It’s clear Celestia saw the attack coming, but was unable to dodge in time since the beam crossed her path at the right time, before she had a chance to react.
 
Thank goodness that it only winded her, and she survived to ensure the future was not changed for the worst.
 
I’d rather not picture what would’ve happened had Nightmare won and Celestia perished from that attack…Twilight would’ve never become an Alicorn, and neither would’ve Cadence.

NO MY HOOFICURE!!!

@matt0044  
I always thought that part of the brain turned off in favor of survival instinct…then that shit turned off and then you sulked…meh, maybe it’s just that I’m hardened through my experiences more then Celestia is.

@Rpground  
She didn’t look like she saw it coming in time. Then again, it’s hard to see in this gif.
 
Of course, fighting your sister (when you don’t have a rivalry like this) isn’t easy…

@Background Pony #A5B6  
@Vivacious Sun  
@matt0044
 
It wasn’t even hard to dodge, she was looking at it, she flew into it…anyone could of dodged that…

@Background Pony #1F55  
I don’t think she’s THAT crafty.

“Augh! that tickled very hard!”

I like to think that Celestia was intentionally positioning herself closer to the Elements, and took a hit to give herself a chance to retrieve them.

@AaronMk  
Phelous?

@AaronMk  
Oh, fuck you, beat me to it. XD

@b4betty  
Here, here!

@Nightshade142  
omg just now realized the epic plank! Not the most baddass of poses but effective none the less!
 
Also, agree 100% on the GLORIOUSNESS, and on a side note me thinks the background music in the 2parter was pretty damn awesome allround!

So…Nightmare planks in midair, fires her lazar, and Celestia pulls a melodramatic midair swoon?
 
Of course, it’s not merely that, this scene was GLORIOUS!!

She may only be a princess but she is a true drama queen

This makes me think of the fight with Undertaker and Kane from the WWF, Undertaker is all like i will never fight my brother!

That fucking scream. Never heard it out of Celestia nor did I think I was ever going too. It won’t leave my head.

@MagnificentTrixie  
Um, only one like in ACW (one we’ve SEEN).

@Rpground  
To be fair, it’s not easy to fight your own sister whether they’ve been consumed by darkness.

@TorqueEffect  
And she r-a-a-a-a-n,  
she ran so far aw-a-a-a-a-y
 
She couldn’t get away.

@TorqueEffect  
It’s kinda hard to dodge lasers if you think about it.

@Vivacious Sun  
Yeah, but she ran, and didn’t do a very good job at that either.

@Rpground  
Well, you know not actually fighting back because you don’t want to hurt your combatant doesn’t really automatically equate to sucking. (and she stood right back up afterwards)

@Rpground  
I guess you don’t understand human emotion then. Did it hurt growing up?