Moonlight Trails

When I came to, I was laying in one of with the hospital beds in the castle with the right side of my head pounding. "Owwww." I whined out, before sitting up. I sat up, groaning out in pain. "Can somepony tell me what happened?" I called out, but heard no one reply. "Hello?" Nothing. "Somepony?" I called out in a softer voice, unsure of what is going on.

I got up, groaning heavily, holding the right side of my head. I hear two ponies talking in the hallway. It was a couple of the castle's nurses. "Hey!" I called out.

One of them ran inside and looked at me. "Mr. Trail? Are you ok?" she asked.

"The right side of my face is killing me, but aside from that. I'm fine." I said with a small chuckle. "Can somepony please explain what happened to me?" I asked, trying to rack my brain for any information, prior to this.

"You were in Princess Twilight's study and passed out, smacking your head against the corner of the table We were sure that you wouldn't come out of your comatose state for a while." She said, before writing down in her clipboard.

"Do you have anything to get rid of this headache?" I asked, flinching in pain now to each pulse of my head.

"Well, yes, but the last time we tried to give your morphine, your body managed to absorb it. It lasted all but five minutes." She said, looking up at me.

"How long have I been out for?" I asked, trying to ignore the pain coursing through my head.

"Eh, only a couple of days."

I nodded before looking around the room. I look at my bed side to see Moonlight asleep with dozens of "Get Well" baskets lining the walls. "How long has she been there?" I asked.

"Well, since you arrived. It was kind of hard to explain to her why you blacked out this time." The nurse said, once more looking through her clipboard. "You're the new body guard to the Ponyville royal family, is that right?" She asked, looking up at me.

I nodded softly. "I mean, Princess Twilight came to me for the offer, but I haven't really accepted it yet." I said, looking back at the nurse.

She nodded softly before handing me her clipboard. "Well, from what I can see, you're perfectly fine to head on back out. I just need you to sign this for me." She said, handing me my discharge papers.

As I began to sign them, I feel someone tugging at my wing. I chuckle softly. "One second sweetie." I said finally finishing the rest of the paper work before turning around to see Moonlight looking up at me.

She was exhausted, but her smile was still there, though quickly fell to an angry stare. "You had me worried sick!" She said, before storming up to me, backing me against the wall.

How can this little of a girl be so scary at times?! I look down at her to see the anger quickly fall before she wrapped her arms around me. "I'm happy you're ok though." She said in an exhausted tone.

"Excuse me, Smokey, you have a visitor." One of the nurses said, looking at me.

I rose a brow and nodded softly. "Alright, who?" I asked.

"Oh Smokey!" I heard call out, a wave of anger running through me. I know that voice, and didn't really care for it. A white coated unicorn came in, skinny, tons of makeup on, and a nappy, disgusting looking red dyed mane. "How's momma's baby doing?" She asked walking up to me.

"Fine." I said in a cold tone. "What are you doing here?" I asked, my eyes narrowing at her.

"What, can't I come by to see how my baby is doing?" She asked with an appalled expression.

"I don't know, usually you just arrive to ask me for something because the flavor of the week finally stopped handing out." I growled out, staring her down.

She shot me a dirty look before looking back at Moonlight, a feign smile on her face. "Well hello there, who are you?" She asked, extending her hand towards Moonlight, but was halted by my wing shooting up between them.

"If all you came here to do is to 'check up' on me. I'm doing fine. Now leave, you have no other business here." I said in a cold tone.

"Smokey!" Moonlight finally objected. "Be nice!" She demanded. I looked back at her opening my mouth to say something, but was instantly silenced as she moved my wing aside and walked forwards. "Hello, Miss...?"

"Crystal Diamond. I'm his mother if you haven't figured it out by now. And you must be his little marefriend." She said, looking at Moonlight.

Moonlight blushed and nodded. "Yup!" She cheered out happily.

I saw the edges of Mom's lips curl up before she gave a disapproving snort. "You really know how to pick them, don't you." She said, before looking up at me.

Moonlight froze and looked at her. "E-Excuse me?" She asked, slightly confused.

"Oh, it's nothing sweetie. It's just usually he picks-"

"Well, hello. Who are you?" Princess Twilight called out from the door way, looking directly at mom.

"P-Princess Twilight? OH! I'm sorry, I was just here to bring my dip shit of a son home." She said, reaching out to grab me by the wrist.

"Your son?" She asked, eyeing mom down. "Well, he's my future son-in-law, plus my daughters personal body guard." She said, walking up to my side.

"F-Future son-in-law of Princess Twilight?" She said, a completely bewildered expression on her face. "So who's your daughter?" Mom asked.

I reach out, wrapping my wing around Moonlight and pulled her close to me. "Moonlight is." I replied, looking down at mom with a cheeky grin to see all the color fall from mom's face.

"O-Oh." She said to herself before looking around. Moonlight looked at her, examining her close, seeing something that I didn't. "It's good to finally meet the in-laws of Smokey! He's such a good stallion." She said with a proud smile.

"He is. It was you who raised him, is that right?" Twilight asked to immediately get a prideful nod. Twilight smiled. "Please, come with me then, I've been wanting to speak with you. Smokey has told me so much about you." She said, reaching up to place her hand on Mom's shoulder as they both left the room.

Moonlight looked up at me once they were out of earshot. "Something doesn't seem right about her." Moonlight said, her eyes pressed back against her head.

I nodded softly and sighed. "I know, Sweetie. I know." I said, holding her close.

A few hours passed since then. We were walking around the castle as the sun was barely over the horizon. We was heading towards the dinning hall, happy to be done with having to deal with mom. "So, how are you liking your stay at the castle so far?" Moonlight asked, holdig onto my arm that was draped over her shoulder.

I chuckled and shrugged. "It's nice. Wasn't ever really expecting to live in a castle before." I joked.

"Well, get used to it! Because you're here to stay!" She said, wrapping her arms around me.

I smiled and leaned down to kiss the top of her head. "I know and I don't plan on going anywhere." I said with a gentle smile.

"Good!" She cooed out, nuzzling into me.

We turned the corner into the dining hall to see that the table was lined with food from hundreds of different chefs, many different pony's sitting at different seats, all of them nicely dressed. I froze and looked at myself who was still wearing blue jeans and a torn t-shirt. "Eh, excuse me for a moment. I need to go get changed." I said, turning to leave, but was pulled back by Moonlightl.

She wrapped her arms around my own arm. "It's fine. As long as you're not running around being lewd or anything, you'll be fine." She said, pulling me to two seats that remained vacant.

"Hey, I'm going to get us something to drink. Want anything?" She asked.

"Just a cup of wine will be fine. Thanks Sweetie." I said, before sure ran off and into the kitchen.

"Couldn't you wear something nicer?" I heard call out in front of me.

I look up to see that mom was still at the castle. An automatic scowl quickly grew on my face to see that she was sitting in front of me. "I thought you left by now." I said, slightly angry now.

"What, and ruin this? You need me here to make sure you don't screw up." She said, stepping on some nerves. Ignore her, just don't pay any mind to it. "And of course I smell alcohol on you, you worthless drunk." She scoffed.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. "Mom, just... I'm trying to have a nice dinner. Please stop." I pleaded.

She drew back as if I insulted her. "No reason to get an attitude!" She blurted out, causing everypony to look at us.

I froze and looked around to see everyone, except for Princess Twilight, giving me a look of disapproval. I sighed and shook myhead. Just stay silent. There isn't anything she can work with if I stay silent.

"Why didn't you try to get with Princess Celestia's daughter? She's much more loaded than these folk are." She suggested.

"It's simple, I care for Moonlight. Not anypony else." I stated, looking down and away to avoid eye contact, though still felt judgemental eyes lying upon me.

"You need to stop being stupid by thinking with your 'heart'. Nopony gets anywhere in life thinking like that."

I shot up from my seat before storming out of the dining hall. I felt my whole body shaking with anger. "Calm down, Smokey." I said to myself, pacing back and forth in front of the closed door.

I look to see Moonlight coming down the hallway with a couple bottles of wine in hand. "Smokey? What are you doing out he-" She paused as she noticed my nerves on whits end. "What happened?" She asked, rushing up to me.

I gave a pained sigh and shook my head as I leaned against the wall. "It's kind of hard to explain." I said, looking back down at the ground.

She placed her finger on my chin to tilt my head back up. "I don't want to hear that, Sweetpea. Now tell me what happened." She said, looking into my eyes with a concerned stare.

I nodded softly and went to open my mouth, but heard the door open to see that disgusting red dyed mane bitch come out of the door. "Smokey!" She called out, looking around for me.

I was gone as a gust of feathers took my place. I'm not dealing with this! Not right now at least.

I made my way outside to see that the sun had finally set. I looked up at the night sky and took flight, off and into the Everfree Forest. I didn't care where I went, or how far I went. As long as I was far away from her.

I finally landed in a clearing near the Castle of the Two Sisters. I fell to my knees, anger building up inside of me. "Why? My life is going good for once! Why does SHE have to come back?!" I asked myself, clinching the grass underneath me.

"WHY?!" I screamed out, punching into a tree, causing the whole thing to shake. "Why is it that I can't have a happy ever after?! Huh?!" I screamed out once more, taking out my anger on the tree, knocking dents into it, the whole tree shaking violently upon each contact.

I finally collapsed after an hour or so, actually sobbing out loudly. "I'm so tired of it all. If I try to better myself. Something comes along and rips it out of my hands. If someone comes into my life that is actually good for me, then that bitch comes along." I said to myself, shaking, my fingers digging deep into the bark of the tree.

I gave a defeated sigh before leaning up against the same tree that I was beating on. "I guess it really is my destiny to be this unhappy, grumpy, bastard of a stallion." I said to myself.

I heard something fall from my beard. I look down to see that it was the joint. Huh, I thought that I left this at the house. As I reached down, a small folded up letter fell as well. I picked up the joint and brought it to my mouth, quickly lighting it up, before exhaling the fast hit. A wave of calm flooding over my body.

I gave a small sigh of relief before sprawling out on the ground. "Haven't needed one of you in a while." I joked, looking at the joint from the corner of my mouth.

"Tough times?" I heard a voice echo throughout the forest.

I shot up with my fist clenched and began to look around. "Who's there?" I called out, my ears moving around to try and pick up some source of noise.

I saw a bright flash in front of me before Discord appeared. "Hello!" He said with his usual chipper self.

I looked up at him and gave a sigh of relief. "Yeah, I guess you can say it's tough times. What brings you out here?" I asked, before sitting back down, leaning against the tree.

"Well Moonlight sent me out to find you. She was worried when you just up and vanished when your mom came out to find you." He said, sitting down across from me.

I gave a heavy sigh. "Discord, my mom is a psychopath. She only does things to put money in her pocket. She has broken up marriages. She has destroyed families. Yet she can hide her intentions from anypony. She can easily make the nicest pony seem like this worthless peice of shit. She can even convince them that they are too." I said, remembering everything that she said.

"Yes, I know. I heard." He said, examining his fingers. I looked over at him and rose a brow in confusion. He looked up at me and chuckled. "There is a reason why Twilight keeps me around. I can be in many different places." He said, making clones of himself all through out the visible forest. "All at once!" They all said at the same time before clashing together in a blob. "So earlier, I heard what she was saying. And you had every right to leave. I told both Princess Twilight and Moonlight about what she said, and they are not pleased." He said, with a slight chuckle.

I smiled and nodded softly. "Well, at least there are a few folk that know the truth."

He nodded and smiled. "Though I do have one question." He asked, looking at the joint. "Why are you smoking that?" He asked in a concern tone.

I held it up and sighed. "It's something that helps with a great deal of things. I'd honestly be six feet in the ground by now if it wasn't for this." I said with a chuckle.

"What do you mean?"

"Depression, suicidal tendencies, nightmares, migraines, stress, take your pick." I said with a chuckle, but decided to put it out and tossed the little bit that was left away. "So they're wanting me back home?" I asked.

He nodded softly. "Though if you want, you can take your time out here. I can wait." He offered.

I smiled and shook my head. "I'm fine. I just want to go back home and be with Moonlight." I said with a small blush.

I chuckled softly. "You two really are cute." He said before snapping his fingers with us appearing in Twilight's study, both Moonlight and Twilight sitting there.

Surely enough, Moonlight ran up to me and wrapped her arms around me. "Feeling better?" She asked, looking up at me, concern in her eyes.

I nodded and wrapped my arms around her. "Of course!" I said with a chipper smile. "Are you alright?" I asked, looking down at her.

She nodded softly before resting her head on my chest. "Your mom is mean." She said, holding me close.

The smile soon fell as I nodded. "I know, but I'll find a way to deal with her, ok?" I said looking down at her, trying to see my happy Moonlight once more.

"We'll deal with her." Twilight said, looking up at me from her seat. "You're part of our family now and the thing is we tend to take care of our own." Twilight said with a gentle smile.

I looked at her and chuckled, "Well, as much as I'd appreciate it. This really is something I need to do on my own, an-"

"No, I insist. She came into my home and tried to make a fool out of me as well as belittle you as much as she did. It's disgusting that a pony would even consider doing this to their children." She said, anger in her voice.

I gave a defeated sigh and nodded. "Well, if this is going on, then there is one pony that we need to visit before we get this started. Though I'd like for Moonlight to come along." I stated, before sitting down on the floor beside of Moonlight.

"Ok, but where too?" Twilight asked.

"My mamaw. She's the one to come to about anything like this." I stated then turned to look at Moonlight. "As I've told Twilight, my mamaw is the one who helped me out through a lot in my youth. Plus she's told me that when mom becomes too out of hand, to come talk to her." I said, resting my head on Moonlight's lap.

Moonlight and Twilight both nodded softly. "When are you wanting to head out?" Moonlight asked.

I scratched my chin. "She's probably getting ready for bed right now, and seeing as how it's an hour flight by myself, by road it'll take about two, so if it's ok with you, we'll head out tomorrow morning." I said, looking up at Moonlight.

She gave a small nod. "I'm not much of a morning person, but ok." She said with a gentle smile.