Let's beat a dead horse.

[Cobalt Blue]

ok since you're being extremely asstight for no reason aparently, let me re-explain this in a more sugarcoated way so you wont get a hissy fit for no aparent reason.

http://neuropod.net/imagehost/uploads/af...610e25.jpg

This is how his annoying mark is supposed to look in the cartoon.

in the cartoon.

so yes, i watched the image you gave as a reference ans its pretty clear that this apple is basically the key element of the pony(given to it so it would be easily recognizable from the rest of the ponies)

so having that in mind, and asuming i've watched the show like any one else has done to be interested in using these sprites, i can safely say that if i see this

wich is nothing but a downscaled version of this

i can identify the character because you know, its the red pony with the green aple on its butt..

thats why if i become a fan of the character, i can go to a store and buy this

and even when there is no pony on it, the green symbol over the red background would instantly be recognizable to any other big mac fan. even if from across the street all i saw was a red tshirt with a green blob on it

now what does all this long ass explanation has to do with sprites? everything.

the reason why you can just simply put a green blob on its leg and the viever would still see an aple is because you are not only seeing that, but the sprite as a whole. and since you already know the character and you can identify that sprite to it.

its the same principle behind seeing this

and instantly knowing it represents this character


tl;dr: "when working on limited spaces readbility is king"