Another Story! Excellent!
Chapter 6: Gifts
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Part 4
Gifts
“Honey we’re here,” Mum jostled my shoulder to arise me from my slumber, I had a strange dream right then, I can only remember a phrase from it, “It’s a key.” That’s it; the rest is lost in my subconscious. I decided not to worry about it after I had remembered exactly why I am in the car. Dad’s dead. I still can’t believe it… He’s just gone. Not gone on a vacation, not gone at work. Just gone. “Steven, What did you do on the weekend?” My teacher would say, I’d swiftly reply, “Mourning my father’s passing.” I stared out the window while mum parked the car. When we exited the car, I looked around. There were a few people here, not many though. Figures, most Generals are to busy fighting to attend the funeral of their fallen.
I spotted my Uncle Bob, Aunty H, Uncle Dan who is not really my uncle and a few other people that I didn’t recognize. Two people Stuck out from the rest though, one was an adult around 40, he was tall, had jet black short hair that was styled to look messy, but tidy and he wore a black suit with a cloak, and a man around 17-ish, he had thick long blond hair that fell just below his shoulder that seemed to have expertly placed strands of hair that deviated from it’s original path, he was wearing a suit that matched the man next to him, they looked almost royal. The younger one noticed me and told the other man. They approached mum and I.
“Ah, Alexandra, how has it been?” The older man asked.
“Hello, uhm… I don’t believe we’ve met, you look familiar but I can’t put my finger on it.” Mum said in return.
“Draco, Draco Lunaris,” He replied, “I’m an old friend of David’s, Surely he’s told me about you.” Mum shook her head.
“I don’t believe that he has ever mentioned he had a handsome friend such as yourself, Mr. Lunaris.”
“No? I feel almost betrayed… That Davey would keep such a fine woman to himself.”
I felt an arm on my shoulder, halting my attention on the banter between my mother and this stranger. I turned around, it was the younger man, “Hey, something tells me that you don’t want to see this banter.” He said in a slight accent as he held his hand out to shake mine, “André, André Lunaris.”
I shook his hand, “Steven Greys, brother?”
“What?”
“Are you and Mr. Lunaris brothers?”
“No, he is my father.”
“Your father?” I retorted.
“Yes, my mum and dad were young when they had me.” He simply explained.
I broke the handshake, “Hmm… André, that sounds almost Spanish.”
“Lo es.”
“¿Usted es de España?”
“Sí. ¿Hablas Español?”
“Sí, aprendo Español en mi colegio.” Then I noticed something, “How did you get out of Spain? I thought the Drimenium cut off all transportation between countries.” His eyes widened and he moved his mouth a bit.
“We got out before the Drimenium.” Draco cut in from behind us.
“Is that where your wife is?” Mum asked.
“No, my dear wife is in the other side of the country, she couldn’t make it today.”
“Such a shame, that she is on the other side of the country, it’d be a shame if anything, bad happened.”
“Ms. Greys? What are you suggesting?”
She faltered, “If something bad were to happen on either party it’d be a shame wouldn’t it?”
He moved his head away in a disbelieving manner, “Right, well, the funeral will be starting soon, we should get seated.” The funeral, or whatever little of it was rather short, the priest will stand at the front and present a rehearsed speech, then his squad mates will stand and make a ‘Salute’ they can’t do the ceremonial ’21-gun salute’ on the grounds that it will interfere with the dome shield, bullshit, they just don’t have the decency or time to do it anymore. The Salute still requires a gun, but it is his gun. One by one a soldier involved with the fallen soldier will step forward to the marble slate to put a possession of the fallen solder in a special kind of incinerator. The incinerator will burn and destroy the things inside and with crush the ashes into a compact diamond for the fallen to give to in his will, the greater the soldier, the more medals incinerated, the bigger the diamond, simple.
I looked away from the glass box as the plasma-blue flames engulfed my father’s army possessions, the smoke cleared and the box opened, inside was the most awesome diamond I have ever seen, I let my self into awe as I gazed upon it. “That… is a really great diamond…” I heard myself mutter. My eyes stung a bit and I blinked. The diamond shined in my eye, I shut them both tightly. Then opened them, I glanced towards mum and she looked at me weirdly. “Well… It’s true, it’s a… great… diamond?” I faltered in recovery, upon this she slowly looked back towards the front with an incredulous glance.
“… and as unfortunate as time flows, we must depart back to base to continue to protect this country, albeit with one less member, we shall continue to keep you all safe. Thank you.” The general finished as he was applauded off stage as the army men involved with Dad in someway stood, but one of the men was pulled aside. I have to say, I’m rather cynical at these funerals… Propaganda, that’s all. The forced message is: “One of us has fallen, we shall mourn them.” The true message is: “We have lost one, now we must find another.” The hidden message although is: “We are losing, please help.” I’d join up, but it’d be hard to bar the fact that I am not Twenty years old. Stupid rules.
He couldn’t believe he had to rehearse for that. Magnet sat back down to his chair, hiding his disbelief and disgust from his face. That’s all he needed to do? Walk up and put a gun in a glass box? It’s almost insulting what they call a ‘salute’ these days. Magnet forced back a sigh, he was rambling, and he knew it. His concerns however, were directed towards Shadow’s kid. The poor boy couldn’t look up at the incineration process, but Magnet couldn’t decide whether it was he couldn’t or he wouldn’t. If he were anything like his father, then it’d definitely be the latter.
“…we shall continue to keep you all safe. Thank you.” General Roberts finished his speech. That was Magnet’s cue, he stood up with his battle-mates in practiced unison, only to be halted by someone off to the side.
“Sargent John Andrews?” The man called out to him.
“Yes?” He turned his head to look at the person.
“The will has your name in it.”
‘Really?’ He almost said it wasn’t uncommon that a soldier will be called into the reading, he looked towards the general.
“Eighteen hundred.” The general said to him.
“Yes sir.” Magnet said then departed from the line, he briefly wondered what his fallen comrade had in store for him.
The beast rested in it's prison, but at the same time it was wide awake.
It had no form, yet it danced around.
It was unnaturally happy, yet it was disturbed.
It ached, it was sore, and it was tired, yet it was smiling.
It was everything and it was nothing.
It was frozen yet it was restless.
It is fighting an unruly battle with itself, two sides.
One corrupted, one clean.
Both fight for control.
An endless battle, yet the beast still smiles.
It made the world, and was trying to destroy it.
It used to be king, then it became corrupted.
Any weakness it sees, it attacks... Even within itself...
It is a legend, it is a myth, yet at the same time...
It is very, very real.
Figured it out yet?
The three ponies, baby dragon and human gathered around the faint yellow pegasus in a heated silence.
"Is she going to be alright?" asked the reptile.
"Ah dunno..." The orange workhorse said forlornly.
"I'm more worried about Rainbow... How is she going to handle this?" Before the dragon could finish his sentence the door to the library opened up to Rainbow's voice.
"We're back!" Two voices called from the main area.
"We're in here!" The human called back down to the library proper. The door to Twilight's room opened with an audible creaking sound. Rainbow entered the room followed by a bouncing Pinkie Pie. Rainbow stopped in shock as she gazed over her oldest friend. The pink party pony almost bounced into the back of the weather pony before noticing Fluttershy.
"Guys, what happened?" The athlete asked in a slightly angry tone as she neared the sleeping pegasus.
"She had a fit I think." The human replied. There was another silence, the cyan weather pony stood close to Fluttershy as she rested.
"I hope she gets up soon." She said, then paused, "How long has she been out?"
"About an hour." The white fashionista explained automatically.
"OHH! Let me try something!" Pinkie said spontaneously as she shoved past the weather pony. She poked a hoof into Fluttershy's side and started jabbing softly, "Fluttershy! Wake up!"
"Pinkie! That wont help." The human pushed away the pony slightly. The party pony however, noticed that the sleeping veterinary pony started to flinch.
"Look! She's moving!" The party pony pointed out. The cyan pony pushed the pink pony aside forcibly in a frantic attempt to get Fluttershy to wake up.
"Fluttershy! Can you hear me?" She shouted more then said in a distraught voice. The yellow pony started to thrash slowly, as if having a bad dream. A tear escaped her right eye.
"S-s-sstop." The canary pony whispered in her sleep, "S-stop it."
The ponies in the room were to stunned to move or talk as Fluttershy kept thrashing about, "Shut UP!"
"Fluttershy?" The weather pony asked. The vet opened her eyes in response, she was breathing heavily and started to sweat sometime through the thrashing. She leaned up on the bed in a hurry.
"Rainbow?" She asked before moaning in pain and lying back down, "What happened, I had the worst dream."
"We don't know, you just sort of... Fell out of the air and started screaming." The human explained. The group of friends overcame their initial shock and was delighted in the fact that their friend had awoken, but celebration was brief as commotion was halted by the dragon’s belching, a letter materialized itself from the green flames of the dragon. The dragon, in practice coordination, simultaneously grabbed the letter out of the air and clutched his chest.
“A letter?” The human asked.
“Mmm hmm.” Spike mumbled from his obviously ruptured diaphragm.
The human reached down and positioned her newly formed hand around the scroll. She lifted the scroll up and used he other hand the open the seal. She misjudged the scroll’s seal’s position and it fell to the floor. She forced an awkward smile. She carefully opened up the letter.
Dear Twilight, My most faithful student,
This is just a quick letter regarding your progress into this impromptu study, if I am not mistaken in your ability then you would have already transformed by now and are still getting used to your new form, and if I haven’t mistaken your friend Rarity from your letters she would have already set you up with suitable attire. I regret to inform her that she hadn’t need to do so if she already had, as your transformation is not yet complete. I wish for you to make a presence to me for assistance in the second stage of this transformation. A carriage will arrive momentarily.
Your mentor,
Princess Celestia.
PS: If I know your friends well enough, I can assume that they would like to partake in this and join you, however they cannot, especially you Rainbow Dash.
PPS: No Spike, this is not a secret letter in any way.
PPPS: No Pinkie, there is no Author.
Pinkie smiled at the last line. “Well of Course there’s an author!” She said out and laughed. Wait… No, Damnit Celestia! Why’d you put that in your letter!
“Does that mean she knows that you’re there as well Mr. Author?”
I thought you said you wouldn’t tell anyone that I was here.
“I haven't told anyone silly!” She said smugly towards the roof.
Pinkie! No breaking the forth wall around Twilight! We don’t want her intervening in this!
“Twilight could be useful and technically it’s not breaking the forth wall unless the reader is involved!” She exclaimed and looked directly toward you, “Right?” she finished.
There goes the wall.
“What?” The human asked at the mention of her name.
Drat! Pinkie, be quiet!
The pink party pony had her mouth clamped shut. “MmmmmMMMMMMM” That wasn’t very nice.
If it’d help with you being quiet about me then it’s required.
“Pinkie who are you talking to?” The human asked with concern.
“MMMmmMM!!! MMMM!”
Just forget about me! Now excuse me, I have to fix that letter.
PPS: No Spike, this is not a secret letter in any way.
“I wonder why she’d write that?” Spike defended.
“Maybe it’s because of all the spy comics you’ve been reading, Celestia knows what they’re doing to your mind.” The human counted, coercing the dragon to scowl at her, she poked her tongue out in return.
“Maybe it’s because she does that she’d put it in there!” Pinkie gleefully exclaimed while the wordless banter took place.
“What? Uh, never mind.” The human dismissed, “Pinkie is Pinkie.” She concluded.
“Miss Twilight? Your carriage has arrived!” A voice that could only belong to a royal guard sounded from the front door.
A way at the castle of Canterlot city the princess exhaled a small chuckle at the author’s expense.
Quiet you! Besides, a letter should never go above 2 P’s.
“Anything is possible if it means messing with you, Author.”
You don’t know what I’m capable of.
“I am quite sure I know, but you wouldn’t do something like that. Think of the readers you’d lose.”
Don’t force my hand Celestia, I can make you pay without using my powers on you.
“How?”
“Hello, Celestia. It’s been a while.” A voice from the shadows rang through the halls.
Celestia instantly knew who that was an-
Author, it’s too early for that.
… Fine, I’ll be back though… Mark my words, but don’t you have court to attend to in the mean time?
“Consider that as payback.”
For what?
“For sticking me in both my sister and my court sessions.”
Ha ha! Anyway, Twilight should be here soon.
“How can you tell?”
…
“Oh… Right”
Author’s notes: I’m sorry about Pinkie and Celestia, that's what happens when you give them free will… Mix an all powerful all knowing monarch, an energetic wall breaking physics defying pink party pony and boredom you get Trollestia and the forth wall in pieces. Excuse me while I rebuild it.