I don’t think Princess Celestia forced it on Twilight; Rather, She was explaining what was happening.

@Cgeta  

FUCKING PICK ONE

@trekkermint  
You know, sometimes even a demigod has too much power.

It makes sense to me if alicorns were originally the norm, the 3 races are just derivatives that had a high reproductive rate allowing their population to explode. And making Twilight an alicorn might have been a difficult spell, imbedding the genes for wings into her genome, fundamentally altering her.

FAUSTICORN IS FIRST

@Background Pony  
Wait, i posted, 3 minutes later i posted again, to correct a word, and then my first post got . . .reposted?

Didn’t they say, in the episode, that twilight was the first pony to ascend to unicornhood?
 
If that’s true one can assume that the spell twilight was to complete was just the last test on Celestias part, the last bloc of the puzzle that is friendship, which twilight came to fully understand, and by understanding friendship completely (incorporating the meaning of each element of harmony in herself) she ascended.
 
At least that was my interpretation.

@Background Pony  
alicornhood*

Didn’t they say, in the episode, that twilight was the first pony to ascend to unicornhood?
 
If that’s true one can assume that the spell twilight was to complete was just the last test on Celestias part, the last bloc of the puzzle that is friendship, which twilight came to fully understand, and by understanding friendship completely (incorporating the meaning of each element of harmony in herself) she ascended.
 
At least that was my interpretation.

@Background Pony
 
>Considering y’know generally you don’t TURN INTO a princess.
 
In our world.
 
We don’t know much about theirs.

i would think that celestia and luna were fillies before the three pony tribes founded equestria. and that they became alicorns when discord started fucking shit up. really hard to work with this shit when the continuity is skewed.

Rarity specifically said she didn’t know it could even happen. I’m just going to assume that means Cadence was born one. Crystal empire bloodline or something.
 
I really don’t think Celestia can just upgrade ponies on a whim like this seems to imply.  
The fact that the elements hit maximum friendship level and zapped her to the astral plane probably had more to do with it.

Celestia, before Luna turned into Nightmare Moon, wielded the elements. Perhaps Celestia gets to choose who can wield them now,and who becomes an alicorn because of them.

I’m more concerned with how Celestia turned her into a princess.
 
Considering y’know generally you don’t TURN INTO a princess.

Celestia didn’t turn Twilight into a winged unicorn. Twilight was the first to become a winged unicorn through that method.

Celestia and Luna (or maybe even just Celestia, Luna is noticeably smaller then her sister) are the only “true” Alicorns, having come to exist through whatever process creates Gods.
 
Cadence, Twilight and probably many more are artificial Alicorns created by another being. Celesia has been creating them after banishing Luna to keep herself company, but they age and do not have the full combined power of all three races.
 
Just my headcanon, though.

@Star Cavalcade  
Sex isn’t love
 
im going to say discord is the creator

@Princess♠Molestia
 
This.
 
I still believe that alicorns are born,but Twilight is the first one to have achieved alicornhood through a different way.Why was Star Swirl was trying to finish that spell?
 
Nothing what has revealed lately has completely answered everything.

The short answer: Celestia is a troll.

The Elements of Harmony were what sent her there. She second she finished the spell, The Elements of Harmony sent her to that plain of existence.
 
She finished the spell.
 
That’s what the spell does, send you to that plain of existence.
 
A place that Celestia seems to have easy access to.

It almost feels as if it happend by itself, caused by the elements.
 
Celestia was just showing it to her when Twilight suddenly appeared in the macial plane only alicorns have access to.

So Twilight became an alicorn because she learned the true meaning of friendship.
 
Does that mean Cadance became an alicorn because she learned the true meaning of love? Considering she was already an alicorn at a young age, that’s a little worrying.

I like to imagine celestia was just born one.

There are so many unanswered questions.

The elements were clearly essential catalyst for Twi’s ascension.