The next comic shipment here should be shortly before or shortly after Christmas/Hearth Warming.

Well we also need to make sure the players are ready. I know Crowlover was playing but I forget who else.

@Applelight: There are two reasons for that:

1. The other races could grow food, but not in sufficient quantities for survival.

2. The unicorns lived in the mountains, and the pegasi lived in the clouds. Neither place is conducive to farming.

I'm surprised at how much this bothers me. As far as I can see, Earths are the lesser race then, if others can grow food (albeit on a lesser skill).

They can't grow enough to facilitate civilization though.

Earth Ponies have better natural aptitudes and plants still grow several orders of magnitude better under their care.

Wha...Buh...Huh? But...how does one swap minds with something that's mindless?

I'd prefer if a psionic sandwich was just two slices of bread with a psionic brain in the middle. Psionic brains have a sort of sweet, zappy taste which is oh so delicious.

Unless they're using the Book of Exalted Deeds. Exalted monks are freakin' scary. But yeah, vanilla monk is underwhelming.

(Mmmmmm, vanilla...)

But still, they could have had settlements down on the ground that could be used for farming, or hire earth pony sharecroppers rather than "Give us as much food as we want or we'll stop making it rain/keep the sun and moon from rising."

As North Korea has yet to learn, threats are not good diplomacy, and it's only a matter of time before somepony will put their hoof down. That was actually a fanfic that I came up with after seeing Hearth's Warming Eve. After the leaders and their assistants leave to find a new homeland, tensions build and build until everyone just goes nuts at one another due to the food running out everywhere, and war results.

Oh my gosh... XD◊

edited 3rd Dec '12 1:45:48 PM by theLibrarian

The only way I could see Earths being brought up to the levels of the other two tribes is:

A, if they really are much stronger than them (some possible canon justification),

B, if they are the only ones capable of making plants grow,

C, they can do something similar to 'Zebra' magic (whatever that is).

Santashy.◊

D'awwwww.◊

What? It's just a harmless prank!◊

Sure, 'Tia. Whatever you say.◊

"Twilight giving others advice about stress is like __________" (fill in the blank.)◊

Just chillin'.◊

Wings 2.0◊

Could you stay mad at a face like this?◊

Gangsta Dash.◊

Earth Ponies already have better natural sense attunement (Used by geologist Earth Ponies, like PINKIE), Enhanced Agriculture (Crops provide much more nutrition when grown by them), and they have better stamina overall, never mind strength. On top of that, Manehatten stands to overtake Canterlot in terms of economic development due to the rapid pace of modernisation there.

@Sereg, last page: Hah, funny thing, I actually had very similar ideas about the Cosmic Council's 'laws'. It even comes up at one point in TCYB, where it's mentioned that the reason Celestia doesn't just set Aloa on fire is that she refuses to step in unless Tidus does, being implied that her assistance is otherwise unnecessary. In fact, I tend to view them as stepping back most of the time - in a fic I'm planning a large portion of the council refuses to step in to stop a genocidal regime because "It's a social issue; we cannot interfere or deliberately sdteer the course of development. They must come to a conclusion on their own." Celestia is one of a small group that basically decides, "Fuck that."

@Applelight: It's the different between busting your butt to make enough food to not start to death (Pegasi and Unicorns) and putting the same amount of effort in and getting a bumper crop with plenty of surplus that you can sell for a profit. An example is that if Sweet Apple Acres were run by non-earth ponies, they would only produce enough food to feed themselves and wouldn't be able to make a business out of it.

edited 3rd Dec '12 1:59:44 PM by JapaneseTeeth

You Polymorph it into something that has a mind first.

And then what, polymorph it back?

@ JT

There's only one way I can see that happening...E Ps make their plants shoot up into maturity instantly. Also, they constantly produce fruit non stop and amazingly fast.

It's been shown that plants do not shoot up instantly when planted by Earth Ponies and that fruits are not constantly produced. Also SAA seems to be constantly on the edge of bankrupcy so isn't that good of a business honestly.

edited 3rd Dec '12 2:06:50 PM by Badwolfwho

@Badwolf: How well the business side of the place is doing isn't really relevant to their output. My point is that SAA produces a lot more apples than the family would need to subside on.

And they might not grow plants instantly, but they could certainly be more high-quality, or produce more fruit per harvest. Like an EP could get twice as many apples per tree if they're the ones doing the farming.

I...you know what. I can't argue this. I feel like ginger almost.

I'm out.

I actually reckon that ponies only buy Sweet Apple Acres crops because they're tastier and more nourishing than importing from places where the crops are not grown by Earth ponies.

How does SAA seem to be on the verge of bankruptcy a lot?

@ Librarian: They had no money to spare in Episode 3, losing the ability to sell one product was going to kill them in Flim Flam episode. I think there's other examples, but I can't recall them right now.

@ JT: Yeah undoubtedly, also as Over A Barrel shows they can grow in more difficult locations.

@ Apple: Sorry it's just I feel that Earth Ponies shouldn't be as overpowered compared to the other two as you're making them out to be.

edited 3rd Dec '12 2:14:52 PM by Badwolfwho

Because they have a lot of disasters, and it was only a couple of times last 2 seasons (Parasprites, Cider Season)

We have seen it occur in the flashback of Hearth Warming's eve, though it's up in the air how much that's real vs. artistic liscence. It was also noted to be very 'fertile', and it's possible proximity to the Everfree might be messing with the magical aspects of the soil that the EP's designate as fertility.

Also in terms of business, one must bear in mind the expenditures they make compared to what they sell. A single farm provides income for a family of four, wage for hands(And we know they need them sometimes, as there were non-apple clan ponies present in raising the barn), as well as the cost of materials to keep the famr running, up to and including building whole new buildings at times. Plus one must consider that apples aren't an expensive commodity, or rare, so while the demand is big so is the supply, so a single apple wouldn't net all that much. Their farm is industrialized like modern human farms, so while they're big they're really small time in terms of scale. Between the competition, the expenditures and the fact that a new disaster rolls through to fuck with the town every week, I'd say 'getting by' is actually fairly impressive.

I would have thought that flight/weather manipulation and spell casting would balance out the ability to grow plants really well but...whatever.