Chapter Text
Nights were beginning to stretch longer and colder, and I had nothing to keep me warm nor light my path as I forced my way through the mountain woods. I stumbled through the dense foliage, branches clawing at my face, thorns tearing at my clothes, roots reaching at my ankles to trip me. Finally bursting into a small clearing offered no relief either. It was a perfect, moonless night, and I was surrounded by impenetrable black walls of forest on every side, with no sign telling me which direction to take to continue my search. The only thing I could discern clearly was map of the Milky Way unrolled above me in all its majesty, beckoning me to disappear forever into its inky depths. Over to the west, just above the horizon, the Summer Triangle blinked at me sympathetically. I was out of breath, and hopelessly lost.
"Why can't I save her?!" I screamed at the first magnitude star whose name my trainee, my closest companion carried. Whatever answer she had for me, it was lost in atmospheric noise. She inched closer to the horizon with each passing minute. I was running out of time. My own Vega would burn out and abandon this world before morning found her, that much I knew for certain.
Despair and exhaustion weighted on me like lead, and I fell on my hands and knees, fighting my sobs for a lungful of air. Tears blurred my vision, and I squeezed my eyes closed. I was so useless. What good was a trainer who couldn't even do the bare minimum of not allowing their trainee to self-destruct? In the total silence enveloping me, I heard my tears hit the water, hesitant raindrops from a cloudless sky.
Water.
Water beneath my fingers, cool and clear.
Silence; no wind, no rustle of leaves, no animals.
I wiped my tears and looked up. Then I sat down, awestruck.
I was at the center of a brilliant cosmic marble. Above me stretched, horizon to horizon, a storybook version of the night sky, a million stars of every magnitude speckled across a canvas of nebulae in turquoise and indigo and fuchsia. Below me stretched, horizon to horizon, a perfect mirror to the heavens, an undisturbed expanse of water reflecting each star, each nebula.
And at the center of it all, right under my knees, sprawled an endless racecourse between two parallel rails that met in the infinite.
My first thought was that I did not belong here, on the track, but there was nowhere else to be as far as my eyes could see. There was only the mesmerizing celestial ocean, smooth as glass. The rest of my thoughts came rushing in as if their train was running late: where was I? How did I end up here? Was this real, or was I lying passed out somewhere on a frigid mountain in November?
"I can't get lost like this," I muttered to myself to stay my panic, "I have to find her."
"Oh good, you're here! Wasn't sure if it would work," said a very familiar voice behind me, in a distinctly unfamiliar, bright cadence I have never heard in our two years together. I spun around, kicking up an arc of prismatic droplets as I scrambled to my trembling feet.
The girl behind me — an Umamusume — giggled as she shielded herself from the spray. She wore a Tracen uniform, but no shoes to go with it, and as she straightened back up, there was no mistaking her for anyone else.
"A—Ayabe?" I stuttered. Even her bow and ear cover were an exact match, yet something was very, very off about her.
The girl tilted her head at me, confused, then glanced down at her hands, and her pale pink eyes lit up.
"Oh, no, no, that's my big sister!" she laughed and dragged her fingers through the bay locks of her hair. "Right, you would be confused. It never really mattered that we looked the same when it was only the two of us. You see, I needed to have some kind of form, but I never— Err, nevermind, that doesn't matter right now."
"You're Ayabe's dead sister," I said, trying to stress the impossibility of that statement, still reeling from the shock.
"Ehehe, not mincing your words, are you? I guess that is fair, I can't exactly introduce myself properly without a name of my own," she said, smiling politely with her hands tucked behind her back. Seeing that expression on the face I knew so well was beyond bizarre. "I'm trying to find her too."
I looked behind my shoulder, along one endless stretch of starlit racecourse. "Is she here?"
Ayabe's dead(?) sister began walking and beckoned me to join her. Each of her steps sent waves across the water's surface, stirring the stars below into a frenzy of rippling arcs. She was at least considerate enough to maintain a human pace for me.
"Nope! I'm here because, well. You said it." She offered me a reassuring smile, then spun in place as she walked. Her skirt flared out adorably. "I can usually get through to her, but her head has not been on right lately."
"Uh, I don't know if you noticed, but I haven't been great with convincing her to hear me out either," I said. Having to admit how hard I have been failing Ayabe to her dearest unborn sister made me want to pass on from this limbo as soon as possible, and I didn't much care about which direction.
"That's okay! You tried your best, she really is a stubborn sister sometimes." She smiled at me again. It was entirely unlike Ayabe's smiles; she allowed nothing to cloud it, and it shined with the certain promise of a dawn after the darkest hour, alongside a glimmer of mischief. "But you have an advantage we could use!"
"I do?"
"Mhm! You have a body. I know this is a really big favor to do for someone you've known for all of two minutes, and someone who isn't quite real, but… can I borrow it? Please." Her bright expression never wavered for a moment, but tears began to pool in her eyes and stream down her face. "I don't have any other way to save her. I have to save her."
"Yes," I said immediately, "take whatever you need from me." I felt the cool tingle of adrenaline in my limbs as my mind rushed to imagine how this would go, but no fear, no doubt at all. Anything for Ayabe. If was either her or me, the choice was clear. It has been from the moment we met.
"I… expected you to at least hesitate. Is everything okay?" she asked, wiping her tears away and probing me with those big, wet eyes of hers. She was Ayabe's sister alright, concerned for others even during the hardest times.
I shook my head and gave her my sternest look. "Oh, for the love of— Hurry up! Let's save your sister, we can talk after!"
"Right!" she said, and suddenly halted mid-stride. I looked back at where she should have been, but she was already gone without a trace.
I turned around a few times, but I was once again alone in the starry dreamscape. Dawn was breaking on the horizon ahead, swallowing the stars and painting the distant scatter of dusty clouds in oranges and rosy pinks. I needed to find my dearest star soon.
Something strange about my reflection caught my eye, and I knelt down to see better. There she was, Admire Vega in her full race regalia, kneeling with a befuddled expression on her face, mirroring my own confusion. I gently traced my hand across my own face, around the spots on the top of my head where my ears should have been, and she matched me move for move. I reached out to her, and she stretched her hand out towards me. Our fingertips met on the opposite sides of the whisper-thin membrane of the water's surface.
Suddenly and without warning, her face split into a wide grin. Her fingers breached the water and grabbed my wrist, and she pulled me under with a single powerful movement. Vertigo overcame me, and I didn't even have a chance to take one last breath before the cold water consumed me entirely.
I came to with a wet gasp on the exact spot in the clearing where I previously collapsed. The starscape above was back to the normal, non-storybook variety of breathtaking, and the earth under my feet felt reassuringly real. A couple hours must have passed — Vega was grazing the horizon already. I had very little time left to save my sister.
Something changed while I was out. My lungs were clear, my blood was running so scalding hot, the chill of the night had no hope reaching my skin. Water vapor rose from me in great swirling clouds, like a furnace stoked to its breaking point. Every single beat of my heart was an irresistible drumbeat that reverberated in my bones and urged my body to run. Even the forest itself became less foreboding, with clear passages between the trees and bushes. And I felt a pull at the center of my being that told me exactly where to go. We could do this. I kicked off my ill-fitting shoes and heeded the urge to dash off.
I floated through the deer paths like a ghost with nary a noise. The branches shied away from me, the thorns blunted themselves, the roots retreated in face of my determination, and soon I broke into an all-out sprint, following the pull of our bond.
Ayabe lay at the bottom of a ravine, scraped, bloodied, and covered in mud. I let out a sigh of relief when she lifted her head wearily as she sensed my approach. Starlight wove silver strands into her hair, and her dull eyes came to life with a deep sparkle we both have thought to be long snuffed out.
Her mouth parted in awe, but no sound left her lips. I wanted to rush over to her, but for these final meters, each step felt like dragging a tire behind me. We were never meant to exist in the same world. There was no telling how this would end. I dug my nails into my palms until I drew blood, struggling to stay tethered.
My sister tried to stand up, but she fell back down as she put weight onto her left leg. That was enough for me to cast my doubts aside. She was in my arms before her head would have hit the rocks.
"I'm sorry," she whimpered, "I'm so, so sorry! I lost sight of you! I felt you disappear… What have you done?" Heavy sobs rocked her body and she clung to me so hard it hurt. I held her head to my chest, close to my living, beating heart. "Please stay," she said, barely audible. "I'll go instead."
"You're not going anywhere, Big Sis," I heard myself say, "and I'm not going to leave you ever again. We have so much to catch up on!" She was so light, so fragile. I lifted her as gently as I could.
I lost any sense of time or self as I made my way down from the mountain, carrying my sister. I made it to the emergency room before sunrise. Only once I safely put down Ayabe did my exhaustion demand dividends.