Sitting on top of one of the tower's roofs — places her now absent mother told her not to go — Luna found herself looking out at the world. A forest, her home — lit with the start of dusk, shadows being drawn across the castle that was the world — like an inviting black sheet that scared all but her. Pale stars began to wink into view, waiting for the dark that they needed in order to shine.
She'd shake her feathers, tilt her head, and never blink her sleepy eyes that just wanted to see a darkened world. Luna was searching for the glorious nothing over the horizon as she simply enjoyed shivering in the evening air. Only the stone roof beneath — what kind of stone, she didn't quite know — managed to remind her that she sat like an owl, wide eyes to the world instead of flying, with her feathers slicing the air. She was too young for flying, for marks, and even her magic had yet to grow now that it had passed the outbursts of infant godhood — as did the rest of her.
She simply couldn't sleep on a night like this, where her vision was always sharp and clear. The knowledge that Tia and her — alone yet together in a great big castle — would be setting hoof into an even wider world anchored somewhere in an endless sky first thing tomorrow when the sun flashed above the trees and into the autumn sky.
Little Luna could hear whisper-rustles far below her sky-soaring tower and thought of all the silence — the deepest, most curious, and sometimes-scary part that had followed Tia's talk of things to come. It was the out-theres and go-forths and away-ness made her little chest ache with wonder and fear, among other named things at the thought of grassy plains, hot deserts, forever-snow, or storms that cupped the world with always-far clouds as it screamed thunder in the space between earth and sky. But there were other things too, in a world that dwarfed the small goddess even more than elder sisters, noon shadows, and loud-laughing cousins could. Things like mountains that touched the sky, stretches of white where her breath would be spun into frost and dangerous places that belched ash into the sky and loomed in her dreams.
These were all the places out here in her brave new world, sprung from stories and framed with her imagination; that she might actually see, feel, touch, taste, and live.
Every single one sprawled beyond her castle, her enchanted forest, and her world — the perilous sanctuary of the Everfree — where there would always be mountains beyond mountains.
And, of course, all the ponies that only Tia really wanted to see.
But that would begin tomorrow and end tonight. Fear and fun and questions unspoken about a big, big world ran like a fever fluttering in her mind. On the tower where none knew she perched, Luna swayed in this living dream where quests would begin tomorrow. She would get to stand and walk and gallop in the enormity of a world that worried Tia so much.
The thoughts — of going and staying and waiting and finding and maybes — made Luna dizzy with everything bittersweet. It sunk in her, heavy and vivid as turquoise eyes painted with small shadowy bags beneath them — ones that any sister would notice by morning — just watched as she thought. They were a little teary from the wind, which was crisp and cold as it chilled her skinny form.
They were leaving; it was determined. They would leave tomorrow, and pack little, but leave much, and remember even more.
Yet, Luna couldn't stop thinking about the castle right under her being battered by a delightfully cold night wind that carved strange shadows when it stirred things.
Because...
Because of yawning hallways that tossed shadows across her when she played alone.
Because of floors with centuries of her always-tiny hoofsteps on them had always been underhoof — except for when she went in the gardens...
Because those very gardens had never seemed as small as they did now.
Because the stained glass windows, incorrigible and ever-present — depicting the stuff of legends might not be seen by Luna's eyes for stars know how long.
...And because the library always felt lonely when she wasn't in it.
Looking out at all the world that she could see, wondering at everything, Luna felt the first drops of a drizzling rain on her back from the passing Everfree rain clouds that obeyed nopony. The melancholy atmosphere was completed, in her mind, and she let out a heavy, wistful sigh — one that seemed too heavy for such a small child. So much would be new tomorrow, and even more, after that, even if nothing would change. Excitement and gloom in almost paradoxical equal measure, Luna scooted into the shadow of another tower to stay as dry as possible. Then, she turned her gaze to the moon glowing above her.
There were numerous things that she felt now, and many would still be there in the morning.
One of them would be that from here forward, she would be on the quest her and Tia would share. As soon as they stepped out into the world to find the two Alicorns who had been missing from their lives for some time now, Luna knew that she wouldn't feel like she was anypony's daughter anymore. They had left, they had promised to return, Celestia and Luna had waited. Now they would find them. The notion was peculiar, but Luna was a peculiar filly. Even Tia thought so. Almost everypony Luna had met, seen, or talked to — which was nopony outside her family — agreed that Luna was indeed a peculiar and imaginative child. There wasn't any bitterness to this, only the delight in their true observation. Luna knew that if she found them again, this would cease to be. It was simple because it wasn't. Maybe it was magic. After all, magic was responsible for so many things. Why wouldn't her heart, now as unbound as she would be tomorrow be some kind of magical phenomena? Or maybe it was her being Luna. That sort of thing happened quite often too — Luna being Luna led to many everyday things being anything except everyday in nature.
It was settled without conflict, and doubt passed. It almost felt as though this had always been, nothing felt unnatural. She was Luna, and Luna was somepony's sister. She certainly felt that.
Right now, Luna was nopony's daughter. She knew and felt that too.
It wasn't a bad feeling either.
Author's Note
[Revised for printing on 8/30/2020.]
