This is a very serious matter.

Way back when, ponies used to keep their elbows close to their torsos because that's where their elbows are anatomically located. Flash symbols were drawn with a little bit extra lines to prevent the legs from blending in with the torso. These lines soon turned into upper arms, changing the ponies' front legs into human arms.

Each style has its own use case. When the ponies are emoting like ponies, they should have pony anatomy and their elbows should be attached to their torsos. When the ponies are emoting like humans, they can have either pony anatomy or human anatomy. Trouble starts when the ponies are standing around like ponies and emoting like ponies, but they're given human anatomy. This leads to a dangling elbow or Z-shaped legs.

Dangling elbows are especially prominent in fan art and there are even tutorials that teach this wrong anatomy. Thankfully there are tutorials that teach correct anatomy too.

Won't somebody think of the elbows!