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Description

Are more unicorns needed to beat the 4 princess?  
or  
Will the current unicorn lineup completely trash the princesses?  
or  
Will this fight end in a draw?

safe2175726 mistmane947 princess cadance40077 princess celestia112754 princess luna117238 shining armor28093 star swirl the bearded2344 starlight glimmer60030 sunset shimmer79210 tempest shadow19011 twilight sparkle358024 alicorn314748 pony1604020 unicorn538576 g42030501 book43597 discussion in the comments821 female1804296 jewelry113261 magic96707 male551299 mare742014 regalia36482 stallion195880 text89724 twilight sparkle (alicorn)149521 who would win38
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Background Pony #7858
A few things:  
  1. does anyone know why Mistmane’s horn is curved?  
  2. does anyone know what Starswirl’s cutie mark is?  
  3. I can only watch up to S8 on my netflix account, does anyone know how to help me? I’d really appreciate it because I feel like I’m missing out on all the exciting stuff!
Background Pony #7858
Battle strategies:  
Starlight stalemates Twilight  
Shining Armor and Mistmane take down Cadence  
Shining Armor then goes and helps Starswirl the Bearded defeat Luna and Celestia  
Once all those alicorns are defeated:  
Sombra, Mistmane and Starswirl the Bearded take down Flurry Heart  
(YES, SHE IS THAT POWERFUL!!!)
Background Pony #7858
Look so yeah, your comments are DEFINITELY worth reading!  
Personally though, I think it should be FIVE alicorns vs. SEVEN op unicorns?  
Alicorns: Mi Amore Cadenza (Cadence), Celestia (Tia), Luna (Nightmare Moon?), Twilight Sparkle (“Yay! I automatically win because I have FRIENDSHIP!” When friends are stripped away “Que the rainbow lasers!” Pauses and looks around “Girls? Oh dear, they’re gone. Oopsie daisy!”) And FINALLY, FLURRY HEART!!!! No one can forget the adorable baby alicorn.  
Let me just mention that Flurry Heart shattered the Crystal Heart (which has been around for like, 4 millinea) BY SNEEZING. SNEEZING, PEOPLE! SNEEZING!!!!!!!!  
Unicorns: Starlight Glimmer (obviously) Shining Armour (also obviously) Starswirl the Bearded (triple obviously) King Sombra (sure, why not?) And personally, I don’t think Sunset Shimmer possessed that much magical ability so for the seventh unicorn I’ll say. . .MISTMANE!  
Flurry Heart! Flurry Heart! Flurry Heart! Flurry Heart! Flurry-“ACHOO!” Shattering Cadence screams “NOOOOO! NOT AGAIN!” Shining Armour groans
nightshroud96
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).

@Woomod  
I am talking about how Twilight avoided being screwed like Luna and Celestia were due to she can fire freaking “I automatically win because friendship!” rainbows at baddies.  
Since Luna and Celestia can no longer fire said rainbows at baddies, apparently they can’t stop ANYONE anymore despite supposed to being powerful there. Which is pretty aggravating, hurts a bunch for Luna’s case too..
Woomod

As powerful as the OP unicorns are, remember that when Twily had all the alicorns’ power, she was equal to Tirek after he’d absorbed all the magic in the world INCLUDING DISCORD’S. Just because the writers sucked at using the princesses doesn’t mean they don’t have serious power. I’m not quite ready to say even those six can equal it.
 
Tirek and Twilight just treated getting more magic as a higher power level, and that’s…Not meaningful considering what these characters do. Tirek with discord’s magic can’t beat the four princesses, Discord can because of what he can do with magic.  
Shining Armor’s shield is explicitly beyond anyone elses ability to create.  
Starlight can rip out the four princesses magic.  
Sunset is….I’m not sure how you compare with stuff like “So scitwi stole all the humanesix’s magic including hers, she then uses the humane sixes magic at once despite there being none to use.”. She’s a walking deus ex machina.
 
@nightshroud96  
@Phantom Rider
Sadly the writers goof that power up by making the princesses incapable of saving the day because they can’t fire rainbow lasers of doom at the baddies. Twilight avoiding this because she can do just that.
 
She couldn’t, she just stood there while the rainbow lasers did their thing, this was stated…twice.  
Until season 9 where she just could. grumble grumble
 
@Phantom Rider
If the writers happen to write this kind of scenario of the alicorns vs those 6 unicorns, most likely they would make the princesses not named Twilight “chosen one” Sparkle lose badly because worf-effect crap.
 
Yeh, Whorfing Celestia is fine she’s clearly not a fighter, but Twilight has the exact same combat style(fly, teleport, laser). But Luna&Cadence ehhhhhhh.
nightshroud96
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).

@Phantom Rider  
Sadly the writers goof that power up by making the princesses incapable of saving the day because they can’t fire rainbow lasers of doom at the baddies. Twilight avoiding this because she can do just that.  
If the writers happen to write this kind of scenario of the alicorns vs those 6 unicorns, most likely they would make the princesses not named Twilight “chosen one” Sparkle lose badly because worf-effect crap.  
They should never be allowed anywhere near writing stuff that involves this VS scenario here.
Phantom Rider
Solar Supporter - Fought against the New Lunar Republic rebellion on the side of the Solar Deity (April Fools 2023).

You are already booped.
As powerful as the OP unicorns are, remember that when Twily had all the alicorns’ power, she was equal to Tirek after he’d absorbed all the magic in the world INCLUDING DISCORD’S. Just because the writers sucked at using the princesses doesn’t mean they don’t have serious power. I’m not quite ready to say even those six can equal it.
Incursor

@Background Pony #66F1  
@Background Pony #66F1  
Starlight is a faster learner and more willing to use and be creative with magic. But Twilight is the one who taught her the additional magic or it was from Twilight’s books she read it from. Anything Starlight can do, Twi could as well. And Starlight never used any spells in a fight Twilight could not quickly replicate.
 
Even if she is a better prodigy that doesn’t necessarily translate into fighting potential.
 
Assuming she can stalemate Twilight that’s 3 Alicorns vs 5 Unicorns, and without Starlight the unicorns average magic ability has dropped.
Background Pony #66F1
@Background Pony #66F1  
Remember, she was matching Twilight after learning ON HER OWN, while Twilight is only where she is after studying in Celestia’s SCHOOL OF MAGIC.
 
Starlight is definitely more of a prodigy of magic then Twilight and Sunset ever were.
Background Pony #66F1
@AC97  
Not to mention that Starlights magic would not have been absorbed by Tirek. Otherwise Our Town would not still have been there.
 
 
Plus people forget that Starlight has been studying magic with Twilight for years now and would have been getting more powerful by leaps and bounds since her original fight with Twilight. Then take into account she has been focusing to improve her magic a hell of a lot more then Twilight over those last few years. Shes definitely had a lot more innovations with it then I have ever seen from Twilight.
Incursor

@Background Pony #F505  
By Season 9 Twilight hurt Tirek when Star Swirl and Mistmane combined couldn’t, the Pony of Shadows claim no longer applies. WHEN is this hypothetical fight supposed to apply?
 
The Journal of the Two Sisters states it took the six strongest unicorns, including Star Swirl, to raise the sun, six more to raise the moon, and with such stain it would pertinently sap their powers. “Horse Play” canonized that. So canonically each Alicorn is equal to “6 OP Unicorns” each.
 
So in pure power, Alicorns win by a fact of 4. The question is can the Unicorns last long enough to come up with a tactic to win?
 
Starlight, the only one to have fought an Alicorn in a fair fight and the most tactical at using her magic could merely match one. Star Swirl and Mistmane need Stygian to come up with tactics and did poorly agains Tirek without. Tempest stated she only won against them because she used the Obsidian Orbs. Shining’s lost every fight he’s been in suggesting his shield magic isn’t flexible enough for such fight. Sunset has never shown any fighting ability or “OP” magic, just what’s normal for a trained Unicorn.
 
In short, Alicorns with at least 3 out of 4. Unicorn’s win requires they get lucky.
 
@tehwatever  
They wouldn’t beam struggle with the alicorns, no. They’d have to outsmart them and frankly, when you have two of the pillars and three ex-villains with brilliant minds, the alicorns are gonna have a ton of problems.
 
  1. The Pillar’s needed Stygian to come up with strategies and without him they lost agains Tirek who Twilight was able to fair far better against. Starlight’s tactic meant she could only fight Twilight to a standstill. Tempest stated in the comics she count have beat them without the Obsidian Orbs. Sunset has never shown brilliance in a fight and despite her arrogance in the fist movie never tried to fight Twilight as a unicorn instead using stealth and fleeing.
     
Starlight is Equestria’s best active unicorn combat mage, Tempest is the best pound per pound fighter and Armor was top echelon royal guard before his marriage.
 
2. Twilight being the best alicorn combat mage is at least the same if not far more impressive. See 1. for Tempest. Shining Armor and royal guard aways losing, worse than the Alicorn who’s defeats are treated as a big deal, means his echelon means nothing in terms of actual ability.
 
In close quarter combat the alicorns would get absolutely clobbered, and I assume the unicorns would wanna eventually get in that range.
 
3. What’s “close quarter” in this context? If so close there’s no time to spellcast alicorns have the advantage of earth pony strength and stamina. Tempest is the only one with the skill to possibly hold her own that way, but see 1. And since alicorns have wing they’d be able to keep at range if they wanted.
AC97
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Non-Fungible Trixie -
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition

@tehwatever
 
Yeah, I think I agree with you, regarding numbers.
 
Mistmane is supposed to be in her prime here, I think (no sacrificing youth and therefore probably power), so that’s a problem, and Star Swirl is… Star Swirl, and can do a great number of things. The alicorns may be more powerful than any of them individually (probably), but a numbers advantage can make it a whole lot easier for them to overwhelm them with their respective resources, to pressure them.
 
(Also worth noting, outside of when she had jars handy in S5, Starlight didn’t really use her Cutie Mark spell in a straight-up fight, and I’m not sure she’d generally default to using that after S5, for personal reasons, the S7 incident’s special circumstances aside)
 
Imagine; the chakra of the 4 of them combined were EQUAL to the ponies of Equestria combined.
 
I’m not saying that they’re not outpowered by the alicorns, but I tend to think that Tirek wasn’t exactly getting 100% efficient utilization out of the power he drained, for multiple reasons, since the power went to restoring his youth, increasing his size/muscles, durability, and increasing his magical power.
nightshroud96
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).

@AC97  
Honestly the reason Twilight sidelined Cadance and Shining Armor from the final battle falls flat on its face when you realize that Flurry Heart can’t be the “last hope” due to she’s a baby and by the time she grows up enough to be a hero, everyone would be dead. Equestria would definitely be in ruins with most likely no hope of recovery.
tehwatever
Shimmering Smile - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of Equestria Girls!
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Twinkling Balloon - Took part in the 2021 community collab.
Artist -
Ten years of changes - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of MLP:FiM!
Friendship, Art, and Magic (2020) - Took part in the 2020 Community Collab
Wallet After Summer Sale -
Friendship, Art, and Magic (2019) - Celebrated Derpibooru's seventh year anniversary with friends.

@AC97  
I think the numbers is the major factor imo. If they was just 4 on 4 the Unicorns have distinct disadvantage, considering these Alicorns are literally the 4 ponies with the highest magic pool.
 
Imagine; the chakra of the 4 of them combined were EQUAL to the ponies of Equestria combined.
 
But 4 on 6 is unfair to the Alicorns, considering Starlight by herself could probably keep Twilight busy and isolate her from the pack. Even if Starlight couldnt win against Twilight, she’d be doing the unicorn team a huge favor by keeping the magical prodigy away from the fight.
AC97
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Non-Fungible Trixie -
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition

On one hand, Celestia and Luna seem like they’re kind of out of practice when it comes to fighting… on the other, so is Sunset Shimmer.
 
I’m kinda disappointed that people aren’t factoring in Cadance more. She had enough stamina to hold Sombra off for days without rest, and could keep up with Twilight in a fight back in S4, and Twilight canonically values her input with spells, going by S6 (she proofread it, and it didn’t fail because they did it wrong).
 
She seems like she’s pretty powerful, and she actually tends to put up a fight onscreen, has less embarrassing defeats than Celestia and Luna. She only lost against Tempest because she brought the Obsidian Orbs that ignored the shield she put up, and she would’ve fought Sombra again if her child wasn’t a factor, and he wasn’t gone before he came back, and she was also willing to fight alongside Twilight in the S9 finale, to which Twilight’s objection wasn’t “you’re too weak,” it was basically “I’m not putting all of my eggs in one basket with the demigods, protect Flurry Heart.”
 
She was also sufficiently ruthless to kill Sombra, and send Chrysalis and her army flying off, and it didn’t look like she’d mind making Chrysalis pay the second time around.
 
Princess Cadance: That sounds like the pony I used to foal-sit for. Count us in.
Twilight Sparkle: No. You need to stay here and protect Flurry Heart. If we don’t… If things don’t work out, she’s Equestria’s last hope.
 
An advantage the alicorns would have, depending on if it’s happening in enclosed spaces, or open areas, is that they can take to the skies, use whatever advantages aerial attacks and maneuverability can afford them, whereas Starlight and Star Swirl are the only ones that we know of listed here that can self-levitate (would Shining Armor have his air sickness affect him? He does have that in canon, based on Once Upon a Zeppelin), and not necessarily fast enough to keep up with them in flight speed. Tempest would have a huge disadvantage in that scenario, she’s definitely not having focused long-range accuracy on that one. Another advantage is, they seem like they’re more inherently durable than the unicorns are, on account of Celestia getting back up from an attack courtesy of Nightmare Moon, that was previously shown cutting through stone.
 
In the end though, a numbers advantage is a noticeable thing, and Shining Armor, if he’s actually properly leveraging his powerful shields (which might be questionable going off of canon, lol), can be an asset. Starlight also has great tactical prowess (although Twilight’s decent in that regard, as of S9).
 
@Incursor
 
Sunset never showed OP magic, teleportation being something even Trixe could do with training.
 
Forget Trixie, who had potential she tapped into, Sweetie Belle managed to teleport in canon, although to be fair she’s what would appear to be a potent mage in the making anyway, seeing as she casted Accelero in S8, and is the youngest unicorn we’ve seen succeed in a shield spell, however weak, regarding S7. (She was kind of Twilight’s student, on the subject of magic)
 
But the real answer is whoever the writers want to win. That is the deciding factor such logic like this was never even considered.
 
Pretty much, yeah. Power levels are bullshit for that reason, especially when it’s as much up to interpretation as it is here.
nightshroud96
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).

@Incursor  
If the writers of the show were handling this, they would most likely make at least the Royal Sisters look pathetic.  
They seem to have the bias of making the alicorns look pathetic, especially Luna and Celestia for the sake of making others look good.  
So I say keep those guys far away from writing how this fight would go because they would just make the alicorns lose because they want to. They have poor handling for the Royal Sisters there.
tehwatever
Shimmering Smile - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of Equestria Girls!
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Twinkling Balloon - Took part in the 2021 community collab.
Artist -
Ten years of changes - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of MLP:FiM!
Friendship, Art, and Magic (2020) - Took part in the 2020 Community Collab
Wallet After Summer Sale -
Friendship, Art, and Magic (2019) - Celebrated Derpibooru's seventh year anniversary with friends.

IMO the unicorns would win. Handily.
 
They wouldn’t beam struggle with the alicorns, no. They’d have to outsmart them and frankly, when you have two of the pillars and three ex-villains with brilliant minds, the alicorns are gonna have a ton of problems.
 
Starlight is Equestria’s best active unicorn combat mage, Tempest is the best pound per pound fighter and Armor was top echelon royal guard before his marriage.
 
In close quarter combat the alicorns would get absolutely clobbered, and I assume the unicorns would wanna eventually get in that range.
 
Twilight vs Starlight would look like DBZ with beam and teleport spam tho.
 
I think Twi and Starlight are like Goku SSJ2 vs Majin Vegeta SSJ2 in terms of magic.
Background Pony #F502
Alicorns would win if full power was used, but strong unicorns can put up a heck of fight assuming so magical artifacts are used or no one is nerfed. They also have access to Alicorn only spells.
 
Of course it would be no contest if they took on a fully alicorn powered Twilight Sparkle (ie Twilight’s Kingdom).
 
Star Swirl did move the sun and moon, but it caused him to age tremendously. Celestia and Luna can do as such without breaking a sweat, and also Twilight Sparkle as well too. Twilight Sparkle has also surpassed him in other ways as well too.
 
Sunset Shimmer has been stated to be weaker than Twilight Sparkle. Starlight Glimmer is also weaker than Twilight Sparkle, and the only time she did seemingly beat Twilight Sparkle was through outsmarting her with the time loop.
 
Tempest Shadow is a capable fighter, but her broken horn might hinder her magic spells.
 
Mistmane is talented, but she does not strike me as someone who tips the scale for unicorns.
 
Shining Armor defensive spells can only hold out for so long, and it is likely anything he can do his sister can do better.
 
Now if Sombra was included then I might give the edge to unicorns.
Background Pony #2520
the unicorns would win with just Sunset, Starlight and Tempest, in my opinion anyways.
Background Pony #F505
Probably the 6 unicorns. Mistmane is weak. Shining Armor is less powerful than even the weakest Alicorn. Tempest Shadow with her magic alone is weak. Sunset Shimmer is probably very powerful. Star Swirl is stronger than Twilight (according to pony of shadows “this one’s almost as strong as you star swirl”) and could take on Celestia and Luna. Starlight is more powerful than Twilight and possibly the most powerful being other than Discord.
 
The alicorns wouldn’t stand a chance against just Sunset, Starlight, and Star Swirl.
Background Pony #547C
It depends on what (stupid) idea the authors come up with. Because if the plot requires alicorns to win, they will make a bunch of idiots out of unicorns.
Incursor

Tempest’s win was thanks to having specialized anti-magic items on them that would throw the comparison off if applied.
 
Starlight only held out against Twilight long enough for each time loop to reset.
 
By Season 9 Twilight hurt Triek when Mistmane and Star Swirl together couldn’t even phase him.
 
Sunset never showed OP magic, teleportation being something even Trixe could do with training.
 
Shining never showed OP after A Canterlot Wedding, and he was maintaining the shield as opposed to powering it. Maybe his magic is normal high but he had a lot of time to set something big, like how a single person can build a house with training and enough time. If he could instantly deploy city sized shields, then he’s be OP as opposed to above average.
 
But the real answer is whoever the writers want to win. That is the deciding factor such logic like this was never even considered.
HumanoSiniestro

Invisible Enemy
You know, the princesses are really useless. Twilight make the 99% of the job when the chaos is in Equestria, so, I think is easy to the rest. Even toghether, the princesses are really weak, but if you put all those characters against the princesses, is clear they will win. Even Tempest with her horn broken, she made an incredible job in the movie.
Background Pony #A35A
Starswirl alone could take on both Celestia and Luna with ease. Not only is he powerful (he was the one who raised and lowered the moon and the sun before them, and it’s implied he did so several times), he’s also skilled in the use of magic.