You regain your voice, and start to ask Luna so...
Equestria Invading
Chapter 18
Jack breathed in, hesitated....and breathed out. He breathed in, and out, in, and out, utterly relieved that it was just air coming out of his lungs, and not the bloody pulp from before. Luna watched patiently as he undid his shirt to examine his chest as well, assuring himself that all his ribs were snapped back in place.
"'M hungry." He slurred, briefly having to relearn how to talk. "Food."
Luna turned her gaze to the door and nodded to a royal guardpony leaning in on the conversation, who nodded back and ducked out of view. "I take it that some answers are next on your list?"
"...I'll have those while I wait." He panted, the small sentence enough of a workout that his chest started aching again. Luna noticed him wince and gently cradled his neck and chest, lowering him back against the bed.
"Easy, now, just because your healed doesn't mean you're ready for any major shock to your-"
"Would you just get on with it, already?!" Jack snapped at her. "I'm not waiting until I'm all healed up for you to tell me everything, Princess! I don't care about whatever bullshit you're all going to throw at me because you think I'm 'not ready,' or too stupid to understand what's going on. I didn't just puke up blood just so I could watch you guys keep dancing around and spoon feed me more crap. Tell. Me. NOW."
"Actually, it was a mixture of blood and spinal flui-" Luna was cut off by Jack shooting up from the bed, piercing her a glare that she returned with a sheepish grin. "Just joking! That was a joke, I apologize."
"I'm not in the mood for jokes right now, your majesty." He growled, lowering back against the pillow.
"Of course you aren't. I'm sorry." She sighed, her smile loosening out. "Where would you like me to begin, then?"
"The beginning sounds like a nice place to start off." He said dryly.
Luna raised a brow. "The beginning? Such as the very, very beginning?"
"Whatever gets the damn story going."
"How about me and Celestia's birthdays, then? From ten billion years ago?"
"Ten billion..." Jack repeated. "Aren't you guys supposed to be, like, six zeroes younger than that?!"
"Probably the truest thing our history books had ever taught is that my sister and I are immortal, Jack," Luna explained. "Sometimes I wonder if Celestia and I even are sisters, or that we both just happen to be the last or first of some rare, rare breed in the universe, lost in their search for purpose. With only one another there to understand one another, not an eon has passed where we were apart, venturing the universe together." She reached down and grabbed hold of her belly, hoisting it up a foot or so from the floor. "I was but a hundredth of an atom's width when I realized I was alive and able to think. There may be animals on this planet, still, that are far larger than I am at this moment, but a thousand more of your kind's years from now, I may be larger than a skyscraper, or big enough to be my own planet, or even be a million times heavier than the nearest superstar, and me and Celestia may still be lurking on another planet as we are now, going through the same cycle we'd been venturing since our births."
Jack uncomfortably sank into the mattress. "So...what, are the two of you gods, or something?"
"To many that have come before, we may have seemed. As we'd grown, as did our power, and it was when we were both a nanometer or so when we decided we were powerful enough to try our hand at creating life." Luna tilted her head back, smiling fondly. "Ponykind was among one of our favorite species that we'd ever dreamed up, a familiar face large enough to talk with in person, but small enough to watch from above as they lived their own lives, free and happy."
"So..." Jack nervously began. "Does that mean you guys...I mean, is...humanity one of your guys'..."
Luna giggled. "No, somebody came up with your kind first."
"Then what does any of this have to do with your guys' beef with humanity, or whatever?" Jack snapped, anger rising again. "You're not stalling again, are you?!"
"Of course not!" Luna retorted, blowing off a little steam of her own, then sank back into place, trying to calm herself. "I've mentioned before that my sister and I are immortal, Jack, but we're not invincible. A thousand years may seem like a great sweep in your kind's history, maybe two thousand, but for us two, it's but a single step in a perpetual loop we'd been forced to trek along to stay alive, passing through the births, lives, and deaths of countless galaxies for sustenance."
"...from what?"
Luna gazed up at the ceiling, eyes focusing on a random spot as though she could see something outside of the room's walls. "The sun."
"...the sun?"
Jack could see that shimmer return Luna's eyes, with sorrow flowing down her face. "Any star, specifically whatever one had the age and size to give us both the power to stay alive. Through the deaths of the stars we'd leeched off came the deaths of so many civilizations we'd birthed that couldn't survive the leap whenever Celestia and I had to find a new host. Earth was one of those rare perfect spots, close enough to the sun that we could reap the sun's energy without scorching under its heat, and with plenty of fertile herbs and land for us to cultivate, marking the tenth stop within a generation of Equestrias that were thankfully able to survive those leaps...but not the longest-lived."
"A land dispute, then. That's what the Equestrian war was."Jack noted, almost emotionless. There it was. Something light years taller than whatever answer he might have guessed or estimated before this day, but it was there, a truth he'd spent a life he'd never truly realized was so short searching for. "...and you supported her?"
"Of course not!" Luna countered, if a little defensively, but softened up when she saw Jack flinch back. She took an extra breath, calming herself, then came closer and towered over him with what was more of a compassionate smile. "As brief as it can sometimes seem, I find all life to be truly beautiful, and equally deserving to flourish and prosper to its own merits as I am right now, to think that something so rare and unlikely can exist even beyond our control," but then her expression darkened. "Celestia, on the other hand..."
"Not so much?"
"She's...unpredictable, is what could only describe her. Many generations, I'd seen her be more kind and gentle to an alien species than any of them would be to their own, other times, she's the warmongering dictator you and your kind know her the best as. I'd seen her command attacks on so-called 'enemies' but moments after drinking tea or chatting happily with her students, even going so far as to banish any of our creations who dared question her with 'their' morals."
"...and humanity's one of those little episodes, then?"
Reluctantly, Luna nodded. "The fact that there is such rampant hatred for humanity amongst ponykind is enough to quell her attitude for so long, hence why I may come off as more...well, outspoken in my speeches. I may be powerful, but Celestial is twice so, if not more, and I fear I could not control her if she had reason to suspect me of any treason."
Jack stared ahead, taking in each word only a few seconds at a time. It was all so much, too much for his feeble mortal brain to take in one day, something Luna could easily notice. She turned to her side, the closest she could get to his bed with her mammoth belly sitting in front of her, but still stretched to reach past her hip and gently taking his hand, looking down on him with all the warmth a goddess could share for her underling.
"Jack, you have to understand all that's at stake if a word of this truth escapes. Despite what it may seem like, what you live in today may be the most peaceful point in which human and pony may exist, and for Celestia to sense any disturbance to that balance may come another war, one even worse than the one before...and that's wishing for the best."
"So...what now?" Jack asked, disturbed by the thought.
"'M hungry." He slurred, briefly having to relearn how to talk. "Food."
Luna turned her gaze to the door and nodded to a royal guardpony leaning in on the conversation, who nodded back and ducked out of view. "I take it that some answers are next on your list?"
"...I'll have those while I wait." He panted, the small sentence enough of a workout that his chest started aching again. Luna noticed him wince and gently cradled his neck and chest, lowering him back against the bed.
"Easy, now, just because your healed doesn't mean you're ready for any major shock to your-"
"Would you just get on with it, already?!" Jack snapped at her. "I'm not waiting until I'm all healed up for you to tell me everything, Princess! I don't care about whatever bullshit you're all going to throw at me because you think I'm 'not ready,' or too stupid to understand what's going on. I didn't just puke up blood just so I could watch you guys keep dancing around and spoon feed me more crap. Tell. Me. NOW."
"Actually, it was a mixture of blood and spinal flui-" Luna was cut off by Jack shooting up from the bed, piercing her a glare that she returned with a sheepish grin. "Just joking! That was a joke, I apologize."
"I'm not in the mood for jokes right now, your majesty." He growled, lowering back against the pillow.
"Of course you aren't. I'm sorry." She sighed, her smile loosening out. "Where would you like me to begin, then?"
"The beginning sounds like a nice place to start off." He said dryly.
Luna raised a brow. "The beginning? Such as the very, very beginning?"
"Whatever gets the damn story going."
"How about me and Celestia's birthdays, then? From ten billion years ago?"
"Ten billion..." Jack repeated. "Aren't you guys supposed to be, like, six zeroes younger than that?!"
"Probably the truest thing our history books had ever taught is that my sister and I are immortal, Jack," Luna explained. "Sometimes I wonder if Celestia and I even are sisters, or that we both just happen to be the last or first of some rare, rare breed in the universe, lost in their search for purpose. With only one another there to understand one another, not an eon has passed where we were apart, venturing the universe together." She reached down and grabbed hold of her belly, hoisting it up a foot or so from the floor. "I was but a hundredth of an atom's width when I realized I was alive and able to think. There may be animals on this planet, still, that are far larger than I am at this moment, but a thousand more of your kind's years from now, I may be larger than a skyscraper, or big enough to be my own planet, or even be a million times heavier than the nearest superstar, and me and Celestia may still be lurking on another planet as we are now, going through the same cycle we'd been venturing since our births."
Jack uncomfortably sank into the mattress. "So...what, are the two of you gods, or something?"
"To many that have come before, we may have seemed. As we'd grown, as did our power, and it was when we were both a nanometer or so when we decided we were powerful enough to try our hand at creating life." Luna tilted her head back, smiling fondly. "Ponykind was among one of our favorite species that we'd ever dreamed up, a familiar face large enough to talk with in person, but small enough to watch from above as they lived their own lives, free and happy."
"So..." Jack nervously began. "Does that mean you guys...I mean, is...humanity one of your guys'..."
Luna giggled. "No, somebody came up with your kind first."
"Then what does any of this have to do with your guys' beef with humanity, or whatever?" Jack snapped, anger rising again. "You're not stalling again, are you?!"
"Of course not!" Luna retorted, blowing off a little steam of her own, then sank back into place, trying to calm herself. "I've mentioned before that my sister and I are immortal, Jack, but we're not invincible. A thousand years may seem like a great sweep in your kind's history, maybe two thousand, but for us two, it's but a single step in a perpetual loop we'd been forced to trek along to stay alive, passing through the births, lives, and deaths of countless galaxies for sustenance."
"...from what?"
Luna gazed up at the ceiling, eyes focusing on a random spot as though she could see something outside of the room's walls. "The sun."
"...the sun?"
Jack could see that shimmer return Luna's eyes, with sorrow flowing down her face. "Any star, specifically whatever one had the age and size to give us both the power to stay alive. Through the deaths of the stars we'd leeched off came the deaths of so many civilizations we'd birthed that couldn't survive the leap whenever Celestia and I had to find a new host. Earth was one of those rare perfect spots, close enough to the sun that we could reap the sun's energy without scorching under its heat, and with plenty of fertile herbs and land for us to cultivate, marking the tenth stop within a generation of Equestrias that were thankfully able to survive those leaps...but not the longest-lived."
"A land dispute, then. That's what the Equestrian war was."Jack noted, almost emotionless. There it was. Something light years taller than whatever answer he might have guessed or estimated before this day, but it was there, a truth he'd spent a life he'd never truly realized was so short searching for. "...and you supported her?"
"Of course not!" Luna countered, if a little defensively, but softened up when she saw Jack flinch back. She took an extra breath, calming herself, then came closer and towered over him with what was more of a compassionate smile. "As brief as it can sometimes seem, I find all life to be truly beautiful, and equally deserving to flourish and prosper to its own merits as I am right now, to think that something so rare and unlikely can exist even beyond our control," but then her expression darkened. "Celestia, on the other hand..."
"Not so much?"
"She's...unpredictable, is what could only describe her. Many generations, I'd seen her be more kind and gentle to an alien species than any of them would be to their own, other times, she's the warmongering dictator you and your kind know her the best as. I'd seen her command attacks on so-called 'enemies' but moments after drinking tea or chatting happily with her students, even going so far as to banish any of our creations who dared question her with 'their' morals."
"...and humanity's one of those little episodes, then?"
Reluctantly, Luna nodded. "The fact that there is such rampant hatred for humanity amongst ponykind is enough to quell her attitude for so long, hence why I may come off as more...well, outspoken in my speeches. I may be powerful, but Celestial is twice so, if not more, and I fear I could not control her if she had reason to suspect me of any treason."
Jack stared ahead, taking in each word only a few seconds at a time. It was all so much, too much for his feeble mortal brain to take in one day, something Luna could easily notice. She turned to her side, the closest she could get to his bed with her mammoth belly sitting in front of her, but still stretched to reach past her hip and gently taking his hand, looking down on him with all the warmth a goddess could share for her underling.
"Jack, you have to understand all that's at stake if a word of this truth escapes. Despite what it may seem like, what you live in today may be the most peaceful point in which human and pony may exist, and for Celestia to sense any disturbance to that balance may come another war, one even worse than the one before...and that's wishing for the best."
"So...what now?" Jack asked, disturbed by the thought.
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April 19
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