Chapters Best Siblings Together, Forever Until the End
Chapter 1 (MK III)
It’s a beautiful afternoon, at 5:30, down in Australia. Everything is together in harmony. A pity it would not be like this for long…
Anyway, where was I? Oh, yes: But in one house, in a small town in Queensland, where our story is to begin, there is a disagreement between a father and son. As we zoom in on that house, we see its simple appearance, then we zoom into a living room, a 3-4 metre room with a large LCD TV on top of a 3-part varnished cupboard furthest away from the front windows. There are DVD cases of all types on top of the cupboard, from The X-Files to Gurren Lagann and even The Pink Panther. There is a white couch stretching along the back and side of it, with pillows of all variations on it. An air conditioner blares above to the top left, as a dog mat lies on the ground, on top of a carpet.
But none of these are our focus; no, what we are here to observe is instead the man with the shaved head and glasses and the young boy with dark hair facing each other, and the older boy with blond hair that is in between the two of them in height standing next to them…
“No, this is your fault!”
“You weren’t doing what I told you to!”
“That’s because you all hate me!”
I sigh sadly. “Could you please calm down?” I ask, stressed.
But my little brother Elliot keeps slinging insults at Daddy, and he in turn speaks sternly towards my brother. It’s a shame that Mummy’s out at a concert and isn’t home to stop them arguing.
“That’s it!” Daddy finally snaps, after a few more minutes of the back and forth arguing. “You’re banned from all electronics, including TV, for a month!”
Elliot’s about to speak back, but then closes his mouth, realising he’s just going to be punished more if he does. Then, he glares at me venomously, walks past Daddy, and elbows me in my arm as he walks by, through the kitchen, turns left, enters his room and slams his door hard.
Oh, I haven’t introduced myself yet. My name is Isaac, I’m a 15-year old, a brony, a gamer, a player of ‘Yu-Gi-Oh!’, a connoisseur of Croissants, Cakes, Chocolate, Chicken Noodles and Chips (plus tea and rice), a reader, an all-around laze-about, and an Australian.
All in all, a rather good combination if you ask me.
Now then, where are we…? Oh, yes, my little brother going to his room because he’s angry.
Eheh, I don’t think I should go on any electronics today, because honestly, right after Elliot being banned for a month, asking to go on the computer is a bit… inappropriate.
Instead, I walk to my room, close the door, turn on the lamp-light next to my red-sheeted bed and red blinds, and pick up a book from my floor; The Redemption of Althalus is its title. Reading from where I left off, I smile at the refreshing hard fantasy book, its strict adherence to most laws of physics making me comfortable; personally, a theory of mine was that it was set in a virtual reality simulation and the spells used in it were like cheat-codes or console commands. Also, the fact that someone could control quantum-entagled doors was interesting too.
And like they all say, time really flies when you’re having fun, because when I look up after what feels like a few minutes to check the time on the outside clock, it already says 9:00. I’m feeling rather tired, though, which is strange for 9:00 at night. Yawning, I cover my mouth, and slide myself under the covers of my bed. I drift off to sleep.
/)(\
I blink my eyes open blearily. “Darn it…” I groan. It’s still late at night. But for some reason, I can hear… speaking? Quickly getting out of my bed, I open my door, and spare a glance at the small black clock on the cupboard, while also noting the glow coming from the front room. I walk out, rubbing my eyes to rid them of the sleep which plagues them. But when I reach there, I do a double take.
It’s Elliot sitting there, watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I walk up to him. Sitting down on the couch next to him, I sigh. “Shouldn’t you be in bed right now?” I ask him.
Elliot looks at me, and he glares. My face takes on a sad appearance. “I’m sorry…” I say.
“Sorry? You’re not sorry!” he snorts. “You hate me!”
“No, I don’t.” And then I go to hug him, all my love flowing through my heart.
For a few seconds, he fights against the hug, but then, he softens and embraces me back. “I love you too…” he says, his face sad and on the verge of tears. Then, the flow comes out, and his eyes close, as if to stop the tears of vulnerability from coming out. “I’m soooorrrry!”
I just hold him, coming
That’s when the first bomb falls.
The world has been teetering on the edge of disaster for a while now; there were tensions between many countries, and the most recent act of Australia was the straw that broke the camel’s back: its refusal to trade with China. And so, an incredibly right-wing political faction went to destroy Australia; they stole a nuclear bomber and dropped the bomb on a random part.
However, this is not our story. Our story is the story of the two children who were hugging each other. Unknown to them, the nuclear bomb, combined with the love of the two, awakened a power; a special power that very few before them had inside. It was the power of magic.
High up in the cosmic skies, beyond the perception of humanity, the One Above All, the Presence, God, Ra, and whatever other names the highest being had gained, looked down upon the Earth in this small dimension. And He said Let them go, free unto their destinies. For He had forseen their future; it was not a bright one at first, but it would be in the end.
And so, the last trace of these two young men on this world was the two of them hugging, then disappearing in a flash of light as the explosive wave reached them.
But
/)(\
(3000 years before the redemption of Nightmare Moon, 1000 years before Hearth’s Warming)
A hut stands in a valley. It is not large; rather, it is a small hut, barely large enough to fit a single room. It has a small window facing out the front, and a covering with a fire pit under it out that same front.
A white unicorn mare looks out the window into the raging blizzard, the whiteness of the snow almost blinding her, her red mane flowing down her head. She snorts. ‘Why must those pegasi always cause storms for us? Even so, at least they are not as belligerent as those mud ponies; a shame on them for thinking they are not inferior.’ Then, looking around her down-trodden hut, the planks of wood broken in some places, and haphazardly repaired in others, with only a single cupboard and a sheet on the ground with a pillow for a bed, she shakes her head. ‘Why do I kid? I’m not superior at all to those Earth ponies or Pegasus ponies. And besides, those thoughts are poisonous to my head. I only have them because of who I hung around when I visited the castle recently...’ She shudders, recalling how unpleasant those ponies were.
Then, without warning, when the unicorn looks back, she sees a bright flash that blinds her for a few seconds. She blinks, to clear away the glare, and then sees something.
Or more specifically, two things.
Lying on the ground are two ponies, one dark blue and the other white, with the white-coated one being an inch or so larger than the blue one.
Her curiosity quickly turning to horror, the unicorn kicks down the shoddy wooden door, and, ignoring the cold as best she can, begins to approach the two unconscious ponies.
As she walks up to them, she notices something off about them. She recognises them as mares now, one with a pink mane, and the other with a mane matching her coat colour but slightly lighter. At first, she thinks it’s the fact that they have no Cutie Marks, but she has an instinctive feel that that’s not it.
Until she realises that they have both wings and a horn.
She gasps. “W-Winged unicorns!” she exclaims. “But there have not been any Alicorns for centuries!” Slowly, her face turns from one of determination, as she thinks to herself ‘I cannot let them die in the cold! That would be like an act of treason to the pony race! And nopony deserves to die in cold storms such as these!’ Finally, her decision made, she takes the white one in her right hoof and lifts the smaller blue one with telekinesis, and drags them into her house. Lowering them gently to the ground, she takes out one of her spare beds, then moves the white mare to her bed and the blue mare to the other bed. Then, wearily, she lies on the stone floor of her hut. “I hope they shall be okay…” she mutters, her eyes closing as she falls asleep.
Best Siblings Together, Forever Until the End
Chapter 2
‘Ugh… I feel like I just got hit by a train…’
Those are my first thoughts as I fade into consciousness. And indeed, it does; it’s freaking painful . I groan, my mind aching like it never has before.
“Oh, thank goodness! You’re awaking! I was just getting on the stew.” I stiffen. I don’t recognize that voice. It sounds like it belongs to a woman, though. But why would I trust any voice that I woke up to, that I didn’t know before today? My logical deduction complete, I attempt to open my eyes, but my head aches too much for that to happen. Likewise, I try to stand up, pushing at the ground with my forearms, which feel slightly wrong somehow, but after a few more seconds of near unbearable pain, I slump to wherever I’m lying. It seems soft, but also hard underneath it. I just hope that whoever did this to us isn’t a kidnapper… The odds of that aren’t looking good, though. After a few seconds of silence, I finally form the courage to say a sentence.
“Where… am I…?” I croak in a raspy voice, my throat burning from the simple motion of forming three words. It sounds slightly odd, but I’m quite sure that’s just something to do with my headache.
“I found you in the snowstorm outside. You sure are lucky that nothing else discovered you before I did,” the woman, and potential kidnapper, says. My mouth drops open.
But that- that’s not possible! I live too far up north, too close to the equator, for snowstorms to happen!
After a few moments of silence, and my mouth closing, she continues. “See, the Pegasi just HAPPENED to have a snowstorm scheduled for today, on the day of the Winter Celebration.” Wait, pegasi? But they don’t exist – and scheduling weather is only something that happens in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, right? And what’s a Winter Celebration? I mentally wave it off, though; she must be using them like a religious figure, and the Winter Celebration must just be a holiday that I’ve never heard of before. “But never mind that,” the woman says. “Open up. You need to eat.” Well, that reduces the likelihood that she’s a kidnapper by like, 15%. Most kidnappers don’t say that people need to eat.
My mouth opens, and I smell something delicious coming towards my mouth. Opening my mouth, I feel a large wooden spoon go into it. Slurping up the stew, I feel several vegetables, including broccoli, carrot, and squash, go into my mouth, and chew on them before swallowing them. The pain in my body begins to fade away. Wow, I didn’t know that something like this could ease up pain.
As if sensing my thoughts, the woman says “This is a special recipe; it helps ease up the pain in your limbs. I noticed you and your friend were both knocked out, and I’m quite sure that that would hurt. It did, did it not?” I nod at her question, but then pause.
Me and my friend? Does that mean Elliot is here? “My friend? Do you mean my brother?” I repeat my thoughts, once again in that rasp, and then slurp slightly on the stew again.
There’s a pause, and the spoon is taken out of my mouth, as I’ve finished the. “If your brother is a young, blue mare? Then yes, I suppose she is your brother, although I suppose a more appropriate term would be sister.” There’s humour in the woman’s voice as she says it. Wait, wait, wait. The person who came with me is a young blue filly? But fillies can only be blue in the My Little Pony series. I have to check this out. I open my eyes slightly, coincidentally as I smell the stew coming towards me once more.
I see the spoon, but for a few seconds, it seems… wrong. Then, I realise why.
My eyes open fully, focusing completely on the spoon, which is floating, unsupported, with a red aura around it . “Agh! Ghost!” I shout in that raspy voice. Pushing myself up, I try to jump back from the spoon, but instead fall on my back. “Owww…” I groan, my head hitting a stone-like floor, and look up at the wooden roof. The spoon retreats over my head, and I hear it hitting a wooden surface.
But then in my peripheral vision, I notice a blue lump over to the right, with a lighter blue patch on top of it… as well as a white lump going from both sides of my face to form a point in front of my eyes. I can’t see my nose either; just this lump. Experimentally, I sniff, and the sides of the point of the lump squash in slightly. Then, I hear the sound of hooves hitting wood. And above my face, a white, horselike, but slightly weird and reminiscent of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, head with red hair and blue eyes and a horn comes into view. “What, never seen telekinesis before?” the unicorn (because that’s the only possible thing that it could be) that has the voice I’ve been hearing says.
My eyes widen, then my pupils dilate. “AAAAAAAGH! A TALKING UNICORN!” I scream, sounding a lot like a girl.
“Excuse me, but could you please not be so rude?” says the unicorn, looking affronted. “And have you taken a look in the mirror lately, young mare?”
My eyes widen. “Young… mare?” I ask.
“Yes, of course; why do you ask? Do you not know that you are a mare?” the unicorn says, a look of confusion flashing upon her face.
No… this can’t be… This just can’t be! It’s not possible! Turning into both a horse and a mare at the same time? That’s, that can’t be, possible! I look down at my body, my chin touching my chest, and parting the fur which I just noticed has grown upon my skin. Where normally there would be a thing, I see nothing. No, no, no no no! I didn’t want this to happen! And my parents, I’ll never see them again, never, ever, ever! Even if they won’t recognize me, I want my parents back! But, just before I would begin crying, I shake my head. ‘No. Don’t panic. Just remember what the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy says, and don’t panic,’ I think. It helps me calm down at least a little.
‘Alright. This means one of three things. A: I’m in Equestria, and some wormhole sucked me and Elliot in while we were hugging, while in the process transforming us into a white and blue mares. B: I’m dreaming. C: I’m in a world like the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic world, and all the ponies just look weirdly like the ponies from the show.’ I frown slightly. ‘But B is out, considering I’ve felt pain before. Also, Occam’s Razor dictates that if there are two possibilities, which there are, then the one which is the least likely is not true, and the most likely one is true, no matter how unlikely it is. And I’m pretty sure that there wouldn’t be just something that looks like a pony from My Little Pony on a different planet. So that just leaves option A.’ I grin a little at my deduction
But I do notice two feathery things along my sides. ‘Cool, that means I’m a Pegasus,’ I think, in an attempt to take my mind off of the . Bringing up my white fur-covered arm, I flinch, as I see a hoof. Yes, not a hand, but a hoof. Yet another reminder of my loss of humanity… Then, I poke at the thing on my side.
I giggle slightly. ‘Hey, it tickles when I touch it.’ Then, I try to move it.
It inches out a tiny bit… then stops. But then, I shake my head. ‘Not now, Isaac; this isn’t the time to be messing around! This is the time to find out why you’re here, and what happened to you. And don’t panic. You have to get back to your parents.’ Then, I look back up at the unicorn.
“Are you done playing with yourself?” she asks. I nod, if a bit sheepishly. She smiles. “That is good,” she says.
“Can I have a mirror please?” I ask slightly quietly. It seems that this raspy voice is the one I’ll be having for quite a while now, so I might as well get used to it… I don’t think that I will be able to get used to being… female, though.
The unicorn thinks for a second, then nods. “Sure. Just let me retrieve it.”
As she trots off, the sound of her hooves hitting the floor breaking the silence, I examine the roof. It looks rather hodge-podge, and mixed together with many different types of wooden planks. ‘Huh, that’s a surprise. I would think that Equestrian architecture was more modern than that,’ I think. Then, looking over to the left, away from the blue lump that is most likely Elliot (who is going to have a surprise when he wakes up., I see a door, and a window, with a snowstorm raging outside of it. The walls are wooden, and cracked in various places, with haphazardly-placed planks over where I would assume there are gaps in the woodwork.
Then, I hear her trotting back over. “Here,” she says. “Oh, and I never told you my name, did I? It’s Fauren.” Huh, her name is Fauren. That’s rather unique… It’s pretty cool, too.
I push down on the ground with my front hooves, marvelling at the angle which I’m using them (they seem more like arms than legs) then use my back leg muscles to propel me forward, into a forwards position. Then, shuffling my lower flank around, I rotate towards Fauren. While I do this, I ask her “Is there a possibility I could see the Princess about this?”
There’s another pause. “I… don’t believe that Princess Palladium would be happy to see one such as you.”
Princess Palladium? This must be before Princess Celestia came, then, or at least before she became Princess. ‘But what did she mean by ‘one such as you’?’ I think.
But as soon as I finish shuffling around, I see what Fauren means. And all the calmness that I have gathered within the last few minutes is shattered.
No. This isn’t possible. I’m just seeing things.
Those aren’t purple eyes.
That’s not a horn on my head.
My hair isn’t pink.
I’m not an alicorn.
But I know , deep down, that I’m not just seeing things. I know the faceof the pony looking at me from the mirror.
I’ve seen it in a lot of pictures. It's on a lot of fanfiction covers as well.
It’s the face of a younger Princess Celestia.
Best Siblings Together, Forever Until the End
For the next few minutes, I just sit there, looking at my new face and think. It’s a face that I know definitely does not belong to me, mostly because it belongs to a fictional princess who is much more powerful than I would ever hope to be.
‘This… this isn’t possible!’ I think to myself once more. ‘This body, it doesn’t belong to me… it belongs to someone else! Someone who is far, far more deserving of it than just some random human boy! And someone who is also far more comfortable in it, too…’ I mentally sigh. ‘I probably also have my parents really, really worried, and I’m in a new world that is completely alien to me, as a female. This, this can’t, it just can’t be happening… except it is, because I remember quite distinctly feeling pain when I woke up. But what am I going to do now?’
“Hello? Are you well?” Fauren says, poking her head around the side of the mirror and interrupting my thoughts.
I look at her. “This isn’t me,” I say, holding back tears as I point to my wings with a hoof, and then tap my horn with the same hoof.
She looks slightly confused now. “Of course that is you! Why would you not believe that you are yourself?”
I shake my head. “No, I mean, this body doesn’t belong to me! It belongs to someone else, who is a lot more worthy of it!” I sniff. “I, I didn’t want this,” at this, I gesture towards my whole body, “to happen!” A tear wells up in both of my eyes.
“Do you mean that you were not as you appear now originally?” asks Fauren, levitating the mirror away from me, and setting it down on the table.
I nod, sniffling, and stair. “I- I was just normal, a normal per-pony, I never asked for this, this horn, or these wings!” And with that, the tears flow from my eyes.
‘My parents…
‘My dog…
‘My friends…
‘My… family…
‘Will I never see them again…?’
Then, a voice interrupts my thoughts. “I’m sorry.” And I feel like I’m being embraced.
I stiffen. ‘She’s… hugging me?’ And indeed, Fauren is hugging me. For the first few seconds I feel uncomfortable, tears still rolling down my face, but then I feel something, like… a warmth or something. Whatever it is, though, it comforts me, and makes my crying stop.
She finishes hugging me, and lets me go. Then stepping back a bit, she looks me in the eye determinedly. “I promise that I will help you get back to your normal body, or at least do whatever I can to help you.” And even though I know that she probably can’t help me, and doesn’t believe me, it still comforts me.
“Th-thanks,” I say quietly, sniffing. I wipe my face with my hoof, the cold keratin-like surface soothing my skin slightly.
She smiles serenely. “No problem. I am just happy to help. I’m sure that anypony else would have done the same in a situation like this.” At that last part, she flicks her eyes over to the left slightly, after which they seem unsure for a second or two. But before I can ask her what that means, I hear a groan. It’s coming from the direction of the blue filly Elliot has turned into. “Ah, your sister is awakening. I shall tend to her with some of the same stew.” She turns around, and for the first time, I see her cutie mark as she walks towards a worn old wooden table, with holes all over it. It’s a quill, with an ink pot behind it. It seems familiar for some reason, but I can’t place why it does…
Then, for the first time, I look over in the direction of the blue filly that, as I lay my eyes on her, I can instinctively feel my little brother is, and my mouth drops open once more.
I’ve seen that filly before; several times, even, from various pieces of artwork and fanfiction covers. She, like the pony whose body I appear to have, is a very important pony in the history of the MLP-verse.
‘He’s been turned into Princess Luna’s likeness…’ I think, marvelling at the coincidence. Mentally, I compare the hair, coat, and shape to my image of Princess Luna. Everything seems to be a match… But it’s also creepy how my brain immediately associates his current appearance with him.
“Ugh… What happened?” Elliot groans, in a high, feminine voice that’s more befitting of his current appearance than his old one was.
Of course, his voice causes me to giggle slightly. Then, I stop, thinking ‘Don’t giggle; that isn’t really nice. And besides, he could have noticed it.’ I wait, with bated breath, to see whether or not he noticed it.
After a few seconds of bated breath, I release a sigh. Then, I freeze, as Elliot’s mouth opens once more and says “Is anyone there?”
Thankfully, before I need to answer, Fauren speaks up. “Open your mouth, please. You need to eat.” Then, she starts walking back over towards Elliot, who I notice was set down head towards the table, rather than head away. She levitates the spoon, which I just now notice is on the table, towards a large wooden bowl also set on the table. It dips into the bowl, causing a small quantity of water with mushrooms in it to slosh out, and comes out of the bowl. Looking over at her, I notice a reddish aura surrounding her horn, appearing more like one of those laser lights when going through fog and spreading, with the horn simply gaining a slightly red sheen. Rather curious if you ask me.
Elliot’s mouth opens, and the spoon goes into it. He slurps it into his mouth. His eyes open. “That was really good!” he says, enthusiastically. Before realising what he’s seeing.
“Aaaaaaaaagh!”
Fauren looks like she’s been offended, but before she can berate Elliot, I speak up. “Calm down! It’s okay, Elliot!” I say hurriedly.
He looks over me and his blue-irised eyes widen. “…Isaac?” he says softly.
“Yes,” I nod, smiling. He smiles back.
After a few seconds of smiling at each other, he finally says “Isaac? Who is that pony, why are you a girly-looking pony with a weird voice, and how do I still know that you’re you?”
I sigh. “To the second question, Elliot, I don’t know. About the third, her name is Fauren, and she’s nice. But to the first…” I vibrate what passes for my lips, as I’ve done before this started. Better to just get this over with. I lean in close, and whisper into his ear, “That’s because I’ve been turned into a female pony… but I wasn’t the only one of us who was.” Then, I turn to Fauren. “Could you please show him the mirror?”
“I would be happy to,” Fauren says, her face a carefully neutral expression. Her horn lights up red once more, and the mirror floats in front of Elliot’s face.
As the mirror comes to rest in front of his bed, he looks into it, and does the thing that I would expect him most to do.
“Aaaagh!”
He screams in shock.
Best Siblings Together, Forever Until the End
“Calm down! It’s gonna be alright!” I say to Elliot, my voice cracking slightly as I attempt to reassure him. Instead, he just stands there, staring at his blue-coated reflection with his mouth still open from the loud scream. I wait for a few seconds, before tentatively waving my hand – no, hoof - in front of the mirror and his field of vision. “…Uh, Elliot? You okay there?” Elliot shakes his head, and pushes the mirror away from his face, glaring at me.
Fauren, noticing Elliot do that, levitates the mirror towards the table, her neutral face changing into a worried one. Elliot’s mouth, which until now has seemed relatively controlled, transforms into a sneer. “Did you do this?” he asks, in a low, menacing voice.
“Why would I do something like this? More importantly, how would I do something like this?” I ask Elliot, looking him in the eye. His eyes go to the left for a few seconds, looking ashamed, before coming back to me with his glare returning in full force.
“You did it by… I don’t know! But I know that you did it!” he says. I groan. Yes, he is always this stubborn.
“So you’re saying that it’s my fault that we’re female winged unicorns on a faraway planet, possibly even universe, but you don’t know how it’s my fault?” I ask, my raspy voice taking on a more incredulous tone.
“Yes, it was your fault!” Elliot says, his eyes still meeting mine. Oh now it is ON .
“No it wasn’t!”
“Yes it was!”
I hear a small clattering, but ignore it, instead focusing on Elliot.
“No!”
“Yes!”
The volume of the clattering increases, but now there are some smashing sounds, and I can feel my body shaking slightly.
“No!”
“QUIET!”
Instantly, both Elliot and I quiet down at Fauren’s shout, which draws our attention to her; I can’t hear any clattering anymore either. She looks at me heatedly for a few seconds, her stare, for some reason, being the scariest thing I’ve ever seen. And I’ve played SCP Containment Breach. “You! Why are you being so immature? You cannot simply resolve this in a civilised manner?!” Then, her gaze turns to Elliot, who squeaks and holds his front legs in front of his eyes, attempting to hide from the terrifying look in Fauren’s eyes. “And you! Why did you not believe your sibling when she simply tried to tell you she was not responsible for this?!” I wince at the use of the pronoun ‘she’ as opposed to ‘he’. Fauren, however, just scowls, and looks at the both of us together. “If you are siblings, why do you not act like them?! Apologize, now! ” she shouts.
I turn my head back to Elliot. “I’m sorry,” I say quietly, looking down dejectedly.
“’m srry,” Elliot whispers back, his hooves out of his eyes as he looks up at me with a sad look on his face… which is almost the cutest thing that I’ve ever seen! ‘Must… Resist… Oh, dammit, I can’t!’ Tentatively, I reach out to him with my front legs, and wrap my front legs around him.
Elliot stiffens slightly, then relaxes, and hugs me back… until we are promptly interrupted.
“As much as I hate to break up this moment, I need to ask inquire about something,” Fauren says. “Are you aware that your poor control over your magic caused the room to shake? And several of my cups and bowls to break?”
Oh yeah, that’s right; Elliot and I have magic now. “Uh, sorry?” I say, grinning nervously at Fauren, while gently lowering Elliot to the ground. He squirms a little, but flops down onto his belly (rather cutely, if you ask me) when he hits the sheet.
“No need to apologize; I’ve always thought that I owned a bit too many cups,” Fauren says, waving a hand dismissively and smiling slightly, in what seems to be a mischievous way. Then her face turns serious. “But you need to learn how to control your magic. You could honestly hurt somepony if you get seriously angry.”
“How do we learn that, then?” I ask curiously.
Elliot nods. “Yeah, how do we learn to control our magic?” I look at him in the corner of my eye, and notice his eyes are enormous, and almost sparkling with excitement.
“Oh, such enthusiastic young fillies,” Fauren chuckles, and Elliot and I flinch almost unnoticeably. “Magic is not something that one can just control on a whim! No, it is a long and arduous process, learning magical control! First, you must start small.” But then she sighs. “It will have to wait until you are completely recovered from your current condition, though; I am sure you still ache somewhat from when I recovered you.” Elliot sighs sadly,
“Yeah, about that…” I say, looking at Fauren curiously. “How did notice us, anyway? If it was such a heavy snowstorm, that is.”
Fauren looks at me, and smirks slightly. “It is not that hard to notice a flash of white light brighter than even a blizzard like the one that has gone on for over a day now,” she says with humour in her voice.
Well, that explains a part of it… but wait. “A flash of bright light?” I ask. “Why would there be a flash of light when we appeared?”
Fauren’s face sours slightly, and she sighs, shaking her head. “I don’t know. The only real thing that I have heard of that creates a flash of light before a pony appears is a teleportation spell, and the flash is the colour of the unicorn’s magical aura. And earlier, when your magic reacted to your emotions, I noted that there was a yellow sheen around your horn,” she points at me, and I wince slightly, because that’s yet another thing that likens me to Princess Celestia, “and you had a blue magical aura.” This time, she points at Elliot, who is listening intently. “So, I do not know what that may have been.”
Inwardly, I sigh. ‘So much for her knowing what happened to us…’ I mentally grumble.
/)(\
(The capital of the Unicorn Kingdom)
Aura Reader trots down the hallway towards King Ferrus’ private dining room. He is nervous.
He isn’t the first of the King’s court magicians, and likely isn’t going to be the last, either, but he needs the job to keep his wife and young filly fed. He gulps. He needs to let the king know, now. But he is afraid of what will happen after that…
He has heard stories of ponies interrupting the King’s activities before, of course. All of them ended with the pony in question being executed. But those were simply stories, of course! It wasn’t like the king would actually do that… right?
So entrenched is he in his mind, that he doesn’t even notice that he has almost reached the dining room until it is simply a metre in front of him. He looks upon the door, and gulps once more. It is a menacing colour of red; a colour that puts him in mind of one thing.
Blood.
Tentatively, he reaches his dark green hoof up to the door and knocks.
“Come in,” says the King. His voice is muffled, but even with it so, Aura can feel that the voice is simply wrong .
Pushing the door open, Aura trots in, and puts on an air of confidence. “Your highness,” he says, bowing. “I have news of utmost importance.”
“Ah, yes; what is it, Magician Reader?” asked the King casually, his magic ring glinting menacingly off of his red-coloured horn. He is picking at a chicken leg, the sight of the meat causing bile to rise in Aura’s throat. Some ponies did eat meat, but it was generally viewed as disgusting; not that he would say that to the King, of course.
Steeling himself, Aura begins. “One day ago, there were 2 enormous magical spikes somewhere in the wilderness. The spikes were incredibly powerful, though, so I couldn’t pinpoint the locations. I did some calculations, however, and…” Aura gulps, a common occurrence for him recently, “…the last time such enormous magical signatures were detected where when the last known alicorns appeared.”
The king smiles unpleasantly. It isn’t a horrible smile, by any indicators, but there is just something that seems wrong about it. “How interesting.” Then, he looks at his chicken leg once more. “Guards,” he calls out. “Execute him.”
Aura steps back, horrified, as two guards appear from seemingly nowhere, brandishing enormous battleaxes with their telekinesis. “Why, your highness?!” he exclaims.
The king’s smile had never once left his face. “You interrupted my dinner.” And with that, a battleaxe falls, and there is no longer an Aura Reader.
“Ugh.” The king wipes away at his now blood-spattered robe, his smile turning into a sneer. “Why do they always have to be so messy?” He waves at his guards. “Clean it up.”
The guards bow their head, and drag away the corpse. Meanwhile, King Ferrus Hoof smiles, the emotion still seeming wrong on his face. “With these new alicorns, I shall finally destroy that pathetic resistance that has risen against me.”
On this day, if anypony else were to near the private dining room, they would hear laughing that sounds like it came from the mouth of a beast of Tartarus.
Best Siblings Together, Forever Until the End
It’s been around three days since Elliot and I were found by Fauren, and two since the blizzard has died down. And those three days have been boring most of the time.
I mean, come on , what did you expect? Appearing somewhere in a foreign land which has no technology at all and somehow managing to have fun? Needless to say, real life isn’t half as clear-cut as what people think. For instance, once we introduced ourselves a short time after , Fauren could walk (it was rather easier than you’d expect), Fauren had made us do all sorts of physical activities; push ups, pull ups, and other stuff like that.
She also, God knows why, made Elliot and I balance a bowl full of boiling water on our heads for like, 3 hours at a time; we were meant to picture the bowl staying on our heads, while our eyes were closed. When I asked why, Fauren simply giggled, and said “You’ll find out.”
I wasn’t really impressed with that answer.
Oh, and another thing! Fauren occasionally went out to go buy stuff for Elliot and I, and herself of course. Which reminds me; yesterday, she came back and, to both Elliot’s and my surprise, had presents for both of us, wrapped in a leaf-like substance. I know, I know, she gave us presents just a few days after meeting us?
When we ripped them open, though, what we saw made us… unenthusiastic, to say the least.
It was a dress for each of us. A freaking dress .
Elliot had protested, saying “I don’t wanna wear a dress! Dresses are for girls!”
“Yes, and you are fillies, are you not?” was Fauren’s response. Then, her face had taken on a serious look, as she had said “Look, if anypony sees your wings, it’ll be bad, to say the very least. Be thankful that I simply got you a plain white dress, and you,” she had pointed at me then, “a dark blue dress, as I have seen how you are such tomcolts.” And before we could protest, she just telekinetically dumped the bowls on us again, and asked us to continue.
As you’re probably aware, I’m really annoyed that I’ll have to wear a dress to go out in public, mostly because it would subtract from my masculinity levels. (And that’s not even mentioning just how much the blue will clash with my white coat, and vice versa for my little brother!) Not that they were that high recently to start with, what with, you know, me transforming into a carbon copy of a younger-looking Princess Celestia. Who is a girl.
Have I mentioned that I want to be a guy again? Because this is not cool.
Anyway, what’s happening now? Oh, yeah, that’s right. Right now, it’s night-time, and we’re doing that same thing I told you about earlier, where she just puts the bowl on our head and makes us balance it. It’s gotten a LOT easier, now, to the point that Elliot and I can do it almost subconsciously; we can almost feel the bowl.
Speaking of that… “Hey, Fauren? Why do we still have to do this? It’s gotten really easy,” I say.
She chuckles. “Why don’t you two see for yourselves?” After a short pause, she says, in an amused tone, “I mean, you can open your eyes now.”
My eyes open blearily, and I blink to clear away the blurriness, the image of Fauren smiling. “…I don’t see anything,” I deadpan.
“Neither do I,” Elliot says, his voice seeming slightly disappointed.
Fauren sighs. “Just wait for a short bit, alright? It’s not like I can show you instantly what I have seen before.” Her horn glows, and I notice from behind her the mirror that she used a few days ago to help us see ourselves in the mirror lifting off of the oak, rat-eaten table, it glowing with the same aura that her horn does. Then, it floats towards me, at a leisurely pace, before finally resting in front of my head…
…revealing my new horn glowing a golden sheen, and the bowl that appears to be stuck to my head.
My eyes widen, and my mouth opens up like that of a goldfish; I shake my head to clear the thoughts out of it, but when I look back at the mirror, the bowl is still there, in the exact same place as it was before I shook my head. I quickly take stock of all the facts: That my horn is glowing, the bowl on top of my head hasn’t moved at all since I first saw it, and that it has the same aura as my horn. “I’m… keeping it there with my magic?” I ask.
Fauren smiles, and levitates it towards Elliot, showing him his reflection in the mirror. “I see that you catch on rather quickly. A shame that you couldn’t do so with your magic…” She frowns, a strange sight on her face. “Normally, unicorns who use this method of training catch on within the first hour, not after nine, like you and your younger sibling have. Even the most powerful unicorn that I have met only took three or so hours to learn it using this method.”
“So… we’re slower than unicorns to learn?” I ask, my eyes looking down sadly.
Fauren frowns. “No, that’s not it; in fact, considering the immense amount of magic that I felt you two exuding several days ago, I would say that if you had less magic than most unicorns, you would have learnt it within less than a second.”
I look up, my eyes gaining a glimmer of hope once more. “And that’s good, right?” I ask. Fauren looks at me, her face seeming grave. “It is, isn’t it?” I assert, doubt setting in on my face.
“No, it is not. The amount of magic you were exuding those days ago? That was simply a fraction of a near-bottomless well of power that I felt within you, and the magical power you are outputting now is, itself, less than a tenth of what you used on that day when your magical powers ran rampant. And yet…” She sighs, bringing her hoof up to her muzzle, and doing what would seem to be pinching her nose. “Yet, the bowl that is sitting upon your head was enchanted by me to withstand magical injury. But put it down and you shall see why it is not good.”
I blink. “Put it… Down? How am I supposed to do that?”
Fauren sighs once more. “Take the image of it in your head. Then, make it move through the air towards the table, and try to clear the image from your head.”
Listening to her advice, I focus on the picture of the bowl, mentally seeing it moving towards the table, off of my head. Then, I feel the familiar weight of it leave my head, and the bowl appears in front of me, a yellow glow encompassing it as it floats towards the table. As soon as it reaches just above the table, I picture it gently lowering, and touching the table. Then, I look at Elliot, who seems to be doing the same thing, and his bowl touches the table as well.
“Now, I can show you what I was going to,” Fauren says. She points at my bowl, and her hoof touches a small crack in it, in a network or spider’s web of cracks. Then, she does the same to Elliot’s, the network of cracks not being as pronounced in his as they are in mine, but still noticeable. “These cracks were not here before. If even just a fraction of a fraction of your full power would manage to crack something meticulously enchanted by me to be immune to magical damage that could crush stone…” She shakes her head. “Needless to say, I suggest that you do not attempt to levitate anything that you do not want destroyed until your control gets better. There are ways to accomplish that, however; the best is to do this exercise again, except with things of varying hardness. I would assume if you do it enough times, your control will become great enough that you can pick up some of the most delicate things.”
I sigh. Great. Just great. So, because we’re alicorns, we need to have so much power that just a fraction could destroy pretty much anything that we try to pick up with TK? At least we can pick up metal…
“Hey, Fauren? Can I go outside?” Elliot asks, interrupting my thoughts. Fauren looks down at him, and chuckles.
“Indeed, you may, little one,” Fauren says, humour in her voice. Elliot hoof-pumps, and runs through the open door, undoubtedly smiling.
“I guess you’re okay if I follow?” I ask Fauren.
“Why would a grown mare such as you need to ask?” Fauren says in response. I blink.
“Grown… mare?” I say, confused.
“Indeed. You said you were fifteen years old, correct? A filly will transition into marehood at the age of 14, at which point they have an enormous growth spurt, and grow into full marehood. You do seem rather tall for a mare of your age, though, but it is quite surprising that you don’t have a Cutie Mark.” She smirks as she looks up at me. “I have heard that stallions like tall mares, you know.”
My eyes widen. Oh, hell no. I do not wanna talk about this, considering that I used to be, and still am mentally, a guy . “Sorrygottagowithmylittlebrother!” I say hurriedly, stringing the words together, and rushing out the door as my wings unfurl in panic.
Rushing out the door, I look around for Elliot for a few seconds, before finally seeing him lying on the ground on his back, staring up at the stars.
Did you know that the night sky of Equestria’s planet is much more beautiful than the night sky of earth? Because it really, really is. I trot over to Elliot, and lie down next to him, on my back as well.
Sometimes, it’s hard to appreciate just how wonderful silence is, until you experience true silence of the night. There’s almost no sound; not a cricket’s chirp, nor a tree’s rustling.
After a few seconds, Elliot speaks up. “You know, I always thought that aliens existed.”
“I did, too,” I nod. “I didn’t exactly think our first encounter with them would be being turned into females of their species!” I chuckle slightly, with Elliot joining in after a few seconds. Soon, it evolves into full-blown laughter.
After the laughter dies down, Elliot looks at me, the look on his face almost heartbreaking. “I’m scared,” he says. “I want to see mummy and daddy again.”
“I promise we’ll see them again, Elliot; you can count on me,” I say, smiling. Then, I embrace him in a hug. He hugs back.
After a few minutes, I begin to feel tired, but I don’t really care, as long as I’m with Elliot. A quick check on him shows that he’s already asleep. Then, darkness begins to overtake me as I succumb to sleep myself, all the while smiling blissfully because my little brother is with me.
Best Siblings Together, Forever Until the End
Darkness fades into a brighter shade, as my brain begins to wake up. I smack my lips and yawn, even I don’t even feel the slightest bit tired. My eyes open slightly, revealing a newly familiar wooden roof above me, cementing into my mind once more, for the third day in a row, that me becoming a lookalike of a young Celestia was not a dream. Remembering last night, I look down into my arms, and smile as I see Elliot snoring peacefully. But I can’t help but feel there’s something wrong with-
‘Wait a minute… Wooden roof? I went to sleep outside, looking up at the stars- oh, crap! Fauren saw us! She could use this to tease me and Elliot, and other people knowing will embarrass him!’ are the thoughts that run through my head in the space of 6 seconds. My eyes snap open fully. Gently letting go of Elliot, making sure to not awaken him, I remove my hooves from around him. Then, rolling over, I begin to stand up, my legs shaking sightly, but stabilising soon after. I look around the room, and see…
…Fauren lying down on a small blanket on the floor, snoring, her face pointing towards the roof. That’s not the point, though. The point is that today I got up before Fauren. Every day after we woke up first, we were woken up by Fauren. My face slowly breaks out into a mischievous grin.
I slowly put my hoof down onto the stone floor, attempting to not create a clopping sound, but tense up when, even when I was trying so hard , there’s a loud sound when it hits the floor. I look over towards Fauren, but release a relieved breath I didn’t know I was holding when I see she hasn’t budged an inch.
Slowly sneaking up to her, like I did in the middle of the night when I was going to steal my phone back from my parents’ room (Hey, don’t judge me; it’s my phone, and I had it when I wanted it), I stop above her. Then, very slowly, I reach out a hoof…
“BOO!”
“GAH!” I jump back, my pupils once more becoming pinpricks and my face transforming into one of horror, as Fauren’s upper body lurches forward…
At which point, she bursts into laughter.
“Pfft- You should see the look on your face!” Fauren says, falling back once more as she gasps between laughter, tears on her joyful face. “I had thought you would not be so scared from a mere prank such as this! Gahaha-”
My expression slowly goes from one of horror into one of neutrality. “You knew I was coming.”
“Ha, ha ha, yeah, that’s, hee hee, right,” Fauren says, holding her hoof over her ecstatic mouth to fight down the giggles as she.
“And how did you know that?” I ask, trying a hard as I can to not get a curious look on my face.
Rolling onto her hooves and standing up, Fauren wipes a few stray tears of laughter away from her eyes. “You were as loud as a dragon. Honestly, I cannot believe that you thought I would not notice you,” she says, shaking her head at me.
“But you didn’t flinch when I walked towards you,” I point out. “And how did you know it was me and not a criminal?”
“A mare must keep some secrets to herself, must she not?” Fauren says. She winks at me, a twinkle in her eye, and I resist the urge to roll my own pair.
“Could you please not be so loud? I’m trying to sleep here,” I hear a muffled voice say from behind me. I look back, finding Elliot pushing his pillow into his little blue face.
Fauren sighs. “It is too late to sleep once more. It is time to awaken now.” And with that, she promptly levitates the pillow off of Elliot, who squints his eyes at the light.
Oh, yeah; probably should have mentioned that Fauren has a lantern in the room sometime earlier; it’s on her table. Anyway, getting off that tangent, I look towards Fauren and sigh. “So what are we doing today for ‘training’?” I ask, putting finger-quotes, which are a lot better with hooves, around the ‘Training’ part.
Fauren grins mischievously. “Oh, there is no need for training today.”
“…So why is everyone awake so early?” I ask, my face flashing into a look of confusion.
“Because today is the day that we shall be visiting the nearby village,” she says casually, levitating some ingredients out of the cupboard. “You should get dressed soon.”
She continues, but anything that she says after that is drowned out as the last few words she said begin to echo in my head. You should get dressed soon… You should get dressed soon… My eyes shrink as I suddenly realise what I’ve gotten into.
I imagine walking into town with the blue dress on, and suddenly I turn a stallion’s eye. I smile awkwardly, and wave, and the next thing I know, I’m surrounded by stallions, who are all kissing towards me. I begin to back away, but they follow towards me… then they pounce, and-
The vision pops out of existence as Fauren waves her hoof in front of my face. The smell of amazing stew comes from below my head.
“Are you alright?” asks Fauren. “I believe you were out of touch with the world for a minute there.”
“Uh… yeah, I guess you could say I was,” I chuckle, nervously scratching the back of my head through my hair. Well, more like rubbing the edge of my hoof onto the back of my head so that it feels like scratching.
“You’re back, then?” At my nod, she smiles. “Your breakfast is ready, as is your younger sister’s. In fact, she is eating hers now.” I look to my right, and just like she said, Elliot is currently face-first into his food. Wow, must’ve been imagining for longer than I thought.
“So, you said we need to get dressed?” I ask Fauren.
She nods. “Indeed. Also, there is something else…”
“Yes?” I ask, my voice gaining a curious tone to it.
“Your names do not sound like they belong to ponies, so you shall have to take on new ones.”
My mouth promptly drops open, and Elliot spit-takes.
Of course, since he’s still eating his stew… Yeah, I’ll leave the rest up to your imagination.
I gasp and rear back as the stew hits my coat. It’s all, ugh, sticky! I scratch at it with the tip of my hoof, but it doesn’t seem to do much, if anything, to the icky stuff.
But before I can get it off, a cloth floats towards me in a red aura and wipes at the sticky stew, finally getting it off. I sigh in relief. “Thank god…”
“For one who acts like a colt, you sure dislike getting dirty,” I hear Fauren say with a snort.
I roll my eyes. Then, looking over at her, I answer in a slightly annoyed tone “Hey, hating to get dirty doesn’t automatically make me more feminine.”
She grins. “I jest, I jest. Anyway, for your new names, I have several ideas, but I narrowed them down to two each that feel ‘right’. Would you like to hear them?”
“Wait a minute… we won’t have to call each other by our new names in private, will we?” I ask.
“Of course not,” she says, grinning.
I smile. “Cool! So what will our names in public be?”
Elliot looks up in hope, and nods. “Yeah, what are our names gonna be?”
Fauren chuckles. “Once more, you’re enthusiastic. Alright, then. The first of the names for you,” she points at me, “would be Sunny Day, and the first for you,” she points at Elliot, “would be Starry Night. The second names would be for you,” she points at me again, “Celestia, and you,” she points at Elliot once more, “Luna.”
My front-facing eyes once more widen and my pupils transform into pinpricks at the sound of the second names. No, that’s not possible, it can’t be, I think.
Then I hear a voice say “Call us the first names for now, but we might use the second names later.”
It takes me several seconds to realise that that voice is mine.
/)(\2 days earlier
Ferrus Hoof paced through the front of his throne room, his guard standing in front of him. Several guards were fidgeting, and a few began to sweat. Stopping at the middle, he turned to face his guards.
“Gentlemen,” he began. “I have gathered you here today because it has come to my attention that a new Alicorn has appeared.
“Now, I’m sure you’re aware of the rebel scum who have been attacking our poor, pure cities. I’m also sure you are aware that it has, alongside our kin, members that are mud-wallowing ‘Earth’ ponies and those arrogant Pegasi.” The guardsponies shivered; they couldn’t imagine what living with Pegasi and Earth Ponies would be like.
“By now you may be wondering what I have called you here to do. Well, that is simple.
“I want you to capture this Alicorn so that we can use it in our battle against the rebels.
“It is in the area surrounding the forest; we do not know where it is exactly, though, so you must search all the surrounding towns. Now go, my loyal guards, and find the Alicorn so we can use it in our battle against the rebels.” And with that, the guards saluted, then relaxed as Ferrus left the room.
Best Siblings Together, Forever Until the End
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