//------------------------------//
// Chapter 12- Nostalgic feelings. 
// Story: My immortal phoenix. 
// by Lieral 
//------------------------------//

The cold rain falling outside the apartment was the only thing capable to muffle the noise of the strong sneeze that could be heard through the room, and Twilight Sparkle certainly was its origin.

"So, what exactly does 39,5 Cº means?" Sunset asked taking away the thermometer from Twilight's mouth with an expression of doubt. She may not understand a lot about this world, but even she can see that when your friend is pale, sweating and hardly breathing at all is not a good sign.

"Basically, that I have a fever," Twilight answered with a weak voice, she was under a lot of blankets and yet her chills have not stopped.

"And how bad this is?" Sunset asked getting up from the bed and walking toward the table to store the thermometer in its place.

"A little bit," Twilight answered wiping away the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand.

"Is there anything I can do?" Sunset asked while Spike jumps on top of the bed and lay down with his owner, that immediately started to pet his head.

"Well, I've already taken my remedies, so I guess I just need to rest a bit until I got better," Twilight answered with a sigh that soon transformed in what she hoped was a confident smile. "Besides, you should watch some new documentaries, there's a lot of them about sickness!"

"I can wait a bit longer, at least until you are feeling better," Sunset answered without turning her head.

"Why? Believe me, I'm not going anywhere!" Twilight said as she sat on the edge of her big bed. Sunset sat down too with her arms crossed and a small frown. "What's wrong? Is something bothering you?" She asked trying to begin a conversation.

"..." Sunset did not answer immediately, actually, just after a few seconds she has begun to say something. "Humans are fragile... Aren't they?" That was her only answer, which left Twilight kinda intrigued. At first, she wondered what she meant by that, but after a few seconds, she came to an oddly simple and probably unlikely reason.

"Could it be... Are you THAT worried about me?" She asked with a grin which was very reminiscent of Rainbow Dash when she saw the next target of a prank.

Sunset flinched with Twilight's phrase. She slowly turned her head toward Twilight without looking her friend in the eyes. "Is it that obvious?"

Twilight's grin faded instantly, she did not think about the possibility of actually being right, but after a quick look at Sunset her heart started to ache, a nostalgic feeling took all her heart and seems to be smashing it with its cold hands. She doesn't want to see Sunset like that... Her heart simply could not accept it.

But after another look at herself, she could say that she wasn't in best shape and considering Sunset's last phrase she couldn't help but feel a little bad about the subject either.

In this world, a cold is actually very common and did not come close to being one of the worsts diseases, but Sunset did not have that information.

"You don't have to worry about me," She slowly begun to say. "It's not that bad! Actually, if I have a good night of sleep there's a possibility that I will be better tomorrow morning!"

"Are you sure?" Sunset asked this time looking into her eyes.

"Well, it's not guaranteed, but it sure will not be long before I get better," Twilight said and begun to lay down again. "Oh, and I hate to say it, but I think you shouldn't sleep here with me today, there's always the possibility of you getting my cold!"

"Are you seriously worried about that?" Sunset asked sarcastically.

Twilight was speechless, now thinking about it, that was a pretty ridiculous though... At least when talking about the girl sitting at her side. 

"Okay, okay, I already understood that this is not a concern, but that doesn't mean you have to stay with me all the time. If you want to do something different I don't mind!" She said petting Spike's head that was almost drooling at this point.

"..." Even so, Sunset did not give up. "What do people do when someone else is sick?" She asked observing the room they're in right now.

"They usually tell some stories! Or make some hot chocolate. Or give some snacks to the dog." Spike answered before Twilight even process what Sunset have just asked.

"Stories? Why?" She asked.

"I'm not sure, but Twilight's mom always told her some stories when she was sick back home! Why did she do that?" Spike asked standing up.

Twilight blushed a little bit. "Listen to stories helps to calm me down..." She answered slowly.

"Do you know any story to tell her?" Spike asked to Sunset that slowly turned her head to observes the room again.

"She has many books, would you like me to read some of them to you?" She asked and stood up to walk around the room. 

"You don't have to! Besides, I already read all of them before! There's nothing that could surprise me or make me interested enough to get better faster!" Twilight said with a proud smile from her 'reading feats', but soon that smile transformed in a sequence of violent coughs.

"So, if I tell you a story that you never heard, this will help you?" Sunset asked, but again for some reason, she did not look Twilight in her eyes.

"I have read most of the books you have read too, besides, you don't have to do all that for me to get better, it will happen at its own pace." She said and adjusted her own position.

"What if I told you a story that is not in a book? but instead, one from my world that I did not see in any of your books?" Sunset asked.

Twilight eyes widened, she wanted to rest and wanted Sunset to rest too, but that phrase ignited her curiosity. The simple idea of hearing a story she never heard before is already something tempting, but this may be a story from a different world! There's no way she's going to lose that opportunity, mainly with the fact that Sunset usually did not talk about her world from before... Well, the end of the world.

She stood where she was without rushing Sunset, and after a few more seconds she gained her reward. Sunset breathed deeply and took Twilight's chair to sit and observe her sick friend.

"This is a story someone told long ago, when I was just a child, actually before I even discover about my... Situation," As she began to tell her story her eyes traveled through the room, but they were distant and it was pretty clear that she was not looking to the room itself, but instead to her own distant memories. "I think it would fit the description of a fable,"

"The main character was a young creature, almost like a small boy, wearing ragged black clothes that always belonged to him, since before he was truly capable to remember. His face, unlike all his body, wasn't the one of a human, it was like a skull, a skull of an animal known in my world as a deer, and if I remember well you have this animal here too, right?"

Twilight nodded weakly, and Sunset took it as a sign to continue.

"The boy had a really sad 'life'," Sunset makes quotes with her fingers, and Twilight couldn't help but think she learned that slang pretty fast.  "No one was capable to see or hear him, so doesn't matter what he does or not no one really cared. No matter how much he screamed or begged, no one listened to him. So the boy desperately tried to be noticed, for years he tried to be noticed but nothing worked. And even more, despairing was the fact that nothing seemed to survive near him. One day he touched a plant just to make some sound, but with his touch, the plant suddenly became brown and began to die slowly, like everything else."

"One day, not aware of his surrounding he did not notice a young child coming from behind him toward someone else, but without being capable to actually 'see' the boy, that children touched the boy's hand accidentally,"

Twilight sat up without turning her gaze from Sunset, that appeared to be making great effort to remember the story, and at her side, Spike also hears the story with uncommon attention.

"That children tripped and fell. Confused, he turned to the black-dressed boy he should not be able to see. But instead of seeing through the boy as everyone else, that children clearly saw the boy offering a helping hand, but that sight scared the children that screamed and ran toward his parents. But he did not reach them... He tripped and fell again, but this time hitting his head on a hard and big stone,"

"The boy observed scared as the first person that actually saw him having violent spasms that continued for a few seconds, soon, a lot of different people reached the children and tried to help him, but it was too late. He died." Sunset turned to Twilight that has yet to understand what will happen in the fable, and wondered what her reaction will be like at the end of it.

"The boy approached slowly, everyone was sad or crying. He touched the shoulder of one of the adults with effort, and the adult turned his gaze toward him. His eyes grew into its maximum capacity and frightened he called the attention of the others surrounding him. the boy was surprised, astonished, that the man actually saw him. Everyone actually was seeing the boy, but not exactly as he was,"

"In their eyes the fear took hold, they saw the boy as a great creature, perhaps larger than the greatest of them, wearing a black and sinister robe with skeletal hands that were white like ivory, and his skull was like that of a human, without flesh or anything to hide the skull that watched them sadly,"

Twilight's mind soon found out the most obvious conclusion, somehow it wasn't a simply deformed creature. It was the 'death' itself, but without the conscience of that. The story did not reach the most important parts and she already could guess where it will lead. Various hypothesis appeared in her mind, and neither of them ended in a happy ending.

"Those around him tried to scare the kid away, and it worked. Scared with all those that are pursuing him, the boy ran toward a forest, trying to find a refuge. And there he stayed. For many years that had yet to come, he lived away from everyone and everything else." After that Sunset Frowned and talked to herself. "I'm wasting a lot of time on little details, am I not?"

"Don't worry about that, please continue," Twilight answered a little harshly, her curiosity always gets in her way when she's interested.

"If only I could remember how Celestia told me this story I think it would be more interesting," Sunset said back staring the ceiling with uninterested eyes, but in opposition Twilight's eyes widened to its maximum extent as soon as Sunset had finished her phrase.

"W-wait, repeat that!" She demanded.

"Repeat what?" Sunset asked without understand the reason for her friend's reaction.

"That name! That person that told you that story! Tell me about her!" Twilight said with her weak voice demanding urgency.

"Celestia? Why you are interested in her?" Sunset asked. But after a few seconds, she started to describe. "She was tall, even now I think I would not reach her shoulders, her hair had a lot of colors mixed on it, actually, almost like a rainbow! She was also very gentle..." Her eyes darkened and her expression suddenly changed to a sad and very fake smile. "She teaches me how to read and write, and she was always there to teach me what is right or not... A little like you actually!"

Twilight heard every word with a shocked expression. "That woman you're talking about... Does she has a younger sister?"

"Yes, her name was Luna... But how do you know?" This time Sunset narrowed her eyes and started to try to pick up the same pieces as Twilight, but after a few seconds, she started to talk on her own.

"I had a teacher once... Actually, she was the principal of my school, and her name was Celestia." Sunset's eyes widened with that. "And she has a sister called Luna, and the description you gave about Celestia undoubtedly matches the one I know!" She said with an expression of concentration that not even her tired state could wipe away.

"Now I get it," Sunset muttered to herself. "You are thinking that this can not be considered a coincidence, but instead, a prove that both worlds are actually mirrored at some level! Am I right that far?" Twilight had just opened her mouth to start the explanation when Sunset began to say exactly what she had been thinking. She stared Sunset while trying to say what she was thinking right now. There's no doubt that this is an important piece to understand the connection between worlds a little better.

"Then that Celestia you know..." Twilight began to say, but she was interrupted by a very abrupt phrase.

"I do not wish to talk about it!" Sunset said calmly but firmly lifting up from the chair and tried to hide her face from Twilight that was undoubtedly surprised enough to don't be able to begin a conversation now. Even Spike could feel the weight of the situation upon his shoulders.

"Humm... Sunset," He began to say cautiously. "What about... You finish that story of you?"

"Oh!" Sunset turned with a renewed expression. "How could I forgot?" She said and sat down again.

Twilight also changed her expression and begun to listen with curiosity as Spike sighed relieved at her side.

………………………….

"39,5 Cº" Twilight said to herself after taking away the thermometer from Sunset's mouth. "Yeap, congratulations Sunset Shimmer, you have a fever!" She said and put the thermometer on her table. "And considering the others symptoms, I can say you got my cold!"

"How is that even possible...?" Sunset asked with a really weak voice, she was under a lot of blankets and yet her chills have not stopped. "I am immortal!"

"Well, sure! But you spend most of your life without any contact whit other humans, that means that your immune system is not prepared to fight against most of the normal sickness." Twilight said turning to Sunset with an 'I told you so!" expression.

"How can you be so sure?" Sunset asked.

"Oh, I am not! That just something I thought right now!" She said and approached. "But don't worry, I will take care of you the same way you did to me!"

"You promise?" Sunset asked innocently, and with that Twilight's heart accelerated. 'Goodness. Why she is so cute?' She thought to herself and tried to hide her blushing face.

"D-Don't worry, I will be there for anything you need!" She said and turned to face Sunset again. She was smiling and with a relieved expression that did not disappear when she closed her eyes and begun to sleep.

Twilight approached her hand at took away Sunset's hair from her eyes. And after a while, she finally understands the nostalgic feeling in her chest that she is feeling for days now.

'Congratulations Twilight Sparkle. You're in love with your friend!'