Random Idea #74: (non)Combustion Civilization

This thought was spawned from comments across the internet about just how much of a technological boost the utilization of fossil fuels for industry gave to humanity. As much as it sucks long term environmentally (carbon, smog, nitrous oxides, etc) and short term (volatility to exploding via sparks), fossil fuels are, still, unparalleled in mobile, compact power, and gives one the resources to research cleaner energy sources.

Many renewable energy sources are often limited in location, energy storage issues, and/or lack of predictability/controllability, as in the ability to scale up or down depending on need. 

All need batteries to be made portable, which requires a decent tech base to get anywhere.

If you don’t have access to fossil fuels (which is a possibility if you subscribe to the "Equestria is built on the ashes of Earth" theory), you are almost permanently stuck with animal or plant based materials for heating and energy generation. Since ponies are probably less likely to use animal material as much, that means much of their daily items must be constructed with natural plant life or basic mined materials (unless ponies have figured out how to specifically grow energy dense plants for transportation, hmm now that's an idea)(rock farm, energy stones???). Hand tools are mostly fine, as you can get by high hardness metal tools with a lot of charcoal, but wax and lamp oil is a little more annoying to acquire, 

Considering how rapid the growth of our own industrial age, that would mean ponies had to get where they are without being able to rely on any of that at all.

What they do have that we don’t is magic, in both expressed magic as in horns, weather manipulation, earth manipulation, along with personal magic in cutie marks.

However, the ponies’ magic is also a bit of a double-edged sword.

For basic survival, its fine. Pegasi can help ensure perfect weather, Earth Terrasi can pretty much produce perfect food, and Unicorns can ... do stuff I guess. Multipliers to everyone else could be possible. Help with tool making, etc.

However, their society’s rather heavy focus on cutie marks tends to result in a bit of overspecialization. Getting a cutie mark often comes from getting good at something fairly local to you, especially before easy long distance communication, which seems to tend to lock said pony into that role for life. For the most part, the only type of ponies who have a combination of talent and drive to go beyond are prodigies like Sunset and Twilight.

This means that it often takes an entire generation before something new starts really proliferating throughout the populace, otherwise it is partially bottlenecked through its creator and those with somewhat related skills. As a rough example, you won’t find anyone with a steam engine cutie mark until steam engines are built, and you won’t really see magically boosted development until said foal(s) grows up and gets invested in steam engines.

Essentially, cutie mark magic tends to be very good at making the Now better, but takes considerably more effort to Create the Unknown.

Magic may also at least partially make up for the lack of portable power, because the ponies have a far greater energy output than what their food intake would suggest. Dash is a pretty clear example of this, being able to produce frankly ridiculously high amounts of thrust for her size. Everyone thinks “fast” when we think of flying birds, but most birds are also a fraction of our size and their bodies are heavily focused on reducing weight further. The largest bird that can still fly is the Wandering Albatross, and the heaviest only comes in at under 13 kg.

Magic has to both negate part of the pegasi’s weight, along with producing an absurd amount of thrust for their size in order to do a Rainboom. No matter how hollow their bones are, they’re still way too heavy unless ponies are literally the size of rabbits.

Unicorns on the upper end can produce hilariously destructive lasers. Terrasi can crush boulders into fist sized pebbles in seconds.

However, magic as a power source tends to have a weakness shared in many fantasy settings, in that it can't really be mass produced; it is completely bottle-necked by a very small group of individuals. There are maybe 3 unicorns max who can access the highest level spells in Twilight's generation, Pinkie's foresight is possibly unique to her family, Rainbow's speed is a once in a multi-generation skill, etc. Without the talent for magic, those spells and skills just become dusty scribbles in a history textbook.

So what I’m getting at is, before the industrial revolution, human technological advancement wasn’t exactly fast either; without evidence of really going full industry, what the ponies have managed to develop is not actually that bad.

Note: Exceptions exist, in one form as magi-tech where power can be sourced and stored independent of the user. The moment it becomes user-agnostic, then technological advances can spread far more organically. There is a bit of evidence that ponies are somewhat moving in that direction (that hydro-dam is probably powering something), such as Rarity’s sewing machine, the printing press, cameras, trains, or the various medical devices in the hospital. Larger scale spells and abilities are still pony-dependent. 

Also, let’s try not to fry ourselves back to the stone age. We don’t get to use magic as a crutch, and are unlikely to get a second chance at utilizing a cheap portable fuel source.