@mjangelvortex  
It’s going on hiatus while he develops a new comic.

@Background Pony #6D89  
Wait. Pencils isn’t making any more of these?

Goodbye, Sunbutt Sunday. It was wonderful having you here.

@Exhumed Legume  
Exactly, he was less a pony and more a malevolent spirit, and while he’d managed to pull together a form, a spirit exploding is not what one normally can call ‘death’ so much as ‘disintegration’.

@Background Pony #B1FC  
He exploded, yes, but he had solidified shortly before.  
That in mind, it may not be completely impossible for him to – ahem – pull himself together again.

@Starswirl  
Sombra was a dark cloud who exploded. We can’t even be sure he was alive much less dead.

@Background Pony #B1FC  
It would indeed have made it the first on-screen death, with Sombra’s later becoming the second.

@Starswirl  
My point is that such a thing can never be seen on a kid’s show, so we can only conjecture. It will never be proven or denied. It’s schrodinger’s solar flare.

@Background Pony #B1FC  
Headcanon. Yes. See the issue?

@Background Pony #B1FC  
Not the other guy, but I imagine an alternate universe in which the show writers took an opportunity to solve a problem with cartoon violence. Something like:
 
CELESTIA, visibly enraged, glares at Chrysalis, and Celestia’s eyes begin to glow.
 
CHRYSALIS has just enough time to stop laughing and get the beginnings of an “oh shi~~” reaction.
 
Cut to exterior of castle. Blinding FLASH effects flash through all the windows, temporarily dimming the sun in the sky.
 
Cut back to palace interior. CHRYSALIS is singed black and her mane, tail, and wings are all blown backwards, pointing away from Celestia. She tips over and falls down in a heap. (or, depending on how dark the writers want to get, collapses into a little pile of dust. don’t worry, she’s a toon, she can get better in the next scene. temporary incineration or disintegration never stopped Warner Brothers toons, amirite guise?) Everyone is stunned silent.
 
CELESTIA glares at changeling army and says a single word: “Next!”
 
CHANGELING ARMY flees comically in all directions, flying running, scuttling.
 
TWILIGHT SPARKLE (shyly) “Uh, Princess, how did you-~~”
 
CELESTIA: “Sun goddess.”
 
TWILIGHT SPARKLE: “I know ponies say that, but I never realized–”
 
CELESTIA taps herself on the chest with a marshmallow hoof. “Sun. Goddess.”
 
TWILIGHT SPARKLE, in a very small voice: “oh.”

Starswirl is a loser as well. Get lost.

@Starswirl  
Assuming she is capable of such… which, personally, I do hold as headcanon, solving a problem in a show called Friendship is Magic by burning an enemy to death might not be advertizer friendly.

Tia got roasted in the last panel. Nevermind the fact that he hit the nail on the head in panel 3
 
@Starswirl  

 
Zing!

@Background Pony #44C2  
Actually, we can negotiate ISIS into peace by promising them a fuckload of goats to shag as long as they stop killing people. I’m basically a genius, I know.

@Background Pony #FA66  
Let’s be honest. No one here has the skills to find a cure for cancer or negotiate the Islamic State into behaving. Overanalyzing kids’ cartoons is about the peak of our abilities.

Just to point out, Celestia is indeed really powerful, but suppresses herself, most likely to not cause collateral damage, without her restraints we get Daybreaker… hopefully we see her again in future episodes.

another Celestia bashing? Count me in!!!11

@Starswirl  

Yeah, Twilight did that a lot in the very same episode.  
_{Although, whether she counted as a regular unicorn is a bit debatable.}

@Background Pony #B1FC  
We know even regular unicorns can shoot arcane beams. I’m talking about what many reactors wanted, which was to somehow channel the power of the sun to burn Chrysalis to a crisp.

@Starswirl  

 
Well, no. We do know that Alicorns can in fact shoot out giant energy beams, because Twilight used the powers of all four to do just that. But that was in the middle of unoccupied space. You can’t let loose with the kamehame waves in an enclosed throne room, ponies will die.

oh, not this argument, please.

Interesting dialogue between the two. They both have valid arguments, and they are both set in their ways. Always interesting to remind ourselves that no one is infallible.

@Starswirl  
Faust did tell us that Celestia and Luna weren’t goddesses. But we didn’t believe her. Even though she doesn’t work on the show anymore, I’m pretty sure the staff are treating the two as the same. They’re powerful yes, but not infallible and OP to the point of being completely unstoppable.
 
As for their losses, well, the Worf Effect is at play (and abused). It’s a way to make things look super dangerous for Twilight and her friends.

@FrustrationInExcelsis  
Quite right. Back when she battled Chrysalis, you had lots of blind reactors going “Show her the power of the sun!” as if Celestia could fire holy plasma bolts from the heavens. Turned out she couldn’t.