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For the longest time now we've treated the MLPverse as having fairly decent hax but almost never using it. Particularly Unicorns and other mages. Instead we have their standard battle strategy as "blast with a laser and repeat until their opponent is beat." After looking through the series....this feels very wrong, and I'm about to share my thoughts on why. This is gonna be a long one, so don't read if you plan on skimming.
Part One: Lasers can be Spells
Many spells often take on the form of a laser beam no different or at least very similar in color to a concussive blast. Twilight's failsafe spell, true it failed, but that isn't the point. It is still a spell that looks like a beam. Trixie's teacup spell taking on the form of a magic beam. More transfiguration spells being cast as a beam. Even a teleportation spell taking the form of a magic blast. The Equality Spell is also a beam . Time travel, also a beam. Or at least used to activate the scroll. Not a concussive spell in any case. Crystalization beam. Can be used to activate telekinesis and paralyze the target . Look, the point is that not every spell is necessarily going to be a concussive blast. Many spells can be disguised under the appearance of a laser. Most of them in fact are.
Part Two: It's In-Character to Cast Spells and the times they didn't are PIS, Outlier, or Justified
Using her as an example: Twilight is actually far more willing to use her hax spells than we think.
In this scene she casts a spell to forcibly negate a Changeling's shapeshifting. It should be noted that Changelings do not instantly lose their shapeshifted form when knocked out. He also doesn't lose it all at once, instead losing it as the laser sweeps over his body, further implying that his shapeshifting magic was negated. It really helps that whenever Rainbow Dash punched a shapeshifted Changeling, they didn't lose their shapeshifting where they got hit. This is despite that she was hitting hard enough to knock them out.
When Celestia and Luna banish the giant Turtle with a teleportation spell, Twilight mentions she was planning on doing exactly that. Not blast it and knock it out, but teleport it away. Which reminds me: Celestia and Luna chose to teleport a threat instead of blast it. Their reacton to Sombra was to turn him into shadow and seal him in ice in a single blast. Not destroy him with a concussive spell, just seal him away and take away his pony form (temporarily).
Let's look at her personality.
Spike asks if Twilight knows any spells to turn the Hydra into something harmless, to which she replies she doesn't know any. What is implied here is that if Twilight knew a spell that could "Turn a hydra into a mouse" she'd do it. What stopped her here wasn't that her instincts are to use concussive spells only, but that she simply didn't know a spell to do that.
"She never used it on Tirek, Starlight, or anyone else!" A lot of this shit is lacking some serious context. Lord Tirek: She was overloaded on magic and could barely control her own teleportation, telekinesis, and other spells. In this situation she has the excuse of not being in the condition to properly spell cast.
As for Starlight Glimmer? Ok then, you actually cannot prove she was using pure concussive blasts. See, every single blast either got deflected by shields or dodged. We never saw whether or not they were concussive blasts or spells in the shape of lasers. I can't necessarily prove they were spells, but it can't be proven they were all concussive blasts either as we never saw their effects.
Oh wait, I actually can. The one single time Twilight actually got hit directly, she was crystalized, not burned or bruised. Heck, Starlight's very first attack in the series involved her using a spell to incapacitate her foes, not blast them unconscious. So based on her character at this point in time, there's a very strong chance they were in fact spells. Same goes for Rainbow Dash, the beam didn't hurt her, only stopped her.
Oh, and remember that time Twilight used the crystalization spell twice and it hit filly Rainbow Dash instead? She repeated the same spell to try and stop Starlight instead of using a concussive blast, further reinforcing the idea that the beams could have been spells in the shape of beams.
As for other times like the Roc, Bugbear, Tatzlewurm? The Tatzlewurm has the excuse of having a magically resistant hide. As for the Roc and Bugbear? I'm seriously inclined to call the both of them outliers. It tanks attacks from Twilight literally all day, yet gets knocked to the ground by someone who's tier 6 (soon to be 7 possibly)? With a rope? Not buying it. Not to mention Starlight sent one packing with no effort, making it even more of an outlier than it already is. Same for the Roc. There's no excuse beyond PIS for it to be completely unaffected by Twilight who is comparable to Starswirl yet burned to a crisp by Spike. Unless of course they also have thick hides like a Tatzlewurm does. But of course the only other creature outright stated to have a thick hide is the Maulwurf. Besides, it's only two examples with (questionably) solid evidence anyways. And if we want to argue "Heat durability versus standard durability", I'm here to say: MLP lasers generate heat too.
But the most damning argument against "they barely use their hax"? Every single use of the EoH. Almost every single time they were used, it was to banish, turn to stone, undo mind control and corruption, take away and give back stolen magic, etcetera. There are only a few times where they are actually used to destroy something/someone. So tell me: Why would they primarily use the Elements as hax over concussive blasts when they clearly are able to do the latter? It's almost as if they actually use what hax they have to best their foes.
"But that's only with the Elements of Harmony!" Completely irrelevant to my point here. The point is that when they have access to hax, they typically go for the hax. Unless you want to imply that the EoH mind controls them into using their hax abilities more often, in which case....have fun proving it. There's no reason to randomly use hax more often with the Elements when she can already do that hax. It's always been in character for Twilight to use a spell to deal with her problems, be it with parasprites, pests, mutated bat ponies, Discord, Discord's chaos. It's rarely been "Blast the target into submission."
I'm not saying that their first instinct is going to be transfiguration or mind control. The chances of it being a laser are still good. But I'm positive that there is a far higher chance of them using a spell than we think. A good enough chance that it can actually be used as an argument for a win condition. Certainly far higher than "they'll almost never use it" It completely goes against their character, when the chances of them using a spell of blast could go either way.
Part One: Lasers can be Spells
Many spells often take on the form of a laser beam no different or at least very similar in color to a concussive blast. Twilight's failsafe spell, true it failed, but that isn't the point. It is still a spell that looks like a beam. Trixie's teacup spell taking on the form of a magic beam. More transfiguration spells being cast as a beam. Even a teleportation spell taking the form of a magic blast. The Equality Spell is also a beam . Time travel, also a beam. Or at least used to activate the scroll. Not a concussive spell in any case. Crystalization beam. Can be used to activate telekinesis and paralyze the target . Look, the point is that not every spell is necessarily going to be a concussive blast. Many spells can be disguised under the appearance of a laser. Most of them in fact are.
Part Two: It's In-Character to Cast Spells and the times they didn't are PIS, Outlier, or Justified
Using her as an example: Twilight is actually far more willing to use her hax spells than we think.
In this scene she casts a spell to forcibly negate a Changeling's shapeshifting. It should be noted that Changelings do not instantly lose their shapeshifted form when knocked out. He also doesn't lose it all at once, instead losing it as the laser sweeps over his body, further implying that his shapeshifting magic was negated. It really helps that whenever Rainbow Dash punched a shapeshifted Changeling, they didn't lose their shapeshifting where they got hit. This is despite that she was hitting hard enough to knock them out.
When Celestia and Luna banish the giant Turtle with a teleportation spell, Twilight mentions she was planning on doing exactly that. Not blast it and knock it out, but teleport it away. Which reminds me: Celestia and Luna chose to teleport a threat instead of blast it. Their reacton to Sombra was to turn him into shadow and seal him in ice in a single blast. Not destroy him with a concussive spell, just seal him away and take away his pony form (temporarily).
Let's look at her personality.
Spike asks if Twilight knows any spells to turn the Hydra into something harmless, to which she replies she doesn't know any. What is implied here is that if Twilight knew a spell that could "Turn a hydra into a mouse" she'd do it. What stopped her here wasn't that her instincts are to use concussive spells only, but that she simply didn't know a spell to do that.
"She never used it on Tirek, Starlight, or anyone else!" A lot of this shit is lacking some serious context. Lord Tirek: She was overloaded on magic and could barely control her own teleportation, telekinesis, and other spells. In this situation she has the excuse of not being in the condition to properly spell cast.
As for Starlight Glimmer? Ok then, you actually cannot prove she was using pure concussive blasts. See, every single blast either got deflected by shields or dodged. We never saw whether or not they were concussive blasts or spells in the shape of lasers. I can't necessarily prove they were spells, but it can't be proven they were all concussive blasts either as we never saw their effects.
Oh wait, I actually can. The one single time Twilight actually got hit directly, she was crystalized, not burned or bruised. Heck, Starlight's very first attack in the series involved her using a spell to incapacitate her foes, not blast them unconscious. So based on her character at this point in time, there's a very strong chance they were in fact spells. Same goes for Rainbow Dash, the beam didn't hurt her, only stopped her.
Oh, and remember that time Twilight used the crystalization spell twice and it hit filly Rainbow Dash instead? She repeated the same spell to try and stop Starlight instead of using a concussive blast, further reinforcing the idea that the beams could have been spells in the shape of beams.
As for other times like the Roc, Bugbear, Tatzlewurm? The Tatzlewurm has the excuse of having a magically resistant hide. As for the Roc and Bugbear? I'm seriously inclined to call the both of them outliers. It tanks attacks from Twilight literally all day, yet gets knocked to the ground by someone who's tier 6 (soon to be 7 possibly)? With a rope? Not buying it. Not to mention Starlight sent one packing with no effort, making it even more of an outlier than it already is. Same for the Roc. There's no excuse beyond PIS for it to be completely unaffected by Twilight who is comparable to Starswirl yet burned to a crisp by Spike. Unless of course they also have thick hides like a Tatzlewurm does. But of course the only other creature outright stated to have a thick hide is the Maulwurf. Besides, it's only two examples with (questionably) solid evidence anyways. And if we want to argue "Heat durability versus standard durability", I'm here to say: MLP lasers generate heat too.
But the most damning argument against "they barely use their hax"? Every single use of the EoH. Almost every single time they were used, it was to banish, turn to stone, undo mind control and corruption, take away and give back stolen magic, etcetera. There are only a few times where they are actually used to destroy something/someone. So tell me: Why would they primarily use the Elements as hax over concussive blasts when they clearly are able to do the latter? It's almost as if they actually use what hax they have to best their foes.
"But that's only with the Elements of Harmony!" Completely irrelevant to my point here. The point is that when they have access to hax, they typically go for the hax. Unless you want to imply that the EoH mind controls them into using their hax abilities more often, in which case....have fun proving it. There's no reason to randomly use hax more often with the Elements when she can already do that hax. It's always been in character for Twilight to use a spell to deal with her problems, be it with parasprites, pests, mutated bat ponies, Discord, Discord's chaos. It's rarely been "Blast the target into submission."
I'm not saying that their first instinct is going to be transfiguration or mind control. The chances of it being a laser are still good. But I'm positive that there is a far higher chance of them using a spell than we think. A good enough chance that it can actually be used as an argument for a win condition. Certainly far higher than "they'll almost never use it" It completely goes against their character, when the chances of them using a spell of blast could go either way.
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