EoU Ch. 8 - The Promises we Break

>You are Astra and you made the mistake of falling in love again.
>It was especially cruel this time.  He died much sooner than someone of his health would expect.   His candle burned too quickly.  They all did.
>They had their ceremonies.  He received his honors and his burial.  It was grand.  Flowers of every color and pattern were strewn all over, and the weather was perfect.  You made it so.  They brought him down and laid him in the ground.  You wanted to run up to it, screaming and bringing all your fury down, demanding he return, to love you forever and nothing else..
>But that wouldn't work.  Would not look -proper-.  He was in his resting place, at least.  Somewhere good, or so you've been told.   But where that was, you could not say.  Somewhere with all the others, you'd hope.
>It was night.  It was cold, or maybe you're just imagining it is.  Some passive afterthought of your power that made the temperature drop.  You're sitting on some secluded patch of grass far away from the castle.  The blue and gold ribbons of your mane are muted and hang loosely over your shoulders, providing a somber glow.  Your head rests on Eris, who's wrapped in a gentle curve beside you.
>"Why do we keep doing this to ourselves?"  Eris shifted the upper half of her body.
"Just stubborn, I guess."
>The two of you aren't looking at each other.  This was just one of those nights.  A minor pulse of time where the walls that you've built for yourselves fade away.   Where words don't seem like enough, but they'll just have to do.  The two of you had your ways of coping.  There was a dim light in the depths of your mind that wanted to call them distractions, but you refused to believe you could be so callous.
>"We should've learned by now.  For Father's sake, I"  you look at the sky, see the moon that passed over you a million-million times, completely unchanged. "some days I'm afraid to look at them.  I can see their hair turn gray, and their beautiful skin give way to wrinkles, and their bones..."  you shake your head, "I'm afraid of touching them.  As though they'll just blow away into dust at the slightest caress."  The line of your lips grows small.
>"And they do.  That's the worst part.”  You felt Eris's paw begin to stroke idly along your neck.
"Always the same.”
>Of course.  Of course.  “Do you ever wonder if we're doing something wrong?”  Her long neck curved in your direction, her white curls blowing gently in the night's breeze, and red irises glinting.
“Time-to-time.  You feel it too?”
>You nod.  “Some days.  What more can we do?  We wake, we work, we live, and they still die,” your voice clamps down on that last despised word like a vise.  “They're forgotten.”  Yes, they had family and loved ones, but even they pass on and fade into memory.
>That's what frightened you the most.  You could recall the patterns of atoms colliding with each other in a cold void, yet the faces of those you called friend became warped and blurred.  Once vibrant voices and faces fading like cloth left out in the sun.  You were the last bastion of their memory.  The only way they could attain any semblance of immortality, and even then they would succumb to the passage of time.  How many have truly met their ultimate ends because of mind's loose grip?  Eris looked thoughtful:
“They're like...fireworks, aren't they?”
>She raised a talon and flicked a single spark from it's pointed tip.  The ember trailed through the air with ecstatic focus.
“They fire off crying and burning smoke until everything just...combusts.  Exploding into so many colors and amazing patterns.”
>The ember expanded and blossomed like swarming fireflies.
“Some just keep on exploding, and turning into more colors and getting bigger, yeah?  Burning brighter and brighter.”
>Your head laid against her watching the private randomized light show with tired eyes.  The embers budded and sizzled, singing softly in the air before falling to the ground, dissappearing into nothing.
“And then...yeah.  They go out.”
>The air went dark.  The soft yellows, reds, and purples that played against Eris's face left her a black silhouette.”Why can't fireworks last forever?  We should make them last forever.  By rights, we should be able to do that.”  Eris curled her tail around and placed her chin on its tip.
“A billion sparkles in the sky, exploding forever? Bumping into each other and bouncing everywhere?  Mm.  That'd be a sight.  Air smelling like burning fuses and...so many chemical reactions.”
>You frowned.  That did not sound too appealing.
“Well, the good thing about fireworks,”  She flicked off another spark of light, “is there's always more than one.
>The air lit up once more with the dance of ephemeral fireflies.
“They just keep on flying up and up.  Each one different than the last.  Unique.”
>She threw off several more.  Their aerial ballet grew more intricate as they fed and cirlced through the air.  Soothing, in its own way.  At least until they faded out, like all fires do.
>Your lips lift in the smallest echo of a smile.  “He was...he was very unique.”  So many words were poised on the tip of your tongue.  It would be so easy to sing his praises right now.  But you already did that today at the ceremony.  Your delivery was heartfelt, but the words felt stiff and formalized.  Others came and said their pieces.  You just wanted someone to know.  He was honor-bound to be loyal to you, but he did so much more.  He loved you, and let you love him in return.  Knew you in ways very few do.  Eased your conscience when the weight of days grew heavy.  He made you smile.  You look at Eris in the eyes.  “He was my best friend.”
>She made a nearly condescending snort.
“He was cool enough, I guess.”
>She blew into your mane, making it blow like a candle-flame.
“He kept you from driving me crazy.  Kept you happy, and everyone knows that's damn-near impossible.”
>You shake your head.  She wasn't wrong.
“Shoulda seen the look on your face whenever he'd strut into the room.  You'd turn all red and wobbly in the knees 'n shit.  I will never -not- laugh at that.”
>You blush, recalling how you very nearly stuttered like a filly during those first few days.  Nearly.    Eris hugged you.
“It's alright to miss him.  He cared about you.  A lot.”
>You dig a hoof into the ground.  “I know,” you murmer.  “He did so much for me.  He was lying there towards the end, hardly breathing, and I could only wonder what did I ever truly do for him in return.”  Eris curved an eyebrow, and chewed her lip.
“Let 'em rut you for starts.”
>You jab her with your elbow, which only results in more laughter from her.  “Honestly,” you mutter.  “I felt like I would go mad if I didn't do something for him before he...left.  I told him he could ask anything of me.  Anything at all.”
“What did he ask?”
>”He asked me to stay with him.”  Your voice cracked like glass.  “To be by his side untill...until...” You bury your head in to Eris.
“Say what you need to.”
>”What more can I say?  He was amazing.  Wonderful.  And now he's gone.”  You fight down the surging pangs that are gripping your chest.  Your breathing returns to something resembling normal.  “I'm sorry.”
“You're alright.  Well, you're not alright, but...just give it time.”
>She breathes heavily.
“Ugh. I wish Dad would hurry up and get back.  He was always better at this comforting stuff.”
>You smile weakly.  “You're doing just fine.  Thank-you -for being here.”  She nudges a paw in your face shakes your head.
“Yeah, yeah, anytime sis.”
>You lay your head on the ground and close your eyes.  You just want to sleep.  Not even dream, -just let yourself be overcome by comforting oblivion, however brief.  You feel your sister curl and stretch out sections of her length along the ground as well.  Soon you find that your breathing is starting to sync in slow, relaxed rythms.
>”We need to go back,” you murmer.  Eris began to growl
“We don't need to do anything.  What are they gonna do if we decide to crash the night somewhere else?”
>Worry.  Stress.  Wonder if they did anything grievous to displease you, as though you would bring the sky down upon their heads at the slightest provocation or slight.  You could see them crowd around you in your head, asking if there was anything they could do to mend their ways.
“You know what?”
>”Hmm?”
“Let's not go back.  Forget the castle and the crowns.  Let's just bug off.  Go mess with stuff out in the mountains or have races to the bottom of the ocean like we used to.”
>”You would only lose again.”
“I'd cheat.”
>You laugh.
“Remember when we found that slug-thing and poked around at it?  Ended up turning into that...nine-legged whatever it was?”
>”The nine-legged thing we promised not to tell anyone about?”  You giggle, and thank the stars that Father never found out about that one.
“Oh yeah.  Maybe we can go find it again.  Probably raised a whole family of crawling freaks.”  You shudder at the thought of the ocean floor being covered with skittering things with far too many eyeballs.
>”And then what?”
“I don't know.  Go somewhere else.  Just leave a note saying 'be back whenever.'  Have fun and not care what anyone else has to say.  No plans, no worries.”
>You frown.  The idea sounded incredibly tempting, juvenile as it was.  To just dissappear amongst the stars and fly onwards towards a horizon that didn't exist.  “One day, perhaps...”
“Uh-huh.  One day.  Sure.”
>She sounded almost bitter.  You roll onto your back and stare upwards at nothing in particular and everything in general.    The crop of sky had spots of purple clouds.  The lights of far off stars winked between them.  The imps of want and responsibility scratched inside your head.  “Well.  I'm going back.”  Eris snorts.
“Do what you want.”
>”There are just a few things I'd like to consider on my own.  I'll see you in the morning?”
“Probably.”
>She stretches away from you yawning, flaring her mismatched wings out wide.  The full-feathered shaking of one wing clashed with the jittery movements of other naked, webbed appendage.  She curled in on herself again.  “Goodnight, sister.”
“Night sis.”
>You turned away from her laying on the field, and in a blur of light and shifting shapes you are standing in the confines of your room.  It is lit by the roar of a healthy fire and the glow of your hair.  Your quarters are large.  Very large.  Everything is built to your scale, if not slightly bigger.  Normally it feels like the one of the few places where you could relax but tonight the very air feels thick and heavy.  You go to sit on a couch to steady your nerves and try to digest the events of the passing days.
>The hearth's flames slide over your amber eyes.  You recline and listen to its low roar and crackle.  The whisps of heat and combustion dance wildly, shifting to-and-fro, high and low.  You mind couldn't force a pattern onto it.
>It began to annoy you.  You could feel a headache coming on.  You wanted it to stay still.  And with a small twitch of your eyes you steadied the flames.  The fire grew quiet, pulsing gently with color.  It was a simple enough thing to do.  The room took on an uneasy hush.
>You leaned against the raised edge of the couch and wrapped your wings around yourself.  Your own embrace felt hollow and emtpy, trying to replicate something that you could not have anymore.
>What were you doing with yourself?  What were you doing?  Waiting for sleep to come upon you was the immediate answer.  But you dream when you sleep.  And tonight you were deathly afraid of dreams.  You saw faces, and heard voices.  At times they made sense, but other times they spoke pure madness if you could understand them at all.  What were you doing?
>”I'm lying here.”  you whisper.  “I'm in my room, as I should be.  I don't want to sleep, but simply rest.”  You watch still flames.  Why are you lying?  Why?  Shouldn't you be doing something?  Shouldn't you?  You're doing something wrong.
>You had said it yourself.
>Something is wrong.  Something is wrong.  Wrong.
>What is wrong?
>”Everyone keeps leaving.  That's what's wrong.”
>Do you ever feel like you're doing something wrong? In your bones, old as they are, you can feel it.  You're like a rock amongst the ocean.  It clashes around you. The waves of changing ages  scream and never stop.  Sometimes a storm comes and you find yourself drowning.   But you can't drown, can you?  You can only suffocate.
>Do you ever feel like you're doing something wrong?
>Of course you are.  You must be.  Things keep changing.  Trees whither away, mountains rise and turn to dust...oceans turn to vapor and fade away.  People die.
>Die.
>That word.  It sears through your mind like red iron, burning away at every reinforced synapse in your brain.  You hated that word.  It was poison.
>You think of him.  You think of others.  The ones you loved, the ones you hated, all met an equal end.  All were bones, and then all became sand, with only you, Eris, and Father left to trudge through the ever-growing desert of mortality.  There was nothing but death on the edges of every horizon, it seemed.
>Death.
>The thought offended you.  The mere concept was an affront.  It took from you.  It took things that you nurtured and rejoiced in, and never gave them back.  Some selfish force that needed to be snuffed out.  Cut away, extracted, and eliminated.  It ruined your view of a beautiful world.  An eternity that you wanted to spend with all those you cared about.
>What do you want?  It was a simple enough question.  You wanted everything.  You wanted everything to stay perfect forever and always.  For all the little pieces to fit together.  You wanted your father, your sister to be happy.  You wanted to meet your mother.  To truly meet and embrace her, instead of simply yelling at some ghostly, faded outline and half-heard echoes in your mind.  You wanted them to rest and live in a glorious place that they deserved.
>You think of your father.  His tired eyes and patient voice, his unbreakable will.  He has worked so hard.  Very dimly you remember the beginning.  A time where in all of space there was only speck of light that was so far away....a light that sang to you in the most beautiful voice...
>With a little more awareness you recall your father toiling away at the proto-forms of atoms and molecules, nudging them this way and that while he held you and told you stories.  Before you knew what the words meant, what words were even for.  Back when it was only you and him.  Those were quieter times.
>You step out to your veranda in some half-dazed state. What are you doing?  Your face remains placid as you stare out over your kingdom.  It is so large, yet insignificant compared to the vast fields of cosmos you and Eris would chase across as Father slept.
>Your sister.  Inseparable since your first meeting with her, yet even now she carries her own kernel of enigma.  Even in the most trying times she can make you smile as easily as she could make you rage.  You held the same sway over her, at least.
>You look down at the street.  Small souls are still walking its cobbled roads.  You wanted to fly down, scoop them up and keep them safe from anything that would dare harm them.  And that was the thing that angered you the most.  You -could- protect them from anything.  Disaster, disease, drought, famine, fear...everything except for....
>You mind recoils from a word made of burning steel..  You clamp your jaw and throw your couch against a wall.  You furrow a brow and a table becomes crushed as if an invisible fist slammed down upon it.  Delicately sewn curtains are ripped off their rods and strewn apart into yards of threads.  Everything was too fragile.  Too transient.  You were surrounded by impermanence and it angered you.  To think that these things were designed by skilled minds, but broke at the merest graze of your strength.  Wood splintered and flew through the air, crashing with broken stone and burning cloth.  The sound was cacophonous.
>More things were broken.  More tears were shed.
>What.  Are.  You.  Doing?
>You open your eyes.  Your quarters are ruined.  There.  You broke everything.  Do you feel better now, you silly foal?  You threw your tantrum, but what did that do?  It didn't fix the world, bring you peace, or bring him back to you, to nuzzle you on the shoulder and tell you to come to bed.
>You feel miserable.  You should've stayed with Eris.
>You wipe your eyes, but keep them closed.  Your horn lights up and the broken fragments of your posessions waver and shuffle, moving little by little as they cobble themselves back together.
>You're slow about it.  You listen to the quiet clatter of wood and metal reattach itself into cleaner, more practical shapes like guilty children who were caught doing something they weren't supposed to.
>And as you fixed the evidence of your outburst a thought occurred to you:  Why just put everything back together?  You think about the world your father made.  It was good.  But why not make it better?  Make it harder to break in the first place.
>Make it last forever.
>And with a chill in your bones you knew what you should be doing.
- - -
>You are Eris and you are bored.
>You've been bored for a very long time.
>Your long body coiled around itself in all directions, like a ribbon of unending fur and scales.  You were feeling pretty relaxed a while ago, but something is killing your buzz.
>Probably Astra.  Damn girl.  Your paw rubs over your groaning muzzle as you mull over her recent mood.  You felt for her.  You really did.  You weren't some heartless bitch, especially when it came to your sis.
>The hell she was going through was not an unfamiliar one.  It was terrible when people you liked die.  It sucked.  A lot. But you had a system that spared you from feeling its cold sting far too much.  There simply weren't that many people you actually liked.
>Most of them were...okay.  They just felt too flat.  Like lukewarm water.  There was nothing that made you want to latch onto them.  Sometimes they all just blurred together in your head.
>But then there were others.  The smart ones.  The ones that knew how to talk.  Be it trash, dirty, or straight -you liked them the most.  The minds that knew how to raise a racket, that liked cracking eggs.  Those that stood out against the gray that sometimes choked the world.  You could -feel- them.  It was like dropping ink in water, and watching their personalities wave and feed through their environment and change it into something drastically different just by being alive.
>Yeah.  You liked those people.  You knew that Astra was the same way, somewhat.  But she extended her...personableness to everyone.  You sniff at the air.  Well, it was her job, you suppose.
>But man did it wear her thin.  She needed a vacation.  Not to say that you weren't getting your fair share of split -ends.  Even now you had this weird itch all along your backbone -and you have more bones than most other people.  Too many things were tugging for your attention, pulling levers in your mind and swinging you around like a catapult and broken scaffolds.
>It excited you, angered you, made you worried.  But still, you were relieved that Astra could still talk to you at a time like this.  Things have been growing taught between you.  Every day you could feel it. The two of you were growing more and more prone to raising voices.  Yelling.  Not that you didn't enjoy a good yell every so very often, but...not exactly the kind that you have been doing lately.  It was like someone somewhere was winding up a string.  You could hear it straining.  Or maybe that was the tectonic plates running over each other.  The knowledge that somewhere huge slabs of earth where colliding head-on with megatons of unyielding pressure was incredibly exciting to you.  Sometimes they made earthquakes.
>Earthquakes were fun.
>You sat up.  Tail curling around in front of your chest, you crossed your arms and rested on it.  You hoped things between the two of you would get better.  Eventually.  You lunge your head forward, throwing your hair over your eyes.  Little thoughts ran through your head.  Gaping holes in the shaking ground.  Funnels of wind that came from the sky.  Rain.  Thunder.  It's been a while since the last good hurricane.
>Maybe that was the problem.  There just hasn't been enough of anything.  There was way too much status quo in the air for your liking.  Things were becoming stale.  Stiff.  You could feel it in the grass you're sitting on.
>You and Astra needed something.  A big something.  A little mixing up.
>And a whole lot of change.
- - -

>You are Astra.
>Days have passed in deep contemplation.  The kingdom needed ruling.  Advice was given, orders were made.  You had many projects going on at the moment.  So much so that you decided to forego sleep for the time being.  There was simply too much to be done.  And everything had to be done perfectly.
>The castle was currently undergoing heavy renovations.  You walked through the east end of the grounds were the conversion was taking place.  Many unicorns were there, monitoring the progress of growing stone that looked very nearly like alabaster.  It had embedded itself in the walls and started to seep into support structures.  It was going along very smoothly, if slowly.  But that was fine -you had a lot of patience.  Besides, time meant nothing to a home that would last forever.
>Your walked through the halls that have been given over to your creation.  Smooth, creamy floors stretched out beneath your hooves.  Their echoes sounded full and lively.  You smiled, a little.  Then you come to the ordinary marble and wood that made up the rest of the castle's floor.  Floor that would wear and fade.
>Your smile left you.
“I hope your not thinking of letting this crap take over the whole place.”
>”It is not 'crap.'  It's efficiency.”
“It's boring.”
>Eris took a step onto the newly forming material.  She rested a talon on it for half a blink before she pulled it away, as though she were touching dry ice.  You think you heard her hiss.
>”Practicality does not equate boring.  Besides, I think it looks lovely.”  Your wings spread trail along the edges of the wall.  Right down to the molecular patterns, it looked exquisite.  Eris snorted and levitated herself into the air, floating a short ways into converted hall.
“Practical.”
>She began to scrunch into herself.  Her eyes turned to slits, and her nostrils widened and shrank rapidly.  The fur along the scruff of her back began to stand.
“This doesn't weird you out at all?”
>You look at he quizzically.  Did she really just ask you that? “No, of course not.  Why should I be?  I'm ensuring this place becomes a true monument, and furthermore it will stay that way.”  Just saying it soothed you.  You felt more accomplished now than you had in recent memory.  Eris slipped back into the normal part of the floor.  She looked increasingly wary.
“You're going to put the masons out of business.”
>You laugh.  “Don't worry about them.  There will always be...additions to be made.  No craftworker will suffer.  You don't think they'll be enthralled to see their work be made ever-lasting?”  Eris smirked.
“Just keep it away from my room.”
>You nod, perhaps more dismissively than you intended.  “I'll work something out.”
>Her smirk left her.  And then she left the hall without further word.  You found yourself suddenly very uncomfortable, but with yourself or with her, you could not say.
- - -
>You're Eris again.
>You've been spending a lot of time outside.  Astra kept working on the castle.  You eyed at it from your distance in the countryside.  It looked like it was being eaten by some kind of white lichen.  You didn't like it at all.  The stuff didn't look right, didn't feel right, it didn't even -sound- right.  Sound didn't bounce off of it.  It was absorbed and eaten by its damnably orderly and progressive network of molecules and...whatever else she made it out of.
>No one else didn't notice.  They thought it was great.  Praising the great and wise Princess Astra who worked her wonders every day for their sakes.  You spit on the ground and start to rub your fingers together, magic began to hum between their tips.
>You had your own work to do.
>This part of the world was growing creaky and weary.  It needed some reinvigoration.  You wanted to break it down and build it back up in that afternoon alone, but Dad taught you better than that.  You remember what he said -keep it loose, but controlled.  Keep the general shape of things in mind.
>But sometimes you LIKED not knowing what the shape would be.  You teased the flow of rock and magma miles beneath your feet.  You twirled a finger and twisted the height of a wave that came crashing down on a shore on the other side of the world.  You flapped a wing, and some prevalent winds changed their direction ever-so-slightly.  You looked at the grass.  Peeked into its simple genetic structure.  Moved one or two things around.  Nothing major. Nice and subtle, just li-
>You snap your finger.
>The clouds above you roll outwards and turn gray.  Heavy sheets of cold rain come crashing down over your shoulders, sliding down curving horn and in between the spaces of scales. Lightning strikes around you.
>You shudder.
>That felt -really- good.
>You were allowed to be flashy every now and again.  You heard the low rumblings of your other nudges build up.  It would all crescendo soon enough.  And you hoped it would be really loud.
- - - -
>You and Eris are sitting opposite from each other in the dining hall.  There are servants and guards along the walls.  A few other dignitaries are seated on adjoining tables.  None are disturbing you right now, thankfully.
>You have a headache.  It's been persisting for a while.  You found yourself snapping at a few of your orderlies.  It didn't help that the room seemed so loud.  You stare solemnly into a drink that was set before you.  You realize you haven't actually eaten anything in a while, despite the gentle suggestions and encouragement from those around you.  They all meant well enough, and they were more than likely right.  There was some bread on the table as well.  It smelled good, and was still warm to the touch.
>Perhaps you could have just one slice, if only to relieve their worries.  Maybe something in your stomach would improve your mood.
>You looked at Eris.  She was toying with the curtains from her seat.  Making  them blow this way and that.  Huge swathes of purple ribbons curled upwards twirled around themselves.  You had to turn away from it.  Your head started to throb.  It was as though someone was roaring in your ears.
>You circle your temple with the tip of your wing.  Someone asked you something.  Your head snaps towards a servant, he jumps back, looking up at you nervously. “My apologies, cold you repeat that again?  A little more loudly.”
“Is my Lady feeling well?”
>Others chimed in.
“Princess, perhaps you should retire early.”
“Is the bread not to your satisfaction?  Would you desire something else?  Anything at all, we will be more than happy to serve.”
>You smile as gently as you could, and say a little too loudly, and with a bit too much strain. “No, I'm fine, thank-you for your concern.  I am simply  contemplating.”  They nod, the traces of worry plainly written on their faces.  You take a drink.  It doesn't help anything.
>”Does anyone else hear that noise?”  You look at Eris.  She flicks her ears and shakes her head.
“No noise here.  Dull as ever.”
>You look along the walls and stare into the faces of orderlies.
“I do not notice anything, My lady.”
“Perhaps it is the wind, we can close the windows if you wish.”
>You tell them you do wish.  They close the windows.
>You still hear the roaring.  You look around the room and find the source of your agitation.
>The fireplace.  A grand hearth at the end of the room, loaded with thick, heavy logs that crackled and spat.  Your eyes pick it apart and witnesses every singing line of wood and whining creek of heated iron and stone.  And the flames themselves.  They were a ceaseless barrage of crashing and pouncing and roaring.  It sounded like a cage full of animals clawing at each other.
>You couldn't take it anymore.
>You reached out with invisible hands and held the flames still.
>The room grew quiet.  You sighed in relief.
“What are you doing?”
>Eris had an edge on her voice sharp enough to saw through bone.  The still light of orange flame lit up half her face.  It was not a a pleased expression.
>“The fire.  It was making too much noise.  It was giving me a headache.”
”Then go somewhere else.”
>Her voice was unnervingly level.  Her body was still, looking like a poised cat.  Or viper.  You stare right back into her yellow eyes.  “I see no reason too.”
>The servants along the wall exchange nervous glances.
“Then leave it alone.”
>You feel a kind of mental slap that shocks control of the fire out of your hands.  It wavers uncertainly before thrashing itself back to life.  Its unrelenting turbulence bored into your brain like shards of broken glass.  You visibly jolt and wince loudly.
>”DAMMIT!”  Concerned guards rush to your side at your outrcy.  In a moment of impulse you hold them away from you.  They stumble slightly.  Your eyes flare open and a crushing wind silences the scream of the fireplace.
>The room grows dark and silent once again.  You look around at frightened faces.  “My apologies.  Perhaps I shall re-”
>The fireplace erupted with more heat and noise than before.  Great claws of flame reach out from the opening before jumping to the ceiling and churning before dying out.  Eris sits on the far end of the table, her talon raised slightly, and shimmering with the after-effects of recently used magic.  Her muscles tense heavily.
>”My sister has entered another humor.”  You grit.  “She should retire as well.”
“Princess Astra, may we take you to out to one of the terraces?  The fresh air will do you well.  The breeze is gentle.”
>A pretty little thing of a unicorn approaches Eris's side.
“Princess Eris, there is a concert scheduled tonight in one of the city's open-auditoriums.  One of your favorites, if I recall.”
>Eris twitches her ear again, and shakes off the magical residue from her claws.  Her sharp features soften slightly.  She gets out of her seat and rises to her full height, towering everything in the room.
“Sure.  Sounds nice.”
>You could hear many in the hall breathe nearly imperceptible sighs of relief.
“You're really starting to piss me off, Astra.”
>And the room grows loud with the sudden sharp intakes of breaths.
>And the word 'No' thunders into your forebrain.  This is not something worth standing for.
>The world blinks.  Eris pauses midstride, somewhat surprised to find herself walking uneven rock.
“Pretty impulsive of you.”
>”We are not doing this.  Not in front of them.  Not again.  You and I have a responsibility to b-”
“To screw around with the fireplace because it's giving you a headache?”  she twirled around, her tail flickering like a flag.  “Real responsible of you, sis.”
>You sigh and rub your temples again.  “Fine.  I agree completely.  But you did not need to risk burning half of those in the hall to a crisp simply because you disagree.”
>She coughed out a false laugh and raked the ground.
“I would never hurt any of them.”
>”On purpose,” you say, measuring out the words like pieces of gold.  “Control, sister.”
“IM SICK OF CONTROL.”
>You inch back slightly.  Eris's lips were  raised and her back began to arch.  She caught her reflection in the very nearly frightened expression that was hiding behind your eyes.  She slowly wound herself back and stepped away from you.  Her brow rolled together and she stared at the ground, trying to be angry at that instead.  She huffed once or twice.
“We're getting tense again.”
>You nod slowly, taking note of the slowly easing knots in her shoulders.  You realize that your jaw hurts because you haven't stopped squeezing it. “We should...”
>”Yeah.  See you around.”
>She waved a claw a disappeared.  A scant second later you were back in the castle.  A fire was burning.  It took all of your will to leave the hall without extinguishing the flames.  You wanted to scream, but did not think you could be heard over its deafening roar.
- - -
>You and a familiar trotted slowly down winding streets and alleys.  There were other, shorter, more open ways of getting to the amphitheater, but you desperately needed to work off excess energy.  And you have a lot of energy.  There were a few others that would throw glances your way, and find themselves slightly unsettled.  Even when you took on one of their forms, you left quite the impression.  There was less fear in their eyes when they looked at you.  That still scratched at you, but sometimes you liked the itch.
>You were doing this more often lately, slipping out in the middle of the night and stalk through the city.  Getting loud, drinking a little bit of everything, and generally making a mess of things.  Unless you weren't.   Other nights you were content to sit in the back of rooms and just watch.  See how conversations unfolded.  Take notice of how a misplaced drink here affected who slept around with whom.  It made you laughed.  But tonight you didn't feel much like laughing.
“The princess is troubled.”
>”It keeps my day interesting.”  She walks straight ahead, not looking at you.
“There are other ways to keep your day going asides from yelling at your sister.”
>”Yeah, but they're not as fun.”  You grin as the two of you stride up a long stretch of stairs bordered on both sides by tall brick houses.  “It's just how we pass the time, I guess.”  She stares at her moving hooves climbing carefully over slightly crooked steps.  You see her thin lips move tepidly, working up the courage to say something.
“Is it something between the two of you, my lady, or are you mad at something else?  Forgive me if I'm being too bold.”
>You scoff.  “Please.  I only keep the bold one around.  Probably why I keep up the shouting matches with Astra so much.”  You reach the top of the steps where they open up to a narrow street lit by sleepy lamplights.  You lean against the edge of a building, taking monetary delight of the abrasions and rough pockets of its bricks pressing against your fur.
>”Really though?  I'm not sure.  Think I just need a good night's sleep.”
“They say Princess Astra has not slept in several days.”
>”It's because she tries too hard.”  Your voice turns slightly harder, “balancing ruling.  Changing that castle.”
”You work just diligently as she.”
>”That just means I'm doing a good job of fooling you all.”  You look at the stars.  Wonder which one he's messing around with.  “I'm going to ask you something.”
“Anything you wish, my lady.”
>”What exactly do you think?  About us?  Me and Astra.”  She blinked as you put the spotlight on her.
“The two of you have...done so much for all of us!  The two most beautiful living creatures on the planet.  I'm devoted to the two of you through-and-through.  I would not say that lightly.”
>”But...”
“But...the two of you really need to talk things out.”
>”Getting sick of the bullshit?  The light shows freaking everyone out?”
“It makes our days more stressful, yes.  We -I, want to see the two of you happy.  You are our princesses after all.”
>She was being honest. That was the most annoying part.  You canter around her slowly.  “But...what if we don't want to be princesses anymore?”
“I don't understand.”
>You roll your head and let the words fall out.  “What if  a princess wants to hand in her letter of resignation?  She's a princess, she can do whatever she wants too, yeah?  Because what if being a princess doesn't make you happy?”  The little unicorn nods her head slowly as her thoughts string together.
“Then you shouldn't have to be one.  We want you to be happy.  Even if you're not our princess.”
>”I thought s-”
“But how do you know you'll be happy being anything else?”
>That caught you. “Keep talking.”
“Do you wish to...resign because of the troubles with your sister?”
>You wave a hoof from side-to-side.
“Then you would still be upset with her, no matter your position.”
>That made too much sense.
“There is much I do not understand about the two of you.”
>You laugh.  Why did everyone insist on treating the two of you like some big puzzle box?  You really weren't that complicated.  You think for a moment and sniff the air.  Okay, you were that complicated.
“But I understand that family is something that stays with you no matter what you are or what you do.  Looking away from your problems will not help.  If there's bullshit, the only way to get rid of the smell is to clean it up.”
>She turns the brightest shade of red.
“Forgive me if I'm being too bold.
>You stare at her.  Her mouth turns into a tiny frown.  Ink in water.  “I knew I kept you around for a reason.”  You bump her flank and start to walk again.  Of  course it went deeper than that.  But the unicorn had a point.  You decided to have fun tonight.  You didn't care if you had to get it by wringing it out of the night's throat, you were having some.
>But even now you knew it was a distraction.  Just looking away from the bullshit.  You did need to talk with Astra.  Truly.  The two of you couldn't keep this up.   This was going deeper than you wanted to admit.  Something was -wrong-.
>But...just THINKING about her...
>You grunt in aggravation.  How far away was that concert anyway?
>”Forget this.”  You shed your tiny little form, muzzle shooting out, wings sprouting form your back and scales winking along your tail.  You flex out to your full length and stretch out your claws pleasurably.  Your traveling partner is taken back, more by your sudden increase in size than your appearance.  You laugh.  “I really don't know how you do that all day.”
>You wrap your arm around the unicorn and teleport to the theater.  You wanted to turn heads tonight.
- - - -
>You are sitting in the gardens.   It's quiet out here.  The guards keep their respectful distances by the doors and archways.  You take a deep breathe and give thanks for the light fragrance of pollen carried on gentle winds.  You motion for one of your assistants carrying a tray of water.  They give it to you, and you drink deep.  Cool water runs down your throat, and you feel it settle peacefully inside you.
>It feels good.
“Would my lady care for another?”
>”Yes please.”  Your glass if filled.  You empty it.  “Thank you.”  You smile softly.
“May I get you anything else?”
>You shake your head.  “No, I'm fine for now.  But if you would sit with me for a while.  I would enjoy some company.”
“My pleasure.”
>She sits down next to you on a wooden bench facing an immaculately maintained collection of hedges and trees.  Even at night as they folded into themselves like blankets wrapped around children, the flowers looked incredibly bright and well-trimmed.  Carefully placed and tended patterns of growth and color.  “Talk to me.  Say anything.”  Your aid looked up at you with large purple eyes.
“Anything.”
>You laugh louder than you thought you would.  “Very apt.”
“I'm glad to see you smile.  You look like you need it.”
>You nod.  “Yes, very much so.”  She rubbed her forehooves together.  The bushes and small trees brush against each other gently.  You can hear the crawling of small insects scurry between leaves and bark.
“You need to rest, Princess.”
>”Sleep would be the smartest course of action.  But it's one I don't wish to take right now.”
“And why is that, my lady?”
>You chuckle under your breath and look at a patch of roses, watching how the patterns of its aromas carry on the wind.  “I've a minor plague of unpleasant dreams.”  She looks at you like you're very silly.  You return her gaze with tired eyes and a slight glimmer to let her know she's not entirely wrong.
“Surely my princess isn't letting nightmares keep her from a good nights sleep.”
>”They've been more unsettling than normal, and ever-more pervasive.  I wake up with my heart caught in my throat.  I fear coughing it out some mornings.”
“Well, you can station someone inside your room to help catch it.”
>”A fine idea, but I would prefer not letting it escape to begin with.”  You smile amusedly.
“Of course.”
>Silence for a while.  It let the thoughts in your head grow louder.
>”How do you think we are doing?  My sister and I?”  She crinkled her nose and began to speak slowly, deliberately.
“Every moment I see you, I believe that there is not a single instance where you are not acting for the benefit of us all.”  She looks around at the trees and statues.  “Your sister included.”
“But I can see it wears at you.”  She clears her throat.  “But you carry it well.  You don't get bags under your eyes like most others.”  She studies your face.  “You've been at this for a very long time.”
>You nod.  “Yes.  A long time.”
“All the more reason to rest when you can.”
>”I don't need rest.”  You don't.  There was too much to tend too.  To many dreams that you could have if you entered the realm of sleep.
“As you say, my lady.”
>Your head turns to the small girl sitting next to you.  How old was she?  Do you even know her name?  How little time was allotted to her, and was there any way, any way in the entire universe that you could give her more?  You look at the stars and find no answers.  So you speak and wonder if that would yield anything.  ”Do you...do you believe we are g-”
“I believe you are my princess.” She said earnestly.  “I know you are.  No matter what else you may or may not be, you are my lady first, wholly and truly.  Others will believe what they will.  Say what they will.  I do not know what you...think of yourself, and I will not be presumptuous enough to ask.”
>She spoke in words too quiet for a mouse to hear.  The low hum of your crown as it rings with the energies of your mane just might wash it out entirely.
“But...to me, all you need to be is my princess.  I am already incredibly grateful for that.  You only need to be more if you feel that is what you must be.”
>The plants wave, offering no further comment.  “I have a task for you.  May I trust you with it?”
“You can trust me with anything in the world, my lady.”
>”When you go to sleep tonight, sleep well,  and have a good dream.  Have the most wonderful dream you've ever had.  One that you'll remember and cherish for the rest of your life.”
>She makes bubbly little giggles.  You can't help but laugh in kind, like school girls making some silly pact.
“I'll be more than happy too, my princess.  I'll dream up something so wonderful that you'll want to sleep and dream as soon as I finish recounting.”
>”I look forward to it.”  You lift a forehoof lined carefully with gold ringlets and wave it softly.  “Go ahead now.  And thank you for your gracious company.”
>She hops off the bench lightly and bows her head.  “I'm just happy to see you smile.”  You watch her gather her tray and leave the moonlit garden.  Your body turns implacable again, the lines on your face betraying no sign of the thoughts churning in your mind.  You sit in silence for an hour.
>'if you feel that is what you must be.'
>You knew what you had to be.  For all of their sakes.   For your own.  They believed you were always acting in your best interest, then that is what you must do.  The time has come to stop traipsing around your core ambitions.
>You nod to a few guards.  They nod back.  You unfold great wings made of feather and silk and take to the air, climbing higher and higher until the castle is in full-view.  The conversion process was little more than half-way complete.  The sight bothered you.  Only half of untold years of intellectual and physical effort working in tandem to create an architectural marvel was guaranteed to be preserved indefinitely.
>That was not good enough for you.
>Your horn lights up.  Your eyes glow.  Your sense reach out and hold the picture of the entire castle in your mind.  Every room, every hall, staircase, door, hinge, and window are mapped out and placed on a needle tip in your head.  Numbers run through your mind.  Temperature.  Humidity. Densities. Rates of erosion from wind and rainfall, and simple use.  You looked at all the little variables that fed the curse of decay and you call up all the little countermeasures you developed to undo it.
>You once made a gift for your father.  A model of the solar system that would spin forever and ever.  It replicated orbits, weather patterns, and even continental drift if one were to watch it long enough.  You worked so hard on it, levying all of your knowledge and innate drives into the tiny creation, hoping to prove some long-standing hope that at least something could be preserved in the vast expanse of existence.
>And you succeeded.  It worked flawlessly.  So why not apply it to a larger scale?  Extend the blessing of permeability across the entire castle, the city, the world itself?  The mountains would not fall away, nor would oceans or rivers dry up into cracked patches of dirt and rock.  You just needed to make a few alterations.
>The synapses sparked as it started to generate a wider picture of the world in your mind.  You ran more numbers.  More possibilities and requirements of energy.  You could do it.  The world was beautiful as it was.  It was made that way by someone you trusted utterly.  You wanted to keep it that way.  You thought of all the generations to come that would be able to live in a world as pristine as the one you knew now.
>It made you smile.
>Your horn lights up.  The fingers of the eternal stone grew rapidly over the castle as you fed its lines of conversion, encouraged it.  Room through room it spread, replacing weak rock and wood, but preserving shape and texture.  Every minor particle was being tended to by your mind, breaking down and restructured into a superior shape.
>It was invigorating to witness the blossoming white features from the sky.
>Not even a minute passed before the process was complete.  It was beautiful.  The moonlight made the castle glow in an unearthly white.  It looked like a dream.  It was perfect.  Your wings flap in near ecstasy.  You don't know why you didn't do this sooner.
>Now for the rest.
>It would be a little more difficult, converting the entire world.  Challenge would not sway you, however.  You weren't actually intending on turning everything into marble, lovely as the sight would be.  You've ran tests.  Dirt made ever-lasting. Water that held.  Grass that didn't turn brown and brittle.  You can apply it to everything.  Well.  Almost anything.  You still could not make something -live-
>Given enough time, perhaps.
>But this would have to satisfy for now.
>Your will reached into the foundation below the castle.  Touching the stone and dirt and subterranean roots of plants that grew there.  You told them to last, and they arranged themselves to do so.
>You were so enraptured in your work you didn't even hear her behind you.
“What are you doing?”
>Her voice was venom.  You could hear it drip off her tongue.  You turn in the air to look at Eris.  She was floating in long loose coils, her wings flared out wide, and her hair blowing wildly in the wind, tinkling against her own livery.  The red in her irises lit up like fire.
>”What is needed of me,” you whisper.  “There will be no more broken things ever again.  The sun is going to shine on a home that will always be beautiful.”
>Eris growls, showing off a discomforting number of teeth.
“Beautiful?  You're talking about stagnation.  That is not beautiful.  It's ugly.  Sick.  Boring.”
>Your eyes narrow and your nostrils flare.  “And tell me, Eris, what would be more pleasing in your eyes?”  She chuckles haughtily and covers her mouth.
“You wanna know what I like?  New things.  I like to be taken by surprise every now and again.  My dream is to wake up in the morning, throw open a window and find the world completely different from what it was the day before.”
>Displeasure is plainly marked on your face.  “You want to twist this place around, render it wholly unrecognizable and unknowable.  I am not surprised.”  She crosses her arms.
“Yes.  That's exactly what I want.  But it clearly isn't what I'm going to -do-.”
>She zips inches before your face.  You refuse to flinch.
“Just how pissed to you think Dad's gonna be when he gets back?  Finds out you froze the whole world just because you can't deal with the idea that everyone's got a heart that stops beating sooner or later?”
>That kicked your blood pressure up.  Your brow comes together.  “Why should I deal with that at all?  I refuse to be complacent over something that is so intrinsically -wrong-.”
>She leaps back and spreads her arms out, looking at you incredulously.
“How does this not seem wrong to you?  You said it yourself, Astra -asked me if I felt like we're doing anything wrong.  You think I don't know exactly what you're talking about?”
>Her voice begins to grow louder, you can hear it shaking at its foundations.
“That weird itch at the back of our brains?  It started small, thought we may have just been imagining things, but now it's like a rash.  And it's making us want to ACT!”
>She points a claw at you.
“I'm going to tell you, the thing you're doing right now?  It's making me itch.  How does it not seem WRONG to you?”
>Your mouth is hanging open.   You close it, but leave your teeth bared.  Her words are a flurry to you, leaving you unbalanced.  “Yes.  It itches.  Something that burrows at me while I sleep and leaves me fearful.  Like all of existence is telling me that I'm not doing something right.  This action I take now -it feels like the most natural thing I've ever done in my life.
>You find yourself quivering.  “It feels right.”  Your touch upon the world digs deeper.  More things are made to last.
>Eris' grabs her head and she winces loudly.
“ENOUGH!” She pants.  “Alright.  I see how it is.  'It feels right.'”  She releases the grip on herself and dons a mask of determination and fury.  “You want to rush your pet projects along just because it feels good, then so can I.”
>She starts to grin.
“We were taught...you know...slow and subtle.  Be careful.  But just once.  Just once let's go a little wild with this.”
>”What are you trying to do?”  She raises her talons high into the air, crackling twirls of electricity follow them upwards.
“Just...having a little fun.”
>She snaps her fingers .
>Dark clouds drift across the sky and off onto the horizon.  Huge towers of multi-colored lightning hammer the earth, setting fire to whatever they impact.  Stinging droplets of warm rain begin to pelt you.
>”Stop this, Eris.  Your tantrum will not solve anything.”  Your voice turns to granite.
“And neither will choking the life out of this place.”
>Lightning flashes between you.  She brushes wet hair out of her face and you can see her struggle with something inside of her.
“Look.  Neither of us want this.  Stop Astra.  Just stop.  Please.  I know it hurts.  I know.  This isn't right.  What's going on between us. We shouldn't be DOING this.  It's  WRONG.”
>You squeeze your eyes, fighting back tears.  “Why SHOULD it be wrong?  Look at us, Eris!  Look at the things we can do!  Why can't we MAKE it right?”  She looks at you sadly.
“Just tell me.  What do you want?”
>”What do I want?  I want them to be happy.  I want them to go to sleep with an unbroken promise that they'll wake up in a perfect world where no one dies, no one grows old, or gets sick.  I want to see them live!  I never want anyone to despair when someone leaves them.  Not because you hurt them, or made them angry, but because they DIED.  This is what I want to give to them, so why can't I?”
“So that's what you want.  You want everyone to leave forever and be happy, skipping through flower fields and singing songs.”
>”More than that.”  The white glow of your eyes become even brighter.  Rain begins to sizzle as it touches your body.  “More than anything else...I want them back.”
>”All of them.”  Eris gives a short chuckle.
>”DONT YOU DARE LAUGH AT ME!”  She grabs you by the shoulders and hisses.
“That's what you want -but what were you expecting?  Why can't you wrap your head around this, Astra?  How come each time you shack up with some guard captain you don't prep yourself?  What are you hoping for?  That by some miracle this one's gonna last longer than anyone else?  Huh?”
>Your muslces tighten up enough to hurt.  She pushes you back.
“You should know better.  We're the ones who work miracles in the first place.  But we can't work that one.”
>”Give me time.  That's all I need.  I cannot give up on them.”  You take three deep breathes.  “And I won't.”
>You reach into the earth again.  Eris recoils as you impose your will upon the earth below.
“CUT.   THIS.  OUT!”
>She yells and rams her shoulder into you, sending you toppling through the rain.  “Eris, what ar-” She snaps her fingers.
>The earth roars as a a mighty forest begins to sprout on the horizon.  She snaps again and the forest sets on fire.
“Does that hurt?  Does that feel right to you?  'Cus I haven't felt this grand in a while.”
>Your head begins to buzz.  “Eris, this i-”
“Let's try it again.”
>She claps her hands.  A funnel cloud feeds down behind her, black and howling.  You fight its winds and avoid being pulled into it.  Eris starts to laugh as she allows herself to be twirled around the vortex.
“Haven't had one of these in a while, huh?” she yells.
>You look down as the tornado skirts dangerously along the edges of the city.  Roofing and carts are visibly being thrown around.  You see people down there.  They're afraid.  Your blood boils instantly.
>You wind up your legs and barrel into Eris, hurling her out of the twister.  She squirms and grunts from the force of your blow.  You leap off of her and your horn lights up, scattering the winds of the tornado away like buds on a daffodil.  Your head is throbbing as untold anger begins to take hold of you.  “You said you would never harm them.”
“I wasn't going to.  Never said I wouldn't liven up their day though, did I?”
>She rolls upside down.
“Besides, you want to make them live forever, right?  Do you want me to test you on that?  See how long you can really make them live?”
>You stomp your hooves in mid-air “Don't you dare threaten them.”  She bats long eyelashes.
“Not even a litt-”
>She is thrown back from an explosion of compressed air.  “No.  You can't.”  The air lights up in red as she charges into your chest again.  The world turns into a blur of hot air, and static dances along your body.  You can feel her claws dig into your sides as she forces you downwards.
>You crash into the ground, hitting stone and wood.  Dust and dirt are kicked into the air and takes a long time to settle.  You were taken by surprised, so it hurt significantly.  Eris leaps away from you and perches on the roof of a nearby building.  You can hear  the noises of her apparent glee from your crater.
>Shakily you crawl out of it, coughing and covered with dirt.  You can feel the broken glass in your head again.
“Princess Astra?”
“Princess Eris?”
“Are you alright?”
“What's happening?”
>They began to crowd around you, fear and worry was plastered on all of them.
“The tornado!  Did you send that tornado away?”
“Did you make the tornado? Are you angry with us?  What did we do?”
“Are they fighting?”  “No of course not, don't be ridiculous.”  “What's going on? “  “Are you hurt?”
“No they can't be hurt.”
>But you were.  You were hurting. You looked up at Eris and with pure hatred.
“Princess Astra, what's going on?”
>You catch yourself.  Here they were.  And they were afraid.  You looked at your sister once more.  Her position looked more defensive than before.  She looked painted in shades of regret and guilt.  But her eyes were still lit with nothing but fire towards you.
>”Eris.  Here.  Not here.”  She gave a curt signal of concession.
“Yeah.  We were taught better than this after all.”
>She snapped her finger and lit your world up. You find yourself tumbling down the side of a mountain.  You curse heavily as you skid and stop yourself.  “Eris...this is going to end right now.”  She's sitting over a ledge looking out over the world.
“I have an idea.  Why don't we split this place?  Fifty-fifty.  You stay on your side, and me on mine.  You do whatever sick thing you want with your half, and I'll keep busy.   We won't even have to look at each other.  We can keep our heads clear that way.”
>She snaps her fingers.  The earth begins to cough up dirt in the valley below.  A huge gash is formed as the crust begins to seperate.  A red glow is seen from within.  A lesser fissure begins to run in both directions away form the split.
“Just crack it in half, just to be sure.  Only 'til Dad gets back and see who he's more pissed with.”  You spit the dirt out of your mouth and fire a beam of light from your horn, knocking down Eris's paw.  The red glow in the fissure dies down.
>”This is not about him!” You shout.  Eris curls up more into herself and nods.
“Yeah.  It's not.  He just tried his hardest for both of us and look how we're acting.”
>Just the sight of her makes you want to vomit, and you let your expression say as much.  ”Keep this up.  Just keep this up.  I know exactly what he's going to say.”
>Eris stood up from her ledge.  Her tail waved in slow lazy circles.  The mountain began to rumble.  Her voice began to echo.
“What?”
>She began to float towards you.  The sound and vibration of the mountain rattled unbearably in your head.  You took to the air and haphazardly flew backwards.
“Tell me just exactly....”
>Rocks came loose and tumbled as the mountain roared louder.  Stone and dirt fell from its peaks and were torn from foundation.
“Just what exactly do YOU think...”
>The mountain began tilt.  It's peak dipped on its side from beneath cloud cover.  Eris waved her tail in greater and greater circles.
“that Dad is going to say...”
>It was torn form its base on the earth.  A million million tons of rock began to circle in the air.  Trees and snow fell from its face and came crashing to the ground.  The air thundered as the mountain, a work of ages of natural forces was turned upside down.
“about me?”
>The peak of the mountain settled into the ground.  You were caught in its immense shadow.  Miles and miles of rock stretched upwards and outwards into a sky-blocking plateau, balancing on what may as well been a pinhead.  You grew sick just by looking at it.
>You fight off the urge to run away from the imposing hulk of earth and stare Eris dead in the eyes.  “I will tell you.”  You floated towards her.  “He's going to wish you were never here.”  Eris's eyes widen in disbelief.
“What?”
>Now it was your turn to talk mere centimeters from her face.  “He's going to regret ever allowing you to be with us.  That he wished we just left you alone in that disgusting rock we found you sniveling in.  That we would have been better off just sealing the entrance and throwing it out into the darkest edge of space so you could never have a chance to ruin anything.”
>”That is exactly what we should have done.  This place would be leagues better without you.”  She inches back from you.  Her jaw quakes detectably as your words hit her like a hammer.
“You...you don't se”
>”I do.”
>She screams loud enough to shake the mountain again.  Her eyes light up in red as she slams her hands together, launching you into the air once more.  Her entire body lights up in orange and red energy as she charges into you bodily for a third time.  She is unrelenting in her momentum.   You scrabble against her, but she refuses to budge, simply pushing the two of you higher and higher, leaving a bright trail of red and yellow curls of light that led away from a rapidly shrinking ground.
>The air around you whistled and whined as the pair of you rocketed up towards the sky, piercing the cloud cover and leaving a behind a ground gape as chunks of fluff were burned away.  Your ears popped.
>Fire engulfed you briefly as you crossed the atmospheric line.  Silence ensued, but the noise of space's background carried on soon enough.  The two of you were struggling with each other, tossing end over end as you flew away from the planet.  The concussions of your struggle resulted in great flashes of red and blue miasma that bled into the atmosphere.  You with a loud yell you managed to kick Eris off you and slipped far enough away from her that you could see the earth's curvature.
>The sun hovered over the edge.  You could see the line where morning was beginning to travel.  The dark side of the planet was undisturbed, asides from the rainbow storms of violent magic that gathered where you and Eris made your ascension.  It thundered over the planet like an ephemeral growth
>Eris spread her arms and shouts across the vacuum.
“I don't need you to be polite with me anymore up here.  Come on.  You want to throw me to the edge of space like a piece of trash then do it.  Let's just get crazy.”
>Her body coils and uncoils like a ribbon, flashes of lightning and sparks of magic slide down her form.  She poises her fingers, the edges of the world tracing her outline.
“Let's make some chaos.”
>She snaps.  Red fire climbs up her horns and spews away from her, making wild arcs and twirls that dance and rapidly close the distance towards you.  Your horn fires up and bright blue lines that look like they're made of solid ice trace around you.  A hemisphere of electricity shapes itself in front of you and extinguishes the flames.  They claw against your shield before dying off.
 >Your eyes glow once more.  In a flash you zip behind eris and deliver a powerful kick with your forehooves.  She grunts loudly and twists in the air, jumping at you with claws glinting wildly with starlight.  You pop off bursts of explosive air to throw off her aim, but she's faster than quicksilver.  After several painful swipes land on your neck your horn glows again and a storm of glowing razor shards rush across her arms.
>She falls back and hold her arms close to herself, hissing loudly.  You leap in again, setting off more explosions of blinding light, trying your best to disorient her.  Her head is thrown around as you pepper her rapidly.
>Her hair is wilder than its ever been.  Your own mane is wrought in scathing luminescence -almost white, with a bright blue corona.  Your face is hard, and your eyes move about rapidly, calculating the most effective spots to apply your power.  Where it will hurt the most.
>She covers her eyes and tires to flap away from you.  Your horn draws into itself, blinking several times as it seems to absorb all sorrounding light, drinking in all magic around it and turning it into a little tiny ball.
>And then you hurl it at her.
>She's launched far.  Very far.  Beyond the reach of the earth or the moon.  Beyond the planets and the sun.  You give chase, never losing sight of the small tumbling, cursing speck that is Eris.
>”Let me know when you've had enough fun, sister,” you shout as she gathers her wits and scrapes at space, sparks flying off of nothing as she applies the brakes to herself.
>She laughs deeply enough to show off her sharp teeth.
“You should know by now.  I never have enough fun.”
>She doesn't snap.  Her eyes do not glow.  But you hear the sound of nails on a chalk board grow from behind you.  You snap your head back just in time and see ribbons of  glowing magma  lash at your back.  You yell loud enough to echo from the pain.  Your fur burns.  You can smell the singing flesh.  You brain flips around inside your skull.  Your body heals in a blink.  The fur is restored as priistine as ever.  But you can still feel it.  With eyes close you start to sorround yourself in pricks of light. Sharpened spears fly out and extend for miles  in all directions.    You can hear eris roar as their points hit her.  In the split second she's stunned your feel for her in your mind and launch more spears toward her.  She thrashes against them, breaking a few, but she's a big target.
>You try to bury her in them.  Trapping her, but you see little orange lines weave and wiggle out from the spiky ball that formed around her.  They slip through the air and condense into Eris once more.
“That one hurt.”
>”Good.”  She whips out and wraps her tail arond your neck.
“But so's this.”
>She flies off again.  Far, passing through meteor fields and zipping past stars so fast they look like lines of uninterrupted flame.  She glows as she stops her own body and swings you around, releasing her grip on you and flinging you through the expanse.  For a brief moment you can see that your heading towards an enormous rocky planet.
>And at something faster than the speed of light you hit it.
>It didn't crack.  It didn't explode.  It was completely obliterated.  Nearby planets were rocked and pummeled with the concussion waves and debris.  It hardly affected your momentem.  Lines  reached out from your body and tried to latch onto points of space to slow your velocity.  Eris bulleted towards you once more.  She made a motion to again grab you by the neck, but you pulled the chords around her, binding her in unbreakable magic.  Your wings spread and you zipped off as well, found the nearest star, and threw her inside it.
>There was a puff of red fire as she dived into its depths.  You mind reached inside it and found something to push against.  And with a comination of training and instinct, you made a slight change to the star and made it go nova.
>There was heat enough to burn away anything, but it merely washed over you.  The blossom of a dying star lit up everything.
>And then you condensed it.  Fire and hydrogen gas flew backwards from thousands of miles around and relit itself into a star.
>And you set it off again.
>And again.
>And again.
>You were screaming the entire time.
>She was still there.  Still.  There.
>You blew it up once more, but before you could pull it in a tornado jumped out from the star's center. It caught you and pulled you towards its point of origin. The burn of her power hurt you more than that of a dying star.
>The flames died away, but you were still bieng pulled in.  Eris was there, eyes glowing.  Right before you crashed into her she reared back and headbutted you.
>Space cried from the impact.  Reality itself began to waver.  The force was enough to break anything within a light year.  An immense backsplash launched you once more.
>You flew.  You flew and you flew.  Pain was everything.  You couldn't even move your wings. It felt like you were moving for hours.  It felt like you were falling.
>Your senses stitched themselves together.  You were moving faster than what should be possible.  The lights of stars shrank into their own clusters.  Those fell to even larger superclusters.  They fell into swathes of larger space clouds.  Gases.  Dust.  Reds.  Greens.  Blues.  They fell closer together.
>The lights all blended.  Turning into great seas of light and heat.  Took on curves.  All wrapped around one grand burst of light and you realized you were looking at the galaxy.
>You must've been picking up speed.  The galaxy drifted away, only to be eclipsed by other galaxies.  Some were smaller, others larger.
>It's been a while since you've been this far from home.
>You horn sparked violently and you began to slow again.  You openeed your wings, and they glowed white-hot from the unthinkable amount momentum.they were fighting against.  You looekd behind you, and saw that you were heading towards another galaxy.  A great spiraling thing, with a trillion-trillion moving points of matter.  Red lights were strung around it.  Blue luminescent clouds danced throughout its arms.
>You had an idea.
>You managed to turn yourself around dove inside it.  The oceans of light rocketed towards you.  You speared pass the nebula, and clouds which contained the building blocks of all life.  Soon you could not see the forest for the trees and flew through patches of empty space.
>Eventually you hit a massive star, so hot it was white.
>Your ears rang as you plunged into its nuclear sea.  It was hot.  It was loud.   You bend the laws of momentum and held it together, now matter how much it protested that it should've been destroyed by your entrance.
>No.
>From inside the star you stilled yourself.  You listened and felt and ran invisible fingers across the threads of space.  You mind stretched outwards.  Touching other stars.  Other planets.  Rocks.  Dust.  Molecules.  Atoms.
>You built the picture up inside your mind.  It was enourmous.  Beyond enormous.  Every  facet of the galaxy was writing itself onto you.  You felt it.  The entire thing, from one quiet spiraling arm to the other.  Down to the most insignificant mote that floated within its vast expanse.  You grip tightly onto everything.
>You tugged on a string.
>A pebble on some lonely red planet lightyears away from you shook.
>You pulled another.
>A comet changed course, it's trail shifting position for the first time in three billion years.
>Your incomprobable will wrapped around every thread there was and pulled.  You gave a demand.
>And the stars began to move.

>You stretched your mind out further and further.  The stars became like cells, and the galaxy your body.  You did not see.  That would be too limiting.  You became a thing of singular widespread experience.
>And from a distance Eris saw the changing shape of the galaxy.  Waves of light composed of billions of stars swirled and reconfigured themselves.
>Etheric legs formed from the spiraling arms.  Wings made of nebula and cosmic cloud grew from the mass and dominated the expanse of space.
>The bright galactic core formed a head.  It carried the faint outline of your own.   It looked towards Eris.
>And with the roar of a billion billion burning stars it began to charge.
>And for a split second Eris was impressed.
>You could sense her.  She flicked out of reality, but you could feel her mark pop back in lightyears away.  You set course.  The tower of energy and matter that was you rushed towards her like a river made of light and heat.  It crashed around lesser celestial formations, adding them to your own.  Your mind stretched out to accept them, put them to use.
>Control.
>Control.
>You saw her.
>She found a galaxy of her own.
>It was long and awash in reds and golds.  It had her insane cloud of hair, and hard horns made of the brightest of stars.  It roared at you.
>You roar back, the collisions of stars working your jaw setting off more super nova.
>Two of the largest components in space reared themselves up and charged towards each other.  The mechanical power and heat required to fuel it was unlike anything that has ever been seen before.
>But the two providing the fuel were unlike anything to have ever lived.
>The two of you fall into each other.  Great paws and hooves made of star matter rile up and bat against opposing masses.  Explosions of immeasurable length blazed throughout your cores as you slam each other.
>The shapes between the two of you are hard to distinguish.  You look like a pair of oceans swirling around each other, occassionally a head would reach up from the sea and cry.
>The two of you began to fight for dominance of the combined mass.  You could feel Eris press against your hold on the stars, snatching them away as she pummeled into you. You could not allow this.  She cannot be allowed to gain sway over anything.
>You form a horn of stardust lightyears in length and turned aglow.
>The mass of Eris is pushed away from you.  Immense trails of furthering super nova followed as she falls away.  It looks like a burning snake.  You pull your stars in towards you.
>She coils around herself again, looking like a living brush, trailing red paint behind her.  You pool the largest of star superclusters to your front.  You ball them together, light their fuses, direct them towards eris.
>And you set them on fire.
>Lances of nuclear flame jet towards her.  Arcing across her collection and cutting it off.  It writhes beneath you.  You reach out you will and pull the severed parts towards you, giving you more energy.  More stars to burn.
>Eris is strugles with your fury.  Great orbs of heat burst and feed into more spears that continue to burn her away.
>And with before unseen speed the tattered remains of her galaxy leap up at your head and clamp around your aether with webbing and tendrils made of deep purples.  It opens its mouth and burns all remaining energy.  You copy the same action.  Planets turn to ash.  Stars burn.  Black holes evaporate.
>The sight of which cannot be described as anything more than a field of incandescent white.
>You stop trying to force any kind of cohesion onto the galactic matter.  You're just setting off as much as you can.  Everything burns.
>And when nothing was left but the simmering void and piercing heat that tried to float as far away from the two of you as posssible, you and Eris collided into each other once more.
>You weren't even trying to adhere to rules anymore.
>Your bodies turned flourescent.  Clawing, kicking and biting turned into thrashes of light and heat normally reserved for breaking apart matter into its constituent parts.  You started to travel along, slashing at each other with your wills.  A burning trail was being marked for lightyears.
>The harder you hit the more you devoted yourself to bending reality around you to give you an edge over her.  Your mind began to focus on nothing else and your body became an afterthought.
>Its cells and atoms began to burn away as you deemed them unecessary.  A distraciton.  Your bones turned into glowing blue lines of pure reality before evaporating entirely.  Soon enough Astra and Eris no longer were.
>It was a cagey collection of blue lightning dancing violently around curling streaks of crimson.  They weaved and skirted around each other.  It was something beyond magic.  Something that went down to the core of the universe.  The bare unbreakable bones of reality that constituted how everything operated.
>Your personalities were gone.  Replaced by cold, calculating, wild, violent abstracts made manifest.  Self-directed programs of power that were now immutably coded at wiping the other from existence.
>You and Eris were not forces of nature.  You WERE nature.  Beyond nature.  Reality disintigrated  as your pure, distilled selves touched it.
>Destroy.
>Destroy.
>The lines of your self extended and stretched itself into complex array, around Eris's unpredictable jolts of spirals.  She kept sliding in between your gaps, and you could only respond by rearranging yourself into more complex and impossible shapes.  As you scraped around each other, embers of broken space screeched and whirled all around in a tumultuous flurry.  It sounded like metal wires being drawn back and forth across each other with wanton prejudice.
>You kept trying to cage her in.  Crush her. She continuoulsy weaved around and inside you and to pull you apart.  She was very nearly succeeding.  Your awareness was doing numberless on-the-fly calculations.  Responding in a zeroth of a second to her hostilities and countering them.  This was a stalemate.
>And that could not be tolerated.
>And then you came up with something.  The rails of your power solidified.  Held still.  Eris jumped you.  Wrapping around the evervesence and tried to choke.
>And that's when you caught her.  Held the picture of her energies and mind and every non-standard atom she ever had.  Her make-up carried no sense.  It was an anti-thesis to logic.  Your mind traced around her, trying to find something to twist.  To force order onto all that chaos and lock it up.  And then felt something. Then you reached in and changed it.
>It wasn't until the very last nano-moment that she caught onto what you were doing.  She jumped away from you, but by then it was too late.  You were spent.  Pulling that on her took more effort and energy than anything else.
>Atoms were pulled together.  Bones were reformed, and cells flew into familiar and comfortable shapes.  You eyes were dialated and you were hyperventilating.  You exhausted.  Exhillerated.  Horrified.
>You had...no idea.
>Eris fell back into her shape.  She looked to be struggling against something.  “Eris?”
>Her eyes were wild.  Her claws were scratching at the base of her tail.  She kept making desperate grunts.
>Little lines of white marble were climbing all along her body.  She looked at you terror.
“What did you do?”
>Her legs turned white and stiff, jerking at the joints before they too began to freeze. She looked at you and cried.
“Astra, WHAT DID YOU DO!?”
>She held up her fingers and snapped.  Swirls of magic overwhelmed the violating corruption and fought against it.  The growth struggled, but eventually shrugged off her effort and continued to compromise her.
>What....what DID you do?”
“Astra.  Stop this.   You have to stop this.”
>You looked at her.  Eris.  This was Eris.  Not some malevolent force that wanted to tear everything apart, or princess that ruled over every sentient thing at home.  She was your sister.  One of precisely two constants in your life.  She helped you build stars.  Got in trouble with you.  Listened to your troubles and did her best to make you smile.
>She moaned as her wings stretched out and grew stiff.
“Dammit.  Dammitdammitdammit.”
>What did you do?
>”Eris.  Hold on, I think I can,” You try to reach into her again, to push against your magic, but it was too late.  The force shoved you back out, and only seemed to accelerate the process.  “Eris, Eris, I'm sorry!  I'm so sorry.”
“Not this.  No.  I'm scared.  Anything but this.  I'm scared.”
>She began to cry.  Her chest grew hard and white.  She kept trying to break herself apart into small particles, but she couldn't pull away from herself.  She began to cough.
“I can't -I can't br-  bre-”
>“Eris, I'm going to fix this.  I'm going to fix this.  I love you.  I love you.”
“I.  I- I I I..”
>More forces of will were made on you part, but nothing helped.  The eternal matter krept up her neck.  You held her face in your forehooves.
“Tell...I'm so-  I'm so-”
>”It's okay.  It's okay.  Everything's gonna be okay.  Just hang on, please, just hang on for me.”
>Her face grew still, looking at you with pleading fear.
>And then she saw something.  Her eyes grew wide with a mix of hope, shame, and disbelief.
“...Dad?”  She whimpered just as the white marble overtook her, turning her completely to stone.  Her body was frozen, curled inwards slightly like a frightened girl.
>You turned around slowly.  Your heart dropped.  It felt like someone dumped ice water into your spine.
>There he was.  Your father.  His fists tightened and face drawn in stiff lines of horror and fury you thought you would have never seen on him.
>You were beyond terrified.  Your mouth quivered.  There was absolutely nothing you could think to say.  He took a single step forward.
“I know what went wrong now.”
>And you began to shiver as the average temperature of the universe fell lower.  It was a small amount.  Hardly equal to a fraction of what a single match could make.
>But it fell all the same.  Irreversibly so.