Reddit reviews My Little Pony: The Journal of the Two Sisters: The Official Chronicles of Princesses Celestia and Luna (My Little Pony, Friendship Is Magic)

First mentioned: during Luna Eclipsed in season two. He was basically a throwaway character name which Hasbro had the copyright to, and then M.A. Larson added "the bearded" because just Star Swirl wasn't funny enough.

He was mentioned again in It's About Time, which added the time-travel magic to him. Magic Mystery Cure added the thing where he created a spell and apparently was closely related to Celestia and Luna.

There's a lot of exposition about Star Swirl is in The Journal of the Two Sisters. He's a very powerful unicorn pony and has ties to the three pony tribes. He is a close advisor to Celestia and Luna and is tasked with raising the sun and moon, as well as tutoring Celestia and Luna.

There's also his appearance in the comics, but I'm afraid I haven't been keeping up with them.

What I find even more interesting is how it became the government it is now.

According to the semi-canon Journal of the Two Sisters, when it started Equestria was either an alliance or confederacy of the three pony tribes. The rulers voted Celestia and Luna to "princesshood", and they were tasked to perform the following:

1. Mediate conflicts between the three tribes
   
   
2. Act as ambassadors to foreign nations on behalf of the three tribes
   
   
3. Protect them from external threats like dragons
   
   Now it's a more centralized government. Over a millennium, Celestia took executive power as the three races became more and more assimilated with each other and the tribes lost their political power. She was pretty nice, allowing descendants of royalty/aristocracy from the three tribes to keep their titles like Prince Blueblood.

Just in case anyone wants to know where they can buy it, Amazon has it. I learned a few new things about the show that wasn't even mentioned in the show (like the names of the Wonderbolts [one of them is Surprise!] and that the first two episodes were originally going to span across a whole season.) The book is about 1/2 episode recaps, but it gives some great insight on the show (such as why they only redeem a few villains or why the people may enjoy the show.) I'd recommend buying it if you have money to kill.

Oh, and soon, two more books are going to come out.

My Little Pony: The Journal of the Two Sisters: The Official Chronicles of Princesses Celestia and Luna

My Little Pony: The Daring Do Adventure Collection: A Three-Book Boxed Set with Exclusive Figure

Read "The Journal of the Two Sisters": http://www.amazon.com/Little-Pony-Chronicles-Princesses-Friendship/dp/0316282243 - apparently there is an entire race of Alicorns that Celestia and Luna are a part of.

Given the book, I tend to think of the 'true' Alicorns as being a bit like Tolkien's "Istar"; Gandalf, Sauruman, et al.

Yup!

Amazon Link that NoobJr put elsewhere in the thread

It's super-neato and has a bunch of great head-canon fuel. Also, have a shameless plug for a review I made of it a while ago

Yes! I was really happy to hear more lore behind the show. Fun stuff. I hope the new MLP hardcover is as good as it looks like it could be. I'd kill for some more back story on the princesses!

Unless things have changed recently after the clarification attempt by Big Jim, the comics are considered a secondary canon, and the chapter books are the tertiary canon. So if they ever contradict each other, the comics are more canon than the books, and the show is more canon than the comics.

The only possible exception to this rule is The Journal of The Two Sisters since it's supposed to be something directly from the show, but I'm not entirely sure where it exists in the order of canon.

I'd always assumed that the royal sisters' design was meant to reflect their advanced age and status. In a thousand years, I'd expect Princesses Cadance and Twilight to have acquired a similar manestyle.

I suppose it could simply be the result of advanced age, however I'd like to think magical ability has something to do with it too. But of course, this is all exclusive to alicorns, as no other pony can expect to live as long.

As to why the sisters are princesses and not queens, my understanding is that Celestia and Luna declined the honour because they saw themselves less as rulers, and more as guardians of Equestria.

You might want to take a look at a book called The Journal of the Two Sisters It explains a bit of Celestia's and Luna's backstory.

You're probably looking for this.

The pilot doesn't explain itself too well in that regard. The NMM story is portrayed as a fairy tale there, which leads to some confusion, when later on it's treated like a historical event (Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3).

Maybe Ponyville is historically illiterate. But that doesn't explain Twilight not knowing anything. Oh, well.

Why is it only 10.82$ Canadian to pre-order and why is the release date june 10.
Should I be angry or happy, I don't get it.

Oh, it's not the same book.