Twilight's test

Yeah, I'm not done yet. I'd say it's because a two-parter gives me twice as much to think about, but actually it's probably because I'm trying to avoid doing that homework even as I'm secretly panicking about how it's due tomorrow at 2 and I have been progressing far too slowly on it. (And then I stopped mid-sentence later and got back to work, so apparently I wasn't trying to avoid it that much.)

And no spoiler tags now, because it's been twelve hours well over a day, and if you haven't seen the episode by now and you don't want spoilers, I can't imagine what you're doing on Fimfiction of all places.

The meaning of the Element of Magic has always been a point of debate. Does it make Twilight's virtue magic? Or maybe her virtue is friendship? Perhaps Magic doesn't correspond to a virtue at all?

In light of that, it is truly shocking how long it took me to stop to consider Twilight's test. There's certainly information to be gleaned there. Although I'm not sure how much, since I can't shake the feeling Twilight cheated. I think she may have been consciously gambling on earning her key, and tests of your character are usually invalid if you know you're being tested.

As I read the test, though, magic was specifically the temptation. And I might go so far as to say forgiveness was the virtue demonstrated, since freeing Discord was the key to getting her key. Although the writers were probably just going for "friendship."

On the other hoof, perhaps I shouldn't be saying "temptation" and "virtue" at all. The other five got tests with clear moral answers. The ethical choices might not have been apparent to them from the beginnings in all cases, but each of them made her choice in the end because it was clearly the right thing to do. Nobody would argue for the superior moral value of alienating your friends, abandoning your team, ruining your friend's birthday party for an ego trip, keeping the breezies from ever leaving the hell that is Equestria, or allowing Granny Smith to get herself killed because she thinks she's immune to damage. Whereas Twilight had to risk sacrificing the fate of Equestria for her friends in order to make the choice the Tree of Harmony wanted. That may follow the normal pattern of heroic short-sightedness, but that doesn't make it the clear right choice by any means. Particularly since Tirek wasn't even threatening any further harm to her friends. If you ignore the existence of the box, the "temptation" to retain the power to do something useful, rather than giving said power to the villain, is kind of an odd use of the word "temptation." Perhaps we should take it as a test of faith in the Tree of Harmony?

All this aside, though, I'm going with the Element of Magic having represented friendship, and declaring the case closed.