Okay so anyone whose read my flagship fic knows I"m a huge fan of wingblades and the idea of pegasi using swords in combat. But how would this work? Aren't there like a bajilion inconveniences and hindrances to overcome? Well I was stuck on that for awhile until I came across and amazing story called A Song of Storms: Of Skies Long Forgotten written by The 24th Pegasus and LoyalLiar. These guys are amazing, and I wanted to share the brilliance of how they overcame these problems.
(Taken from a thread post titled "About the Universe" from their group, The Price of Loyalty)

Mouth-held swords: Pegasi (and other ponies) hold swords in their mouths for several reasons. The biggest and most important is that there's no other way for them to hold a sword and use it effectively. Anything other than the mouth would require some sort of brace or rigging to be created to hold the sword somewhere else, which would be prone to failure and would be all-around clumsy to use. Mouth-held swords are secure and versatile, for a variety of reasons.
The first of these reasons is the versatility factor. Ponies who are trained with the sword have two distinct positions that they hold the weapon in when wielding it; together these are called the tooth-and-bar stances. The first stance, the tooth stance, is when the pony holds the hilt of the sword on their teeth. This stance offers versatility, because unless the pony is using a double sword, they can only defend the side of the body that their sword is angled across. Holding the hilt on the teeth allows them to flick it from side to side in their mouth with their tongue. Some of the best swordsponies can change sides with impressive speed, but generally speaking, a pony doesn't want to be forced to have to repeatedly change sides to defend themselves. They should be able to pick a side and commit to it, which is where the bar stance comes in.
The next bit gets a little technical with horse anatomy, so I've included a diagram to reference:

The bar stance is a pony's "power stance" -- that is, it is the stance where they derive most of their striking power for their swords with. Once a pony has committed to which side of their body that they're going to hold the sword at, they pull it back with their tongue off of their front incisor teeth and into the bars of the mouth, where it can be locked between their jaws. As opposed to the tooth stance, the bar stance offers several advantages in combat. The first is that it is difficult to dislodge/disarm the weapon. Because the weapon is locked in the space between teeth, the pony can chomp down with their jaw at its full strength, which is no small amount -- the jaws are some of the strongest muscles in the body of many animals, horses and ponies included. To disarm the pony of their weapon, and opponent would have to force open their jaw and pry the weapon out from between teeth, which is nearly impossible to do simply by attacking the weapon itself. The second advantage plays off the first, and that is hitting strength. Because the weapon is so secure, it doesn't lose as much of the force behind a blow to shifting and vibrations in the mouth, as anything that is loose on contact is prone to do. Also, ponies have a lot of neck muscle, and they can transfer that energy directly into a very powerful and very dangerous sword swing.
It should be mentioned that the Cirran style of sword-fighting and the Royal Guard style of sword-fighting are two entirely different things; Royal Guard swords are shaped with a curve in the hilt that rests against the roof of their mouth, allowing the pony to talk while holding a sword. Consequently, it is nearly impossible to adopt the tooth stance with such a weapon, and a Guard must pick and favor the side they've committed to once they're engaged in combat. Cirran weapons, on the other hand, are more like human swords in that they have a flat hilt that allows them to adopt the tooth stance. Their downside is that they cannot communicate as clearly with the weapon in their mouth as they could with a Royal Guard sword -- a small price to pay for increased versatility.
Vision in combat: I disagree with you here, and again this relies on the anatomy of a horse/pony. Keep in mind that ponies have the eyes on the sides of their heads, not the front. This gives them a wide range of vision and enhanced situational awareness when in combat than creatures with the eyes on the fronts of their heads. In fact, the only area that a pony cannot see reliably is directly behind them. So long as they're paying attention, they can survey most of the area around them and keep an eye on various threats and dangers.
This means that even if a pony misses, they'll still have an eye facing towards their target. Also, the placement of their eyes ties in with the next point.
Countering blocked swords: If you're an earth pony here, you're SOOL. A unicorn could use their magic to levitate in some additional defense, perhaps another sword they have floating nearby to counter a parry. A crystal pony could rely on their crystalline skin to deflect weak attacks, such as an offhand talon strike from a griffon (if griffon and crystal pony soldiers are fighting each other, somethings gone seriously wrong for one of their nations). Pegasi have their own means of defense, and those are their wingblades.
The purpose of the wingblade is threefold: they are used primarily as aerial weapons, but they see an extensive use in terrestrial defense and offense. I'll just briefly touch on aerial melee, since it's not the core of this conversation. Wingblades were developed to both protect a pegasus' wing and to allow them to fight with lethal force while airborne. It is nearly impossible to use swords when in the air for a pegasus; this has to do with the fact that a pegasus draws most of its swinging force through leverage against the ground, not so much sheer muscle (although their muscle density in their necks are useful for turning a powerful strike into a deadly strike). Well, now that I'm here, I might as well go a little more in depth with this bit.
Ponies draw the force from their sword swings from two sources: their neck muscles, and leverage. Leverage does most of the work for them. By raising onto their hind legs, a pony can strike downwards with an incredible amount of force, and they can push upwards with their forelegs for a respectable upswing. This is one of the reasons why swords are much more valuable than wingblades in offensive combat on the ground (hence why offense is the wingblades' least prioritized function); in addition to the more direct reach of a sword being held at the front of the mouth, a pegasus can't gain nearly as much leverage when using a wingblade for an attack (they would have to pivot on their forelegs instead of raising on their hind legs). A pony's neck muscles, on the other hand, are used primarily for adjustment of the strike and for adding a little extra power into the attack. By moving their neck, they can adjust the momentum of their leverage into a diagonal or angled strike, but never sideways; this has to do with manipulation of vectors resulting in the effective leverage force being cancelled out (yeah, science!). A pony can strike solely with their neck muscles and without the aid of leverage, but such a tactic makes their attacks significantly weaker than normal.
Alright, back to wingblades in combat. In the air, they're used for divebombing attacks against other targets, where all a pegasus has to do is angle one of their wings out slightly and clip through the target, using their speed and momentum to inflict some pretty gruesome wounds. On the ground, they serve a primarily defensive function. In the scenario you provided, if a pegasus found their sword blocked by a griffon's sword, and the griffon was attempting to attack them with a free hand, the pegasus would be able to block the attack by angling out one of their bladed wings to intercept it (and possibly removing the griffon's hand in the process). Eye placement is also important here, and because of the position of their eyes, a pegasus can always see where their wings are and what they're doing. This allows them to position a bladed wing for a crucial block with remarkable precision and speed, as they can watch it the whole way to its target. If a pegasus can tie up an enemy's weapons with a sword and one wingblade, they can use the other to make a quick strike at the opponent's unprotected side and possibly inflict some serious damage.
A quick look at the shape of wingblades: wingblades are not straight razors held against the tip of a pegasus' wing. There can be as few as 8 or as many as 12 scales along the length of a pegasus' wing, depending on the size of the scales and the wingspan of the pegasus. The scales are razor sharp and bolted both to each other and to the base of the assembly bound to the pegasus' wing. The second scale from the shoulder is the largest scale, and is known as the guard scale. It is designed to be able to catch and deflect swords or other weapons rather than be used as an offensive tool. It usually works in combination with the third scale from the shoulder, the lock scale, which is shaped like a normal wingblade scale with the exception of a backwards-facing hook on the tip of the scale. With the guard scale to funnel the weapon down into the gap between scales and the lock scale to hold the weapon back, it allows for a pegasus to have a chance to disarm their enemy.
This is the primarily defensive function of the wingblade. It has a smaller offensive function, which I briefly touched upon above, in that it allows a free strike when an opponent's defenses are tied down. Although not as lethal as swords in close quarters, wingblades can cause serious laceration damage against unarmored body parts. They can also be used to strip weapons and hook into armor to try and pin an opponent for an easy strike or to try and pry off pieces of armor. Wingblades also leave a characteristic jagged scar in flesh that is difficult to patch up and can cause serious bleeding damage.

And here's a basic idea of the 'scaled winglades' he uses:

So, any thoughts?

Ok, time for me to go over the problems with this and offer solutions.

First, I am just going to strait up say that I do not see ponies using a human-style sword effectively, something that seems to be reinforced by his comments about things like counterattacks. There are just too many issues and limitations so I would expect them to instead strap blades on different parts of the body. That said, minotaurs and griffons would be using weapons like that so I can see ponies experimenting with it as a sport sort of like how modern sport fencing has basically no relation to real combat.

Now, for the grip stuff, the basic concept does make sense, although I do not think the rear grip he described would be as strong as claimed because pony jaw structure is radically different from our horses and does not include that gap he wants to sit the blade in. We have seen pictures of full sets of teeth from the side on a number of occasions and pony mouths are really not very long so I think the horse comparison here is totally invalid. It would still give an advantage, but it would not be particularly significant and would not significantly affect the difficulty in changing grips so I do not see it being distinguished.

Moving this up because that post was not well organized, I do not think he has any idea how to fight based on his comments about striking any my own experience with the German Longsword. Gravity is far too slow to be useful in a sword fight and you really need to draw power from the entire body as much as possible so you will see a striking pattern much more like what a real human does. That means quick, tight cuts coming in at angles rather than true vertical or horizontal strikes, although you will probably see a lot more false edge cuts and something closer to cinematic shoving than proper winding when in the bind due to their relative lack of dexterity. Incidentally, that lack of flexibility is more or less guaranteed to get them killed if they wind up in a sword fight with a more dexterous opponent like a human (or minotaur or griffon or diamond dog...) because they cannot match the control hands give in the bind.

I am also seeing the same kind of problem with the eyes because the show makes it very clear that the ponies have binocular vision like we do so their field of view would be fairly similar to ours yet he is assuming they see like our horses which is clearly wrong. I am getting the feeling this is going to be a recurring problem which is kind of unfortunate because it destroys the validity of the entire system.

For the wingblades, while they could be used in terrestrial combat, pegasi want nothing to do with that in general because it costs them their biggest advantage (flight) so I do not see it being particularly important. I would expect them to instead rely on ranged weapons when engaging ground targets which can be as simple as dropping rocks on them, although I would expect lightning and crossbows to be the most popular (bows would be a pain to use with hooves) along with purpose-build gravity darts.

What they would be almost exclusively used for is air-to-air combat where they let a pegasus make devastating strikes at the sides and rear of an unsuspecting target in a large brawl. This is going to result in what is basically a giant dogfighting furball with a huge number of pegasi maneuvering through a relatively limited airspace where you can never keep track of everything and there are always plenty of targets of opportunity to go after so who gets killed is basically random. Skill would still be a factor, although it would mostly be focused on target acquisition and engagement time to kill enemies faster because there is really no way to keep yourself safe. The other factor that would shift things from pure attrition is armor, especially chain mail, which reduces the viable target area for the enemy and reduces their odds of making a successful attack because a slashing weapon like a wingblade is basically useless against any form of metal.

For construction, there is absolutely no reason to build it with scales. The wing can only bend at a couple of joints so there is no reason to use anything other than ridged blades along the bone lengths when every joint adds cost and complexity to the construction while also making the weapon more fragile and harder to maintain. What you would actually have is basically a cavalry saber strapped to the outer wing and sharpened to a razor edge to slice through targets with minimal energy (that translates directly to the jerk on the wing which could dislocate the limb). You could also sharpen the inner bits if you wanted or add additional protrusions for close combat, but anything you do adds cost and possibly weight to the weapon for little to no benefit and adding weight to the wings is going to have serious costs in flight performance so I do not see other configurations being particularly common.

Briefly addressing other weapons, the use of armor to protect against wing blades is going to lead to the use of lances to penetrate that armor in the initial charge which will break and/or be discarded to improve maneuverability in the ensuing melee. You will also see various weapons (hammers, blades, spikes, ect.) strapped to the hooves for striking because there is a lot of power there when on the ground, they can be used in a flyby if the wingblades are not available or capable of penetrating the armor of the enemy forces, and they can also be used in close quarters if you somehow wind up grappling. Pegasi in particular could also make good use of blades that extend past the end of the hoof into the "ground" if they wanted because they can rest on clouds and avoid the issues with blades hitting the ground. There could also be some additional experiments with other weapons like a spike attached to a champron which I cannot really predict the effectiveness of, although I personally doubt they would be as effective as weapons on the hooves.

4053183 I can agree on just about all of these points here (kinda helps that we've debated over this stuff for literally months too )
I'm going to leave this reply here strictly in the case of Pegasi-as Earth Ponies would only be able to wield blades with their mouths and would honestly do better in the spear/armor/hammer-hooves department as those take advantage of their natural Earth Pony strength in a charge and in a melee-and Unicorns would honestly only be limited by their magical prowess (and physical endurance) in wielding "human style" blades.

WARNING: though this may seem kinda superfluous (being this is a forum about blades and cutting, stabbing things), I'm going to give ya'll a heads up here-this gets a bit graphic. With that in mind...

Also, some insight on Pegasus Wing Anatomy:
Pegasus Wings
And here:
More Anatomy

Pegasi blades would be quite different dependent on the situation in which they were in.
First, the classic "wingblade" as illustrated here by the wonderfully talented Inuhoshi-to-Darkpen of Life and Times of a Winning Pony art fame:

And an off-shoot, more show-accurate wing-sized version by Priceless911:

Both blade designs here share similarities to light cavalry sabers, which as D48 said are used in sweeping, hit-and-run style attacks designed to lop off limbs and inflict terrible damage to soft tissue (fun fact: the British Pattern 1796 Light Cavalry Saber actually inflicted such dire and horrid wounds during the Napoleonic Wars that it was said that the French actually attempted to have the weapon banned from the battlefield). Nasty and effective indeed. It was also a fairly effective melee weapon with its steel knucklebow that not only protected the fingers but could be used to smash an enemy's head in. Fun times, right?

But this where the similarities between sabers and Pegasus wingblades diverge, for a backwards-curving blade like that is of very little use in close quarters, especially on a limb like the wing which has very little pivoting freedom forward of a pegasus' muzzle, limiting the reach of a wingblade of this shape unless the pegasus turned its body diagonally to be able to point a blade at an opponent.
But this presents a problem in a very large way:
In a CQC (close quarters combat) situation, one should make themselves as small a target as possible. Humans can do this by altering their stance with as simple a movement as putting one foot forward of the other. The more far forward the front leg, the more the body turns and the smaller the profile target. This gives a secondary advantage in giving the forward shoulder (and hence the arm) more reach than if standing square.

A pegasus, on the other hand, cannot easily do this, for the more sideways it turns its body to extend its wingblade reach, the larger a target it presents itself and the worse off in CQC it will be. Now that said, a pegasus wearing sabers CAN use its hooves in CQC for attack and defense (as well as its wing for supplemental defense of the flanks, because half the defense in sword play is "giving point" or simply presenting the pointy end of a weapon towards an opponent as an obstacle they must get around to get at the wielder. It may seem like a small thing, but in the heat of combat, every little advantage counts!)

Now in regards to stabbing with wingblades, again, because of pegasus anatomy, they cannot feasibly do this as their wings cannot pivot around like a human can with their arms, so maneuvers such as this one are fairly impossible:

And as such, with saber-style wingblades being poor CQC weapons in a straight-up fight and being poor stabbing weapons due to anatomy, as D48 said up above, they'd be best suited for hit-and-run attacks on unsuspecting opponents in a furball situation (still a nasty prospect) or they COULD be used in an initial charge, with the wielders "giving point" (or more accurately "giving edge") in the initial pass-through of the charge.

The problem with THIS is that their opponent is capable of exactly the same thing, so as two (or more) Pegasi close on one another in the clash, they have a split second to make and commit to a decision from a small pool of choices:
1. Extend the attacking wing laterally and try to drift in the opposite direction to create space so that one does not collide in an attack (much like a bladed chariot would).
2. Extend the attacking wing and dip up or down with the same purpose of creating space so as not to collide with the target.
3. Parry the attacker or break, avoiding their attack and looping over to get on their tail.

Keep in mind that the opponent closing in the charge is capable of exactly the same things, resulting in a nasty high-speed game of chicken that can also end with the attackers colliding in mid-air if they guess wrongly what their opponent can do, surely killing/knocking them out on impact (which of course would kill them once they hit the ground if not aided by their friends--this leads to the concept of seconds and "wingponies" but that's another thread). Saber-style blades aren't terribly good as this sort of thing either.
A charge like that is better served with spears anyway.

Now we enter personal head-canon territory! SOUND THE ALARMS!!!
Ahem, now then. As said, saber-style blades on a Pegasus make poor weapons for anything other than flanking maneuvers due to their shape and Pegasus anatomy (now for what they are, wingblades are ultra nasty and effective at cleaving off/slicing up soft things at high speeds with little resistance-and therefore injury to the wielder-so keep that in mind).
Their curved shape and slashing nature makes them easily defeated by chainmail, however, something that would be fairly common for a Pegasus to wear as it it lighter than plate armor anyway, aiding in combat endurance in flight (the fact that chainmail historically defeats most slashing style weapons is just a nice bonus).

So what's a Pegasus to do when faced by another Pegasus wearing chainmail? Bash them with their hooves? Possibly, though this puts them in CQC territory which also takes away a major advantage of a Pegasus: flight and its gift of extreme maneuverability, and puts them in range of their opponent as well. Flail away at each other in mid-air while risking being blind-sided by a flanking saber attack? No thanks!
They COULD use spears as well, but if the CQC gets into "bad-breath distance" the length of a spear becomes a hindrance. So, what does a Pegasus do? Avoid CQC altogether?
Possibly...or they can innovate with a completely new wingblade design, one created to specifically counter chainmail gaps, be more effective at CQC by overcoming Pegasus wing anatomy, AND still be effective at slashing (though not as much as a saber blade). What kind of blade can do all of that, though?

This sort:

A blade with a S-curve designed in the Roam arena to pierce the gaps in armor with a rapid, forward-flicking motion of a pegasus' wing. Though rather short compared to a saber-blade, this blade allows the Pegasus to project a blade point beyond it's own muzzle, allowing it to continue to present a lower profile by facing an opponent, which also allows them to keep both eyes focused on their opponent without turning their head, further aiding in endurance and lessening fatigue in a fight.
It takes up even less room than a long, sweeping saber style blade, and can be used in the same sort of slicing, hit and run attacks. It's main advantage lies its piercing abilities as well as it's improved CQC abilities versus a standard blade. Not to mention it's ability to hook and slice into soft areas like the unarmored bases of wings, ears, faces, necks, the bottoms of hooves, and the backs of legs rich in blood vessels and tendons and muscles. Yummy.

Of course, the user is just as important as the weapon, as is the context, so we can't automatically assume that's it's a total improvement.
A weakness of this blade is its relatively fragile tip when compared to a saber and its increased reliance on accuracy and precision for effectiveness. Just like a swordsman with a rapier, wildly flailing about or thrusting without concentration severely limits his effectiveness. The same with the S-curve blade. A pegasus has to be careful to hit only soft targets, lest they damage their blade or get it caught in armor or bone, potentially injuring themselves in the process.
But, for those that have mastered its use in a Filly-pino style martial art known as "Peg'kal" or 'to rip', it's an absolutely devastating weapon, both in the hit and run and in CQC. For once past a Pegasus' natural armor of interlocked ribs, there's nothing to stop the S-curve blade from wreaking absolute havoc with a pony's internal organs. Did somepony say julienne liver?

There are other varieties of wing blades that someone could come up with, like smaller Karambit style blades extending forward of a Pegasus' Alula (in essence, it's "thumb") that could be used for extreme CQC to rip chunks out of an opponent, as well as serrated blades (though those would have very little SAFE use as they can get caught and dislocate the wings of the user).
But as long as one stays within the mindset of saber blades = hit-and-run/flanking attacks, S-curve/reverse curve = CQC attacks, the possible designs and applications of Pegasus wingblades are nigh-endless.

Side note 1: Straight blades would not be recommended for Pegasi mainly for aerodynamic and the physics involved in swinging a straight object strapped to a mostly curved object (one that's relatively fragile and capable of snapping when striking instead of slicing with a weapon).

Side note 2: The terms Filly-pino and Peg'kal are derived from the words Filipino and P'kal, an actual martial art from Southeast Asia that truly means "to rip."
Spyderco's version of the "P'kal knife:

Philosophy on the P'kal's use:
http://www.cqbservices.com/?page_id=299

Whew, if ya'll have any further questions/ideas, just post-em up!

4052938 Missed replying to you, but check my post above this one for some cool stuff on wingblade philosophy!

Can we assume the Royal Equestrian Air Force ponies' wing blades have Dungeons & Dragons style sharpness enchantments and/or other enhancements, given what the Wonderbolts did to the spines on a rampaging Spike in "Secrets of my Excess"?
Unless it was a not-to-be-taken-literally throwaway gag, Spike's spines should have been as tough as diamond, or at least tank armor given all the precious and semi-precious stones Equestrian Dragons eat.

4061833 That's a very valid point, good sir.

4060933 Yeah, we have gone over this quite a bit, although I am going to be expanding the scope of this discussion beyond just wingblades because that is kind of mandatory to get a full picture of the environment the weapon operates in. That said, before we get started I did a more detailed drawing of how I would construct a wingblade based on comkiller's work to better facilitate discussion. Now bow down before my awe inspiring MS Paint skills.

This is what I see as your traditional cavalry saber-style wingblade. It is designed to minimize weight while maintaining a long razor sharp cutting edge in an optimal striking position. It is well known that every tiny scrap of weight matters in flight with weight on the wing itself being multiplied many times over by the motion of the limb in flight, and all of that gets even more critical when you are in combat and tiny advantages can be the difference between life and death so every bit of the design must be slimmed down as much as possible. That means it has none of the inner material of the blades you posted and shifts the cutting edge out to the end of the wing where it will be easiest to bring to bear and minimizes the risk of it dragging the target into the body while cutting because that is almost guaranteed to destroy the shoulder joint at flight speed. It is attached by a series of straps threaded between the feathers so they can hold the blade tight against the meat of the wing with a secondary hinged support with stabilizing horns on the top and bottom of the wing to prevent it from twisting around the bone in flight and taking the edge out of line with the wing. The cutting edge is not particularly well drawn, but it curves back and narrows as it goes down the wing to help it slice through soft targets and extends to at or just past the wingtip so the delicate feathers are protected by the blade while minimizing weight.

For close quarters, you are correct that a wingblade will not be particularly effective on the offensive, however it is still usable defensively both as a physical barrier and as a blocking surface because it can at least be brought up far enough to deflect attacks launched from the sides. Offense is going to be handled almost exclusively by hoof mounted weapons because a simple spike or short blade on the hoof can do a tremendous amount of damage in a kick without adding much weight to the pegasus in the air. Still, this circles back to the point of close quarters costing pegasi their biggest advantage and the extra options wingblades offer are nowhere near enough to overcome the massive armor and physical strength of earth ponies or psychotic unicorn death blades and ranged magic.

Moving on, you covered what happens in a wingblade vs. wingblade charge fairly well, but I think you vastly understated the importance of a lance (not a spear, you need the longer, more fragile pole for both reach and safety) because that is what totally kills the wingblade in this roll. As mentioned earlier, the wingblade is not capable of extending past the muzzle by any significant amount, but a lance will usually be in the 9 to 14 foot range so a lance will spit a pony with just a wingblade before it has any chance to land a hit unless it breaks off (and even that might not be enough thanks to the reach of the lance). Defensively, the pegasus is going to be relying on relatively heavy frontal armor (meaning plates) to deflect the point and maneuvering to try to keep the enemy from getting a clean hit on an opening to the underlying chain mail in.

Moving on to dealing with chain mail, the answer is very simple. They go around it. While chain mail is incredibly flexible and lightweight, it cannot cover everything. For humans, the openings are the face, the palms of the hands, and the soles of the feet. The opening at the face was frequently covered by a more protective helmet which reduced this opening to tiny eye slits and breathing holes, and the feet were occasionally protected by a special piece of armor called a sabaton (which is also the name of an absolutely epic band). The same logic applies to ponies with the helmet being an important part of their forward armor for a charge so that is out and pegasi may wrap chain around the hooves because it will just hang through clouds so those are out, but the wings cannot be protected because the feathers will not support it and any extra weight out there will have drastic costs in flight performance so they will have to be relatively exposed except for the parts protected by the wingblade. That means most attacks will be performed by conventional wingblades to the backs of the wings, especially near the base where they have a very good chance of taking the limb off. This is not necessarily directly lethal, but the fall most certainly will be so hits like that will almost certainly kill or cripple one pony and take a second out of the fight to save the first.

For your comment about close quarters, that is something that every pegasus is going to want to avoid if possible, but if they do get stuck in it they are going to need their wings free to stay airborne so any wingblade will be severely limited. What they will instead rely on is weapons mounted on their hooves because they can use those relatively freely with an emphasis on spikes and narrow stabbing blades to wedge into links in the chain mail and bend them open to punch through the armor.

That S-curved blade on the other hand will not have the strength necessary to force links apart like a proper spike will so you will not be able to do much more than scratch an opponent in chain mail, and that forward curve at the end increases the risk of the blade snagging air to air. The fact that it does not extend the full length of the wing also means you are basically guaranteed to damage the wingtip flight feathers whenever you hit something with it because the feathers will wind up smacking into whatever you just hit and getting fouled with blood or cut/torn by hard structures. Furthermore, not having the blade running the full length of the wing also makes it harder to land a clean hit because the tip does not have as great a range of motion and it puts the ponies closer together which increases the odds of the target moving into the flightpath of the attacker and causing a mid-air collision. All it will really do is chew up unarmored targets in close combat which is not a situation I can really see happening outside a blood sport (which seriously clashes with what we are presented with in the show, but that is a totally separate subject) so it has absolutely no place on the battlefield where you can expect everyone to at least have chain mail which will stop it cold so I just do not see any practical use for that blade geometry.

The kerambit idea has more value because you can go with a straight, double edged blade profile more like the European rondel which can actually punch through chain mail in close combat with enough force behind it and can still cut and rip fairly well. That said, it is either going to have to replace a more traditional wingblade or add a significant amount of weight to the wing so I am not seeing it being worth the cost on the wing (the hoof is another story as I mentioned earlier).

Also, circling back to the subject of other tribes, I think you hit earth ponies fairly well with your comment because spears strapped to the body for a charge backed up by hammers, axes, spikes, and other fun stuff like that strapped to the hooves for close combat. Also armor. Lots and lots of armor. Tactically they are going to be used like heavy cavalry or heavy infantry, although they are going to have enormous problems against either of the other two tribes due to their severely limited ability to retaliate. Things get much better on that front after unification when they can provide a wall of muscle and steel for the unicorns to fire over and have pegasi providing air cover while their heavy armor keeps casualties down.

On the other hand, I think you significantly underestimated unicorns. They do not have to worry about being able to hold blades so handles are out (especially because of the problems it causes for their enemies if they loose the blade) so they can make and use some absolutely psychotic weapons. My current thought is something like a pair of longsword blades stuck back to back creating a long piece of sharp metal with a wicked point at each end for a balance between cutting and thrusting against armor, but you could also make a helicopter of death with a pair of curved slicing blades and who knows how many other insane variations. Also, they have the option of directly applying their magic to do things like burn their enemies and blow them up so those insane bladed abominations would probably be used mostly as short range backup weapons even though they can have a lot of reach thanks to the fact that they do not need to be in physical contact with the unicorn wielding it. Tactically the unicorns are going to want to keep the range open using shields, terrain effects, and expendable allies as much as possible while they rain destruction on the enemy from a distance.

4061833 While it is likely there is some magical enhancement, it is worth noting that Spike's spines have been shown to be quite floppy in a number of episodes where the ponies move them with their hooves as they pet or pat Spike so that is not necessarily a good example. We have also seen him use himself as a living pincushion which would seem to indicate his scales are not that hard, although it is possible the pins were wedged in between hard scales so that is not entirely clear.

Guys, some food for thought from a martial artist that also happens to have some love of all things flight based...

I feel I must point out why melee combat in the air is nearly impossible in the manner with which you speak. It all comes down to the most common misconception that most people new to the martial arts hold, that power comes from the upper-body. It does not. Power in striking comes from the legs, because a good strike is not one that lashes out, but pulled through the motion. The reason why this is important with Pegasus is because in midair they cannot 'ground' themselves, to pull through a strike. IF a Pegasus tried to use any sort of slashing weapon in midair, it would become the fulcrum between themselves and their target. Or, in laymen' terms, they would go spinning out of control. The only way that I can foresee 'wing blades' being effective, is as a secondary weapon, used by Pegasus that have landed and are now acting more like what we would consider 'paratroopers'. Pegasus acting as light-infantry, or what we might call 'dragoons' - imperial era mounted infantry - could be especially devastating to those races without air power, such as Minotaur, for example...

Also, above I heard talk of mouth wielding. Let me ask you this, do you like your teeth? Because the first time you hit something wielding a weapon in your mouth, you won't have them anymore!

A summary of my thoughts on the subject, please read both posts.

4069921 Ok, you have a couple different points so I will try to separate and hit each of them.

Power from the legs.

As a practitioner of both armed and unarmed martial arts who can throw 200 lb people around without trouble but has basically no upper body strength, I am intimately familiar with this. That is exactly why I never suggested doing any kind of sparring in the air. Both my proposed air-to-air weapons essentially relied on inertia because pegasi can easily move at hundreds of miles per hour if they want to which gives more than enough raw power to kill someone (so much in fact that not hurting yourself is a bigger concern than hurting the enemy).

Air collision dynamics.

This part gets complicated, but the fundamental answer to your concern is that it is not a problem. You can just take my word as an aerospace engineer on the subject and skip ahead, or you can read through the detailed discussion of the physics and biomechanics involved below.

First, in the actual collision, there should be very little energy (and by extension angular momentum) transmitted to the attackers body. The biggest reason for this is that the curvature and razor sharp edge of a wingblade will allow it to slice through the target very easily. This naturally means there is relatively little energy used to disrupt tissue in the cut so there is less kinetic energy sapped from the ponies flight (this applies to the combined system) and thus less change in linear momentum. Because this is fundamentally a collision problem, both linear and angular momentum about the center of mass of the system must be conserved and that change in linear momentum is going to have to result in a change in angular momentum which is the fundamental concern you brought up. While this is most definitely a valid concern and something the ponies will have to deal with, the relatively small energy exchange will limit the scale of the problem.

A related concern is the possibility of the blade striking something it cannot easily slice through like the chain mail every pegasus is going to be wearing. In this case, the curvature of the blade will allow it to more easily slide off the obstruction and fold the wing closed to get it clear and minimize the energy transfer and by extension the change in angular momentum of the attacker. This will naturally require proper training to hold the wing muscles just right so the wing can easily fold if it hits a hard surface, but this is easily practiced by setting up steel poles hidden in cutting targets (probably some kind of dense cloud for use with dull training blades) along with regular cutting targets so I do not see this being a problem.

Now, while we have done what we can to minimize the change in angular momentum, it is still going to happen which could put the pegasus into a spin although that is not a given, especially at high speed. That said, spins are fundamentally stalls and pegasi are very well equipped to get out of them thanks to the fact that they can dynamically restructure their flight surfaces in ways no fixed wing aircraft can so pegasi can very easily break out of a spin if they do end up in one and would likely do so instinctively without fully realizing what was actually happening. This would still result in a brief period of unstable flight as they recover, but minimizing this would be part of their training as part of learning to rapidly acquire and engage another target which is critically important because reducing the time between strikes translates into more frequent strikes, more casualties inflicted on the enemy, and less enemies available to inflict casualties on your own forces.

Projectile weapons.

First, I did advocate dropped projectiles as weapons for air to ground work because gravity is a tremendous ally in that regard. After all, there is absolutely no reason to get close enough for the enemy to retaliate when you can just grab random rocks and drop them on them from a safe altitude so I see this being their primary solution to ground-based foes rather than trying to fight them on the ground.

That said, I really cannot see projectile weapons being effective air to air prior to the introduction of firearms, and even then they will be limited to a single shot until automatic weapons show up and will probably have to discard the empty weapon to make themselves more maneuverable. The fundamental problem is that pegasi are not particularly well built to throw things the way humans are so they will not really be able to build any forward speed beyond their flight speed with a thrown weapon. Similarly, I seriously doubt they could effectively bring slings or bows to bear in the direction of flight without loosing a lot of speed and making themselves easy targets which is a huge problem because other pegasi can fly fast enough to get through their effective range in a fraction of a second. Furthermore, the flight speeds of pegasi also makes hitting them a huge problem and gives them a lot of room to dodge because slings only throw projectiles at about 30 m/s while a bow will be looking at something like 60 m/s which is nothing when we know Rainbow Dash can break 340 m/s (the speed of sound).

Mouth wielding.

While you are right about the concerns there, ponies do seem to do a lot of crazy shit with their mouths so I think it is fair to assume that their teeth are stronger than ours. Of course, this does absolutely nothing to mitigate the laundry list of problems involved in actually using them so they still have no possible use outside sports which can do all kinds of dumb things and add safety restrictions to mitigate issues like bolting blades to the sides of helmets.

Also, hoof mounted weapons (spikes, blades, axes, and hammers will be better than the plain horseshoes you mentioned) will do excellent work in close combat as we have both pointed out so there is really no reason to resort to something stupid like holding a sword in the mouth.

4070928 I would still think that using the wing to strike would be pointless when a hoof-held blade would be so much more effective. First, the wings' purpose is to generate lift and thrust, keeping the pegasus airborne. To use this vital limb to strike an opponent is just foolish. I've been a student of martial arts for longer than many authors on this site have been alive, 20 years. One of the most important lesson is that any striking limb is vulnerable. For a pegasus to put this limb that is keeping them from plummeting to their death in harm's way is just dumb. Hoof held blades would be much more practical, and would leave the wings open to continue maneuvering.

4071007 While that is a valid concern, there two fundamental issues with your reasoning.

First, the wing is not particularly vulnerable. The wingblade will be used almost exclusively to attack targets from their blind spots because keeping track of everyone in a large, fast moving, 3D melee is simply impossible. There are just too many ponies moving too much in the same space to keep track of things so every pony will always have clean shots on unsuspecting opponents. This quite naturally means the target will have no way of knowing that the attacker is coming and thus have no way to launch a counter attack so there is no special risk to the striking limb. To put this in a perspective you are more familiar with, this is the equivalent of walking up behind someone who is fighting your friend and shoving a knife in their back before they know you are there.

Blunt impact from a bad attack is admittedly still something of a concern in the risk department, but this is easily mitigated by proper striking technique as discussed previously so it is not worth worrying about.

Second, the hooves do not have the reach and rapid flexibility of the wing which makes them less well suited to these kinds of high speed strikes. As mentioned before, pegasi will be moving extremely fast and will redirect very rapidly if they decide to maneuver for any reason, so that extra reach is critical to give the attacker as much distance to work with as possible to avoid a collision if their target turns into them. Similarly, the wings can move from position to position faster and more accurately than the legs can (consider how fast Scootaloo's wings move when she uses them and the fact that pegasi seem to favor their wings over their hooves for precision work) so they will have a better chance of moving to hit a maneuvering target or at the very least getting out of the way to avoid a bad hit.

You could compensate for these shortcomings to some extent by strapping a big long slashing blade like a katana to a hoof, but that is going to get very awkward very quickly because of all the bulk it adds which will have consequences on the user's agility in the air, and there is absolutely no way you are going to be able to land on anything solid with that so it looses out on ergonomics.

Also, given that these slashing attacks are going to be targeting the wings almost exclusively, pegasi are going to have to operate in pairs (remember the wingponies from Wonderbolt Accademy?) so they have a friend to swoop in to save them from plummeting to their death and apply a tourniquet to the stump when they inevitably get hit so loosing a wing is actually relatively unlikely to result in death (although I bet there were a lot of smiths and the like with one wing as a result).

4073075 Pegasus wings will be severely limited in flight, though. Remember, every tiny adjustment to wing position will alter one's flight path. This would leave the wings mobility moot. On the ground, yes, they would have great tactical advantage over hoof or mouth held weapons, but in the air, the wings would have to be divided between flight control and striking. Even if you can somehow overcome the flight disruption striking would cause, they're still having to do two jobs at once. Meanwhile, the hooves, which have shown dexterity on par with human arms and hands, are not being employed.

4073401 I was figuring the typical strike profile would be basically a glide for the last fraction of a second before impact. That puts the wings and weapon at full extension for maximum reach and the pegasus in a stable flight regime to keep everything in alignment so landing that hit will not be a problem. They can also manipulate the feathers independently of the main wing and each other (I have no idea how this works, but we have seen it happen a lot so it is clear it does work) which will allow them to maintain fine control while keeping the weapon in striking position without too much trouble. This will naturally take a bit of practice to get the hang of, but that is true of all martial arts and this does not look any harder than the kinds of balancing tricks we perform as we move in unusual ways.

Also, while pony hooves are far more dexterous than the horses we know, they are nowhere near what we humans are capable of. Really delicate work is all done by either mouth or magic, and I cannot think of any pony doing much beyond what we consider basic motor skills except Rarity's sewing which is all done with magic.

All it would take is for the pegasus' target to turn their head enough to catch the movement out of their peripherals and one upward swing from a hoof held scimitar to sever the wing. Your target isn't going to be a stationary one. It's going to be in constant, erratic motion. Your relying on a blind-spot attack, but on a battlefield, those almost never work.

4074416 The entire battlefield is going to be in constant erratic motion so it would be very easy to miss an attacker coming right at you until the last moment because they will be just another body of the hundreds weaving through the chaos. This means that even if you do glance over, you will not be able to process all the potential threats fast enough to effectively respond. Also, you are completely ignoring the fact that your target is going to be hunting for targets of his or her own just like you are because that is a very easy thing to do in this kind of melee unlike identifying threats and will do far more to win the battle than trying to defend yourself so troops will be trained to attack as frequently as possible at the expense of self defense because that is the key to victory, not futile defensive gestures.

Also, a hoof held scimitar is a stupid weapon to have because it is bulky, interferes with flight, inferior to a wingblade for striking, and occupies the hooves which are needed to carry a far more effective single-use lance in the initial charge.

4074936 A moment is all it takes. In battle, soldiers will be in a constant fight-or-flight state, giving them hyper awareness that would allow them to notice the one person charging them out of the throng of clashing bodies. Also, you're wrong that they won't be looking for threats. A trained soldier would be looking for both targets and threats. Spotting a threat is how you stay alive.

Also, how does a hoof held blade interfere with flight more that strapping a piece of metal to the wings? Have you ever worn chain mail? It's the most flexible metal armor you can find, but it still hinders movement. Put that on something that requires as much fine control as a wing, and few ponies would even be able to get off the ground without special training. Now, make that chain mail a blade and it will take even more of that mobility away. That isn't something that can be avoided. I don't think you realize how important fine movement is for a winged animal. The slightest movement, or lack there of, can drastically alter one's course. Strapping anything to the wing would cut a pegasus' flight ability to a fraction of it's unhindered ability.

I also feel you don't have much experience with scimitars. Most scimitars are actually rather short, about 35-40 inch blade, and are only around three inches at the widest point. Some can even be as small as 25-30 inches in the blade. They rarely weigh more than 5 pounds and as little as 3. Also, the curved blade would allow it to be held against the body, ensuring that it wouldn't affect flight much.

4075126 This statement very clearly shows a lack of understanding of military training throughout history.

Also, you're wrong that they won't be looking for threats. A trained soldier would be looking for both targets and threats. Spotting a threat is how you stay alive.

Soldiers are regularly trained not to react to individual instances because that can frequently be a bad thing in cooperative combat. The two examples that come immediately to mind are the muskets/rifles used in massed infantry formations through the 1800's and the anti-aircraft cannons on most World War Two ships. In both cases, the soldiers were trained to lock their weapons on a given bearing and fire weather they thought it would hit anything in particular or not because that was more effective than aiming at specific targets. For the musket/rifle formations, aiming would usually result in a very uneven distribution of shot with some individual targets being hit repeatedly and many not being hit at all so it was better for them to all level their weapons dead ahead and fire a volley of parallel shots which would inflict more casualties than aimed fire even with the misses. For the anti-aircraft batteries, it was too difficult to effectively lead and range aircraft before the widespread introduction of radar sights so it was more effective to have the guns firing in a predetermined pattern to create a more effective spread of exploding flack shells. This same kind of logic applies to the pegasi here because when taken as a complete fighting force rather than a group of individuals, they will do a better job of reducing their casualties by eliminating enemies as fast as possible rather than trying to watch their own backs in combat.

Moving on, you also clearly have no idea how chain mail actually works because it is not at all restrictive. Lindybeige has some videos on it so I will just drop them here.

The wingblade as I laid out the design for it would only cover a single joint which it has a hinge carefully placed over so it will not restrict motion in any way and the material used is minimized to keep the overall weight to a minimum. It also tightly conforms to the wing so it does not significantly alter the aerodynamics of flight which is going to be a significant issue for any hoof-held blade which is going to act as a flight control surface without the benefits of instinctive manipulation and dynamically reconfigurable geometry across the entire surface the way a wing and by extension wingblade has.

I also feel you don't have much experience with scimitars. Most scimitars are actually rather short, about 35-40 inch blade, and are only around three inches at the widest point. Some can even be as small as 25-30 inches in the blade. They rarely weigh more than 5 pounds and as little as 3. Also, the curved blade would allow it to be held against the body, ensuring that it wouldn't affect flight much.

It is true that my experience is mostly with the German Longsword rather than the scimitar, although if those numbers are accurate then it is atrociously heavy for a real sword. The Longsword usually has an approximately 36 inch blade and 12 inch handle with an overall weight of 2.5 to 3.5 pounds. That said, these numbers are largely irrelevant because the encumbrance comes from the aerodynamic problems associated with carrying it rather than the weight. Given the fact that the aerodynamics are mostly controlled by length and you need a lot of length for it to have any advantage over the wingblade there is just no way it makes sense, especially because you absolutely have to have a lance in the hooves for the initial charge.

Loving this educated blade and combat exchange (let's just keep it civil )

Also this whole blindsiding the enemy thing makes me think that Pegasi are fairly dirty fighters when it boils right down to it...I wonder if something like a small rear view mirror like those on fighter jets would help mitigate those sneak attacks though...

True without modification they would cause aerodynamic issues, but the reward is worth the risk if it keeps one's butt safe
Or just invent radar...Volare get on it!
Volare: -_-

4078106 Honestly, a rear view mirror like that would just be a distraction. With thousands of ponies maneuvering through the same airspace there is just no way to keep track of all the potential threats and a radar would be no help either. The situation is a perfect example of information overload so the ponies are going to have to focus on finding and engaging targets in order to remain effective. They can still make random maneuvers to try to make themselves a harder target for the enemy, but it will have to be random preemptive general evasion rather than a specific action targeted at a particular attacker just like what World War II aircraft did to try to avoid flack because it is impossible to identify specific threats effectively.

4075854 This statement very clearly shows a lack of understanding of military training throughout history.

Soldiers are regularly trained not to react to individual instances because that can frequently be a bad thing in cooperative combat. The two examples that come immediately to mind are the muskets/rifles used in massed infantry formations through the 1800's and the anti-aircraft cannons on most World War Two ships.

This comparison has absolutely no relevance to this debate. Musket lines and AA guns are not skirmishers. They fire straight ahead, or at their designated spot because they are just one of dozens or even hundreds doing the same, filling the air with ordinance.

First, you (and many others) need to stop applying human tactics to pegasi. None of them apply. Infantry tactics don't because they aren't restricted to a two dimensional battlefield, and air combat doesn't because they aren't restricted to a machine. Pegasi can fight in three dimensions, and with an agility that no machine or animal can match.

This brings me to my second point; Thrusting weapons, like lances, would be almost useless. The only reason they work for human cavalry charge is because we only have three directions we can avoid anything; left, right, and away. We can't move away because horses are much, much faster, and moving to either side just puts you in line with another lance. With pegasi, even if you eliminate that third dimension, they are still pegasi charging pegasi. They can just fall back and counter with projectile weapons. Without the speed advantage, a cavalry charge is just going to get your men killed. Thrusting weapons in a skirmish between pegasi, however are just easily dodged. Remember, pegasi have been shown dodging lightning.

Third, I can care less what a youtube video says. I've worn a full suit of chain mail, and anyone that says any kind of armor is completely nonrestrictive doesn't know what they're talking about. You are putting steel on your body. Even if it's perfectly flexible, the weight alone is going to restrict you, and trust me, even chain mail isn't perfectly flexible. The same applies to your wingblade. No matter what you do to it, or how light you make it, it will restrict movement. Adding a hinge may help, but it's far from perfect. I don't think you realize how much fine control is required for flight. Putting cloth over a wing will take away a bird's ability to fly. What do you thing steel will do?

Finally, your issue about the aerodynamics of a hoof held weapon are only valid if they were going to be flying at high speeds. The only part of a pegasus that needs to remain aerodynamic in battle are the wings.

4070928 Alright, I see what you're saying, I really do. However, I believe that such a style of combat would be prohibitively dangerous and the chance of spins (not to mention injury from impacts at high-speed) makes aerial combat a no go. Until we get a pair of pegasi to show us how it's done, I guess we won't know for sure...
4073075 Never plan a weapon system to have to take advantage of the element of surprise. Plus, in order to stay maneuverable, a pegasus won't be fighting at maximum speed - it's like dog-fighting, it's done at a lower velocity.
4075126 4078672 Uh, I wear maille all the time, no it doesn't. That's one of the reasons why we chose it over plate. If the weight is restrictive, you need better PT. If the armor doesn't flex enough, you've got shit maille. That said, I do agree armored wings are just derp.

4081596 It was actually very high quality, but even a long sleeve shirt is restrictive. Anything but your own natural skin is. It's true chain mail allows for greater mobility than nearly any other type (which is the reason I used it as an example), hell I could move quite well, but it's still not perfect. Nothing is perfect. And when talking about a limb in which fine movement and control is needed, that little bit will get them killed, especially when a pegasus' mobility is their greatest asset. It's like wearing wool gloves during brain surgery. Those gloves aren't very restrictive, but that little bit is still significant.

4081596 For the first part, I think you are just going to have to take my word on this as an aerospace engineer that spins are not the issue you think they are. They are easy enough to avoid and escaped even for fixed wing aircraft which do not have anywhere near the degree of fine control a pegasus has in the air thanks to its highly flexible wings so this is really not at all an issue, especially because pegasi can fully check their motion and hover if things get really out of control. It is true that the impact will redirect their flight pattern and the brief loss of stability will cost them some altitude and airspeed (as will the energy directed into the body of the target), but that will not be a real problem unless they are below treetop level which is not a problem because all fights will start thousands of feet up to give a comfortable safety margin and allow the ponies to catch their falling allies.

Incidentally, that does actually offer a possible avenue of escape for retreating pegasi. If they hug the ground the enemy will not be able to dive in for an attack without a serious risk of crashing, however the fact that they are so low means it will be nearly impossible for them to get back into the fight because they have basically no gravitational potential energy so it is purely an escape mechanism. This ties into the energy-maneuverability theory of air combat which applies to ponies just as much as it applies to fighter jets because it is a fundamental physical description of how flight works.

As for the more general danger, there is really no way around that and it is not all that different from the lack of battlefield medicine in our own history. Having wingponies on hand to catch the wounded as they fall will help some, but war is generally about killing the other side until they give up and we have already discussed how one sided air to ground warfare will be so staying out of the air is not at all an option. This means those risks will have to be accepted in any armed conflict which is really just a different form of the same old shit we are familiar with. Remember, this is war, not sparring. People (or ponies) die. That is just how it is and the only way to get around it is to surrender to the first enemy to show up at your door.

Moving on, weapons designed to take advantage of the element of surprise are by far the preferred form historically. Basically everything in our modern arsenals is designed to use surprise on way or another, and historical armies made extensive use of skirmishers and ambushes as well. More generally, humans and many other hunters have proven the value of striking from concealment in hunting prey so no, there is nothing even remotely unusual about a weapon optimized to strike an unwary target.

For flight speed, that is an interesting issue. On the one hand you can turn more rapidly when moving more slowly, but on the other it is much easier to hit a slow-moving target (especially if you need to catch up to them with a melee weapon) and it takes a lot of energy to gain speed. This is actually where the energetics stuff comes in because you want to be moving as fast as possible most of the time but you need to slow down to make sharp turns without bleeding off energy with an air break so sharp turns tend to be made as part of a climb to allow tighter turns while conserving energy. If you want to read more about air combat there is a lot on Wikipedia and elsewhere, although ponies have some extra options available to them and will be looking to make high speed slashing attacks from above which changes things some.

Finally, I have never said anything about armored wings. For reference, here is the picture of the wingblade design I was thinking of again:

As you can see, it is a very minimal structure that is really just a light slashing blade tied to the end of the wing so it does not need to be very long to give good reach and a very light hinged support to keep it from twisting in flight. That hinge is aligned exactly with the joint in the wing so it does not affect the limb's range of motion in any way, and the whole thing is as light as possible to minimize the loading issues. The whole thing could not possibly weigh more than 1.5 pounds and 1 is a more likely upper limit.

4081633 Let me rephrase what I'm saying. A human being in a properly woven, properly sized suit of maille is going to be impacted so minutely that it's not worth mentioning. The only time I have ever had a problem wearing a hauberk is when throwing javelin, and I will be perfectly honest, that is because of a lack of training on my part. I have fought with everything from dagger, to sidesword, great sword, hammer, ax and spear, without an issue worth mentioning (regarding mobility, dexterity and agility). In fact, I've even fired a few short-bows competently in said armor.

Again, I will concede that armoring (pegasi) wings would likely have negative impacts on performance, mostly due to aerodynamics. Then again, I would think that wearing any armor at all (aside from padded coats) would likely negatively impact combat performance.

4082959 I highly doubt that dogfights between pegasi would take place at higher altitudes, mostly because mammalian lungs aren't as efficient as those of birds that can and do climb up above angel-10 routinely. On top of that, you'd want the thicker air provided down low to assist in maneuvering.

On the second count. I said it is unwise to design a weapon that has to rely on the element of stealth to be effective. I guarantee you that Remington 700 popping people at 1000 Yards will still kill the same guy dead at 100. Again, my statement wasn't using surprise, one should always surprise your enemy when possible. My statement was that you should never have to rely on surprise for success, that's just inviting failure.

4083994 Agreed. Stealth is a weapon, like any other, and only a fool trusts his life fully to any weapon. Although, I think it goes without saying that a race of mammals that literally live in the clouds would have evolved lungs on par with birds. After all, mammal wings don't have feathers, either.

As for the chain mail, I agree, it's incredibly flexible, but try wearing chain gloves and writing a letter. Wings take about an equivalent amount of fine dexterity as that.

4083994 First, where the hell are you getting anything about putting chain mail on the wings? No one has ever actually suggested that here and I explicitly shot it down as horribly impractical in my second post.

For altitude, you need to remember that cloud cities are going to be at least a few thousand feet up due to the way clouds work and pegasus lungs will be adapted for life at those kinds of altitudes. Also, higher altitudes will generally affect both sides equally (assuming pegasi on both sides) so there is not a major reason not to go higher while there are a number of reasons to want more altitude. The first and most critical is that starting at higher altitude than your opponent gives you more of a potential energy reserve to work with going into the fight which in turn gives you more options. The second more obvious reason is that the extra altitude offers more of a safety net for wounded ponies because it gives them more time to be caught by their comrades so more altitude means more safety for the wounded.

As for relying on surprise, we have designed and used plenty of highly successful weapons that do exactly that. Basically every form of mine ever relies entirely on surprise to be effective (if you know a mine is there, it is easy to defuse, demolish, or avoid safely), and the same is honestly true of all modern man-portable weapon systems because being seen is a death sentence for a person on a modern battlefield. Another great example is SAM batteries because they are easily destroyed by long range weapons if they are identified so the enemy must be unaware of their location in order for them to be effective. The same applies to our modern stealth aircraft which have to rely on surprise because they get blown up if they get spotted, and I do not think submarines require any explanation. Artillery and mortars rely on a shoot-and-scoot strategy because they are very soft targets once their location is known so surprise is critical there, and even things like tanks are surprisingly vulnerable if they are caught in the open so they rely heavily on surprise in order to be effective.

Also, the kinds of chaotic furballs wingblades are really designed for make it impossible to effectively track every pony involved so there will always be ways to hit unwary targets. If you want proof of this, go stand in the middle of a large flock of birds and try to keep track every individual bird that is coming towards you at all times from all directions. That should make it obvious how completely impossible the task is with only a few hundred individuals involved and no possibility of "attackers" coming from below, and it only gets worse when you scale it up to thousands or tens of thousands coming from all sides, above, and below like a real battle which is why I say you will always have plenty of unwary targets to go after.

I have a question myself. bear in mind that I am not very experienced with blades (all I have is a pocket knife) and am not as educated as many others, but there is one thing that's been bugging me. how do you use a wingblade if you are flapping?

4104423 The actual strike is made on a very brief glide to stabilize the blade for the cut. After all, they can start and stop flapping on a moment's notice so that is not at all a problem.

Working on a HUGE revelation in regards to Pegasus Wingblades, and the reality/feasibility of their design.
It quite literally goes down to the root of everything: into pegasus wing anatomy itself.
For just as human weapons are limited to, and evolved by, the design of our hands and bodies, so too would Pegasus Wingblades be limited by the restrictions of their own bones, muscles, and ligaments.
Also contains an interesting evolutionary theory on the design of the wings themselves, ALL based on and supported by what is seen in show-canon wings:

NOT Winningverse style wings:

The feasibility for wing weapon systems would differ too hugely between the two varieties for anything other than just the simplest concepts to be able to cross over between the two.
The rest of the anatomical limitations, and therefore the weapon designs and techniques thereto, belong to their own sections of canon.

Anyways, more information soon!!
More to come soon!!