"Rory…Rory. Rora…" Luna pleaded as she hit her head on the doorway in frustration. "Aurora!"
"Hmm?" Aurora turned away from the phoenix egg to see her sister glaring at her with a pouty face.
"Will you stop looking at the stupid egg? You have to come lower the sun!"
"I just don't want it to hatch while I'm gone…"
"It's not gonna hatch in the fifteen seconds it takes for you to lower the sun."
"Fine. I'm coming."
"Rory…the egg?"
Aurora looked up and realized she had unconsciously picked up the egg from its new velvet pillow. Giving her sister an embarrassed grin, she placed the egg back on the pillow, and headed for the balcony. "Hey, Luna?"
"Yeah?"
"What would you name a phoenix?"
Luna gave an exasperated sigh. She remained silent through the whole process of raising the moon. The second Luna touched down on the balcony, Aurora dashed back to her room. The egg was still whole.
After some time had passed, Aurora sensed Luna sitting next to her, her sister's front legs crossed in grumpy fashion. She gently nudged Luna. "Wanna go stargaze?"
"I guess," Luna replied, huffily walking out of the room.
Aurora followed Luna up to the balcony, where she sat down in a pouty fashion, staring into the stars. When she tried to sit next to Luna, her sister scooted away and kept her gaze fixed heavenward.
"Lulu," Aurora began.
Luna snapped out of her anger temporarily. "What?"
"Lulu, don't be mad at me. You know I hate it when you're mad at me."
"Well, I'm not the one who's been staring at a dumb egg all day!"
"I didn't want to miss a new member to the family…"
"A phoenix isn't a pony!"
"I know that. It's just, that phoenix doesn't have any other family now. We're all the family it has."
There was a long pause as Luna considered this. She stared at the stars, winking in the distance.
"They say if you see a shooting star, you can make a wish," Aurora said, now sitting next to Luna in earnest.
"I guess you would wish for that egg to hatch, huh?" Luna said a bit ruefully.
"Maybe. What would you wish for, Lulu?"
Luna contemplated this. "I'd wish for…a baby sister!"
"A baby sister?" Aurora asked with a laugh. "Why?"
"Well, her name would be Stella, and she'd have power over all the stars. And then I'd have someone to play with at night."
"Oh." Aurora and Luna would go days without seeing each other because they would sometimes sleep right through the night or the day, only meeting to raise the sun or moon. Aurora never considered how lonely the night must be, especially since most animals and ponies were fast asleep.
Luna touched her sister on her shoulder, snapping Aurora out of her reverie. "There's something else, too."
"What's that?"
"I want a little sister…so I can be a good big sister, just like you."
Aurora felt a sudden rush of pride. She pulled her sister in for a hug.
As they were nuzzling each other, something flashed overhead in the sky. The sisters stared in awe as a meteor shower began. Thousands of stars streaked the sky. They lasted for only a few seconds before disappearing into the usual night sky.
Luna's mouth fell open. "I-I don't even know what I'm gonna do with all these wishes!"
Chuckling, Aurora said with a smile, "Well, I know what I'm going to wish for."
"What?"
"That we'll always be together no matter what."
"Yeah! And that we'll always be best friends!"
His lion paw was aching for a good swing at the pair while his eagle claw thought it would be better to swipe one of the alicorns and fly her to the sea. He had been watching for days now, since he had spotted them landing in the forest, and now, he was so close. He could easily attack them while they sat, giggling and gazing at the stars. He wrapped his snake tail around a tree to calm himself. The tree groaned in protest and almost snapped in half.
"Wait," he told himself. "The best part of getting revenge is seeing their faces. That's going to be priceless, and I'm not missing that for anything. Besides," he gagged himself, "they're talking about friendship. As if that has any power.
"They'll know what power is when I'm through with them."