Electricity in Equestria

[Starlight Fan 540]

Plot twist: ELECTRICITY IS MAGIC

 

I can see that being a new show, don't you think?!?!!

[Leonard Smix 421]

I think the only thing that would work for MLP:FiM having electricity is magic. Flim and Flam power their machine with magic, so why couldn't vinyl scratch do the same with her DJ equipment?

 

In look before you sleep, if I recall correctly, they were in twilight's house, which is, again, a unicorn who could've done the same thing and something that the lightning did could've disrupted the magic powering the light.

 

the topic is very debatable though.

[Bird Mom 902]

I imagine that electricity in Equestria would be possible. You can also see lamps at times in the background and there's also Twilight's science equipment it flowing with electricity(seemingly).

[ponylaces 1,870]

Only thing I can think of is that it's powered by magic. But just think about it, have we ever seen something like a computer or tv in Equestria? Not really. We've seen ponies do a ton of stuff humans do, so it doesn't really make sense. This doesn't mean Equestria doesn't have electricity though. Maybe they do have electricity, not the same type that we do.

However, given the fact that we haven't seen electric appliances very often in the show, I would argue that in general, the nature of the electric industry in Equestria is stuck somewhere in the early 1900s.

YESSSS, that's exactly what I was thinking. Plus, the ponies' way of communication is mostly by letter or telegram (singing telegram, to be specific ). But we see things like Vinyl's DJ equipment which confuses me.

[Wind Chaser 4,769]

I wouldn't use "The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well" as a guide, that episode also shows a big construction development in Ponyville which has not been seen since. Williams' writing does not really have the best regard for worldbuilding.

 

On the whole, technology in Equestria is a strange, anachronistic hodgepodge and many fans of this show have been completely confounded by it. I'd say that it's something the writers don't really pay all that much attention to. It's been said that anything resembling modern technologies are not to be used unless the plot absolutely calls for it.

 

I'd say that magic power is electricity in Equestria. It's been seen in how the Flim-Flam Brothers power their machine and how the Crystal Ponies power the Crystal Heart. It's easy to write off the hydroelectric dam as a one-off fluke in an episode that wasn't particularly good, as well as written by a new writer at the time. If I had to write that into the lore of the show, I'd say that it's there to provide a backup system, or that the infrastructure is there but it's not widely used.

[RainbowTashie 379]

I used to think Equestria had medieval technology, lighting was powered by fire and the only power source was the steam, however I found two issues that make me think:

 

- In "Look Before You Sleep" a lightning caused a blackout in the library.

- DJ Pon3 and Pinkie Pie were seen using DJ equipment.

 

So, is there really electricity in Equestria or not?

I don't think the writers thought about it a lot. It's just a case of it fitting in the plot it would be cool if everything was powered by friendship though. Or running electric mice

[dekutree64 713]

However, given the fact that we haven't seen electric appliances very often in the show, I would argue that in general, the nature of the electric industry in Equestria is stuck somewhere in the early 1900s. There is electricity and it can be harnessed for personal use, but outside of the major cities and some rural communities (such as Ponyville), the electric grid is spotty to nonexistent.

I'm going to say the opposite, that we're the ones stuck in the early 1900's Nikola Tesla had already developed the next gen electrical grid during his time in Colorado Springs in 1899-1900, but his previous AC system was already so profitable (to people other than himself), combined with various other problems like the 1901 stock market crash, he never got the funding needed to complete the first distribution tower.

 

As I understand it, the trick is that if you use high frequency AC, or better yet impulse current (extremely high voltage, short duration pulses), you only need one wire to transmit power. And the Earth is conductive, especially to high voltages, so it can be a segment of your "wire".

 

It's probably coincidence, but the things on the dam in Mare Do Well look a lot like Tesla coils, which would fit perfectly with ponies using that system Although more likely there would only be one big tower instead of 3 small ones. Also, I'm not entirely sure whether the real life Earth transmission system was only going to be for long distance and each city would still have wires strung everywhere, or if you can make small receiving coils so each house would have a metal pole in the ground to pick up power from the central station. We're so far removed from Tesla's time, it's hard sorting out the fact from fiction when reading about his work. But several people in recent times have reproduced the single wire transmission using identical coils for the transmitter and receiver, including using a tub of dirt as part of the wire, so that's definitely real.

 

Also, unicorn magic does seem to be electrical in nature, especially when Twilight is supercharged in the S4 finale and keeps sparking uncontrollably. So it makes sense that ponies would be quicker to develop advanced electrical systems, since they can interact with it much more intuitively than us humans

Edited January 25, 2015 by dekutree64