Spotlight On: Pegasus Magic

Pegasus is a winged horse from Greek mythology. Depicted as a full-sized horse, he also has massive wings in order to allow him to fly. Pegasi in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic not only have flight magic, but weather manipulation magic too. How do we know it is magic? For one thing, in the season 4 finale Celestia tells us as much -- but we get clues to this fact starting from way early on in the series.

Flight Magic

First, to understand why Pegasus flight should be considered as magically-occurring, consider what is required for flight in the natural world: sufficient lift. Birds fly because their bones are hollow, and the air inside their bones makes them light enough for their wings to provide sufficient lift to take them off the ground. Likewise most winged insects have bodies that are light enough for their wings to take them into the air -- bumblebees being the sole exception, since everything we know about physics say their bodies are far too large for their undersized wings to get them off the ground, and yet they do fly.

Pegasus wings are fairly small compared to their body mass, so reason dictates that they should only be able to get airbourne thanks to hollow bones, like birds. But with the sort of punishment that Rainbow Dash takes in 'Dragonshy' and the cold open for 'Griffon the Brush-Off,' we know that she is not at all fragile. One could even make a case for high durability -- certainly higher than that of a real horse, which has fragile legs and can become lame easily. So Dash and the other Pegasi certainly do not have hollow bones. This leaves magic as the one agency that can get them off the ground, unless you are going to insist that they are part bumblebee, and thus defy all human logic, but as we all know, that role is reserved for the likes of Pinkie Pie and Discord.

Flight being part of Pegasus magic makes sense, since in 'Friendship is Magic, Part 2' fillies even smaller than Scootaloo are shown flying to give Luna a flower wreath. On top of that, there is Snowflake / Bulk Biceps, with his huge body and tiny wings. He may have been designed for laughs, but we have to face the fact that he can fly well enough to qualify for the Wonderbolts Reserve. On top of that, Dash can perform the Sonic Rainboom while ascending in 'A Canterlot Wedding, Part 2,' and Twilight can perform a Sonic Sparkleboom in 'Princess Twilight Sparkle, Part 2' equally well despite still struggling with her flying skills -- she relies mostly on her magical prowess to bridge the gap between her and Dash's skill levels, and only like this is she able to carry out this manoeuvre, which has its own legend regarding its difficulty.

I believe that what makes Rainbow Dash, and others like her, such a superb flyer is her self-image as being confident. If you want further proof, when Fluttershy puts her doubts aside, usually when her flying skills are needed by some other creature, she can fly just as well, if not better than, Dash herself. As Flutterbat, she was even able to out-fly Dash. Because of this, I believe that Scootaloo will be able to fly as well, regardless of her wing size, as soon as she realizes that the key is sufficient confidence -- and note here that she has never visualized success, always focusing on how her wings are too small to fly.

Weather Manipulation

This is pretty simple, at least from an explanation standpoint: Pegasi have the ability to walk on, interact with, and manipulate cloud matter. They can shape it and bring out precipitation and even lightning as desired. Pegasi have had a hoof in the land's weather since the days of Hearth's Warming Eve, only leaving out certain areas, such as the Everfree Forest, because magic works differently there. Pegasi do have trouble with clouds when other, more powerful magic interferes with their clouds, such as when Discord or his plunder vines popped up. But they are still the longest-running last word on weather in Equestria.

The Pegasi have also developed a system of technology to help them with the weather. While it is unknown whether Las Pegasus is a similar case in the west, Cloudsdale is a mobile cloud city, much of which is taken up with a weather factory's facilities. They make everything for the weather from water collected from different reservoirs located all around Equestria: clouds, snowflakes, lightning, rainbows -- you name it, they make it. Since season 1 depictions of these weather facilities have changed to something more advanced and steampunked. Maybe these elements were always there and we never saw them, or maybe the Pegasi are innovating.

Durability and Endurance
It would seem that Pegasi have a little magic enhancing their durability, for when they take hits, and their endurance, for longer or faster flights. They do not have as much of a boost as Earth Ponies, but I am certain that it is there nonetheless, because otherwise this warrior race would be at a disadvantage.

*Note: The same characteristics from Pegasus Flight Magic could be said to contribute to that of Alicorns, but even more so: when we see Celestia raising the sun, and Luna lowering the moon and they are flying, they are doing so in an impossible manner if they were to rely on their wings for lift. At a certain point, they basically stop flapping their wings. They should fall at that point, but Celestia continues to rise instead. It's magic, I tell you!