I already posted threads like this on Dark and Snuff, but it looks like I overlooked this one! In this thread we talk about the various ways in which ponies and other races may have punished each other through history, including putting each other to death. The below is mostly a crosspost from Dark.

I'll lead with my Equestria, in reverse historical order;

• Now-about 300 years ago - total moratorium by order of Celestia
• 300ish years before that - beheading by guillotine, as a possible punishment for murder, treason and any repeated violent felony greater than simple assault. For the last 200 years sentencing powers were reserved to Celestia in fact (previously she had signed judges' death warrants) and she grew increasingly merciful as time wore on. No execution of foals (pre-Mark).
• Diarchal era before that (Luna remembers this) - an irregular mishmash of methods (including hanging, beheading and electrocution) imposed for a broader variety of crimes (generally all of the above plus forgers and incorrigible thieves, but varied by region) and commonly on the arbitary opinion of the judge. (Celestia's popularity in this era came partially from her habit of issuing frequent commutations and pardons, while Luna followed the law as written (even, though usually as mercifully as possible, when foals were involved) because why topple Discord if what ponies got in his place was just as arbitrary?

• Discordian Era- Discord himself didn't kill ponies (Directly. On purpose.) but he had ways of making them wish they were dead. He often (though not often enough to be anything like fair) selected for this treatment ponies who had enacted the brutal laws adopted by many surviving communities. Think "wasteland justice" from Fallout (Equestria) but channeled through a religious devotion to the enforcement of Order on Chaos (which all lawbreaking was defined as a symptom of, making all offenders accomplices of Discord himself.)

  These harsh methods (your typical "hang a foal for stealing a loaf of bread" stuff) were continued for some time in most of the other post-Discordian States - the "softer" Equestrian version seen above is a result of the influence of the Princesses as well as the adoption of the Principles of Harmony, especially Kindness.

• (Pre)- Classical Era- The one with the worst reputation, based not so much on the frequency of executions* as the spectacle of them, from unicorn noble's who competed for the flashiest spellcasters to carry out the deed (some aspects of Trixie's show trace back to this era) to Pegasi who tore traitors' wings off in midair and let them fall - more common criminals like murderers simply had them bound. (At least the treason version of this survived until the time of Nightmare Moon.)

*The high point was actually soon after the Unification, because enslavement of ponies, once a common punishment, had been banned and some judges rounded up. Eventually, like the American South, they realised that they could just call it "hard labour" and criminals once again became more valuable alive.

So there's mine - anyone else got any ideas?

More specifically, a question and a request?

Would anyone be interested in a story about foal executions in Diarchal Equestria?

And for no necessarily connected reason, can anyone who knows some physics answer these:

• If a lightning cloud was discharged into a lightning rod, would the current that would flow down an attached metal chain and through a metal collar be enough to kill a pony instantly?
• If not, what would it do?

• If so, what state would the body be left in?

  Would it make any difference if;

• Wire was used instead of chain? (Feel free to suggest metals for either, too.)
• The collar had a metal plate (like a bridle bit) which the pony held in their mouth?
• The pony was drenched in water beforehoof?

At the risk of shameless self promotion, my curent project opens with this line:

Starlight Glimmer committed Equestria's only capital crime about a month after her sixteenth birthday. It started on a Monday.

The crime being necromancy. This was inspired by the STAR TREK episode “The Menagerie,” where the Federation has only a single death penalty left on the books.

I’d like to think Celestia would seldom if ever drop the hammer on somepony, but I also recently tried to explore the psychological consequences of when Celestia needs to end somepony extrajudicially.

6771977

As a matter of physics, I wouldn’t drench my victim — you don’t want to shunt the current around the brain or heart. The water on the skin might act like a parallel resistance to the body, and current will shunt through the easiest path to ground. Break the skin and try to get the current to flow across the heart.

6771983
Interesting - given canon Starlight probably will get out alive, but it will be interesting to see how.

As a matter of physics, I wouldn’t drench my victim — you don’t want to shunt the current around the brain or heart. The water on the skin might act like a parallel resistance to the body, and current will shunt through the easiest path to ground. Break the skin and try to get the current to flow across the heart.

Yeah, I figured that might just make it worse. What about the metal-plate-in-mouth idea?

6771984
Possibly — saliva is probably fairly conductive, compared to water or skin. (Pure water is actually a godawful conductor, it’s the total dissolved solids that imparts conductivity.)

My expertise is more “electiricty flowing along nanometer scale semiconductor gates” so I can’t answer definitively. Of course, the ability to make it horrifying is more important than the ability to make it scientifically accurate.

If you want nasty for nasty’s sake, put the lightning rod in their mouth and the grounding stake in the... ahem... bottom of their digestive tract.

6771984

Electrofishing for whales

6771987
Interesting - your suggestion is certainly cruel, but I feel it may offend public morals somewhat. The mouthpiece should suffice.

So if I'm reading it right, it would probably kill quickly without much noticeable damage to the body, but perhaps some spasming and soiling in the moment?

6771994

If the goals is “painless and messless,” lock them in a hut with a charcoal fire (carbon monoxide).

If you want electicity and public, and pre-mideval technology, let’s think:

• Hire a redsmith (aka coppersmith)
• He carves a wooden blank about one foot square, slightly curved to conform to a pony’s flank, and with small spikes on it.
• He uses the wooden blank to perform “sand casting” of two copper plates with spikes
• He needs to be a unicorn to get the fire hot enough, since copper melts at a higher temperaure than brass or bronze
• he tosses charcoal into the melt to “purify the magic” (drive off the dissolved oxygen and make the electrical conductivity higher)
• smear the two plates with a salt slurry and strap them tight to the flanks, to the left and right of the heart, or to the spine and sternum. Make sure they break the skin.
• one plate to the lightning rod, one to the grounding stake.

This’ll give a current straight across the heart and be as “clean” as possible.

6772002
Interestingly creative! Also a bit complicated though, so I think I'll have that be slightly further down the tech tree.

My goals are meta (I want something uniquely Equestrian, but with a gallows aesthetic) while the in-universe justification is kind of a racial politics thing - pegasi make the worst headsmares and their traditional "long drop" method is seen as barbarous by many, so surely the best idea is to create a new, painless* and progressive method using the new-fangled pegasus-exclusive art of weather technology!
(Admit it: you would probably fit in well with the circles of educated pegasi who leaped to this conclusion.)

*They know it can be, they just haven't figured out a way to make it reliable.

I'm thinking, maybe Discord used something like Medieval torture methods for execution and other punishments?

6781906
I think Discord would be more likely to use ironic methods - and finds actually killing ponies boring.

6781934
Or maybe some thing like what Monokuma from Danganronpa uses to execute the Killing Game participants?