2162385
It's a style preference. Telling someone that I'm 6'2" is (opinion) more meaningful than a hundred something cm. It feels more "height-y" in part because the units involved, feet, are closer to what is being measured.

I suppose a similar effect would be created by stating my height as a single A7 tall (60/60ths).

Any insight as to why we ended up in this universe instead of the alternate? Was the deciding point made with only an eye for "today's" profits rather than many decades into "tomorrow" ? Was it inpossible to see long-term profits back at that point for being an early adopter of the trit?

2162464

> "It's a style preference. Telling someone that I'm 6'2" is (opinion) more meaningful than a hundred something cm. It feels more "height-y" in part because the units involved, feet, are closer to what is being measured."

> “I suppose a similar effect would be created by stating my height as a single A7 tall (60/60ths).”

I understand now. Unfortunately, this is a matter of opinion. Opinions differ. Mine opinion differs on this point. I would just write 1.8 meters (more significant figures is deceptive because spinal columns compress and stretch).

Any insight as to why we ended up in this universe instead of the alternate? Was the deciding point made with only an eye for "today's" profits rather than many decades into "tomorrow" ? Was it inpossible to see long-term profits back at that point for being an early adopter of the trit?

We ended up in this alternate universe because of an historical accident. It is that simple:

We initially tried 10-way switches, but that was unworkable. We went in the opposite direction to 2-way switches. If a Mathematician would have been around, we could have started with balanced ternary. A 3-way switch is only slightly more complicated than a 2-way switch, but we got stuck with it. Historical accidents explain much of what we do:

QWERTY is common because early manufacturers of typewriters arranged keys for slowing down typing so that typewriters do not jam. It is less efficient, but that is the way it turned out. These things happen. It would have been better another way (Neal Armstrong would have appreciated a computer using balanced twice as powerful as his binary computer when he landed on Luna, but history did not go down that path. After we started to use binary, it was easier to continue than to change architectures.

Since the 1950s, Computer-Manufacturers knew that after they hit the wall of atoms blocking further miniaturization, they would have to switch to balanced ternary, but until they hit that wall, it was quicker, easier, and less expensive to just miniaturize. If we would have started with balanced ternary, it would have made computers twice as powerful at the same cost, but we did not. That is the long and the short of what happened.

2164527
I had figured out it was a difference of opinion, but only figured out you weren't on board with that til my last reply. No problems.

I was already aware of the history of QWERTY keyboards. Still amusing history that.

Also thank you for the patient and thorough explanations. Hopefully I'm not alone in having learned from you.

In summary, checking back withthe topic, I think your initial values (Re: Celestia at 200kg) make for some proportions that look close enough to accurate to work for any story that may be written. As long as we don't deviate far from that aspect ratio, we're probably fine.

I propose, for style and flavor reasons that we adopt a set of measurements appropriate to the setting (hooves, kilotrots, etc.)

Since I doubt many of our authors and fans are mathmaticians, I fear sticking to b10 would likely be the best course. I personally advocate a b12 system.

I'd also model the system of measurements of off the standard rather than the metric. Rather than base it off of a neutral standard like metric is (1 cubic cm of water for example). 1 hoof is literally the length from front to back of Celestia's hooves. Her travel distance for an hour at a trot would form that standard. Her wingspan is probably the standard for a measurement similar to our yard (a span?) and so on.

I wouldn' translate Equestrian measures into Earth ones, simply because it isn't really necessary unless we pollute the WV with HiE or get really technical with pony weight vs material strengths or something.

2166310

I concur.

Alright, please correct me if I have anything in here wrong. Because I'm pretty sure I do.

Ditzy Doo is a long descendant of what's left of the Doo clan. It's not stated whether her mother or father gave her the Doo name. Her parents aren't named.
Dinky is seven years old. Ditzy was kicked out while she was pregnant. The father has not (yet) been revealed, but is strongly implied to be Shining Armor.
Ditzy has lived in Ponyville since before Dinky was born. She moved there without knowing Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy lived there.
Ditzy had never been involved sexually or romantically with Cloud Kicker until they hook up in Chengar's fic.
Mayor Mare doesn't have another name. (Which would make her just named "Mare" if she lost an election?)

2650603
Ditzy's parents have been named in passing, but it's unimportant enough that I've forgotten. Her mother (I think) is of House Cumulus which is the other offical pegasus clan. Her father passed on the Doo name.

Ditzy moved to Ponyville only because Rainbow Dash lived there. She spent a few months on Dash's cloud couch before moving in to her then delapidated house. Cloud and Rainbow helped her renovate the place into a family home. And as far as I know, there was no intimate relationship between Ditzy and Cloud prior to the start of Winning pony (In the original version of Dense Mind it was implied that she was interested in Time Turner, but that didn't turn out).

The details are all in Comma Kazie's What's in a Name.

Finally, Mayor Mare hasn't had an offical name given. Which is awkward considering how much she appears in Timekeeper, I'm forced to refer to her as 'mayor' exclusively. I've seen the name Ivory Scroll tossed around in some fic I read Celestia-knows-how-long-ago, but that may have been isolated.

2651264
Derpy's parents are Klutzy Doo (father) and Alta Stratus (mother). Stratus is a Cumulus; we'll be getting into the family's origins later on in Lunar Rebellion; all I'll give away for now is that the founder of the Cumuli has already appeared in LR.

In the case of Westmarch, are there any real-life cultural influences you had in mind for specific locales?
Like, for example, one of the trade cities bearing similarities to a stereotype Middle Eastern/Arabian setting.

2828497
The show has given us a griffin with a very distinctive french accent, Gustav le Grand. From that I've mostly assumed Westmarch has become something like modern Europe, while the Griffin Kingdom has remained stuck in a more medieval/early renaissance Europe.

There may also be a town called 'Fancy', where good cheeses and wine come from.

2828497
Westmarch is loosely modeled on the Hanseatic League, in keeping with the general idea of the Griffin Kingdom as a sort of Holy Roman Empire equivalent. However, I wouldn't suggest taking any of those parallels too literally; historical parallels are a good starting point, but we do try to add a bit more depth to settings than "Historical thing WITH PONIES!"

Ponies are capable of producing offspring with donkeys (the resulting offspring are known as mules) and griffons (creating hippogriffs). While a changeling can impregnate a pony (or several other intelligent species), the resulting offspring will simply be another changeling, and pregnancy itself will be extremely dangerous for the mare. While other races can engage in sexual relations with ponies, these unions will produce no offspring.

Does this mean that Zebras and Ponies can't interbreed? Or are Zebras simply seen as another race of Pony?

I was thinking of having a character that is half Earth Pony and Half Zebra in a story I'm working on.

6375572
Zebras and ponies interbreeding is possible. Given zony's are a thing. That was just a combo overlooked for the FAQ.

I have a question: What’s the structure of the Royal Navy? Do they also train officers at West Hoof, or do they have separate facilities? Do they have their own chain of command, or do they answer to the previously outlined system? And, this is my main question, how developed are their naval armaments? I mean, Freeport Venture makes it seem like firearm technology is in it’s very early infancy, so are cannons a thing or do they rely on traditional ram-and-board tactics?

6487597
Not that I can say what is canon and what is not, but why would they even bother with rams, boarding and even cannons? They have pegasi, and flight is ridiculously overpowered, even after the widespread use of accurate firearms. A lone pegasus could probably sink an enemy ship simply by flying really high and dropping an 80Kg steel ball on it.

My best guess is that the navy is almost exclusively made up of "aircraft carriers". Fairly small ones at that since they don't need any of the things that makes human aircraft carriers so huge, like runways and hangars. A pegasus "fighter/bomber" doesn't need a team of mechanics to function either so the crew can be kept small. In fact, the pegasi are simply part of the crew, they are not, like human aircraft, a waste of space 99% of the time, they can peel potatoes, swab the deck and adjust the sails as well as any earth pony sailor. Which is a huge saving in manpower and space. The pegasi warriors might need someone to help them with their armour and a decent stack of ammunition, but nowhere near the space required to serve a mechanical aircraft, they don't even need fuel, just the same food that the crew eats. The ship doesn't need to be armoured or have cannons and rams since it will stay out of range from enemy fire during battle, which again makes it smaller.

The Equestrian Military probably have plenty of high level unicorns (betas) as well. They can perform a number of functions for a naval battleship and , again, doesn't need more resources than the rest of the crew.

So yeah, that's my take on The Royal Navy, made up of small "aircraft carriers" crewed mainly by pegasus warriors with a few unicorns to support them. (griffins and hippogriffs function like pegasi.) Earth ponies are not that important to the navy. Though there are probably a large number of them serving in positions that doesn't require a specific race, like cooks, medics, officers, and engineers.
The offensive capabilities of the navy are centred around pegasi warriors. Unicorns and Earth Ponies perform support roles and defend the ship against enemy flyers.

6505788
Well technically what you described is possible but that would probably be a little hard to do realistically. I mean it would probably be pretty difficult for a Pegasus “bomber” as you’ve described to accurately hit an enemy vessel from high enough to do any meaningful damage. I mean they could just more or less carpet bomb an entire area but that still seems pretty inefficient and costly. I think you overestimate the power of personal flight. It’s certainly a major advantage, but they would still have to engage the enemy at some point, which would likely but them in range of said enemy. You’re ideas are certainly interesting, but I think they’d be a little difficult to realistically pull off.

6505846
Yeah you are probably right, I got some sleep and realized I'd locked in pretty hard one one aspect of pony warfare.

Still, I imagined there are quite efficient spells to deal with the accuracy issues. Like Sparklers homing tennisballs in "What else could go wrong." Hopefully you can take the enemy unawares as well, if the pegasi can manage to fly high enough to avoid detection, or use cloud cover then the enemy won't know what hit them until it's to late. They've got actual bombs as well, I imagine fire rubies would work well against wooden ships with large sails.

Then there's the weather control to consider. Ships are somewhat sensitive to extreme weather conditions. I wonder just how much a large crew of pegasi can mess up an enemy fleet. Strong winds could make it impossible for enemy ships to get into combat range and a hailstorm will, at the very least, be bad for morale. Seems like they have managed to weaponize clouds as well. Storm Kicker managed to, accidentally (and very briefly) kill a pony when she tried to show off her talent and later used it very effectively against the rusalka. Cloud told us how she managed to turn a cloud into a fogbank, which could be quite useful as well. The enemy will have a hard time to hit you if they can't see you.
And I haven't even mentioned Derpy's fire tornado.
Now before all this sounds to good to be true I realize that the enemy would most likely have pegasi (or griffins/hippogriffs) on their own to mitigate those advantages. Unicorns are probably a decent counter as well, maybe zebra magic as well.
Or would they, who would the Royal Navy expect to fight? Griffonia? Sea monsters? Pirates?

6505894
I imagine the Royal Navy would be trained to respond to any possible threat they would be expected to deal with, which would probably include foreign navies, sea monsters ad pirates, like you said. Though the nature of their response would probably vary depending which threat they were responding to. Like sea monsters would probably require specialized units or training depending on what it is. Pirates could be dealt with either traditional naval tactics or the more magical methods you've described, depending on whether or not they intend on even trying to take the pirates alive for trial. And you're probably right that foreign navies would probably have some measures in place to at least try and counter Equestria's magical advantages (such as Zebra shamans or Griffon counter-fliers).

6505915
Maybe there's a marine branch of the long patrol that specializes in fighting sea monsters. As you pointed out, fighting sea monsters probably takes different skills and equipment than fighting foreign navies.

I wonder if Chrysalis has a mobile hive somewhere in the ocean. That might explain how she got to the Sugar plantation near Freeport. Imagine a pirate ship packed full of changelings plundering merchant ships for food rather than goods. That would be cool, and terrifying.

I wouldn’t be surprised to learn the Patrol had a marine division. And pirate-changelings sound awesome and I want them right now.

I did put some thought into how naval combat would work for a ship-to-ship battle in an upcoming story, though that one’s set about 400 years back and neither side has heavy magical support. It was basically a combination of missile fire and aerial boarding actions.

The Long Patrol having a naval branch (or the navy having a similar organization/group) makes a lot of sense.

Just another thought about naval warfare in a world of magic:

If tides work like they do on Earth, then you might want to think twice about attacking a coastline defended by a princess who controls both the Sun and the Moon.

6512846
It is potentially a big advantage, albeit one that would need to be used very carefully. Disrupting the tides is the sort of thing that could easily lead to horrifying amounts of collateral damage

6526871
Good point, it is probably best used as a deterrent only.

You might be able to flood the enemy coastline, or even destroy the lower parts of Freeport with a tidal wave. But I seriously doubt Celestia would do something like that, she is firmly opposed to slaughtering thousands of innocent civilians in order to gain a military advantage. If she has that kind of power, I think she would do her best to keep it secret.

6512648
Looking forward to it!

7481635
From the show itself.
Equestria seems to have an anachronistic approach where it can perhaps be best described as compressing the last 300 years of USA/American Technological/Social/Economic history and combining it with a more fantasy/Dungeons and Dragons world.
-As a sidenote-
(There's a lovely videogame mod for Paradox Entertainment's Victoria 2 videogame (that covers the real world history from 1836 to 1936).
And that mod shoves Equestria and places it on the west coast of the USA.
The types of industrial, cultural and economic inventions seem to tie in very well with the FiM Equestria.)

Back to the TV show:

So I would probably say that modern Equestria is somewhere around the late 19th century.
They have steam engines, possibly electricity to power various devices.
There's some late 20th century video arcade machines.
Concrete and Steel to build Manehattan Sky scrapers.
There are some vehicles that seem to be steam powered or perhaps even electric?
But most are horse/pony drawn carts.
There's mid to late 20th century modern art, hippies and other counter culture movements like Punks, Goths and so forth.
In the background, there have been telephones.
Appleloosa is more late 19th century with it's cowboys.
The Military is often ceremonial in the show. The royal guards seem more like parade troops like the the Coldstream Guards, Household Cavalry, British Beefeaters, etc.
So that side seems more early 19th century. There is a a distinct lack of firearms in the TV show. So the reliance on Spears is even older, like Medieval, pre 15th century.
With the exception of the comical Party Cannons and Party Howitzers.

That's why I would say it's a curious blend of time periods in the show. Mixed in with more high fantasy concepts like magic and monsters in the wilderness.