About the season finale... · 4:01pm May 11th, 2014
Okay, I know I have very few followers here, but I'm cross-posting this from my tumblr just because.
Mostly, this is going to talk about pony magic in canon, or my interpretation of what's been shown, given, or implied. Some of this is extrapolation, some of this is pretty direct. This is definitely how I see things in canon only (the story I am currently working on will... probably actually largely use this but I have certain headcanons for the story that will be different from show canon.)
The show has revealed bits and pieces about the actual magic that the ponies have and use over time, and yesterday’s episode dropped the single largest chunk of info on said magic we’ve ever gotten. I’m going to go over exactly what we know now is canon, and extrapolate some info from it, and give you my conclusions.
First, we now have absolute confirmation that all three races of ponies definitely have some sort of innate magic - and alicorns have their own, as well (and the show hints that they also still have the magic of the other three races, as well.) Based on what they showed, I’m also going to go ahead and say that we can actually divide each race’s magic into a base aspect, and an active aspect.
- Unicorn magic’s baseline aspect is the telekinesis that is inherent to the race, while the active aspect is the ability to learn and cast spells and tricks.
- Pegasus magic’s baseline aspect is the power of flight - the show made it clear that their flight is magical in nature, which makes sense, as the wings shown would never be enough to work on actual physics. The active aspect is the ability to manipulate weather. I’m going to extroplate a bit here - pegasus magic seems to be movement-based in nature. Every time a pegasus interacts with weather or produces some kind of magical special effect, it’s always based on movement. They flap their wings to produce a breeze, push clouds together to make a storm or buck them to disperse a storm, stomp or jump on them to produce rain or lightning. The Sonic Rainboom is most definitely magical and movement based, but so are the various different after-image effects we’ve seen (Lightning Dust’s lightning trail, the smoke-and-lightning effect of the Wonderbolts, and so on).
- Earth pony magic’s baseline aspect is physical strength, as indicated by yesterday’s finale. We can probably safely say this includes a certain level of better endurance, constitution, and overall toughness as well. The active aspect is the ability to manipulate and encourage nature, such as plants. Earth pony magic has never before been completely canonized, and having it confirmed is a very nice addition.
Alicorn magic is a bit harder to define, and for now I’m just going to say that it is certainly more powerful and is grander in scope than that of the other three races, while narrower in focus.
We also now know that a pony’s special talent is very much tied into and part of a pony’s magic. When drained of magic by Tirek, the pony’s cutie mark - the visual representation of that special talent - faded away, indicating that the talent is most definitely magical in nature. This makes a great deal of sense, given just how strongly the cutie mark (and related special talent) influences a pony’s life and personality, as shown in Magical Mystery Cure. We’ve also seen, throughout the show, that special talents are mostly related to the pony’s racial magic. Earth ponies often have special talents related to nature, pegasi to weather working or movement, and unicorns to… well, just about anything, honestly, but that’s most likely due to the fact that “magic” as a general thing can be used in seemingly infinite ways.
But there are a number of ponies we’ve seen who have special talents and magic that don’t seem related to their pony type at all. In fact, we have two in the Mane 6 - Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy’s talent, the ability to understand and care for animals, is very much a nature-based talent, with no relation to movement or weather-working at all. Pinkie Pie, on the other hand (hoof?) is very much an odd duck out - her talent is being able to make other ponies happy and laugh, but her abilities manifest through her power to move about or move things around in seemingly incomprehensible ways (or heck, straight up teleportation.) Further, Fluttershy’s innate pegasus magic (the power of flight) is known to be weaker than normal, while Pinkie Pie doesn’t seem to have much luck working with nature at all (and who knows how strong she is? …we’ve never really seen that tested.) Another example outside of the Mane 6 is Bulk Biceps, a pony who is a lousy flier, but horrendously strong - his talent seems to be strength itself, which is very much an Earth pony trait.
This is easily explained - these ponies have ancestors of the other types. Fluttershy has one or more Earth pony ancestors, same as Bulk Biceps. Pinkie Pie would have ancestors who are pegasi, and maybe unicorn ancestors as well, given just how easily she bends reality (or bends around reality, I’m never quite sure…)
So, there you have my thoughts on pony magic, how it’s really defined, and how it all interacts with each other. I’m very willing to listen to differences in opinion or other thoughts on how this may all work. And I admit, I do stretch some of this a bit, but I tried to stay as close to what can be seen from canon as possible. So, what does everyone think?
I think this is a great analysis! Really, I don't have much to add, and nothing to disagree with. I have my own (upcoming) headcanon explanation for Pinkie, but that's just a bit of fun and unsupported by anything in the show.
Great work!
P.S. Post more episode commentary/analysis!
2101042 OMG. I didn't expect you to actually come read! Thank you!
I've actually kinda got a lot of analysis things I want to do but the analysis scene is overwhelmed with the Youtubers, and I can't do video/audio. Also I don't really have many people following me, although that's the whole chicken/egg thing. But I'll endeavor to write more! And seriously, thank you for ready! And watching me! Me the nice comment!