> Earth Pony's Guide to Combat, By Bales O. Hay
>  by Brownbear96
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> All Chapters
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Intro

Alright, to begin with, I'm a farmer and a fighter for the most part, not much of a writer. I'm only writing this because I feel as though that not many ponies will share the same ideas I have on fighting for a long time, so I figured I should write what I know down so that perhaps more ponies may be able to read this.
So, my name is Bales, I'm a farmer down at Appleloosa, mostly I lift bags of seeds or plow the fields, strength work, in my spare time me and my folks like to wrestle which is how I got into fighting, eventually we got to setting a little fight club that would meet every week or so. After a while the club spread through Equestria to places like Canterlot, and even Cloudsdale. As the club got bigger different kind of ponies would join such as unicorns and pegasi, without any real set of rules everypony would fly and use magic openly which led to the rioting of earth pony members and it's banning shortly after.
When the club grew I got into a few fights with unicorns and pegasi, after doing it for awhile I was able to find out how to beat flying or magical ponies with ease, it's actually part of a little system I developed so this book will explain these systems for you to use.





Chapter 1: Earth Ponies

First off, most of the ponies in the fight club were the ones that founded it, earth ponies, so naturally I know most about fighting them. An Earth pony's best trait in a fight is his or her strength, seeing as most are farmers who do a lot of heavy lifting.An earth pony can easily beat a unicorn or pegasus in something like a hoof-wrestling match but fighting isn't all strength, earth ponies also tend to be heavier and slower and, I'll be the first to admit, none too bright.
Beating another earth pony in a fight is usually a matter of being faster or clever, most ponies, earth or otherwise, don't have any combat training, save for Celestia's guards perhaps, so it's likely they will rely on whatever nature has given them. An untrained earth pony will likely try to overpower you so if you aren't stronger facing him head-on may not be smart, Instead try to get around striking at his sides, getting directly behind him isn't advised as he could have strong back legs and a buck from them could hurt. Another option is to outsmart him, earth ponies, as I said earlier, aren't always too smart so it's likely he'll just try to charge at you head-on.
Here's where being tactical can help, having him ram into objects might leave him open or setting down a small trap or something to make him trip. Overall an earth pony's greatest strength, his size and power, can also be his weakness hence the saying "The bigger they are, the harder they fall."





Chapter 2: Pegasi

When the fight club reached Cloudsdale pegasi began to join it and dog fights became common. Of course pegasi would fight unicorns and earth ponies too, magic often would balance out their ability to fly but not many earth ponies would win against a pegasi. Pegasi in reality aren't too difficult to fight, you just have to know how.
First, if a pegasus doesn't want to fight, he won't, any pegasus can easily fly away from a fight so unless you yourself can fly don't bother chasing him. Most pegasi fighters, however, are head strong so that often won't be the case. If you do intend on fighting a pegasi, it would be to your advantage to take it somewhere with a ceiling so that he doesn't fly too high, even a thick forest will do as he would be forced to walk in order to keep his eyes on you.
On to their strengths, alone pegasi are speedy and can often move out of range of a strike or out of sight before you even know it, combine this with their ability to fly and it becomes nearly impossible to keep track of them. While initially weak pegasi can build momentum for their attacks by diving at you from above so staying in an enclose area would be to your advantage. Avoiding their attacks is more about predicting where they will be rather than outright dodging them.
A pegasus' weaknesses consist of their lightness and, for a lot of them, their stubbornness. Pegasi are naturally lighter than other ponies which allow their wings to carry them, so an earth pony could easily toss them around given the chance. That doesn't mean their weak, though while a pegasus may not be able to endure much punishment they can sure as hay dish it out. Your best chance when fighting a pegasus is to try and predict where he'll be and hit him before he can move, it's best that you take him out in as little hits as possible before they can get a chance to attack you. Overall pegasi aren't able to handle much punishment so use your strength with every strike. We've had griffons enter the fight club before, although Iv'e never fought one ponies who have never won a fight, from what they've told me I would say there just like pegasi in terms of fighting just much tougher, in order to beat one of them with talent alone you may have to bee a pegasus.





Chapter 3: Unicorns

Unicorns are tricky ponies to fight, after the club reached Canterlot they started to came in using all kinds of magic! We've had them use spells like telekinesis, teleportation, and even mind reading, some may even resort to using the horns on their heads as weapons. Beating a unicorn is more about getting pass their spells if they choose to use them, other than that all yo have to worry about is them tricking you.
A unicorn's strengths are primarily their wits and spells, not many unicorns are athletes so they often are bot weak and slow, that doesn't make them easy, however. When applying their spell to battle, I've seen unicorns teleport behind or above their opponents to get a shot at their blindside. Some more unique spells Iv'e seen used include phasing through the ground, casting fireballs, and even casting illusions. 
Unicorns, while having all these spells at their disposal do have one major flaw about them. Unicorns have to focus on whatever their casting on in order to use a spell correctly, you can stop them from doing this by making eye contact. While your making eye contact with a unicorn they won't be able to completely focus on their spells, even if that spell is directed at you or if that is is to outright move you, they would have to be focusing on your body or wherever you are while making eye contact they'll be too focused on them to cast spell. Sure they could break eye contact anytime they want but that gives you a chance strike while their casting a spell.
Some unicorns can cast spell that are meant to affect your mind directly and actually require eye contact. The only way to actually counter these spells is to have a stronger mind then them, in other words, you can't be dumb! After some explaining from a unicorn whose talent was basically as a hypnotist I think I have an understanding of what having a strong mind means. Basically, you have to be able to see through any trick they cast on you, to do this you have to be able to recognize what exactly their trying to trick you into seeing. Overall once you get past a unicorn's spells it's a matter of overpowering them, just watch out for their horns, being poked by those is not fun.





Chapter 4: Training Yourself

Okay, what I've written up to now is based off of my observations of new members of the fight club without any training. While what I've said may be true about random ponies you encounter on the street, other ponies with certain professions such as athletes or ex-guards may ignore these rules. It is for this reason that you yourself must train to get past your own flaws. Since this guide is mainly for earth ponies most of your training may consist of speed exercises and educating yourself.
If you want to become faster exercises like galloping or any other exercise that works on breathing should be good. Being faster should help you keep up with a speedy pegasus or for getting around a stronger earth pony and even dodging lifted objects from unicorns. Working on your reflexes might help too, back on my family's farm I had my brother throw apples at me while I dodged or caught them we had to stop eventually because my mom would shout at us about it being a waste of apples, so something similar to that should improve your reflexes. 
What's important for any fight is tactics. Learning how to use your environment in a fight against certain ponies is important, trying to get the high ground, (don't even try this with a pegasus) or being able to conceal yourself can win fights for you. To learn how to do things like this going to different areas where you may get into a fight and looking closely can do a lot. As for mind training against certain spells, you may want to get your hooves on a book related to the subject or ask a professional, I've already written all I know in the last chapter.
To conclude, it's wings or magic or strength that decides a fight it's the pony. Knowing how to get around your opponent and training your weak points is key, I've never met a pony whose talent is fighting so I'm hoping what I write here will be helpful to somepony eventually, but I doubt fight club will be unbanned anytime soon so let's you won't have to remember this too often.