What Sky Would Like to See Before the Final Episode (whenever that may come) · 4:58pm Jul 15th, 2014
Way, way back in 2012 when I still had a tiny sense of perspective on the character of Princess Cadance (which I have since lost) I complained pretty hard about the Season 2 Finale. Principally, I felt it was incredibly tepid of the writing staff to make "love" analogous to "cosmic glowy force used to bitchslap monsters with." This concern may seem unfounded, since as early as episode 2, the writing staff made "friendship" analogous to "cosmic glowy force used to bitchslap monsters with," but my point was that the power of Twilight's friendships was clearly demonstrated in real-life situations throughout the course of the first two episodes. The inevitable Rainbow of NoooOOOoooo seemed an organic and symbolic manifestation of the power we'd already been witness to.
"A Canterlot Wedding" skipped straight past the critical first part and dove straight to bitchslapping. We never really saw love manifested as we did with friendship. As best as we can tell, love is an abstract evil-smacking and/or strengthening force that passes from one pony to the next in a form of magical communion. Cadance says "My love will give you strength!" and then they horntouch and all heaven breaks loose. This trend continues with "The Crystal Empire" which equates love first with an abstract single-pony force used to erect a barrier and then with an abstract multiple-pony force used to smash Sombra into leetle tiny pieces.
Though never explicitly stated in the text, Cadance is overwhelmingly implied to be the Princess of Love. Twilight implies her love-spreading powers are virtually unique (at least in scope) in part one of "A Canterlot Wedding," and in "You'll Play Your Part" her chorus lyric is "As Love lights a place in every heart," directly paralleling the sun- and moon- related lyrics of Celestia and Luna immediately preceding.
And yet, when Twilight bemoans her lack of function as a Princess, she notably doesn't mention the spreading of Love as Cadance's duty, instead summing it up as "protect(or) of the Crystal Empire," implying at best the same ambiguous Magical Blue Love Force we've seen before. And when Twilight becomes the momentary bastion of all alicorn magic everywhere, Love is again used simply for flank-kicking purposes.
The point of this blog post is:
Can we actually see an alicorn-level display of Love at some point? Not as a neutralizing and destructive force, for once? Can we actually see Cadance doing her job? Because unless you go to the chapter books (which do helpfully note that Cady is employed as a negotiator between conflicting Canterlot noble factions, thank you, Ms. Berrow) the best we really have is Cady convincing a married couple to temporarily not bicker about the wife's recent hooficure, and I think we can all agree this is pretty insipid as a display of goddess-level love power.
oh and i want them to have a baby or something but whatever
Those of you who care nothing of the pinkest of all extant princesses, thank you for your patience, and be rewarded by Parry Gripp's "Moonbeam Song," the single finest ScootaLuna song yet written by a guy who probably doesn't even know he did so:
I'd like to see Twilight foalsitting for Cadance at some point.
So continues the epic saga of Skywriter and His Quest To Create Respect for his Waifu.
At the rate we're going, I think we'll probably see Twilight and Flash Sentry defeat the baddie of the episode with the Power of Love before the writers let Cadence do something of significance. I don't think they've ever really known what to do with her.
This sounds like you may need to binge on Changeling stories, but the common trend (or 'fanon' if you like) is that love is only an abstract feeling to most life forms in the world, but to the Changelings, love is a literal force that the can sensed, controled, and needed to feed off of to live. Then how did Cadence and Shining use love to beat them? There love for each other was too powerful and overwhelmed the Changelings and promptly sent them packing.
2287763
So true. The toy companies certainly knew what to do with her though, to wit: "merch the hell out of her until replacement Princess Twilight becomes available and then curb-kick her."
Look, I don't need an episode, or anything. Even something in the background showing her doing some actual alicorn-grade quelling and harmonizing would do.
This is what I would like to see...
fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/t1.0-9/10489914_10203466251912312_7088046996792340166_n.jpg
2287762
That would be pretty cute, in a full-circle sort of way.
2287762
"There comes a point on every Goddess-Princess's life where she has to take care over other's entitled little fillies"
2287775
That was a very fast transition I just made from "never thought of it before" to "MUST HAPPEN omg."
2287773
Well, again, with Changeling stories, we frequently have "love" as a glowy thing that living creatures possess, unrelated to the actual practice of it. You might as well say "orgone." Does that make sense?
Admittedly, I've read only a few total Changeling stories, and the very good ones of those do in fact buck the trend.
2287763
Cadance is not my waifu.
It is much more problematic than that.
I am so far down the rabbit hole that I am within spitting distance of Shining Armor as my husbando.
2287762
I'd love this, if only for the prospect of Twilight getting it into her head that she should be the 'cool aunt' only for her efforts to fill that role to be constantly undermined by her own dorkiness.
2287803 I know a few stories you should give a read if you haven't already, granted they are long winded epics.
Of the hive.
Mirrors Image.
Mendacity.
Each of these have very very different looks as to how the Changelings work. And I think its good to have varied points of view, especially if you intend to write your own Changeling fic.
I got the idea that the reason the Crystal Empire is not a frozen wasteland was because "love" was somehow being channeled to control the climate of the region in lieu of a sizable pegasus population. I guess that would be a function of the Chrystal Heart more so than Cadance though, but Cadance was doing the same thing herself before the Heart was found.
So in any case, even the weather control of the region is not being fueled by love, that would still mean that Cadance must have some amazing weather control powers since she kept the region warm on her own for days.
It might just be an alicorn thing too, i guess, since it seems like Luna involuntarily conjures up storms and lightning just by getting excited.
2287775
Yes. Tony Jay would probably have been among my first choices, but the application of necromancy that would be required for that particualr choice would probably be frowned upon...
And can we at least please keep Sombra as a y'know, villain (because that particular gentleman does it so well) - especially since no-one else has been violently explodiated by Love/Friendship Beams, so can we keep at least one villain (in my opinion, the one with the most promising potential for being a recurring antagonist*) as intended? (It still burns me up I have seen but a barest handful of Sombra-as-villain even in the fandom.)
I would also like to see more Cadance, especially Cadance Doing Stuff.
Though, actually, Skywriter, you raise a good point. Until this season, I'd written Caddy off as a pretty much noncombatant, like you'd expect Fluttershy to be (only without Fluttershy's terrifiying bear-wrestling skills...) The fact she had Horn Lazars came as a complete - and rather welcome - surprise. And reflecting on that blog post, Cadance does seem to spend more time doing martial-love-explody things than not.
So... Maybe we're all looking at this the wrong way.
We know that friendship and love and harmony are actual physical forces here. So presumably - though it's never directly outright stated - maybe the opposites are as well. So maybe Cadance's job IS mostly love-smiting. So she's actually less sorta-Aphrodite, spreading love and healing ill hearts (though that's like, her secondary day job) and more sort of Love-fuelled Paladin, there to kick hatred and fear with the terrible and awesome power of Love and goodness and drive back all the negative powers.
Huh. You know, I think I really like that idea.
*He was smart, took every reasonable precaution to protect his prize (you try planning ahead a thousand years) - and some pretty sharp ideas at that, didn't waste time grandstanding around and got right to business and was only pipped at the post by the narrowest of margins... And required the direct intervention of two alicorns the first time... And they didn't even really win. (Losing a kingdom for a thousand years is not something you can spin a positive on...)
For love being a cosmic power, we see in the season 2 finale that Shining Armor is perfectly capable of creating and maintaining a large dome of power of an entire city over the course of several days, the changelings were knocked out of Canterlot from a reapplication of that shield. The Love seemed to just be the catalyst for Shining's willpower, eking out a bit more of the power he already had in order to throw up his shield.
In the season 3 premier, the power of love just powered the Crystal Heart to do what it was meant to do all along. My theory on the power of love is that it's like Duracell, it's just a power source. In the case of Shining Armor's shield, it could've just been willpower, or a transfer of Cadence's not inconsiderable magic power, as we see it is quite possible to transfer magic in the season 4 finale.
Cadance helped Discord go on his dream date with Twilight Sparkle? Although she kind of sabotaged it by tagging along as a chaperone.
Sky, what's your opinion on the Crystal Heart and its interaction with Cadance and her non-ass-kicking love powers?
Though I don't have the time to make the argument fully, I suspect it could be claimed that the CH is a literal physical manifestation of those alicorn-level powers, and since it's canonically the glue that holds Equestria together and the world turns to crap if it stops performing its function, I wonder if it hasn't already been established that she does more on a daily basis to keep the world running than the Sisters.
Then, too, the fact that her primary duty is "ruler of the Crystal Empire" makes sense within both her special talent and cutie mark.
I come for the writerly discussion of pony princesses. I stay for the Parry Gripp, because Parry Gripp is awesome, and obviously the best unintentional pony musician around.
2287808 "Ok, little Skyla. Auntie Twilight is going to read you my favorite bedtime story, 'Quantum Determinism in Polly-Phasic Thaumaturgic Collisions.' You're going to love the ending."
2287837 I'd presume the Crystal Empire has some inherent power behind it that does not rely on an Alicorn battery. Plus "...Luna involuntarily conjures up storms and lightning just by getting excited." Um. Crystal Empire. Princess Cadence. Prince Consort Shining Armor. I'm not sure what Princess Cadence would conjure up when she 'got excited' but whatever it is, Shining Armor is going to catch a lot of flack the next morning.
"So, Your Highness. Four times? Very impressive."
2287898
I meant to say that if the weather was being controlled by Cadance for days it could potentially be an expression of love being used to produce some kind of palpable effect that is not blasting someone.
Then I also pointed out that weather control could just be a generic alicorn thing and used Luna as an example.
2287820
Thanks for the links! "Mendacity" is one of the far-above-par ones I was thinking of when I wrote the caveat; I love that one to death and where Lyra is concerned it touches on the actual expression of love that I'm looking for. The others I don't know. Thanks for the point-at!
2287898 Toss "An Introduction to" or "A Foal's Guide to" on that title, and that's legitimate best-babysitter-ever material in my book.
Equestria seems to be a very psycho-reactive world (would that be the right term?). Love can be eaten, arguments can summon ghost horses to freeze you, and friendship can blast a god in the face. Going by the idea that the Magic of Friendship trumps choas gods, one would think that being the Alicorn of Love would end up being a much bigger deal than having power over the sun or moon. (I'm not putting in a vote for this... I like Celestia as the big cheese myself... It just seems like logically fitting the emotional-powers rules that the show seems to promote.)
Ultimately, I'm glad they used all 3 elder princesses in the finale. I don't know if we could expect anything in season 5, but I do feel like the longer the series goes on the more likely it is that characters like Cadance and Armor will get a nice spotlight as the writers look for new things to do. I enjoyed her inclusion in the "Three's a Crowd" episode, for instance.
Of course, if they ever do bring the Changelings back, I think it would be nice to see Cadance tending to any drained ponies, using her powers to restore the love drained from them. She is set up to be the anti-Chrysalis, after all.
2287773
Not that I'm arguing at all with what you wrote, but I've never really understood the issue some people have had with the way the changelings were defeated. To me, it wasn't love that hit them... It was a shield spell to the face. That spell might have been powered by love, but that doesn't really matter that much.
I look at it this way... I eat food for energy. The heavyweight champion of the world eats food for energy. When said heavyweight uses that food energy to power a punch to my face, I don't absorb it and grow stronger.
I suppose it all goes back to that psycho-reactive thing... Some ponies seem to be able to literally translate strong emotions into power. And then hit you in the face with them.
2287898
this was totally going to be the premise of a porn story i decided not to write
you're welcome
2287837
Since Windigoes are implied to still exist, I always presumed that they held sway over the arctic regions, hence, coldness. The love of the Empire is a little citronella candle that keeps them at a distance, which is why it's warm there.
Though I do like the "lack-of-pegasi" theory too.
2287880
And of course, Space Unicorn.
2287878
It's really compelling and indeed quite narratively satisfying to draw the analogy as follows:
Celly:Sun::Luna:Moon::Cady::Crystal Heart, treating the Crystal Heart itself as the literal fountainhead of all love, just as the sun is the fountainhead of light.
While there may be universes where this is the case, and I may in fact write in one some day, my primary Cadance chronology views the Crystal Heart as the Empire's Palladium, an artifact of great significance and magical power but not itself the source or the locus of the world's love. We're not going to see much of the Empire during "Cadance of Cloudsdale" because timeline, but in this version of the universe the crystals resting deep within the earth power Equestria's leylines, which fuel Earth magic. As Celestia says in "...Unicorn Tooth" all crystals are to a certain extent the same crystal on a "holographic" or "quantum" level (explicitly hoofwaving these terms around because of her shaky grasp of the nuts and bolts). With the eradication of the Empire, the crystal ley network has been running in a usable Internet-like state of ordered chaos for a thousand years, and it seems to work just fine, but the reappearance of the Empire re-establishes a master control program for the ley network, which is why Celly is scrambling to claim it.
The link between crystals and love is the focal point of the very final story of "Cadance of Cloudsdale," so I can't talk more about that without spoilage.
TL;DR Cady actually is destined to control Equestria's entire network of gems and crystals. The Heart is a very important crystal in the network and is as such one of the symbols of the Empire, but it is not itself the sole focus of all love.
2287762
You know, that really, really needs to happen.
2287775
2287846
I'd love to see someone's fic universe with that premise, just for some variety in the omnipresent "Celly and Luna in armor with halbards, Cady in a dress" thing. I'm not saying the canon doesn't support it, I'm just saying I'd like some variety.
Apropos of your comment, this seems at least tangentially appropriate.
This discussion makes me really wish I had the time to work on my ass-kicking Cadance story right now... I have a plot that's pretty much centered around her statement in Three's a Crowd, where she finds her Crystal Empire duties bland and boring, and chafes at not having more excitement. (One of those "be careful what you wish for" things, since she ends up getting the kind of excitement that comes with a side of horrible, nasty death for some ponies.) Maybe once I have a life again after Bronycon I can finally do some real work on it.
2287942
Lol, you just made me think about what the Ghost Busters could do in the Crystal Empire. With a good supply of their Psycho-Reactive slime from the second movie, a good sound system, borrowing the Crystal Heart to supply the power of love, and a NES gamepad, I bet they could make the Crystal Palace dance. In a literal way
2288214
I'd love to see it!
I was a great fan of that line. It made it feel like I'm talking to the same character the writers are. Although mine tends to use inappropriately purple prose and flowery sentence structure when narrating. My own style pollutes every first-person story I try to write. At least in third-person stories I can pretend the narrator's just a blowhard.
2288149
I still have one mental image of Cadance, in full armor, leading a legion of Hippogriffs into battle against the largest swarm of Changelling Equestria has ever seen, to the sound of Ride of the Valkyries.
Hippogriffs because, due to allegedly being born out of natural enemies (horses/pegasus and griffins), they were at times seen as the symbol of love (as in, it would take a huge amount of love for its parents to not kill each other in the first place), which would put them inside Cadance's purview.
2288061
While I appreciate your universe construction and am looking forward to it playing out, I am certainly curious how you square the "interchangeable crystals" idea with the fact that Twilight had to find rather than create the Crystal Heart. Did she simply get it wrong, or is there something unique to the CH proper?
(As much as you can without spoilers, anyhow.)
Edited to add: Now my mind is going places with rock farming, and the origin of Pinkie Sense, and —
Wait a second. Maud.
Maud is totally Supermare. Her cover identity is the perfect epitome of unobtrusivity, and she's got to have alicorn levels of attunement with the crystal network.
mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/thumb/mlfw3746.png
Whoah.
2288288
Yes. Maud is totally supercharged with Earth Pony Magic.
The unity of crystals means that they can sort of "talk" to one another on a quantum level. There still are crystals of greater or lesser purity and power, and the Heart is a particularly strong example.
2288288
Oh, and yes, this turns "Rock Farming" from a throwaway gag into an actual integral part of the universe. I tend to do that sort of thing because I am weird.
For the Canterlot Wedding finale I always figured Cady was fueling Shining's shield spell, or some variety therein. Like an area of effect exorcism, maybe. I don't have as good a shoehorn for her barrier against Sombra.
Cadance's power to manipulate love has some pretty grim possibilities. Sure, Celestia or Luna bringing about eternal day/night/tyranny is troubling, but those are concrete events that can be seen and fought against. Love is amorphous and notoriously good at making folks blind.
I'm reminded of Confessors from the Sword of Truth series of novels. They're magically enhanced women whose touch forces their target to irreversibly fall utterly and completely in love with them to the exclusion of all other concerns. Once touched, a person will kill or die at the Confessor's command.
Even that sort of power on a smaller scale is frightful. Discontented citizens made to brush off their hardships in a whiff of blue magic. "How could I be upset when I love my Princess so?" It's not Xavier levels of mind control but it's disconcerting all the same.
You say she does perform arbitration duties in the chapter books, which I don't know much about, but we do see the negotiations in "Twilight's Kingdom" take place in her realm. Two things bothered me about those negotiations:
First, they seemed to go by very quickly. Maybe the issue wasn't difficult to resolve, or perhaps Cadance nudged acquiescence out of the dignitaries.
Second, Twilight wasn't brought in. Even before ascending to royalty she was sort of a big deal, but it would have made sense to only have her appear as a token gesture. As a fully realized princess, however, it seems discourteous to completely omit her from the proceedings. Unless, of course, the elder three didn't want Twilight to see the power of love used in a less than forthright manner.
It's possible I'm just reading way too far into this and the writers just haven't moseyed around to her yet, or they have no idea what to do with her. It's too hot to think clearly. I need some pegasi to handle this monsoon season thing.
I dunno, Cadance got some personality in season 4, but really, I dunno if I really... care?
I mean, sure, her power is love, whatever. But I don't think that should really define her. I mean, Celestia and Luna may raise the Sun and the Moon, but that's not really interesting compared to other things that they do - Celestia runs Equestria and scries on people, and Luna soothes ponies' dreams.
I don't know that Cadance spreading love or whatever is really a relevant job, or even something that they would view as appropriate. Her being in charge of the Crystal Empire, and struggling to live up to being Princess Celestia, is an interesting character conflict to me.
Man, I love that song. :D
2288511
For the record, I would also really like to see me some of that, but let's face it, zero hope. The show is not called My Little Cadance: Cadance is Cadance after all.
2288275
So... awesome...
2288538
Its true. Though Twilight sure didn't get much attention in season 4 outside of the start and end.
Bro, I feel your pain. Though my own eternal suffering stems from how the show refuses to really explore Celestia's potential, still, I know thy frustration. In some ways I feel like what you're hoping for is akin to asking for an episode that focuses on the royal sisters and their sisterliness. Heck, putting the spotlight on any of the princesses for a single day would be great. But in my occasional cynicism I equate the chances of that happening with the chances of the staff recognizing how horrible Celestia's face at 3/4 angle looks and fixing it.
Thank God for fanfiction, right?
I'd love to see an example of Alicorn-sized love. It'd be a great way for the show to touch on sacrifice or forgiveness. I feel like if Cadance were to truly be the princess or alicorn of love, then she should be the shining example of unconditional love, the kind that gives no matter what, even when the recipient doesn't deserve it at all. That's the true strength of love. It's why you can simultaneously be the most popular and the most lonely person on the planet. Your fans may shower "love" on you, but until they see you for who you really are, and still choose to love you despite your ugliness, you haven't experienced true meaningful love, and so the celebrity feels unfulfilled and lonely, despite their popularity.
Cadance, being the alicorn of love, ought to be the one who clearly understands this. It would be why she decided to marry, opening herself up to another pony, while Luna and Celestia try to lock their flawed natures away. At least Celestia does, and she likely draws too much from all the praise she gets to see the truth, and Luna is too focused on shining as bright as her sister, trying to hide her darker feelings from everypony lest they hurt others again. Cadance is probably positioned the best to understand and experience and give real love. Twilight I would say is the next in line, because of her friends, though her stick is friendship and not love, despite how closely the two are related. In my mind, Twilight eclipses all the princesses in her potential, only because of her friends. Cadance comes next, because of the union she shares with Shining. Luna and Celestia fall last (though Celestia is still totally best princess and no arguing!
)
Headcanon, WOO!
2288228
Ha... I hadn't been thinking of the slime in Ghostbusters 2, but now that I think about it that whole plot does seem like something straight out of Equestria. Rivers of pink sludge flowing under Manehattan... Maybe it's time for the Gen 4 version of the Smooze.
2288447
I tend to imagine Cadance's powers as difficult to really deeply abuse, myself, by divorcing the concept of "love" from obsession, attraction or devotion even and assuming she can't create it where it doesn't exist. So basically, if she blasts your feelings for someone then you can feel like you've been reunited with someone you've missed... But only as much as you ultimately care for them. Otherwise, I figure she could maybe pump up your "love for all mankind (ponykind)", but likely just to the point where you're in a really good Christmas spirit or something.
Which isn't to say that it can't still be considered manipulative, but it seems a lot less concerning to me.
As for excluding Twilight, Equestria went from having 1 Princess (who doesn't seem to age or die and has held her position for more than a millennium) to having 4 inside the last 2 decades. That's 3 more princesses than history would suggest are needed. Being 4th in line for the throne behind at least 2 appointed-for-life immortals really seems unlikely to pay off if you're looking for the top job. Since Twilight didn't even seem to hold any functional position in the government, it was probably viewed like inviting the King's cousin to come into the room for delicate negotiations. Sure, he's technically royalty, but who cares when he doesn't have the power to do anything anyway, and likely never will?
That said, it bothered me that she bowed so deeply to those dignitaries. Even as 4th Princess, she should still rank above those twerps.
2288596
It really is horrible, isn't it?
I think part of the problem may be the implications of the power. After all, inspiring love where there isn't any is kind of creepy. Even augmenting existing love beyond what the affected ponies might have wanted to feel raises some uncomfortable questions.
And then there's the can of worms opened simply by having romance in Friendship is Magic. Putting aside how it could wreck more ships than the hurricane that destroyed the Spanish Armada, I don't think the writers are going go for an episode with the moral, "If your friends don't get along, brainwash them into happiness."
So yeah, I think the limitations of the target audience are going to keep Cadance from demonstrating awesome love powers that actually involve, you know, love. Love-oriented advice or intuition, maybe, but not actual amoramancy.
2288149
I actually ruminated a biut more on it myself on my local pony thread. There's actually a few fairly good suggestions to support the premise. One, it would sort of explain Shining Armor a bit more - less a "opposites attract" (i.e. military vrs traditionally pacifist) and more a "kindred spirits." (And why she was bored with just doing the general running of the Crystal Empire!)
It could explain Celestia's fall in Canterlot Wedding better. I always chalked it up to Chrysalis drawing on The Power Of LoveTM, that reputedly being the most powerful force in the universe... But maybe, in Equestria, the sort of love, i.e. the reason WHY people fight to protect others, is actually basically a form of combat magic. And Celestia "only" being Goddess of the Sun, is actually not ideally suited for wielding said combat magic (for whatever level of power you want to assign Celestia) and so, with all other things even, she was just beaten by a more efficient weapon.
It ALSO ties in to why Celestia and Luna are always sending Twilight to go deal with stuff - because Friendship Magic is ALSO a form of combat magic (as the show has demonstrated!) So Twilight, given time and experience - or maybe just a boost from her facility with magic (which may NOT apparently directly related per se to her position as Princess of Friendship) - might be a better combatant than either of the elder alicorns...!
Indeed, it sort of even make sense with Twilight's Kingdom. They weren't really expecting Twilight to go all DBZ on Tirek - the plan was that she - with her natural facility for magic - would be able to best handle the overcharge and hide away, was it not. And onl after Owlicious nearly died did she go all out in righteous fury... (Granted, with the overcharge, she still probably would have been the most capable to wield all the extra power.) But maybe if the plan was less hiding and more arse-kicking... They'd have been calling Cadance!
Heck, it might explain why we didn't see Caddy for most of the first two seasons! While Twilight and co were dealing with one set of bad guys, Cadance could have been off with Shining dealing with another! (And we know from A K Yearling/Daring Do that actual threats to Equestria can go relatively unnoticed - heck, the general lack of recognition of the Elements is prof#of of that, and they have several stained glass windows!)
It's just a wonderfully glorious idea, isn't it? I'd love to see it used in fanfic myself!
Though I have to admit, I'd have to think hard about how to fit it in into the modestly-compiled ideas for the Fic That Will Probably Never Been Written that has floated around with modifications since season one in my head. (So called because it is HIGHLY unlikely I will ever find the motivation to sit down and write it, even more so because of the fear that I'd start it and either never finish or feel obliged to try and that would make it unfun.)
2288659
Pump up the love of country of the troops before a combat...
I personally see Cadance's abilities as powerful, but limited. I agree with you in how strongly she can affect individual ponies.
I don't think she can create love where none exists, or else remove love, unless she is corrupted by dark magic; I don't think, for example, that she could duplicate the effects of Love Poison. On the other hoof, she has shown that she can repair broken love (Canterlot Wedding pt1), replenish drained love (Canterlot Wedding pt2), and I wouldn't be surprised to learn she had a hoof (or horn) in how everypony in the Crystal Empire suddenly recovered their inner light (and love) in an instant.
All added together, I believe that, while Cadance is quite limited in how she can affect each individual pony — only being able to repair or strengthen love that is already there, and only up to a point that could happen naturally — she can use her power at a large numbers of ponies simultaneously, a whole small kingdom (or large army) at once if needed, making her exceedingly powerful in the right circumstances, and ironically perhaps the best troop commander among the princesses when you add her talent and her natural charisma.
Now, if she was corrupted by dark magic, my headcanon is that she would lose the ability to affect so many ponies at once, but would gain the potential to either turn individual ponies into love-controlled slaves (similar in effect to Love Poison), or to remove love from individual ponies.
2288713
In fact, Hearts and Hooves Day had nearly the opposite moral, using forced love through magical means even. Maud Pie is also about how you can't force ponies to get along.
Oh, I think she did a little more than stop their arguing, whether she meant to or not...
i.imgur.com/CSKXovU.jpg
228881, 2288713
All that said, Twilight was about five seconds away from using a REFORMNG SPELL on Discord, and the narrative never particularly called her on it. Yes, another superior way was found, but Twitwi seemed to have no particular compunction about breaking out the heavy-grade Clockwork Orange junk as a solid Plan B.
2288659
Yes. Yes it is.
