@Stotter @Kamazeustra  
I get what y’all are saying. I was specifically referencing the girls’ “geodes”. Seems to me they actually limit their powers to bizarre superhero things as opposed to thee more interesting and ultimately more powerful magic of friendship. I thought it was really cool that in the Friendship Games, it seemed like they were going to wait and see how their powers developed, but then they just got some knockoff elements of harmony and threw that idea out the window.

@Stotter  
I was thinking in a different direction. I used Equestria as my example because that’s where she’s from, but what I actually meant was anywhere such things exist. The dragon balls, the chaos emeralds, the holy materia. In a place like that it’s often the case that those who have are the only ones that matter and even their friends are relegated to audience members.
 
The end of Sonic Adventure 2 was my mental model. The two hedgehogs used the chaos emeralds to go super and the whole cast of friends, including Eggman, was left watching the climax from the space station’s window.

@Background Human  
Which is why lasers irl also use them.

But when the time comes to turn magic into lasers–and that time is often–the gemstones make it a hell of a lot easier.

@Kamazeustra  
My side of the debate: Those qualities are the source of the gems magic, not the other way around. They literally reconstituted the elements from broken rocks and made the element of magic/friendship appear.

In the human world, sure, if only because magical plot stones don’t exist rendering the question moot. In Equestria that’s up for debate.