A thread to discuss My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and the tie-in media.
All of the usual forum rules
apply. In addition, please remember that the thread is discussing a kids' show, and it's primarily focused on the work itself, not the fanfic — in particular, we don't want to see lewdness creeping in.
Edited by Mrph1 on Aug 26th 2024 at 10:24:26 AM
@Mio: The magitek, perhaps, seeing that it is more immediately noticeable. However there are the earthworks, the stoneworks, the massive agricultural techbase, and the metalwork that would take a unicorn craftsmare more time to do by magic than an Earth Pony metalsmith.
The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!@Mio: Can you really see unicorns getting down and dirty to extract the ore from the earth, then smelt and forge it for things like farming implements and horseshoes?
The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!@Mio: It would have been a way for a unicorn Lord or Noble House to advertise their power, by pulling their castle together with raw magic.
edited 30th Mar '14 7:23:24 AM by AceOfScarabs
The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!
I guess that's possible if we assume that unicorn aristocracy is at least partially magocratic as well. But I also wouldn't doubt that especially prideful (or magically weak) noble houses would just leave the work to mass unicorn peasant levies, or hire out to Earth Pony guilds.
edited 30th Mar '14 7:29:52 AM by Mio
Actually, you'd kinda think metalworking would be easier for a unicorn. Since with magic they could both heat the metal until it was malleable, and shape it with telekinesis.
Granted that would take a lot of skill, but if Rarity can use her magic fine enough to sew, then careful force shouldn't be that far off.
I tend to write more unicorn-heavy areas as being more medieval simply because they can afford it - they don't need the technology to help them along. Conversely, more earth-pony heavy areas tend to be more technologically developed. In my writing there are two countries, Aloa and El'bia, which are all-unicorn and all-Earth Pony respectively. Aloa is renaissance at best, relying heavily on magical abilities - unicorn magic and Sea Pony speed in water for communication.
El'Bia on the other hand has developed long-range semaphore communication, irrigation, cranes, and is largely kept from appearing to be industrial only because the vast majority of their technology uses specialized plants.
Of course this is all conjecture; while I think Unicorns would likely stagnate in medieval times due to lack of need for development, in-show all of the races are integrated to the degree where it's hard to tell who's responsible for what. For all we know, Griffins could be the proginators of most of Equestrian technology.
Birthright: an original web novel about Dragons, the Burdens of Leadership, and Mangoes.It's not like abilities are that restricted anyway, which would imply a planet of hats for each race which isn't the case. not all earth ponies are farmers, though they have natural abilities that would suit them, and not all unicorns are purely academic.
Heck the mane six show that two members of the same race can be total opposites.
@Kegi: The Earth Ponies would at least have disproportionately advanced technologies focused around their agriculture.
@Dark: True that. In general though it'd take a specific kind of ability/personality set to become a Legendary tier craftspony at a particular thing though.
edited 30th Mar '14 7:36:46 AM by AceOfScarabs
The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!@Ace: Yeah, fair enough. Like I said, irrigation and stuff. And El'Bia's 'hat' overall is bio-engineering, splicing highly specialized plants, both magical and mundane, for various purposes.
Birthright: an original web novel about Dragons, the Burdens of Leadership, and Mangoes.My own fanon is that the Three Tribes discovered Fire separately. Earth ponies learned to tame it and control it with wood and coal and oil, Pegasi learned to spark it at command with their lightning, and Unicorns figured out how to conjure it with magic.
@Blissey: Longinus's art looks a little like ecmajor's.
The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!@Mio: Yeah definitely. Modern Equestria is reaching the economic point where powerful Earth Pony corporations are going to butt heads with the old and rich noble Unicorn Houses.
@Dragon: ...You know, you're on to something there. Maybe the Rainbow Power deal is that they learn to harness the power of the Elements of Harmony without needing the physical tokens.
The three finest things in life are to splat your enemies, drive them from their turf, and hear their lamentations as their rank falls!Yeah, it hit me as I was sleeping last night. I just kept thinking about how Applejack's episode basically had her revisit the idea that sometimes the truth can hurt and that a lie is easier to take. Then I realized pretty much all the ponies dealt with similar issues; Fluttershy learning she sometimes can be too kind and needing to be more stern, Rainbow Dash really being forced to choose between Cloudsdale and Ponyville, Rarity and her love of beauty and fashion versus her friendships, etc.
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Well I guess. Except that now they don't have to worry about being mind controlled the instant they show doubt (or not in Fluttershy's case) and can work it out on their own.
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I do like to imagine that the old earth pony tribe was kind of like the Hanseatic League (at least at the top of the social l;adder).
edited 30th Mar '14 7:51:29 AM by Mio
So earning to channel harmony within themselves as it were? Interesting.
maybe it's just me, but I dislike the hat thing. Sure the races have inclinations and abilities they naturally can be suited for, but I think anypony with a talent and desire strong enough could do anything.
An earth pony wants to fly? Construct a flying device. Pegasus wants to use spells? I'm sure there'd be a way to use incantations and glyphs to achieve a similar effect.
Yeah definitely. Modern Equestria is reaching the economic point where powerful Earth Pony corporations are going to butt heads with the old and rich noble Unicorn Houses.
It's probably already begun, to be honest. We have a trans-continental railway, and at least one large city made primarily of what looks to be a single, very expensive kind of stone(Even if Canterlot is only painted white, all of that stone would likely need to come from a single nearby place, as transporting rock up a mountain is not an easy task to do). There's probably already at least a few families that have gotten so rich off of various business ventures they're basically pseudo-nobility.
Birthright: an original web novel about Dragons, the Burdens of Leadership, and Mangoes.

-tiptoes in- I'm awake. What all did I miss?
(@Sunset Shimmer pic: That is rather good-lookin', I'll admit to that.)