Her whole family is bullshit. Pinkie is just the most open about it. Maud literally has slasher powers of never running but always appearing behind the person she is going for.
Illuminating Invitation (MLP: FiM AU)
- Thread starter Alivaril
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dracklor
Beyond the Frontier
- Location
- Texas
Nah, I'm guessing that this is her working to get Sunset more friends, just in case Twilight isn't enough to push her over the finish line to alicorn mode.
Edison_Trent
Freelancer
Then you have the opposite problem, if it's normal for Earth ponies of magical talent to be able to create works that are of indistinguishable quality to Unicorn produced works, and valuable enough to be custom ordered by Canterlot nobility, where is the history and support structure for such a thing? If it's normal, why would the "Earth ponies can't do magic" stigma exist? Where's the Manehatten Institue of George's Geomancy (or whatever)? Where are the Earth pony run magic stores that Flighty Flame would work at or Earth pony magic libraries? Is Celestia speciest/tribalist to ignore the problem when the Unicorn school was first established in her name?
If it's not a matter of Earth pony vs Unicorn pony, and instead Flighty Flame is experiencing a rich vs poor class issue instead, that would make more sense, given Sunset's own experiences of harshness for her poor background.
Yeah, that's why I explicitly mentioned Watsonian (in-universe) reasoning, not Doylist (out of universe) reasoning.
To be clear, there's nothing bad about it existing this way. It isn't poorly written in any way, it just strains my SoD.
serra2
Himouto! Sylvanas-chan
Pony racism, duh. Earth ponies are too stupid to learn how to do magic, so why bother spending the resources on them?
We literally just saw a court case where one of the plaintiffs was super happy that Sunset was willing to go out of her way to accommodate a disability. Throughout the series we see a hell of a lot of situations which boil down to "This person looks/acts not like the others, they are a threat/problem", so why is this so strange as a situation? Heck, canonically, the epilogue of FiM is that the after effects of the villain plot caused a massive wave of rising racism throughout Equestria.
LunaMoth
Wings of Kynareth is my comfort song...
- Pronouns
- He/They
It's such a minor thing, really its not that unbelievable.
I know nothing about MLP, but I think that Equestria has some sort of heavy class structure thing going on, Earth ponies work the fields, Pegasus do the weather control stuff, and Unicorns are supposed to be natural savants at magic. Though I don't think that magic is limited to only Unicorns, they are probably dominant when it comes to magic , since they have a magic wand on their skull. The whole class structure thing then also contributes to the whole preference for Unicorns when it comes to magic?
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This basically yeah /\
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If you go by her near changeling new sense, even if it's not love, it's probably affection
- Location
- Illinois
Let's be real going by thread movement we will have 6 ponies bearing Honesty and then Voice just is over there compensating for Literally The Other Five.
Saphire
Lurking dragon
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hmm
So are there going to be four more extremely competent friends, all with names somehow related to fire, that have some kind of dysphoria and that strive for success through magic/technology?
Seriously though, I feel doubtful this is an "elements, assemble" situation. Well, maybe, but feels a bit silly. Though can see where it's coming from.
Do want to see more friends for Sunset though! And also now we know that meeting Flighty was not Celestia's machination. You could say it was Sunset's, through her own reputation, indirectly, causing this all to happen. Which is funny in hindsight. Doubly so given that I genuinely was wondering if Celestia set that up asap after Sunset's admission about "I want nerds, not (what most recognize as) friends".
So are there going to be four more extremely competent friends, all with names somehow related to fire, that have some kind of dysphoria and that strive for success through magic/technology?
Seriously though, I feel doubtful this is an "elements, assemble" situation. Well, maybe, but feels a bit silly. Though can see where it's coming from.
Do want to see more friends for Sunset though! And also now we know that meeting Flighty was not Celestia's machination. You could say it was Sunset's, through her own reputation, indirectly, causing this all to happen. Which is funny in hindsight. Doubly so given that I genuinely was wondering if Celestia set that up asap after Sunset's admission about "I want nerds, not (what most recognize as) friends".
As far as I understand it, all ponies are equally magical; it's just that the unicorn tribe have a lot more books on magic, while earth ponies and pegasi tend to rely on direct instruction or experimentation.
Because of this, earth ponies and pegasi tend to be very good at what they do every day, while unicorns can learn to do all sorts of things... and often end up being the villain of the week.
I expect Sunset and Cadance will get a lot of mileage out of Flighty's notes on how an earth pony can magic like a unicorn.
It might end up turning into, maybe not the first, but one of the first books on earth pony magic.
I expect there to be a number of books on earth pony magic, and for Sunset to be... disappointed that they're not available more widely.
Because of this, earth ponies and pegasi tend to be very good at what they do every day, while unicorns can learn to do all sorts of things... and often end up being the villain of the week.
I expect Sunset and Cadance will get a lot of mileage out of Flighty's notes on how an earth pony can magic like a unicorn.
It might end up turning into, maybe not the first, but one of the first books on earth pony magic.
I expect there to be a number of books on earth pony magic, and for Sunset to be... disappointed that they're not available more widely.
Edison_Trent
Freelancer
Then an Earth pony doing magic good enough for nobility to custom order it would be a very rare/unique thing and everyone would know that, including Flighty Flame, like a 12 year old competing in the adult olympics or a parapalegic 5 Michelin star chef. But that's not what was shown, so that can't be the case. The cause and effect don't match up in-universe.
That doesn't match up with Sunset's thoughts on how most Unicorns barely use more than telekinesis within grabbing range and a spell or two for their special talent, basically making them no different from Pegasi and Earth ponies, with extendo arms.
Edit: for CELESTIA to custom order it for Sunset. That's a pretty high bar to meet, even if Celestia didn't know which pony was the one actually doing the enchanting.
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derpfen
Somone
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Sure, it would be if her employer wasn't passing off the works as her own, and if Flighty hadn't been conditioned to accept that her work wasn't very good because she wasn't a unicorn.
Edison_Trent
Freelancer
That doesn't match up with a world without any Earth pony magic systems, as who would hire her for her ability to do magic in the first place?
Would a Pegasus hire an Earth pony for their cloudshaping abilities if they didn't believe an Earth pony could shape clouds?
- Location
- Illinois
@Alivaril this is foreshadowing or we riot
Maneburning charms baby
You heard it here folks
"I vish to drink your priiiivacy." -- Vampire of Inscrutable Dreams
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Apartently there used to be a more thriving earth pony magic tradition with every village having a few druids according to Celestia, but the old traditions have fallen out of favor for some reason?
derpfen
Somone
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- He/Him
There are Earth pony magic systems, she learned how to use runes from somewhere after all. Most other ponies automatically view her work as inferior, but nothing's stopping an observant pony from noticing that her work is actually pretty good. It's nearly certain that it's happened before. It's just that those times aren't necessarily well known, especially in Canterlot, and in this instance the observant pony in question took advantage of Flighty instead of helping her out.
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- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- They/Them
IIRC, Celestia said that the codifying of unicorn spells made spells both safer, but also more exclusive as all the info on these spells required unicorn based physiology.
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Alright, this is getting a bit exhausting and it's taking over the thread. I considered writing a longform post going into more detail, but frankly, that would belong in proper story posts. I can say that you are, much like a dizzy pegasus picking a fight with a windmill, effectively railing against problems that do not exist based on a personal interpretation of the way the setting should be working.
For example:
I don't remember ever saying that poor economic status wasn't a significant contributor. It often is in this sort of situation.
There comes a point where there's only so much detail and worldbuilding that I can include at any one time without, say, doing a 10k word infodump that would instead make everyone hate the character being introduced (insert My Immortal copypasta here). That doesn't mean offscreen details, or implied ones, should be interpreted in the worst light.
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Kai Merah
Hound Hearted Hedonist
- Location
- Somewhere in the corners of my imagination
I draw your attention to this bit right here.
TLDR: Earth pony magic was once more common, it got phased out coz basic unicorn magic was more reliable, nowadays no one but oddballs like Flighty would try that kind of 'unreliable' magic.
Perhaps unicorns were more likely to experience accidental lightning bolt to the brain if they screwed up, so made sure to learn younger unicorns what not to do, while pegasi and earth ponies are not as likely to experience potentially terminal problems getting to a minimum level of skill, so they don't do as much formal edumacation.
If you want to learn tricky unicorn things, you go get a book, but for the other two tribes, you need to find a master of the art you're trying to learn.
I wonder if Sunset is going to end up writing a translation guide between the different tribes' magics? In theory it might be feasible to have an earth pony or pegasus arcane caster.
Edit: I expect Sunset is going to learn to be an arcane caster in all available ways just out of sheer perfectionism, if for no other reason.
Equally, I expect she's going to work out how to do any magic she picks up every way she can for much the same reasons.
If you want to learn tricky unicorn things, you go get a book, but for the other two tribes, you need to find a master of the art you're trying to learn.
I wonder if Sunset is going to end up writing a translation guide between the different tribes' magics? In theory it might be feasible to have an earth pony or pegasus arcane caster.
Edit: I expect Sunset is going to learn to be an arcane caster in all available ways just out of sheer perfectionism, if for no other reason.
Equally, I expect she's going to work out how to do any magic she picks up every way she can for much the same reasons.
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fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Maybe earth pony magic is more dependent on emotion and therefor harder to teach?
Edit Ninja maid
So Voice/VOID is using a different name and naming scheme with Flighty as Devourer/DODD? Is that to obfuscate things or to denote that Voice is using a different aspect of themself in this situation?
I was curious about what this was so I Googled it. My eyes burn.
- Location
- The INTERNET!
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Honestly, it's nice seeing Sunset genuinely making a friend that she respects in her peer group.
In terms of elements? Flighty Flame is Loyalty, 100%. Her loyalty is to herself, to Celestia (praise the Sun), and now to her new friend, but I think it's a loyalty that is a bit of a dagger without a hilt. She feels like a bit of a zealot. Sunset is Honesty, not magic, but a far more brutal and cutting honesty that we see with Applejack, and I think that the only thing holding her back from apotheosis is her self-delusion about Celestia's feelings for her.
I don't think we've seen Generosity, Kindness, or Laughter yet, but I actually think VOID is Magic, because she's definitely working at leveraging friendship as much as possible.
In terms of elements? Flighty Flame is Loyalty, 100%. Her loyalty is to herself, to Celestia (praise the Sun), and now to her new friend, but I think it's a loyalty that is a bit of a dagger without a hilt. She feels like a bit of a zealot. Sunset is Honesty, not magic, but a far more brutal and cutting honesty that we see with Applejack, and I think that the only thing holding her back from apotheosis is her self-delusion about Celestia's feelings for her.
I don't think we've seen Generosity, Kindness, or Laughter yet, but I actually think VOID is Magic, because she's definitely working at leveraging friendship as much as possible.
Edison_Trent
Freelancer
Yet in-story she was attempting to go to the places for 'Unicorn' magic instead of those Earth pony places (and there are definitely plenty of Earth pony nobility in Canterlot according to all the scenes shown there, from the GGG to Changeling invasion), getting dismissed or outright barred from entry from places for not having a horn, then spending money on expensive magic books.
Doesn't work with Earth ponies being "commonly" capable of doing stable enchantments on the same output as unicorn magic to the point that no one questioned it for three years under close examination by Unicorns and/or/hired by nobility.
Fine, I'll stop trying to kill "windmills" and go be Ditzy by myself.
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- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Lol, hope Sunset doesn't pull a flaming mane like Twilight did, otherwise with pegasus magic that'd be a literal firestorm.