@youregoingtoloveme  
If that’s the case, that makes it tragic there.  
The truth for Spike was right there and yet Garble screwed him over big time.

only from sombra war time? what of changeling timeline? what is her fate on this time line?

@stargrazer  
Happen to know where/when she said this? Just curious since I haven’t looked into her statements on the show much.

@redweasel  
According to Faust they were supposed to fail the test, it was only about testing how they tried to do it and how the egg reacted to their magic.

most interesting part about never showing alt twilight, is we still don’t know if the test was rigged. was twilight expected to fail it, and admitted into magic school anyway? the rainboom made her celestia’s personal protegé, but was that test really what fillies had to succeed at to get admitted?

@Background Pony #6C41  
My headcanon (until canonically proven wrong) is that the letter that Garble destroyed in Dragon Quest contained information regarding the circumstances of how Spike’s egg came to be in the possession of the school. When Spike wrote Celestia a letter (prior to Pee Wee’s hatching), Sun Butt assumed that Spike received the letter, followed through with searching for his origin, and came to the conclusion that we hear in his letter to her.

@Background Pony #6F96  
That does seem like the easiest scenario for how they got a hold of a dragon egg, but my only problem with that theory is it doesn’t sound very thematic does it? I’ve thought about an almost identical explanation before myself, but I have the same problems with it here.
 
If anything, at least with knowing nothing about his origins, this dragon egg acquisition idea is plausible to the point of being too plausible, and it doesn’t have much potential for story. If Spike’s parents were just two random dragons that lost their egg, its kind of a mundane backstory that doesn’t have to do with anyone or anything.
 
My personal theory is that Celestia and Luna knew the dragon’s father when they were young themselves, even prior to their semi-canon backstory where they were 2 older teen alicorns in Canterlot before they were made princesses. For some reason or another, as they grew up and their dragon companion married and even had a child, Spike’s parents met with a terrible fate or curse while protecting Celestia’s kingdom, and for a similar reason, Spike’s egg wouldn’t hatch. As a result, the father entrusted the egg to Celestia, hoping one day Celestia would find someone’s magic that would unlock and hatch Spike’s egg.

@Background Pony #6C41  
Who knows, maybe they’ll reveal it one day…
 
And if it is gonna be revealed one day, it better be a good one. Give us a reason why the egg was in Celestia’s possesion?
 
My theory was that Spike’s homeland came under attack by a rival clan of dragons and his parents ran away with the egg. A while later, they ended up on the border with Equestria. They might’ve dropped the egg (Either due to bad weather or an attack by rival dragons) but, thankfully, a unicorn noticed a falling object heading straight for them and used their magic to grab it. Not having a clue where its parents are (Due to them, again, being driven off by dragons or bad weather), the unicorn decides to take it to Canterlot. Much later, it was given to Celestia’s School of Gifted Unicorns as the test.

@Background Pony #6F96  
I was going to say something sarcastic along the lines ‘That was already kind of obvious IN-show with Discord being the perfect stand-in for Q’…but nah, you bring up a good point. :)
 
Kind of wished it was brought up within the show, but then again, we don’t know jack shit about Spike’s parents, so its good luck having Celestia spill the beans on what she knows about Spike’s dragon egg.

@Background Pony #EF49  

 
@Fwelin  

 
Expected to fail eh? Kinda like the Kobayashi Maru…
 
Looks like someone working on the show watched Star Trek :P

@Fwelin  
You actually replied after several days? And holy shit dude, if I was even to address all the biased, non deductive reasoning you just pulled out of your ass in that giant comment, I’d be here most of the day.
 
I have better things to do with my time then argue with a Twilight fanboy this obsessed.
 
The only argument you gave that I admit had some merit was the thing about the egg. Its possible that before the magic in her body didn’t become totally overwhelming, she did use some of the magic flowing to activate the egg. Normally, one wouldn’t think about finishing a test during what felt like an earthquake, but Twilight’s NEVER had her priorities straight.
 
But even then, that argument of yours didn’t lead anywhere in the first place. If anything it outlined my reasoning further, that there is a limit to how much of the magic in her body she can control. But at least as a late teen/young adult, it doesn’t go out of control and random unless she is really angry or distressed. Other unicorns don’t have that problem even with similar levels of magic,
 
The biggest problem with your argument is its logic is fundamentally flawed when you consider Twilight. For one thing , skills do not equal cutie marks initially, but once you HAVE cutie marks, if they are taken away and replaced, its essentially removes all skills and things special about you.
 
But the second and more major thing is that Twilight isn’t like any other pony when it comes to her cutie mark. All ponies, before they have their cutie mark, have the skills and quality active in them since an incredibly young age, long before they get their cutie marks. Cutie Marks appear once they attain the true essense of their destiny, at least on some level. AJ was a natural apple pony long before she got her cutie mark, Rainbow Dash was always fast, etc.
 
Twilight had intelligence and the theory of magic down, but as a child her amount of magic was unbelievably low. Compared to any other pony, this should not be possible! Her skillset was limited to, appropriately, natural telekinesis with books. Despite her efforts, its only natural it would be that way…Twilight said Unicorn magic was based on will. Twilight herself is an easily manipulated idolizer with Hyperdepenency towards Celestia; her will and morals bend and fold to please another, and that has only recently started to change.
 
A cutie mark should never give power that the own person cannot control, because that defeats the purpose of it being formed by the person’s heart and will. On the other hand, Twilight’s cutie mark was on the tree that originally contained 6 elements of harmony, and her element has nothing to do with morality, so its possible that THAT mark at least is bound by the magic that initially activates the elements. Her destiny as a pony, unaided by the rainboom, could of been a combination of librarian and magical theory scientist. Her destiny as a hero of harmony, on the other hand, is something completely out of her hand, for better or for worse. In a timeline without the rainboom, Twilight might never have gotten that power surge of magic, which is still not completely explained, because compared to other ponies who’s talents appear beforehand, that timeline never needed her become the Element of Magic. It was already a doomed timeline.

@Background Pony #6C41  
No, in other words Twilight was an untrained magic user with an order of magnitude more magic than she could control at that age, all being unleashed at once because of how badly she was startled, not that there was anything fundamentally “wrong” with her. If you had any filly in the world suddenly be hit by that surge, none of them would have done better.
 
Your magic is not “powered” by your cutie mark. Rarity’s magic was exactly the same as when she had Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark as it was when she had her own cutie mark, or else she would have had pegasus magic, not unicorn magic. Your cutie mark and your magic are both based on and connected to your talents, since they’re both a reflection of your true self, but they are not the same thing as one another. Starswirl’s incomplete spell in MMC explicitly changed more than just their cutie marks, as stated by Twilight herself.
 
Go rewatch Twilight getting her cutie mark. Her horn was pointing diagonally upward when the sonic rainboom happened, not towards the egg. Right after it happened, she lowered her head, pointing her horn at the egg, and then clenched her teeth in effort. It was only after Spike hatched that she lost control of her magic.
 
Again, look at the expression of concentration Twilight has when she hatches Spike’s egg, before she loses full control.
 
I could have, but I can’t edit my posts, and I don’t make additional posts for additional points until the other responds.
 
You keep saying that there is so much evidence, but it means nothing if you don’t actually bring anything up. If anything, the past few episodes go against them having special destinies or bonuses before getting the elements, considering that The Cutie Re-mark shows them doing completely normal pony jobs, and not able to save the world, after the event that leads them to discovering the elements of harmony is disrupted. Even if the elements of harmony had never existed, Twilight would still be incredible at magic, Rainbow Dash would still be incredibly fast, etc.
 
How so? All we’ve seen Starlight do that was impressive in terms of picking things up was modify Starswirl’s spell, but she had a month or more to do it, and she herself specifically said that it was a much easier task than what Starswirl did to create it. In comparison, Twilight learned to use dark magic after seeing it once, completed the spell Starswirl couldn’t in a single day, effortlessly mimicked Starlight’s crystal stasis spell after seeing it once, etc. The element of magic never affected Twilight’s will, nor did it give her a power boost, unlike the alicorn amulet and Inspiration Manifestation. The latter, especially, was an incredibly simple “think of a change and the book’s magic will do it”. And no, I am not a particular Twilight fan. She’s only around middling in terms of my favorite major characters, but I know that the show has been very consistent and clear on just how much of a magical prodigy she is, in both evidence and themes.
 
Zecora said that Twilight could beat her, which she did when she used her friends. Zecora never, not even once, said that Twilight was going to outmuscle her in unicorn magic. Even from the beginning, all of her training was to teach Twilight calmness and concentration, not better or more powerful magic. Zecora explicitly said that Twilight had learned all her lessons except the last, when she was introducing the last lesson. The episode was purposefully making the watchers think Zecora was talking about making Twilight stronger than alicorn amulet Trixie, but the reveal at the end was that she was talking about the “magic” (not literal this time) of friendship. And yes, sleight-of-hand and illusions take great amounts of concentration.
 
Twilight used Starlight’s version of the spell as a base, but Starlight’s exact version of the spell was designed to take her to that specific moment in time, as shown when Spike touched the paper. Twilight had to input her own goal time to go back earlier. No, it’s not as impressive as the modifications Starlight made to it, but Twilight didn’t spend weeks/months to fiddle with it.
 
The alterations were Starlight’s; she built upon Starswirl’s base, and specifically admitted that said base was much harder to create than the modifications she did. They called it Starlight’s spell because she was the one who changed it, not because she was the one that created it.
 
None of that changes that every single time we saw someone’s cutie mark, it was exactly the same. Cutie marks are an expression of your true self, as stated by Twilight and Luna, which means that in this series, you will always get the same one regardless of the path you take in life (barring magical shenanigans). Rarity still had her cutie mark in NMM land, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy still found their callings (home, clothing, and animals, respectively) in Sombra land, and Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack all had to have had their normal cutie marks in Chrysalis land in order for the changelings to imitate them. We never even saw Pinkie Pie’s flank in Sombra land, so for all we know, she has it, and organizes parties between battles to cheer up the soldiers. Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark isn’t loyalty, so that’s completely irrelevant. Heck, you claim that the elements affected the bearers even before they got the artifacts, so wouldn’t Rainbow being so inherently disloyal be impossible? Having a different path in life does not change what your special talent is; it might cause you to find it much later (or perhaps never find it and always be a blank flank), but you won’t suddenly get a different one.
 
It’s a good thing that that was not season 5’s theme. You accuse me of being a Twilight fanboy, but it seems much more likely to me that you’re a Twilight anti-fanboy, instead. The season’s theme (other than cutie marks) as related to Twilight was about her feeling insecure about her ability to be a proper Princess of Friendship, because she was putting the job on a pedestal as someone only a literally perfect avatar of friendship (which she isn’t, and she managed to admit this later on) could fulfill. Amending Fences, What About Discord?, and The Hooffields and the Mccolts were all building towards Twilight realizing this. And no, Twilight did address Starlight’s past by saying that Starlight could have worked through it, by either putting an effort in reestablishing contact later, or failing that, making new friends. Twilight’s point was that no, Equestria isn’t perfect, and people can get hurt by things like in Starlight’s point, but friendship can help you get through things like that. As for Party Pooped, did you not see when Celestia said “and your friends”? She’s not omniscient, nor should she be expected to be, but she still knew that Twilight didn’t do it by herself.
 
We don’t know how Starlight convinced the other villagers to share her views, but it’s clear that many of them did not like the situation they were in (and were only still there because Starlight convinced them that the alternative was worse), and that she had a reeducation cell she was not unwilling to use on her own citizens if they showed a single sign of stepping out of line. People as charismatic as Starlight can convince you that things that are clearly against your better interest are the best option, especially once the first few converts are done, who give everyone who comes later a “they agreed, so maybe it’s not so bad” effect. FIM is not a complex show; Starlight was meant to be seen as completely in the wrong, no matter how successful she was at convincing people otherwise.

@mrdoctorderpy  
Those who didn’t are wrong.
 
I’m a BP, I’m obviously right.

@Background Pony #EF49  
You do know that not everyone thought season three was shit right?

@Fwelin  
*(…especially involving merit. That’s not to say that Starlight’s ideology didn’t have major problems in them, which also eventually lead to villainy when she tried to force it upon the Mane 6, but remember that despite the 3 who didn’t like the alternative Starlight provided, everyone volunteered to have their cutie marks removed cause they felt similarly screwed by their cutie marks, heck Troubleshoes would of done it in an instant, and the majority of the people only rejected her ways once they felt betrayed by the mere fact Starlight couldn’t maintain the town without her own cutie mark.)

@Fwelin  
“However, if there’s a problem with the computer, then the outputs can be unpredictable. Unicorn magic is like the computer, and her having more magic than she can control is the problem that causes unoredictable effects. It’s still normal unicorn magic.”
 
So in other words, Twilight’s will or her mind or whatever is a deep fried wreck compared to other people with similar magical talent? Putting aside that you are trying to deny a canon differentiation said out loud in S4’s finale about how Twiight’s magic can do things differently, just for the sake of your little headcanon, your alternative doesn’t paint Twilight any better, especially with her learning curve. Are you sure that’s what you want your stance to be? :/
 
“You remember that the swapping of the cutie marks did not swap their talents or species, right? All of what Rarity did in that episode is all her and her unicorn magic, and yet she couldn’t control it despite it being her will.”
 
Of course she couldn’t control it with her will. Her will and RD’s cutie mark were incompatible. Most people can control the power of their own cutie marks because its their spirit that manifested them. The Element of Magic and its foretold cutie mark is an unfortunate destiny since it requires you to have a massive amount of magical energy no matter what, without having to have a strong morality or a strong personality. Having Rarity suddenly have to use her magic powered by Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark, which was triggered by a feat they’ve defined multiple times as something that should be impossible, is a similar burden to bear.
 
Rarity with Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark could easily relate to Twilight as she was growing up with her cutie mark, at least in terms of having a destiny of power their personal selves are not prepared to control.
 
“Yes she was, or else the first beam wouldn’t have gone straight to spike, but would have been aimed more randomly like everything else she did. “
 
Since the egg was right in front of the direction of Twilight’s horn at the time, a unicorn’s tool for dischaging magic, true on-the-spot intention seems unlikely especially considering Twilight’s not known for thinking on her feet.
 
“And yes, because what matters is what she was thinking when it started and she had her surge, before she even realized what was going on.”
 
That doesn’t sound like intentional casting at all. It sounds more like accidental but fortuitus discharge. Your stretches are getting waaaaay out of hand here.
 
“I was in the middle of typing (which is slow on mobile), and reloading the page to see your new comment would erase my progress. “
 
You could of reloaded after you posted. Everyone does that if your using a device that doesn’t show updates when you post.
 
“And no, their destinies as the elements of harmony have never been implied to give them special abilities before they put on the elememts. Heck, it’s not even confirmed that the other five elements couldn’t have gone to completely differenf ponies.”
 
There is so much canonical evidense wrong with those statements, in the last few episodes no less, I don’t even know where to begin.
 
That aside, at the very least, none of the Mane 6 reached their full potential. Since the others had elements based on being pinnicles of a morality, not a physical ability like magic, its natural them not having them wouldn’t be as clear cut. But without the Elements of Harmony, doomed timelines had no need for the most physical and less character-based of elements.
 
“Twilight has greater skill because she picks up or learns new spells and concepts faster. “
 
Starlight’s acuity seems even faster. And with power boosts as unnatural to the normal will as the Element of Magic, Trixie and Rarity managed to perform advanced spells or create new spells on the fly from almost anything they desired, far, FAR faster then Twilight’s shown skill.
 
Anything more on this subject is mere speculation, but it is clear you are an incredibly biased Twilight fan.
 
“When Zecora said that Twilight had the potential to match Trixie with the Alicorn Amulet, she was specifically talking about Twilight using her friends like she ended up doing.”
 
She initally said that Twilight could beat her, and WAS trying to increase her skill in magic initially. But when progress wasn’t going well, as demonstrated in the scenes, Zecora stated that Twilight had learned all she could teach Twilight. Which wasn’t that much, since she wasn’t that receptive. So the final lesson involved less training, and more trickery and turnabout.
 
Now to be fair to Twilight, it was sort of a rush job, so even if Twilight’s skill did increase well, which it didn’t, it wouldn’t of increased fast enough to stop Trixie in a timely manner. Either way, Zecora told Twilight exactly what she needed to here to solve the situation.
 
Unless your trying to tell me intense meditation with magic is a huge part of slight-of-hand and illusions. :/
 
“Twilight herself modified it after the first alternate world expedition so that she could go back to the past at a different point in time than before” “Finally, it was never stated or implied that Starlight could recreate the spell if she didn’t have the scroll.”
 
A full blown lie this time…not really much of a shocker. Twilight literally said she was just using Starlight’s version of the spell to go to a different time(which is probobly dependent on the person who activates it), yet beyond the destination, she couldn’t alter the spell at all! Starlight said it was her spell, and Twilight discovered she had no capability of sending herself back without sending Starlight to the same time.
 
And since this altered spell was fully Starlight’s, the idea that she couldn’t recreate it is 100% nonsensical.
 
“  
Are YOU feeling alright? It was stated several times that preventing the mane six from getting their cutie marks was not Starlight’s goal; preventing them from getting their cutie marks at the same time, and thus establishing their connection with each other, was her goal. Applejack still learned that her place is on her farm, Fluttershy still learned about her affinity with animals, etc; they just happened later, and didn’t connect the six of them.”
 
Are you really willing to twist the truth that much!?! Its nurture combating nature, some of the Mane 6 got closer to their original destiny then others, varying DRASTICALLY in different timelines, and in the first timeline, Pinkie clearly never got a humor/party based cutie mark, she became a rock-breaking bracer like her sister Maud. And in another timeline, Rainbow Dash became a disloyal goon of Nightmare Moon.
 
“Also, lol at her convictions being stronger and less naive than Twilight’s, when Twilight explicitly said that she would fight Starlight for eternity if necessary, and in a series where it’s explicitly shown repeatedly that Twilight’s view on friendship is correct, not Starlight’s”
 
Not watched any of S5 eh? The whole theme was that part of Celestia’s teachings which Twilight is completely close-minded about believing, have their major flaws, especially involving merit. (Heck, Celestia herself showed she believed Twilight was worthy of all the credit for the accomplishments of her friends, like Pinkie Pie’s lack of credit in the Yak episode.) Flaws that do happen in other people’s lives where Twilight’s narrow view doesn’t have answers. In the end, she didn’t have an answer for Starlight on the problems of the past, the only thing she suggested was a support group for the now, while the source of Starlights problems could still happen to anybody and would go completely ignored by Celestia.
 
Either way, its become painfully obvious your bias for Twilight is overwhelming. Even if we did discuss things over, from your unreasonable responses so far, its clear it wouldn’t accomplish anything. So there’s really no point.
 
See ya.

@Background Pony #6C41  
Right, it’s not supposed to work like that because Twilight is talking about how unicorn magic properly works, not that it only works like that. Take this analogy; computers work by taking inputs that users put into them and responding with outputs that the users expect based on the inputs. However, if there’s a problem with the computer, then the outputs can be unpredictable. Unicorn magic is like the computer, and her having more magic than she can control is the problem that causes unoredictable effects. It’s still normal unicorn magic.
 
You remember that the swapping of the cutie marks did not swap their talents or species, right? All of what Rarity did in that episode is all her and her unicorn magic, and yet she couldn’t control it despite it being her will.
 
Yes she was, or else the first beam wouldn’t have gone straight to spike, but would have been aimed more randomly like everything else she did. And yes, because what matters is what she was thinking when it started and she had her surge, before she even realized what was going on.
 
I was in the middle of typing (which is slow on mobile), and reloading the page to see your new comment would erase my progress. And no, their destinies as the elements of harmony have never been implied to give them special abilities before they put on the elememts. Heck, it’s not even confirmed that the other five elements couldn’t have gone to completely differenf ponies.
 
No the show has never, ever implied that Twilight, or any of the other five, have gotten a bonus for being thr bearers of the elements, nor has it implied that Celestia or Luna did, either. Again, you are confusing experience with skill. There are ponies that have greater ability in magic than Twilight (like Celestia, or the unnamed ponies that can pull off aging spells unaugmented), but that is a product of their greater experience, not skill. Twilight has greater skill because she picks up or learns new spells and concepts faster. As an analogy, consider a high school physics teacher as compared to a 15 year old Einstein. The teacher has more experience learning the required material, so they can solve more physics related problems, but Einstein picks up new concepts faster and easier than the teacher, which means he has more skill at physics despite being able to do less. Would it be easier if I used the term aptitude instead?
 
You need to rewatch the Zecora scenes in Magic Duel again. When Zecora said that Twilight had the potential to match Trixie with the Alicorn Amulet, she was specifically talking about Twilight using her friends like she ended up doing. Twilight only assumed she meant in a pure magical contest. Later in the episode, Zecora explicitly says that Twilight passed all her lessons completely (save for the using the power of friendship part yet), which means it wasn’t a failure of Twilight’s at all, but rather Zecora’s plan the wholw time.
 
First, that’s not mimicking, that’s learning. Twilight instantly knew how to cast dark magic from watching Celestia once, and did the same thing with Starlight’s crystal stasis spell this past episode. That’s a sign of far greater aptitude tham learning from a book or scroll, which is what Starlight did. Second, Starlight herself stated that modifying the spell is much easier than what Starswirl did in the first place, and Twilight herself modified it after the first alternate world expedition so that she could go back to the past at a different point in time than before. Finally, it was never stated or implied that Starlight could recreate the spell if she didn’t have the scroll.
 
Are YOU feeling alright? It was stated several times that preventing the mane six from getting their cutie marks was not Starlight’s goal; preventing them from getting their cutie marks at the same time, and thus establishing their connection with each other, was her goal. Applejack still learned that her place is on her farm, Fluttershy still learned about her affinity with animals, etc; they just happened later, and didn’t connect the six of them. It’s been stated or shown (by Luna and in MMC, respectively) that a pony’s future cutie mark is fixed (other than powerful magic) because they’re a manifestation of their soul, which cannot be changed by differing life paths.
 
We were talking of personal, magical learning being connected to open-mindedness, not the obvious conclusion that embracing harmony makes you better at friendship. There is zero evidence that Sunset would be better at learning magic now that she’s good. For Starlight, not only are her convictions completely different to her open-mindedness, but convictions as strong as hers actually cause her to be close minded, since it makes it harder for her to consider views other than her own warped one. Also, lol at her convictions being stronger and less naive than Twilight’s, when Twilight explicitly said that she would fight Starlight for eternity if necessary, and in a series where it’s explicitly shown repeatedly that Twilight’s view on friendship is correct, not Starlight’s. It’s not naivety if you’re correct; it merely means that Starlight was far too cynical.

@Background Pony #6C41  
You keep quoting S3 stuff when we all know that S3 was shit.

@Fwelin  

Which is exactly how unicorn magic is not supposed to work. Not to be confused with someone just failing a spell, if nothing is willed, nothing is supposed to happen.  

…What? Rarity had someone else’s cutie mark at the time! That only supports my argument, not refutes it.

You’re kidding right? Twilight wasn’t trying hatch Spike the very second the Rainboom shockwave hit the palace, she blasted her magic foreword by instinct when she felt power rushing into her body, hatching Spike, and then that magic completely overtook her will, mind, talent, everything. Did you honestly think that Twilight’s instincts were to hatch that egg right during what felt like an earthquake?  

 
I posted the second half of my comment 15 minutes before you posted yours. That aside, did you not even look after you posted?  

 
It was implied throughout the series, and they directly addressed the difference in her magic that episode with both the plot and their dialogue. And we already know there are others currently more skilled then her in magic, alicorns AND unicorns alike, so pull the other one.
 
Your interpretation of what Cadence said has no meaning to anyone else. :/  

I’m beginning to suspect you might not be the most unbiased fans when it comes to Twilight.
 
Zecora stated she had the ‘magical potential’ to match Trixie with the Alicorn Amulet in terms of power, and judging by her unleashing in magic as a child I suspect that’s correct, but her progress towards reaching that potential wasn’t going anywhere. That’s why they abandoned Plan A and went with Plan B, tricking Trixie instead of matching her power. Her body has the capacity but her spirit simply doesn’t have the will. Shinji Ikari was able to pilot an EVA in Evangelion, but no one ever accused Shinji of being strong willed. That’s the worse case scenario of course, not necessarily Twilight’s destiny, but the comparison is still there.  

For starters, Glimmer not only mimicked but vastly enhanced a time-travel spell created by one of the most powerful wizards ever and contained it into a scroll for activation. Glimmer could recreate the scroll at any time, it was her creation afterall, while Twilight realized she didn’t have a chance. When did that happen?
 
Oh right, a day ago. Kind of selective memory you have there.
 
Don’t get me wrong, Twilight’s a good book-smart wizard, very good at learning spells others have created that are within her power, but only rarely does she really (ahem) sparkle. Only when she knows who she is, out of Celestia’s shadow, will her power begin to grow on its own, unique merit. That’s what my guess is. While in Dreamworld, her comfort zone for her most natural power was standing on the ground, summoning her old Library, and sending magical books filled with magic at the opponent. That’s the real Twilight. But currently, in terms of that, Sunset’s on a whole different level, and Starlight just completely outclasses Twi in both experience AND natural power.  

 
Are you feeling allright? The finale said otherwise, and kept reminding us of that for the Mane 6 practically every 5 minutes.  

 
Since Twilight’s never been a very open-minded person, its hard to gauge Twilight beyond her lack of growth Zecora initially expected of her in The Alicorn Amulet episode, but Sunset’s power in terms of Harmony magic has grown in leaps and bounds since she became open-minded, heroic protagonist, and while Starlight is technically a villain, she has moral convictions far stronger and less naive then Twilight. (shrug) We can take from that what we can.

@Background Pony #6C41  
No it doesn’t, not even close. Unicorn magic being directed by will is what happens when it is working properly, when it is controlled. Twilight’s goal was to hatch Spike, which is what she did; everything else that happened was her not having the experience to control her vast amount of magic. Would you disqualify Rarity from being a unicorn since her weather controlling magic was going out of her control in Magical Mysery Cure? In addition, the sonic rainboom had zero direct connection with any of the elements of harmony (artifacts, not ponies), so it would make zero sense for it to affect an artifact that was not only miles away, but also not even currently existing.
 
Cadance said that, but she was talking in the context of the skill in magic she had that being the element of magic implies, not some nonexistant buff that the elements have never been implied to give. I have no idea where you get that Celestia is more skilled than Twilight (and no, experience is not the same as skill), let alone Sunset or Starlight. When have any of those three shown the skill to easily mimic spells they see?
 
Twilight’s cutie mark is inherent to her and is unchamgable; no matter what path in life she took (barring dying before achieving it), Twilight would always have gotten the starburst with five stars around it. She was not physically linked to any harmony magic until S1E02, and even then it was only as the only pony able to use the element of magic.
 
Also, what? Since when has not being very open minded ever prevented someone from learning about magic in this series? Sunset and Starlight were both very close minded ponies, and they both became very strong amd skilled.

@Fwelin  
Just to be clear, when I say ‘Elements of Harmony’, I am not referring to the gemstones, I’m referring to the natural power they have due to their destined cutie marks. For the other 5, it meant having their path open to their full potential as heroes of morality. For Twilight, it gave her more power then she could initially control. Even now, Twilight’s power isn’t equal to Trixie with the Alicorn Amulet.

@Fwelin  
Simply being the Element of Magic, the part of harmony with no morality based upon it, made her magic unique compared to other unicorns. The way Twilight defined unicorn magic in the Pinkie Sense episode ironically ruled her own magic out.
 
Her magic never manifested by her own will. When it was triggered by the Sonic Rainboom, it grew out of control and did things she had no control over. Very similar to an uncontrolled Avatar State from ATLA, but even more chaotic. And it wasn’t a one time thing, we’ve seen her overload spells that burn herself out quite literally, blow up her own house 30 feet into the air, and more.
 
Celestia even went on record in the S4 finale that because Twilight was the Element of Magic, her body could contain way more magic then what she could ever control under normal conditions. Its been established that Twilight is not the most skilled magic user compared to Celestia or even some other rare unicorns like Starlight or Sunset, so the issue with transferring all the alicorn magic to Twilight instead of Celestia had nothing to do with skill or willpower.
 
To put it simply, a unicorn’s magical power manifests and grows with the person’s will, open-mindedness, and training. In contrast, Twilight’s magic is in her body, post-cutie mark, in massive amounts whether she’s a hero, a coward, or something inbetween. All she can do is control as much as she can, even she admitted in the S4 finale she just barely learned to grasp her new alicorn magic without it backfiring, let alone improvement or mastery.
 
Had Twilight never gotten her Harmony cutie mark, its unlikely she would of ever gotten that kind of magic right? Her role was to bring activate the Spark of Harmony with her magic. With that destiny removed, there would of been no reason for Twilight to have that kind of magic.
 
I don’t know why her magic wasn’t stronger while trying so hard before the magic tests when she was young, but Twilight never grew up to being a very open-minded person until Amending Fences, so her learning curve is naturally extremely low.

@Background Pony #6C41  
The element of magic didn’t give her any additional magic, especially not a decade plus before she bonded with it. Even without the Rainboom, Twilight would have still had all that power she showed at her entrance exam.
 
Also, did you see how hard Twilight trains and studies, both before she got her cutie mark, and during the shos? She has never lacked will.

@Fwelin  
Which would mean while she had the acuity for magic, she would have had to develop her will and training to make her magic grow just like every other unicorn, since she didn’t become the element of Magic. Back then before she got her cutie mark, she didn’t have a lot of power or will to match her knowledge and skill.
 
It would be ironic if THAT Twilight, who would likely more resemble human Twi in personality, was actually more capable with unicorn magic then our Twi. Differences in nurture could go a long way.

According to Word of God, she wouldn’t have failed the test even if there was no Rainboom. Hatching a dragon egg was something that everyone applying was expected to fail to do, and was meant as a test of character.
 
She might not have become Celestia’s pupil, but she would have still become a student at the School for Gifted Unicorns.