What is Starlight's actual talent?

[Lektra Bolt 2,337]

I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but search came up with nothing for Starlight Cutie Mark when searching.

So I'd like to start a discussion with you all. What is the meaning of Starlight's Cutie Mark? What's her talent?

A Cutie Mark is earned when a pony discovers their special talent, the thing they're good at and do the best. It's not necessarily the only thing they will ever do with their life, nor are they going to be the best in the world at that thing, but it's the thing they're supposed to be the best at doing when such things come up.

Starlight originally had issues with Cutie Marks, trying to hide hers and remove those of others to create a utopia. She tried to destroy the lives of the Manes and their Cutie Marks. She has switched the Alicorn sisters Cutie Marks to teach them a good lesson. It seems she's all up in everyone's behinds while also being Op at magic and then later not being able to lift a simple suitcase. But with the latter I digress.

So what is our favorite reformed villain pony and basically Mane 8's special talent? What is she good at? What does the lavender and blueish swirling thing actually mean? 

IIRC this has never been brought up or mentioned in the show, so I thought I would make this thread to discuss.

I feel she might just be good at magic in general like Twilight, but is that really possible? What do you guys think?

Edited November 28, 2017 by Lektra Bolt

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,291]

My only guess is that her talent is being overpowered to the point of absurdity. That's all I can see with her.

[ShootingStar159 2,155]

My guess is combining spells to create something new, it isn’t something we ever see other Magic users do. Not that we see many magic users to begin with.

[Jade Fire 7,036]

starlight has pure raw magical power. so much so that she can fight twilight to a standstill, a point they've made more than once in the show. she's even strong enough to effect the sister's cutie marks. the show has made it clear multiple times that she's on the level of alicorns, but not being an alicorn herself, she cant fully control her power and has lost control of it a few times already.

i think it's safe to say her talent is magic in it's purest form, which i think it's good to have a pony with that talent in the mane group, i know alot of people feel like it's redundant or unoriginal add another pony to the mane group with magic as their talent when twilight already has that, but when u really watch the show, twilight's talent is the magic of friendship, starlight's talent is magic in it's purest form.

Edited November 29, 2017 by Jade Fire

[Mirage 24,137]

She's a Flank Fuggiler!

Seriously though, Starlight is dangerous. She is so powerful it's ridiculous. She could potentially become the next Celestia.

[KH7672 1,604]

1 hour ago, Lektra Bolt said:

Starlight originally had issues with Cutie Marks, trying to hide hers and remove those of others to create a utopia.

That really is the strangest mystery to her character. How did this pony so dead set on the idea that cutie marks ruin friendships actually earn hers? I would love to see some backstory on that.

The best talent I could see from her is....well I can't really narrow it down to one distinct thing but....I say listening to others and helping them accept themselves. I mean she made friends with Sunburst, a unicorn studious at magic but not powerful enough to cast it. I coud see her being that outlet for him. A friend with magic to use so that he won't feel like all his studying was for naught. I wouldn't be surprised if that's what their dynamic was (SB learns the magic and SG learnd to cast it thanks to the care SB put into the subject since SG is very rash with her magic use). He felt like he had a purpose and then he leaves her and in turn leaves his purpose as he fails at real magic because that was never his talent. Helping others through his knowledge in magic is (i.e. saving Starlight with levitation, suppressing Flurry, fixing the Crystal Heart). All done even with a lack in real magic, because he now accepts that is who he is but still has a purpose.

With Trixie and Maud, she makes friends with them because she listens and accepts who they are; not who they used to be, not how others want them to be, but for who they are without changing a thing. (An interesting thing to note in "Maud Pie" the Mane 6 interacted with Maud only doing things they liked, trying to see if she would as well and while Starlight did also fly kites that was after Maud showed interest and she still took the time to understand Maud's interests).

This also resonates with her constant use to empathise with villains. She wants to know who they really are first before determining how bad they really are. She sees Chrysalis as a leader, Juniper as an attention-seeker, and Stygian as a once pony and not some hopeless demonic entity.

I mean even going back to her village's ideals, she didn't come in, take over, and get rid of ponies cutie marks because she wanted friends. She found ponies just as lost as she felt in their friendships, listened to their feelings and offered an escape from that life (albeit only continuing to listen if they didn't question her).

Still you have to wonder where was her cutie mark in all of this...

[Sparklefan1234 161,871]

I think Starlight Glimmer's actual talent is being ridiculously good at magic

 

to the point where she's probably more powerful than an Alicorn.

Edited November 28, 2017 by Sparklefan1234

[DonMaguz 1,023]

- Starlight is clearly a top level magic unicorn.

- Starlight said at the end of 'The Cutie Map' that she had studied magic for years.

- We know that Twilight also studied magic for years but we have also seen Twilight practice her magic spells and get better at them.

- Starlight said to Trixie in 'No Second Prances' that when it comes to magic, she doesn't make mistakes.

- We have seen Starlight coming up with different new spells or combination of existing ones ('The Cutie Re-Mark', 'Every Little Thing She Does', 'All Bottled Up', 'Uncommon Bond'), and in what seems to have been her first try at those spells, she has been successful. Alright, we could argue that she was not successful in the objective of her spell on ELTSD, but her mistake was on the spell design and not on the spell casting.

 

With all of this taken in count, I think that Starlight's talent is on magic casting precision, she needs study but not as much practice to successfully cast a spell.

[Mirage 24,137]

7 minutes ago, KH7672 said:

This also resonates with her constant use to empathise with villains. She wants to know who they really are first before determining how bad they really are. She sees Chrysalis as a leader, Juniper as an attention-seeker, and Stygian as a once pony and not some hopeless demonic entity.

I mean even going back to her village's ideals, she didn't come in, take over, and get rid of ponies cutie marks because she wanted friends. She found ponies just as lost as she felt in their friendships, listened to their feelings and offered an escape from that life (albeit only continuing to listen if they didn't question her).

Still you have to wonder where was her cutie mark in all of this...

You are a hard nut to crack aren't you? 

Can you please read up on: Sociopath, pathological lying and narcissism. I'm not trying to be a jerk - Starlight is a brilliant portrayal of these. Her treatment and perception of cutie marks while keeping and hiding her own has some explanation once you understand she was not rational. She is reforming and becoming healthier, so let's hope she continues to improve with her reality checks. 

Her personality and her actions reflect very strongly what most immediately recognize about her: magic and leadership.

[Thrond 3,257]

I dunno, magic I guess. That's the main thing we've seen her excel at. 

[Babyyoshi309 1,829]

Magic... Haven't they said that before?

Edited November 29, 2017 by Babyyoshi309

[Drunkfrank 1,125]

31 minutes ago, Sparklefan1234 said:

I think Starlight Glimmer's actual talent is being ridiculously good at magic

 

to the point where she's probably more powerful than an Alicorn.

She is on par with an artificial, not natural Allicorn, not more powerful.

And the obvious answer is magic OP

[Thrond 3,257]

26 minutes ago, Ryanmahaffe said:

She is on par with an artificial, not natural Allicorn, not more powerful.

The show's never really explained how magical power or alicorn magic work, so it seems perfectly plausible to me that she could have as much unicorn magic as an alicorn. It's pure conjecture, but my theory is that being an alicorn merely gives you the power of all three pony tribes. If it does increase your mana pool, that doesn't necessarily mean unicorns can't achieve the same levels... whatever that means. 

[Drunkfrank 1,125]

Just now, AlexanderThrond said:

The show's never really explained how magical power or alicorn magic work, so it seems perfectly plausible to me that she could have as much unicorn magic as an alicorn. It's pure conjecture, but my theory is that being an alicorn merely gives you the power of all three pony tribes. If it does increase your mana pool, that doesn't necessarily mean unicorns can't achieve the same levels... whatever that means. 

That has always been my thought process as well, although natural alicorns are just really powerful, where as artificial is basically what you said, Twilight is more powerful now than she was in say...season 3, but that isn't just because she became an Alicorn. She just practiced and got better over time.

[Guest]

Twilight and Starlight share a lot of qualities, but Starlight's one and only talent showcased is magic. If you didn't know Twilight well enough and I asked the same question about her, you'd probably be at a loss for answers. Starlight doesn't do anything but magic from when she was a filly to now, so that has to be it.

[Le Trotteur Sauvage 13,049]

Redemption, magic and a natural skill for leading ponies ! She's a leader even if it was for a bad purpose !

[BlueStreak98 828]

Taking over television shows.

 

Seriously, though, magic is the closest thing to an answer I've heard.

[ShadOBabe 18,984]

On 11/28/2017 at 4:09 PM, Lektra Bolt said:

I feel she might just be good at magic in general like Twilight, but is that really possible?

I think that’s exactly what her talent is. Why wouldn’t it be possible?

Edited December 4, 2017 by ShadOBabe

[Singe 2,109]

Basically pre-Alicorn Twilight role, is Starlight Glimmer's purpose.

[Lektra Bolt 2,337]

Just now, ShadOBabe said:

I think that’s exactly what her talent. Why wouldn’t it be possible?

Just a slight bit redundant with her mentor is all, since we haven't been shown ponies that have the same talent meeting each other except Twilight and Starlight, but I just felt it might be too simple to conclude magic is also her talent.

People have come up with wonderful ideas that I HAVE been keeping up with

[KatonRyu 1,026]

I think that her talent has something to do with cutie marks or destiny magic, given her ability to remove and swap cutie marks. Aside from that, she's also very gifted in magic in general (which I suppose you'd have to be if manipulating cutie marks is your talent).

[RulesofRarity 489]

I’m actually really shocked that they haven’t showed us how she earned her cutie mark. But yeah, her special talent is magic. 

[Victoria Sponge 1,014]

I think it's just magic, plain and simple. She's used her magic to remove cutie marks, control minds, fly, break out of magical crystal, switch cutie marks, fight the pony of shadows, time travel with help from Starswirl. She seems to be very powerful, we saw what she was capable of when working with magic expert Sunburst too and I think those two work together well as he knows a lot of spells and she is good at executing them. As for her cutie mark I think it's supposed to be swirls of magic similar to the one on Trixie's cutie mark coming from the magic wand, and a glimmer or star as part of her namesake.

[RDDash 18,866]

Probably, something to do with the stars and night sky. I refuse to believe that some of her talent is wasted on removing other ponies cutie marks and being smug about it.

Edited August 24, 2020 by RDDash

[Fluttershutter 2,118]

I always just assumed it was magic.