When the morning alarm went off, a sense of dread filled her. All that meant was another day of hiding from the world around her. She pulled herself up and forced herself to get dressed. Going downstairs, she passed by her sister in the bathroom.

“Hey Lulu, dad had to drive grandma’s today, so I’ll be driving you to school.”

“Okay.” She called back, mentally groaning.

Her rides to school with her father was her time to play their music and talk about whatever she wanted to discuss that day. Now, she was going to be forced to sit with her older sister and listen to her music, her about how her class at college were so much different than high school, and whatever drama was going on with her friends.

Coming to the bottom of the stairs, she swung around to the kitchen. Rifling through cabinets, she eventually settled on some frozen toaster strudels sitting in the back of the freezer. Throwing them in the toaster, she started making her lunch for the day. She gathered the ingredients onto the counter, and threw a CD onto the player in the corner. Electric guitar, bass, and drums filled the kitchen, and Luna started bobbing in time with the music.

Celestia came downstairs, throwing some binders into her backpack and zipping it shut. She set the bag down on the table, and joined Luna in the kitchen.

“You’re listening to Dad’s music again?”

“It’s not just his music.”

“I thought you only listened to it around him.”

“I like it.”

“You’re so old.” Celestia said as she walked out of the room. Luna’s bouncing with the music had stopped, and she reached over and shut off the CD player. The rest of her time in the kitchen was spent in silence.

Once she had finished, she’d thrown everything into a lunch bag and grabbed her backpack from the spot by the door. Closing the door behind her, she’d walked down the sidewalk towards to the car in the driveway.

The elder sister was already in the car, putting on lipstick in the mirror. Something Luna wouldn’t call music was blasting out of the speakers, audible through the glass windows of the car. The music had a sudden crescendo as she opened the door and sat in the passenger’s seat. The first thing she did was reach over and turn the music way down before throwing her backpack in the backseat and buckling her seatbelt.

“I don’t understand how you listen to that stuff.”

“Don’t hate on Christina Aguilera. At least I don’t listen to old people music like Rush or whatever.”

“At least my music involves talent.”

“Pfft, shut up.” Celestia snarked, turning the music back up. She started to drive, singing loudly and obnoxiously to the music.

“Oh my god, I have to tell you about what Leona did yesterday.”

“I’m sure I would love to hear it.” Luna said, not wanting to hear it.

“Okay, so like Sloan told us she was totally gonna ask this guy out, and then Leona totally stole him the same day. Like, what a bitch.”

“Uh huh.”

“Then Christie got all mad at Sloan for being mad at Leona. Then Izzie got mad at Christie and Sloan for starting an argument over Leona trying to find love. Then Sloan got mad at Izzie for support Sloan…”

“Oh would you look at that, we’re at school bye.” Luna said, jumping out of the car as fast as possible. She stopped only to get her backpack out of the backseat. Celestia rolled down the passenger window.

“Bye Lulu!” Celestia called.

“Oh my gosh, is that Celly?” A girl shouted.

“Oh my gosh, Hannah! I haven’t seen you in, like, forever.” Celestia called back. Luna shivered in disgust and zipped up her black hoodie.

She pushed open the doors to the building, walking down the chipped paint and cinder block walled hallways of the school. She was early: Class didn’t start for another fifteen or so minutes. She decided she’d just get to homeroom early, and set off for the classroom.

“Well if it ain’t the angel of death.” A voiced taunted. Luna stared ahead, not giving the voice any satisfaction. “Hey,” the owner of the voice grabbed her arm and pulled her around. “Look at your elders when they talk to you, brat.”

“What do you want, Cole?”

“What do I want?” He squeezed her arm tighter, and she yelped in pain. “I want for you to watch your damn mouth, young lady.”

Luna said nothing, struggling to pull away from the sophomore.

“Don’t they teach fish any god damn respect these days?” One of the lackeys in the background taunted.

“Absolutely not. I think we need to teach her the way my dad taught me.” Cole grinned evilly, reeling his arm back.

“That’s enough, boys.” A teacher’s voice called.

Cole looked up, and dropped Luna’s arm. He put his palms up in surrender, and walked away. Luna watched them leave, hoping they’d trip and die on their stupidly large jeans. She turned around to see one of the math teachers shaking his head before walking back into his classroom. He didn’t even glance her direction. She rubbed her arm and resumed walking, wrapping her arms around herself and keeping her head down.

The rest of the trip was less eventful, only a few taunts coming from some friends of Cole’s who’d she passed by in the hall. Words she could handle, she told herself every time. It was just when they got physical that she couldn’t bear it. She walked into class, taking the desk closest to the windows she could get while still staying near the teacher. She found people were leave her alone more if the teacher could see it, and she liked to stare out of the windows when she could.

Her plan worked perfectly, up until other people came into the room. The first was some more friends of Coles. The group had one of his earlier lackeys, and some other punk dressed tools that followed him around. They spotted the black hoodied girl and the leader of the bunch muttered something that ended with a group fist bump. They sauntered over, Luna hearing the rattling of the chains on their JNCO jeans long before they neared her. The three sat behind her, the leader directly so. Luna shut her eyes, hoping beyond hope they’d leave her alone.

“Alright class, let’s take attendance the teacher announced.” She lifted up her clipboard and started rattling off names as they were listen, getting several bored and tired responses back.

“Luna Solaire.”

“Here.” Luna said meekly.

She lurched forward as a boot clad foot slammed the back of her chair. The teacher looked up, but didn’t see anything that hinted the source of the noise. She shook her head and continued.

“Sharp Tool.”

“Here.” The boy behind her called, kicking her seat again. Once again the teacher looked up, but didn’t notice the trio of boys trying not to laugh.

“Uh huh.” She checked a box next to the name and lowered the clipboard. “Alright, you’ve got a study hall for today. Class ends at 9:35. Keep the noise down.”

The students all immediately turned to their friends and started chatting. Luna pulled a small black notebook from her backpack and set it on her desk. Waiting for the kick, she started writing once there’d been nothing.

Another day at this terrible building they call a high school. Three months in and it seems like I’ve already alienated half the student body, and the other half doesn’t care that I exist. I just wish these sophomore tools would get off my back. They’ve even got some freshmen involved so they can torment me more often. They think they’re all hip and cool or whatever just because they wear stupid ridiculous jeans like a band of jacka-

Her skid across the page haphazardly, drawing a massive line over it. She gripped the pen tightly, grinding her teeth to keep quiet.

“Oops. My bad.” The voice behind her said.

She gripped the pen so tightly her hand shook. She quietly let out a sob, a feeling of hopelessness enveloping her. Thankfully, she didn’t cry, nor did they hear her. She pushed the feelings down and kept writing. This time, it wasn’t anything meaningful. Song lyrics, story ideas, lists of things she wanted to get, it didn’t matter. Just something to get her mind off of reality for the time being.

The end of class came with no additional harassment. When the bell rang, she quickly pulled up her bag and hurried out of class. She kept her head down and stared ahead, trying to get out of the mass of people as quickly as possible. She made it to the next classroom, and fell in her seat. One down, seven more to go.

The school day seemed to crawl on forever, but Luna finally found herself almost running out of the front doors at the end of the day. The rest of the day had passed with little incident. Only a few tauntings in the hallway from Cole’s gang, but lunch had been easy ever since she started packing her food. She just stayed in the class she had before lunch and ate in her desk. It was history with Mr. Lockhart. He didn’t care if she was there, he just sat at his desk grading papers the whole time.

The brisk air of November proved to be a bit more than her jacket could handle, but just wrapped her arms around herself and carried on. The walk wouldn’t be too long, and then she’d be back home in the warmth of her own house.

The walk down the sidewalk was one of the best parts of her day. Quiet, peaceful, and sometimes there’d be people out on their lawn who’d smile and wave at her. It made her feel included in a world doing everything it could to push her out. Today, however, it seemed no one wanted to brave the chilly weather, so she walked alone.

The silence of the neighborhood allowed her to hear the growl of someone’s car racing up behind her. She ignored it, people always sped through this stretch of road. She turned around when she heard the squeal of bad breaks. The turned ended up being her downfall, as she was struck by several objects that splashed water all over the front of her.

“Might wanna cool off while you write to your diary, bitch!” A familiar voice shouted out the window of the car. Laughing mixed with screeching tires as they blew off down the road.

Luna started crying, the almost freezing temperatures making her wet clothes unbearable. She hardly could move, and just stood there dripping. Police sirens followed behind the judge blazing away, but the sirens quickly stopped and was replaced with heavy bootsteps running towards her. She flinched, expecting another attack.

“Hey, are you alright?” A kind voice called to her. She opened her eyes. She saw black boots, but not like the leather biker kind the bullies following her around had. She looked up, and the worried face of a police officer was there instead of an acne-ridden snarl. Luna started sobbing again, and shook her head. The police officer had been kneeling, as the girl was rather short compared to him. “Here, come with me.”

She nodded, and he led her over to his squad car. He opened the passenger door and pulled out a white towel.

“Here, try and dry yourself off with this.” He told her, taking her backpack off her shoulders.

She unzipped her hoodie, and tried to dry off the long sleeve shirt she had on. The officer hurried around to his trunk, pulling out a grey blanket. He returned, exchanging the blanket for her wet jacket. He swung the blanket around her. Thankfully, they’d gotten the hoodie off before the water had soaked through too badly. He kneeled down again.

“Can you tell me who it was that attacked you?” He asked her. She shook her head.

“T-They’re s-some bullies from school.” She was shivering, either from the cold or the crying, the officer couldn’t tell. “I-I didn’t see all of them, b-but I t-think one was Cole Sanford. A s-sophomore.”

The officer nodded, his mind racing.

“What’s your name, sweetie?”

“Luna Solaire.”

“Alright, Luna. My name is Officer McNab. Do you want to get in the car where it’s warmer?”

Luna hesitated. There was that hole thing about stranger danger, but this was a police officer. They didn’t count, right? Plus, he was so nice. The young officer had done so much for her already, so she decided to trust him.

“Okay.”

He opened the passenger door to the squad car, and she climbed in. He set her bag and wet hoodie in the back seat, and shut the door before getting in on his own side.

“Okay, Luna, I’ve gotta do one thing, then I can take you home, alright?” Luna nodded, her crying had stopped for now. He smiled warmly at her and picked up the radio handset on the dashboard. “Dispatch, Echo 77. 510 on a silver Honda Accord. I’m escorting a young girl home who had water balloons thrown at her from the vehicle, over.”

Moments later a voice crackled through the speakers.

“10-4 Echo 77.”

Another voice crackled through.

“Dispatch, Echo 49. Vehicle is in sight.”

The officer turned to Luna, grinning. She smiled back, laughing through her tears.

“Alright, Luna. Where’s your house?”

The squad car pulled up in front of a two story suburban home. Officer McNab smiled at the freshman.

“Here we are.”

“Thank you.” She hesitated as she noticed the empty driveway.

“What’s wrong?” The officer asked.

“My sister isn’t home. And neither is my dad.”

“Well is your mom there?”

Luna paused again.

“My parents are divorced.”

The officer nodded, mentally kicking himself for saying something.

“I’m sorry.”

“Can you stay with me?” She asked.

The man was taken aback, but nodded.

“Alright. I’ve just gotta do one thing first.”

“Another radio thing?” Luna asked. McNab smiled.

“Yeah, another radio thing.” He picked up the handset. “Dispatch, Echo 77. 10-7. I repeat, 10-7, over.”

“Echo 77, Dispatch. 10-4.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

The two got out of the car, McNab ensuring the car was properly secured before locking up. He pulled the girl’s backpack out of the back seat, along with her jacket. He walked with her inside, his head on a swivel for anymore kids waiting to pelt her.

“Um, sir?” The man looked down at Luna. “I need to get my keys from my backpack.”

“Oh, sorry.” He said, swinging the bag off his shoulder. The girl unzipped the front pocket and pulled out a keychain of the cover art for Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ album in the shape of a guitar pick. He smiled. “Nice keychain.”

“Thanks. My dad got it for me.” She unlocked the door, and the man followed her in.

He looked around the inside of the house. To his left was a living room. A large TV on an entertainment center was the focal point of the couch, loveseat, and recliner. To the back left was a set of stairs that ran along the back wall. To his right was the kitchen, which is where Luna was now. There was a note written on a legal pad sitting on the kitchen counter. Luna either hadn’t seen it yet or ignored it, but McNab read it quickly in passing.

Luna,
Hanging out with some friends tonight. Leftovers in the fridge. Dad won’t be home till tomorrow.

• Celestia

McNab assumed this to be from her older sister. He shook his head in disappointment that the older sister left Luna alone like that. He looked up, watching Luna go towards the stairs.

“Where do you want me to put your bag?” He called to her. She waved over her shoulder.

“Just drop it on the ground by the door.”

McNab shrugged, and set the bag down on the floor, making sure it wouldn’t get in the way. Finding himself alone in a stranger’s house, he decided to wait for Luna before he started getting comfortable. He walked through the kitchen.

A few pictures were on the wall, a smiling family of four, sometimes three. He stopped in front of one of the pictures of the four. He quickly recognized Luna, and what must be her older sister, by their young age. The man he assumed to be their father was with Luna, on the left. The mother was with Celestia on the right. All four were smiling brightly at the camera, and their joy made McNab smile back. Their father looked a lot like Luna. Their eyes were similar in color, and his hair was a solid navy blue, similar to Luna’s without that extra layer of lighter blue that she had. Their mother had light pink colored hair and bright, but old, violet eyes. The four were standing in front of a touristy-looking sign for a beach city. The sun was bright, and everyone was in summer clothes. A wholesome family vacation if he ever saw one.

Footsteps were coming from up the stairs, and he turned back around in time to see Luna walking into the kitchen. Her long sleeve shirt was gone, as was her jeans. Now she was wearing loose pajama bottoms and a t-shirt with some sort of text on it that McNab didn’t recognize.

“So, Luna. Is this your family?” He asked, pointing at the picture he’d just been looking at.

“Yeah. That’s my sister and our parents when we went to the beach. Dad had gone there a couple times when he was a kid, and he wanted his kids to go there too. Mom was happy just to go to the beach. Tia and I did all the beach things you see in movies and stuff. Sand castles and all that.” Luna sighed. “Back then me and Tia were a lot closer. Now she’s gone off to college and has college classes and all that crap.”

“I know the feeling, a bit.” McNab turned around, hands in his coat pockets. “I had a friend who was two grades ahead of me. He went to a different school than me, and then he went off to college and did summer programs. I felt pretty abandoned by him for awhile.”

“How’d you deal with it?”

“Honestly for a long time I didn’t. I was mad about it all the time. Eventually I learned to live without him. He was still around during the school year, of course, so he wasn’t completely gone. I just found how to hang out with my other friends.”

Luna dropped her gaze to the floor at what he said, and opened the fridge, tactfully trying to hide herself. She pulled herself together and grabbed a soda from the fridge.

“Do you want a soda?” She asked.

“Sure. What do you have?”

“Coke, Sprite, and Ginger Ale.”

“I’ll have a Coke, then.”

Luna shut the fridge and walked over to the table, giving McNab his soda before sitting down. The tall man followed, sitting across from her.

“I wish I could do that, but…” Luna hesitated, sipping her soda. “I don’t really have any friends.”

McNab cracked open the can.

“I’m sorry to hear that. Why not?”

“All the other kids at school think I’m weird.”

“Why do they think that?”

“Because I’m not my sister.”

“I’m sure that’s not true.”

“It is, though!” She shouted in exasperation. “Celestia was everyone’s favorite! Star student, star athlete, star whatever the hell she did! And I’m nothing but a creepy weirdo kid sister who is average at best.”

“Hey, come on. That’s not true.” McNab leaned forward. “I don’t think you’re a weirdo.”

Luna grinned slightly, but it fell just as fast as it came.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t matter to them. It doesn’t help that all these sophomores keep trying to harass me.” Luna started tearing up. “I didn’t even do anything to them. They just decided to hate me and everything I do.”

“Is it those kids that threw the water balloons at you?”

Luna nodded.

“It’s stupid Cole Sanford and his dumbass friends.” Luna was crying, anger swelling behind her tears. “They think they’re tough just because they’re sophomores. And no one else cares. The upperclassmen think they’re stupid, but don’t care enough to stop it. The teachers don’t even care! They just wave them off when it starts to get physical or when it inconveniences them that I’m being bullied.”

McNab frowned, mentally noting everything she said. He decided he’d need to have a talk with a couple of individuals.

“They find me. They hunt me down and they scream things at me. They call me gay. Mrs. Columbine. Angel of Death. Anything they can think of.” Luna was in full sobs now. “I just want it all to go away. I just want the pain to stop.”

McNab stood up and hurried to her side, all the signal words of possible suicidal tendencies flying at him in rapid succession.

“Hey, it’s okay. It’s okay.” He said to her. She embraced the man. He was surprised, and didn’t know what to do. He tentatively hugged her back. He recognized that this child was in need, and that he was the only one available to help. “Shhh.”

“And Celestia doesn’t even know what’s going on. She’s always too busy for me or whatever. Mom’s away in some other part of the country, and Dad’s working two jobs to help pay for us so he’s never around either.” Luna sobbed. “I just feel so alone.”

The young girl cried into McNab’s uniform, and he did his best to comfort her. He was gonna have to have those talks a lot sooner than he thought.

Luna had cried until she couldn’t cry anymore. They’d been sitting at the table, Luna letting out all the pent up emotions she’d had in her. It had taken several hours, and it was getting late. McNab had held her close the whole time.

“Are you feeling better?” He asked. He mentally kicked himself at the stupid question.

“Yeah, I am.” Luna said. “Thank you.”

“Of course.”

The two were once again left in silence. McNab looked to the clock. It was almost nine. He noticed that her sister still wasn’t home, and was once again disappointed in the elder sibling.

“I’m tired.” Luna said after a while.

“Do you want to go to bed?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright.” McNab let go of her, and she stood. He stood with her, and she laughed slightly.

“You’re really tall.” She said. McNab smiled at the lighter humor after the long bout of sadness. McNab had to agree, though. His six foot five frame towered over her five foot four.

“I’ve heard. I’m not quite sure where people get that idea, though.” He grinned.

Luna smiled, something McNab was happy to see. She started walking towards her room, and McNab followed. McNab saw more pictures scattered throughout the hallway, similar to the ones downstairs. They came upon Luna’s room, and McNab hesitated at the door. He looked around her room from what he could see.

Posters from bands he recognized from when he was younger were scattered all over the walls. She only had on a dim lamp, giving the whole room a dark atmosphere. She had a digital alarm clock on a nightstand next to her bed, which is also where the lamp was. She climbed in bed, and looked up to the man standing in the doorway.

“Can you stay with me?” She asked. He nodded, and took a seat at her desk. She covered herself up and curled into a comfortable position. McNab sat quietly in the corner.

After a long while, light snoring came from the young girl. McNab smiled to himself, and stood to leave, turning the light off.

“Goodnight, Little Moon.”

Author's Note

So! A little side project of mine! I've really been wanting to do some Equestria Girls stories, and I decided that I'd start this as something I could do whenever I couldn't write more of She Wore A Yellow Ribbon. Let me know what you think down below!

I don't really like the cover art I've got, but I couldn't find anything I really liked. If anyone has a suggestion for something, I'd love to see it. I was trying to find a kid Luna Equestria Girls fan art, but none really showed up/were what I wanted.

~~Still looking for editors, if anyone is interested. PM me if you'd like to talk about it.~~