How Guns Work In Equestria · 1:16am Sep 15th, 2019
Hey, all! I'm sure most of you have noticed that there was a new chapter today. The story is remaining on schedule, as I hoped, and we'll be done with Volume Two by the end of the year! By that time, I hope to have a new full-time job!
But that's not why I wanted to write this blog. If you're like me, you're a visual person, and it helps to be able to see what someone's talking about. That's why I wanted to take a bit of time to talk about how guns work in the Ponyville Noire series.
Obviously, human-sized guns wouldn't work with hooves, so when I was debating designs for guns, I eventually turned to the artwork of Baron Engel. His designs are probably the best explanation for how firearms would work with ponies, and I've been making more of an effort to accurately describe them in the stories, most especially pistols.
In general, there are three different classes of pistols. The first is foreleg-mounted weapons, with the gun resting atop a sleeve or clasp that goes over the foreleg and a lever-like trigger that extends in front of the hoof, like so. 
These are some of the oldest types of sidearms: the .38 Filly Police Special that is the standard sidearm of the PPD is based on this design, as is the snubnosed variation that Phil and Daring now use, like this one. 
The advantages carried in this one are ease in drawing, rapid firing, fairly simple concealment, an easy option to fire on the move, and a good balance of power and accuracy, though it's not always easy or feasible to raise the weapon high enough to properly aim down the sights (practice can negate this). In general, if a sidearm is a revolver or a multi-barrelled weapon, it looks like this.
The second type is magazine-fed weapons with a side-mounted hoof clasp and grip, like this one. 
These weapons can be tilted back into a "safe" position for walking and manuevering, and because the trigger actually needs to be pushed instead of pulled, it makes accidental discharges much less common than in the former design. They also have better accuracy because they can be raised to one's eyes more easily, but are slower to deploy and firing while moving is more difficult. Like everything else, it's a tradeoff. Magazine-fed semiautomatic pistols, like Trace and Red's Filly M1912 pistols, are of this design.
Thirdly, there are the old, classic weapons with large trigger guards and perpendicular grips, like this one. 
These guns are of the oldest designs, and are far and away the most powerful, but they require two hooves to operate and fire, making them difficult for use on the move. Nonetheless, they have a niche with those who are comfortable using them: Officer Wheellock uses two pistols like these, having grown up learning how to use them from her trickshooter uncle.
For long arms, these tend to be fairly similar to ones we have in real life: the only major differences are in the sizes of the trigger guards and grips, like this pump-action weapon. 
I hope that this has cleared up a few things about tech in the story and that you enjoyed the art! Please consider giving Baron Engels a follow if you haven't already, he's a talented artist and a really cool guy! And of course, I hope that you are enjoying Ponyville Noire and looking forward to more!
Later,
Josiah
Thanks for showing this I was always wondering how their firearms work and for a time I just gave up and said "maybe they just used spiderman style logic and hold things with their hooves." Finally thanks to your explanation I can finally imagine this story better