I...am in need of ideas. I have an HiE (that doesn't actually have any pony characters in it, nor will it at any point) that takes place 30 years after the human character arrived, though he's living with changelings, not ponies. In that time, there's the assumption that he's shared some of his knowledge of human technology with said changelings. My question is, what form should their new tech take, specifically when it comes to weapons?

The way I see it, it should be steampunk magic/tech hybrids, since they're skipping generations of normal technological progress and shooting straight for human tech, or at least what the human character knows of it. They've only dabbled a bit in steam powered stuff, though they do have a steam-based power distribution network. So far, their military hardware consists of steam carriages, electrified and/or heated weapons, and a single Battlestation, which is powered by their first working internal combustion engine. I have some general ideas for their firearms ("lances"), and other ranged weapons they use, but I'm stuck on the principles behind them. How could changeling lances work in a way that reflects both their human inspiration and use of magic? Suggestions?

Why would the changelings need to mix their weapons with magic? In most stories, they live underground. It would be really easy to find the stuff they need to make gunpowder down there. As long as they can do decent metalworking, which they'd have to be able to in order to make all that other stuff, why can't they just make guns? They wouldn't even have to modify them from Anon's original plan, since changelings can modify their body. They could just give themselves fingers to fire the things.

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They do give themselves fingers. They did that even before the human showed up (he does actually have a name, but...yeah, I don't like shameless plugging).

A-hum...didn't think about that. Alright so combining the two for their firearms wouldn't be necessary. What other magic-based weaponry could they have? Their magic isn't as strong as ponies' on average, but I doubt they would discard it completely, especially since they're a long way from being on par with humans (ex: their Battlestation is just barely better than WWI tanks, and it took an immense amount of resources and effort just to build one). One idea I had was actually their hotblades. They don't heat it directly with magic, but instead channel it through a glove and through a magic resistant element embedded in the sword, said resistance causing it to heat up enourmously.

...That's the only one I had, though.

You know, just a bit of metalworking knowledge in conjecture with human ingenuity, might make the changelings a very dangerous force to be reckoned with.

Just up their armor to at least the level of the royal guard, and then give them what basically amount to one or two of these each:

Teach them to spin and aim them with their TK while flying like some kind of buzz-saws from hell and... bam. Complete air and ground superiority.

It is easy to forget, but changelings are the only (not counting pegacorns) species we've seen with flight and magic. In the hooves of... Well, anybody but that big ham of a hack Chrysalis, they would probably have completely seized Canterlot without much resistance.

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There's a balance to that, though. They have wings, but they're much worse at flying than pegasi. They have magic, but nothing anywhere near the strength of unicorns. They're stronger physically than pegasi or unicorns, but much weaker than earth ponies.

Also, Chrysalis was kinda starving to death. That's my explanation for things like the holes in her hooves and how positively frail she looks: her body was consuming itself. You don't exactly think straight when you're half dead like that. She couldn't immediately feed herself with all that love she used to defeat Celestia, either. Why? Well, what happens when you give a severely dehydrated person a bucket of water and they drink it all at once? Bad things.

The changelings' main advantage (in my story, at least) is their technology. Imagine them as being like...like the Dwarves (or whatever they're called) in the Elder Scrolls in some ways.

They're dangerously close to going extinct (they have a single city, that's it), and they live in the most inhospitable land on the planet, but they have guns (which no one else but the Minotaurs have, and they rarely go to war), tanks, hotblades, and a city defended by giant appropriately named "Oblivion lances."

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Still, they did have enough strength for a full-scale invasion. No matter how desperate the situation, that implies a bit of reserves left.

And that was what I was attempting to convey. Although worse fliers, they have magic, and vise versa. With the right gear and tactics they might be very nasty.

But that fic of your's sound intriguing. Good luck on it. Here, have a follow as a moral boost.

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>Well, anybody but that big ham of a hack Chrysalis, they would probably have completely seized Canterlot without much resistance.
They did completely seize Canterlot with almost no resistance. They didn't lose because the military pushed them out. They lost because Cadance is a Mary Sue. Chrysalis forgot that she was a bad guy in a children's show, so she didn't realize that love could conquer all. They actually did seize Canterlot extremely easily. Then they got thrown out by love magic or some bullshit.

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The only real use I see for magic in a battlefield situation when you have guns and bombs is for shields, healing, and communication. Since all infantry can use guns but only trained magic users can effectively use magic, give each squad a healer, a defender, and a communications expert. The healer performs rudimentary first aid on anyone injured, essentially a corpsman. The defender keeps a shield up and watches out for projectiles, essentially protecting the rest of the squad so they can focus on completely the objective. The communications guy watches the sky for specific bursts of colors that indicate either orders or information, then send up a color in response to that. He gives directions to the leader, who processes them. It would be a good backup to radio, because there's only so much you can do with a really basic radio set.

But of course, changelings don't want to kill their enemies, so don't forget that. Changelings want to capture, preferably intact, so they can feed. Consider them the Aztecs, where capturing the enemy is more important than individual soldiers' lives. After all, the sacrifice of one warrior can ensure fifty civilians can feed from a captured enemy warrior.

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Good point (though said invasion didn't help their situation).

Thanks for the follow, by the way.

Funny you should mention the windmill thing. Something like that is a weapon used by some of the Praetorians (Royal Guard equivalents). It's like a combination of that and those swords Kratos uses in God of War, in that they're attached to the wrist via chains.

magic powered laser guns

2093260 science and tech don't mix, the closest you could get to techno-magic is alchemy.

OHH dear, MagiTech? Quick! Get me out of this thread.