How in Equestria does unicorn magic work?

[ManaMinori 4,147]

Am I the only one who wonders just how magic work? Epecially with Twilight. I was rewatching "it's about time", and couldn't help but notice that she perfectly performs one of Starswirl's spells-a Time Travel spell, of all things, one that, accoring to the Journal of the Two sisters, took him years to write, and longer still, to master. And she does this having no knowledge that time teleporting spells were even a thing, until last week, and no practice of the spell, like we've seen her do with more basic spells.

 

....I find it extremely puzzling that one moment, she can pull off a complex time travel spell written by Starswirl, with no practice of it, then the next moment (say, like in "Magic Duel"), age spells are things that "only the most advanced unicorns can do".

 

So are age spells supposed to be superior to time travel, now? Is time travel just child's play, by unicorn standards? Why did Starswirl have so much difficulty with writing and trying to master the spells, if it were? Is magic in itself, sentient, and chooses when a situation is m mostt dire to allow its host to persorm magical feats beyond what is their normal ability, without practice? If it were, then how can one rationalize the situation That Twi worked herself into, in "It's about time", where she only needed to learn a lesson of stop worrying so much, a dire circumstance?

 

How the heck does unicorn magic work!?

[Fractured 2,684]

I'd like to assume that there's two things required to use spells any Equestria, those being:
a) The ability to read and understand the spell (either through basic memorization of runes, writing, etc, or by having the spell page on hand, like in MMC)
) b The raw magical power necessary to use the spell. 

 

Which mean, even if a unicorn is capable of using a certain spell, if they don't have the power to use it, they can't. Similar to how teleportation would seem to be a bog standard spell, and pretty handy in a pinch, but so few unicorns know how to use it; it's because they can't. Twilight faced the same problem in magic duel; she had the spell down, but didn't have the power that Trixie possessed to make it work. 

Edited August 30, 2015 by Fractured

[silvadel 1,393]

Of course she hasn't tried an age spell since she became an alicorn.

 

But yes you have power, and complexity.  There can be very intricate spells that are very hard to cast but require only moderate amounts of power, and simple spells that you need an ocean of magic behind you to effect.

[BlueBrony 388]

The simple meta answer is "because the writer said so!"

reconciling those situations is pretty tough to figure out. First off, we need to recognize the fact that Twilight is extremely gifted. There is a reason she was the element of magic. Also, she has been studying starswirl her whole life, so she is probably familiar with his techniques and can pick up a finished spell by starswirl pretty quickly. When you are creating and perfecting a spell that has never been done before, there is a probably a huge learning curve, hence why it took starswirl so long to make it. Aging spells- I could go with the explanations by fractured and silvadel, where the power required is ridiculous.

[TopQuark 409]

I think the spell in MMC was defective, because it did some thing totally useless. Perhaps using a spell book makes it unnecessary to actually know how to cast the spell yourself, as long as you have the book with you. Like when Rarity has that dark magic spell book in Insperation Manifestation. She doesn't know much about magic, but was still able to weild it.

[cider float 2,539]

This is why what is written outside of the show isn't canon because it contradicts with the show.

[[NULL] 907]

It will make more sense if you don't over-analyze such trivial things that not even the writers took into account.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 42,071]

It works in accordance to plot convenience, something that can be a hindrance to a show but in FiM's case, I think they handle it well. Far better than many I think. Beyond that it is not something I contemplate,

[Mesme Rize 15,692]

People don't understand how Gandalfs magic works exactly and Lord of the Rings is one of the most celebrated Books in all of Literature.

 

If you try to analyze every little detail, you will never find joy in anything.

[GuyNamedEarl 1,332]

Anything is possible for the unicorn master race.

Edited August 30, 2015 by GuyNamedEarl

[Sidral Mundet 1,666]

People don't understand how Gandalfs magic works exactly and Lord of the Rings is one of the most celebrated Books in all of Literature.

 

If you try to analyze every little detail, you will never find joy in anything.

Gandalf is an Istari, a sub class of lower angels known as the Maiar, given supernatural powers from Eru Ilúvatar, the creator and God of Middle Earth, given the role of helping out the higher angels known as the Valar, to help create and protect Middle-Earth (and that's the short version).  I get what you're saying but Lord of the Rings is a really bad example.

Edited August 30, 2015 by Sidral Mundet

[best poni 1,521]

Magic. That's how it works.

[Cleverclover 1,526]

 

 

So are age spells supposed to be superior to time travel, now?

 

Age spells are presumably permanent, while time travel apparently lasts about only thirty seconds and has a one-time use. When you put that into consideration, the age spells are indeed far superior. 

 

I'd like to assume that there's two things required to use spells any Equestria, those being:
a) The ability to read and understand the spell (either through basic memorization of runes, writing, etc, or by having the spell page on hand, like in MMC)
) b The raw magical power necessary to use the spell. 

 

Which mean, even if a unicorn is capable of using a certain spell, if they don't have the power to use it, they can't. Similar to how teleportation would seem to be a bog standard spell, and pretty handy in a pinch, but so few unicorns know how to use it; it's because they can't. Twilight faced the same problem in magic duel; she had the spell down, but didn't have the power that Trixie possessed to make it work. 

 

I think there's a lot of truth in this. 

[Xeltor23 704]

I think there is two sided to magic (unicorn or not):

_ The technical aspect, like understanding, being able to read or to counter difficult spells

_ The raw power, which is, well, power in it's brute form.

Some spells requiers both raw power and technicity, which is logical

But to how Twilight was able to read the time spell and ow she wasn't able to do so after that, I really don't know, it's not the same spell anyway

[SBaby 660]

Well, if you go according to mythos, Unicorn magic and Alicorn magic (because they are part Unicorn) would come from their horn (specifically the ruby or carbuncle under the base of the horn).  The magic itself is said to be the result of a Unicorn's connection to the spirits or spirit world.

 

In MLP's case, the horn is likely a conduit, like a lightning rod, that channels energy (possibly from other planes of existence, if the mythology is being followed) into itself to produce the effects that they know of as magic.

Edited August 31, 2015 by SBaby

[PacificGreen 1,163]

I like to think that most of the time Twilight's able to master the spell because the plot demands so.

 

But, you know, she is Twilight. One of the most OP unicorns in the show. She was pretty much destined for princesshood.

Edited August 31, 2015 by PacificGreen