My Little Pony XXXIX: There is no Pegasus Mafia!

[SlyGuyMcFly]

That probably seems quite disjointed, as I'm just throwing out my thoughts here. TL;DR: How do you think the average unicorn learns magic? Mostly natural aptitude, or studying magic? And could a unicorn learn a spell that is outside their area of expertise (i.e. could Rarity learn a cloudwalking spell if she really studied hard?)

Well we know Rarity can cast the Locate Gemstones spell naturally, and she doesn't seem to cast anything other that Locate Gemstones and the basic cantrip-level TK. Only two other unicorns seem to know any magic aside from that: Trixie and Twilight. We know Twilight has a totally hax Talent, and thus doesn't really count for this discussion. We also have no idea how Trixie came upon her magic. So there's really very little to go on.

But my hunch is that most unicorns don't know magic. They get on with basic TK the way most Pegasi just use their wings to get from A to B. At most, they have a single spell they developed naturally. However, all unicorns can learn magic if they bother - again, like a Pegasus who trains willl be a better flyer, a unicorn that trains will be better at magic. Obviously natural talent (not Talent, like Twi has) will factor in how good they get at it.

I'm pretty sure 'wizard' is a legitimate career path for unicorns.