• Member Since 15th May, 2014
  • offline last seen Sep 21st, 2022

Maran


Earth pony enthusiast

Sequels1

E

Twilight Sparkle is an expert in unicorn magic, but earth pony magic remains a mystery to her. The books in her library have very little information about the earth tribe's abilities, other than their famous strength. Twilight is determined to uncover their secrets.

What she learns will change her life.

And it just might change Applejack's life as well.

Featured on Equestria Daily.

Chapters (3)
Comments ( 463 )

Okay, now this is a cool premise if I've ever seen one, although I now have a slightly horrifying image of Granny Smith's face morphing and contorting as it rapidly aged from old to young and back to old again. I'm with you in being tired of "Earth Pony Magic sucks" and Twilight Outlives her friends" trends in writing (although the latter can be done very well). Personally, I've always found Earth Pony magic to be the most interesting of the bunch, as it controls plant life, somehow creates gems, forms the backbone of Equestria, and is probably one of the biggest contributing factor in the taming of Equestria's environments.

I would add that it probably explains some of Pinkie's "pinkieness", but...it really doesn't.:pinkiecrazy:

So, in short, this fic is just what I've been looking for, and you're going into even more detail than I've contemplated. Looking forward to the next. :twilightsmile:

Extremely good, this definitely deserves more attention.

Earth ponies never sucked.

Do you mind if I take notes? I've got a story idea where introducing fertilizer to Applejack's farm makes it grow out of control (the extra nutrients act as a force multiplier on earth pony magic) and I think this would make a good explanation.

I sighed through my nose. “Whenever I tried, she took my notepad and threw it as far as she could.”

:rainbowlaugh::rainbowlaugh::rainbowlaugh::rainbowlaugh::rainbowlaugh::rainbowlaugh:
*ouch* *ouch* *ouch* ... my sides!

Have a Thumbs up and a Fave! :twilightsmile:

The only ponies I knew of who practiced magic rituals were the Apples and most likely the Pies, although my visit with Pinkie's family had been too brief to have any meaningful conversation with them.

This is a sore example of the 'Economy Cast' trope. How coincidental, the only two Earth pony (families) Twilight knows who does magic rituals are also the two Earth pony Elements.

Overall from the first chapter, this feels way too much of a 'tell' story. We get exposition through Twilight basically dumping a whole heap of information on us on what she contemplates abilities of Earth ponies to be before she even goes to visit Applejack. Show, not tell: there should be a lot more of the scene where Applejack shows Twilight how to grow the seeds.

Also, Twilight is supposedly well-read. If Equestria has anything resembling an actual basic census with population ranges or a book of world records that would include oldest (non-alicorn) ponies to live, there's no way she could possibly overlook a potential discrepancy in average age ranges between Earth ponies and unicorns. And if she's a Princess, there needs to be something more to the Earth Pony college rejecting her from reading their books.

Twilight used life drain! It's super effective!

About time someone wrote a story about Earth Pony Magic™!!! :pinkiehappy: Looks like I'm not the only one who noticed AJ growing saplings at an accelerated rate...

And I see you're using similar terms to those I used to describe the various aspects of it. This should be an interesting tale.

So what you're saying is that Earth ponies are overpowered because they suck.

Makes you wonder: Just how did the Badlands get that way?

You have Earth Ponies reaching deep into the Earth for lifeforce energy, but if this energy is motion and creation, then certainly with our world the power comes from Uranium fission, with a half life of 4 Billion years. But Pinkie Pie more likely doesnt use the World, because of her reality breaking abilities, I would sugest she accesses the energies Below the world, in spacetime or even lower, which Discord manipulates directly to do what he does?

Shouldnt take much more understanding with Pinkie, given Rainbow power trigger, for her to be able to run through the air or the ground by ,leaning, just that little bit out of phase with the world.

At least it makes my Nick all the more valid, thanks. :pinkiegasp:

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Applejack's parents got greedy?

~Skeeter The Lurker

In any case, this story's got me curious.

~Skeeter The Lurker

I was tired of the “earth pony powers suck”

Me too! :pinkiehappy:
I always though they should develop Earth Pony magic more.
And for those who think the ability to make trees grow is a weak ability:

Very good work, keep it up. :twilightsmile:

Totally love this story. I share your irritation with 'the “earth pony powers suck” and “Twilight outlives her friends” memes.' and this is a clever way to counter them both which is actually well written and sensible.

This would explain so much, and if you don't mind, I'm adopting it as headcannon. Definitely going to "track" this one, and maaaybe take some notes to keep the ideas more organized in my brain. :twilightblush: As for the story itself, it's quite enjoyable and very well written! This is going on my "read again" shelf at least.

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I'd wager that it was when a bunch of earth ponies got there, one said "Hold my beer and watch this!"

A small side note: You don't need to mark a story AU for disregarding part of canon, unless it's a major deviation. The show doesn't treat it's canon as some sacred cow, in fact it treats it with a large amount of inconsistency between products (books aren't consistent with comics and show, and EQG seem to flatout out ignore common sense).

The AU tag is more for things like "Twilight is not the element of magic, and never was."

botanurgy, lithurgy, geomancy, capillurgy

Nice job on resisting that "whatevermancy" trend. You don't see too many people who actually try to get the Greek consistent. Can't judge how grammatically correct it is, but hey, at least it's trying.

“Actually, I'd like to try that red rooibos tea Zecora gave us.”

I don't think it comes in other colors. :derpytongue2: I love rooibos, personally. I like to blend it with a bit of jasmine, for the aroma.

“Took days to get the farm back to a hundred percent. On the bright side, Pinkie Pie will probably live forever.”

:rainbowlaugh: That's one of those real spit-take moments. God, I laughed at that.

This story is already starting out great. I'll be following this.

So Earth Ponies are like mini-Tireks. I wonder, if Tirek sucked out the magic from an Earth pony wouldn't it kill them since they use it to live?

Also, the ponies at the Earth Pony college sure are jerks, and I thought the Unicorns only school was racist at first.

This definitely interesting for terms of magic. I always thought the earthponiesa had to have some magic to expand life times. Nice idea with Pinkie as well.

I have a feeling Pinkie will shock Twilight back and forth once they talk earth pony magic. Pinkie clearly was almost on Twilight's level of magic before Twilight ascended. She clearly is beyond exceptionally strong in Earth pony magic......minus the typical strength.

I'd love to see Twilight discussing Pinkie's abilities with her. Pinkie's abilities are almost Discord-like! It could be part of her own earth pony magic, or she could have draconequus genes. Heck, Pinkie might even be a Cthulu type being. :pinkiecrazy:

I really liked this story. Please continue. I want to know more about these earth pony abilities. The way it's looking, Pinkie and Applejack will live forever, especially Pinkie.

Wow, I really like your take on earth pony magic! Still seems a little weird how it's not common knowledge that some earth ponies seem to live forever...

7031458 I imagine it'd put to much of a tizzy on the pompous unicorns plus who wants to risk someone like blueblood doing whatever it takes to try that ... ( I wonder if the crystal ponies were actually crystal to start or if sombre used them as test subjects to try and unlock immortality for himself and turned the land frozen and white....:trixieshiftright:

I do like some of this, but I disagree on others. Like how the alicorn ascension works, as well as the idea that Earth Ponies can live forever, or that Granny Smith is their great grandmother. I do like that they can slow their aging through that life drain, but since there's not that many earth ponies comparitively in their old ages, I think there's a limit. Heck, if there wasn't, Granny Smith wouldn't have a bad hip. Perhaps slowing aging too much overworks the age slowing effectiveness, damaging the process itself over time.

I do like all the other parts you pointed out though. Doubt skill with hair manipulation is common place, but I could see that as a potential earth pony attribute.

As for alicorn ascension, have other ideas in regards to that.

I also like to think that ponies overall can live longer than humans on average, all of them. HOWEVER, I do agree that earth ponies have the potential to be particularly old amongst them, likely due to what you bring up here. With Granny Smith being around the age you mentioned and near the end of her rope. Basically, it's likely that magical eptitude determines in part how long ponies can age naturally, relatively speaking. And earth ponies have the potential to increase their magic stores through what you explained in this fic, but it's to a limited extent, and overusing it damages the process itself.

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The story is kinda called "Earth ponies are overpowered."

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A school only for unicorns isn't racist. They're not keeping out other people because "We're better", it's just specialized schooling. Earth ponies learn their magic from just feeling things out and working hard. They can learn their powers without advanced schooling. But a unicorn who wants to learn more than basic magic apparently has to learn a lot of advanced theorems and mathematics and complex formula, none of which help anyone but them. Pegasus magic and earth pony magic seems to come more naturally. Their families could just teach them easily. But are you going to be the one to make your young child a master of trig and calc?

Likewise, advanced and specialized schooling for earth ponies is the same thing. Just teaching those who want to know more about their unique abilities. Not racist, just what they teach doesn't apply to or help anyone else.

I've made many a forum post about the potential of Earth Pony Magic but this life draining thing is a stroke of genius. I've always compared their power to a variant on tactile telekinesis, allowing them to control and manipulate things via touch. This idea seems to work pretty well with this life drain concept, as it controls the give and take of magical energy between the pony and the earth itself. I'm quite interested to see your explanation for how the Pie family is as powerful as it is, especially when it comes to Pinkie Pie and Maud.

Looking forward to the chapters to come!

No mention of earth pony's being monsters in the sack? Whenever this topic is broached, that seems to be one of the more prominent features.

Okay, so now I've got this thought that there might be Earth Ponies that predate Celestia. Like, Chancellor Puddinghead is still around, working at some bakery in an out of the way town.

The other thought is what if changelings do a similar life drain when eating emotions, and further, what if changelings originated from corrupted Earth Ponies?

7031834 This isn't the seventeenth century, Puritan. You can discuss sex without it being explicit.

I like this. It's also a good rebuttal for the "unicorn master race" memes.

Personally, I feel like Earth ponies are the most powerful of the three tribes, its just that their magic is more esoteric than the magics of the pegasi and the unicorns. Since I'm on the subject, I feel like unicorns are the weakest of the three tribes. Earth ponies and pegasi have magics that literally alter the world around them in sometimes ridiculous ways. (Earth ponies cultivating large tracts of land with only a few workers, pegasi creating weather effects that change seasons.)

Unicorns, for the most part (barring exceptions like Trixie using the alicorn amulet and pre-ascention Twilight) seem to have a more localized magic. It affects what they're choosing to interact with. Granted, it allows for a finer manipulation of objects than most ponies would have, it's still a condensed power that usually doesn't have large impacts on the world around them. I think the strongest example of a unicorn affecting the environment itself that I can think of off the top of my head is Sombra's crystal magic (which I find fascinating and want to do a story on at some point). But again, this seems to be an exception, rather than the norm.

Granny Smith "overdid it" and become wrinkled... And so is Palpatine - "overdid it" with Dark Side when fighting Mace Windu and become wrinkled. Earth Ponies are Force-users?!

vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/7/7b/Granny_Smith_confused_S1E01.png
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8f/Emperor_RotJ.png

Beware the AppleSith familiy. :rainbowlaugh:
Excellent idea, i can't wait to see what you'll come up with next.

So, occasionally you get an evil unicorn like Sombra or Starlight Glimmer or the guy that made that Tome. Now imagine an evil earth pony.
Frigging nightmare fuel.

nice story, and those are some interesting ideas you got going there. It's certainly given me some food for thought. have a like :twilightsmile:

7032029 For most part the idea comes because unicorn magic is more direct and visible, as you have somewhat mentioned. That and they are the only tribe that have a particularly good replacement for hands in the form of telekinesis.

I was tired of the “earth pony powers suck”

Yet that's exactly what you did...

Joking aside, this is an interesting take on the "Earth Ponies have super-long lifespans" concept.

7031447 Pinkie as a Great Old One? Now THAT is a scary thought.... :pinkiecrazy:

In the show it was shown that earth ponies have great strength and can manipulate growth of plants. They evidently have power.

I got tired of the "earth pony magic sucks" trend ages ago, which is why I made my own headcannon for how it really works like you did. I haven't had an opportunity to actually use it yet, but I hope to knock your socks off in the future. As for Twilight outliving her friends, the solution to that is simple; don't make Twilight immortal. But if you must, it would be better if you found another way to make her friends immortal other than turning them into alicorns, like Whateverdudezb did, because the Alicorn Six is poison.

Shouldn't capillurgy be trichurgy? That said, I do admire you restricting the use of the -mancy suffix to only divination magic.

Great stuff overall; earth pony magic is one of my favorite topics to explore, and it's nice to see someone else who thinks there may be a necromantic element to it. This is a very fun headcanon exploration thus far, though the thing about careful population management rings a little hollow when one considers the magnitude of the Apple family. Still, definitely looking forward to more.

Oh, and there's an asterisk around where Granny Smith twists her own flesh for some reason. What's up with that?

7031114 And that's when the Earth Pony Terra Cotta became bucking immortal :rainbowlaugh:
This is a very cool story idea, and I totally want to see more.

Ok, so, Earth Pony magic gives multiple levels of Potence, Fortitude, Biothaumaturgy and... err, Vicissitude? I'll buy that!

More directly, for those that don't grok the reference, I really, really like this take on Earth Pony magic. Seriously looking forward to the next installment, that I am.

I love this idea! It makes sense with everything in the show and makes earth ponies seem really awesome! :derpytongue2: :heart:

7031723 lol Well, I do agree with the title.

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