So what is magic in Equestria? We all know it's a force that resides differently in each race of pony, but what is it? I hate to be that guy "What's the magic made of?" But this group's overwhelming enthusiasm toward social interaction makes me want to start. So I propose we all think about what magic is in Equestria. Friendship is magic for sure, but not all magic comes from friends. Let's look at the kinds of magic we've seen on the show.

Unicorn Magic
The Staple of what everypony thinks off when magic is mentioned. The Unicorns channel magic through their horns to manipulate and cause effects on the world around them, usually in the form of levitation or light. Unicorns also cast magic usually associated to their special talent. In Rarity's case, gem finding.

Pegasus Magic
Although they can't levitate with it their magic is as obvious as the Unicorn's. The can fly (They can't without it as shown by the Tirek episodes), manipulate and use clouds for various things and also control the weather. If only we lived in a world wear the weather man was right all the time because he made the weather.

Earth Pony Magic
Not as flashy as the previous twos, however hard to miss. Earth Ponies can grow food faster and healthier, are stronger , and also apparently live very long if you find out how old Granny Smith is.

Crystal Pony Magic
The Crystal Ponies even have their own magic, however not much about it can be said as it seems it's all about making crystal stuff. It also relies on love to function apparently (Correct me if I'm wrong)

Zebra Shamanism
Zebra's have a unique for of magic resembling Alchemy and seems it's users are usually superstitious; of course we only have Zecora as an example and she may be an isolated case, but seeing how much she holds on to her home's culture it can be guessed she's not. It involves chanting and potions, but Zecora saved the day with it more then once so there's no discounting it's potency.

Alicorns
The magic of Alicorns is incredibly powerful and is used to change the day to night and vice versa, or someponies are really good at faking it. It seems like a mix of all three of the base pony race's magic rolled into one and pumped with steroids, but maybe I'm only saying that after watching Twilicorn duke it out Goku style with the most metal centaur in history pumped full of the rest of Equestria's magic and she only hat the Princesses' worth and only lose because she didn't want him to hurt her friends.

Which brings me to the last item I'm going over, the magic of friendship. After Tirek stole what was left of Equestria's magic Twilight and her friends called upon what could be said was the "Magic of Friendship" and laid a smackdown on all of Equestria's magic worth of metal centaur. I guess friendship is the most powerful magic.

Any different opinions I would like to hear and as always I like feed back on my Theories so if you read all of my little theory could you please tell me what you thought about it and what you think may be different?

4204671 I wrote a one-shot that lists all forms of magic and explains each of the branches.

4204688 Nice, I'm glad to see someone else taking interest in magic here.

4204671 Dragon Magic: Greed powered allowing them to grow and get stronger.

Emotional Magic
The Changelings feed on love to empower themselves, The Wendigo feed on hate to empower themselves

Chaos Magic
Discords power, is able to break reality. Can feed off strife making large scale upheavals suicidal with him.

4330838 Yep, sounds good to me!

I got one on unicorn magic here for you(as well as the Sirens', Tirek's, and Discord's magic, briefly mentioned)
I have formulated basic theory on how Equestrian magic works. The general idea goes, that it's the Tree of Harmony. When the Tree was dying, unicorn magic went berserk. Keep that in mind. Now, when a unicorn wants to cast a spell, they are sending a message to the Tree. Misfires happen when they sent a "typo". The Tree itself possesses large amounts of magical energy(lets just call it mana- the power of a place), while living things possess much smaller pools of magic(prana- the power of a person). Spellcasters trade in their prana for the Tree's mana- the Tree has to keep its stores up. Twilight and the alicorns are so powerful, because the Tree gives them a "discount", so to speak. A "cutie mark", is the Tree's way of showing that a mortal has a connection to it. The connection also bestows skills. Note that ponies lose their skills and magic(except basic levitation, which I'm going to classify as "black magic", keep reading for an idea what that is) when they lose their marks. Unicorns send the message down their connection, with a nice downpayment of prana, then the Tree sends mana, ready woven into spells to the unicorn's specifications, back through the link, and the unicorn channels it out, into the world through their horn, which acts as a natural focus for magical energy, mana or prana. The Elements(and later the Rainbow Power) are so powerful because they represent the Tree's trump card- the signal to fire everything at this guy. When Tirek stole everyone's magic, he was siphoning off their prana, and he happened to steal their connection along with it. When he casts a spell, the Tree thinks everyone who's magic he stole is focusing their power on this one spell. Now, prana regenerates naturally over time, but losing it tires a being out. When their connection to the Tree was stolen, their marks vanished. So, while the ponies would have recovered physically, they would no longer be able to cast spells as they once did. It's a sort of Dresden Filles mantles means A Divine Comity: Mysterious Ways white magic. When Tirek stole Discord's magic, he was only able to take his prana(raw energy), since Discord uses black magic- he weaves magic into spells himself, rather than white magic- calling on an outside force(such as the Tree, a circle of like-minded magicians, a deity, etc) for help. The reason "black magic" is seen as evil is because it's sort of do-it-yourself rather than "prepackaged", like "white magic". It takes a lot more power to use black magic, and the idea is that if your cause is just, and you're the kind of person who deserves power, you shouldn't have much trouble convincing a deity, spirit, or circle of magicians to help you. If Discord could have avoided being drained again, his prana would have recovered, and he'd be back in business. That said, I assume that the less prana you have, the longer it takes to recover it, and Discord had a LOT of prana. Anyway, I assume that's how magic works outside Equestria in general- Celestia specifically stated that Tirek came for "Equestrian Magic", which I assume means that he could only take the raw energy from beings who used black magic(he couldn't take their abilities for himself, only their prana, the raw energy). The Sirens, for instance, used the chaos they caused to tap into ponies connection to the Tree, and siphon some of its mana for themselves. When Twilight and the Humane 5 used the Element's power in Canterlot High, they formed a connection to the Tree within Canterlot High, so the Sirens could access mana again, instead of just siphoning prana of nearby humans. Why did they want mana, you ask? I have two ideas: A) they were specially adapted to be powered by mana rather than prana. One of the Sirens mentioned that siphoning from humans was like "fast food", and she wanted a meal and B) mana is just better/more plentiful/more filling. Which makes sense, why connect to the Tree if you have all the power you need inside of you? Now I'm gonna go into pegasus and earth pony magic, briefly. I believe their magics are mostly passive, and work basically the same way: skills and abilities are transmitted through a link to the Tree of Harmony, which is why they have cutie marks, and why they lose their abilities and skills when the marks are stripped- to remove the marks, you have to remove the connection, or, more accurately, migrate it. If the connection is set free, if naturally seeks out its proper owner, reconnecting them to the Tree.

4204671 I'm going to bring the conversation back, if I can. Anyways, magic can also come from gems, crystals, jewels, etc. Some examples are the Elements of Harmony, the Alicorn Amulet, the Crystal Heart, the gems from the Sirens, etc. Here is a YouTube video explaining why.

5130176 very nice.

4475007

5130352 Hilarious reaction . Though it is a spectacular theory .

If you're interested, I got a blog series called The Nature of Magic. Go check it out on my profile page.