Outside of flashbacks, where they beat Sombra, and Tirek, and such (Discord needed the Elements, for sure), the Royal Sisters (although I'll be fair and say more than one of these losses are due to circumstances, and are largely due to the plot needing it)... don't exactly seem to have the best track record, when it comes to fights.

They've had: Celestia lose to Nightmare Moon (maybe), lose to Chrysalis (possibly out of underestimating her current power level), both be kidnapped by Plunder Vines, be kidnapped offscreen by Chrysalis and her army (although to be fair, that happened to everyone), both be turned to stone by Tempest, and them both miscalculate by trying to pull the Sombra-stomping move on Cozy Glow, only to get their magic drained.

On the other hand, Cadance, while she has lost (S2 [however Chrysalis got her ambushed], S6 [shapeshifters are OP for traps], and the Movie, by turning to stone), I tend to think she generally has had a better showing in general, than they do.

Aside from her helping defeat the changelings in one go, holding off Sombra for days with her shield, forgoing sleep (then seeing to it that he died; she does not come across as a pacifist who'd refuse to ever kill, and she can feel less sympathy for evildoers than Twilight under some circumstances, if you're going by the comics, not to say Twilight can't be ruthless, herself, or that Cadance is unforgiving), she's kept up with Twilight in a fight, and it was her who leapt forward to try to defend against a petrification orb, which only failed because it seemed to be designed to get past magical barriers (otherwise Tempest's kicks are too OP, probably), she seems to have decent reflexes in flight, and she only stood down in S9 because Sombra had her child that time (and she would've made him pay for it, if he stuck around, or at have at least tried), or because Twilight vetoed them fighting, to avoid spending everyone (which a part of me would admit to being disappointed by, not seeing Cadance do more cool stuff in S9). _{she also has a cool, visually impressive way to plug leaks}

Cadance would, on a related note, seem to have a notable interest in magic for its own sake, if the fact that she's just as excited as Twilight to see a Star Swirl exhibit in Three's a Crowd was any indication, and that Twilight values her input regarding spellwork, and it didn't fail because they did it wrong. I think it wouldn't be off-putting for her to learn how to teleport down the line, and her magic prowess (including having a spell which protected against something that affected Discord, made him sick) is all the more notable, since going off of expanded canon, she was originally born a pegasus orphan, raised around earth ponies.

Regarding a personality trait, on a different note, she seems to identify the Mane Six as more of her peers, possibly contributing to how Twilight doesn't seem to want to be put on too much of a pedestal, herself, referring to the Mane Six as "my girls" in Games Ponies Play, and she was with the Mane Six when they were waiting for Twilight to come back in the first EQG movie, as opposed to the other princesses.

(No, I am not gonna say that she's more powerful than Celestia, based on the comics, by any means; not like Glitter Drops is all-knowing, after all)

(Aside from Tempest's snark, I feel that is a good bit of depth to Cadance, as the "Love Princess," how it's not just romantic love or whatever [emotions generally affecting magic strength also lines up with what that says], and it also reinforces how she strikes you as the type to be humble, as a ruler, to consciously not think that she is inherently better than her subjects)

So... what do you think? Could this viewpoint be onto something, Cadance being a more skilled, or at least more in-practice fighter than one, or both of the Royal Sisters?

_{and yes, I did use this topic as an excuse to talk about a bit more than just fighting skills, in terms of "character," so forgive me if that wasn't interesting enough, lol}

7295792
I think that Cadence isn't the most powerful in terms of raw power. But since I read this forum, I think she may have finer control that allows her to be more powerful while not having the raw energy of Celestia or Luna.

7295792
Hmm... regarding fighting, I think it really is a matter of circumstance and plot. Since she's less dangerous and less prominent, she doesn't get as many forced losses - she tends to just be ignored instead. While she's no pushover - alicorn pushovers don't exist - she's also not, IMO, a trained fighter besides the basic self-defense training Shiny's drilled into her over the years. (Of course, Twilight doesn't even have that and she does OK.) What makes her scary in a fight is how far she'll push herself for the sake of her loved ones.

Now that said... is fighting a Princess's main job? Or is it ruling? Because I suspect she's pretty good at that. Being the most emotionally well-adjusted Princess by far (and, at least in my headcanon, an amoropath) helps.

7295792
My headcanon is that Cadance isn't more powerful (at least in one case). She is just younger and more energetic.

Celestia used to be hot shit, but centuries out of practice and damage sustained when she brute forced Elements weren't kind to her.

Luna never was powerful in the first place, and her Nightmare stunt crippled whatever strength she still had.

Cadance... she is still young. Time when she would be able to turn mountains to dust is still ahead. But it is approaching and in time she would be more powerful than her Aunts.

Cadance has displayed more fighting ability than any of the other princesses. Luna is barely around, Celestia loses almost every fight she’s in, and Twilight is rather iffy on reaction and technique. One important note about Celestia, we’ve seen exactly one victory from her that wasn’t using the Elements, and that was against that one creature that Twilight and co were about to take care of. We hear that she and Luna defeated Sombra way back when, but we don’t actually see it, only a stylized animation summing up that they won. Even in the alternate timelines, her absolute peak performance in the show (the Sombra timeline), she didn’t show off any skills more impressive than the other big casters.

And I don’t think it’s fair to say it’s only because Celestia has to lose. She doesn’t. She could’ve easily say stalled Chrysalis or had an actual fight. She could’ve shown an impressive display holding off the storm in the season six premier. There could’ve been a flash back showing her fighting well before Twilight and co were born. Heck, even The Movie example, Cadance is the only one that reacts at first, and Celestia and Luna still fumble and get stomped by a unicorn kicking a magic ball at them.

As for raw power, in a Q&A, Big Jim said that they don’t have any actual scaling on how the characters compare (including Starlight and Starswirl). Add to that cutie marks muddying everything (Celestia might have the power of Starswirl + 4 others or her cutie mark might let her cheat with moving the sun, as the magical doohickey they gave Twilight implies to me). And moving the sun was the only raw power move we’ve seen from Celestia. Meanwhile both Shining Armor and Cadance have kept an entire city shielded for days and pulled off the changeling nuke in the season 2 finale after what they went through. And there’s the season 6 premier where she’s participating shortly after giving birth and dealing with a super new born. Cadance might actually be more powerful than the other alicorns.

Really though, it mainly comes down to Cadance being the only one to show competency in a fight scene more than once. Even when she lost in The Movie, she at least reacted smart and tried to do something. Twilight was actively animated as an unsure fighter, Luna is almost never around, and Celestia either isn’t around/pawns it off to Twilight or loses in an embarrassing way. Even if the plots required Celestia to lose (which they don’t necessarily require her to), she still could’ve had dignified loses (blocking an attack at another pony, losing after an actual fight, being lured into a trap, and so on). Heck, the season 9 premier even has the characters lamp shade this and that they don’t really ask the princesses for help with massive threats.

7295792
Cadance is quicker on her hooves I think (but then she and Twi are waaay younger than the royal sisters), annnndd yes, I’ll just say it, I think she is slightly better on defense than her Aunts What I’ve noticed is that Celestia and Luna almost never use a shield spell to, well, shield themselves from attacks, but Cadance and Twilight always do (or at least 99% of the time). Hence, why I said Cadance is quick on her hooves. But, of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

7295949
Ooo, agreed! I didn’t even think about how they obliterated an entire changeling army, but yes! They certainly know how to stand on their own two, er, four, hooves.

7295800

Yeah, I don't think I'm going to argue she's necessarily inherently more powerful than Celestia and Luna, but she does seem to have skill, and I think she could at least inconvenience one of them, and perhaps she could go up in the power scale, as time goes by.

7295810

she's also not, IMO, a trained fighter besides the basic self-defense training Shiny's drilled into her over the years. (Of course, Twilight doesn't even have that and she does OK.) What makes her scary in a fight is how far she'll push herself for the sake of her loved ones.

Although some of this comes down to headcanon, to give Cadance credit, she seems to not have much in the way of making blunders that Twilight has made in fights (more on that on a future part of this comment), so she at least doesn't come across as unskilled, even if she isn't quite formally trained in combat. (and Shining Armor isn't stellar all the time, but he gets too much flak regarding combat, perhaps in general, I feel)

Starlight Glimmer, for instance, I'm not sure if she got formally trained in combat, but whether she's self-taught or not, one cannot deny her skill, either way.

And yeah, you really don't want to provoke someone who will go Mama Bear on you. I don't have a doubt in my mind that Cadance has it in her to kill Chrysalis in self-defense, either, in canon.

I do think it's worth noting that Cadance found fighting a Tatzlwurm with Twilight an nice change of pace.

Princess Cadance: Don't get me wrong. Life in the Crystal Empire is wonderful, but it's become a little... predictable. I enjoy a little excitement now and then. Getting to face all these challenges today was just what I needed. And facing them with you just made me realize even more how lucky I am to have somepony like you as a friend. We may not see each other very often, but I know you'll always be there when I need you. Just like she was there for you, Discord.

...So I don't think it'd be much of a stretch, to think of her finding some enjoyment, in occasionally sparring.

Now that said... is fighting a Princess's main job? Or is it ruling? Because I suspect she's pretty good at that. Being the most emotionally well-adjusted Princess by far (and, at least in my headcanon, an amoropath) helps.

It's true, ruling is generally going to be a more important skillset for a Princess (even if it's a time of conflict, and you're an important power player, it's ideal to be good at leading, or perhaps especially if it's a time of conflict), and Celestia isn't a bad Princess because she's not the best fighter, herself (you don't run a country for a millennium if you're incompetent, probably). Cadance is level-headed, humble, and so I'd say she probably isn't a bad ruler, whether or not she is also an empath. She seems to be more balanced in general, than the others can be.

(And all alicorns do have enough power to be dangerous, in any case, so agreed)

7295949

Cadance has displayed more fighting ability than any of the other princesses. Luna is barely around, Celestia loses almost every fight she’s in, and Twilight is rather iffy on reaction and technique.

Speaking on the topic of Twilight and her skill, she has, for instance, made blunders on situational awareness, on multiple occasions (with the latter case involving Shining Armor calling her out on not paying attention to the task). She doesn't strike me as being all that skilled of a fighter, except maybe in S9.

Twilight Sparkle: It took a lot of research, but I—
[magic zap]
[splat]
Shining Armor: Maybe focus on the task at hoof, Twily?

She could’ve easily say stalled Chrysalis or had an actual fight.

...and on a different topic, I think Chrysalis is, despite what she might think due to her highly narcissistic nature, when she inevitably starts to favor brute force after getting into a position of power, a subpar fighter, possibly even one of the worst amongst the villains. Twilight, going off of the comics (and not the best fighter, as I said above), had the superior finesse to leverage a power boost that they both had to beat her, and Starlight's superior skill in battle is also self-evident, with how much trouble she gave her with a power disadvantage, and her skill issues were also kinda apparent in the final fight, with her being inconvenienced at two points more than she probably should've (Pinkie, then Rarity and Spike, not that any of them are slouches, and the latter case was the most dignified of the three), even if she ultimately came out on top.

Tirek would probably destroy "Ultimate Chrysalis," as would Sombra, and possibly others.

And I kinda think that the show laid it a bit thick with the Worfing, regarding Celestia, that she didn't necessarily need to be defeated all the time, but it is a valid explanation, that she isn't that good a fighter.

As for raw power, in a Q&A, Big Jim said that they don’t have any actual scaling on how the characters compare (including Starlight and Starswirl). Add to that cutie marks muddying everything (Celestia might have the power of Starswirl + 4 others or her cutie mark might let her cheat with moving the sun, as the magical doohickey they gave Twilight implies to me). And moving the sun was the only raw power move we’ve seen from Celestia.

To be blunt, power levels are kind of BS, in the end.

The way things are handled in the show, I think you have quite a bit of leeway with "how powerful is X," in stories, but I am of the opinion that at least you can generally have more of a conversation regarding "power levels" with Equestrians than anything with EQG and whatever transformations are involved, in comparison. Power alone is probably ideally not an end all be all crutch for "X character wins a fight," copy and paste throughout.

Really though, it mainly comes down to Cadance being the only one to show competency in a fight scene more than once. Even when she lost in The Movie, she at least reacted smart and tried to do something. Twilight was actively animated as an unsure fighter, Luna is almost never around, and Celestia either isn’t around/pawns it off to Twilight or loses in an embarrassing way. Even if the plots required Celestia to lose (which they don’t necessarily require her to), she still could’ve had dignified loses (blocking an attack at another pony, losing after an actual fight, being lured into a trap, and so on). Heck, the season 9 premier even has the characters lamp shade this and that they don’t really ask the princesses for help with massive threats.

Pretty much. In the movie, Luna at least tried to fly away (albeit in a straight line, and we know she can teleport), and Celestia froze up while talking to Luna, whereas Cadance had it covered relatively well.

7296159

It is kinda noticeable, that as far as the show goes... Celestia and Luna are not all that great with being reactive, with shielding.

7295792 I think Cadence is more suited to combat, probably because she's younger. And it's possible that being around Shining Armor means she's learned a couple of things about combat from watching him.

7296196

I do think it's worth noting that Cadance found fighting a Tatzlwurm with Twilight an nice change of pace.

My version of her spent a fair bit of time travelling Equestria incognito, so fending off dangerous magical beasts might have become a habit.

Speaking on the topic of Twilight and her skill, she has, for instance, made blunders on situational awareness, on multiple occasions (with the latter case involving Shining Armor calling her out on not paying attention to the task). She doesn't strike me as being all that skilled of a fighter, except maybe in S9.

Well, she's definitely untrained. She might be better at strategy, but no-one's given her an army yet.

...and on a different topic, I think Chrysalis is, despite what she might think due to her highly narcissistic nature, when she inevitably starts to favor brute force after getting into a position of power, a subpar fighter, possibly even one of the worst amongst the villains.

She spends most of her time around much weaker and totally subservient creatures, and when she does engage any kind of real threat, typically goes with the backstab. So fighting skill was not likely a priority, especially in her natural form.

I do try to consider both chracter's displayed onscreen feats and their concepts. Looking at it that way, the Royal Sisters should be much more battle-tested than Cadance - but I wouldn't underestimate her.