/Chapter 15: Moving on with life/
“No…No…Please wait…NOOO!!!!”
I immediately shoot up from my bed drenched in sweat and breathing heavily.
“Another nightmare…At this point I could easily say that I have gotten used to that…but still wish that it would just finally stop,” I thought to myself with great worry and depression.
Since my sixteenth birthday a couple of months back I’ve been having the same strange and worrying dreams over and over again at least once or twice a week, and it always forces me awake in the same fashion.
It was seriously always the same thing, voices telling me that I would soon lose everything–that I would lose all of my friends, my home, and most importantly my Dad.
I always see the world around me slowly disappear in front of my eyes with distant whispers and always telling me that our time is running ever so closer to the end and that we would have to leave behind everything we come to know and love so much since our birth.
I simply sighed, trying to calm my nerves and mind as I began to carefully levitate a glass of water from the bedside table towards me and quickly began to sip it a little bit, since I felt pretty thirsty especially since I was basically drenched in my own sweat.
It has been already two years since that one particularly horrible incident we had in the forest, and since then we have discovered that for some reason our horns were somehow magical or something related to that.
At first it was pretty scary, but after a while (especially for me) we began to like the discovery that, for one, magic was real, and two, that we had the ability to use it with the help of our long supposed useless horns.
We of course told our dad about our discovery as soon as we could in which he was, to our surprise, not very sceptical or even surprised at all. It figures, since we owe our existence to dad making a wish on a shooting star which obviously must have been the work of magic which means that we are in fact magic since we’ve been given birth because of Magic.
“Yeah it still is pretty confusing to me,” I thought to myself with a giggle.
Remembering all of those fun times when we both actually tried to learn and use our magic was a real spirit lifter for me. I already felt a lot better as I continued to giggle at the funny memories regarding all of our silly mishaps when we were still completely new with the whole magic thing, especially when Luna tried to levitate a whole jug of juice that dad brought for us as a refreshment but managed to completely lose her control over it and ended up spilling the juice all over dad. Back then the look he had on his face after that was absolutely priceless and we spent almost 15 min just laughing our flanks off.
We really are just having so much fun and good times together no matter how horrible the day started. In the end it mostly always ends in laughter and good fun, easily one of the main reasons why these dream I am having are so worrying and depressing for me. I fear losing all of that and never having such fun together ever again.
After all of that thinking and remembering I suddenly began to realize that the full glass of water I had just a few moments ago was already long empty.
“Huh…It’s really surprising how much I can lose my attention and whereabouts when I am doing one of my thinking sections,” I thought to myself as I placed the glass back on its original spot.
Looking over to my right I could see my little sister Luna still sleeping peacefully in her bed, something I should really do myself since tomorrow is going to be a very hard and long day for me and her, Sports day in school and cleaning day in the mansion as well. Helping dad to clean up the mansion a little bit after school has become important since John’s retirement a year ago. I miss him very much; he was always like an uncle to us.
I sighed again and was about to get out of bed and head over to the bathroom when I heard some shuffling and groaning from my right. It was my little sister Luna rolling and moving around in her sleep while making some very funny moaning sounds.
“Mhmm you’re so kind, Lukas,” she quietly whispered to herself with a smile on her sleeping face. I honestly couldn’t resist a giggle after seeing that. It was very good to know that one of us at least was having some very pleasant dreams and not nightmares.
“I wonder what she is dreaming about with Lukas, but I guess it would be better for me not to know by the looks of it,” I thought to myself with a chuckle.
Luna still didn’t completely manage to tell Lukas about her true feelings but she definitely had managed to get herself closer to him. She really takes every opportunity she can get to hang out with him, either in school, somewhere outside or even playing some online games with him. And every time she does she managed to slowly move closer and closer to him.
It makes me very happy for her, but also a bit jealous at times, but I always keep my mind and emotions in an even level and am always reminding myself that Luna was the one who first had an interest towards him and not me. Besides, I don’t need a possible boyfriends to love and get butterflies about, my dad already pretty much fills all of my needs in those category and I really don’t need any more love than I already get from him.
After finishing my trip to the bathroom, and making sure that I remembered to wash my hoofs, I went back towards my bed. Once again I took that time to admire on what a beautiful mare Luna had become over the years.
She was still pretty childish and also sometimes thick headed, but overall she had become something that boys would definitely love to stare at despite the obvious differences.
“Ok…better get back to sleep now. Remember, Celly, you have a long day ahead of you tomorrow,” I told myself with a yawn as I crawled myself back into my bed and made myself comfortable.
I took one last look at the window to my right and simple gazed a few moments at the magical looking full moon before finally closing my eyes and drifting back to sleep, but this time accompanied by far more pleasant dreams for me to enjoy.
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(POV Julius)
*Peep peep, peep peep, peep pee…
“Ugh…yeah, yeah I’m awake you stupid alarm clock,” I sleepily said as I desperately searched for the snooze button on my alarm clock and pressed it.
I immediately got out from my covers and I began to stretch myself to get some of the reminding sleepiness out of out of me to start the day.
After that I made my way over to the bathroom to wash myself off a bit to truly start the day.
As I was brushing my teeth, washing my face and drying it off with a towel I began to expect myself in the mirror.
“Mhmm…strange, I still pretty much look the same after my 20th birthday and haven’t changed at all after that,” I told myself as I was observing myself in the mirror.
It was true since that day I haven’t shown any signs of ageing for some reason and have kept my original look over those years.
At first it wasn’t really noticeable at all but as the years came by it was obviously more and more noticeable as people that I came to know began to show some obvious signs of ageing while I on the other hand seemed to stay 20 for some odd reason.
Luckily the only person who managed to notice it besides me was Matt my top manager and also who had become my closest friend.
Both me and him have never found any sort of explanation for this strange phenomenon and it still very much baffles me to this day that I still looked young and fresh in comparison to others. Heck, even Matt somehow looked younger compared to his same age work colleges.
Either way, trying to find a sensible and reasonable explanation and answer for this has always been an utter failure and sometimes even quite embarrassing and have since long given up and accepted it, simply because it wasn’t really worth the headache.
After getting done my normal morning rituals I immediately went for the kitchen to make some breakfast for the girls and I.
“Good thing I took cooking lessons from John before he retired, otherwise I would had a serious problem,” I thought to myself in amusement as I began to search and collect the ingredients for Luna and Celly’s favorite breakfast food: Belgian Waffles with Cherry jam.
“Happy morning, Dad,” I suddenly hear Celly say as she trotted into the kitchen while I was arranging all of the ingredients together.
“Good morning, Celly. Long day ahead of you and your sister, I would presume,” I greeted her back with a smile–one she kindly returned.
“Yup, it’s sports day today at school. A lot of sweating is going to be involved in this I can tell you that,” she explained to me while trotting up to me.
She immediately noticed the ingredients that were laid out on the table in front of me as her smile suddenly widened after she realized what these ingredients were.
“Wow, Dad, are you making what I think you are making?” she asked me with a hopeful tone and look.
I simply nodded.
“THAT’s AWESOME,” she literally shouted in excitement before quickly calming down while blushing embarrassingly. “Hehe…sorry for that. Hey could I maybe help you with that, Dad?” She quickly apologized before asking me with an excited look on her face.
“Of course you can, Celly. It would make things so much easier and quicker, which of course means that we can eat them sooner too,” I answered to her joy.
I always enjoyed cooking with her and she with me as well–judging by her constant smile she always holds whenever we are cooking together.
But then, of course, it can lead to a HUGE mess with the kitchen looking like a battlefield at the end of every duo cooking session because of our terrible coordination. But to be honest we never really cared simply because the fun in cooking together was easily worth it.
Luckily this time we managed to keep the kitchen mostly clean and intact and the entire room was soon filled with the delicious smell of waffles and cherry jam that Celly was in charge of cooking (using actual cherries of course).
Pretty soon both of us were done and the table was very quickly adorned with a huge plate full of waffles and huge glasses full full of OJ and homemade cherry jam, and not a moment too late, for a very drowsy looking Luna with the most ridiculous looking bed hair was slowly trotting into the kitchen. Her mood quickly changed as the smell of fresh and homemade waffles invaded her nostrils.
“Do I smell…” Luna began excitedly.
“Yup,” Celly simply and quickly answered.
This was all the information Luna needed as she immediately slipped past me and Celly almost like a thunderbolt and was at the table before either Celly or I could even blink. Celly giggled while I simply chuckled at
Luna’s quick and humorous mood change. Without any more silly distraction we all began to dig in and enjoy our breakfast together.
Very soon everything was pretty much eaten away with Luna having gotten most of the Waffles which in turn ended with her doing the dishes later on her own, for which she was very much annoyed, but Celly being the good big sister that she was, eventually helped her anyways. Very soon both of them quickly got themselves ready and fitted out for school.
Both of them quickly hugged and kissed me goodbye as they would pretty much always do and were soon out of the house and on their way to school with me simply waving them goodbye as they flew off into the distance.
“Well…they’re gone, leaving me all alone for pretty much half the day.
Better get started then. No time to wait for Matt to come over and help me; better to get done with what I can,” I told myself as I went back inside ready to begin the day and to finally start tidying this huge place up. “Well this is going to be a LOOOONG day,” I thought to myself as I got myself mentally ready for the large workload ahead of me.
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(POV LUNA)
“Alright everyone please go outside as soon as you are ready. A lot of other teachers and students are already outside and ready to start,” our Gym teacher announced as we were changing ourselves within the locker rooms.
I was obviously in the girl’s locker room of course.
Everybody around me was chatting and talking along about things that girls would normally talk about, clothes, makeup, textmates and some other boring stupid stuff as well.
Although there is one particular subject that I do like to listen to, and it was about boys or boyfriends in general. Whenever I hear a conversation about that particular subject I can’t help but think about Lukas.
The thought of him actually being my boyfriend, or special someone as some like to call it, would always make me blush and sometimes giggle to myself, which unfortunately enough sometimes caught the attention of some other girls around me which was always both awkward and slightly embarrassing for me.
“Hey are you thinking about your crush again? Come on, please just tell us who it is,” some girl suddenly asked me. One of the girls who first noticed my reaction had tried to ask me about it ever since.
“Wha…What…no I…I don’t have a crush on anyone. How many times do I have to blow that out?” I answered them both embarrassed and completely caught by surprise.
They simply giggled and smiled at me which unfortunately only added to my embarrassment and blush. Luckily for me our gym teacher immediately began to call out for all of us to get out, giving me a perfect excuse to simply walk away from that very embarrassing and uncomfortable situation.
As soon as we were all outside, with all of us wearing our white Gym shirts, our gym teacher quickly began to instruct us on all of the activities and exercises we were going to do today in which included competitive games with the other classes and section from other schools.
As our teacher began to brief to us about the activities and games that we were participating in today I slowly began to divert my mind at something as I started to take a better look at my surrounding in hopes to maybe find a certain someone who I have been desperately searching for the whole day.
The first one I immediately managed to spot was obviously my big sister (well, we are the only two equines around here anyway. It’s not very hard spot us) standing with her class on the other side of the field where basically all of other the higher classes were. But I wasn’t really interested in her more or less who was standing beside her.
Lukas was always in the same classes as big sis so basically these two were classmates through and through. I know that big sis really has no special feelings for him like the way I do, but seeing her always standing beside him makes me somewhat jealous from time to time, especially when I am currently not capable in just going over to him.
I really wanted to just head over there and simply say hi to him with the cutest and friendliest smile I could muster, but that would definitely give these stupid girls the clue of who I actually have a crush on--which I’ve tried my best for a year to hide and deny from them.
“Hey Horsey, what’s up?” I suddenly heard someone say as I felt a hand suddenly slap my flank, forcefully pulling me out from my thoughts. I of course began to blush after that surprising and uncomfortable feeling as I quickly turned my head and was immediately greeted with a smug smiling boy who was seriously the very last person that I needed to see at that moment.
“Oh no, not this idiot again,” I though with gritted teeth as I quickly knew who it was.
“Butch, what do you want from me?” I asked him very annoyed while trying to hide my obvious anger towards him.
“What? Can’t I just say hi to the only animal here in school? Oh wait it’s not just you is it,” He asked me back while still holding that disgusting smug smile of his that seriously just always boils me over.
I used to be always so confused on why some teenagers seemed to complain about high school sometimes or just even seem to have some sort of emotional problem from time to time, including my sister. But since the day I started my years as a high school student myself I finally managed to fully understand all of their misery.
It was because of bullies like him that basically infested the supposedly
“best schools years of your life” and are just there to ruin your day whenever you have the misfortune to ever run across these jerks, that turns highschool into a nightmare.
I swear, If me and big sis did not promise to dad to keep our magical abilities a secret and just to ourselves, I would have probably used my magic on him long ago to just hurl him all the way up into space and be done with it.
The many times he had made fun of me, insulted me or just down right bullied me simple because I was just a talking horse to him. Also not to mention his so called little minions who are constantly following him and are almost just as bad as him.
“Butch leave her alone and get over to your group,” my gym teacher suddenly blurted out towards him to my utter relief.
“Ugh fine…I hate sports anyway. We’ll see you later horse face,” Butch finally announced as he laughed and started to walk away from me and off to his class.
I breathed a sigh of relief as he slowly disappeared somewhere within a cluster of students, finally giving me a break from his insults.
“Hey Luna are you alright? I am sorry for Butch, but just remember that you can always approach one of us if he is giving you or your sister any sorts of trouble,” my Gym teacher asked and assured me with a kind tone.
“I’m Ok, sir. I can handle that Butch guy. But still, thank you for your help,” I thanked him kindly with a smile.
“Well then we are almost ready to start. A few little warm up exercises and we are ready to begin today’s events. A few laps around the fields should be fine,” he began to announce to all of us as some of the others began to groan and wain in annoyance.
I simply giggled at their protest.
“Well let’s see how stupid I am as a Horse when it comes to running,” I thought to myself in amusement as I readied myself with all the others to start running a few laps around the campus and to (as usual) leave everybody else behind and huffing.
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(Celestia’s POV)
“Yeah come on, you're almost there,” I cheered to the guy who was running towards me.
Me and my class where participating and competing in a relay race with another class.
“Come on, faster,” I shouted again as he began to do a final dash towards me and not a moment too soon. Without even thinking I quickly gripped the baton from his hand with my mouth as I immediately dashed off towards the finish line.
When it comes to running me and my little sister were always the fastest in our entire school, far superior compared to anyone else with the exception of only one, a short but also kind, and very athletic boy with the name of Mario Pelloo, an exchange student from Italy. The day he enrolled in our school was the day where we lost our titles of being the fastest runners in our school. And as fate has it, he was the one who I was running against today.
Good thing my previous runner was much faster than the other team, which gave me a very good and also needed head start in which I took full advantage of by using all of my strength in my legs to run as fast as I possible could towards the finish line.
I could hear my team and classmates cheering me on as I dashed passed them which of course was a real boost for me and made me even more determined to win this for us than ever before.
“Yeah, go Mario, show them who the running champion is,” I also heard somebody else call out as I was half way towards the finish line.
I took one last look behind me and immediately got shocked on what I saw coming towards me. It was Mario running at a pace I have never seen before and quickly catching up to me even though I was already running as fast as I could.
“Oh no you don’t. Not this time. I need to win this, Celly, for my team. Come on!” I mentally encouraged myself as I seriously began to give it everything my hind legs were capable off.
The only thing that was running through my mind at the moment was to get to the goal before my opponent does as I ran faster than I ever had. I could already see Mario running practically alongside me while all the other students where pretty much going wild with their cheering and shouting, either cheering me or Mario on.
My legs were already burning as my muscles were clearly telling me that I am vastly approaching my limits. The finish line was already just a few meters away as both of us were still pretty much toe to toe.
“Come on Celly you can do it, you have 4 legs, you can beat him,” I encourage myself as I both of us were almost at the finish line.
But then right at the most crucial right before reaching my goal my legs suddenly began to give in as I immediately began to feel my strength and overall stamina dropping down completely as I lost a lot speed, giving my opponent the change he needed to quickly bypass me and run through the finish line before I did.
The crowd went wild in cheers.
“All my efforts for nothing,” I thought to myself bitterly, completely exhausted.
I could hear all of the other students cheering his name in utter excitement, but to my surprise also mine. My disappointment immediately vanished as I realized that and my head quickly rose upwards completely confused why they would cheer my name as well even though it was clearly Mario who won the race fair and square.
“Good race Celly, you really gave me a run for my money back there,” I suddenly heard someone say next to me before I realized that it was Mario standing next to me.
“Oh…yeah…yeah it was a good race. You have once again proven yourself to be the running champion here. Congratulation for your win," I told and congratulated him with a kind smile while still very much exhausted.
He simply gave me a quick salute before once again running off into the crowd while they made a path for him and cheering his name and giving him the title of fastest mouse of Italy. A title he definitely deserved.
I simply watched in amusement as he simply began to run circles while simply just showing off and highfiving everybody he passed by.
“Are you Ok Celly? You look pretty beaten up, oh and very sorry for you loss though. We all had really hoped that you could win this, but hey you were running against the Italian mouse, so no surprise there.” Lukas suddenly came up from behind.
“Yeah, I honestly never stood a chance against him in the first place. He really can run like an absolute champion," I told him back while still watching Mario’s victory laps around his team.
“Well anyway, want to go over to the canteen with us to get some drinks? You must be pretty thirsty after this judging by how much you smell like sweat right now,” Lukas said while pointing over to the canteen.
I immediately began to smell myself after he mention the sweat part and quickly found out that he was indeed right. I did smell like sweat, very heavily of it in fact.
My immediate reaction was an embarrassed giggle and blush on my cheeks.
“Well…Yeah sure…I would love to get a drink. It is a pretty hot day today anyway, but only if you are buying," I answered him with smug smile on my muzzle.
“Well…ok why not.” He simply shrugged.
Me and Lukas were almost about to make our way towards the canteen to where the rest of our team were before we got suddenly stopped by a very familiar voice calling out to us.
“Hey guys, guys wait up," I heard Luna call out from the distance as she came running towards us.
We both stopped and simply waited for her to catch up to us.
“Hey…are…you…two going…to the canteen? Could…I perhaps come with…you two?” she huffed in exhaustions after she finally caught up to us.
“Of course you can Lulu. I am buying,” Lukas answered with a kind smile.
Luna suddenly began to squeal in excitement before stopping after she realized what she just did as she simply blushed in embarrassment.
Lukas of course was just confused at her sudden reaction which only made me giggle. Lukas might be still completely oblivious to Luna’s true feelings for him, but I very much understand what is going on with her.
After that funny and awkward moment was behind, all three of us immediately made our way over to the school canteen.
As soon as we arrived I was immediately bombarded by my classmates with generous and comforting words about me being so close to actually winning in that race, but still in the end losing against the fastest mouse of Italy.
I was quite surprised to see and hear that from all of them but also very happy at the same time as I simply thanked each and every one of them for such kind and supporting words.
The rest of our time within the canteen was simply spent together, talking and joking around with all the others and even about some of the victories some of our other teammates have managed to achieve in the other events.
During all this time I have begun to notice how close my little sister Luna was constantly to Lukas, even to the point in leaning against him when he wasn’t paying attention. When she will ever have to full courage to tell him about her true feelings for him, I will never know.
But this is something she has to do alone without me. I have no right to intervene.
I decided to leave these two alone together for a while and began to once again keep myself busy with my own thoughts as I moved over to a quieter table in the canteen. As I sat there watching everybody run and walk around the room and both my best friend and little sister on the other side simply talking and sharing a drink together, I began to think about what my dad was doing right about this moment.
As far as I know he is probably already working his ass off tighty-ing up our massive home probably with the help of Lukas’ big brother, Matt. I really wish that I could help them out right about now, but knowing how long sports day could be I would probably not be back home to help them anytime soon, probably only late in the afternoon.
It really doesn’t matter to me what type of work it would be–if it would be easy or hard. When it comes to my dad, I am always ready to lend a helping hand–or hoof in my case–especially since how hard he always has to work every day.
Being the head of an economic empire does make him very busy, but sadly even more so lately, which means that he has hardly any more time for us, mostly only on weekends and not like every day anymore like how we are used to.
Sometimes I wish our dad just wasn’t so busy anymore, then things could probably get much easier for us.
“Hey Celly , our next event is going to come up soon with class 1B. We better get out there,” my team captain suddenly called out, breaking me out from my thoughts.
“Oh…yeah, yeah I am coming," I called back as I got up and made my way over towards my team.
“Hey Lukas, we’re soon up. You’re coming?” I called over to Lukas who was still talking with Luna.
He quickly turned around in surprise before dashing towards us and outside where the rest of our team was. I took a quickly glance towards
Luna and what I saw was absolutely heartbreaking. I saw my little sister sitting there all alone with a very sad and lonely look on her face with her ears hanging lifelessly on the side of her head.
“Poor Luna, after all those years she still can’t just build up the courage to tell Lukas how she feels about him. I really wish I could just help in some way, but this is something she just has to work out on her own," I thought to myself in sympathy as I looked at her.
I simply trotted back over to her and carefully planted a sisterly kiss on her forehead (avoiding her horn of course) and looked directly at her with the best encouraging smile I could muster while lifting her head with one of my hoofs.
“It’s ok, Lulu, I know one day you and Lukas will be together, trust me. I don’t know how, myself, but I can feel it somehow, and if not you can always count on me and dad to lift your spirits. You are a very beautiful and cute girl Lulu, I am sure he will one day be completely mesmerized by your beauty. Just be patient, alright?" I told her caringly as I never seized my smile from my muzzle.
Eventually she began to smile as well as she quickly hugged me in which I gladly returned as well.
“Thanks for always being there for me big sis, I love you sis,” Luna thanked me as we continued to hug.
We eventually broke off as I simply winked at her before dashing towards the exit.
“I love you to Lulu," I called back before reaching the door and going back outside to join my team.
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(Julius POV)
“Thanks again for coming over and helping me clean this old place up, even though you should be pretty busy yourself, Matt," I said to Matt as both of us began to move around cardboard boxes with unneeded stuff in them.
“No problem at all. It’s my pleasure to help out especially with you being my boss and everything,” he told me back as he placed the box down with the rest of the huge pile we managed to gather up. “Plus, maybe if I do this you could give me a raise or something,” he quickly added as a joke with a smirk.
I chuckled. “Why would you need a raise? You are already earning more than most of the other thousands of people who work for me," I asked with my own smirk.
“Well as far as the world works you can never have too much of it…if I am not mistaken,” he answered.
“Well that’s true, but on the other side, when you have too much money you can easily attract some unwanted attention, like in my case," I answered back while putting my own box down into the corner with all the other ones.
“Yeah true. Like that one horrible incident your two daughter had 2 years ago in the forest,” Matt said with a bit of a sorry tone.
I only nodded. That was certainly an event that I would never forget, and something I sincerely hope would never ever happen again.
After a few moments and box moving sessions later, both of us were pretty much done with half of the mansion but still had a whole other half to go through as well, which was for both of us a very dreadful thought to think of since it already took most of the day to get this far.
I looked over at the clock and saw that it was already 5pm.
“Both Luna and Celly should already be back by now. What is taking them so long?” I thought to myself in worry as I went to grab the vacuum cleaner in a nearby broom closet.
I was about to turn it before I got disturbed by the very familiar sound of a door bell going off.
“Hey that must be them," I thought to myself in relief as I dropped everything and rushed over to the front door. Sure enough it was them standing directly on the front door smiling at me while still wearing there gym outfits and back bags.
“Hey Dad,” both of them simply greeted me at the same time as I opened the door.
“Hey there you two are. Why are you so late today? School usually ends at 4pm, so why were you two a whole hour late. You know I don’t like that," I greeted them back before asking them with a more serious tone.
Celly immediately began to rub the back of her head while smiling sheepishly at me.
“Well…yeah so sorry for making you worry Dad…its…it’s just because me and Lulu are so tired after today’s sports day and we were far too lazy and beat-up to fly home as we would usually do…so we simply took a bus to take us up towards the hill while simply walking the rest after that,” Celly explained to me with a sorry look on her face.
I just find it absolutely astonishing whenever Celly displays her care and love for me.
I knew that making me worry was one of the many thinks she simply hates to do and hearing and seeing her openly show and tell me just always reminds me of how lucky I truly am for having these two in my life. In fact I don’t really need any sorts of reminder from them anyway simply because, for one, how could I possibly forget or oversee that, and two, they basically show me almost every day how much I mean to them which is always a spirit lifter for me even during the most stressful of days.
I simply hugged her. At first she was a bit surprised by my sudden action but soon began to return my affection by wrapping her own front hoofs around my waist. We stayed like this for a few more seconds before eventually breaking off with her still smiling like sunshine.
“Uh ehm,” Luna suddenly began, breaking my gaze from Celestia.
“Oh…yeah Luna. You want a hug from your old man too?” I quickly asked her but was immediately surprised to see her shake her head instead.
“Don’t you see something new and different on me dad? How about looking at my chest would be a good start,” she suggested with a proud looking smirk on her muzzle.
I did as she suggested and was very surprised to see a whole bunch of medals hanging from her neck, most of them in gold no less.
Celly saw my very surprised expression as she began to giggle before finally explaining to me how her little sister got all these medals in the first place.
“Her team managed to win most of the games and events with Luna being the actual lead of their victories. To be honest, dad, I was pretty shocked and surprised too for just how incredibly well she did today. I never imagined that such a game and comic nerd like her would be good at sports,” Celly explained to me with a giggle as she began to tease Luna a little bit.
“Who are you calling a nerd, bookworm,” Luna retorted immediately after hearing that, which made her giggle even more.
“Well at least thanks to that my grades are far better compared to yours, my dear sister. In fact I am one of the top 5 in school,” Celestia explained to her with a smug smile of her own.
“So at least my grades in art are far better than yours,” Luna retorted once again.
Celly’s only response was to roll her eyes at Luna’s claim.
“Luna, you were always better in art than me, so that does not count,” Celestia claimed back.
“Whatever…bookworm,” Luna silently whispered to herself while crossing her forelegs.
I simply watched their little heated debate in amusement as it simply went back and forth between them, calling each other nerds.
At one point I was forced to intervene between them simply because their argument was beginning getting out of control, and also because the sun was already slowly touching the horizon and the temperature showed.
They of course stopped as I finally had the chance to speak for myself and to also finally congratulate Luna for her victories, in which she simply did a silly but also effective looking victory pose while Celestia’s only response was to roll her eyes. These two can be completely silly and ridiculous without any warning, but that is kind of expected from sibling really.
“Well…anyway. Lulu and I are just going to our rooms to quickly change ourselves. After that we’ll be ready to help you in cleaning this place up. Ok?” Celestia suggested as she and her little sister trotted passed me.
“Really? But you two just had a whole day full of competitions. You really don’t have to help me and Matt out if you feel tired," I asked and suggested to them as I closed and locked the door behind me and followed.
Celly simply shook her head before smiling at me.
“It’s fine really dad. I do feel a bit tired after today but I still want to help out. This is our home as well so it would be just fair if we would help in cleaning this old place up a bit,”Celestia answered back happily and sincerely. “Also, you have been working so hard lately without us ever having the chance to do something with you anymore, and we just feel like giving you a little break from that while also getting the chance to finally do something with you,” Luna quickly added with her own happy smile.
Once again a wonderful reminder in how lucky I am to have them in my life and just how much I just mean to them and them to me.
“Yeah…I know, my work as head of a company has been lately very hard and stressful and I am sorry for not being there for you two as often as you two are used to," I apologized while all three of us where walking together towards their room.
“It’s ok dad. We understand how hard it can be. We are having a bit of hard time at school ourselves especially with the final exams coming soon,” Celestia explained while weakly smiling at me.
“But still I wouldn’t be lying if I said that we wish you weren’t so busy anymore so that we could have some more time together like how we used to…I really miss those days,” Celly quickly added as we arrived at their room.
“Hey there," I suddenly heard someone shout directly from behind me which was completely unsuspected and scared the pants off of me.
“Hi, Mr. Matt,” Both Luna and Celestia simultaneously greeted being completely unfazed by his sudden appearance and outburst.
I of course was not so amused.
“Matt!!! The hell…you scared the living bejesus out of me," I scolded as I glared at him.
“Sorry, didn’t mean that,” he quickly apologized while lifting his hands in a defensive manner.
Both Luna and Celestia where at this point of course giggling and amusing themselves quite well while I was basically scolding Matt for almost giving me a heart attack.
After just a like a minute or so I manage to calm down to Matt’s relief and was surprised to see that both Luna and Celly were already fully changed in their normal indoor shirts.
“They must have quickly change themselves while I was busy with Matt over here. For girls they can change pretty fast," I thought to myself after realizing that and you know how normally long teenage girls or even woman can take when simply changing up.
“We are ready to help,” both Luna and Celestia announced while giving me little but cute looking salutes with their front hoof.
I only smiled at her their little display as I already had an interesting idea on what they could do today to help us clean this place up a bit, which would probably be interesting for all of us.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
(Celestia POV)
“Come on, Lulu, hurry up," I called down to her as she was struggling a bit to climb up the ladder with her hoofs.
“Oh come one…you are 14 and you still don’t really know how to properly climb up a ladder?” I commented as I amusingly watched her trying to get her hoof pattern down on how to get up.
“It’s not that I don’t know, sis. It’s just, trying to climb up ladders with hoofs isn’t exactly the easiest thing to do, you know. If the opening to the attic wasn’t so small, I could simply fly up instead of using this ladder,” Luna whined and complained as she carefully made her way up.
“It’s not really that hard once you know the trick, and stop being such a big baby again, Lulu. I made it up here just fine," I teased her in which she simply stuck her tongue out at me in response.
After a very unstable and wacky looking climb later, Lulu was eventually up with us as well.
Dad, Matt, Luna and I were all now in the attic together. Our task was to simply dig through the collections and piles of old items and junk that were laying around up here and with our magic. This should easily be a piece of cake.
Me and Luna quickly wasted no time in doing our job as we picked a random corner in the massive looking attic and quickly began to work our magic.
Digging through all this stuff was actually quite interesting since we began to find and discover things that should’ve easily belonged to a museum like on old DOS computer or even an old black and white television made of wood.
“Hey dad, what is this?” Luna suddenly shouted as she began to levitate something out of a box right next to me.
It was a white and black looking plastic looking box with two cable plugs in front, two square bottom and movable tray that could be opened. To me it kind of reminded me of an old VCR but only much smaller looking.
Dad of course made it quickly over in the time while I was inspecting this new unknown item myself as Luna was levitating it in front of her.
“That, Luna, is a NES. It used to be my dad’s. It’s a very old but classic game console back in the time where games still used to be 8 bit and not this hyperplastic 3D tech we have now,” dad explained to us right after he made it over.
Luna, of course being the passionate gamer she had become over the years, immediately began to smile in excitement after hearing that as she began to carefully place the old console onto the floor and literally jumped into the box the NES came from and began to dig through it.
“Oh my gosh there is so much more. Cables, controllers and…and a whole pile of cartridges. THIS. IS. AWSOME!” she shouted in excitement as she was still ravaging through it with only her tail sticking out of the huge box.
I only smiled at her excitement. It just fills me joy whenever she or even my dad are happy or excited.
“Wait a minute, Lulu. I know some of those old NES games. We once played those on an emulator on our laptops. Why is it so exciting to you to play them again on the actual console?” I curiously asked her as she began to levitate all of the cartridges in front of her one by one to look at them.
She of course immediately stopped as she began to look at me.
“Well Duh, because it’s the actual console; a piece of gaming history.
Playing these games on the actual console is a far better experience and just beats any sort of emulators” she explained to me.
I scratched my head after her explanation and simply continued to watch her slowly levitating everything out of the box and carefully place them onto the floor right next to the console.
In the end, there were rectangle looking controllers, a whole bunch of cables and stacks upon stacks of old cartridges.
I looked over to dad only to find out that he was no longer standing beside me but instead was already on the other side of this huge attic sorting out some old looking book with Matt.
I averted my attention back to Luna and saw her beginning to fiddle with the cables and controllers and trying to put them all onto the right ports and locations around the console.
“Hey…uhm Luna. Would it not be better to do that in our room and not right now here in the attic?” I suggested to her as she played around with the bottoms on the controllers.
Her head immediately shot up after I suggested that and had the same look on her face whenever she had an idea coming out of her head.
“Hey, great idea sis. Let’s go test this thing out right now.” she suggested to me excitedly as she quickly began to store everything back into the box.
She was about to levitate the whole thing and head back down the ladder with it before I stopped her.
“Wait…you can’t just leave with it right in the middle of the job.
Remember we promised dad that we would help him clean this place up after school," I quickly told her after stopping her.
She only dropped everything she was levitating as she looked at the ground with a bit of a sad look on her muzzle.
“It is totally ok with me, Luna. If you’d like to give this old console a spin then go ahead,” dad suggested as he suddenly came up to us.
“How he can suddenly sneak up on us without warning, I have no idea," I thought to myself after that.
Luna of course was completely overjoyed to hear that as she began to run past me and over to dad to give him one big air squeezing hug.
“Ok, ok, ok, Luna. Please stop now…I…can’t breathe,” dad gasped.
Luna of course complied as she quickly released poor dad from her bear hug with a very sheepish smile on her muzzle, allowing dad to take in some much needed breath after that.
“Thanks dad, and also thank you for letting me have this. I promise I will be careful with it,” Luna thanked as she once again levitated the box and quickly jumped off from the attic with it.
I simply smiled as I watched her from above dashing off towards our room with the box hovering right next to her.
“That was really nice of you to just let her go despite her promise, dad," I told him.
He simply shrugged.
“Eh it was nothing really. I did give you two the offer to just take the rest of the day off after you school competitions, and besides, Luna definitely earned it by helping her team win most of the events today and having worked really hard,” dad explained to me with a chuckled.
“Yeah. She really did. She really surprised me with that one," I commented with my own giggle.
After a while both me and Dad got ourselves back to work as we both continued to search through the piles of items and things that were cluttering the entirety of the attic. At one point I even helped Dad and
Matt move a huge and, to be honest, incredible heavy crate from a corner with my magic, with Matt, unlike dad, still flinching from time to time whenever I use my magic in front of him. I always find it quite funny whenever he reacts like that and I would sometimes simply do it on purpose just to see it again.
Yeah I can to be a bit sinister from time to time but truth be told I am also doing it to quickly get him used to the idea of Magic and not be so afraid of it anymore.
After all three of us had managed to move this incredible heavy crate out into the open I immediately began to open its cover to have a peek inside and to also find out what the heck is making it so damn heavy.
The crate was literally full of tools like an old electric drill a whole bunch of wrenches, screws and hammer in different sizes and shapes.
“That easily explains why it is so heavy," I told to myself out loud as I looked over to dad.
“Well THIS…used to be my fathers. He was quite the handyman back in his younger days before he married my mother,” he explained to me and
Matt as he scratched his chin with a distant tone in his voice.
I only nodded in understanding.
It always makes me sad whenever dad talk about his parents who were technically our long gone grandparents. Whenever he talks about them he always sounds and sometimes looks so sad, something I really don’t like to see on him.
It is strange, really. Whenever dad feels sad I automatically feel sad too.
Am I really that closely connected to him? I mean I love him, I really do, right next to my sister he is by far the most important person to me, but am I really that closely connected to him that our emotions seem to sometimes be one and the same.
I am not really sure if Luna has the same strange phenomenon too. I really never was bothered or thought about it after all these years. I could perhaps ask her about it, but knowing her she will probably never give a straight answer.
As I was once again talking to myself within my mind as I usually do almost every day, I began to notice something in the same corner from where we got the crate from. Curiosity once again taking a hold on me, I trotted over to it to see what that item is.
It was a bit dark and shadowy in there which made it a bit difficult for me to see what was in there, but thanks to my magic and a lot of practice over the two years I casted something I simply dubbed “light spell” which caused my horn to pretty much act like a flashlight as it emitted a beam of light from its whole length.
At the corner were the pieces of what seemed to be a model of our solar system with most of its planets simply laying around the base of the model, broken off and cracked.
I had a very familiar look to it and at first I was wondering how old it was and how long it must have been up here before it finally clicked in me.
This model, this very familiar looking model, was the same one I remembered from my most earliest of days. It is the same model I played with for the very first time when me and Luna came to this world, the model which in the end gave birth to my name that my dad gave me.
That was the moment when a whole bunch of long forgotten memories immediately flooded my mind, old and precious memories from my foal years.
I began to smile as I remembered the time when I first ever heard dads voice. It felt so safe, so familiar, so calming to me and when I laid my eyes on him for the very first time, and I immediately understood that I was safe. I somehow knew back then that this unknown person who was holding me and little sis in his warm and soft arms was my protector, my guardian, my caretaker, my…father.
A few tears began to form after remembering that on particular and very precious memory.
I don’t know how and why I have the ability to remember something so early in my life but thank heaven that I can simply because it’s a memory that I hope I can forever remember and hold it in my mind and heart.
After a short while I began to regain myself again as I quickly swept the tears away from my cheeks and turned myself around to face dad who was unsurprisingly standing right behind me and also looking at the broken model in front of him.
“Isn’t that the same old model from where I got my name from?” I asked him misty-eyed as I looked at him.
“Yeah it is. Completely forgot that I stored it up here right after I accidentally broke it,” he answered me.
Right at that moment an idea began to pop up inside my head and I quickly turned back to dad to tell him.
“Hey dad, is…is it possible if I could have it? I promise that I can fix and that I will take good care of it afterwards," I suggested to him with hope.
Dad took a few moments to think it over before returning his gaze to me with a smile on his face.
“Sure, why not. Since it is sort of connected to you if regarding your name. It would only make sense for you to have it, and if you want I can easily help you with restoring it again,” my dad answered in his usually kind nature.
I of course was overjoyed to hear that and gave him a big and thankful hug. After the hug I quickly levitated the model and all of the loose pieces off the corner and towards me to inspect them closer. Indeed it really was in a bad shape, but with the help of my magic and dads I am sure that I can make it look even better than it did in its original state.
Me, Dad and Mattspent a little bit more time in tightening things up in the attic by placing everything that was no longer needed or simply old junk into their respective boxes to move downstairs for a later day. After that I immediately went to my room with the broken model and placed everything onto my bed.
I quickly noticed my little sister sitting there in front of our TV while happily playing along with the apparently still working old console. The game she was playing at the moment though looked very familiar to me.
I decided to trot over to her to have an even better look at what she was playing. At first it didn’t ring any bells until I began to notice the weapon she was using in the game, a weapon that seemed to shoot or spry red looking balls all over the screen whenever Luna began to press on what I could guess was the fire bottom on the rectangle looking controller. A game we used to play allot together with my NES Emulator on my laptop.
“Hey is that Contra you’re playing Lulu?” I asked her just to make sure of my realizations.
She quickly paused the game after I asked that and turned around to face me with an excited look on her face.
“Yeah it is. Do you remember when we used to play this together on your computer? We always had a race back then to see who could get the best powers ups, remember that?” she answered and asked me with a nostalgic look on her muzzle.
“Oh yeah I do remember that. That was way back during the time when we still didn’t know about our magical abilities," I answered her while remembering those days just a few years back.
Luna only nodded before levitating a second controller towards me with a smile on her face.
“Do you want to join me?” Luna asked happily
I only smiled back as I simply nodded and took the controller from her magical grasp with my own.
“Well I can get to the model later. Might as well have just a little quick game with my sister," I thought to myself as I sat down beside her.
“By the way, Luna, do you remember the dads old model of our solar system, the same one from where dad got my name from when we were still little?” I quickly asked her after sitting down beside her.
“What Solar system model?” she confusingly asked me back as she began to press on the two player option on the screen.
“Oh, nothing. I can tell you later," I simply answered her with a giggled as the first level of the game finally began to appear on the TV screen.
All in all, today was just a pretty normal and fun day as almost every day of the week (without mentioning the strange dreams that have been plaguing me for a while now) and luckily for me and Lulu there were no serious incidents and problems.
Life can be just such a joy when everything is well and fine, but why do I have this unsettling feeling that all of it is going to be a thing of the past.
“Hey you two, what are you playing?” Dad suddenly asked from behind us, getting me killed by one these thugs but also thankfully breaking me out of that unsettling thought and feeling as well.
“Oh, hey Dad. Well, we are playing with your Dads old NES. It’s actually quite fun. I kind of understand it now what Luna meant with ‘playing on the original console is better than any emulator’ thing” I answered him as
Luna and I were busy trying to penetrate the first base.
“Yeah, you see I was right,” Luna immediately commented victoriously.
I simply rolled my eyes at her while also not paying any attention on the game itself which in turn caused my player to get himself killed once again by one of the enemies.
“Darn I forgot that these old games are quite hard," I thought to myself.
Luna of course was doing way better than I ever could and was able to kill off all of the remaining thugs while also blasting her way through the armoured door towards the next room.
“Well sis, you still got a life. Want to continue with me or not?” she asked me as she paused the game right before the first boss.
I simply thought it through for a few seconds before smiling and turning my attention back to dad.
“Hey dad how about you give it a try," I suggested to him while levitating the controller towards him.
“Oh no it’s ok Celly, I don’t want to intervene between you two and ruin your fun,” Dad digressed while holding his hand up defensively.
I simply continued to hold the controller up to him while still keeping my friendly smile at him.
“Why not, dad? You have been working so hard lately it would be a really good thing for you to finally lay back and have some fun with us, together as a family," I explained to him with a happy and encouraging smile on my muzzle.
After that dad finally nodded and agreement as he carefully grabbed the controller from my magical grip and sat himself down between me and Lulu.
“By the way, where is Matt? Wasn’t he with you a few moments ago?” I quickly asked him after realizing that one particular problem.
“Oh he, well he is currently in the kitchen making us some drinks as I recall, but I am sure he will realize where I am when he sees that I am no longer in the attic,” Dad answered with his own smile while giving Lulu the heads up to un-pause the game.
The rest of the evening was simply met with a lot of fun and well needed family time. It wasn’t long before Matt had to sadly leave us for the day but really not that sadly simply because it gave me the precious opportunity to be alone with dad for a while and to work with him a little bit in restoring the old broken Model.
Luna pretty much spent all of the evening playing around with her new/old NES and trying out all sorts of games on it, ranging from Mega Man 3 to Super Mario Bro’s. I really found it funny seeing her biting the controller in frustration when she was playing Ghosts’n Goblins and found out that she had to play through the entire game all over again in order to get the real ending.
In the end me and Lulu were utterly and completely exhausted and had decided to head to bed earlier than we would normally do. We quickly told our goodnights to dad as we got ourselves ready bed, finally bringing this extremely busy and exhausting day behind us.
“Hey…Dad?” I called out to him from my bed before he began to close the door behind him.
“Yes?” he responded from the doorway.
“Will you stay with us, like would you never ever leave us?” I asked him in all seriousness.
Dad of course was a bit surprised at my very unnatural question, but he soon looked at me with the same fatherly smile I so came to know and love since I was a filly.
“If you don’t want me to, then no, never. I will never leave you two…ever.” he answered me sincerely before finally stepping out and closing the door behind him.
I felt very happy to hear him say that and also very relieved knowing that he would always be there for us. But even still the feeling of this all being nothing but a past memory very soon was still lingering with in my mind and heart for some reason.
I quickly shook those thoughts out of my mind as I simply began to lay myself down onto my pillow and immediately close my eyes, and before I knew it I was out falling back into the lands of dreams, this time to far more pleasant ones than I had the previous night.