> Summer Soldiers: Tia's and Luna's Quest for Knighthood > by Arctic Soul > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > A Game to Play > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the early morning towards the middle of summer. A small filly could be seen creeping towards Celestia's room in the Canterlot Castle. Luna walked over to where Celestia was sleeping. "Hey, Tia" She whispered, trying to wake her sister up. Celestia's small form rolled over under her blankets. "Hey Tia." Luna said a bit louder. Celestia still didn't wake up. Luna sat down trying to think of a way to wake her up. Nothing. She couldn't think of any way to wake her up. Ding! a loud, high pitched, ringing noise sounded inside Luna's head and an imaginary light shone down on her. Luna, had just had the best idea. Slowly she turned around and walked out of the room as quietly as she could. * * * * * A few minutes later Luna crept back into Celestia's chamber levitating something beside her in deep blue magic. She silently walked right up to the side of the bed. "Good morning Tia" she whispered grinning. And then she quickly poured a full bucket of ice water onto her sister's face. Celestia shot straight up out of her bed "Gah!" she exclaimed, as her startled awakening caused her to fall of the bed and onto the floor away from Luna. "Now you're awake!" Luna said jumping over to where Celestia had fallen. "Can we go play?" "Uhng" "Tia, Tia, are you ok?" Luna asked, helping her stand. "I thought you could handle more than just falling out of a bed." "I can." Celestia said. "I just, I'm not used to being woken up by a bucket of water. Why can't you just wake me up like a normal filly would?" "I tried that. You just didn't wake up, so water." Luna replied. smiling "Anywaaay. Can we play?" "Sure, just let me give me a few seconds." Celestia said as she flopped back down to the floor. "Do you have any 6's?" Luna said, looking at her hoof of cards. "No." Celestia said dully. "Go fish." Luna reached over to grab a new card from the draw pile. She sighed loudly then set down her cards. "Tia, can we play something else? This is getting really boring." "I agree." Celestia said, laying her cards down on the table. "What should we play?" "I don't know." Luna said. "You usually choose the games." "That's why I asked what you wanted to play. We already played all of the games that I can think of. Not to mention all of the games we own." She replied. "Well." Luna said. "We could play hide and go seek." "Yes we could, but we played that about 30 minutes ago, and you got bored of it very quickly." "Then we could play..." Luna looked around, searching for any inspiration for an idea. "Ummm. Well I don't know. Why don't we just make up a game?" "Like what? Do you mean like an adventure? What would we do in it?" Celestia asked. "We could, be knights! And... um... I don't know. We should just make up the adventure as we go along. That way we won't know the ending." "If we're going to be knights, then we will have to have knight-like names." Celestia said. Then paused thinking. "You could be Lunarian. And i'll be." Celestia was interrupted. "Hey. You made my name. So I get to make your name. You should be... Caelestis." "Why Caelestis? Why not just Celestis?" "Because celestial in Latin is Caelestis." Luna said brightly. "And why do you know Latin? Celestia asked. "I don't. I just know a few words. Such as: Celestial is Caelestis, nightmare is tantibus, and congelata means liquid." "O.k. then. I'm fine with Caelestis." Celestia replied. "Yay! Let's start! * * * * * The Summer sun shone brightly over the helmeted heads of nights-in-training Caelestis and Lunarian. Their commander, the head of the Summer Soldiers Guild, had just told them that their last test to do before becoming knights was to find and complete a quest worthy of a knight's abilities. The most common quest for a trainee to do, was to spend a full day and night in the EverFree Forest. Because they couldn't think of a better quest, they decided to accept that one. Turning towards the forest they set off. > The Quest Begins > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The base camp of the Summer Soldier Regiment was located very close to the border of the EverFree. Because of this, Caelestis and Lunarian's journey was short and uneventful. As they neared the Forest, they heard a growl from deep inside. This reminded them of the other part of their assignment, you are not allowed the use of any weapons to complete your quest. Yes, they each had a full suit of armor, but in the EverFree, most creatures could run faster and farther than a pony in armor. In truth they could run faster than a pony without armor. Caelestis looked over and saw her sister slightly leaning away from the forest. "Are you scared? You look like you're about to fall over" She asked teasingly. "No! I was just, umm... The wind blew me back." She said, leaning forward noticeably.. "There isn't any wind." "Umm... maybe it only hit me?" Lunarian said slowly. "You do know that you don't have to go on this quest right?" Caelestis said, still looking at her sister. "You could wait for another quest to come up." "No." She said confidently. "I want to do this now." "Fine. Then let's go in." Caelestis said, walking into the dark forest with Lunarian following closely behind. Walking down the path that led to Zecora's cottage, Caelestis suddenly turned left and walked off the path into the forest. "Caelestis where are you going?" Lunarian asked, turning to follow her sister. "We don't have to fight anything to complete our quest, we just have to stay in here all day." "I know. but where's the fun in sitting around in the forest? If we don't have to actually do anything, then I won't think that I actually completed a quest." Caelestis replied, brushing some branches to the side and walking through the opening it created. Lunarian tried to follow her, but the branch swung back and hit her square in the face. "Ow!" She said, slightly too loud. From behind them they heard a low growl. "What was that?" Lunarian asked quietly. Caelestis turned around slowly and looked behind her sister. Two glowing green eyes shone from between the branches. Together they slowly backed away, until they were a fair distance from those eyes. They continued walking backwards, for a little bit longer. "Do you think we got away?" Lunarian asked. "Shhh!" Caelestis took a few more steppes back, when she noticed that her hind legs were no longer touching the floor. "Ahhhh!" She cried as she fell. "Caelestis!" Lunarian said. jumping to the edge of the cliff and looking over. There she saw Caelestis holding on to the cliff edge by her fore hooves. "Here grab my hoof." She reached down towards her sister. Caelestis reached up and grabbed the blue hoof. As Lunarian lifted Caelestis back up above the cliff, Caelestis noticed the same green eyes as before, right behind her little sister. Those eyes belonged to a large timber wolf. "Lunarian, watch out!" She shouted, directly into her face.