What Impious said. I imagine her having a solar beam like the one in Megamind; ultra-powerful, but not one you would use when the people you’re defening are within 1.1 miles of you.

Completely unsuited for the situation she found her self in. That’s why I think they couldn’t let Luna be there. She’s the sneaky one. Where with Celestia You have to worry about the Wrath of the Sun descending upon you, with Luna you have to worry if what your seeing is even real. She has already exhibited shape shifting abilities, it’s not hard to make the leap to master illusionist. Where Celestia is the master of the battlefield, Luna is the master spy and assassin.

I can imagine in the old days, Celestia would use her very much un-subtle destruction magic to lay waste to armies amassing outside of Canterlot or Equestria, then sending in the cavalry to clean up the stragglers. Celestia seems more like a demigod or a guardian, I’m sure her skillset is perfect for dealing with opponents of her caliber… far from collateral targets.
 
Sure, maybe she could have force Chrysalis’s beam back. But it might have meant blowing up Shining Armor, vaporizing Twilight Sparkle, or even killing everyone. She’d never be able to forgive herself, and she’d never hear the end of it.
 
SWAT teams don’t difuse hostage situations with bazookas. So, maybe Celestia is still a god-tier badass.
 
Just not the right kind of god-tier badass.

Pretty much. I can see her more as a battle field or siege spell wielder. When you need a large area of the map absolutely gone, you call her.

Celestia’s the member of the team that kills you because she decided to fire off the Panzerfaust in a 10 × 12 apartment.

I can see Celestia being utterly not subtle in a battle. Sometimes it’s better to just take one for the team. Sure she could have vaporized Chrysalis with a lick of solar flare, but she also would have killed everyone in Canterlot, not to mention leveled the mountain.

I still think she is a badass

I still maintain that when she specializes in huge spells, not pinpoint or single person spells. It’s Luna that’s got the precision. She couldn’t use her full power in the room with all her subjects in there so she used what she could, which was considerably weaker than her normal fare. When my queen was able to force the beam back it created something like a feed back loop turning Celestia’s own power against her and taking her out.

I still like to think she is.

Epic!

Back when we all thought Celestia was an unstoppable super-badass.