Ten totally random pony things (and questions) I feel like sharing. · 4:51pm Nov 6th, 2014
* The perpetual risk of backlash for unicorn castings can be blamed directly on Sweetie Belle. I took the idea from the scene where she hoof-baps Rarity's horn and makes the field wink out. That gave me Stage 0, and the rest came from there.
So once again, the CMC have come that much closer to getting somepony killed. What does the mark for that look like?
* While I don't have plans to do anything with Sunset Shimmer right now and the mirror to the humanish world doesn't exist in-'verse, there's already a foreshadowed place set for her -- and it's Luna's fault. "You have another student in this current age?"
Given the timing of when that was written? Pure accident.
* Survey question: of the S1-3 ponies, which one would you currently like to see in some small (or large) role for this continuity? I'm aware there's a lot of population being overlooked -- but given the size of said population, that's just about inevitable. I just want to know which character you're most curious to spot.
* One of the reasons the CDA exists as-is: it almost completely takes out the 'getting to know you' aspect which many HiE stories have to repeat over and over with their respective fresh human arrivals in Equestria. Such can be interesting, well-written, and fun -- but it's just been done a lot. i didn't want to try it, so... a setting where ponies have known about humans for a few years and already have some of the basics worked out.
Which doesn't mean some of the other-than-standard varieties can't throw them for a loop.
* Does Twilight have a personal spell?
Think about it. In-'verse, her teleport was a desperation copy from Nightmare Moon (and her personal speed record for working such out, although she'd done some study on the working before that), Telekinetic movement is universal for unicorns. And everything else we've seen her use -- studied, duplicated (here treated as an aspect of her mark talent), learned from books.
Which of Twilight's spells is her 'trick': an aspect of her personality manifested as magic? Something which came from inside, with no need to study it at all? Does she even have one?
* In real life, newborn foals are up and walking within minutes of birth. Human parents have a moderate grace period where they know that, at best, the kid has only just managed to roll somewhere. Pony newborns... well, we know they're trotting along within a month, and pegasus infants going through Surges can get airborne. What does this do to parenting, when you never have a moment where an active infant could be considered as 'locked down'? Not a single second to relax? How should cribs be constructed to prevent escapes? They're already miniature baby jails, but it seems as if extra reinforcements are required. Pegasi models are going to need a roof... 'Kid leashes' have already been mentioned by Rainbow (and that she was on one): how else do you keep the youngest in sight and out of trouble?
* If Twilight is near the top of the unicorn power scale, what's the bottom? How weak is the least powerful field? Are there ponies out there barely capable of lifting muffin to mouth? Artists who create patterns in dust motes because that's all they can move? Where do you feel the normal bottom line (baring illness or birth defect) should be?
* In-'verse, pretty much any member of an intelligent species can be a citizen of Equestria after completing the immigration/naturalization process. This gives them every right of a native-born pony: to enjoy Equestria's equivalent to the Bill Of Rights, vote, run for office, serve in the military, represent their new country...
,,,theoretically, compete in the Equestria Games...
How badly would your average minotaur mess up certain pony-only events? Ponies have the edge in numerous sports, but the strategic use of hands here and there might totally dominate a few medals. How about griffons in the flying competitions?
Do the Games discriminate as to who can compete and in what? Certainly there are race-only events: if you don't have a unicorn field, don't bother showing up to the levitation ribbon dance, and lightning aim needs the ability to trigger it. But for things where all you need is an apparent new minimum of two legs or wings...
What happens if someone decides they want to play too? That as an Equestrian, they have every right -- and somepony blocks them? When capabilities can vary so widely, is it even unfair to do so?
* With both currently-released seasons of Haganai watched, I now know how I would mange that prospective Haganai: I don't have many pony friends story, and it's pretty much as originally conceived: the entire Neighbor's Club watches a series about friendship in the hopes of inspiration and lessons they can use -- and each takes away the wrong one. But I'm still not sure which lesson to put with each Club member.
Sena's easy. She's already the braggart in the group: look how athletic, intelligent, pretty she is -- no, really. Everyone look. Right now. So she takes what she sees as The Lesson Of Rainbow Dash: the way to make friends is by boasting about yourself. Constantly. Which for her, is just turning her natural tendencies up to eleven.
Yukimura... the direction she's already going is True Manhood Through Servitude. That seems to be pointing her towards Spike. So her wrong lesson would be to take everything she's already doing and keep turning that dial? Does she try to sleep in a basket at the foot of Kodaka's bed?
I keep wanting to put Yozora with Trixie. How do we make friends? Clearly it's by putting everyone else down! Show them how incompetent they truly are! Show off, but only in ways which humiliate others!
But with the others... I'm having trouble pinning them down. Rika would likely go for what she saw as the most sexually open in the group, but gawds only know who she's going to pick out under that qualification. (I foresee lots of awkwardness if she somehow decides it's Fluttershy.) Kobato is probably gravitating to the villains no matter what anyone does. Nightmare Moon? Sombra? What kind of friendship lessons is she interpreting there, especially since she's so reluctant to let anyone get close at all and would just put another layer onto the mask? Maria... she's just going to go for what she thinks are the cutest characters. If that winds up being the CMC, we're going to lose the school.
And then we have Kodaka. Sick of being judged on his appearance, being assigned a bad reputation which he's never done anything real to earn. If he was watching an animated series of the local 'verse, he'd go right for Snowflake. But he's not: he's watching the actual show. Where does he wind up? Or is he the One Sane Man trying to keep the other Club members from using their mistakes to just about destroy any hopes they still might have had?
As a story, it's sort of getting there. But it's not easy. At all.
(For those who want to see what the Haganai personalities are generally like, their TVTropes character page should help.)
* I was recently asked this question over on Pinkie Pie vs. The Soufflé: "Also could you explain to me what this verse is you have this story apart of." I haven't answered it yet because... I'm not sure how.
'It's a bunch of stories placed in the same setting. Some people hate it less than others.'
'I left off the 'uni' for savings. And horn discrimination.'
'@#$%ed if I know.'
Which leads into the opening summary on the TVTropes page. It may be the weakest part of the whole thing. (Which is, let's face it, all my fault.) It's a summary of sorts... but is it a workable one?
How would you answer that question? Summarize this mess for a fresh arrival? What's the flight speed of a pollen-laden Breezie? Equestrian or Prancor?
Stuff to think about. Or not.
* Does Twilight have a personal spell?
I'd probably go with transformation since that is mostly what her cutie mark surge consisted of. Spike growing to be huge, her parents into plants (non-lethally, even). Levitating the test proctors doesn't really fit, but you can't have everything.
Examples in-show would be her turning everyone into breezies, turning the pumpkin and mice into the carriage and "horses", possibly even the spell to modify the parasprites.
I think the summary should include something about the depressitude people find within the setting :-P
2577471
And the cynicism!
2577488
Nah, that can be a surprise for the reader :-D
2577467 Agree with this one-Twilight's trick is transformation. She transformed unknown strangers that barely tolerate each other into friends, her parents into potted plants, theoretical knowledge of a spell into working fact, etc, etc, etc...
And, on the whole Sunset Shimmer/mirror thing...I think you can still keep the mirror in-universe. It's just that...we already got the swipes of dried blood on various artifacts in the Crystal Kingdom. There's a mirror in the basement, and no sane pony wants to get near it or figure out what it does. Why? The very large blood stains are thick, red, and sticky, even after a thousand years. And, the blood seems to be still alive...
Ponies I'd like to see? I'd probably lean towards Gilda or Lightning Dust, considering they're antagonists who need fleshing out and you have already mentioned you have a Flim and Flam story idea. If it weren't limited to S1-S3, I'd suggest Maud, if it weren't for the fact that, in this continuum, she'd be more likely to buck Pinkie in the face than to be nice to her.
Also, I'm curious; why have you decided the mirror doesn't exist? Do you not like EQ?
2577536
Naked Lunch was laying the groundwork for any potential Gilda return: Rainbow is her only known link in any dominance chain and she needs that adjustment period. (Rainbow, for her part, pushes and pulls as an automatic part of her own personality and may not even recognize new-arrival-griffon behavior as unusual because our weather coordinator tests everyone around her in nearly the exact same way.) The question may be 'What is Gilda like once she's gotten enough time to work out her place?' Still at least a little abrasive and prank-prone, but...
Lightning Dust... I honestly haven't thought much about her to this point. Maybe that should change.
Maud... is off-limits to me for direct use right now. And yet there's a chance she could show up. It's... I've probably already said too much.
I want to keep the main 'verse free of humans.
Also, I'd wind up completely redoing the character models. With a vengeance. Because I don't need the dolls to trade clothes.
of the S1-3 ponies, which one would you currently like to see in some small (or large) role for this continuity?
Mayor Mare, mostly because I love pony politics.
Does Twilight have a personal spell?
We've seen enough transformation magic going on that i don't think that's a specialty of Twilight, if anything every time we see her attempting it she's shown struggling with it, turning frogs to oranges, making a big deal out of giving spike a mustache, she wouldn't have to practice it so much if it was natural to her i think.
Outside of Discord, Luna seems to be the master of it, turning her cape to bats, toy spiders to real ones, she herself is a shapeshifter to some degree (at least she can turn into Nightmare Moon at will).
I think Twilight's actual trick is just pure magic beams, as used against Tirek. We don't ever see them used by regular unicorns other than her (against the changelings, for example) and i would thing that's the kind of thing that would require tremendous amounts of power to project into the real world for a unicorn.
* In real life, newborn foals are up and walking within minutes of birth.
I like to think the ponies are good enough that they'll take care of any lost foal they find and return it to their parents, also they seem to be willing to give their children lots of freedom as long as they're out in groups, as the CMC demonstrate. As for pegasi foals, I like Cold in Gardez's take, the pegasus ponies are flighty both literally and figuratively. If a foal slips out of the house, a parent will go out to find it, and if it fails i'll just take another foal and take it in for the night, knowing that some other parent will take care of their own, they're just community and service driven like that, which is why they're the most militant tribe.
* If Twilight is near the top of the unicorn power scale, what's the bottom?
We actually kindda have a sample of this on canon! In Mysterious Mare Do Well there's a unicorn mare that can't twist a lid off a jar of jam. I would consider that the lower limit of unicorn magical strength.
Don't know if you actually wanted answers/comments to these, but you got me thinking. In order:
I figured that's where you got backlash. I hope Rarity gave Sweetie a long talk about the risks of horn contact. Sweetie probably didn't listen, but I hope the effort was made.
For the survey, my vote is basically a foregone conclusion: Derpy. Or Ditzy, Bright Eyes, or whatever you choose to call her in the Continuum. I make no apologies for my bias towards my favorite pony.
I'm going to agree with djthomp on Twilight's personal spell. A mind as organized as hers might see polymorphing as simply moving an object from one category to another in the morphic directory. That rock is now filed under "top hat." That frog is now... mostly under "orange." (Consider how much easier the spell became when she stopped trying so hard.) Twilight herself is now under "alicorn." (And we know that magic came from inside. We saw it emerge.)
If that's the case, there's a beautiful irony in Twilight approaching one of Discord's favorites from the completely opposite direction.
I imagine the infant care industry and correctional facilities of Equestria have a lot to teach one another. Though most parents probably aren't willing to put restraints on their pegasus foals... at least, not for the first few months.
I see the normal nadir of hornpower at about a pound or two of telekinetic force. Such unicorns would probably have incredible fine control, but they wouldn't be able to do much with it. Still, those dust motes would dance.
The Equestria Games almost certainly aren't the only athletic competition in the country. This issue would likely need to be hashed out in each sport's own organization. In some cases, the metagame might adjust, creating strategies that work against the fingered. In others, the only answer that ensures fair play may be separate leagues. Of course, the real challenge would be determining which is which.
Reader-response gap. Haven't seen Haganai, so I can't help you here.
The word I would use to describe your work is "mature," in the Calvin & Hobbes sense. This is an Equestria where there are many familiar problems and several others besides, but it's still Equestria. Little has been changed, but a great deal has been added, and the world is richer for it.
2577556
I have Luna as more of a specialist (and artist) with illusions, and all of those effects could have been pulled off with that (and a little telekinetic shifting thrown in). Actual transmutations and physical changes are being kept hard. But that's just the forever-nightmare of personal interpretation.
Magic beams, to me, are raw strength field shoves. But they're not necessarily easy (because they don't have a direct target) and rapid-firing them is pretty advanced. We've seen her create something similar by accident during Triptych, although that was more towards pure undirected energy.
The mayor... I just flashed on an image of her wondering whether it's time to retire rather than face managing the increasing chaos of Ponyville for another term -- then discovering that if she enters the election, she would be running unopposed because nopony else wants to deal with it either.
With the CMC, I think there's a bit of herd mentality in play there: the theory says 'safety in numbers', the reality (for the CMC) is the opposite. Snowflake's already questioned the judgment of Scootaloo's parents for letting the three continue running together, and I doubt he's the only one. Applejack grits her teeth and realizes she can't stop it: the Belles may be a little more oblivious.
I do like the idea that it takes a community to make sure an infant doesn't break for the fringe. .
In the show, I'd say teleportation is her thing; she and Sunset are the only ponies we've seen do it. But in Esteequestria, there are a lot more teleporters. So... perhaps she hasn't found it yet. Perhaps that's part of why Twilight keeps that thaumaturgical lab in her basement, and goes on those wild research binges: she knows a ton of spells from a variety of sources, many of which she has optimized, modified or spliced together, but she feels that she has to come up with something unquestionably hers, too. This pursuit, and how Twilight balances (or not) it with the rest of her life, might make for interesting story fodder.
What events even are there in the games where, for examples, hands would offer some sort of unfair advantage?
The only one I can think of immediately might be wrestling, and that seems like more of an issue with weight classes than anything.
I guess things like javelin, which doesn't seems like an Equestria Games event anyway.
2577572
Personally, I suspect that Celestia holds the mayor in high regard and, if she had the whole Twilight-to-Ponyville thing planned out way in advance, potentially nudged the mayor into running for that job. Because she knew the mayor was competent at the very least and was one of the best available ponies to be "in charge" of the asylum once Twilight moved in.
2577566
Answers/comments to all were and are welcome.
Any ignorance of Sweetie's with backlash probably centers around having it happen to her. This is one of the things which gets drilled into unicorn children early and often until they've got it right: the consequences are too dire. Doesn't stop a younger sister from knocking the elder down a peg with it.
I freely admit: I've been avoiding Derpy. With Mr. Flankington finally having made his on-camera apperance, she's the new Ghost of Ponyville: often mentioned, never actually shows up. There's been enough to establish part of her place: in concert with so many other 'verses, she's a mailmare single mother with a unicorn daughter. (A minor running joke: she's never named, just described -- a tiny nod towards the confusion and corporate policy.) She's clearly part of the settled zone... but she hasn't been anywhere near the lens. Part of it is because I don't have a really solid local concept for her personality yet -- at least, not one I'm comfortable writing up.
She may yet appear. I just need more of a handle to grasp first.
Imagine the fate of those stuck at the nadir of field strength and dexterity: you can barely manage to do anything and if you do? It goes wrong in that special CMC way. We may be looking at the unicorn equivalent of a Squib.
Which brings up the question of very insulting remedial classes -- the opposite of the Gifted School, facilities designed to help those who can't manage everyday tasks to adjust into earth pony ways. I'm going to say no, because the insults would spread out. Quickly.
There's probably a story somewhere in the idea of trying to find a mixed-species sport where either everyone could play together with no worries about unfair edges or detriments -- or a team activity where everyone has a role. And then CUNET starts screaming about Pony Tradition! again and tries to get the whole thing banned while the inventor struggles to get a league going in spite of everything they bring to bear against him.
Well, I kind of did want a pony version of Bill Veeck...
*silently points at Twilight's Escort Service*
*also still has that box marked OFF*
*remains aware of the irony*
2577467 Speaking of which... When Celestia blasted Nightmare Moon with the elements, it banished her. When Twilight and co. did it, she turned back into Luna. One could see this as a transformation instead of purification.
2577609 He meant mature in the sense that it takes itself seriously. Your stories ask questions and make the readers think. The setting is richer for it. It is still a lot of fun.
I think you can make an argument that teleportation is Twilight's trick. The only other characters we've seen use it are millennia-old alicorns, both of whom still had to charge the spell. She had that much down by applebuck season, already refined to casual, precision casting, and in the time since even that level of competence has been refined further into an instantaneous stunt. She's also expanded it to teleport other people, and to teleport other people with her. Given an ascension and a magical supercharge, she crossed continental distances as easily as she used to cross ten feet.
The only character who's shown that sort of proficiency with it is Discord, and he's a reality warper.
edit: Forgot all about Sunset. Given that she at least had the potential to ascend, that still puts her in rare company, but it does put a bit of a damper on things. Never mind that in this universe it's already been expanded to be rather less special to begin with.
edit2: Her ludicrous ability to duplicate magic more or less on sight is probably the most interesting answer, in the end. In Final Fantasy terms, she's the only blue mage in a world where everyone else is stuck grinding out AP.
2577587
Another possibility I've been considering is that she knows what it is, but it's something incredibly minor and potentially sort of embarrassing when brought into public consumption.
"What did you say your very first working was again, Twi?'"
"...I made the books in my home library automatically sort themselves out in order of page count..."
2577600
I'll have to see the Games in action, and that's on hold until December. But throwing-based things would be high on the list. And never underestimate the vulnerability of an obstacle course to something which can truly climb.
2577608
Paper gets heavy fast, though. Your average 700-page hardcover, if swung correctly, has the stopping power of a very large brick.
2577609 Or, better yet, a team activity that needs all three kinds of pony to perform. Can't think of exactly what...
And, I agree that you're stories are "mature" in the sense of "deeper thought into the way the world works", and less "because it's good funny/slapstick" material.
The "Derpy question" is one that the fandom has always had issues about. It's a small-scale Streisand Effect that most people have an opinion of. And, it used to be a kind of litmus test in "how do you handle the character"?
Personal head cannon-high level functional autistic, has her job because the Diarchy reserves certain categories of jobs for ponies with those kinds of issues (that can do the job), and does her job pretty well with occasional issues. Has a case worker that checks every once in a while to make sure that things are okay, Ditzy is okay (Derpy is as good a Mom as she knows how to be), the bills are paid, the apartment is clean, etc, etc, etc...
2577610
And here we have the torment of personal perspective again: I've been treating it as something much closer to exorcism.
2577619
I actually put down a stat on this one in Triptych: locally, about one in every three hundred unicorns can teleport -- but range of travel varies, and the ability to take others along has to be both learned and licensed. Twilight is more proficient than most, but not at the top of the scale, and has yet to try a truly long jump. (It's also been noted that for anything she's duplicated, she doesn't quite capture the same refinement as the original caster.) Celestia and Luna can go cross-continent, but they try not to do it too often: even for their power level, it's an effort.
1. There would no be a mark for accidental murder. Only intentional murder. It has to be something that the pony believes in completely. I know I am not making it better with this response. (Maybe a knife dripping with blood/poison?)
2. This one does not seem like you are looking to gather our ideas.
3. If not Derpy, then maybe something about Fleur Di Lis (Ignore the canon spelling. You have done so with Snowflake.). Or maybe Berry Punch. See what makes Ponyville's drunk drink (she was drinking before things really started getting weird in town).
4. See 2. (unrelated to this blog: I have recently gotten around to reading the stories involving the Agency. I loved them.)
5. I think that either she sees all spells as part of her identity (which has horrific implications when you consider that that includes dark magic (she would see nothing wrong with spells that torture and kill (maybe she is perfectly fine with using them, but only on her enemies))). Considering that she can copy spells on sight, she may be tied to all spells.
Maybe she is on an eternal quest to find her spell. Her spell might be an 'impossible' union of all branches of magic into one spell. A 'unified field spell'. An Omni-discipline spell
Or her 'spell' is more the application of will against the fabric of the universe and getting it to bend (just like Discord). She has a tendency to make things change to her will when she is frustrated, and thus is not reigning in her reality warping. Maybe her trick is not a 'spell' per say, rather it is a direct use of magic without the hindrance that are the spells used to shape the effect. A cause and effect chain that skips some steps.
Others would use magic like this: have goal->think about steps necessary to get it->formulate spell->cast spell-> get result.
Twilight would be like: have goal->get result
6. I imagine that there are devices that can help. The manufacturer of such a device would make a fortune.
7. It depends on the way the scale works. If zero on the Celestia meter is like zero on the Fahrenheit temperature scale, then a zero would probably be struggling to carry a foal's blocks. If zero is like the Kelvin system (where zero degrees and absolute zero are the same), then minimums will continue to be divided into smaller and smaller divisions.
8. Have separate events? specialized judging rules to make sure that everything is fair with the different advantages some species have? Griffons were allowed to compete in the flying events along with the pegasai. Maybe have strength events between earth ponies, minotaurs, and bovines?
9. Have not seen the show, so I cannot comment.
2577647 I agree on the exorcism. That is a much better word than the ones I have been using to describe the results.
Oh, for coming close to killing someone: Perhaps the silhouette of a cart teetering over a cliff edge, as if in a hectic rush and taking a curve dangerously fast. Or an anvil falling above a pram, for example? It would probably resemble a cartoonish danger sign in some fashion.
I'd say either the Mayor or Cheerilee not for a very 'verse linked reason I just like the characters. Finding out how Cheerilee deals with the CMC on a daily basis might be interesting giving their worse chaos elementals than Discord in your setting. Big Mac possibly again mostly based on just liking the character.
On a more plot based front, Mr and Mrs Cake would be interesting, how are they doing raising twins of different tribes while keeping their tribes secrets?
I don't think we've seen it if she does have one. I'd say something learning or book based, maybe downloading information straight into her mind or possibly her rate of learning spells is a spell by itself? She can in some way boost her magical comprehension?
I think it becomes hard to tell minimum from birth defect. In the same way Pinkie is an earth pony with no earth sense I'd guess there are unicorns with no magic, they would definitely be considered disabled by other unicorns.
2577556 Some jars can be almost impossible to open。
...so long story short, Twilight is a Power Mimic?
[WARNING: TVTropes link. Proceed at your own risk]
2577813
On occasion for unicorn tricks, but generally not without significant effort and study. Her copying also tends to be -- blurry. She can get the spell itself, but not the same level of detail as the original caster.
ETA: Part of how I treat her mark is that it gives her an increased learning capacity. Most unicorns can't pick up anywhere near her total number of known workings. But at the same time, she doesn't always have a lot of focus in any given discipline.
Twilight seems to not only be gifted in pure magic, but also a savant or prodigy in learning. Remember her square root recitation during "The Failure Song"? She probably is a mathematical genius, but doesn't pursue that course because she's interested in so many other things. One of her few intellectual weaknesses is that she doesn't seem particularly creative, though she is a fairly good problem solver.
* Does Twilight have a personal spell?
I'd say its Power copying-
Wait did someone do that joke already?
As far as a summary goes, its not that hard: My Little Pony, but reality ensues.
I had been under the impression that Twilight's specialty was duplicating the magic of others. I suppose that's not a specific spell, though. I would enjoy seeing more Cranky Doodle and Matilda in the Triptych verse. I rather enjoy stories that give Blueblood a little depth, but I have no idea how well that would work with triptych-canon.
(also Dotted Line, cries a part of my heart that still longs for more of Whom the Princesses Would Destroy)
How to describe the Triptych-verse? Superficially similar to canon until season 4, but in reality more cynical and, well, realistic? More mature and well-developed in detail, with plenty left to discover.
S1-3 character: I too would be interested in seeing what you make of Cheerilee.
Twilight's Personal Spell: Twilight doesn't strike me as the sort to actually have developed one yet. Friendship being magic and all that, "no time for friends, must study" is therefore equal to "no time for magic, must study".
So what's her personal spell going to be? Probably the same as Clover's. Project the fire of friendship (the Incarnum Flame, if you will).
Of course, that's partly because of my own elaborate City of Heroes-related headcanon (frostbite:thirst::fire:well)
Newborn Foals: It takes a village. The herd can contain what two ponies cannot. I can imagine the sorts of restraints used by particularly remote parents in ages past getting brought forward for sale to the particularly paranoid.
The unicorn power scale: TK "muscle" works like actual muscle. Some ponies have higher potential than others, and exceedingly high and low potentials are possible. Exercise can help to a degree. Whether or not modern medicine can measure potential or diagnose problems is left as an exercise to the reader, but I'd put the disability threshold at 1/4 average body weight, or one limb.
Sports! Horn spear! Ball touch! Ring thread! But seriously, any sport that can be done with hands can be done with TK, meaning the odd species out would probably have the best time with traditional unicorn sports.
And, I mean, we've seen griffons at the Equestria Games doing the flight events. Didn't look like any special equipment was necessary.
2578447 Iron is metal but not all metal is iron. Friendship is magic, but magic is not always friendship. She was studying magic. She had no time for Friendship-based magic.
Of course Twilight has a personal spell. We saw it in the show. It's how she achieved apotheosis.
I'm actually not even kidding. Follow me on this. Twilight was the Element of Magic, but in the context of the Elements of Harmony, that didn't mean she was the Element of Fancy Laser Beams and Teleportation and Ill-Advised Time Travel. It meant she was the Element of Friendship.
That's Twilight's special, personal spell. She probably doesn't even know it exists, although I imagine Celestia and Luna do. And she doesn't cast it on a conscious level. In the context of Tryptych, it's not really like a proper spell spell, with rhyming incantations and your horn lighting up. It's more like the Earth Pony cornucopia effect, only even more subtle. Twilight's is the power to bring people together and bring out the best in them. She sometimes manages this even when she herself is falling apart, which in this context I view as her personal spell actually acting to save her in spite of herself.
I would classify it as a spell because it clearly isn't "up" all the time. There are times when she is doing it and times she isn't, and sometimes you can actually see the transition take place on-screen.
This is considerably more prosaic than having some explicitly visible special spell... but that's how Twilight has to roll, I think. It isn't about the magic, it's about the friendship. Otherwise she's just a nicer version of Sunset.
Lyra and Bon-Bon. Interacial, same-sex, most likely cross-class couple? Yes, please.
Allow me, if I may, to challenge some assumptions at work here. I don't think it is quite right to say that Twilight is near the top of the unicorn power scale. I think it is more correct to say she's near the top of the magic-user power scale.
Think about how humans work. We don't say that our most superlative athletes and gifted thinkers are "near the top of the human power scale." We say "they're at the top of their field." Because being a human doesn't have a power scale; it's something you are, not something you do.
You explicitly mention that we're supposed to bar illness or birth defect and say what we think the bottom power level is for a normal unicorn. Like being a human, being a unicorn isn't something a pony does, it is something a pony is.
It's like... okay, look at earth ponies. They come in all shapes and sizes, and some of them are insanely strong, unstoppable forces of nature, and some of them are not. But those are vocational differences. All earth ponies, barring injury or illness, can walk. They can breath and eat and excrete waste and see and grow and etc etc etc.
Having a field they can use to manipulate the world around them is like having functioning eyes or legs or wings. It's a basic bodily function. So I would say that the bottom level of "this isn't considered a defect or an illness" is the same as it would be for other ponies and for humans; it is the level at which they aren't visibly impaired in the course of being what they are.
Based on what we've seen in the show, I would say this has to be "can manipulate common, everyday objects with their field without struggling visibly." I reach for earth ponies again as a point of comparison. Big Macintosh can haul an enormously heavy cart containing his entire family and their gear without straining. Apple Bloom cannot do this. It doesn't mean she is impaired; it just means she's not as strong as Mac. But Apple Bloom can open doors. She can get to school without needing a ride or to be carried. She can climb the steps without becoming winded. If she couldn't manage that basic level of functionality, people would not think "oh, she's not very strong" they would think "that pony is ill."
Same deal with unicorns. If you can levitate things around, you're probably good. If your field won't allow you to, say, use silverware, or open doors, or load your schoolbooks into your saddlebags, you cross the line from "just not that strong" to "actually disabled."
That's where the "normal" bottom is.
The actual bottom probably goes all the way down to zero. There are likely unicorns who do not have a field. If they were born that way, they probably never notice the lack except in the form of societal stigma. They'd be like, well, like Fluttershy, only moreso; Fluttershy is at least theoretically capable of training up to be better with pegasi magic, whereas a crippled unicorn would not be.
Simple. You do lock them down. The pony equivalent of a kid leash is a horse hobble. Horse hobble's dramatically limit the real-life mobility of horses without causing them harm in the slightest. That takes care of earth pony infants. With pegasi infants, you can bind the wings in the same way falconers do with birds of prey; it causes no harm and in no way limits their future development as fliers. In fact, you can probably make pegasi wings nonfunctional by simply washing them all the time, vigorously; if they're anything like real bird wings, they need essential oils and coatings on the feathers to work properly. With unicorn foals, one imagines you can use magic-suppresion devices.
Now, keeping your foal hobbled all the time would probably be regarded as a form of abuse, just like we would call CPS on someone who kept their child locked in a crib-sized cage 24/7. But unicorn and pegasus foals clearly can endanger themselves and others with uncontrolled use of their magic, but they still need to exist in society, so it is likely you see pegasus foals of a certain age trooping along beside their parents with their wings bound up. Because if you don't do that, maybe they Surge at the wrong time and pitch themselves headfirst into your neighbors wood-chipper.
About Twilight's personal spell:
My interpretation of the events of the series is that Celestia is not the master manipulator who made Twilight ascend. If you watch closely during Season 1 Episode 2 you can spot the six pointed star on the orb before the Element of Magic becomes the crown. This indicates that while the other five Elements molded themselves to their Bearers, Magic may have been the one molding its Bearer. She may have been carrying the energies of the Element her whole life. If that is the case, then her trick would be the same as the Element of Magic i.e.: seemingly anything. The other Elements are the ones that provide the benevolence. Magic provides power. Magic can be used for good (Cadence) or ill (Sombra); it is only with the guidance of the other elements that it is truly a force of good. Otherwise it is True Neutral (TV Tropes Link. You have been warned.).
Another way to look at her mark is Magic given direction by the other Elements. Magic surrounded by the other five elements. Given that the other five stars in her mark are so much smaller, they may not be as strong to her as Magic and thus she may discard their virtues when necessary or alone. Celestia, Cadence. and Shining Armor may have been keeping Twilight from becoming an amoral monster like Discord by giving her something to care about. At least until her friends took over and gave her something to shape her morals.
(Maybe the Element of Magic, after sealing itself away after Nightmare Moon was defeated, created a mortal avatar of itself as Twilight Sparkle. Then it gave Shining Armor his tremendous magical strength as a reward for trying to protect his little sister/Element-of-Magic-Made-Flesh.)
I feel like Twilight's chief "trick" if you will is being able to perform pretty much any spell. It often seems like, despite being depicted as "studious" she doesn't need much practical experimentation to get it right. Everything works nicely with more or less strain. She 'finished' Starswirl's spell without any actual practical data to work with or previous attempts. She just read it and did it. In fact, we might conclude that she was actually successful at performing an incomplete spell and making something that shouldn't work work. It's almost as if her merely desiring the purported outcome of the spell and using magic is enough to accomplish it. Although, apparently being distracted is an issue (see frog-orange).
I'm not really sure what the lowest denominator is for unicorns. If it it's being unable to use telekinesis for simple things, then Rarity is a pretty advanced magic user despite an apparent lack of formal training on the level that Twilight presumably had. I'd imagine it to be not having the right sort of mind/inclination and/or the raw power to perform the spell extempore. That is, they simply are unable to do some spells and can't understand the theory well enough to try even if they had the power.
2578982
Something tells me that most ponies simply learn subconscious control of things. Human children have to watched because we're so damn curious about everything and fragile enough that learning things through the school of hard knocks is likely to be fatal or at least cause permanent damage. Things like sticking forks in electrics sockets, hands in the fire, climbing any all objects, etc.
I tend to agree with authors that by time pegasi/wings magic develop they are able to fly competently enough to get around and if they fell off the clouds they'd simply reflexively open their wings and end up gliding to the ground. They probably wouldn't get hurt, but they might get lost or crash into trees/thornbushes, etc. By the same token, most unicorn's "surges" are probably not directly harmful. They might accidentally stab/impale someone with something sharp and pointy if they got mad or cause temporary transformations/changes in reality but the net results will be manageable. Twilight Sparkle is highly unusual in that her magical surges presented real danger to those around her. Regarding earth ponies it seems like their primary attributes result in unusual durability. Anything less than being struck by lighting, hit unexpectedly by impossibly large objects, etc is unlikely to be fatal or result in anything beyond some minor broken bones. A "surge" for them might consist of bucking the apple tree too hard or removing a door from it's hinges by slamming it, but in most cases they won't harm themselves or others.
The real trouble is when you get ponies of different races together that are all a bit chaotic and their combined efforts cause real problems. If it weren't for the show being kid friendly and harmonious the CMC would probably be a walking nightmare of chaos and hazardous incidents.
2581118
Pegasus magic develops strongly enough to get them off the ground for extended lengths of time before they're two months old. We have definitive proof of that onscreen in the form of the Cake twins. That's well before the age of reason and it poses a genuine danger to the kids health; for his own safety he should probably have his wings bound when not in a baby-proofed room and be caged into a crib at night.
There seems to be a period after that where their magic goes quiescent again, though. Absent some definitive proof she's developmentally disabled some way, I'm going to use Scootaloo as an example of a pegasus foal, and not only can't she fly, she can't even safely glide; she's fallen off her share of dangerously tall places and she always plummets like a brick, she doesn't open her wings and drift down.
2577467
This makes the most sense to me, and feels better than my own theory that Twilight's "Trick" is that she can perform any kind of spell, but requires a lot more energy to do so, hence her massive magical talent...
2581188
To be honest the show itself makes a bothersome hash of things. In real life a two month old pony would be able to manage itself. The 'age of reason' is a bit of moving target since we are using humans as a measure (and ponies are not humans, despite non-superficial resemblances) and the rate of development varies. I also disagree that it's a 'genuine danger' and with your notion of how it should be dealt with. To be honest, though, there is a minor issue in that neither of his/her parents are pegasi.
Also, you seem the overprotective sort. Some of us think that people have to learn some things themselves. The school of hard knocks is full of hard lessons, but they generally stick.
Scootaloo is an odd sort of outlier. I think I have to say that as depicted in the show she has a definite deformity and it is unclear that, even if she did extend her wings, that it would be of any use at all. I also think there's an issue in that the CMC do things together and they are Earth/Unicorn/Pegasus which means that different hings are differing levels of dangerous for each of them. Things that AB would bounce back from would injure the others and, were Scootaloo normal, falling from significant heights wouldn't pose much of a threat,