aspects of life or realism which would detract from the aesthetic effects.

 

In the TV-show CSI, they may have investigative cases where a port-a-potty is relevant as a piece of evidence, but they won't show or explain characters needing to go to the washroom, apart from indicating the port-a-potty.

 

In My Little Pony, the logistics of characters hygiene on a regular basis (or on top of that, compared to our own [such as measuring a standard of smell]) has never been central to the story enough to be a major focus.

(This is the only instance I can recall off the top of my head. S1E11 Winter Wrap Up.)

 

On occasion, smell has been the indicator of a joke or background detail, but it really really isn't all that important to characterization as much as things which are far more appealing and far simpler to show, which is why we know those other more appealing, simpler characterizations for sure. (Like mannerisms, or eye color.) "Show, don't tell" is one of the most important rules of visual art, and smell is not something very simply shown (such as those egregious and unconventional stink-waves emanating from Twilight in the picture), so exposition on it is rare.

 

Therefore, any statements we'd wish to make on the nature of average smells vs. unusual smells in the show must be made by conjecture or inference, and those will have a fair weight of subjectivity in them. For that reason, it's ridiculous to say objectively that one character smells good and one does not, always, unless you have something really strong to work from by inference.

 

Inference: 'Rarity smells good' because she wears makeup and other cosmetics: presumably among them would be perfumes.

Inference: 'Applejack smells bad' because she has little regard for cosmetics, and spends much of her day at farm labour, and also works around and near farm animals.

Inference: 'Fluttershy smells bad' because she spends much of her time surrounded by semi-domesticated animals of various kinds.

 

and so on.

Edited May 4, 2014 by Blue

[Radiance64 7,053]

I take Fluttershy as the type of gal who likes to keep things tidy and clean, so despite all the animals she cares for, I think she would smell just fine.

[King Sejong 859]

   Hardly, I have worked with animals too, chiefly wolves or wolf hybrids, you would think they produce a typical dog must, however wolves produce little smell, after all they are predators, so they have very little smell to tipoff their pray, I also have worked on the farm, no rancher I know takes the scent of the livestock with them, anyway any good animal caretaker would have good hygiene, because you don't know what pathogens the animals could possibly carry.