It seems that Equestria isn't as 'rural' as we (might have) thought.

... Darn BBCode images, not showin' up...

Care to elaborate?

1270254 It's a fantasy world, it doesn't really have many bounds.

1270254 What do you mean by that?

1270258 The picture I put there. It's all canon Pony technology.

1270254

1270254

Fixed it for you.

1270254 I was already aware and tried to tell people... for some reason they didn't believe me.

1270278 Thanks for that.

Are you saying that the all sentient species in equestria are all intergalactic space travelers?
Using their ships to traverse the stars in hopes of discovering the secrets of the universe while spreading love and tolerence to the rest of the galaxy leaving every planet in a better state than what they found it.
And for fun they play on their holo consoles, and watch the holo net?
And are you also saying that they can cure every known illness in the entire galaxy, teraform planets, harvest stars, resurrect extinct species, found the key to eternal life, and found god using technology!!!!!!
GOOD GOD!!!! You're a madman coming up with all this on your own!

1270254 Equestria can have or not have whatever you wish. If you notice, much of the details about the world is open-ended...not even the ages of the Mane Six is definitive. Some parts of it seems pretty rural, but then again, they have mechanized vehicles (the parade float from the episode with Babs Seed). It's really up to you to decide.

1270393 Taken from a blog in response to the pony's ages;

Q: How old are the ponies?

A: The ponies' ages were left intentionally undefined. I like to think of them as having maturity levels anywhere between 12 and 18, (but remember that maturity is different than age. You can be a 10-year-old with the maturity of a 15-year-old, and you can be a 35-year-old with the maturity of a 15-year-old.)

For story telling purposes, they needed to be able to live independent of parents, but innocent enough for the type of lessons they learn at the end of the episodes. Since horses are full grown around 5-ish, I guess I sort of justified it in my head that they could be childlike young adults. I know this answer is frustrating for some people, but it happens often in cartoons. How old is Bugs Bunny? Mickey Mouse? Sponge Bob? I don't know either.

So it's undefined, but it's strongly implied that they are 3-5 years old in pony years. I highly doubt this is their actual age, and I suspect MLP ponies age differently to RL ponies.

Edit: I've just checked wiki and the oldest age for a pony horse is 30 years, though that is only the average. Some unusual horses live to be 40, with the oldest pony at 57. Let us assume that Granny Smith is about 50. She's old but not so old as to be dying all too soon. If we make her at about 200 years old in MLP years (due to her being there at the start of ponyville which is centuries old), that makes an age contraction of about 1:4. Then checking back to Wiki, any horse pony older than 4 years is a Mare or a Stallion. I'd then place their ages between 16 and 20. We've got to bare in mind this though:

Regardless of a horse's actual birth date, for most competition purposes, an animal is considered a year older on January 1 of each year in the Northern Hemisphere and August 1 in the Southern Hemisphere. The exception is in endurance riding, where the minimum age to compete is based on the animal's actual calendar age.

I think we're safe in the assumption that we're in the northern hemisphere. From this all the ponies ages are 'the same', except Applejack who is probably considered a year older due to using her actual date of birth, I'd make her ~5 but only just and living with such young friends makes for her not acting her age. I'd probably sum all of this up to say they're all about 17-18 in MLP years (4-5 in RL pony years).

In the episode "Griffon the Brush-Off" Fluttershy retorts to a line said by Pinkie Pie by saying "I'm a year older than you", which could either be interpreted in pony years or our years, giving the age of either 5 pony years or something like 19 or 20 of our years. Another thing is how Pinkie is actually far smarter than she initially seems, implying much more maturity (which again implies age) than at first glance.

That makes our best guess something like this (to the nearest year) in RL/MLP terms:

Twilight Sparkle - 4/18 (fresh out of magic school)
Pinky Pie - 4/18
Rarity - 4/18
Apple Jack - 5/20
Rainbow Dash - 4/19 (rounding down to 4 due to the January birth thing)
Fluttershy - 5/19 or 20 (based off of the questions premise)
Princess Luna - Indeterminant, minimum 1000, although unclear
Princess Celestia - Indeterminant, minimum 1000, although unclear
Granny Smith - 50/200

1270254 MAYBE THEY HAVE COMPUTERS
MAYBE THEY ANIMATE THE SHOW
MAYBE IT'S BROADCASTED THROUGH TIME AND SPACE

MAYBE I'M WASTING YOUR TIME.

1270492 Nice.

1270358
Thank god nobody ever came up with such an idea before. Can you imagine what a horrid story that would make, especially if it caught on?

1270492
LOOK OUT! He pushed the "maybe", baby!

1270653 I dont know i've read fanfics where when you explane them they sound horrible, but when you read them they are fantastic.
It all depends on the way its written for me.

1270254 1270268 1270278 1270286
From an exclusive Season 1 retrospective interview with Lauren Faust:

18. The ponies are definitely the heart of the show, yet they occupy a world that is rich with mythology and fantasy while still sporting a variety of modern technology. What was the creative strategy behind constructing the realm of FiM's Equestria? How did the team approach this balance between mythological fantasy and modern tech?

Faust: I always wanted the default technology of the show to be a bit medieval in nature; but since this is a whimsical, non-serious show, I felt there was plenty of wiggle room. I think ultimately it was just my personal comfort level in each individual story. If it screwed up the story to get too technical about how primitive the technology was, it wasn’t worth it. So, if we needed cameras, I just wanted those cameras to be relatively workable to a creature with no fingers. And if we absolutely positively HAD to have an electrical appliance (which we often did), I just told myself that it was enchanted by some magical unicorn mechanic at some point. However, I insisted that such an attitude was to be considered only as a last creative resort — don’t use a light switch when you could use a candle, just because you’re feeling lazy. Don’t draw a hoof unnaturally and awkwardly wrapped around an umbrella because you don’t feel like thinking about it a little more. Overall, though, it was definitely not a strict approach — and it’s hardly consistent. Humor and ease of storytelling took precedence over technicality.

No, this isn't a case of "Faust's headcanon versus Hasbro's canon". This is her commenting on the practices they used when designing the setting for the show, so her comment is relevant so long as the show remains within the setting she helped design.

TL;DR — The evidence of modern technology you see? It's generally going to be about as legitimate as any kind of "A Wizard Did It" would be. It's not a well-thought out part of the series' world-build — it's a convenience for the story writers so that they don't have to be really clever when trying to solve problems like "how would Ponies do such and such or this and that?" Instead of thinking up clever solutions to various problems within the context of such an alien world, they shoehorn in solutions from the real world that will be instantly recognizable to human viewers.

But to be perfectly fair, they're not trying to create an incredibly detailed alien world, they're trying to write a children's show that espouses common values through episodic content. The lesson of the current episode is HUGELY more important to them than the show's technological continuity. If something like a photographer's camera suits the needs of a particular episode and an alternative solution can't be easily found, the writers will merely use something that looks and works like a camera and not give a damn about whether or not it makes sense for Ponies to have cameras.

1270278 I pretty sure that the lazes and digital watches where from Pinkie's imagination.

1270914 k

1270999 Yes.

Without magic, ponies have ~mid 1800's technology. With magic, they can approximate stuff up until the 70's.

1270254
#Magic

You guys are all faggots. Ponies are an inferior, disgusting species of sub-sapient animals that deserve neither respect, nor the right to live.

Humans all the way!

1270254 Perhaps they don't use technology and prefer to use their Earth Pony slaves?

Equestrian modernisation is heavily regulated to prevent ponies being made redundant from something their cutie marks are aligned with, along with the principles of aesthetic taste.

Essentially we can view Equestria as an example where you get the best of both worlds; the convenience of the modern world with the charm of the pre-industrial world.

1270358

sounds like a 'peace and happiness' version of the space marines

1274030Whats that? sounds cool! ill look it up!

1273008Dude chill out! the whole purpose of the show is adout love and tolerance! And watch your mouth! look what you did to the ponies!

1273008
I think you read one too many conversion bureau stories. Canon ponies are alright..... conversion ones though must be cleansed through flames and lead.