I have no idea where it is.

Hold on...did they skip over Drawfriend 374 and 76?

Been doing some thinking about Unicorn Magic...

Since Rarity's primary spell is "Detect Gem Deposits", does that make her a Geomancer or a Diviner (specialist in Divination)?

Diviner. Spells designed to look for stuff usually fall under divination.

A Geomancer would be someone who draws out the magical power inherent to the terrain and uses it for... whatever.

I just noticed the Painting the Frost on Windows tag on the Hurricane Fluttershy recap, which implies that there is no water evaporation in Equestria.

Makes sense really, since clouds are manufactured and apparently do not form through condensation of water vapor. Though if you think about it and take all of the wibbly-wobbly science stuff into account, the idea of no natural evaporation sounds kind of extreme.

Now I'm really concerned about how Equestria reached such a state. What sort of disaster would damage the environment to the point where The Water Cycle does not occur?

I'm guessing the best candidate would be Discord, since his reign of chaos would probably leave some lasting damages to Equestria.

Okay. I wasn't really sure on the definition of Geomancy anyway. I thought it might have meant manipulation of the land or something. Or is that an Elementalist? GAH! Magic is so confusing!

edited 28th Mar '12 9:49:05 AM by DemoralizedAnt

What I've seen of Elementalists, it's usually someone who's repertoire of magic is based on the 4 elements. (i.e. earth, fire, wind, water, heart)

That Geometer avie makes this an amusing convo.

My guess: no disaster at all. But ponykind decided to exert a very high degree of fine control over nature, much like humankind hopes to eventually do; and in doing this, it obviously altered the ecosystem and the whole environment in such a way that it could not work without continuous alteration and control.

This means that if ponies were to disappear, Equestria would undergo a massive ecological disaster, and I mean it in the Permian-Triassic extinction event sense (83% of genera becoming extinct, as well as 93% of all marine species; recovery of biodiversity requiring more that 30 millions of years); but as well as they are there, they can make the environment as stable and comfortable as they want.

edited 28th Mar '12 10:20:52 AM by Carciofus

^^ Funny you should mention that. I decided to make a Geometer avvie because of the conversation.

That would be Divination, but I've always figured that even if that spell was what kicked her off, she probably specialized in Illusion later on. Seems more her style.

Not necessarily, just not enough directly under pegasus control to handle year-round weather and irrigation for all of the large cities. Remember, they've still got wild weather in the less civilized parts (Everfree comes to mind), and they have to actively stop it from blowing in. And the usual weather patterns are dictated by evaporation from staggeringly vast swaths of ocean, and there's no way Cloudsdale would be able to handle that much open space.

My theory on "what if no more weather control" is just that they'd adapt to natural weather patterns. The unicorns would piss and moan but suck it up after a while. Before the Princesses came around, the unicorns as a whole were handling the sun and moon, and I can't imagine Celestia hasn't thought of a safeguard in case nobody was able to manage them at all. Really, I'd be more concerned about the extent of the fallout of whatever made them disappear.

edited 28th Mar '12 12:31:04 PM by Pykrete

@Stevebat, I don't know about EQD, but I learned by emulating Fyre-Flye from dA. You know, Lauren Faust's dA.

Since then, I've been◊ having◊ a lot◊ of fun◊ with◊ ponies.◊

I'm such a showoff, I know...

SWAG

So much swag.

/)^3^(

edited 28th Mar '12 1:42:30 PM by KarlKadaver

I have found My Little Face When Expect many reaction images to be posted in the near future.

I want one of these.

I think the buff white pony is Scootaloo's dad.

That would be hilarious.

Can you believe it? Somepony actually made a PMV of one of my tunes! ^_^

On the need to collect water for weatherforming: Cloudsdale most likely supplies frontier towns like Appleloosa and Dodge, so their need for imported water is higher. Equestria's water cycle just doesn't flow fast enough for their terraforming needs, so they collect (filtered?) groundwater semiregularly to supplement what they get from other sources.

SONIC RAINBOOMS! PUNCH HOLES IN THE SKY!

Just now heard about it, and I had to say it. Coolest line involving rainbows since TASTE THE RAINBOW MOTHERF**KER!

As if the Sonic Rainboom wasn't cool enough on its own, now it gets a badass boast to go along with it, courtesy of Rainbow Dash.

Alternative Deliverance: Where rainbows...MAKE ME CRY!

Every time I hear about rainbows punching holes in the sky I imagining multicolored beam from space ship firing in atmosphere or bombarding it.

Mounting the Orbital Friendship Cannon onto a capital ship...

That sounds like a plan!

Look, Fluttershy managed to tame Cerberus in a matter of seconds. She's so good with animals, all the Zerg will play with her, and hence Equestria.

Also, okay, so the ponies control Equestria's weather. Totally. By why use the draft oh sorry, community service for it? Let the free market do its thing! Love, Harmony and Profit!

I dunno. Last time we tried that, Sweet Apple Acres was almost driven out of business.

edited 29th Mar '12 5:28:35 AM by DemoralizedAnt

Due to such stupid decisions by Applejack that frankly they'd have deserved it!

Even so, the free market cannot be trusted here.

THE SOLUTION: ROBOTS!