Apr
18th
2022
Here's another one for y'all · 3:00am Apr 18th, 2022
The fact is, I can't write this because I see yaks as a creative black hole.
However, that doesn't mean I can't occasionally have an idea involving them.
So, after meeting a deer or something similar, Yona and her friends come to the conclusion that all creatures with horns can use magic. Well, dragon magic is pretty much entirely fire-based, but the rule still stands. The one real exception is... yaks.
Yona is about to embark on a journey of magical discovery that will end with a terrible truth: The reason why yaks don't use magic.
If you write it, lemme know :V
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PresentPerfect · 300 views
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Bovines are an oppressed caste in equine lands, and have been denied magic (see, most obviously, cattle, but also bison).
They don’t use magic because it’s not loud enough and it can’t smash as well.
Not wrong there.
Yaks are in the mess they're in because they were introduced as a one-note antagonist, and then the School of Friendship was introduced and the writers realized they needed one more non-pony, and most of the potentials introduced by the movie were too humanoid.
Communicated in story fashion, yaks don't have magic because god couldn't figure out what to do with them, and abandoned them to the frozen wastes of the north. They were created with all the potential to be the greatest, but were never given the spark needed to actually realize that potential, and now their lives are a constant battle against the void as they struggle to find any meaning or purpose to their existence. They constantly smash because physical expressions of force are the only way they can assert their own agency and avoid condemnation to forgotten mediocrity.
I promise I'm ok.
Let's just say that there's a reason so much of the world is on manual override. After all, someone had to break the natural cycles.
Several ideas on where this could go come readily to mind. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to even pretend that I can take this up at the moment.
5651530
And also they rightfully decided to pretend the buffalo never existed. :B Sadly.
Oh, here's a less serious one.
Yaks did have magic, and were widely regarded as the absolute best when it came to it; their enchantments were known the world over. Nobody could beat them!
Until Tirek showed up!
Robbed of their magic, the yaks had to find something else to be the best at and, being reasonable creatures, became the best at smashing things so they could track Tirek down and beat their magic out of him to get it back. Unfortunately, by the time they tracked him down, not only had he been defeated by Starswirl and Scorpan, their magic had been used to fuel the spell that bound Tirek in Tartatus and it was gone forever. On demanding where their magic was, Scorpan was completely apologetic, but Starswirl said, "Why are you apologizing? It's not as if we've lost anything important!"
Since that day, yaks have harbored a grudge against ponies that has only recently abated, and responded to it by striving to become the best at everything. Unfortunately, they had to become especially stubborn as a result, and are slow to change how they do things.
Diamond dogs move over; yaks are the real dwarves of FiM!
5651558
More like they were actually paying attention and figured there was no way that the target audience for FiM was going to remember a one-note antagonist from 9 years earlier, particularly where there were no official toys.
5651566
That's quite a good, surprisingly light-hearted answer. :O
My thought was yaks do have magic, and it's really strong. So strong, in fact, that it is literally earth-shattering, and terrifying to behold, hence the cultural taboo against using it.
Honestly, I like the way Estee's done it - all the intelligent peoples of the world have some kind of magic. Unicorns just have the flashiest stuff. Yak magic is presumably tied to smashing, strength, and perhaps breaking things. That may seem boring, but consider that this can be the case on a more metaphysical level as well, such that yaks can break concepts. When Equestrians go to the stars, it will be Yakyakistan leading the way. "No can go faster than light? Yaks smash speed limits!"
5651558
And zebras. Zecora's niece would have been nice.
5651530
I love this.
No wonder Pinkie Pie, aware of her own fictitiousness, would get along so well with them and their existential dread
5651753
You have to figure that the party she threw for her family after seeing the rainboom was the single most pivotal moment in her life: They like it, and she becomes Pinkie Pie. They don't like it, and she becomes Owl-Mare.
But then, with infinite realities....
It's not that yaks lack magic, it's that the natural expression of yak magic has been intentionally forgotten. Yaks smash. Yaks really good at smashing. Yak magic... smashes.
"Yak wizard casts Fist!"
5651818
"Yak smash fabric of reality!"
5651920
Can yaks Smash pinkies crippling party debt?
5651958
Yak magic, all about smashing concepts.