There's been two characters I've always enjoyed watching on the show, and wondered something about:

In a test of strength only, no magic allowed or involved, just strength alone, who is the stronger pony between:

Shining Armor vs Big Macintosh.

and begin

Obviously Macintosh.
He's a large, hardworking pony who's done manual labor his whole life and is canonically "the strong one," able to drag entire houses and lift a stove with one hoof.
Shining Armor is a unicorn from a privileged elite family with only a few years of guard training/conditioning, much of which would not be purely physical. No basis in-show for raw strength.

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but Big Mackintosh has no combat training! Shining is a captain of the guard! he had plenty of training as well as real experience. although brute strength is with Big Mac, he is... big and not too agile. shining is smaller and although he may seem like a strong stallion, hes a lot more agile.

2609762
However, this is "a test of strength only," not necessarily a fight. Or, in the case of a fight, a pure test of strength would be akin to a head-on encounter that would ultimately favor brute strength. The question is

In a test of strength only, no magic allowed or involved, just strength alone, who is the stronger pony between: Shining Armor vs Big Macintosh.

to me, personally, I think it's Big Mac. reason being is, arrow is right, he has had no combat training. however, he has had years and years of working on the farm, doing the toughest and heaviest chores. I mean, he can lift a stove with a single hoof. he can pull a house

I'd have to say Big Mac. Hypothetically speaking, if they were to fight, Big Mac would probably be more brawn than brain, while Shining would probably be more balanced. Plus, Shining has probably had some sort of special training or experience, like Arrow said. Being a captain and all, Shining would most likely be able to assess a situation where he was fighting somepony who was physically stronger than him, and find a weakness and exploit it.

The armor that royal guards wear is probably very heavy, so Shining might have the strength advantage. Plus, he might be stronger than he looks.
Now here's a pony we should talk about: Snowflake
Snowflake: Yeah!

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haha, although snowflake is a great pony, let's keep it on topic. you make a hell of a point, a lot of that armor can really strengthen you, but how long has he been wearing it? we've seen he wasn't always with the guard, and that's comparing the fact that Big Mac has been a farm workhorse and the main strength all his life since he was a colt, but however you do make a very interesting point about Shining Armor: he might be stronger than he looks.

2614860 Let's say Shining joined when he was eighteen and he's about ten years older than Twilight. Assume that Twilight's 20 and he joined when she was eight. He would be using the armor for 12 years. That would help your strength. Why isn't there a Shining Armor emoticon?

Hmm raw strength would be Big Mac hooves down in my opinion

I'd go for Big Mac. The reason being that he is constantly doing work all year 'round. While Shining Armor is a guard, he is a unicorn. Magic doesn't apply here. Also if you look at the Grand Galloping Gala episode, there are a bunch of unicorn stallions that have the same body type as the two characters involved in this debate.

I would be willing to bet that they aren't as strong as Big Mac or Shining Armor. I'd say that buff look is more for stallions in general which means that size isn't everything.

Here is where I think Big Mac takes the win though.

Big Mac, as I previously said, constantly works day in and day out. Shining Armor did go through guard training; however, I would expect his training to be different than an earth pony's training. It'd be more magic focused than anything. The earth pony training would be more strength tested, in my opinion.

While the idea of weighted armor is plausible, I'm thinking that the Equestrian military does what many militaries on our world do. The higher rank you become, the more vivid your uniform will become.

PLUS, the weight of armor/gear depends on what role you are in combat. A machine gunner is going to weigh more in terms of gear than a sniper, for example.

Winner: Big Mac

Q: When you talk about strength. Do you mean Physically (Like Hercules) or Mentally (Like Link from The Legend of Zelda games)?

For Physically I say Big Mac.

For Mentally I say Shining Armor.

I'm saying that there's two different types of Strength in any world.

>> Spike The Baby Dragon

OK, I say Big Mac because A. He moved a house B. He works/lives on a farm. C. he's a earth pony.

2627422
agreed.

2627422

you are correct, I meant to specify. we are speaking of physical strength here

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thank you. that was completely useless. please read the rules.

I remember in the crystal empire EP Shining 'threw' Cadence half way across a the crystal palace, after physically fighting Sombra and living with only minor injuries.

But in the love poison EP, we all watched as Big Mac pulled an entire two story house.

I'm only thinking SM is stronger than BM because Shining had more of a chance to prove how bad ass he is, that and Shining is one of my faves.

Then there was the power ponies EP where we watched in absolute fear as Fluttershy ripped Mane-iac's hair cannon to shreds. (Non related to the debate. Just reminded me of the moment that made me almost soil myself.)

lot of great points so far, the winner of this debate will be announced tomorrow

Allright, great first week debate, and after studying all the answers, the winner of the first debate is:

Big Macintosh!

Well done and great points made everyone. Next one coming right up