//------------------------------// // Of Life Anew From Death // Story: Of Time Before The Stars // by JinxTJL //------------------------------// It wasn't odd. Celestia's heavy hoofsteps trod through the lush undergrowth in a brisk-yet-comfortable trot, as golden light speckled down through the canopy above. Well-kept pink mane bouncing to time with her step, and unconcerned eyes flicking naturally to and fro at whatever caught them. She was off to find Luna again. She was off to bring her sister back for dinner, because the layabout had no concept of time. It felt as though lazy Luna was always late. Never on time. Always sleeping. Bent inexplicably on wasting all the time she could. Absolutely no sense of urgency. It wasn't odd. Luna had been sort of down lately, though. Spending even less time in the cabin than usual, while she already spent so little of her ever-abundant-time there. Off, wherever she always went when she wasn't sleeping or making trouble. She'd come home one pot with a weird aura of melancholy about her, even with how melancholic gloomy Luna could sometimes seem. She'd looked Celestia up and down with glimmering eyes, then turned away with a too-heavy-for-such-a-little-pony sigh. As if she couldn't stand to look at her. Then she'd gone to bed. Before dinner. It wasn't that odd. The light shifted as Celestia passed under a particularly overbearing tree, and it was suddenly dark even as she stepped out. It was of little concern, even as the shadow persisted and worsened. It was a simple moment of adjustment to the gloom, and she was off again. It wasn't much longer after that before Celestia came up on the tree's clearing. Loudly and obviously, because she didn't have a reason to hide from her always-obstinate-sister. Brushing past a lesser tree to free herself into the large circle of space around her sister's favored resting place, and craning her head up in preparation of spotting her. She made her way to the tree's base, looking expectantly up at where Luna would normally be sleeping. The lowest branch, but still hidden amidst the leafy greens. A good cover from prying eyes; except for her silly little sister's tendency to leave her hooves and tail hanging. All she had to do was squint, and look for that little spot of blue. Nothing. She wasn't there. Frowning, Celestia tilted her head to the side. That was odd. Her sister always napped in this tree. Was she somewhere else? Maybe, but Luna usually napped around this time. Between lunch and dinner on the edge of the latter; it seemed to be the perfect time for little blue pests to wander off and sleep against-better-judgement. ...There had been that one time that Luna had been hiding in the bushes behind her, and jumped out screaming like a madpony when she'd gone by... The thought that her sister might've been lurking nearby to pop out and surprise her was suddenly very compelling, and Celestia put herself on wary guard as she turned and scanned the area immediately behind her. Luna herself was surprisingly sneaky, but the color blue was less so. Especially in the forest, and even in the dark. All she had to do was keep cautious eyes and ears on her surroundings, and whatever little game Luna was playing to waste her time was sure to end soon enough. Was she paranoid? Not even a-little-bit-but-really-a-big-bit. Luna was a mischievous little filly who delighted in playing tricks. It wasn't odd to imagine that she might just be hiding from her sister. It seemed like the kind of thing she'd do. There was nothing odd about it. Celestia's scrutinizing gaze raced past every little detail and discarded every useless little bit. Nothing in the environment was noteworthy or interesting, and she was beginning to think that Luna might've been hiding somewhere above... The light shifted again as she searched, and it was once more bright. Celestia smiled, as the clearing suddenly became shaded in glorious, golden light dappling down from the broken canopy. Easy to see, and hopefully easy to spot her sister. Then she saw the branch. High up: one of the branches on the outlying trees was broken. Snapped at its thin base and hanging sadly by a splinter. That was odd. She couldn't keep her mouth from gaping slightly as she slowly walked to stand under the damaged wood; staring up at it with a squint and a worsening brow all the way. This wasn't right... The trees in the forest... she hadn't ever seen them damaged... What could have caused it to break? Had something hit it? Celestia blinked, and squinted harder. It was one of the highest trees in the clearing, and the branch was decently far away even while standing under it, so it was a bit hard to make out... Was that...? Speared through one of the offshoot, bare twigs: a bent, blue feather. Celestia's eyes widened. Her head craned down, and now, she could see, in her rapidly zeroing focus: just beyond the first broken branch was another. And then, another just below it, and another just past it. Her eyes raced from one to the next as her breathing slowly picked up, and then doubled as she spotted another blue feather resting in a cleft of one of the lower broken branches. It was a trail. A long trail of broken branches high in the trees that was very clearly going down. Forward, away from the clearing, and down. Feathers lying torn and caught unevenly on every other branch, and- Her head fell to the ground scant hoof-lengths in front of her, and the entire world twisted down on itself until all she could see was a single blue feather in the middle of one of the many scatterings of wood chips she could now pick out on the path. She found herself next to it, and she couldn't really remember walking over as she could only stare; mouth fluttering unsteadily open for a stretching silent note, and eyes straining and reddening as she couldn't blink. Little specks of red spattered over the fine bristles. Luna. The light shifted. It became dark. Her hooves were moving- pounding through the undergrowth before she'd even begun to think of anything else except the exact last time she'd seen her sister. It had been just after waking up. Her fast falling hooves stung and ached as she galloped through endless mounds of tiny shards of broken wood. Fallen like breadcrumbs from the long trails of broken branches above her head. She and Luna had had an argument about Luna's sleeping habits, because Luna had kicked her in her sleep. Her eyes strained to even pick out the faint outlines of the branches in the darkened canopy, as they appeared to grow more frequent as the trail neared the ground. It was too dark to see if there were feathers. Too dark to see if there was- Celestia had called her a do-nothing. Luna had called her pretentious. Her ears pounded with the worsening sound of her own heartbeat, as the shadowed growth racing past her grew hazier. When had she ever run this fast? She tasted something salty. Her cheeks were wet. Luna had left, and Celestia had stayed to read. There had been nothing wrong. There had been no tell. There had been nothing odd at all. Celestia burst out into a clearing, and there were suddenly no more branches to follow. No more feathers to focus on. All there was, was the sound of a babbling brook somewhere close, and the scent of something foul in the air. And the dark, open sky above her. Chest heaving: Celestia tried desperately to peer into the overbearing gloom as she stumbled forward sightlessly. There had to be more. There had to be Luna, somewhere. Anywhere. Water splashed at her hooves, and she stopped with a shiver to look down at the cold sensation. And then, the light shifted. Like a string being drawn: a curtain of golden light slowly drew across the clearing from behind her. Trailing softly along the ground as it revealed her standing in a stream. Pebbles at her hooves. Celestia panted from the exertion as she stared glassily down at the water running around her dirty white hooves. It almost felt nice, after she'd run through so many splinters. Almost cleared her head. The cold: making it easier to think. Maybe she'd jumped too fast to quick conclusions. Maybe Luna was just- The water ran red. Celestia's breath caught in her throat, and she was suddenly unable to breathe as she watched with horrifying focus the sight of the river's rushing water beginning to take on a red hue. A red hue that darkened the longer she stared at it; her neat fetlocks even taking the tint the longer she stared. An animal. A wounded stray. A crashed bird. An unfortunate traveler that had somehow wandered in. All she could hear was her heart. She didn't want to look up. She did. There was a large, flat rock set partially into the bed of the shallow creek just ahead of her as it bent around. On it lay a pony. On it lay Luna. On it lay the splayed form of her sister: blue fur bathed in shining, golden light. She wasn't moving. Everything seemed to slow, in that one, awful moment. Every little sound so clear to her ears, that she was sure would be entirely recognizable no matter the time passed. Every miniscule detail of the scene tucked away in little tidy bits like perfectly captured puzzle pieces, just waiting to be put together at any point she wanted. At the center of it all lay her sister, and the shallow little pool around her head that was dribbling off the rock into the stream. Red. A scene she would never stop seeing. "Luna," she whispered, once; her head shaking slightly as she stared unblinkingly forward with wide eyes. This couldn't be happening. She was dreaming. This was a nightmare. She was sick, and she was imagining it all. The sound of her mother calling her name would wake her from this trance any moment now, surely? Somepony had to wake her up. Somepony had to make this okay. Luna had to be okay. She had to make Luna okay. "Luna!" Celestia's hooves moved before she was aware, and the sound of her own hoarse scream battered at her ears as she splashed messily through the stream. She panted with the exertion she could feel over the pale flush on her face, as every step seemed heavily dragged by the cold water lapping at her stomach. She had to get to Luna. She had to... do something! Anything! Luna was facing towards her on her side, but even as Celestia came painfully closer she could barely make herself focus on anything except that puddle of red ooze. She couldn't even see Luna's face: her mane, limp and wet, had fallen to obscure it. Was she even breathing? She had to be. She reached her. Celestia stepped without thinking into the deep pool of red, and recoiled with a gasp from the nauseating squick. She stepped back; dipping her hoof back into the cleansing water as she just... stared. The scent. Heady. Thick. Foreign. There was too much- Where would she- How was she going to- She didn't want to touch Luna's... blood. Celestia found herself walking in a wide circle around the rock onto land; approaching Luna from behind to skirt safely around the leaking liquid covering the incline of the rock. But now, she was faced with Luna's splayed wing. She found herself afraid to even approach, as she stared with a trembling lip. It looked... wrong. Luna's wings were supposed to be... straight, not... bent up and over like... like that. Lying flat against her side and trailing tips onto the rock... from the wrong side. Not riddled with tiny shards of wood. Not missing dozens of feathers. Even just her side was covered in little angry gashes; oozing red that was beginning to run down into her fur. She could only imagine what her front looked like. How could this have happened? Celestia walked around again, to just approach Luna's head. That was where the... damage was. That was where the least resistance was. Celestia blinked, as her hoof came to rest just beside where the blood seemed to be leaking from... from her sister. She blinked again, and suddenly Luna was smiling at her. Laughing at her. Telling her it was all a prank. Jumping up and running in circles around her. What a fool she was. Of course it had all been a joke. Luna wouldn't ever- Celestia blinked, and her hoof was wet. Cold. The scent in the air. Something leaked down her cheek as her chest shuddered with shallow breath, but what did she matter, now? Luna needed her. She knelt onto her knees beside Luna's still-prone head, and reached a hoof out to her sister's unmoving form. She bit her lip as her hoof stopped just short of her head, and after a moment of indecision, moved over to her shoulder. "Luna?" Her voice was thick with the tears she couldn't stop, but she had to try. She needed... she needed something! Luna didn't respond. She still couldn't even see if she was breathing. Weakness stabbed at her breast as her head slowly rested against her chest, and she squeezed her eyes shut as she allowed herself a single, shaking sob. What was she supposed to do? She... she needed somepony. She needed her mother, and her father. She- She could go get them... But she couldn't leave Luna like this... Celestia looked up again, and a heavy sniffle ended in a wet sigh. She shuffled through the cold pool of blood, to rest as close to Luna's side as she could. Then, she tentatively reached a messy, red hoof to brush a lock of Luna's mane back. Marring it. A red streak along her ear. What kind of a sister was she? She placed her hoof on Luna's shoulder again, and pulled as gently as she could manage with how hard she was shaking. Rolling Luna from her side, and shutting her eyes as a small pop rung out from the joint of Luna's wing. She looked again through the mist, and muffled a whine through her teeth as she took in Luna's wing noticeably disconnected from where it should've laid at her side. She was going to pretend she didn't see a little bit of white at Luna's side. Because she had to. Celestia looked then, at Luna's face. Visible now as the longest bits of her mane had fallen aside. How it broke her heart. Her hoof gently laid on Luna's cheek. Her soft cheeks that should've been hard with anger or bunched with mirth, but instead were covered in hot, red scratches all over. Her closed eyes so familiar for rest, but not... not so still. The blue fur around her scarred temple turning purple turning angry red. And her mouth gaping slightly open. It took all of Celestia's willpower to force herself to keep her head from completely falling in anguish as she bent down close to her sister, and felt how cold she was. How hollow the press of their bodies was, as she rested her ear softly against Luna's sliver of a mouth. Waited. Waited too long... but there it was. Luna was breathing, but she wasn't breathing enough. Celestia leaned away just as a ragged cough tore through her lips; a keening wail on its tail. She shook her head, and tried to stop the whines that were breaking through her long-bruised lip. Softly stroked her sister's limp, oily mane as she quietly sobbed. She didn't know what to do. She... Even if she went for help... Breaths too shallow, too long between. Too much blood. Didn't even know where it was coming from besides 'Luna's head.' She'd been too late. She'd found Luna too late, and now... now she wasn't going to wake up. She'd failed her. Celestia was the bigger sister, and she was supposed to stop things like this from happening. And she was never going to be able to tell Luna she was sorry. Tell her that she loved her more than anything else in their tiny little world. Tell her... Never tell her... Never see her again... "Luna... oh Luna..." she whispered, as her chest shook and her voice hitched. She looked so small. So fragile, and she'd broken. So beautiful, with the soft light dappling her blue fur; even with the scrapes and cuts littering her pelt. So much more vibrant than Celestia ever was. So effortlessly pretty. Luna. Sweet little Lulu. She was afraid even to embrace her, even as much as she burned to. To have one last hug... The scant moments of precious life it might ruin, just for that comfort... She shook her head as she hiccupped repeatedly; guiding Luna's stray, limp hoof to her own chest, and clutching tightly at it. She couldn't do that to her sister. She couldn't do anything for her sister. Not when it really counted. She was useless. Just useless. A snap broke the quiet sounds of Celestia's whimpers. Wood. A branch disturbed. Somepony was there. Hope blossomed in Celestia's chest as her head whipped up, tears stopped short on the corners of her eyes. Mother? Father? At the edge of the clearing, nearly blending in: a figure draped entirely in a single shaded black cloak. Celestia's eyes widened, and yet more tears leaked unabated. Not mother. Not father. A stranger. A stranger in their woods. What did she do? She... she couldn't run, she had to... stay with Luna... Couldn't just leave her little sister... alone. But it was a stranger. Standing silently not twenty hoof-lengths away. Completely obscured under their baggy cloak, even in the shining light above. Too dark to stare at. There had never been a stranger. She'd never seen one. Never been anypony else but her family in these woods. Who were they? What were they doing here? Why... why now? Each breath was harder and harder to take, and the tears just kept coming. She squeezed Luna's hoof, for any courage her fearless little sister might've had to give her. Scared. Even more scared than she'd been just sitting, holding Luna's cold, reddened hoof. What did she do? Couldn't run. Say something? What did she say? 'Who are you?'' 'What are you doing here?' 'Don't hurt us?' Celestia looked down at her sister. Her unmoving form. Her sweet face growing cold and motionless. Her pretty blue fur. The red. She blinked, and there was a tear on Luna's cheek. "Help..." she whispered, her voice coming out in a squeak through her ragged throat. Celestia screwed her eyes closed, and let out a sob that was far louder than her plea. Be louder. Be brave. Help her. Celestia craned her neck up, her eyes glimmering with flowing tears and her clenching hooves shaking as they held her sister's. "Help! Please! You- you have to help us!" The stranger didn't move. Celestia gasped for breath through the tears; swallowing back her fear, as she tilted herself forward as much as she could without moving. Shouting again. "It's my little sister, she's hurt! Please, you have to do something!" The stranger didn't move. Celestia's shaking hooves were beginning to grow numb, and ache. She choked back as many sobs as she could catch; blinking the tears away for as clear a sight she could manage. "Please- Please! Help her! I don't care what you do to me, just..." Her head fell, and she grit her teeth; forcing the next words out through a full body shiver. "She needs to be okay... She just has to be... She can't... She can't..." "I can help." Celestia's head whipped up: her mouth gaping as the stranger was suddenly so close. Knelt at Luna's other side; their still-shaded hood craned down at her. Closed the distance while she wasn't looking. Silent, even so close. She blinked, and tried to force something through her throat again. Another plea. A thanks. Anything. She failed, and she could only watch as an off-yellow hoof slid out from the confines of the cloak, to touch gently against her sister's mane. Stroked across her forehead once, leaving a slick trail of glistening red from the few scratches there. Celestia broke out in a new wave of shivers. The hoof shuffled up, to rest in the nest of Luna's mane. Pressed in. Searched around in circles, until it stopped, and the stranger drew it back. "It's bad," the stranger muttered, and Celestia's breath shuddered to hear the raspy, male voice. The stranger's hood tilted up to presumably stare at Celestia, though she still couldn't see any part of their face. "She's torn her scalp very badly, and she's lost a lot of blood." Celestia gasped with what breath she had, and her hoof squeezed Luna's. The world seemed to blur, and suddenly Celestia was leant over Luna's body. Taking hard breaths, and an awful taste in her mouth. Luna's coat wasn't so pretty anymore. She squeezed her eyes shut, and forced herself to look back up at the stranger. Still staring at her. Waiting. Celestia swallowed the acrid taste of vomit down, and clutched Luna's hoof close for strength. "Can't you help her?" her voice cracked, and her entire body seemed to wince. So weak. So inept. When she looked again, the stranger was staring at Luna; their hoof laid in the spot they'd found in her mane. They seemed to hesitate for a long moment of silence, before they looked up at Celestia again. "I can... with your permission." She barely had to think. She nodded. Kept nodding, as she mouthed silent pleas of affirmation. It was all she could do, even as a fresh wave of tears ran from her eyes. Anything. She didn't care. Anything. The stranger continued to stare at her silently for another long moment more, until they slowly nodded back, once. "Thank you." A brilliant red light suddenly shone to life from underneath the head of the cloak, and Celestia flinched immediately away from it as she gasped in shock. She clutched her sister's hoof in renewed fear as the cloak fluttered, and several glass bottles of varying sizes and colors flew into the air on a wave of scarlet. A unicorn. Magic. She watched, coldly transfixed, as several corks loudly uncorked from their bottles, and little bits of the odd materials inside each one pinched themselves and flew through the necks. A hooffull of green powder. Some red. A dash of some odd, chalky substance. An orange-ish, murky liquid. A single, white feather. They all flew down, one by one, to scatter on her sister's marred chest. A small pile of mixing materials that clashed horribly in their meeting; it was all so strange and disconcerting... "Your hoof, please." The stranger's graveled voice shocked her out of her fix on all of the strange powders, and she looked up with a blink and a hard breath. "W-What?" The light around the stranger's horn seemed to dim slightly as their own yellowed hoof stretched out to hold in the air. She realized, with a jolt, that she still couldn't see the stranger's face. She could see the light, and even the vague outline of their horn, but it was as if the light did not fully travel out of the cloth. The stranger's hoof bobbed in the air. "I must have a small amount of your blood, and your forgiveness in turn," they murmured, their voice low. Celestia stared, as her vision blurred. But then she blinked, and thrust her free hoof forward towards the stranger's. They seemed almost shocked, as their hoof recoiled slightly. But hers, badly shaking and dyed nearly completely red as it was, stayed firmly out. Anything. She didn't care. The stranger spent a moment looking at her, before a long sigh emanated from the darkness of their cloak. "Please, forgive this," they murmured again, as their cloak lifted up, and a simple, iron knife floated out in a red haze. Their hoof curled around the underside of hers, as the shimmer of magic grew closer. Celestia pointedly did not look at it. Focused on her sister's face. Imagined her sweet, soft smile as she called her name; bit her lip at the sting of fresh pain and the drip of red at the corner of her eye. For Luna. Something cool bit at her hoof far after the cut, and she pulled it away with a gasp and a shake. Her eye flicked down to an oddly unfitting white wrap around her red hoof, and she looked up just in time to see some loose cloth tucked under the sleeve of their cloak. The stranger seemed focused on her sister now, as she hugged her bandaged hoof to the one holding Luna. The materials scattered on Luna's chest sported a new red drizzle over them, but she could barely stand to look at it. Too much red, already. She took a steadying breath tinged with a shake, as she studied instead the hoof in her sister's mane. "What now?" she whispered, swallowing heavily a moment after. She looked back up to the stranger's nondescript hood, which did not turn at her words. Their hoof retracted, and their horn glowed brighter. "Do not fear," they whispered back, and Celestia's eyes widened as the red light around their horn suddenly inverted in a single second, and turned pitch black. She couldn't help it. Fear, real fear burst in her chest as she nearly fell back from the bright flash of black light; stinging her eyes as it flashed again, and then there was a horrible, rending pain in her heart. Like nothing she'd ever felt. It hurt, but she could barely move to help it. It felt like... it felt like all of the little strength she had in her body was being... torn out...! The light flashed and grew, and suddenly congealed in a nearly physical grip around the materials on her sister's chest. Celestia gasped as what felt like every hair on her body stood straight up through the nearly blinding sensation of blaring fear and unease. It was so close to her, then, and all of the ingredients laying on Luna just... melted up into the air. Turned as one into tiny balls of glowing light; hanging and bobbing in the air like cinders that fell and sank into her sister's body. Disappeared, but the feeling, and the black light cast over them remained. Grew. Shaded the clearing in dancing, scarlet flames that crackled and whorled with living shadow. Howled in her ears the wrong sounds of rushing wind as though it were screaming. Swirled like a miasma in physical wraiths that poked and prodded at her skin. She felt it on her face. She felt it deep in her being. It was the worst thing Celestia had ever felt. It felt like spiritual pain, and the fear of the dark, and the loneliness of solitude, and guilt and sorrow and death. It felt like anathema. She could barely breathe. She could barely see through the mind-numbing wrongness. Didn't even know if she was still standing. Didn't know if the stranger was still there. Didn't know if she was still breathing. Luna. It was for Luna. She kept a firm hold on her hoof. Even as her sister's body convulsed and jerked, once. Even as horrible cracks and pops filled the air. Even as warmth gradually began to fill the limb. Even as the light faded, and the intense, perverse curse upon life eased, and died off. Even as the pounding in her ears abated, and she heard the blissful silence. Even as her held breath ran out, and she gasped for fresh, untainted air. But then a cloth was thrust into her sight. She stared at the plain brown shag for a long moment of gaping silence, before she gradually tilted her head up. The unceasing darkness of the stranger's open hood stared back at her, and hoof holding the cloth receded as a red light lifted it up and into her hoof. The bottles were gone, and so were all the things that had been inside them. Absorbed into her sister in that... magic. She slowly brought the cloth in her hoof to hold it tightly against her chest, as she stared at the non-visage of the stranger. The stranger still completely covered in their cloak, though they dipped their head. "I'm sorry, I should have warned you. Some ponies feel the effects of my magic... worse than others." Celestia stayed silent, her cheeks dry and tight as she watched the stranger stand, and take a step back. Their cloak was spattered with red at its bottom, and now it darkened in the running water they stood in. "Your sister will wake soon, none the worse for wear. Her body has been restored, and each of her injuries cared for." They nodded. "You should clean her up, and make her decent. I'm sure you have a lot to talk about." The cloth in her hoof. The stranger turned, and the soft noises of disturbed water rung through the quiet clearing as they slowly walked away without another word. Leaving Celestia to hold her sister, with her chest rising and falling steadily. They stepped out of the stream, and had nearly come to the edge of the clearing before they stopped. Stopped, cloak raised with a hoof, at the sound of her voice. "Don't come back." She'd said it without pause, but still the stranger turned to look at her in the moment after. Blank, unknown eyes to meet her open, steady stare. Her chest didn't shake. Her breath didn't hitch. She didn't blink. The stranger turned, and left. She stared out after the stranger's exit for a long time after, but eventually, their last words snuck back into her head. Luna was going to wake up soon. The hoof holding the cloth tottered out into her view, then she looked down at Luna. Bloody, vomited on, and dirty in many other ways. But breathing. There was a lot to do. When Celestia stood for the first time since she'd knelt into her sister's pool of blood, the first thing she noticed was how cold she was. She shivered relentlessly in the nonexistent breeze, and as she looked down at Luna, she was sure she knew why. Luna was covered in blood all along her side and back, but Celestia was nearly just as red. The long lengths of her hooves were painted all over in uneven strokes of pressed-upon red, and even her chest that she could barely see looking down was noticeably speckled in it. The stream was, surprisingly, slightly warm. She'd remembered it being cold and uncomfortable as she'd waded through to get to Luna, but there it was as her stomach kissed the surface of the water. Warm. Almost pleasant. Maybe because of all the blood. Celestia felt a little... deadened, she could admit, as she took the cloth in her magic and set to busily scrubbing her leg in the gently flowing water. She'd been riding on the verge of giving up and passing out for what felt like lines, and then that awful magic... and now Luna was okay. Just... okay. In a literal flash. In a short few moments. All it had cost was... She stopped; staring at her red hoof for long, silent moments. The howling. The black. The tearing. The wrong. She continued. It didn't matter what it had cost. Her sister was okay, the stranger was probably gone, her fur was... Celestia grimaced, as she lifted her hoof from the cloth. The tint wasn't quite going away... She'd have to say she fell into a rogue tomato patch. That was the only explanation. Probably. She cleaned the rest of herself in a short, brisk while; not spending an inordinate amount of time trying now that she knew there was little point. Her fur would just... look like that, for a while. And then... she stood above Luna. Eyes flicking about her form; searching desperately for any sign of problems. Her broken and dislocated wing was once more solidly connected by the joint, and she couldn't even see the little bit of... bone, anymore. Even as she carefully knelt by its side, and squinted down at it. No sign of any trauma at all. The joint on her back: solid and strong under taut skin. Even the feathers were mostly grown back, though they seemed a little off-color. Barely noticeable. She took a moment to softly brush the wood shavings off wherever she saw them. Laid her hoof for a long moment on the tiniest little feathers along the hard bone of the wing. Whispered silent thanks to the air that she was able to, at all. She stood in a safe spot by her sister's head next; searching for anything off. Much of her sister's short mane was dyed a horrible shade of red that looked... terrifying as it faded unevenly to her normal blue, but otherwise... Nothing to see. Blood no longer flowed, and the pool lay still on the rock. No scrapes under fur. No bruises or bumps. No sign that she'd been injured at all. Little lines of gushed blood everywhere, but nothing under them. Unnatural. That magic was wrong. It had to be. She thought about the best way to clean her sister, and the rock she sat on. Thought long and hard as she sat by her sister's mostly pristine tail, because it was clean there. Looked at the tiny cloth in her hoof, then at the bigger-than-her-tiny-sister pool of blood. She decided not to. She felt horrible, taking Luna's hoof in her magic and dragging her across the least bloody part of the rock and into the dirt. She really did. Nearly threw up, too, as she looked back from the bend she was taking to drag her sister into the stream, and saw the long, red scrape across the brown. Had to take a long moment of sitting and leaning on her hooves while she took heavy breaths, and pretended like everything was okay and she wasn't an awful sister. Still, she got her sister into the stream. Didn't matter how she felt. Didn't matter if Luna bumped her head, or if her wings were still out and dragging in the dirt. She propped Luna up against the stream's wall all the same, and sat by her in the disconcertingly warm water. Sat by her sleeping little sister with a ragged cloth given to her by a pony she'd never admit she met, and cleaned her. Watched her silent face with hooded eyes as she dipped her head into the shallowest part of the water. Laid it where she could breathe as she scrubbed her mane, and dabbed at her cheeks. Let the liquid locks fall over and over her hooves as the red tint gradually diminished, until it was all just mostly purple. Purple enough to not be noticeable. That was all. She just had to make it all look fine on first glance. A shallow illusion, like the stream they sat in. Broken on second glance, or a passing touch, but she could stop that from happening. Divert attention. Take all the blame, if she needed. She was the bigger sister, and it was her job to make things better. She wouldn't fail again. Luna's front and sides were easy. She had clear access with Luna's head where it was, and just leaving her fur to soak was already helping some. All she had to do was sit and scrub. Putting her hooves all over her sister's coat, and just remembering in every moment that she was breathing. It was a harder thing to clean Luna's back. Even... even harder just to look at it. It had soaked so heavily in the pool of blood, Luna's fur may as well have just been a long smear. The best Celestia could do was lay on her side in the water, and drape the small form of her sister over her shoulder as she let her magic do the scrubbing. Nestled into the crook of her off-purple shoulder, and immersed herself in the decaying scent of iron as she clutched her sister's barrel. Guided her sister's wings to fold against her back; gently, with prodding motions. An odd experience, as they seemed to twitch and move with a mind of their own, even as her sister slept. But they ceded well enough, in the end. Laid flat, where they should've been. There was only so much she could really do. Scrub her sister's fur all she wanted, it would still be purple at best. Sit with her unconscious sister pressed against her body in the stream for a quiet line: it still wouldn't erase the scent. But she enjoyed the time all the same. Relished the sound of her sister's steady, sleeping breaths in her ears, as she took spare time to just hold her. Enjoyed the warmth, in the growing chill of the water. Tried to forget the feeling of her hollow chest as she squeezed her tight. Let her head rest on her shoulder, against her neck, as she thought. She'd never imagined life without Luna. Cursed her very presence and dreamed repeatedly of breaking her teeth, but never once had she considered her absence. It had been a given that she would always be there. Always yapping in her ear. Always waking her up in the middle of the night, begging through tears to be held. Celestia sighed against Luna's mane; blinking up at the bright sky above. The light was so pretty... it just didn't fit with what happened... It had been long enough of cleaning Luna, and they were both about as good as they were going to get. Muddy grey and dark purple were... their shades now, she guessed, and they'd just have to live with it until it faded. She had more important things to do than sitting around holding her filly sister; as... affirming as it was. They were both dripping wet when Celestia dragged her sister out of the stream, but it hardly mattered as she hefted her sideways onto her back. Luna was light, and Celestia had the will; it was hardly a burden. She cast a look back toward the rock, still covered in blood. Luna's blood, but nopony would ever know. She'd lie. Say she didn't know. Must've been an animal. Made sense to her. She turned away, and bounced her sister's splayed body on her back. She had things to arrange. Trotting through the dappled forest was an odd feeling with her sister in close tow. She hadn't carried her sister since they were both much younger, and certainly never on trips through the forest. Certainly not... like this: stomach-to-back, with her hooves dragging along the air. It felt... invalid. Her sister should've been... up and about. Flying, jumping, running. She was active, not a sack to carry around. Not a loose weight on her back. Not a burden. ...There was so much to reconsider, now... It wasn't much longer to the clearing she'd been searching for. She couldn't quite remember the path she'd taken to get to the stream, what with the blinding panic followed by the horrible trauma, but the forests were familiar. The immediate area: comforting. Filled with times past that she should have cherished more. So many reminders of ordinary moments with her sister that were... more extraordinary in hindsight. Stopped by a tree scant hooflengths away from the opening to the clearing with Luna's tree. Stopped, and stared, and remembered. The first few times that Luna had run off to sleep here, when she hadn't known how often they'd both be returning, Celestia would... wait. By this tree off to the far side, as her sister sat and slept in the center. She'd not yet had the impatience built up by repeat offenses, and she was content to just... let her sister sleep. Watched her up in her tree, and thought of the then not-so-far-gone times which she'd been a foal. Sitting and constantly crying in the little wooden cradle that mother had weaved and carved and that Celestia had tried and failed to help with. Fraying the little wooden strands as she'd twisted them too much, and measuring wrong for every cut she'd insisted on measuring for. She would sit and watch her when their parents were out, as Luna had just cried and cried. Wondered what that little blue bundle was even for, as it seemed so inordinate. Stared in fascination, as the cabin was filled with endless, high-pitched screaming. Then her mother would return, and see Luna crying, and admonish Celestia. Sitting there and watching her sister cry instead of trying to help her. For shame. ...She'd always been a bit of a screw-up, hadn't she? Made her wonder, in hindsight, why Luna would sometimes call her 'Princess Perfect.' It hurt, sure, which was undoubtedly Luna's intent, but did she really believe her so? Perfect? Celestia shook her head, and turned from the tree. Turned to the other tree sitting in the middle of the clearing, and walked towards it. There wasn't much ceremony to dumping her sister at the hoof of the tree, though she tried very hard to do it delicately. Thought, a second later, that it would have been better to kneel down first. And then she stood back, and stared. Her little sister: curled over on her side nearly luxuriously; eyes closed and hooves splayed wherever they laid. Head resting on the slight little incline of an exposed root that she'd probably accidentally dropped it on; sleeping with so little care it was as if she were in a bed. Her natural state, it seemed. Fur suspiciously purple where it wasn't brown and dirtied, and- Celestia's ears perked, and the next stage of her plan seemed to... come together before her. It would work to better hide the incident... She already felt bad, though. Sacrifices must be made, she supposed. She took a single step toward the prone form of her sister, with her wide eyes zeroed directly onto her, and kicked her hoof forward. Not to hit her sister, of course, but to disturb the dirt. A little shower of brown dust thrown into the air, to scatter down onto her sister's recently pretty fur. Again: she kicked, and yet more dust and dirt was thrown onto her sister's coat. Only once more, and her sister was well enough dirtied. Patches of mess on her sides and flank, and little specks across her mane and cute little cheeks. Enough to be nearly natural, but she also had to cover up the darkest spots of faded red. And then, Celestia waited. Waited for her sister to wake from her slumber, because she knew she would, now. Sat by herself, cradling her sister's head on her petting hooves, and thought. Because she had a lot to think about.