The "earth ponies" don't have wings or magical horns; the original houhnyhnms (or whatever) in Swift's book didn't either. So, if we're implying these two groups of fictional horses are the same thing, they could specifically be just the earth ponies, and the unicorns and pegasi are separate groups who joined with the houhynms to form Equestria, or houhnyhms developed magical horns and wings at some point between the centuries the original novel was published and show aired. The League rule is that fictional events occurred the year the book/tv show/movie/whatever was published/broadcast/released/whatever; technically, the events of MLP:FiM happen in 2010, then, and this is 2009, but obviously Equestria and the Wonderbolts were already active well more than a year before Twilight Sparkle left for Ponyville.
Alan Moore just doesn't seem like the guy who'd actually even try out MLP:FiM; I doubt he's ever seen an episode, he just picked it because it is a popular show around the time. Also, 2009 kind of came off as Alan Moore presents: I'm Old and Cranky! the Comic Book; the observation that Moore may not actually like MLP:FiM is more an critique of Moore than a critique of MLP:FiM. Of course, it might have been the artist O'Neill's addition; I don't know as much about his opinions on modern culture, but he did draw the comic, after all.
The "earth ponies" don't have wings or magical horns; the original houhnyhnms (or whatever) in Swift's book didn't either. So, if we're implying these two groups of fictional horses are the same thing, they could specifically be just the earth ponies, and the unicorns and pegasi are separate groups who joined with the houhynms to form Equestria, or houhnyhms developed magical horns and wings at some point between the centuries the original novel was published and show aired. The League rule is that fictional events occurred the year the book/tv show/movie/whatever was published/broadcast/released/whatever; technically, the events of MLP:FiM happen in 2010, then, and this is 2009, but obviously Equestria and the Wonderbolts were already active well more than a year before Twilight Sparkle left for Ponyville.
Alan Moore just doesn't seem like the guy who'd actually even try out MLP:FiM; I doubt he's ever seen an episode, he just picked it because it is a popular show around the time. Also, 2009 kind of came off as Alan Moore presents: I'm Old and Cranky! the Comic Book; the observation that Moore may not actually like MLP:FiM is more an critique of Moore than a critique of MLP:FiM. Of course, it might have been the artist O'Neill's addition; I don't know as much about his opinions on modern culture, but he did draw the comic, after all.