POV: That's actually worse, sorry. And it doesn't matter how big a part it plays in the series; it's part of the worldbuilding, and thus informs the series.

Counterspell: That may be true, but there's a bit of difference between dispelling an enchantment cast by a powerful, but still inexperienced student and directly blocking (as opposed to shunting) an attack spell performed by an opponent in the same weight class.

Rearrranging continents: Fair, I'll cede that point. Though given the way Celestia and Chrysalis fought (by your reckoning, by far the most magic power we've seen thrown around in the show to date, and more than twice sufficient to destroy the sun), I'd argue that combat laser beams, as opposed to a magic duel by other means, has precedent.

"Not that the difference was big enough": My point, that 'easily' is a relative term, stands.

Ambush: After they threw down the anthropomorphic personification of chaos and strife? That's the sort of thing evil dictators tend to take notice of.

'If I can kill you first': If. That was kind of my point when I mentioned a struggle.

Motives: I disagree. If we take the demonstrated fact that Nightmare Moon is more powerful than Celestia in conjunction with the assumption that Celestia can destroy the solar system, then analyzing her motives - eternal night and, through that, misery and eventual genocide - it becomes less likely that she would resort to parlor tricks up to and beyond the point where she expected to be sealed again.

@Ace: I'm just sort of dancing around our current discussion, but that's a nice human Twi.

edited 28th Nov '12 5:40:07 AM by edvedd

Sorry, guys. =) Didn't mean to take over the chat. I'm done arguing this.

I'm not mad, just unable to add anything.

As if I needed more reasons to read the comic.

I'm seriously trying to convince myself not to pirate it, especially considering among my friends piracy is almost the norm, to the point one of them is a cinema expert without having bought a ticket in ten years.

Still amused Scoots did that to Babs in her excitement, lol.

Scoots in general seems to lack a sense of personal space.

I've never seen Nightmare Moon as being more powerful than Celestia TBH. She was basically just Luna with fancy dressing and fangs.

Sweetie doesn't seem to mind Scoots climbing up her back and riding on her head.

Eh, point. As I said, I don't agree with that anyway.

Again, point. But it's two on one here.

True. I think that Celestia just expected to quickly fry Chrysalis there, though and Chrysalis was just acting in desperation.

They had amost twice as much power on their side.

We don't even know if he had been born yet! He may not have even known!

My point is that whether or not there is a struggle has nothing to do with the power levels involved.

[[/quoteblock]] Motives: I disagree. If we take the demonstrated fact that Nightmare Moon is more powerful than Celestia in conjunction with the assumption that Celestia can destroy the solar system, then analyzing her motives - eternal night and, through that, misery and eventual genocide - it becomes less likely that she would resort to parlor tricks up to and beyond the point where she expected to be sealed again. [[/quoteblock]]

We saw that she's capable of using lethal tactics. But we must remember that she's doing this for attention.

EDIT: Sorry to those annoyed by the power level discussion.

edited 28th Nov '12 5:57:28 AM by Sereg

Although there are arguments that support NMM being stronger, the fact that she, unlike Celestia, was not holding back would have been a big enough advantage for her to defeat Celestia normally.

Oh, and the comic holds Flutterrage

edited 28th Nov '12 5:55:11 AM by Lopiny

@Ace: You mean the butt thing? Honestly Scoots, that's not a thing you do to ponies you barely know. At least become friends first.

She'd get plenty of attention after she dispatched the people who threatened, and then ended, her reign. Admittedly, that might be a shortcoming in her personally (showboating before actually winning and all that), but I'd still expect something more along the lines of a mile-high shadow wall or an illusion spell beamed directly into their minds; the fact that the little wisp of shadow that causes all the trouble the girls have along the way is both consistent (that is, it splits itself entirely to form the Shadowbolts and reforms when they fail) and small that Nightmare Moon (and by extension Celestia) does indeed have limits.

(That said, I don't think Celestia fought Nightmare Moon during the Nightmare Solstice, not knowing that she couldn't seal or purify her. During the Nightmare Eclipse, though, I have no doubt that they reshaped the landscape around them.)

@Ed: yeah. What's more, her wings pop up as she does it.

Now now, let's not bring THAT into it. That may not mean anything.

In Scoots' defense, her wings are like that almost all the time.

Keep in mind wing extension means excitement of all sorts, not necessarily sexual. =P

Trixxie

Exactly.

Where nopony could see it?

Besides, give her a break. She's just broken out of prison, kicked her sister into the sun and is now holding the sun and moon in place.

Well, when she went back to ruling, yeah.

The Laughing Mare

When did Nightmare Moon spontaneously gain the ability to kick ponies into celestial bodies?

Something my friend made.◊

My solution to the issue of "she can move the sun so she can crush the world" is that the more specific a spell is in function, the more efficient and powerful it is. Telekinesis is very loose in purpose, as it can affect just about anything, so it's not very efficient. I doubt even a hundred Celestias could move the sun with normal Telekinesis. Consider, though, a spell that does only one thing, and in a very specific way, namely set the sun, and only the sun, in a very specific orbit. Something that specific is powerful enough to do its job, and even then it takes the collective unicorn tribe to pull it off. Celestia has power equal to that of several hundred average unicorns, but I personally wouldn't put her past "leveling a mountain" in terms of strength.

Okay, last one.

I kinda like that solution.