How does this work?

@Apple: Not exactly, my reasoning is that an Earth Pony and a Unicorn of equal and skill can make the same potion with identical ingredients, but the Earth pony will always get a stronger potion because of their passive magic "reinforcing" the potion's effect.

My reasoning behind Earth Ponies having a natural advantage in technology is that a lot of it is terrestrial, so the airborne pegasi would get less benefit and Unicorns with their magic wouldn't bother adopting technology.

@Yeller: More or less it boils down to the story. I believe the fic I refer to is United We Stand, where Conversion!Equestria encounters a version of Earth that not only knows the closer-to-canon Equestria, but is also the Hasbro-Earth where GI-JOE and the Autobots exist. Also, this version of Conversion!Celestia was driven by a subtle threat/message left to her by Discord. The writer adopted a scene where OUR Mane Six face off against the Conversion!Six in a Beam-O-War with the Elements, and their human ally calls out the Conversion Six for their flawed belief in their Princess who was wrong to try and forcefully Convert their world, whereupon their Elements reject them violently.

edited 17th Dec '12 9:17:45 AM by AceOfScarabs

They are the same species. It's canon, as of Baby Cakes.

@Ace That doesn't really make sense, though, because of all the races that we've seen use technology, unicorns and pegasi have been seen using/creating the most complex stuff, namely the weather factory and the SSCS 6000.

Have to agree with Lurker. EP devices seem to be horse powered.

@ Story: Unless the Cakes are lying. Unlikely I know, but possible.

@Lurker: Not exactly. Earth Ponies developed and used the more mundane, nonmagical technology, things like the printing presses, the typewriters, the stuff that doesn't need Unicorn Magic to run. The Cloudsdale Academy uses primarily technology from their Weather Factory, but I reckon they subcontract for Earth Pony machinery. The Friendship Express is most likely primarily run by Earth Ponies on a coal/fuel-based boiler. Cherry Jubilee's Cherry plantation has a manually-powered sorting machine that uses the same kind of motive power as the Apple Family's old Cider press.

Manehatten in particular is implied to be a primarily Earth Pony city, and yet it has a more urban/big city look than the whimsical fantasy/mid-Renaissance look of Canterlot City.

Also, My own fanon logic is that Earth Ponies discovered gunpowder first, because Sulphur comes from the Earth, Coal from plants/fossils, and Saltpetre from similar sources. On top of that, Pegasi could not effectively use Black Powder in the damp sky environs, and Unicorns would not bother since they already have magic and a pyro-unicorn could prolly cast bigger fire spells than early Black Powder kegs could pop.

edited 17th Dec '12 9:24:13 AM by AceOfScarabs

@Ace I'm just saying that Earth Ponies don't have any more of a natural affinity for technology than anyone else. It's all up to the individual's talents.

@Lurker: True. Of course, I still believe Earth Ponies had the early advantage in things like metallurgy, having the strength, the toughness and the knowledge/natural talent to dig out the ore and process it manually into ore. They'd have the biggest know-how in the secrets of alloying and have discovered steel and cast iron and bronze first.

Also Earth Ponies DO have better natural intuition and toughness. As I said previously, they're the pioneers, the metallurgists, the backbone of heavy industry in a way the Pegasi and Unicorns cannot compare in.

Steam Tech is a tricky one though. Pegasi would almost certainly have been the first to know about steam technology and used early versions of it in their Weather Factories, but Earth Ponies would almost have been the ones to make the heavy machinery that drove the need for steam power. It may very well be a technology shared by both races.

edited 17th Dec '12 9:30:17 AM by AceOfScarabs

Early on, sure, but it's not like any race is keeping secrets from the others nowadays, so the point is kinda moot.

So basically, everyone has tech, only of different kinds.

Yeah. Unicorns would have a form of magitek, using magic in lieu of electricity. Pegasi would use a lot of steam/water powered technology in their Weather Factory-related tech, and Earth Ponies are heavy on serious mechanized power.

It's all the same, mechanically. It's just that non-pegasi can't interact with cloud-based materials, non-unicorns can't use magic to power a machine, and non-earth ponies don't have the strength to operate manually powered machines efficiently.

I think most of the tech shown has come from E Ps though. There are of course exceptions like the Flim Flams but they're not the rule.

Hence why Earth Ponies would adopt fossil fuel technologies first, and later most likely would figure out dynamos. Pegasi might use solar power by using clouds to carefully reflect sunlight, and Unicorns would rely entirely on their magic.

My reasoning is that agriculture demanded some of the first major knowledge of basic machinery (The Plough is a wedge and a lever, the Archimedes Screw is a clever wheeled incline, Water Wheels use multiple wheels and axles with geared mechs), so the Earth Ponies would have been the first to discover and make use of machines and thus technology. For all the Earth Pony approach being manual, they definitely use a lot of mechanical advantage to multiply the force of their manual strength.

Agriculture plus the discovery of fire equals cooking, so the Earth Ponies might well have been the first to tame fire and master the base form of it where Pegasi just light up a fuel source with a lightning bolt, and Unicorns with talent use fire magic.

Pegasi might eventually discover electricity simply from their knowledge of lightning, of course.

Fanon pony archeology reverse engineering, ho! Also technology projection based on prior knowledge of racial lore :V

edited 17th Dec '12 9:44:42 AM by AceOfScarabs

So Pegasi would use steam (weather?) and lightning powered machines?

Sounds awesome!

@Ace That still doesn't change the fact that technology is shared regardless of who discovered it, so in the modern age the only limits are physical/magical.

Pegasi would have wind/steam and lightning power.

My reasoning says that Earth Ponies would start out with fossil fuel and vegetable oil/alcohol based fuels, and Unicorns would stick to magic-powered hardware.

@Lurker: It makes a difference to pony travellers who may not be in groups with all three races on hand and spend a lot of time away from civilisation.

edited 17th Dec '12 9:55:44 AM by AceOfScarabs

Wow. Lot's of stuff discussed.

I'm amused that Perpetual is saying this seeing as though it was Fallout Equestria tat convinced me of the same thing.

Also, agree with Perpetual that only Cadance and Shining could pull off the end of Canterlot Wedding.

Also don't think that the Elements are pony exclusive.

It didn't say the most powerful pony magic. It said the most powerful agic known to ponydom. But I support the idea of there being many similar artifacts.

And I think that the bearer of magic needs to be powerfully magical, but that it can be any magic. Not just unicorn magic.

chapter 12 is up.

They could share technology, but it seems like most non E Ps don't care.

@Sereg: I wouldn't be surprised if Saddle Arabia had their own National Artifact to protect their country.

@Yeller: It depends, traditionalist Earth Ponies like the Apples eschew more "fancy" technology where more modern-minded liberal Earth Ponies from Manehattens see nothing wrong with using mixed tech trees. Of course, it stems from the Apples wanting to make sure they can fix everything themselves in case of problems.

edited 17th Dec '12 10:05:16 AM by AceOfScarabs

Regarding the elements being pony-specific, I'm not quite sure how I'd play it. Going purely off of what we see in canon, it could really go just about any direction. Like, I wouldn't be surprised at all if a donkey or griffon or something could activate one of the elements.

However, I still think that might not necessarily be the case, and there are two theories I have as to how that could work without raising issues with other species:

1. It's still my headcanon that each species has a element-like magic artifact (I.e. Crystal Ponies have the crystal heart, the griffons might have something else, etc.), but all of these artifacts are compatible with each other. If the elements had a non-pony companion, said companion would end up with their species' equivalent artifact which could work in concert with the Elements. (Or else the elements would be similar enough that the non-pony could stand in anyway)

2. The elements (to a degree) choose their bearers, and will naturally end up in the hands of a group of ponies because they're more effectively used that way.

But yeah, given canon it could really go either way.

I think they could be used by any sapient creature. You don't have to be a pony to demonstrate friendship after all.

There was a camel with a CM in G1...just saying that it is possible for other races to have the magic needed.