What Exactly did Starswirl's Unfinished Spell Do?

[guest243535531ty43 219]

The hardest thing for me to grasp with "Magical Mystery Cure" (and I think the show as a whole) is figuring out what exactly the spell did.

 

Rarity expressed that she thought it was all a dream which makes it seems that she did recognize her true self and that there was no universe-jumping or anything of the sort. Their memories and true selves seemed to have been wiped but their family members, notably the Apple family, didn't say a thing about the switch in Pinkie's cutie mark or that Applejack had left for a new career--in a day, mind you. 

 

To explain it, one could hold that the memories of everypony except Spike and Twilight's had changed to believe that the ReMane-ing 5's new destinies were the ones they always had.

 

Moreover, AJ's shop looked dilapidated and it seems Fluttershy and Pinkie had been working for a while in their respective occupations as they had shown having difficulty in their efforts resulting in them being disillusioned and saddened with their job, making me thing this spell also changed the past as well and not just the memories of everypony in Ponyville and the true selves of the ReMane-ing 5. 

 

So then reversing the spell just changed everything back to the way it was, basically undoing whatever alterations in time this spell had done?

 

As for other questions that have no answer: What was the point of Starswirl's spell and just how powerful is this guy to create universe-altering magic like this? How did the Elements work against Nightmare Moon and Discord in this altered universe? How did these altered ponies remember their interactions with Twilight? It's just so confusing...

 

If someone has an easier explanation for what exactly happened with the spell, please tell me.  

[cider float 2,536]

Hooo so yeah it is a show about colorful ponies for little girls so there is no way it's this complicated but here goes...

 

Rarity has stated that she has been managing the weather since she got her cutie mark. That would mean that their memories and even activities may have changed since they were fillies but they were still friends. What the spell mainly did was change their destinies what this does is change their past and those that were tied to their destinies. So by changing their past those that they interacted and created bonds together with also changed (like Applejack's family). So any memories they have now are the ones they had of this alternate past. When Spike thought it was easy enough to just change their memories back the way Twilight did in Return of Harmony this was not possible because their destinies have been changed which holds more than just memories.

 

But it seems their talents did not change. It seems changing their destinies did not alter their talents whatsoever. So Fluttershy was still good with animals and Rainbow Dash was still a weather control pegasus. Strangely the cure was introducing the jobs they were good at for the talents they retained and making them feel right about it. This re-aligned the destinies they were meant to have tied to their talents so their memories of the original past came back and those they interacted and had ties with suddenly have memories of the alternate past again.

 

*Deep breath* Okay that's all I got.

[ManaMinori 4,144]

 

The hardest thing for me to grasp with "Magical Mystery Cure" (and I think the show as a whole) is figuring out what exactly the spell did.

 

Rarity expressed that she thought it was all a dream which makes it seems that she did recognize her true self and that there was no universe-jumping or anything of the sort. Their memories and true selves seemed to have been wiped but their family members, notably the Apple family, didn't say a thing about the switch in Pinkie's cutie mark or that Applejack had left for a new career--in a day, mind you. 

 

To explain it, one could hold that the memories of everypony except Spike and Twilight's had changed to believe that the ReMane-ing 5's new destinies were the ones they always had.

 

Moreover, AJ's shop looked dilapidated and it seems Fluttershy and Pinkie had been working for a while in their respective occupations as they had shown having difficulty in their efforts resulting in them being disillusioned and saddened with their job, making me thing this spell also changed the past as well and not just the memories of everypony in Ponyville and the true selves of the ReMane-ing 5. 

 

So then reversing the spell just changed everything back to the way it was, basically undoing whatever alterations in time this spell had done?

 

As for other questions that have no answer: What was the point of Starswirl's spell and just how powerful is this guy to create universe-altering magic like this? How did the Elements work against Nightmare Moon and Discord in this altered universe? How did these altered ponies remember their interactions with Twilight? It's just so confusing...

 

If someone has an easier explanation for what exactly happened with the spell, please tell me.  

 

I really like the answer that Starlight Sky came up with (from a very old post, but still one of the best answers about the goings on of this episode I've seen, to date) so I'm gonna link it, here.

https://mlpforums.com/topic/50078-the-purpose-of-starswirls-spell-and-the-nature-of-twilights-transformation/page-2

[cider float 2,536]

I really like the answer that Starlight Sky came up with (from a very old post, but still one of the best answers about the goings on of this episode I've seen, to date) so I'm gonna link it, here.

https://mlpforums.com/topic/50078-the-purpose-of-starswirls-spell-and-the-nature-of-twilights-transformation/page-2

That theory does hold a lot of water. After all in Keep Calm and Flutter On Discord was met with true friendship from Fluttershy and that really inspired and touched him.

 

It's possible that Starswirled the Bearded thought true friendship was something you twisted to what was comfortable for you... leading him to become Discord.

[MLPFanatic34 3,234]

I honestly don't know what Starswirl's unfinished spell was supposed to do, I myself am curious lol.

[Sidral Mundet 1,666]

Okay there's not a single shred of actual evidence for this theory but my idea was that the spell shunted Twilight off into an alternative reality limbo sort of thing where her friends all had different cutie marks.  Basically once everyone had gotten their cutie marks back and the spell was complete, the element booted Twilight into the accession playground where Celestia was and ascended to her alicorn status and once that was done she returned back to her normal reality. 

[Ziggy + Angel + Rain 11,298]

The only thing I'm certain Starsquirm's unfinished spell did was SUCK.

[StoneCold 144]

Okay, crazy theory time. I believe it's a spell designed to change ones destiny. Imagine the following:

 

Starswirl is approached by his future self, who reveals that he is slowly dying of an incurable disease, and that it is his destiny to die. Before he can continue explaining, Future starswirl is teleported back to his own time. Present Starswirl then begins to experiment to change his destiny, but something prevents the spell from working.

 

Mere hours before his death, he recieves a vision from a twilight sparkle far in the future, who reveals that his death is unfortunate, but necessary. If Starswirl never dies, his student Celestia can never become master, which would prevent Twilight from making friends. As such, the spell is blocked by the magic of friendship. Realizing he's wasted his last months, he attempts to go back in time to prevent himself from wasting that time, which kicks off the entire thing.

[guest243535531ty43 219]

I really like the answer that Starlight Sky came up with (from a very old post, but still one of the best answers about the goings on of this episode I've seen, to date) so I'm gonna link it, here.

https://mlpforums.com/topic/50078-the-purpose-of-starswirls-spell-and-the-nature-of-twilights-transformation/page-2

 

While most of the post is largely speculative and I'm not too into that stuff (though I appreciate the creativity ), I would agree this is the best explanation for the purpose of Starswirl's spell. I thought that it was likely to give him some sort of solitude for study based on the words of the spell but the way it reacted with the Elements to form this altered-universe and the fact that Celestia said the spell was incomplete made me think otherwise.

 

It now makes sense. The universe was altered in this way because the spell intended to keep Twilight alone and to separate her friends by changing the Elements of Harmony, thus giving her more time to study and focusing on developing herself. The old Twilight who wished to follow in the footsteps of Starswirl, her idol, would have taken this opportunity to learn as much as possible and avoid others in isolation.

 

But the new Twilight who showed that friendship had a great deal of meaning for her rejected her old ways and attempted to find a counterspell to reverse the effects and bring her back into the Equestria she always had known--so she could be with her friends. In essence, she completed the spell because she realized that being with others brings greater depth and more experiences to one's life that even countless years of reading and study cannot--she understood that she could develop herself as a person on a greater level with others than by herself. As a result, her Alicorn transformation is even more deserving as she did demonstrate selflessness in this endeavor and a desire for friendship, amity, and harmony once more.

 

Thank you so much for sharing the post. So I think it is true that the spell coupled with the Elements--which are so tied to the maintenance and nature of Equestria--caused the universe to be altered in this strange way but the spell alone for someone like Starswirl whose relationships were only on a student-teacher interaction or whatever political connections he had made (after all, he did know where the Alicorn tribe existed to find Celestia and Luna in the first place). That makes so much more sense.

 

Okay there's not a single shred of actual evidence for this theory but my idea was that the spell shunted Twilight off into an alternative reality limbo sort of thing where her friends all had different cutie marks.  Basically once everyone had gotten their cutie marks back and the spell was complete, the element booted Twilight into the accession playground where Celestia was and ascended to her alicorn status and once that was done she returned back to her normal reality. 

 

I thought that too at first but the major problem is that they recognized who they were once their friendship and the magic of the Elements restored their true selves and Rarity showed that she acknowledged the existence of both realities, wrongly thinking that the altered-universe one was a dream conjured up in her subconscious as opposed to something physical and real, which we know is true since Twilight interacted with it. And at the end of the episode, we know that the ReMane-ing 5 whose true selves were changed are the same as the ones in the normal reality because after blasting Twilight to Celestia's spatial realm, they followed after Twilight as she descended in the form of her cutie mark.

 

It seems that with every one of them regaining their true selves, because of their connection to the Elements, reality gradually returned back to normal then.

Edited May 28, 2015 by estoc

[Malinter 3,064]

The spell may have been originally for changing a cutie mark as its sole function. Celestia calms Starswirl did not understand friendship but what if Starswirl was unable to make friends because he believed his cutie mark made him so engrossed in the study of magic that he couldn't. After all, Twilight at the seasons beginning is pretty much the same way. So maybe starswirl wanted to change his cutie mark to something that would help him understand friendship alittle better. 

 

CRAZY THEORY

Just occured to me. What if Starswirl's spell was meant to work backwards? It made Twilight into an alicorn, what if the spell could turn an alicorn back? If Celestia or Luna ever wanted to leave Twilight as the ruler of Equestria, they would have to break their own immortality first (unless they try mana-dumping on Twilight again like they did before. XD)

Edited May 28, 2015 by Malinter

[KatonRyu 1,027]

My headcanon on that matter is that it's a spell that should warp destiny. It doesn't alter events, themselves, but it mixes up the 'true self' and destiny of one pony with another. ("From one to another, another to one.")

 

I also think that Starswirl believed that a destiny is something personal, that cannot be shared but needs to be borne alone. ("The mark of one's destiny singled out alone, fulfilled.")

 

I guess he was experimenting to see what destiny was and how it would affect a pony's life if it were to be altered. He was mistaken in his approach, though, since destiny isn't a clear-cut concept and is far more intricate and bonded than he believed. (Recall that Twilight and her friends all received their Cutie Marks partially because of Rainbow Dash's first Rainboom.)

 

This is why Twilight was able to put the ponies' real destiny back on track by showing them what their true selves were, proving that the spell doesn't actually alter destinies although it superficially seems to.

[manic 121]

My headcanon on that matter is that it's a spell that should warp destiny. It doesn't alter events, themselves, but it mixes up the 'true self' and destiny of one pony with another. ("From one to another, another to one.")

 

I also think that Starswirl believed that a destiny is something personal, that cannot be shared but needs to be borne alone. ("The mark of one's destiny singled out alone, fulfilled.")

 

I guess he was experimenting to see what destiny was and how it would affect a pony's life if it were to be altered. He was mistaken in his approach, though, since destiny isn't a clear-cut concept and is far more intricate and bonded than he believed. (Recall that Twilight and her friends all received their Cutie Marks partially because of Rainbow Dash's first Rainboom.)

 

This is why Twilight was able to put the ponies' real destiny back on track by showing them what their true selves were, proving that the spell doesn't actually alter destinies although it superficially seems to.

I have a similar theory: I think the spell unlocks destinies. The fact that it started out twisting everything is just a side-effect, as if the spell was completed, it wouldn't matter anyway.

 

So if the other ponies weren't doing what their true destiny was, this spell would unlock it. And since Twilight's destiny was to be an Alicorn, it unlocked it for her.

 

Of course I could be completely wrong

My headcanon on that matter is that it's a spell that should warp destiny. It doesn't alter events, themselves, but it mixes up the 'true self' and destiny of one pony with another. ("From one to another, another to one.")

 

I also think that Starswirl believed that a destiny is something personal, that cannot be shared but needs to be borne alone. ("The mark of one's destiny singled out alone, fulfilled.")

 

I guess he was experimenting to see what destiny was and how it would affect a pony's life if it were to be altered. He was mistaken in his approach, though, since destiny isn't a clear-cut concept and is far more intricate and bonded than he believed. (Recall that Twilight and her friends all received their Cutie Marks partially because of Rainbow Dash's first Rainboom.)

 

This is why Twilight was able to put the ponies' real destiny back on track by showing them what their true selves were, proving that the spell doesn't actually alter destinies although it superficially seems to.

I have a similar theory: I think the spell unlocks destinies. The fact that it started out twisting everything is just a side-effect, as if the spell was completed, it wouldn't matter anyway.

 

So if the other ponies weren't doing what their true destiny was, this spell would unlock it. And since Twilight's destiny was to be an Alicorn, it unlocked it for her.

 

Of course I could be completely wrong

[sweetolebob18 724]

This seems to be right.  Starswirl was trying to ascend to an alicorn but failed.  Celestia said he failed because he didn't completely understand the nature of friendship (ICR where she said that).  Twilight altered the spell & succeeded.

 

Twilight, write 100 times "I will not cast unknown spells to see what they do"

 

To my mind, an even bigger question is "Did Celestia know what the spell would do?"  Is she that ruthless, to risk Twilight being unable to fix the spell & ruin her friends lives?  Or, was she just clueless?

 

As to "How long were these events?"  I've been trying to put the episodes in order.  If you assume the 1st 3 Seasons took place over 1 year (& Tanks For the Memories seems to indicate that is the official line), then MMC has to take place in a day or so.  There just isn't enough time for them to take much longer. They happen on June 17 or 18 & Princess Twilight starts June 19.

 

This means Fluttershy gave up very fast & the dilapidated condition of Sweet Apple Acres & Rarity's shop were just poetic license & not to be taken literally.