Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Demonic Spoon]

"Twilight Sparkle may be in the upper echelons of ability, but Rarity, the other unicorn in the central cast, can telekinetically stop and redirect high velocity projectiles; she also transforms a tree branch into a series of perfectly manicured leaf sculptures with a single thought."

While it is agreed that Twilight is not the norm of unicorn abilities, even possessing minor telekinesis is already powerful. Also, controlling the literature since unicorns pretty much have a monopoly on writing anything beyond a short letter.

[Crazy Cow]

Unicorns are undoubtedly on top. Pegasus ponies and earth ponies are incapable of manipulating much of anything; can you see a normal pony try to write, type, use any kinds of weapons or make anything with just a mouth and hooves? Unicorns, with their inherent ability of telekinesis, have even more of an advantage then we do. They can manipulate more items then we can (two) at once, and more efficiently then us due to telekinesis effecting things at a distance (kind of the point). That's the reason I would want to be a unicorn, if anything; even their basic, inherent powers kick the asses of every other pony, not counting individual levels of power.

[Demonic Spoon]

Oh I don't know, the pegasi could mess up the weather pretty badly if it came to it, the unicorns would do their best to keep the pegasi on their side, the earth ponies though? Nothing more than glorified slave labour to do the mundane chores. The mayor is obviously a figurehead puppet put in place to give the earth ponies a false sense of equality.

[TheBronzePickle]

I think that the representations given by the mane cast might not actually exemplify the abilities of unicorns all that well. The mane cast have the Elements of Harmony on their side, which seems to present a boost in ability over normal ponies, whether earth, pegasus, or unicorn. Twilight can perform magic that likely rivals the god-princess's abilities, and even the much more weakly-powered Rarity is an amazingly speedy worker, able to pour out several outfits in a day. Rainbow Dash can apparently warp physics around her, as she's able to take the pressure of flying over mach 1 without protection. Even Applejack, despite showing signs of terrible weariness, was able to clear half of a MASSIVE orchard in the space of less than a week.

Most ponies probably don't demonstrate a fraction of the skill exhibited by the mane 6. The best exhibition of this is Trixie, who, despite being a pony who was based around magic, just like Twilight, wasn't able to perform anywhere near the same level. Most unicorns are likely on a level comparable to earth ponies in ability.

[Bohandas]

"Twilight Sparkle may be in the upper echelons of ability, but Rarity, the other unicorn in the central cast, can telekinetically stop and redirect high velocity projectiles; she also transforms a tree branch into a series of perfectly manicured leaf sculptures with a single thought."

While it is agreed that Twilight is not the norm of unicorn abilities, even possessing minor telekinesis is already powerful. Also, controlling the literature since unicorns pretty much have a monopoly on writing anything beyond a short letter.

Unicorns are undoubtedly on top. Pegasus ponies and earth ponies are incapable of manipulating much of anything; can you see a normal pony try to write, type, use any kinds of weapons or make anything with just a mouth and hooves? Unicorns, with their inherent ability of telekinesis, have even more of an advantage then we do. They can manipulate more items then we can (two) at once, and more efficiently then us due to telekinesis effecting things at a distance (kind of the point). That's the reason I would want to be a unicorn, if anything; even their basic, inherent powers kick the asses of every other ponies, not counting individual levels of power.

"All lesser races must stand aside or be trampled!"

[Demonic Spoon]

I think that the representations given by the mane cast might not actually exemplify the abilities of unicorns all that well. The mane cast have the Elements of Harmony on their side, which seems to present a boost in ability over normal ponies, whether earth, pegasus, or unicorn. Twilight can perform magic that likely rivals the god-princess's abilities, and even the much more weakly-powered Rarity is an amazingly speedy worker, able to pour out several outfits in a day. Rainbow Dash can apparently warp physics around her, as she's able to take the pressure of flying over mach 1 without protection. Even Applejack, despite showing signs of terrible weariness, was able to clear half of a MASSIVE orchard in the space of less than a week.

Most ponies probably don't demonstrate a fraction of the skill exhibited by the mane 6. The best exhibition of this is Trixie, who, despite being a pony who was based around magic, just like Twilight, wasn't able to perform anywhere near the same level. Most unicorns are likely on a level comparable to earth ponies in ability.

I know of at least 3 other pegasi with comparable ability to Rainbow Dash, admittedly they are in the top echelon, but most of the main cast is assumed to be as well. We already covered this, even if the rest of the unicorns are much weaker telekinesis trumps all. Heck they could possibly even work together to achieve stronger results.

[Dsarker]

So if Rarity can use her powers so easily, why doesn't she while finishing the Applebuck season? That is the essential reason for Unicorns being on top, that they can outproduce the Earth Ponies. You've got to establish why they would care about the Earth Ponies if they didn't need them. We also know that the Earth ponies are more adaptable to new circumstances: the only new settlement we see is dominated by Earth ponies, whereas the other settlement we see is so fixed in their ways even with more efficient methods available BECAUSE THE OTHER TYPES OF PONY ARE THERE.

They also appear to have more stamina and strength, see that same episode, 21, as well as 7.

[Bohandas]

So if Rarity can use her powers so easily, why doesn't she while finishing the Applebuck season? That is the essential reason for Unicorns being on top, that they can outproduce the Earth Ponies. You've got to establish why they would care about the Earth Ponies if they didn't need them. We also know that the Earth ponies are more adaptable to new circumstances: the only new settlement we see is dominated by Earth ponies, whereas the other settlement we see is so fixed in their ways even with more efficient methods available BECAUSE THE OTHER TYPES OF PONY ARE THERE.

They also appear to have more stamina and strength, see that same episode, 21, as well as 7.

What about episode 13?

[Crazy Cow]

Hey, I actually read the article we're discussing The point about Celestia and Luna representing pegasus ponies and unicorns, but not earth ponies was actually a pretty valid one. Most of the other stuff had crossed my mind at some point or another, but I never really realized that.

Although worst-case scenario is that the unicorns take out the pegasus ponies and let weather run its course. There are benefits to controlling the weather, but ponies are perfectly capable of functioning without controlling weather (Appleoosa [is that how you spell it?], for example).

@TheBronzePickle
Unicorns are the best, no matter how you put it. Even if most unicorns can manipulate a single small item, that puts them at a great advantage over earth and pegasus ponies in writing, crafting, and combat.

[TheBronzePickle]

Combat would not be terribly hard for an earth pony. They can perform a basic and strong grip with their hooves, and have the dexterity to do basic swordplay. Given a gun with a large trigger and no guard, they could probably operate it somewhat clumsily, but well enough to be accurate. They wouldn't have the mobility of a unicorn or pegasus force, but they would have numbers and brute strength.

Edit: If nothing else, unicorns obviously have some good reason not to dominate the other races of pony. You could blame it on the background artists, but it was fairly obvious that most of the rich, high-tier ponies at the Gala were earth ponies.

[Demonic Spoon]

That is the essential reason for Unicorns being on top, that they can outproduce the Earth Ponies.

What? No. The top echelon unicorns can easily perform the same tasks the top echelon earth ponies can, proving the unicorn superiority. However, societal dominance isn't based on outproducing your lessers, it's based on controlling your lesses. A earth pony village rebels against the monarchy. Example of pegasi vs earth pony, the pegasi make it flood/drought, the earth ponies are forced to submit themselves again to the monarchy or starve. Can the pegasi produce more food than the Earth Ponies? No. Can they control the earth ponies? Yes. Really, the more I think about it the pegasi may be the top of the pile. They can just snipe the other ponies with lightning bolts from above. Unicorns still control literature though, giving them the powerful tool of information control. However you look at it Celestia is a indisposable dictator though(can't even really say monarch since she has no successors or predecessors), who controls the movement of the SUN.

Combat would not be terribly hard for an earth pony. They can perform a basic and strong grip with their hooves, and have the dexterity to do basic swordplay. Given a gun with a large trigger and no guard, they could probably operate it somewhat clumsily, but well enough to be accurate. They wouldn't have the mobility of a unicorn or pegasus force, but they would have numbers and brute strength.

Providing of course they had guns. The unicorns could just stop the bullets like the matrix though. Or snatch the gun/sword away.

Edit: If nothing else, unicorns obviously have some good reason not to dominate the other races of pony. You could blame it on the background artists, but it was fairly obvious that most of the rich, high-tier ponies at the Gala were earth ponies.

How is this a reason not to dominate them? Not following your logic. Subtlety is the name of the game here. The unicorns even have a entire FiM propaganda campaign to give the impression of equality between the races.

[Blade Master Model 42]

Pegasus ponies and earth ponies are incapable of manipulating much of anything; can you see a normal pony try to write, type, use any kinds of weapons or make anything with just a mouth and hooves?

I'm assuming we're ignoring Pinkie Pie and her flying machine here on the basis that Pinkie is about as far from normal as we can get?

[TheBronzePickle]

You're assuming that the telikinesis is stronger than the earth ponies' muscle. And the momentum of a bullet, which has a hard time being stopped by half-inch steel plate. Admittedly, it likely is strong enough to at least match the earth ponies, but most unicorns don't demonstrate the ability to handle several objects like Twilight could, and the earth ponies once again outnumber the other two races. A single unicorn might have to face two armed earth ponies, and would have an immense amount of trouble fighting both.

Pegasus ponies would have an easier time controlling earth ponies, but the earth ponies seem to demonstrate the greatest amount of tool use, and therefore ingenuity. They could probably rig up ways to protect themselves from even the worst storms. Like bunkers.

[Bohandas]

It's possible that earth ponies have abilities that haven't been well studied or documented; cf. Pinkie Pie's prognosticative abilities in "Feeling Pinkie Keen" and Twilight's response to them. Not necessarily all abilities of a divinatory nature, but all subtle and not associated with any special anatomical features that are not universal to all ponies.

[Crazy Cow]

Wait, has there been any confirmation as to the populations of the pony castes? I am assuming that unicorn, pegasus and earth ponies are functionally even, because it hasn't been mentioned in the show at all.

@Bohandas
That's actually been hinted at quite a bit thorughout the show, so it is entirely possible that earth ponies have various abilities like precognition that simply haven't been studied... maybe because those mostly responsible for scientific research (unicorns) look down on earth ponies and don't think them worth studying?

@TheBronzePickle
The way I'm imagining unicorn vs. earth pony combat goes roughly along the lines of:

Unicorn yanks weapons away from earth ponies, promptly attacks earth ponies with said weapons

There is no way even multiple earth ponies would be able to take out a unicorn without some element of surprise because of that telekinesis.