Unicorns + Greatswords = Great Bloody Death Machines!

Another quick doodle, based off my previous doodle, Unicorn Sword, now with added gore. Because why not. Here, a unicorn soldier carves into an unfortunate foe, using a half-swording technique for extra precision/ leverage. See “Unicorn Sword” for full sword stats!

Marked “Mature” (moderate) for obvious reasons. Download for full quality!

A bronze sword would be flexing slightly under a load like that, even if it’s plenty strong enough to spring back to its original shape, but I didn’t want to work that hard drawing that feature.

Enemy combatant: “MY LEG!!”

:XD:

I scare myself sometimes…

EDIT: Now with obligatory background pone. Ain’t he the cutest little psycho?

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Sword Length: 60 cm hilt, 120 cm blade, 180 cm overall (or 70.9 inches)

Mass: 2.5 kg (or 5.5 pounds)

Composition:

80.0% Cu, 16.0% Sn, 2.50% Fe, 1.0% Cr, 0.5% P

Most unicorns within the Equestrian National Guard are equipped with long spears as their primary weapon and shortswords as a sidearm. Some units, however, are trained to wield unusually long swords that test the limits of what a bronze alloy can withstand.

Unusable by pegasi or earth ponies, the design borrows liberally from Gryphon Empire iron swords, down to the superfluous wooden handle. These swords are so long, it’s more practical to think of them as quarterstaves with cutting edges than just simple chopping or stabbing weapons. Just as a gryphon would need two talons to wield one properly, a unicorn would need to use two points of focus with her TK, typically one on the pommel and another on the crossguard. The advantage of the unicorn is that, with no need to physically touch the weapon, she can more easily use half-swording techniques for greater precision and leverage.

The sword itself is perfectly balanced at the crossguard, and its thin and narrow blade makes it well suited for cleaving through flesh. While it cannot bash through well-made maille, scale, or plate armors, it is light and agile enough to find and exploit weaknesses in the enemy’s defenses. It’s a fast sword with a long reach, and coupled with quarterstaff fighting techniques, is one of the most versatile weapons on the battlefield.

The metal alloy is a high-tin phosphor bronze, with additional iron and chromium for age hardening and grain refinement, and is roughly comparable with a good high-carbon steel for strength and hardness. Bronze is less stiff than steel, so it flexes more under load, but this alloy is strong enough to spring back to its proper shape. Unlike steel, which is hardened by quenching from high temperature, bronze is hardened by hammering flat (work hardening). While a steel blade must be filed down to be sharpened, a bronze blade must be hammered down to a microscopic wafer to achieve a keen edge.

>> Now with action! (and blood…) <<

Yeah, another Paint doodle for my pony fic, “Beyond the Eastern Sky”, joining both Silver Strike’s Shield and Grizelda’s Halberd.

I wanted to draw swords that resembled their Bronze Age counterparts, but were scaled up with modern bronze alloys. Bronze truly is remarkable; it’s the third strongest class of common alloys, after steel and titanium, but sadly people tend to treat it like it’s soft as aluminum and heavy as lead. The main reason why the Bronze Age gave way to the Iron Age is not because iron was superior, but because iron weapons and armor could be made more cheaply than bronze, which requires expensive copper and even more expensive tin. Bronze Age cultures collapsed around 1200-1000 BC, and there was never an economic incentive to keep improving copper alloys. And the good steels that bronze could never compete with didn’t become commonplace until the Industrial Revolution. Heck, in the Age of Sail, freaking CANNONS were still being cast out of bronze because the iron ones kept blowing apart unpredictably.

I suppose my whole conceit here was, what if there was some place copper and tin were cheap and plentiful, and one last Bronze Age society held on as long as it could? How far could that society continue to develop technologically? If phosphorus or silicon could be discovered early enough (two elements which can purge the dissolved oxygen out of molten copper), bronze could easily keep pace with competing iron and steel development up to the Industrial Revolution, I think.