I’ll Never Forget You
I don’t know what I am…
I don’t look the same as everyone else…
Am I…really evil, like they said?
A small, strange creature sat hunched over a puddle. He sobbed harder with every “plop” his tears made in the puddle. Some ponies walked down the dimly lit street, but turned and ran as they gazed upon him. He was hideous. His body parts were all belonging to different creatures; it was no wonder everyone was intimidated. He couldn’t make any friends. Nopony could bear to be near him, much less speak or share any memories with him. He sat there for another moment, but then looked up at the night sky. A single bright star sat in the empty dark sky, twinkling and bringing a memory to the disfigured creature. He remembered something he had spent his few years on Equestria trying to forget.
“My mother?” he thought aloud, trying to uncover the rest of the buried memory.
“My mother; She used to tell me that the first star of the night could grant me any wish I may have!” he said excitedly, but he looked back down at the puddle as he remembered what had become of his mother.
She left. I remember now. I was only a few years old. She always seemed unhappy with me…but she would try to hide it. I knew the whole time…I knew something wasn’t right. Before she left, she’d gone out to meet someone, but when she returned she was in tears. I tried to comfort her…but she pushed me away and dried her eyes. “Son, mommy is going to leave for a while, but she’ll try her best to be back soon!” When I heard her say that, I knew she was lying. I shouted “You’re leaving forever, aren’t you! Why can’t you just tell me! You’re my mommy!” What she said next, played over and over in my head ever since. “You are NOT my child! You’re…you’re a monster! Do you know how horrible you make me look? Everypony stopped talking to me because you scare them all away! You’re a mistake that should have never happened! You’ve made my life so…chaotic…my life has been complete DISCORD!” She screamed, as she galloped out into the pouring rain, leaving me in our small one room ‘home’.
He looked back up at the star, then angrily stomped the puddle with his feet, splashing a young couple who then gave him a dirty look as they galloped far from him.
“You ponies are all the same, aren’t you?” he muttered as they stopped farther up the street to look back in disgust at the hideous THING. He looked back at his wings, trying to stretch them, not succeeding.
“Why don’t my wings work yet? I should be able to fly by now! Bahh I’ll just walk some more…” he said in disappointment, walking towards an open gate containing a garden. He laid back into a thorny bush, and sighed, making himself ‘comfortable’ enough to sleep there for the night.
He awoke to a filly much smaller than him hovering over him, examining him in confusion. He sat up and looked into the filly’s eyes. She laughed, as she lowered to the ground, making him feel giant in comparison. He looked down at her in annoyance. “Oh, are you here to make fun of me, too?”
The dark-coated filly stopped giggling to answer, “Make fun of you? Why would I do that? I guess you look a bit silly…” His face turned red as he bent down and picked her up. “I look SILLY?” She pulled his fingers off of her, using her magic horn, and sat herself back down on the ground. “Well, you WERE sleeping in a bush full of thorns!” He blinked a few times, taken aback by her response. “You…don’t think my body is weird?” he asked curiously. “No. I think you look like…those abstract paintings made by the artist ponies! I love those! Besides, you don’t look like everypony else, and you’re unique!” She smiled at him, flying up to pat his head with her hoof. He felt the sides of his mouth pulling upwards into an awkward smile. He looked back at her, realizing he never asked the filly’s name. She had a dark body with short hair that reminded him of the night sky. “What is your name?” she asked, playing with his long tail. He turned to look at her and decided to tell the truth. “I…don’t really have a name. I’ve been called a few things before, but I suppose you could call me…Discord. I’m not sure what that means, but it’s the coolest sounding thing I’ve been called.” She set his tail down gently and flew back up to his eye level, looking sadly into his eyes. She stared for a moment until she closed her eyes and recited something she had probably heard or read before. “Discord. Noun. A lack of concord or harmony between ponies or things, strife, dispute, war…” she opened her eyes back to look at him before hugging him. He stared in disbelief for a moment, but then closed his eyes. “I knew I was a monster…but-“ The filly backed off and put her hoof on his mouth, “No. Don’t believe everything ponies say to you! Who said you were a monster?!” she huffed as she looked around, narrowing her gaze as if to look for the accuser. He opened his eyes and said quietly, “My own mother.” The filly froze in place, then turned to look at Discord. She glided over to sit next to him on the thorns, but used her horn to make a small intricate nest, where she could sit but not get poked. They sat in silence for a few minutes until Discord looked over and asked “What is your name?” She looked over, surprised at the sudden change of tone in his voice. “Luna.” Discord smiled weakly and opened his mouth to say something but then a voice called the filly’s name. “Luna! Come, sister, we need to be on time for school!” Luna stood up, nodded at Discord, jumping off of the bush to see her big sister standing across the garden waiting. “I’ll see you later!” she smiled as she ran towards the familiar young mare. Discord watched her and her sister run down a path towards where he assumed the school would be. He looked down at the nest she had made, admiring the skill she had in making such a complicated design. “I think you look like…those abstract paintings made by the artist ponies! I love those!” He chuckled as he whispered “I like your name better, Luna.”
Nightfall seemed to come a lot quicker this night. Discord found himself surrounded by failed attempts at making nests of the thorn bush. “Why can’t I make these as well as she did?” he asked himself as he accidentally poked his thumb with one of the thorns. It stuck in his skin, and when he tried to remove it, he cried out in pain.
“Are you alright?” Luna said as she trotted over to him. Her voice had surprised him so much that he jumped and gasped, then remembered how to breathe when he saw her. “Luna! You startled me! I-I’m alright. I just seemed to have gotten a thorn in my thumb, but I can’t remove it.” She used her magic to pull his hand down to her, and gently pluck the thorn from his skin. “Is that better?” She asked, smiling at him again. “Yes, thank you, but…how did you do that? Your horn glowed and you somehow moved things without using your hooves!” She looked at him and then asked what he thought to be an unrelated question, “You don’t go to school, do you?” He remembered earlier, that she had to go to school, but he had never been there. “No. What’s it like?” She tilted her head and said “Well that makes sense! You haven’t learned magic! Lots of fillies have horns and can use magic with them! In school we learn how to fly or do magic, and lots of other stuff. Like, how to get our cutiemarks, and ancient Equestrian creatures! Today I learned about these two ponies who are supposed to be chosen to rule over Equestria! A lot of things we learn in school are boring, though.” She said, shrugging her shoulders. “But I think you should go to school with me! That way, you can learn magic, and how to fly!” Discord thought about it and decided he would start tomorrow. Luna told him she had to be in bed soon, so she’d better go back home, but she’d meet him in the morning for school with supplies. He wondered what things he would need for school, and tried to picture what exactly school would look like.
He woke up to a high pitched “ding” sound from a bell. “Morning!” Luna said, moving the bell away from Discord’s half-asleep face and into a backpack. Discord looked down into the bag, grabbing each and every object, guessing what they were used for. “What is this stuff?” he said as he put it all back inside, moving the zippers on the backpack, interested in these foreign concepts. “These are all of your supplies for school today, now c’mon, before we’re late! I told my sis I’d catch up with her before school started!” she pushed him forward until they started walking along the path to school. She slipped his backpack onto him as they neared the building. It was a small red structure, a bit disappointing for Discord, but it was still a new feeling for him. He smiled as they approached the front playground. Young ponies played with colored balls, tossing them back and forth. Others played on the equipment, and a few gathered ponies told stories. But all fell silent when they saw Discord and Luna. Some ponies ran and hid behind bushes and anything they could find to shield them from the scary creature. Others started to call him names, shouting “Monster!” and many more names he was all too familiar with. A white mare with long flowing hair colored with blues and greens and pinks came out of the building and shouted “Everypony! School is starting, please take your seats!” All of the ponies walked inside, as the mare shut the door, telling them she would be in shortly. “Luna! I do not wish for you to be around such unpleasant company! You mustn’t be caught around this monster, or I will be forced to discipline you. You have a duty now as Princess Luna: Bringer of Night.” Luna stomped her tiny hoof in the dirt and shouted “Celestia, he’s not a monster! You don’t know him! If you’re gonna treat my friend like this, I don’t want to be a Princess!” Celestia closed her eyes and formed an animation of events she said he would cause. Discord looked at them, feeling tears forming in his eyes, hearing his mother’s voice calling him a monster over and over. He gently dropped his school bag and ran away, sobbing until he collapsed onto the ground in the garden. Luna continued to call after him, telling him to come back. “Sorry. I’m so sorry, Luna. Everyone was right about me…” He surrounded himself with his failed nests of thorns, and decided to try magic. He didn’t know how, but he closed his eyes and concentrated on making an enclosure of thorns around him. He squinted his eyes as all the negative thoughts entered his mind, tears flowed down his face as his horns glowed brightly, shooting a light into the sky above him. He not only surrounded himself in thorns, but a thick layer of stone, to assure Luna he would never hurt her. The light above him glowed with beautiful colors, as ponies all over Equestria watched the colors, they created a sphere in the night sky, later to be named “The Moon”, after Luna had discovered what it was.
Many years had passed, ponies traveled through the streets and towns as if nothing had changed, except one. A mare with long dark flowing hair resembling the night sky was walking through an abandoned garden towards a thorn-covered statue of a creature she once knew. She came here every year, to remember the friend she had long ago. Luna touched her hoof to the creature trapped in stone, “I’ll never forget you, Discord.” she looked down as a single tear fell onto the thorns. The beautiful grown mare turned away, walking back home, but she did not see that where her tear had fallen, a small rose blossomed.
I’m Wishing
Luna, now a fully grown mare, visited the statue of the creature she once knew as Discord. It had been many years since he had trapped himself in stone and thorns. She came here every year since that day to honor him, and what he meant to her. Luna, under the tyranny of her elder sister Celestia, was forced to work for the rest of her life for ponies who didn’t even seem grateful to her. Everypony thanked Celestia for wonderful summer days, but nopony ever thanked Luna for the beautiful starry nights she would bring. Hardly anyone even noticed the beauty of the night. Luna grew more isolated over the years, coming to Discord in hopes that he would help her out of her loneliness. During the day, Luna slept, often dreaming of strange things she never mentioned to Celestia. She dreamt of abstract images of the moon, and a mare that looked much like herself, but a mare she did not recognize. Despite having a good 12 hours to sleep, Luna would always awaken feeling even more tired. Celestia usually would tell her to wake up so she could do her job. “It doesn’t matter if you’re tired, you must watch over Equestria while I rest.” Celestia had changed over the years. She used to be sweet to her little sister, but now she acts as if Luna is a criminal.
“Just like Discord” Luna whispered as she was awakened by her sister.
“Yes Luna?” Celestia scowled at her, walking to her bedroom
“What?” Luna asked, not realizing she had spoken aloud
“You said something.” Her sister replied “No matter, I’m going to rest. Good night, sister. Don’t cause trouble.” She chuckled, letting herself drift off to sleep.
Luna flew off of the porch, and to her tower where she’d observe and make sure no enemies were approaching to harm Equestria. She had a pretty boring job, and realistically the only good part about it was being able to see the beautiful night sky. For some reason when she’d see the “wishing star”, as ponies called it, she felt a little less alone. She looked up to the star and smiled, although tears ran down her cheeks.
“I wish I wasn’t so alone…” she whispered, then laughed at how silly she was.
She was making a wish that would probably never come true. At least not what she really meant for it to be. She closed her eyes and collapsed on the concrete floor of the tower. Again, she dreamed of strange things, but these dreams were painful. They showed how much she resented her sister, who practically took away her happiness on purpose. But for some reason, this sleep was peaceful. Her peace was soon shattered when she woke up on the castle floor to Celestia yelling at her.
“I KNEW I SHOULDN’T HAVE TRUSTED YOU TO DO THIS! YOU’RE TOO IMMATURE TO UNDERSTAND THAT YOU CANNOT AFFORD TO MAKE MISTAKES! That’s it. Luna, I am relieving you of your duties, and you are hereby banished from this castle. You won’t cause any trouble in the streets. At least nothing of any importance will be ruined with you away from here. Guards-“ Celestia started to call the guards to remove Luna, but she interrupted.
“Don’t even bother, I know my way out.” She turned to exit, and whispered “Have fun with your full time job. I bet everypony will LOVE it when the beautiful, sweet Celestia brings the night.” She flew away in the night she loved so much. Celestia was left with the castle guards in a rather awkward situation. She calmly said “It doesn’t matter, she would have caused the demise of Equestria. You may leave now. I have to tend to the night.” The guards nodded and left Celestia to her duties.
Luna flew to the only place she felt welcome; the old garden with her old friend in it. She landed and trotted to the statue, hysterically crying.
“Discord, I don’t know what to do. I can’t talk to anypony about how I’ve been feeling for years. Especially not Celestia. She’s out of control. I just…I wish you were here. I know you’re here physically…but I need advice. I’ve tried so many times to break the stone around you, but nothing works.” As she cried, she looked up at him and put her hoof on him, like she had done every year. “Please come back.” She pleaded, falling to her knees. She looked up at him once again and saw a wet streak from his eye, rolling down the stone. She gasped with disbelief “Discord? Discord??” she cried, ripping the thorns off of him until she stopped to see a small flower. “You’re still here…you’ve always been here!” she heard a familiar voice around her
“Luna, you’ve grown so beautiful. I can’t stand to see my Luna cry.” She looked around frantically, but nothing else was around her.
“I must be going crazy…” she laughed at herself, but when she looked back at the statue, something had changed. Discord was no longer encased in rock. He looked at her, jumping down.
“Over the years, I’ve become quite crazy, myself.”
“You’re free!!” she hugged him tightly
“I couldn’t have done it without you. Every year since that day, I’ve seen you come to visit me. I tried to free myself, and I tried to speak to you. But it never worked until now.”
“Why did you do that to yourself anyway? I’ve missed you terribly!”
“I wanted to make sure you were safe. Although, it sounds like you don’t feel very safe now.”
“No, my sister has taken over all the royal duties of Equestria. She’s become power hungry. She doesn’t even love me anymore.”
Discord sat next to Luna in silence for a moment. Luna sat there thinking until she came to a realization.
“Discord. I have reason to suspect Celestia has been stunting my growth physically and she has been holding back my true power. Do you think you could help me break free and see what I really am?”
“Well, I’ve spent a long time in stone, only using magic once successfully in my life, but alright.”
They put their horns together and closed their eyes. Discord felt Luna changing, but he was afraid to break concentration. Finally, Luna shouted, “Look!”
Discord opened his eyes. There stood a deep black mare, with beautiful eyes that stood out from the rest of her body, which was slightly larger. Her horn had also become longer, her wings as well.
“You’re…you look…Luna…you’re beautiful. So beautiful.” He said as he stared at her.
She looked over her new body, and blushed. “Th-thank you, Discord.”
He blushed and looked away “Well, I’ve got to get my body up to where it should be…” he grew taller and more muscular.
“Did it hurt being trapped for so long? Surely your body must have needed to grow.”
Discord chuckled lightly “Not really. It was a bit of a squeeze, but I didn’t think about it really.”
Luna tilted her head in confusion “Well what did you think of, then?”
Discord wrapped his arms around her and gently kissed her forehead, making her blush again. “I thought about you. Every year you would come to see me…Luna you were the only one who cared about me.” He pulled away to look her in the eyes for a moment. She kissed his cheek and said “I know what you’re thinking. I feel the same way.”
Suddenly a flash of light scared them. Luna looked over in the bushes, where she thought the light was coming from. It was a camera! Somepony was taking photos of them!
Luna used her horn to catch the creep, and lift them out of the bushes.
“AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!! DON’T HURT ME! PLEASE DON’T FEED ME TO THAT MONSTER!!!” Luna looked over at Discord “What monster? That is MY FRIEND! Who are you, and what are you taking photographs for? Answer, NOW!” Another flash of the camera. “I’m just here because the Princess wanted me to catch you, Nightmare Moon, and she wanted me to show her what you were up to! She told everypony that you were going to destroy Equestria and my mission was to show them proof of your evil!” Luna gasped and dropped the pony. “Nightmare Moon? I’m Princess Luna, bringer of the night!” the photographer had already gotten away screaming “NIGHTMARE MOON’S TYRANNY IS NOT FAR AWAY! SAVE PRINCESS CELESTIA!! EVERYPONY RUN!!!” among other crazy things. Luna didn’t even want to bother making herself look more evil by chasing him down. Discord walked over to comfort her, hugging her as she cried. “I’m not evil. I’m not a monster.” He cried along with her and said “No, Luna, you’re not a monster at all.” After an hour, she was finally calm enough to make a big decision.
“Discord, I’m going to have a word with my sister, and then I’m coming back to get you.”
“Get me? Where are we going?” he asked, puzzled.
“I’ll explain when I get back.” She flew off to the castle without saying anything more.
“Celestia!” Luna shouted as she landed in her bedroom
“Yes, sister? Oh my, what have you done to yourself?! You look hideous!” She asked, pretending to be shocked at Luna’s physical change.
“I’ve had it with you. Nopony else may see what you’re doing, but I know what you’re doing. I’m leaving Equestria. I’m going somewhere far away. The moon. I just came to tell you before I left. Goodbye.” She flew out the window as Celestia watched, smirking, and then bursting into false tears as guards came in.
Luna landed near Discord and said “Alright let’s go. Can you fly?” she asked as if she was in a hurry.
“Probably not very well, but-“ he tried to stretch his small wings
Luna touched his wings with her horn, and they suddenly grew larger and opened up, ready for flight.
“We need to go now, follow me!” she flew up into the air as Discord followed, enjoying his new ability.
“Thank you, Luna. I’ve wondered what it was like to fly.”
They flew for a long time, Equestria looking smaller and smaller below them as they headed up to break through the atmosphere.
“Okay, this is where it gets tricky. Discord, hold onto me and don’t let go until we have landed!”
He grabbed her waist as she began to fly as fast as possible. She picked up so much speed, Discord could feel heat from the friction. She concentrated as she was almost going to break through, her eyes glowing white. It was as if her horn had pierced a balloon; she was struggling to get out, but suddenly with a burst of air, they shot out of the atmosphere towards another large spherical object. She continued to fly towards it until she had landed on it. As soon as she landed, she fell to the ground.
“Luna! Luna!!” Discord’s voice echoed through her mind until it became distorted and she was out.
She woke up hours later, to find Discord laying next to her, sound asleep. He still had his arms wrapped around her. She looked out past the land she was on, back to Equestria and decided it was better here. For her, and for Discord. She went back to sleep, not wanting to think about Equestria.
They slept, not knowing that Celestia had plastered photos of them across Equestria claiming “Nightmare Moon” and Discord were plotting the destruction of the world. Celestia had everypony believe that Luna had been murdered by Nightmare Moon and Discord, but luckily she had banished them both to the Moon. She told all of the residents of Equestria that because of the “tragic events”, she would be taking over a full time job “protecting” them from the horrors of Nightmare Moon.
