//------------------------------// // and // Story: Stardust Bridge // by Ice Star //------------------------------// The grass crunched under Celestia's hooves. She tried to ignore the frost that was slick and sticky as it melted in the evening sun. Winter had never been her favorite season, but there wasn't time to dwell on that now. Her foe was approaching, and she approached quickly! Celestia's ears pricked forward. She ignored the gray-streaked sky that warped the sunset so. In her travels with Luna, it had merely become something she was accustomed to, along with harsher weather and long stretches of silence in the empty world they knew. Her magenta eyes looked to the lower ground. Above the frost-covered foothills of the wilds south of the Vanhoover Marshes. Everything is naught but wilds these days, she thought. Some bitterness, however slight lurked in the words she dare not speak and her expression was contorted into something that spoke of her true age of centuries instead of her physical appearance as an unmarked white Alicorn filly of ten mortal's years. She sighed and tried to concentrate. Hadn't the sound of hoofsteps, quick and near-silent been coming from the heather in the foothills? She rolled her withers and stretched out her wings, pinkish flight feathers gleaming proudly on the swan-like pair that dwarfed her sister's. The gesture was mostly for show; she found the increasing size of her wings to be impractical for such an untrained youth to fly with. Perhaps in time she would master the skies and soar with the sickly-looking sunsets of the wild world she had roamed for so long, but she had a dreadful feeling that she still had a lot of growing to do. For now, she was content to be the war-queen of realms that lingered only in her imagination: marble-white walls that stretched above trees and sky-high spires touched with gold. Things like this made sparring more than standing on the lonely hills and tasting the salty air of some distant, westward ocean that they had strayed from. She had always liked the ocean and the miles of empty sand that divided it from the land, eroding with the push and pull of the tides. Celestia thought that if they were to ever settle anywhere, beaches would not be a bad place to live. The ocean sounded like it was singing and every night she liked to watch the sun swim below the churning waters of the horizon and bob back up in the morning. The sound of wind whooshing behind her brought her back to the present. With all the grace her gangly limbs could muster, she whirled around with all the dancing skill she could recall from castles long deserted and the silent approval of her mother's smile. Her thick multi-colored mane, which always hung long and loose flew with her. It whipped in a sudden breeze, and she looked up- Luna flew in the sky where Celestia dare not follow, a grin on her face, and a stick gripped in her magic. Celestia squinted and noticed that in her left forehoof, Luna gripped the sword-length stick she always dubbed with various names that she insisted were 'honorable' for such a fine 'blade' that was really no more than a stick distinguished from Celestia's by the bold stripes burned into the half that Luna liked to hold when her magical grip faltered. Which meant that the plain stick that she held in her magic was Celestia's and the one that she had been holding... Celestia made an exaggerated scowl and scrunched up her muzzle, pretending to look haughty and upset. "Luna!" Celestia groaned after calling her little sister's name. She should have been paying better attention. What kind of warrior-queen got so lost in the reverie that her weapon would be stolen from her so easily by a usurper's magic? It was absolutely awful. Next time, she wouldn't let her sister sneak up on her like that. Her younger sister grinned, her bright white smile and light blue coat like a beacon against the backdrop of the frosty moors. Celestia couldn't help but smile too, watching the sun continue to fall below the horizon, bumbling among clouds on its descent. Orange intertwined with dull silver and dusty, washed-out rosy hues overtook the last scraps of pale-white blue that had been a crisp, cloudless day. "Luna, come down here!" Celestia called, a hint of bossiness in her words, though her tone was not unkind. Luna smiled even wider, her grin that of any energetic, goofy filly. She flew down to meet her sister, folding her smaller wings with ease. Celestia looked down at the little filly who eagerly galloped toward her, duel wielding the two pony-length sticks as she approached her elder sister with mischief in her eyes. In a moment, Luna had abandoned any balance or steadiness in her gait and was bounding toward her elder sister with rambunctious glee. "Luna, wait!" Luna's horn kept glowing, but her grin vanished for a moment and she skidded to halt right in front of her older sister. The frost underhoof made wet, squelching crunches so that Luna's legs, now fuzzy with the beginnings of an unruly winter coat. Her bobbed blue mane, as bright as a clear summer afternoon swayed with her. Celestia winced, taking a large step to the side while gesturing frantically with a forehoof. She silently thanked herself for whatever nimbleness she was still able to manage, but opened her mouth and turned to speak to Luna, but a shriek came out instead. Her little sister, only appearing to look like a six-year-old mortal, just barely came up to the middle of Celestia's equally fuzzy chest — but the sticks she held in the arriving dusk sure didn't! "Luna!" Celestia repeated, both nervous and indignant as her usually calm voice grew as stern and shrill as she would allow it. Luna's response was to balk at the sudden change in tone. Celestia never raised her voice at her unless something was very, very wrong. She lifted one of the blunt-ended and thick sticks into the air, hoisting it higher with her budding magic. Turquoise aura surged and sparked with far more power than any unicorn pony could ever hope to have, dimming and growing as the young Alicorn still tried to concentrate on maintaining her magic, not yet able to use her power so subconsciously and measure how much she expended. Without a proper teacher, some feats and techniques proved to be hard for both her and Celestia, who was still looking at her with something between alarm and sisterly disapproval. "That could have taken an eye out!"