My Little Pony: The Journal of the Two Sisters: The Official Chronicles of Princesses Celestia and Luna (My Little Pony, Friendship Is Magic) Hardcover – June 10, 2014

If you've ever wanted to learn the younger side of Celestia and Luna this is the MLP book for you. Hard core fans will be able to piece together history of Equestria and remember key events from Hearth's Warming Eve. With the first section of the journal being the diary entries of both sisters from their own perspective and the second being the diary entries made by the Mane 6 from Season 4 of MLP:Friendship is Magic.Basic Events Outlined(Spoiler Free)In the journal you begin with the coronation of Elsa & Anna after a brief explanation of how they became the Princesses of Equestria, I mean Celestia & Luna. Afterwards you hear about how the sisters picked the location for their castle. It then tells of how Luna befriends a manticore and how the castle is constructed. It then tells of a encounter with a certain prissy unicorn princess. You then learn of Celestia's love of books and Luna's more adventurous side where she discovers a herd of zebras. The next major conflict comes when the two sisters conflict over air space with griffons. Then take a trip to the Crystal Empire where the Crystal Heart has been stolen by a dragon. Finally journey through Celestia and Luna rising and lower both sun and moon as well as finding out about themselves.(Spoilers Abound)Approached by Star Swirl the Bearded directly after the events of Hearth's Warming Eve, which led to the founding of Equestria, Luna and Celie (as Luna affectionately calls her sister in her entries) were chosen to rule over this new land. The only reason the entries give as to why they were chosen was that they are alicorns; the combination of Earth, Pegasus and Earth ponies. It also introduces the two sisters as blank flanks who have yet to find their special calling in life. The sisters claim that while they are presumably decades old (Luna says she is many times older than Princess Platinum), they do not have their cutie marks because alicorns age differently than a regular pony. Nothing is said about their parents or who told them such information. You then learn about the fear and worry both sisters have over becoming princesses but they soon get excited and see themselves more as protectors of the land rather than rulers. It also pokes fun at Luna trying to write i the Royal Canterlot Voice, from the episode Luna Eclipsed which takes place on Nightmare Night, where Luna then shifts into normal writing mode saying her and Celie use to play together using that voice. After searching the lands of Equestria both sisters agree to build their castle in the Everfree Forest, not only because it's mysterious but because they also see the Tree of Harmony which Star Swirl informs them is indeed the tree from legend. Luna accounts how she's the one who wanted the weird trap doors, the paintings without eyes and the hooves holding torches. Later Celie is over joyed about the idea of a library with a secret area for her to hide away in. During the construction of the castle a group of ponies looking for building materials go missing. Luna rushes to find them and encounters a mantircore. Upon failed attempts at defeating the enemy, Celie comes to her side. After subduing the beast with the aid of Star Swirl, the manticore breaks down and cries. Luna, much like Fluttershy, is able to understand the crying of the animal and realizes the ponies were taking materials from his house not even knowing it was his. This leads to the befriending of the manticore as well as many other Forest creatures by Luna. Once the castle is completed, King Bullion the king of the unicorns and his daughter Princess Platinum visit. The Princessis hardly amused by the idea of Celie and Luna ruling over them and states they should have asked her to rule. She even calls the pair of sisters blank flanks and can't believe she is to be ruled over by two ponies who don't even have their cutie marks yet. Luna then uses her knowledge of the castle to her advantage and using the Canterlot Voice combined with a trap door and Melvin the manticore, scares the Princess into submission. With Princess Platinum now for the two sisters' rule, she has tapestries (the ones Rarity later want to restore) created by unicorns to adorn the walls of the castle. Next the rest of the leaders and sidekicks from Hearth's Warming Eve come to visit the castle (Clover the Clever, Star Swirl, Smart Cookie, Private Pansy and Chancellor Puddinghead) It's also revealed Star Swirl is working on time travel spells and hopes the two sisters can help him with it. Melvin the Manticore then tells Luna of a forbidden area in the Everfree Forest. Luna quickly investigates and stumbles upon zebras who all talk in rhyme just like Zecora. At first they fear this winged beast is a manticore. After telling them she is an alicorn and a princess and ruler of this land no less, the zebras tell Luna of how manticores use to attack the peaceful zebras so using potions and spells the zebras were able to make a protective shell to keep the manticores away. Thus the manticores gave up and left them alone which turned that area of the forest into a forbidden place for manticores. Star Swirl then asks Luna to attempt to move the stars which proves difficult and Luna fails at her attempt. But Star Swirl has finally gotten a age and time spell mixed up and travels through time and ages back to a younger point in his life. Upon later entries, Celie asks Star Swirl about the Star symbol on the tree of Harmony and if they'll ever meet this pony (Twilight obviously) and Star Swirl gets a gleam in his eye hinting that they will. Conflict soon arises again when during some flying with Commander Hurricane, Celie and Luna bump into griffons. The griffon leader Gregor the griffon states that their original peace treaty with the pegasus ponies about air space borders is null and void because that was before the land was Equestria. After a threat of war between the griffins and pegasus, Luna consults Melvin and he informs her that griffins have a sweet tooth and that Gregor loves eclairs and that talking in rhyme like a zebra might confuse Gregor just like it had the manticores when they found the zebras. Luna then has Star Swirl make some eclairs and in her Canterlot Voice she speaks in rhyme to Gregor and after eating the eclairs he admits defeat and the peace treaty over airspace is reinstated. With that war avoided another one brews in the Crystal Empire with the crystal heart stolen by a dragon. Princess Amore calls upon the protectors of Equestria to aid her in talking to the dragon. The crystal heart had actually been mined out of the Crytalline Mountain which had been the home of the dragon. He had been sleeping at the time and when he later found out the ponies had taken crystals from his territory is when he stole the crystal heart. Celie tries to reason with him that it's important and the Crystal Empire will fall without it, he treats it as a mere trinket. Celie then uses her own Canterlot Royal speaking voice and scares the dragon into submission. In the last few entries of the diary Luna and Celie awaken to a dark sky and discover that the unicorns have been sacrificing their magic to bring day and night. You see, it takes 6 uncirosn to raise and set the sun and moon. After doing it for a while the unicorn loses its magic forever. Star Swirl had been the only unicorn ever to be able to raise and lower it without losing his magic. But upon that day they had run out of adult unicorns and Star Swirl attempted to do it himself. Failing his beard turns from brown to grey and he loses his magic. Luna and Celie are then informed that Alicorns have a different type of magic and are actually made stronger by raising and lowering the sun and moon. Upon trying, they both succeed with Luna lowering the moon and Celie raising the sun. Rejuvenated by this, the sisters are able to restore the magic of the unicorns and finally obtain their cutie marks. Celie gains a sun on her flank and Luna a crescent moon. Luna tells how she now has a purpose and can not wait to do it again and is happy she can do this for as long as she's princess... (Until she becomes Nightmare Moon of course...)(spoilers end)The Journal of the Two Sisters concludes there with the next section being the Journal of Friendship which are the entries made by the Mane 6 over the course of Season 4. The book ends with a few pages of blank lines to write your own stories of friendship.Overall the book is written to be an easy read book. I believe the biggest word it uses is amalgamation but in general the writing is not complicated and can be read by younger kids (although they might not fully understand it). While not the most intersting or well written book for older kids, if you're a fan of the show then you'll love it.The book is wrapped in a removable sleeve (jacket?) which is the bottom half of the picture as shown in the item listing. Underneath is the words the Journal of the Two Sisters with the back being the crest of the two sisters circling the moon and sun as seen in the show. Each character has their own stationary styled pages and different hoof-writing (hand-writing). The embellishments of the pages (borders, little bits of art) make it fun to look at and makes it feel more like a journal/diary.It's a fine read for younger kids and fans of the show and a nice cosplay item as well because of how its made. It's a good pick up to read so 10/10 would read again.

The Journal of the Two Sisters is a companion piece to the Friendship is Magic main series. I bought it for the glimpse into the show's backstory. It definitely delivered on that.This is backstory specifically for Celestia and Luna. It starts when they were first crowned princesses of Equestria, shortly after its founding. Their half of the book records their activities from that day through officially taking up their duty of raising the sun and moon. It fills the gap between the Unicorn Tribe doing it in the origin story, "Heartwarming Eve", and Celestia and Luna doing it in the story recounted in "Mare in the Moon". (Small note: The journal ends before Discord's reign of terror).It is a fun read. The journal is written in-universe (what the human reader holds is a defictionalization) and so the personalities of the two princesses show in the first person narration. As it turns out, Pinkie used the Organ-to-the-outside exactly as Luna designed it. Fans rarely get to see Celestia and Luna interact as sisters and this has a lot of that. They fit the mold of the Foolish Sibling-Responsible Sibling dynamic; Celestia is a polite princess and a book nerd while Luna likes adventure and pranks.There are lots of adventures within this tory. They range from befriending a manticore in the Everfree Forest to negotiating peace with the griffin kingdom. Also, there's something with the ROYAL CANTERLOT VOICE that is too awesome to spoil here.It's not just the royal sisters. Starswirl the Bearded is also an important character here. He was basically Merlin to Celestia and Luna's King Arthur. No wonder Luna could recognize Twilight's Nightmare Night costume and praise it for accuracy.The second half of this book is the full version of the Mane Six's journal entries from Season 4 of the main show. It was fun to read those too but there was nothing new there.POLISH Celestia and Luna have alternating motifs of sun and moon and warm and dark colors for their pages. The art style is similar to fairy-tale recounting in "The Mare of The Moon". The Mane Six (and others) also have distinct backgrounds. This adds to the emotion of the book.Trickster Eric Novels gives "Journal of the Royal Sisters" an A+

Loved it. Came on time. Condition is excellent. Wonderful for fans and family.SPOILERS! SPOILERS!The story isn't the most original or complex, but it is naturally for children. However, if you are an older fan of mlp, it does give you additional insight to the princesses and their personality and adventures as young alicorns. You also get to know just a little more about Star Swirl and other minor characters like Princess Platinum, Clover, and etc. It also answers some (not all) continuity issues from the episode, Hearth's Warming Eve about Equestria's history for those bothered by the episode's continuity errors...If you were expecting Celestia and Luna's origin story and where alicorns come from... Not so much. At best, there were subtle implications that more alicorns existed than themselves, but none were introduced.It's a fast and entertaining read. I literally finished it in 40 minutes. If you decide to purchase, I recommend the physical copy as the Kindle copy does not carry the Journal of Friendship, which the hardbound does. The Journal of Friendship carries dairy pages of the Mane 6 and other ponies and the lessons they learned daily.For what the book is intended to be and the demographic it is for, the book is fun. I would recommend it for any family or fan, especially if you like either princess.I hope this was a helpful and insightful review to those wishing or considering purchase of this book.