Can’t you just teleport away?

Out of the way, Fluttershy, you’re blocking apple horse.

What’s scary is that this could’ve easily been the outcome of the whole thing.

You think it’s over starlight? IT AINT OVER UNTIL THE FAT MARE SINGS!!!

Looks like someone hates Applejack.

one of us  
one of us  
one of us  
one of us  
one of us  
one of us

@OneAmongOthers  
You bring up a very good point.
 
I don’t really have an issue with Twilight’s focus in Season 1 or Season 2, but mostly because of the thematic nature of the show’s introduction worked with the first 2 seasons.
 
At the beginning of the series, Kind of like the original role of Bulma from Dragon Ball, Twilight was sent from somewhat conventional society into an unknown setting, Ponyville, to meet up with all the other main characters. And even though the setting and experiences are new to her, she has technology and other things from her slightly more familiar setting of Canterlot, where there is more modern culture then important aspects of Equestria like the Everfree Forest.
 
In the season 2 premier, Twilight is only left to last the longest so she can observe Discord’s handiwork before becoming Discorded without Discord having to lift a finger on her. However, the ‘Twilight friendship report’ arc is ended and Discord is defeated with Celestia sending her the letters that wake her up, and by association, the others. In the next episode, all of them start sending the friendship reports, increasing the equality within the group.
 
When the S2 finale comes along, the plot has some focus on something personal to Twilight, which was unheard of for Twilight because things rarely connect to her personal life cause, until then, she was simply ‘a student sent to live in Ponyville’, her house was simply given to her and she’s never had to worry about money or careers. With Shining Armor introduced, we actually have some personal elements to explore with Twilight.
 
On top of that, Twilight had her friends turned against her, not only because of Chrysalis’ trickery, but because Twilight got so impatient and so obsessed with her opinion being true, she announced fake-Cadence’s guilt in the most reckless and friend-pushing-aside manor possible. After that backfired on her, and Chrysalis captured her, Twilight experienced actual human(pony) suffering, something she never experienced as a student of Celestia. But, she managed to reverse things enough to team up with the other 6 and kick ass as equals. They couldn’t take down an entire army, but it was also Shining Armor and Cadence’s introduction episodes.
 
All and all, the writing was going at a great pace, and setting things up for more personally involved matters for all 6 characters equally.
 
…Then Crystal Empire and all its sequel finales came along, and everything was exactly as you said, @OneAmongOthers
 
The entire pretense of Crystal Empire and Twilight’s ‘test’ is mind-boggling in how devoid of sense and suspension of disbelief it has. The very idea that thousands of lives are on the line and instead of taking every precaution, Celestia is using this as a test for a single pony. How any of the other main characters were even the slightest bit concerned about Celestia’s ‘conditions’ for saving the Empire is beyond me. Sure they are supportive of Twi, but the lives of the many outweigh the mere convenience of the one. Heck, when Twilight finally lets Spike and Cadence save the day, not only is Twilight still somehow concerned and depressed on how she did her test, even after thousands were saved, the others are concerned as well!
 
How do you sell to the audience that ‘Twilight’s new level of studying’> ‘thousands of Pony lives’?
 
The answer is you can’t. The audience has to delude themselves into thinking it makes sense. And because we wanted SO much to like the new season because S2 ended on such a high note, A Canterlot Wedding, then that’s exactly what a lot of us did to some extent or another. And thus they used the same deluded formula you described for all the proceeding premiers, finales, and movies, at least until Rainbow Rocks.
 
All I know is I sincerely hope S5 reflects Rainbow Rock’s theme instead of just more of the same Crystal Empire junk.

@Joseph Raszagal  
…I am so sorry, dude.

@PonyPon  
He goes where-ever she goes.
 
One thing I’ve always been curious about as, in the common sense of creating a good main character, is Twilight never allowed to re-analyze her old relationships after supposedly wanting to take ‘friendship’ to heart. I’m not saying she doesn’t care for Spike, but they repeatedly have her treat him like a servent no differently then Episode 1. You’d think after 4 seasons Twilight would be allowed some introspective. I honestly thought that was going to happen when Spike went out on his own to ‘find his people’, but it inevitably led to nothing. Heck, briefly she was more concerned with the letter Garble burned.
 
The only purpose of having a buttload of unaddressed flaws is to create a Red-Herring main character, one that you can pull out of the focus for some reason or another. The most obvious reason is to flush someone out as a character that was previously untouchable, namely Celestia.
 
So long as Twilight’s the main character, Celestia will never have any personality. That’s the sole method of how the current plots are being controlled after all. Remove that and you have more options for storytelling, including personalities for Celestia and Luna.

@CronoM  
*7
 
Spike also lives there.

@Joseph Raszagal  
You forgot the tree vines the other 5 gave up in the first 2 tries, the cursed unfinished book Celestia sent to fuck with her friend’s minds and make Twilight a princess, Celestia giving a speech trying to give all credit for defeating Nightmare Moon to Twilight and Twilight alone(Twilight managed to mention her friends, although not by name), the Crystal Castle that has 6 seats but only one of them live there, and the other 5 barely had a SINGLE line of dialogue when they were in rainbow power form.
 
And to top it all off, Rainbow Rocks, a gem written by Meghan herself after the disaster of EG1, mocked the entire princess arc and explained how that entire formula of Twilight Sparkle focus does not work.

@Joseph Raszagal  

It’s creepy enough when it’s just random background ponies acting all Stepford-y. This is straight-up high-octane nightmare fuel.

@OneAmongOthers  
Yeah it would be nice if some of the other mane 6 were the ones driving the plot in these bigger episodes.

Join us Twilight, join us…

Interest/Attention set to MAX!

Mayor Marks possibly has a >, Greater-than, cutie mark:  
!derpicdn.net/img/view/2015/2/14/828232__safe_solo_twilight+sparkle_spoiler-colon-s05_force+field_mayor+marks.png!  
!file2.answcdn.com/answ-cld/image/upload/h_320,c_fill,g_face:center,q_60,f_jpg/v1401426193/szhg12wxooywurzljat5.jpg!

@Vraddock
 
“Uhhhh… Ummm… It’s a game! Yeah, a game! The rest of the girls are pretending to attack me and I need you to help me win by beating the ever-loving tar out of the pink mare with the purple and teal mane! Um… don’t worry, she’s a masochist; she’ll love it!”
 
[Twilight proceeds to get the Hell outta Dodge while calamity ensues]

Pinkie’s not even being mind-controlled/equalized. She’s just like,
 
“Ooh! We’re smiling at Twilight now? Okay! What’re we smiling about, girls? …Girls? Ah, doesn’t matter. What’s up, Twi?”

@OneAmongOthers
 
Twilight’s the central character. It’s always revolved around her. How much it revolves around her hasn’t changed at all, only that her standing in Equestria as a princess makes it seem as though it has (although I must admit that I hate the shit out of that hokey-looking castle; why couldn’t she just have a treebrarycastle?).
 
As for the final bosses~
 
1) Nightmare Moon: The Elements of Harmony are rediscovered and a giant rainbow basically hugs the monster to death, thereby rendering Nightmare Moon nice again. All six are necessary for this, each displaying their skills along the journey and supporting Twilight even though they don’t know her very well at the time.
 
2) Discord: Twilight’s friends are turned against her via brainwashing dickery. All six are necessary for both Discord’s plan as well as his defeat. I like that angle a lot.
 
3) Chrysalis: Twilight’s friends are turned against her again, but because of misunderstanding and Chryssie being a sneaky biatch. Shining and Cadance save the day with “You’ve got to belieeeeeeeeeeeve, in the pooooooooooower of love!” Then everypony gets their jimjams on while the DJ revolves it.
 
4) Sombra: Cadance has to maintain the shield spell and, as per the prophesy, technically saves the day. There was the build-up of Twilight’s “test” but red herrings are fun. And in the end… BAM! Spike to the rescue, bitches!
 
5) Tirek: Power absorption renders Tirek an unstoppable mo-fo. Discord also briefly resumed his dickery. Celestia has a strange plan to basically hand Tirek all of the powers he wants in one convenient package as opposed to four, but with the benefit of a sweet DBZ battle scene. In the end it’s the lessons that all six had to learn over the course of the season that unlocks their new trump card.
 
Twilight’s central and that’s not going to change. However, it’s not just Twilight Sparkle: The Show. It never has been.
 
I said essentially what I wanted to say, even if a little rambling worked its way in there. Forgive me, my meds are setting in and I’m getting a little woozy.

@JP  
resistance is futile

@OneAmongOthers  
We don’t know if they turn against her. We’ve seen only 5-10 seconds of material from the episode. This is fanart, nothing official.

Its like a outbreak….run for the hills!

welp looks like twilight has to kill her friends