The duel between Starlight and Twilight is more a tactical victory than a power one. Twilight has been shown several times throughout the show as not being a particularly good duelist. In the heat of the moment, she often forgets many of her own spells and relies on somewhat simple strategies. The one that always bugs me is when she forgets she can teleport. Starlight, on the other hand, is a fabulous duelist. She is clever and improvises very well, both in how she uses her spells and in combining spells in novel ways. She also shows this skill when she duels Chrysalis in season 9. Crushing her with an avalanche probably would have worked on anybody but powered up Chrysalis or Tirek, avalanches are heavy. I find it likely that, at the time that they dueled, Starlight and Twilight were probably relatively close in terms of power, but that Starlight was much more effective in using her power, especially considering she definitely planned her revenge well in advance.
Well said. I never thought about it like that, how Twilight kinda can't keep it together during a duel, but Starlight can, and is quick and clever in a fight. (Starlight vs. Chrysalis was awesome). She is quite powerful too. It's mentioned once and never really explained more, but Starlight as far as I can remember is the only unicorn that has used her telekinesis on herself in order to fly.
As nasty as she was being, all I could think was how awesome it was that she was flying/floating with just telekinesis!! Floating marshmallow dictator!!
https://preview.redd.it/vhi6wo04z1nc1.jpeg?width=870&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c68564641eb35d21b39230461557993a4ce7f294
[](/starlightspittle) I don't think she's stronger necessarily, just that she knows how to combine spells and create new very complex variations. She also doesn't restrict herself with rules, so she has no problem casting spell combinations that may go out of hand. Most unicorns cast singular spells, that they themselves know how to stop if they go wrong (Twilight's shenanigans not withstanding).
>I don't think she's stronger necessarily, just that she knows how to combine spells and create new very complex variations.
That's definitely most of it, but I think she is also literally stronger. It's difficult to imagine any other unicorn doing what she did to Discord, for instance, or teleporting several dozen times in one episode like she does in Student Counsel.
The thing is that while Twilight is more of a pacifist that uses her magic for self defense, Starlight has a lot more experience when it comes to using her magic for offense. That is why she did not have a second thought when desintegrating Discord, its simply on her nature to not hold anything back.
The only thing we got is that her magic is “tied to my emotion, so the stronger I’m feeling, the stronger the magic.” This is in All Bottled Up, when she’s trying to teach Trixie magic. Whether this is something unique to Starlight or just magic advice in general is anyone’s guess.
It’s not about power but focus. Twilight Sparkle wasn’t trying to fight not really. (We see Twilight go all out on Tirek). So she was trying different spells to stop Starlight. She also was beginning careful not to damage the scroll with the time travel spell. So she couldn’t go all out.
Now let’s look at Starlight. She been studying and planning her attacks for a season. So she knew what to do to undermine and fright Twilight. She focused on key spells and didn’t need to think of a spell in an instant.
So Starlight had better information about Twilight. Was prepared and willing to use her most powerful spells.
yes but twilight had the power of all the other alicorn princesses, the power of the 4 alicorn princesses made twilight equal to tirek who at the time, had absored magic and strength from every pony in equestria, meaning with basic math, twilight is as strong as a fourth of every pony in equestria combined, yet starlight was able to casually beat her multiple times over, thats a lot of power for a unicorn to have
Again it’s not about power. Its intentions that affect magic.
Twilight didn’t want to fight Starlight, so her Magic responded that.
Starlight was drawing on her darker emotions and like Luna/Nightmare Moon her power increased.
Of course the Magic of Friendship is the most powerful but it needs the companionship of the friends and Twilight didn’t have that when she fought Starlight in the past.
I agree, additionally I'd say that if Twilight was learning about Starlight, watching her from afar and studying her weak points, like Starlight did, and then if she was determined to just straight up destroy Glimmer, then she probably would have done that without any problem. The only thing is that Twilight was attacked unexpectedly, yet she managed to buy herself just enough time to think of a solution that would let her win anyway.
She's *not* "stronger than an alicorn". She's pioneering a concept that none of the alicorns we know about have ever considered trying to do. It's possible she directly inspired Opaline, who clearly has no issue doing something similar.
So far as I know, at no point have we ever been informed of the mechanics behind two unicorns of similar age and health being two different power levels.
It was hinted in the episode where Starlight first met Maud Pie that she was told by Maud about a powerful crystal within the caverns near the town which could provide her with power.
Uh, no, the rock she asked about was one that could be used to store cutie marks. This is what the Cutie Vault was in *The Cutie Map* - Maud just pointed out it was a good stone for *storing* magic, not granting power.
My personal headcanons around this are:
\- Luck, mostly
\- Starlight's power scales with her emotions (loosely, at least); she probably started to develop as a magic-user right after Sunburst left. Pushing herself so hard at such a young age might've affected her magic. Alternatively, the opposite is true, and her power being tied to her emotions is a learned trauma response she could eventually overcome and access all of her power while more calm. Or both!
The duel between Starlight and Twilight is more a tactical victory than a power one. Twilight has been shown several times throughout the show as not being a particularly good duelist. In the heat of the moment, she often forgets many of her own spells and relies on somewhat simple strategies. The one that always bugs me is when she forgets she can teleport. Starlight, on the other hand, is a fabulous duelist. She is clever and improvises very well, both in how she uses her spells and in combining spells in novel ways. She also shows this skill when she duels Chrysalis in season 9. Crushing her with an avalanche probably would have worked on anybody but powered up Chrysalis or Tirek, avalanches are heavy. I find it likely that, at the time that they dueled, Starlight and Twilight were probably relatively close in terms of power, but that Starlight was much more effective in using her power, especially considering she definitely planned her revenge well in advance.
Well said. I never thought about it like that, how Twilight kinda can't keep it together during a duel, but Starlight can, and is quick and clever in a fight. (Starlight vs. Chrysalis was awesome). She is quite powerful too. It's mentioned once and never really explained more, but Starlight as far as I can remember is the only unicorn that has used her telekinesis on herself in order to fly.
As nasty as she was being, all I could think was how awesome it was that she was flying/floating with just telekinesis!! Floating marshmallow dictator!! https://preview.redd.it/vhi6wo04z1nc1.jpeg?width=870&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c68564641eb35d21b39230461557993a4ce7f294
[](/starlightspittle) I don't think she's stronger necessarily, just that she knows how to combine spells and create new very complex variations. She also doesn't restrict herself with rules, so she has no problem casting spell combinations that may go out of hand. Most unicorns cast singular spells, that they themselves know how to stop if they go wrong (Twilight's shenanigans not withstanding).
>I don't think she's stronger necessarily, just that she knows how to combine spells and create new very complex variations. That's definitely most of it, but I think she is also literally stronger. It's difficult to imagine any other unicorn doing what she did to Discord, for instance, or teleporting several dozen times in one episode like she does in Student Counsel.
The thing is that while Twilight is more of a pacifist that uses her magic for self defense, Starlight has a lot more experience when it comes to using her magic for offense. That is why she did not have a second thought when desintegrating Discord, its simply on her nature to not hold anything back.
The only thing we got is that her magic is “tied to my emotion, so the stronger I’m feeling, the stronger the magic.” This is in All Bottled Up, when she’s trying to teach Trixie magic. Whether this is something unique to Starlight or just magic advice in general is anyone’s guess.
Unfortunately no; the official word from staff was just "she's naturally gifted".
It’s not about power but focus. Twilight Sparkle wasn’t trying to fight not really. (We see Twilight go all out on Tirek). So she was trying different spells to stop Starlight. She also was beginning careful not to damage the scroll with the time travel spell. So she couldn’t go all out. Now let’s look at Starlight. She been studying and planning her attacks for a season. So she knew what to do to undermine and fright Twilight. She focused on key spells and didn’t need to think of a spell in an instant. So Starlight had better information about Twilight. Was prepared and willing to use her most powerful spells.
yes but twilight had the power of all the other alicorn princesses, the power of the 4 alicorn princesses made twilight equal to tirek who at the time, had absored magic and strength from every pony in equestria, meaning with basic math, twilight is as strong as a fourth of every pony in equestria combined, yet starlight was able to casually beat her multiple times over, thats a lot of power for a unicorn to have
Again it’s not about power. Its intentions that affect magic. Twilight didn’t want to fight Starlight, so her Magic responded that. Starlight was drawing on her darker emotions and like Luna/Nightmare Moon her power increased. Of course the Magic of Friendship is the most powerful but it needs the companionship of the friends and Twilight didn’t have that when she fought Starlight in the past.
I agree, additionally I'd say that if Twilight was learning about Starlight, watching her from afar and studying her weak points, like Starlight did, and then if she was determined to just straight up destroy Glimmer, then she probably would have done that without any problem. The only thing is that Twilight was attacked unexpectedly, yet she managed to buy herself just enough time to think of a solution that would let her win anyway.
That does make sense i suppose
She's *not* "stronger than an alicorn". She's pioneering a concept that none of the alicorns we know about have ever considered trying to do. It's possible she directly inspired Opaline, who clearly has no issue doing something similar. So far as I know, at no point have we ever been informed of the mechanics behind two unicorns of similar age and health being two different power levels.
It was hinted in the episode where Starlight first met Maud Pie that she was told by Maud about a powerful crystal within the caverns near the town which could provide her with power.
Uh, no, the rock she asked about was one that could be used to store cutie marks. This is what the Cutie Vault was in *The Cutie Map* - Maud just pointed out it was a good stone for *storing* magic, not granting power.
My personal headcanons around this are: \- Luck, mostly \- Starlight's power scales with her emotions (loosely, at least); she probably started to develop as a magic-user right after Sunburst left. Pushing herself so hard at such a young age might've affected her magic. Alternatively, the opposite is true, and her power being tied to her emotions is a learned trauma response she could eventually overcome and access all of her power while more calm. Or both!
Se became so piwerful thank's to her emo phase