How do ponies fight?

[Starshine 16,334]

Even a dressmaker knows kung fu in Equestria

 

 

It's a bit weird that some people and writers love to put unicorns as the glass damage dealer of the group, when in the show even the most fru-fru mare can buck a bucking manticore in the face

[Dopey Hooves 90]

Well, I think it would be a good idea if they could have like swords or maybe tiny guns by their mouths and they can operate easier than just trying to use it between their teeth or trying to use your hooves. and I was thinking maybe like a gun that would wrap around their neck kind of like that thing that Big Mac (Applejack's brother) has except it would have guns or something. Just an idea xD.

[Scootalove 10,689]

I think they do hand-to-hand combat like in karate or just fighting with their hooves, like what Earth Ponies do. Unicorns can just fight using magic while, Pegasus ponies can use their speed and agility to fight against attacks.

[Fhaolan 4,484]

Guards are seen with spears, and in the Crystal Empire several ponies were seen with bow & arrow cutie-marks. I'm not entirely sure *how* they operate a bow, but given that Octavia manages to manipulate a multi-stringed necked instrument with just her hooves, there must be some way.

 

We also saw Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy joust, so lances are valid. Given the pegasi tendency towards martial organizations (see Hearth's Warming Eve), they must have some pegasi-specific weapons. Wingblades are a popular choice in fanfiction, but personally I think javelins are more in theme with the spear and lances we've already seen.

 

Unicorn telekinesis could do a lot of damage, even if the objects are relatively small. Take actual medieval darts (which were more like what lawn darts are today made almost entirely from iron with leather stabilizers), and orbit a dozen or so around a unicorn at increasingly high speeds. Once 'at speed', release.

[The Soldier 2,044]

ponies (and mammals in general) have strong powerful jaws and sharp useful teeth than any human.

Impossible! What is the point of ponies using these "sharp teeth"? They are herbivores (also known as plant eaters) are they not?

[Motion Spark 7,807]

Impossible! What is the point of ponies using these "sharp teeth"? They are herbivores (also known as plant eaters) are they not?

Dude what? you're quoting a topic I wrote almost a year ago... I don't even remember of what I was talking about here....

everything is so weird now, not wanting to go back on topic.

[Starshine 16,334]

 

 

Impossible! What is the point of ponies using these "sharp teeth"? They are herbivores (also known as plant eaters) are they not?

Mammals need strong jaws to tear the leaves and the roots that they eat as herbivores. Horses can easily cut your fingers in half if you're not being careful when handfeeding them

[duidamasterXD 9,627]

This thread appears to be discussing MLP:FiM in some way, shape or form. Thus, it has been sentenced to Show Discussion.

 

This is an automatically generated message, by the way.

[Fhaolan 4,484]

Impossible! What is the point of ponies using these "sharp teeth"? They are herbivores (also known as plant eaters) are they not?

 

Trust me on this, horses are quite capable of taking a chunk out of you, and some are more than willing to do so. At one of the barns we used to board horses at, there was one Lopez Island Pony (approximately the size people usually associate with MLP ponies) that had to be put down because he bit three fingers off the owner, escaped into the main pasture, and was tearing the crap out of the full-sized horses before the owner's wife managed to get the rifle out and shoot it. It wasn't rabid. It was just *mean*.

[Katella Avenue 28]

Yeah I figure in a society where lethal violence is probably antiquated (despite the many fanfic that tell other stories) the majority of fighting is physical. A ponies body is going to be stronger than a human of the same relative physical conditioning, so even Rarity can deliver a mean buck and bite and so on. 

[Capital time 15]

Funny you should say never seen with a weapon, I am actually watching a Wedding in Canterlot right now for the first time and two royal guards are holding spears when the mane six first arrive on the train, and I suppose the Unicorns would use magic and "stab" with there horn, Pegasi would hurdle themselves toward other ponies like when Rainbow Dash was destroying a building for AJ, and Earth Ponies could kick other ponies since there stronger or buck apples at other ponies.

[Katella Avenue 28]

Funny you should say never seen with a weapon, I am actually watching a Wedding in Canterlot right now for the first time and two royal guards are holding spears when the mane six first arrive on the train, and I suppose the Unicorns would use magic and "stab" with there horn, Pegasi would hurdle themselves toward other ponies like when Rainbow Dash was destroying a building for AJ, and Earth Ponies could kick other ponies since there stronger or buck apples at other ponies.

 

Not saying they're not seen without weapons, I just doubt that ponies have many major reasons to harm others in a lethal manner. The weapons just belong to ponies assigned to high profile ponies.

[pinkiefan1287 610]

 

 

The guards for Celestia are never seen armed and we've never seen a weapon in the show.

 

 

Never seen holding weapons. Then what would you call these?

 

As for other methods, most likely unicorns use magic in order to make them float. It has been shown pegasus wings can be very sharp and most likely the drop stuff on enemies. Not sure what earth ponies can do.

[Silverhoof 2,844]

 

Never seen holding weapons. Then what would you call these?

 

As for other methods, most likely unicorns use magic in order to make them float. It has been shown pegasus wings can be very sharp and most likely the drop stuff on enemies. Not sure what earth ponies can do.

Earth ponies grow the food, like good little serfs, Just kidding! Just kidding!

 

The illustration on page one is very good. Weapons attached to the head are the most logical. Teeth may be strong, but they are not made to take the impact of weapons against armor.Certainly a mouth based weapon would look very different from a sword designed for a human hand.

 

For a pegasus...give him a bucket of very sharp, needle-like darts...tipped with poison and weighted to fall point first. Let him swoop down over a battlefield and empty the bucket. Any hit, no matter how minor, can be fatal.

 

unicorns can be divided into three groups. Those with useful offensive magics. Those trained in Telekinesis. and Consctripts with no special training.

---Even a conscript with no special training can lift a 50 pound steel ball and drop it on enemy troops-and the same ball can be used again and again.

 

---I shudder to think what a pony trained in TK can do. Even if just limited to mere human strength, lethal speed combined with an area of effect can be devastating.

Edited June 9, 2013 by Silverhoof

[Ion 279]

We've seen the Royal Guard using spears a few times in the show (Season 2 finally especially), although only the Earth Pony and Unicorn guards:

 

 

 

[RWB 229]

People are really underestimating Pegasi "bomber squads".

 

Weather bombardment using powerful lightning clouds, hail(those things can kill) clouds and such.

 

Run into other fliers? Can they create actual tornadoes that would throw their opponent out of the sky? Nope.

 

 

The one big problem for them is that Unicorn Magic is lolbroken when used by sommeone with an actual magical reserve(TS).

 

 

Also, Earth Ponies are hilaroiusly outclassed overall. They might have more outright strength than the others, but even Rarity class ponies would decimate them on a battlefield by essentially just levitating weapons around. Why halo thar Earth Pony, feel like cutting yourself to shreds?

 

Never mind the fact that both Unicorns and Pegasi have ridiculous physical strength as well.

 

As for Earth Pony army vs Pegasi Army... yeah, no. Physical prowess vs Slightly less physical prowess+Weather control+flight is not gonna end well.

 

 

The one reason Earth ponies would be at advantage against the others is because they have "green thumbs", meaning they have the most supplies. Cue weather-bombing the supplies, or just stealing them by magic.

 

And it's not like it's that big an advantage in a war setting: Horses can survive on meat. In fact, typical mythical Unicorns favored meat over other food. Cannibalize the Earth Ponies.

 

 

 

There's also a cheat code to win available to the Unicorns:

 

Want-it Need-it spell. None of the other unicorn alone might be able to throw it... but assume a whole army powers such a spell? Considering the spellcaster is immune as well....

 

Cast spell on object. While you float the object around, and all the enemies follow it, just pick them off at leisure with spears or other lethal weapon.

Edited June 9, 2013 by RWB

[Zygen 6,066]

Well, I think that Unicorns fight via magic, or telekinesis or just using that to hold weapons or something, pegasi fly and thus have hoofs open for weapons, which they fight with i imagine.

 

I think earth ponies probably just wear heavy armor or just use hand to hand combat, or maybe buck things into other ponies.

 

I think that big picture on the first page explains things quite well though, but theres all kinds of possibilities i suppose.

[Fergus Mo 21]

Having two literal living goddesses as your nation's head can be rather counterproductive when it comes to war technology, because there is simply no need to develop a nuclear bomb when you can simply ask Tia to cast Solar Beam.

 

But then again, even an insectoid queen could beat her with such ease

 

 

 

It only useful when you're fighting with something that can't reach you, like when you have to carpet-bomb a stationary village or an army of unarmed diamond dogs. But what if their enemy was a flock of Gryphons?

Well, in my headcanon, Tia was holding back when she fought dem bugs; I think her using full power would probably cause a nuclear-size blast, killing everypony in Canterlot and Ponyville.

 

Fights between two airborne groups would probably be much like dogfighting between jets in the air today.

 

I think Equestria is in the modern era in terms of technology. According to the CiV G+K tech tree (http://www.minosha.com/civ5/techtree.html), Equestria has many modern technologies, but almost no Atomic era techs.They have railroad, as seen by the train to Canterlot; flight as seen by Twilight's hot air balloon; replaceable parts as seen by Rarity's sewing machine; plastics as seen by the many plastic containers throughout the series; electronics as seen by Twilight's basement gadgets/Rainbow Dash's movie in Hurricane Fluttershy; and combustion as seen when Dash names her turtle 'tank'. However, they don't have penicillin, atomic theory, radar, or combined arms - so they're in late modern era. This means that they have artillery, infantry w/ pretty advanced rifles, machine guns, battleships/destroyers, bombing squads, and primitive tanks.

There's also a cheat code to win available to the Unicorns:

 

Want-it Need-it spell. None of the other unicorn alone might be able to throw it... but assume a whole army powers such a spell? Considering the spellcaster is immune as well....

 

Cast spell on object. While you float the object around, and all the enemies follow it, just pick them off at leisure with spears or other lethal weapon.

I think unicorns on the other side would find ways to counter that spell with their own magic. Also, I'm sure there are certain spells off-limits in battle to even unicorns. For example, it is said in Hearth's Warming Eve that hundreds of unicorns can raise the sun, so what prevents them from doing the comparatively easy task of harnessing a nuke's worth of atomic energy and unleashing it upon their foes? Surely such spells must be illegal even in battle.

Edited July 29, 2013 by Fergus Mo

[spacestorm 183]

I think that unicorns act like archers casting spells from distance or just like supports: shielding and giving some magic buff aura to other ponies.

 

Spears can used only to keep opponents at safe distance and eventually can be thrown into not too far targets. In close combat they probably are using their hooves, especially kicking enemies like Applejack bucking apple trees.

Especially earth ponies can wear armored boots with attached blades or spikes to make their kicks/punches even more deadly.

I also very like Juggernaut concept from @@Starshine picture - but they should have strong neck and head to not harm themself.

 

Pegasi can just bombard ponies from above or charge into enemy at high speed to roll over them or lift them into the air and throw them from a height (if they are strong enough)

Edited July 29, 2013 by spacestorm

[Starshine 16,334]

Well, in my headcanon, Tia was holding back when she fought dem bugs; I think her using full power would probably cause a nuclear-size blast, killing everypony in Canterlot and Ponyville.

 

Note: in your headcanon

 

Clearly the writers behind the show has a very different idea than ours. Celly is might as well be a Herald of the Sun, capable of herding the sun over the heavens and nothing more.

 

 

 

Fights between two airborne groups would probably be much like dogfighting between jets in the air today.

 

Not really sure about that. IRL dogfighting is done from at least 1 mile away. Even the shortest sidewinder missile has a minimum effective range of 0,6 mile. Pegasi punching at each other would be much more chaotic and personal

Edited July 29, 2013 by Starshine

[Scootalove 10,689]

Ponies fight with magic, their own hooves, and their wings. It depends on what pony race you are, but ponies usually do fight like us.

[Fergus Mo 21]

Note: in your headcanon

 

Clearly the writers behind the show has a very different idea than ours. Celly is might as well be a Herald of the Sun, capable of herding the sun over the heavens and nothing more.

 

 

 

 

Not really sure about that. IRL dogfighting is done from at least 1 mile away. Even the shortest sidewinder missile has a minimum effective range of 0,6 mile. Pegasi punching at each other would be much more chaotic and personal

Well, there's a lot not explicitly stated in the show. I merely believe my headcanon to be what I believe the most likely/plausible explanations for things not directly mentioned.

 

As for the dogfighting bit, I'll take your word for it. Seems reasonable.

[Scootaloo9074090 501]

 well Pegasus are warrior, and they did fight in the war against king sombra timeline

[Orchid_Fiore 200]

Some time ago I watched a documentary that showed wild horses during a fight. They use the teeths to bite an "opponent", and their weight to push others violently. Brutal 

[ZiggWheelsManning 10,771]

They fight, by of course, eating grass.