Chapters Today I woke up to the sound of my alarm, which isn't normal. I usually wake up at five and my alarm is tell me if I'm late getting up. I reached over to turn off the alarm. Half awake looked under the covers to find that Luna wasn't there. I looked around the room but I still didn't see her. I rolled over and saw her sitting on my desk, staring out the window. She was staring blankly to the left. I got up and walked over to see what see was staring at. She appeared to be staring at the sky.
"what-cha lookin at?" I asked, but she didn't seem to answer. She looked at me and the looked back at the sky. I adjusted my head to see what she was staring at. The moon was still up and just visible. "Come on, lets eat." I picked her up carried her down the stairs into the kitchen. I set her on the counter and pored a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch . I sat down with the bowl and scooped a spoonful of cereal and held it out. Luna took a sniff and then ate the spoonful. I'd eat a couple of spoonfuls and then let Luna have one. I tried talking to her, but she never answered. I guess she doesn't know/want to talk. It doesn't matter, either way her presence alone is enough to bring me joy.
Then I heard my phone ring. I remembered that I left it in my jacket pocket. I looked at the caller ID. It was work. I answered it told my boss that I was taking a personal day. I hung up and walked back to Luna. She jumping down from down from counter to the chair, to the floor. I didn't notice them earlier but she has tiny little alicorn wings. the rest day was spent just having fun. We watched a few Disney movies and then we went to bed. Well I went while Luna was asleep and then she followed.
Next morning I woke to find Luna staring out the window again. I carried her to the kitchen, pored a bowl. When it was empty I put it in the dishwasher and walked to the door. I grabbed my jacket and turned around to see little Luna sitting there just feet away with the biggest gleaming eyes ever. I couldn't help but smile.
"No. You can't come with me." She just tilted her head in confusion. "You stay here and don't be seen!" I said taking a knee to pick her up. I walked to the couch and set her down. I noticed the Dr. Hooves blanket was still there. I folded and put it in the top shelf of the cubards. when I turned around Luna was right there. "sigh. No, you stay." I picked her up again set her on the couch. "I'm gonna be gone for a while," Her smile swiftly faded. "but I'll be back! just wait. I'm not leaving forever." She walked closer and stood up on her hind legs. I bent down and picked her up. "Just stay here. I'll be back I promise." She rapped her legs around my arm and tightened her grip.
"No!"
No? I repeated in my head. That was the first world she ever said. I don't care if it sounded cheesy, that was the first time she spoke. Other than giggling a lot, she didn't say anything.
"Hey... I'll be back. I promise!" She looked up, her eyes somehow bigger. Her bottom lip was quivering slightly.
"Pr-Promees?"
"Yes, and when I get back I'll teach you how to read and talk. Ok?"
"O-ok." Luna loosened her grip and let go. I went to the fridge and grabbed a couple apples and set them on the coffee table in front of the couch. I set Luna on the couch. When I got up to leave she grabbed my wrist.
"I'll be back." I gave her a hug. "And don't be seen by anyone!" I locked the door, got in the car and left for work. I came in twelve minutes late for work and just grabbed my cart and delivered peoples portfolios and files. I ran into Annie who is always wanting me to go out and date someone. I also ran into Austin and Tanner. I usually talk to them at lunch and they wanted to know where I was yesterday. "I'm back!" I said after coming home from one of the longest days of work. It was a second before I heard the clopping of little hooves on the wooden floor. Luna came sliding around the corner hitting the ground with a thud. She got up immediately and continued running. It was exactly like having a puppy jumping into your arms. I pulled out a dictionary from the shelf and set it on the coffee table next to two apple cores.
"OK. lets start with...'a'...well... uh OK, lets start with 'a'." For the next three most boring hours both our lives, one word after the other. We had some of the I made and then went to bed. I crawled into bed and Luna curled up next to me.
"Good night dad."
Wow. I thought to myself. From 'pale' to 'good night dad.' That's a step.
"Good night Luna."
chapter 3: Surprise Visit
It was a nice day out and everything was normal. Luna really wanted to go outside but I wouldn't let her. I lived in a pleasant neighborhood. I had neighbors, nice neighbors. They always invited me to barbecues, get-togethers and poker night. Every other Friday was Poker Night and every other Friday a couple of my neighbors would come over and invite me to Poker Night. I never wanted to play poker because I wasn't good at it. Every time I learned something about poker and gambling I'd always forget it five seconds later. Luna and I were watching Cinderella (the original) when I got a call from my brother, John, telling me he was just eight minutes away and had Julli, his daughter, with him.
She was going to be staying at my place for a week. John and Rebecca were going on a honey-moon. It was their anniversary of their wedding and they were heading down to California. I quickly got up and ran around the picking up everything that valuable or fragile. I heard a knock on the door that told me they were here. I picked up Luna and ran up stairs to put her in my room. I opened the front to say hello to my favorite niece. Julli came dashing in and immediately plopped herself on the couch. She didn't sit on the couch to watch Cinderella , she sat down on the couch and pulled out her iPhone.
"Why the hell did you give four-year-old an iPhone?" I said to my brother.
"because she asked." They gave me a big box of stuff that I would need for taking care of her. They headed off to California and I turned around to see my niece still on her phone.
"No 'Hello uncle'?"
"yeah." She weakly replied. I walked over and pulled her iPhone out of her hands. "hey!"
"No. You're not gonna spend the whole time on your phone!"
"But I was texting my friends!"
"Don't care!" I put the phone on top of the cupboards and sat back down next to my niece who was giving me the stink-eye. "Come on, lets watch something."
"I don't wanna watch anything!" She stormed off to the bathroom and locked herself in. I simply just shrugged and switched the TV to watch some Big Bang Theory . After about nine episodes she finally came back out. She went over to the kitchen and tried to get her phone by standing on a stool. The rest of the day was spent trying to keep her from her phone. When bed time came she was still mad, but she willingly went to bed. After a while I went to bed too and Luna curled up under my chin. I was half asleep when I heard a thud and then crying afterwards. I knew it was Julli and I was in no rush to get down and find her rolling around on the floor clenching the back of her head crying and yelling. After a few minutes of figiting she allowed me to check her head for blood.
There wasn't any blood but there was a big goose-egg on the back of her head. I picked her up and started carrying her to the stairs when she asked.
"What's that?" I looked at where she was pointing to see Luna staring right back at me. It seems Luna's curiosity got the best of her. "Gasp! It's Luna! It is! That's Luna!" Julli yelled. My brother is also a fan of MLP so natural she knows all the characters. Julli became restless in my arms. I just sighed and set her down. She ran at Luna picked her up just like any four-year-old would pick up a puppy: hold them by the neck and hug them to death.
"Stop!" Luna yelled. Julli immediately dropped Luna and Luna ran behind me for safety.
"She can talk?!"
"Yeah, I taught her."
"That's awesome!!" Julli ran closer to give Luna another hug, but Luna quickly turned around ran for her life. Julli continued to chase Luna around the room until I grabbed Luna and set her on top of the kitchen counter.
"How did you get Luna? Luna! The magical pr-" Julli squeaked but I cut her off before she could say any more.
"I found her. She was cold and scared."
"Well why didn't you tell me when you did?!" I forgot to mention, not only is Julli a fan but she absolutely loves MLP. She has at least ten posters, a full bed-spread set, stuffed characters, accessories, you name it.
"Julli. Promise me something?"
"What?"
"promise me-" I was about to continue, but I stopped myself. "Come here!" I took Julli into the bathroom and closed the door. I spoke in soft whisper telling her that I didn't want her mention nor bring anything related to MLP. Ever. I didn't want this to be like My Little Dashie when Rainbow Dash finds out about the truth and runs away.
"Promise?" I said looking her in the eyes with a Fluttershy like stare.
"But why?"
"Just promise! no questions!"
"Fine!" She sighed. I opened the door and we walked out. After that Luna and Julli actually got along pretty well. Julli offered to let Luna play with her toys, but all of her toys were MLP related so I just pulled out box of my old toys from the closet. Luna struggled to hold the toys with her hooves.
"why don't you just use your magic." Luna looked back at Julli like she was some delusional woman.
"Magic?" I guess Luna being filly with no memory of her actual life, and being surrounded by other creatures with no magic she didn't know anything about her horn, let alone magical abilities.
"Yeah! You have a horn don't you?" Julli said poking Luna's horn. Luna looked up and felt her tiny horn with her hoof.
"I don't think she knows about that." I said leaning in closer from my spot on the couch. The amount of joy that was shone on my nieces little face looked scary.
"can I teach her?!" She squeaked looking back at Luna then at me. I looked at Luna who was positively terrified.
chapter 4: Teaching Royalty
We spent a good four minutes trying to put teaching her magic into words that she could understand. Julli kept trying to tell Luna to lift the pencil I set on the table, but every time she gave an instruction Luna just gave another confused looked back.
"ugh!" Julli collapsed on the couch. "You think you can look up how to do this?"
"Look up how to teach an alicorn, magic? Whatever you say, the computer's over there."
"I'm serious!"
"So am I. Be my guest!" This was probably the most confusing time in Luna's life. We sat there trying to think of a way to make Luna understand us. "Luna ... Just-you see that pencil-just ... concentrate on it and ... lift it!"
"Great job!"
"Thank you. I try my best." Luna looked at the pencil then back at us and at the pencil. She closed her eyes and tried using her magic. After a couple seconds the tip of her horn started glowing and sparking. Julli and me both leaned in closer waiting for the pencil to float in the or something. Luna tried harder and the pencil started to flicker with blue magic. "That's it Luna, just a bit more..."
It's working!" Julli could barely sit still."It's working! IT'S WORKING!" Both Luna and I jumped when Julli screamed. Jullis' face started turning pink. "Hey, where's the pencil?" I looked back at the table. The pencil wasn't there. We started looking around the room trying to spot the pencil. We couldn't seem to find it, not even under the coffee table. I leaned back on the couch to try and think when I noticed a pink dot in the the ceiling. It was the pencil. I stood up on the couch and the pencil out the ceiling and set it back on the table.
"Sorry." Luna said when I looked at the hole that was in the ceiling.
"It's OK." I reassured her. "Now. Let's try that again. Without yelling." Julli's face turned pink again. Luna tried again with her horn sparking. This time she was able lift one end of the pencil off the table. I stood and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. I came back and handed it to Luna.
"Thanks dad." Luna said grabbing the cup with her hooves.
"Dad? She calls you Dad?"
"What! I can't be a father?" Luna took a gulp.
"No, It's just why would she call you dad?"
"He did save my life." Luna said. Julli didn't have anything after that. Luna tried again to levitate the pencil. After about fifteen more attempts she was able to just barely lift it off the table.
"OK. I think that's enough for today. How 'bout we get some sleep?"
"uugh. But I'm not tired at all!" Julli tried arguing.
"It's eight, time for you to go to bed. Luna'll still be here when you wake up and you're here for a whole week." Julli gave a sight and went upstairs. I looked back at Luna who was yawning and of course tired from all the magic. "Come on let's go to bed Luna." I picked her and carried her up the stairs. I set her on the bed and went to tuck in Julli.
"unc'Lane? How long will Luna be staying here?"
"I don't know."
"I hope she stays here forever."
"Forever is a long time to be trapped away from home." I gave Julli a kiss on the forehead and turned off the lights. "G'night"
"Goodnight, uncle." I shut the door and walked to my room where Luna was fast asleep. I moved her over to the side of the bed, but she didn't wake. I crawled into bed and held Luna close.
"Good Night Luna. Sweet dreams."
In the morning I woke up around eight, nine-ish. I sat up and looked at my desk where Luna was sitting, staring out the window. I got up and walked over to where she was. She was staring at the moon again.
"You like the Moon?"
"Moon?"
"Oh yeah that's right, we never got that far. Well that is called the Moon. It comes out every single night. And that" I pointed to the sun rising over the mountains. "...Is called the Sun. What d'ya think?"
"The sun hurts my eyes."
"And that's why I prefer the Moon. Come on lets get some food in you." I carried Luna down to the kitchen where Julli was waiting. "you're up before I am? Well played, Missy, Well played."
"I'm hungry!" she moaned. I pored two bowls of cereal and then threw the empty box away.
"cereal." I said writing cereal down on my shopping list along a bunch of other things. We ate the cereal and went into the Living room and sat down on the couch. I smelled something weird. I looked at Julli and smelled some of her hair. "You need a bath."
"So do you, uncle."
"Luna come here." Luna took a couple of steps closer and I picked her up and smelled her too. "As do you, too" I had given myself showers, but I never gave Luna a bath since I found her. She didn't seem to smell any different to me, because I don't usually smell too good either. I went to bath tub and pored about a foot of in it. After Julli came out clean and newly dressed, I emptied the tub till about six inches remained. Luna was a bit skeptical at first, but she jumped in when she realized the water was warm. She cleaned up nicely. I got her dried and hair combed. Her fur was actually very soft, it felt like silk almost. I got myself showered and dressed and came out see Luna trying to lift the pencil.
I sat down next to them and watched as the pencil slowly flickered and then levitated off the table. We stayed at home for a few more hours. Luna was able to lift the pencil as high or low as she wanted. I got the car started and we drove into town to celebrate. We got a couple of ice cream cones and a bowl. I parked the car at a nice empty location and ate our ice cream. Luna levitated her spoon taking one small bite after the next.
The last week was the best week of my life. Julli and Luna got along very well together. They never seamed to run out of things to do. Luna was able to get some more practice and can now levitate books. We were watching the TV show TMNT when there was knock on the door. It was John and Rebecca, they were back from their honeymoon. Luna scampered off up the stairs and out of sight. Julli got her stuff together, including her big, stuffed Fluttershy (Fluttershy was her favorite character).
"Guess what we got you in California." John whipped out a little Fluttershy key-chain doll.
"No. I want Luna!" Julli pouted.
"Luna? But sweets, they don't sell Luna dolls." Rebecca and John equally confused.
"They should." I said. " I' buy one 'fore they could even finish it!"
"I thought Fluttershy was your favorite?" John said.
"I want Luna!"
"Alright Lane, what did you do to my daughter?" John looked at me.
"I didn't do anything! Why do you always have to accuse me?"
"Because it's always you!"
"No it's not!"
"OK boys! Why don't we brake this up right now!" John turned to looked back at Rebecca who was giving both of us a stern look.
"OK. Julli, you got everything?"
"Yeah."
"You got your clothes, your stuffed pones?"
"Yeah!"
"Your phone?" Julli opened her mouth din't say anything. "Where's your phone?"
"Oh!" I said walking into the kitchen and grabbing the phone from on top of the cupboards. There was a thin layer of dust on it. "Here ya go."
"Did you keep her phone away from her the whole time?"
"Yeah."
"Wow. That must have a long week?"
"No. Happiest week of my life." John gave me a questionable look and then picked Julli up and headed out the door.
"Say goodbye Julli."
"Bye unc'Lane. Bye Luna." John turned and gave another baffled look, but Rebecca dragged him off before he could say anything. I turned around and went back to the couch. Luna hopped down the steps and joined me.
"Will we see her again?" Luna asked sitting in my lap.
"I think so. Most definitely." We continued to TMNT. I heard Johns car driving away. I didn't really know Luna would get to see her again. They lived in South Dakota, but that wasn't the problem. If My Little Dashie was real, than Celestia or somepony would probably come sooner this time. I tried not to think about that. I tried to focus on right now and enjoying it while it lasted.
Having Julli over was just one of the easy parts of having a magical filly princess Luna. The hardest parts were trying to keep her a secret. I know that the stuff that happens in movies aren't real, but I don't really know anything about how the FBI, CIA or anything like that works and I'm not gonna be the to put that to the test.
Most of the time Luna and I could have fun and walk around the house freely, but unlike My Little Dashie I still had family and I still had neighbors. I couldn't try to ignore them 'cause then that would just make them investigate why I'm acting that way, so I try to act like nothings' change. My neighborhood is just like any other neighborhood. Each house has an owner, and each owner has a family, and each family sets up an average amount of banquets, get-together and barbecues. I'm not a vary social person. I'm more of a 'I have my friends, but I still like to be alone.. a lot' kinda person.
I like to be alone, because I like to talk to myself. In my head I have this never-ending story that I keep adding to every day. I tried to turn it into a book but the publishers didn't like it. I still write it just because usually have nothing better to with my time, and because I still try to think that at least I still have something live for. It keeps me busy and I try to think that I'm still successful in some way. My neighbors think It's pointless, but my friends don't judge me. One of my friends, Hunter, wrote a story in our freshman year at Big Sky. Nobody judged him, they only asked if they could be in it. But that's aside the point. My co-workers invited me to a barbecue so I had leave Luna alone in the house. She doesn't never likes being alone. I don't know why exactly and I never bothered to ask her.
I got to the barbecue and brought my own beer considering they never bother to bring it no matter how many I tell them to. My favorite beer is Blue Moon soulfully because of the name. I never liked the taste of alcohol, it's always too bitter for my taste, but that's alcohol. Bitter. My coworkers are nice people. They always ask me if I want a better job with a better pay. Annie was there too. I tried to avoid her but she seems to have some kind of radar and spotted me immediately.
"There you are Lane!" She spoke in her usual tone which I think had a little sarcasm hidden in it. "I have the perfect girl for you!"
"Oh. You do?"
"Yes. Well what do you think?" In front of stood a beautiful woman. She had nice, curly brown hair. She had brown eyes, good body and everything, which on more than one occasion isn't a good sign. It's not that I don't like pretty girls, it's just usually when they're pretty, they're not that nice. As I say 'When she's pretty on the outside, she's ugly on the inside' meaning: pretty girls are usually a bitch.
"yeee-bullshit."
"oh!" She hit me offside the head. "You don't even know her! Now go and ask her something. Tell her she looks nice. Now!" I walked over and said hi. she said hi back and we started talking. she seemed pretty nice. We talked for a few hours and she actually seemed perfect. I asked her about what she does for a living. She works as an actor for commercial gigs. She actually adopted two boys. One's fifteen and the other is nine. The fifteen year old has ADHD. I found that interesting because I have ADHD and some OCD. She was genuinely pretty perfect. We were talking and a topic came up that completely shattered everything. Her reply was...
"Oh, no I think My Little Pony is retarded." I didn't say anything. I just turned around grabbed the last two bottles of Blue Moon and walked out. First of all, to say it's stupid is one thing, but retarded ? I didn't really like it when people said retarded because one of my cousins has some disability. She's not retarded, she's just... she has rett's. She lived her life normally until she was like nine or twelve and then it happened. Her father left her and I my aunt and grandma have been taking care of her ever since.
I got home and Luna ran up to me and jumped into my arms. I sat down on the couch and placed my last bottle on the table. Luna looked at the bottle and turned it to see the name. she was about drink it when I pulled it away.
"Not for you." I said.
"What is it?"
"Alcohol."
"Oh." She knew what alcohol was. We were able get to the 'P's in the dictionary and that's when we went to sleep.
"What does alcohol do?"
"uh, well..." I'm not the best at explaining things but I tried my best to explain it. She seemed to understand it.
"why does it do that?"
"I don't know exactly. I'm not a scientist." I got a call from Tanner asking where I was. I simply replied with "Annie." He understood exactly what I meant. Annie tried to set him up with dates too, before he was married.
"What's Annie?"
"I don't know? I think she's trying study our mating habits for an invasion later on?"
"Mating habits?"
"Well more like likes and dislikes." We watched some TV and then I carried Luna up to bed. She can never seem to stay awake past eight. She always ends up drifting between sleep and staying awake. She always fell asleep by eight-thirty, but she never forgets to say one thing before she drifts into dreams.
"Goodnight dad."
"Good Night Luna." I held her close.
*yawn* "I Love you." She snuggled up against my neck. 'I love you'?! I couldn't help but smile.
"I-I love you too Luna."
I woke up another day to find Luna staring out the window at the Moon. Today was Easter Day and my parents were coming over which meant. Luna had stay locked in my room and not make a sound. She hated it and so did I. I didn't like it when my parents came over. I could mind having my brother 'cause Julli was always there to be the distraction. My parents brought another little gift. This time it was a turtle magnet. Every gift they brought was always turtle themed. They're my favorite animal.
"Do you like it?" My mom asked anxiously.
"I love it." I walked into the kitchen, pulled out a shoe box from on top the fridge. The box had all of the gifts mom had ever given me.
"So.. What are your plans for today?" My parents always came over for every holiday (except Valentines).
"Nothing. I'm stayin' home. And you?"
"Well we wanted to do whatever you wanted."
"You always."
"Well you never want to do what we want to do." My dad spoke from the counter.
"Because everything you guys want to do with me involve a lot of annoying time together."
"LT don't push us away. We're for you."
"I know that. I'm fine. I'm not going to kill myself!" I tried get comfortable for the next hour, but it's hard when your parents are - not just sitting next to you - but sitting on either side of you. We watched the Big Bang Theory. My dad didn't like it, he wanted to watch sports. I didn't like sports. Never understood them completely. The BBT shows ended and now I channel surfing.
"Oo. Lakers vs the Packers is on." My dad pointed to the channel 144 on the guide. Then - as if sign from god - somebody knocked on the door.
"Oh thank god-IT'S OPEN!" I yelled getting up off the couch. To my joy, Julli was the first one to walk in the house, well run in.
"Unca! Unca! Unca! Where's Luna!?"
"Aay. You're here?"
"She wouldn't stop yelling until we "Visited Luna" so here we are. Happy to see me?"
"Yes! You distract Mom and Dad. I have to show Julli something. Come on up the stairs. John.. Distract them!" I hurried up the stairs after Julli who was waiting impatiently at the door. I walked up to the door and kicked it. There was the sound of the door being unlocked and the door slowly swayed opened with a faint blue glow.
"Lu-" She was about to finish it, but I didn't want any more attention than my brothers. We quickly got in the and shut the door. Luna levitated a little box from under the bed. I went out one day and bought some thread, a few needles, some other supplies. Julli grasped the box and opened it to find a little Luna key-chain doll.
"A stuffed doll of your favorite pony made by your favorite pony."
"I abthoutly love it!" She picked up Luna and hugged her. This time she didn't choke her and Luna was able to hug her back. We couldn't stay in my to long so I let Julli say the rest of her 'thank you' and then brought her out and locked the door.
"Now Julli if anybody asks, I gave it to you."
"OK."
"And talk about Luna so much. OK?"
"OK" We walked down the stairs and rejoined the family.
"Where's Rebecca?" I asked looking around for her.
"She got called into work. It's just us."
"Damn!"
"What's with you and my wife?"
"She's better than you."
"In what way!?"
"How about we sit down and watch some TV. Hmm!" Mom said with a hiss. We sat down and watched some Elementary . We then got into long conversation about the little Luna doll and then went hunting for eggs.
Halloween came and went. I set up all kinds of Halloween decorations. I didn't bother to have Luna hind, the kids would think she was just some cardboard stand-up or something. Kids in costumes would come and get some candy. They never even acknowledged anything past the candy. The hardest part was trying to keep Luna from eating all the Milky Way, Dark sides .
Thanks Giving is coming up and this time the whole family is coming. We usually have Thanks Giving at either mine or my brothers place because ours are the two biggest houses. I went into my storage room and pulled out two hand-carved wooden legs that I made. I moved the couch and the chairs against the wall and Luna levitated the coffee table over to the side as well. I pulled out ten tiny chairs and placed them around it. I also unscrewed the glass top to the coffee table and placed a wooden table top in its place. I couldn't trust the kids with the glass table top 'cause it would just shatter in a million pieces. I had Luna help me bring in the large table top for the grown-ups table. She's been practicing a lot more on her levitating skills. We connected the table top to the legs and laid out the cloth, plates, utensils and chairs.
The first people to arrive were my two favorite cousins Ceci and Gabbi. They were from the Spanish side of the family. Their parents would be staying with my brother. My grandma and grandpa from my moms side would be staying with my parents. Ceci was average height and weight while Gabbi was little shorter and a little more plump. They were pretty nice cousins.
After a while the rest of the family showed up. Both grandmas, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandpa, and everybody else. My friend Hunter showed up as well. We all sat down at the table and began the feast. My brother carved the turkey and my grandpa devoured the mashed potatoes and gravy. Hunter was our musical entertainment for the night. Julli and I were able to visit Luna once and gave her some food.
My Birthday came today or as Jaden calls it: Birthaversary, because you're celebrating the anniversary of your Birthday. Jaden is friend from high school that's still somewhat close. I got a lot of cards, some money, some iTunes cards and a hand-me-down iPad from my aunt (The one with the 'special' cousin). Luna was a bit flustered that I didn't tell her it was my Birthday. After few days Ceci and Gabbi went home. Luna was always so happy and so relieved when ever people left 'cause then she could finally be free to walk around the house.
The big one was coming up. That's right, Christmas. Luna wasn't able to help me with outside decorations, but I let her decorate the inside. That was the most festive the inside of my house has ever looked. It looked like the inside of the store from the movie elf (minus the stuff hanging from the ceiling).
My brother kept sending me pictures of an elk he shot at hunting camp saying.
'Look what you missed out on.'. He had a way of getting under skin, even without trying (or realizing). Speaking of my brother, he was going to be staying with us (Luna and me). He and his family live in South Dakota. As usual, Julli came bursting through the door. John and Rebecca went up stairs and put their stuff in one of the guest bedrooms. I let Julli get her stuff together. She ran up the stairs and then ran right back down and tugged on my shirt.
"Daddies twyin to get in your room." I silently crept up the stairs and spotted my brother trying to use a special kind key used to unlock a door from the other side. I tip-toed my way over while he was distracted and snatched the key out of his hands.
"What are you doing!" I said putting the key in my pocket.
"Why is your door always lock whenever anybody comes over?"
"It's not always locked. I never lock it when Julli's here."
"But she is here."
"with you! "
"Could you just open the door."
"Why?"
"Please open the door?" Rebecca slipped a hand over my shoulder. She always had a way of reading my mind in what I actually meant when I'd say encrypted things.
"Sorry. He's still here."
"Johny, do you really need to know what's inside his room?"
"Yeah, Johny ." Rebecca slapped me. John didn't want to continue the conversation and walked off down the stairs. Rebecca looked back at me with her 'naughty boy' look.
"no."
"Ooooh." She said in a sexily annoying tone and then walked off.
"what was that about?" Julli stood next to me trying to ponder what just happened.
"when you're older." I turned around and kicked the door. Luna opened the door and stared at me.
"What are talking about? What did Rebecca do?" Luna knew who all the members of my family were. She stared at me with an interested look.
"No." I closed the door behind me. There was a faint but very noticeable sound coming from John trying to open the door. "John." I spoke up.
"Lane open the door! I heard someone else in there!"
"Well congrats!" Luna and Julli talked to pass the time until John got called down by Rebecca. We walked out and went down stairs. John was waiting for me in the kitchen. The conversation that followed wasn't any more pleasant.
Christmas came two days later and my parents came over, in fact, most of the family showed up. As usual. There was the annual gift giving. I got all kinds of things. Mostly stuff that I just tossed in a box and forgot about. After my brother, Rebecca and Julli left, I went up to give Luna her present. It was late, but still Christmas. When she opened the box, her smile vanished and turned into a 'are you kidding me' look.
"Hi, I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs." Luna didn't laugh, but I could barely contain my laughter after saying that.
"I'm not Elsa!"
"No. It's for when you feel alone."
"How is this suppose to make me feel better?"
"Use your imagination!" Luna eventually warmed up to him. Ha warmed up . It was eight-thirty and as usual, Luna was fast asleep. I never understood how the 'Princess of the night' is always so sleepy. Unless she's always like this in MLP. I crawled into bed and Luna snuggled closer with the Olaf doll squeezed in her hooves. It was absolutely adorable. She nuzzled her head against Olaf.
"Goodnight dad. *yuan* I love you."
"Good Night Luna. I love you too."
It wasn't always about hiding and keeping quiet. We did have fun every now and then. One time when I was watering my flower plants, she threw a water balloon at the back of my head. I started to spray her with the hose and then she turned the stream against me.
She didn't always have to stay in the house. Sometimes I'd take Luna for a walk or four wheeler ride (ATV). She loved riding on the ATV, but preferred to walk. One time we went for a ride and by the end of it, Luna was covered in a thick layer of dust. When walked, we would always walk through thick woods. It wasn't bad, even though we didn't usually walk on trials, we always just talked and looked around at the beautiful scenery. Luna always asked what kind of creatures she was seeing so one day I brought a book and started naming off the animals as best I could. She learned pretty fast what they looked like and what their names were. She was able to name every single the next time we went.
We would also do some sight-seeing as well. I'd drive around to all kinds of places in Montana, Washington, Idaho, and the Dakotas. I took her to Arches National Park for her birthday. I hid her in my backpack and she got to walk under and over the arches. I also took her to the plains of Montana. She liked the Buffalo, the mountain goat, and especially the horses and ponies.
One time I took her to Flathead lake during the winter. Sometimes I'd go there to go ice skating and make sure that the yurt my parents have there is still there and not collapsed. Mostly though to make sure that the tools weren't missing. There wasn't anybody there so we went down the lake. There was a public dock at the bottom of the hill and a small island too. With the low water levels and thick ice, e were able to walk out there. Luna slid around on the ice for a while and I joined her.
One day Luna picked out a book from my bookshelf. Harry Potter . She liked it and kept reading one book after the other. She mainly focused on the books about fantasy. She read Lord of The Rings and Hobbit in fifteen days. I hid away a couple of books that were a bit too graphic for her. She ended up reading most all of the books I had, even my Geronimo Stiltons . My mom made me read them as a kid and I liked them, and kept them. Her favorite book was The Kingdom of Fantasy , also G. Stilton. She read every book almost five times over, she finished the dictionary. Then she moved to online books. One time I had take car of my neighbors cat while she was away on vacation. I brought Luna that time and the first thing she did was look through the bookshelf. I went to the kitchen and fed the cat, when I came back to get her she just starting to read 50 Shades of Gray . Long story short, I told a list of things that shouldn't be read, and not question why.
Luna was a very fast learner so one I went on the computer a signed her up her up for ABC Mouse . Luna found it a bit stupid considering she had already learned most of the stuff it was teaching her. After a few months she was finally starting to learn all new things. She was already in 8th grade and was at the top of her class. She liked learning new things. Of course though not everything they taught. The three major topics were WWI, WWII, 911. It took her a few months to recover from all that she learned.
When she fully recovered from all the things she learned about, I decided to take her out for a ride. She never liked it when I buckled her in. She never liked being pushed up against the seat when she naturally sits leaning forward. I drove into town and stopped a store. I told Luna to wait in the car be hidden. I walked into the store and after ten minutes I walked carrying a box. I carefully set the box in the back seat and buckled the seat belt around it. Luna kept trying to unbuckle her seat belt and figure out what was in the box.
"I heard it peep!" She exclaimed many times. We finally got home and I took her inside and opened the box. "DUCKLINGS!" She yelled. "O-ooh! They're so cute!" She was bounding with joy. This was the happiest I have ever seen her, and the happiest I've ever been.
"You wanna name 'em?" Luna suddenly froze.
"I can name them?!" As if she couldn't get any happier. Her smile and joy rivals Pinkies.
The duck were now three months old and about half their maximum size. Their names were Moon and Sunny. You can imagine who named who. Luna absolutely adored them and so did Julli. They reminded my parents and my brother (me too) of the time dad came home with two baby ducks. They were name Sunny and Yoyo. The reason I named mine Sunny was because he was a lighter shade of yellow than Yoyo. Yoyo was mauled and we came home on Easter to find Sunny with a hole in his chest. I wanted to make sure that didn't happen again so I built a hen house for them. Luna fed them every day and they always cheered her up.
Luna always felt abandoned every time I left her in the house alone so I grabbed a box from my storage room and pulled out my old, blue Samsung slide phone. I remembered one time when Luna picked up my iPod. She could pick it up and move it anywhere, she just couldn't seam to do anything with it besides push the lock, volume and home buttons. I guess magic doesn't work for controlling electronics. This phone was an old one and not a touch screen. The next day when I went to work she called me at least twenty times. It was the funniest day of my life.
"DAD?!" She yelled at the phone.
"I told you not to yell. I can hear you just fine. And I told you to call me when something bad is happening, or if the family come over."
"I know, but it just feels so lonely without you. Can you come home? Please. Please, please, pleaeeeeese!" Luna pleaded.
"This is like the twentieth time you called. you gotta stop."
"Actually twenty-seven. Learn to count dad."
"I taught you how to count. You can't keep calling me every minute."
"Can't you just come home?"
"This how I pay for everything!"
"Plaeese! Plae-" I pulled out the battery and went back to work.
Luna was in the backyard feeding the ducks. I tried not to worry to much if someone might see her. She was pretty good at making sure no one saw her during the day. I was siting on the couch when I felt hungry. I got up and opened the fridge and grabbed things to make a sandwich. A slice of bread, ham, pepperoni, pepperoni, cheese, pepperoni, pepperoni, ham, and finally, another slice of bread. Oh, and some hot sauce on each bread slice. Yeah, I got this thing. Well after absentmindedly making a sandwich, I walked over to the couch and sat down.
I took one bite of my sandwich when my phone rang in the kitchen. I set my sandwich on a plate and walked over to my phone and answered it.
"Hello?"
"Hi LT!" It was my mother. We continued to talk and after a minute Luna opened the back door and walked in. She sat down on the couch and started watching TV. I began to walk over still talking to my mom. I leaned over the back of the couch and saw Luna about to take a bite of my sandwich.
"Luna! No!" It was too late, she took a bite. I froze. She was chewing and nothing seamed to be wrong, but then she froze. Her face was of disgust. Before I could do anything she barfed.
"LT? What's wrong?" I hung up the phone and put it in my pocket.
"Luna?" I said after a pause. She didn't say anything, she shook, her mouth still open.
"What... what was that?" She shuddered. I didn't answer. "What was in that sandwich!?"
"... Meat." I said sitting down.
"MEAT?! You were eating meat?" She looked at me with disappointed eyes. I couldn't help but feel completely ashamed in myself.
"I-i'm gonna tell you something. e-everybody eats meat." I said slowly.
"WHAT?!" She looked like she was about to throw up again. "Everybody eats meat? Why?!"
"You remember the food groups I told you about? Well I left out a big group. Meat." I tried to reach out and comfort her, but she stepped away.
"WHAT?! They-" My phone rang again. It was my mom again and pulled out the battery and placed it on the table.
"Luna. Come here." I picked her up and held her close.
"Why?" She teared up. "Just why?"
"Just survival of the fittest."
"What? What? Why?" she looked up at me. Her big eyes flooded with tears.
"Never, never again!" I held her tighter. "If you don't eat meat, I don't!" We staid on the couch for an hour until she spoke again.
"I want them buried." She said.
"You what?"
"I want them buried!" She levitated the sandwich.
"Oh. Uuuh?" I didn't know how to respond to that. I didn't argue with it though, I got all the meat and brought them out to the backyard. I didn't worry about anyone seeing her, it was late late at night now. I looked up at the night sky, but didn't see any stars. The night was clear but there wasn't a single visible star. I grabbed a shovel from the shed and started digging a hole. I didn't say anything as I was digging. When I finished digging I looked at Luna to see her crying over the package's of bacon, ham, and pepperoni. I sat down next to her and ran fingers through her hair to try and comfort her. "Luna." I said softly. "If you can't-"
"No! I can do it." She levitated the sandwich and the meat into the hole. I took the shovel and slowly shoveled dirt into the hole. When the hole was filled Luna placed a rose on top. I sat down next to her for the last hour until she fell asleep. I carefully carried her in and laid her on the bed. I crawled into bed with her and held her close.
"Good Night Luna."
The next day I woke up a little later than usual. I sat up and looked at my desk where Luna usually was in the morning staring out at the moon. Today though she wasn't there. I went down stairs, but I didn't find her the kitchen. I went into the living room, but she wasn't there either. I looked out the backdoor and saw her sitting in front of the "grave". I walked out and keeled next to her. she was still crying.
"Luna. Come back inside before someone sees you."
"Why would someone-anyone do such a thing?" Luna looked up at me with those same huge, flooded blue eyes. Every time she cried and looked at me with those eyes, I couldn't help but fell this terrible anxiety.
"That's just the way life is and there is nothing you can do to stop. You can't morn over every single death in the world. The best you can do is just move on and try to be happy." I brought Luna back in and pored her a bowl of cereal. She ate slowly and was depressed most of the day, but she cheered up after I took her for a walk.
Luna and I were siting on the couch one day and there was a knocking at the door.
"Luna, hide." Luna ran up stairs and locked the bedroom door. I opened the door and Julli came bursting through. "Slow down there Julli. You're gonna brake something." Julli ran up stairs.
"She's going to be staying with you for the next week." John said entering the room and setting box down next to the couch.
"Where you goin this time?"
"Utah. Rebecca's always wanted to see the arches. You've been there. How is it?"
"It's great. Hope you guys have a great time." I said.
"Thanks." He closed the door and drove off.
Luna and Julli always had a great time together. They were the best of friends. One day I walked over to the washer and dryer to get the cloths. I opened the dryer and reached in to get the cloths. When I reached in I felt something that wasn't cloths.
"Luna." I said moving a shirt to see her big eyes. "I've told you before, you need to stop hopping here when it's done. Someday I'm gonna start it up again and you're gonna be in it."
"Sorry dad. It's just these cloths are soo warm!" She gave me the cutest little smile. I grabbed a big handful of cloths with Luna in it and dropped them in the basket. I walked over to the couch and began folding cloths. Luna would usually sit in the basket with the cloths and hand them to me to fold. I folded a few towels, pants, and shirts. I got done folding a pear of pants when I looked back and saw Luna levitating one of Julli's MLP shirts.
Oh no. I thought to myself. Here it comes.
"Dad. What's My Little Pony ?" She said.
"It's nothing." I tried to do something, but it didn't work.
"Dad. They look just like me. What is My Little Pony?" I knew there wasn't any hiding it any more. I sat down and told her everything and answered any questions. She didn't seem mad or disappointed, in fact, she seemed happy. I guess she felt comfort in the fact that she's not the only one of her kind out there. "So there's a whole television series of ponies just like me? That is AWESOME!"
"Well they're not exactly like you."
"What do you mean?"
"Well in MLP you are a princess. You raise and lower the moon."
"I do?!" She turned her to the window. "That's soo cool! Can I see it? Can I see the episodes?"
"Sure, but I have to tell you one thing before that."
"What?"
"You're not exactly the 'good pony' in this first episode."
"Wha-what do you mean? I don't get it."
"Well you'll just have to watch it." I plugged in my Fire HD Stick . I had disconnected it because I didn't want her to find out. I went on to my account and clicked on My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic . Julli was in the bathtub getting clean from playing with the ducks in the mud. Luna was very anxious to see it and loved the fact that they all looked just like her. She was so scared of Nightmare Moon and completely hated all the things she did to try and stop the main six.
"So." I said after part 1 ended. "what do you think of Nightmare Moon?"
"I don't like her. She's a very mean pony." I had the biggest smile on face trying to control my anxiety to tell her. "What?" Luna said seeing my smile. "What's so funny?"
"Nothing, nothing. Let's just watch part 2." When it got to the part where the main six were about defeat Nightmare Moon, Luna was bounding with joy that the 'mean pony was done with!'. I grabbed the remote and waited for the perfect moment. When Nightmare Moon was finally defeated I paused the episode right where you get see the true Luna laying on the floor.
"Why'd you stop it?" Luna asked looking at the TV screen.
"Where is Nightmare Moon?" I could barely stop myself from laughing.
"What? What do you mean?"
"Who's that mare there?" Luna examined the scene.
"She.. She looks like me, but where's Nightmare Moon?"
"Oh, she's in there." Luna examined the scene closely trying to find any other pony in there.
"I don't see her. Where is she?"
"She's right there."
"Her?" Luna pointed to the blue mare.
"Yes. Well technically no and technically yes."
"what?" Luna was completely baffled.
"That is Nightmare Moon technically speaking."
"Well then who is she really?" Luna was starting to get impatient.
"That's you, Luna. Princess Luna." Luna looked back at the screen speechless.
"That's me?"
"Ee-yep!"
"I still don't get it, where's Nightmare moon?" I didn't say anything. I un-paused it and continued watching. When Celestia walked in and said her lines Luna's jaw dropped to the floor. She seemed even more surprised than the main six were. "I'm Nightmare Moon?!" She said.
"Correction. You were Nightmare Moon. You have changed." It took Luna a while to process everything that just happened in the last two minutes.
"What!" Julli came down the stairs wearing clean cloths. "You're watching My Little Pony without me?"
"Correction! We're watching MLP without you." Julli came around and saw Luna siting next to me, still trying to comprehend everything.
"You told her?"
"Well she found your shirt."
"Oh. Sorry. What's up with her though?"
"She's still trying to comprehend the fact that she was Nightmare Moon." After a while I brought Luna To bed. She didn't fall asleep far a while. Her mind was still racing. "Good Night Luna." I yawned as I went to sleep. "I love you. now go to sleep!"
"OK. I love you too dad."
Over the course of the next half month Luna had already watched every single episode of every season. She learned all the names of every background character. She could name every single one of them off the top of her head, while I could only name twenty if I'm lucky. Her favorite character was, and the answer is pretty obvious. Celestia. She really looked up to her. I guess it also had to do a lot with the fact that she's her big sister and even after everything Luna had done Celestia still forgave her.
Luna would always had at least ten questions per episode and I was able to answer some of them, but the only question that I (nor any one else on the planet) could answer was.
"How old am I?" Luna asked.
"Uh, huh. Well How should I know? There are only two ponies in all the worlds that could know the answer and one them isn't here and the other one doesn't remember anything."
"Just asking." Luna turned back to the TV and began her little game of 'spot every background character'. She named one character after another. We were watching season 8 episode 10. Luna had already seen this episode many times over but this time she finally spotted a new character. "Who's that pony?"
"Oh! 'bout damn time you spotted him!"
"Hey!"
"Oops." I cussed. I never allowed Luna to cuss and so if she couldn't swear, I couldn't either.
"What do you mean about time ?" Luna stared me down.
"Well that character is one missed several times, not just in this episode, but every other."
"Who is he?" I walked out of the room and went up stairs into my room. I pulled out a box from under the bed and grabbed a piece of paper out. I walked back down and showed Luna the paper. "What's this?"
"My character, along with my mom and dad."
"You drew your own original character?"
"And one for my mom and dad." I pointed to a pony drawing on the far left. "That is Scribe scribbles. Brown hair, brown eyes, and brown fur."
"He's a unicorn?"
"Yeah. He's a writer."
"Are you a writer?"
"Yeah I wrote a story. Character." I brought Luna's attention back to the paper.
"What's his cutie mark?"
"A phoenix feather quill sitting in a silver ink jar."
"Who's that?" Luna pointed the middle drawing of another unicorn with the same color scheme. The pony was my moms OC. She had a white ceramic coffee cup and plate. She makes coffee for a living. Her hair was short like Photo Finish.
"My mom."
"And this one?" She pointed to the far right pony sketch.
"My dad." He was an earth pony. I sketched him after Big Mack. He had a straw hat, a tooth pick in his mouth. He had short brown hair and brown eyes. He liked to do things by hand. A 'Do it yourself and do it right the first time' kinda dad. He had a lit light bulb for a cutie mark. He was an electrician. I told Luna my characters background. Luna rather liked his background.
We watched the rest of season 8. I was about to click on the first episode of the next season when Luna brought up the topic of my failed story.
"What kind of story did you write?"
"Well..." I walked over to the shelf and grabbed a dusty book from off the top. "I wrote this story a while ago. I then rewrote it and submitted it hoping to get it published. Yeah, it didn't turn out the way I hoped and I didn't have a back-up plan in case it failed. So that's how I ended up like this."
"Can I read it?"
"Sure, but there's death."
"What?! Why?" Luna looked like she was going to throw up again.
"Well it's a story about a Latin warrior that has two dragons and creates a huge empire long before the Romans ever ruled. And then he gets home sick and goes back to Italy."
"That actually sounds pretty good. Why wasn't it published?"
"The publishers didn't like the idea of mixing a Sparta like worrier with mid-evil dragons. Here." I handed Luna the book and she began to read. She couldn't seem to take her snout out of the book. She asked a lot of questions and my answer was always the same. "Read it and find out." When I came home from work the next day she was sitting in front of door waiting for me. She was levitating the book. "You like it?"
"I love it."
"...But." I said knowing there was more.
"You left it on cliff hanger."
"Well that's just the first book of the series. It's meant to be a trilogy."
"Oh." Luna said lowering her head disappointingly.
"You wanna read the next book?" Luna looked up hopefully.
"I thought you said they didn't publish this?"
"Yes, but I still kept writing. It helps me keep busy when I have nothing to do." I sat down in front of the computer and pulled up the word document. "Help yourself." Luna sat down and began reading. Every now and then she would correct my spelling and grammar. She loved it, aside from the deaths of course. She read the rest of the books.
"That was so sad!" Luna said just finishing the last book in another series I wrote. She opened another folder and looked at another story name. "What's this story about?" Luna said hovering the courser over a folder of another book series.
"That's my latest story I'm writing. It's not finished, or started."
"What's it about?"
"It's about a dragon with a mental disease that runs away to Mexico. She takes over the border between the U.S. and Mexico and becomes a very powerful drug lord. And yes, there is death. A lot of death."
"Why does she become a drug lord?"
"Well, she's mentally unstable and is constantly trying not to go completely insane." Luna clicked on the document and read the 453 words that were there. For only having that many words in the story so far, Luna had a million questions. I decided to sit down and continue where I left off on the story. I haven't done any since Luna came into my life so I decided to back into it and with Luna to help.
"You know dad..." Luna said after a little while of typing. "Why don't you try to publish one of your other stories. I bet you they would like them."
"Well they all are kind of connected."
"What do you mean?" I decided to stop what I was doing and tell Luna the whole story about my stories.
After a rather long afternoon, I answered Luna's last question and then carried up stairs to the bed.
"Good Night Luna." I said hugging Luna.
"Goodnight, dad. I love you."
"I love you too, Luna."
Author's Note
heads up. some people may not find the future use of certain words friendly, comfortable, or appropriate.
chapter 11: The Question
Luna was six years old now and looked the same size as Sweetie Belle. We were sitting on the couch, watching Bag Bang Theory. Luna was curled up in the Derpy and Dr. Hooves blanket. I was munching on some chips and dip when I ran out of dip. I got up and walked into the kitchen. I was poring dip in a small bowl. I had just closed the fridge door when Luna Asked me something.
"Dad." Luna said from the living room. "What's sex?" I stood still. I didn't say anything. I tried to think of anything else she might have said. I had set parental settings on both the TV and computers. "Dad?" Luna said after a few seconds. I walked back in and sat down.
"Wh-why would you want to know?" I looked at the TV to see a Viagra commercial just ending. "Never mind."
"What does it mean?"
"Well, when some pony like you doesn't need to know, nothing!"
"Dad. What does it mean?"
"Not tellin!"
"Why?"
"Because you don't need to know. Do you hear any ponies in MLP saying it?"
"No."
"Exactly!"
"Pleeease!" Luna stared at me with baby eyes. (Very, very effective with her huge eyes)
"Luna." I said being serious. "I want you to promise me something."
"What?"
"Promise me that you'll never, never look it up, or anything in the same area. OK?" Luna took a second before answering.
"OK."
"Great." I was about to get up when.
"Erectile dysfunction?"
"Uugh. I'll make a list!" I went in to the kitchen and wrote down a list of sexually related things on the "Do Not look up" list. Luna had great memory and already knew everything she wasn't allowed to look up, but I kept a list of those things just so I would remember. I tries to sit and enjoy the rest of the day, but Luna kept asking. She respected me telling her not to look up anything I didn't want her to, but she was very persistent in asking non-stop.
I woke up the next morning. Instead of seeing Luna looking out the window like she usually does, she was siting on top of me just millimeters from my face. She was staring at me intently.
"What?"
"What does it mean?" Luna said.
"For the last time, no! You don't need to nor have to know!" I got up and put on a pair of pants (I sleep in a T-shirt and boxers). I went down stairs and pored myself a bowl of cereal. Luna followed and pored herself a bowl and sat down next to me. After a minute she spoke again.
"Why can't you just tell me what it means?"
"uugh. Luna, promise that you want ask either. OK?"
"Why?"
"Just promise me! OK?"
"Fine." Luna grunted. We went over to the couch and watched some TV. Luna didn't actually watch. Luna sat down next to me and just stared at me. She didn't say anything, she just stared at me blankly. I knew what she was doing, she's trying to brake me so I'll tell her. Luna had a way of finding every single loophole no matter what it was. I tried to ignore her.
The next day I woke up and she was staring at me. The same blank stare on her face. I went to work. After work I came home and Luna was waiting for me. She knew when I usually get home and was sitting in front of the door with the same look. After about a week I finally gave in. Luna had an extreme amount of patience, it was amazing.
"What do you want?" I said looking away from a story that was writing.
"Tell me what it means."
"No I'm not."
"I never asked." As I said, she was great a finding loopholes.
"Fine then!" I said turning my whole body to face her. "What will it take for you to just drop this right now and forever?" Luna didn't hesitate to answer.
"An iPod'll do."
"You want an iPod?" I repeated.
"Yea, that is unless you want me to keep nagging until I find out. I will find out some day, I don't care how long it takes. I am immortal after all." See. Patience, and lots of it.
"Fine." Luna got her way and the next day I went out and bought an iPod on my way to work. It was a blue iPod 5. I kept it hidden in a secret spot in the mail room. Luna knew that I was hiding it. She searched through my car and anywhere else I might have hidden it. She was able to annoy the shit out of me during the time between November and January sixth.
When her birthday came, there were three gifts. Two were from me and the third was from Julli. Luna opened the smallest one which was from me. When she opened it she held up two specially designed pens for writing on touch screens. Luna set them down and opened the next gift. She teared up the wrapping and opened the case and pulled out the blue iPod.
"Well." I said.
"I said I wanted yellow." Luna replied a little disappointed.
"Well I'm sorry, but they don't sell yellow. But if you don't want it I ca-" Luna pulled me into a loving hug.
"Thank you dad." I hugged her back.
"now come on, open Julli's present." Julli wasn't able to come for Luna's birthday this time. Luna opened the small box. Inside was a plastic container of raspberries. Raspberries were Luna's favorite. I always had at least two containers of raspberries in the fridge.
I activated Luna's iPod while she was nibbling on her birthday raspberries. I gave her the iPod after I was done. Luna levitated the iPod in front of her face. she had the biggest smile on her face, but after a few minutes the smile faded.
"Ugh! Why wont this work?!" Luna looked like she was about to incinerate it.
"Luna." I said placing the iPod down next to the other gift. "Just calm down and think." Luna took in a deep breath and looked back at the iPod then at the other gift.
"Oh. Right" Luna opened the other gift and pulled out the two pens. She picked up the iPod and tried it again, this time using the pens.
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. chapter 13: Nothing Lasts
Luna and me finally got everything unloaded. All the books were on the shelves. The furniture was in place. The kitchen had everything. We got all of Luna's new music equipment set up. I was in my room hanging up the last picture. Luna was outside feeding the ducks Moon and Sunny. I walked down and began to make a list of other things that we would need.
Luna came back in with the happiest smile on her face. She loved those ducks. Every morning and every afternoon Luna would go out to feed them and play with them for a bit. Luna went into the basement to play the Xbox. She was very good at it. She had already beat every game I had on every difficulty. I followed soon after finishing the list. Luna was playing COD on Xbox Live. She was very good at it.
The next day I woke up and Luna was outside feeding the ducks. I went down to the kitchen and grabbed the list. I got the car started and Luna hoped in the passenger seat. She buckled up and I headed into town. I went from store to store gathering everything that we needed at home. I went into one store and bought a little metal shell with the word ‘Dream’ carved into it. Luna thought it was a bit cheesy, but she liked it.
I took Luna to see the all of the island that I could show her. I took Luna to the southernmost tip of the U.S. I showed her the petroglyphs that were carved in the volcanic rock. I didn’t get to show her any beaches. When lunchtime came I took Luna to my favorite place to eat. I parked in front of Kioki’s and went in. I went up to the counter and got a couple orders of their chips. I was so tempted to order the fish as well, but I didn’t.
We drove around for a while and then headed back home. We brought everything in and set them on the counter. We put everything where they belonged in the fridge or cupboards. After we got everything put away I gather up all the bags and stored them away under the sink. Luna went outside to see the ducks. When Luna opened door she immediately yelled.
“NO!!” Luna ran out the door as fast as she could. “Get away from her! GO!”
“Luna?!” I went over to the door. What I saw was small group of weasels running into the dens plant life that surround the property.
“Moon!” Luna sat down next to the bleeding duck. The duck was jolting around in near death. Luna rapped her hooves around the bleeding Moon getting the entire front half of her body and face covered in blood. I walked over and stood behind Luna looking at the dying duck in her arms. I knew what had to be down. I got down on my knees next to Luna.
“Luna…” I said getting her look up. Her face was covered in a deep red mixed with tears. “You’re not going to like this but…” I choked up.
“What?” Luna said, her tears mixing in with the blood.
“We… we gotta… put her out of her misery.” My eyes teared up as well.
“KILL HER!?! WHA-NO!!” Luna shrieked. She squeezed the duck tighter.
“It’s the right to do.” I moved a few of her bangs out from in front her face.
“YOU CAN’T JUST KILL HER!!” Luna looked away and pressed her snout in the ducks stained feathers.
“We can’t let her suffer any more than she already has.” Luna lifted her head and looked at the duck. Her horn illuminated with a faint blue glow and so did the duck. Luna closed her eyes and tried as hard as could to try and heal the duck. It wasn't working and Moon wasn't looking any better. “Luna.”
“NO!” Luna protested.
“Luna you can’t hold on to everything forever. Life doesn't work that way. You just have to learn to move on and accept it.” Luna paused for a moment then loosened her grip on Moon. I picked up Luna and held her in my arms. She pressed her face against my shirt. I set Luna down and held Moons head. There was a soft crack and Luna quickly looked the other way. I rested Moons head on the ground. I picked up Luna and carried her to the house.
“We’re not going to bury her?”
“We can’t, the grounds to hard. It’s not meant for burials.” I closed the door behind me. I went into the bathroom and pored some warm water in the tub. I washed the blood out of her coat and mane. Luna continued to cry. She didn't any better for next hour. I finally sat down next to her. “Luna, how about we go somewhere.”
“Where?” Luna didn’t look up.
“I’ll take you somewhere nice.” I picked her up and went into the garage. I opened the garage door and drove the car onto the highway. I drove for a few hours trying to find the best spot. After about two more hours I finally found what I was looking for.
“Why are we stopping her?” Luna looked out the window at a field with a few big hills. I got out of the car and carried Luna through very lush emerald green grass. I kept walking until I reached a lone tree about two miles off the main highway. “Why did you bring me here?”
“I’m going to teach you to fly.”
Author's Note
wrote this after my dog died. hope it's good.
At first Luna didn’t seem that interested in flying, but after placing her on a branch.
“Dad. This isn’t funny!” Luna looked nervously at the ground.
“It’s only seven feet. And come on, just use those wings of yours.”
“Uuh…” Luna looked back at the ground. “OK.” And with that, Luna jumped off the branch. She flapped her wings frantically and un-synchronized. “DADDY!” Luna yelled as she fell. I reached out my arms and caught her. Luna was hyperventilating.
“See, that wasn’t so hard now was it?” She shot an angry look at me. I put her back on the branch. “Now. Let’s try that again.” Luna jumped off the branch again. She did the same routine. I caught her again and told her everything that she was doing wrong.
We were there for most of the afternoon. Luna fell down a lot. I was able to catch her a few times and she caught herself sometimes. The ground was relatively soft so I didn’t worry too much. By the time the sun had almost completely set Luna was battered and bruised. We were just about to leave when Luna actually got herself to fly. She was only able to fly a few inches of the ground, but even then she was beaming with so much joy.
“I DID IT! I DID IT!” Luna shouted bounding up and down. I gave her a hug and then headed off towards the jeep. We walked slowly because Luna kept flying every five steps, but I was in no rush. By the time we got to the jeep, Luna could now fly a few feet. One the way home Luna stared out the window. I looked at the smile on her face and I smiled too. Seeing Luna happy always made me happy no matter what.
The next morning I woke up to the sound of hooves clopping on the floor. I sat up and saw Luna jumping off the desk in the corner. She had a routine: jump on the chair to the desk, jump off the desk and try to fly for as long as possible, hit the floor with a clop, repeat. She jumped off the desk again and flew about five feet before she was roughly an inch off the ground and then clopped her hooves on the floor.
“Luna.” I grunted. “Stop that.”
“OK Dad.” Luna jumped onto the bed and came inches in front of my face.
“What?”
“Can we go out again?” Luna was impatient.
“Later. Now, we eat.” I got up and went down to the kitchen and pored a bowl of cereal. Luna pored herself a bowl and ate with me. Luna got done with her bowl fast and waited impatiently for me to finish.
We got in the jeep and drove off. Luna sat in the passenger seat happily bobbing up and down. I drove Luna around for a while. I finally stopped at a cliff overlooking a beach. I had Luna hide in the back so no one would see her. I drove down the side of a cliff on a steep road.
“Where are we?” Luna asked from the back.
“Waipi’o beach.” I replied.
“Why are we here?” Luna looked at me from in between the seats.
“It’s a nice place.” We got to the bottom and I took a right. I parked in the parking area and grabbed a back pack from the back of the jeep. Luna was a big pony by now, but still small enough to fit into a back pack.
“Do I have to?” Luna moaned looking at it.
“Yes.” Luna grudgingly got into the back pack. “Don’t worry, you won’t be in there the whole time.” I zipped the back pack shut except for a little bit so Luna could still see some of what’s around.
The beach was maybe two-thirds of a mile long, if not, three-fourths. There was a stream the separated the beach down the middle. To the right of the stream was the first half of the beach that went right up against the cliff-side. To the left of the stream as the other half of the beach that was split in half. The first half of the left side was a sandy beach, the rest of it was rocks.
I walked across the stream and onto a trail. The beach went from sand to over grown plants almost immediately. There was a trial that ran through the plants. It started near the stream and went all the way to other end of the beach. I unzipped the backpack so Luna could look around. I didn’t worry about any one seeing her because the tourist didn’t know about the trail and the locals were all working on Tuesdays.
After a few minutes of walking we came across a sandy spot where someone would have a beach barbecue. After another minute of walking we came up to the beginning of a hiking trail that zig-zagged up the side of a steep mountain. I started walking up the trail while Luna flew next to me. When we came to the first bend in the trail I had Luna walk next to me so no one on the beach would see her.
The people say that the second bend in the trail gives you a great view. It was true, because the second bend in the trail came right before you would walk off the cliffs edge. I picked up Luna and held her in my arms when we started to reach the second bend.
“Dad. You don’t have to hold me. I can fly just fine.” Luna said a bit annoyed.
“It’s not the flying part I’m worried about. It’s the falling into the ocean, getting swept out to sea and drowning.” The beach had this currant the started at the far end of the beach where the rocks were. It went across the beach and then sucked back out at the other cliff. That was why nobody ever swam at the first one-fourth of the beach. If you weren’t careful, you would get sucked out into the ocean like I almost did when I first came to Hawaii.
We stayed there for a little bit and then turned around to head back down the mountain. We got back in the jeep and headed back up the other mountain. I took Luna to some places on the island that I always liked. We went in for lunch at Kioki’s and went sightseeing some more. When dinner time came around I went to a nice little local place and ordered some food to-go. Every time I went somewhere to eat, I always remember hearing my mom say ‘Never eat dinner in the tourist trap!’ That’s what we called all those places near the shoreline where all the tourists stayed and ate. By the time dinner rolled around the servers there were tired and annoyed.
After finishing our dinner in the car I drove Luna home to sleep. Luna put on her, as I like to call them, headphone crown. In just half an hour Luna was already fast asleep. I parked the car in the garage and carried Luna to bed. Luna never asked if she could have her own room like Dashie did. I liked that because A: I still had living family that visited, and B: I liked having someone, or some pony to keep me company in my sleep. It was nice.
“Goodnight, dad.” Luna said mostly asleep.
“Good Night Luna.” I said as I began to fall asleep. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
chapter 16: Birthaversary
~Five years later~
The early morning sun was shining through the curtains. I turned over to my right and saw Luna with her angle blue eyes and heart-melting smile. Her cyan eyes gleamed like jewels.
"Morning dad." Luna said in a soothing tone. "It's the 28th." I smiled back half awake. It was my Birthday, or Birthaversary. "You know, It's kinda funny how about a minute before you wake up, your eyes open halfway." I gave soft chuckle.
"Hell have you been you been doin while I was asleep?" She was up to something of course.
"Oh, not much." Luna gave a soft giggle.
"Smart-ass."
"Like father, like daughter."
"To-shay." I got up, got dressed and went down stairs where a stack of pancakes were waiting for me. There was note on top of the stack. I walked over and read the note.
Happy Birthday Daddy
I laughed. I always found it funny whenever Luna called me 'Daddy'. I pored some raspberry syrup on the stack and grabbed a fork. When I turned around and saw Luna with her same loving smile. She was levitating a tiny box. I went into the living room and sat down on the couch. Luna sat down next to me spreading her front hooves on my lap. When I finished the pancakes, Luna levitated the box in front of me. I grabbed it and started unwrapping. Inside the box was a necklace. It was a thin black rope with a caged rock attached at the bottom.
"It's a diamond." Luna said. I took a closer look at the rock. It was a small somewhat clear stone about the size of my pinkie nail. I put it on. I walked out to grab the news paper and came back in. The title read "Possible Alien sighting". I showed Luna the paper and she just giggled. "I guess the guy in the car did see me." I smiled and went into the basement to watch some TV and Skype with Julli.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE!" Julli yelled through Skype.
"Nice to see you too. How's your job treatin you?" Julli got a degree in animation. Her currant job was her dream job. Working at Hasbro Studios. Specifically MLP.
"Good. I don't get to do much though. I gotta work up to get where I want to be." Julli and Luna talked for next ten minutes until John walked in to wish me a happy birthday.
"Happy Birthday Lane. How's it going over there?" He said trying to be enthusiastic.
"Good." I replied.
"What's that around your neck? When did you get that?" He noticed the necklace.
"I sent it to him." Julli covered.
"Why didn't you tell me?" John asked.
"Well that would ruin the game." John rolled his eyes. The way Julli and I covered up for meeting Luna was that we were playing a covert ops game of secret agent. It was actually very fun. Luna would give us clues as to where she hid little surprises around the house.
Luna and I sat down and watched some TV. Luna rested her head on my lap and I braided her hair. Luna's hair was very long and went down to her knees. I liked Luna's hair long. I always combed it, braided it, combed it.... Luna was able to turn her hair into her starry night sky hair from MLP. I didn't really like her hair like that, I preferred her natural hair. I would usually braid her hair into multiple small braids, then braid those braids together and so forth.
We watched some Big Bang Theory and went out. I opened the garage door and looked around at the rock wall that was now over grown with the blue Bougainvillea flowers. I got them for two reasons. A: I like blue, and B: Because they're blue they kind of camouflage Luna whenever she walks outside. Luna sat in the passenger seat with her headphones on. One thing that got difficult over the years was the more Luna grew, the harder it was to hide her. I didn't worry about seeing her in the jeep though cause I went out years ago and got the window tinted. I backed the car out of the garage and then got out to close the garage door.
I closed the door and got back in the jeep. I drove the jeep onto the main highway. We went on our usual routine around the island. Luna and I always drove around the island every day. There was barely a time when we were stuck in the house all day. We tried to go to the painted church, but of course there were tourists. Green Sands Beach was still a hot-spot for tourists. The only time when we were able visit some places was late at night. Luna wanted to see the lava flow, but that was always the biggest attraction on the island, and I wasn't going to take her at night where I can't see a thing.
We sat down at the house and ate our dinner. We played some COD multiplier. Luna let me win the first time. I never liked it when my brother killed me in COD, but with Luna I didn't care, it was just a game.
"Dad." Luna said looking a little guilty. "I know how hard it is for you being a vegan and I-" Luna knew how hard it was to suddenly switch to vegan and she always felt a little guilty, especially since we're on an island and the most popular thing to eat was fish.
"Luna I've told you before, I don't mind it. If you don't eat meat, I don't either. End of story." I pulled Luna into a warm hug and she hugged me back.
"I love you dad."
"I love you too, Luna." I kissed her on the forehead.
chapter 17: Final Farewell
Author's Note
I have spent weeks thinking about how to critique this chapter and well...
chapter 17: Final Farewell
It was early in the morning. I just opened my eyes when Luna jumped on me.
"Get up!" She said enthusiastically. "Come on! Get up! Get up!" She jumped up and down. "Get up! Get-" I grabbed her head and held it stationary.
"What is it?" I moaned half awake.
"It's my Birthday!" Luna kissed me on the forehead and jumped off the bed. "GET UP!" She yanked the sheets off the bed. I moaned and then got up. My eyes were still adjusting tot he light. "Come on! There's so much to do in so little time!" I walked over to the window and looked outside to see a tropical storm poring rain.
"It's raining." I grunted.
"Exactly!" Luna's attitude didn't deflate one bit. "No one's at the beaches.They're all inside!" I looked back outside at the rain.
"Well played Mother Nature, well played indeed." I got dressed and met Luna in the living room. She was wearing a rain jacket and the biggest smile ever to be seen. We got in the car and drove off. We went to see the painted church. No one was there so it was perfect. I put a dollar in the donation box and walked in with Luna. Luna walked all over the small church looking at the paintings.
"They're so beautiful!" She said looking at Jesus. I looked over to my right and saw a particular painting.
"Huh." I shrugged.
"What is it?" Luna asked looking back at me.
"Hell looks better than I remember." I said pointing to the painting of Hell. Luna rolled her eyes. We walked out and headed for waipi'o beach. I parked the jeep and Luna immediately jumped out. There was nobody on the beach, but I still worried. She threw off her rain jacket and jumped in the water. The people in Hawaii say they hate the rain, but Luna and I love the rain. Luna more than me. Rain meant that Luna could actually go outside without having to worry so much about being seen. It meant she could go to the beaches in broad daylight and be herself.
Me, it meant that I got to see Luna at her happiest. Nothing on Earth could make me any happier than seeing Luna smile so hopefully and happy. I sat down on the beach and watched joyously as Luna swam around in the sea, laughing and smiling. Luna yelled at me to join her, but I didn't. I stayed on the beach and made sure that nobody poked their heads out from the plants. After what seamed like a few hours, Luna walked out of the ocean exhausted. She came up and collapsed on the picnic blanket.
"Havin fun?" I said putting a towel over her.
"Ha!" Luna breathed. "That... was... AWESOME!" She plopped her head down on the sand. After a while we got back in the jeep and drove off. I went into a restaurant and ordered some lunch. I got in the jeep and handed Luna her salad. "So.." She started. "When are we gonna go to Green Sands?" Ever since we came to Hawaii. I always wanted to show Luna Green Sands Beach. We've never been able to together. I've been there three times since we moved here and that was with my family.
"Radio said the storm's gonna clear up late tonight."
"we can't go now?" Luna was very impatient about seeing the beach for the first time.
"Because I want you to see it without it raining. A "perfect" experience." Luna rolled her eyes, but she was patient.
I took Luna out on the ocean in the boat. I bought a boat a few years ago so I take Luna to swim with dolphins, turtles, or scuba dive. There was no possible way to make any kind of scuba gear fit Luna. Instead Luna would cast a magical bubble around her head so she could breath under water. I got my scuba gear on and jumped into the water where Luna was waiting for me. Luna couldn't actually go under water all on her own so I had to pull her down under the surface and the she could look around. Luna got to see a pod of dolphins, a bale of leather back sea turtles. I took her down further to see the coral reefs and the fish that lived there.
~~~
It was late in the night as the moon shown onto the island. The rain had just started to let up. I was driving along the main highway. I looked to see Luna staring out the window with her headphones on. Her coat was midnight in the moonlight. her cyan eyes stared longingly at the shoreline. I smiled and looked back at the road as I was coming around a bend in the road. Before I could do anything a black car came drifting around the bend and we came into a head-on collision.
After who knows how long, I regained consciousness. My head was resting on top of the steering wheel. I lifted my head up and looked around. The whole car was destroyed. When I looked to my right I saw Luna. Luna was laying over the dash. Her horn was sticking through he shattered windshield. Blood was poring down from the top of her head onto the dash. I should have told her buckle up. I reached out my arm to try and grab her, but just as I started to lean in closer an excruciating pain shot through body.
"AAAGH!" I clenched up, grasping my legs. My legs were sandwiched between the dash and my seat. I looked back at Luna who was still bleeding out. I tried my hardest to push through the pain and reach Luna. "Just... a little.. more! AAGH!" I was able to grasp her leg and pull her close into my arms. "Luna?!" I didn't know whether she was dead or not. "LUNA!!" I put my ear against her chest hoping to hear a pulse, something, anything that could tell me if she was still alive.
Thump, thump
Her heart's still beating! She's still alive! I took her head and cradled it under my chin. her blood poring down the front of me.
When we got to the hospital, the doctors were just as shocked as the rescue team was when they saw a full-grown man holding a cartoon alicorn. After the doctors and nurses hooked up Luna to a heart monitor, I finally relaxed. I never left Luna's side. I sat in my wheelchair next to her bead, waiting for her to wake up. My knees were completely shattered. The doctors said I could never walk again. I didn't care if I couldn't walk or if I was dead. The only thing I cared about was Luna.
After three days, Luna woke up.
"Wha-what happened?" Luna said wearily.
"It's OK!" I kissed her and held her close. "You're gonna be OK! Everything's gonna be fine!" I started crying.
Guards had to be stationed at the door at all times to keep all the news reporters and curious eyes out. We stayed in the hospital for a total of seven days. I took Luna to Green Sands Beach finally. I took her home.
Its been three months since the car crash. I woke up to the sun shining through the curtains. I took a shower and got dressed. Luna was in the back yard as she always was. I clipped one of Luna's feathers into my hair and let it hang down in front. My OC, Scribe always had a lucky phoenix feather quill clipped in his hair that he always carried around. I walked down stairs and began to type my story on the couch. I decided to finally listen to Luna and publish my book again. This time it was a success.
I had been typing for probably ten minutes when I heard some one knock on the door. Ever since the car crash people of all kinds came from all over the world. Most were fans and just wanted to see a real-live Princess Luna. Others were tourists asking for a picture. Every once in a while a scientist would come asking if they could take Luna and study her. I got up and grabbed the shotgun off the wall and went to the door.
I opened the door until the chains wouldn't allow it. I held out the shotgun.
"GO AW-" I was speechless by who was at my door. It wasn't a tourist or some random fan, but in fact Princess Celestia. I lowered the shotgun.
"May I come in?" Celestia asked calmly trying to ignore the gun. I closed the door and took off the chains then opened the door again. I moved to the side to allow Celestia to enter. Celestia walked in looking down on me. It was amazing how tall she was. Luna's full height only came up to my nose. I was about to close the door when another pony walked in. It was Scribe. I resisted the erg to ask him why he was here. I closed the door and looked at two of them that stood in my house.
I didn't say anything. After a moment of awkward silence I walked over and placed the shotgun back on the wall. I turned around to face them again.
"So." Celestia started. "Where is my sister?" She looked at me seeming a bit impatient.
"Hm?" I herd her and new exactly what she meant. I just wanted to stall them as much as possible.
"Really?" Scribe said. "You have pictures of Luna all over the walls! You have a big picture frame with all kinds of notes in her writing." Scribe pointed to at walls as Celestia steered her gaze to the notes. I never threw away any notes Luna wrote for me, I just kept in a box and since everyone in the world knew about Luna there was no sense in hiding the fact anymore. "And.." Scribe continued as his feather and my feather started floating into the air. I grabbed the feather and clipped it back in my hair.
"Daddy?" Celestia said looking from the frame to me. Scribe immediately turned his head towards the frame to take a closer look at the notes.
"Exactly how long have had Luna?" Scribe said slowly turning his head back raising an eyebrow.
"I raised her for twenty three years since she was a little filly, no more than five years old." I wanted to ask Celestia about Dash, but decided against it.
"How did you first find my sister, Luna?"
"When I found her she was cold, afraid, and hopeless. If I hadn't found her she would have died." Celestia lightened her gaze on me.
"And where is Luna now?" Celestia asked.
"Sh-she's out back." I walked over to the back door and walked onto the lawn. Celestia walked out shortly after and took a quick glimpse around the small lawn.
"Well?" Celestia looked at me a little agitated. "Where is she?"
"Sh-she's over there." I pointed to an arch that was over grown with Bougainvillea that hung down over a quarts crescent moon that stood behind a slab of cut volcanic rock. There was a single white star placed at the top of the slab. It was engraved with the words.
Princess Luna Born ~ Died ~ 2051 "I Love You Daddy" May you forever rest in the most joyous of dreams
Celestia stood speechless and horrified by what she was looking at. She looked at me.
"No! No, please! Tell me it's not true! Tell me it's not!... TELL ME!" Celestia shrieked at the top of her lungs. I lowered my head silently. "No!" Celestia shuddered looking at me then at the grave then back at me. "No! No! Oh, Luna?" Celestia wearily walked over to the slab. She shakedily outstretched her hoof. She was about to touch the crescent moon when she collapsed onto the slab sobbing. Scribe stood speechless and just looked at me.
"I was going to take her to the beach." I said through my tears without lifting my head. I collapsed to ground as well and sat there sobbing. Scribe hesitantly walked over and gave me a hug, crying alongside me. We all sat sobbing. After a while, I finally got the strength to stand up and walked to Celestia. I sat down next to her. She noticed and sat up strait trying to regain some of her stature. "You were always her favorite character." I looked up to meet the Flooding pink eyes of Celestia. Celestia gave a teared smile and pulled me into a gentile hug.
"How did she die?" Celestia asked trying not to cry.
Beep
I woke up to the sound of Luna's heart monitor. I lifted my head up and felt Luna's leg around y neck. I looked up to see Luna's loving smile and her glistening cyan eyes staring at me.
"You're awake." Luna said sleepily.I leaned in to give her a kiss. Smiling back.
"How do you feel?" I said.
"I could be better... but not happier." I couldn't help but chuckle. Luna laughed softly.
Beep
"I have a gift for you dad." Luna pulled away the covers and outstretched her wing to revile one her feathers with a clip and a quill tip attached to it. Luna levitated the feather and clipped it in my hair. "Just like Scribbles."
"Thank yo-"
"That wasn't the gift!" Luna interrupted. Luna illuminated her horn again and my whole body started to glow faintly blue. Luna closed her eyes and focused all of her strength on me.
"Luna. No!" I protested.
"No!" Luna continued. Before my eyes shreds of light swirled and circled around me. I felt a wondrous sensation fill my entire body. My knees stopped aching and I felt myself changing. After a minute, Luna stopped. "There." She said exhaustively. "Twenty seven and able to walk once more." Luna smiled. I took a second to realize what just happened then I looked back. I put a hand on her cheek.
Beep
"Thank you, Luna." I smiled. Luna rested her head back on the pillow. Her sleepily smile melted my heart.
"I love you daddy." Luna closed her eyes.
"I love you too Luna."
Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...
I rubbed my thumb against her cheek. My eyes filled with tears. I tried to keep smiling as looked at her.
"Luna?" I said hoping for her to answer. "Luna." I shook her shoulder. "Luna, no. No-o." I lifted her head and gave her one last hug. "Sweet dreams..." I sobbed. " Sweet dreams for all eternity!" I kissed her on the cheek.
She died smiling!
She died happy!
chapter 17: Alternate Farewell
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. It was another snowy day in December. Specifically the 29th which meant the family was coming to visit. My mom, my dad, my brother and his wife and child. My brother got married and had a little girl. she's four and is always bouncing off the walls. My brother is twenty-nine and I'm twenty-seven. I'd say I'm happy with my life aside from the fact that I'm a little depressed. My current job is working as a cart-pushing mailman delivering peoples business presentations, cards, well basically Gulliver from 'Gulliver's Travels'.
There's not to much to complain about. I try to be happy, crack a stupid joke now and then. I go to work at nine in the morning and get off at five. I'm going home to meet my parents who just arrived at my house. My mom always brings a little gift to try and cheer me up. One day my parents asked me why I'm always sad. I regrettably told them the truth. They kept trying to set up appointments with Rebecca's brother who's a psychiatrist thinking that would help me with my "depression". Rebecca is my brother, Johns, wife. My depression isn't as serious as most cases are. I'm more sadden really, by what the world is. Lost of death and disappointment, and a tiny bit of hope.
The new year has come, and it's July sixth. The only reason I remember that is because July sixth is when my OC Scribe Scribbles became a character. I submitted him and my mothers character on the fifth and I got an email on the sixth saying that they accepted both my characters. Today would be the sixteenth anniversary of when that happened. I got up and headed to work to find the parking lot full so I parked my car a block away and went to work. When my shift ended I headed back to my car. It was still cold and none of the snow had melted yet. I found a small chunk of ice to kick while I walked to my car. My car was light blue Ford Mustang. I was about to unlock the door when looked back at the chunk of ice I had been kicking. To my right was Missoula and to my left was a little tree grown area, and beyond that were houses.
I decided to give the chunk of ice one last, hard kick before I left. I took a step and kicked it as hard as I could. It went flying through the air into the little forest. It hit a few branches and made some of the snow fall off. I turned back around to unlock my car when I heard a soft, high pitched 'eek!' I was confused for a minute as to what it might of been. After a moment of silence I heard a small 'a-choo!' It sounded like a little kid, a girl maybe. I decided to walk down there and check it out. I started walking towards this little Christmas tree that was just little taller than me. I walked next to it looking around for any sign of a kid when I heard what sounded like footsteps coming from the other side of the tree. I moved the tree to see what was making that sound. There was a another small tree just ten feet away. Some snow had just fallen off one of the bottom branches and it looked like there was some small animal tracks leading to it.
I took a step forward and crouched down to get a better look. What I saw shocked me. It was a little filly...Luna. She was small, about a foot tall, and had a thin layer of frost covering her hair and body. She didn't have her crown, her neck-lass, or her shoes. She had her big blue eyes, her light blue non-celestial hair, her blue fur, but she didn't have her signature cutie-mark. Her signature, as I say, ink splatter on her flank however was still there. Her eyes were wide open and staring directly at me. She was shivering. I thought about My Little Dashie and tried to get closer but the second I moved, she dashed off to the left. I didn't know what to do so I just yelled out the first thing that came to mind.
"Wait! Luna!"
She immediately froze. She apparently knew her name. She turned back to face me. I tried to think of something, anything to get her to come closer. Then I remembered that I still had two slices of an apple in a bag in my jacket pocket. I reached in and pulled out the bag, took a slice and broke it in half. I looked back up at Luna, she was still there. I tossed it just a couple of feet from her. She was standing about fifteen feet away and shivering. She slowly started to walk towards it, she took one sniff and then ate it. I took the other half and tossed it a little closer. She walked closer and ate it too. I took the second slice, broke it in half and out stretched my arm as far as I could without scaring her away. She slowly walked towards me, sniffed the piece and started nibbling until it was all gone. I took the last piece and stretched my arm out half way. She repeated the process and just stared at me.
I still held my arm outstretched and then slowly reached my left arm out. She took a step back.
"No!No!no!" I said in a soft tone so as not scare her away. I continued to slowly reach out towards her. I held my right in front of her face. She inched her way towards and pressed her nose against it. She felt cold against my hand. She must of liked the warmth of my hand because she started to rub her cheek against it like a cat. I reached out my other hand to pick her up. I pulled her in close and held her between me and my jacket. "Lets get you warm." I said standing up and walking back to my car. when I opened my car door I took off my jacket and rapped it around Luna. I sat down in the seat and set Luna in my lap. About halfway to my house Luna poked her head out. I petted her on the head. She was still cold. She wasn't tall enough to look over the dash so she walked up to steering wheel and took a step up. She still wasn't tall enough so she lifted her hoof to hoist herself higher and she stepped on the horn.
she went jolting back when she herd the horn. Her eyes were wide open and her pules were as small as a marble. I couldn't help but chuckle. She got to her hooves again tried to look over the dash one more time. This time she made absolute certain to avoid the center of the steering wheel. I couldn't stop smiling at her amazement in watching her passing surroundings. I parked in the garage of my house and brought Luna in. I hung my jacket up and walked over to the couch. On the couch was my 'Dr. Hooves and Derpy' blanket. I set Luna down and rapped her in the blanket. I made certain that Dr. Hooves, Derpy, and the MLP logo weren't clearly visible. As Luna lay on the couch I walked over to my wood burning furnace and got a fire started. While the fire burned, I went into the kitchen to do something I thought I'd never do. Cook soup. I have never cooked anything without burning it and I have never cooked soup, because I've never liked soup. But in this case I pulled out my moms recipe for my favorite soup. It was only soup that I ever willingly ate. It comprised of noodles, couscous, couscous pearls, bacon and sausage chunks, and a couple of other ingredients I don't have.
I left out the bacon and sausage which only left the noodles and couscous's, but I was able to find some La Molisana. I got out a small pot and started cooking. After a while the soup was done (probably not the best but still good). I was about to poor Luna a bowl when I looked back at the couch. I knew enough about proportions to know that her stomach is no bigger than my fist. I opened the cupboard and reached to the top shelf to grab the smallest bowl I had. I filled the bowl and put the pot in the oven and set it to warm. When got to the couch Luna was already fast asleep. I sat down carefully making sure not to wake her. I put my hand on her cheek to feel her temperature. She was still cold and she quickly woke up with a grunt. I scooped a spoonful of soup and held it in front of her face. She gave it a sniff and took a gulp. We continued to do this until she stuck up a hoof and pushed the spoon away.
I decided to put that bowl in the dishwasher and get myself a bowl. I sat down next to Luna and ate my soup. Luna scooted close and nuzzled up next to me. I continued to eat my soup for a few minutes. I grabbed the remote and turned on the TV and surfed through the channels until I found Brave. We watched the last hour'n'half. After that Wreck It Ralph came on, I guess there was some kind Disney Marathon going on tonight 'cause after that Frozen was next. We continued to watch one Disney movie after the other until it was nine-thirty. Luna was snoozing away curled up in her little blanket. I got up slowly and carefully making sure not wake her. I turned off the lights, put some more wood in the fire and went up stairs. I climbed into bed and laid there staring at the ceiling.
I tried to think of any possible way that Luna could have gotten here. It couldn't have been a test gone wrong. It might have been some evil villain. My head raced and ached trying any possible reason until I noticed the door sway open wider. I sat up to see Luna's tiny head poking in. She walked over to my bed and tried to jump up. She started to slide down off the bed then I grabbed her and lifted her onto the bed. She curled up next to my chest under the covers. I held her close and said.
"Good night Luna."
chapter 15: Winter Vacation
I woke up late in the morning. I came down to the kitchen to see Luna cooking some noodles and sauce. Luna was roughly sixteen years old and looked about average pony, which apparently was 3’ 6”. Luna liked cooking and also liked saying she was 4’ including her horn.
“You’re up late.” Luna said looking back with a smile. I gave her a kiss on forehead and went to see if I had gotten those flower seeds I ordered two days ago. I opened the door and a weasel ran inside. It was as if he was just waiting for me to open it. Luna went absolutely crazy. “GET THAT HORRID THING OUT!” She shrieked.
I don’t know why some one on the internet thought Luna would like having a pet possum. She absolutely despised any creature that reassembled a rat. She especially hated weasels after the whole Moon incident. I casually walked back into the living room to see Luna standing there levitating a squirming weasel by the tale. She had the angriest look on her face.
I walked back to the door and held it open so Luna could throw the weasel out. The flower seed hadn’t arrived yet. I sat down and ate my bowl of noodles. Luna always made everything just the way I liked it. Noodles with a pinch of salt. Luna sat down next to me levitating her bowl with some sauce.
“Thank you Luna.” I said pulling Luna into a hug. We ate our noodles for a few minutes when I heard car pull onto the property. I got up and went to the window thinking to see the mail lady with my flower seeds. Instead I saw my favorite niece jumping out of a minivan. “Luna. Go upstairs.” There was flash of light and Luna was out of sight.
“Uncle! Uncle! Are you home?” I heard my niece say from the other side of the door. I opened the door and she immediately threw her arms around me. “Hi uncle! How’s it going?” Julli said. Julli was now a junior in high school. “How’s Luna?” Julli whispered.
“Great.” I replied. “Look at you! You’re almost as tall as me.” I said looking at how much Julli had grown in the past ten years. We e-mail and Skyped all the time but it was nice to see exactly how much she grew in person.
“I know right!” Julli said. “I’m 5’ 3” It’s amazing!”
“Ya need to shrink!” I replied looking over the top of her head to see John unloading luggage. “Come on. Let’s help your old man.”
“I heard that!” John said handing Julli her luggage.
“Why didn’t you tell me you guys were coming?” I said to Rebecca.
“We did! Earlier today.” Rebecca handed me a few things to carry in. I tossed John and Rebecca’s stuff in the guest room on the first floor. Julli settled in on the second floor.
“Nice place you have.” John said walking in. “I noticed it’s solar powered.”
“Yeah. Oh! When you take a shower, make sure your bedroom light is off otherwise everything starts flickering on and off.”
“Got it!” John grabbed a bowl and scooped up some noodles and sauce. “No meat balls?” John looked at me with his usual look of ‘Really’.
“What have I been telling you for the past eleven years?” I looked at him with my look of ‘Shut Up!’.
“Ah, yes. Vegetarian.” John went into the living room and sat down on the couch. I went upstairs to see how Julli was doing. She was in the guest bed room unpacking her stuff.
“So.” Julli said the second I entered the room. “Where’s Luna.” I walked into the short hallway. I pulled down a ladder that lead to the attic. The attic wasn’t much. It was only four feet tall so we had to crouch down. I pulled up the ladder and walked over to a stack of boxes. I moved a few of them out of the way and opened a secret door to Luna’s little music studio. Luna usually made music when guests were over or when she was bored.
I didn’t really worry about someone hearing Luna in here because the whole room was sound proof, plus Luna never did loud music, she only did soft soothing melodies. Luna was laying on beanbag in the fare corner. Luna immediately jumped up at the sight of her one and only friend.
“Julli!” “Luna!” They both said to each other. The two squeezed each other in a hug. Sadly, the reunion would be cut short by John walking up the stairs.
“Julli! Lane! What are you doing?” John pulled the ladder down and poked his head in the attic.
“Showing Julli how the solar panels work.” We just barely got the door shut and the boxes back up. We got out of the attic and went back down stairs.
A few days past by and then my parents came too. I showed the family around to all kinds of places they couldn’t get to visit. I took to some good places to eat. It was very weird taking my family out to eat. I never ate at any of the restaurants because of Luna. I seemed to have this thing where if Luna couldn’t do this or go there then neither could I. I took my family to all kinds of beaches they haven’t been to before.
One day I decided to plant the seeds. My family was still here so they helped plant them. We started in the backward. I got the gravel and rocks replaced with dirt and grass. Luna and I had built little wall of volcanic rock that surrounded the entire perimeter of the property. The flower seeds were blue Bougainvillea and I planned to have them grow all over the entire wall. They would grow to be the same lovely blue as Luna’s mane.
