How would Equestria within reason defend itself from humans?

[Bendy 1,821]

How would Equestria within reason defend itself from humans? Not defend itself with something like a mass extinction event by blocking out the sun and watching everyone on earth freeze to death or starve to death. Or unleash something like the Wildfire Virus from The Walking Dead.

Because the ponies have a thing called compassion and empathy, and know that not all humans are evil and do not wish to conquer them. There's one portal from Equestria to Earth. That's good as a defensive choke point. The portal cannot be closed from either side.

Edited June 17, 2020 by Bendy

[Buck Testa 5,505]

That would largely depend on how they're interacting with humans. Are we talking like the ponies are on another planet, or are they in a parallel dimension? 

Honestly I'd say they could pacify humans fairly easily. They literally have mind altering magical powers and can make rainbow beams that turn people to stone. They just need to spread that "magic of friendship" around and humans would be in lockstep. Yeah they have problems with local enemies, but we don't have a speck of magic on us. No defense at all against what they can do. Plus they're friendly and cute so a lot of people are just going to side with them based on that. I'd say they could at LEAST get to a peace agreement with Earth and work from there. They'd be on either a different planet or a different dimension, so our weaponry isn't going to be an immediate threat. All they got to do is get in our heads and its pretty much game over from there. 

[Latecomer 439]

Humans with full modern technology? That might be tricky - if not for the "one portal" thing. Where is it (on each side) and how big?

[Steve Piranha 29,419]

Not sure. We human lack magic, but have superior combat skills, experience, and tools. WAY superior tools

[AppleButt 8,675]

Easy.  Use magic to let them know they are not to be messed with. 
 

Also wouldn’t hurt to send a spy to earth to stay informed of any technology humans may be trying to develop to defeat magic. 

Edited June 17, 2020 by AppleButt

[SharpWit 2,614]

You can deter a threat by one of three ways. Fear, Friendship, and Usefulness.

Fear can be done through a demonstration of supremacy. This demonstration doesn't actually have to represent one's true capacity for destruction. It can either be a singular moment of overkill that serves as a bluff, or a small action that comes easilly to yourself but not to your would be opponent. Equestria could do this by having a skilled unicorn do something like take a gun apart in an instant. The ability for a creature to disable the capabilities of your own defenses on a whim is a simple but great show of force. This can backfire however as people tend to get pissed off when put in a vulnerable position, so showing a status of equal footing is your best bet.

Friendship would be the most show friendly and the most likely choice of our horse counterparts. The best way to eliminate a potential enemy or convert an existing one, is diplomacy. Working towards good relations is how we make allies. Now having largely crushed them on the battlefield and providing economic assistance afterwards played a major factor, but the US has made some of its strongest allies in Germany and Japan, because they lent a hand after WW2. Had they not helped, the resentment that developed with the unsatisfactory ending of WW1 would have continued and become ingrained in their cultures.

Usefulness comes in in two forms. Being useful, and being useless. You can be useful by creating economic ties that make you dependable on each other but you also must be careful to ensure that whatever you provide can't be obtained by other means, such as invading to seize control. This is difficult because there's no guarantee you have something of high enough value or that can be balanced so precariously. You can be useless by having nothing worthy of being offered over, but chances are that you have at least one thing that somebody wants, so unless you're society sucks or can live in relative secrecy, this is risky.

Finally, there's actually a 4th option, that again has to do with balance, and that's being a hassle. The Persians could have crushed the 300 Spartans on an open battlefield, but numbers meant nothing when fighting in a narrow channel. Switzerland is small but very mountainous, so you'd have to haul all of your supplies up steep faces and there's plenty of places for the locals to take shelter. Not to mention limited road access and chokepoints equipped with explosives (Also there isn't really a whole lot to gain resource wise). You could have the greatest things in the world, but they're not worth going after if it's too much of a hassle.

If the access point for Equestria is a single portal, and the goal isn't annihilation, then they're pretty much set.

[RDDash 19,163]

The portal is just a mirror and not something that exists across space time. Ponies could just lock away the mirror into very deep lake or under the ocean, or they could just smash it. Bury the mirror underground and it's stops working.

Edited June 27, 2020 by RDDash

[Kevin Tang 2,426]

Call in the SCP Foundation

Im pretty sure they can handle the situation

The portal would be kept secret and observed carefully

 

pls dont take this seriously

[Treeglow Flicker 13,619]

Just send Discord to play with the humans. An entire army can be made to look ridiculous if their guns are suddenly turned into bananas with a snap of a claw.

[Splashee 28,563]

On 6/17/2020 at 9:52 AM, Bendy said:

How would Equestria within reason defend itself from humans? Not defend itself with something like a mass extinction event by blocking out the sun and watching everyone on earth freeze to death or starve to death. Or unleash something like the Wildfire Virus from The Walking Dead.

Because the ponies have a thing called compassion and empathy, and know that not all humans are evil and do not wish to conquer them. There's one portal from Equestria to Earth. That's good as a defensive choke point. The portal cannot be closed from either side.

I love this thread! The idea that the portal exists and can be used for evil is so true. In my own head, I believe there is an evil human organization knowing about the magic potential that leaked from Equestria once, and they wouldn't stop at nothing to get more power. Stopping them from entering Equestria, is key somehow. If you thought the Storm King's forces we're bad enough, then I am afraid humans are slightly worse!

[Evil Pink One 13,506]

As pinkie the gypsie would sing "Close the portal don't jump in"

[Ixrec 86]

We should add that Spring Breakdown revealed a second portal. It's probably reasonable to assume there are relatively few portals out there in total (or both humans and ponies would've found them ages ago), but this does make it much more likely that there's an additional portal or two which nobody in Equestria is aware of, so "just close it" may not be an option.

That said, the Equestria Girls humans seem to be far less interested in exploring (much less conquering) an alternate dimension of magical ponies than real humans would be, considering there have been magic sky beams visible for miles blowing up half the school without apparently attracting any human attention besides Sci-Twi. So my "serious" opinion is "no need to defend, because they wouldn't fight in the first place".

Still, if both dimensions were more morally murky than they are in canon, and full-scale invasions did take place, I'd expect the full Equestria at War tech tree to show up, including crystal-powered magical nukes. Because why not.

[EpicEnergy 23,176]

They would use magic to repel the attacks!

[Scootaloo9074090 501]

On 2020-06-27 at 12:49 AM, Kevin Tang said:

Call in the SCP Foundation

Im pretty sure they can handle the situation

The portal would be kept secret and observed carefully

 

pls dont take this seriously

 Don't worry the SCP Foundation send a lone soldier to equestria

[Sonic Shimmer 4,131]

With friendship nukes. It’s like a big burning, irradiating hug.