@Jacalope
Maybe.

@Macaroni C-Pony
Or the writers just never wanted to answer that because they just wanted multiple timelines instead of just making one about all the villains domain the entire world just because no event really would create a scenario where just only one villain have their own reign (Except Nightmare Moon and Discord wich were the most possible ones) just for following the butterfly effect to don’t explain anything.

@Jacalope
Celestia did directly tell Spike in the comics that she “could’ve stopped many of them “ Even though the comics and show don’t often collaborate, but this actually makes sense

Notably though, Luna was reformed in Discord’s timeline, which was FAR down the line of possible realities (each being “worst than the last”), we can conclude that all the previous threats to whomever had taken over in the current timeline had indeed been stopped. We don’t know how, we just know that Twilight and friends weren’t around to stop them.

Occam’s Razor says it was Celestia, but Luna and Cadence may have helped after the Chrysalis and Sombra timelines.

@Macaroni C-Pony
Wait, i didn’t see Cutie Remark and in the Sombra, Chrysalis or Nightmare Moon’s timeline they said in an explicit way?

@Jacalope
To be fair, the absolute limits of magic in MLP have never really been established. In fact they’ve actually been broken on occasion (Twilight telling Trixie certain spells are impossible in Magic Duel, and then Twilight literally performing a duplication spell in “Fame and Misfortune.” Also Twilight being unable to change Gender, yet capable of giving gills and fins to a pirate, turning into a different species, and changing living beings into inanimate objects and vice versa)

I will say though, Equestrian magic does also borderline on warping reality. However, one thing to consider is whether death is permanent to a draconequus. We know that if Discord so much as acts against his nature, he will fades from reality, but he immediately started reforming from secondhand acts of “disorder”

Since magic can channel ideas, maybe we can ty this to the conceptual magic explanation to theorize how to physically kill him. Celestia and Luna were able to defeat him without the Elements of Harmony in certain timelines.

Magic in a good media have their own rules to have limitations, so, it’s not a very good excuse. But the focus of the show is actually a good argument.

it’s pretty inconsistent, specially for the alicorns because they are just tools to make look the villains more dangerous and like an excuse to make a conection between the villain and the mane 6 in most part of the cases.

They tries to make look Celestia powerful but it fails a lot for all the villains who defeated her and then there are the bs excuses as “i just want to teach Twilight” instead of being more reasonable as she’s dying like every mortal and then she became weaker for the ages, making a better justification of many things, even the season 9 plot had a better look if we get that justification.

And when Daybreaker kills Eris (Or not, because Eris should have interactions with Discord) i don’t think about “Oh, Celestia is OP AF” i just think “Oh, Eris is weaker than Discord because Pony of Shadows drained her magic in a flashback” making hard to see how a hig-tier regular magic can kill literal reality warpers.

@Jacalope
I’d agree that Eris could be considered the weakest of them. However, being the matter of simply being related to Discord, she would still defined as an abstract being, a “Goddess of Chaos” as she describes herself. As Cosmos embodied Malice, and Discord embodied disorder, she also in some way personifying a living idea in her universe. Like wise, she was still powerful enough to manipulate worlds, and create an entire dimension from other universes. Granted we don’t know the context, but I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt.

Given that we know Equestrian magic allows ponies to to channel emotions and platonic concepts like love (Shining Armor) Rage (Starlight) Hate (Stygian), and obviously Friendship, it’s reasonable to say the high-tier magic can indeed hurt and kill these beings because their magic also channels abstract power.

And MLP is indeed inconsistent. Especially cross referencing power levels between the comics, the show, statements, and scaling. But unlike most modern fiction, there are a few factors to consider before we can dismiss what the characters should be capable of in theory by analyzation

@Macaroni C-Pony
With Eris, it’s really impossible say she’s the same as Discord because we see she barely uses her powers and even the whole premise is she stealing and using Luna’s powers despiste she theorically can do the same thing, so, she would have only bet Luna’s powers in her casino. Even we see she was drained by Pony of Shadows, so… makes even more sense say she’s weaker than Discord in the present.

In Celestia’s case… those ones are very inconsistent, they are so powerful enough to make the power of 4 alicorns fights aganist an entire civilization + Discord’s power and then be a joke with any villain, just like with that same logic, Chrysalis is even more powerful than Celestia because she defeated her without any trouble but still needs to use a magic blocker and she was defeated many times.

@Jacalope
To be fair, we have seen that certain spells can block out or nullify Discords magic, and that even Eris, his Equal, was straight up killed by Daybreaker. I don’t know how powerful you have to be to fucking KILL living ideas, but she straight up did it. I don’t think Draconeqi are “unstoppable.” I just think it it takes very high dimensional levels of magic to kill them.

That said, there’s really no evidence of a difference in power between Accord and Discord. As you said, Accord was just more dedicated and competent in reaching his goal. But I think it’s out of character for the series to portray the Elements as the most powerful form of Magic, “Harmony” in form of friendship, and then have Accord just pull a “no u” because f*ck the established continuity the show and comics go by.

Even more ironically, this would make Celestia stronger than the Elements AND Accord himself, because her shield protected Starlight Glimmer

Realistically, Accord’s “Harmony” shouldn’t be not stronger than Friendship because was not made from Loyalty, Kindness, Laughter, or Generosity. It’s was nothing less than forced brainwashing. Was it order? yes, but was it true Harmony? No, because he would be in control

My theory is that Accord’s magic screwed with the “Elements of Harmony” in that state was because Twilight, the actual bearer of magic, was out of commission, so Celestia, who no longer had a good connection, and lead to the adverse effects taking hold.

We know negative reactions happen when non-bearers like Sunset Shimmer or Mean Twilight try to use the Elements, so that could’ve been the main factor. Theoretically, if Twilight was there, the Elements should’ve worked as normal, but the writer just had to make Starlight the hero.

@Bluebolt21
But at least it works as the antithesis of chaos magic, unless if the only thing the comet did to turn Discord into Accord is just create a new personality, that means that the draconequus in theory are unstoppable and that concepts like harmony For them it does not mean anything but they are psychologically limited so that they can have conflict because they feel so empty in their existence besides that avoid a philosophical paradox about a chaotic entity being able to control reality, canceling any chaos that exists in life. And Accord is very powerful because he has no such psychological limitation, he only wants to complete an objetive, making a utopia.

@Bluebolt21
I don’t think the Elements of Harmony were at their most powerful at that point though

I would think Accord controlling the elements of harmony and thus making them do what he wants, hence winng by taking over equestria would be considered to be pretty heckin powerfu.

@Macaroni C-Pony  
hmm, Discord can travel between time, so it’s really interesting to know if he can stop time just to make a Sweet Dreams are made of this joke.

@Jacalope  
Yeah, that makes sense. I guess it depends on whether this is a narrative “in character” fight, or a “no-holds-barred” “fight to kill” Death Battle scenario (even thought those idiots suck at their jobs, you probably get the point)
 
 
Either way, the Knights are screwed if someone on Discord’s team stops time

@Macaroni C-Pony  
I was talking about the knights, half of them are a joke to the draconequus in power theme because their powers are of things that the draconequus can already do and without limits or that they can at least counteract.
 
But talking about Cosmos being more powerful than Discord, Cosmos would only be more powerful than Discord, not because of biological limits, but because of moral limits. Cosmos is sadistic meanwhile Discord is a prankster, so their ambitions are important factors in measuring their abilities. So yes, Cosmos in ambition is more powerful than Discord, but they are both equal in power.

@Macaroni C-Pony
 
Technically Princess of Chaos Pinkie only matched Discord because she had mantled most people his power.

@Jacalope  
Cosmos is not a joke. She’s actually STRONGER than Discord, and Chaos Pinkie was threat to him, while Eris was betrayed by Daybreaker, and outsmarted by Luna with the help of Stygian, Trixie, and Tempest
 
As for Cozy, she couldn’t maintain that form, so who knows?

@CottonTales  
Well, Accord fights for Order but is Discord’s alterego with help of a comet, so… tecnically is a chaotic vision of order which makes him powerful to control EoH.
 
And at least half of the knights with their powers and some good strategy would defeat a draconequus, the others are just a joke.

I mean the chaos beings have stronger powers but the knights have more creative powers at least. Cancel magic would be the most dangerous because as shown in show Discords magic can be stopped by some magic cancellation
 

 
Though I wouldn’t count Accord as a chaos lord he’s literally harmony going too far.

Even though it had nothing to do with Discord (or other similar beings), what Rarity did in that one episode was pretty chaotic as well:  

@Jacalope  
I mean, he is the physical embodiment of chaos, and being “orderly” by normal means would cause that embodiment to fade from existence so while it make sense the meteor somehow changed that his philosophy, being a literal conceptual being, rather than straight up giving him abilities he couldn’t do normally
 
After all, Chaos and Harmony are inherently intertwined in the universal balance of reality. Without the existence of one, the other by definition cannot exist

@Macaroni C-Pony  
Well, i remember that personality was created with help of a meteor, because if was only him with his own will, that mean the elements of harmony are actually useless aganist any draconequus, it’s only their philosophical dilemmas so that they get lost…

@Dustcan  
Well if I’m not mistaken, she was responsible for merging multiple worlds to create that reality feature in the story
 
@Jacalope  
I mean, technically Accord IS Discord isn’t he? Just a different personality induced by trying to force himself to be “Orderly” so technically all of HIS powers should be… well “his”

@Macaroni C-Pony
 
Supposedly. But somehow the Pony of Shadows beat and imprisoned her and she never displayed any feats on par with Discord afterword.

unless the knights of harmony show some crazy power next chap, the chaos lords are destroying them