Ponyville as Faux-Medieval Exurb · 4:49pm Feb 16th, 2017
I have noticed that some people use aspects of Ponyville (specifically, the half-timbered, thatched-roof construction of many of the houses, and the general lack of motor vehicles apart from the steam trains) to imagine that it is "medieval." Nothing is farther from the truth.
I. Medieval?
A medieval level of technology implies several things. Agriculturally, it implies a system of farming more advanced than that of the Ancient world (horse collars, deep plows, deliberate field fallowing) but not as advanced as that of the Modern (c. 1500-1750) era (extensive irrigation, canals for food transport, very closely monitored selective breeding of plants and animals and marketing of valuable strains). It implies a muscle-powered economy, and one in which health care is indifferent to absent, a matter of wise elders applying bandages and poultices. Economically, it implies only a rather limited market system, with traditional exchanges of labor and goods often more important than seizing economic opportunities, possibly with serfdom. And socially, it implies a degree of disoreder, with lawlessness on the roads and fairly serious violence common (read up on medieval country brawls some time; they went at it with clubs and staves en masse on a fairly regular basis, and those were the peasants: landowners made actual private war on one another, complete with siege engines). In consequence, there is frequent dearth, leading to famines and plagues.
Do we see any of this in Ponyville? We see food being extremely common; there has been no plot where any character was suffering from more than situational hunger ("I missed lunch because I was working too hard!"). We actually see a working farm in Sweet Apple Acres: the level of technology there looks to be ~ AD 1850-1900, with balloon-frame buildings and (Pony-drawn) farm equipment including well-designed collars, harnesses and deep plows.
Health care is excellent. Ponyville -- a town whose population is around 2000 to 10 thousand -- has an actual hospital (probably also used by Ponies in the outlying smaller towns), with medical care and equipment reminiscent of our world ~ AD 1950-1975. Antibiotics, antiseptics, and anasthesia are either shown or implied to be in use.
We haven't seen canal boats or river boats, but they probably exist: the technology one level above them, steam locomotives, most defiinitely exists. We may assume given the prevalance of steam engines that there are mechanized factories. This implies an abundance of wealth (by pre 20th century standards) and one which has spread to most of the populace -- and that is what we explicitly see when we observe the lives of Ponies on the show.
The Ponies seem to be fairly law-abiding, by pre-20th century standards (the Good Old Days were actually a lot more violent than many today realize). Serious crime is rare. Ponies leave their doors unlocked with little fear of burglary and walk about with little fear of being beaten, raped or robbed. Children run and play freely in the community. There is a tolerance of extreme practical jokes that is beyond anything Human societies would normally extend, but then the Ponies aren't actually Human, even though they're emotionally very Human-like creatures.
The sole sense in which Pony culture might be considered "medieval" is that they are ruled by an autocracy which has an aristocracy under it, and they have castles. But then, the same was true of most of Europe in the 19th century, and most of the castles which existed in the 19th century still stand today. In fact, the Equestrian government is more like a Modern absolute monarchy than a Medieval one (the medieval monarchs had far less effective authority over national administration).
Equestria is not a medieval culture.
II. Faux-Medieval
Then why do things look sort of medieval in Ponyville?
The reason why is that Ponyville has very obviously made an aesthetic decision to employ medieval styling in the town center (the part on Canterlot's side of the river, where there are intersecting streets. This includes half-timbering, real (or apparent) roof thatching, and other medieval design features such as narrow streets with second-story bridges between buildings.
Why would they do this?
Because it looks cute, and quaint. It hearkens back to a (supposedly) simpler and better time, unlike the hectic modern days (the modern Ponies may imagine). Which the Ponies of Ponyville themselves may find charming, and which (even more importantly) the Ponies of Canterlot may find charming.
Why Canterlot?
Because Ponyville is an exurb.
III. An Exurb
Outside a city proper are the "suburbs" (originally called such because they lay "beneath" the urban walls). It is a fairly common residential pattern -- and has been so since at least medieval times on Earth -- for some people to live in the suburbs and go into the city to work. As a city grows, it often administratively absorbs its suburbs, possibly building a bigger wall to include them, and then grows new suburbs further out.
The development of regular coach and omnibus service, and then steam train service, made it possible for suburbs to exist farther and farther from the actual city, with the workers commuting into work in the modern sense of the word, employing mass transit to do so. This began on Earth in the 18th century AD and became common during the 19th century, a product of the Industrial Revolution.
But some towns are too far from the city to easily make a daily round-trip commute possible. Nevertheless, they are close enough to the city that, culturally and economically, they are satellites of that city. Workers may spend several hours a day commuiting to that city, or they may maintain (spartan) quarters in a suburb or city while having their family houses in the far-away town.
The term for a town like this is an "exurb." Ponyville is an "exurb" of Canterlot.
Now an exurb often wants to encourage tourism in the form of day-tripping or weekend-tripping from the city to which it is economically-attached. This is because the city is a source of wealth; rich tourists from the city can spend their money in the exurb.
We see signs of this in Ponyville. There are an awful lot of Canterlot Ponies whom we sometimes see on the streets of Ponyville. There are an awful lot of specialty and luxury shops for such a small town. There are a lot of festivals, which seem rather crowded, with mor Ponies than one would expect given Ponyville's small population.
And Ponyville by Season 4 has a powerful attractant for tourism -- Princess Twilight Sparkle. And by Season 5 she even has a castle -- and not just any castle, but a crystalline wonder that one can easiy imagine Ponies traveling dozens of miles, even hundreds of miles, to see.
There is even an episode ("Simple Ways") which is about Ponyville trying to attract tourists from Canterlot (that's the point of their festival). One can easily see why this would be the case. Fueled by Canterlot aristocratic and gentle wealth, Ponyville can grow, and its merchants also grow wealthy.
IV. Culture Clash
Such an exurban situation of course creates a culture clash between the older families -- whose collective memories stretch to a time when the town was almost purely agricultural and much more culturally independent -- and the newer families, who must cater to the urban tourists. There is bound to be friction.
And we see it in the Show! The older families are exemplified by the Apples -- and satellite families such as the Berrys and the Carrots -- and the newer families by the Belles. We also see the usual historic pattern in that the older families, inevitably, adapt or die. The Berrys in particular are enthusiastically catering to tourists, and Cup and Carrot Cake are almost certainly selling their more expensive wares mostly to urban tourists or aristocrats seeking country vacations there.
Things are only going to get more muddled when Equestria gets to the point of personal motor road vehicles.
Conclusion:
There is medieval, and faux-medieval. There is rustic, and then there is exurban. And Ponyville was never medieval (it's not old enough), and while it was once truly rustic, it is now exurban.
There's story-potential in this. More writers should use it.
Which does not apply, because magic. As in Pegasi magic for weather, and even more importantly, Earth Pony magic that makes land never depleted.
Also, in regards to this, and our much earlier discussion, I've finally found WoG on the subject matter, thanks to my brony friend.
So, yeah, baseline it actually is medieval, everything else is either anachronisms or authors being lazy.
I can easily see them 1800s tech wise. And about thatching the roofs maybe they don't have asphalt for shingles? The roads don't look like they're asphalt
Nice.
4424878
They have steam trains and skyscrapers. Both shown in Season 1. So, with all due respect, perhaps the Fausticorn Herself may have been confused regarding the meaning of "medieval" applied to technology.
4424919
Yeah, the steam trains initially were supposed to be pony-driven. They in fact were in the first few episodes.
It was later decided to change that, because they wanted the "choo-choo" sound for the kids.
4424897
Paved rural and interurban roads aren't common until the 1920's to 1940's in America.
Always interesting to see this sort of historical analysis, especially when it pans out so well when compared to what we actually see. The idea of Ponyville as a deliberate piece of architectural gingerbread meant for Canterlot's consumption makes an astonishing amount of sense. No wonder Twilight got such a warm welcome. Not only are Ponyvillians generally friendly, she was their target demographic.
4424922
And were the freaking skyscrapers, shown in more than one city, supposed to be supported by Earth Ponies standing on each other's backs?
What about the airships? The electric lighting?
For that matter, a lot of technology commonly considered "medieval" in the popular imagination is actually 16th to 18th century. The easiest assumption is that the writers and artists didn't actually know much about the history of technology and included lots of stuff they considered "old-timey" which was actually Industrial Era.
4424950
Oh yes. Obviously upper-class young mare, on Royal business. Clearly somepony with important social contacts whom, if she liked what she saw in Ponyville, might encourage others to come there on vacations with money to spend.
They didn't know how asocial was Twilight Sparkle, but the rest of it was an accurate impression. For that matter, Twilight's not that asocial, and wasn't even in the Season One opener -- she was just somepony who felt she didn't have time for friendship. She had a heck of a lot of acquaintances, and had adequate social skills, as shown in the first episode.
Also, there seems to be a lot of mares in Ponyville, and many foals... I think that many of the stallions that don't work the fields might be guards in Canterlot. There were an awful lot of them in Shining's wedding episode.
4424954
You did read the quote, right?
It does say specifically "medieval, unless its not". As in it's specifically a mish mash of technological anachronisms, built on a very loose fundament of medieval aesthetics.
4424970
A technological system is defined by its higher attainments rather than its lower ones. If the Equestrians routinely use steam engines and build skyscrapers, and have the capability to build electrical machinery and use electricity in their cities, even if that technology hasn't yet reached the corners of the countryside, then they are not "medieval," they are Mid to Late Industrial (1875-1925).
What's more, even the parts which the writers and artists think are "medieval," aren't. The candles, lanterns and houses in Ponyville are mostly Renaissance to Modern (1500-1750). If you want to see something that looks "medieval," refer to the tapestries depicting Pony houses around the time Luna turned into Nightmare Moon -- but those are of Equestria a thousand years ago. Presumably, technology has progressed since then.
This is a common error of a lot of artists. They try to draw "medieval" but succeed in drawing modern. This is because the actual medieval era is so far past that its realities have vanished out of popular awareness.
4424969
It was very common in Mid to Late Industrial times, say around 1875-1925, for lower class workers to work full time away from their families, often in barrack-style housing, and return only for weekends and holidays. It's possible that Equestria works like this in a lot of cases.
The reason this is rarely the case anymore is because of the ubiquity of inter-city mass transit and other hirable motor vehicles, even in the countryside. Nowadays, such workers would be more likely to commute, albiet some of them face very long commutes (a couple of hours each way).
This is a standard feature of an Industrial Age culture, rather than a medieval one.
4424970
Medieval aesthetics. Which is to say style rather than substance.
4425006
In terms of technology, I like the theory I suggested, that ponies are, essentially Amish.
That is, either through conscious choice, or just general preference (or in case of your homebrew setting - religious reasons or Celestia's interference), they limit the use and spread of technologies that substitute interpersonal relationships.
So they have microphones, but no phones or telegraphs, they have vacuum tubes and x-ray, but no TV or cinemas, know electricity but don't buld power stations or factories, etc.
So would you say then, that the Royal Guards we see wearing armour that is a mixture of Greco-Roman helmets and medieval barding are the equivalent of the British Guards regiments wearing red coats and bearskin hats (not to mention the cavalry in their glittering cuirasses) outside Buckingham Palace, putting on a show for the tourists and visiting dignitaries? Or is armour really that far behind every other technology in Equestria?
4424999
I went to a lecture recently by a classics scholar, who said that one of the (various) reasons that the Victorians imagined that the classical Greeks and Romans were more like them than the medieval English was that there was really very little medieval England left by the Victorian era...whereas you could just go down the street and see the faux-classical stylings of the bank on the high street and wouldn't you know, it fit right in!
Which kind of supports your point, really...a lot of ponies probably imagine that their values are just like those of their ancestors because they've kept the aesthetic (although probably even Applejack would find that the actual values of some of her more distant ancestors were a little strange to her).
4424970
"Aesthetics" is a matter a style rather than substance. My exact point is that Ponyville is faux-medieval, meaning that the houses are designed to look vaguely medieval (whatever Equestria's nostalgiac concept of the world of half a millennium and more ago looks like) while they are thoroughly modern (~AD 1875-1925 equivalent) within. And that is what we see on the Show.
4425054
I think that the armor is reasonably functional for what it's meant to resist. Which is more melee weapons and magic than bullets. Gunpowder weapons are known, but mostly as artillery rather than musketry, and only the most heavily-enchanted personal armor would do any good against artillery anyway.
Equestrian military technology lags their other technologies. One of the things I have Luna do when she returns is a crash program to advance weapons technology as fast as possible.
4425083
And my point is that pegging show's technology to any specific IRL period is pointless, because its internally inconsistent by design. Even before magictech, which has nothing comparable IRL.
But if you were to judge by your own criteria of the highest technology available, then it must be late 70s - 80s, due to existence of arcade games and miniature wireless mictophone headsets.
Well, that, or, if you count magic, more like 31st century, since they have weather control, time-travel and multiverse travel down pat.
4425085
Though even in that case we have seen it develop, with the current guard armour compared to the much more all-embracing suits seen in the old castle. It suggest a gradual lightening of equipment trading off protection in order to gain increased mobility.
4425132
An adaptation to gunpowder. The Equestrians don't use musketry because muskets are only of limited use against Ponies; this is because a single-shot smoothbore musket is too inaccurate to hit a Pony at any but point-blank range and Ponies can use skirmish tactics to avoid being hit by massed musketry. They are faster in the field than Humans -- all Pony military formations combine the speed of cavalry with the flexibility of infantry.
However, in pre-gunpowder times Ponies used massed, heavy-armored formations. Artillery rendered this impractical to suicidal. In response, the Ponies developed skirmish tactics as the norm on the field, with either dispersed linear or non-linear maneuvering. This made musketry close to useless, which is why you rarely see it.
Of course, rifled muskets wouldn't be useless, especially if they were breechloaders or magazine-fed firearms. Nor would machine-muskets. The thing is that these didn't develop without the base of a lot of smoothbore single-shot muskets to buid on, and Celestia didn't care much about them.
Luna took one look at Equestria's industrial base after her return and saw the possibilities. Rifled muskets and machine-muskets come in right after the period covered by the Show, in consequence. It takes a while to get assembly-lines cranked up and troops rearmed and reorganized to use the new weaponry, and she's starting with the Night Guard.
A fantastic piece of analysis! You've done a great job if isolating and dating each cluster of inventions to different time periods. I have family who vacationed in villages in France that have thatched-roof buildings that look just like Ponyville, for the exact same reason: They are trying to maintain a specific aesthetic with the goal of attracting tourism. Of course, that does imply very strict zoning laws in Ponyville proper...
The only minor quibble I would bring up is the presence of an aristocracy: We've seen no evidence of non-Royal nobility in Equestria, and fairly strong evidence to the contrary (Fancypants not having a title, for one), unless you mean aristocracy in a more general sense, referring to an elite group of bureaucrats and mages that serve in Celestia's government.
It's a bit hypocritical of the Apples to judge others in town for catering to the whims of Canterlot. From the first year it was founded, I'd wager like 80% of the crops at Sweet Apple Acres went right up the mountain. Heck, Zap Apple Jam is probably something Filthy uses to get wealthy Canterlot shoppers to visit Barnyard Bargains and treat it as an outlet mall.
Rarity isn't just one of the ponies helping Ponyville attract Canterlot tourism: She's probably the leader of the movement! Most of the fancy stores we see in town appear to be restaurants, and Carousel Boutique. She's the "anchor tenant" of Ponyville, the reason ponies actually ride the train down the mountain, and then buy lunch at one of the restaurants, a pastry at Sugarcube Corner, and some goods from the market while they check out the "Mid-Late Summer-Harvest Parade Float." There's a reason in the comics she's part of the Mayor's Elite Business Council.
I bet a lot of ponies in Ponyville were furious when she opened up that second boutique in Canterlot, because that probably caused like a 20% drop in tourism.
Oh, and for authors who are writing about this subject, I recommend Estee, so many of his one-shots are on Rarity, Pinkie and other members of the Mane 6 dealing with Canterlot tourists.
It would be interesting to see what name people come up with for the pony who first realized that what his/her town needed was to be deliberately quaint.
I liked in Richforce's Civic Duty (read it!), Mayor Mare admits she'd built her initial campaign on replacing the fire hazard straw roofs in Ponyville with more modern roofs, but she realized that actually doing so after would leaving NOTHING in the budget for years (including basic maintenance), and chose to go back on her campaign promise, but actually got a rep for doing the greater good as a result!
4425141 My only point that is only torched on by ChudoJogurt quote. Magic plus the fact ponies aren't human means any tech will be Schizo Tech by the way humans see it. For example repeating Ice arrow crossbows would be actually quite devastating, maybe more then rifled muskets for a while.
By the way you are the first author I have seen on this sight to even mention cavalry mixed with ponies making war. And with the Sombra War timeline it showed that ponies do have factories. Note the heavy armor most likely was a Everfree thing, cause the Crystal Empire was using lighter armor for their jousters/cavalry, just look what Dash and Fluttershy wore doing the season 3 opening.
4425127
The video games are rare toys, probably partly-magical and the product of some Sparky sort of person (in Girl Genius terms). You will note that computers are not in general use for other applications in Equestria, though we have seen electrical or electronic controls and displays on some very specialized equipment (medical or experimental).
In contrast, we know that Equestria can build large numbers of steam engines, because of the railway network. Trains that large also require steel rails. A single skyscraper requires thousands to hundreds of thousands of tons of steel, far beyond what any pre-industrial economy can produce. The existence of cities with multiple large skyscrapers, shown directly on screen, makes it obvious that Equestria is at least Industrial Age in general technology.
I would guess that Equestria produces this steel by some means analogous to the Bessemer process. There may be alchemical or otherwise magical components to Equestrian steelmaking, but that doesn't change the essence of what's happening or its implications for the Equestrian economy. Specifically, the production of good steel in multi-ton lots means that good steel is cheap enough for railroads, skyscrapers, steam engines, suspension bridges (we've seen one on screen) and similar constructs of an Industrial Age civilization.
There are numerous other signs of Industrial Age culture. Some even directly affect the Mane Six. For instance, Rarity uses sewing machines and good steel needles to work with cloths that are almost certainly mass-produced in textile mills and can thus make numerous items of clothing at a low enough cost in labor and materials that large numbers of Ponies can afford her wares. Rarity's profits, which are enabling her to open outlets in multiple cities, derive in part from Industrial Age technology (and she probably ships them by train).
Twilight is a noted bibliophile. The reason why she can have such a massive library is because Equestria has printing presses (the Foal Free Press has a small one). There are almost certainly large steam or electrical presses in the big cities. This means that books can be mass-produced by publishers, which in turn means that books are relatively inexpensive items.
This is very much in contrast to the situation at a medieval level of technology, in which books must be hand-copied and are hence rare and expensive items. This is a very significant development: in Human history, it triggered the vast explosion of popular education that began in the 16th century AD and ushered in both the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. In my Equestrian history, it led to a second rise of Leveller sentiment in the 12th-13th centuries (observe the ruins in Maligh Spirits).
The Ponies, in general, are wealthy by the standards of most Human cultures. This is a sign of an Industrial Revolution: pre-industrial societies must keep most of their populations farming, and usually not far above subsistence levels if enough of a surplus is to be extracted by taxation and trade to support imperial cities and (small) upper to middle classes. Most cultures are economic pyramids, with most of the people poor; Industrial and later cultures have diamond-shaped wealth distributions, with most of the people somewhere in the middle classes and small groups of rich and poor. Equestria shows signs of having a diamond-shaped distribution, unless the Show is Celestian propaganda and refuses to depict the poor.
In short, the Show supports the idea of Equestria being at a roughly late 19th to early 20th century technology, by Human standards, though there are anamolies of very high and very low technology, here and there. The technology is not mostly "medieval," and the notion that it is shows that a lot of people mistake 18th-19th century technology for 13th-14th century technology.
4425559
Oh yes, the Ponies have different technological priorities than do we. For instance, they don't yet have motorized road vehicles, even though we had them at the rough level of technology shown on screen. It is likely that they are on the verge of developing and marketing motor wagons and cars, but that there's simply not as much demand, and stiffer competition from the older technology, because Earth Pony drayers (competition for motor wagons) are super-strong and super-smart compared to Human-bred horses, while any Pony worth his salt can outperform a ~1900-1925 motorcar (possibly even in terms of long-distance performance, as eary autos broke down a lot more than do the Ponies).
4425559
Dead right about the competition against muskets being stiffer than on our Earth. In addition to the points I raised about Pony soldiers being harder targets than Human ones, my Equestria specifically took crossbow technology a lot farther than did our world. The standard Equestrian military missile small arm as of YOH 1500 is a repeating crossbow, sort of like an improved version of the Chinese one.
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It uses the superior steels produced by Equestrian steel mills, Industrial Age mechanical engineering, and often minor enchantments to reduce friction and improve regenerative energy storage capability in its moving parts. It is not superior to an ~AD 1915 bolt-action rifle; but it is superior to a `1750 smoooth-bore single-shot musket, not least because it can shoot several times (3-6) before recranking and reloading become necessary.
Heavier portable crossbows are used for sniping and other support work. An example of such a weapon is Blackie's "Ol' Bessie," shown in Before Nightfall: Barely Rescued. In my main worldline, the events of "Barely Rescued" never happened, but Big Mac did inherit the crossbow (as he is a crossbow expert while Applejack has no particular attraction to such weapons). Some arbalests are multi-shot like Ol' Bessie, while others (generally the heaviest portable ones) are single-shot like Apfel Strudel's "Der Panzerfaust."
Heavier semi-portable versions, with bigger springs and larger magazines, can shoot at full automatic and fire dozens or even hundreds of shots before having to be recranked and reloaded. These sometimes allow changing springs, with multiple springs readied for each weapon, so that it can be reloaded several times before having to be recranked. These are not superior to ~AD 1915 machine-guns, but they are superior to small 18th-century field guns firing grapeshot, for anti-personnel work.
Of course, actual cannons are used for heavy support and siege operations. These are fairly advanced weapons by AD 17th-18th century standards, incorporating cartridges, lanyards, and varying loads; they are analogous to late 19th century artillery in terms of general capabilities. Pinkie's party cannon is a toy version of such a weapon.
4426624 My thoughts moved to more exotic weapons. For example, the weather factory can bottle lighting, so what stops some bright spark from combing that with thrown or dropped bombs, or with explosive grapeshot or cannon fire. If a strong earth pony can shatter rock with bare hooves, is it possible to enhance that to make power hooves? It might be possible for ponies to make direct energy weapons before ballistic firearms. For example, Rarity had a helmet to focus her light magic, so it might be possible to store, focus and direct light or force spell fire in to gun form.
I wonder if the faux-medieval we see in the show is a fashion trend, like the one done by the Victorians? I remember that William Morris was a big part of it, writing enthusiastic and incorrect essays about the wonderful English Middle Ages. And fantasy novels like Well at World's End that was the LoTR of its time, and which spread the 'romantic' Middle Ages idea even further. Not always with good results, at least if you're a medievalist or historian.
I can imagine things like that happening in Equestria too. Though they have the advantage of Celestia and Luna, who lived through those times and know what they were really like.
The Ponies seem to be fairly law-abiding, by pre-20th century standards (the Good Old Days were actually a lot more violent than many today realize).
We've both read books by Herbert Asbridge on what life was like in 19th century American cities, haven't we? Gangs of Old New York, etc. They could be as savage as anything Conan the Barbarian ever had to deal with. I've also recently read some books of American folklore and history covering the late 19th century like Gumbo Ya-Ya; if I am to judge by them, the main amusements of the American working class from about 1865-1930 or so consisted of boozing and brawling.
4424924 And even then they could be few and far between in some places. Heck, 'Yooperland' (the U.P., Upper Peninsula of Michigan) didn't have electricity outside of a few large towns until the late 50's-early 60's.
4425054 The armor and weapons could be 'behind the times'. Equestria doesn't seem to be a very warlike society.
4426696
That's an extremely good point. The Weather Factory's bottled lightning is effectively bombs, but (since they're not intended as weapons), they don't have anything designed to concentrate the energy to do real damage -- shrapnel, or an ionic focusing equivalent. And something like Rarity's mining helmet could probably, with a different design and better materials, work as a laser weapon.
I'm not sure how power hooves would work, exactly. Maybe by focusing the PKE that would normally generate a tacticle manipulatory field into a point? Yes, that sounds as if it would make sense.
4426595
Oh. So anything tgat doesnt fit to what you want is magi, but everything that does is technology?
Cute.
Ponies dont need an agricultural revolution because obvious _explicit_ magic. Also the fact that they can eat grass.
Ponies don't need textile revolution, because the walk naked all the time, the demand for fabric is obviously much lower than in our world.
But you quote that as a proof nevertheless.
But higher technologies you just choose to sweep under the rug because you dont like them
Like electronic games, that are left for foals to playin in the middle of the street. That would at least require a technology or magic for quality displays.
Like wireless headset used by a cheap promotional speaker.
Like a fifty's style microphone Pinkie uses.
Like several types of plastics, probably developed in 1950s.
Like functional wing prosthetics, we could not produce today.
Likw weather factories, which are clearly high-tech Industrial plants, not early 1900s OliverTwistean workhouses, or early Ford-style assemblies.
At this level of argumen you can peg it to any time of your choosing with almost as much justification.
Why not declare steam trains magic? Equestria is not very big, and thrid (or two thirda if you consider earth ponies to be able to mostly outrun the trains) can travel as easily under their own power.
Why not say that railroad tracks are wood, not steel?
Why not declare sewing machines magic, and skyscrapers offshoot of weathertech or earthponytech?
I can blithely ignore the obvious no less than you can y'know.
Dead wrong. The issue when judging an overall tech level is not one between "magic" and "technology" -- by definitition any magic that works is a functional technique and hence "technology" -- but between which techniques have been developed to allow deployment on a large scale.
For instance, if we look at America and Europe ~ 1875, we see examples of both anamalously high and low technology. Internal combustion engines were already under development; some existed in experimental forms. Engineers were working on the devices which made electrical power generation and transmission possible; telegraphy was a generation old. At the same time, there was a heck of a lot of muscle power being used, particularly on farms, and backwater rural districts where electricity was almost seen as magical.
Yet we would have no problem classifying the overall energy tech level as "mechanical power generated on site by external-combustion steam engines." Why is that? Because the most advanced widely-deployed technologies were based on these principles. There were railroads, steamboats, and factory steam engines in use in all major Powers and many minor ones. At the same time, aside from telegraphic communication, electricty was still mostly an experimental or special-purpose technology.
The continued use of an artifact from an earlier tech level does not mean that the society as a whole occupies that tech level. In much of 19th century Europe, there were buildings built in the Middle Ages still in everyday use. There were agricultural techniques developed many centuries ago, and since superseded by better ones, in everyday use in rural regions. And yet we would not, looking at this, conclude that 19th century Europe was as a whole "medieal." We would look at the railroads, steamboats and steamships, the mechanized factories, the deep coal mines and steel mills, and see an Industrial Age civilization.
Likewise with Equestria. No matter how quaint appear some of the houses.
We know that they've had an Agricultural Revolution because one of the main characters is a farmer and we often see Equestrian farms. If you mean the "agricultural revolution" of better selective breeding, irrigation and fertilization techiniques which started around ~AD 1700 in Britain and spread throughout the world, the farm we see of the most of -- Sweet Apple Acres -- uses mid to late 19th century agricultural technology, including well-designed deep plows and other muscle-drawn farm equipment. We see the transplantation of a superior apple tree as a plot point in one episode ("Over a Barrel").
We know for sure that food costs an economically-significant amount to produce and purchase because these are plot points in specific episodes -- several involving Sweet Apple Acres turning a profit, and the market-haggling in "Putting Her Hoof Down." Hence, anything making food production cheaper is valuable both to producers and consumers,
This incudes magickal cantrips ("Family Appreciation Day") and integrated mass-market supply chains (ibid) and improved food processing equipment ("The Super Speedy Cider Squeezey 6000," and though the titular device was rejected in that episode, it was because the Flim Flam Brothers are short-term sales tacticians rather than long-term marketing strategists).
Indeed they can, but this is a low-energy, dispersed and probably not very tasty food source for them. To maintain a population of tens of millions, many dwelling concentrated in large cities, they need more efficient agricultural production, food distribution and meal preparation systems than merely gathering grass would provide them. Which is what we see on the Show. Farms, chain department stores, restaurants and home kitchens.
They don't "walk naked all the tiime" They don't have a nudity taboo, which is quite different from not having the concept of clothing, or having an active taboo against wearing clothes. We see numerous scenes in which Ponies, including many who normally go naked, where clothes; and some Ponies seem to like to wear certain clothes all the time.
This is kind of hard to miss, since one of the main characters is a fashion designer.
Having said that, the price of a good comes from the intersection between supply and demand, not from supply or demand alone. Historically, what we think of today as "normal" clothing patterns, namely most people being able to afford multiple sets of clothing, are the product of the Industrial Revolution and specifically of textile mills. This is because the economies of scale are vast even in early textile factories as opposed to home-weaving -- it's a very repetitive and uniform task, hence relatively easy to mechanize (indeed, even the hand-loom and the home-loom are partly-mechanized systems).
Any culture capable of building railroads and skyscrapers is capable of, and probably builds, textile mills.
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All the examples you give of anamalously higher technology are either specialized entertainment devices ("toys") or cutting-edge production techniques. It is quite common for a culture to pioneer technologies in those fields before they develop them into widespread usage. This is because toys employ energies at a scale where they are fairly harmless should something go wrong, and cutting-edge production employs them under supervision of highly-skilled professionals who are thus able to prevent them from going wrong better than could the typical consumer.
And I do think that in some cases magic is being used. But not "instead of" technology. In concert with technology, to cheaply enable effects that magic could not cheaply and technology not achieve at all alone.
It might be magic, or it might be a simple electromechanical game such as were common in the 1970's when I was a child. On what basis do you assume a "quality display," and what do you mean by it?
The first man-made nitrocellulose plastic was Parkesine, patented in AD 1862. The first wholly synthetic plastic was Bakelite, patented in AD 1906. Given the existence of Equestrian alchemy, I could see plastics coming in a little earlier relative to other technologies, if one wishes to assume this Again: there is no hard-and-fast difference between "magic" and "technology," The difference is one of the degree to which personal psychic energies (in the SWSV, PKE) is used, and hybrid devices are possible.
The prosthetic wings almost certainly are both mechanical and magical, being powered by the flightfield of the Pegasus in question.
You could, but there's no reason to do so, as we haven't seen them do anything inconsistent with the known capabilities of steam trains.
It's a continental empire.
They were, originally, in our world. Steel rails replaced wood because wood rotted and broke too easily, and steel became cheaper. Also, the wood or stone tracks were used for mule-drawn trains, which were much smaller and slower than later steam trains. The consequences of a rail failing is much more catastrophic for a fast, massive train than for a slow, light one.
The sewing machines don't seem to be doing anything inexplicable by simple electromechanics or even just mechanics. The skyscrapers require thousands upon thousands of tons of steel to stand; any magic capable of enchantment on that scale would be indistinguishable from technology in any case.
Well the anarchist stew does make sense given ponies magic. They wouldn't need to invent new applications if they could already fly or use magic spells in order to accomplish their tasks. Of course, if the three tribes had stayed separate, we would see greater advances since they would have opponents to compete with and have to create devices in order to compensate for their own weaknesses. Now that Equestria is in a relatively peaceful stayed for quite some time, it's easy to see why they are at that level and will probably stay at it for quite some time since they have no real competitive rivals, at least none that we know of, that can compete magically or economically.
This is especially seen in the military, since they still have what I can safely say is Greek style armor and weaponry, primitive cannons as well. This can also be chalked up to ponies having enough magic and naturally durability to withstand attacks well until close range.
However, I would have to say that most of the advances are probably from Celestia's own trips through the portal with Starswirl. This is of course if you use the the comics as canon material or not. Either explanation could work, although I lean towards latter when writing fics about a more 'canon' version of Equestria and the former explanation when talking about the Shimmerverse.