//------------------------------// // Chapter 14, Who Am I // Story: The Chronicles of Summer Rain, Vol. 3 -- Follow the Equestrium // by shysage //------------------------------// Summer and Shysage technically didn't go through the Portal, but still, they both materialized in the Crystal Palace in the exact same stance that they were in, from the other end. Summer was holding the rim of the Portal, and also holding Shysage's hand, and both Summer and Shysage were in their Equestria Girls 'people' form. They were now back in 'Equestria Present' though... ... They saw the tail end of the very bright flash from the Portal, and still heard the loud rumble from Summer's Phantom Alicorn form, although the noise died back down quickly. They also heard the rest of Fluttershy's quiet shriek, and several gasps. After a brief delay, Summer let go of both the Portal and Shysage's hand. They both were ponies again, and threw themselves forward. The book Shysage was holding simply fell to the floor. Princess Twilight and her girls were all there, and now crying with joy that Summer had come back. Fluttershy was immediately crying on Summer's shoulder... The rest quickly gathered around Summer, hugging her, crying too... Princess Twilight said it for them "Summer, it's been over TWO DAYS, we were so worried..." It was clear they had all been crying... A lot... And especially after 'Summer's Dream'... Summer noticed Princess Celestia and Princess Luna too... After a few more minutes of everypony crying, Fluttershy noticed her sister was crying different, and she didn't know why, except that she could feel her sister was hurting... a LOT... Fluttershy backed away a few steps, sat down, and began crying for her sister's pain. Pinkie Pie immediately joined Fluttershy, her 'Pinkie Sense' was going crazy. Princess Twilight saw this, thought briefly, then joined them, not really knowing why. Princess was already crying... Shysage heard the change too, but there was nothing he could do. This was her higher pitched cry, Summer was hurting. Shysage expected as much. He was hurting too... They were both bleeding... ... ... ... Princess Celestia and Princess Luna both got up, at this point, and headed for the door... The Phantom Alicorn was back safe with Princess Twilight and her friends. That was what they hoped to see. They were done here. It had been a very long two days... ... ... ... Summer was absolutely beside herself... ...sobbing... ...and said through her tears, "...Girls, please..." ... ... ... Applejack... Rainbow Dash... Rarity... They quickly realized... ...Summer was not talking to them... They stopped, and backed away in amazement, and sat down... ... ... ... When Summer said '...Girls, please...', both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna stopped walking, dropped their head down just a little, and turned their heads slightly towards Summer. ... ... ... Summer was still sobbing... Through her tears, Summer said "Lu..." ... Princess Luna (Lu) had spent 1000 of the last 1,300 years trapped as Nightmare Moon. As a result, she only had maybe 300 years of memories to sort through. In about the time it took to blink, Princess Luna connected that voice, that name, with memories from a long time ago... ...Then Lu (Princess Luna) burst into tears, and bolted over to Summer, threw one of her front legs around Summer's neck, hugged Summer tightly, and sobbed on her shoulder... Summer was sobbing too, and quickly hugged Lu tightly... ... ... ... Princess Celestia looked at her sister and Summer, and was very confused. In her defense, Princess Celestia had been the guardian of Equestria for the last 1,300 years. That was a long time... ... There was thankfully a random long block of Crystal along the wall, low enough and long enough for both Summer and Shysage to sit on, well as people. Shysage walked over to the bench, and then transformed, by himself, back into his Equestria Girls 'people' form, simply because he wanted to, really, really badly. Shysage sat down. Crying himself, Shysage looked at Princess Celestia (Cel), held his arms wide as if to welcome her, and said simply "Cel..." ... It took Cel (Princess Celestia) a little longer, but soon a thousand memories from the deepest recesses of Princess Celestia's mind exploded upon her... She got a childlike, wondrous look on her face, and her eyes got very big... She began to speak... "Dad... You... You said we would probably see you ag--" Then Cel likewise burst into tears, bolted across the room, buried her head in Shysage's lap and just sobbed... Shysage, stallion that he was, just sobbed with her... Summer changed also to her 'people' form, and led Lu over to the bench, then she sat down right next to Shysage, and Lu's head was quickly in Summer's lap as she sobbed too. Cel and Lu stayed in their pony form, even though touching Summer and Shysage, again probably because they really wanted to stay in this form. That's how they knew mom and dad. Summer put her arms around both of their pony heads, pulled them together as she had done hundreds of time, and said "Oh girls..." and then buried her head between their heads and just sobbed with them... ... Princess Cadance and Shining Armor came through the door at this point, and stopped right where they were... Princess Twilight and her girls simply had no way of knowing how to even understand what they were seeing... Fluttershy had already guessed they were a family now... ... After maybe five minutes, Summer brought her head up, and tried to speak, really for the rest of the ponies in the room, who were just looking on, completely mystified... Nopony else had any idea what was going on... Summer's voice was higher too, she was still hurting, and still crying... "The Portal took Shysage and I back to the earliest reaches of Equestria's history... ...over a thousand years ago... "In less than two minutes, we had rescued two horrified foals from six Cougars; they would have been dead shortly..." Summer stopped here and cried... "We flew these two precious foals to Equestria... "We raised these two amazing girls as our own for two full years... ...Shysage and I loved them and taught them and cared for them... We brought them up as our own... These girls were just amazing... Summer stopped here and cried... "We never even knew who these two girls were... "It was only towards the end of that time that we realized that they were... Princes--" Summer could go no further, and burst into tears again... ...But this was enough... Summer pulled Cel and Lu's heads together in her arms again, and buried her head down next to them and was sobbing again... Cel and Lu were still sobbing too... Shysage was just running his fingers through Lu and Cel's hair like he had for years, crying himself... All at once, Summer picked her head up and said "Oh Shysage, who am I... I can't bow to these girls any more..." Summer next buried her head on Shysage's shoulder and sobbed some more, still trying to hug Cel and Lu... In Shysage's house, everypony knew that Summer's, well mom's stomach was very ticklish. Shysage had accidentally found this out once, and then used it effectively, but sparingly on his Mare. Cel saw dad do this once to mom, and she noted the result, and would occasionally do it too. Cel and Lu would never, ever call Summer and Shysage by their first name -- ever again. But Cel wanted to get her mom's attention. So Cel gently poked her pony nose into mom's stomach, tickling her. Summer laughed a little even though still crying. Then Cel said softly and slowly... "Please don't ever bow to me or Lu again... You both are the most important ponies in Equestria... You are mom and dad, and we are so happy to be able to see you both ag--" Cel had to stop here, and she just cried in dad's lap some more... They all cried some more. They cried there together, as the family they were, for maybe 20 more minutes... ... Lu stayed with mom, and wouldn't move. Cel pulled her head away and backed up some then sat down. Her eyes and face were still wet with tears. "Mom, dad, you both need to hear this. "I remember our first visit to King Thars... He was broken, he was powerless. His Mare and his two 'Appointed Ones', his two daughters, had been taken and were probably dead from what he knew. When you both brought us, his two 'Appointed Ones", back to him, he changed before our eyes... He became a mighty leader... "I would also later find out that the three pony groups in that city constantly fought, even though supposedly at peace. That day, your repeated rallying cry before you headed out to fight the invasion galvanized all three groups, together, into one, and they all fought valiantly at each other's side. They never fought with each other again... "And up until that day, nopony could figure out what to call our nation. Nopony could agree on anything, and gave up trying. Mom, you gave us a name -- the name Equestria. That day when you cried that, that was the first time that word was ever used in our history. And from that day forward, that has been our name... "That day... "You made us one... "You brought us together... "You gave us a name... "You gave us hope... Cel then walked up to mom, and bowed to the ground before her, and Lu quickly did too. Well everypony in the room did, except Shysage; he had his arm around his amazing Mare. Cel said softly while bowing... "Twice now, the Phantom Alicorn has intercepted Equestria's history and rescued us... "You are the Shila... "You are the deliverer... "We all owe our existance to you..." Nopony moved for maybe a minute. Summer was just weeping softly. Summer then cried and said "Can I still be mom?" Cel and Lu were quickly back in their laps crying... ... After crying a while longer, Cel and Lu both got up. Cel, mostly back to her usual princessness, sighed, then said "Mom, dad, we will both be so happy to adjust to your presence with us. I am sure we will see you often, but we do need to head back to Canterlot." They both walked slowly over to the door. Most of the way there, Cel (Princess Celestia) froze, and stood motionless. Tears began streaming down her face... It was clear she was failing at trying to stop them... Cel alone, ran quickly back to mom and dad, who were still sitting on the bench They both quickly hugged her... Cel began to sob in their embrace... Both mom and dad, together, hugged her tight, she just cried... Cel kept crying... Lu was quickly back next to her sister as well. Maybe she suspected that she might have been part of the reason for these tears... After a few minutes, Summer looked over at Shysage, and they both just knew... Mom and dad realized that Cel was venting tears and pain from over a thousand years of shepherding Equestria through some very difficult times. As Princess, a lot of this simply couldn't come out. She had to be strong... She had to move on... ...This was 'princess pain'... ...Back now with the only family she ever knew, everything could come out... ...it HAD to come out... ...so it was coming out... ...and Summer and Shysage loved her... ...They just held her... ...They cried with her... Lu did too... For almost an hour, Cel cried gut-wrenching sobs in mom and dad's arms... Being a Princess wasn't easy... After that hour, Cel's crying slowed. Shysage put his hands on both sides of Cel's head, and said softly "Cel, I love you...", then he kissed her forehead, also like he had done many times before... Cel stood as the big pony she was, put one of her front legs up on the bench, and quickly put her other front leg around dad's neck and hugged him tight, still in tears "I love you too, dad..." Lu was hugging mom too... Princess Celestia (Cel) sighed, got back down to the floor, then said "Mom, dad, I don't even want to leave... ...but we need too..." Summer said softly "Cel, honey, you need to attend to your responsibilities. That's ok." This surely sounded surreal to everypony else in this room... "Thanks, mom" Cel said. Summer gave Lu one more big hug, and kissed her, then hugged Cel too. Shysage hugged Lu, and kissed her as well. Then Cel and Lu headed back to the door together Almost to the door, Cel stopped, turned to look at Shysage, and said "Dad, please write that story." Shysage smiled, and said "Cel, for you, anything." He had told her that a hundred times, and meant it each time. Cel (Princess Celestia) and Lu (Princess Luna) were quickly headed back to Canterlot. Nopony else in the room moved... Nopony even knew what to do right now... Shysage got up at this point, and walked over to the Portal and picked up two things, the book Cel had given him less than two hours ago, and Summer's necklace. He walked over to Princess Twilight and said "Princess, can you take care of this book for me? Cel gave it to me and it's very important. And Princess, I think Summer would like her necklace back. Can you take care of that for me too?" Princess Twilight quickly used her magic to take the book and Summer's Necklace from Shysage. As a person, Shysage gently hugged Princess Twilight. Shysage loved his Princess. Cel and Lu were his girls. Twilight was his Princess. Shysage then walked back over to Summer and took her hand. He couldn't turn himself back into a pony. Summer then changed them both back to ponies. Summer ran over at this point and hugged her sister, and cried on her shoulder. Well, they were both crying. After a few minutes, Princess Twilight, still weeping softly, walked over to Summer, and said softly "Summer..." Summer quickly threw her front legs around her Princess' neck, and sobbed on her shoulder for a little while. "I missed you all so much" she said, more than once. "Summer have a seat a minute please" Princess asked. Summer was still crying but sat down. "Summer, this is yours..." Princess said, crying softly, as she used her magic to put Summer's necklace back around her neck. Summer was quickly crying again on her Princess' shoulder. The rest of the girls joined them. They all cried together for maybe 20 minutes. Princess Cadance came up to Summer at that point, also crying. "I don't know what to call you any more..." Summer answered softly "I don't know either, Princess, I think Summer is fine. I'm still a pony." Summer thought about saying 'just a pony', but knew she would not be allowed to get away with that, not any more. Princess Cadance just gave Summer a hug, then said "There are Air Coaches waiting down below to take you all home, just let me know when you are ready." Fluttershy spoke up timidly, but said "Princess, can we all spend the night at the Castle tonight? I would really like to hear my sister's story." Everypony thought that was an amazing idea. Summer looked at Shysage. He sighed, then said "Can we be 'people' for a minute first?" They quickly were, and Shysage tightly hugged Summer, and she hugged him back. Shysage and Summer hugged while crying softly for a few minutes. Then he sighed again, then said "That will be fine". Still in their 'people' form, Shysage actually kissed Summer a minute or so, then hugged her again. Shysage had Summer change them back to ponies, then they rubbed noses briefly, and they walked together to the balcony in the Portal room, hugged again, and Shysage was quickly gone. Summer was weeping softly still, and Fluttershy was quickly at her side hugging her. "I really love him..." Summer said quietly to Fluttershy. "I know, Sis" Fluttershy whispered back.