This one's fairly consistent, actually. Celestia was able to single-handedly utilize the elements of harmony in the past, somehow, subsequently losing the ability to do so. The fact that she was doing so, alone, meant that she could only banish Nightmare Moon and not defeat her (as the Mane Six easily did once they got the Elements). In the present, Celestia lacked the Elements, and so was easily bested by Nightmare Moon, who by all accounts is several times stronger than Luna herself (who would be equal to Celestia but for the age difference)

Essentially:

in past: improper use of the elements, can banish, cannot beat
in present, Celestia: No elements, easily beaten
in present, Mane 6: Correct use of elements, can easily defeat.

I thought the whole reasoning behind Chrysalis overpowering her was that the love she had fed on was so strong she beat her? That said, someone that has had the power to rule for the last 1000 years should have been able to defeat a bit of love.

If I can come up with someone I'll write one, never done one before but there's a first time for everything and the whole Luna/Celestia thing interests me.

Anyone want to do, say, a month long fic writing mini-event thing? I need motivation to write something, and we'd all benefit from giving feedback to each other.

But what makes Nightmare Moon different to Luna? They are the same person afterall. Unless Nightmare Moon is supposed to be the hidden potential of Luna or something. Also, where do alicorns come from in the first place? A unicorn/pegasus pairing can't make one or they would be far more common so what makes the royal family special in that sense?

I'm up for one but I am not sure how much work I will be able to put into it. I have a week holiday coming up which means I have history coursework, EPQ, personal statement and a geography essay to research for and write in 2 weeks (that will teach me to waste the first three weeks of the summer holidays). In three weeks time would be good or if you extended it to two months or something though. I'll probably get round to writing one either way so don't go out of the way to accomodate me.

I have college coming up soon so I might need to hide my newfound love for ponies, I don't know how my roommate would take it, as I haven't talked to him in person yet

:( It's sad having to hide things you are interested in from other people for fear of ridicule. I have told all my main friends but no one outside of them knows in case someone decides to bully me over it or something. I hope you find him to be a tolerant person or, better yet, a fellow brony ^O^

I can see why you went for EPQ and do continue if you're invested in it/are enjoying doing it, but honestly I think universities just want grades and academic arts subjects like English Lit, History and a modern language.

Which universities are you applying to?

Having done General Studies (all I did was turn up to exams without ever attending a lesson or looking at a paper), it is very easy and as long as you can write an essay on an unprepared subject and do reading comprehension you should get 100%. The EPQ time commitment is far higher.

I'm a third year undergraduate in Physics at Cambridge.

With the PS, my advice is to stay positive and, much like an essay, link everything back to the point you're trying to make, i.e. you're enthusiastic and well prepared to study the subject. Over half my statement was talking about what I got from books (in my case physics and maths popular science type ones). So it would be good to find some authoritative or ppular writings on Japan and talk about what you got out of them, or if you've visited then what you got out of the experience of going. If you continue with the EPQ, write  a few sentences on the PS about the skills you learned from doing the project relevant to the course.