Celestia looked around. She was in a room, it appeared to belong to an inn of some sort. There was a small chest and a satchel in the corner.
Celestia stood up quickly, realizing that that was the satchel of the pony they had stolen from. She looked around, trying to find a better escape route than the door. After she got out, she could look for Luna.
Finding no better option, Celestia decided to try and walk out the door. As she made her way out, she bumped into the last pony she wanted to see.
“Whoa there,” he said with an inviting voice, “Calm down now, you don’t need to be in a hurry to get out, you’re not in trouble.”
“I’m sorry, I mean I don’t know what, I- You’re not mad?” Celestia stammered out.
“Well I won’t lie,” the strange pony said, “I wasn’t too happy when I found out my book had been stolen, and I bet the ponies whose homes you wrecked aren’t too fond of you right now. But no, you’re not in trouble.”
“I, I don’t understand…”
The pony laughed again, “No, I can’t imagine you do. Come on, walk with me to the infirmary and I’ll explain everything to you. I think you’ll find today to be a very important day for you.”
As the strange pony began to leave, Celestia followed. “What do you mean? What happened? Why am I at the Inn? Why are we going to the infirmary? Who are you?”
“Well, we’re heading to the infirmary to see your sister. Now don’t worry, she’s alright, but after I had to subdue you she got a little protective, and the guards may have been a little harsh when they held her back. As for what happened, last night was rather interesting, don’t you think?”
Celestia gave him a puzzled look.
The strange pony chuckled again, “Last night, I had enlisted the guards to help me recover my lost possession. One of them suggested that a pair of young fillies with a reputation for taking items like mine might have it, so we began the search for your community of orphans. Sure enough, we found it. It would appear that when your sister was startled in during her casting, she accidentally overcharged somehow, although I’ll admit I’ve never seen anypony do something like that, except for you.”
Celestia remained quiet, but gave him another quizzical look.
“You see,” he continued, “After your sister overcharged, she sent quite a shockwave through that alley, and that light disoriented a lot of others. After that, you jumped in to try and protect your sister from the guards, as I’m sure you remember.”
“I remember that, but I don’t remember anything else.”
“Interesting…” he muttered to himself. “Anyway, after you jumped in for your sister- I presume she is your sister, right?”
Celestia nodded.
“Yes, well after you jumped in for your sister, you did almost the same thing your sister did. Albeit you didn’t do any of the damage your sister caused. You mostly just hung there by your horn, but the guards didn’t take any chances, so they backed off. Once I realized you weren’t going to hurt anyone, I rushed in and gave you quick thump on the head to make you stop that.”
Celestia rubbed her head tenderly.
He let a nervous laugh, “Yes, um, sorry about that. It was necessary though. But after that, we brought you to the inn when we confirmed you weren’t hurt, and your sister stayed behind to treat a bruised rib.”
“Um, thank you I guess.” Celestia said, “But who are you, and why would you help us? We stole from you, most ponies would have us jailed or killed if they could.”
“Yes, I suppose most ponies would, but I feel I could get more use out of you and your sister than if I had you just rot in a cell somewhere. Now, what are you and your sister named?”
“Uh, I’m Celestia, and my sister is Luna.”
“Those are rather interesting names.”
“Well, my sister and I never had actual names, so we thought it would be fun if we called ourselves by the sun and the moon.”
“An interesting choice, Celestia.”
“Thank you, I guess… But would you mind telling me who you are?”
“I will explain more inside.” He said, “But since we have arrived, I think I’ll just explain it once to you and your sister.”
They walked into the large tent that was the Hoofton infirmary. Celestia scanned the area for her sister, spotting her toward the back.
“Luna!” Celestia ran to her sister and gave her a hug, “I was so worried about you! Are you alright?”
Luna smiled, “Yeah, I’m doing great, how are you?”
“Confused,” Celestia said, “But the stranger says he’ll explain something to us.”
“Yeah, he told me that too,” Luna said, “I think we can trust him though, he even let the guards leave their post outside on the condition that I wouldn’t run away.”
“And I’m glad to see you kept your promise.” The stranger cut in, “Now, I’m sure you two are more than a little curious about your situation, so I think I’ll get right down to business.”
The two sisters sat down on the small bed, waiting for answers.
“You can call me Fillius, I am one of the lead artifact hunters for the Grand Equestrian Army, more specifically, the archeological unit, part of the Magical Studies and Combat Regiment.”
Luna looked worried, “You work for the army? What are you doing in Hoofton?”
“Well that’s a bit of a secret,” Fillius responded, “But that doesn’t matter, the real find was you two.”
“What do you mean?” Celestia asked.
“Well, after that rather impressive display of magical ability and prowess, I am confident that the Grand Equestrian Army would love to have you join their ranks.”
“They want us?” Luna asked. “How do you know?”
“I have a few ways of communicating my finds throughout the world, and after explaining the events of last night, High Command has said that they would be willing to give you a chance to prove yourselves worthy of joining.”
“But, what if we don’t want to join?” Celestia asked. “What if we don’t pass the test?”
“Well, that’s why today is important for you.” Fillius said, “You can either head to a training camp and join up, or you both will spend a good long while sitting in a dungeon in Canterlot, for stealing from an official Equestrain Army Officer.” Fillius laughed at the look on the sister’s faces, “It’s not that bad, most ponies don’t have half the ability you do, and if you join, you get a place to stay, plus three meals a day.”
Luna perked up, “Three meals a day?”
Fillius laughed again, “That’s right, three meals, now what do you say? An honest job protecting your country? Or dark, damp, dungeon, where you’ll pay dearly for your crimes?”
The sisters looked at each other, then at Fillius, “We’ll take the job.” They both replied in unison.
And so the young sisters made their way from the southern reaches of Equestria in Hoofton, to a northern camp, near the village of Prancville.
One night, as the sisters drew closer to the camp, Celestia had trouble sleeping.
“Hey Luna?” she asked, as she poked her head through the tent flap, “Are you up?”
“I guess I am now,” Luna said groggily as she turned to her other side, “What’s the matter?”
“Nothing, I guess I can’t sleep because of the cold, I’m not used to the chilly weather.”
“Yeah, I know how you feel.” Luna looked at her sister in the soft glow of her horn, and could see something else was wrong, “But what do you really want to talk to me about?”
“Oh it’s nothing really, I just…”
“Just what, come on Celestia, you can always talk to me.”
“Well, what happened to Skamper?”
Luna smiled, “Is that what you’re worried about? I thought you already knew. Skamper’s fine, he got kinda banged up in the blast but nothing serious. Now, the guard in the tent on the other hand…”
“What do you mean?” Celestia asked with worry.
“Well, I overheard one of the guards talking when I was at the infirmary that night, and he said that the guard caught in the blast would be lucky to ever see again. I guess he must have looked directly at the flash when I went off, and I may have permanently blinded him.”
“Oh my gosh, Luna, that’s awful!”
“Hey!” Luna said, looking hurt, “I didn’t mean too! I don’t even remember there being an explosion, I had no idea what I was doing!”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Celestia said, “I didn’t mean to make it sound like it was your fault, I just feel bad for the guard.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t exactly feel good for him either.” Luna said, turning away in her bed.
“Hey Luna, um, there was something else I wanted to talk to you about.” Celestia quietly stepped back in case Luna didn’t want to talk.
Luna mumbled back. “Yeah?”
“What did you see?”
Luna froze up under her blanket.
“Luna?”
“What did you see?”
Celestia responded in confusion, “What?”
“What did you see?” Luna sat up and faced Celestia, “What did you see when you lost it too?”
Celestia timidly responded, “I’m not sure what I saw, just some bright light and-“
“And three silhouettes?” Luna asked, cutting Celestia off.
“Yeah…” Celestia said, “You saw them too?”
“All I saw was three silhouettes, I couldn’t make out any faces though, but each of them gave me some weird feelings.”
“Like what kind of feelings?”
“Well, I saw one, and I felt really mad. Well, not mad, but jealous. I’m not sure why, but I hated that figure. But when I looked at the second figure, it all went away and I felt sad, really sad. It was like I wanted to say sorry for something I’d done, but I didn’t know what.”
“And what about the third?” Celestia asked.
Luna sat there for a moment, thinking. “The third one made me worried, very worried. When I saw it, I got the sudden feeling that the whole world was going to fall apart, be completely destroyed. But weirdest of all, when I saw the third figure, I felt like I had died.”
“What?” Celestia said in shock, “What do you mean died?”
“I don’t know, I can’t explain it, I just know that I had died, or felt like I had died. And when I thought for sure that maybe I had died, I came back and all I saw was the alleyway.”
Celestia stood there in thought, contemplating their conversation.
“But what about you?” Luna asked.
Celestia jerked out of thought, “What?”
“What about you? What did you see?”
“Nothing really, just what you saw, except that one of the shadows was you.”
“Me?” Luna asked in surprise.
“Yeah, one of them was you, and the other one was somepony I didn’t recognize. A purple one with sparkles for her cutie mark.”
“That’s odd.” Said Luna, “Did you see who the third one was?”
“No, but it gave me the same bad feeling as you, all I could see was its’ eyes.”
“Hmm…” said Luna in thought, “That is really weird.”
“What do you think it all means?” Celestia asked.
“I don’t know,” Luna yawned and laid down again, “Crazy magic doing crazy things, but staying up will do us no good. You should get some sleep, Celestia.”
“Yeah,” Celestia said as she left the tent, “I guess you’re right.” And she went back to her tent, and slept soundly.
The next morning, training for the sisters began. They started in a small outfit with other ponies, unicorns, and pegasi, but as time went on, and each member of the training squad grew in their talent, they were eventually moved away into more specialized training. Luna and Celestia had been nervous at first, but they soon found that they adapted to military life quite easily. In the military, they were encouraged to play rough, and a tight schedule gave them a source of stability they never knew they craved. Both of the unicorns excelled in the use of magic as well, becoming one of the first soldiers in the squad to move into specialized training. And although they were not happy to leave their beloved squad mates, they warmed up quickly to the strict and informative lessons they were taught from other unicorn instructors. They were able to train only in magic, rather than having to wait for other ponies to receive basic training. In only four short years, rather than the usual six, the two sisters were ready to move out into their first assignments.
The first assignment had both of them together, even at the objection of their immediate commanding officer.
“That’s crazy!” Celestia heard a muffled voice coming from behind doors, “You can’t send two out to an assignment like that when they have no field experience!”
Celestia, her curiosity piqued, moved closer to the door. She had only been passing by to the barracks, but now she felt like eavesdropping. She pressed her ear up to the door, making out a second voice, this one coming from a mare.
“I am afraid that your objections will do you no good officer, you don’t have the authority to stand in the way of a senior of the artifact hunting outfit, those two are going on this assignment, whether you like it or not.”
Artifact hunting? Celestia couldn’t make sense of why two new soldiers would be called upon for a job she was sure required more expertise.
“I wouldn’t be so stubborn on this if he would just see some common sense!” She heard her officer say, “Fillius may like to see himself as a bit of a genius, but he could very well be sending these poor girls to a dis-honorable discharge, or even their deaths. Two new soldiers who have grown up their entire lives in Equestria, and you want to send them to a foreign country? And Griffallion at that, you could at least send them south, the Zebra’s are a friendlier lot.”
“I understand your concern, but he has the final say. Besides, he has already had his request approved by the Grand Equestrian Council, it would appear he had anticipated resistance.”
Celestia heard her officer grumble a bit, “Very well, but you make sure they come back safe and their reputations unscathed, I wouldn’t want word getting back that I trained ponies who couldn’t handle a first assignment. Now, when do they need to be on their way.”
“As soon as possible, no later than two days from now.”
“Very well, we can have them on their way by next morning. I’ll go give them their orders now.”
Celestia heard them approaching the door, she quickly trotted away, hoping to look casual and innocent. No sooner had she gotten a few feet down the hall did the door open, and the two ponies walked out.
“Celestia! Just who I was looking for actually, come here, I have your first assignment!”
Celestia turned around in mock surprise, saluting, “Yes sir!” she said, as she went to the two ponies.
“Celestia,” the officer said, “This is Angela, she’s going to explain more about what you’re going to do. It would seem you’re going for a trip out of the country.”
He introduced the older looking mare, she had a youthful look in her, but the work she put in showed through. Celestia greeted Angela, and together they brought the news to Luna. By the next evening, the sisters were on their way out of the country, to Griffallion, home of the Griffons.