Alicorn Growth/Evolution Cycle Not tied to C!verse

So before the season finale comes along and possibly establishes what Alicorns are or slaps me in the face with a trout or kisses me on the lips; I'm going to post "Alicorn growth/evolution cycle" which is basically a vague run down for how Alicron work within C!verse, I was gonna have to slap a big AU tag on the series (if/when I get to it) regardless of the season finale, but still.

Alicorns are immortals who are divine magical power as much as they are flesh they cannot die due to age or poison-disease or even necessarily starvation/dehydration, but they could be at least somewhat weakened or tormented by some of these. As for dying overall it can happen, but it's extremely difficult even for other immortal/deity entities to accomplish such a goal and is often highly specialized to the Alicorn/immortal in question. An Alicorn can also withstand boredom and isolation that mortals never could and have extremely resilient psyches, but these can take a good deal of time to develop (I.E they don't immeditatly get over something bad, but over the centuries it get's easier and they can generally stay optimistic.)

an Alicorn develops differently from a pony or mortal creature where time and age dictate development and power to a greater extent. Celestia and Luna may very well have spent centuries as foals before becoming adults. An Alicorn's body grows in response to the Alicorns personal/power development as it matures. As for how they develop, they essentially grow from challenges and self development. For instance and Alicorn might not age from foalhood until they mature, they will not grow in power because of times passage, or if they do it will be extremely slow. (Due to Cadence starting off as a lesser Alicorn this doesn't quite apply to her in the early years)

if an Alicorn were to say, engage in a challenging magical duel where their divine/composite powers were taxed, and if they won they would grow stronger for the experience, same for say meditating or using their magic in some other challenging way (controlling Celestial bodies) this also shapes how their magic develops and how they grow as they grow older, even after reaching full maturity they can continue to grow stronger or develop their divine powers in other directions but it is harder to find things to challenge them. Growing older and more powerful makes the Alicorns body grow but also gives them unique abilities such as Luna's ability to become "Star-mist" these abilities are often tied to what ever it was that helped them "evolve" to the next level (Celestia has sun themed powers due to the sun for instance) Celestia and Luna within C!verse can both enter a partial ethereal/energy state as well as manipulate their size/shape/weight ETC. Celestia is the only fully grown Alicorn.

I actually have some canon reasons for concocting this theory, when Cadence and Shining Armor powered up the love canon Cadence's mane became slightly ethereal and resembled Celestia's, so I figured joining her love related magic with one she loved and both of them being powerful was able to give her a nudge to a higher level in terms of Alicorn powers. Her Cutie Mark glowing when using the Crystal heart may also apply. (Celestia in M!verse would be stronger than full strength Corona for instance due to controlling the sun and moon for so long, though it would have eventually no longer been a challenge but the troubles Celestia encountered controlling the stars and moon originally increased her control and power for quite some time.) Using the elements also gave Celestia and Luna a boost.

As for how this applies to Cadence, due to her birth she was actually closer in her early years to a mortal than an Alicorn, though she stopped ageing once reaching full maturity and could use the three tribes magic none of it was especially powerful and her Alicorn divine power were near none existent. (Alicorn Divine powers in use could maybe be considered similar to the Avatar state, just a lot mroe versatile) She could be injured as easily as an average earth pony and could get sick or die just as easily and even up till her 5th century it was still within mortal efforts to kill her with "relative" ease as her magic of the celestial bodies had increased but she was often left drained from that and they did not serve to increase her physical power/immortality or resistance to being stabbed as much as they did increase her magical potency and awareness. So she was for many centuries only stronger than a mortal and was still sensitive to the limits and weakness's they posses. and even when her Alicorn power developed further she was still subject to certain weakness's far more easily than Celestia and Luna themselves.

C!verse Cadence is stronger than either of her dimensional counterpart but still weaker than Celestia and Luna, but she is getting closer, she can to an extent control her shape but mostly in size or making herself appear as one of the other tribes. Having forcibly taken control of the sun and moon for over nine hundred years she's already quite powerful and can make her mane become ethereal/animate for short times usually thus demonstrating her using her full power, she usually does this in battle or in difficult spell casting and likely when doing something hard with the sun and moon or even when just starting them off in the morning/evening. It's essentially her equivalent of "one winged angel/Super sayian/Avatar State" Cadence has grown not just from the sun and moon but also due to having to fight and seal away or destroy various monsters that broke free from Tartarus or other seals/bindings. Though it took her fifty years to be able to control the sun and the moon enough not to simply collapse from exertion.

NOTES:
In terms of age only Celestia is an adult, Luna is an elder teenager (Though Celestia is much much older even if only somewhat more developed) and Cadence to them is referred to as an "overly large foal" Alicorns may not need much or any sleep once they reach a certain point of development same for food and drink, or they can simply conjure nourishment for themselves and so simply have "cut out the middle mare" Though before this stage Cadence had to eat a lot!
Alicorns can remove/rip out and tie up their divine powers elsewhere, this weakens them in some cases for centuries or even permanently and is often only used when in dire straights often to bind or seal something such as strengthening the gates of Tartarus or to create an item of great power, sometimes these can be re-adsorbed later in other cases they cannot as they have "evolved" on their own and are now simply a powerful magic entity of their own. Many monsters and controls for the world were created by Celestia and Luna when they reigned and when they were banished, with no one to manage them these controls began wearing out straining, breaking and either dispersing or rejoining their mistress's. Cadence herself has used this type of magic occasionally, specifically to help keep Tartarus shut and to seal Chrysalis in a dungeon and possibly to create Armour or a weapon or some other powerful trinkets. Powerful Alicorn can also physically conjure physical objects, such as glass or milk though these creations are subject to all the normal rules of their none conjured counterparts.
Theory: Celestia/Luna could possibly become or turn into other species ad serve as their detieies. This would be an ability not necessarily what they would do in canon.

The Canterlot caves may be where Celestia and probably Luna broke a powerful enemy who infused the place with their essence and used that power to spite the Alicorns with it's last move by making it extremely difficult for an Alicorn to use their powers within the cave system. Celestia and Luna can as can C!verse Cadence but it's extremely difficult in comparison to say a unicorn.

Luna and Celestia can create force fields, pocket dimensions/realms and artificial environments (Cadence showed this ability in canon as well in the Crystal Empire episode) Also Celestia and Luna have their own "realms" to retreat too. Celestia and Luna can also "conjure" weather and all three Alicorns can manipulate the earth/plants and even crystal to an extent though that mixes with unicorn magic. Luna can create and give objects life while Celestia can as well though only in certain circumstances and Cadence cannot at all beyond a temporary animation spell. Celestia is gifted with more destructive power than Luna though so it evens out.

Sorry if this doesn't make much sense, or doesn't really count, it's mostly theory and conjecture on my part and likely would only serve as a guide on how I write Alicorns. Still if anyone has any sort of opinions on the matter I would greatly appreciate feedback! I'm always willing to discuss and adapt or accept new ideas or to quote a great villain "I have no qualms about accepting a good idea simply because it wasn't my own" ;) If not thanks for reading anyway.
I wanted to find some other Cadence images but most either didn't apply or are being saved for Cadence's character BIO.

Regardless thanks for reading!