Lovely.

I do hope the handle to that case is mouth-friendly. Because between biting and moisture I don't think regular leather would last too long.

*sip*sip*

I frankly don't imagine leather is a thing ponies utilize much.

I tend to conceive of them using heavy canvas, wood, rubber, or even plastic in place of leather.

(Not trying to jerk your chain. I've mistakenly had ponies using vellum (i.e. sheepskin) in fanfics I've written.)

Just say that it's not actual vellum, it's Vellum™ brand paper, and it's become common to call paper vellum, like bandaids and kleenex.

meh. Parchment works just as good for that purpose.

(completely pointless, "somebody on the internet is wrong!" nitpick)

A quiki-wiki says parchment was any writing material made from limed animal skin in general and vellum was parchment made from calf-skin specifically.

(/nitpick)

I suppose I'm conflating parchment with papyrus or some form of linen based paper. Ah well.

Ooh! New headcanon time!

What if it's actually heavy natural fiber - like cotton blend - but it's MADE by sheep? High-quality, durable material for scrolls (with cheaper stuff being made from agricultural waste). Of course, it is jokingly referred to as 'sheepskin' by ponies, and may even have a bit of wool in it.

I do note that even the cheap scrolls in Equestria seem to have a small amount of magic on them: They stay open, but tap it once in the middle with a hoof, and it rolls right up!

I envision scrolls as being day-to-day use items, for stuff you want written and carried, with the bound books being the longer-lasting stuff. Books are probably also primarily a Unicorn thing, requiring a lot of work to bind them, which is why they're usually printed in Unicorn glyphs.

Sorry, more headcanon - I envision the ponies having three writing systems.
Unicorns use glyphs, as seen in the books of the first episode, or the printed notice for the talent show. This may be better for expressing nuances of magic, but also they have the ability to do complicated illuminated lettering.
Earth ponies use block printing - see the font used for the Foal Free Press. Similar to our lettering, it's functional and easy to write.
Pegasi use a sort of 'scribbly' cursive lettering, developed for long-range communications by the militaristic early pegasi - the single-line scribble depicts the flight path of a pegasus. It is fast and easy to write.
Obviously, there's a certain amount of overlap, and all three are taught in schools.

I imagine ancient Earth Pony text was written in a boustrophedon format: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boustrophedon

I like the idea that the sheep not only provide the wool but weave it as well. It's cute.

Well it is not official but for my headcanon the ponies do use leather products but they are not big treating and tanning of the hides. However if someone else is willing to do the first steps they are not too bothered about using the final material. While this might seem a bit hypocritical but it is rather similar traditional Japan with the Eta who would prepare leather for other craftsman to use. Once the hides were tanned it socially acceptable to work with the material. The sale of leather and hides is the one of major sources of trade between the ponies in and the griffins in my dreamscape.

What creatures do you imagine the hides come from?

There's kind of an implication that in the world of Equestria anything with hooves is somebody you can hold a conversation with, cows and sheep in particular.

Not tryin' to shoot holes or be a downer, as I said there's plenty of herbivore friendly alternatives out there.

D'aw!

Oh hey Baron posted something, let's see wh-HNNNNNNNNnnnnnnngggggg-

Ummm, do you need medical assistance?

Must be flying Lyra Airlines. They come up with weird ways to cram more seats on those planes...

Ponies seem to have a natural attraction to juice boxes.

It's usually kind of a nightmare to have kids on board when flying. I can hardly blame them, the tedium of flying can be too much even for most adults, and kids doesn't have the benefit of dulling it with alcohol....