Oh she’s about as good as my mom. Maybe better.

@redweasel  
Nah, because fallout.

@clopficsinthecomments
 
so there would be less magic in deserts and on isolated tropical islands and stuff?

@redweasel  
Equestrian magic is actually just extreme radioactivity after humanity bombed itself to death.

@redweasel  
Friendship

@clopficsinthecomments
 
what generates a magical field, that’s not out in space? might be a good question to answer.

Horseapples XD

@clopficsinthecomments  
I’ll admit I haven’t really thought about it too much from an engineering perspective. My background is in physics, so once we pass the basics of “would this be allowable” and “how would this operate” into the realm of actual construction and design, I tend to leave the matter to those more familiar and knowledgeable of the specific fields. That said, I’m not sure what to think on the idea of magic “failing” at a certain point away from whatever planet Equestria is on. I suppose you could make a case that it operates sort of like gravity, concentrated in the areas with a high density of friendship (or something like that) and with an infinite range, but which drops off rapidly as you move away from anything which generates it. I personally prefer a more neutral “some kind of energy” version, as something that can be accessed and used anywhere in the universe, but again that’s more a matter of taste.

@Background Pony #E5E6  
I’m seeing a ton of great feedback here for the scientific questions of the space ponyo universe.
 
Now I’m a writer, for sure but not the creator, so please take what I say with a large grain of salt, but here’s how I see a lot of this working:
 
-Unicorns have a lot of power in Equestria. Much of the economy depends on them. So many things depend on a ‘little bit of magic’ to make things actually viable. For instance, airships, engines, sound systems etc. etc. all need a small magic charge to actually work. This is because when you have a bunch of magical solutions, you can get away with sloppy designs and or bad engineering.
 
-This doesn’t work so well with rockets and spacecraft. As you get further away from the magical field of Equus, things that are dependent on magic just… Stop working. This resulted in some very interesting early rocketry missions where things just blew up. It meant that engineering and science needed to reach all new levels of precision and tolerance: things had to work without magic!
 
-This leads to all sorts of new social strife. Suddenly having a horn on your head doesn’t mean your guaranteed to have a job running a complex piece of machinery. Earth ponies and pegasi (and smart unicorns) are building equipment that just works regardless of magic, and it makes people start to distrust the old ways even more. Rocket science is at the cutting edge of this movement.
 
-Scientists start to highly doubt the princesses claims about having the ability to move something as insane as the sun and the moon. Not only is the magical power required off the charts, but it’s also out of Equus’s magical field. The consensus of your average engineer and or scientist is that some tomfoolery is going on, more likely magical atmospheric tricks than actually moving the planets and stars. This is the ‘new school’s view in opposition to the ‘old school’s believe the princesses’ view. The princesses don’t discourage this because it’s healthy for the society to stop relying on one single race.
 
-They reality, known only by a few very wise and clever engineers, scientists, and archwizards… Is that the princesses really are that strong. They can do stuff outside Equus’s field. Space programs have a select few engineers/consultants who check with the royals to make sure the complex orbital mechanics they are planning align with the princesses’ planned magical deviations.

@Zajice  
Imo you’ve sort of nailed it - Delta (and others) are so virulently anti-godmagic, and some other ponies blindly follow her every word.
 
The reality is probably somewhere in between, and I like the idea of space programs having a secret consulting line with the princess to ensure that nothing will suddenly experience ‘orbital anomalies’.
 
But this story is heavily from Delta’s perspective so we’ll see the princesses as charlatans.

@Red-Supernova  
Every type of pony has some magic in them. How else would cutie marks appear?

@Red-Supernova
 
yeah, apogee’s supernatural adorableness really takes apart her argument that magic’s not real.

@redweasel  
So they’re in conflict in this world?
 
But even though she’s a Pegasus, she has some sort of magic in her.

@Red-Supernova
 
we don’t know a lot about shin0dage’s equestria. it’s hard for magic and science to work in harmony though, considering one is about the unexplainable, while the other is about explaining things.
 
what we do know now is that it’s possible for somepony to report on how the princesses move the sun and moon, in a way that makes apogee think it’s total horseapples.

@Meanlucario  
@redweasel  
So are they just denying facts? I thought magic and science would work in harmony in Equestria.

@redweasel
 
Thicker atmosphere!
 

@Meanlucario
 
that could easily be explained by a lower gravity, a thicker atmosphere, or smaller ponies. even if it was magic, it’s not nearly as obvious as causality violating glowy unicorn magic.

@redweasel  
Every time they fly.

@Red-Supernova
 
huh. wait. wait a sec. I know most of these characters are pegasi, but there’s only one time shin0 drew any of them using magic and it’s porn and it’s probably not canon.
 
do they see magic displayed every day? _{do they see it at all?}

They live in a world where they can see magic displayed every day. How could they pass it off as “mumbo-jumbo propaganda?”

DELTA BEING NICE  
WHAT

This was heartwarming
 
@Tavi959  

 
That was oddly precious
 
@DrizzieDoodles  

 
Agreed

@Background Pony #E5E6  
@Dark Dash  
I think what’s especially worth noting is it was suggested years ago that Celestia might not control the sun and moon. The same way it was suggested in the 80’s that ulcers might be caused by stress, which is still widely believed to this day (fun fact, they’re not: it’s bacteria) :D

@Background Pony #E5E6  
Well we know things like the weather are carried out by Pegasi, as the only time they can’t control the weather is when Discord’s magic becomes involved (“Return of Harmony” with Discord himself and “Princess Twilight Sparkle” with the blunderseeds he planted), or with the Everfree forest’s weather. We’ve also seen Twilight move the sun when inbued with the power of the other three Alicorns, so we know Magic is at least capable of manipulating the sun. Celestia’s case is further strengthened by the fact that, in her absence, the sun doesn’t move at all. This applies to Luna as well, as without her or Celestia around, both the sun and the moon remain motionless.
 
So in the show’s canon, perhaps weather and celestial bodies are manipulated by magic, but the physics of simple objects and the study of time itself are relatively down to Earth.

@Background Pony #E5E6  
My theory is that Equestria is inside “borderless pocket dimension” where laws of nature are different.  
That way you can have different celestial bodies (equestrian moon and sun can coexist with normal moon and sun on the same planet) and different nature (equestrian “passive nature” can coexist with more “realistic” nature) without making your head blow to pieces.  
Of course that doesn’t explain everfree forest…