Recently I discovered that you can Ctrl+Click in Blender to extrude geometry to the clicked area. This makes tracing 2d images significantly faster compared to my previous method. It’s impressive that you can use a program for years and still miss an essential feature.
 
The background was also made in Blender and is based off of this image. Originally I was going to add a joke about jeggings and what was considered “evolution” but… eh. It was either draw and animate two background ponies, or make a static 3D background; I’m also lazy so… (Of course I didn’t anticipate the two hour render time.)
 
Whoops. The green(?) part of her cutie mark I intended to be orange.
 
Original Image