More Magical Musings

Just some thoughts I'm using to develop the way Pony Magic works in my stories.

Grip
All ponies have a magical Grip that lets them manipulate objects with their hooves. It's not as good as fingers, but it's at least a passable substitute. Grip also extends to a Pony's mane, tail, and feathers, which gives them some ability to use them as manipulating limbs. Grip is strongest for Earth Ponies and weakest for Unicorns, though a unicorn particularly skilled with telekinesis will find the same skills apply.

Like all magical skills, Grip is something that can be both developed and refined. Potential applications include walking on the walls and ceiling, using hair as a precise and fully prehensile tool, and opening a lock by touch through manipulating the tumblers.

Pinkie Pie, who is a very magical pony in general, is able to use many of these tricks. In fact, her grip is strong enough she can even ride up a slide.

Pegasus Magic
Just as with Earth Ponies, the magic of pegasi is underestimated and misunderstood. For one thing, it is far more extensive. The branch of powers simply called 'Weather Magic' covers simple manipulations of clouds, of course. A cloud is a good base to conjure rain, thunder, lightning, and wind. And, to a pegasus, clouds can be manipulated as solid objects. But weather magic also comes with a variety of senses. Any pegasus with flight school training knows how to detect air pressure and humidity. With skill it is even possible to detect moving air, temperature, or even identify the exact composition of a gas.

A pegasus can also naturally summon wind, clouds, rain, and even lightning without using a cloud as a base. These skills are not unknown, but they are obscure after the development of industrial weather production. It's roughly equivalent to being a blacksmith. As a simple example, conjuring lightning is incredibly draining and requires intense emotion. Most of the time it is far easier to simply order a storm cloud from Cloudsdale. This is true even for military applications, as the endurance and sheer volume of fire cloud artillery can provide outweighs the short term flexibility of individual lightning casters. It cannot be denied that it is dramatic though, and can have a devastating surprise value. Luna demonstrated this as Nightmare Moon, and also regularly uses it simply for dramatic effect.

Non-Unicorn Magii

At this point it is worth pointing out that not all powerful spellcasters are Unicorns. The Equestrian educational system does show a distinct trend in that direction, but this is less out of bias and more out of practicality. Many unicorns are Talented in magic, and most can at least learn one or two additional spells. In contrast, magic among Earth Ponies and Pegasii requires both an unusual level of power and the dedication to master a variety of meditation techniques.

Rainbow Dash, is a good example of the problem. She has more than enough raw power to be an exceptional mage: that her contrail manifests an aura is proof enough of that. But at this point in her life she lacks both the temperament and inclination. Instead, she has focused exclusively on developing her skills at Flight Magic with exceptional results.

Pinkie Pie, in contrast, is actually a quite exceptional Earth Pony mage even if her temperament leads her to be dismissed as simply weird. As mentioned above, she has practiced her Grip to allow a number of unusual feats. She also has a 'hammerspace' trick, and even has learned a form of precognition without a Talent. And all of this is in addition to her mastery of Laughter Magic, in which she seems to be a self-taught prodigy.

After knowing Pinkie Pie for several years, both Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy have begun to learn some of her tricks.

Fluttershy

Fluttershy's magic is fairly weak, particularly her flight. But then, Fluttershy is unusual in many ways. Her talent and inclinations are traditionally what you would expect from an Earth Pony, for one thing. She does make good use of what she has though, making up for a lack of power with finesse. This is most readily seen in her slow but graceful flying.

Fluttershy has learned alot from both Pinkie Pie and Discord over the years. Particularly, Discord has been teaching her to use self-directed Deceit magic to help her overcome her shyness. He hasn't told her that it is technically a kind of chaos magic, mostly because he thought it was obvious and not worth mentioning. Using Deceit magic this way is useful, but also potentially dangerous. The most likely consequence is developing multiple identity disorder. Fortunately she is aware of the possibility, and Discord has told her how to avoid it. Disappearing too far into an identity is still potentially confusing and upsetting, however.

Fluttershy is right: if she made an imaginary Pinkie Pie to talk with, Pinkie's laughter magic would make it an extension of her running around in Fluttershy's head almost immediately. Discord made that mistake once, he still can't find where in his mind she's hiding, and it creeps him out whenever he remembers.

The Stare is neither a Talent nor a form of Pegasus Magic. It is magically enhanced hypnotism, and is simply a particular trick that Fluttershy has mastered. Although she doesn't talk about it much, she learned it from some snakes she befriended to help manage her other animals.

Rainbows

Rainbows are a manifestation of intense magical energy. Although most ponies simply think of Rainbows as meaning a mix of seven colors, a Pegasus weatherworker will be happy to go into the many varieties of situation that can produce a rainbow, all with different effects.

Natural rainbows are formed as a grounding of ambient magical energy. This is most common after wild storms, the chaos energy of the storm being dissipated in a harmless manner. They are also a classic sign of an open dimensional portal, a phenomenon known as Bifrost.

Artificial rainbows are created by weather crews for similar reasons, a means to dispel residual energy after particularly intense weather workings. They are also created for simple aesthetic reasons, in which case the atmosphere has to be seeded with sufficient ambient energy first. This is done with Rainbow Extract.

Rainbow Extract is precipitated magical energy, and is produced in bulk in Cloudsdale. Despite various horrifying urban legends, it is generated through simple ambient mana extraction: physically it is just water that has been charged with enough magic. It is remarkably useful. It serves as a way to make magical energy portable even to someone completely unskilled, or to allow it to be distributed by un-enchanted machinery. As such it is vital in a number of industrial processes. It can also distribute ambient energy for use in farming, weather work, and similar.

Some scholars have noted that Chaos Magic also produces rainbow effects. This is due to Chaos's divisive nature, breaking a mingled magical field into it's components. This has caused some worry about the wide-scale use of Rainbow Extract, but the obvious counterpoint is that the Elements of Harmony also famously produce a rainbow effect. It is more likely that this is the result of the ubiquitous and essential nature of Chaos than anything sinister. Research is ongoing.