Interesting little tidbit in G5 Tell Your Tale: Earth pony pseudo-telekinesis

In MLP, we've seen isolated cases of ponies emulating a different pony race's ability. For example, Starlight mimics pegasus flight through self-levitation, Twilight mimics earth pony farming with telekinesis, and Pinkie mimics pegasus flight with balloons.

Fast forward to G5...

Tell Your Tale episode 20 adds new potential to G5 earth pony magic. Tentacle anime...I mean, pseudo-telekinesis with vines.

In the episode, Rufus (aka Hoof-dini) essentially achieves pseudo-telekinesis by manipulating growth of vines. This wasn't possible for earth ponies in G4. I think in G5 they're trying to level the playing field for earth ponies, in response to the criticism in G4 that unicorns are OP (Example: See Twilight harvesting apples above).
(This episode also raises the question of how Trixie got by as a stage magician in a magic-filled Equestria...)

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On a side note, Tell Your Tale episode 21 also really stood out to me. It created an opportunity for Pipp's strong suits to shine: being a pop star, she knows how to be resilient and handle public criticism. This allowed her to be an encouraging voice after Sunny became the subject of a viral internet fail. Pipp was really a positive role model in this episode.

Comments

[Starlight Glimmer1]

Older blog post but I want to say that this wouldn’t be telekinesis but rather phytokinesis. Because that’s basically what earth pony magic is.

[Mockingbirb]

(This episode also raises the question of how Trixie got by as a stage magician in a magic-filled Equestria...)

Which is a great story question, imho. Please forgive me for saying I wrote a story about that once, to 'explain' it. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/491723/magic-is-boring-but-trixie-is-amazing