A Pegasus could use lightning to power inventions...they could be call 'Lightning Bolts'.

The important question is whether their hats wear hats.

Pegasi are the meteorological wizards.

But do their hats' hats wear hats?

There's also the fact that not all of them actually HAVE magic readily available to them. Literally of Cloudsdale is Pegasi, for example - no magic there more advanced than flight and cloudwalking. Do they want to enchant a box with both a cold spell AND a cloudwalking spell to get a fridge up there, or would they just find a way to make due with twhat they've got? To say nothing of the Earth Ponies who might live away from the rest of the country.

Plus a lot of stuff doesn't make sense to be magical visually - like needing to plug a fan into a wall socket. Sure, you can call it magically powered, but at that point Magic is basically just electricity.

Never mind. It's not working, for some reason.

edited 6th Nov '12 1:03:20 PM by Sydxelia

I think it's broken.

@Story: My guess on the TK thing is that it either sometimes just uses less energy to do it manually or else there's a lack of feedback involved in telekinesis that sometimes makes the manual approach more helpful.

@Kegisak: That's definitely true, although it also doesn't rule out the use of magical batteries or something. On the other hand, it certainly explains the degree of Schizo Tech in the setting. For some ponies, non-magical means are simply less work than rigging up magical means. My best guess for why it doesn't spread as quick as technology does is that magical items might be harder to mass produce or maintain unless there are unicorns around. So having magical machinery in a place like Apploosa is just inefficient because you'd need to hire unicorns to maintain or run the machinery.

Then again, we probably don't even know how half the magic in the setting even works. For all we know the Apples' cider press has some sort of latent earth pony magic imbued in it or something. Or in Cloudsdale, the pegasi very well might have a way to extend their cloud-walking abilities to inanimate objects; really they'd have to, or every time they set down their coat or hat or something it would fall through the cloud.

edited 6th Nov '12 12:45:27 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Mental image: Context is a place name. They hate exports.

@ JT

Considering it's ability to create instant fermented cider, I'd say that is a strong possibility.

So... instant cheese?

Of course, the cider-magic was probably more present in The EP's than the machine itself. BM still needed to be on the machine along with Dash, even though she probably could have run faster without him. Or maybe not - hard to say how fast muscles like his could move a pony. HE could well be far faster than HER.

But, as they say, necessity is the mother of invention. I imagine any 'hard tech'(IE not magic) tends to be much more low-scale because it's only made when it's both necessary and not available via magic. So most hard tech probably comes from places like Appleloosa, or just from bored EP's. Higher, magi-tech would come from places with lots of unicorns and probably tends towards being LESS necessary. Amenities and the like.

IF it weren't for Magic though, I'd say the show would definitely hit Lauren's predicted 'late medieval' era tech, maybe a bit further - edwardian or victorian era. As it stands I like to peg it around about the industrial revolution - Bigger areas have a fair amount of tech but nothing special by our standards, and small regions are downright medieval.

perhaps... but everyone knows Cheese is no good until it's old anyways, so it doesn't make much difference.

edited 6th Nov '12 1:01:31 PM by kegisak

Hey Syd!

edited 6th Nov '12 1:06:36 PM by CDRW

I uploaded a picture twice, and it wouldn't display, for some reason. Guess I'll try again later.

Nice.

edited 6th Nov '12 1:11:36 PM by Sydxelia

Pegasi furniture pretty much has to have cloudwalking, or at least cloudnotfallingthroughing.

@Keg: Maybe cheese aged artificially by magic is indistinguishable from cheese aged normally.

I think I've finally figured what the pinnacle of EP magic would be. Not super strength, but the ability to control plants and animals with almost telepathic preciseness. And super growth of plants of all kinds of course.

I can picture this EP making the trees of a forest sway in tune with their waving hooves.

@Kegi With a belt fed machine like that, they're not just running without resistance, their pushing the belt to turn the wheel, fighting against the friction of the machine. Two ponies pushing would definitely be better than one, no magic involved.

edited 6th Nov '12 1:20:07 PM by PerpetualLurker

Hey, guys.

Sorry I've been so scarce lately.

My internet at home is down. I have to use my school's wifi like a chump.

The question is whether EP magic only has to do with strength and plants or if it has other forms as well.

Edel, the company that's been releasing bilingual German-and-English DVD volumes of the first season, will be releasing Blu-rays in March 2013.

A reasonably good looking Octavia plushie for only $40? I am so very tempted.

edited 6th Nov '12 2:02:20 PM by CDRW

That is indeed really tempting.

That thing is also forty bucks. Even if I was into merch I would give that a pass.

That is a good-looking Octavia plushie. Unfortunately, I don't have any disposable income right now.