Talk:Friendship is Magic animated media/@comment-1031724-20181110052100/@comment-29981995-20181110092814

Um...what makes you think that A) the Elements are weaker now, or B) the Mane 6 can't use Rainbow Power again? To my knowledge there's been no statement either within the show or outside of it to indicate anything of the kind. Sure, the Elements haven't been used in ages-apart from the attempt to banish the Pony of Shadows-but I hardly think that's due to lost power. The Mane 6 didn't want to take them away from the tree/the writers didn't want to end every finale with the rainbow nuke. As for the Rainbow Power, while admittedly we haven't seen it used since Twilight's Kingdom, I wouldn't say that's because it CAN'T be used. It's really hard to say anything concrete because we know so little about the Magic of Harmony/Friendship.

As you point out, Discord is a fairly unreliable ally; between the show and the comics he's been called upon a grand total of three times to help with a crisis that I can think of. One of those times he ended up betraying all of Equestria, and on the other two he only helped because Fluttershy was involved. The whole issue of the movie was admittedly a bit forced; for example, why couldn't the ponies have gone to allies with whom they'd had recent contact like the dragons or changelings, instead of going all the way to Hippogriffia? But especially given the focus on the Young Six in the last season, I think an alliance of pony friendly creatures is a lot more likely to occur in the future.

As for how Tirek could be defeated without being reformed, there's always ways. Aside from a reappearance by Rainbow Power, there's the Staff of Sacanas that could theoretically be used to drain Tirek's power. If I'm being honest, I kind of like the idea of him getting back up to full bulk and then begin challenged by some similarly large adversary.