-Nothing's stopping unicorns or pegasi from planting crops of their own, but it's been heavily implied that earth ponies are the only ones who are talented at doing so, meaning whatever they yield will be of higher quality and probably in greater supply. The Hearth's Warming Eve episode clearly indicated that the pegasi and unicorns relied heavily on earth ponies' crop yields, just as the pegasi were relied on to regulate the weather, and the unicorns were relied on to raise the Sun. -Rainbow's ability to keep up with AJ in a hoof race means nothing. For one thing, she's one of the most athletically adept pegasi in all of Equestria, if her Sonic Rainboom ability means anything. For another, a hoof race tells only of stamina, not physical strength; it's strictly cardio-related work. You can be an extremely fast runner and not be able to bench press more than 100 lbs, and in all the activities that required raw muscle, AJ trumped Rainbow a hundred times over. -As for Bulk Biceps...yeah, his muscles are insanely huge, but have you noticed how pitiful of a flier he is? That's the trade-off; he may be stronger than any earth pony, but even Scootaloo could outfly him. Likewise, I'm pretty sure an equivalently hulked-up unicorn would have crap for magic, wouldn't you agree? "No matter what our differences, we're all ponies." -Smart Cookie
To answer the topic title in a constructive way that proves my point: [video=youtube;h2rendXsIH8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2rendXsIH8[/video]
Pie Pie doesn't seem strong at all. Although apparently Fluttershy was originally was originally meant to be an Earth pony (and she ha a connection with nature) while Pinkie was to be a pegasus.
After Maud's display of disintegrating a boulder in dust, Earth Ponies look a lot more capable in my eyes.
Huh Glad to see my 19-month old thread is getting discussion again. My mind was changed a while after posting this to the fact that earth ponies can get a lot done when they're with their own kind. Other ponies seem to hinder their progress when they're nearby but a group of earth ponies get jobs done with easier teamwork. I feel now it's more of a strength in numbers characteristic that gives them their own uniqueness.
I think they're multitalents. For examples what they can't levitate they can balance on almost any bodypart they have which is kinda hard to do if you think about it. Also they have a huge day-to-day kind of knowledge. Like the important stuff, you could say. They get sh*t done. Plus the mentioned extreme strength the can achieve but don't necessarily have to. So yeah Earth ponies are kinda the best of em all and not inferior to any other pony except alicorns but everypony is inferior to an alicorn.
I would like to point out that it would not be correct to attribute characteristics to a given race of pony based on the capabilities of one or few members of the given race. We need to look at the bigger picture, namely the features almost universal to every member of the given race. Thus we can associate magic with unicorns, and flight with pegasi. I do not believe that either strength or affinity for nature might be correctly given to earth ponies - the ones depicted in the present, not those from the past - as these traits seem to local to the Apple family (for the most part). So, earth ponies get the short end of the stick in my opinion. Sent from my SHIELD using Tapatalk
I'm inclined to believe that all Earth Ponies are capable of incredible feats of strength, based on this clip from "Luna Eclipsed." [YOUTUBE]9s2JxdAyXBQ[/YOUTUBE] At 1:20, Luna effortlessly cracks the ground with a single stomp. As it is well known that Alicorns have the combined traits of Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth Ponies, and neither Unicorns or Pegasi ever show extraordinary strength (Bulk Biceps, despite being much stronger than an average Pegasus, is also much more heavily muscled.), I'm forced to conclude that an Alicorn's strength is the trait they take from Earth Ponies.
Actually, that supports a different - scientifically proven theory, in one case - which is that earth ponies are made of dark matter and weigh some 8 times more than they should (Applejack was used for proof). Also, I'm pretty sure that 1 alicorn is more powerful than 1 earth pony + 1 pegasus + 1 unicorn, given that only one of those can raise and lower celestial bodies. TL;DR: Alicorns OP. Sent from my SHIELD using Tapatalk
Incorrect! In the very first episode, the book that Twilight Sparkle is reading talks about how Celestia "used her Unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn." Not Alicorn powers, Unicorn powers. This could be viewed as inconclusive, until you watch "Hearth's Warming Eve," where we learn that the ancient Unicorns demanded food from the Earth Ponies "in return for magically bringing forth day and night." Therefore, it can be concluded that a powerful enough Unicorn or (more likely) group of Unicorns would be able to control the sun and moon just as effectively as the princesses. Alicorns are indeed powerful, but they also seem to have all the same weaknesses as a normal Equestrian pony.
You're forgetting that Alicorns are a fan-named species and weren't canon until season 3 when Trixie used an alicorn amulet. 1 unicorn < 1 alicorn group of unicorns = 1 alicorn Alicorns are still stronger.
Which follows that if alicorns do have the strength of earth ponies, their strengths exceeds that of a single earth pony. In any case, alicorns are in fact not comparable to earth ponies in any deterministic or linear fashion, so this argument cannot be used to support the claim of earth pony strength. Sent from my SGH-T899M using Tapatalk
