Chrysalis is extra mega fucked because bug is weak to fire.

@romantiCaveman She’s trying to keep Discord’s ass at bay?  

@HunterSClopson  
There’s also this theory:  
 
Personally, though, I prefer “World of Cardboard.”

@HunterSClopson  
I prefer that thought process.

Pretty sure this counts as ‘smiting’, like ‘god smites thee’, so adding that tag >_>

@HunterSClopson  
For maximum reassurance, watch season 4 episode 2, ‘Princess Twilight Sparkle - part 2’.
 
And finally see Celestia kicking powerful villains’ butts twice in one episode.
 
Then proceed to watch this season 2 finale and it wont sting as much. :P

I still like that World of Cardboard headcanon, that Celestia had to restrict her power when fighting Chrysalis or else would’ve vaporize half her palace and everypony in the surrounding area, including Chrysalis.

“YOU’RE GROUNDED FOREVER!”  
“D’OH!”

@Background Pony #8F75  
Yeah, only an ounce of her power would’ve been enough to let her beat Chrysalis, (and it almost did) but then when Chrystalis starts to overpower her, (thanks to the love power she absorbed from Shiny) you can see a surprised expression on Celestia’s face followed by her gritting her face trying to increase her power, but she might not of had enough time to use her full-power on her.
 
Or at least that’s one possible way of looking at it.

@Niggoslav_Krawczyk
 
I’m not going to describe it here because it’s explicit and BG probably doesn’t know that comments must match the tag rating.
 
I will say their is a tag for sybian if you wanna see ponies riding them, again explicit.

@Background Pony #AB8F What’s a sybian?

I always liked to think that Celestia held back a bit because her full power could have harmed everyone else in the room.

Looks like they’re trying to outlast each other on the sybian.

@441TheSecond  
You might be right, Celestia-haters are pretty relentless. (Didn’t some famous people like CR, and that other guy I can’t think of hate Celestia to?)
 
Seems Luna is the only alicorn immune to having her own “hatedom,” but I have seen a few fans who hate for reasons like, “she’s to popular/overrated,” and such… I admit I used to think Luna was overrated to, until “Luna Eclipsed” made me adore her. Though, I like Celestia to.

@Niggoslav_Krawczyk  
Celestia could have an entire episode where she fed the hungry, cured the ill, gave puppies new homes, kicked Satan and Hitler’s ass at the same time and convinced them to be good people, and walked on fucking water, and people would still somehow say that she was evil.

@Background Pony #7E45 Nah, it would have just been used as proof that she bullied her sister or something else to that effect.

@Amethyst_Crystal  
I would prefer to watch Celestia annihilate Chrysalis and her army singe handedly. Then Celestia would have probably passed Luna in fans.

@Background Pony #7E45  
This is her mama bear moment, and she’s pretty scary right here… but it doesn’t last very long.

I hate that the writers chose Celestia to be worfed instead of letting her have a Mama Bear moment.

@ALIS  
It’s also most likely that Celestia held back a bit because she tried to take down Chrysalis non-lethally, and by the time she realized she was losing the power struggle, it was too late.

@Trickquestion
 
Nah. Choreography was fine.
 
Celestia couldn’t cast a teleport spell because she was already casting a beam spell. If she stopped the beam spell to cast another spell than the green beam would hit her instantly. She was the only thing slowing it down.
 
Also teleporting behind the Queen would drag things out, an army is kicking down the door, she needs to defeat the Queen ASAP. (The Army was through in like 45 seconds)
 
If she teleports around with little zaps she’ll accomplish nothing and is tackled by like sixty changelings. To defeat her ASAP she needs the big beam, the big beam is bright when charging, no surprise factor to it so teleporting is useless.
 
Celestia made the right call trying to crush the Queen before her legions arrive, she just lost the power play.

One big problem with this scene was choreography, I think. Celestia had enough time to teleport out of the way when the beam turned on her, or she could have even opened the fight by teleporting behind Chrysalis and zapping her.
 
The reason this stands out to me so much is because Twilight did the exact same thing in the very first episode. She galloped at Nightmare Moon, Moon accepted her challenge, and then Twi just warped out of the way to grab the Elements. It just seems like this thousand year old ruler, who we know has been in plenty of battles, should have a keener sense of tactics then the nonphysical bookworm who has lived in an ivory tower all her life.

@441TheSecond
 
Yeah, I’m pretty sure fighting Celestia was not part of “the plan”.
 
I think she was doing that long stereotypical bad guy monolog where she’s bragging about how much she’s won, to buy time for her giant army to break the barrier and overwhelm Celestia.
 
Turns out she was tough enough on her ow…

@441TheSecond  
Chimera.  
And remember how it was introduced.  
Shadowy beast coming forward, spurt of flame and guess what? It’s got three heads all smiling evilly.
 
Not to mention making it really clear that they wanted to eat Apple Bloom.