These comments aged well.

@C Money  
Okay so it is that power I was talking about….
 
I know exactly what you mean. The problem is that present Twilight lacks the skill or willpower to fully use it by several leagues, and can only train to control a portion of it while keeping most of it in check so long as she doesn’t lose control of her emotions. And considering how long she’s been trained in magic, its unlikely she’ll ever be able to control, its just not in her nature.
 
In Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon had a very, very similar power, and ||finally decided to sever from it forever by sacrificing it to resurrect the world (since its power destroyed the world in the first place.) ||

@CronoM  
What I mean is that Twilight has a massive amount of power that could easily crush Sombra and Chrysalis. It’s Tha massive spasm that Twilight released on the day that Celestia excepted Twilight as her apprentice. Imagine that same spasm, but focused and directed. Even Celestia can’t stop that much power.

@C Money  
Can you clarify? I’m not sure I understood that.
 
I initially thought you were referring to the raw magic power she can’t control with her willpower fully yet….Are you referring to Harmony Magic as this ‘power’? Because they already showed that Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Rarity being able to activate that individually while threatening Discord.
 
Plus, Sunset was able to ascend with the power of harmony while using only the elements based off of virtues, without using the Element of Magic at all.

To iterate more on my headcannon: when I say “Twilight’s cutie mark represents power”, I mean power that isn’t even unicorn magic. When Twilight had that battle with Tirek, this power wasn’t used. And when Twilight was stripped of the alicorn magic, Tirek wasn’t powerful enough to remove this power.

@Background Pony #A5E0  
Ah, gotcha. Sorry for my part in the communication breakdown.
 
I honestly believed Twilight just didn’t have the ‘juice’ to turn an entire town upside down by accident as a unicorn, so yes, I assumed Spike was talking about something recent Celestia didn’t know about. While the upgrade was probobly not what Celestia envisioned…
 
…it has been suggested her magic has increased to some degree. At the very least, its come to the point where everyday obstacles, like building a stage, can be done instantly with her magic, which honestly feels like they are writing “Princess” Twilight into a corner intentionally so they can balance the show again. If what @cheezedoodle said is true, you have no idea how happy that makes me.
 
@Background Pony #A5E0
 
Yeah, my ideas surrounding Twilight have been more or less the same. Twilight is what the show has made her to be, and until recently, the decisions in the writing for her have confound me to no end beyond Hasbro’s reckless interference. Season 3 and beyond could of taken an alternate route, where they flushed out Celestia’s character more, allowed Twilight to grow as a person, and gradually showed the increasing potential of all the Mane 6 as heroes. We’ve always known Twilight to be a bit spineless and a bit of a brown-noser, but before S3, she had room to grow out of it. When they removed her lack of certainty in the early seasons, instead of developing as a better, warmer friend, she too often comes across as a matter-of-fact person who considers every friendship problem as just a problem to solve. And that’s not even counting all the insane plot-related decisions done to glorify Twilight.
 
All childish remarks some people on this site will make about IDW aside… I really liked the dialogue between Twilight and Good King Sombra in FIM #19. The amount of introspection she had in that comic had more positive self-analysis then she’s had in 5 entire seasons, and Amending Fences contains the lion’s share of the show’s progress with Twilight.
 
To explain my ‘fondness’, I guess it kept my hope for Twilight’s character alive, even though we didn’t see any payoff after it until Rainbow Rocks and S5. I think Sunset is the real princess that Equestria’s future needs, and is an interesting enough focus character at least for a good amount of the show, so long as they keep it balanced.
 
And for that to happen, Twilight doesn’t need to be gone, but she does need to break. All her preconceptions regarding Celestia and her princesshood need to fall apart for her to build herself from scratch. The team can still use a brainy nerd, researcher and wizard, so long as it focuses on the intelligence of her skills and her loyalty to the team, not how much power she has and how much more important she is above others. That’s my two cents anyway.
 
And again, sorry for the miscommunication.

@CronoM  
Also, Twilight had 100% control of the quadruple alicorn magic by the time she ran into Tirek, whether by getting used to it, or her anger giving her focus. That means that she DID managed to fully control more than quadruple her own natural pool in less than a day’s time. If that’s not a sign of great skill with magic, I don’t know what is.

@CronoM  
Yes, Twilight was only getting used to her new alicorn magic, but that’s more experience in suddenly dealing with more magic than you’re use to than Celestia or Luna have ever had, since they were born as alicorns. That would make Twilight have a higher chance of being able to handle it than them, not lower. Finally, despite what Twilight said about only barely getting used to her alicorn magic, she only make a single magic screwup the entire season, and that was due to a strange interaction with Fluttershy’s stare, not any lack of control on her part.
 
In Magic Duel, Zecora specifically said that Twilight learned all her lessons successfully. When she was talking about matching the amulet, she was talking about using the method that Twilight did use, which is the help of her friends. Twilight’s special talent is literally magic (with a double meaning of friendship); there’s absolutely zero chance that she’s not extremely skilled at it, even putting aside her immense magic pool.
 
The element of magic has absolutely zero effect on Twilight’s magic pool. Twilight’s huge amount of magic is completely natural, and manifested many years before the element of magic even manifested, let alone bonded with her. None of the elements give passive boosts to the mane six, element of magic included. It has never been stated, never been implied, and never been hinted.

@CronoM  
For as long as I’ve been coming to Derpibooru, you’ve been arguing that Twilight has been turned into a horrible character, and now you’re praising Sunset Shimmer as the perfect choice for princess/leader. That seemed to me the next logical step in your argument, though expressed bluntly, and my depression may have colored my judgment. I was genuinely surprised by the fondness for Twilight you showed in your reply, which is why I’ve tried to drop any sort of attitude in my following comments.

@CronoM  
Actually, that was meant to be a sincere complement; most people wouldn’t bother quoting the comic’s dialog exactly. I was just wanting to point out that saying Twilight was having more trouble controlling her magic after becoming an alicorn was your interpretation, not something that was spelled out in the comic. Others can decide if they agree with your interpretation or not.

@Background Pony #A5E0  
What is your argument anyway?
 
Before we seemed to be on the same page, and now you’re giving me nothing but pointless sarcasm and scrutinizing odd tangents of the discussion. (Unless everything you’ve said so far has been sarcasm, in which case, a lot of it doesn’t translate well on the internet)
 
For example, when you said,
 
“When are they going to replace that awful Twilight”
 
…it sounded a lot like sarcasm, but I didn’t bring it up because,
 
“A start, maybe, but the problem’s still there.”
 
…didn’t sound like sarcasm at all.

@Background Pony #A5E0  
Nice job reading, oops, failing to read the comic. (Sorry if I sound rude, but accepting a mistake with only sarcasm directed to me isn’t exactly something I respect)
 
Do you have anything to add that isn’t ridiculous semantics? I’m pretty sure turning the town upside down for a few hours is the highest time her magic has gotten out of control since she was a kid. (Plus if Twilight did that while she was still a unicorn, that would only hurt Twilight’s credibility with magic, and make Celestia look more insane for turning her into an alicorn. That would only hurt your argument.)
 
Its obvious that she got more control over it over time, but that isn’t the point of the discussion. The point was that she just barely, just recently in Twilight’s Kingdom, got her standard level of control over her magic back….right before they injected her with 100 times more magic. Instead of taking down Tirek the smart way, they turned Twilight into a dangerous weapon so Celestia could hold her high as a hero above any of her friends, again.

@CronoM  
Nice job quoting the comic. Now, where does Spike say that happened as part of a pattern of Twilight losing control of her magic more often since becoming an alicorn? Where does he even say that happened after her alicornification? It’s not like “Did you hear about the time” is the normal way to bring up events that happened in the past week or two.

@Background Pony #0066  
In short, Twilight’s element of magic gives her access to more magic then her ‘willpower’ can fully handle, she can only control portions of it but turning her into an alicorn made her that much more of a risk, and due to having a body that can tap into nearly infinite magic NOT generated by her own will, her body has the ability to be injected with even MORE infinite magic with even greater risk.
 
They sugarcoated the amount of damage Twilight could of done by accident between the magic transfer and her confrontation with Tirek.
 
With Celestia’s guidance, her element is nearly the antithesis of harmony. It makes her a weapon. Under Sunset’s guidance, that’s a completely different story.

@Background Pony #A5E0  

 
(_sigh)
 
““Spike: Did you hear about the time twilight turned all of ponyville upside down?
 
Celestia: My goodness, no!
 
Spike: It’s true! It was only for a couple of hours, but you should’ve seen the mess.
 
Celestia: I can imagine.””
 
Unless Twilight decided to emulate discord for a day, she lost control of her magic while an alicorn. That should not be hard to understand, let alone state ‘anything of that nature’.
 
@Background Pony #0066  
Your reaching analogy falls apart when one points out Twilight admitted she just barely started to really control her own alicorn magic, and that she’s had a history with losing control over her natural magic.
 
You are confusing aptitude and capacity as the same thing or similar, when for Twilight’s case, it couldn’t be any more different.
 
Capacity has never been the problem for Twilight. That’s what makes her a dangerous weapon. Her explanation for unicorn magic in Feeling Pinkie Keen ironically threw her own magic under scrutiny cause she can only control a portion of it to her will, and when her mental state or anger goes south, something random, dangerous and FAR more powerful happens, like blowing her house 30 feet into the air.
 
This ‘prodigy’ in your flawed analogy has the sheer size of ‘IQ/amount of magic’ for it, but she doesn’t have the skill or aptitude or “will-power” to use it. Only a portion of it. Zecora assured Twilight that she had the power and skill to match Trixie using the Alicorn Amulet, but whether it was because she was distracted or lacked the willpower, she couldn’t do it, and decided to move to Plan B.
 
So far its sounding like the exact opposite of a prodigy who can pick up things more easily.
 
As they explained in Avatar the Last Airbender, for an untrained Avatar the Avatar State is a dangerous and hostile defense mechanism. Twilight can barely control the bulk of normal magic the Element of Magic gives her ALONE, let alone 3 other Avatars/Alicorns. Quite appropriately, her level of control over the magic given to her jumped from 5% to 100% only when she was in combat, along with giving her battle instincts that never existed in her mind.

@CronoM  

I just went through that issue again, and I can’t find Spike saying anything of that nature.

@CronoM  
That’s not skill, that’s experience; Celestia and Luna have zero problems with things like that because they’ve had alicorn magic for over a thousand years (or at least centuries for Luna, if her time on the moon doesn’t count), while Twilight has had it for less than a year. However, suddenly having several times your own magic shoved into your body is a completely new experience, which means that prior experience is not particularly relevant. Perhaps I should have used the word aptitude, if that makes it clearer.
 
As an analogy with real world, consider this scenario. There are two people; a 30 year old physics professor, and a 15 year old math and physics prodigy. The 30 year old professor has much more experience at doing math and physics, so they can do many more physics related things, like solving advanced differential equations, and modeling data, than the 15 year old prodigy. However, the prodigy has greater skill (or aptitude, if you prefer), so they pick up on new concepts much faster and more easily than the professor does (or did).
 
Celestia and Luna’s greater ability with magic than Twilight does not require them to have more skill at magic in general.

R.I.P. Purple Smart, we hardly knew ye obvious lies but hopefully the show can go on without you LMAO like that’s ever gonna happen!

@Background Pony #0066  
….What?
 
Yes, there is. Not only throughout the entire series, but explicitly in the exact same scene!
 
Twilight literally says she’s only just gotten used to using her alicorn magic! Y’know the same level at which she used her unicorn magic. And even back then her excessive magic would sometimes burn herself out or blow up things around her when she lost her temper. (Ticket Master, Feeling Pinkie Keen, Crystal Empire Part 1). In Friends Forever # 3, a serious comic with a ton of show continuity, Spike confirmed that such incidents increased since she became an Alicorn.
 
Only by Twilight’s Kingdom did Twilight’s skill allow the problems to decrease to their normal frequency, and that’s not nearly on the skill level of Celestia or Luna. Both of them control a great deal more power with a great deal more skill.
 
You are not making the least bit of sense.

@CronoM  
They’re much more experienced than Twilight is, so they can do more spells, but there’s nothing in the series implying that they’re more skilled than she is at magic.

@Background Pony #0066  
What in the world are you talking about? Celestia and Luna are far FAR more skilled magic users then Twilight is.
 
If you added a small sun worth of magic into another person, they would normally die. If you did the same to a living weapon like the Avatar’s Avatar State from Avatar: The Last Airbender or the Element of Magic in MLP, you get a living weapon.

@CronoM  
No, they were saying that Twilight had the best chance of controlling the magic because her status as the element of magic meant that she was extremely skilled with magic. They weren’t saying that the element of magic itself was going to help her, given that she didn’t even have the thing.

@cheezedoodle  
Yeesssssssssssss…

@Background Pony #A5E0  
The only option for Twilight’s character growth is building upon what Amending Fences did….have her second guess herself, have her second guess her decisions, have her second guess even Celestia’s decisions.
 
Twilight’s gotta figure out who she is and who she isn’t, and be the best goddamn nerd, researcher and wizard she can be. The princess gig has got her so depressed she’s gotten bored of reading. READING! Either remove the role completely or give it to someone who’s truly ready for such a responsibility. Twilight doesn’t have to leave, she should play to her strengths, not the one’s outlined by Celestia.
 
Celestia’s relationship with Sunset was closer to mother and daughter then mentor and apprentice. Celestia took Twilight under her wing, but only as a very controlling mentor, under the assumption that Sunset would never redeem herself and that Twilight was going to be her true successor. This has turned out to be very, VERY far from the truth. Nearly a decade of separation(for Celestia) is not something she can just explain away as a life lesson. Sunset screwed up, but so did Celestia. The pressure of being Celestia’s sole student, and seeing that pressure as a challenge, warped Sunset’s mentality into thinking she was the next Alexander the Great. Celestia failed Sunset the same way she failed Luna a thousand years before.
 
Celestia, Sunset and Twilight are in desperate need of some closure. If that ever happens, then the skies the limit.

@CronoM
 
By the way, Larson mentioned in a recent interview (I think it was in Equestria Now #81 that Hasbro has given DHX more freedom to control the direction of the show with seasons 5 and 6.