Zathura: Sibling is Magic

by SuperWriter2329

The Astronaut's True Story

Shining Armor was still feeling angry towards his little sister about the situation that has just occurred. Her constant cheating had nearly cost him his life, if it wasn't for the astronaut's fast thinking. Sure, he can still hold his breath, but it won't be for long since there was no oxygen in space. Still though, she even claimed that the game that they played can think? What kind of game that thinks, let alone feels that somepony cheated? Her explanation makes no sense at all! But, after a little bit of rethinking, it kinda did when he literally got sucked out of the castle.

Wait, maybe the game knew who's cheating and who's not! When you moved my piece back, the game reacts as if you're the cheater! Twilight's words on the game's abilities keeps ringing in his head. The more he thought about it, the more it actually make sense. And the more he made the assumption, the more he actually wanted to apologize for not believing her in the first place. So, after what felt like an hour of himself, he finally walked backed to the living room where the others are so that he can make truce long enough until they finally finished the game once and for all.

---

Twilight has finally calmed down after a full half hour of crying which caused her eyes to become red. Her friends stayed by her side for every second of it, including the time when she also has stopped bawling as well. After that, Pinkie Pie volunteered to make her some hot chocolate, in which she did so in a span of half a minute from when she said that she will do the task to disappearing and reappearing with a cup of the beverage without spilling a single drop of it. They decided to just leave it as Pinkie being Pinkie before addressing the young princess again.

"You okay now, Twilight?" Fluttershy asked, having been the one to be Twilight's hugging pillow.

"Yeah, I'm okay now. Thanks for the hot chocolate, Pinkie," Twilight said.

"Sure thing, Twilight! I would do anything to make you happy and smile all the time!" Pinkie happily cheered, which made the alicorn giggle a little, much to her friends' relief.

"You did now, Pinkie," she said. Then, everypony went into a group hug to make Twilight feel better.

Meanwhile, the astronaut was watching it all with a smile on his face, yet it shows signs of sadness thanks to his frowning eyebrows. During his time of being a stranded astronaut for a decade and a half, it has been quite lonely for him to travel all by himself and being unable to get back to his home world because this part of space is really unknown where there are a lot of Zorgons and other stuff that are just creepy and was beyond his imaginations. At least he found a few atmospheric planets with friendly residents to gather supplies or rest from his long journey.

However, he really misses his friends and family so much that it made him tear up. With tears slowly running down his cheeks, he closed his eyes as he thought back to his memories of his family that made him smile sadly.

I'm sorry, sis. I really am. I wish I could turn time back and start our relationship over, he mentally said.

"Um, are you crying?"

The astronaut looked back up to see the Mane Six looking at him, some with confusion and others with worry. Drying away his tears that matted his cheeks, he smiled and said, "Just reminiscing about something, that's all."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Twilight asked.

"Maybe later," he answered. The astronaut then got up from where he was sitting and said, "I'm gonna go find your brother and get him to apologize to you."

"That won't be necessary." A voice came from the same hallway Shining ran into, and sure enough, it was the stallion himself who said it. "I just came back for a temporary truce with Twilight so that we can finish the game faster." He then approached his alicorn sister and extended his hand for her to shake, but she slinked away in fear of him hurting her, which made him wince. "Look Twily, I know you're scared, and so did your friends and I. But I promise you we can work together for a while to finish the game, then we can go back to the way it was or something. What do you say?"

For a while, Twilight just sat there while taking in her brother's words. Playing the game seemed to have distanced them even further ever since they started. As time and turns progresses, they kept getting into fights and her friends have to be the ones to break it before things get worse. Even the astronaut, who had been called in one of her turns, did it as well. After a while, she finally made up her mind and slowly reached her hand out to Shining's.

"Okay, I will do it. But if you became distant towards me again or fought me, I'm leaving, got it?"

"Deal."

Seeing the siblings made up even for a while brings warmth in their hearts and smiles on their faces. Then, everypony gathered around the board game so that they can finish it together or fight off whatever the game might throw at them next. With the controls switched to Twilight, she turned the key and pushed the button after a few turns. A while later, the dial stopped at the number eight, her highest roll by far. When her red piece stopped moving, to everypony's shock, her piece stopped a space ahead of Shining's, which was exactly where he found the piece sitting before he tried to move it back and caused him to cheat. Shortly after, another card popped out from it's slot.

With shaky hands, the young princess took the card and read its contents. When she did, her right eye twitched and, with a black stare, said, "Seriously? 'Lose Map of Galaxy: Go Back 2 Spaces'?" As soon as she said it, her red piece moved back two spaces, now behind her brother's by one space. "Why am I always the unlucky one?" She continued before throwing the card away from over her shoulder in annoyance.

---

Unbeknownst to everypony, back in Spike's frozen bathroom, the room was no longer frozen as everything was back to normal and the water flowing normally in the hot tub. The baby dragon himself, who had also woken up from his cryonic sleep, stood up from where he was lying down to his confusion.

"Okay, that was weird..." he said before realizing something wrong with the temperature of the castle. He then walked out to the hallway, ignoring that his bedroom was messy, to check the thermostat that was outside of his bedroom. Sure enough, the temperature read thirty-five degrees instead of the usual ninety. With a groan, he went back inside to grab a ladder that was in his bathroom to change the temperature back. "Seriously, Twi? Did you really had to lower the temperature? I was about to go to my bath," the young drake complained.

After raising the temperature back to ninety degrees, he then went back inside one last time for his bubble bath, completely oblivious of the events that has occurred in the castle.

---

Meanwhile, back in the living room, Shining had taken his turn and the dial stopped at the number nine for his second time.

"Really, nine again? Why am I so lucky all of a sudden?" he proudly asked.

"Whatever," Twilight nonchalantly said.

After his blue piece finally stopped, another card came out, but this card was completely golden. Curious, he picked it up and read out its contents. "'Shooting Star: Make a Wish as It Passes'?" With a huge grin on his face, he continued, "Oh my Celestia, this has got to be the best card in the game! And I only had like, a couple more spaces before I won!"

"At least you won fair and square, Shining. And so did I too on some occasions!" the lavender alicorn replied.

"Yeah, right. By cheating, of course!"

"Shining, for the last time, I did not cheat! You're just jealous that I won some games fairly without using my magic. Hay, I even won out several staring contest without anything to make me win!"

"Yeah, excuses excuses. Maybe you subconsciously cast a spell that made me lose so that you can win?!"

The rest of the group looked at the bickering siblings in disbelief. They had just made truce with each other, and now they are fighting again. The astronaut tried to put an end to the fight, but it was of no avail as his words fell on deaf ears. However, he did not give up.

He then went over to the two fighting ponies and violently shook their shoulders to get their attention, which they did. "Look, this is seriously getting out of hand here! Could you please stop fighting each other for five bucking minutes?! Also Shining, can you please stop calling your sister a cheater?"

"I can call her whatever I want! I am the older sibling, after all!" the older sibling retorted back.

"Look, what makes you became really distrustful of your sister a lot?"

"You want to know why? Because she's the reason mom and dad nearly got divorced!"

The whole room became so quiet, the group could almost hear a pin drop in a distance. Tears began flowing down Twilight's cheeks again and, adding even more shock to everyone present, slapped her brother's face hard.

"I hate you. I bucking HATE you!" she shouted before running full speed towards her bedroom, sobbing all the way.

Her friends looked at Shining with angry looks on their faces. "Seriously, Shining? Seriously?! How dare you said that in front of her?!" Rainbow Dash yelled before flying towards him to get in his face. "Twilight's your sister, for crying out loud! Saying that means that you didn't want her as a sibling!"

"For once, Rainbow is making a point in this situation. Sure, Sweetie Belle and I didn't see eye to eye thanks to my workload of sewing dresses, but we always make time just hanging out together when she did not have her Crusader meeting with her friends," Rarity replied, agreeing with the speedy pegasus.

"Same goes for my own sister and Ah. We would always have fun together, even when we're down workin' on the farm. But it seems as if you didn't want anything to do with your sister and all," Applejack said.

"Yeah! Families always fight with each other, but not enough to completely hate each other. I may have three sisters, but we never fought a single time in our lives! Sure, Limestone can be a bit on the grumpy side, but that's who she really is! Unlike you," Pinkie replied with a hint of venom in her voice, especially the last sentence.

"And like I mentioned before, my brother and I didn't quite connect with each other, but at least he had a brain not to hurt my feelings," Fluttershy repeated her retort from earlier.

"You know what, girls? Forget it. Let him realise on his own that he made a huge mistake talking down on Twilight like that. I'm going to go check on our friend to see if she's okay," the rainbow maned pegasus said before flying off to the princess' bedroom to check on her, the others quickly following close behind.

Shortly after the rest of the Mane Six left the room, it was suddenly brightened with a light coming from outside. When the two remaining ponies looked out of one of the intact windows, they were in awe as a shooting star was slowly passing by the castle.

As Shining was about to give out his wish, the astronaut interrupted, "Don't do it."

"Do what, exactly?" the younger of the duo asked.

"Wishing for something while you are angry is never a good thing. I've been in this situation before, so trust me on this," his doppelganger replied.

As the star was about halfway across the castle, Shining finally made his wish, but it was unheard by the astronaut. When it finally passed by, the older one asked, "What did you wish for?"

"I'm sorry but I can't tell you," Shining replied back.

"Just tell me your wish."

"Look, why are you so-" The younger doppelganger didn't get to finish his sentence as the older one turned his whole body forcefully to face him.

"Tell me, what did you wish for, now!"

"Why? What did I do wrong?" Shining asked back, a bit surprised to see him act this way.

Fearing the worst, he left the Crystal Empire prince by the living room and ran towards Twilight's bedroom. "Twilight!" he yelled out, part of him wished that she was still around. He barged into the main bedroom, but his fears were confirmed when she wasn't in the room. The commotion was unheard by the rest of the Mane Six as they arrived seconds later. "Guys, have you seen Twilight?!"

"No, we can't find her anywhere," Rainbow replied. "Why? What happened?"

Just then, Shining walked into the bedroom with a seemingly rolled up poster in his hands. "Well, at least the wish worked."

The astronaut looked at his younger self and angrily said, "Yeah, it did work. Thanks to you, we're stuck in space forever now."

Confusion settled on Twilight's friends' faces. Before they even voice their confusion, a familiar voice called out from the main bathroom as the door leading to said room was opened. "What do you mean by 'stuck in space forever'?"

Sure enough, it was the alicorn herself emerging from the bathroom with red puffy eyes and streaks of tears on her cheeks, probably crying a lot from the hurtful comment her own brother made. Fluttershy quickly ran to the princess' side and said, "Twilight, are you okay?"

"Yes Fluttershy, I'm fine now. I just needed to get everything out of my system, that's all," Twilight replied, much to the others' relief.

For the astronaut, however, he was a bit confused as if he was expecting the worst outcome of the wish card that Shining got. Turning to the pony in question, he asked, "What exactly did you wish for?"

Shining held up the poster that was in his hands and unrolled it, revealing it to be a Wonderbolts poster with a signature from Spitfire, Soarin and Fleetfoot. "This. With some signature from some of the members."

"Seriously, Shining? You wasted your wish on a signed poster?" the young princess complained as she walked up towards her brother. "You could have just used your wish for all of us to go back home!"

"Look, it's not my fault! The astronaut kept pressuring me not to do something, so I panicked and wished for something else instead!" the ex Royal Guard captain defended, pointing to his seemingly older self.

The others, including Twilight, turned to look at the astronaut with odd looks on their faces. "Why did you yell at my brother?" the lavender alicorn asked.

Sighing, he was unable to keep up his facade and decided to tell them what had happened to him that got him stranded in space for fifteen years. He asked them to sit down before telling him his story. "Remember what I told you guys earlier about my own sister and I not being on good terms with each other?" he asked the group, who nodded in confirmation. "Actually, fifteen years ago, I played this game with her before. And yes, it was the worse decision I have ever made.

"The moment we started playing, we kept on fighting with each other and her friends, who got trapped in the same place where we played the game as well, were the ones who kept stopping the fights from getting worse. And the worst was when I landed on the wish card like Shining did earlier. I was so angry with my sister, I made my wish out of it."

"I'm afraid to ask, but what did you wish for?" the cyan pegasus asked nervously.

"I wished that my sister was never born," the astronaut replied.

"What?!" the Mane Six and Shining shouted in shock.

"Why in Equestria would you do that?!" Pinkie asked angrily.

"Like I said, out of anger. Seconds after I made that wish, I felt guilty for doing that. When I checked every single room for any signs of my sister, my fears were confirmed. She was no longer around." Tears began to well up in the stranded astronaut's eyes, the guilt seemed to have been weighing down on him greatly. "If only I could turn time back or just landed on another wish card, I will use it to bring her back. But I can't because it's not my turn."

No longer able to hold onto his emotions any longer, he broke down and cried, burying his face in his hands, not caring if anypony saw him cry. Then, the Mane Six gathered around the distraught unicorn and hugged him. He was a bit glad that these mares are quite helpful and always look up to their friends in dire situations or not.

After a few minutes, he calmed down and wiped his tears away with his sleeves. "Thanks, girls. My point is that not all games can be played alone, this game especially." He then turned to Shining. "Let me ask you this: Do you wanted to keep fighting with your sister or do you actually wanted to work together and no longer fight with her?"

Shining was in a hot seat right now. On one hand, he can make amends with Twilight and work together to finish the game once and for all. On the other, they could keep on distancing each other and they could get killed if so. Having no other choice, he walked up to his little alicorn sister. "Twily, I'm really sorry. And you were right. I was admittedly a bit jealous that you won some of the games that we played in the past. But the thing is that I was always so competitive and I looked like I had the advantage of something, but as it turns out, I don't.

"I honestly didn't want us to be like this any longer. So, what do you say, Twily? You wanna make amends?" he asked, holding out his hand with a genuine smile on his muzzle.

The young princess was a bit surprised that her brother wanted to apologize for what he did in the past and wished to make amends. With teary eyes, she did more than that and hugged him tightly, catching the stallion off guard. "I forgive you, Shiny. I really am."

Hearing her say his nickname given by their mother was enough to drop his shield and fully embraced Twilight and kissed her on the forehead as a way of saying that he do care about her now and wanted to spend time with her not fighting her ever again. The others watched the siblings finally made amends with each other, some of them misty eyed from seeing the loving and gentle kiss from the older brother to the younger sister.

A while later, the two finally broke free from their embrace before Twilight realized something was wrong. "Guys, is it just me or is the castle getting a little bit hotter by the second?"

"Wait, what?" the unicorn astronaut said in disbelief. He turned to his younger doppelganger again and asked, "You did blow out the fire in the fireplace, didn't you?"

"Ummmm.... Funny story, but there is a self fixing killer robot in the basement and I did not want to go there. So, I just changed the temperature of the thermostat that was near Spike's bedroom," Shining explained.

Just then, Pinkie said out of nowhere, "Uh, guys? My Pinkie Sense is tingling like crazy right now!"

"I got a pretty good feeling what it is, but I still need to ask, what is it?" Fluttershy asked timidly and nervously.

Her answer was questioned seconds after she voiced when a large crashing sound that came from the living room. It surprised them a lot that some of them screamed in fright, Rainbow being the loudest and the most feminine of them. Everyone looked at the speedy pegasus in confusion and awe of the sound that came from her. The pegasus blushed in embarrassment as they heard her feminine scream.

Ignoring the scream, the astronaut left to check the living room after telling the others to stay behind, but they followed regardless. Once they arrived at the dilapidated room, they all gasped in shock and horror as a huge section of the living room was completely gone, some of the castle debris still floating in deep space.

"I knew it, it was the Zorgons work again," the older doppelganger of Shining said.

"Yeah, we kinda took a little guess on that as well," Applejack said.

"Guys, where's the game?" the shy pegasus asked, pointing at a spot where they last saw the game.

"Great. Now what are we gonna do? The game is the only way back and now they are going to burn it," Twilight sadly said.

The astronaut, however, did not give up. "There is one thing we can do. Come on, let's head back to the library! I have a plan to lure the Zorgons to us so that we can retrieve the game from them!" Needing no more encouragement, the Mane Six and Shining followed him to the library. Hopefully this plan of his works, otherwise they will be stuck in space forever without any way of getting back to Equestria safely.

Author's Note:

Oh no! The Zorgons have possession of the game now! And they are going to burn it?! Our heroes need to find a way to get it back before they ended up stuck in space forever!

Well, I'm back, folks! Sorry for the long delay, thanks to my college lessons getting in the way. Hopefully, I can get as many more chapters out as I possibly can for all of you!

Also, feel free to leave a comment if you spotted any mistakes. Stay tuned for more Zathura: Sibling is Magic!