“Celly! We have to go to the mall today! Nick and Craig are working again, and Sloan is totally going to try and get in with one of them. We have to watch!”

“Ugh. I can’t. I have to pick up my lame sister from school.”

“Ew.” Leona cringed. “I’m so sorry. Little siblings are the worst.”

“Tell me about it. Ugh. Whatever. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Alright. Ta ta!”

Celestia waved to Leona as she left the university building. Walking through the parking lot, she pulled out her phone. A Nokia 5110 customized with a plastic yellow faceplate. She begged her father for it once she saw they could be colors other than black. He finally relented, and bought both her and Luna one, which was totally unfair ‘cause she didn’t get a phone until she was a senior, and Luna got one as a freshman. It didn’t matter anymore, there was nothing she could do but complain. She dialed Luna’s number and called her, groaning dramatically when it went to voicemail.

“Luna, I’m picking you up. Don’t take forever like you always do.” Celestia all but shouted into the phone before throwing it back into her bag.

Celestia shielded the sun from her eyes while pulling her sunglasses out of her bag as she weaved through the parked cars in the university lot. Coming up to hers, she unlocked it and swung the door open. She jumped in, quickly starting the car and turning up the heat to warm it up.

While she was waiting for the car to warm up, she reached over and opened the glove box, pulling out the large CD case she kept in the car with all of her music. Flipping through the sheets, she grabbed the first one that caught her interest, Spice by the Spice Girls. She turned the radio on to eject the CD.

“Sprawling on the fringes of the setting geometric order…” Rock guitars, drums, and synthesizers blasted through the car stereo. Celestia scoffed in disgust as she ejected Luna’s album from the player and replaced it with her own.

“I can’t believe Luna willingly listens to Dad’s old people music. Ugh.” She muttered.

Pulling out of the parking lot, she sang along as she drove through the streets of outer Canterlot. They were quiet and calm. High schools hadn’t let out yet and the suburban areas around the university were typically quiet anyway. Because of this, Celestia found herself in the parking lot of the high school ten minutes early. She’d have to wait for Luna to get out of class.

After a few moments of thought, she decided to take a slow lap around the school, and to reminisce of days passed. And mainly because high school parking lots never have any available spaces. She’d smile to herself as she saw familiar spots. A lunch-time hangout area, a waiting place for a ride home, and a few good spots for prom photos.

But there, on the other side of the driveway and beyond a chain link fence, were the athletic fields. The wide, open patches of grass where she spent hours upon hours of her time. Currently, it looked to be lacrosse practice going on in the main field. Several of the upperclassmen girls were recognizable to her. She slowed to watch them practice, mentally coaching them on their form. When several of them noticed her driving by, they waved enthusiastically. She smiled back as she waved back. Several of the girls were quickly chastised for getting distracted by the coach, but nonetheless the older woman waved to Celestia as she got the girls back to practice. Taking this as her cue to move on, Celestia gave one final farewell as she turned her attention back to other parts of the school.

Her eyes followed the two story building as she continued down the driveway. She paused, however, when she saw three people encircling a smaller figure behind the school some ways away. She gasped as she recognized Luna between two larger boys. She pulled the car over, getting ready to jump out to save her little sister. But she stopped. Luna had just raised her hand for some reason. What was she doing? She waved, and the two boys next to her grabbed the boy in front of her.

“What the hell…” Celestia whispered.

Her fear was replaced with mounting confusion as she watched the two force him onto his knees, arms pinned behind his back. His struggling calmed as Luna stepped forward. She leaned close and said something to him. He said something back, but Celestia couldn’t hear anything due to how far she was. She decided that it probably wasn’t very nice, given the furious look on his face. Luna shook her head, stepping back. Then suddenly, with an unnerving amount of practice, Luna lunged forward. Her fist made solid contact with his stomach, causing him to contort awkwardly in pain.

“Oh my god!” Celestia said out loud.

She didn’t know whether to jump out and help the kid or not. She didn’t even know if what she was seeing was real. This was her sister for goodness sake. Her quiet, loner, non-confrontational sister who’d never complain to polite company even if she was dying.

But then, Luna grabbed the kid by the rather short hair on his head and pulled it up, looking him in the eye all the while. She must’ve said something, because the kid nodded painfully as best he could with his hair being clenched. Luna nodded back, and dropped his head. The two pinning the kid down followed shortly after, sauntering back over to take their place on either side of Luna. She gave a two-fingered salute before waving for the two to follow as she left, leaving the kid writhing on the ground.

Celestia had seen enough. Possibly even too much. When had this happened? When did her sister go from being the quiet polite girl she was to… whatever the hell that was. It didn’t matter for now. She pushed the memory out what she’d just seen out of her mind. She’d confront Luna later at home, maybe. For now, she just put on her best poker face and acted like she didn’t just see her sister knock a kid’s stomach inside out. She just buckled her seatbelt and carried on, her thoughts racing all the while.

Luna, what the hell happened to you?

“Nope. No fuckin’ way. I ain’t takin’ orders from her.” Pinewood said with a mocking laugh.

Luna crossed her arms, staring the bigger kid down.

“I take it you didn’t hear what happened to your buddy Gear, did you?”

“Oh I heard alright. I just don’t believe it. Stories don’t mean nothing. You can pay for stories. Just like you can pay for your two boy toys here. That’s all that happened. So you know what? You want my loyalty? It’ll cost you. Just like it did Sanford.”

Luna shook her head.

“I don’t think I can make that work. How about you just do what I tell you instead?”

“How ‘bout you go fuck yourself?”

Luna sighed in frustration.

“Why do you have to make this so difficult?” She muttered to herself. She raised her hand. “Grab him.”

The two next to her stepped forward and grabbed Pinewood by the shoulders and the wrists, pinning him in place. His protests fell on deaf ears as they shoved him forward to his knees. He struggled against their hold, but the two together out classed him easily.

“Quit struggling. You won’t win.” Luna said as she stepped forward. Pinewood calmed quickly as she neared him. She leaned forward and smiled.

“Now. I’m going to ask you again. And answer carefully, because I don’t like repeating myself. I see you as a possibly useful person to have around, and I’d like your generous cooperation. Would you like to join our little partnership we’ve got going?” Luna said sweetly, with no small amount of venom lacing each word.

“I’d like for you to get the fuck out of my face.” Pinewood spat back.

Luna shook her head disappointedly.

“Now why did you have to go and do that?” She muttered.

She stood up straight and backed off a bit. Pinewood grinned in his assumed victory. He opened his mouth to hurl another insult at her. The words died in his throat before he’d even started to form the first syllable as Luna lunged forward and landed a solid hit to his stomach. He doubled over forward as the wind left his lungs. He groaned in pain as he was held up. Luna stepped forward again, and grabbed him by his rather short hair, yanking his head up to meet her eyes.

“I told you I hate repeating myself. And yet here we are. So do we have a deal, or not?” She said softly, all traces of the fake sweetness from before gone. Pinewood nodded weakly. “Good.” She said as she let go of his hair. She waved the two off as she stepped back again. “See how much easier it is when you don’t make someone repeat themselves?”

Pinewood just groaned from his spot on the ground.

“Exactly.” Luna grinned. “Well, I’m looking forward to see what comes next. Have a nice day, Pinewood.”

Pinewood raised his head just enough to watch the three walk away, the two boys on either side of her. Once they’d gotten a safe distance away, he shakily pushed himself onto his feet and coughed. He brushed off the grass from his jeans and shook his head.

“Fuckin’ psycho.” He muttered.

“Hey Celestia.”

Celestia jumped, and her eyes snapped over to the passenger side. Luna was standing there, looking rather confused.

“Uh, are you alright?” Luna asked.

“I’m fine.” Celestia said, just a little too quickly. Luna raised an eyebrow. Celestia swallowed nervously. “Are you gonna get in?”

Luna rolled her eyes as she opened the door.

“Nice to see you too, sister.”

Celestia shook her head, trying to calm herself down. It was just Luna. She would never do that stuff to her own sister, right? Then again, Celestia didn’t know why she’d done it to the kid. What if she was willing to do that to her own sister?

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Luna asked, tearing Celestia from her ferver. “You look pretty pail and you’re kind of… sweating.”

“I’m fine. I just must be getting sick or something.”

“Well don’t give me whatever you’re getting.” Luna said, leaning back in her seat.

Staring out the window, Luna didn’t see the nervous glance Celestia had given her.

“Hey Jake.” Luna smiled as she answered the phone.

“Hey Moon. How was school?”

“Same as always. Pretty boring with Cole gone for good now.”

“Well boring can be good.”

“Compared to what eventful meant, yeah.” Luna grinned knowingly to herself. “Even his old gang is staying off of me.”

“All of them?”

“Pretty much.”

“Wow. That’s great. Sounds like things have really turned around for you, moon.”

“Oh you can’t even imagine it.” Luna laughed, her confidence bleeding through. She shrugged it off, though, not wanting to risk slipping up and letting out her secret.

“Alright, well I’ll leave you to go to bed. I know it’s late and all, so I just wanted to say hi and check in.”

“Alright. Thanks for calling, Jake.”

“No problem. Good night, moon.”

“Night, Jake.”

Luna set the handset down onto the base, and grinned proudly to herself. Jake had no idea. And if she kept this up, then he’d never know. She turned and walked out of the kitchen, waving to Celestia in the living room as she climbed the stairs.

“Goodnight, Tia.”

“Night, Luna.” Celestia called back.

Once Luna had climbed the top of the stairs, Celestia listened to her footsteps as they walked down the hall. Only once she’d heard the resounding click of the door shutting did she let out the breath she’d been holding. Celestia stood quickly from her spot on the couch and all but ran for the phone in the kitchen. She grabbed the phone and redialed the number Luna had been on with.

“Come on, come on.” She whispered to herself as the rings kept going.

“Hello?” A confused sounding voice answered.

“Jake?” Celestia asked.

“Luna?”

“What?” Celestia shook her head. “No, this is her sister, Celestia.”

“Oh. Well what can I do for you, Celestia?” Jake responded. Celestia thought she could hear a little bit of hostility in his tone, but ignored it. She was just over thinking things right now.

“Well… it’s about Luna. I’m worried for her.”

“Are you worried about bullying?” Jake asked.

“Yeah. I just… well I just wanted to know what happened before you left.”

Celestia heard the man sigh.

“Well. I found her one day while I was on patrol in the neighborhood around the school. I saw a car drive by and throw a water balloon at her while she was walking home. She got soaked through and I pulled over to he-”

“Wait, hold on. She was the victim?”

“Of course. She’s been getting bullied for a long time now. Something she says you never noticed.”

“But… wait. I watched her beat up a kid today while two other kids held him down.”

“...What?” His voice betrayed his shock. “Is this some kind of joke?”

“No, please. I swear. I got there early and she just had the kid pinned down and… and she just punched him right in the stomach. I don’t know what to do. I’m…” Celestia glanced over her shoulder to the stairs, reassuring herself that she was alone. “I’m kind of scared she’ll turn on me at some point.” She said much softer.

“I…” Jake paused. He sighed in defeat. “God dammit.”

“Jake?” Celestia asked.

“Celestia, I’m gonna get out of this. I’ll be down there as soon as I can. Where is she now?”

“She’s in bed.” Celestia hesitated. “Aren’t you in army training? How are you going to get out of that?”

“Don’t worry about me. If Luna gets violent to you at all, call someone and then call me. I should be able to get there tomorrow evening. Can you hold on till then?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Celestia nodded to herself. “Yeah, I can do that. Thank you, Jake.”

“Of course. I’ll see you when I get down. Then we’ll sort this all out. Alright?”

“Alright. Goodnight, Jake.”

“Goodnight, Celestia.”

Author's Note

Sorry for the long wait! Hope it was worth it. Short, but I felt this ending was more appropriate for how I felt the story was going.

Anyway, editors/pre-readers/people to chat with always welcome! PM if interested.

Thanks for reading!