Wouldn’t ponies be cause for mass extinction?

[ManaMinori 4,143]

There have been confirmations that g5 takes place in the future of g4, where it says that the era of g5 is now “ancient Equestria”. Now, given the premise of g5, which states that magic is now nonexistent between the tribes of ponies, this concerns me greatly. Why? Well, you see, the implications of the premise suggest that the tribes have been separated for a while- at least long enough to have fostered doubt and mistrust among each of the pony races- earth, Pegasi, and unicorns, and enough time for that hate and mistrust and fear to evolve into effective propaganda- as we saw in the movie poster backgrounds of the g5 clips, and in the very real manifestation of that fear in the entire seaside town of earth ponies to be sent into a panic by the sight of one unicorn. 

 

Now, if the tribe separation and lack of magic between them have indeed been established for a long time, this leads me to wonder….how in the wide world of Equestria is there still life? How are the ponies, and plants and animals still alive? How is there still weather, and day, and night? We’ve seen the ponies literally in charge of everything that functions in their world, in g4- to feeding animals, building their homes, and ensuring they migrate through magic, to changing the seasons through magic, altering the day and night cycles through magic, and ensuring crops grow…through magic. Perhaps all this is detrimental to the world in general, because it is so heavily reliant on their magic to operate, and if…in Izzy’s own world, it suddenly “poofs” away, and stays gone for hundreds, thousands, or however amount of years for g4 to be considered “ancient” by the g5 timeline, then how has the world functioned? How has it sustained life of every living thing? How has it managed weather and day cycles, without pony magic? By all intents and purposes, the entire world of g5 should be looking like the lifeless barren desert wasteland that Twilight showed Starlight Glimmer, in “the Cutie Remark- part 2”! 

 

I’m sure life would continue on as normal (with the exception of day/night) for the non-pony lands beyond Equestria, since their regions are not controlled by and entirely dependent on pony magic and thus would not be effected by the disappearance of it. Would the pony lands become a barren dead zone because their world has been stripped of all its natural forces and replaced by an entirely magically dependent system for so long? 

 

How have not just pony races, plants and animals, but non pony species been surviving in g5 without a magically maneuvered sun and moon? How have they not cooked or frozen to death, if magic just poofed out of existence and been that way for who knows how many generations? The only way I can think of is if the world “righted” itself, to function in a more natural way, much like how the g4 Everfree forest (and non pony lands) operate- with animals and plants taking care of themselves. And weather being maintained in its own. Perhaps also, the sun and moon being drawn back into their normal gravitational orbits? 

 

How do you guys think life has been sustained in G5’s Equestria (and by extension, non pony lands) without magic existing in their world?

[Goat-kun 2,496]

Most Bronies will just take the blue pill on these issues. It's a kid show don't cha know.

 

P.S: It can all be explained if one accepts that Harmony is an eldritch deity

[ExplosionMare 18,007]

I think they must have learned to adapt by either allowing nature to run on its own or using their advanced technology (they do have many modern conveniences such as cell phones) to take care of it. Now, as for the sun and moon, I am not entirely sure. Perhaps when the princesses passed the magic manifested into something else in order for the sun and the moon to function on their own. Unfortunately there is not a lot of evidence to prove anything right now, so that is all I have to theorize on. 

[Landi 597]

The loss of magic is something that has confused me since I first heard about it. The world of my little pony was shown to be very dependent on magic from the start, so the idea of magic being gone would imply that the world would be sent to its demise. Yet somehow, ponies are still living and Equestria is still functioning. This raises a lot of questions though. How are the sun and moon being raised? How is the weather working. How can food even be grown?

One possibility is that with all magic being gone, these things are somehow able to function by themselves now. Maybe the magic just left the creatures and was transferred into plants, weather, etc. Another possibility is that they somehow use technology to do it. Unfortunately, G5 almost seems to be steering away from the cool magical aspect of the series, and instead is putting a focus on modern technology. Though hopefully that isn't the case and the series will still try to focus around magic.

If magic does return though, it makes me wonder: will Equestria go back to needing it to function? It would be an interesting concept if the ponies had to relearn how to keep Equestria functioning using their magic. Plus, it was such a neat aspect of Equestria in G4, and it would be cool for G5 to continue it.

[BornAgainBrony 2,395]

My suspicion is that Equestria once enjoyed a more ordered system long ago, more in line with how the physics in our world worked. Nature managed itself, more or less. Until Discord showed up. His magic screwed with things so much that even banishing him wasn't enough to bring everything back to normal, forcing the Ponies to start managing things themselves through the use of magic. Maybe they finally figured out a way to jump-start the "physics engine" so they wouldn't need magic?

[North Star 4,465]

Huh, interesting. I favour @Landi's answer. Ponies absorbed the magic in the first place, and now the magic is returned into the world and the weather and sun and moon move around without pony help. That would also explain why Everfree forest was all free and such - for some reason its magic hadn't been absorbed by the ponies; maybe because they all left it alone after the whole Nightmare Moon thing?

You can bet your right hoof that when the ponies become friendly again magic is going to return to the world. And then the new series can begin :3

[Props Valroa 25,971]

I think a lot of these things are hand waved away by the writer's lack of thought. We likely won't even be seeing explanations, and the sun and moon, weather likely goes back to what it was normally - controlling itself, which results in a far more hostile world.

[Splashee 28,537]

I will have to watch the G5 movie to tell if it is just the lack of understanding G4's plot, or the writers of G5 being lazy. But there will definitely be a broken story at some point.

My biggest question is, how much is this movie story connected to G4? Will it be G4 related at all, or will they brush the past away in the opening credits?

[Kolombo 8]

We have to see, it is not the first time when the tribes were in bad terms. It was the same before they establised Equestria, and the life didn't stop. I assume that planet existed before at least for a while before ponies.

There were the wingigoes, but they came across to me as they chased the ponies especially/exclusively. I guess other races didn't give a lot on them... I'm not sure about that because we can assume that buffalos might be earlier at that land, we don't know what they thought about windigos. But in that case I think most race may consider ponies as a true scourge, becasuse they destroy the complete ecosystem simply by being in bad mood for a long time.)

Right now, my headcanon is that Twilight, in her reign, solved that there is no longer need to move the sun and moon manually, besides many other big deeds, I assume, therefore she might be some kind of legend. But as in our history, good rulers are followed by weaker ones, so there we are. 

[Goat-kun 2,496]

Just one more thing: if villains need pony magic to return, then pony magic is inherently a bad thing. Ponies are doing just fine without it. Keeping themselves separate should be regarded as a valiant effort.

 

But if villains do not need pony magic to work, then ponies should have gone extinct by now.

[Misty Shadow 7,065]

This time, I do empathize with the topic poster's bemusement. The magic just going, "Poof!", would certainly cause problems and I'd love for the writers to not get lazy and actually explain what happened. Still, they could survive without magic, don't forget that ponies did without the sun and moon being moved by the princesses while the tribes were at conflict in Hearth's Warming Eve. I just want to know where the hay the Windigos are.  Also, this topic really should be named, "Wouldn't losing magic be cause for mass extinction?", since it caused me some confusion when I first read it. 

[EpicEnergy 22,064]

Magic is said to have left the pony tribes, not the entirety of the world. The Everfree Forest had a magic of its own, as well as numerous creatures such as manticores and centaurs. Magic in G5 still exists, but the problem lies in that it is just not presently dwelling among the pony tribes. As for the sun and moon, I'm certain that there is something that they "defaulted" to in order to rise and set. Remember, before Celestia and Luna came the unicorns along with Starswirl had to control the sun and moon, but before the unicorns and Starswirl the sun and the moon most likely operated like the weather in the Everfree Forest - they moved all on their own.

[Evil Pink One 12,952]

Remember everfree forest?   The animals and plants tend to themselves, the clouds move on their own?

And the sun and moon still moving....hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm? I wonder?...... Are they saving it for the series? You guys know there's gonna be a series right? Save it there.

Edited August 17, 2021 by Kujamih

[RDDash 18,847]

Oh you mean that thing? I think the physics.exe started working again the moment alicorn magic disappeared and thinking of that the alicorns had been missing for a long time, modern Equestria doesn't need them anymore.

[HereComesTom 2,232]

7 hours ago, BornAgainBrony said:

My suspicion is that Equestria once enjoyed a more ordered system long ago, more in line with how the physics in our world worked. Nature managed itself, more or less. Until Discord showed up. His magic screwed with things so much that even banishing him wasn't enough to bring everything back to normal, forcing the Ponies to start managing things themselves through the use of magic. Maybe they finally figured out a way to jump-start the "physics engine" so they wouldn't need magic?

That was my headcanon, too---I also had headcanon that it wasn't the real sun or the real moon that Celestia and Luna were moving:  my headcanon was that the "sky" around Equestria (and just Equestria) was a dome that Discord created, and the sun and moon seen on that dome are just a couple of magical focuses on that dome that could be moved magically.

I don't know if that's anything like reality---the 2017 movie implied otherwise, since the sun never moved after Celestia got imprisoned in stone.  That...only raises more questions and calls more attention to the OP's point.

Who knows?  They might address it in G-5; I sure hope they do.  It's got a lot of potential for drama and epic questing, considering the whole biosphere would be at stake!

[Brony Number 42 9,898]

This supports my claim that Celestia and Luna do not raise the sun or moon. It was all a scam. It was a cargo cult. Celestia was like, "Oh you better worship me. I make the sun come up, see? Ooooooh magic."

Same thing with the ponies keeping nature running. Nature was just fine without them. Just look at the Everfree Forest.

[Flying Pencil 3,023]

Maybe the use of magic faded away with the coming of new technology such as phones. And because of the advancement of technology, the three pony species. Earth, pegasus, and unicorn were divided and mistrust with each other grew. with each other. 

[SharpWit 2,472]

I think you have it a bit backwards. Hatred and mistrust more often lead to division, not the other way around.

Magic is used to manage more than control. You could construct something to hold a boulder in place so it doesn't crash down a hill, but it's potential energy will always be present. The same goes for the sun and the moon. They will function perfectly fine on their own, just not for a perfectly fine pony society.

In fairness, I would expect some things to diminish, but nowhere near an extinction level event. I'd interpret what Twilight showed Starlight to be the result of Equestria getting overcome by every single threat rather than individual villains taking control. Something more akin to all out war.

[Will Guide 21,325]

1 hour ago, Flying Pencil said:

Maybe the use of magic faded away with the coming of new technology such as phones. And because of the advancement of technology, the three pony species. Earth, pegasus, and unicorn were divided and mistrust with each other grew. with each other. 

Just as long as they don't try to say magic is automatically superior over technology or technology is automatically superior over magic. both of them have their pros and cons and should be handled responsibly.

Outward from Pixar did just that. Show that there are pros and cons to old fashioned Magic that not everybody can do can do things that technology can't and new easily accessible technology that allows everyone to get the job done if they don't have the magical ability to do so

[Evil Pink One 12,952]

3 hours ago, Metal Brony 42 said:

This supports my claim that Celestia and Luna do not raise the sun or moon. It was all a scam. It was a cargo cult. Celestia was like, "Oh you better worship me. I make the sun come up, see? Ooooooh magic."

Same thing with the ponies keeping nature running. Nature was just fine without them. Just look at the Everfree Forest.

Season 4 just broke your scam.

[Props Valroa 25,971]

4 hours ago, Metal Brony 42 said:

This supports my claim that Celestia and Luna do not raise the sun or moon. It was all a scam. It was a cargo cult. Celestia was like, "Oh you better worship me. I make the sun come up, see? Ooooooh magic."

Same thing with the ponies keeping nature running. Nature was just fine without them. Just look at the Everfree Forest.

I think the Sun and Moon being raised is just a series of illusions, so I definitely agree.

[FearTheBelle 55]

Considering the fact that a lot of the things the show claimed to rely on magic, like the sun and moon moving, were proven to not actually need magic at all in G4 itself, I think the loss of magic and its impact is massively overblown. After all, ponies don't exert control over the weather and stuff in the Dragon Lands or Harmonizing Heights, or anywhere outside Equestria, and things are fine without them.