"You are Already My Friend": Earth Pony Martial Arts · 6:28pm Dec 18th, 2019
According to Lauren Faust, Earth Ponies draw on the life energy of the planet itself to fuel their abilities. This ranges from super strength and endurance, to communication and control over flora and fauna, to Earth bending, healing, increased longevity (Granny Smith is easily two centuries old) and enhanced sensory perception (Pinkie Sense).
In other words they are using life energy. Or as is known in real life martial arts, ki.
So why shouldn't Earth ponies have martial arts that use this energy and its many applications? This opens the door up to crossovers, expies or just original concepts inspired by fiction and real life.
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
-Hokuto no Hidzume: Hoof of the North Star. A martial art that allows the user to inject life energy magic into another pony being at specific points on their body, to inflict damage or to heal. It is an ancient martial art, passed down since the time of the Three Tribes of Ponies. Earth pony practitioners of the art were deadly soldiers and assassins of the Earth Pony Republic. In the modern day, the basics of the art are practiced in massage therapy and by certain medical practitioners, but the deadly techniques are kept among the few remaining and dedicated masters of the art's many, many schools and branches.
-Jishin no Jutsu: Art of the Earthquake. Usually just referred to as "Jishin", this martial art involves the user sending powerful shockwaves through the Earth to strike the ground under an enemy's hooves. It also allows the user to blast projectiles of rock at opponents, create barriers, and form caves or tunnels.
Kyoshin: "Vibration". The art of vibration and oscillation. A master of Kyoshin is in tune with the vibrations of the Earth around them, able to sense changes in it. They can feel everything going on around them at all times. They can also increase or decrease the vibration in either themselves or in opponents. They can make a foe's bones vibrate to pieces with a touch.
What would be some fun Earth pony martial arts to create? And for not only our heroes but also our villains to learn?
Once more, you touch on something that I have thought of in depth. I recently wrote a big huge blog discussing possible martial arts styles for the three tribes. If you don't care to read the whole thing, here's the Earth Pony bit:
The use of life force includes its transformation and motion through the cycle of death and rebirth. I have always believed that earth ponies make for the best necromancers. Babs Seed's mother Pomegranate knows that her daughter's mark isn't just for cutting the physical fibers of hair; these things run in families after all, and much like her cousin Apple Bloom, Babs will have a role to play in fate's grand design.
When it comes to martial arts, one of the... less unspeakable applications of this aspect of earth pony magic is Drunken Hoof. One need look no further than Berry Punch to see a practitioner of the style. Each blow not only has the force of an earth pony behind it, but also a burst of necromantic magic that ferments the struck creature's blood sugar, exhausting and intoxicating them.
Naturally, Berry also makes use of her ability to induce fermentation outside of combat as well. She'll brew anything once. At least.
5171203
Well think of my post as just a slight addition to your excellent post. One you are free to use.
Reminds me of the old Xenophillia story that talked about tribe martial arts.
To be honest, those last two seem like they'd go together fairly naturally... and make a very dangerous oppponent - a pony capable of sending deadly vibrations into opponent through touch, through the earth or perhaps even through the very air, while shaking the ground enough to repel any opponent.
...I may or may not want to use that for a villain in my stories at some point in the future. Hope that's okay.
As for other forms, hmm... Well the most obvious would be Xíng Qiè, the counterpart to Hokuto no Hidzume that involves draining an opponent's life force, invigorating the user while sapping the strength and vitality of their opponent - a dark art to be sure, but not impossible to turn towards good.
A couple more I thought up:
Tǔ Fěnchén: Mastery of dust. Focused on using various kinds of natural powder, both carried around and found in the area, against an opponent: Dirt, sand, even pollen. A master of Tǔ Fěnchén can precisely weave a cloud of dusts to obscure their strikes and hinder their opponent's, getting under an opponent's fur or into their lungs, perhaps even weaving illusory silhouettes if enough dust is present. Some practitioners can also use thick natural liquids as well, to make themselves stickier or slipperier while grapple or to undermine an opponent's stability. It is for this reason you should always be careful when somepony invites you out to watch Mud Wrestling.
Spirit Fencing. A somewhat odd-sounding one, but one that makes a degree of sense if you know how fencing works. You see, fencing is as much a tactical sport as a physcial one, if not more so. In fencing, the key thing is not to outspeed or overpower your opponent, but to outmaneuver and outwit them - to trick them and take them by surprise. The feint that misdirects their guard is far more important than the thrust that bypasses it. Spirit Fencing, however, takes this to a new level, where two opponents try and use their enhanced senses and connection to life energy to sync up to an opponent and literally see their moves before they happen while preventing the opponent from doing the same. This may sound like it would be useless outside of a match until one considers that a significant part of the sport would be learning to obscure one's life energy... meaning that someone who wasn't trained to do so would likely be an open book to an expert Spirit Fencer, making them considerably more dangerous.
Also, as a bonus, a pegasus martial art: Tiàoyuè Tì. A sport for those who are, at any given time, unable to take to the skies. To be trained in Tiàoyuè Tì is to learn to fly without wings - using a Pegasus's light frame and natural agility to perform astonishing feat of acrobatics and aerial attack. Each strike has less impact than many other forms, but they come exceptionally quickly and are hard for a ground-bound opponent to defend against. The form was first invented by a pegasus who was naturally incapable of flight, yet her ability to take out even other pegasi with her skills led to many who were fully capable of flight adopting it, both because it was useful to know and out of respect. It is said that it was not uncommon, against grounded opponents, for this master to go a full minute without touching the floor.
Why yes, I am now imagining Scootaloo as a pony version of Batroc the Leaper (minus the accent) and it is seven kinds of awesome Thanks for asking!
5171243
By all means! Use these ideas. That's why I put them out. And yes, Scootaloo doing that is awesome. I would go further and say it is akin to the lightsaber combat form Ataru.
Breathe good to set vampires on fire.
5171203
ok, seriously, first, good blog, I too. have thought about how the three tribes would fight, but more on how magic is expressed. Considering that Tirek can drain "strength", I reasoned that Terrasi also express magic in some way. I divided the tribes into Internal, External, and Exterior.
Unicorns are the obvious Exterior, they cast spells through their horn into the outside world. Their bodies are probably more durable than we are, but still comparatively noodly. Their magic is the most flexible of the three, but also the least efficient, with less stamina (An average unicorn would be hard pressed to match AJ's endurance at apple picking with telekinesis). Multi-classing outside of their Mark, while possible, requires immense effort. Sparkle is an outlier with shit loads of magic to throw at things. Not necessarily fragile due to whatever Equestrian magic that makes them neon colored.
Pegasi I classify them as having an External skin affect that allows their absurd acrobatics. It controls their aero, some thrust assist, grasp water vapor. It also provides a slight cushioning effect for impacts, but only while actively maintaining this field. Scootaloo has the thrust, but is perhaps unable of manifesting the aerodynamic boosts, and even if airborne, would have difficulty in controlling her flight.
The Terrasire are unique in that they are almost always passively casting Internally(If Skirts can invent "Sarosian"...). This gives strength without necessarily the muscle bulk it would imply.
Certain spellcasting is possible for the non-horned, but they have much more limited throwing power.
I Made this blog because I was Mad at the overabundance of unicorn magic school fics.
I just remembered a very old story idea I had.
Apple Bloom, after seeing Sweetie Belle perform some magic spell, asks Applejack why earth ponies don;t have magic? AJ tells her the line about the "connection to the earth," but it isn't enough for Bloom. She doesn't think it's fair that earth ponies never had cool magic. Suddenly, Discord shows up and explains that, once upon a time... they did.
He would tell Bloom about the last great battle between the tribes, when the unicorns and pegasi formed an uneasy alliance to break the earth ponies, thus cementing them as all but slaves to grow their food. An army of unicorns—led by an eager young general named Sombra...— amassed on a hilltop overlooking the border to the earth pony tirbal lands. Above, armored pegasi warriors hovered in tight columns, while others move dark, angry storm clouds into position. And in the valley below, a teeming sea of earth pony warriors assembled.
With a dismissive wave of his hoof, Sombra orders a massive artillery strike. Magic missiles rain down from above, but the earth ponies "Held," focusing their magical connection to the earth to become immovable and invulnerable. Annoyed, the pegasus commander cries out, and the warriors begin to pound the clouds, sending flurries of lightning upon the earth ponies. But again, they are repelled. In a move that drains most of their magic, earth pony mages command great trees to spring forth from the earth, redirecting the lightning strikes.
Then, the earth ponies have their turn. They move great trebuchets and catapults into position, hurling impossibly heavy boulders and flaming balls of pitch upon their foes. The unicorns are trapped beneath the shield their mages hastily erected. Now frothing with anger, the pegasus commander orders a full charge, and the flying army descends upon the massive earth pony formation. They fly down amidst a hail of arrows so thick it darkens the sky, sending countless troops plummeting down. The pegasi that make it down unscathed unleash their might on the earth ponies. However, their amateurish, brittle weapons and armor, forged from imperfect materials, are no match for the expertly engineered equipment of the earth ponies, built from the finest ore and minerals. Eventually, the pegasi are forced to retreat. Now without their airborne allies, Sombra orders a withdrawal of his unicorns, as well.
Back in the now, Bloom asks why earth ponies can't do all that stuff now? What happened? Discord explains that, well... he happened. When he came into being (an implication would be that Discord is literally the manifestation of chaos and disorder) it sort of "broke" magic forever. This is why Celestia and Luna control the sun and moon now: unicorns simply aren't powerful enough to do it anymore. This is also why ponies believed for such a long time that the sonic rainboom was just an "old mare's tale," because no pegasus before Rainbow Dash had the magical energy to do it.
Bloom would get all depressed, and Discord would laugh. "Surely you don't think it was magic alone that kept the earth ponies strong?! Honestly, what has become of our public education system?! Thanks, Obam—uh, Celestia!" He would explain that it was the strength of the earth ponies' hearts that made them so formidable, their ingenuity and resourcefulness. And while they can no longer focus active magic in the way they could, that connection to the earth is still very much alive. Applejack would demonstrate by focusing hard, grunting and straining, until a tiny sprout erupted from the earth at her hooves. She would then promptly collapse.
A somewhat silly idea, I know, but I dug it.
5171262
I was confused as fuck about what a "Terrasire" was until you mentioned Sarosians.
"Party Ponies" are drunken-master martial artists who specialize in confusion-fu and unconventional weaponry.
5171267
Sounds awesome! Though eventually the pegasi would develop a counter.
Using electric magic, they channel that energy through their skin and make it arc in quick bursts-Forming a superheated plasma blade across a limb. It only lasts a moment but it would let the pegasi wielder slice through almost anything they hit.
At higher energy levels and with masters of the art, a pegasi warrior could slice through solid steel armor and the enemy wearing it. Lower level practitioners could smash apart armor through consecutive hits and thus focused on vulnerable areas.
"Arc Blade" style was a means of countering Earth Pony armored giants and had other uses, but to really deal damage in militarily significant amounts you had to be a master at it. And it wasn't easy. But it gave the pegasi an advantage for a time until the other tribes learned counter strategies. Even so, it would remain a fighting art for generations to come.
5171347
The counter to many Pegasus Lightning techniques is found in Earth, using their power to literally ground out that power. Naturally doing this to a lighting master is a direct contest of skill.
Granny Smith is clearly the MLP universe's Master Roshi.
Speak Equuish, these fangle tongue twisted talkin' is jess a bunch o' nonsense
5171292
I ain't horsefamous but I'm gonna wave that flag anyways.
Check out the 'Savage Skies' series by Moguera
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/116344/foal-of-the-forest
Has a take on all three race's magical properties and what happens when you take their magic to an upper limit in a martial form.