Blue Dream and Starshine enjoyed their courtship and quickly moved on to a more serious relationship, it wasn't long before they had their first foal. Starshine took to pregnancy fairly well, though she despised not being able to fly as much further into her condition. Starshine always enjoyed being outdoors and enjoying the breeze, the view, and everything Equestria naturally gifted the ponies with, so when the time came to give birth she was rather adamant about being able to do it outdoors. Blue Dream and Milkyway ensured she was as comfortable as possible, magically lassoing a cloud down for her to use as a pillow.

Dawn was peeking over the horizon as their first child made her way into the world, the gentle light of morning washing over her pale form and bathing the clouds in mutliple light hues. Celestia was born a unicorn, with white fur slightly tinged pink like her mothers, and a tuft of pink hair atop her head. Celestia was named for the glorious morning she had come into.

Things went much the same during Starshines pregnancy and birthing with Luna, but this time it was an embracing full moon that filled the sky and shone it's light upon her. Like her sister, Luna recieved a name for the natural wonders that surrounded her arrival into the world.

The sisters grew up as close as could be to both each other and their little family, consisting of their parents and grandmother Milky. They were kind and intelligent children, taking all of the best aspects of their parents. As ponies are want to do, they had a connection with their namesakes from a young age, and would often wake early and stay out late, in order to watch the rise and set of the sun and moon.

Upon hearing of the unicorns within the kingdom whose job it was to bring about this wonderous sight Celestia would pester her parents and grandmother constantly to take her to see it firsthoof, to watch the many horns of these ponies reach out and touch the heavens. Starshine and Blue Dream weren't ones to deny their children much, and so when the weather was favourable Celestia set out with her father and grandmother into the heart of the kingdom.

It wasn't unusual for ponies to watch the Rising Ritual, usually though the ponies watching were part of the teams studying the ritual in order to find a better solution, or ponies related to those unicorns partaking in the ritual, giving support to their kin and ready to assist and bring their spent bodies back to their homes to rest and recover. The ritual had been performed twice daily and for many years at this point, and so did not pull in too many ponies wishing merely to observe, unless they were visitors to the kingdom and thus there to sight-see.

Celestia was oblivious to the concerns of the older ponies around her as she excitedly pushed her way through to the front of the crowd, stopping as she pulled free of the throng of hooves to gaze in awe at the circle of ponies gathered in front of her.

The ponies were stood on a decorative ring of marble and precious stones, showing the sun, the planet, and the phases of the moon, alongside other esoteric symbols. The ponies stood at exact places and angles to each other, an older pony stood outside of the ring, a grey bearded unicorn in a dark cape adorned with bells, the ponies within the circle seemed to look to this one, awaiting a cue.

With a simple nod from the grey unicorn the others rose their heads, stretching up towards the sky, their horns seeming to want to penetrate the heavens physically as well as with their magic. Their horns all lit up at once, though nothing happened at first Celestia watched intently as their horns gained more layers of magic, sweat dripped from their brows as the ponies seemed to push their whole body and being into the spell.

Just as Celestia began to believe that the unicorns would start to float if their magic poured forth any stronger, she felt the change before she saw it, as the moon shifted and began to retreat the light of a new day crept up from the horizon, the sun peeking up from the horizon at a lazy pace. The unicorns strained ever more, but Celestia no longer had eyes for them, only for the changing and morphing light and colours as the heavenly body was awoken and placed within her world.

Celestia barely seemed to notice when her own body rose and shone like the sun itself, leaving its mark upon her flank. Her eyes only torn from the wonderous sun when her fathers hoof shook her withers and brought her attention to her new mark, the sign of her destiny.

From that day Celestia would never forget the sight of that magical sunrise, and would run off to watch The Rising Ritual when her legs were strong enough to gallop her into the kingdom and home again. Luna would ask her sister to describe it for her, it quickly becoming her favourite bedtime story.

Luna got her cutiemark just the same way, though instead she would watch the sun make way for a glorious moon, having slipped away to watch the ritual while her family where in the kingdom for a festival of some sort. Celestia followed her and watched as her sister gained a similar and parallel destiny, in her mind the two could only ever get closer, and that would be true, for a time.

Unbeknownst to the sisters and their little family they had been noticed, by the very unicorn who headed the ritual, Starswirl the Bearded. He had watched as the pink-haired filly had gained her cutiemark, at first only noting that she might make a good ritual pony in the future, but as she returned again and again he gained more intrigue. He looked into her and her family, the daughter of an Earth pony and a pegasus, grandchild of a mere servant pony… but was she?

Starswirl was good at remembering small details, and his closeness to the royal family meant he had heard when the princess, Majesty, had birthed twins, losing one before the first day had past and burying him in complete privacy, without even her mother beside her. It took only a small amount of digging to find out Milkyway had been Majestys handmaiden at the time, and had given up her position to have a child the same age as the young princess, an earth pony child with no known father.

Starswirl had no way to know for sure his suspicions were correct, and no reason to bring attention to the situation, but it all helped to fuel his interest. When young Luna showed up at the end of a festival to watch the sunset and moon rise, gaining her cutiemark just the same way her sister had, he knew what he would do. The lost children of royalty, with connections to all three races through their parents, and destinies linked to the heavens. He recalled the magic of hearthswarming, a silly tale to hear but one he had lived to experience. Surely there could be deeper magic at hoof here, and he wouldn't miss his chance to uncover it.

It would be a few years later, when Luna and Celestia were in their adolencent years, that Starswirl would show up at their little hut, and request that the sisters become his pupils, to teach them advanced magics, and have them assist him with his research into the heavens, and a better way to bring about the day and night.

This was a dream come true for the sisters, whose thoughts were filled with their heavenly counterparts and the ritual that brought ponies so close to them. Thier parents were happy to oblige too, the sisters were clever and magically adept, and the chance to fullfil their destinies in relation to the sun and moon, whatever those were, filled them with hope and love for their children.

And so the girls packed their things and moved into the castle, a section dedicated to Starswirl and his research teams, and began a new chapter of their lives.