@bboifatz  
That’s what I’ve been saying the whole time, they serve the plot inconsistently. The show never explains how they operate. I sure don’t remember being told what exactly they do.  
What I’m trying to come across is that the inconsistencies in the show aren’t Season 3-exclusive. Hell, they’re not even Post Faust-exclusive, they’ve always been there.

@Splinter17  
I guess we should have seen Rarity as a track runner then? I bet she hates sweat D:

@EvilTon  
Now, see, that’s where you’re wrong.  
The Elements are incalculably ancient and powerful artifacts of a mysterious nature. Being unpredictable in effect is basically what they do. They already know the past and the future, provided nobody tries to change it, so it stands to reason that they’d have their own agenda.
 
The Change Destiny spell was a half-finished poem written on greasy paper by an old guy, presumably in a naturally formed alcove on the top of a mountain. The paper may or may not have been stored in a crate or bin of some sorts. The amount of power it has is inexplicable.

@bboifatz  
They’re basically God’s Bow in Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne.  
100% instant kill, Light Element damage, one enemy.

@bboifatz  
What makes this even more baffling is that Larson wrote an entire episode about Cutie Marks, Cutie Mark Chronicles beforehand. You know, the one that showed a young Rainbow Dash getting her Cutie Mark right after performing a Sonic Rainboom, without even trying. Not because she was controlling the weather.

@EvilTon  
The Elements are for defeating evil– I thought that was ready enough to understand.

@Mayojar77  
Was that explained in the show? ‘Cause the only thing I remember learning about the Elements in those episodes is that they’re important. I see them as about as much a plot coupon as the Destiny Spell,

@Splinter17  
Like I said, it’s like the entire staff forgot what show they were writing– imagine asking someone to write an episode about Twilight becoming a princess, and they had only seen the first two episodes– you would get MMC.

@bboifatz  
Yup.

@EvilTon  
Not Celestia, The Elements.  
They exist outside of time, so it stands to reason that they themselves know the best course of action.

@Corwynt  
It was Hasbro’s fault for pushing Twilicorn on them, but the episode itself was like the writers didn’t even want to try to salvage it.

@Splinter17  
>Cuties Marks are supposed to be your special talent, the thing a pony is good at  
>now they’re your destiny
 
I dunno. I’m sure they’ll forget about that by Season 4. I hope.

@Splinter17  
Another nail in this fucking coffin. Goddam, I hope Twilight gets her wings torn off and shoved down her throat.

@Mayojar77  
So Celestia wanted to banish Luna to the Moon? The Mane Six could exorcise Nightmare Moon with no problem when they had no familiar bonds to her, why couldn’t she? Did she just didn’t want it hard enough?  
As far as narrative magic goes, the only difference between the Elements of Harmony and the Destiny Spell is that they came first, because they’re about as well explained as the other.

@Mayojar77  
MMC messes with even more previously established canon about Cutie Marks:  
>Cuties Marks are supposed to be your special talent, the thing a pony is good at  
>now they’re your destiny
 
>again, once you earn a Cutie Mark in something, you’re good at it  
>the other 5 suck at their “destinies” for some reason. hell, Pinkie was shown to be competent at farmwork in previous episodes but is even more useless than Spike now
 
>Rainbow’s Cutie Mark signified her special talent as super speed  
>now it’s weather control, aka the thing literally every single pegasus can do as an innate ability

@Corwynt  
It wouldn’t have happened if Hasbro didn’t decide to piss on all existing character development.

@Mayojar77  
“Way to shit on the canon, Hasbro.”
 
I don’t want to sound like i’m defending Hasbro but it is clearly the writers fault. Hasbro told them to put product X into the show and they fucked up.

@EvilTon  
Actually, they simply do what they want. They evidently have a mind, and are working constantly towards a goal.
 
The difference with the change destiny spell is that it’s simply too farfetched. Up until now, there has been no way to create or alter cutie marks, that much is canon. Now, not only is it possible, it can also turn you into a living embodiment of something or other. Way to shit on the canon, Hasbro.

Just for the record, and for those who didn’t watch the video, here’s the relevant exchange:
 
Q: “[W]hat was the original intent of Starswirl the Bearded’s spell?”
 
A: (after Mitch passed it to Meghan): “I don’t know that we went into it knowing what he thought, that the end result… what he was working toward.”
 
So they’re talking about not knowing what Starswirl the Bearded had planned for the spell, rather than not knowing what the final spell as cast by Twilight Sparkle actually did. Of course, it’s possible that the writers don’t really know what her spell did, either. And it’s also possible, at least given some people’s belief that Meghan’s a habitual liar, that she does know what it did, and just doesn’t want to say.

Not really that surprising considering they had to come up with something to please Hasbro.

@Mayojar77  
So they basically do “what the plot needs them to do”? Something people can’t stop whining about the destiny spell?  
Hell, that’s an inconsistency made in the very first episodes, which were written by Faust herself.

@Alalic
 
Of course drama will be the death of this fandom. It’s almost always the death of ANY fandom.
 
“Any sufficiently large fandom will schism and turn on itself.” It happened to fandoms before MLP, and it will happen to fandoms after MLP. It’s actually the normal course of events in groups of humans.

working

The change destiny spell was sorking all along as a spell that show your friends life from their point of view. Princess Celestia said otherwise to Twilight just to teleport her in the void.

@EvilTon  
The Elements of Harmony are what is best described as ‘Wild Magic’. Since it has existed since before the world, it doesn’t follow the same laws of magic.
 
This is completely the opposite of the change destiny spell, which was created by a Unicorn well into what could best be described as the third darkest era in Equestrian history.