The Chronicles of Summer Rain, Vol. 8 -- Dark Melvain

by shysage

Ch.4, (To The Past) Banished Sister

My Stallion and I ended up at 'some time' in Equestria Past(1). At least we were together; we were still holding hands.

We were still people too, and I was holding the rim of the Portal. And we were in the Portal room at least; this hadn't always been the case.

My Stallion said we should stay people for now. But we turned around, and looked the room over. He took my hand again, right away.

Speaking quietly, my Stallion observed this was a different room, than when he had spent over two hours crying with our girls. He added that it was darker in this room too.

Still, the Portal was on the same raised platform, and we were close to the steps that led down at the edge. My Stallion stood still, and held my hand pretty firmly; he wanted me to stay put for now. I didn't mind. I actually moved closer and leaned on him, and he hugged me. We stayed like that.

There were three other Unicorns in the room. They looked like they had been talking together before we arrived. They were staring at us now. We were still people, and probably looked very different from anything they had ever seen.

The staring soon stopped, and one of the Unicorns said "Please stay here, I'll go get Princess Celestia."

Cel soon walked quickly in.

It was clear to us both she had been crying... a lot...

My Stallion and I stepped down immediately, and only then, did we turned back into ponies. We were quickly both hugging Cel tightly.

It was clear she was fighting back tears. "Mom, dad, please don't talk until we are in my room" Cel said quietly.

We both just nodded. I was fighting back tears too.

Cel quickly lead us out of the Portal room.

It took a while to get out of the building that housed this 'different room', and it was clear the path to the Portal was intentionally hard to navigate. Since the Portal brought the 'Shila', it was a 'valuable military asset' (my Stallion explained this later).

It was maybe noon here; the Sun was high in the sky.

As soon as we were out of that building, my Stallion looked at me and smiled. We were on the top level of the 'stepped mountain' that would become Canterlot. Maybe even now it was Canterlot. We would wait and see. We could still see that Equestria stretched for miles beyond the edge of this top level.

In addition, Cel was leading us to a large building that surely occupied the site that one day would become the Audience Hall. It actually looked like a cross between the large 'King's Palace' that King Thars lived in, and the Audience Hall of 'Equestria Present', well present for us anyway. This building was maybe half as big as the Equestria Present version, and all made of wood.

It was now clear to both my Stallion and I that a considerable amount of time had passed since both our last visits here. We later agreed that this was Canterlot in its early development. There were other wood-frame buildings scattered around this broad meadow on the 'top deck' of this mountain, and some broad roadways too, but there was a lot of grassy meadow (and lots of Oats) up here too.

We were also quickly surrounded by ponies we guessed were guards. Huge 'business only' Earth pony and Pegasus stallions; they wore a thick harness that tightly held two long spears, one on either side of their bodies, maybe four feet above the ground, and also extending maybe three feet past their noses.

It was clear these stallions had to climb out from under the 'Spear Harnesses' to take them off. But, no doubt, these stallions could easily kill with these spears; they looked very sharp. A bunch escorted Cel wherever she went, and we saw many other ponies around equipped the same way.

Cel was still choking back tears, and we were moving pretty quickly.

Almost to the large door to what we suspected was the Audience Hall entrance, a younger mare came out that door.

The guards opened a path, and this mare walked up and bowed to Princess Celestia.

"Princess, can I go for a brief walk? I could really use some fresh air" the mare asked.

Cel thought a minute, then said quietly "Of course, child. Don't go far, and let Mildred know when you are back."

The mare bowed again, said "Yes, Princess", then headed slowly off across the meadow. Another guard followed her.

Still, Cel said quietly "Poor child" as the mare walked off.

---

Maybe a minute later, we were through the Audience Hall, up on the raised platform, through a short hall, and into what we guessed were 'Princess living quarters', then Cel's bedroom.

Cel burst into tears immediately. We just held her, and were soon crying with her. She was our girl. We loved her. We stayed ponies, and just sat in a tight circle hugging and crying together.

We all cried together like this for maybe three hours. A number of times, Cel tried to stop crying, as if to say something, but simply couldn't make any words come out, so she just kept crying.

By then, I think my Stallion and I both suspected what Cel's tears were about.

We had not seen Lu (Princess Luna) at all... Since she was in Equestria Present, we both knew Lu wasn't dead. And we both knew she would spend 1000 years banished to Nightmare Moon.

My Stallion has to be the most sensitive dad in Equestria... He moved his mouth over next to Cel's ear, so she would hear him.

"Cel, mom and I love you both deeply. Lu will be ok..." he said this softly to daddy's little girl.

This made Cel cry harder, but she stopped trying to talk.

My Stallion and I agreed later that Cel thought we would be upset with her that she banished Lu. We knew she had to do this. And what my Stallion said quickly put Cel's fear to rest.

We also both realized, that the sorrow that was coming out now, was because she loved her sister, and missed her greatly... We couldn't do anything about that, except cry with her.

But her crying was clearly different, and Cel was quickly, really clutching at my Stallion and I. Cel really needed mom and dad right now.

Cel really wanted her sister back right now, too. What she had to do to her sister probably hurt Cel so deeply. And we were both pretty sure that Cel had even waited until the last minute to actually banish Lu...

But what Cel had accomplished, by banishing her own sister, was to ensure that both Cel and her sister would live.

Still, what a price for our girl to have to pay. Cel needed our comfort right now. We both held our little girl as she cried out some of her pain...

We cried together for a few more hours.

Cel was suddenly quiet, then she spoke slowly and quietly.

"I don't know if you both remember the day, but when Lu and I had that Pinecone fight, I knew that I could one day have to face her... my own sister...

"I almost let her kil--

"But, mom, dad, I love our fam--

"I just couldn--

"I had researched spells a lot for this... This was the only one I could find...

"I'm pretty sure what I did was the right thing...

"I just don't know of any way to get her bac--"

Cel started crying again. It was clear not knowing how to 'rescue' her sister was hurting her a lot...

My Stallion and I knew the answer here, but this was just scary. My Stallion and I looked at each other, and I simply dropped my head, and closed my eyes. I would let my Stallion handle this.

"Cel..." he said softly.

Cel stopped crying mostly, and looked at him.

"The future will take good care of your sister." he said slowly and softly.

Well it was our amazing Princess Twilight that would unearth the 'gems' (five amazing ponies) that accomplished this, but still. We couldn't tell Cel that.

Anyway, we didn't disappear.

Cel put her head next to 'dads' and said "Dad, I love you so much... I could not have asked for a bet--"

Cel started crying again, and we just cried with her for quite a while more...

Our little girl fell asleep between my Stallion and I.

I didn't like being away from my Stallion, but it felt AMAZING to be able to sleep together as a family like that. Lu wasn't here, but she was safe. And we were together. That meant so much to my Stallion and I.

After Cel was asleep, my Stallion and I wept softly for a while, then we fell asleep too. It hurt so much when we gave these girls away. But right now, being here with Cel... We couldn't NOT cry...

---

Cel was completely different the next day, a LOT closer to 'normal' my Stallion told her.

Cel laughed, and we just hugged together.

I asked if I could brush Cels hair. She started crying softly again, but I changed into a people, found her brush, and got to 'work' (it really wasn't work though). Cel wept softly the whole time.

She is my girl, but still... I was brushing Princess Celestia's hair... I didn't know whether to smile or cry...

My Stallion and I lovingly brush each other's mane and tail for a number of reasons, and we took that to the past with us when we went; we raised our girls doing that as well.

Cel still understood, and deeply valued my gift.

Well, I wept softly the whole time...

After she was again back to normal, Cel spoke. "Mom, dad, you have both rescued me in the last 24 hours, maybe. This whole thing was just consuming me. And I KNEW that you two were the only ponies in Equestria who would understand..."

"Cel, honey, we are both so glad we could come and help you" I quickly added.

It was silent a minute, and my Stallion asked quietly. "Cel, is that the only reason you called us here?"

Cel sighed, then answered just as quietly "No..."

Author's Note:

1. The background music for time we spend in Equestria Past crept slowly louder soon after we arrived. The tune is the BGM for the 'Outer Ra'Kaznar' level in Final Fantasy XI, and the music, the zone and the game are c2014 by Square Enix. This piece is called "The Serpentine Labyrinth"; it is included on the "Forever Today" add-on for the OST for the "Seekers of Adoulin" expansion for FFXI, also c2014 by Square Enix.