Celestia had prepared for this day for her entire lifetime thus far. After years of rigorous study and practice in which she had shown such great promise, now was the time to put her skills to the ultimate test. For if she passed, she was to be admitted into the most prestigious magic academy in the city. ‘Twas a small school, so few students passed the test. The stakes were higher than ever.
 
“Remember, my daughter, I shall take great pride in thee no matter the result,” her father assured her as they approached the building where she would be tested. “Do not be so wracked with nerves. Do thy best. I have the utmost confidence thou shalt excel.”
 
“Dost thou truly believe so, Daddy?” Celestia asked nervously.
 
“Verily, from the bottom of mine own heart. Art thou ready?”
 
“I suppose I am.”
 

 
Luna’s deep loneliness had grown into deep resentment as the days went by and she seldom saw her father. She had grown weary of the same excuses he gave for his absence; she would no longer accept them. Tonight—if he came home at all—she was going to tell him how much of a fool he was. She would not hold back this time.
 
She heard the door open. He was home, once again later than promised. Now was her opportunity.
 
Midnight Mist sauntered into the house, letting off a foul stench that smelled something of whisky and the juice of some harlot’s nothings. It made her angry.
 
“Thou wretched cox-comb!” Luna snapped. “Once again thou art late! Where hath thou been?”
 
“‘Tis not thy business!” He slurred. “Why such concern?”
 
“Thou cannot be pitchkettled, thou knowest what thou hath done! As thou frolic about and show off thy codpiece to lowly wenches, I am left utterly abandoned! Dost thou care?”
 
Her father only shook his head and chuckled at this, making Luna’s frustration only grow.
 

 
Celestia was more focused than ever. Before her lay two seeds, each of a different tree. Her task was not only to grow them to maturity but to intertwine them into one. While her father had taught her to do this with smaller flora, she had never accomplished a feat to this magnitude. She would need all the good fortune in the world to do it.
 
She closed her eyes and concentrated, hoping for a miracle to pass…
 

 
“Thou consider me inferior to thy bedswerver lifestyle? Thou art saying thou wouldst rather swive with strumpets than cherish thy daughter?” Luna pled with her father, becoming more and more emotional with each word.
 
“I shall not stand such accusations!” He spat back. “Silence, for I did not raise a shrew!”
 
Luna gasped at this cruel name, her rage finally boiling over.
 
“Thou utter bastard! A pox be upon thee! By my troth, I declare—!”
 

 
At the climax of Celestia’s magic, Luna’s rage…history was made. A mysterious surge of magic surged through the two fillies miles apart, one they had only imagined from old mares’ tales. At that moment, the sun rose high in the sky and so did the moon, creating an eclipse that blacked out the sky. The fillies, the sun and moon, the eclipse…it was all connected, yet they could not explain why. ‘Twas a moment that could hardly be described in words.
 
When the surge subsided, the fillies found new symbols emblazoned on their flanks; Celestia, a sun, and Luna, a moon in the night sky. They had not a clue what had just happened, but something was calling to them. They would soon find out.