I like how Celestia is like Dumbledore in that since she is cleverer than the average pony her mistakes tend to be corrospondingly huger.

What’s up with >>458975?

@Bryon  
And more importantly, where a character has a defining fault (read: Fluttershy), it is not played for laughs 100% of the time, ala previous gen’s Applejack. They built stories that give good advice on how to deal with those thoughts to either make them positive attributes or learning to be self-aware that they exist and simply working around it. (even her, Celestia using her past mistakes (which might number quite large as an immortal being) to help her Equestria to become better.)

@Masem  
Which is something I’d like to see done more. :) After all, the greatest strength we’ve seen of so many characters Friendship Is Magic has is their relatability and the fact they are so human.

@Bryon  
Yup, and if anything, it shows Celestia is not infallible, helping to make her character more relateable.

@Masem  
I imagine for Sunset, she also had a different sitch from Twilight even with the similarities in situations. I like to imagine perhaps Sunset was always alone, and in the long run, she probably felt betrayed by how Princess Celestia didn’t seem to trust her enough as a student to tell her things, so even if Sunset was wrong, so was Princess Celestia in her handling of Sunset, which is what led to Sunset to take the path that she took up til the events of “Equestria Girls” and her facing Twilight in the human world.
 
Celestia is a good leader, but every leader needs to look at all the choices they make. Because they will learn that there is no real right or wrong as a leader, just choices…
 
And in the end, each choice made by a leader has consequences. I would love to see that going on for Celestia to learn that so it shows she can still learn a lot too, even with her long experience.

you will not lay a hoof on my girl! c’mon babe, we’re outta here! [busts through the walls of the castle] this is going to make me a criminal. is it worth it? hell yeah!

@MeshGearFox  
Yeah, I feel that Celestia was feeling that Twilight with the isolating lifestyle was starting to go on a path that was eerily similar to the one Sunset went on, and to prevent that she sent Twi to Ponyville on a last ditch attempt to divert her from that path. The fact that she just MIGHT be the pony to bring back her sister was a big bonus too.

@Lathius  
Well it seems someone has done so, if you want it too its at >>458368 (merged) .

This may be a tall order but I don’t suppose there are any artists out there that would be willing to remove the speech bubbles and Sunset’s reflection from this image?

@Pony Stark  
And add that (given we know that friendship was a significant part of Twi’s transformation) her hautiness and pride put her above making friends.
 
And Celestia also gave her enough time to reverse course until this point.
 
Per my theory, this is probably partially why she sent Twi to Ponyville with the explicit reason to make friends - Twi was already walking that same path pre-S1E01, but was more obedient and would actually take the order to heart, while Sunset would (did?) pretty much say “fuck that” if she got the same order.

@KirbyfanNeox
 
It’s not so much that Celestia wasn’t putting Sunset Shimmer in situations that could have proven her merit, it’s just that Sunset Shimmer kind of !@#%ed up at them.

@KirbyfanNeox  
Assuming Twilight took her place and did everything Celestia had planned for Sunset, it’s because Sunset Shimmer was a loner and refused to make friends that she didn’t become the Element of Magic, which; given Twilight’s life, would have led to her ascension to princess-hood.

@KirbyfanNeox  
Just not worth the trouble? Maybe she just gave up on her. Or somehow, had way less faith in her than Twilight.

@MLP-Silver-Quill  
Then why didn’t she “set up the situations” for Sunset?

@Masem  
You just summed that up perfectly.

That reflection, though.  
 
That face makes everything better.  

@t260g  
Everything Celestia pretty much has done on show (not even the extended universe stuff) can be justified as playing a long game that, at one point, involves reuniting the Elements with new barers, which requiring finding a unicorn who’s talent in magic was so strong as to do such. (Hence why her personal magic school…); and as such to guide that unicorn into being – well, we don’t know if “replacement leader” is right, but being something more than just a unicorn. (Heck, my theory is Celestia has a small gift of foresight, and knew that one of the bearers of the Elements would come from having the Apples settle near the Everfree Forest) She doesn’t and refuses to force things directly (perhaps an issue when she had to deal with banishing NMM/Luna).
 
In this light, Sunset’s story as given here and EQG slots in beautifully. Celestia clearly saw Sunset as capable in magic, but worried that she didn’t have the personality but still hoped she would be the one she could make the “replacement” (above). So when Sunset goes “fuck you”, that’s pretty much it, and Celestia realizes she made another big mistake.

“For the last time, Princess- I am not moving to some town in the middle of flankbuck nowhere, I am not casting an unfinished spell just to see what would happen, and I am not wearing that abortion of a dress. …In fact, y’know what? Buck this. I’m going to Earth.”

Being a princess must be earned.  
Well, unless you’re Cadance.

@MLP-Silver-Quill
 
@t260g  
I think we can all agree that this whole issue would be a lot less ambiguous if the episode about Twilight becoming an alicorn had actually been about Twilight becoming an alicorn.

@MLP-Silver-Quill
 
I can’t imagine Twilight ever knew becoming a princess was ever on the table. That said, her overwhelming motivation throughout the series is to measure up to her mentor, Princess Celestia. I have little doubt she would have added the title and the wings to her ‘needed to impress Celestia’ list, had she known about it.
 
(In fact, Celestia may have been giving her more of a choice by keeping Twilight in the dark about maybe earning the power to become a princess. If it was a stated possible endgame for her training, Twilight likely would have focused on it with the single-mindedness she approached most tasks, without giving a second thought about whether or not she really wanted it or the challenges she would have to surmount to achieve it. Without the end in mind, she was free to walk away from those challenges at any point without losing anything more than the respect of her mentor. The possibility of political or magical power as a goal was completely off the table.)

@Itsthinking  
I don’t think the BP was saying this was all Celestia’s achievement. In fact, that was a really good way to explain things.
 
Celestia set up the situations, or made the best of a bad one, yet Twilight still had to give her full effort to accomplish the tasks. Just as that BP fellow said.

@Casual Brony  
Seriously,  
Dat Art!

@Amber  
Yeah, and she considered it s personal failure, up until Celestia told her the blazingly obvious.