Back when Sundown actually drew different body types.

@Talipedsnake780
Not really. It’s just the MANE 7 (minus Twilight) action posing and looking cool.

ok, outing my stupidity here.

I don’t get it, is it a reference?

@CronoM  
Kay, so…I talked to an editor of mine and he came up with a reason.
 
Balance.  
AJ’s got the physicality part down, no question about that. You do farm work for a living, you’re bound to get strong.
 
The guns are to increase her versatility and balance her out for general combat.

@CronoM  
Okay.

@PonyPon  
Well, yeah, but those are basically the correlations I offered with the ‘southern farmer’ thing at the very beginning. (@CronoM). Those you mentioned would be the themes I would go with if I wanted to make AJ a gunner in an AU fanfic. But it doesn’t matter if you or I can outline a correlation for the fanfic, its @KillerKid86 ‘s fanfic and he or she has to write it and explain it.
 
@KillerKid86  
Just trying to be helpful. If you can’t understand why people portray AJ, an extremely physical pony in the show, as a physical fighter in many fics, and if you can’t explain the correlations of your character’s weapons beyond personal preference, you’re going to have a very rough time writing an AU fanfic people will understand.

@CronoM  
It’s an AU, she’s a long range fighter.
 
I don’t know how to answer this aside from the one I gave already. So, If this isn’t a good enough answer, then…
 
[Shrug]
 
I tried.

@CronoM  
Convenient for large home security and because Aj looks like the country girl that would be no stranger to such measures?
 
Or, if you prefer, cowboys.

@KillerKid86  
Huh? That’s, again, not even the question I asked.
 
Let’s try this again. What’s the rationale(ability-wise, thematically-wise, anything) of Applejack wielding guns that wouldn’t make it seem completely ill fitting. I could make a fanfic where Rainbow Dash has psychic mind powers, but it wouldn’t match her at all, so it wouldn’t make a very good fanfic ability.
 
I want to hear you rationalize the character, AJ, wielding guns. If you can’t rationalize it yourself, the readers of your fic won’t be able to either.

@CronoM  
Because I want her to?

@KillerKid86  
I think you missed the point of my question.
 
Why wold AJ wield guns in a AU?

@CronoM  
Well, it’s not really a thing, just a nickname for AJ whenever she has guns.
 
I also call it Marksmen Jack.

@KillerKid86  
I can see her being a projectile user; heck she’s just as proficient in using large or random objects into hitting her opponents as Arsenal from DC or Captain America. Due to that combination of ingenuity and physical strength, plus blond hair, many AvengerxMlp pics have her as Captain America.
 
But Gunner AJ? Gonna have to explain that one to me. The only way I can imagine it is if its a southern farmer thing or a TF2 engineer type thing.

@Dirty Bit  
I may check it out later. Working on my own thing at the moment.

@Joseph Raszagal  
Ehhh. I guess…
 
I still prefer Gunner AJ.
 
Still, the plant armor thing gives me an idea for a different character for my fic.

@KillerKid86  
Well, she’s physically strong and literally spends all day kicking trees. You figure it out.

Never got why so many folks has AJ has a hand to hand fighter. I always see her as a marksman with slightly above average hand to hand skill.
 
This confusese me so much….

@ShimmeringStallion
 
Skimmed it, myself.

So, yeah, just for those who’re a fan of sunny’s work and cool with NSFW-material, this image was used as cover-art for a story set in his universe.
 
The story can be found below.
 
||Content NSFW ||

@Background Pony #4B8D  
lol shew never was his favorite. You just mad he doesnt draw her

@Background Pony #4B8D  
Why not?
 
If they’re free to have that opinion, they’re just as free to draw what they want.

@Background Pony #37C1  
I agree. But in his world, Twilight doesn’t exist. BULL. SHIT. Twilight HAS to have a reason WHY she exist in OTHER WORLDS. Without Twilight, its just… a dull life without her. Like… if you looked at ccutie re-map without the mane 6, think about using that concept without Twilight. THAT would be hell for all of Equestria.
 
But in his opinion, she was he’s favorite only during season 1-2. Third season and she became less and less interested for him to draw. I unfollowed him from Tumblr and hid his artwork on here because of his reason to exclude her from his world. I only followed Sundown for a while and I stopped because he draws more of the other mane 6, Sunset, the three princesses and so on and so forth. Even if he were to draw her again, it’ll only be on comissions. But it’s still not the same for Twilight Sparkle. Other than Sundown, there are others in this fandom who think Twilight is not that interested to them. And I understand their opinion, but you can’t just stop liking a character and refuse draw them again.

@DAPLR  

 
A scar from a stitched-up cut.

What is that mark on the top left of Pinkie’s forehead? A line with dots on both sides…

This is nothing but pure awesomeness.