Now, when you are writing a story about Sweetie Belle using magic, you may wonder what sort of magic you want her to use. There are many types of it and ways of casting it. I am going to do a list of those here that I really hope will become a sticky thread. LET'S START!

Types of Casting:

Vancian Magic: This is the type of magic that needs to be prepared before hand and has limited uses. It also can only do the described effect. If you prepare a Fireball, you can only do a Fireball with this charge. However, it may allow Sweetie Belle to prepare really powerful spells beforehand and avoid being drained when using it. Depends how you describe the drain. For more information and examples, check here!

Paper Talismans: Originating from japanese mythology, it is a type of magic talisman. It is usually portrayed as a way to ward off unwanted spirits or to aid in exorcism. You may also use them to control undead and spirits. Really, it depends on what you want to do with it but the widely used effect is containing or repelling anything involving creatures that are already dead. For more information, check here!

Magic Touch: Not much there to it. Really. It involves you touching an object to transfer some of your energy to affect it. May also be caused by a curse or something similar. Google Midas Touch. For more information, check the link here.

Alchemy: Ahh, my favourite kind of magical science. Alchemy was once a real thing people studied, in the past. Effects weren't proven to be real, though. It is like magical Chemistry. Chemical reactions, mixing potions and such. Philosopher's stone was really sought for by all alchemists. For more, check here!

Words of Magic: You say a specific phrase, a specific thing happens. Abracadabra and stuff like this. Sometimes it is part of a whole language of magic but usually it is simple phrases that have desired effect, not the whole language. Check here.

Rituals: You do a certain actions, mix crushed coal with sap from Timberwolf for example and the desired thing happens. However, you have to follow the certain steps and therefore, the ritual can be interrupted. Usually it requires sacrifice, but not always yours. Therefore, you don't need to have any magical ability to do this, simply follow the steps. You know the drill?

Language of Magic: While Words of Magic are just certain phrases that make a thing happen, this is a whole language of magic. In theory, you would be able to say "I am summoning a great beast made of fire that I will be able to control" in such magical language and it would work. Though it does drain you of your magic. TV tropes are really useful here.

Geometry Magic: By some it is kind off considered a sub-type of magic. It may involve rituals but the most important thing is that it focuses on drawing power from certain shapes. If you are using picture or any structure of the required shape, it may work and help with the spell. here.

Gestures: Ah, this kind of magic requires you to perform some sort of gesture. For humans, it may be even wiggling your fingers, though usually it is far more elaborate. For ponies it may be trotting in a certain way, moving, twisting your body and such. Flexibility may be needed for it and as such it may improve it in the user. User still uses his own energy, though, and if you are shackled, it sucks to be you. Man, another wonderful day at TV Tropes!

Incantations: While in "Words of Magic" you need to say a certain phrase and in "Language of Magic" you speak what you want to happen in that language, here you simply have to say a certain set of sentences. Usually done as a poem. User uses his own energy. Can't be done if you can't speak. Hm, don't you love these hyperlinks?

I've got a black belt in Magic: Ah, this is a type of full-contact magic. You perform gestures that are associated with martial arts and through this, the energy in your body is released. It either has some sort of amazing effect or simply strengthens you. Kamehameha and all the others are usually associated with this. The easiest example is that you punch the air and it shoots out a blast of energy.♪Nothing better than a trope!♪

Magic Item: You are here? Then I guess you really are interested. For this type of casting, you need some sort of magical artifact. A Wand or staff would usually do, but if you don't have it, you can't cast the magic. Depending on the artifact, the need for already having magical power may vary. Sometimes it is simply a way to channel your energy outside your body, other times it's got its own charges. Tropes and all shall unite here!

Prerequisite Magic: You need some sort of external factors to be right to cast the magic. Maybe you have to wear a certain set of clothes. Perhaps the target needs to be of a certain race? Maybe even Aligment of the planets or being close to a certain place? Really, it is the type of magic that requires some outside factor to do it. Depending on what allows it, perhaps the place is filled with magic, being capable of magic on your own may not be needed. Can you see what I did here?

Rune Magic: This type of magic may be connected with hermetic magic. Usually is. You need to prepare a set of runes that are going to make up the spell. Sometimes associated with Ritual Magic. Doesn't have to be language of magic, but it usually helps if a certain rune means a certain something, like japanese letters.... NO TROPE HERE!

Emotions: Sometimes to cast magic, you simply need to feel a certain emotion. A really strong emotion. Sometimes it is hate, sometimes it is love. Sometimes you need to be able to cast magic without it, sometimes you don't. Usually it simply empowers or affects the casting of a spell used in a different way of casting. Do what you will.

And now for a different section. We had ways of casting, now we have types of magic!

Anti-Magic: This type of magic doesn't have any glorious or flashy effects on its own. However, when you are faced off against another magic user, you can negate their spells. They cease to be but whether they simply vanish or they flash away, it is your choice. Amazing if used correctly. It can be innate quality of the user. You knew this was coming.

Black Magic: While Black Magic is usually any type of magic that is used offensively, I will also describe other factors that classify magic as Black. Necromancy ressurects undead, therefore it is black magic. If it relies on negative emotions, black magic. If it requires some morally wrong sacrifices... Black magic.(Casting from soul is usually that.). May work in tandem with Deal with the Devil. Trope is riiiiiiight...
Not here. It's there.

Chaos Magic: Chaos magic is a fun thing to describe. Its effects may either change the natural order of things or simply be random, chaotic. Opposite of harmony. Really fun to use as it can be both negative and positive. This is basically what Discord uses. Chaos.

Blood Magic: Any type of magic that requires blood to happen or affects blood in any way. Usually connected to Black Magic, as it involves spilling something some people call "Life juice". It also happens that slitting your wrists to cast magic may be viewed as wrong. By itself, it can be the purest kind of magic as blood is powerful thing. Blood ties and such. Trope ties and such.

Elemental Magic: It is exactly that. Magic that focuses on utilising the elements like fire, wind, water, earth. Stuff like that. If you want to cast a fireball, this is this. Remember this, kids.

Light Magic: A magic that doesn't focus on usage of elements but rather of light, associated with good in most cases. Sunlight based magic may be this. It is usually counterpart to the magic of darkness. What is this!?

Magic of Darkness: Ah, the magic of darkness. Usually associated with evil and Black Magic. However, dark is not evil. Is your own shadow evil? Is night evil? Not on its own. It usually focuses on usage of shadows and is the opposite of light. Truly an interesting thing to play with. Truly...

White Magic: A magic that is used defensively. May require the user to feel positive emotions. It is mostly stuff like magical shields and healing. Remember this, as it can save your life. Literally.

Wild Magic: Sometimes confused with Chaos Magic. However, it isn't random magic. It is wild, unstable magic. Like trying to control a tornado(in our world... Those damn pegasi ruining my metaphore.) If you want your user to not be able to really control this, maybe even go berserk or be taken over by this magic. This is what you want.

Yin-Yang Magic: A type of magic that combines Light and Darkness. Its effects may vary and it is usually hard for one user to use it. It works only if they don't nullify each other. If it works, it is one of the most powerful types of magic but one of the rarest. It's like trying to convince water to work with fire. Examples.

Here it is, folks. Full of TV Tropes. If you want, I can update it with a list of effects a magic can cause on the user. You can always go to TV Tropes to check it, too. Your choice.

I hope I helped you!

Hmm, nice, a magic thread. The Sweetie in my universe tends to go with what I'd call 'Nature Magic', Probably closest to 'Wild Magic' in this case. That said, I think a good magical universe will be able to use most of these different magic types. (At least the casting styles)

Just try to be consistent with the rules you put in place for your story and your readers will appreciate it

Hoo boy, lemme just get my grammar cement because this is going to be a wall of text. Let's start off with the basics, shall we?

First off, I'd like to point out that my perspective is that of a practising occultist, a chaoist at that. While I'm sorely out of practice now, I can say that I cast the sigils, I did the shamanic postures, I immanentized the f*cking Eschaton.

Needless to say, anyone who is sensitive about religion, turn back now.

The myths about magic are based on actual practices, and if you want to do research in the matter you're better off getting to the source material than to copy stuff other people have made up. Most vampire writers, for example, just make rote copies of Bram Stoker, completely ignoring the fact that the mythos has its roots in shamanism.

That said, getting any sort of magic discussion going is a little difficult, because every denomination has its own approach to things and usually thinks that they're the only ones who are right.

Except for us chaoists. We're not supposed to be right. So while I may poke fun at other beliefs, I don't take any of it seriously. Neither should you. Anyway, without further ado, let's start with the models of magic. For those who are interested in my sources, I'm taking some stuff from Oven-Ready Chaos by Phil Hine and Liber Null by Pete Carroll, and a some tidbits from 'Where Spirits Ride the Wind' by Felicitas Goodman. I also highly recommend looking up Grant Morrisson's Disinfo Speech.

Psychological Model
Not very interesting for our purposes, this model states that all gods and supposed powers are really just figments of the mind. Magic is then getting into contact with these alternate personas for personal growth. Any magic practice supposed to give powers is relegated to either 'you believe I cursed you, so you're cursed' or 'my deeper self did it'. Not quite what we've seen on the show.

Spirits Model
Getting closer, but still not what we see on the show. This one operates on the assumption that magic is done by contacting other intelligences who do the work for you. Some parts of shamanism are this. Kind of useless in a setting where the spirits we've seen are mostly bad.

Energy Model
Oh, now we're talking. Magic is done by manipulating the fabric of the real, using energies (plural) and tapping into powers that are either innate or all around. Note that this does not imply hereditary magic -- which is a stubborn and discriminatory myth to begin with -- but it can imply that while everyone can do magic, some forms come more naturally than others.

Now, since the first post mixed up models of magic with techniques of magic, it's probably best to explain some of the still-used and accepted techniques.

The EVIL EYE

Staring at a wall. No, really: staring at a wall. All magical disciplines, without exception, rely on an altered state of mind. In chaotism it's called gnosis, in shamanism it's called trance, in monotheistic traditions (because praying to God is totally different from praying to a wolf spirit ) it is usually referred to as 'being touched by [insert god name here]'.

The myth of the evil eye is spawned from the practice that a mage stares at something insignificant for long stretches of time. This silences the mind and forces the mage to learn focus. The idea that a picture can steal one's soul comes from the fact that curses are launched by staring at the picture for a long time while projecting hatred upon it. This is silly, of course, because that means only an amateur actually needs the picture and the real men can do it just knowing what you look like .

The Magic Words

Sweet Mother of Murder, I hate what this one's become. This was one my many objections to the season finale: it's a cliché and it's a discriminatory misrepresentation of actual beliefs.

Magic words and magic language are both methods of achieving different mental states. The idea of a magic spell needing to be said comes from the practice of repeating the same words over and over again to silence internal dialogue. And that's it. The words themselves are meaningless, though some would say 'Ohmmm' is preferred because it causes vibrations in your organs. So yeah, that's pretty far from how it's represented.

Magic language, then, is a purely fictional set of words -- in olden days made up on the spot, nowadays done with Scrabble tiles -- that carry the intent of the mage but do not openly reveal it to the conscious mind. The idea behind this is that there's a psychic censor that blocks out psychic communications as well as stop every random thought from causing magical effects. Bypassing this censor is the main goal of all these altered states of mind. Power words do this by having words that the mage's conscious mind has learned to forget the meaning of. How exactly you make yourself forget what a word does, I leave up to you.

Note that the most famous of 'spells' are names of demons from grimoires. There is the idea that words carry power on their own, but often this is only when reading a scroll or some other text that has already been imbued with power. In other words, someone else did it and the caster doesn't need any magic of their own to make it work. It can awaken magical powers just by reading, though, but that's a different story.

Sigil magic

The same thing as magical language, only it's drawn. Said to be the most common form of Western magic, and the one with the highest success rate. One can write entire books on this subject, and as a matter of fact entire books have been written on the subject. Too vast to describe beyond its basics here.

So, where does pony magic fit in?

I'd say ponies use a double resource system for their magic: energy and mirror. Energy is exactly what it says on the tin and determines the mass of magic that they can perform. Earth ponies and pegasi can be better flyers or stronger without building muscle depending on their energy. Unicorns can lift greater weights with telekinesis by building their energy.

The second resource is magic mirror, an idea referring to creativity and insight as a quantifiable thing. Imagine liquid creativity, emotions and ideas bottled as a fluid. This determines the complexity of the magic that can be performed. A pegasus needs energy to fly and possibly to sustain the aura that lets them walk on clouds (though that doesn't expend their energy, they just can't keep it up if they run out, I mean), but they need mirror for complicated tasks such as sculpting clouds or busting out lightning. Unicorns, then, need mirror for casting transformation spells, age spells and whatnot. The quantity is as important as the quality here: mirror can carry a property that determines whether or not the spell will work. If energy is the amount of ink required to do magic, then mirror is the colours you can use. A very complicated painting will require a lot of different colours, but there are complicated paintings that rely heavily on just several shades of the same colour. The same principle applies here.

As for Sweetie Belle, the idea in this approach is that the types of spells she can cast are determined by her mirror. Rarity's colour of magic always leans towards things of beauty, so she has no trouble making dresses or finding gems or cleaning up with her magic. It goes beyond TK because she doesn't have to furrow her brow to let the magic do its work. Things come natural.

Back to Sweetie Belle, her magic mirror hasn't really been shown as of yet. It's not showiness, because she doesn't want to sing in front of a crowd. It might be inspirational, which would allow her to make decorations much like her sister can and explain why her singing is good when trying to inspire her friends but bad when she does it for the heck of it. It's not an unreasonable guess, seeing as she's been shown to help with that massive card for Hearts and Hooves. She also has a more active personality than her sister, always wanting to go out and not minding the dirt.

852036

Huh, that grammar cement is quite strong. May I borrow some?

Still, my aim was to introduce various types of magic that happen in fiction to authors that are struggling to decide what type of magic they should have Sweetie Belle learn. Yours is far more detailed and brings more examples from real world. I suspect this topic will become a quite nice discussion

I've been meaning to contribute to this thread, but between Yasahiro and Wise Cracker, a lot's already been covered.

I noticed that 852036's explanations didn't cover the elements of harmony, though. Of course, deities and spirits often start as personifications of a concept, so it could be spirit magic, with each artifact bound to the spirit of that concept. Or it could simply be that the artifacts simply channel all their casters power to the one with the element of magic, using the bonds of friendship to do so, though that'd beg the question of why they were all associated with a virtue.

And a few types of magic I don't recall seeing in 850410's post.

Divination. There are many types of divination, but they all involve using your magic to retrieve information or shed new light on a situation. You can do this by reading tea leaves, I ching, astrology (though the information may be coming from Luna in this case), tarot, automatic writing, I ching, dowsing (Rarity finding gems would certainly be one form of it), bibliomancy, and so on.

(Bibliomancy's actually a bit of a favorite. Concentrate on a problem or a fairly general problem, close your eyes, grab a book from your bookshelves, open it to a random page, place your finger on a line, open your eyes, and interpret whatever text is around that spot in the context of whatever you you were thinking of. You might be surprised how often it's related.)

One key element with these is that a lot of it is in the interpretation. Either your unconscious or something you are tapping into is guiding what is picked and your interpretations. It falls under psychological magic, really, or relying on the interconnectedness of all things, Dirk Gently style.

And there's always Psychic Powers. Theoretically distinct from magic, several unicorn powers do traditionally fall under this. (Telekenesis and teleportation. And dowsing, too, really.) Telepathy, and things like psychometry (reading the past of objects by touching them) also fall in this category. And the last could make for an interesting fanfic as a characters special talent.

I thought I'd mention making golems, having read A Head Full of Clay not that long ago. (which I highly reccommend anyways) It also had an interesting concept of resonators. I'll give you a relevant quote:

“The book I read describes a rare condition in unicorns called “resonance”. Those who have it experience difficulty in performing what would be considered basic magic for most other unicorns, and they also suffer from occasional outbursts of wild, uncontrolled magic that is tied to their emotional state.”

--snipped for spoilers---

“Apparently, roughly one out of every two hundred unicorns is born with this condition, though it affects each one in varying degrees. The stronger the condition, the more difficult regular magic becomes. For most, it just means they master their magic a bit later than others, but for others, it manifests in a very peculiar way,” Twilight explained, going fully into scholar-mode. “Here’s where it gets a bit technical; according to the book, spells that have traumatic or negative effects leave behind an echo of sorts of what happened. Resonators, as the book calls them, can sense these imprints, and their magic manifests as the ability to purge the echoes by clearing away the negative energy that lingers.”

Then there's the Quabala. You have the tree of life, with spheres representing various concepts, and paths between them. You meditate and take sort of a spiritual journey inside your mind related to those concepts and travel between the paths, though I'm probably botching my explanation since it's been a long time since I read about it.

It'd be interesting to see a custom tree of life with sphere's based on the elements of harmony in a fanfic that actually transported you to mystical planes to gain a better understanding of the concepts of each sphere. Of course, Roger Zelazny already did a tree of life that transports people in the Chronicles of Amber.

Ooh, Chronicles of Amber. Sweetie Belle discovers that her actual talent is shadow walking, and journeys between various alternate realities.

Wait, no, too close to the Sweetie Chronicles: Fragments. Besides, Sweetie Belle'd have to be related to the royal family of Amber. Which, admittedly, includes a lot of people. Almost seems like everyone is a bastard son or daughter of a Prince of Amber in those books sometimes.

I've posted one or two things about how magic works in my universe/universes on Twilight's Library previously, so maybe I'll transplant some of that into this thread at some point as well. And I'm sure I'll remember things I've forgotten after posting this. I've read a lot of fantasy novels, plus a decent amount of books on real-world magic. I might have read Liber Null at one point, in fact. Can't remember.

Anyways, I'll add more in another post if I think about it...

Well, the Elements of Harmony weren't mentioned there because my interpretation of them really only makes sense to a chaoist. But for completion's sake, here goes:

Harmony, Friendship as Magic, both of these refer to the same thing. It is the primal state of mind where Self and Not-Self blur and meld into one another. It is letting go of the illusion of the individual and becoming one with something greater, at least for a small period of time. This allows the very creative force of the universe to be channelled, which we call Chaos. It is not disorder, nor is it order. It is the sum of order and disorder, which to mortal minds looks like disorder.

From this perspective, what are the Elements, if one were to meditate on them?

-Honesty is refusing to put up illusions. It is getting to the bottom of things and not getting sidetracked by what appears to be the route to fulfillment. Note that AJ's lack of shown ambition has yet to translate itself as seeking out other venues.

-Loyalty is finding the True Self, or rather the path to happiness. It is disregarding social standards and rules and doing what is felt to be right. Again, to Rainbow Dash this means both being loyal to her friends and her own principles.

-Generosity is sharing aspects of the Self. It is giving to others without attempting to change them. It is also maintaining the Self by rewarding what is wanted. Keep in mind no one ever said all the Elements were aimed at others. It is possible to deprive yourself of things, so it's also possible to be generous to yourself, hence why Rarity so frequently indulges herself. People arguing this isn't the Element of Generosity are missing the point, imo.

-Kindness is accepting the darker sides of the self and trying to find ways to incorporate them. It is both tolerating little quirks in others and not beating yourself up when you fail. Most of Fluttershy's breakdowns are due to how she thinks others see her, not any judgment of her own.

-Laughter is a neutral attitude, and not actually linked to happiness. The state of Laughter is considered to be the only one that doesn't have an opposite. It's cathartic, sometimes random, and it is a unifying sentiment.

-Magic, then, is the total sum of all of these. Letting go of the ego, the id surfacing, yaddayaddayadda, it's the feeling of becoming one with everything and everyone. I always thought Twilight's little ascensions and glowing eyes were linked to kundalini myths, but the recent additions to the canon say otherwise, so....

That's my two cents. The Elements as ponies are the ones who understand these aspects in their core. They aren't consciously aware of it or even capable of wording it, but they have it. The Elements as artifacts, then, are linked to the pure creative force of the universe and as such are capable of anything. Thing is, they're still being driven by mortal minds, and as such you can't expect too many complicated things from them.

Just thought I'd mention that "A Heart of Change" and the fanfics that came before it really do a good job of describing magic. I was reading the latest chapter and it had things like this.

Now that I've gotten the hard part out of the way, I just need to tie in the spell sigil at the end. Thankfully most spell patterns aren't nearly as complicated as material patterns. Sweetie Belle often compared it to the difference between drawing a pony in as much detail as one could manage, to tracing just their silhouette. All she had to do was remember the basic shape of the spell and she could cast it. Thankfully the most basic scrying pattern is a simple eye-shape, a circle in a circle in a circle, with a thirteen equidistant lines filling the middle circle. Easy to remember once you've seen it, it really looks just like an eye. I remember the books always said, 'Just imagine you want to look at something and keep that thought in mind as you cast it.' She nearly laughed at the memory. It's funny how many spells they've managed to create, considering how little they know about how it actually works.

SilentBelle has clearly put a lot of work into it. I always love reading detailed descriptions of magic in fiction.