What's your opinion on mechanical wings?

[Landi 597]

Recently I have been seeing things where Unicorns and Earth Ponies create and/or use working mechanical wings. It has really got me thinking about what problems would arise with this. 

In my opinion, I think that mechanical wings for non-pegasi is a bad idea. First of, it would probably cause much conflict, The Pegasi would feel like the others are trying to undermine them by making flight something that anypony could do. It makes sense to me why they would be a bit upset. Flight is a big part of what makes Pegasi special, but if anypony can do it they wouldn't be as special. Plus, the Unicorns and Earth ponies would still have their innate abilities along with flight. The whole situation seems a bit unfair for the Pegasi. I feel that Earth Ponies and Unicorns are already fine the way they are, and therefore they don't need mechanical wings.

But that is just my opinion on the matter. I would like to see your opinions on the subject. I'm quite curious too see what you all think.

[Castle Bleck 19,163]

Well - they already have hot-air balloons, helicopters, etc.

So all bets were off since S1.

Edited January 29, 2020 by Anti-Villain

[Pastel Heart 6,463]

Even if unicorns and earth ponies got mechanical wings, I doubt they would be as mobile and agile as natural pegasus wings. It's not like airplanes make birds invalidated, and dragons can also fly but there's no fighting there. It would just expand the places other ponies can go, and even then, mechanical wings would probably be a luxury thing and hard to operate.

[Pentium100 2,056]

To say that "if you are a mud pony you should just work the land and enjoy it" is kind of racist, I mean maybe there are Earth ponies who would love to fly and hate farming or manual labor. So, why not? 

After all, pegasus ponies are not restricted to only doing jobs that require flying (or Fluttershy most likely would not be allowed to take care of animals, since that job can be done by an Earth pony just as well), why should the Earth ponies be restricted only to jobs that require the special abilities of their race? If there is no alternative (no artificial horn or wings), then yea, there is nothing you can do about it, but if there is a way to have artificial horn or wings, that would be better, it would even help disabled pegasus ponies, like Scootaloo.

Then again, I think that Earth ponies have it worst. I mean a pegasus or unicorn (even one with broken wings or horn) can do your job, maybe not as well, but they still can do it, but you cannot do their jobs at all.

It's probably quite difficult to make an equal society that's made up of different races that are inherently unequal. After all, the differences between human races and genders are tiny compared to the differences between pony races.

[cuteycindyhoney 13,282]

If they can create a small enough, light enough power source, I don't see why not. I doubt they could get the perfection in control granted by musculature and nervous system, but something could be created. Since Pegasi can fly in their world's gravity well, synthetic wings wouldn't have to be very much bigger then natural ones. The flapping mechanism would be the biggest stumbling block. As with airplanes in the human world, they may have to settle for a fixed wing design.   

 

[Plonkett 341]

I think it would be great for pegasi who lost a wing or both.

[Brony Number 42 9,896]

It's not unfair for a pony to do something another pony can already do. 

[EpicEnergy 22,064]

I think it would be cool if ponies could have mechanical wings! 

23 hours ago, Landi72 said:

In my opinion, I think that mechanical wings for non-pegasi is a bad idea. First of, it would probably cause much conflict, The Pegasi would feel like the others are trying to undermine them by making flight something that anypony could do. It makes sense to me why they would be a bit upset. Flight is a big part of what makes Pegasi special, but if anypony can do it they wouldn't be as special. Plus, the Unicorns and Earth ponies would still have their innate abilities along with flight. The whole situation seems a bit unfair for the Pegasi. I feel that Earth Ponies and Unicorns are already fine the way they are, and therefore they don't need mechanical wings.

I respect your opinion, and I think it's valid for the most part, but I would like to point out that mechanical wings wouldn't necessarily undermine the pegasi ability of flight. Firstly, the pegasi are born with the natural talent of flight, so they would be able to fly much better and differently than a pony with mechanical wings. Secondly, it would split fliers into two categories - those with natural wings and those with artificial wings - of which one would be able to distinguish between the two, which would preserve the uniqueness of having natural wings. Thirdly, non-pegasi may be able to have the ability of flight, but that wouldn't grant them the ability to walk on clouds, which would mean that they would not be able to live in Cloudsdale. Therefore, I think that mechanical wings wouldn't undermine the ability of flight. If anything, mechanical wings would make natural wings shine brighter with something to compare them to.

Of course, my arguments are assuming mechanical wings would be inferior to natural wings. This begs the question, should Equestrian technology advance to the point where mechanical wings become better than natural wings, would the pegasi ability of flight be undermined? My answer is no, as it would put the pegasi on an equal field with the other races. I will demonstrate why I say that in the below spoiler:

Spoiler

____________________________________

Abilities Of Each Pony Race

• pegasi
  • flight
  • earth
• unicorns
  • flight (through magic and mechanical wings)
  • earth
  • magic
• earth ponies
  • flight (through mechanical wings)
  • earth

Note: "earth" refers to the abilities earth ponies have

______________________________________

Note that the only difference mechanical wings makes in regards to the abilities each race has is the earth ponies. Unicorns already have the ability of flight through magic, as demonstrated by Starlight Glimmer in season 5 episode 25 and 26 where she casts a spells that allows her to fly using magic, and as demonstrated by Twilight in season 1 episode 16 where she casts a spell on Rarity giving her wings that look like a butterfly's. Therefore, the only pony race without the ability of flight would be the earth ponies. So, my argument is that mechanical wings would put the pegasi on an equal field with the other races by giving earth ponies the ability of flight, which would mean that all three races have the ability of flight (albeit through different forms).

 

5 hours ago, Brony Number 42 said:

It's not unfair for a pony to do something another pony can already do. 

I agree, and there has already been examples of this within the show itself. Alicorns are able to do what all three races can do, pegasi and unicorns can do earth pony tasks, and unicorns have the capability of flight because of certain spells.

[TheSupremeLeaderOfChaos 1,189]

Well, as we saw in the Cutie Re-Mark, mechanical wings either a) already exist or b) are feasible technology that could be produced if necessary. I don't think many ponies, pegasi or otherwise, would be upset about the use of mechanical wings by the other races.

And not to mention, there are already other methods that allow earth ponies and unicorns to fly to some degree. i.e. Rarity's fabulous butterfly wings

and the tried and true spell that simply lets earth ponies and unicorns walk on clouds. I think mechanical wings would simply be another one of the many means they've developed to let unicorns and earth ponies experience some degree of mobility in the air.