Gauging an Alicorn's Power - *SPOILERS May be Contained (Season 3)*

[Marceline 187]

As I've watched MLP: FiM, and as they've introduced (and technically taken away) alicorns, I've been wondering . . .  Does an alicorn's physical build reflect their accrued abilites and powers?

 

Let's take a look at what's triggered this thought process.

 

Princess Celestia:

 

Celestia is revered as one of the strongest ponies in Equestria as we know it.  Though we do not see her do much fighting - as she is focusing more on training Twilight and taking care of the kingdom- we know she's rather powerful.  She raises the sun - and at one time, both the sun and the moon - and she was able to banish Nightmare Moon once she came into existence.  She's very tall and slender.

 

 

Princess Luna - "Normal:"

This particular picture features Luna once she has gone back to "normal" in season two.  She's similar to Celestia now in stature and . . . that cool thing they do with their hair.  We know Luna is rather powerful as well, as she once raised - and, I assume now that she's returned - and currently is raising the moon.  Probably has the same range of power as Celestia, although, I'm certain they have varying abilities.

 

Now, when Luna was consumed by negativity, she became Nightmare Moon.  After the EoH defeated NMM and returned Luna to, well, Luna, we see this:

 

Princess Luna - "Down-Powered:"

I say that this Luna is "down-powered" because NMM was pretty much overpowered, to an extent.  I'm sure that after being consumed by all that corrupt power, Luna would be somewhat drained.  That, or she reverted to her appearance from when she was banished 1,000 years ago.  A plausible argument, in my opinion, as one can grow exponentially stronger over the course of 1,000 years, at least if they're a royal alicorn.

 

Here's a size-comparison between D-P Luna and Celestia.  They're crouching, so they're essentially at the same height, you just can't see their full legs here:

If we assume that physical state corresponds with power and ability, and that Luna was under-powered in season one for some reason, then this begins to make sense.

 

Also, here's a size-comparison between Celestia and the Mane 6 to give everyone a better idea of how tall Celestia is:

Celestia is approximately twice the size of an average mare, counting the horn.  If not, it looks like a mare is two-thirds the size of Celestia.

 

But this craziness does not end here!  Oh no.  Let's delve into what the season two finale brought us.

 

Princess Cadence:

We didn't know much about Cadence during season two, other than she has the ability to mend relationships/spread love, was Twilight's foalsitter, and is marrying Shining Armour.  In season 3, we know

that she must have at least some mighty power, as she was able to single-hoofedly keep a full barrier around the Crystal Empire for an extended period of time.  It did eventually drain her, though, yes.

There is some speculation that Cadence is related to the Crystal Empire, since there was no mention of it before Cadence came into the picture; her cutie mark features a heart-shaped crystal, and her noted ability, as previously stated, deals with creating love.  The Crystal Ponies needed positive feelings to regain their memories and lustre in the episodes dealing with the Crystal Empire . . can you see where I'm going with this?  Cadence possibly reviving the Crystal Empire to rule it, stemming from it, being related to it somehow, etc.

I put this in here because this is all we really know (or at least speculate) about Cadence at the moment, and what she does.

 

Aside from all that, we can see Cadence is notably taller than Twilight, being about equal height with Shining Armour, who is a full-grown stallion.  However, Cadence's horn is longer than his.  Cadence is also still shorter than Celestia.  This may suggest that she is stronger than Shining Armour, but weaker than Celestia (in terms of accrued power/ability).  Here they are during the wedding, all standing on level-ground:

 

And here's a comparison between Twilight and Shining Armour to help with size comparisons:

 

Queen Chrysalis:

Chrysalis is about the same size as Celestia and was able to knock her down, suggesting that Chrysalis is rather powerful.  That and she's even a Queen, not a Princess, leading an army of love-eating . . . pony-bug-Changling things.

 

 

 

So, recap:

 

Celestia and Luna are rather strong, probably both the strongest and tallest we know of right now.

Luna seemed under-powered and shorter once she was transformed back from Nightmare Moon.

Cadence is pretty strong, being an alicorn and all, but she's still shorter than Celestia.  She is at equal height with Shining Armour, but her horn is longer than his, but shorter than Celestia's.

Queen Chrysalis was about Celesta's size, and was able to defeat her (to an extent).

 

 

So what do you think?  Does an alicorn's size reflect its power?

[NavelColt 22,881]

I don't see Changelings as alicorns. An alicorn is a combination of unicorn pony and pegasus pony and perhaps earth pony. Changelings are their own species, they aren't even ponies. Thusly she isn't an alicorn :3 She's a good anecdote for this comparison, but can't be treated as one of them, IMO.

 

Oh, it's also work mentioning that Chrysalis only beat Celestia because she was powered up from Shining Armor. Without it I doubt she could beat Celestia.

 

I'm not sure how to organize them in my head, because there's really no existing info. If we ever got to see modern Luna kick some ass one on one, we could then determine her power in comparison to Celestia and in comparison to her younger self. But it's all but unknown. Your list makes sense though, I spose.

Edited December 3, 2012 by ~Chaotic Discord~

[Zygen 6,066]

It makes sense, and theres not much of a way to disprove it currently, seeing as we haven't seen Luna's performance during combat or anything to show her power really. Except if you count her random things she did on nightmare night.

[CrystalRose 636]

Very interesting. There is so much I want to know about Cadances power. What i don't understand is how Celestia and Luna have been around for 1000 years and were powerful enough to defeat Discord and Sombra back then, but Twilight has memories from her fillyhood of Cadance being visibly younger. In other words, if Alicorns can live for 1000 years whilst being visibly the same age, how come Cadance aged visibly in such a short time? Is she as powerful as Celestia and Luna or is she a lesser type of Alicorn? And how can she be the crystal princess if she just used to babysit Twilight?

[Sunbro 4 Lyfe 939]

well the origional image of luna was the first design, bieng as how she was celestias younger sister. also chrysalis's species feed on loove, it makes them more powerfull.