Tell me your secrets, rock.
Empty. Numb. Those were the only words I could use to describe it. I feel nothing now.
Though I had just felt the strangest sense of Déjà vu for no distinctive reason, I assumed that maybe those empty feelings were due to the fact that I had absolutely no air in my lungs.
As the thought occurred to me, I jumped from my sleeping position - a particularly comfortable patch of moon dirt - and began gasping for air; only to realize that there was no air on the moon.
"Ugh," I groaned to norock in particular. "That's the seventh time this week."
Whiny? Yes. Unjustified? Of course not. If you had asked me even a month ago what moon vacations I was planning, I would have answered none. As much as I had loved raising and lowering the confounded cheese circle, it wasn't fit at all for residential considerations. The lack of oxygen being a primary concern, but it was also quite lonely.
"I get it now! Haha! Very funny Tia!" I shouted down towards Earth. "Alone! Now that I'm really alone life down home looks pretty good, can I come back now?"
No answer.
I can't say I expected it to work; in all of my daily planet screaming, never once has my sister acknowledged my presence whatsoever. She probably hates me, I did sort of overreact and attempt to kill off an entire empire. I honestly don't remember what I was thinking, I mean, remove the sun? What would that solve anyways? Everyone needs the sun. At this point I don't really care, but still. I guess it was sort of mean.
But enough wallowing in self pity today. No, for today was going to be a productive day. Ever since I've been up here, I've started painting again, sort of. There's no paint up here, only slightly darker rocks that leave an imprint on the regular rocks. That's not the point. I've been working on an amazing feat of art, the most unbelievable rock gardening project to ever exist.
A giant picture of my face. Made of rocks. On the moon. It was going to be legendary.
There was just one problem. I wasn't exactly what anyone would call, oh, what's the word... sane. No, it's not what you're probably thinking. I wasn't at the point of being attacked by hordes of invisible sun spiders or having gleeful and homicidal tendencies, but...
"Tell me your secrets, rock!" I yelled at an unsuspecting chunk of moon, having momentarily forgotten my previous desire of working on the Luna-face mural.
The rock in turn had nothing to say.
Bored, I flopped down on my side and began poking at the stone with my hoof. It obviously had no intentions of indulging me with it's inner-most thoughts and experiences, but I was patient, and the time for that would come eventually.
What I was really worried about was the fact that I would have to live like this every single day. Sure, I had done some downright terrible things, but being banished to the moon? That was just plain cruel, especially coming from my own sister.
Come to think of it, I can't even remember what my sister looked like, or anyone else for that matter. I've only been up here for a few weeks, but it seems like an eon to me. I can barely remember how all of this happened... Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe the elements of harmony took away some of my more recent memories.
Maybe I shouldn't want them to begin with.
I know they're a source of happiness and goodness; anything done by them can't be especially painful... but I just didn't understand. I didn't know If I was ever going to be allowed back home again. I missed Celestia, and I'm going to regret this, but I even missed that stupid bird of her's too.
"Agh! Why did I have to be so stupid!?" I screamed, sending the rock in front of me flying as I hit it in frustration. Quickly flooded with guilt, I ran towards the rock's landing spot and embraced it in a motherly hug.
"I'm so sorry rock," I said, gently cradling it in my arms. "I didn't mean to take it out on you. I don't know what came over me."
"It's okay," the rock replied. "I forgive you, just don't do it again please."
What.
Did that rock just...?
What?
"Would you mind putting me down now, blue thing?" the rock asked.
Overcome with a sudden sense of blind fear, I dropped the rock and ran off a few yards away, staying in a prone position as I watched the offending object. I don't know why I had thought something as simple as a rock could have harmed the great Luna, former princess of Equestria and icon of the moon.
But if a rock talked to you, how in the world would you respond? Exactly.
Slowly, I inched my way back to the magical rock, with each step calculating just how many brain cells I've lost since my arrival here. Strike what I said about hallucinations, not only am I talking to a rock, but it's talking back. This is a new low, even for me.
It was at that moment that I smelled flowers, and not just any flowers...
"Is that... white rose?" I asked the rock, having overcome my fears at the thought of my favourite plant.
"Yes," it answered. "That's the only kind of flower we have up here."
"I see," I replied, still highly skeptical of this conversation's existence. "How are you talking? Rocks don't talk, at least not ones back in Equestria."
"Oh, my bad," the rock said.
Suddenly the rock began to move, and out from under it appeared a small, white worm-like thing. I cocked my head, leaning down to examine the strange creature. I barely understood how I could live up here, much less anything else.
"What are you, pray tell?" I asked, offering a shaky hoof to touch the worm.
"We're the Yue," the worm answered in a cheery voice, rubbing up against me in acceptance of my gesture. "But usually we're referred to as moon slugs. My name's Buzz, what's yours?"
"Luna," I provided eagerly, amazed that I was actually making a new friend. "Are there more of you? Where is the rose smell coming from? How do you live up here? What do-"
"Hold on there, Luna," Buzz said, clearly overwhelmed by the barrage of questions. "One at a time."
I took in a deep breath to calm myself. "Sorry. Can you take me to the rest of the Yue?"
"Of course I can, friend. Come with me."
-~{>L<}~-
One very fantastic and magical adventure later, we arrived at a place nearly indiscernible from where we started.
"Why are we stopping?" I asked, confused. "There's nothing here."
"Did you learn nothing, my little alicorn?" Buzz asked in a mocking tone. "Do I need to sing the song again?"
"No!" I shouted on impulse, horrified. "I mean, no thank you. I don't want to hear the song again."
"Suit yourself," Buzz said, shrugging his slug shoulders suggestively. "Back up Luna, this is about to get mystical."
There have always been times in my life where I simply did not understand what was going to happen. Where I was completely clueless of my surroundings, the living antonym of prescient. Times like those included when Tia once dropped a bucket of water on head. Times like those included when I was shot by a ray of magical, singing rainbows.
But in a more relevant sense, times like those included when a slug no more than one inch tall casted a spell that opened up a massive cave on the surface of the moon.
"H... how did you..."
"It's magic, I don't have to explain anything," Buzz said, unimpressed with his own feat. "Come on now, I'm sure everyone will be amazed to see that you're awake."
I didn't have time to think about what the slug had just said before I felt myself being dragged along by a white aura. Sooner or later I was going to have to coerce this thing into telling me how exactly it has so much arcane energy stored up out of nowhere. I decided it best not to resist Buzz's influence, I was pretty tired from walking anyways.
Eventually he and I made it down to the bottom of the cavern, and in front of us stood a large, opposing stone door. On it were strange symbols, depicting a sleeping pony, a flower, and some moon slugs.
For the second time in five minutes my thought process was interrupted by Buzz's magic as he opened the door, but I wasn't angry, for what I saw took my lack of breath away.
As far as the eye could see were white roses, some normal looking while others were comically massive, reaching heights as big as entire houses and trees.
"What is this place?" I asked, mystified.
"This, Luna," Buzz began, a smile forming on his face. "Is the great city of the Yue. For almost a thousand years since we came to this strange world, the first thing we found was you sleeping, next to a white rose. Using our magic, we reproduced the rose and built upon it this great land."
"That's an amazing story Buzz, I can't believe that you made all of this fro-" At that moment, I realized that something was very, very wrong. "Wait. What did you just say?"
"Uhm, we built a great civilization upon one flower?"
"No, no," I corrected. "Before that."
"We found you sleeping next to a white rose almost a thousand years ago?"
No. No no no. It was impossible. I couldn't believe it. I had been asleep for nearly a thousand years? My entire world flipped upside down, and I felt myself grow sick with shock and confusion as I fell to the ground, the sweet, welcomed state of unconsciousness saving me from this cruel reality.
-~{>L<}~-
"And that's why I'll never throw you again rock," I said, pleased with myself. "Because if I do, you could end up being a super intelligent race of worms founded upon my old flower that will reveal to me a life changing piece of information."
Although thoroughly entertained by my story, the rock still didn't have any opinion that it felt like sharing.
