Ponies Using Other Ponies As Cavalry?

[Bendy 1,819]

Cavalry, as in a pony on the back of another pony. Both are clad in heavy plate armor. The pony on the back of the other pony is smaller, and his hooves don't touch the ground. The pony on the back is wielding a lance or some other melee weapon. Or sometimes a bow, so it can act as a mobile horse archer unit. As a horse archer, it may wear lighter armor or no armor so it can move fast.

Would the ponies be better off as separate units? Or would ponies using other ponies as cavalry be an effective military unit? Despite how silly is may look.

Edited January 21, 2020 by Bendy

[BornAgainBrony 2,395]

The Royal Guard is seen 'holding' spears often enough, however they do it. One even threw a javelin at Sombra. So the hooves, one way or another, seemingly aren't a deterrant. The Crystal Empire also had jousting, with riderless ponies.

The primary purpose for horses in human militaries was providing a speed and endurance that we don't have. In a race of Ponies, those disadvantages disappear. Adding onto that, Unicorns make mounted archers rather redundant, and the existence of Pegusi and teleport spells would demand a radically different approach to traditional human war tactics.

Also don't forget the wildcard that is the Alicorns, which might as well be stealth bombers carrying nuclear payloads.

The only thing I see for ponies working as one unit that could be a large game changer might be 'gunships.' Aerial chariots pulled by Pegusi, ridden by multiple unicorns who could spray lasers all over the ground, would give Ponies an equivalent to an A-10 Warthog.

[SharpWit 2,472]

I think you can make this work in rare circumstances of having regular or smaller ponies atop a powerhouse like Trouble Shoes. Not sure how big Rock Hoof is, he's certainly strong enough for the task, as is Big mac who I think is smaller, but even big mac is rather exceptional.

Here's the thing though. Unicorns naturally come with a projectile weapon and Pegasi have a freed set of hooves when flying to handle one of their own. In a medieval setting without biomechanical suits of some sort, these should outperform a pony atop another almost every time.

Cavalry is fascinating in the extremes of which they both very and hardly effective in combat. They'll tear apart and scatter any gathering of free moving enemies, but it's just a numbers game when tight formations become a factor.

In a nations roleplay I was in, one of the participants wanted to have cavalry, so they had a pony subspecies that was larger and primitive for a lack of a better word. We accused them of breeding slaves in such a cruel fashion that they took away their sentience. Never got to put them into practice and personally I didn't feel too comfortable with the idea because we were trying to stay relatively show accurate, but it was fantastic as a moral dilemma, especially when being compared to all of the other hate/war crimes taking place under the various imperialists.

Your best bet for a successful pony cavalry would be decently sized, armored individuals charging together and carving a path for other units to follow. This has the potential to even perform better than our idea of cavalry since they can think for themselves rather than deal with an animal that doesn't want to run into long pointy things. 

 

[Goat-kun 2,496]

In a world of magic beasts horse cavalry is just handicapped infantry that can't utilize all the best conventional weapons.

[Fluttershutter 2,114]

Really seems kind of pointless. The reason for cavalry is speed. Any fit pony can run about as fast as any other. No reason to weigh them down with a rider.

[EpicEnergy 22,066]

I think it would be more effective if ponies didn't use other ponies as cavalry.