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08/03/11(Wed)12:46 No.28342583>>28341488
tl;dr - Twilight's mark isn't magic, as she supposes. It's organization, either in leadership or performing magic:
Twilight understands magic like geeks understand programming. She has to build a process step-by-step and run it. For groups or types of things, run the procedure iteratively or en-masse. She can't just make magic happen, which is why she goes nuts when Pinkie Pie can just sense stuff: it goes against everything she already knows about the earth magic of earthponies.
Her organized research and planning was the key during Boast Busters; if she hadn't tried, as a mental exercise, to work out how to defeat a rampaging Ursa Minor, Ponyville would have been flattened, and ponies trampled, eaten, or otherwise slain or injured.
Her leadership (her insistence on bringing Fluttershy) also turned Rainbow Dash's impulsive dragon-kicking from a catastrophe into a catalyst for Flutterrage^Stare.
Contrast that with Swarm of the Century. Her first plan, to herd them in a ball, was organized and successful. But Fluttershy kept one that became a whole swarm, then Pinkie Pie ruined Rainbow Dash's tornado spin. That's when the panic and time-based stress kicked in.
"Oh noes, they're eating the food! I'll make them not eat food!"
"Oh noes, they're eating Ponyville! Rainbow Dash, you distract them! Everyone else, make an exact replica of Ponyville right over there." |
