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[Crazy Cow]

If I was put in charge of a group of unicorns and told to do what I could with them, I would immediately begin stamina and accuracy training, and mass-produce long, thin spikes of cheap metal. A group of unicorns trained and equipped like that would destroy an army of earth ponies easily. Earth ponies would have absolutely no way to produce complicated machines to produce effective ranged weapons; my earlier point about building a crossbow or gun with two thumbs and your mouth still applies. Unless unicorns are stupid enough to provide earth ponies with such weapons, unicorns have an extreme advantage over them. Pegasus ponies, of course, would be safe with the siege strategy of destroying crops and then waiting, as said earlier. Although, Twilight created a pair of magical wings and cast a cloudwalking spell; I imagine that sufficiently dedicated unicorns could attack a pegasus pony community, although they would need to rely on stealth to avoid getting blown out of the air.

[TheBronzePickle]

The earth ponies obviously have physical advantages that are not reliably demonstrated in the show. Appleloosa is inhabited entirely by earth ponies, who would have had to at least have the physical dexterity to set up the housing. Said housing is not some ramshackle huts, either. They've got multistory buildings. They'd have to be dextrous enough to at least hold a nail in place and embed it into the wood with a hammer, unless they've got some kind of mass-produced glue that's stronger than most of the glues in existence today. You could claim that they hired help from the unicorns, but they're such a long distance away from pony civilization (by the looks of it, anyway) that the cost for the help would have been rather exorbitant.

[Zangi]

Earth Ponies also have ranged attacks, they could kick/buck rocks/apples/whatever.  For example, the Dragonshy episode, Applejack bucking them apples and splatting em on a tree.  That would hurt if it were a pony and some rocks...

Having the ability to telekinize stuff doesn't mean a trained War Unicorn is capable of controlling more then 2-4 different objects simultaneously.  Nor does it mean they are able to concentrate enough to stop/deflect more then 1-2 high velocity objects, without dropping whatever else they are doing.  It also doesn't mean their 'throwing stuff around' packs as much punch as an Earth Pony bucking a rock/apple/whatever, referencing the above...

Honestly, are we trying to say that Unicorn ponies are very powerful telekinesis users? 
I would believe its a bit more balanced... not every Pony is Twilight Sparkle level... or even Rarity level, but she specializes more in control, while Twilight Sparkle has more power.
And I can assure you, a good bucking is still going to be unmatched when it comes to power in any Equestrian skirmish.  Just don't get hit by that and you should more or less be fine...

[TheBronzePickle]

There's also the fact that the ponies have body armor, which would deflect most projectile attacks. Sure, the Equestrian Guard's armor is kinda open, but it's more of an ornament than an actual battlepiece.

[Jacob/Lee]

Interesting. In most places with ponies, they discuss the show. Here, we discuss how ponies would kill each other in a fight to the death

Cool story bro. I've yet to find a place that'd actually discuss that.

Go to a different place then.

[GlyphGryph]

Something you all seem to be missing here is that the impressive endurance of the Earth Ponies isn't just physical.

They work harder, longer, and can maintain the focus needed to get the job done. They seem to be naturally disciplined. They are not stupid, either.

Pegasus ponies are fast and can fly, but they also seem fairly lazy and, mentally, a lot weaker than the earth ponies we've seen. They seem more interested in competing and playing around than actually getting work done. We haven't seen Pegasus ponies in many leadership positions, either - while earth ponies seem to be widespread in roles such as aristocrats, mayors, and even as leaders of the fashion world, where one would expect unicorn ponies to be on top.

Unicorn ponies, meanwhile, seem overly concerned with appearances. Twilight is really different than most of them - do recall how the other unicorns seemed upset that she would prefer working on her studies to socializing. Those we've seen with magical talents (again, aside from twilight), are quite focused, and having something come so easily to you must make it quite difficult to justify all that effort it would take to do something else. Especially when most of them seem to care far more for social approval than anything meaningful.

So who are the movers and shaker's of pony society? Earth ponies. They push out the frontiers, they do the work that needs to be done, they can be found leading industries and managing towns, because above all their defining trait seems to be the fact that they get. things. done.

If there was ever a war between the three types, well, I know which side I'd want to lead. While the unicorns were struggling to deal with their own trying to get out of military service, or patting themselves on the back for being such good sports and letting those earth ponies go free, or chatting up about how secure they are in their "impenetrable" magical fortress they made with a whole bunch of tricks that they've nicknamed the Titanic, the Earth Ponies would be figuring out exactly what they would need to do to win the war, and then they wouldn't stop until the war was won.

I can't even see the Pegasus pony's organizing an army without it breaking out into bickering, to be honest. Assuming they would even want to fight and not just sit things out after making an agreement with the earth ponies to continue getting... ya'know, food.

You might be able to train enough unicorns to pull together a small elite force, but most of them would wash out. Or whine. Or give up. Or get tired too easily to be worthwhile. And it would take time. And the whole time they would likely be questioning why they have to be the ones doing it, while the Earth Ponies are getting organized, kicking down the doors, and, oh yeah, being the only side that has any idea how to do the work that keeps society functioning. (like growing food).

[Crazy Cow]

You see, this is the beauty of internet arguments. Everyone has views on something different, everyone noticed a different detail and wondered about what it meant, everyone has experience with different things that can apply tot he argument at hand. You make a very good point, GlyphGryph, a very good one indeed.

[Bohandas]

I've always felt that it was kind of asymmetrical and odd that 2/3 of the ponies have some kind of mythological bent to them, and the rest are just run-of-the-mill talking cartoon ponies.

I've always thought that it would make more sense if they replaced the earth ponies with eight-legged Slepnir style ponies or something like that...

[fqllve]

I just chalked it up to them wanting to show that even without having magical powers or wings you can be special and totally awesome, and that things that aren't outwardly exciting may nonetheless be important.

Also, I think Slepnir might freak little girls out a bit. :p

[Dsarker]

Sleipnir would be epic as a MLP race.

[Flying Dice]

So taking the idea that unicorns are only able to use magic in areas related to their cutie marks, what would happen to a unicorn with a cutie mark related to, say assassination? That talent would be useless at best, given the artificially enforced tranquility imposed by Celestia, and would likely lead to mental illness and/or serial equicide. Unless the belief that Celestia is a benevolent dictator holds water, in which case she may very well have a cadre of ponies with various martial skills, which she uses as secret enforcers to maintain her hold on Equestria. For the good of the masses, of course.

[Dsarker]

Well, they simply wouldn't get their cutie mark. It's only in the CMC that not having one is a terrible thing.

[Jacob/Lee]

Simply, a pony like that wouldn't exist as far as the show will go. However, in the world of fanfics, where the laws of My Little Pony are bent to fit the needs of authors, a pony could get a cutie mark and have special talents related to the darker side of reality. I'm not entirely sure what kind of magic a pony like that could use. However, let me don my tin foil hat and say there could actually be a "secret police" of sorts serving under Celestia and maintaining order.

[Dsarker]

Well, the ponies only get their cutie mark when they learn their secret talent. Unless they do assassinate someone, they won't get it anyway.

[Zangi]

Yea, there are so many opinions on the matter of capabilities of the different types of ponies...  Glyph has a pretty good personality analysis.  Though, I'd like to think the median wouldn't be as useless as what Glyph paints it as.