SFyr

But in that sentence, "The Alicorns thought it was an important part of our education" draws a distinct line between the race and Luna/Celestia. A third beyond Luna/Celestia wouldn't qualify as "the alicorns" on its own, and if there were two or three beyond Luna/Celestia, they'd be more likely remarked by their relationships to Luna/Celestia or named in a personal journal (they've remarked themselves as neither of the three races, and were more likely than not born Alicorns, TO Alicorns; I wouldn't call my parents "The Lastnames," unless I was talking about an extended family, nor would I call my parents "the humans" if we were alone). I'm not claiming there's a TON of them, but, by its phrasing it sounded like there would be quite a few, as I said. They qualified for their own people with a level of a separation that a much younger Celestia/Luna picked up on, or that decision on their education came from a group; a group that comes off as though they are a people, not immediately connected through family ties to Luna/Celestia.

If I remember right... there's many series, both cartoons, anime, or key movies, that really do need to pull in merchandise sales to really justify their initial investment. Chances are, if you're watching it for free, they have to make their money from either advertisements, or convincing you to support them via purchasing things related to the show. If they convince you it's worth it, woo, you get stuff you care about, and they are more likely to continue making more MLP. If not, hopefully it'll still be fun regardless of merchandise tie-ins, as someone has said above.

If memory serves, there's hints cast at the Alicorns—back when the tribes were still divided—being their separate group of sorts. From the Journal of the Two Sisters, there's mentions of the three tribes approaching Celestia and Luna to crown them because "they wanted rulers to help uphold that peace [...] They knew that Alicorns stood for everything Equestria was founded upon: love, harmony, and friendship. And because Alicorns are a combination of Pegasi, Unicorns, and Earth ponies, they believed that we could represent the citizens of Equestria in an unbiased manner." -- Celestia Could still just be the two of them, right? Well... "The Alicorns thought it was an important part of our education, but we both thought speaking like that every day sounded silly." -- Luna on the Royal Canterlot Voice So... The Alicorns were their own entity, with their own traditions and education system (of some kind). But yeah, if you're sticking to show canon only, it gets a lot harder to justify or explain a lot of details surrounding alicorns. If you pull from sources like this, it sounds like there's actually is (or was) quite a few of them, and their power comes from simply being a people formed upon the combination of all three races, who embodied harmony, friendship, and love (which in the show, are pretty much the sources of magical power, as in the tree of harmony, the power of friendship, and love energy). Personally, I find it would help explain the show's canon quite a lot without conflicting with it much. > I will also say that, except in rare instances, Alicorns still seem to be better magicians/fliers/powerhouses than common ponies, except a standout few. The Tirek episodes I think are a good example to show just how much magical potential exists in alicorns when compared to normal unicorns, which might shoot down the idea that it's an equal division. They could easily be both symbolic, and physiologically superior, honestly; so long as you account for cases of Twilight, Cadence, and Flurryheart still being young, and the Flurryheart being extremely gifted from birth (and note, of the three she's supposedly the only born alicorn).