@Background Pony #E348  
That’s what I’m guessing is what allowed Cozy’s plan to fall apart at the last second as I don’t think the Princesses, Chancellor, or the Royal Guards would have made it in time on foot to catch Cozy, but once the Tree stepped in and made sure their magic was returned, they quickly seized advantage and headed to Ponyville by wing or portal.
 
Where our heroes might be unable to stop the villain, the Tree will step in to assist due to its duty to protect Equestria. That’s the one thing the villains underestimate: The Tree of Harmony having the will of its own to defend the kingdom when in its darkest hour.

The tree saved the day not the student six, it gave a temporary power boost to them.

I’m going to assume the Tree of Harmony had something to do with this. Probably sensed the spell was of Tirek’s origins and decided to step in and stop it with helping the Student Six break it and ruin Cozy’s grand scheme at the last second.
 
Note the rainbow is colored after the Mane Six’s coats like with the one they used against Tirek back in Twilight’s Kingdom.

@Shin32  
It seemed to be only temporary, but it’s hard to say for sure. We’ll probably find out next season.

So what exactly is happening? Have they succeeded the mane 6 as the element of harmony/rainbow power/friendship magic or did they temporarily gain the power?

@Alexlayer  
I’d say both the young six and Starlight are high up there.
 
@MangoBox  
Agreed.

@Alexlayer  
Man. That’s a really high bar they passed then.
 
Starlight Glimmer was really good.

@Alexlayer  
that is too mean…

These six are certainly better than Starlight Glimmer, that’s for certain.

@hollowblade  
The Mane 6 stories, in my opinion, is largely over. When Mane 6 does get the foreground, it relegates into rather trivial stories that, while entertaining considering its a slice of life, doesn’t engage much in terms of continuity, character building, and world building. Instead I do feel it when the Mane 6 is on the background instead, like “On the Road of Friendship” or most of the student 6 episodes.
 
Take also the “Non Compete Clause” for example. Student 6 can be interesting there, yet it’s spotlight were instead goes into whatever RD and AJ arguing.
 
It would be nice if the Season 9 is basically a transition to G5, with G5 being the same artstyle and characters as G4, but the focus will be different, maybe like Student 6 or CMC in the future. Mane 6 will still be there but it’ll be a secondary characters, as a retteler of what they have been done in the past.

You know the Student Six started off pretty meh for me overall but by the end of the season, I ended up really liking them. They are a great addition to the show and I’m glad they are sticking around.

@Background Pony #65A9  
I liked them tho

@MangoBox  
What I mean by stagnent is that the basic core of Twilight’s character arc has been on loop through other characters. First it was Starlight, than when her character arc was finished they did the same with the students. Instead of introducing the Mane 6 to new situations and having their characters grow and change, they just have other characters learn everything the Mane 6 already have. It’s like watching a sequal that just tries to be the original. So of course I don’t like the direction the show has gone because it hasn’t gone actually gone anywhere.
 
Also, accusing me of not knowing the definition of a word doesn’t invalidate my point either.

@ShiiKra  
No, I would rather see the Mane 6 visit new lands, experience new cultures, making friends with other creatures, and learning new lessons through that. Instead of students, why not have them be new friends the Mane 6 make while visiting other lands? You get new characters and the focus doesn’t stray from Mane 6. The reason the Mane 6 episodes have so bad and recycled lately is because this entire season isn’t even about them at all. The reason the Mane 6 aren’t learning new things is because all these new characters are literally taking the opportunity away from them. Expanding a world shouldn’t proportionally shrink the potential growth of the main charatcers and yet this is what has happened.

@hollowblade  
You keep using stagnant but I don’t think you seem to understand what that word means. If the show was stagnant then we’d be the exact same as season 1 even now in season 8.
 
You’re just tossing out that word to make your point sound valid. What you really mean is “I just don’t like the direction the show went”.

@hollowblade  
So you’d rather see the same characters relearn the same lessons that they already learned seasons ago (which is basically every mane 6 themed episode these days) rather than see new characters learn and share cultures and learn new lessons. They arent retreading what the mane 6 went through as much as the mane 6 are. I mean come on The End In Friend was basically a retread of Look Before You Sleep. And Yakity Sax was just another obnoxious Pinkie episode. At least we get new ideas and we get to learn a little about other cultures through the student 6.

@Background Pony #42DB  
And not everyone should just blindly and silently except whatever is put in front of them.

@MangoBox  
The only reason the students exist is to recycle the same narrative that the Mane 6 went through, just as it was with Starlight, and try to find someway to make whatever nonsense the toy department comes with work. Even though new things are being introduced, the story is just going in circles.
 
Instead of having the Mane 6 go out and explore, learn, and grow from visiting new places and creatures we just had another group of six characters learn how to use the power of Harmony. We could have had so many other creatures’ explored. Buffalo, Diamond Dog, Thestral, Cats, all sorts of different aquatic creatures. We got Kirins, which is neat but that’s it. Focusing on the students and the school limited the potential of really exploring beyond Equestrian borders. So yes, stagnent.

@ShiiKra  
The only one I like is Ocellus, and wasn’t expecting to like any of them. So, take that for what you will.
 
And I love that fact that the world is expanding. I just think they got it backwords. Instead bringing in a bunch of unnecessary characters into a single setting, they should have had the Mane 6 go off and visit all these new lands. Having the them learn about new cultures and meeting new creatures would have been a great way for then to learn new things and grow further as characters. We had a couple episodes like that but it’s far to little, and focusing on characters in order to recycle the narrative (for the third time now) has instead made everything feel stale.

@hollowblade  
…Do you even read what you’re saying?
 
Stagnating by introducing new characters? Not even bothering to mention them focusing on side characters we’ve already had for awhile.
 
And the Mane 6 still have plenty of focus. Or are literally forgetting they recently had a movie about that.
 
Just stop.

@MangoBox  
Actually, about that, the 5th Gen actually revitilized my enthusiasm for Pokemon and I’ve been wanting something similar to happen to MLP. Stagnating by introducing new characters to take the focus away from Twilight and the others, and their potential to grow further, so that those characters can just retread what the Mane 6 have already learned is not the way to go.

Looks like  
Yona = Honesty  
Silverstream = Laughter  
Gallus = Magic  
Sandbar = Kindness  
Smolder = Loyalty  
Ocellus = Generosity

@hollowblade  
Because most fans accept what the series offers instead of complaining endlessly about it.

@hollowblade  
Because the student 6 are actually really fun good fleshed out characters that were built up from the beginning. All the expanding to other places and territories via the show and movie led up to the unification of all these different species. Also f it were bad OCs getting in it would be crappy Bat ponies and alicorns and what not.

@hollowblade  
This sounds more like genwunner type “I can’t accept anything beyond the first 151 pokemon” type BS.