On Twilight's Magic in Chapter 7

Just two hours after publishing "07: The Bearded, the Clever, and the Smart", the comments for that chapter were about Twilight's magic. Two didn't get some hints I'd intended to convey, and two liked that Twilight was faking her magic. This blog will hopefully clear up any confusion.

I've previously mentioned that the unicorns who moved the sun and the moon (not including Star Swirl) would have their magic completely depleted from the effort. This comes from the book The Journal of the Two Sisters written by Amy Keating Rogers. It's also the book that solidified AKR as one of my favorite writers on staff, but that's a tangent. From pages 105 to 108, Celestia tells how Star Swirl had tried to lower the moon by himself, but his beard had turned gray and his magic depleted forever due to the effort. It was this event that led to the sisters raising and lowering the sun and moon, as well as receiving their cutie marks, and they got to work trying to restore every unicorn's magic. I consider this book canon, and if you've read it or plan to read it in the future, you will get a glimpse of some things I'll be writing about in the future, since Clover the Clever is mentioned several times.

We've seen Twilight lower the moon and raise the sun by herself, but it took a great deal of effort, she had the magic of three other alicorns as well as her own, and the process was sloppy due to inexperience.

It's my theory that Twilight's magic, though stronger than everypony else's when she was a unicorn, became even stronger as an alicorn. I touch on this in the second chapter when Celestia is talking about the enchantment placed on the giant hourglass. It's also possible that Twilight still has some remnants of the other three alicorn's magics as part of her, which would make her magic slightly stronger as well.

Now into the chapter.

Here's what I had initially published:

When she was adequately hidden, she removed her cloak with her magic, which was still weak from the exertion that morning, but was slowly and untied her wings.

Here's what I meant to write, and have since fixed:

When she was adequately hidden, she removed her cloak with her magic, which was still weak from the exertion that morning (though slowly being refreshed), and untied her wings.

I didn't realize that at the time, and the comments were written before I fixed it. I don't blame them for their confusion.

It's also part of my theory that Twilight certainly had strong enough magic, like Star Swirl's, that she would be able to withstand raising and lowering the sun and moon twice daily like Star Swirl. After all, in "05: Choices of Future Past" Star Swirl pondered whether Twilight's magic was stronger than his. That was intentional. I'd hoped people would pick up on this, and some have, but I want to have this out there in case those who haven't yet can find this blog and see that it's intentional as well:

Twilight's magic, being stronger than Star Swirl's, was not depleted forever, but was significantly reduced in that moment. Around Star Swirl, she pretends her magic is depleted to continue the idea that she's a normal unicorn, but still uses basic magic not long afterward. She did use her magic to remove her cloak, untie her wings, retie them, and put her cloak back on with no problem, after all, and in future chapters her magic has been restored so she can continue casting more advanced spells. Star Swirl, having helped raise and lower the sun and the moon for many years, had certainly noticed that on this day they moved slightly faster than usual (given that this story is largely Twilight's perspective, she can't know what he notices or thinks). His comment about using her magic is less of a cynical "we both know you can't" and more of a test: "is your magic as strong as i think it is, and are you willing to admit it?".

That's what went through my mind as I wrote this story, anyway. I welcome your thoughts as well.

Comments

[newhope0722]

Immediately pain shot through her body, her legs grew weak, and she winced, groaning with the pain. She lay on the forest floor as the cramps continued.

When I read this chapter first time, I thought her magic should not so weak.
So I comment that message.
...................................

But I recalled the canon S5e25 e26, Starlight is just an unicorn and Twilight can not beat Starlight...

I think you are right, Twilight should be exhausted her magic when she raised sun.