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* PaperTiger: Downplayed, as evident by the other tropes here. They are powerful, have many feats to their names, and do get to accomplish things onscreen... but often suffer *TheWorfEffect and tend to get easily defeated by the various villains. Much of their more badass moments comes only after being freed from whatever villain it was who capture and/or otherwise rendered them out of commission.

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* PaperTiger: Downplayed, as evident by the other tropes here. They are powerful, have many feats to their names, and do get to accomplish things onscreen... but often suffer *TheWorfEffect TheWorfEffect and tend to get easily defeated by the various villains. Much of their more badass moments comes only after being freed from whatever villain it was who capture and/or otherwise rendered them out of commission.
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*PaperTiger: Downplayed, as evident by the other tropes here. They are powerful, have many feats to their names, and do get to accomplish things onscreen... but often suffer *TheWorfEffect and tend to get easily defeated by the various villains. Much of their more badass moments comes only after being freed from whatever villain it was who capture and/or otherwise rendered them out of commission.

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** She might be a baby who is less than a year old, but she's also the first natural alicorn to be born in Equestria and [[spoiler:is just as angry with Chrysalis and ready to fight her along with the rest of her family and the Friendship Council in "To Where and Back Again – Part 2"]].

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** She might be a baby who is less than a year old, but she's also the first natural alicorn to be born in Equestria and [[spoiler:is just as angry with Chrysalis and ready to fight her along with the rest of her family and the Friendship Council in "To Where and Back Again – Part 2"]]. Granted it's highly unlikely her parents would have actually let her join the fight if push come to shove, seeing as she is only a baby and they wouldn't want to put her life in danger.



** Possibly downplayed though, as her powerful magic abilities are more likely to steam from her nature as an Allicorn ( a being with near god like levels of magic power) vs actually knowing how to use it; the fact she cannot actually control it that well dampens the "prodigy" part. Although she does demonstrate some vaguely controlled use of it at certain points, such as stacking the other foals in the day care on "Once Upon a Zeppalin."



*PowerfulAndHelpless: Despite her high power levels as an Alicorn, she is still only a baby, cannot control them fully and is thus as vulnerable as a baby might otherwise be. Getting a power limiter aside, she is shown to be held hostage by King Sombra and captured by the Changeling along with her family, unable to free herself.



* PowerLimiter: At the end of her two-parter introductory episode, Sunburst gives Cadance and Shining Armor a spell to keep her power in check, preventing further random bursts. Given just ''how'' powerful she is, it's more than warranted.

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* PowerLimiter: At the end of her two-parter introductory episode, Sunburst gives Cadance and Shining Armor a spell to keep her power in check, preventing further random bursts. Given just ''how'' powerful she is, it's more than warranted. Based off her later appearances it seems to still let her use some magic but otherwise keeps her in check compared to how she was without it.
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Only applies if it was stated the other alicorns no longer existed. Doesn't say and the sequel series shows otherwise.


* LastOfTheirKind: Assuming Celestia and Luna are naturalborn alicorns as ''Journal of the Two Sisters'' says, they are the last, and not going to produce any more.
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!!CharacterSpecificPages

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!!CharacterSpecificPages!!Administrivia/CharacterSpecificPages
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* NightmareFetishist: A mild example. In "Three's a Crowd" she notes that ruling the Crystal Empire is actually kinda boring and that she ''enjoyed'' traveling to the edge of Equestria and fighting a giant worm because it gave her something fun to do.

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* NightmareFetishist: A mild example. In "Three's a Crowd" she notes that ruling the Crystal Empire is actually kinda boring and that she ''enjoyed'' traveling to the edge of Equestria and fighting a giant worm because it gave her something fun to do. In the comics, she also mentions having practiced BlackMagic in her off-time.
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* TheAgeless: They're over a thousand years old each and don't seem to have grown noticeably older in that time. Even when they retire, they don't seem to be concerned about old age catching up with them anytime soon.
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* SuperpoweredEvilSide: Luna is the only one who gave into hers, but both have this. Specifically, Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker embody the sisters at their absolute worst and most self-obsessed; Nightmare Moon is consumed by her loneliness and desperate need for attention to the point that she's willing to force the issue, while Daybreaker is consumed by her ego and belief that she is better than everyone else to the point where she causes destruction just because she can.

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* AmbiguousSituation: Being as old as they are, there are of course a lot of questions regarding Celestia and Luna's lives. Very little is known about their early reign, or the thousand years Celestia ruled alone, and ''nothing'' is known about their origin. The show especially likes playing coy about the question of whether the sisters were born alicorns, or ascended like Cadance and Twilight. ''Journal of the Royal Sisters'' and ''A New Generation'' leans towards them being naturalborn alicorns, but both's canonicity is questionnable (and the flashback in ''A New Generation'' that shows them as alicorn children also comes from an UnreliableExpositor). Luna claims that Equestria has never seen a naturalborn alicorn before Flurry Heart and that such an event is beyond their knowledge, but that could be a case of ExactWords since they were almost certainly born before Equestria was founded, and if they are naturalborn, are the LastOfTheirKind, so wouldn't have much knowledge of alicorn births. Ultimately, the show leaves this question a RiddleForTheAges.


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* MysteriousPast: Being as old as they are, there are of course a lot of questions regarding Celestia and Luna's lives. Very little is known about their early reign, or the thousand years Celestia ruled alone, and ''nothing'' is known about their origin. The show especially likes playing coy about the question of whether the sisters were born alicorns, or ascended like Cadance and Twilight. ''Journal of the Royal Sisters'' and ''A New Generation'' leans towards them being naturalborn alicorns, but both's canonicity is questionnable (and the flashback in ''A New Generation'' that shows them as alicorn children also comes from an UnreliableExpositor). Luna claims that Equestria has never seen a naturalborn alicorn before Flurry Heart and that such an event is beyond their knowledge, but that could be a case of ExactWords since they were almost certainly born before Equestria was founded, and if they are naturalborn, are the LastOfTheirKind, so wouldn't have much knowledge of alicorn births. Ultimately, the show leaves this question a RiddleForTheAges.

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So many tropes apply to Celestia and Luna but not the other five that I felt it warranted its own folder


* SiblingsShareTheThrone: Prior to Luna's banishment and after her return, Celestia and Luna are both considered Equestria's rulers and hold equal power, though different responsibilities; Celestia holds court and handles the day-to-day bureaucracy of running a kingdom, while Luna defends the denizens during the night from nightmares and monsters. Ironically, for most of the series, Celestia's throne was much larger and more prominent than Luna's.


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[[folder:Shared Tropes - Celestia and Luna]]
* AmbiguousSituation: Being as old as they are, there are of course a lot of questions regarding Celestia and Luna's lives. Very little is known about their early reign, or the thousand years Celestia ruled alone, and ''nothing'' is known about their origin. The show especially likes playing coy about the question of whether the sisters were born alicorns, or ascended like Cadance and Twilight. ''Journal of the Royal Sisters'' and ''A New Generation'' leans towards them being naturalborn alicorns, but both's canonicity is questionnable (and the flashback in ''A New Generation'' that shows them as alicorn children also comes from an UnreliableExpositor). Luna claims that Equestria has never seen a naturalborn alicorn before Flurry Heart and that such an event is beyond their knowledge, but that could be a case of ExactWords since they were almost certainly born before Equestria was founded, and if they are naturalborn, are the LastOfTheirKind, so wouldn't have much knowledge of alicorn births. Ultimately, the show leaves this question a RiddleForTheAges.
* GodEmperor: They are immortal rulers of the story's main setting and raise the sun and moon every day and night. That said, they're not worshipped outside of phrases like "Thank Celestia."
* LadyOfWar: Not in the present, since Equestria is in an era of peace, but there are implications that they used to be a lot more warlike, and are still willing to fight for their kingdom. They fought both Discord and Sombra personally, and in the BadFuture where Sombra returns, Celestia fights on the front lines with her soldiers. This is more prominent in the comics, where they are several times shown donning armor and taking to the battlefield against monsters and hostile powers.
* LastOfTheirKind: Assuming Celestia and Luna are naturalborn alicorns as ''Journal of the Two Sisters'' says, they are the last, and not going to produce any more.
* NightAndDayDuo: Celestia rules during the day and controls the movement of the sun, represented by both her cutiemark and her coat being bright white. Luna rules during the night and controls the movement of the moon and stars, represented by her cutiemark, her dark blue coat, and her mane that looks like a starry sky.
* SiblingsShareTheThrone: Prior to Luna's banishment and after her return, Celestia and Luna are both considered Equestria's rulers and hold equal power, though different responsibilities; Celestia holds court and handles the day-to-day bureaucracy of running a kingdom, while Luna defends the denizens during the night from nightmares and monsters. Ironically, for most of the series, Celestia's throne was much larger and more prominent than Luna's.
* SiblingYinYang: Extremely so;
** Their domains are respectively the day and night, Celestia raising the sun and Luna raising the moon. This is also reflected in their colour schemes, Celestia being white and gold, and Luna blue and black.
** In terms of responsibilities to the kingdom, Celestia is a more traditional ruler who runs the kingdom through bureaucracy, while Luna takes a more direct approach in protecting their subjects from the terrors of the night.
** As a result of the above, their relationships with their subjects are also different; Celestia stands as a larger-than-life monarch, motherly but distant. Luna, by contrast, is a lot more close and personal, interacting directly with their subjects in their dreams and acting more like a caring older sister.
** A subtle detail in the ''Siege of the Crystal Empire'' comics also shows how they react to news of the Empire's fall and Amore's (apparent) death. Celestia looks horrified and concerned, while Luna looks angry and ready to fight.
* VagueAge: This applies to everyone in the show, but the sisters' immortality and completely unknown past makes it impossible to tell how old they are supposed to be. They were adults and already ruling Equestria a thousand years ago, and had for some time, but for how long is unclear. They did not found Equestria themselves, but took the throne shortly enough after the founding that they knew the founders (or at least one of their contemporaries, Starswirl the Bearded) personally. Of course, how long ago the founding was is another question that remains unanswered.
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** Twilight Sparkle has loads of meaning behind her name.

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** Twilight Sparkle has loads of meaning behind her name.name:


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* SiblingsShareTheThrone: Prior to Luna's banishment and after her return, Celestia and Luna are both considered Equestria's rulers and hold equal power, though different responsibilities; Celestia holds court and handles the day-to-day bureaucracy of running a kingdom, while Luna defends the denizens during the night from nightmares and monsters. Ironically, for most of the series, Celestia's throne was much larger and more prominent than Luna's.
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->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/BrittMcKillip; Creator/AyahiTakagaki [Season 2], Kanako Ikegaya [Season 3-onwards] (Japanese)

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->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/BrittMcKillip; Creator/AyahiTakagaki [Season 2], Kanako Ikegaya [Season 3-onwards] (Japanese)(Japanese), Katarzyna Łaska[Polish]
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* BlackMagic: She mentioned off-handedly in ''Siege of the Crystal Empire'' that she's been practicing the spell that opens Sombra's personal chambers "a hundred times" though couldn't figure it out until the events of that comic.
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* TheImmune: In the ''Siege of the Crystal Empire'' arc of the comics, she uses BlackMagic once, having practiced it previously but never figured it out until then. Strangely, it doesn't seem to affect her at all, despite it usually causing Twilight (who's much more skilled in all sorts of magic) headaches.
-->'''Radiant Hope:''' Tell me, Cadance, is your head hurting now?\\
'''Cadance:''' No. I feel fine.
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* ActionGirl: She dispels Chrysalis' mind-control on Shining Armor and uses ThePowerOfLove to restore his strength and create a massive explosion of energy that defeats Chrysalis and her entire army in her debut episode, holds off King Sombra for days on end with her love-powered shields through sheer willpower alone and later saves Spike from King Sombra and uses the Crystal Heart to destroy him,

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* ActionGirl: She dispels Chrysalis' mind-control on Shining Armor and uses ThePowerOfLove to restore his strength and create a massive explosion of energy that defeats Chrysalis and her entire army in her debut episode, episode. Then she holds off King Sombra for days on end with her love-powered shields through sheer willpower alone and later saves Spike from King Sombra and then uses the Crystal Heart to destroy him,him. Finally, she helps Twilight defeat the Tatlzwurm with her ProjectileSpell magic and protects her from its disease-inducing sneeze with her barriers.
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* ActionGirl: She dispels Chrysalis' mind-control on Shining Armor and uses ThePowerOfLove to restore his strength and create a massive explosion of energy that defeats Chrysalis and her entire army in her debut episode, holds off King Sombra for days on end with her love-powered shields through sheer willpower alone and later saves Spike from King Sombra and uses the Crystal Heart to destroy him,
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* BarrierWarrior: Flurry instinctively forms a protective magic bubble around herself whenever she is frightened.

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* BarrierWarrior: She seems to have inherited her father's powerful protection magic. Flurry instinctively forms a protective magic bubble around herself whenever she is frightened.
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* BattleCouple: With MagicKnight and captain of the Royal Guard [[BarrierWarrior Shining Armor]]. [[spoiler:The first time we see the ''real'' Cadance with him as a couple, they kick Queen Chrysalis' flank.]]. During King Sombra's attack in the Season 3 premiere , Shining Armor quite literally lifts up and throws a severely weakened Cadance into the air with incredible force so that she can retrieve the Crystal Heart and use it's power to defeat King Sombra.

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* BattleCouple: With MagicKnight and captain of the Royal Guard [[BarrierWarrior Shining Armor]]. [[spoiler:The first time we see the ''real'' Cadance with him as a couple, they kick Queen Chrysalis' flank.]]. During King Sombra's attack in the Season 3 premiere , premiere, Shining Armor quite literally lifts up and throws a severely weakened Cadance into the air with incredible force so that she can retrieve the Crystal Heart and use it's its power to defeat King Sombra.

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Renamed trope.


* InconsistentSpelling: "Cadance" is the officially trademarked spelling and is used by the vast majority of official materials (including a few that specifically switched from "Cadence" to "Cadance"), but the WhatCouldHaveBeen spelling "Cadence" still sees a small amount of official use, most prominently by the in-show credits of the episodes "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E1TheCrystalEmpirePart1 The Crystal Empire – Part 1]]" and "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E2TheCrystalEmpirePart2 The Crystal Empire – Part 2]]" (unlike the credits of the later episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E12GamesPoniesPlay Games Ponies Play]]", in which it's "Cadance"). [[invoked]]



* SpellMyNameWithAnS: "Cadance" is the officially trademarked spelling and is used by the vast majority of official materials (including a few that specifically switched from "Cadence" to "Cadance"), but the WhatCouldHaveBeen spelling "Cadence" still sees a small amount of official use, most prominently by the in-show credits of the episodes "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E1TheCrystalEmpirePart1 The Crystal Empire – Part 1]]" and "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E2TheCrystalEmpirePart2 The Crystal Empire – Part 2]]" (unlike the credits of the later episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E12GamesPoniesPlay Games Ponies Play]]", in which it's "Cadance"). [[invoked]]
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* BattleCouple: With MagicKnight and captain of the Royal Guard [[BarrierWarrior Shining Armor]]. [[spoiler:The first time we see the ''real'' Cadance with him as a couple, they kick Queen Chrysalis' flank.]]

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* BattleCouple: With MagicKnight and captain of the Royal Guard [[BarrierWarrior Shining Armor]]. [[spoiler:The first time we see the ''real'' Cadance with him as a couple, they kick Queen Chrysalis' flank.]]]]. During King Sombra's attack in the Season 3 premiere , Shining Armor quite literally lifts up and throws a severely weakened Cadance into the air with incredible force so that she can retrieve the Crystal Heart and use it's power to defeat King Sombra.



* HeartIsAnAwesomePower: Compared to commanding the sun and moon and the PhysicalGoddess level powers her aunts show, control over love doesn't seem that impressive but it is. ThePowerOfFriendship may be the most powerful magic in Equestria but underestimating its close cousin is still a very bad idea.

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* HeartIsAnAwesomePower: Compared to commanding the sun and moon and the PhysicalGoddess level powers her aunts Celestia and Luna show, the vast repertoire of spells and magic that Twilight has at her disposal and even Flurry Heart's extremely destructive magical tantrums and outbursts, control over love doesn't seem that impressive but it really is. ThePowerOfFriendship may be the most powerful magic in Equestria but underestimating its close cousin is still a very bad idea.



** [[spoiler:Then she weaponizes ThePowerOfLove alongside her husband to give a HeartBeatDown to Queen Chrysalis.]]

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** [[spoiler:Then she weaponizes ThePowerOfLove alongside her husband to give a HeartBeatDown to Queen Chrysalis.]]Chrysalis who at that point has absorbed enough love to become even more powerful than Celestia]]



* PhysicalGoddess: She's powerful enough to put up a protective field of love around the city of the Crystal Empire and strong enough to keep King Sombra at bay even when heavily fatigued. In addition, her power, combined with her aunts' and Princess Twilight's, was enough to match Tirek [[spoiler:when he was powered up by the combined magic of all of Equestria plus Discord.]]

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* PhysicalGoddess: Within the right circumstances, her ThePowerOfLove magic can become strong enough to create a massive shockwave that can easily defeat Full Power Chrysalis and her entire swarm of changelings. She's also powerful enough to put up a protective field of love around the city of the Crystal Empire and strong enough to keep King Sombra at bay even when heavily fatigued. fatigued. In addition, her power, combined with her aunts' and Princess Twilight's, was enough to match Tirek [[spoiler:when he was powered up by the combined magic of all of Equestria plus Discord.]]



* ProjectileSpell: While ThePowerOfLove is her specialty, she also knows straight-up offensive spells.

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* ProjectileSpell: While ThePowerOfLove is her specialty, she also knows straight-up offensive spells. She helps Twilight defeat a giant worm monster with this.

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* YouDontLookLikeYou: Her cutie mark looks a bit different in most merchandise than it does in the show.

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* YouDontLookLikeYou: YouDontLookLikeYou:
**
Her cutie mark looks a bit different in most merchandise than it does in the show.show.
** Some of her toys are dark pink, as opposed to the show, where she is pale pink.
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** In the LooseCanon ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFiendshipIsMagic'' issue dealing with Sombra, she pointedly reminds Twilight that even if Sombra's StartOfDarkness was [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds the end result of a long series of personal tragedies]], it doesn't excuse the fact that he did become a monstrous tyrant at the end of it. Of course, as Sombra's story involves the aversion of LoveRedeems, [[spoiler: and in the main comics has led to the first Equestrian example of LoveMakesYouEvil,]] it makes sense that Cadance would take things a little more personally.

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** In the LooseCanon ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFiendshipIsMagic'' issue dealing with Sombra, she pointedly reminds Twilight that even if Sombra's StartOfDarkness was [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds the end result of a long series of personal tragedies]], [[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse it doesn't excuse the fact that he did become a monstrous tyrant at the end of it.it]]. Of course, as Sombra's story involves the aversion of LoveRedeems, [[spoiler: and in the main comics has led to the first Equestrian example of LoveMakesYouEvil,]] it makes sense that Cadance would take things a little more personally.
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->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/BrittMcKillip

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->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/BrittMcKillip
Creator/BrittMcKillip; Creator/AyahiTakagaki [Season 2], Kanako Ikegaya [Season 3-onwards] (Japanese)
\\\

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* MakeMeWannaShout: Her baby wailing is how she destroys the Crystal Heart.


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* SuperScream: As an infant, she's able to let out powerful screams when upset -- in fact, her baby wailing is how she destroys the Crystal Heart.
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* DoNotCallMePaul: Brought up but downplayed in the book ''Princess Cadance and the Spring Hearts Garden'', where Shining Armor calls her "Mi Amore" at one point. Cadance doesn't get angry, but she replies firmly with "You know I don't like to be called that name."
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** Of [[WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles Jack-Jack]], particularly as shown in the ''[[WesternAnimation/PixarShorts Jack-Jack Attack]]'' short. Both are babies who manifest a wide variety of dangerous powers and are cheerfully oblivious to both the havoc they cause and [[BadlyBatteredBabysitter the ordeal they cause for anyone trying to care for them.]]

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** Of [[WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles [[Franchise/TheIncredibles Jack-Jack]], particularly as shown in the ''[[WesternAnimation/PixarShorts Jack-Jack Attack]]'' short. Both are babies who manifest a wide variety of dangerous powers and are cheerfully oblivious to both the havoc they cause and [[BadlyBatteredBabysitter the ordeal they cause for anyone trying to care for them.]]
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Trope has been merged with New Powers As The Plot Demands. Removing for not fitting the definition.


* WingPull:
** Justified. Being in an underground cave, her wings aren't much use and are kept tucked in close to her sides while escape attempts are made but when she and Twilight aren't going to make a long jump, they finally come out in full force.
** Even more awesomely used in "The Crystal Empire – Part 2"; Cadance is both mentally and physically exhausted from maintaining the shield around the Crystal Empire to where Shining Armor has to support her to stand up. King Sombra is racing towards the center castle, and Spike, entrusted to the Crystal Heart by Twilight, has just fallen off from a high altitude. Shining Armor tosses his wife towards Spike, snagging the dragon and the Crystal Heart from Sombra's reach, and then glides herself safely down to activate the Heart in time.

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