Military Controversy

Is the basic earth pony military unit infantry, or cavalry?

Please overthink as much as possible, then justify your answers.

Comments

[Oliver]

The word “cavalry” turns up in primary canon exactly once – in The Beginning of the End – and considering its etymology, can mean exactly one thing: a unit consisting of armored knights, which, according to secondary canon, would actually invariably be unicorns, rather than earth ponies. That latter notion is supported in primary canon by knight-like Royal Guard who don’t have an earth pony between them, never mind Big Mac’s character Sir Biggun, who is also a unicorn.

That said, assuming you’re using a translation lens, which I know you do, this answer is inapplicable, since its base argument doesn’t exist.

Looking from the point of view of basic tactics, we have to consider the reasons the distinction exists at all. Human cavalry involves at least two primary types – heavy cavalry, relying on armor, lances and charges, and light cavalry, relying on mobility and more often than not, ranged combat. That latter actually survived all the way into WWII, wherein it was effectively mobile infantry using horses, rather than cars, for mobility, and dropped the idea of fighting from horseback entirely.

Now, which is the weapon you expect earth ponies to use most often? If it’s polearms, the primary unit is (heavy) cavalry. If it’s bows or crossbows, the primary unit is (light) cavalry. If it’s swords, or other non-polearm bladed weapons, and shields, the primary unit is infantry.

[zakueins]

I would say that what we would call "skirmisher" infantry (light armor, small shields, swords, and spears) and light cavalry would be lumped together either as light Earth pony or Pegasus units. They move fast, scouting, and trying to harry and harass the enemy. This is especially useful against griffin forces, which are kind of tough and kind of fast.

The heavy infantry? Think a mixture of the Roman Legions and the Byzantine capharact-heavy armor, lances, and while perhaps not very quick, very few things stand in their way unless they are slightly mad. Or minotaurs, who can do the whole phalanx/legionaire thing without issues.

Unicorns tend to come in two kinds of artillery-either using their powers to heft things like bundles of spears, flinging rocks (individually or in groups) or just attacking directly with their magic.