Why didn't Princess Celestia tell Twilight Sparkle about Princess Luna?

[snoke123 3]

When Princess Celestia chose Twilight Sparkle to be her student, why didn't she tell her about Princess Luna from the beginning?

[DiscordPerson 39]

Mabey she wanted her to realize on her own? I don't know. Figures like Celestia are always confusing and mysterious.

[SharpWit 2,472]

The elements of harmony have the prerequisite of friendship for their use. Prior knowledge would contaminate the true extent of that friendship, given the priority of the mission. Therfore it was best to have one decently trained pupil come across and bind with strangers willing to rise to the occasion. The convoluted steps to arrange these relationships thoroughly beforehand has too many factors to sleep in check, and is arguably a lot more work for the same risk of failure.

Also, when you have a prophecy for an evil being coming to take over, you encourage society to prepare for the worst, which does not make for a friendly environment, and the imability to use the elements. 

[DiscordPerson 39]

ummmmmmmmm............

[Octavia Heartstrings 28,412]

It was probably just one of those "I'll tell you when you're older" type of situations. Of course, Twilight went ahead and found out on her own.

[DiscordPerson 39]

That's just the kind of pony Twighlight is.

[North Star 4,540]

I think she was testing Twi whom she was clearly grooming to be her replacement from the start of the show. Makes you wonder what happened to the other Princesses candidates she had her eye on from the school for gifted unicorns over the years. I'm betting only the most talented were up to the pressure (and then some of those lacked the right temperament, so she dropped them, like Sunset)

on, and she's also a minx

 

[Player the FNFL Boi 82]

I'm honestly more confused about the main 6 being surprised to hear that they're sisters at the end of the secobd episode. Like come on, Twilight just read a book the following day explaining about Celestia and Luna's sister relationship, so surely at least Twilight would've known that from the start.

[Mirage 24,142]

Back in those days (before S3) Princess Celestia was wise, larger than life, and represented the highest ideal (she was good). So I think on a personal level, she was very much ashamed of Luna, and herself, and didn't want Twilight to associate her with such shame. On a practical level, she really wanted Twilight to realize things on her own - see that the stories were true, make her own friends, and discover her own true power.

But since the story was crafted in a mythological way, and designed for a young audience, it's not highly detailed like we'd expect from a modern deconstructionist novel. So all we can do is speculate.

My take was that even though Twilight was aware that Nightmare Moon was one of the 'sisters' that represented night, she didn't think of her as Celestia's actual 'little sister'. That is, she likely understood the old stories as Myth, and that Celestia was her teacher, not really one of the original sisters, but someone who represented them (like a king/queen who represents the gods and their authority, but not actually a god itself). So when Celestia calls Luna her sister, Twilight realizes that the mythology she studied was actually true, and not just about Nightmare Moon, but about all of it. It wasn't just cosmic magic stuff. That all this time, Celestia kept it at a distance, but the old stories really were about her, and not just mythological tales that explained the cosmos.

Mythology is needed when truth higher than our senses can understand must be discussed.