Nature's Spell

Twilight was orignally sent to Ponyville to oversee the Summer Sun Celebration and basically act as Celestia's agent. It's quite possible she got a stipend for that and it might have continued as she studied friendship and kept acting for Celestia and defending the kingdom. Remember the show only shows us glimpses of their lives so it's quite possible Twilight did more for Celestia than we get to see. Post coronation we know from Trade Ya that she did have some official duties and may have had other "as assigned" duties that we never saw. Those could also provide income. We've not seen her act as the Princess of Friendship, but I'm guessing it won't be an easy task. It's also possible she comes from a wealthy family and given her vast knowledge might even be a now and again inventor.

It's more than just Fluttershy. I can't recall seeing any young pegasus with their parents. I can't help wonder if pegasus just raise their children differently. Maybe they leave their parents early on and attend some kind of government boarding school.

It was said already, but we rarely see the Mane 6 with anybody besides each other and a select group of (other) friends or family. Add to that fact that the writers have limited time, so we're only seeing snapshots of their lives. We never see the whole story.

Yeah they, or anybody for that matter, shows all those elements at different times. Everybody shows love, but Cadance is the Princess of Love. Twilight is different in that she displayed all of them and showed leadership that makered her as a true princess. Also, if friendship is magic than she embodies all the elements by simply being the element of magic. Think about that! Everypony can be all the elements, but the mane six are the standard barerers.

It just proves you can't trust the staff. They love trolling.

I don't think the writers have indicated her upper limit. Anything having to do with creation or mending is fair game. She's not Twilight, but she's impressive all the same.

It was proven in Twilight's Kingdom that pegasis fight and Earth Pony strength is all magic. Not to take anything away from your scheme.

If you mean when she hatched Spike, I think the shock of the Rainboom caused her to loose control, and show her true power. In other words, she was over thinking it before.

What? You lost me. Do explain.

Damn I hope it stops at some point. It really seems to be height and horn length.

It's a mares prerogative to change her mane style. Never question a lady.

Rage (Flutterbitch) , insanity (Pinkamina), and uncontrollable power (Crazy Twi)

We really need more backstory and the fact that we haven't yet seems like a conscious decision. What are they waiting for? I don't think we need darkness, but of all the characters she has the most suppressed rage. We've seen it a few times, Putting Your Hoof Down and Return of Harmony. Pinky Pie is often placed on the crazy train, but that's mostly from fanfic and Party of One I guess. Pinky's bad side is way too campy for me, but Fluttershy can have an edge to her that's unnerving. It's always the quiet ones.

High School, prom queens and teen culture are powerful tropes and of interest to younger kids and Tweens. I also think a confined location like high school made the writing easier or maybe Meghan watched Sixteen Candles and the Breakfast Club too many times as a kid.

Anecdotally the MLP writing process appears to be somewhat haphazard at the level of the individual writers. It's Meghan's job to keep things together and control the arcs, but last season the writers inserted stuff that they never intended to be shown again. It's only looking back that we can see where they followed up and connected the dots.

Interesting list, but it will never be finished; too many edge cases. Sounds good anyway. I know you're talking about Unicorns, but you could classify Pegesis and Earth Ponies with a sliding scale too. Rainbow is clearly far out on the flight envelope and Applejack is likely a superior farmer.

Well said! No matter how much we may wish it to be different MLP, any movie or TV show, is never free of plot holes and miss steps. Shows go in different directions and formulate different goals. Writers have different points of view. In the end we can't always reconcile thoses differences.

You forgot my personal favorite Mary Sue.

As Cwanky said it is the Stormtrooper effect. Support characters can never be more effective than the main characters. Perhaps it's sloppy writing, but it's consistent; Celestia and Luna were kicking butt, sans guards, for hundreds of years. As Twilight and the Mane 5 are now doing. The Warrior Princess is a thing in Equestria.

The idea of "teenagers" is a relatively new social construct, appearing in the 40s or 50s, and it just might not exist in Equestria culture as it once didn't exist in ours. We'll never get exact ages or birthdates, so, again, all you can go with is how they live their lives and it sure looks like a (young?) adult life to me.

@rosenflickan I've always felt that Alicorn size was determined by length of service, more or less. Celestia largest and oldest and Twilight smallest and youngest with Luna and Cadance in the middle. Does this mean Twilight will keep growing? Yes but we may never see that on the show.

I totally agree, well said! I know when pressed the writers have talked obliquely about how old (mature is a better word) the mane 6 are. However, in the canon nothing points to them being anything but young adults.

We've never seen any ponies that act or live as human teenagers do. None of the Mane 6 are in school, none live with their parents and all have careers. If you're a human, and do all those things, you're an adult. You can't use EQG as support because several "teen" characters in the movie are adults in the series. EQG stands alone and that's fine. I don't think Equastria has teens as we know them. I'd also argue that ages mean little and it's better to judge them by what they are doing with their lives and how they act. If we assume Miss. Cheerilee, Cadence and Shining Armor are adults how do they look or act any different than the Mane 6? Answer: they don't and aren't.

If you go with the definition: having or showing a lack of experience or knowledge : innocent or simple I'm not sure any of them really fit that, however, I would agree with those that say they've all been guilty of being naive at certain times. We all are.

The other aspect is that the three different races are also different color: gray (unicorns), white (pegasus), and brown (Earth ponies). I'd love to know how the writers would explain it.