Cross My Heart…
…and hope to fly.
By: Phoenix Flight
The moon shone brightly over the Everfree.
Luna had liked the forest. She told me that her night seemed like it belonged there, among the grand trees and the brambles. She spent an awful lot of her time there. From where I stood upon the crumbling balcony, the sprawling forest seemed a sea of life around the now barren island that was our home.
My home.
I didn’t know what to do. I had just enough warning to get our subjects to safety.
My subjects, now.
They had no home either now.
I shuffled forwards towards the edge of the balcony. Closing my eyes, unwanted memories flashed through my mind. Her eyes. Not what they had become. What they used to be. They were turquoise, with little silver flecks like stars. Expressive eyes, like two giant moons casting their gentle light upon all they saw.
The balcony was starting to crumble. I felt sympathy for it. I felt like crumbling too. Slowly, I spread my wings. The balcony would fall eventually, but at least I could delay its passing. I lifted into the air and glided down to the front gate. I didn’t want to be here without Luna. The nearest town was Canterlot. I could just glimpse it in the mountains. The night was clear.
Luna liked them that way.
I looked from Canterlot to the path leading into the forest. I didn’t want to fly to the town. I didn’t deserve to be closer to Luna. My tired hooves padded along the overgrown path. No one had ever used it but Luna. I walked into the darkness.
I was laying on something hard. I felt… rested, oddly enough. My tired mind struggled to comprehend what had just happened. The last thing I remembered… light.
It was pretty.
I pushed myself to my hooves and opened my eyes, and what I saw took my breath away. An endless expanse of lights, shining like a thousand stars. In the distance, I saw a strange orb. Half was dark, and the other half…I could see the other half, but my addled mind couldn’t figure out why it was so… familiar. It didn’t seem like my moon.
I looked away from the skies above me, and my heart nearly dropped through the floor. A barren wasteland surrounded me. Rocky. Gray. Riddled with… craters.
Oh… makers. This was my moon.
How did this happen? When—What?
Why am I here? How am I here?
Why can’t I remember anything?
Tia? Where are—
Wait. Who is…? I-I… it’s gone.
I lowered myself to rocky ground, shaking, breathing hard. I remembered something for a split second. Who was it? A friend? Who…?
Another memory surfaced. Another mare. Her name… she called herself Nightmare.
She helped me? No… she hurt me? I couldn’t remember. She wasn’t here. I remembered the look on her face as the light seared her away. Nothing was here.
Nothing… but me.
I plodded through the forest. When we were little, before we were rulers, we used to take walks here. We would play in the trees, rolling through the grassy clearings. Luna started a flower garden in one.
I wandered aimlessly through the forest, letting my hooves take me where they wished to go. I didn’t have to leave yet. I could stay here forever. I could let myself waste away here. I deserved no better.
I stopped and kicked myself.
No, Celestia. Bad Celestia. You can’t do that. Your ponies need a leader. You need to be there for them. You need to be there when Luna comes back.
A thousand years. A long time for sure.
I was so lost in thought that I hadn’t realized where I was. A crystalline tree, shining in the darkness, stood before me. The Tree of Harmony.
“Well, Harmony?” I jabbed bitterly. “Is this what you planned?”
No response. I wasn’t expecting one. I sighed and turned away. It was time to leave. I had to get to Canterlot. As I turned to leave, I tripped over a root that I was almost sure wasn’t there before. I looked back to the tree, glaring. I was about to rip it a new one, but I realized it was just a tree. It couldn’t hear me, it couldn’t respond. It was just a magic tree. One that had sent my sister away.
It sent her…
Wait. If it could send Luna to the moon, it could send other things, couldn’t it? I couldn’t get her back, of that I was sure, but maybe…
I knew it was a long shot, but I was grasping at anything to make me feel better. Anything to keep me occupied. Anything to keep the sorrow at bay.
I looked up through a hole in the cave ceiling towards the moon. Spreading my wings, I took off towards Canterlot.
Wait for me, sister.
I didn’t know how long I had been asleep, how long I had been here for. Once the shock faded, I found myself feeling numb. I walked along the rocky ground. Yards, meters, miles… I didn’t know how many.
My memory hovered just beyond my grasp. Dim flashes of recognition. A warm voice. A wise lesson. Rose, sunrise colored eyes. It was maddening.
The one thing I could remember, I didn’t want to. I could feel her. She wasn’t here, but she was waiting for me. I didn’t want to go back to that one. That one was cold and dark, her honeyed voice dripping with pretty lies. I didn’t even know who that one was. Was that one the one I remembered earlier? A… Tia? Was that her? Or the other one?
Nightmare? I remember her screaming. Both of them, actually. I didn’t know which was which.
I was lost. I could feel one of them, waiting. Like a cat waiting for the mouse to come out of its hole.
The other… I couldn’t feel her. Not like how I felt the predator. I didn’t know where the other was, but the veiled recollections… I knew they were of her. They must have been. There wasn’t anypony else.
This was the circle my mind was trapped in, even as my hooves walked in a straight line. I wasn’t going anywhere with either.
I raced through the sky, away from Canterlot. I’d need to pay the storekeeper back for the parchment and ink I’d taken. I soared over the trees, hooves nearly skimming the highest branches. The moon should have set an hour ago. Now that Luna was gone, I supposed I was responsible for her duties. Still, she couldn’t set yet. I still had one thing to do.
I skidded to a stop in front of the tree. My sides heaving, I paused a moment before whipping out the parchment and ink. I ripped a feather out of my wing, dipped it into the inkwell, and began to write.
As I finished, I lay one more item on my message, along with the feather I used to write. Rolling them up neatly, I set them in front of the tree. Reaching out with my magic, I brushed my consciousness against Harmony. I lifted up the package to the moon symbol just below my sun, atop the moon. My letter slowly dissolved into a pure, white light. It glowed brightly for a moment before shooting toward the sky. I launched myself after it, watching as it ascended higher and higher into the heavens. I flew straight up after it, as if I could fly to the moon myself.
My wings and lungs burned as I climbed higher, up and up into the night.
I could keep going. I was strong enough. I could make it.
Those were my thoughts as I fell back to the earth, my praised alicorn strength failing, giving in to gravity.
Well, I thought as my message soared to the glowing lights above me. At least I wasn’t a failure after it counted.
My legs had given out.
I lay on my side, just staring. Staring at the beautiful vista of space. It still took my breath away, as if every time I saw it was the first time. The bitterness I had felt had given way to gradual acceptance. Still, I felt numb. Cold. If I was on the moon, I’d never feel the sun, would I? Equus was in the way, casting its shadow over me. I missed the light. It was warm, soft, comfort—
An impossibly bright light shone from behind me, interrupting my wallowing. As the light faded, I turned to see three things bundled together.
A rolled up parchment.
A purple flower.
A white feather.
Three simple things that I had never been more astonished to see.
Gently I picked up the parchment and read its message.
It was from Tia. I remembered her now. The white feather. I used to play with her shedded feathers when I was little. Really little, no more than a foal. They were soft.
The purple flower, with a single seed at its center. We used to walk in the Everfree. I planted these in a clearing once. Morning Glories.
I opened the note and gasped.
I held it to my chest and smiled.
I remembered Tia. She was the warm one. She wasn’t cold, she didn’t hide in the shadows. She wasn’t the Nightmare. She was the sun.
My sister.
Thank you.
I love you too.
And as the stars rocketed towards the moon, they bore witness.
Witnessing as the alicorn planted the seed, carefully coaxing it to grow with her magic. More and more, springing up around her, glowing in the starlight. Thousands upon thousands, until even the ponies on the ground below could see them.
And they looked up in wonder at the visage of the mare in the moon.
Author's Note
A super short something. Ah well, late night ideas a have habit of becoming things.
This was mostly an effort of my tired brain to figure why the craters and in the shape of a mare’s head, since I always liked the idea that Luna was on the moon, not in the moon.
If you’re wondering where NMM is, she’s floating around in space or something, idk.
