@CronoM
 
@CronoM
 
…Sorry about that. For some reason, I keep consistently confusing you with another guy who has similar views on Twilight as you, but is decidedly more rude about it. That’s probably why I’ve been so hostile to you in the past. Still, people being hostile to me is no reason for me to be hostile back, especially when I end up directing it towards people who had nothing to do with whatever I’m angry about, so I apologize for that.

@Background Pony #9158  
Sorry, I’ll respond to your comment in a little bit, just need to get something to eat.

@Jarkes  
Besides, you are siding with a person who said in response to this.
 
“While Chrysalis was basically having an aneurysm trying to fight Celestia’s power”
 
with
 
“She defeated Celestia in a few seconds. It was the worf efefct in action because it had to be.”
 
That answer of his/her didn’t deny anything about what I said about the writing working with the plot or the fact that Chrysalis’ severe struggle happened.
 
I didn’t disagree that she lost because of the plot, but my point was it did NOT happen with zero writing justification whatsoever. THAT was the subject of that part of the conversation and he ignored it.
 
Your accusing me of not addressing the counterpoint clearly when the other person is obviously doing that exact thing. That’s a pretty biased double standard, even if we excluded that it was done in trash-talking. :/

@Jarkes  
Very funny~ (rolls eyes)
 
Saying I blindly bash Twilight or that I don’t address counter arguments when neither is true doesn’t make me look bad, it only makes you sound sore.
 
Twilight and her potential as a character remains to be in my top 5 invested characters, but not for the same reason that Crystal Empire and later episodes seem to advocate. When Twilight asked Sunset to help fight the Dazzlings, that was her being heroic and surpassing her old mental limits. She was awesome.
 
If you have a problem with my argument directly, please tell me. But if you don’t have anything nice to say, only with ill intent, then keep it to yourself.

@Background Pony #9158
 
You’re wasting your breath; CronoM’s got this weird fixation of bashing everything Twilight does and responding to any opposing viewpoints with long walls of text explaining why the other person is wrong without actually addressing the counterpoint.

@CronoM
 
I’d say Twilight managing to control the power better after she met Tirek was indeed a quick progression due to more than one factor. After the library burned, she seemed to focus and control the magic much better. Not only does this make sense form an entertainment point of view, but can be explained as “Twilight went from scared overthinking mode to shit’s going down mode”
 
We have seen Twilight fight a few times before, and she seems to have consistently improved as one would expect. Saying she has decent battle instincts at this point isn’t far fetched in my humble opinion.
 
Plus, everything she used against Tirek (mostly magic blasts and teleportation) are things she is well known to use often. Combined with the boost of 3 other alicorns, it obviously looks more impressive.
 
I’m speaking in general, because honestly, I think battle power in a show like this varies pretty wildly. The writers do their thing to make things enetertaining first and foremost, and worry a lot less about these things than many fans.
 
“While Chrysalis was basically having an aneurysm trying to fight Celestia’s power”
 
She defeated Celestia in a few seconds. It was the worf efefct in action because it had to be.

@Background Pony #9158  
In Canterlot Wedding, it visibly showed Celestia underestimating Chrysalis while Chrysalis was basically having an aneurysm trying to fight Celestia’s power. That’s not “servicing the plot”, that’s working WITH the plot.
 
The latter is not bad writing, while the former is bad writing with zero consistency. Big difference. And while fighting skill can be sort of inconsistant in the rest of the show, few examples come even close to Twilight not only jumping the shark, but shooting the shark to death.
 
“ She was the one wielding the power.”
 
5 seconds before the fighting started, she couldn’t control 5% of the power she wielded.
 
Considering how obsessed Celestia is in making Twilight the hero(to the point where she wanted to give exclusive credit for stopping Nightmare Moon to Twilight only), I would hardly be surprised if the sisters transferred some their fighting instincts into her mind along with all the magic that would activate when Twilight was in danger.
 
That’s only a theory of mine, but the chances of her mastering that much power in 5 seconds and gaining battle instincts she never had is basically 0% even in a fictional environment. At least, without a more proper explanation. Even the Mane 6 were still trying to register the events of the last finale as comprehendible in this epiosde.
 
Besides ‘sheer horrendous writing’, I’m sure there are other explanations out there besides my own (shrug)
 
Its a weird situation. Writing quality for big plot episodes/movies went from ‘briny depths’ to spiking upward when Rainbow Rocks aired. This episode went back down to what I would call basically ‘filler’ quality. Not too much horrendous writing, has a few unique twists, but nothing really exiting or interesting in the long run. Twilight using magic that isn’t effected by friendship as a basis for her lecturing the opposite shows its half-assed, and perhaps intentionally so. DHX seem far more interested in Sunset’s story then anything Twilight has to say or do.

@Background Pony #9158
 
It’s also worth pointing out that, being a show, fighting and power skills tend to service the plot and not be 100% consistent.
 
You can have freaking Celestia being defeated easily so that Shining and Cadence save the day. It happens.

@CronoM
 
Of course it was her own fighting skills? She was the one wielding the power.
 
And she was about to blast simmilarly here, but Starlight obviously was prepared. I have no problem wiith that: plot-wise they needed Twi and the others to fall for the trap or there would be no episode, so they had her deliver a surprising and fast attack.

@Background Pony #9158  
Comparing Three’s a Company and every other episode to Twilight’s Kingdom, we could tell Twilight’s ‘magical combat tactics’ when fighting Tirek were not her own. Heck, we all knew Twilight never had that kind of fighting skill, but we just pleaded ignorance just so we could enjoy the fight.
 
She didn’t really need any tactics to block a blast aimed at someone else.
 
Also, I’m not sure why they shoehorned in the idea that her unicorn/alicorn magic ever improved with her friendship. That’s never been the case. If anything, her power and even her skill in spell-magic given by the Element of Magic is only enhanced by anger. That fact is not just part of her’weak-willed’ subplot, but Sunset’s subplot as well when she turned into a demon.

@drumpowa
 
I’d say she is well experienced in (magical) combat at this point. She did well against Tirek.
 
As for why she didn’t use those tactics, I understood that it’s because she wasn’t expecting to fight here, and didn’t have time to handle the situation well before being hit. The second time she was more prepared and used the force field immediately and effectively.

@Tenure  
Actually, it did for the others as well. It just kept happening to Pinkie because her exuberance kept trying to break through.
 
@Littlecabbit  
This. All the other Unicorns were still perfectly capable of wielding magic. It was just that Twilight Sparkle’s special talent is magic.

@Littlecabbit
 
Seems to me the equal mark acted more like a restrictor plate than a replacement. Notice every time Pinkie got excited it basically blackened her skin for a moment? Funny enough it was also the only one to do that. Must have been hard as hell to put a damper on Pinkie’s hyperactive-ness-ness(?).

@Mattatatta  
While she could have done those things I don’t know how effective those tactics could have been. Forcefield would protect them, but I don’t remember an instance of her defending AND attacking at the same time. Teleporting a large group takes too much time. And as far as subduing Glimmer, I would put rationalizing those combat tactics with the difference between sparring with partner, professional martial arts match and an actual self-defense situation. They all have different mindsets in combat. Not to mention that it’s clear that 1.) her stats are stacking in power rather than speed. 2.) She’s not the combat specialist RD or AJ or even Rarity are.
 
I do agree that they’ll need to keep her powers in check so as not to nerf fer unnecessarily.

Basically they’re linked together, but they’re not one in the same

@LR
 
The Cutie mark is attached to their “talent” not necessarily their magic, so stealing their Cutie mark wouldn’t be as difficult for someone who’se ability is just that, but since Twilight’s ability IS magic, she lost all her potency along with her mark, but not necessarily the magic reserves in her body

@LR  
Years of practice?

I can understand that Twilight might have been to slow because she was overcharging her spell, but how was Starlight Glimmer able to steal her Cutie Mark?
 
I mean Tirek needed a lot of Power to be able to steal alicorn magic and since Twilight can’t use any magic without her Cutie Mark, I assume that Starlight also stole her magic.  
So how is a simple (or even powerful) unicorn able to do that?

@Dragonmage  
Well if you take the patience to read the comments down below, there might be some explanations to this matter.

@Dragonmage  
Out of context magic?

Ok this is just stupid: how does one unicorn overpower all six of them–one of which is an alicorn.

Could’ve just tased Glimmer. Hell, her friends could’ve just flicked Glimmer’s horn to nullify her casting.
 
But we wouldn’t have got a two parter if that happened.
 
Just take from this a warning to never make an outlandish move in battle, especially against an enemy you know little about. Twi could’ve used a forcefield to protect the group, teleported everypony, or as I’ve said before, zapped Glimmer with enough power to break her concentration and drop her to the ground.
 
At least she learnt her lesson the second time around.  

I’m wrong or was Twilight preparing to annihilate Starlight with a overcharged “Anti Tirek” blast. Ö_Ö

@Evowizard25  
I am quite amicable to the idea that that Twilight wields the power cosmic. However, it rasps my patience when the writers don’t put their thinking caps on and come up with a plausible explanation for why she doesn’t quell the villain ‘de jour’ with the smallest modicum of concentration.”
 
Twilight ought to have said something like:  
 
“Miss Glimmer, the use of Magick on a crowned Princess without her express consent is an offense punishable by lunar expatriation. Desist concentrating on the spell and drop the artifact forthwith. You have 15 seconds to comply.” Starlight responds to the command by pretending to put the staff down and then casting the spell anyway.
 
Twilight’s city guard routine enforces her new role as a political figure, it offers an excuse for Starlight to sucker punch her in a most dastardly fashion, and it removes Twilight’s overwhelming magical superiority from the equation.  

And she loses the ability to use her wings until she gets her mark back. I actually thought when she very obviously and deliberately spread her wings on getting it back, I wasn’t entirely sure if she hadn’t actually lost them entirely until getting it back.