Author's Note (2022): This Death Battle was written in mid-2017. Since then, both combatants have had a number of official appearences in media, which heavily added to their capabilities. As such, this Fanon Death Battle's findings and results should not be seen as indicative of these characters' abilities.
Praise the Sun! Which of these revered Solar-themed Beasts would come out on top in a fight to the finish?
Contents
- 1 Interlude
- 2 Solgaleo
- 3 Princess Celestia
- 4 Intermission
- 5 Fight
- 6 Conclusions
- 7 Trivia
Interlude[]
Will: For as long as we have recognized the universe around us, humans have recognized the Sun as the origin of life and an incredible source of power. As such, many of our fantasies feature solar-related entities in the highest places.
Zeta: In this case, the big-time sun guys are a lion and a horse.
Will: Solgaleo, the Legendary Sunne Pokemon.
Zeta: And Princess Celestia, the Alicorn Princess of Equestria.
Will: Since Celestia in particular had relatively few feats in her native show, we will also be including her abilities shown outside of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic cartoon.
Zeta: This will mostly be the comic series by IDW Publishing, which annoyingly has the same name as the cartoon, and a few supplementary texts like The Journal of the Two Sisters. That said, we're sticking by the rule that the show's canon comes first, overriding anything in these additional sources.
Will: I'm Will and that's Zeta, and it's our job to analyze their weapons, armor, and skills to find out who would win a Death Battle.
Solgaleo[]
Will: Hundreds of years ago, the Alola region was divided. The four Guardian Deities, each of whom selected a Kahuna for their native island, battled for supremacy. However, with four comparable forces, none could emerge victorious.
Zeta: Then one day, a big metal lion popped in from another dimension. For some reason, it decided to take on all four of the Guardian Deities at once. And despite taking on a whole group of Legendary Pokemon at once, Solgaleo somehow won!
Will: From then on, the Guardian Deities ceased their conflict, allowing Alola to become the peaceful tropical paradise that we know and love.
Zeta: Wait, peaceful? What about those hordes of Yungoos that overran half the region? Or the Megamart that got destroyed by one of the Guardian Deities because they thought it was built along the wrong patch of coastline? Or that one town that was abandoned after Team Skull took over? Or those alien Ultra Beasts that sometimes pop out of wormholes and eat people? Or how abou-
Will: From then on, the Guardian Deities ceased their conflict, allowing Alola to become the dystopic hell on Earth that we know and love.
Zeta: That's better.
Solgaleo & Lunala Battle theme
Will: With a body that's 3.4 meters long and weighing in at over 500 pounds, Solgaleo is a bit larger and heaver than its real life counterparts. It uses its bulk, along with its teeth and claws, to inflict heavy physical damage against opponents. They also have the Full Metal Body ability, which prevents enemies from lowering their stats.
Zeta: One of Solgaleo's standard attacks is Metal Claw, where it slashes at opponents with those massive claws it has. Iron Head and Zen Headbutt make use of that large skull of his, dealing either Steel or Psychic damage. With Crunch, it deals Dark type damage using those big jaws. And Flare Blitz is a powerful Fire move that, in exchange for the sheer damage it inflicts, also causes recoil damage.
Will: Solgaleo needs to switch to ranged attacks, it can use two powerful light-based moves: Flash Cannon and Solar Beam. Additionally, it also has some support abilities. Cosmic Power draws mystic power from space to raise defenses, Morning Sun restores health based on sunlight exposure, Noble Roar intimidates an opponent to lower their defenses, and Teleport... does exactly what you'd expect.
Zeta: But the most powerful move in Solgaleo's arsenal is undoubtedly its signature move, the Sunsteel Strike. With this move, Solgaleo transforms opens its third eye and glows brightly before slamming into foes with the force of a meteor. For context, the meteor that landed in the Russian province of Chelyabinsk back in 2013 had an explosive yield equivalent to 500 kilotons of TNT. That's thirty times stronger than the nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima!
Will: With all of this power, one might think that Solgaleo was an unstoppable force of nature. However, it does have some glaring weaknesses.
Zeta: Like how despite being the Sunne Pokemon, it is weak against Fire. I guess that's why they call it the "Emissary of the Sun," as opposed to "The Actual Sun."
Will: To be fair, Solgaleo represents the sun's light, rather than its heat. That's why it has all of those light-based abilities, but only one Fire move. Although that does raise questions about why it's also weak against Dark moves...
Zeta: Speaking of light-based abilities, that ties into another big weakness: ranged combat. Solgaleo's moveset and stats heavily favor melee combat over fighting from a distance. And although Solgaleo is hardly slow, there are faster Pokemon out there.
Will: Despite this, Solgaleo is still remarkable, even in the world of Pokemon.
"Solgaleo... all I ever wanted to do was to help you get back to your own home... But instead you helped me, over and over...
Princess Celestia[]
Will: Over a thousand years ago, three tribes of ponies lived separately. After driving out the Wendigos with their Fire of Friendship, the leaders of the Earth Ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns agreed to unifiy under a single country: Equestria.
Zeta: Of course, rulership of this new country was a major concern, seeing how the three tribes had only recently stopped fighting. The leaders of the three tribes, along with the wizard Star Swirl the Bearded, searched across the land for the perfect candidates. So what better choice was there than two young sisters?
Will: In their defense, the young Celestia and Luna had several unique qualifications. As the only two Alicorn type ponies in the world, they had the distinct characteristics of all three pony tribes, making them a great symbolic choice for the new kingdom's leadership. For another, Alicorns lived far longer than your typical ponies, so they would be able to keep the kingdom stable.
Zeta: But they're not even in charge! They're princesses, not queens! That doesn't make sense.
Will: Well, there are two main explanations. The first is that the two princesses initially had ceremonial roles, and only became actual rulers after the three tribes were culturally unified. The other is that this is a cartoon meant for young girls, and young girls like princesses. Take your pick.
Zeta: While Luna had her own adventures, discovering zebra tribes and befriending manticores, Celestia developed a strong bond with Star Swirl, forged by a common love of knowledge and magic. He showed her the Tree of Harmony, a magic tree that was a focal point of Harmonious Magic. And later, when a Dragon stole the Crystal Heart from the allied Crystal Empire, Celestia was able to get it back. All she had to do was keep calm, burst into flames, and yell threats at the dragon until it fled in terror!
Will: The pivotal moment came one day when the two sisters woke up in the morning only to discover that the sun wouldn't rise. As it turned out, the sun and moon for this world need to be moved using magic. And the teams of unicorns that had previously been dedicated to this task had been depleted of their magic. Even their mentor Star Swirl couldn't help.
Zeta: It was on that day that the two sisters, acting on instincts they never knew they had, would raise and lower the sun and moon for the first time. And from that day onwards, Celestia would be Princess of the Sun, commanding the sun's movement for countless centuries.
Will: There are countless reasons that Celestia was able to rule over Equestria for so many centuries. First, it's important to understand what an Alicorn really is. They combine the best traits and magical abilities of the three tribes into one being. Thus, it is important to understand what exactly each tribe of ponies is capable of.
Zeta: Earth Ponies, despite lacking a horn or wings, have supernatural strength, durability, and stamina. For example, teams of four Earth Ponies are used to carry trains for hours on end, throw boulders across the horizon, pound rocks into powder with their hooves, and if they're the supporting character Big Macintosh, drag two story houses behind them with ease. And Celestia humiliated this same guy in a hoof wrestling contest, meaning she's at least on the upper end of the spectrum!
Will: Do the numbers Zeta. You weren't hired for your witty humor.
Zeta: Well, seeing how the distance between the pony throwing the rock and the horizon is about 3500 meters, and the boulder being thrown is about a meter across... that boulder could easily weigh around 3000 pounds, considering how mafic rocks are usually heavier. For comparison, a Trebutchet, which fired at a similarly high angle, usually fired rocks of around 150 or so pounds, and had a range of about maybe 300 meters. Kinetic Energy can be measured using mass and velocity. Since a trebutchet throws 150 pound boulders at 300 meters, or 470 if you account for their arcs, within five seconds, that means trebutchet shots have around 300000 Joules of energy. Applying the higher values of the Rock Throw suggests a value 2700 ties greater, for 810 million Joules of energy. That's a lightning bolt's worth of kinetic energy, and you know how much those have. That's like having 200 pounds of TNT behind the casual tossing of a rock!
Will: That's a good segue into Celestia's Pegasus abilities. Pegasi are capable of flight and weather manipulation. And although the fastest flyers go at speeds of over Mach 5, even less powerful pegasi are only somewhat slower than the elite, much like how real life athletes can't run more than maybe a few times faster than even an out of shape individual.
Zeta: Last of all, Celestia has the spell-casting abilities of a Unicorn, including the standard telekinesis they all have. And this is where she really shines.
Will: Ever since she was tutored by Star Swirl the Bearded, Celestia has eagerly learned new spells, something aided by her magical reserves. Many of these spells are fairly traditional things, like shields, pyrokinesis, teleportation, dispelling enchantments, and energy blasts. Celestia also has an impressive ability where she shifts into a fiery form to evade physical attacks. And her mental protections against mental attacks and manipulation are top tier, able to fend off Nightmare Moon for centuries without fail.
Zeta: But Celestia also has some tricks you wouldn't expect. You know, like Dark Magic! Celestia has enough mastery over herself and her craft to perform some basic dark magic with no negative consequences. It is mainly used for creating crystalline structures, which can either be used as ordinary heavy rocks or even form teleport-proof cages.
Will: With all of these abilities at her command, Celestia has been kicking ass and taking names for centuries. She was able to defeat Nightmare Moon solo, defeated Queen Chrysalis and the entire Changleing race by herself, and helped take down threats like Discord and Lord Tirek. All while managing a tight schedule of running a country!
Zeta: It's a pity she usually ends up the butt of the joke. Over the course of the show, she has rarely ever been able to defeat the major threats to Equestria, instead relying on her student's circle of friends. In a few cases, certain gimmicks like anti-magic fields have proven effective against her. Heck, even when we see her fighting Queen Chrysalis during the Canterlot invasion, she loses her beam struggle.
Will: A lot of Celestia's weakness seems to be as much of a case of holding back as it is of her being weak. Sure she was beaten by Chrysalis, but only because they were fighting in a location full of civilians and while the Queen was supercharged on Love magic. Furthermore, we've seen that Celestia seems to fear her full potential, seeing herself as a possible counterpart to Nightmare Moon.
Zeta: Still, Celestia is a solar powerhouse. The fact that she remains in power after centuries, her name almost held in reverence, is proof that her faults are outweighed by her feats.
I'm so proud of you, Twilight. I know that you will be an amazing leader of Equestria. Goodbye.
Intermission[]
Fight[]
It was a beautiful summer’s day in Canterlot, the mountain city that was home to Equestria’s government. After holding court for several hours, Princess Celestia was taking a walk in the Royal Gardens. The lilies and aster were blooming nicely.
“Unfortunately,” she thought, absently chewing “the daisies are a bit tart this year.
The princess then noticed a strange current in the air. What appeared to be a gentle breeze was quickly turning into wind rushing away from a point further in the gardens. Rushing against the wind, Celestia was shocked to discover a glow, pulsating disc floating in the air. Just as she was reminded of the dimensional portals she’d encountered in the past, a beast emerged.
Solgaleo emerged from the Ultra Wormhole only to discover a white creature in front of it. Rather than staying back,the nearly universal reaction to this sort of thing, the equine figure was staring it down, a gold aura gathering atop of its head. Solgaleo prepared for a battle, giving a menacing growl as a last chance for the local to stand down.
Even as the large beast tried to intimidate her, Princess Celestia did not back down. She was Equestria’s protector, from threats both local and alien.
FIGHT!
The two combatants acted within a moment, as if rehearsed. Celestia fired a blast of magic from her horn, which she had been silently charging for a few seconds in advance. Solgaleo saw the attack coming, but decided to take the attack instead of interrupting its own move. This turned out well, as Celestia’s initial blast was only enough to force a small grunt out of Solgaleo. In the meantime, its body glowed brightly as it used Cosmic Power, absorbing mystical energies to improve its defenses.
Celestia noticed this energy within Solgaleo, and fired several energy blasts in a single burst. Solgaleo leapt into action, dodging the blasts and closing the distance between the two. As they swung their left paw at Celestia with a Metal Claw, Celestia conjured a shield and flapped back with her wings. The shield was firm enough to prevent the claw from making target, and Celestia was now hovering in the air.
With her telekinesis, Celestia began taking hold of various objects in the garden. A couple dozen statues and shrubberies were surrounded by a golden aura before being hurled at the solar lion. Solgaleo didn’t let a single object past its guard, swiping through each of the projectiles with its Metal Claws before catching one last tree in its jaws. Casually tossing the plant aside, it glared at Celestia, as if asking if she was going to keep being a nuisance.
“Not quite,” she murmured.
Stomping her front right hoof onto the ground, she began to charge at Solgaleo. With a look of satisfaction on their face, Solgaleo also charged, with the two fighters colliding within a moment.
Though Celestia was no stranger to fighting at close quarters, she soon realized that she was in over her head. Sure, her hooves could strike through solid stone, but she’d already seen this beast’s claws do the same to the garden’s statues. And not only did this beast have those fearsome claws, but it seemed willing to use its greater bulk to dominate the fight, putting her at risk of being bitten down by those fangs.
Before long, Solgaleo had landed a solid hit on Celestia’s side, knocking the wind out of her body. Just as Solgaleo’s jaws were about to reach her throat though, Celestia’s body dissolved into an incorporeal mass of flame, slipping out of the beast’s reach. As Solgaleo flinched from the sudden flames in their face, the pony princess noticed that her fire had gotten more of a reaction than anything else she’d tried thus far.
Before Celestia could take advantage of this weakness though, Solgaleo let forth a grating Metal Sound. The horrid screech, like slabs of iron being dragged along one another, caused Celestia to flinch, dropping her guard. This left her open to Solgaleo’s Flash Cannon. Celestia was unable to dodge or create a shield in time, and was knocked back by the blast. Seeking to knock their foe off her feet, Solgaleo fired another Flash Cannon.
Realizing her precarious position, Celestia teleported into the air above Solgaleo. Her opponent looked around, for a moment, confused as to what happened, before looking into the air...
...just in time for Celestia to fire a powerful blast down upon Solgaleo, digging a deep hole into the Earth.
As Solgaleo fell downwards, they noticed that they had apparently fallen into a system of caves beneath the gardens. Chambers the size of large buildings were decorated by shining crystals jutting out of the walls, with the odd tool showing signs of former mining activity.
Twisting into position, Solgaleo landed on their feet, deep within one of the crystal-adorned caves. And flying in from the surface was the equine that had made this trip a very unpleasant one.
Solgaleo fired more Flash Cannons into the air as Celestia dove towards the ground. She fired some more weaker magic bolts before landing on a crystal in the middle of the chamber they were in. Seeing that the alicorn was grounded and thus vulnerable, Solgaleo began to close the distance between them, planning to land a Giga Impact.
Celestia closed her eyes for a moment before opening them once more, revealing green flames in her eyes. Dark Crystals suddenly jutted out of the ground in front of Solgaleo, who was forced to smash at them instead of focusing on their attack.
Refusing to stop there, Celestia spread her wings as a green aura covered her entire body. Crystals grew not only in front of Solgaleo but around them as well, with formations growing from every surface at an alarming pace. Solgaleo smashed through most of these, but more kept sliding around it, from above and behind and below, until the lion was finally encased in a dark crystalline chamber.
Celestia casually wiped a bead of sweat off her face with her wing as Solgaleo seemed at a loss, unsure of how to break out.
Solgaleo decided to bypass this obstacle the simple way. They gathered energy into themselves, glowing a bright white, before disappearing. A fraction of a second later, they reappeared in the crystal cage, exactly where they’d been. Celestia smirked.
“It’s no use trying to teleport out of there. Keeping magic users from getting away is practically what dark magic was invented for.”
Solgaleo was silent for a moment, closing its eyes as if contemplating its situation. It then opened its eyes… including the third one on its forehead.
Celestia watched in awe as the beast began to change in front of her. Not only had a third eye appeared on the creature’s forehead, its body had begun glowing and changing colors. Soon, Solgaleo’s entire body was shades of yellow and white, shining as brightly as the sun, the cave’s crystals refracting the light in a thousand ways within the chamber.
Solgaleo, in their Radiant Sun phase, was surrounded in light as they burst out of the crystal cage, heading straight towards Celestia. The princess was hit directly by the attack, and was held in place as the pair smashed their way through the side of Canterlot Mountain.
From miles away, Twilight Sparkle watched through her telescope as smoke rose from the direction of Canterlot. She noticed some force exploding from the side of the mountain, creating rock slides that could carry on for miles.
“Spike,” she called out. “I’m going out on business with the girls tonight. If I’m not back tonight, be sure to be in bed by Eight o’clock!”
Princess Celestia’s body was covered in aches and bruises by the time she saw the light of her sun outside of the caves. For a moment she felt the two of them flying through the air, before the impact of the Earth beneath her made itself known with a heavy thud.
Solgaleo landed some distance from their foe, separated by the force of impact. They noticed that they’d landed in a forest a couple of miles from the foot of the mountain. It seemed to have been a peaceful place until a few seconds earlier, but now a massive crater, a hundred meters wide, scarred the surface. The crater was full of the remnants of trees, ranging from nearly whole samples on the fringe to splinters and wooden powder towards the center. Even outside the crater, the forest was filled with the devastated remains of the old woods.
Solgaleo turned to see if its opponent was truly defeated. To their shock, the white equine had already pulled itself up from the ground, turning to face them once again.
Worried that a battle of attrition might be inevitable, Solgaleo began to absorb the sunlight, allowing it to heal their various wounds. The pony princess, who had more than a passing familiarity with solar abilities, recognized this ability for what it was. A glare made its way onto her face.
“You are not using my sun to destroy my kingdom.”
Flames erupted around Celestia, creating a pyre that reached perhaps fifty feet upwards. She remembered how the massive feline reacted to her fiery form earlier.
Solgaleo’s eyes went wide as a massive column of fire blasted their way. They leapt aside with less time to spare than they’d have preferred, letting the flames consume the area where they had been. Celestia began to fly close to the ground, flames still emanating from her body, as she fired more steady streams of flame behind Solgaleo. Pillars of fire erupted around them as Celestia attempted to herd her opponent.
Solgaleo kept ahead of the flames, but after a minute or so, they noticed something odd. Despite many close calls and a few glancing hits, Celestia had not managed to score a direct hit upon them. Celestia’s earlier attacks had been fairly accurate, even when ineffective, and these flame attacks had the advantage of affecting a wider area. So why was Solgaleo still largely unharmed?
Taking a moment of relative silence to their advantage, Solgaleo turned to study their surroundings. The crater was filled with the burning debris of trees, with flames flying upwards as they consumed the remnants of the forest. Celestia was nowhere to be found, but was likely hiding in one of the many larger fires scattered across the crater.
Realizing they had more time to compose themselves, Solgaleo prepared to use Morning Sun once more. But as they tried to draw energy into them, they noticed that it was only entering them at a trickle’s pace. Solgaleo looked upwards as if to question the sun, but only saw black and grey.
The fire wasn’t just collateral damage. The smoke it created was blocking the sun.
Half of a mile in the air above Solgaleo, Princess Celestia had emerged from the clouds of smoke. Her back towards the sun, she raised her forelegs upwards as the magic around her horn began to glow brilliantly. The light around her horn spread, and soon her entire body was emitting light bright enough to harm the casual viewer. With the deed don, she dove downwards.
Solgaleo was running through the burning woods, attempting the get away from the hungry flames and the smoke that blocked the skies, when they heard a boom above and behind them. Before they could turn to face the threat, the brightly shining Celestia flew into them, slamming the Sunne Pokemon into the ground. As Celestia’s body was pushing her foe into the Earth beneath them, she fired a powerful blast of magic from her horn, striking the back of the lion’s head. The combined impact of this attack left Solgaleo stunned, allowing Celestia to deliver the last part of her combo. Flames began to explode from her body, largely unfocused but generally focused at the opponent beneath her.
KO!!!
As the light enveloping Celestia receded, only a few splatters of some pale liquid remained of the Solar Pokemon. She grimly smirked with satisfaction, but this turned into a small frown as she saw the burning wreckage surrounding her.
“How the buck am I going to explain this to Luna?”
Conclusions[]
Zeta: That was surprisingly brutal for a pretty pony princess.
Will: In certain ways, Solgaleo and Celestia were evenly matched. For example, both of them were roughly tied when it came to speed and agility.
Zeta: Accurate speed statistics are hard to come by in both Pokemon and My Little Pony, but there are a few decent indicators! Even the slowest Pokemon are fast enough to evade sound-based moves, and some of the fastest, like Pidgeot, can travel at speeds of Mach 2. Solgaleo is not the fastest Pokemon, but it is able to keep with Pheromosa, the Ultra Beast that can dodge lightning. This suggests speeds somewhere between Mach 1 and Mach 2.
Will: Princess the Celestia travels as quickly as she does using her Pegasus abilities. The fastest pegasus seems to be Rainbow Dash, who can perform a Sonic Rainboom at Mach 5. Fluttershy, who is shown to be a remarkably weak flier, is still capable of chasing down Rainbow Dash in an emergency, much like how a motivated normal human might be able to outrun an athlete taken off guard. Combine this with Celestia’s above average Pegasus magic and lack of a real training regime, this suggests that Princess Celestia moves at speeds of about Mach 2. Which is not that much higher than Solgaleo.
Zeta: Next, we can look at the destructive power of both combatants. Solgaleo’s signature attack, the Sunsteel Strike, hits at a force equivalent to 500 kilotons tons of TNT. Celestia’s most impressive feat is collapsing a volcano to imprison the entire Changeling race, including their queen Chrysalis. Even if she’s only filling in the volcanic crater, active volcanoes have craters over 1000 meters wide and over 100 meters deep, an area comparable to a city.
Will: Again, this means that both Solgaleo and Celestia are roughly on par in terms of power. Fortunately for us, there are two areas where Celestia has advantages. The first of which is Durability.
Zeta: You see, Solgaleo’s best feat of durability is its own Sunsteel Strike. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and the Sunsteel Strike is functionally similar to it slamming against an enemy. So we can say that Solgaleo can safely endure 500 kilotons of TNT.
Will: As for Celestia, we need to pay attention to her sister, Princess Luna. As the two are considered equals in terms of power and capabilities, we can reasonably assume that they would be similarly durable. So when we see how Luna as Nightmare Moon was sent to the moon, we can see roughly how durable Princess Celestia is.
Zeta: We clearly see the Elements of Harmony blast Nightmare Moon to the moon in the two-parter episode “Princess Twilight Sparkle.” Since the moon is confirmed to be as far away as it is in real life, this means that Nightmare Moon was flying at roughly 128100 meters per second. That’s about 40% of the speed of light! Even if we assume that Luna is fairly light for a horse, say 750 pounds, that requires over 700 Megatons of energy. That’s 1400 times as much energy as Solgaleo’s best feat!
Will: In other words, even if Solgaleo managed to land hits on Celestia, they would do minimal damage at best, whereas Celestia would do plenty of damage against Solgaleo, even if they got the upper hand. And that brings us to Celestia’s second advantage: her diverse abilities.
Zeta: Celestia’s array of abilities is mot just diverse, it seems tailor made to counter Solgaleo! For example, you know how Solgaleo is a melee powerhouse? Celestia can nuse a combination of flight, teleportation, fire transformations, and magic shields to avoid, deflect, and mitigate these blows.
Will: One of Solgaleo’s best support moves is Morning Sun, since it can help them heal in the middle of a battle. However, Morning Sun is weakened by weather conditions and, to a lesser extent, the time of day. Even if she can’t move the sun for whatever reason, Celestia’s Pegasus abilities allow her to manipulate weather. And that’s not mentioning methods such as smoke, as shown in the battle above.
Zeta: Then we have Solgaleo’s elemental weaknesses. In Pokemon, Solgaleo resists all sorts of attacks, but is vulnerable to Fire and Dark moves. Celestia is a master at using flames, so much that she can become flames in the midst of combat. And her Dark Magic is almost certain to work well against Solgaleo, even if it is a bit limited by Celestia’s lack of expertise.
Will: Solgaleo’s only real advantage is that they are better at melee combat, but that isn’t enough to compensate for either of those two factors, let alone both of them.
Zeta: And so today, the sun set for Solgaleo.
Will: The winner is Princess Celestia
Trivia[]
- This was the first time on this wiki that Princess Celestia won a Death Battle. The author honestly did not see it coming.
