//------------------------------// // Plus One is... // Story: What If? // by King of the Mad //------------------------------// Several months later. As usual she woke up at the same time she always did, but now it was easier to get out of bed for she had set aside one of her biggest burdens and given unto another The joy she got when she set aside the burden came not from the weight being lifted from her shoulders, but by the one lifting it of her shoulders. Her sister had come back with the help of one of the many who she had tutored over the ages and had taken up her old burden. Now together they shared their minor burdens and worries. Despite that, the voice inside her head continued to ask that question. What if? She had begun to contemplate the question since her sister had returned. And had come to the conclusion she need to bring it up with some one else. Yesterday she had brought it up with her sister and asked her about her opinion of it. Her sister had thought about it for a while, before telling her to come to her tomorrow and she would have a solution. So after getting out of bed and going about her morning routine Princess Celestia open her door and set of for Luna's room. •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• "But Lunnnnaaaaa!" Celestia complained, "It just seems so silly" "Nope." "But—" "Nope" "Awwwww" "Just try it once and then reconsider, please. For me." Celestia sighed briefly before replying, "Okay." "Yes!" Luna exclaimed before jumping around in joy. "Now do it, we only have so much time, before we have to go tend to the court." Celestia sighed again before levitating a strange looking helmet over to her, the helmet looked just like a broad brimmed hat that had weird corks of different metals dangling from invisible threads strung along the edge. As she placed it upon her head she heard Luna fiddling with something behind her. "Ready?" Luna called. "Yes and no need to shout, I am just here" "Oops, okay. Here we go!" Shortly Celestia began to feel tingles in her her horn. Then, suddenly everything went black as she heard Luna quietly saying, "Now, think about a simple what if question to start with." The device she had just plugged herself into was a contraption that Luna had spent all night building. When she had voiced concerns about safety, Luna had crushed all argument with an extremely long winded speech about how the device worked and how easy it was to build due to her experiences with dreams. Plus she had promised Celestia her dessert for the next week just so she could at least try it out. In the end she had agreed and now they were in the process of testing it. After some quick thought she decided on a weird little question. "What if I got out of bed and did a backflip?" Well I guess we're about to find out as she concentrated on the question. As suddenly has the darkness had come it was gone and replacing was a view of herself waking up. As she sat back and watched herself get up and out of bed. Upon getting out of bed her 'image' started to do a backflip. Part way through, while her 'image' was upside down she lost the momentum in her jump and fell sharply onto her bed breaking it as her image fell down. She watched in horror as her image having broken a bed she had owned for 3 centuries discovered to both the real Celestia and the her image's horror that her image had broken one of her massive wings as she fell on it. As suddenly as it appeared the view disappeared leaving Celestia sitting there stunned in the dark. "Okay the WIM 3008 says that the possibility has ended. So I'm gonna wake you up nice and gently" Suddenly the darkness disappeared jolting Celestia with the sharp light going straight into her eyes. "Aaargh," she said as she blinked in suprise" "Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!" Luna howled, "You should see your face!" Growling in displeasure Celestia turned around yanking off the helmet. "Nice and gentle my marvellously toned flank!" She yelled before suddenly a sadistic grin appeared on her face. Seeing this Luna started to panic, before leaping out the nearest window only to be caught halfway through by Celestia's telekinesis. "Oh no you don't." "You get to sit in court while go get myself some food," she said before putting Luna firmly on the ground. "Worth it." Luna called over her shoulder as she trotted out of the room. Celestia sighed while contemplating on whether what she saw could really be what would happen if she did a backflip after getting out of bed. "So did it work?" Luna said sticking her head throughout the doorway startling Celestia. "Eep!" Celestia squealed, before calming down, "Yeah, though is that what really would happen? And what is the WIM 3008?" Luna after a little giggle at Celestia's display replied, "Well what you just saw was one small possibility among many chosen by your subconscious as the most likely. Also the WIM 3008 is short for the What If Machine 3008. Anyway what did you see?" "Well the answers a lot. And what I saw was a response to 'What if I got out of bed and did a backflip?' And what I saw was myself getting out of bed failing a backflip and managing to break both my bed and one of my wings." "See even your subconscious agrees that you need to exercise." "Are you calling me fat?" "Um... Gotta go lots of people to see and court to be managed," she blurted out as she quickly ran away from a possible volcano. "I'm not really fat. Am I?" She asked herself before pushing it out of her mind and heading to the kitchens for a small amount of tea and cake.