@DerpyFast
I’ve always had mixed feelings about the pegasi controlling the weather.
It’s not just the pegasi; there are others - gryphons and cloud gremlins - who also manipulate weather at the same time it had been known that unicorns were able to control the weather with their spells as seen in MYM Ch. 3. The weather over Everfree was unusual in that it moves by itself, but the explanation may lie in the mysterious magical accumulation that was there in G4. In the rest of the world, it has been noticed that there is very weak wind strength at higher altitudes and that turbulent weather mostly occurs at lower altitudes.
The magical world, Equus, is static - meaning that this planet is stationary in very stark contrast to our own world. When I read a manga, Hoshi o Tsugu Mono, where the story was written by the science fiction author James P. Hogan, it emerged that the moon had acted as a “brake” on Earth from 50,000 years ago. According to Hogan, absence on the moon had resulted in faster rotation - instead of 24 hours, it would be 8 hours. It makes anyone 10% lighter - think of the huge dinosaurs - and much denser atmosphere with extreme wind force - Hogan’s Earth would be a windswept world with wind force up to 300 km/h.
MLP’s Earth - which is called Equus by the fans - is the exact opposite, almost no wind is generated by a rotation that is completely absent, so that it is only at the lower altitudes that climatic activity could occur, such as hurricanes, rain, gusts - and all this would be within reach of flying beings like the pegasi, who could probably reach 5,000 m altitude without much difficulty. The airships in G4 constantly moved several thousand meters above the ground, but not higher - because it becomes so much colder and more difficult, the wind can be calmed at higher altitudes. Perhaps aircraft with lift based on drag is not realistic at higher altitudes. (Perhaps why Price had “planes” with pegasi mounted under wings)
Local climatic variations can be extreme in such a world, from extreme desert heat to intense cold - the many mountains, valleys, steppes and so much else will mean a great diversity of different weather that moves with light winds. A new force that generates climate was needed - and then magic is the only answer. Magic can create “heat” and “cold”, and can thus leave its mark on the surroundings by influencing the local weather and plant growth.
This could not have been overlooked by the intelligent beings who learned how to use magic. They started small by manipulating weather elements, not least to be able to expand beyond the countries where they need sun, rain and shelter. In some of the areas it could be too dry, elsewhere too wet. The pegasi and the unicorns understood that if they were to spread out - they had to be able to control the local weather in order to survive and establish their own communities. Others had understood the same, the zebras with their special magic collaborated with the abadas and the kelpies for example.
Weather control is thus essential for civilization development, and the pegasi were unique throughout the world with their skills surpassing the presentations of others. It made them sought after as allies - and feared as enemies. It can also explain why airships and balloons were important means of transport, these could have taken advantage of the climatic conditions, not least by moving in the “layer” between the upper, windless atmosphere and the lower, turbulent atmosphere with constant winds in predictable directions . If lower, extra power like a pegasus pushing is needed - if higher, advanced magic spells are needed.
Equus was not a static world in the beginning anyway, there had to have been a natural disaster to make this possible. And I’m not thinking about Discord, because that might have happened long before his time. Or it was just created like that by mysterious divine beings.