Our Days

It was a chilly rainy day, but the Faust home was full of laughter and bright cheery faces and smiles. Today, Lauren told her daughters they had permission to read from her bookshelf in the living room if they were bored because of the dreary weather.

There were many, many, many books. Some were short and others were six hundred ninety-two thousand words long. There were happy silly books, sad tragic ones, romantic stories, stories crossing over into other worlds, stories with the girls' favorite creatures (Naked Diamond Dogs! Could you imagine?) and so many more. The bottom two shelves were fine for the girls, if they wanted one on the third or fourth they had to ask, and shelves five and six were off limits. Tia and Luna had fun picking out and reading books, and mommy even read a darker story to them herself.

“Can you read a chapter from your own book, mom?” It was the book this whole shelf was based on, or rather the world she created in her book. She could not write the whole thing alone, but the girls didn't believe it.

“Actually, Metamorpha invited me over for tea in five minutes so I should be going. Can I trust you girls to stay out of trouble while I’m gone?” No.

“Yes, mom,” they answered at once, the shorter one lisping through the first word.

Lies. “Good then. I'll leave you two here alone. Celestia, you’re in charge.”

“What! Unfair!” Luna cried out.

“Ha ha!” Tia flicked her pink tail at Luna's side. Faust didn't notice.

“Remember that you’re responsible if something goes wrong, Tia. Do. Not. Burn the house down this time.”

"Aw mom, that was an accident! And plus, that was the old house!" Tia protested.

Lauren scowled and opened the door and walked out into the light drizzle.

Celestia immediately pulled a chair up to the bookshelf and told her sister to grab a box.

“Why?” an annoying and high pitched voice asked.

“’Cause I wanna get a book off the top shelf.” Celestia stretched toward the top shelf.

Luna gasped in horror. “But mommy thaid we’re not allowed!”

“Mommy also said I’m in charge, 'member?” That was all the reasoning it took to get Luna pushing the box that normally sat in the middle of the floor toward the shelf. Luna hefted it on the chair, face turning red and grunting occasionally. Celestia jumped from the couch onto the box and told Luna to do the same while she put her fore hooves against the wall. They had double teamed like this to get other things out of reach before: cookies, toys, cake, so Luna knew to climb onto her big sisters back and climbed higher so her hind legs stood on Celestia’s shoulders. And yet the top shelf was still just out of reach.

“I can’t get it. What now?”

“If you jump you can reach one and land on the couch.”

“Which book?” Luna held a hoof poised for attack on the shelf.

“Any!” Hurry up! Mom's not gonna be gone for long!” Tia hissed.

Luna beat her wings as hard as she could at that incentive. She jumped and threw out her hooves to grab a book with a pink and red striped spine. With it in her hooves she started to tumble and wound up belly up on the ancient couch, safe and sound.

“I got it!” she cried triumphantly holding up the book she could have broken her neck for. As the sister in charge came over, she wrapped it in her yellow aura of magic, set it on the coffee table. “Good job. This one looks really interesting!”

“Tia…” her eyes were wide with shock at what she just realized.

Celestia smirked and tilted her head to the side. “Problem?” She sparked her horn for effect.

“That wath tho fun! Did you thee? I wath like a ninja!” Luna whined, scowling at her trolling sibling. She looked at the cover of the book she risked her life for and lost some of her enthusiasm. “Tia, I don’t know ‘bout thith.”

“Why not?” Luna sat next to her sister on the couch.

“The mare on the front thcareth me. Why are her eyeth tho wide?”

“Don’t be such a scaredy cat. We can take turns reading, okay? How bad can it be? The mare on the cover is pink. Pink is a nice color.”

That made sense to the younger filly, but did not ease Luna's mind too much. So they read out loud one paragraph at a time. At the first scene break Luna complained again.

“This is thuch a weird book. Why did Rainbow Dathh fall athleep?”

“Read it and we’ll find out.” Celestia tried to explain.

“Thith ith boring. I’m getting another book.” And so Luna climbed off the couch to grab another book, this time from the second shelf and saved a large portion of her innocence. Celestia went back to reading about Rainbow Dash waking up.

** ** **

“D’awww. That’th tho thweet. Are you finithhed Tia? Tia?”

Celsetia had not moved from her place on the couch the whole time Luna had read her story on the floor. All she had heard was the turning of a few pages.

“Did you find out why Dathh fell athleep?”

Tia nodded her head, glazed eyes unblinking as her childhood seeped away.

“Why?”

“She…uhh…”

“I really liked this one! I think Thootaloo is the betht! I wanna be like her!” Celestia just sat there and kept nodding. That’s when Luna looked out the window and gasped. “Look, it’s thtopped raining, and there’th a RAINBOW! Come look at thith Tia!”

She clambered over to the window sill and gazed outside at a most peculiar site. “What’th that? The rainbow’th broken? Why is the rainbow in pieceth?”

Celestia started whimpering, and then levitated the book she was reading back into its place on the shelf. She went back to the couch and stared at the wall.

Luna asked, “Do you wanna go outthide and play?”

“No.”

“You’re acting weird today. We can go catch frogs!” Luna hopped for example. "Ribbet!"

The front door opened and Lauren walked through. She was pleasantly surprised that her daughters were getting along, and more so that they looked happy. At least Luna did. “Hi girls. Did you have a good time?”

“Uh ha! I read about how Thootaloo had a lonely Heart’th Warming latht year, but now she has friendth and made a new friend and thinks thomepony elthe needs her doll now.”

“I like that one too. What did you read, Tia?”

She remained silent and continued her staring contest with the wall.

“Thhe’s been thilly ever thince you left.”

Thinking it was nothing, Lauren told them what she was told. “Okay. Since you both have been so good, Metamorpha has invited you to help her and Chrysalis make some special cupcakes. Sound good?”

Celestia shrieked like a banshee and ran out of the living room as fast as her little hooves could carry her.