Unpopular opinion time

@Latecomer  
Can’t really think of a time a crisis didn’t come out of the blue for Twilight.

@Brass Beau  
Of course they all came out of the blue for Twilight - because Celestia never tells her anything!

@Latecomer  
Nightmare Moon and Tirek were they only times I think anyone knew what and who was gonna attack. Both times Celestia had a plan. They may not be the best plans but it seems like it’s really easy to get the drop on a princess.

@Brass Beau  
Her plan for Nightmare Moon seems pretty ridiculous, unless there were a lot of contingencies that just didn’t come up. And she seemed to feel the Crystal Empire would likely return at some point, or why have it watched?

@Latecomer  
I think she was prepared for Sombra. She set it as a test for Twilight and offered her minimal resources because I don’t think she considered him that much of a threat, much like Nightmare Moon. Both came back with barely any resources and no armies themselves, without which Twilight is quite capable of handling them.
 
If Twilight failed, Celestia and Luna could take out Sombra. They were likely on standby to do just that.

@Philweasel  
Not to mention her plan for Nightmare Moon makes total sense.  
Nightmare Moon needs to be defeated.  
Alicorns have enough magical power to challenge an army.  
The Elements of Harmony can defeat an alicorn.  
Friendship is needed to use the elements.  
Twilight is capable of finding the elements.  
Twilight needs friends.  
Send Twilight to make friends and use the elements to defeat Nightmare Moon.  
Don’t tell Twilight about the plan because if she doesn’t genuinely make friends the elements won’t work.
 
I mean, Celestia had a millenia to come up with a plan. If that’s the plan we have then everything else was probably considered pretty thoroughly.

@Brass Beau  
Not to mention the idea that her friends were magically connected from the start is well explored. Celestia just needed to trigger that event flag.

I always thought Celestial Advice was a great little Celestia/Twilight episode. It’s a shame that so many people focus on the Starlight stuff when she was more like a plot device to facilitate the Celestia/Twi stuff in that episode.

@Philweasel  
…maybe. But last time they thought they had him, they lost the Empire.
 
 
@Brass Beau  
Sure, most of that holds…except the working time. A day just isn’t long enough to be reliable - unless…
 
 
@Philweasel  
…but that seems kind of awkward. (Even if she had the Rainboom investigated, I doubt she’d have turned up everypony’s mark story.) Of course, maybe she has some full prophecy written somewhere or a magical intuition which guides her, but if she did she sure never told Twi.

@Latecomer
 

 
Which again leads me to suspect that Celestia’s Vision ability can’t predict dick moves of her opponents. For example King Sombras emergency escape/vengeance plan. ;-)

@DarkObsidian  
Which means he sure isn’t safe enough to use as a test, not with the Empire and everyone in it on the line.

I don’t mind Snips and Snails being in pony life.

@Latecomer  
They would have been fine, I’m sure. Plus, they didn’t know for sure that Sombra would be back. Kinda impressive that he shot an entire city (empire my flank) a thousand years into the future, though.

@Latecomer
 
Well, what was the quote again? “If she can do it, she will be ready.” Something like that. I think the key is the word “if”. Probably there is no guaranteed way to become an Alicorn and sometimes I wonder if Luna and Celestia were really ever “born” Alicorns. Or whether it’s not Star Swirl who’s involved. If you think about it carefully, the abilities of the two princesses often really don’t reach far beyond the knowledge of their old mentor.
 
Well, over 1000 years/moons the sun and the moon rise and set of course, but often I was very annoyed by some statments in the fandom that this makes both of them goddesses, who can virtually make their stars fall down on their opponents. Uh… no? Because then home world of the ponies is kaputt!?
 
Seriously, I don’t want to interpret too much into it, especially because I like both princesses and found them very fascinating in the first few seasons. But as the years went by, it somehow became clear that the show doesn’t really know what to do with the two of them except for the tutoring role for Twilight and a little cameo here and there. I mean, we had to wait seven years to even have an idea what their daily life at Canterlot was like. But the most annoying thing is that the Journal of the two sisters was retconned without offering any suitable replacement for this lore.
 
The show developed this so absurdly that in The Beginning of the End Part 1 the uselessness of the two sisters was actually parodied as a meme within the show. This shows that the authors were well aware of this fact. And I think that’s a great pity. Instead of putting a carrot in front of the fans for years, they just could have admitted that the Princess/Alicorn concept is absolutely for the trash can. Lauren Faust my… flank.
 
But I don’t want to get upset. It’s the way it is - I just really hope that we’re spared that kind of thing in G5. However, I do not have too high expectations (anymore). I am still curious to see how the new generation will be, whether it will be a kind of successor or not. And I will certainly always keep G4 in my heart. But I am also very well aware of the strengths and weaknesses of this loveable stupid little show of pastel coloured ponies. ;-)

@Brass Beau  

 
If you ask me, the least Celestia could have done there is reassure Twilight that she’d deal with the matter (which she technically did by sending Twilight to make the friends she needs to wield the Elements of Harmony), rather than casually dismissing Twilight’s concerns.

@Brass Beau  
Well maybe you’re sure, but I ain’t.
 

 
 
@DarkObsidian  
They could have been handled better. But for various reasons, I wouldn’t want to just repeat the same sort of characters in G5.

@DoctorWTF  
The catch with that is that it might motivate Twilight to sit tight and do nothing once NMM appears. (Of course, she could have done that anyway - or gone chasing a false lead instead of the Elements. Unless a lot of what we saw was a setup…)

@Latecomer
 

 
I don’t care if I see the same or similar characters and/or settings in G5 as in G4 or not. I just want the show runners of G5 to learn from the mistakes in G4. ;-)

@DarkObsidian  
We can hope… but it’ll be a whole new team. (And what if attracting bronies is seen as one of those mistakes?)

@Latecomer
 

 
What do you mean? That the Brony fandom could be seen as a problem? Or whether Hasbro would not like to orientate its new show to a somewhat older audience too?

@DarkObsidian  
I think they may wish to shed us, yeah.

@Latecomer
 
What makes you think that?

@DarkObsidian  
Big companies tend to like their ad demographics well-segregated for some reason.

@Latecomer  
Hasbro doesn’t really care that much about that though, they’re just a toy company.

@Philweasel  
And do bronies buy the sorts of toys that they sell under the MLP brand much?