Strap in for a whole lot of dialogue because I’m too tired to write properly >:]
“CelestiAAAAA!!” young Celina yelled out, dashing for her pegasus sister in an apparent panic through some foliage.
Celestia’s eyes darted around cautiously as she awaited her sister, spooked by the sudden yelling. She jerked her head towards the noise but was too soon overcome by a heavy sea of blue. With a collective ‘oof!’ the pair were on the ground.
“What- Cel what is it?!” Celestia jumped, shoving Celina backwards onto her hind.
“Ow- hey!” she yelped. “What was that for?!” She clambered clumsily back onto her hooves and shook herself off.
Celestia shoved a hoof to the filly’s muzzle quickly, shushing her rudely. They had to be quiet if they didn’t want to get caught meeting. Celestia may have been beloved amongst the pegasi, but the tribe were brutal still with rulebreakers no matter how adored.
She whisper-yelled, “I should be asking you that! Whatever had you so frantic?” She moved her hoof back down to let Celina speak.
“Um- wait- where is it??” Celina whipped her head in an almost 180, frazzled.
“Where is what?”
“The- ah, er- um…” the filly pondered. The horrors she’d just bore witness to were nothing she could describe.
“Well? Spit it out!” Celestia urged.
“I-I don’t know! I don’t know what it was! It was- it was like a pony- like me with no wings- but it had a big spiky thing on its head! And it was purple! …Or was it pink?”
“You mean a horn head?” Celestia raised a brow.
All this fuss just for a horn head?
“Is that what they’re called?”
“Yes. But why were you so frightened? You know it’s only a tale that they make fire with their horns. They’re harmless.” She waved her hoof and rolled her eyes dismissively.
“But that’s just it- they do! I saw it! It was a baby horn head, and it was making blue fire!”
“A baby? Celina what has gotten into you? Did you step in the funny blue flowers on your way here? Horn heads don’t come from babies! They come from flowers!”
“What- no! I’m serious! A baby fire shooting horn head!”
“There’s no such thing!”
“Yes there is!”
“No there’s not!”
“Yes there is!”
“No, there’s not!”
“Yes there- THERE! IT’S THERE!” Celina shrieked, smashing into Celestia again to get away. She threw her hoof in every which way trying to pinpoint to her sister where the monster was. The monster in question, a small purple unicorn, stopped and stared at the pair in awe. Its little baby brain could hardly comprehend what it was seeing.
Celestia whipped her wing out and around Celina protectively, ready to lunge at any threat, but soon pulled it back away deciding there was no need. What they did need to do though was keep things on the down low. They’d got so caught up in a childish back and forth they forgot they were meant to be meeting in secret, away from all the tribes.
“Settle, sister,” she hushed, gently urging Celina back away from her. “If it does shoot fire we would be cinders by now, if it was doing it on purpose.” She raised her wing back up to the side of her like you would a hand if you were hiding what you were saying, like that would do anything.
“And just how do you know that?”
“Dragons. But anyway, this is certainly interesting. I always thought horn heads just bloomed fully grown, but I guess they have baby ones too. Do you think they grow like we do?”
“Uhh, does it matter?” Celina quizzed, carefully slowing towards the foul creature. She tried getting it to back away with a few whips of her tail, but it just continued to stare.
“It does if they wanted to be a threat. They’d certainly be so to you since they’re on the ground,” Celestia cited almost proudly. She was a scholar pegasus, of course she was going to show off the ins and outs of her knowledge and understanding skills.
“What happened to it not being dangerous??”
“First of all you should call it “she”, it’s a girl horn head I think. Second of all, the baby ones probably aren’t dangerous, I meant the adult ones with the really big horns to poke you with”
“Right.”
There was a brief pause between the pair, building up an almost awkward silence. After awhile though Celina broke out, “so what do we do with her?”
Celestia scratched her chin, thinking intensively. She flapped her wing to get Celina out the way and made her own towards the little filly. She crouched down but the foal backed up a slight, her wide eyes continuing to stare.
“…Do you talk?”
The child just watched.
“…Um. D-do you know what I’m saying?”
She tilted her head.
“Hm..” Celestia mulled aloud and rose back to her hooves. She looked around to see if there was anyone else watching, this child could’ve been part of a trap laid out by the mysterious unicorns, but then again if she was something surely would’ve happened by now.
Celestia began to circle as she inspected the strange little creature. No wings, just a horn. Her mane and fetlocks were tidy and trimmed so she must belong to a group. If it wasn’t for the fact she’d be beheaded for it, Celestia would take the thing home to conduct further studies. They knew hardly a thing about these ‘horn heads’ though, so maybe she could get away with it.
Celina watched on, baffled.
“So,” Celestia began, “just where did you find her?” She sat down before the child and started poking around on her body, all the while the filly watched with that weird little bug-eyed stare of hers.
“Ah- well, I don’t know really.” Celina sat down. “I was just making my way to our secret spot and suddenly she was there! Right behind me! I wasn’t so scared at first, but when I tapped her horn she shot out fire! Blue fire!” Celina waved her arms for dramatic effect.
Celestia drew her hoof away, then hesitantly but gently kicked the tip of the unicorn’s horn. It let out a brief spark of blue. The filly giggled.
“That! That right there! That’s the fire!” Celina cried, pointing.
Celestia turned to Celina with a face of disbelief. “That’s not fire, you dodo. That’s a light. She’s lighting with her horn.” She looked back down.
“Oh… So she’s basically a walking torch?”
“I’d suspect so, ye-“ before she could finish, a loud bong sound echoed across the sky. The pair jumped and stared up by instinct before the bong went again, shaking the surrounding trees and the birds that’d nested in them.
“Oh, sweet strawberries!-“ Celestia exclaimed in a hissed whisper. “That’s the pegasus patrol, I need to get out of here!” She leapt up into the air in a rush.
“Wait- what do I do with the horn head??” Celina dashed to follow, panicked.
Celestia stopped. “Aw nuts- uh- j-just leave it, I dunno! Look, I’ve gotta go! And so do you!”
And with that, she was gone, a scatter of feathers falling down to the ground behind her.
Celina looked down, expecting to see the filly they’d just been sat with, but she too was suddenly also gone. Celina had no time to wonder though, she could be spotted at any second, so she began her journey back to her tribe.