Slowly and surely the moon rises from its hidden state. For the first time, the moon rises under my control. I was doing it! Celestia is sure to be happy that she doesn’t have to assist me in raising the moon as well as raising the sun. I was actually raising the moon with no help, whatsoever. I buck in my excitement, only to find that something had connected with my outburst.
“Ow! What was that for, Lulu?” I turn around to see Tia rubbing her eye. I can see that it’s turning purple and swelling underneath her hoof.
“I’m so sorry, Tia! I just raised the moon! All on my own!” Tia gapes at my feat before turning to me. She glances at my flank, and then her eyes get wider.
“You might want to look at your flank, Lulu.” I looked over my shoulder to see what in the Alicorns‘ name Tia was talking about. A crescent moon on a deep indigo background had appeared on my once blank flank. My cutie mark!
“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!” I squealed as I ran around Tia; I was a dark blue fluttering blur. It took a while, but I settled down a bit. I plop down, exhausted by the workout, by Tia. She’s still rubbing her eye.
“Good job, Lulu. Are you going to bring the stars too?” she looked at me with question. There’s more!?!
“Let me get this straight, I just lifted the moon all by myself, which by the way drained a bunch of my magic, and you’re expecting me to raise all the stars too?” Tia laughed.
“I was just joking. I’ll do the stars tonight, as long as you help me with the sunrise in the morning.” I nodded in agreement to the deal. I snuggled up to my older sister to watch her bring out the stars, one by one. Thoughts of watching Father do this every night come to mind. I decide to try and bring the subject up with Tia.
“Tia?”
“Yeah?” she answers through her concentration. Here goes.
“I wish Mother and Father could’ve been here to watch me raise the moon.”
Tia tenses. She hasn’t really talked about Mother and Father since what happened. Since the war. “I wish they could be here every day. I know you do too. And there is still a chance that they’re still out there. They could even be on their way to us now. Don’t worry. We’ll find them.” She lied. She always lies. Tia thinks I can’t handle the truth, or that I’m too young to know. But I can hear her crying at night, talking with Clover about our parents as if they are dead, it’s so easy to figure it out. Mother and Father aren’t coming back to us.
***
“Lulu? Where’d you go? Lulu? Come on, Lulu, this isn’t funny. You’d better come out, or I’ll… I’ll…” Tia threatened as she slowly clops down the Hall of Hooves. The Hall always freaks out Tia, so I’m taking advantage of her fear and getting a laugh. Tia pranked me last week by putting poison joke in my slippers. I had the most embarrassing swollen tongue all day before Tia gave me the antidote. Time for a taste of her own medicine.
“Celestia… Celeesstiia… I can seeee you…” I whisper from through the hole in the wall.
She stops near the hole and calls, “Who’s there? Where are you? Lulu? Is that you? This isn’t funny.” Her voice cracks and her eyes dart around, looking for me in the dark hallway. She’s close enough to reach from the hole. Perfect. I snap on a glove on my forehoof and pick up a small cutting of poison joke. Slowly reaching through the hole in the wall, I lightly place my hoof on Tia’s shoulder.
“I’m right here!” I say in a spooky voice. I hear a blood-curdling scream and the rush of terrified hooves. Reaching up, I pull the torch and I spin into the Hall of Hooves. All I see is a tangled mess of fluttery rainbow mane. The mane gets up and smooths itself down to reveal a sheepish Celestia. I used magic to do a replay of what had occurred. A shimmery image of Tia appeared in front of me. I heard the same blood-curdling scream as earlier and Tia tried to fly backwards away from my hoof sticking out of the wall. She ultimately failed by crashing into a torch and collapsing with her face smooshed into the ground. Her back hooves still moved forward, so she was dragging herself on her face across the floor. I burst out in an un-princess like laugh at Tia’s hilariousness. Tia herself looks over at the replay and harrumphs.
“You’re gonna pay for that!” She launches into the air, readying magic that would do something horrible to me. What would it be this time? Turning me into a chicken? A week spent as a cactus before she turned me back? I waited for the magic blow, but it never came. I hear a thump and a squeal. I guess the poison joke did its job. I giggle at Tia's new look as an earth pony.
"I never thought you could pull off the earthy look Tia. I guess your just full of surprises." I chortle. Celestia was sprawled on the floor, lacking something from her forehead and spine. It took her a bit to realize what had happened, but when she did, she blew her top.
"LULU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
***
"Ha! I win again!" I cried, pumping a fore hoof in the air at my victory.
Tia threw down the controller and sighed extravagantly. "You always win. Best of 27?" She sat up again and restarted the arcade game. We launched into a new pixelated adventure, but were interrupted by a rumble that shook the castle. Tia got up and ran to see the cause of the shaking. I followed. We spotted our father rushing toward us.
"Dad? What's going on?" Tia asked. I could hear the fear in her voice.
"Girls! Oh, thank g-goodness I found you two. C-come, we need to get you t-two to our bedroom. Quickly!" Dad rushed through his words, stuttering slightly as he does when he's nervous of scared. He motion for us to follow him, then took off down the hallway. We both followed, knowing better than to question Dad. We flew down the halls, making our way to the center of the castle. Guards were rushing through the halls, many more than usual. There was a large group pressing against the main doors. They were straining against something behind the doors, their struggle obvious. Suddenly, with a clanking of armor, they all flew forward. A long thin body snaked forward through the now open doors. It had a horse-like head, but its mouth was filled with razor sharp fangs and its eyes were blood red. I caught a glimpse of the rest of it, but I couldn't make any sense of it. Was that a lizard tail? And a goat's hoof? I felt a tug at my fore hoof and realized I had slid to a complete stop. Dad scooped up me and placed me on his back with my sister. He took off and rushed to the bedroom he shared with my mother. Tia and I jumped off his back into the safety of the bedroom. Dad turned to go, but I grabbed him and hugged him tightly. He looked shocked, then hugged me back. Dad gently put me down next to Tia and whispered to the both of us, "Be safe. I love you both." He gave us a faint smile, trotted out of the room, and shut the door. A magical barrier covered the door and there was a click of a key turning in a lock.
"What just happened?" I sniffled. I looked at Tia for comfort, only to hear her whimpering to herself.
"That was a draconaquus. Daddy..." She trailed off and burst into tears.
***
Author's Note
Wow. Never thought the story would start like this. I never thought I could turn Lulu into a total prankster, but somehow, (I hope) it worked. This is my first fic ever, so tons of advice needed!!! Wish I could have put in a sad label, but somepony thinks it's a contradiction. And Clover is referring to Clover the Clever. BTW, the vignettes are just kinda jumping around in Lulu's childhood, so if your thinking it's a bit to jumpy, just say so in a comment and i'll try and change it around a bit.
