@Background Pony #C0D6
In your words, Earth Ponies are underrated?

reading some of these comments i can only shake my head. these are cartoon characters you can do whatever you want with them. but, the most ridicules thing i have ever seen and read is most bronys purposely make earth ponies inferior. the show doesn’t prove that earth ponies are lesser or sub-servant to the other ponies. there are a lot of plot holes in the show , so everyone’s head-canons are going to go everywhere. either really good head-canons and really bad head-canons. this picture shows me that their are fans willing to go outside the box and do something with earth pony the show doesn’t show. the only problem is with those who are willing to do something different or creative. there is going to be others shoving their pointless head-canons, or unproven facts in the show down the artist/writers throats.  
why do you think there’s the joke : unicorn master race and mud ponies( its all really stupid)

Earth Ponies don’t flip tables when they’re angry.

Alicorns = immortal ponies  
Unicorns = magical powered ponies  
Pegasus = flying ponies  
Earth pony = ponies with incredible physical strength

@PonyPon
 
I don’t see anything particularly wrong with earth ponies having powers that let them match up to unicorns and pegasi instead of being innately inferior.
 
And now our argument has come full circle. :D Let’s frame it and put it up on the wall. It’ll look real nice.

@G.S.  
Fair enough.
 
I’m just trying to keep earth ponies from being written down as hornless unicorns and kryptonians.

@PonyPon
 
Pon, give up. I don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish here. We are never going to see eye-to-eye.

@G.S.  
True.
 
But here’s a different example.  
>>458736 (merged)  
>>458738 (merged)
 
Some part of me feels using the comics is cheating, but it illustrates my point well enough.

New headcanon: Earth ponies are like ninjas. Their art is deception. Their enemy cannot counter a technique that they have never seen. Thus, they keep their abilities a secret and whip them out when it’s time for asskicking.

@PonyPon
 
Those are dark magic crystals. Made of dark magic. Grown with dark magic. They’re not rocks. xD

I for one don’t think that earth ponies are inferior even if, let’s face it, they can’t actually do what we’re seeing in this picture. (Well, I’m sure this wouldn’t even qualify as light exercise for Maud, but she’s a special case.) After all, without them the other races would starve to death. It’s not flashy but it’s the most important power.
 
On top of that, unicorn magic, definitely the flashiest power, is actually not all it’s cracked up to be. It was spelled out as clearly as can be that there’s just one Twilight. Most unicorns have a much smaller range of spells in line with their special talent; Twilight’s special talent is magic itself so Twi and only Twi gets to be Pony Gandalf. It’s promptly proven in the same episode: Only Trixie can (quite loudly) make the same boast, and Twi outclasses her by quite a long way. So don’t judge all unicorns by the one who was so powerful even as a child that Celestia herself had to run off then and there to go take her under her wing.

@G.S.  
But!
 
before I do.
 
I’d like to show you this:  

@PonyPon
 
Likewise.

@G.S.  
Sure, whatever.
 
I’m more content to just leave you to it at this point.

@PonyPon
 
Mostly because combat ability is mostly irrelevant due to the “slice-of-life” format.
 
But when you get into fanworks, combat may be aplenty, and is it there that earth ponies must be given a sizeable buff. Or, just add more detail to the mechanics of the world to make combat interesting and not one-sided.
 
Geomancy/Arbormancy are abilities for earth ponies that make sense in the context of the show.

@G.S.  
I know and like competitive balance.
 
But I also know that’s probably not a huge priority to the people who write this show.

@PonyPon
 
Is that a pun? Hahaha.
 
Either way, I guess you just don’t have a sense of Competitive Balance like me. A race with a prominent role in fiction should not be portrayed as functionally inferior. A lot of people agree with me. You could say that this is why a lot of people don’t like elves.
 
I like balance, apparently you don’t as much. Case closed, I guess. Have a good day, sir. :)

@G.S.  
Believe it or not, a realist.
 
Just trying to stay grounded, is all.

@PonyPon
 
Every time I see you on an image that brings earth ponies up a few pegs, you are attempting to undermine it. It’s led me to believe that you’re just an anti-earth pony enthusiast or something. If that’s not the case, then what are you? :O

@G.S.  
Okay, 1: Not what I’m trying to do.
 
2: Fine with me.
 
3: We had this debate before?

@PonyPon
 
Giving 2/3rds of the population super powers while the others are Useless Normals that have to pick up the scraps isn’t good writing.
 
Also, I’m not having this debate with you again, Pon. I seriously do not give a flying feather about how hell-bent you are on having earth ponies be inferior.

@G.S.  
Or they can work around them, like Aj does.
 
Everyone doesn’t have to have super powers.

Can’t wait until the day we get to see some bitchin’ earth pony magic in the show.
 
It’s about freakin’ time they fixed the show’s horrid balance issues.

Damn, really badass AJ!

Still want to call her a mud pony?