Dehumanizing Ponies, Part Three - Races · 6:17pm Jan 22nd, 2014
So let's take a look at the various pony races, their magic, and what that means.
Earth ponies have an almost entirely intrinsic magic. Strength, endurance, durability. But there's also that green thumb - the way the apples fall so neatly into the basket when AJ bucks a tree? Earth pony magic at work. Not something they consciously steer, but a subtle, broad effect on the world around them. In fact, given how bad a shape the Apple farm is in during the True True Friend song, it's entirely possible Earth Ponies are little tiny Fisher Lordlings, where 'their' land reflects their health and emotions. That actually has interesting implications for settling and frontiership - where Earth Ponies settle, by definition the land becomes tamed.
Pegasi have fairly intrinsic magic as well. Flight, standing on clouds, weather manipulation. That probably comes with an ability to read local conditions in order to make the proper changes. They don't just push clouds around - they can aim lightning bolts, generate tornados, and disperse clouds. RD even demonstrated that they can at least temporarily make clouds solid enough for non-pegasi (or extend the pegasus-cloud interaction magic to them). However, their magic is far more directed.
Unicorns have entirely extrinsic magic. Levitation, manipulation, spells. Their capabilities are (apparently) far more hugely variant than either earth ponies or pegasi. As far as we know, only Celestia and Twilight can do teleports, for example. Each unicorn's spell selected is limited either by inclination or nature.
These massive differences make it unsurprising that, as seen in Hearthwarming, they ended up with a caste system. Not slavery; in order for slavery to work you need a high economic value in unskilled labor and sufficient density of population. The first is problematic - Earth Ponies are really really good at farming, but they aren't going to be much use as a house servant, for example. The second is probably hopeless, given the discussion from last time on the general size of pony populations.
Now the weird thing is that a caste system for ponies isn't like it is for humans. It's not based on education or where you were born, it's based on actual biology. So it was probably stable for a very, very long time - a pegasus couldn't become an enchanter, and an earth pony couldn't fly. There's no upward or downward mobility by basic biology.
As well, Earth Ponies were probably for the bulk of history the largest population. They're the producers, so you need the most of them to support soldiers and artisans. It's a tribute to how well the Earth Ponies produce that they were able to support a significant population of pegasi and unicorns. We don't know when the populations diverged but since they can interbreed (and breed 'pure,' no hybridizing) it's clear they're all of the same fundamental genetic stock. It's entirely possible that the unicorns and pegasi split from the Earth Pony morphology in answer to pressures way back in ancient history.
In modern Equestria, the three races interlock in interesting ways. The combination of the Earth Pony "green hoof" and the pegasus ability to control weather means they don't have or need significant farming techniques. Who needs irrigation when you can control the rain? Who needs pesticides if you can enchant whole fields to be free of them?
Similarly, no pegasi or unicorns have a family history of farming. In fact, all pegasi trace their family history to the military and all unicorns to the aristocracy and high-quality artisans. They are immensely monocultural in a way humans have never been. Oh sure, there will be outliers from mixed-race families and the occasional Fluttershy or plant-inclined unicorn, but these will be the exceptions.
Really it's a miracle they mingle at all. And it's no wonder that it really takes an alicorn to lead them. Their fundamental cultures are so disparate that, even in the modern day, a huge chunk of them are going to be literally unable to understand the other two races. Since as we've established becoming an Alicorn requires a sort of revelatory experience, and it links them with all three tribes (and presumably provides some intuitive insight as to the mindset of each), it only makes sense.
Now, on to mixed-unit tactics. I just want to cover this briefly since there's no way they'd operate like a human army. The army operates on a strict dominance hierarchy, something for which ponies are not really equipped. That doesn't mean they won't cooperate, it's just that they aren't going to be marching in regiments. No, I'd expect that you'd see a lot of highly-independent but coordinated "irregulars" type units (matching the general herd dynamic). Three or four earth ponies for hauling heavy equipment and manning ballistae/bombards/etc. Two or three pegasi for scouting and air support. And one or two unicorns for magical support and, possibly, really heavy artillery. Now, I'm sure there will be some pure-pegasi and pure-unicorn units for dedicated air- and magic-support, but the mixed group probably has the greatest tactical strength and flexibility.
Pegasi can act as spotters for earth pony heavy ranged weapon. Unicorns can shield, cloak, misdirect, and otherwise improve their effective mobility (I'm ignoring teleportation since that seems a relatively rare talent, and I'm ignoring how much boom the Princesses could bring). Pegasi can whip up cover, alter terrain, and as demonstrated use lightning and tornadoes against their enemies. Given how many battles in human history were decided by the weather, it's not any surprise this is a huge tactical advantage.
As an aside, I'd expect any pony-pony battles involving any number of pegasi to devolve into a raging tempest that's a danger to everyone, and whoever's pegasi manage to deal with it better is who wins, all else being equal.
People have suggested that unicorns use levitating blades and weapons, but I'm not so sure that's really the best solution. We don't know precisely how unicorn telekinesis works, but it's entirely possible small spiked balls or discs would be the unicorn weapon of choice. This is why. Caltrops have the advantage of being small enough for that sort of kinetic use as well as being a very, very nasty surprise to leave behind (or telekinetically toss). Plus they're cheap to make and easy to carry.
It's also likely that warmage unicorns take the place of things like cannons. Small ballistae are reasonable to be carried by an Earth Pony team, and making more ammo for it in the field isn't too bad, but you need huge supply chains for cannons. Or you could bring a war-unicorn that can disassemble the wall or bridge or whatever you need. This is another reason that you don't need large regiments - your supply chains are far shorter and your force-multiplier is far larger per individual.
Warmage-on-warmage battles I can't even speculate on. But it's probably more like the mine-and-counter-mine stuff in a siege. It's all about who finds the other and gets past their defenses first.
Given the importance of pegasi, I'd expect ground troops to invest heavily in ground-to-air weaponry. I'm not sure if the energy beam attack is a common ability; a ranged weapon with unlimited ammo would be incredibly useful.
Supply chains are probably mostly handled by earth ponies, or pegasi if the terrain is too rough.
Silly human, don't you know ponies fight with pies
Times when two warmages really battle, rather than sneak around each other and try to slip in the knife, are probably even worse than pegasus fights. Horn blasts flying wide and striking anypony unlucky enough, spells failing concussively, giant explosions of disrupted power.
I wonder if there is a Pony version of the Geneva conventions that proscribes certain uses of magic in war. Everyone likes to speculate that the Everfree is something that happened due to a truly titanic magical duel, after all.
hmm..intriguing
Except when you don't have any pegasi to call on. Ponyville was founded by earth ponies, and not even anciently. Even with earth pony farming skill, they'd still need water, which implies irrigation, well-drilling, terracing, or some other technique that either imported water, captured "natural" (non-pegasus-induced) rainwater, or drew from local aquifers.
Something like Asari commando units?
Interesting thought: if there were no clouds already over the battlefield, then pegasi units would have to bring their own clouds for lightning generation. If Rainbow's Nightmare Night antics are an indication, small clouds don't produce much damage - it'd take a larger cloudbank to whip up a truly dangerous storm, which gives pegasus troops a unique supply train problem of their own.
Caltrops are likely a good thrown (telekinesed) weapon, great for slowing or stopping charging earth pony forces. Given that they're equally dangerous to friendly unicorn and earth pony forces, I doubt ponies would use caltrops as a primary weapon, except as deterrence / punji stake equivalents. Daggers, darts, and crossbow bolts hurled by telekinesis would be highly effective without endangering friendlies after they miss. Ball bearings (Magneto style) would work if unicorns could achieve Magneto-level velocity.
Depends on the power and skill of the unicorn. Is Twilight the rule for powerful unicorns, or the exceptional outlier? She's been shown to lift a massive boulder (Too Many Pinkie Pies), and at a considerable distance, enough stone to repair a failing dam (Mysterious Mare Do Well). If that's possible for any reasonably powerful unicorn, then we have our cannons. Or siege weapons. Or SDF-1 main gun, depending. If it's just Twilight that can do that, then unicorns might be your onager rather than your tebuchet, while still being all-around force multipliers.
Every time I've considered hypothetical epic pony wars, I've always come to the conclusion that air power is likely the dominant factor. We're talking about a species where roughly a third of their number can fly and control the weather. If the ponies gain complete air superiority, that's basically game over. The pegasi advance warfare from slightly more-mobile medieval warfare to modern maneuver warfare, at least in tactics, if not quite the same scope.
With control of the skies, pegasi can create whatever weather they want over an opposing army. They can make the enemy march through a torrential downpour (Likely peppered with regular lightning strikes), while their own ground forces enjoy a cool, sunny day.
Pegasus-powered carts can carry a good number of their land-bound companions across rough or impassible terrain, greatly increasing an army's mobility, both strategic and tactical. They can even join directly in the ground fighting if the situation calls for it, which would make them something tactically akin to a strange cross of helicopter transport/gunship and dragoons.
They can help out logistically, too. While earth ponies can haul the army's goods at marching speed, pegasi can haul (Likely lighter) loads quickly and across long distances. This means that not only can you get needed supplies swiftly to an army in the field, you can also reposition equipment quickly during an engagement. If they can't contest you in the skies, you can raid their supply train with impunity, completely cutting off an army from resupply.
In any case, the methods and organization of human warfare varied hugely, and I'd expect there to be at least some degree of variation among ponies, too. I think a bigger factor would be how much warfare they've dealt with, much like some human cultures. Equestria seems like a fairly organized society, at least in spirit. I could see wars driving them to a more organized military... especially if any of those wars were hard ones. Not line regiments, though. The mobility and capabilities of ponies would seem to encourage more mobile warfare. If anything, I'd expect something similar to the period around the US Civil War, possibly up to World War I: the period when line infantry was dying off, to be replaced by more modern organization and tactics.
A few things:
- I'm not sure the "green thumb" (green hoof?) is an universal trait of earth ponies. For the ponies whose talent involves plants, sure, but for earth ponies like the Cakes and the Pies, I don't think so. In a way, I believe it's similar to how unicorn magic was presented, in that there are a large number of possible earth pony "magic" and each specific pony gets just a few of those.
- Similarly with precise weather control for pegasi, specially lightning control. Rainbow Dash seems able to do it, but his cutie mark includes a lightning bolt and weather control seems to be part of his special talent; Derpy Hooves, on the other hoof, seems utterly unable to control lightning, going as far as accidentally electrocuting herself. Apart from Rainbow Dash and Luna I'm not sure we have seen other ponies control lightning.
- The special talent tied to the cutie mark seems to partially override race specific talents; while she wasn't good at it, Rarity did become able to manipulate weather when she had Rainbow Dash's cutie mark. Fluttershy also seems to have a talent that would usually be an earth pony one. I'm not sure what the limits would be, though, and also cutie marks seem to be heavily influenced by the race of the pony.
- While most families shown are single race affairs, we have seen relatively few families, and the Cakes seem to indicate that different races marrying is something accepted; thus, while I do agree that part of the racial culture is kept mostly separate, I don't think it's nearly as rigid as you paint, specially when the foals of all three race go to school together, at least in communities like Ponyville.
- High society seems to have a fairly high number of earth ponies, if the ponies that appear in the Becoming Popular song and the party at the end of Sweet and Elite are an indication. I assume this means that a good number of either nobles or high-quality artisans are earth ponies.
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Just to elaborate, that means pony armies have always had medivac helicopters, basically. Medivac is actually a huge boon to the wounded, and is a large part of why modern war is less deadly and less crippling to individual soldiers than, say, WWII. Compare survival rates of the wounded between WWII and Vietnam. I recall it being really impressively different.
For Earth Ponies, I'm thinking that 'Green Thumb' is likely cutie mark specific. That is, with agriculture and gardening-based cutie marks, it probably acts as you describe, but for, say, a blacksmith cutie mark it would probably allow similar skill to ironworking. AJ would probably, despite her strength, not be a good smith. Likewise, the smith pony would probably get apples everywhere BUT in the baskets.
It makes sense. The Cakes are great at baking, despite having to use their mouths (near an oven?!) and admittedly dexterous hooves. Without baking marks, they'd probably be less competent.
Cutie marks are a subject for another blogpost, but Hearthswarming implied that, at the time, Earth Ponies were almost exclusively agricultural. Which again makes sense; the lower tech your society the higher the percentage need to be dedicated to food production.
Earth Pony magic is a huge deal. In normal population dynamics you have to balance the amount of resources any individual produces versus the resources they consume ultimately capping population to some hard limit. Earth Ponies skew the ratio considerably because every Earth Pony born has the potential to produce far, far more than any Unicorn or Pegasus born. Earth Pony settlements can afford to be much larger than those of the other two races. In the part one discussion someone noted that based on the sampling of distinct background characters (which isn't a perfect sample because Ponyville was founded by Earth Ponies as an agricultural town, but for the sake of argument) were something like 50% Earth Pony, 20% Pegasus, 18% Unicorn rest undetermined. I suspect in the ancient past the Earth Pony majority was even larger.
Lets Organize this with a list
Pegasus:
+ Flight (racial talent even if level varies)
+ Cloud Walking (racial talent)
+ Basic Weather Manipulation (racial talent, ability varies by pony knowledge)
+ Aura (subtly change atmosphere with mood)
- Need cloud supply
( only magically powerful pony or cutie mark oriented ponies can make their own;large groups or advance factories)
- Advance Weather Manipulation
( Requires large groups, a magically powerful pony, cutie mark oriented ponies, or advance factories)
-Constant Maintaining (Pony made gust or wind need to be maintain, unless is actual natural wind, meaning Pegasi don't Literally control weather but herd it to their advantage)
Earth Ponies:
+ Increase Stamina (Inherit; may vary though depending on individual)
+ Increase Endurance (Inherit; may vary though depending on individual)
+ Increase Strength (Inherit; may vary though depending on individual)
+ Food (cultural skill they are Inherently skill growers, or cooks; even if their cutie mark is about a different subject)
+ Green thumb (land subtly changes with mood)
-Terra-forming (only magically powerful pony, a large group of skill ponies, Cutie mark oriented)
Unicorns:
+ Magic(power level varies)
+ Basic spells (levitation is the basic spell known use extensively, bright flashes, illumination and magic missile are basic spells also)
- Advance Spells (only magically powerful ponies, large groups,skill ponies or cutie mark oriented)
-+ Cutie marks (overall its a modifier for certain aspects to a pony, it also determines what their most skill at doing or able to do under that subject)
th05.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2014/022/e/a/small_horse__everyday__doodles__2_by_1110soulite-d739wo0.jpg
A. Hoof-Board (laptop)
B. Cat
C. "Pop In" Horse shoe (Sneakers)
D. Sitting Pillow
E. Pony Cup
F. Pony Spoon 45 Degrees version
G. Pony Fork 135 Degrees Version
H. Pony Bowl
I. Pony kitchen Knife
J. Pony Water Bottle
K. Pony Book
L. Scroll
.3.
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I'm really digging this stuff. Especially the pop-in horseshoes. The spoons are great too, make way more sense with the "flat grip" of a pony hoof.
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I still don't get how ponies hold those spoons.
1748588 They have that weird magnetic grip, the image of the pony in the top right is drinking soup with a 45 degree spoon. The tilt makes it easier to hold the flat surface of the spoon handle.
1748619
Ah. Makes sense.
Pegasi have some sort of ability to extend their magical field to interface with a very wide area. This is implied by the fact that their flight works more like actual flight (though with absurdly small wings) than it does like more direct gravitic propulsion. Their wings are serving as the effector base for an extended "wingfield." What's more, we've seen on the show that they have some sort of protective forcefield while in flight (it's very visible around Rainbow Dash at high speed), which is why they can survive high-speed collisions despite being probably rather light-boned. Some variant of this field probably lets them stablize and support themselves on clouds.
Why clouds? If the magical field is related to electromagnetism ("paramagnetic" in my terms) then clouds are perfect targets because they are composed of polar molecules (water vapor, each molecule of which has a positive and negative end). This makes it much easier for the magic to grip them than if they were neutral (like ordinary oxygen or nitrogetn, most of the Earth's air).
This also explains being able to direct electromagnetism in the form of lightning, or simply enhance it to promote water vapor condensation around dust (creating fog or rain). Note that Luna (who as an alicorn has pegasus powers) can do this without actually touching the clouds; ordinary pegasi have to get up close and personal with them.
Large-scale cloud construction (which is what we see in the pegasi cloud cities) requires some sort of stablizing enchantment to make the permanently-stablized cloud. By now they've industrialized the process -- 500 to 1000 years ago it was probably done painstakingly, one cloud "brick" at a time.
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They do now. Thank Celestia. Literally.
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Very good point, and the Ponies seem to be especially humane so they would have incorporated medical services into their armies even in pre-industrial warfare. I've noticed that the overall tech level of Equestria seems to be c. 1850, around 1750 or earlier in terms of weapons technology, and around 1950 or later in terms of medical technology. This can't be accidental: it says a lot about the priorities the ponies put on their goals.
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I'm almost certain that tech divergence you're seeing was entirely accidental.
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I don't know about that. The original concept for Equestrian tech was pre-electrical Industrial Revolution (1850's); we see no weapons more modern than smoothbore cannons (1750's), yet we see medical technology that looks as if it were from just about half a century ago (1950's).. This is consistent with the concept of a peaceful, dominant nation which is strongly devoted to humanitarian ends.
The computer-stuff is mostly fan work.
I read the inheritance cycle a few years back and the way mages battle head to head in it has always stuck with me. It is a battle of minds of trying to worm your way into the other mages head so that you can predict their actions and safely attack without worrying about them attacking you. That feels to me like the most likely mage battle because you don't have to gamble on having more power then your enemy, just how smart they are and how many protective wards they have and the risk of collateral damage is greatly reduced. But I think mages would try to avoid going head to head wherever possible and leave the mage killing to specially trained ponies dedicated to neutralising mages.
I agree with your idea about unicorn's preferring bowling balls for weapons; why worry about which way it's pointing.
In canon, we see all the tribes holding spears. It looks to be the de facto personal weapon. In reality we know the animators gave them spears, because the look cool, and project the Greek/Ionic look that Canterlot is based on.
But lets do a little logical dancing, and make an answer that fits both our musings here, and what we see in the show.
///
I could suggest that they are not actually spears, but ballista bolts.
Actually lets call them a weaponized mulit-tool.
Earth ponies use then as bolts, pegasus drop them as flechette bombs, and unicorns use them to make palisade walls or similar defensive structures.
1749537
We can't take too seriously the tech level of Equestria because it's, quite literally, driven by the gags in the show. Manehattan as a whole seems to be early 20th century tech, for example, in order to fulfill it's role as a pun on Manhattan, and when a point needed to be made in a couple seconds for how young a colt was they used an arcade cabinet, complete with a glowing screen.
In other words, if attempting to write a serious story where the precise tech level actually matters, we are on our own.
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And that's one reason I'm trying to elaborate from biological/sociological/economic principles rather than relying on the precise canon of the show. Because the writers are not trying to write xenofiction. And there's nothing wrong with it! It'd be an entirely different flavor of show if it was meant to be a peek into a completely alien lifestyle, and probably not nearly as entertaining. We won't see anything like the Triptych-verse either, or probably even the Civil Serverse.
I doubt any actual fanfic will follow up on fleshing out all the various principles discussed in this blog series (because xenofiction is haaaaard and often not that interesting) but hopefully it'll inspire some thoughts and angles on ponies for people.
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I actually find it fun to try to work out the reasons and evolutionary path of technology in fictional cultures. I'm an engineer after all
I was just saying that relying on the technology shown on the cartoon to reach something plausible might not be a good idea, given that consistency in the show is secondary to getting the tone right and the jokes flowing.
1750102
I'm not going by one-shot gags, I'm going by overall levels of technology shown. I'm getting "pre-electrical 19th century" directly from Lauren Faust and the infrastructure, of lack thereof, shown in many episodes.
"Average tech c. 1850":
We know for sure that Equestria has advanced external-combustion steam engines, which the Equestrians have widely deployed. We know this because we've seen these powering locomotives, road engines and airships: I don't recall if they've ever shown a steamship, but if they have airships it would be surprising if they didn't have steamships as well.
Though there is clearly widespread artificial illumination, it's not obvious whether it's gas, electricity or some science-fantasy method. Given that "Light" spells are absurdly easy to cast, it's possible that they simply industrialized the casting process with an on-off function or even just a hood.
There does not seem to be any system of long-distance electrical communication. This is significant issue because the historical first application of electrical technology was the electrical telegraph. Thus, if they have electrical technology (Twilight Sparkle and other modern mages may well have access to experimental electrical systems) they haven't had it for very long. Which puts the overall tech squarely in the mid-19th century -- maybe more toward the 1860's than the 1840's.
"Military tech c. 1750"
Equestria most definitely has gunpowder. We know this because we have seen fireworks and even cannons. But they don't use personal firearms. This implies that they don't have the technology to make very effective firearms, given their bodily capability and limitations.
Specifically, humans are accurate aimers but slow runners. That means that we can meaningfully threaten to hit each other with inaccurate weapons (such as smoothbore muskets) to the point that even a slow-firing weapon (such as a muzzle-loading flintlock) is effective in personal combat. What's more, our anatomies make us most effective in melee in dense, coordinated formations which are good targets for even the most primitive small arms.
The Ponies are fast runners; most are probably poor aimers compared to humans (accurate aim is a specifically-evolved human and ape ability). They probably fight in much looser formations than did we before the 20th century. Hence for them, slow-firing smoothbores would be of limited utility on the battlefield.
It was around 1780 that human militaries began to experiment with improved firearm actions; it was in the 1830's and 1840's that revolver actions began to be widely used for handguns and in the 1850's and 1860's that cartridge and breechloading designs started to be widely deployed. The Equestrians obviously have none of these. I suggest some of the reasons why in All the Way Back, when Luna's contemplating the Palace arsenal. It boils down to Celestia's disinterest and the need to get from primitive muzzle-loading smoothbores to at least bolt-actions in a single leap.
The Equestrians do have decent steel and can make "modern" spears, swords, armor etc. This is a bigger advance than many people realize -- they are producing weapons and armor as good as those found in, say, later Shogunate Japan. Hence c. 1750 instead of c. 1350.
"Medical tech c. 1950:"
We take all sorts of advanced medical technology for granted these days, such that the doctors, clinics and hospitals we see on the show look sort of primitive. What they look like, in fact, are like what one would see in a 1940's - 1960's medical drama, with reasonably well-designed hospital beds, routine use of non-electronics diagnostic equipment, X-rays and the like. Also, minor wounds are taken rather casually by the characters: no one is too worried about dying of infection if they can get treatment, which means they have antibiotics (historically developed around 1910-1950 in our world).
Why would medical technology be so advanced? Probably because Equestrian culture is extremely, um, "equane," putting a high value on the life of the individual. Probably because Celestia is personally concerned with such, and has done everything to encourage such progress. Possibly because Celestia is personally selfish and wants her friends to live as long as possible -- she knows she'll have to mourn them eventually, but would prefer "later" to "sooner."
Anyway, that's a summary of my reasons.
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Combination of hoof-sucker arrays and limited telekinesis.
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Before I start, I'm not belittling your analysis; it's just that any detailed technological analysis of the show can only have the show itself as it's foundation, and the show consistency in handling tech is shaky at best, even if ignoring one-shot gags.
Any hope of doing stories in Equestria with consistent tech, IMHO, lies in actually doing a parallel universe, because otherwise I don't think the tech can be ever explained, even if single-use gags are discarded. It's schizo tech at it's finest (and the My Little Pony example in that page has a quote by Lauren Faust explaining her take on it; in short, tech is supposed to be kept medieval except where the story asks for something more modern, which happens very often)
As a quite glaring example of how mixed it all is take the example of "road engine" we have; I'm not actually sure what the heck the Flim Flam Brothers Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 is supposed to be. It has a pair of chimneys, sure, but it also has what appears to be a working giant electron tube, and Flim and Flam's horns are always alight with magic whenever that contraption is moving; also, the quality control lamps have quite obvious filaments. There's also the fact the machine vibrates like something with an internal combustion engine on idle when there is smoke coming out of it but it's not actually moving, something I don't believe is common with external combustion steam engines. I suspect the show artists just threw everything but the kitchen sink into that to make that thing into something with a steampunk flair.
(And I don't think we have ever seen a steam engine airship; the ones in Apple Family Reunion, Power Ponies, and Sweet and Elite, at least, don't seem able to hold such an engine. I'm not even sure a steam engine would work on an airship, in the real world dirigibles were only feasible after internal combustion engines became available.)
BTW, medical equipment in the show does seem to include electronic equipment, judging by the wires and something that is surprisingly similar to an intercom unit mounted on the wall besides the bed in Read It and Weep; heck, the doctor's cutie mark seems to be a cardiac monitor, and in Rainbow Falls there is an actual cardiac monitor mounted on the wall. Also, Ponyville's hydroelectric dam has appeared in at least two episodes - The Mysterious Mare Do Well and It's About Time - so it's not merely a one-shot gag, and in Rarity Takes Manehattan there are a lot of blinking lights in billboards - including lights blinking in changing patterns on the billboard for Hinny of the Hills, which I believe would require at least some primitive electronics to pull off.
(There's also a rotary telephone clearly visible through a window in Manehattan during the song, but I'm going to chalk that as an one-shot gag.)
As for military tech, for all anyone could rationalize what appears on the show, the answer is simply that it's a show meant to be watched by little girls, so actual weapon portrayal - and more so their usage - will be kept to a minimum. My guess for why we see so many spears is simply because they can have a ceremonial function.
(BTW, there are bows, swords, spiked maces, a sai, a trident, spiked clubs, and a morning star in the waking dream scene at the start of Daring Don't, not to mention that a bow and arrow is one of the stock cutie marks, so we can assume the existence of all those kinds of weapons is also canon.)
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Oh, and another thing.
Do you understand what the hoofboard is? It kinda looks like a fancier version of that two-button typewriter they had.
1752618 its a pony equivalent of a laptop that I put together, this was the first version of the >Hoof-Board< If you want to understand it a bit more.
1755783
I...think I get it.
Good point on the advantage of small masses accelerated to high velocities, which is of course why we shoot small bullets at high speeds rather than use propellant to shoot large bullets at low speeds. On the other hand, remember that the energy expenditure is based on momentum and that sufficiently small projectiles may break up against armor on impact. Telekinetics probably can only keep track of so many objects at a time -- Rarity is unusually-talented in her ability to manipulate a half-dozen to dozen objects simultaneously. I'm just saying there'd be a trade-off between number, mass and speed of projectiles, with different choices being made against different targets -- basically, lots of little weapons would work better against unarmored targets, where precision and force would be less important than area covered, while one or two big weapons would work better against armored targets, where precision and force are vital.
For example, if Luna wanted to stop a whole squad of charging unarmored mooks, she could use a spray of small darts; if she on the other hand wanted to put down an armored dragon, a single spear to the eye or underbelly would work far better.
I take a swing at how mixed-pony units would have unique advantages in my story Renaissance Pony, both in peace time (Ch 7: The Power of Three), and in war (Chapters 18 to 21).
All of these instances were pony vs pony, though, and I agree with your main premise that ponies would not engage in warfare in anything resembling the modern human concept of war.
I absolutely adore this concept.
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Xenofiction may be hard to write; but when it is done well, it is a secure Nebula Wining Award:
"The Gods Themselves" (1972) science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov
just wanted to say that I love this and anything that makes the effort to make ponies less like four legged humans (and for legged Americans specifically.
I like to imagine that they look less like how they are depicted in the show and more like say Tiny Sapient Ungulates.
One factor I feel comes in here is the concept of armor, something we have seen in the show several times, but never in an actual war outside of the Crystal War timeline.
Thing is, in OUR world, we eventually hit a wall where the benefit of full body armor was outpaced by the lack of strength on the wearer's part. Full plate armor fell out of usage because while it COULD be made to tank gunfire, it could no longer be practical while doing so for those reasons.
Earth Ponies do not have that limitation, as they're both stronger, have greater endurance, and have natural durability on top of it. Armor for an Earth Pony could be far thicker or more durable than anything a human would ever be capable of wearing without encumbering the Earth Pony. And that's not taking into account the prospect of magical enchantments on the armor. On top of that, low center of gravity due to size and weight (ponies in real life are surprisingly dense little creatures) makes knocking them over quite the problem (if I were a human I would FEAR getting into grappling range of a pony).
This would fit Earth Ponies rather well: heavy, possibly enchanted armor that does not substantially impede them with its weight due to their strength would let them get in close and put their advantages to a major use.
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did you forget the part about humans out walling horses? they don't have better endurance, they have better strength, making them tire slower, but endurance wise they still collapse faster than a human
trixie teleported, for what it's worth