This is often sufficient, but if is not you may be missing one of the standard packages: [bash](ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bash/), [coreutils](ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/) or [sed](ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/sed/).
If either `make` or `make install` fails you be missing one of the standard packages: [gcc](ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/), [gzip](ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gzip/), [make](ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/) or [coreutils](ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/coreutils/).
This requires that you have the `fortune` utility installed. You can install it from your repositories (may be namned `fortune-mod`) or just fetch the source code from [here](ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/games/amusements/fortune/).
You can try [this](http://www.reddit.com/r/mylittlelinux/comments/srixi/using_ponysay_with_a_ponified_fortune_warning/) script or [ponypipe](https://github.com/maandree/ponypipe) to ponify fortunes.
__A:__ The pony files are actually mostly a bunch of selected [browser ponies](http://web.student.tuwien.ac.at/~e0427417/browser-ponies/ponies.html) that are generated into cow files via [img2xterm](https://github.com/rossy2401/img2xterm) or [util-say](https://github.com/maandree/util-say).