Any bird who looks good in a sweater vest and can escape a quarray eel is an awesome enough pet for me. The little owl isn't named in the episode and I don't know of any fan name for him yet so I'm calling him Shorty. He's the cutest pet ever. ❤

The background is inspired by some of the backgrounds in recent episodes with distant snow-capped mountains and a greater variety of trees and landscape colors than they used in season one. The treehouse was added late in the process. I've had that idea before and since Equestrian architecture varies so wildly I think it fits into the landscape nicely. Anything with thatch, plaster, and exposed beams works nicely.

My avatar in the world of Equestria is pretty much toony me. I love ponies but I'm totally not a pony. I think I went overboard with the cuteness a bit.