The adults lied. The five-year-old Celestia Prince – a cute child with a rosy, chubby, freckled face and blue-and-pink curly hair – came to this conclusion as soon as her parents had shown her a small, strange looking… THING, which apparently was her newborn sister. Up to that point, everyone – including her beloved babysitter, Lauren – had assured the girl that babies were pretty and adorable. She wondered if now, upon seeing this little monster, they’d change their minds.
“She’s lovely, isn’t she?” Mom said softly, hugging the Monster.
“She looks like me,” Dad added proudly.
Were they mad? Celestia winced slightly.
“She looks like a frog,” she declared.
Her parents looked at her in astonishment, and after a while, they started to laugh.
“All the newborn babies look like that,” Dad explained at last. “In a few weeks, Lulu will already be a little cutie.”
‘Lulu’? The Monster’s name was Lulu?
“Come on, say hello,” Mom made a small gesture with her hand.
Celestia hesitantly walked over to the bed, looked at the Monster named Lulu, and warily poked her tiny, oddly flattened nose. The Monster immediately began screaming so loudly that Celestia covered her ears and hid behind her father.
At that moment, she realized one thing: with the Monster in the house, nothing would be the same anymore.
And indeed – days and weeks passed, and the Monster was still in the house, constantly consuming the adults’ attention. Even Lauren spent more time with her than with Celestia, which the girl found offensive. Lauren was HER babysitter! How dared the Monster claim her for herself?
It was clear that the house was too small for the two of them; one had to disappear. After several unsuccessful attempts to persuade their parents to get rid of the Monster, Celestia came to the terrible conclusion – Mom and Dad had stopped loving her. Thus, the only option left for her was to go away forever.
“You win, Monster,” she said, leaning over her baby sister’s crib. “From now on, you have Mom and Dad to yourself.”
The Monster named Lulu, asleep up to that point, suddenly looked at her, smiled, revealing her toothless gums, and held out her tiny, pudgy hands, babbling cheerfully. Before realizing what she was doing, Celestia was already grinning from ear to ear, tickling her sister’s tummy, and thereby triggering a series of joyful squeals.
“You know what? I guess you’re not so bad, Lulu,” she admitted after a while.
Baby Lulu cooed, stretched a bit, and grabbed a lock of her big sister’s hair, which she then put in her mouth.
“No, Luna, we don’t eat Tia,” said Mom, separating the two girls, then took the baby out of the crib and put her on a blanket spread on the floor. “You two play with this, dear,” she added, handing Celestia a rattle, and quickly left the room; someone was knocking at the door.
While the elder of the sisters watched the toy with a slightly puzzled look (after all, she was already a ‘big’ girl of five!), the younger held her hands up, trying to reach the new, colorful – and thus fascinating – object.
“Ah! I see you’ve finally stopped sulking,” spoke an amused female voice, which didn’t belong to Mom.
In the doorway stood a young woman with pale skin, blue eyes and long, thick, auburn hair pulled back into a ponytail.
“Laurie!” forgetting all about her original plans, Celestia dropped the rattle and ran to hug her beloved babysitter.
“Hi, Tia,” Lauren picked up the girl to give her a light boop on the nose. “I see you’ve already warmed up to your sister?” she added, kneeling down by baby Luna, and preventing her from putting the rattle in her mouth.
“Well… I guess,” Celestia admitted, then looked around quickly and leaned over her sitter’s ear. “Did you know Lulu is ticklish?” she asked seriously.
“Oh, really?”
“Uh-huh! I’ll show you!”
With that, the girl lightly tickled her baby sister’s tummy, as she’d done before; and like before, was rewarded with the little one’s joyful squeals. She was so absorbed by it that she didn’t even notice her mother, who had just stood in the doorway, watching all this with a smile.
“Laurie, why Lulu has no teeth?” Celestia asked suddenly, apparently believing that her baby sister had already gotten tickled enough.
Her mom smiled a bit more and silently retreated to the kitchen.
x
“You can’t play with us. You’re too small,” a light-skinned, dark-brown-haired boy with green eyes said condescendingly.
“I’m not smaww!” Luna stomped her foot. “I’m big! Wight, Tia?” she added with hope, pulling her big sister’s hand.
Celestia didn’t know what to say. Mom, Dad and Lauren kept telling her that she shouldn’t lie… but how was she supposed to explain to her little sister, stubborn as a mule, that three years and a half really isn’t that much compared to eight or nine years?
Because her sister still hadn’t said anything, Luna’s mouth curled into a pout, and her blue eyes filled with tears.
“Wauwie!” she yelled in despair, running towards her babysitter.
“What’s wrong, honey?” Lauren embraced and hugged the girl. “Are you hurt?”
Due to her weeping, Luna was unable to utter a word; she just shook her head and grabbed the woman’s shirt. After a moment, Celestia ran up to them.
“Lulu?” she said, nudging her little sister.
Luna howled and blindly swung her left leg, almost hitting Celestia in the face.
“What happened to her, anyway?” Lauren asked, trying to calm the younger of her charges with gentle swaying.
“Stardust told her she’s too young to play with us.”
The woman heaved a sigh. All the children of whom she’d ever taken care, at a certain age had a hard time to comprehend they weren’t as big as they believed, but Luna had the dubious honor of the most frequent (and loudest) tantrums because of this. Well, at least now Lauren already knew what to do.
“It’s all right, darling,” she whispered, stroking the girl’s head and back. “Nothing to cry about. I know you’re a big girl now.”
As if by magic, Luna stopped screaming and limited herself to sniffling. Good. Now the only thing left to do was…
“Don’t lie to her, Laurie,” Celestia said with the sternness of which only children are capable. “Lulu, listen to me,” she added more gently, turning to her little sister. “Whether you like it or not, for now, you’re small.”
Luna’s lips trembled.
“I’m not smaa-aaa-aaww!” she wailed. “I’m bii-ihihi-iiig!”
“Big girls don’t scream like babies about every little thing,” her sister told her. “And that’s exactly what you’re doing right now.”
Luna immediately put her tiny hands over her mouth.
“I not scweam,” she said proudly after a moment. “I’m big.”
Celestia giggled.
“You still are smaller than Stardust and me; but you never will be too small to play with me. Come on, I’ll show you how to build sand castles.”
x
The eight-year-old Luna carefully poked her head out of the bushes, in which she was hiding, and giggled. The idea to mislead her big sister with a few well-thrown stones, turned out to be perfect. Currently, Tia was looking in the bushes on the other side of the clearing, and by the looks of things, she wouldn’t find Luna as quickly as the last ten times.
The younger girl lay down in the grass, her head on her crossed arms, and stared at the light, white clouds slowly drifting across the sky. Although they weren’t as pretty and shiny as stars, they nonetheless could take strange shapes. Hmm… should she stop the hide-and-seek game and call Tia over? Her big sister could invent such beautiful stories on the spot…
Eh, no. There was no reason to spoil Tia’s fun. Luna was sure that sooner or later, her sister would find her anyway; and until then, she could watch the clouds alone – after all, she was already a big girl…
She didn’t even notice when the warm sunshine and the birds’ chirping lulled her to sleep. She also had no clue that at one point, her sister ran into the forest, looking for her in every bush and behind every tree, and calling her name in fear.
When she opened her eyes again, she found herself face to face with her dad.
“Enough games now,” Dad said, putting the girl to her feet and brushing the grass off her. “Call your sister; Mom is waiting with dinner.”
Luna looked around. Other than her and Dad, no one was around.
“T-Tia!” the girl cried out.
The uncertain tone of her voice didn’t go unnoticed by her father.
“Luna, where is Celestia?”
Luna hung her head.
“I don’t know,” she confessed barely audibly.
“I thought you were supposed to stay together?”
Luna had no choice. She told everything: about the hide-and-seek game, about her ruse and about the clouds.
“And then, I think I fell asleep, Daddy,” she finished, staring at the tips of her shoes.
Her father was silent for a while.
“Listen to me carefully, Luna,” he said sternly at last. “The forest can be a very dangerous place; it’s full of wild animals, not necessarily friendly, and one can easily get lost. Because of your stupid joke, your sister most probably is now lost in the woods, not knowing what happened to you.”
All the way to the little house where they were spending their vacation, Luna sobbed desperately, clinging to her father’s side. If Dad was right – and he usually was – and this forest really was full of wild animals, then maybe Tia had already been eaten by a lion or by a tiger? Or maybe by a wolf, like the Little Red Riding Hood? And what if an evil witch had caught her? All those possibilities were terrifying.
But on the other hand… if there was a forest, there also had to be a forester. And in the tale of Little Red Riding Hood, the forester was the one to save the day. So maybe Tia was safe, too? And maybe she already waited in the summerhouse, with Mom?
This hope died when the girl and her father arrived at their destination, and were met only by Mom. There was no sign of Tia.
That night was definitely the scariest in Luna’s short life. Mom assured her that everything would be fine, but to no avail – the girl just knew that because of her, Tia had gotten lost in the woods and was now all alone against wild animals, witches and who knew what other monsters.
Finally, early in the morning, the phone rang. After a short exchange, Dad ran outside, got into the car and drove away. About half an hour later, he came back with Tia – slightly scratched and bruised, but otherwise unharmed. Luna immediately left her mother’s arms, and threw herself on her sister’s neck, apologizing as fervently as she could.
It didn’t matter that Celestia was completely taken aback by the gesture. It didn’t matter that Dad decided that both girls couldn’t go away further than twenty-one yards for the rest of the vacation. For Luna, the only important thing was that Tia hadn’t been caught by any monster or wild animal.
x
“Tia,” came a voice from the doorway, “will you play ball with me?”
For a moment, Celestia turned away from the long mirror, in which she’d just been looking, trying to determine whether her outfit would leave the desired impression, and saw her ten-year-old sister, Luna.
“Maybe another time, dear,” she replied, smoothing her skirt for the hundredth time or so. “Diamond Shield will be here any minute, and I still have to style my hair and put on the make-up.”
Intrigued, Luna entered the room and slightly tilted her head to one side.
“Why do you need make-up?”
“To look pretty. For him.”
“I don’t understand. You’re already pretty. And if he doesn’t know it, then he’s stupid.”
“Oh, Lulu,” Celestia chuckled, “it doesn’t work that way.”
“Then how?”
“You’ll understand it all in a few years.”
“I don’t want to wait,” Luna scowled. “Tell me now.”
“Now it’s too early for you to know it,” her older sister replied, looking as wise and adult as possible in a fifteen-year-old. “But I promise that when your time comes, we’ll return to this conversation. Deal?”
Luna hugged Celestia with all her might.
“I love you, Tia,” she said.
“I love you, too. But now let go of me; I really need to hurry.”
The younger girl nodded, strongly squeezed her big sister’s waist one more time, and ran off somewhere else.
About half an hour later, Celestia’s ears caught her little sister’s battle shriek, mixed with someone’s panting and the sound of a ball being kicked. Looking out the window, she saw her boyfriend, trying to get the ball away from Luna, who rushed straight for the goal.
“MOOOOOOOM!” Celestia yelled, complaint in her voice, running out of the room.
Author's Note
Don't get me wrong. I love my younger brother (according to our mom, I have since he was born), but our childhood was already far from the diabetes-inducing sweetness after the first 4 or 5 years of his life. And, since it isn't (yet) canon that Celestia (pony or not) hasn't been jealous of her baby sister, this happened. Deal with it. 
The playground scene is based on my experience as a 3-year-old girl's sitter. At one point, she started saying she was big, and has since refused to believe otherwise. Eventually, we all (i.e. her family and I) just left it be. She was too adorable, anyway. 
