@Background Pony #E3D6
Yeah, someone asked Faust once what Earth ponies were supposed to have going for them, and her answer was basically “Growing stuff”. Seems to be that the fandom latched onto the Apples’ physical abilities and decided that all Earth ponies were supposed to be stronger than the others. I’m not sure if the show itself has ever actually come out and said that Earth ponies are stronger, so yeah…
Applejacks being an earth pony didn’t seem to make her any stronger, tho.
In all the contests she was basically just a pegasus without wings and that’s really all earth ponies were before the writers came up with earth pony magic and strength later on in the series which still doesn’t make sense btw.
Rainbow had a huge natural advantage to the point where she basically didn’t have to train at all and just slept in her cloud all the time while Applejack was training constantly by doing heavy farmwork.
Earth pony strength doesn’t exist. Some earth ponies just happen to be strong but so do some of the other races while almost all the pegasi can fly and almost all the unicorns can use magic.
@TexasUberAlles
It isn’t exactly cheating if it isn’t stated in the rules (“But you never said I couldn’t use my wings.”) that using her wings was ‘cheating’, is it? So she never actually ‘cheated’ by using her ability specific to her race, unless you count Applejack as cheating by using her Earth Pony abilities (strength) as well. And just because you were triggered by Rainbow Dash’s victory over Applejack, it doesn’t make what you stated canonical, so…
@Background Pony #E3D6
That’s been a problem since the beginning of the show. Instead of showing the tribes being equal, or at least letting the earth ponies be important in am immedate fashion, it just shrugs its shoulders going ‘meh’.
@Background Pony #E6FA
Earth ponies just suck, I guess. They are suppossed to have far more strength than the other races as their special ability but they really don’t unless for comedy purposes. Rainbow’s overall abilities are far superior to Applejacks even tho Applejack trained much harder and Rainbow was shown to be lazy.
@Ringo29
And Rainbow Dash has to use her forelegs to deal with deflecting the atmosphere when in flight. She also knows (and has practised) karate and isn’t exactly a stranger to exercise. Also, in the case of Applebucking, Applejack uses and exercises her hindlegs far more than her forelegs. So yeah, it was entirely plausible that RD won against Applejack.
I’d just say that since this episode took place in the first season, the lore concerning magic wasn’t completely cemented yet. Maybe they were simply thinking Earth Ponies were just normal, with no special magic of their own? Later on, they realized that it wasn’t fair, so they added that they have more strength and better farming capabilities than the other tribes.
Actually, I think this makes sense. What we have to remember here is that Applejack does have strong forelegs (although her back legs are clearly stronger). The plunder vine incident proved that.
Rainbow Dash has strong forelegs because of her flying habits. She needs the strength to deal with deflecting the atmosphere being compressed in front of her when she’s traveling at increasingly high velocities. Such as in a well known (if extreme) example, her sonic rainboom.
@Vree
Pegasi magic are their wings, Earth pony magic are their strength. ‘If they are forbidden to use them, earth ponies will dominate.’ But if Pegasi are forbidden to use their wings, then Earth ponies shall be forbidden to use their strength.
They’re both fiction. Stop with this dumbass “comics don’t count!” hysteria already.
I respect your headcanon as you will respect mine, but personally I think that pegasi’s power is in their wings. If they are forbidden to use them, earth ponies will dominate.
Why was that arm wrestling shot in Fall Weather Friends? Because the story was that AJ and RD win around 50-50. There was no special thought going into why a pegasus would win arm wrestling specifically. You can make up headcanons but stop acting like there was.
