Hey Guys, I am currently planning a story that is sort of set before the founding of Equestria. When I was planning, something struck me strange. Do you ever have the kind of feeling when you see some piece of machine in the show that are way too advanced for their level, or technology way too behind compared to others. Thinking back on human culture, we only became technologically advanced due to conflict (that and curiosity), which has been more or less the constant in human history.

What if the conflicts of the three pony tribes and the chaotic nature of the pre-Equestrian Era urged them to do the same. Imagine if they had already tapped into Industrial Revolution tech, only to be suddenly wiped out by the reign of Discord shortly after the Hearths Warming.

So, what do you guys think?

4438985 most likely Discord reign could have sent the whole world back. It's also known that ponies and possibly the other races wouldn't develop our kinda industrial revolution. The reason being magic can power machines and with crystals that can store magic plus the air and possibly the whole universe sucked in this stuff means the use of fossil fuels is not needed and even if attempted the fact magic literally unlimited and freely useable means they went for magic.

4439179
That is true, though there would still always be room for more technological advances. It doesn't explain why there are almost no machine that harnesses Magic directly. Still, I can see your point. Either that or we humans are just way to lazy for our own good.

4439235 yeah Faust went on record any advance technology owned it's existence to magic. A nice little hand wave which kinda up how far you can actually go with a limitless fuel source.

Also anyone else get a filling that dispite having a currency the economic system of equestria makes little sense?