Celestia vs Luna

[Hive King 1,998]

 

 

Well, she wouldn't say it to anyone's face, would she?  As soon as she says "Luna is a threat to my power" everyone is gonna be like "Come on, let's wake Luna up and tell her she has an ass to kick!!" and then Chrysalis is gonna be like "Oh, no, why did I have to say that out loud?"

Luna sleeps on the moon, they can't do that

 

 

WOAH WOAH WOAH!!! BIAS AND HATEFUL LANGUAGE ALERT!!! BIAS AND HATEFUL LANGUAGE ALERT!!!

I was being sarcastic and comparing that to your ridiculous notions that there are books on the Moon and Discord gave Luna combat training

 

 

Princess Luna said: "I, too, have a sister who often shines more brightly than me"  Notice the word, "often".  She is not saying her sister ALWAYS shines more brightly than her.

Notice how Sweetie Belle's reactions are utterly irrational. You can disguise it all you want, but Luna's judgement was immature

 

 

Btw, don't show your bias or hate during a debate.  A debate is all about proving your side of the argument is true, and does not involve any hate or "inappropriate language" directed at others who hold a different side of the argument.  In fact, showing hate or bias goes against your own argument, since it shows others that you are very narrow-minded towards the topic.  Straight out of speech and debate club.

You are the one claiming that there are giant robots on the Moon for Luna to train with 

[Plato's Pony 455]

 

 

You are the one claiming that there are giant robots on the Moon for Luna to train with 

 

 

 

Maybe a combat-training robot landed on the moon and gave Luna some lessons.

I said maybe!!!

 

 

 

Luna's judgement was immature

  Yeah, her thinking that Celestia "often shines more brightly than me" was immature, since, in reality, they both shine equally.  Okay, I get that.

 

 

 

Luna sleeps on the moon

They've never showed Luna sleeping before, but, they should.  It would be so adorable.

[Hive King 1,998]

 

 

I said maybe!!!

Maybe Luna enjoys having torture sessions with animals and slowly burning them to death

 

 

They've never showed Luna sleeping before, but, they should.  It would be so adorable.

She sleeps on the Moon, this is canon 

[Christmasy Britty 2,553]

I'd have to say celestia because she is the boss pony and technically god of the universe

[Plato's Pony 455]

 

 

Maybe Luna enjoys having torture sessions with animals and slowly burning them to death

 Maybe...

 

 

 

She sleeps on the Moon, this is canon 

 Never mentioned in the series, though.

[sweetolebob18 723]

This is degenerating into "Yes, she could" vs "No she couldn't"  I can get the same argument in the sports section of any newspaper any day before any 2 teams meet.  Until there is a flat out match, there is just no way to know.  Every week, there are upsets & surprise victories.

 

To me, a more interesting point is Nightmare Moon (as Luna) used the elements w Princess C to defeat Discord.  She must have known about as much about them as PC.  At the least, she must have known of their power. So, why didn't she grab them? Why was she so surprised PC used them against her?

 

I think I might have been on to something, earlier.  I think the Elements of Harmony can't be used by those whose hearts are filled with jealousy, hate, & anger. (Am I the only one to ever watch Star Wars?  You can't access their powers if you've called on The Dark Side of the Force).  If so (& I admit THIS IS JUST A GUESS, no evidence), then NMM didn't take them because she knew they would be useless to her.  She was surprised that PC could use them because she thought her sister would be too angry at being attacked to use them.  (Hey, I'd of made that assumption, too.  Who wouldn't?)

 

As 1 shred of evidence, I would point out that the Elements have never been used to harm anyone (technically, imprisoning someone doesn't hurt them). (Discord being turned to stone trapped him, but he got better & was no worse for wear)

 

If this view is correct, then PC didn't fight her sister because of benevolence, she was reserving herself to use the Elements because she knew they had the power to quickly defeat her sister without really harming her

[Fractured 2,682]

This is degenerating into "Yes, she could" vs "No she couldn't"  I can get the same argument in the sports section of any newspaper any day before any 2 teams meet.  Until there is a flat out match, there is just no way to know.  Every week, there are upsets & surprise victories.

 

To me, a more interesting point is Nightmare Moon (as Luna) used the elements w Princess C to defeat Discord.  She must have known about as much about them as PC.  At the least, she must have known of their power. So, why didn't she grab them? Why was she so surprised PC used them against her?

 

I think I might have been on to something, earlier.  I think the Elements of Harmony can't be used by those whose hearts are filled with jealousy, hate, & anger. (Am I the only one to ever watch Star Wars?  You can't access their powers if you've called on The Dark Side of the Force).  If so (& I admit THIS IS JUST A GUESS, no evidence), then NMM didn't take them because she knew they would be useless to her.  She was surprised that PC could use them because she thought her sister would be too angry at being attacked to use them.  (Hey, I'd of made that assumption, too.  Who wouldn't?)

 

As 1 shred of evidence, I would point out that the Elements have never been used to harm anyone (technically, imprisoning someone doesn't hurt them). (Discord being turned to stone trapped him, but he got better & was no worse for wear)

 

If this view is correct, then PC didn't fight her sister because of benevolence, she was reserving herself to use the Elements because she knew they had the power to quickly defeat her sister without really harming her

Well, maybe not used properly. It must have some kind of negative effect; Sunset turned into a demon, and that was harnessing one element. Maybe Nightmare Moon didn't want risk using all six and turning herself into immortal ash.

Edited November 6, 2014 by Shimmer5000

[Mr. Mustang 647]

Alright, so what if I give Luna the seven Chaos Emeralds and allow Celestia the use of the Elements of Harmony?

NOW the battle gets interesting.

Question is, will it still be a stalemate?

 

For the record, I'm still sticking with my theory of Nightmare Moon Luna is stronger than Celestia. IF the transformation is more than just cosmetic. See Luna Eclipsed.

[JonasDarkmane 19,757]

@MLP Enthusiast: Calm down, sally down. I feel like you are shouting to support your argument. 

 

@Hive King: You saying that Chrysalis thought that Celestia was more powerful then Luna because she was surprised at defeating her is not a fact but assumption/speculation. 

 

I can tell you why Chrysalis did not have to worry about Luna, in fact I don't think she was worried of Celestia at all. I mean she was still going to attack her with the help of her minions. So when Celestia was down, she did not have to worry about Luna because the shield was going down. She would have the help of her army. 

[Sunny Fox 5,891]

Snip

Everyone was onguard, if she has a form to make her stronger, she'd be a fool not to take it on

 

Okay, that makes sense. Thanks for elaborating.

Celestia probably tried, but it wasn't enough regardless. I'm not saying she's stronger than a roided up Chrysalis, but she was still able to shock her and make her scream out "No!". Even after winning, she looks surprised

 

Are you saying you think it’s possible she used her full power against the Queen and still lost? Or she put in more power, but was still holding some back, and lost? It doesn’t change the fact that her “hidden” power was not demonstrated. And not that this makes much difference, but you’re confused. The Queen never screamed “no” during her fight with Celestia. She did that when she saw Shining Armor’s renewed shield coming at her at the end of the episode.

As for the rest of it, your case can be stated as

"Luna has blown up more stuff, Celestia has lost all battles she's in. Luna's stronger!"

There's false equivalence there. Luna blew up more stuff because she was the villain at that point and she has no control over her emotions. Celestia has never been in a situation where she'd want or need to blow things up.

 

I don’t agree that it’s a false equivalence at all. We’ve seen great strength on the part of Luna/NMM, and there is no equivalent feat of strength on Celestia’s side of the equation; arguably, we’ve seen more evidence of her weakness. That being so, I can’t support the idea that Celestia would win. You’re right that I can’t conclude with certainty that Luna would win either, but in the absence of anything else to tilt the balance, I would put my money on the pony I know is super strong over the pony who “never had the opportunity” to show her alleged strength. It’s less a question of “who is genuinely stronger?” (not enough data to decide this) and more “who gets the better odds?” It’s tenuous, true, but no less tenuous than your argument about the Changeling Queen.

As for Celestia's enemies, with one, she didn't want to fight her in the first place and the other one wasn't compared to Luna in any fashion. 

That she didn’t fight back doesn’t make it any more certain that she would have won if she did fight back. When she did apparently fight someone in earnest, she lost. There is little reason for me to believe in Celestia’s strength with a track record like that. If you want to convince me Celestia is powerful, please provide proof of her power, not rationalizations for why she didn’t display it. (Whee! Alliteration!)

Also, Chrysalis had to have known about Luna, she came in before the shield went up (the threat she made) and Luna was seen very freely on the tower right outside of where she was staying.

Luna and Fake!Cadance were never shown together, so whether the Queen knew about her or not is uncertain. Heck, Fake!Cadance was never shown outside at night at all, so that makes it even less certain. However, for the sake of argument, I will agree with your assertion that she did know. It doesn’t change anything.

 

If [she thought] Luna was stronger, then Chrysalis might as well not have even bothered, she [would have assumed she] would have lost come nightfall. And yet, she's confident in her ability to remain in control.

You skipped a step. To demonstrate why this argument is flawed, consider a tennis tournament. You play someone who you think is going to beat you, but somehow you end up winning. You’d also be happy about it, and if you’re the boastful type, you might even boast about it. Even if you think the next opponent you have to play is even more skillful than that, it doesn’t change your happiness at winning. More to the point, you wouldn’t bow out of the competition just because you presume to be facing a tougher challenge than the one you just overcame. You’d be thinking to yourself, maybe I can pull it off again. And that’s not even considering having backup or the time to get even more skillful before you face that next opponent.

 

“Come nightfall…” By nightfall the Queen would have had an entire horde of Changelings topped up to the gills with power stolen from all the ponies in Canterlot to support her, plus whatever power she could have added to herself in the intervening hours. If she knew one pony could make her Celestia’s equal, how much more power would she expect herself and her changelings to be able to accrue from an entire city? Under those conditions, she could think Luna a couple of orders of magnitude stronger than Celestia, and still be confident in her victory.

 

She was arrogant yes, but she'd have to be arrogant beyond all measure to forget [her belief of] Luna being stronger, if this were indeed true.

You skipped a step again. And you’re assuming she can’t possibly be “arrogant beyond all measure”. “If she thought Luna was stronger, then she is arrogant beyond all measure. I don’t accept that she might be arrogant beyond all measure, therefore she must not have thought Luna was stronger.” Even if this were sound logic, it would be irrelevant. If the Queen thought Celestia was stronger than Luna, that wouldn’t make it true, and neither would the reverse. What the Queen thinks is entirely a moot point.

 

The argument that Luna is weaker than Celestia because the Queen allegedly thought so is entirely unconvincing to me. First, it’s far from clear that she was thinking any such thing, your interpretation of her silence on the matter of Luna notwithstanding. Second, unless she can sense power levels or has a scouter hidden on her person, what she thinks is irrelevant to the truth.

 

We’re starting to go around in circles here. Maybe we should just agree to disagree, and leave it at that.

[GreyScholar 1,574]

First off, whether others agree with me using the comics for the purpose of the discussion Celestia vs Luna, I will be using comic series for building my points. Don't like it, tough, as it has been stated by the staff it is up to the fans to decide if the comics are canon and I believe they are.

 

Second I will be using the book "The Journal of the Two Sisters: The Official Chronicles of Princesses Celestia and Luna" to farther build on my reasoning and evidence using what I feel is reasonable given the information offered. Of note, this book was written by the show writer Amy Keating Rogers with the requested aid of Luaren Faust herself. Meaning that while you may be able to argue the canonicity of the comics I will not allow you to argue that this book is somehow not canon.

 

With all this, I will now start.

-----------------------------

 

* Rarity gains a clear boost in power and magical ability on becoming Nightmare Rarity.

* Rarity loses her free will and control of her own body, as the Nightmare forces possess her.

* Lauren Faust states during interview that Luna was no longer present as Nightmare Moon, staying such while inside the moon.

* Both the show itself and Lauren Faust stated Nightmare Moon was banished inside the moon... thus making it a stone prison with nothing to do for a thousand years

 

With such I offer this: Luna has never been shown to defeat her sister Celestia in combat, the breaking of the podium I argue bring at least partly effect by Luna's unstable state of mind and the Nightmare forces taking the last few steps needed to gain control.

 

Thus this battle cannot be used to prove Luna is in anyway stronger. More, Luna herself would have been unable to grow at all in strength and power, leaving Celestia a thousand years to grow in at the very least magic. The reasons for such will come later.

------------------

 

In the Journal of the Two Sister you find that:

* Luna calls Celestia a nerd but also admits her sister is the better fighter, some of Luba's comments on her sister's love of reading and books coming off much like Rainbow Dash 'egghead' taints.

* In this book, Celestia and Luna take on traits of the Mane Six's personalities — Celestia has Twilight's bookishness and anxiety about fulfilling what's expected of her, and Applejack's workaholic tendencies (although Twilight has some of them too.) Luna has Fluttershy's kindness and ability to understand animals, Pinkie Pie's enjoyment for playing pranks, and Rarity's love of design and style. From Rainbow Dash, Celestia gets her love of flying fast, while Luna demands things to be awesome.

* Also Celestia makes a dragon burst into tears by sheer force of personality.

* Celestia can easily keep up with the master mage Starswirl the Bearded, and is mentioned as spending time with Starswirl in his library helping him with his spells... exactly as depicted in the Reflections arc of the IDW Comics.

* Luna is shown to be the gentler of the two sisters.

* Raising the Sun and Moon weakened and aged unicorns, too the point where there was risk of losing their magic completely, while alicorns are empowered/supercharged to the point that all unicorns that had lost their magic was able to be given it back by the princesses.

 

The most important bits are as follows: Celestia was the more serious and aggressive princess, a better fighter who was able to hold her own against a master mage, bring the more knowledge seeking and hardworking, and the one who took learning magic more diligently then Luna.

 

Given all this, with Luna being lost inside moon without control of her body and at the mercy of the darkness possessing her, Celestia very likely would have continued her study of magic and fought in any battle that came her way in the thousand years she ruled alone. Raising both the sun and moon by herself, she would also reasonablly have a pretty impressive store of power built up by her sister's return. With this, I would say Celestia gained improved combat ability and skill as a fighter. Though I would admit to feeling Celestia seems to have learned to find other solutions to problems thus not as often using her magic or her skill as a fighter.

 

 

All in all, I feel there is more then enough to go on in saying confidently saying Celestia would beat her sister in a fight, where neither side was surprised or ambushed by the other and reasonably putting aside Nightmare Moon as that is not Luna but a force using her body and empowering her. A straight up fight between Celestia and Luna, no outside force involved.

-------------------------

 

Lastly, this is a fantasy setting, as such the stars and the sun are different with the starry sky being a painter's canvas and not flaming bodies of gas as big or bigger then the sun. So no, just because Luna can have fun with the stars does not make her more powerful then Celestia. Controlling the stars is not greater then controlling sun, moreso given how the sun and moon have to be controlled by ponies and don't follow real life rules established by science. Heck, all you need to prove this is seeing half the sky being day and half the sky being night, with the sun and moon side by side.

 

If you want to go that route, the moon is nothing but a dark lifeless rock with no light or beautiful without the sun's light reflecting off of it. The moon is beautiful, offering a soft light, because of reflecting the light of the sun.

Edited November 6, 2014 by EquestrianScholar

[Fractured 2,682]

First off, whether others agree with me using the comics for the purpose of the discussion Celestia vs Luna, I will be using comic series for building my points. Don't like it, tough, as it has been stated by the staff it is up to the fans to decide if the comics are canon and I believe they are.

 

Second I will be using the book "The Journal of the Two Sisters: The Official Chronicles of Princesses Celestia and Luna" to farther build on my reasoning and evidence using what I feel is reasonable given the information offered. Of note, this book was written by the show writer Amy Keating Rogers with the requested aid of Luaren Faust herself. Meaning that while you may be able to argue the canonicity of the comics I will not allow you to argue that this book is somehow not canon.

 

With all this, I will now start.

-----------------------------

 

* Rarity gains a clear boost in power and magical ability on becoming Nightmare Rarity.

* Rarity loses her free will and control of her own body, as the Nightmare forces possess her.

* Lauren Faust states during interview that Luna was no longer present as Nightmare Moon, staying such while inside the moon.

* Both the show itself and Lauren Faust stated Nightmare Moon was banished inside the moon... thus making it a stone prison with nothing to do for a thousand years

 

With such I offer this: Luna has never been shown to defeat her sister Celestia in combat, the breaking of the podium I argue bring at least partly effect by Luna's unstable state of mind and the Nightmare forces taking the last few steps needed to gain control.

 

Thus this battle cannot be used to prove Luna is in anyway stronger. More, Luna herself would have been unable to grow at all in strength and power, leaving Celestia a thousand years to grow in at the very least magic. The reasons for such will come later.

------------------

 

In the Journal of the Two Sister you find that:

* Luna calls Celestia a nerd but also admits her sister is the better fighter, some of Luba's comments on her sister's love of reading and books coming off much like Rainbow Dash 'egghead' taints.

* In this book, Celestia and Luna take on traits of the Mane Six's personalities — Celestia has Twilight's bookishness and anxiety about fulfilling what's expected of her, and Applejack's workaholic tendencies (although Twilight has some of them too.) Luna has Fluttershy's kindness and ability to understand animals, Pinkie Pie's enjoyment for playing pranks, and Rarity's love of design and style. From Rainbow Dash, Celestia gets her love of flying fast, while Luna demands things to be awesome.

* Also Celestia makes a dragon burst into tears by sheer force of personality.

* Celestia can easily keep up with the master mage Starswirl the Bearded, and is mentioned as spending time with Starswirl in his library helping him with his spells... exactly as depicted in the Reflections arc of the IDW Comics.

* Luna is shown to be the gentler of the two sisters.

* Raising the Sun and Moon weakened and aged unicorns, too the point where there was risk of losing their magic completely, while alicorns are empowered/supercharged to the point that all unicorns that had lost their magic was able to be given it back by the princesses.

 

The most important bits are as follows: Celestia was the more serious and aggressive princess, a better fighter who was able to hold her own against a master mage, bring the more knowledge seeking and hardworking, and the one who took learning magic more diligently then Luna.

 

Given all this, with Luna being lost inside moon without control of her body and at the mercy of the darkness possessing her, Celestia very likely would have continued her study of magic and fought in any battle that came her way in the thousand years she ruled alone. Raising both the sun and moon by herself, she would also reasonablly have a pretty impressive store of power built up by her sister's return. With this, I would say Celestia gained improved combat ability and skill as a fighter. Though I would admit to feeling Celestia seems to have learned to find other solutions to problems thus not as often using her magic or her skill as a fighter.

 

 

All in all, I feel there is more then enough to go on in saying confidently saying Celestia would beat her sister in a fight, where neither side was surprised or ambushed by the other and reasonably putting aside Nightmare Moon as that is not Luna but a force using her body and empowering her. A straight up fight between Celestia and Luna, no outside force involved.

-------------------------

 

Lastly, this is a fantasy setting, as such the stars and the sun are different with the starry sky being a painter's canvas and not flaming bodies of gas as big or bigger then the sun. So no, just because Luna can have fun with the stars does not make her more powerful then Celestia. Controlling the stars is not greater then controlling sun, moreso given how the sun and moon have to be controlled by ponies and don't follow real life rules established by science. Heck, all you need to prove this is seeing half the sky being day and half the sky being night, with the sun and moon side by side.

 

If you want to go that route, the moon is nothing but a dark lifeless rock with no light or beautiful without the sun's light reflecting off of it. The moon is beautiful, offering a soft light, because of reflecting the light of the sun.

Actually, right about everything but that last bit. Discord traveled to the star cluster Horsehead Nebula in the most recent comic of the main series. There are astrologers in the show, and Twilight also has a telescope, both of which are pointless if the stars are just points in the sky.

[GreyScholar 1,574]

Actually, right about everything but that last bit. Discord traveled to the star cluster Horsehead Nebula in the most recent comic of the main series. There are astrologers in the show, and Twilight also has a telescope, both of which are pointless if the stars are just points in the sky.

The stars can still be studied and labelled, I was just annoyed that people were trying to say that controlling the stars the greater then controlling the sun.

 

Sighs, perhaps I should of tried a different tactic. The fact is though, in mythology and such stories there is a clear difference between the sun and the stars. People trying to point out they are the same thing in our world I feel would not apply in Equestria, given its fantasy setting and the more mythological role of the royal sisters in controlling celestial bodies.

 

Lastly... thanks for pointing out my mistake. I haven't had the chance to read most of the comics.

Edited November 6, 2014 by EquestrianScholar

[Fractured 2,682]

The stars can still be studied and labelled, I was just annoyed that people were trying to say that controlling the stars the greater then controlling the sun.

 

Sighs, perhaps I should of tried a different tactic. The fact is though, in mythology and such stories there is a clear difference between the sun and the stars. People trying to point out they are the same thing in our world I feel would not apply in Equestria, given its fantasy setting and the more mythological role of the royal sisters in controlling celestial bodies.

 

Lastly... thank for pointing out my mistake. I haven't had the chance to read most of the comics.

Well, you're actually right in a way. According to the Journal of the Alicorn Sisters, Luna never managed to pick up on being able to move stars; it was her attempting to do it and failing that caused her to learn she could move the moon. It seems like the unicorns tribes didn't know how or didn't bother either, since it was a spell that Starswirl had created, but never managed to use.

 

Also makes sense when you think about it this way: it was fated that the stars would aid in Luna's escape in the first episode. If she could control them, that entire prophecy would've been pointless.

[sweetolebob18 723]

Mustang D   It must have been 20+ years since I read any of The Forgotten Realm books, but I still (vaguely) remember Raistlin's fight w Tiamat.  Luna + Chaos Emeralds vs Princess C + Elements.  The question isn't "Who would win?", the question is "Would there be any survivors?"  Or would Equestria be reduced to ash & rubble?  It's a little like asking who would win WWIII, USA or Russia?

 

I doubt the remains would be worth ruling

[Mr. Mustang 647]

Mustang D   It must have been 20+ years since I read any of The Forgotten Realm books, but I still (vaguely) remember Raistlin's fight w Tiamat.  Luna + Chaos Emeralds vs Princess C + Elements.  The question isn't "Who would win?", the question is "Would there be any survivors?"  Or would Equestria be reduced to ash & rubble?  It's a little like asking who would win WWIII, USA or Russia?

 

I doubt the remains would be worth ruling

 

Point, no sense in victory if all that's left is ashes.

[Hive King 1,998]

Point, no sense in victory if all that's left is ashes.

There aren't any chaos emeralds

[Drunkfrank 1,115]

Okay Luna FB's shut the buck up lets get to work!

 

First point: Nightmare moon is not a ton more powerful than Celestia, dont believe me? watch that whole fight scene, Nightmare moon was not faster than Celestia, and had to use a lot of her power to think she killed her, Celestia is clearly some match to NMM.

 

Celestia didn't use the elements to win because she thought she couldn't, she did it because she didn't want to try and kill her sister, and while at it destroy whats left of her castle.

 Luna is much weaker than her NMM self, thus celestia would kick normal lunas ass. Celestia has 1000 years of mini threats up her sleeve. Clearly a bunch of small trixie sized villains showed up during that time.

 

The common belief is that celestia is weaker than Chrysalis, again, not true, Celestia did not expect chrysalis to be powerful, so she held back big time, I mean do you really think she would of gone full power with a large crowd of innocents and the elements of harmony users there. She probably didnt want to flat out kill anyone.

 

You want to count the comics? fine, Reflection bitches, celestias batshit crazy form is clearly way more powerful than lunas!

 

"BUT LUNA CONTROLS THE STARS AND THE MOON SO SHE CLEARLY IS BETTER THAN CELESTIA" Great job using real world logic in a show where ponies rais suns and shoot DBZ beams, Celestia did that for 1000 years, AND luna gets winded when she tries to move the sun, maybe it has something to do with distance.

 

BOOM PROOF I WIN CELESTIA WINS!!!!

[WindyParadise 59]

So... While I know about the whole NLR vs SE, how/where did it get started exactly? I was just wondering.

 (Hopefully doesn't start a flamewar. >.>)

[Hive King 1,998]

So... While I know about the whole NLR vs SE, how/where did it get started exactly? I was just wondering.

 (Hopefully doesn't start a flamewar. >.>)

I don't know(though probably as a reaction to Trollestia), but if we're talking armies, Celestia wtf stomps that. She is far more level headed than Luna and considering Luna still has the stigma of being nocturnal and Nightmare Moon, most likely a ton more loyalists too

 

Also, I find it funny how people imply Luna wants a republic. That would imply giving power to the common pony. Luna has never shown any indication of having a problem with being a diarch. 

[JonasDarkmane 19,757]

 

 

Celestia didn't use the elements to win because she thought she couldn't, she did it because she didn't want to try and kill her sister, and while at it destroy whats left of her castle.

Your proof for that? Tell me that you are not just speculating here 

[Fractured 2,682]

Your proof for that? Tell me that you are not just speculating here 

The hypothesis is at least correct: whether she could win or not, a straight fight would've ended up with either her or her sister severely injured or dead, and/or(if they happen to be immortal) Equestria and everything on it completely destroyed. No matter who would have won the fight, the elements were the best option for Celestia to use.

 

Of course it's impossible to tell who would have eventually came out on top, although I will say it's a red flag that Celestia was apparently unable to forcibly lower Nightmare's moon, or move her own sun.

[GreyScholar 1,574]

The Journal of the Two Sisters offers that Celestia and Luna are not immortal just very, very long lived. It also offers that there were other born alicorns like the sisters who raised the m and were around... though that does beg the question of what happened to them. Myself, I blame Discord but that is because of a certain wonderful comic titled Discordantly.

 

Moving on I feel the reason why Celestia used the EoH was because she felt had no other option that would assure her subjects' safety a Celestia had already been shot down once and I feel there was the clear risk Celestia could have been critically harmed if not killed if she continued to fight on her own. The one calling themselves Nightmare Moon, the evil creature who had once been her beloved sister, would not be reasoned with and each minute that Celestia risked put Equestria in greater dangered and her own life at risk. Her safest and most responsible option was to use the EoH.

[Drunkfrank 1,115]

Your proof for that? Tell me that you are not just speculating here 

Im sorry and the whole Luna is an excellent fighter and clearly is better than celestia at basic fighting *ISNT* speculation.

[Hive King 1,998]

Im sorry and the whole Luna is an excellent fighter and clearly is better than celestia at basic fighting *ISNT* speculation.

Really? When was this ever stated or confirmed? To the contrary, according to the book, Celestia is the one who battles