@Background Pony #AC00  

 
Da hell? You realize you’re really grasping at straws here?  
The parrallel is with bandits in the far west, and you’re literally asking “Why aren’t the villagers picking their guns and fighting them? What a plot hole!”
 
Also, even in reality Bulls are mighty strong, and just look how he punched AJ in this comic, of course scared farmers won’t fight them.  
How the hell can you refuse to admit that twilight is written badly?

@Masem  
it is possible that she also is afraid of taking on THAT kind of responsibility. sh ould be judging an equestrian citizen, thief or not.
 
honest truth the bulls are more bullies than actual thieves considering the town could have decimated them at will. twilight is not the only plot hole in that regard. earth ponies being strong is another one, and not beating the hell out of them.
 
could be two things. twilight involving herself with petty thieves would be basically throwing a nuclear missile at a bank robber, and the earth ponies not wanting to risk outright killing the bulls by accident. they would not know how much the bulls could take.

@soundtea  
get technical they are pressuring them for resources. but I agree, they needed a lot better reason.  
so far they aren’t threatening to gore anyone to death or abduct them. and haven’t done anything more than push a few ponies around here and there.

@soundtea  
ultimately we have to leave it at that till we learn more. or come up with theories there.

There is another alternate way to see this, and that’s taking the aspect that Twilight is adopting Celestia’s model of staying hooves off unless the situation is so far out of control (like changeling attacks or undoing a spell gone majorly wrong) that requires her to actually step in to use “mary sue” powers to end it.
 
But, yeah, I think anyway of trying to justify having Twilight in this story and why she can’t magic the situation away is going to be plothole-ridden situation, until the show actually addresses it to set the canon for it.

@Serious B  
Yes, that’s strong, but not Maud strong, and certainly not a widespread level of strong.

Isn’t this like saying you can’t shoot someone who is breaking into your house and beating the shit out of you and your family, even if you have a gun?

@soundtea  
I’m just passing thru, but I see some people need to be reminded that AJ can knock down large trees with a single buck (Leap of Faith) and completely break the strength test, making the bell fly into the stratosphere just by kicking it with a single leg (Fall Weather Friends).
 
Stop acting like Maud is the only physically powerful earth pony in the show. AJ should have no problems taking on those bulls.

@Background Pony #AC00  
NOT EVERY EARTH PONY IS THAT STRONG. And the bulls are fucking raiding the town. I think that classifies as an actual threat.

@soundtea
 
It’s the same reason she doesn’t use her magic to solve certain problems that she probably could in the show sometimes: writers don’t want her to take too much spotlight from the star of the story, in this case Applejack.
 
The issue is that it would been much easier to have that done by simply not including her in the story.

@Masem  
from what I am hearing why twilight isn’t involving herself will be explained a bit more in the next chapter….. be honest it is mostly this moment in the story that was bad, the rest of the issue was pretty amusing, including a callback to the fact pinkie actually likes spicy food.
 
though I will say this. as destructive as the bulls are, they are not an actual threat. the earth ponies alone could wreck their shit. they are causing damage but are not a direct threat. hydras, changelings, these guys are direct threats. these bulls are, no pun intended, bullies and thieves. kinda a stark comparison between thieves and perilous monsters.

So basically, you can’t use a force required to defend yourselves when someone is physically threatening you if the force is uneven, because that’s unfair.
 
Holy hell, so many implications in so many places.

@Background Pony #8133
 
This has nothing to do with Princess Twilight, this has to do with Twilight in general, it’s been a problem since early in the first freaking season. We actually haven’t seen her ever do much more impressive than she could do as an Alicorn since MMC expect when Celestia and Luna gave her their power.
 
The Princess thing is just used as an excuse to cover a contrivance but there would of had to be some other contrivance had Twilight still been a Unicorn, the issue is just that Twilight has always been way more powerful than her friends so it’s difficult to equalize adventure stories.
 
Basically don’t try and make this about alicorn drama people.

@Masem  
Yeah, it could be done, but to have it crowbar’d into this comic is a god awful decision on the IDW writers side.

@Background Pony #8D57  
this is definitely a point of contention for the comic I will agree. hopefully they go into more detail about why twilight has chosen to stay her hoof here.
 
though we both know the earth ponies themselves coulda decimated them yet chose not to. hell when the buffalo came charging to trample appleloosa to dust they defended using pies rather than hooves. and twilight could have held them both back. and the applossans were aggressive towards the buffalo.

@Masem  
Much better than BS “morality” that likely will never be mentioned again.
 
And they should address it, just not in a way that makes Twilight head fully into “Lawful Stupid”.

@soundtea  
Trite, but workable, of course. Or maybe the Rustlers have a magic deadening field that have prevented the unicorns in town from using magic against them. But that’s all very trope-ish too, any way to nullify Twilight’s magic.
 
I would love to see this question (the “with great power comes great responsibility”) addressed in show, because it is a very interesting philosophical aspect of a society where magic is a thing and the ruling elite have much more powerful versions of it compared to others. It would be interesting world building.

@Masem  
It’s still a crappy solution no matter how you look at it. There’s a million better ways to do it. Like her getting blindsided and suffering a head/horn injury.

@soundtea  
Yeah, the comic does show Unicorns living in Canter Creek doing magic things. But Twi’s power levels…

@FSin  
The implication is that the hydra is “magical”, which is also how I’d categorize the changelings too.
 
Basically, though, I think they had to address this, otherwise you have this huge plothole of Twilight not doing a “simple” magic spell for her (even a shield to protect the town that she does know now) that we’d have likely called out on them for. They could have left Twi out of the story, and have the other mane 5 there, but that would make it an even worse plot hole (just as sending Spike on the bus here to a Pony Trek con).
 
Having Twi considering the ethics of her magic may not be a clean solution but it is a workable solution to otherwise glaring plotholes.

@soundtea  
Thank you, goodness gracious.

@Background Pony #AC00  
Meanwhile that bull COULD’VE just punched AJ enough to break her skull (and would’ve in real life, Bulls hit pretty hard) and Twilight will look stupid.  
There’s no defending here.

@Background Pony #AC00  
Not every damn Earth Pony is Maud. Just like not every damn Unicorn is at Twilight levels.

@Background Pony #8133  
No it’s not necessary, there are other ways, ways to disable her magic, her being away, ANYTHING.

What about the changelngs, HUH?  
YOU CONTRADICT YOUR OWN COMIC COOK FOR FUCK SAKE.