//------------------------------// // 23: The Sister // Story: The Princess and I // by Flanagan //------------------------------// “What… did you just say?” I asked. “What did you do to my sister?!” She yelled, whipping her hand towards me, the pressure on my chest had doubled, making it hard for me to breathe. “I have searched across dimensions to find her! And when I finally am able to travel to her location, she is near death and you stand over her!” She walked towards me slightly raising her hand, which caused me to be pushed up the wall to the ceiling. I continued to struggle in her grasp, but given that it failed the first time I should’ve known that it was futile. My attempts didn’t amuse her either; her eyes began to glow like Luna’s had in the auditorium. Closing her index finger and thumb together I felt my throat closing. “I want answers creature!” she roared, slamming me into the ceiling, “now speak!” “Kinda… kinda hard to do… if I can’t breathe…” I said, coughing with every pause. Realizing I was right she loosened her grip around my throat. Taking in a much needed gulp of air I looked back to my captor. Some of the furry had left her, but it was still obvious that she was ready to beat the living piss out of whatever hurt Luna. (So was I, in fact if I was able to convince her I didn’t do it, I’m sure we could have some fun after we found a few certain hospital rooms.) “Talk…” She growled, dragging me out of my thoughts, “before I regret allowing you a breath.” “Look lady-“ “Princess Celestia…” “Look Princess… I didn’t do this to Luna…” I said with as much sincerity as I could muster, “I would never hurt her… she’s too important to me.” “Is she?” Celestia replied, raising an eyebrow, “Then why is she here?” “I could ask you the same thing.” “Excuse me?” “How the hell did you end up here?” I asked, “When Luna arrived she had no idea how she arrived, but you-“ “I tracked her down…” Celestia explained, “All creatures from my world have a distinct magical signature, it didn’t take long for me to find her… getting here was the problem.” “How did you get here?” “The same way my sister did,” Celestia answered, “Via an inter-dimensional spell, the only difference is that I knew that it was being cast on me.” “What?” “My pupil…” She said letting out a sigh, “She believed that she could recreate the effects of a mirror that exists in our world.” Celestia lowered her hand allowing me to descend, but only to the point where I wasn’t squished up on the ceiling. She had a very calm look about her, but any man who has been in a relationship could tell that she was furious as she explained what had happened to Luna. “I told her that she must learn to control her new powers as an alicorn, but she was determined to prove that it could be done…” Celestia’s free hand clinched into a fist, while she tried to maintain her composure, “against my authority she continued to dabble in the attempt… even going so far as to test it on a subject.” “Luna…” I said. “Not exactly…” Celestia continued, “Twilight had tried to test the spell on an apple… She was in Luna’s room at the time, and according to her a gust of wind blew the apple away, sending the spell in my sister’s direction.” “And the rest is history?” I asked. “As one would say, yes…” Celestia said nodding, “But none of that matters now, I’ve found her, but she is near death… and YOU were the only one here…” Her eyes began to glow again, “So I shall ask one last time, what have you done to my sister?” “I already told you…” I said feeling the pressure on my chest rise again, “I didn’t-“ “From the little I’ve seen in this world, your case for innocence isn’t very convincing.” Celestia interrupted, “You’ll have to do better than just-“ “S-sister?” It became so quiet in the room that I could hear the blood flowing through my veins. Neither of us believed it at first, but the second time the both of us knew for sure that what we heard wasn’t just our imaginations. “Sister…” Luna whispered weakly, “I-is… is that you?” Celestia immediately released whatever hold she had on me and ran to Luna’s bedside. Within a few seconds I was on the floor, the breath was knocked out of me and my leg had been knocked off due to the impact. (After all the times I’ve fallen in the past few weeks THIS was the time it decided to do it?) She really didn’t care much for my wellbeing, which was understandable, but she could’ve let me down easy so I wouldn’t have to crawl to my limb. “Yes Luna…” Celestia replied with a smile, gently wrapping up Luna’s hand around her own, “I’m here… you’re safe now…” Fighting back tears she pulled Luna’s hand to her face, “I thought I’d lost you all over again… one thousand years without you is one thousand years too long.” “W-where’s Aedan?” she asked, “is… is he alright?” “Who’s Aedan?” Celestia asked, looking around the room, ignoring the fact that I was sitting there strapping my leg back on. “That would be me…” I said finally hearing the ‘snap’ that told me that the damn thing was set on properly. “Aedan Colin Ryan…” I said bowing sarcastically, “at your service.” Celestia’s eyes shrank into tiny little dots, placing her sister’s hand back on the bed she walked towards me. “Did you keep my sister safe?” she asked, her lip quivering with each word. “You could say that…” I said, “But given the past few days I guess I-“ Suddenly I was engulfed by an embrace that could only be defined as world breaking. My wounds roared in protest to the sudden affection, but I knew from my own experience how it felt to meet someone in her position. (I swore that Gordon’s mom would’ve never let me go if not for his insisting.) So I just hugged her back, fighting my own discomfort. It was during this embrace that I actually took notice of Celestia. My first thought was damn this girl is huge; she was only an inch or two shorter than me. (Not to mention she was as strong as an amazon) Her features were also a mirror reflection of her little sister, minus the more… notable aspects about her figure that stood out. (Two of them were squished against me as I was trying to think) All that being said there was one thing that bothered me, she was clothed. I expected to see her naked, but instead she was in a beautiful two piece dress, pure white, the top half covered her chest, (be it barely) while the lower half flowed from her hips to a few feet behind her , leaving her amazingly tone, sun kissed stomach visible. I may have been lost in admiration of her for some time if not for her sudden, short bursts of tears. “Thank you for watching over her…” She whispered, whipping away a few stray tears. “I am eternally in your debt.” “Just doing the right thing.” I said shrugging my shoulders, “But I do have to ask you one thing.” “Of course,” Celestia replied, releasing me. “What would you like to know?” “Why are you wearing clothes?” I asked, pointing to her ensemble, “and how do you look like that? When Luna arrived she was a pony, and when she finally turned into a human she wasn’t exactly what you would call modest.” “As a princess, Luna is quite modest.” Celestia replied, summoning my hand to cover my face. “She was butt-ass naked…” I said bluntly, dragging my hand down, “But you’re here, you’re human and you’re wearing something that covers you up… why?” “I had some time to prepare.” Celestia replied looking to her figure, “Twilight has been to a world similar to this one, bet it a few differences.” “Like?” “Well in this world, my complexion matches yours, and my mane is one solid color. According to Twilight; the skin and manes in the world she visited matched her coat in our world.” The thought of color coded people ran through my head for a second, but it was gone after a few seconds simply because of how ridiculous it sounded. Hell, they were probably all in high school and broke out into a musical number in the cafeteria. Again the thought was there only briefly, having been replaced by yet another question. “How did you do that force thing?” I asked. “Force… thing?” Celestia asked with a cocked eyebrow. (Even though she was from a place that had no T.V. it was still a crime that she didn’t know what Star Wars was, Luna loved them by the way, but I didn’t have the heart to the heart to tell her that there were three prequels) “When you threw me against the wall,” I said pointing to the place where she had held me. “How did you do that?” “Didn’t Luna explain to you that we are magical beings?” Celestia responded. “Well… yes, but she can’t do magic in her human form, she flat out told me she couldn’t… how can you?” “As I have said, I had time to prepare.” She explained, “I managed to learn how to control a very small fraction of my magic while in this form.” “That was only a fraction?” I asked looking to the red smear on the wall, “I’d hate to see you at full power.” “Indeed…” She said nodding, “And I wish you could find it in you to forgive me for jumping to conclusions so quickly. I had to make a choice once, and it cost me the one thing I loved being away from me for one thousand years… I wasn’t going to let anything take her away from me again.” “I know the feeling…” I said finally reaching for my stomach, unable to deny the pain anymore. I knew I was bleeding again, but when I looked to my hand and saw nothing but red I realized that it was a lot worse than I thought. At the same time Celestia noticed a red spot on her stomach. Rubbing the blood between her fingers to make sure what it was she looked to me with concern. “Are you injured?” she asked, seeing red bleeding through my patient’s gown. “What was your first clue?” I asked with a smile. Rolling her eyes the Princess walked over to me and placed her hand over my wound. I was about to ask her what she was doing, but then I saw her eyes glowing. Before I could say anything a pain that I could only describe as indescribable (ironic right?) shot through me, the feeling was so intense that I actually latched on to Celestia as she did whatever she was doing, holding back my cries of pain, but several grunts did manage to make their way out. (If someone knew I was in there with a woman that looked like Celestia and heard the noises I was making, they’d probably assume something COMPLETELY different was going on.) It may have only been a few seconds, but it seemed like hours. Celestia finally removed her hand from my stomach and smiled. “It is done…” She said softly. I wondered what she was talking about until I felt her hand go behind my back and pull my gown to the front. I was about to protest, but the moment I saw my stomach I was in awe. The hole that was once there was gone, the only evidence was a scar and the blood that had once poured out of it. I looked to Celestia in disbelief, but all she did was smile back. “You are healed.” “T-this… this is AMAZING!” I said bringing Celestia into my arms. “It’s the least I could do.” Celestia replied, “After all you watched after my little sister in my stead.” My thoughts immediately shifted back to Luna, both of us seemed to have forgotten the peril her life was in. Blowing past Celestia I went back to Luna’s bedside, she was out again, that little sprit of life seemed to be nearly all she had left. “I can feel her fading…” Celestia said from behind me. “Then how is she still a human?” I asked. (Weird thing to ask but I asked it) “The spell she cast to become human…” Celestia began, “It must have been a high tier transformation spell…” “Meaning?” “Meaning she only changes if she wills it.” “So even right now… as she lies dying…” “The spell will continue to have its effect on her until death…” Celestia said with misty eyes, “Which I fear is closer now than ever.” “Can’t you heal her?!” I yelled, “You healed me! Why can’t you heal her?!” “As I have said, I can only preform a fraction of my true abilities in this form, and healing you was a strain to say the least.” “Can’t you turn back into a pony and do it?” I asked, “Luna can use magic when she’s a pony… so can you!” “The spells we used were very different.” Celestia said, “Luna used a very powerful will based spell, I used a spell that only allows me this form in your world.” “Then how the hell were you planning to get back?” “I planned to cast a reversal to Twilight’s inter-dimensional spell…” Celestia answered, “But it seems that I must wait until she has healed.” “Our people can't heal her.” I said. “What?” Celestia asked, “This world looks decades if not centuries ahead of ours, why can’t she be-“ “They don’t have her kind blood…” I interrupted, “If they operate she’ll bleed out, if they don’t… she’ll bleed out…” I placed both my hands on her shoulders and spun her to face me, “You’re the only one who can save her now…” “I can barely hold my time stop spell as it is…” Celestia answered, “If I were to allow it to fade I would be discovered and-“ “God dammit Celestia!” I roared, “Who cares if they find you, your SISTER is dying! You’re the only one who can save her!” My anger faded the moment I saw the slightest hint of fear in her eyes. I calmed down, realizing that I was probably just as afraid of losing Luna as she was. So I gingerly placed my hand on her shoulder. “Please…” I whispered. “Save her…” After a few seconds of deep thought I suddenly heard the chaos return from outside the room. She had set time in motion once more and hopefully it was just enough for her to bring Luna back from the brink. Taking a deep breath she removed Luna’s gown, revealing a wound that was almost in the exact same location mine was. Placing her hands over the area she took one last breath, then her eyes began to glow. I watched in awe as I witnessed exactly what happened to me, but far more intense. The ground itself was shaking violently, several loose items around the room began to move and Celestia’s hair seemed to be blowing in the wind. I continued to watch as Celestia gritted her teeth in reaction to her own pain, but I could tell that she wasn’t about to give up on the attempt. She was just like me; she would give and do anything to save Luna. Tears trickled down Celestia’s cheek as she continued her attempt to save her sister; I was even considering stopping her because it looked like it was too much for her. However when I tried to pull her away she reacted harshly. “DON’T!” She roared through her teeth, “You said I was the only one who can save her… That’s what I’m doing!” Wisely I backed off, after all only a fraction of her power was used to throw me ten feet into a wall like a grain of said in a dust storm. I looked on, praying that nobody walked into the spectacle I was witnessing. Celestia was putting her all and more into dragging her sister back from the brink. She was so focused she didn’t even realize that her nose began to bleed. I’d seen enough; I had to make Celestia stop, because if I didn’t I think she would’ve killed herself. I ran to her, but not before she screamed at the top of her lungs and a Blinding light engulfed the room. It was like getting Flash-Banged, my ears were ringing and I couldn’t see anything except for white. Staggering to my feet my vision finally cleared, just to see Celestia standing over Luna like she had just before, but her eyes were dull, nostrils dripping blood and didn’t seem to be breathing. Seconds later she started to fall and if not for me being so close to her she would have met the floor with force. I finally got a really good look at her face then, that look had been burned into my mind. “C-Celestia?” I asked, shaking her gently, but she was unresponsive, so I shook harder, “Princess Celestia… wake up… Princess… … … PRINCESS!” Finally a weak cough rose from the lungs of the woman in my arms, relieved I pulled her close to me. I’d seen enough death in my short life and I was glad that I didn’t have to see it again. After a few moments I heard something barely audible come from her mouth. “What?” I asked looking back to her, “What did you say?” “I… It’s…” she said weakly raising her clinched fist “It’s done…” she said opening her and to reveal a bloody pistol round in her palm, “I… I saved her…” My ears finally stopped ringing, so I could hear the steady, strong sound beeping from the heart monitor. Gently sitting Celestia up I rushed over to Luna’s side, sure enough the only this there was blood and a scar, which looked exactly like mine. I couldn’t help but choke up when I saw her chest rise and fall, placing my hand on her scar I let go a fair share of happy tears. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I felt another hand laid itself over mine, but as I followed its origin upwards to the face I had become so acquainted to over the past few weeks. “A-Aedan?” Luna said weakly, “Aedan… it that-“ “It’s me Luna…” I replied brushing away the hair on her face, “I’m here…” A small smile grew across her face as her other hand reached for my own. “You saved me again…” She whispered dragging her fingertips from my eyebrow to my jawline. “No…” I said shaking my head, “I didn’t save you… your sister did.” “S-sister?” Luna said confused, “but that was just-“ Luna’s eyes finally fell to the direction where Celestia was trying to recover, but when Celestia noticed that she was awake, she completely ignored her own pain and moved to the opposite side of Luna’s bed. Her smile had doubled, not only was she awake and alive, but her sister had come for her. (Not to mention the guy who had been taking care of her for three weeks, but I won’t nitpick) “I thought I’d never see you again…” Celestia said giving Luna a kiss on her forehead. “Please don’t ever do that again.” “I don’t plan on it…” Luna replied, letting out a week laugh before looking to me with those beautiful cobalt orbs she calls eyes. Drawing closer to me I leaned in too, but only to rest my forehead against hers. I didn’t need any affection right now, I was just happy that she was alright. I don’t really think either of us knew how long we were like that, because Celestia broke the two of us out or our little trance. “It seems the two of you have grown quite close…” She said with a smile. “Yes…” Luna said turning a shade of red when she looked back to Celestia, “In my time here we-“ “I never thought you’d open up to someone so quickly.” She interrupted, “You’ve only been gone for two days.” Both Luna and I’s jaws fell from their place. Luna had been here for ten times that long easy, but Celestia said that she had only been gone for two. We looked to one another then back to Celestia with the most confused looks possible. “Um… sister…” Luna began, “I have not been here for two days…” “Oh, really?” Celestia said raising her eyebrow, “Perhaps space and time flow differently in this universe… how long have you been here actually? One day? Three?” “She’s actually been here for three weeks…” I said to Celestia’s disbelief. “T-three… three weeks?” She stuttered. “Three weeks…” Luna and I replied, both nodding simultaneously. “Luna… You must think I’m terrible big sister!” She cried, burying her sister’s head deep into her chest without warning. Luna tried to respond, but her head was literally enveloped by Celestia’s breasts. I did my best not to look at the events unfolding, but I’m a man, not a saint. (Granted it was hilarious watching Luna struggle to break free of her sister’s embrace.) A second or so later Luna’s head emerged, gasping for air, Celestia went in for another hug, but was stopped by Luna’s forceful hand. “It’s fine Tia…” She grumbled, her face red as a chili pepper from what just happened, “You didn’t know how the laws of physics and time worked here.” “I should’ve never let Twilight convince me to try to sleep that hour…” Celestia said shaking her head. “If I hadn’t left for that hour I may have gotten here sooner.” “You were awake for two days?” I asked, slightly surprised that someone like her could pull that off. “If your sister disappeared and you would do anything to find her would you sleep?” Celestia replied, the slightest hints of anger buried in her voice. “Point taken…” I said quickly. “Needless to say I am happy you are here nonetheless.” Luna said with a smile, “But now that you’re here I must ask how?” Celestia just looked back to Luna with a raised eyebrow, almost like she expected her to know the answer. “Twilight?” Luna asked. “Twilight…” Celestia replied letting out a deep sigh. “That explains enough then…” Luna said bringing her index finger and her thumb to the bridge of her nose. “You two talk like this kind of thing happens often.” I said raising an eyebrow. “Well, not necessarily like this,” Celestia started, “but often if something magical goes array…” “Twilight is somehow involved…” Luna finished. “Makes sense enough I guess…” I said, the three of us began to laugh, but the sound of the door opening silenced us in an instant. “Aedan…” Dawn began, “I convinced Dr. Johns to give you another ten minutes, but that’s-“ Dawn froze, we froze, the world itself stopped turning for that second and that second only. I thought to myself in the silence about how I was going to explain what was happening, while she was trying to figure that out herself. Unfortunately, Dawn beat me to it. “What… just happened?” she asked blinking rapidly, “and who is she?” She actually gave me an offer to salvage the situation, but in truth is was fed up with making up clever backstories for ponies who were trying to pass as humans. So I did the only thing that I thought could be right. “Take a seat Dawn…” I said pulling up my own chair, “This might take a while…”