Pony Medicine

[Metemponychosis 1,261]

So, ponies can get sick, as we saw in Hurricane Fluttershy: Thunderlane didn't make it to the meeting in the pool because he had the "feather flu".

 

In Bridle Gossip the poison joke plant "poisons" the Mane Six and Zecora heals them with a concoction.

 

In Applebuck Season, Applejack helps Pinkie Pie bake the most vile cupcakes after the ones in Cupcakes.

Those made ponies sick.

 

We know that Ponyville has a hospital (a damn big one for such a small town).

 

So, the first question is about the causes of pony diseases.

 

Are they magical in their origin? Since ponies are magical creatures, as everything in Equestria seems to be, are diseases the effects of some "bad magic" that is screwing up the magic that runs through the ponies? Maybe the poison joke has a weird magic in it that makes the ponies sick... Or cursed... And the feather flu is more like a curse too.

 

Or maybe the ponies pony diseases happen because they caught a virus, for example. After all, the poison joke causes a weird allergic reaction unique to these ponies, and feather flu is a virus.

 

Or do both cases are true and some diseases are caused by magic and others have biological causes?

 

Perhaps the diseases are combinations of these? Like viruses are things, that like the ponies, are imbued with magic, and the same for the poison joke.

 

The second question is about how do medical ponies find out what is wrong with sick ponies.

Is that a magical x-ray? Did a unicorn used a spell to make that image? Do they have have spells that give a medical pony the understanding of what is wrong with the pony?

 

Or do they have machines that function like ours? The Mare Do Well episode showed us a dam and DJ Pon3 has a sound system that is like the ones we see in our world. Maybe the ponies draw blood samples and have labs with technology to analyze these samples.

 

Do they have both methods at their disposal. 

 

Or, finally, they have machines that function through magic. Like magical computers that use magic for an operating system and generate spell which in turn create reports that a medical pony is trained to understand?

 

EDIT: changed the term "natural" with "biological" as the user GoldenShield reminded me that magic is natural to Equestria.

Edited February 2, 2013 by moonlightavenger

[Alex Kennedy 1,228]

I think it's pretty obvious that the poison joke was magical, given how it's effects were tailored to each individual. The same goes for Zecora's cure. The feather flu and other such diseases I believe are just ordinary nonmagical illnesses. In terms of medical technology, I always assumed that most technology was powered by magic like the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy was.

[GoldenShield 46]

I'll try to explain this simply but it could get a bit complicated as I do. To determine what causes disease within MLP FiM we must first examine the universe within which it exists, starting with magic. Magic, within the universe of MLP is a force that exists within all ponies and also within all of Equestria as a whole, it permeates everything in the land in some form. Magic has also been studied and is well documented as to it's limits, abilities and effects in most of it's known forms therefore it is counted as 'natural' because it is a natural part of the universe in which the ponies exist. If a pony gets sick because of a virus, 'bad magic', or even a 'bad magical virus' it is still natural in cause but also magical in cause (since the whole land is steeped in magic), to that effect I would have to say that diseases in Equestria have "Natural Magical Causes". It's like when people say that they got sick because they were out in the cold, it was caused by both the cold weather weakening their immune system and the virus that are the cause of the disease.

 

As for Machines well I would have to say that ponies do sometimes use machines but once again it's a mixed issue because all electricity in Equestria is magic, all of the machines run on magic as power (have you ever seen a power generator in the show before) but sometimes magic is used to help the sick as well.

 

So I couldn't vote....

[NavelColt 22,881]

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