How were the Mane 6 using magic?

[Shady Mist 55]

At the end of "The Ticket Master" how were the Mane 6 using magic to carry the tickets home. Spike wasn't and Twilight and Rarity make sense being unicorns but the others shouldn't be able to use magic.

[Jeric 46,851]

Tickets could have been enchanted by a spell cast by another Unicorn. 

[Misty Shadow 7,869]

It was the spell of a unicorn carrying the tickets, Rarity. She was just doing her friends a favor as she was coming out the door. The reason Spike's ticket wasn't floating is because Rarity had long left by the time he got his.

Edited October 6, 2018 by CloudMistDragon

[Shady Mist 55]

2 hours ago, CloudMistDragon said:

It was the spell of a unicorn carrying the tickets, Rarity. She was just doing her friends a favor as she was coming out the door. The reason Spike's ticket wasn't floating is because Rarity had long left by the time he got his.

I know of Spike because he has "claws" and he doesn't need magic to carry his ticket.

[Will Guide 21,360]

It's called Early Installment Weirdness, the rules of magic were not fully developed back then in such an early episode.

From the main Page for the show on the trope Early Installment Weirdness:

Quote

 

The premiere of the show made the series look more like a Magical Girls show. However, the Elements of Harmony are completely forgotten until Season 2, and the show turns to focus on one-shot episodes rather than an overarching plot aside from Season 4.

It also took a while for the visual effects for unicorn magic to be standardized, and even then the Color-Coded Wizardry didn't really show up until "Lesson Zero".

The exact nature of unicorn magic seems different early on. In "Boast Busters", unicorn magic appears to be entirely in-born. A unicorn either has an ability, or they don't. However, later episodes seem to suggest that unicorn magic is much closer to Rule Magic, thanks to the appearances of magical schools and spell books, wherein any unicorn's ability to learn a spell is limited only by aptitude at learning magic, rather than by simply being born with a given list of 'tricks'.

The third episode of the series, "The Ticket Master" was the first episode to be written, and it shows - Spike has no interest in Rarity, non-unicorn ponies can somehow levitate the tickets above their heads etc. It's also the lightest episode plot-wise, as it was originally intended for a Two Shorts format.

The character designs as originally drawn by Lauren Faust (seen in the main page image) had bigger pupils and irises in their eyes than are actually used for the show's characters. This eye style was probably dropped because it gave the characters a slight Uncanny Valley look.

 

Besides, the tickets could very well have their own little magic. the point still stands that the rules of magic in the world are not fully established at the time and could very well change.

Edited October 8, 2018 by Happy Yoshi