That is an excellent theory, kegi.

Nahhh.

Ooh, and Daisy at the beginning of "Look Before You Sleep"!

WE CRACKED THE CODE, it all makes sense now.

Well sniffing the air seems plausible. Anyway, the CMC were just trying random stuff without any thought to whether it would make a good CM.

FAD?

Family Apriecation Day.

@Orion: SOME Earth Ponies. Earth Ponies as a whole would have degree of 'sense' for their given talent, in the way that each unicorn has a spell for theirs or a pegasi in theory has magic related to theirs. It would just be that sometimes in the case of an Earth pony that 'knack' is for something that appears to be random.

Why am I finding this thread harder to follow than usual?

Like how only RD makes rainbow themed tricks?

I don't know, but so am I.

I think I'm just not following it as carefully as I normally do. I've been in-and-out all day. Yay, modding!

There's that, yeah. Also she likely has some speed magic, since she breaks most laws of physics to reach her speeds.

edited 3rd Jul '12 7:03:33 PM by kegisak

@Kegi: So, a pony has some sort of "extra" ability related to their talent? Is that what you are saying?

I always thought RD's CM gave her a boost.

Eh, I'd rather not think that cutie marks actually bestow additional talent, because you have to find that talent to even earn them in the first place. With the RD example, she performed a Sonic Rainboom to earn her mark, and that's her highest level trick, even after years of practice.

Now, mildly supernatural senses regarding one's talent are actually really cool, and make sense with ponies being naturally magical to begin with.

edited 3rd Jul '12 7:10:42 PM by PerpetualLurker

Effectively, yes. We've seen it rather handily demonstrated several times, in fact. We know that Unicorns all have a magical 'knack' for a certain spell related to their talent. This is canon. We have seen pegasi circumvent the laws of reality in order to do something related to their talent. It really only makes sense that E Ps would therefor develop a similar 'knack' for their given talent. In some ways one could say that all EP's are low-level psychics of some manner or another, in usually very specific fields. Sometimes that ability manifests itself parallel to the talent itself(In Pinkie's case and likely Big Mac's as well; his super strength may come from subconscious telekinesis), and in some cases the knack manifests for such a talent that it appears to be a standard psychic ability.

Ponies like Pinkie and Mac are the Earth Pony equivalent of Twilight: Extraordinarily powerful, in a more broad or even holistic fasion.

Of course were one to chicken-and-egg it, I believe the talent comes first. The CM is probably the magical manifestation of one's acceptance of their knack, and serves as a reinforcement loop - Their powers excel with belief, so they bestow themselves with something that fosters belief and, therefore, keeps the power strong.

edited 3rd Jul '12 7:11:39 PM by kegisak

Yeah, I could see that working.

I'm head canoning this.

-Thinks about my "special" special talent- I'm not sure what mine is.

@ Kegi the whole CM's are only a physical sign of the already innate talents of a pony and don't directly effect anything has been my headcannon for ages.

Say keg, got any powers for Fizzy in mind?

I think your interests cause the CM, rather than the reverse.

Has anyone ever read the Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card? The magic system in that series actually worked pretty similar to that. Different races had different natural magic talents. Black people could infuse physical objects with magic and perform "voodoo" style sacrificial magic, Native Americans had a sort of "nature sense", and white people all had different pseudo-psychic "knacks", almost exactly like Kegi hypothesizes for the Earth Ponies. It really was cool. I just wish I could find the books past the fourth anywhere...

edited 3rd Jul '12 7:19:36 PM by PerpetualLurker

I have, or at least all the books I know about. Was that series ever finished?

Same here.

@Applelight: Well, given that he builds soda powered robots, maybe Gadgeteer Genius or something like that.

edited 3rd Jul '12 7:19:34 PM by JapaneseTeeth

I was able to find up to Heartfire at my library, but they're definitely hard to find. I never did read The Crystal City.