Not Here

Chapters

16-Trust Them
17-Ice Cream
18-Knight in Moonlit Armor
19-Out of Bonds
20-Dressed to Impress
21-The Best Night Ever
22-The Worst Night Ever
23-My Beating Heart, My Adamant Shield.
24-Cupcake
25-Globophobia
26-Dance Floor
27-A Flight to The Moon
28-Blue Carriage
29-Junction of Dreams
30-A Narrow Path
1-Not Here
3-Still Standing
4-Big Thinkin'
5-Just a Sip
6-Not Human
7-Fourteen Minutes
8-Not There
9-Golden Brown
10-Bird Brain
11-Why jump?
12-Chocolate Milk
13-Teacup
14-Green String
2-White Devil
15-The Apple Thief

16-Trust Them

A few days had passed and it was all quiet in Ponyville there was no sign of the thief who had stolen her balloon. He probably wasn’t going to come back too, most likely he was stealing from some other poor town. Even though he was gone all of the town was on edge, Twilight told the Mayor what happened and she made a public announcement about it. It went… well about as well as you thought it would.

‘’No not my scooters!’’

‘’What about my flowers?!’’

‘’Forget that, what about my money?!?’’

Shaking her head Twilight dismissed the event from her mind and continued to write a letter to her teacher, at first she didn’t want to bother her. Still, when a couple of days passed and there was no sign of the thief, she decided to inform Princess Celestia about him, what if he was in Canterlot and stole precious treasures from the Castle? She must warn her teacher so that even if the thief tries to steal something her teacher would be ready.

‘’...he stole my balloon too and made his escape from Ponyville that way and maybe Rarirty’s gems too but we are not sure about that. I don’t want to imagine what else he can steal. Your faithful student Twilight Sparkle.’’ Twilight puts the last dot on the parchment and seals it, now she needs to get Spike and the Princess will have the appropriate knowledge about the thief.

‘’Spike?’’ She yells downstairs to Spike who was cleaning one of the shelves.

‘’Yeah?’’ Spike’s head popped out from the stairs, he was in his usual cleaning gear, that little pink apron, and the duster, a true warrior of cleaning.

‘’Can you send this to the Princess?’’ She tosses the letter to Spike and he sends the letter to Celestia mid-air with his magic fire breath.

‘’Thank you. Now let’s get some breakfast.’’ Twilight puts the quill on the table and begins walking down the stairs.

‘’I want a daisy sandwich!’’ Spike quickly throws the apron and the duster away.

‘’Sure, I could go for a daisy sandwich too.’’

Opening the door Spike leaves first and waits for Twilight, she steps through and closes the door but before they leave she locks the door both physically and magically, you know just in case.

On their way to the cafe Twilight can see ponies locking their doors after they leave their houses, it looks like the news caused everyone to become a little more cautious, and almost all of the town now has locks installed. Well, there was one good thing that came out of this thief, the Locks and Dice shop was now booming with business, Twilight could even swear that she saw the owner had a wide smile when Mayor Mare made her speech about the thief.

Arriving at the cafe they both sit down in their favorite spot which was thankfully empty, the waiter comes and he quickly takes both of their orders.

‘’I’ll have a daisy sandwich and tea please.’’ Twilight says and leans back in her chair.

‘’And you?’’ The waiter writes Twilight’s order and turns his head towards Spike.

‘’Oh, I’ll have a daisy sandwich too, but give me some milk.’’ The waiter nods and quickly leaves to get their order.

A few minutes later another waiter comes with both of their meals and sets them on their tables, after the waiter leaves both Twilight and Spike waste no time digging into their sandwiches. And as usual, the sandwich is delicious and the tea is as well, almost all of the meals in this cafe are good except for the egg sandwich, the eggs taste weird in that one.

‘’Mmmmhh, it’s so good!’’ Spike moans in delight and takes a quick sip of his milk.

‘’I always get surprised by the taste when we come here.’’ Twilight is not lying she really does get surprised by how somepony can make a simple sandwich so good.

They eat their meal in relative peace until a shadow forms over them. Looking up they both see Rainbow Dash on a cloud looking down on them.

‘’Heeyy, you guys eating breakfast?’’ Rainbow Dash throws away the cloud and she slowly descends from up above and lands on one of the empty chairs on their table.

‘’Yeah, you should order something too, this sandwich is divine.’’ Twilight takes another bite out of the sandwich. She chews it and swallows it and going for another bite she is left disappointed as the sandwich is already gone.

‘’Nah, I already ate, hey any word on the Apple Thief?’’ Ah yes, the thief has now been dubbed the Apple Thief from the first thing he stole that they knew of.

With a shake of the head Twilight answers. ‘’No, no one has seen a pony fitting his description anywhere near the town, nor have there been any reports of stolen items.

‘’Pfft, that’s probably because he is afraid of the Rainbow!’’ Rainbow Dash flexes her muscles while posing.

‘’Of course, I’m sure. Are you still looking around the town for any signs of him?’’

‘’Yep! But it’s probably pointless though, he took your balloon, right? He can be anywhere right now.’’

Right, he took her balloon… she wanted to forget about that if only Rainbow hadn’t opened her mouth, but that’s kinda impossible.

‘’Ughh, right but he could still come back, so be on the lookout.’’

‘’Aye aye!’’ Rainbow Dash salutes with a serious face and flies off.

Looking down at her plate all Twilight can see is emptiness… just like how her wallet will be if she buys another balloon. How could she forget to get something so important as insurance? She needs to find money somewhere, now who could have money that would be willing to give it to her? Aha!

‘’Spike when we get home I’m going to need you to send another letter.’’ Spike finishes his milk and slams it on the table.

‘’Sure, for who though?’’

‘’For Shining.’’

‘’Shining Armor? Why-’’ Spike doesn’t get to finish his sentence as he burps and a green flame materializes a parchment.

‘’Oh, she replied quickly. Maybe this Apple Thief is more dangerous than we thought?’’ Twilight quickly takes the letter and begins reading it.

My dear student thank you for your report on the ‘The Apple Thief’ but you don’t have to worry about him for I have already met him, in fact, he used your balloon to crash through one of the windows of the throne room. But please do not judge him too harshly for he most likely did those acts out of not malice but desperation. I hope you and your friends meet and become his friends at the gala next week for he needs friends in his time of need, and please do not call him ‘The Apple Thief’ his name is Laika.

PS: I have already taken care of your balloon it has been repaired and will be sent to Ponyville tomorrow.

‘’Looks like the Princess already has it under control.’’ Spike takes the last bite and his sandwich is now gone too. ‘’Awww.’’ he tries to take another sip of his milk but realizes that his glass is empty. ‘’Awwwww.’’

‘’Yeah…Oh! I won’t have to worry about the balloon now!’’ Twilight relaxes and takes a sip out of her now almost empty tea. Wait, the Gala is next week?!?

*PFFFTT*

‘’Eughh! What was that for Twilight?!’’ Spike wipes his now wet tea face with his hands.

‘’I forgot about the Gala!’’ Her head slams to the table and she groans.

‘’And that is why I think that we as the nobles of…’’

Celestia was listening to yet another noble with a… dumb problem as they say. So she kinda tuned it out, her mind was elsewhere entirely. It was on Laika, the breakfast had gone horribly and he had added another set of bandages to his body. She couldn’t understand why he had acted the way he had, he seemed better, it was a sudden change, but maybe it wasn’t, maybe the dam that was his emotions finally gave way?

Suddenly a green flame appears in front of her and a letter from her student forms in front of her eyes. Oh, she can use this opportunity to send the noble away.

‘’As much as I love listening to your problems I’m afraid our meeting has to be cut short for something much more important has come up.’’ The noble opens his mouth to object but he realizes that he is not talking to a common pony but the princess so he gives out an exaggerated bow and leaves with his troupe.

Celestia quickly leaves the throne room and moves to her room to read Twilight’s letter.

Dear Princess Celestia I wish I was sending this letter under more favorable circumstances but a grave danger has been discovered in Ponyville and I wish to warn you, a thief. He was first seen by my friend Fluttershy, according to her he knocked on her door and asked for help, when Fluttershy opened the door he saw a really dirty tan-colored pony with a light brown mane. She took him inside and tended to him but he managed to slip away from her house when she was gone, Fluttershy asked for help from Rainbow Dash to find him, but he managed to evade her all day. We call him the The Apple Thief because he first stole some of Applejack’s apples which she caught him at night and promptly captured him, but this thief is very clever for he has managed to escape injuring himself in the process. After he escaped from the farm, it seems like he wandered into the town and he stole my balloon with which he made his escape from Ponyville that way. and maybe Rarirty’s gems too but we are not sure about that. I don’t want to imagine what else he can steal. Your faithful student Twilight Sparkle.

Closing the letter Celestia takes a deep breath, this pony really has been causing quite the chaos. And he was already injured in Ponyville? His unnatural ability to get hurt makes Celestia wince a little. With a sigh, she takes her quill and dips it in ink.

‘’What have thou done to Laika?!’’ Luna pins the maid to the wall, she will get her answers.

‘’Wha-what?’’

‘’Thou have heard us! What. have. thou. done. to. Laika!’’ Luna hisses the words out.

‘’Nothing! W-what happened? Is Laika okay?! Did something bad happen to him again?!’’ Moonlight's eyes are filled with a mixture of fear and concern now, fear from the Princess in front of her and concern for Laika.

‘’Yes, something indeed has happened to him, and we suspect that thou are the reason for his suffering!’’

‘’No! I would never hurt him! Why would you say that?!’’

‘’You lie! He was fine until this morning’s breakfast something must have happened to him! And we haveth found your hair on his bed, how would thee explain that?!’’ Moonlight’s eyes widen, Aha! Luna knew it!

‘’M-my hair? Uhmm.’’

‘’Spit it out or shall I have your tongue?’’ Luna’s horn glows and a magical dark blue sword appears pointing at Moonlight.

‘’W-wait! Yes… I did sleep in his bed, but nothing happened! I did nothing that would hurt him! We just slept!’’

‘’If thou are weaving lies-’’ Luna is not convinced she tries to press the maid, but she was not ready for what the maid would do next.

‘’IT’S NOT A LIE! I WOULD NOT HURT THE STALLION THAT SAVED ME!’’ The small maid’s eyes filled with fear are now replaced with fire, she takes a step towards Luna and screams. The sudden reaction causes Luna to break concentration and the sword disappears, she takes a step back. But before she can say anything else the maid continues.

‘’I should be asking you if you did anything to him! He was okay this morning before he had breakfast with you!’’ Moonlight takes another step forward, Luna takes another step back.

‘’If something happened why are you not with him then?’’ Moonlight spits the words out.

‘’Wh-what?’’ Luna stutters, was the maid right? Was all his pain because of her? Should she not have left him alone?

‘’Buck this I’m going to see Laika since you won’t stay with him, and you call him your friend.’’ Moonlight scoffs and goes around the Princess.

‘’We are his friend…’’

Luna can only whisper the words out as the maid leaves, after a few minutes she starts moving albeit very slowly. She enters her sister’s room hoping to see her.

‘’Luna?’’

She throws herself to her sister and starts crying.

Moonlight is in the castle’s kitchen after she had her fight with the princess. Who does she think she is?! Just because she is a princess she can do anything? Opening one of the many fridges of the kitchen she looks around, where is it? Oh, there it is.

She grabs a large tub of ice cream, chocolate ice cream to be exact, closing the fridge she is met with the face of Hearty Meal.

‘’Moonlight? Why are you grabbing a whole tub of ice cream? …you aren’t going to eat that all on your own right?’’

‘’No, Princess Luna asked me to deliver her some ice cream, and I thought a whole tub should be enough.’’

Hearing that Luna herself wanted this ice cream, Hearty Meal sucks his teeth in. At least that Princess can be useful for something.

‘’Princess Luna? Okay, t-that’s fine, you can take another one if you need.’’

‘’One should be enough.’’

‘’If you say so.’’

Moonlight says a quick goodbye to Hearty Meal and then leaves to kitchen to go to Laika’s room, she has some ice cream to share, but only the greatest ice cream that has been made from only the best cows that eat the best grass, it’s the least he deserves.

On her way her mind wanders to the fight with the princess, maybe she was a bit too harsh, but she couldn’t just say nothing when the princess accused her of lying. She’ll apologize to her after she sees Laika.

Can’t even hold a teacup, not a human, walks on four legs, an animal, has hooves, not a human, only manages to injure himself, only brings trouble to the only people who helped him, not a human, they don’t know, they can’t know, they must know, they must not know, not a human, doesn’t belong…not here.

*knock-knock*

‘’Laika? …can I come in?’’

No, yes, no, she can’t you’ll talk, yes, she must you have to talk, what would happen if she knew? What would happen if she doesn't know? She tried to save you even though she couldn’t… Luna saved you, you can trust them, no you can’t, you must trust them…

‘’...okay.’’ I reply.

17-Ice Cream

Moonlight stopped in front of his room, she can do this right? She doesn’t know what really happened to him but if he wants to talk about it she’ll listen if not then she’ll still stay with him. Taking a huge breath she prepares herself and knocks on the door.

*knock-knock*

‘’Laika?...can I come in?’’

She waits and waits but no answer comes through the door. Her confidence wavers by the minute, and the silence makes way for worry to rise too, what if something happened? Just as she is about to enter the room she finally hears him, although barely.

‘’...okay.’’ Moonlight releases the breath she didn’t know she was holding and her body eases up, without wasting another minute she opens the door. Looking inside she sees Laika sitting on the balcony with his back turned to her.

‘’Hey…’’ She moves inside and closes the door without making another sound.

‘’...hi.’’ Oh, oh yeah, he sounds bad.

He doesn’t turn around so she makes her way toward the balcony. Arriving at the balcony Moonlight plops down beside him and puts the tub of ice cream between her hooves. She looks at him to see if he has suffered more injuries, well he looks the same as he was in the morning, as he was in the morning. Wait, his right hoof wasn’t bandaged before… How can she get him to talk? Hmmm, she has an idea.

*pop*

Why did I let her in? I don’t know. It’s because I’m an imbecile, it’s because I wanted to talk to her. She opens the door and says hello, her voice sounds so concerned. Only bring trouble to those who care about me, if I was a trouble she would not have bothered. and sits beside me on the balcony, out of the corner of my eye I can see something between her…hooves.

As no words pass over them, the sound of a container popping open can be heard.

*pop*

A sudden pop makes me turn my head I can see now Moonlight has brought ice cream and is eating the ice cream with a spoon. I probably can’t even hold the spoon. She notices me and with a small smile on her face holds out the spoon, no, I can’t hold it.

Apparently, she notices my discomfort from a simple spoon, she takes a quick look at the spoon and shrugs, wait what is she doing?

‘’Eh, don’t need em.’’ …she just threw the spoon over her shoulder. Why? Because she didn’t want to deal with me, no, because she cares about me.

‘’How…how are you gonna eat it now?’’ I ask.

She smirks and her eyes have that shine when she jumped on the bed before. ‘’How mother nature intended!’’ She jerks her head down and starts eating straight from the cup.

‘’Nom, nom, nom-’’ Moonlight raises her head for a moment to breathe, she has a cream mustache on her face. ‘’nom, nom, nom.’’ She raises her head again, she has a beard now too.

‘’... hehe.’’ I chuckle a little, I can’t help it.

‘’There! I got you to laugh!’’ Moonlight raises her head for the final time but now she has a unibrow too… and a smile on her face.

‘’You did.’’ A small smile creeps its way to my face.

‘’Soooooo, what happened?’’ Her tone changes just a little bit, big enough for me to notice. Don’t tell her, tell her.

‘’...nothing.’’

She frowns and points at my newly bandaged…hoof. ‘’Something obviously happened, please.’’

‘’I…’’ no, yes. ‘’I crushed a teacup in anger.’’

‘’Why did you feel angry though?’’ don’t, do.

‘’I couldn’t pick it up, it made me feel…like an animal.’’ I am one, I’m not.

‘’...I can’t pick up teacups too, does that make me an animal?’’

‘’Wh-what? No, no of course not.’’ Moonlight an animal? I can’t say that.

‘’I bet if Princess Luna didn’t have her horn she couldn’t pick up one too, would that make her an animal?’’ She asks again but not angry in the slightest, she just wants to understand.

‘’No!’’ I could never say that too.

‘’So, by that logic, you are not one too.’’

‘’Bu-’’ I try to reply but she cuts me off.

‘’Well, I did eat the ice cream like an animal though-’’ She shows a sly smile. ‘’But you didn’t think of me that way when I was doing it, riiiight? You probably thought ’Wow, Moonlight you sure do look pretty!’.

‘’I-well no,-’’

‘’You didn’t think I was pretty?’’ Moonlight says while fluttering her eyelashes, she still has the beard though, and the mustache… and the unibrow.

‘’Hehe, maybe lose the beard and we’ll see.’’ what, what?

‘’Silly, I don’t have a beard.’’ She giggles.

‘’Yeaaah, no you do, a good old beard made of ice cream.’’ My smile just gets a little bigger.

‘’Wha- hold on.’’ She digs into one of her pockets and brings out a small disc? Oh, it’s one of those small mirrors.

Opening the small mirror she finally sees her face.‘’Huh, wellll does it suit me?’’ She poses with a hoof under her chin.

‘’Sure, sure, you have the best ice cream facial hair around.’’

‘’I know, now you eat too.’’ She pushes the ice cream towards me.

‘’Wha-how?’’

‘’You know how!...nom, nom.’’

‘’Nom…nom?’’

‘’Like this,-’’ She stuffs her face in the cup again. ‘’nom, nom, nom.’’ She raises her head and shows a toothy grin.

‘’...no.’’

‘’Come onnn, it’s delicious! Just…nom, nom.’’ She says as she licks the mustache off.

‘’It’s the best ice cream made from the best milk from the best cows who ate the best grass.’’ She wiggles her brows. Oh you, you little. Fine, I’ll eat the ice cream.

‘’Fine, I’ll do it but no nom nom.’’

‘’Awww.’’

Slowly I lower my head and take a small bite… oh god this…this is so good. My bites increase in size, and now I’m nom-nomming too.

‘’Hah! Can’t hold yourself back now can you?’’

‘’How, nom, is it, nom, so good?’’ Finally able to gather enough willpower I raise my head to stop myself from eating.

‘’Hey you have a beard too, look!’’ She turns the pocket mirror to me, and my breath gets cut short, I struggle to do anything but look, I can only see the image the mirror is painting me…

I can see it, a pony, it’s not just a pony, it’s a pony, a pony, a horse, not a hu-

I feel something soft envelop me. Moonlight’s hugging me. She doesn’t say anything, my breath returns to me, and the mirror is gone, she is patting the back of my head.

‘’It’s okay, you’re not an animal, you’re my hero. ’’ she whispers softly.

A pony, a hero, an anim-, a hero, not a h-, her hero.

‘’...thank you.’’ I hug back.

‘’You saved me, I want to save you too.’’ She doesn’t break the hug.

‘’...okay’’

She pulls back just a little and I see her face still has that beard of ice cream, I probably did too, and I giggle, she does too.

‘’Hehehe, you look so silly.’’ I say.

‘’So do you, you look like a mummy with a beard.’’ She wipes her face, I wipe it as well.

‘’You still have some left.’’ She says.

‘’Where?’’

‘’Right here.’’ She leans in and wipes the remaining ice cream from my cheek…were her eyes always this… beautiful?

‘’T-thanks.’’

‘’You’re welcome, now let’s finish thi-’’ She looks down towards the ice cream, but alas our sugary divine gift has been…finished.

‘’...’’ She didn’t say anything but stare at the empty tub. Was this the day that I saw Moonlight at her brightest and her darkest? I hope not.

‘’M-moonlight?’’

‘’Our ice cream…’’ She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. ‘’Well…we did just eat a whole tub by ourselves more would be just unhealthy.’’ Her gaze wanders to the empty tub again. ‘’But we can still get more?’’

‘’Moonlight, we just ate a whole tub by ourselves, and mind you this tub is like enormous.’’

‘’Fine, no more ice cream.’’ She sulks.

We continue to chat, it looks like she ate some delicious waffles this morning for breakfast, and I tell her of the beautiful eggs I ate.

‘’Woah, look at those pegasi working!’’She gets up and points towards the distance.

‘’Wa- are they… are they moving clouds?!’’ How literally how, right, different world probably some weird mumbo jumbo again.

‘’Uhhh, yeah? That’s their job.’’ It is? What kinda job is that? Next, you’re gonna tell me they make physical rainbows.

‘’But… how? Like, aren’t they supposed to pass through?’’

‘’Well, you and me, we would pass but since they are pegasus they can do it, something about the magic inside their bodies or something, I don’t remember I slept through that part of biology.’’ She blows a raspberry.

‘’How come you don’t know thi- ohhh right, lived in the forest with your family.’’

‘’Huh? Oh, oh yeah.’’ Right, that was my story, I lived in the forest with my family in isolation and they homeschooled me so I don’t know anything.

So Moonlight went over the basics of pegasus, and well apparently they control the fucking weather in this world. How can something control the weather all willy nilly I have no clue.

‘’Hey, are you feeling… um, better?’’

‘’Yeah, thank you, Moonlight truly.’’

‘’Okay! That’s good,- ‘’Her smile falters a little. ‘’and I wanna stay and chat but ugh I need to kinda get back to work, I really can’t let the head maid catch me not working.’’

‘’Sure, don’t let me keep you, I’ll be fine, thanks to you.’’ I should be able to at least.

‘’Great! before I go here!’’ She suddenly takes my injured hand and kisses it, wha? Before I realize what’s going on she’s already by the door. ‘’That’s to make pain be gone!’’ annnd she’s gone...it does hurt less though.

her hero. I smile.

May be a pony, but still a human.

I need to see Luna, gotta say sorry, gotta talk to her. But I can’t go empty-handed, looking down I see the empty ice cream cup. I wonder if she likes chocolate.

Maybe I can ask Celestia? She’s her sister, she would know what Luna would like. I turn around and head for the door, but before I reach it I stop, would the guards even let me roam free in the castle? I mean I don’t even know where she is maybe they can take me to her?

I leave the room and start walking the halls. Though I hobble a bit, my feet still hurts. After a few minutes, I find some maids, hey they can tell me where Celestia is right? Taking a deep breath, I approach them.

‘’H-hey, uhhh, do you guys know wh-’’

‘’Ahhh! Please don’t hurt me!’’ One of them screams and starts shaking, the other one promptly slaps her head.

‘’Idiot he saved Moonlight, he is not going to eat you.’’ Wow, they already know?

‘’Oh, right, she said something like that.’’ She says as she rubs her head. ‘’Ow by the way.’’

‘’Something like that? She was talking about it all through breakfast.’’

‘’She was? I was too focused on the waffles.’’

The other maid rolls her eyes and turns to speak to me.

‘’Sorry, don’t mind her, we know you’re a good guy.’’

‘’Hmm-huh, oh, oh yeah, uh, no problem.’’

‘’So what can we help you with?’’

‘’Can you just tell me where Celestia is?’’

‘’Princess Celestia.’’ The maid’s eyes narrow.

‘’What? Oh, yeah sorry, Princess Celestia.’’ I say while laughing a little nervously. Let’s not make that same mistake near the guards.

‘’...I’ll take you to her.’’ She turns to the previously scared maid. ‘’You keep cleaning, no slacking off, okay Misty?’’

‘’I don’t slack off!’’ The other one has a not-so-amused look on her face. ‘’...okay.’’ Misty relents.

‘’Follow me, Princess Celestia is in her room.’’

I nod and silently start following her, she kinda walked a little too fast but when she realized that I was falling behind she slowed down. After a few minutes of slow walking, we stop in front of a door with a big ruby on top of it. Is this it? She knocks on the door.

‘’Princess?’’

‘’Yes? Is something the matter?’’ Celestia’s muffled voice comes through the wall, a bit different from this morning though, does she sound tired?

‘’No Your Highness, your guest Laika wanted to see you.’’ What. How the hell does she know my name?! Does everyone in the castle know now!?

‘’Oh, yes please send him in!’’ She says back with a bit more step in her voice now.

The door opens, and the maid turns to me and nods before leaving. I thank her. Making my way inside I look around the room. It seems really cozy, the roof is high up, there are flowers of all closer lining the walls, on the opposite side of the door there is a fireplace, although it’s not burning, and in front of the fireplace there is an enormous and extremely comfy looking floor pillow, which the huge white princess lies upon.

‘’Come sit with me.’’ She makes room on the pillow. I don’t say anything but go and lie on the pillow as well, wow, it is as comfortable as it looks.

‘’It’s comfy isn’t it?’’ She smiles.

‘’Ohh yeah. I could sleep on it no problem.’’ I sink even further into the soft pillo-no, cloud.

‘’I can get you one to your room.-’’ She giggles. ‘’Do you want to talk?’’ she asks in a soft voice.

‘’Yeah…first of all, I’m sorry-’’ She opens her mouth to say something but I continue. ‘’ for causing trouble for both you and Luna, especially this morning.’’

‘’Oh dear Laika, you have nothing to apologize for,-’’ Her eyes soften and she shows me a warm smile. ‘’-are you feeling better? Have you talked to Luna?’’ She asks in the same voice but a bit of sadness can be heard through it at the last part.

‘’Yeah, I’m fine, and no I haven’t talked to Luna yet, that’s why I came here in the first place.’’ I try not to lose myself in the cotton soft pillow. ‘’You’re her sister, do you know what uhh, what kinda of things she likes? I wanna apologize to her.’’

‘’Oh?’’ One of her eyebrows rises along with the corners of her mouth. ‘’So you want to give her a gift?’’

‘’Yeah, but I don’t know what she likes, I thought I could ask you.’’

‘’Well, she would be delighted to see you better again, but she loves chocolate, you can get some from the kitchen.’’ Her smile is from ear to ear as she speaks. ‘’Actually, would you mind waiting for me here for a few minutes?’’ She gets up from the pillow and heads to the door.

‘’Sure, I could wait for you for days on this pillow.’’ I say as I bury my face in it. She leaves, and I’m alone on the pillow, I stretch out over it, this is heaven, I really need one. Eyes closing, can’t, hold, back. Darkness.

‘’I’m back!’’ Celestia bursts through the door.

‘’Wha-?!’’ The sudden noise scares me, making my head jerk back.

‘’Oh were you sleeping dear?’’

‘’N-no!...okay, maybe, hey what are those?’’ I realize that Celestia’s horn is glowing and there are some things behind her that are floating.

‘’This-’’ She brings the first one forward. ‘’-is Luna’s favorite chocolate, and these- ‘’ she brings forward the second one. ‘’-are her favourite flowers, it’s lavender.’’ She moves to one side of the room and starts going through the drawers.

‘’Uhh, what are you doing?’’ I try to look over but with me being on the ground and her stature alone it's impossible.

‘’Where is it, aha!’’ She brings out a purple ribbon? What is she going to even do with that? Oh! Maybe for the flowers?

‘’Now hold still dear.’’ She moves closer to me with the ribbon, what?

‘’What are you going to do?’’ I get up from the pillow.

‘’You can’t use your hooves when you’re injured, so I’m going to give you a solution to hold the presents, now hold still, please.’’ She says with hopeful eyes and a smile.

‘’I…fine, just be quick.’’ Fine, I trust her, she’s Luna's sister.

‘’Thank you, it will take but a moment.’’ She takes the chocolate and the flowers and puts them on my back, huh? And she ties it up with the ribbon.

‘’Awww, look at you, you look so cute.’’

‘’I’m not cute.’’

‘’Yes you are, you are like a little gift box now.’’ She giggles.

‘’I-you-... can you at least tell me where Luna is before I crumble from embarrassment?’’

‘’She should be in her room, do you know where it is?’’

‘’No.’’

‘’Want me to take you there?’’ She asks with a sly smile.

‘’...yes.’’

Luna was lying under the covers of her bed, she had cried to her sister, they both didn’t say anything she only cried and her sister held her. After she had calmed down a bit Celestia asked if she wanted to talk, she rejected her sister's offer, and although it pained her sister, she still respected her wishes. She wanted to disappear right now, she was a bad friend, a bad princess, a bad pony.

Of course you are, everyone always knew that that’s why they loved your sister more than you.

Shut up.

You can't even help your single friend, what kinda mare are you?

Shut up.

*knock-knock*

She heard a knock on her door, whoever it was she didn’t care, she wished to be left alone.

‘’Leave! We wish not to speak to anyone.’’

‘’Luna? ...I'm here.’’

Hearing his voice, she jumped from her bed and rushed to the door.

18-Knight in Moonlit Armor

‘’This is the second time we’re going through this hall together, you know?’’ I was floating alongside Celestia, again. She said I shouldn’t put too much pressure on my hoof. I was going to reject her, actually, I did try to reject her, keyword: tried, but she just lifted me from the ground without listening to me.

‘’It is?’’ Huh, when was it? Oh wait, she’s talking about my grand entrance and my failed and well, frankly poor attempt at escape.

‘’Yes, you gave me quite the scare when you screamed.’’

‘’That was the plan.’’

‘’Well it worked, and you dashed into Luna’s room of all places.’’ She turns her head to me which has a teasing smile on her face with her brows up. ‘’Don’t try to hide under her bed again…unless she asks you to of course.’’

‘’Yeah, yea- wait what?’’ Before I can question her further we stop abruptly.

‘’Here we are, I’m sure you remember the door.’’ She lowers me down and I look at the door…nope, I don’t remember anything about it, it’s just a door. A well-built dark blue door with the moon carved on it masterfully almost as if you are staring at the moon at itself, and with an eye-catching sapphire right on top of the carved moon, so yeah it’s just a doo-who am I kidding? How the hell do I not remember a door like this?

‘’Thank you for bringing me here, even though I asked you to let me walk.’’ I whisper the last part.

‘’No need to thank me dear. Be sure to give Luna her chocolate.’’ She smiles and leaves me alone in front of the door. I look to my right, the hall is emtpy, I look to my left, and I can only see Celestia in the distance annnnd she turned the corner. Wait, she’s back? Why is she watching me from around the corner? She realizes that I’m watching her and retreats back, I stare at the corner and she pops back out a few seconds later. I turn back, taking a deep breath I ignore Celestia and knock on the door.

*knock-knock*

‘’Leave! We wish not to speak to anyone.’’

‘’Luna?...I’m here.’’ I hope she does want to talk to me though, and the door opens much quicker than I thought.

‘’Laika?! Are thou okay?’’ She takes me by the hooves and drags me inside her room.

‘’Y-yeah, I’m fine.’’ I take a quick look at the room, it’s about the same size as Celestia’s but Luna’s room is painted the same color as the door, there isn’t a fireplace but instead, there is a huge bookcase on one side of the wall, but like her sister Luna has one of those pillows on the floor too.

I look at Luna, she looks like a wreck, is that because of me? Ugh, that makes me feel bad. Her eyes look puffy and red, and her elegant hair which was glowing like the starry night is only now dimly lit and messy. Let’s hope these cheer her up a little.

‘’First of all here.’’ I lower my body a little, so I’m bowing.

‘’Wha-are those chocolate and lavender?’’ Luna asks with surprise apparent in her voice.

‘’Yeah, as an apology, you’re sister said these were your favorite.’’

‘’...She’s not wrong but thou doesn’t… thou doesn’t have to apologize to us.’’

‘’Well I feel like I should, I kinda ruined breakfast. Anyway, I’m…okay now, and if you won’t accept them as an apology then accept them as my gift to you.’’ Moving to the pillow I lie down on it and smile at her, god this is great, I totally need one in my room.

‘’We-...alright.’’ She moves to my side and lies down on the pillow too, and shows a small smile.

‘’Thou looks like a gift box, it’s cute.’’ She lets out a small chuckle and unwraps the ribbon.

‘’That’s what you’re sister said too! I’m not cute!’’ I cross my arms and huff. I’m not cute, I’m manly!

‘’Of course, of course, we were wrong-’’

‘’Well thank you-’’

‘’Thou is more handsome than cute no?’’

‘’I-you- wha-?’’ …Why does this place feel hotter? Surely it must be because of the pillow. I don’t look Luna in the eyes, the wall behind her seems more interesting now.

‘’A-anyway! How is the chocolate?’’ I try to change the subject.

‘’Oh my sister knows what she is doing, she had thee bring us the best one.’’ The chocolate bar floating in front of us quickly gets unwrapped and she takes a bite. ‘’Mhhmn, thou must try a bite.’’

The bar glides in front of my mouth I look at it for a moment, unsure if I should eat it, I mean I did just eat half a tub of ice cream. Eh, just a bite couldn’t hurt. I take a small bite of the bar.

‘’...wow, this is good.’’ I chew and gulp down my bite.

‘’The Princess of the Night only eats the worthy chocolate!’’ She seems quite proud and happy. Her hair is slowly gaining its shine.

‘’I’ll keep that in mind.’’

‘’Oh? Thou intends to bring us more tribute? We should have thee know that we are really difficult to please.’’ She shows a sly smile.

‘’I’ll be up to the task my lady.’’ I bow my head like how a knight does. Suddenly I feel something touch my right shoulder, and then my left, are those the flowers?

‘’Then we dub thee Knight of the Moon, you may rise.’’ I raise my head and look at Luna with a huge smile on my face. She’s smiling too, her hair now seems brighter than the stars.

‘’Thine duties are as follows: Thou shalt bring us chocolate whenever we please, and thou shalt watch the night sky with us, to look out for any dangers that might threaten the kingdom of course.’’

‘’I understand, I shall fulfill my duties, my fair lady.’’ I give a quick bow and Luna covers her face with the lavender, cute. what?what? Her eyes turn softer and she looks away, she almost looks sad?

‘’Laika…we must inform thee of something. We…have made a grave mistake and it makes us feel like we are not a good pony.’’ She closes her eyes and lays her head on the pillow.

‘’Oh, do you want to talk about it?’’ I get closer to her.

‘’Yes, we have once again fought with the maid, but this time it was entirely of our short-sightedness.’’ Did they fight again? Moonlight didn’t tell me anything about them fighting.

‘’When thee was injured, we… we blamed her, we thought she had done something to you…’’ She blamed Moonlight? Why?

‘’Why?’’

‘’Does thou remember this morning? Before we left thy room, we fixated upon your bed?’’

‘’Yeah, it was kinda weird.’’

‘’Well, we saw a piece of the maid's hair on your bed and we assumed the worst.’’

‘’Her…hair?’’

‘’Yes, we thought she had done-’’ She turns her head away. ‘’-those things.’’

‘’Oh, oh…I uhh, nothing happened between me and Moonlight she uh, we just slept on the same bed, it was late at night I didn’t want to send her away.’’

‘’We know, she told us herself, but we just assumed the worst had happened and accused her.’’ She says with a sigh.

‘’Are we a… bad pony, Laika?’’ She opened her eyes and looked at me, oh those eyes, they were mesmerizing, like I was staring down at a black hole that was threatening to suck me in.

‘’Umm, you only did that because you thought she did something to me right?’’ She slowly nods. ‘’Well you had good intentions, should you not have jumped to conclusions? Yes, but you learned now, and you even realized your mistakes, but maybe you should still apologize to Moonlight?’’ She closes her head and lays it down on the pillow again, I slowly bring my hoof over and start running it through it.

‘’...yes, tho-you’re right, we should apologize, but will she forgive us.?’’

‘’Moonlight? Probably yeah, she would.’’ I continue patting her hair, it’s really soft, and it feels kinda weird like it’s cool to touch but not so much, it’s akin to a night breeze. We stay silent she opens her mouth to speak but closes almost instantly, after a few times of this I decide to intervene.

‘’You’re not a bad pony.’’ She’s really not.

‘’...okay.’’

Again she says nothing and I say nothing too, I just continue what I was doing, I retract my hoof but it glows dark blue and it gets dragged to her hair, she turns her head and looks at me.

‘’We didn’t ask of you to stop. Thou art our knight now, you shall continue to serve us.’’ Wow, looks like I didn’t know what I was getting into, well it could be worse, I oblige her request and carry on with my patting.

‘’What of the chocolate my lady? How will I bring it to you if my han-hooves are occupied?’’ Almost slipped, gotta watch my mouth, I’m a pony now… an animal, a human inside.

‘’Worry not brave knight, your ever-talented Princess knows what to do in this dire situation.’’ Her horn glows again and the half-eaten bar of chocolate floats in the air and slowly glides to her smug-looking face. Damn. She takes a bite and the bar floats again to my face? Huh.

‘’Eat, mine knight, for thou shalt deserve rewards for thine hard work do you not?’’ She shows a smile that is covered in chocolate. I bite the chocolate and wow, yeah I understand why this is her favorite chocolate now.

‘’We see the darkness in thine eyes, no pony can resist the delight that is chocolate. But be wary for tis’ a dark path.’’

‘’Oh? So you are immune to the effects I assume?’’ She nods and takes the final bite finishing the chocolate.

‘’Can I take my hoof off now?’’

‘’Hmmm, alright we permit thee to rest thy hoof.’’

I let go of her hair which was now dazzling and had regained its shine. Looking around the room again I spot a chess board on the corner, they have chess here? What do they have for the knight a goddammed human?

‘’Have the set caught your eye?’’ Luna cranes her neck and sees what I’m looking at.

‘’Hmm, yeah, wanna play?’’ A glint appears in her eye and she has a smile which is stretching for meters.

‘’Oh? Thou art challenging us in the art of strategy? Very well we shall accept thine challenge and give you a worthy battle.’’

She gets up from the pillow and with her magic all of the pieces are lined up on both sides, huh they do have a horse, well that’s weird.

‘’Thou can choose whichever side suits thee most.’’

‘’Alright, I’ll go white.’’

‘’We shall be black then, a fitting side. Let the game begin!’’

Hmmm, let’s start simple pawn to e4.

She moves one of her pawns to c6.

I move another pawn to d4.

She advances forward with a pawn to d5.

‘’Go forth my steed!’’ I move a knight c3.

‘’Crush his puny minion!’’ She moves the pawn from c6 to e4 scoring my pawn.

‘’Get revenge for your fallen brother!’’ I rush my knight to e4 eating her pawn and getting revenge for a noble soldier.

‘’Our knights shall not stay idle! Forward!’’ She’s having fun. Black knight to d7.

‘’Protect your kingdom!’’ I yell out and move my Queen e2.

She smirks. ‘’Oh? The pitiful Queen has already decided to move?’’ The other black knight moves to f6. Both of her knights are now out. Hmmm, what should I do, maybe move the bishop? Wait a second. No way, there is no wa- yes there is a way! Hahaha! I have already won! I look up and look at Luna’s face, oh she realized it! Look at her nervous face! This is great.

‘’Hmmm, whatever shall I do?’’ I move my hoof to a pawn and her nervous face starts to smile more. Taking a deep breath, I end her. ‘’No more of your tyranny, you chocolate queen!’’ I move the knight to d6. Checkmate.

‘’Nooo! How could we have been so blind to the threat right in front of us?’’ She seethes over her loss. ‘’Best of three, we shall not accept such a humiliating defeat!’’ She quickly sets up the pieces. Looks like we have a competitive player. Well, she has a smile on her face, so mission success!

Celestia removes her ear from her sister’s door with a smile on her face. Making her way to her room, a quick grimace adorns her face, she knows that she shouldn’t have done that but how can one fault her for being worried about her sister? When Luna came to her and only cried and left without saying anything, she could only become worried.

Sitting down on the ‘Chair of Doom’ as she calls it, why? Well because she does her...paperwork there. The word alone sends a chill through her spine. She begrudgingly starts her work, although she has a smile on her face this time because she doesn’t have to worry about her sister.

Halfway through a stack of papers, a knock on her door interrupts her, she lets them come inside, and in walks her trusty secretary, where was she all this time? No matter, she could use her help here. She lets her talk.

‘’Princess, the documents you requested about this ‘Laika’.’’ Raven Inkwell puts a single sheet of paper on the desk of the Sun Princess.

‘’Thank you.’’ Celestia takes the paper and looks it over, a small smile creeps upon her face. ‘’Very funny Raven, now can you please give me the actual document?’’ She waves the empty paper.

‘’That is the official document, this guy has absolutely nothing about him!’’ Raven suddenly snaps, ‘’He has no birth record, no hoof prints, no parents, no education, heck he is probably not even a citizen of Equestria!’’ Raven pants, out of breath, she takes the paper and rips it, mercilessly. ‘’Why do you think I spent five days bringing you this empty paper? Because I looked over everywhere and came up with nothing, nada. He is a ghost! I would say he is a changeling but his blood confirms that he is a pony!’’ A few pieces of her hair pop out of place.

‘’...Calm down dear,- ‘’Celestia lets out a sigh. ‘’-take the rest of today and tomorrow off.’’ The almost crazed pony secretary takes a huge breath, thanks the Princess, bows, and quickly leaves the room muttering something about finding a non-existent pony.

Celestia looks down on the ripped pieces of paper. Looks like our resident window crasher is more of a mystery than she thought, the report from Moonlight adds even more questions. He was raised in a forest away from the cities? Doesn’t know about cutie marks? Doesn’t know who the Princesses are? Doesn’t know that the Pegasus can manipulate the weather?

What forest was he from the Everfree? Pfft, like that’s ever possibl- wait.

Scootaloo was terrified! A thief was loose in Ponyville, she was looking over her shoulder every ten seconds in fear of the thief popping out and stealing her scooter under her, but she was ready! If that pony dared to snatch her precious scooter she would show him some awesome karate moves, the thief would be so scared that he would throw himself in jail.

Nodding to herself she continues her way to the treehouse to meet with her friends. Wait, she thinks she has the idea of today's crusading quest, and with a smile, she speeds up. She doesn’t forget to check over her shoulder of course, just in case.

‘’Hey guys!’’

‘’Hi, Scootaloo!’’

‘’Hey Scootaloo!’’

‘’Guys I got an idea about our crusade today!’’ She parks her scooter on one of the corners of the treehouse.

‘’I hope it’s not mountain climbing again.’’ Applebloom says with a grimace.

‘’No! So you guys know how a thief is loose in Ponyville? We are going to catch him!’’

‘’...Scootaloo that is just a…brilliant idea! We’ll be the ponies that bring justice to Ponyville!’’ Sweetie Belle exclaims.

‘’Yeah!’’ Applebloom jumps up and down.

‘’Let’s go earn our cutie marks!’’ Scootaloo wastes no time and gets on her scooter and waits for the others to jump on. The other two jump on and off they go.

‘’Applebloom you sure this is gonna work?’’ Sweetie Belle asks her friend.

All of the Crusaders were hiding in a bush overlooking a masterfully laid trap. A stick that is tied to a rope that was holding the box that had a slice of apple pie underneath it, truly only a genius could come up with an idea such as this one, maybe they could earn their cutie marks in trap making?

‘’Of course, Applejack told me that the thief stole our apples so that means that he likes apples.’’

‘’I don’t know…’’

‘’Oh, there is something pull Applebloom!’’ Scootallo who was overlooking the trap turns to her friend and waves her arms around. Applebloom pulls the rope.

*thud* The box falls over.

‘’Did we get him?’’

‘’Let’s go check!’’

They all leap out of the bush and carefully approach the box. Now that they were this far in they may have had some doubts, this was a dangerous pony after all.

‘’Uh, y-you open the box, Sweetie.’’ Applebloom’s nervousness could be heard through her shaky voice.

‘’M-me?! I-uh, Scootaloo should do it!’’ Sweetie tosses the ball to Scootaloo.

‘’Huh?! Me? Fine!’’ Of course, she’ll do it she is the most awesome (after Rainbow Dash) pegasus in Ponyville after all she is not afraid of a simple thief!

With a shaky hoof, she holds the top of the box and slowly lifts it over. All her friends behind her to face whatever comes up.

‘’...Pinkie Pie?!’’ They all yell at the same time at the sight of the Pink pony voraciously devouring the slice.

‘’Hmm? Oh hi guys!’’ Noticing them she looks up with chunks of pie falling out of her mouth.

All of them heave out a heavy sigh and decide to set a trap somewhere else, the thief was not here.

19-Out of Bonds

Ponyville had calmed down in the last few days since nothing else was stolen everypony was now more relaxed, some ponies even forgot to lock their doors when leaving their homes.

Rarity was not one of those ponies, she locked the door of the boutique three times before she left she couldn’t risk getting her diamonds stolen again. She was leaving Ponyville to travel to Canterlot, why? Because she had just received a commission from Princess Luna herself! There wasn’t much mentioned in the letter but basically, the princess required her services for the gala, ohhh was she going to design a royal dress for the gala? She already had some ideas in her mind.

‘’I’m sure a big, handsome, and intelligent stallion like yourself can help me load my bags can’t you?’’ She fluttered her eyelashes at the stallion.

‘’I-uh, of course!’’ The pony almost immediately started loading up the bags onto the train.

‘’Thank you, darling.’’

She takes her seat in the cart and begins dreaming about the dress she would make for the princess, all the nobles would turn their heads at her dazzling creation, oh she would need a whole lot of gems that’s for sure, she hopes no thief takes her gems again.

‘’Tehehe.’’ She was already giddy at the thought.

I look at the mirror and the pony, myself, in front of it. The bandages that covered most of my body were off along with the on top of my forehead, revealing a small scar that was almost invisible to the eye but if you really looked at my forehead you could see it. I bring my now bandage-free hoof to it and touch it. ow.

‘’Ow.’’

‘’Don’t touch it, let it rest.’’ The doctor pony smacks my hoof away.

‘’Okay.’’

‘’It should heal much further if you don’t touch it, now please don’t come here again, I’ve seen you a total of three times this week alone, and in one of those times you tried to jump out of the window.’’

‘’I’ll try.’’

The doctor pony sighs and waves me away. I give out a quick thanks and leave the infirmary. I begin my walk back to my room, I got some books from the library in the castle, some basic stuff, general history, biology on ponies, and the like I can’t continue acting like I don’t know most basic of the stuff with the excuse of oh I lived in like a cave or something. That’s just stupid.

‘’Hey Laika, finally out of those bandages?’’ A maid asks, they warmed up to me these days they sometimes talk to me and we make small talk, it’s nice.

‘’Hi, yeah finally, you’re not slacking off right Misty?’’

‘’Of course not.’’ She looks to the right and the left, and whispers. ‘’You never talked to me if Lilly asks okay?’’

‘’Right, so you are slacking off.’’

‘’Shhh!’’ She hushes me.

‘’Alright, see you later Misty.’’ I chuckle and leave Misty to her slacking, I don’t want to be near her when Lilly inevitably catches her not working, that mare is scary when she catches her friend not working.

‘’Bye!’’ She waves me off.

Lilly is Misty’s friend the one who took me to Celestia earlier. She’s really strict on Misty never letting her skip off on work. On my way, I pass by a few guards, but I don’t see much eye to eye with them, probably with me kicking one of them when I first got here. But it’s not like they are doing anything bad, just some nasty looks here and there, and maybe me being Luna’s actual knight is playing into that…yeah, apparently Luna officially made me her knight. So I’m one of the only knights in the country, somehow.

So now I have a job…hurray. It’s just me being near Luna most of the day, and bringing her chocolate whenever she wants it. Oh and we watch the night sky together, that’s always calming.

Celestia was not sure about the idea at first but it looks like Luna convinced her, somehow. I understand Celestia, I went from thief to knight in like a week by destroying crown property. But it seems like no one uhh really wanted to be Luna’s knight, so it all worked out.

Also, I’ve noticed Celestia probing me with questions subtly, when we were eating lunch she asked them when Luna went to the bathroom too, mostly about how I was raised, and what the place I was raised looked like, I gave her most of the same answers I gave Moonlight. But there was one really weird question, I don’t even know if I answered correctly on that one, it was: ‘’Do the plants grow on their own in the forest you lived?’’ How the hell was I supposed to answer that? I mean how else do plants grow? So I just said a really drawn-out yeah. Her eyes widened ever slightly not that noticeable but since I was looking at her directly I noticed it. I hope that doesn’t come back to bite me on the ass.

Turning the corner I’m in the hallway which had my room, even though this castle is quite big I kinda memorized some paths you never know when the secret that you’re not an actual pony will get out and you have to make a quick escape, I’m still not allowed to leave the castle though.

Wait what is that? Right opposite of my room, I see a mound of… suitcases? Getting closer I realize there is a pony underneath those suitcases, he is trembling but he doesn’t falter under the weight and takes a step forward into the room. I peek inside the room and see, Celestia? What is she doing here? Wait is that a unicorn kissing her hoof?

‘’Thank you… Thank you…’’ She keeps the kisses, while Celestia looks around the room looking mighty uncomfortable and not knowing what to do.

‘’You’re very wel-’’

‘’Thank you!’’

‘’Your luggage, mademoiselle?’’ The mighty warrior of suitcases asks, just barely before collapsing.

‘’I’ll leave you to get settled.’’ Oh, she’s coming out I retreat before she can see me and hide on the opposite side. She comes out and starts walking without noticing me, before I can sneak behind the princess, the hoof-kisser comes out thanks her for the final time, and goes back inside her room. I slowly sneak up to Celestia.

‘’So, you like getting your hoof kissed?’’

‘’What?’’ Haha! Yes, this time I’m the one sneaking up on her! Revenge, it's sweet and hot not cold. ‘’Oh it’s you Laika, I see you’re out of those bandages.’’ Hehe, she’s avoiding the question.

‘’Yep, now all can gaze upon my glory.’’ She smiles. ‘’Oh, by the way, I won’t kiss your hoof as thank you.’’ Her smile falters and she sighs.

‘’You saw that?’’

A huge grin is covering my face.‘’In all its glory, you get your hoof kissed like that a lot?’’

‘’...yes, I’ve grown tired of telling my little ponies to stop, it’s best to just leave them be.’’

‘’Hmmm, sure, that’s the reason.’’

‘’It is!’’

‘’Who is she anyway?’’

‘’She’s Rarity one of the elements of harmony-’’ Yeah, sure I know what that means…of course, I don’t. ‘’-and she is a master seamstress, Luna requested her to come to Canterlot. I welcomed her.’’

‘’Luna asked her to come? Why?’’ A small smile makes its way to the face of Celestia.

‘’Oh? She hasn’t told you?’’

‘’No? What, is something important happening?’’

‘’Well you’ll see in time, I’m sure Luna will tell you.’’ She lets out a small, soft laugh. ‘’Oh by the way since you told me you won’t kiss my hoof, would you kiss Luna’s hoof?’’

‘’What? No! I won’t kiss anyone’s hoof!’’

‘’What if she asks you? You are her knight after all.’’ Her smile gets wider.

‘’N-no, I wouldn’t.’’

‘’Hmmmm.’’ She only tilts her head with that damning smile plastered all over her face.

‘’I’m going back to my room.’’ I turn around and head for my room.

‘’Be sure to come by for lunch dear!’’ Have to get chocolate from the kitchen before I go to lunch then, that's like my one job let’s not forget that.

I enter my room and close the door, now my barebones room has some books on the table, I head to the table and uhhh. How do I…how do I pick this book up? I mean I can pick it up with one of my hooves then I can move but it’s really awkward that way. I saw ponies use their mouth, should I? Hmmm. No, I’m may be a pony now but I’m not going to bite a book to carry it.

I pick the book up head to my bed, and throw myself on it, I bounce back off the bed and fall to the ground, hell, I don’t remember my bed being that bouncy.

‘’Aghh!’’ A gray ponymaid with a really messy lime mane jumps up from the covers.

‘’Moonlight?! Are you sleeping on my bed, again?’’ I get up from the ground and look at the startled Moonlight.

‘’Uhhh, no?’’ She shows a guilty smile. ‘’I was just…uh cleaning your room!’’

‘’Clean what exactly?’’ I gesture to the empty room.

‘’...okay, I was sleeping on your bed, again.’’

‘’I mean I’m fine with it.’’ I shrug my shoulders, picking up the fallen book I move to the balcony. ‘’But you’ve been here for like uhh three days in a row now? Won’t the head maid get mad?’’

‘’Hehehe, well about that.’’ She looks away. ‘’I kinda have been telling her that you're such a messy guest that your room is so messy every day that it takes me all day, every day to clean it.’’ Is she serious? That's genius!

‘’...is that why she looks at me like I’m trash?’’

‘’...maybe?’’ She gets up from the bed and joins me on the balcony.

I groan and sit on my new floor pillow. Yes, I actually did get one. It’s red, why? Because I felt like floor pillows have to be red. Why? I don’t know, just felt like it. But it’s almost as soft as Luna’s pillow, almost. Maybe only the Princesses get the comfiest pillows? Have to investigate.

‘’Wait, you’re out of the bandages!’’

‘’Wow, you got eyes like a hawk, I thought you wouldn’t notice.’’

‘’You don’t look like mummy a anymore-’’ She giggles. ‘’-it looks like my kiss of healing worked.’’

‘’I think it slowed it dow-ow.’’ She pokes me in the ribs.

‘’I love your new pillow by the way.’’ Moonlight lays down on the pillow and stretches on it, it’s wide enough for both of us.

‘’I love it too.’’ I say as I open the book.

‘’Ohh, what are you reading?’’ She scoots closer and looks at the book.

‘’It’s about the founding of Equestria.’’

‘’That old tale? I heard it a million times already, but the elements had a play about it last year, it was really good.’’ She rolls over and lays on her back and looks at the clouds.

‘’Hmmm, I think one of the elements is in the castle.’’

‘’No way! Which one, which one?!’’ She gets up from the pillow and starts shaking me.

‘’The w-white one, stop shaking me!’’

‘’Rarity?!’’ She doesn’t stop the shaking, the whole world is turning now.

‘’Yeah, that’s the one, now stop, please!’’

‘’Oops, sorry.’’ She stopped, finally, whoah there are two Moonlights now.

‘’A fan?’’

‘’Are you kidding? Rarity makes the best dresses around! And she’s here?! I hope I can see her, actually, do you know why she is here?’’

‘’Celestia said Luna requested her to come, I don’t know why though.’’ I shrug. ‘’Speaking of Luna I heard you guys got in a fight again.’’ She sighs and looks away.

‘’Yeah, but umm, she apologized to me, and I apologized too, we both may have said some bad things.’’

‘’So you two are good now?’’ That’s good I don’t want the only people who are my friends in this world fighting. She nods. ‘’So I won’t have to bring ice cream to calm you down?’’

‘’Ohhhh, I don’t know, maybe keep some in the back, just in case you know?’’ She winks. ‘’But you are a knight now aren’t you, you need ice cream just to hold back a simple maid?’’

‘’A simple maid? Yeah, maids usually fight with their Princesses right?’’

‘’Well…okay you may need the ice cream.’’ She laughs, and I laugh too, a bit nervous. Brain take a mental note, always have ice cream at the ready, chocolate if possible. You got it, boss.

‘’I’m gonna lay under the sun a bit you can read.’’ She turns over again, does as she says, and starts sunbathing. I open the book and start reading.

Earth ponies grow the food, okay yeah understandable. The pegasi demanded some of the food in exchange for providing the weather, I mean, kinda weird but okay…am I reading this correctly? I read it again, rub my eyes, and read it again, I shake my head and slap myself lightly on the cheeks, and read it again.

The unicorns also demanded payment for magically raising the sun and the moon.

…that would explain how they move like that. But that doesn’t make sense! You know what fuck this, I’m not going to look for reason anymore. I groan and continue reading the book.

The tensions between each pony tribe were tense but then a large blizzard arrived which caused a food shortage. To deal with the crisis each of the tribe's leader, Chancellor Puddinghead? Nope, no more looking for reason, agreed to meet up and discuss what to do. The meeting however goes poorly, wow shocker, I don’t think any meeting with, Chancellor Puddinghead is going to be productive.

The only option seemed to migrate now, so each of the tribe's leader led the expedition themselves with their second in command, uh-huh sure. They soon discover the ideal land for their people, but it seems that each tribe has claimed the same land, ohhh do I hear a pony war brewing? But just before they can fight the blizzard arrives again, aww, no pony war?

So they hide in a cave but continue to bicker which causes the windigos to appear. Windigos? Windigos feed off hatred and fighting causing blizzards and freezing weather. All of the leaders get frozen solid except for their advisors, Clover the Clever recognizes the windigos, so they tell stories and sing, and with their display of friendship, Clover the Clever, Smart Cookie, and Private Panys, hah, Panys, manage to melt the ice which froze their leaders and destroy the windigos, through the magic of the Fire of Friendship? Wow that’s dumb.

Yada-yada all the leaders recognize fighting gets them nowhere they all reconcile and become friends, they name the land Equestria and all live in harmony.

I close the book and sigh, I thought this would be useful, I just picked up a propaganda book, didn’t I? I mean seriously, the leaders actually do something? Their second in command are all friends? They defeat the enemy with the magic of friendship?! Fucking Chancellor Puddinghead!?Yeah, no. There totally was a hugeeee war between the tribes and the crown is hiding it. Wait, I serve the crown right now though, ugh.

‘’Hey, Moonligh- oh, you’re asleep.’’ I see Moonlight sleeping under the sunlight, sprawled all over the pillow. Heh, she’s like a cat. ‘’Wake up you lazy pony.’’

‘’Wha- n- don- ea- my ic-ream.’’ She snorts and continues her snoozing.

Damn, now I don’t want to wake her up, eh it’s fine, let her sleep. I silently get up from the pillow, place the book on the table, and leave the room. Time to head to lunch, Luna said it was by the gardens again. Chocolate,huh? Oh right, Luna’s chocolate, gotta head to the kitchen first then. Thanks buddy, always.

Ah, there he is, their savior. The window crasher, the knight of chocolate, the subduer of the Nightmare, Laika. Hearty Meal, watched as the brave knight trotted forward, he was most likely to get chocolate. Which Hearty would gladly give him. Ever since he crashed through the throne room window, Princess Luna has gone softer, her temper even though still existed was more subdued. Every one of the castle staff was grateful, the guards maybe not so much, probably because of his extremely fast climb up the ladder.

‘’Hello, Hearty Meal, you got the stuff?’’ The chocolate knight asks the chef.

‘’Of course, you got the dough?’’

‘’Uhhh-’’ The now dealer of ‘shady’ chocolate quickly looks around the kitchen and grabs the dough Hearty was working on which was going to turn into a pizza. ‘’-here.’’

Hearty nods and brings out the stuff. A normal bar of chocolate which could be bought anywhere. The knight does not smile, in fact, he frowns. Hearty’s composed smile falters.

‘’What is this?’’ He asks straight to the point.

‘’C-chocolate?’’

‘’You expect me to bring my lady this plebian chocolate?’’ He spits the words out.

‘’I…-t-this is all I have in hoof.’’ That was a lie, he had hidden away some of the good stuff for himself.

‘’Oh okay, then I’ll just give the Princess this and when she inevitably and righteously gets angry, I’ll just say that Hearty Meal deemed her worthy of this.’’ The Knight of Cocoa Beans was not messing around.

‘’No! Okay, okay, I’ll give you what you want.’’ He brings out the bar of Premium Macawian Chocolate. The knight finally smiles.

‘’Now we could have done this from the beginning, couldn’t we?’’ He swipes the bar and gives the dough back to the chef. ‘’Pleasure doing business, Hearty.’’ He leaves the kitchen.

When Laika leaves Hearty lets out a laugh, they talked a little yesterday and Hearty mentioned his love of crime novels to him. He is glad Laika played along with him in this little play, he turned and continued kneading the dough for the pizza with a smile on his face. The Knight of Chocolate is likable as he is formidable, he may have to get some stronger stuff next time. Oh wait he didn't have any bandages on him, maybe it kept his power shut?

With a smile on my face, I make my way to the gardens. I like Hearty Meal, he makes great food and is a joy to talk to. When we were talking yesterday he mentioned a book he read, it was about a pony teacher who had a mysterious magical spell cast on her, and she had to buy a cure from a shady dealer, but since it was so expensive the teacher had to sell... rock candy to ponies to afford it. It was honestly hilarious, but I had to hold back myself from laughing because Hearty had such a serious expression as he told it.

I enter the expansive gardens, and slowly walk over to the usual spot, chocolate in han-uhh hoof? Ah, I see Celestia, Luna, and um what was her name again? Rarity? Yeah, Rarity.

‘’I’m so honored to be able to make a dress for you Princess!’’ Rarity talks to Luna while she is drinking tea.

‘’It won’t be for us but for-’’ Luna notices me, and she smiles and waves. Rarity turns to look at what Luna’s attention is on and notices me, looks me up and down, and narrows her eyes. With a sharp gasp, she lunges.

‘’Thief! Give me back my gems!’’ In just a second I’m on the ground face to face with a very angry-looking unicorn. Crud, some knight I am.

20-Dressed to Impress

‘’Umm, can you let me go-’’ I’m stuck underneath Rarity, literally stuck, she locked me in place with both of her legs. I cannot move. Oh, ohh her horn is starting to glow too.

‘’No!’’ Rarity turns her head towards Celestia. ‘’Princess this stallion is a thief! He stole my gems, Applejack’s apples, and Twilight- Whaa-!’’ Suddenly the white hoof-kisser gets enveloped in a dark blue glow and flies off of me. I let my tightened shoulders relax and slowly get up from the soft grass and look towards where my attacker has flown off to.

‘’Stay your hoof, or we shall do it for you.’’ Luna says in a voice that has a cutting edge and a tone that is just lower than shouting to the startled unicorn floating upside down in front of her.

‘’I-what? Princess, that scoundrel-’’ She says pointing at me, rude. I mean sure you can call me a thief, that’s fair, but a scoundrel? That’s harsh no?

‘’That scoundrel is our friend and a knight of the kingdom.’’ Luna says with even more force while her eyelids narrow staring right into the soul of Rarity. She turns to look at me and sees that I’m unharmed and out of the bandages, she smiles, but her smile disappears when she faces Rarity again. ‘’He has been released from his bandages just moments ago, you wish for him to be wrapped in them again?’’

‘’No! Of course not, I- just-...he’s your, f-friend? A k-knight?’’ Rarity's eyes widen and she stutters.

‘’Indeed. A knight whose suit you were going to make.’’ A suit? For me? Luna takes a step towards the now even paler pony. But just before she can open her mouth, a golden light envelops Rarity and she gets pulled back.

‘’Calm down sister, this is all just a misunderstanding.’’ Celestia intervenes.

‘’A misunderstanding?! Sister she just attacked Laika!’’

‘’Yes, but he was not hurt, Rarity only did it because she thought he was a danger.’’ Celestia turns to me. ‘’You’re not hurt are you dear?’’

I shake my head. ‘’No, I’m fine, just a bit startled.’’ I look over myself quickly and, yep I’m fine. I brush myself off and start my walk to the table

*squish*

Squish? Oh god. The chocolate. Gulping, I slowly bend my neck downwards…It’s dead. The Premium bar of Macawain Chocolate has been slain. I paid Hearty Meal top-shelf dough for that chocolate and it’s gone.

My shoulders sag a little but I continue my walk, can’t have Luna see that her favorite chocolate is squished on the ground like a bug. I take a seat opposite of Luna.

‘’And I didn’t steal your umm gems?’’ I looked towards Rarity who was plopped down next to Celestia, she was trying to avoid the looks Luna was giving her.

‘’Of course, our knight is not so low to steal from someponies.’’ Luna proudly exclaims.

‘’I stole that balloon though?’’ Luna coughs and she looks away.

‘’Anyway let’s not talk about what happened. Rarity is going to design and make a suit for you.’’ Celestia says.

‘’No, she will not.’’ Luna almost cuts her sister off.

‘’I…understand Princess.’’ Rarity's shoulders sag and she looks down. ‘’I’ll pack my bags and be out of your mane.’’ Damn, should I feel bad for her now? I mean she did just pounce on me. Hmmm, a suit sounds nice though. Celestia said she was a master right?

‘’I mean, I’m fine with it Luna.’’

‘’What?! But she just tried to harm thee!’’

‘’Ehh, I’m fine. No harm done…except for the chocolate.'’ I say the last part quietly so as to not alert Luna. ‘’Why did you bring her here anyway? Why would I need a suit now of all times?’’

Luna opens her mouth to speak. ‘’You don’t know?! Darling, it’s for the Grand Galloping Gala of course! It’s the biggest event of the year! All the bi-’’ Rarity suddenly starts talking but when she notices Luna glaring hot daggers at her, she promptly shuts her mouth and retreats deeper into her chair.

‘’...as the seamstress was saying. It is for thee to wear on the night of the gala. We cannot have our knight not be dressed for the occasion can we?’’

‘’Oh? Don’t I already look like a knight already?’’ Luna rolls her eyes and smiles.

‘’Yes, yes, the removal of the bandages seems to improve your situation on your knightly visage, but our knight deserves proper attire for the night.’’ Luna takes a sip of her tea. ‘’We thought some pony like Rarity would be up to the task since our sister recommended her. But it seems we were wrong.’’

‘’Luna, be nice.’’ Celestia chides her sister, but Luna ignores her.

I scratch my chin and turn to Rarity. ‘’Hmmm, hey Rarity?’’

‘’Y-yes?’’

‘’How good are you at making clothes?’’ She beams up suddenly.

‘’Well not to toot my own horn but I would say I’m exceptional at making clothes.’’ You are tooting your own horn.

‘’Of course, you do look like a lady of exceptional talent.’’ She smiles even more and starts fanning herself.

‘’Oh, you flatter me, darling.’’

‘’I’m sure that you will make the best suit that would make even me, look good and make all the heads of the nobles turn in awe.’’ She was looking as if she was going to faint right here, right now. ‘’And I’m sure you won’t ask for payment since the crown is going to need to cover for my injuries.’’ Luna realizes what I’m doing and adopts a devilish smile, Celestia frowns.

‘’Of cours-what?’’

‘’Well because you’ve pounced on me, darling. I fell to the ground a bit too fast and may have sprained my ankle.’’ Celestia sighs. Rarity is looking a little uncomfortable. ‘’And since you are a lady of the highest standing, I can assume you will cover the cost of the suit…think of it as a ‘get well soon’ gift from you,’’ I point to her. ‘’to me.’’ I point to myself.

‘’We concur, our knight has suffered many injuries already. And the costs are mounting up, but this time it was none his fault.’’

‘’I-...I completely agree.’’ Rarity gives up in defeat. Haha, great success! I turn to Luna and see her smiling, I’m smiling too.

‘’Now that’s out of the way shall we eat?’’ Celestia announces, right I came here for lunch, didn’t I? Huh, when did this trip to lunch turn into extorting a unicorn tailor? Don’t think about it too much.…okay, you know best brain. Of course I do, I’m you after all.

…ugh this place is getting to me.

‘’What will you eat, Laika?’’ Huh? Oh, is Celestia asking me a question? My eyes finally focus and I can see one of the maids, whom I have not met yet taking orders from everypo-one, at the table and it looks like it’s my turn.

‘’Me? Uhhh, I’ll get a plate of fries please, the one made from potatoes not hay.’’ Yeah, there were fries here, they made them from hay, don’t ask me how I know. It was not that bad, it was that bad.

The maid raises one eyebrow but doesn’t speak, I don’t she would be even able to speak since she was using her mouth to hold the pencil, that’s gotta be uncomfortable. It is. huh? huh? Brain what was that?

…

I turn to Luna, wait… did she look different? Was her color always this dark? And did her mane look more um, ethereal? Was her eyes sharper? Why does she look so… fear-inducing? awe-inspiring? Because she is.

…
…

‘’Luna?’’

‘’Yes?’’ The moment she speaks she turns back into the chocolate-munching Luna I know. The lack of sleep is getting to me, maybe let’s not read books when Luna leaves my room. Oh right, gotta ask her something, uhhh.

‘’What did you order?’’

‘’Nothing, we are not hungry at this time.’’

‘’Huh, you sure?’’ I don’t have any chocolate on me at hand, I don’t know how I would stop her now.

‘’Yes, we are quite sure.’’ I don’t believe her.

‘’Sooo, Laika was it darling?’’ Rarity asks while trying to ignore Luna’s piercing gaze.

‘’Yes?’’

‘’Wonderful! Would you mind if I ask you a simple question?’’

‘’No?’’

‘’What would you want your suit color to be?’’ Hmmm, oh, I know just the color! Its-

‘’Purple.’’ Luna suddenly and flatly states out loud.

‘’Umm, Luna? I think she asked me?’’

‘’It’s going to be purple, for tis’ only suiting for us.’’ She seems quite adamant about it.

‘’I-...fine sure, I like purple anyhow.’’

‘’Purple suit it is! Oh, I already have some designs in my mind that would suit your body.’’ Huh, maybe she is actually good at this? Eh, doesn’t really matter now, free clothes are free.

‘’Are you going to make it after lunch?’’

‘’That’s the plan I will need you to come with me after lunch, darling.’’

‘’Sure, you stay right opposite of me.’’

‘’I do?’’

‘’Yes, I saw you and your little act too, kissing Celestia’s-’’ A grin slowly makes their way towards my face while Rarity is looking a little pale again.

‘’Haha! Anyhow, how are you getting on with the staff dear?’’ Celestia nervously asks while cutting me off, haha, she’s deflecting.

‘’Oh It’s fine, I think they’re warming up to me, I like Hearty Meal, and Misty Rain is always fun to watch.’’

‘’That’s nice.’’ She shows a pure smile. Hmmm, I still get a little uneasy when she smiles like that.

‘’But I don’t think the guards like me a lot though.’’ I shrug. ‘’I don’t really blame ‘em though.’’

‘’I’m sure they’ll open up to you dear.’’

‘’Sure, let’s hope so.’’ I wonder if they will beat me up like in those cliche dramas, they won’t, maybe they will, we won’t let them.

…

I felt a shiver run down my spine, and a sudden chill enveloped me, it was as if it was midnight and I was standing on my balcony. To keep my mind off whatever just happened I took a han-hooffull? of fries and stuffed them in my mouth. Damn, no salt?

I look at the table now filled with food and search for the white rock dispenser. Where is it? Aha! I reach for the salt shaker but just before I can touch it…I can’t reach further. Are you kidding me?

‘’Ngggn.’’ I try to stretch even further, just, a little, bit, more!

‘’Having trouble with such a simple enemy fair knight?’’ The salt shaker glows dark blue and gets lifted into the air. I turn to see Luna with a smug smile on her face. ‘’Ah yes, the bane of knights in all of Equestria! A salt shaker.’’

‘’Oh okay smartass, put it back and try to get it without using your magic.’’

‘’Hmph! Thou darest question your princess's competence? We will show thee.’’ She huffs and the salt shaker gets put back into its original place, wait why is it moving further? It’s now even farther away, such arrogance from my lady. ‘’We can easily deal with this.’’ She tries to reach for it. ‘’Ngghnnn.’’ She can’t reach it, she tries to stretch her already long limbs even further. Oh, she passed the original mark. Will she make it?

‘’This…this poses no challenge to us!’’ She struggles to reach further between labored breaths.

‘’Having trouble with such a simple salt shaker dear sister?’’ Celestia giggles and the salt shaker gets enveloped in that golden glow of hers and pushed into Luna’s hoof.

‘’Sister! We almost had it!’’ No, she didn’t.

‘’No, you didn’t Luna, looks like both the lady and the knight failed.’’

Both Luna and I grumble. Luna passes me the salt shaker, I put some on my fries, and eat again, it’s much better now. After a few minutes, a fry on my plate begins to glow dark blue. Well, it was about time. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Luna trying to be nonchalant about it.

‘’I thought you weren’t hungry?’’ I hold the fry she was trying to take away, she flinches but composes herself rather quickly.

‘’Thou wishest for your lady to be left hungry? We didn’t know that we had such an uncaring knight, hpmfh!’’ She huffs and turns her head away with her eyes closed. I roll my eyes.

I sigh and laugh. ‘’Of course not, eat as much as you like, my lady.’’ Her pout turns into a smile in the blink of an eye and my plate loses fries at a pace I can’t keep up.

‘’So you were hungry.’’ I mutter to myself. She hears because of course she does, eating another fry she shrugs her shoulders.

‘’These fries of potato are much better than hay-made ones sister, you must try one.’’ Luna takes another fry out of the pile with her magic and the sole fry floats towards Celestia. Celestia puts down her piece of cake and sniffs the fry. ‘’Come on sister, try one.’’ Luna pushes the fry in Celestia’s face further. Celestia realizes that Luna is not going to stop so she slowly bites the fry, and chews, and chews…and chews. Yeah, she totally doesn’t like it. Her face looks like she is trying so hard to look normal. And with an audible gulp, she swallows the lone fry.

‘’Bah, you wouldn’t know good-tasting food if it hit you in the face sister.’’ Luna scoffs and takes the last fry on my plate, yeah, I think she ate more than me.

‘’Excuse me for not liking some weird fried potatoes sister! Oh, no offense Laika. Luna can take offense though.’’

‘’Uhhh none taken?’’

After lunch is over Celestia bids us all farewell. And we start making our way to Rarity’s room.

‘’Come in, please excuse the mess.’’ She opens the door and we go inside. The room has several pony mannequins? Huh, ponneiquins? And stacks of cloth and tools to use them. ‘’Now what are your measurements, darling?’’ My measurements? uhhh.

‘’I…don’t know.’’

‘’Oh, that’s alright. If you could be a dear and stand here for a minute while I take your measurements?’’ She drags me to the center of the room goes to one side to a chest and gets a measurement tape.

I tried my hardest to stay still like a statue as a floating measuring tape was being wrapped around every place of my body.

‘’Such a stoic face, we might think that our knight disappeared and a statue had replaced him!’’ Luna laughs.

‘’Haha.’’

‘’And that’s done. Thank you, darling.’’ The tape flies off.

‘’Sooo, do I stay here, while you make it?’’

‘’Oh no need for that, you can leave I have some ideas. You said you were right across from my room right?’’ I nod ‘’I’ll knock on your door when I’m finished with your suit, darling.’’

I allow myself to finally move, and breathe again. Huh, I guess I really was like a statue. I turn to Rarity to bid her goodbye but it looks like she has already started working. ‘’Now, how could I make this, ohhhh yes that would look absolutely terrific.’’ She says while looking at a naked ponneiquin, yeah she is fully engrossed in it. Best not to disturb her then.

Me and Luna leave her room and take about 5 steps to reach my room, I slowly open my door. On the other side of it, I see Moonlight still sleeping on the pillow. Oh, I have an idea. I turn to Luna point at Moonlight and bring a hoof to my face, signaling her to be quiet. She nods.

I slowly and stealthily make my way to the balcony. She is still sleeping, right? She turns and snorts. Yeah, I’m in the clear. I position myself just above her and bring my face near her. I open my mouth and...

‘’Moonlight wake up! We’re under attack!’’ I scream.

‘’Waaghhg!’’ She jumps up in surprise but falls again on the pillow. ‘’What?! What is going on- ohhhh, you big meanie!’’ She notices Luna. ‘’Princess Luna? Why didn’t you stop him?!’’ She cries. I laugh.

‘’We allowed our knight to resolve the situation, and he dealt with it excellently.’’ Luna laughs with me.

‘’Well, I want revenge! So I challenge both of you to a game of Sweet Estate!’’ She points to me and then to Luna. Oh, Sweet Estate is Monopoly by the way. You buy various sweet shops from all over Equestria.

‘’A simple maid thinks to challenge us? Very well, we shall crush thine ambitions before they can grow further!’’ Oh no, they’re both competitive players. It’s going to take hours.

‘’HA! You’re on my Cake Factory! Now pay up!’’ The maid now turned Cake Bandit demands with cruelty.

‘’Fine! Have it, one such as thee would need a paltry sum of bits, the cakes not selling well?’’ The princess now turned, Chocolate Queen, honestly what did you expect? tosses papers of bits to the bandit.

‘’I’ll have you know that people love cakes way more than your disgusting chocolates!’’

‘’You take that back!’’

‘’Make me!’’ The ferocious bandit swipes the dice and throws it. It rolls on the board. ‘’Come on anything but 5 anything but 5!’’ The first dice stops, a four, and the bandit's face turns bright with glee. The second one stops…a one, the bandit falls down on the floor in dread.

‘’Huzzah! Thou has been trapped in my Chocolate Forest! Now return back the bits you have stolen from us! With interest!’’ The Chocolate Queen cackles at the Bandit’s misfortune.

‘’Fine! I didn’t need your bits anyway!’’ The bandit tosses the bits back, and the queen catches them with her magic.

I, a uhhh, knight turned into a simple donut merchant, sighed, and picked up the dice. They formed a really strong rivalry in just a turn. The bandit took a tile the queen had her eyes on and she refused to sell it…that’s it. Well good for me! They focused on each other so much that I own half of the board now! I throw the dice and move. Oh, a lucky card.

‘’Your sweets win the first prize! Collect 50 bits from all the other players.’’

‘’What?!’’ The bandit and the queen squeal out at the same time.

‘’You heard the card ladies. Now cough up the bits.’’ They both grumble and hold out the bits for me. ‘’Hehehe, there we go, nice and easy.’’ I snigger in an evil tone.

The queen and the bandit both look at their respective bits, which is not really a lot, then they look at my bits, and then at each other. Oh no, they’re realizing. Fuck.

‘’Even though I hate your chocolate, we cannot allow him to expand further.’’ The bandit reaches out a hoof to the queen.

‘’We…agree, we shall put our differences aside, for now.’’ The queen reaches out too and they shake hoofs. Looks like a chocolate cake is on the way.

No matter, they shall savor our donuts, whether they like it or not. The taste of sweet victory is on the way. Get it? Sweet.

…

‘’I win.’’ When it’s my turn, I finally buy the last piece to upgrade my donut market to the last level. I throw a smug smile at both the queen and the bandit. ‘’What? Did you seriously think you could defeat me? It was too late.’’ I laugh.

‘’Hmnnnn, I thought we were gonna bring you down.’’ The bandit throws her bits onto the board.

‘’It seems our knight is more formidable than he seems.’’

We continue playing different games, Moonlight leaves, something about the headmaid and how she couldn’t slack off any longer.

*knock-knock*

‘’Laika, the suit is ready darling.’’ A voice from the other side of the door cuts our playing short. Wow, she was done already? It’s either a piece of garbage or a piece of masterwork, that was really fast. I get up from the floor and open the door.

‘’Oh, hello darling, and Princess Luna?’’ Rarity tilts her head a little at the sight of Luna behind me.

‘’You’re done already? That was fast.’’

‘’I work fast, but do not worry, my speed doesn’t affect the quality of course.’’ She says it with such confidence that I almost believe her. Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer. You said it pal.

‘’If you say so.’’

We follow her and enter the room.

…I stare at the piece of clothing.

‘’Soooo? What do you think?’’ Rarity slinks beside me and asks in a sweet voice.

‘’...’’

‘’Y-you don’t like it? I can change it if you want!’’ Rarity quickly panics.

‘’...no, it’s really good.’’ Rarity breathes out a sigh of relief

‘’Yes, ‘tis a fine piece of regal garb.’’

‘’Oh, I’m so glad darling! You can put it on, test it, and tell me if it’s uncomfortable.’’

She brings out a curtain for privacy and moves behind it. How do I wear this? As you would normal clothes, no shit dumbass are they normal human clothes? …right.

I poke my head out to call for help but only Rarity is there, where is Luna?

‘’Hey, where is Luna?’’

‘’Oh, the princess said she needed to get something and would come back quickly.’’ I wonder if it’s for chocolate?

‘’Okay, umm Rarity?’’

‘’Yes, darling?’’

‘’...ca-can you help me put it on?’’

‘’I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that can you say it again?’’ She moves in closer.

Ughhh, don’t ask for help, how am I gonna wear it elsewise?

‘’I said…can you help me put it on…’’

‘’...of course! It would be my pleasure,’’ She sighs. ‘’I thought the suit was uncomfortable for you.’’ She moves behind the curtain and quickly helps me put it on. It was easier than I imagined.

I look in the mirror, damn I look good. A pony in a suit bah! A really fashionable pony in a suit. A fitting look.

…

‘’Darling you look absolutely marvelous!’’ Rarity has a smile that stretches on for kilometers. ‘’I’m sure that you will make every pony stare in wonder at you at the gala.’’

‘’Yeah, thanks to you.’’ The sash adds a lot to the whole outfit. It really does, it really doesn’t.

‘’I-...’’ Before she can say anything, the door opens, with Luna entering the room soon after. She notices me and her eyes widen. I chuckle and move towards her.

‘’Do I look like a proper Knight of the Moon now?’’

‘’We-...’’ She smiles. ‘’...thou always looked the part.’’ She brings out a small medal and pins it on my chest. ‘’But now? Now you look like our knight.’’ She shows a smile that is wrapped in velvet, turns, and leaves the room. I feel something cool and soft sweep across my face. Was that…was that her tail? It was, ...

‘’W-wait! My lady!’’ I laugh, and with my face heating up, sprint behind her.

‘’I want a knight too…’’ Rarity whispers as they go.

Author's Note

A millio-no a trillon thanks to Mix-up!

He gave the chocolate knight a face now! Can you believe it? I still can't!

Do check out his other amazing art!

May you eat the tastiest chocolate you magnificent pony.

21-The Best Night Ever

I look upon my failure, and a rage from deep within me arises. I destroy all around me, leaving enormous craters on my beautiful moon. Once my rampage ends I realize what I have done.

‘’No…no, no, no!’’ I fall to my knees and weep at the sight of the destruction caused by myself to the one thing I hold dear. No one hears my cries. Alone.

‘’So you’re telling me you nagged so much that they begged you to leave and even gave you a cart full of gems?’’

I was having tea with Rarity in her room which had a balcony, some fancy tables and chairs on it too. Her room was way more furnished than mine that was for sure. Though I couldn’t really tell how much of it was hers. Probably half. Oh yeah, I can hold tea cups now. Should’ve been able to hold them from the beginning. Every day we learn new things. Luna taught me how. She was a bit hesitant at first but agreed nonetheless. It was actually pretty easy. Luna and Celestia both were surprised at how quick I learned it.

Well, I would too, if a caveman came out and used a teacup with no difficulties at all, I would be surprised too. I’m like a caveman to these guys. Knows nothing, raised in a forest and all that.

Rarity was telling me a story about how she got captured by these diamond dogs, which was dogs that walked on two legs, which you should be able to as well, it’s fine, we can walk on four just fine. And these guys loved gems, so much so that when they saw how Rarity was able to quickly find gems, they…enslaved her. Yeah, mental note. Don’t get captured by diamond dogs. If they do, complain as if your life depended on it, because it does.

‘’Well, that’s the long and short of it.’’ She takes a sip of her tea.

‘’Huh, seems like you know how to handle yourself.’’

‘’A lady should always be ready, darling, but thank you.’’ She smiles. ‘’I see you’re comfortable in your suit.’’

‘’Of course, you made it so good looking and comfy at the same time, and besides…nevermind.’’

‘’Oh do go on darling.’’ She leans in closer.

‘’It’s not important, just a thought.’’ It makes me feel human.

‘’If you say so…still, I’m glad you liked it.’’

‘’Thank you again by the wa-is that a cat?’’ My attention is instantly on the white cat nuzzling Rarity’s leg. She picks up the very grumpy and frankly ugly-looking cat.

‘’This is Opalescense.’’ She shows the cat who had a collar with gems on it.

‘’She does look very…opulent.’’ I reach my ho-hand out to pet it. ‘’Here kitty-kitty…’’ I say to get the attention of it. The cat yawns and looks at me, its pupils narrow her ears press against her head, and her fur ruffles.

‘’Ow! Opalescense what has gotten into you?!’’ The cat tries to escape from Rarity’s hold and it does it quite violently. Weird, I don’t look that threatening to a cat right? I mean Luna’s basically a cat and she’s fine? …

The cat scampers off under the bed like it has everything to gain and nothing to lose.
‘’I’m sorry darling, she’s not that unfriendly usually.’’ Why is her hoof getting redder? Oh, that’s blood, definitely.

‘’Rarity, you’re bleeding.’’ I get up from my chair. Am I actually going to treat a ponies hoof? Yes. Why? Why not? She made my suit. After she jumped me.

‘’Oh? It’s fine darlin-’’

‘’Hold on, I’ll go to the infirmary. Just wait for a minute, please.’’ I quickly leave the room and start making my way. I’ve been like there like 4 times already? I already know the place. After a short walk, I enter the infirmary.

‘’Hey, doc- woah!’’ I quickly duck and dodge the incoming pencil.

‘’I thought I told you not to come back here!’’ Bleeding Heart yells at me.

‘’Wha-? It’s not for me! Rarity’s cat scratched her! Even if it was me, would you throw a pencil at someone injured?’’ I frown.

‘’To a normal pony? No, but you? Yes!’’ Rude. Some doctor you are. A doctor who helped us a lot.

‘’Harsh.’’

‘’Just…get what you need and get outta here.’’ He sighs and collapses on his desk.

‘’Huh? That’s it?’’

‘’Yes! You have more authority than me now!’’ He regains his momentum picks himself up from the desk, and continues his tirade.

‘’Really? Nice.’’

‘’No! Not nice.’’

Yeah, okay I had my fun, now let’s not leave Rarity waiting right? I take one of the many first aid kits while ignoring the grumbling of Bleeding Heart, and leave the infirmary.

The second, the sideline, the shadow. These are the only titles I have right now. Even if it’s for just a small amount of time I use the last bit of my strength to block out the sun with my moon. That is the only thing that is bringing me joy, I feel happy that ponies are only seeing my moon and my moon alone.

I wander the endless, mystical ash-colored deserts of my fair moon. I stand at the peak of the tallest mountain looking over my bewitching moon, I look over my moon, and see that the kingdom I rule is empty. I rule no one. No subjects, no people, no friends by my side.

I descend down the mountain and continue to wander the deserts. Alone.

With the kit in hand, I enter Rarity’s room, finding her still sitting on the chair.

‘’Sorry for the wait.’’

I put the kit on the table and open it, taking a small piece of bandage, I press it on her hoof where her cat scratched it, it’s bleeding but not so much. Once the bleeding stops. I clean the wound with water.

‘’Sorry if the water feels cold.’’

‘’It’s lukewarm.’’ She smiles.

Turning back to the kit, I look around for the antibiotic ointment. Hmmm, ah there it is. Miracle Mare’s Mystic Ointment? Weird. Don’t trust the strange medicine. We did take it from an actual doctor, it’s fine. Not like it’s my own wound.

‘’You didn’t need to do all that darling, it’s just a simple scratch.’’

‘’Well, a cat’s nails are so sharp that they can leave deep wounds.’’ I apply the ointment on her hoof. ‘’Which can lead to infection. We wouldn’t want that now would we lady Rarity?’’

‘’O-of course not.’’ She looks away, I take out a small band-aid with a small cute teddy bear on it.

‘’Here we go. All done.’’ I put away the ointment and packed the kit back up. Rarity raises her hoof, looks at the little bear band-aid, and giggles.

‘’It’s very cute, darling.’’

I look at the overly intricate clock on her wall and see that it’s already 2 pm. About time I go to the kitchen and extor-convice Hearty Meal to give up some of his chocolate. And I should take this kit back to Bleeding Heart too.

‘’Well, I must take my leave. It was wonderful talking to you and that tale about the diamond dogs was a delight to hear too.’’ It was horrible, the diamond dogs bit was fun. …okay yeah, that was fun. I take the kit, give out a small nod, and begin walking to the door.

‘’W-wait!’’ She suddenly calls out.

‘’Yes?’’ I turn my head and stop.

‘’I-...it was wonderful talking to you too darling I hope we meet again in the gala.’’

I nod again and take my leave. Was she lying? She didn’t look like she was, I mean I really didn’t add much to the conversation just nodded and said small stuff here and there. She did most of the talking. Eh, it’s better to be on her good side, Celestia said she was one of the elements, I still don’t know what is that, but it seems important.

But her cat? That was weird, I mean there is not liking a stranger, but that cat looked as if it was staring down death itself. It’s not the first time either. There are a lot of animals in the gardens like a…lot. But the moment they see me they start to run. Then why didn’t that white bunny run from me? Was he different? Or did I change somehow? No longer human, besides that asshole. …I don’t know. Of course you don’t, you’re me. Since I don’t know, you can’t know eithe- why am I talking to myself?

The Gala is two days away and everyone was preparing for it. Each of the staff was preparing for it. Even Moonlight and Misty were working. Lily made sure they were not skipping off work, she even came by my room to check if Moonlight was there. Moonlight was there one time and she hid under my bed, too bad she was caught. Moonlight begged me to save her, but I couldn’t do anything. Lily is scary. I’ll pay back Moonlight with some ice cream later.

They greet my sister but not me. They bow down to my sister but not me. They respect my sister but not me. They love my sister…but not me. What crime have I committed? Was my moon worthless as opposed to my sister’s sun? Did I not illuminate the night to keep my ponies safe? Did I not make the night as beautiful as the day? Why her? Why not me? Why her sun? Why not my moon? Is it not as wondrous as the sun?

I look at the empty void, It is filled with so many breathtaking stars. I gaze at them, and every time I do, I am mesmerized, how can one deny the beauty of the starry canvas? I continue gazing at the stars. Alone.

‘’Woah, that is one looong line.’’ I look towards the carriages lining up, passengers getting out then moving on. I don’t think I can see the end of it. Yeah no, it’s stretching on. They’re getting pulled by other ponies though, that’s… uhhh, is that slavery? I mean they don’t look sad about it. Hmmm. ‘’Ohh, those ones are dressed very diff- wait. No…’’ Out of one of the carriages comes the ponies from the place I stole the balloon, I think it was called Ponyville? Such a dumb name, imagine a town named Humangrad, Homosapiens Valley, Monkey Tow- okay, we’re getting a little sidetracked, awww I wondered how many we could come up with. Yep, the pink-haired yellow one. The rainbow-haired pegasus, oh, and that bitch who tied me up! Why is she here?!

Is that Rarity? Walking up to them, please don’t tell me they’re friends. They’re hugging, that’s a big hug. Ughhh. So now I really can’t burn down that orchard? We can, no we can’t. Awww. Is that a Purple Lizard walking on two legs? I look closer, and yeah it even has spikes on its back. Okay… one more to the list of sentient animals in this world. Lizards? …He just burped fire…I’m going to lose my mind. The pink one seems to have a lot of energy. The purple one… She’s dangerous.

…

Oh, and there pass the Wonder Bolts, I’ve had the opportunity to talk to some of them through my balcony, apparently, they’re training there in case of more accidents involving me and balloons. Talking to them was not bad per se, but honestly? It makes me feel like I’m being watched, even from the sky. We are being watched at this very moment, stop being paranoid.

Luna told me to wait with Celestia since she still had to prepare. Didn’t tell me why though. So I make my way downstairs to the entrance and to Celestia.

Ah, there is Celestia, right on top of the stairs. Giving out greetings to the guests coming in.

‘’Hello, are you seriously gonna greet every single one?’’

‘’Oh, hello dear.’’ She let’s out a sigh and her smile falls, but the moment another pony comes it’s right back on her face, after the ponies go, she continues speaking to me. ‘’Yes, I have to. Would you happen to know where Luna is?’’ I shake my head.

‘’She said she was preparing and that I shouldn’t wait for her and join you.’’ Another pony comes and greets Celestia. ‘’Do you even know half of these pe-ponies names?’’

‘’Of course I do. I’m their Pri- Hello, it’s so nice to see you here.’’ She greets another one, ugh, this has to be tiring.

‘’You didn’t even say their name, when the next one comes I want you to say their name.’’

‘’Ordering around a Princess? Quite bold of you.’’ She smirks.

‘’Oh, let’s not say order, I’m…advising you, I’m a royal knight now, I should have enough influence for you to listen to me, no?’’ She giggles.

‘’My, my, looks like my sister chose- Hi, it’s lovely to have… you here.’’ She welcomes yet another pony but doesn’t say their name, infact she stoped for a moment but probably didn’t even know who it was.

‘’You didn’t say their name.’’

‘’I didn’t?’’ She acts oblivious. ‘’Anyway don’t let me keep you dear, go enjoy the gala, talk to some ponies.’’ She turns back to greet another pony but her smiles becomes more real this time. I turn to see who it is. Oh, it’s the purple pony from earlier running up the stairs. Why do I feel threatened by her? I haven’t talked to her once.

‘’Actually stay for a minute, I want you to talk to someone.’’

‘’Princess Celestia!’’ The purple one steps forward when she reaches the top of the stairs.

‘’Twilight! It is so lovely to see my star student.’’ She’s… her student? Whose balloon I stole and crashed through the castle window? That student?

‘’Oh we have so much to catch up on!’’ Twilight doesn’t even notice me standing right beside Celestia. Someone’s tunnel visioned. Don’t let her fool you.

…

‘’Well, I want you right by my side the entire evening, so we’ll have plenty of time together. But first I want you to meet someone.’’

Twilight finally breaks her gaze directed at the princess and realizes that I exist too.

‘’Oh hello, I’m Twilight Sparkle, what’s your name?’’ She extends one of her hoofs.

My sister had many knights, and every single one of them begged to serve her. None of them even looked in my direction. Knights of the Sun dotted the countryside, they were renowned. I didn’t have one knight to my name. The servants who served my sister did their job with such fervor. Mine did theirs with scorn and disappointment, disappointment that they couldn’t serve the better princess. My sister’s guard were proud. My guards were ashamed that they served me.

Run, we should run away right now. Get out of here, the front gate is open right now, run past the guards, just. get. away. from. that. Calm down. No. She won’t don’t anything to us, she is just greeting us. Then why do we feel this overwhelming fear? …Luna wouldn’t allow us to be hurt. Why? What if this pony is more important than we could ever be? Could she protect us then? I…don’t know.

We would protect you.

…

‘’I’m…I’m Laika.’’ I nervously reach out my hoof despite wanting to run away as far as my pony legs could take me. I try my damned hardest to keep a poker face on and it works, or I hope it does. It didn’t, it did. She gasps. See? It didn’t. Most likely because of our name, of course the princesses student would know about the person who stole her balloon.

‘’Laika?! Princess is he?’’

‘’Yes, Twilight. He is the one, and I think he has something to say to you.’’ Celestia pushes me a little with her wing. I do have something to say? We do? Yes. Really? What is it? A simple sorry for stealing her balloon probably? …Right.

I cough. ‘’Ummm, I’m really sorry about stealing your uhh balloon. I really didn’t have any other option.’’ I feel Celestia poke me on the back with the tip of her wing. ‘’Not that it makes it any different…a-anyway I have to go now! Bye Celestia! Sorry about your balloon again Twinkle Star!’’ I quickly shake her hoof and I run down the stairs.

‘’No Laika, wait!’’ I hear Celestia but I don’t stop. We have to get away from that, thing. She looked fine.

‘’Ummm, Princess?’’

‘’He’s really not like that most of the time. I don’t know what came over him.’’ Celestia sighs and looks over her sister’s knight’s visage as he swiftly disappears into the main hall. ‘’So tell me about what’s been going on in Ponyville, Twilight.’’ Twilight’s confused face turns into one of happiness.

‘’Oh Princes-’’ But before Twilight can even finish her sentence. Other ponies come up the stair.

‘’Hello, welcome! it’s so nice to see you.’’

This continues on for a while with Twilight barely able to talk to the Princess. She didn’t have this in mind when she came to the Gala… Especially that peculiar pony in the purple suit.

I need fresh air, like right now. I run into the gardens while ignoring the looks of the ponies, the cool night breeze hits my face. Breathe in. I take a huge breath. Breathe out. I let out all the Carbon Monoxide and my body relaxes a little.

I go back inside. Oh hey the Wonderbolts, guess I could talk to them. Heh, that one is eating that pie like he’s hungry as a horse, oh wait he is! Haha…I’m very funny. …No. Yeah, I thought so aswell. I only remember the captain’s name It’s Spitfire. I almost lost my mind when I heard her name. A flying pony is named Spitfire? If only she had that British accent.

‘’Hello Spitfire, enjoying the night?’’ I greet her.

‘’Hmm? Oh hello Laika, yeah the whole team is pretty exhausted after the show.’’ She turns to the origin of the voice which so happened to be me.

‘’I saw that, it looked nice.’’ Duck. Huh? DUCK! I duck, and something flies right above me.

‘’You dodged that eh? Pretty slick, for a thief.’’ The Rainbow coloured one taunts while flapping her wings in the air.

‘’Wha-?’’ My eyes widen as she goes in for a dive. Fuck. I close my eyes and wait for the crash. This is getting old…no crash? I open my eyes and see the cyan menace flailing in the air.

‘’Rainbow Dash stop that!’’ What? Is that Rarity? She’s holding her with her magic.

‘’Rarity?’’

‘’Oh, I’m so terribly sorry darling. Me and Rainbow Dash need to have a little chat. You enjoy yourself.’’ She throws a sharp glance at the pegasus which stops her flailing and she walks away. I might like Rarity more now, she gave me a suit and now saved me? Best tailor pony I’ve ever met. The only pony tailor we ever met, she’s still the best one though.

‘’You good dude?’’ Spitfire asks. ‘’You somehow dodged that, and she is pretty fast.’’ I don’t even know how I did that.

‘’Hmm? Yeah…yeah, I’m fine.’’ I look at the pie that’s half eaten. ‘’Hey, where did you get that?’’

‘’Mhm? I got it from the stall over there.’’ The pony whose name I still don’t know points towards the some other part of the gardens. Looks like I’m headed there again. Where is Luna for god’s sake?

‘’Hey! Let me go Rarity!’’

‘’Are you gonna stay still if I do?’’

‘’No! We need to get that guy! He’s the Apple Thief!’’

Rarity sighs. ‘’Look darling, I’ve made the same mistake too. He’s not a thief, in fact, he is Princess Luna’s Knight.’’

‘’Wha-? So I’ve just tried-?’’

‘’Yes darling, now let’s just be happy that the Princess is not here.’’ Rarity releases Rainbow and she falls to the floor.

‘’I’m gonna go back to the Wonderbolts.’’ Rainbow mumbles and drags her feet to where the Wonderbolts are supposed to be. Rarity sighs at her friend's departure. Her night was going terribly. Her dream prince was nothing more than a self-centered, arrogant brute!

She looks at her hoof and sees the little band-aid with the bear on it. She smiles and starts walking. If she couldn’t get a prince, then she would have a knight. A small shiver passes through her. She pushes on.

‘’Ugh, where is that pie?’’ I walk in search on the quest for something to eat. Turning a corner I see a stand with all kinds of apple-based food. Ugh, no thanks, I don’t want to eat apples.

‘’You?!’’ A loud cry surprises me, looking up I see…her. That bitch. Now now, let’s calm down. No… Oh dear.

‘’You!’’

I see my sister surrounded by her knights. They all protect her with their lives, they all love her with their hearts. I look around myself, there is none but myself.

…I want a knight too.

22-The Worst Night Ever

‘’You!’’ I lock eyes with the one pony that I did not want to see this night. This time I’m not on the ground and tied up like an animal. This time we are standing up straight. Calm down, don’t make a scene. Why? Do we not deserve retribution? Even if we do, do both of you seriously want to ruin this night? I wouldn’t mind if I got to- You would ruin Luna’s night too.

…okay, maybe let’s calm down a little. What?! NO! Look, as much as I hate her guts, Luna is like, one of the only two good things that’s happened to us in this world. I don’t want to ruin that. …fine. We still need to get back at her. Definitely…okay, I want that too. Look at her stand. It’s been a few hours since the gala started. And her stand looks full! Ohhh yes, shall we rub that in her dumb stupid cowhorse face? YES! Don’t take it too far. Humiliate her!

My frowning eyebrows relaxed and with the cockiest grin I could put up, I slowly make my way over to her stocked-up ugh, apple stand. Wait. What now? What if she has already sold a lot and already re-stocked? …I didn’t think about that. Uhhh, I’ll think of something. This is going to be terrible…

The apple fiend is surprised by my sudden change in tone and behaviour and she has a quizzical look on her face. Getting closer to the stan- is that a bucket? Yes, it is. What the hell is a bucket doing here? Before talking to that orange horse I allow myself to take a quick look at the bucket. It has two bits at the bottom. Huh? No way… is she…is she using the bucket as a register? And it only has two bits? … …don’t be too hars-STRIKE HER DOWN!

I burst out laughing.

‘’What are you laughing at huh?!’’ She yells slamming her hoof on the counter of the stand.

‘’I-this- oh my god.’’ I’m barely holding back myself from crumbling to the ground in a fit of laughter. ‘’You-you, the gala started like 2 hours ago and you made 2 bits?! A bit per hour?’’ I point to the bucket with one hoof and with the other hold my stomach.

She scoffs.‘’Oh yeah? At least it’s hard-earned! Not like you would know much about hard work.’’

What?

I slam both of my hooves onto the stand, and some of the food falls from their places onto the ground.

‘’Hey! You’re paying for that!’’

‘’I don’t know hard?’’ I raise my voice. ‘’…Do you know how it feels to wake up in a forest unable to even walk, so you have to crawl away to somewhere safe?’’ Louder. Stop.‘’To be in the hands of someone or something you don’t know entirely? And to resort to hiding like rats in the sewers?!’’ I spit the words out with the bitterest venom as if I were a snake. More bitter. No. ‘’To finally eat something for the first time in two days which was only three apples? And to get tied down like a beast, hosed down like a monster!?’’ More fury. Stop. ‘’Too scared of what’s to come-’’ No. ‘’-that you resort to cutting yoursel-’’ I SAID STOP!‘’...’’

With heavy breaths, I calm down enough to see Applejack’s flustered face. My outburst clearly has her taken aback. Take a deep breath…and get out of here. Fuck the pie.

‘’I’m outta here, fuck you and your apples, don’t talk to me.’’ I turn around and start walking in a random direction.

‘’Wha-? W-wait!’’

‘’I said fuck off!’’ She backs down and doesn’t say a word. Good. The few ponies who were in the vicinity stop talking and all look at me. ‘’What are you all looking at?!’’ They all turn back their heads to avoid looking at me. Cowards. Compose yourself.

Listening to some live classical music, should calm the nerves, right? It would. Yeah, let’s do that. The maids were talking about some famous musician coming to play at this party. Let’s hope they really are good as those ponies are saying. I would not be surprised if their name is Ponygang Amaryllis Mozeralla. Or should I be surprised? Yes, just get used to it. Easier said than done.

Turning around a corner I bump into someone and I don’t fall, wow. I’m surprised, at least I’m only knocked back a couple of steps and not knocked down on the ground, these ponies can be strong. As strong as a horse even. …no. Awww, come on. It’s not that bad. See? You’re right, it’s not that bad. It’s the worst one yet.

‘’Oh, I’m terribly sorry- Laika? What coincidence we run into each other darling!’’ Huh? Is that Rarity?

‘’Rarity? I’m sorry.’’ I should probably thank her, she saved me from that buzzing rainbow fly.

‘’It’s fine darling, you seem upset did something happen?’’ Damn, am I still frowning like a grumpy old man?

‘’It’s… fine, just had a bad time talking with someo-somepony.’’ Ugh, maybe we can still use those words? There are different species, right? True, they can’t call that little fire-breathing lizard-dragon-whatever, a somepony. Eh, better to be cautious.

Rarity winces and her brows furrow. ‘’I know that feeling, some ponies are just unbearable.’’

‘’Heh, you said it.’’ She’s the best one I talked to all night, I wonder if she saw Luna? ‘’Hey, have you seen Luna by any chance?’’

Her smile falters a little but she doesn’t let it fall from her face entirely. ‘’Well, no I haven’t seen her.’’ Dang. ‘’Since she is not here why don’t we spend some time together darling?’’ Is she…is she fluttering her eyelashes?

‘’Sure, you’re the most enjoyable company I had since the party started.’’ Her smile becomes wider. ‘’Oh thank you for saving me from that pegasus too.’’

‘’No need to thank me darling, Rainbow and I are friends, she just had things confused.’’ Uh-huh, confused. Yeah sure. She looked like she was going to dive-bomb us like a Stuka. She didn’t have the siren sound. Would you prefer if she did? …no. I thought so. Stop comparing weird magical ponies to planes. We have a pegasus named Spitfire, how can we not compare them? …Okay, that’s fair.

‘’I was on my way to listen to the live music in the main hall. I heard that they brought in a famous musician.’’

‘’They’re probably talking about Octavia, and you didn’t hear wrong darling. She is a master at Cello, it’s simply divine.’’

Octavia? That’s…well, I guess that’s better than what I was thinking. But still, giving naming your child Octavia? Yeesh, think about the parental pressure. Maybe that’s why she became so good? I still haven’t heard her though, did I actually hear any kind of music since I came here actually? No. Really? Huh.

Let’s listen to some pony Cello then, I continue my way to the main hall with Rarity in tow. When I open a door and let her go first, ladies first and all that, she squeals. Wha-? These ponies man. They’re a fun bunch.

‘’Sister? How do we look?’’

‘’Luna?’’ Celestia turns her head, and her eyes widen. ‘’You look absolutely amazing sister.’’ She smirks and continues with a teasing tone. ‘’Do you want to look good for somepony?’’

‘’N-no! It’s just…we art a princess are we not?’’ Luna puts a hoof over the other one and looks away. ‘’A princess should have a fitting look for a night such as this.’’

‘’Mhmmnn, of course sister.’’ Celestia has to stop her from giggling like a little filly since another guest comes and she has to greet them, they don’t notice Luna.

‘’Where is he?’’ Luna looks around but sees no sight of her knight.

‘’Where is who sister?’’ Celestia tilts her head and acts oblivious. ‘’Ohhh, your knight? He is most likely enjoying the night. Maybe even with another m-’’ Luna doesn’t even let her sister finish her sentence and starts walking down the stairs a bit faster. She didn’t even look at Twilight, who was listening to the whole conversation.

‘’Ummm, Princess?’’

‘’Yes dear?’’ Celestia shakes another hoof.

‘’I didn’t know Princess Luna had a knight.’’ Twilight does the same as her mentor, her hoof is aching from all the shaking it has received this night.

‘’Oh, you already met him, sadly you didn’t get to talk to him much.’’

‘’He is her knight? That’s…’’

‘’Surprising isn’t it?’’ Celestia smiles. ‘’They became great friends quickly.’’ But she sighs. ‘’Though I didn’t expect her to make him her knight.’’

‘’Is he why she-’’

‘’Yes, most likely, actually no, she definitely did that for him.’’ Another hoof shake, Celestia is an expert at these.

‘’Huh.’’ Twilight? Not so much, she might need some ice after this.

‘’I will need to talk to all of you after the night is over by the way dear.’’

‘’Wait up, there’s a puddle.’’ I stop Rarity before she can slip on the water on the ground.

‘’Hmm? Oh, how chivalrous!’’ She smiles and flutters her eyelashes again. ‘’One’s cloak should take care of i-’’ I walk around the puddle. ‘’...well that would certainly work too.’’ She loses the step in her voice. Huh? What did I do? Does she seriously expect me to cover the water with my clothing? Nuh-uh not happening. I ain’t getting my suit dirty for no reason. It’s about the principle. Nah, she would not want to see the suit she made dirty too. That’s true.

Damn, Rarity was not lying, that pony can play one good cello. It’s like music to my ears. It’s literally that dumbass. Well, is it wrong? It’s not but you don’t use it lik- why am I explaining this? Anyhow she is really good despite having hooves.

‘’She’s good.’’

‘’I told you she was darling.’’

Wait is that the pink pony from earlier climbing the stage, yeah she is. What the hell is she doin- is she whispering to the musicians? Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Rarity becoming more and more restless. Is it because of the pink one?

…I might have heard the most terrible song of all time in my entire life. Yell at her to come off the stage. Don’t do that, but let’s hope that she doesn’t continue. I mean ‘The pony pokey?’

‘’Young lady, this is not that kind of ‘‘partay’’.’’ A random mare steps up and shuts her up. Thank you local noble or aristocrat pony, you have saved my earbuds, please let Octavia continue.

‘’Applejack yes?’’ Applejack looks up and sees Princess Luna herself. Maybe she can finally sell some apples. She could definitely use it after her well, confrontation with the thief in a suit.

‘’Yep, how could I help ya, Princess? Want an apple fritter? Caramel apples? Apple pi-’’ The princess raises her hoof so she has to stop talking.

‘’Have thou seen a pony in a purple suit?’’ Huh? Why was the princess asking about him?

‘’I-uhh, yeah?’’

‘’Where?’’

‘’He stopped here, and uhh-’’ Should she tell the princess about what happened? Maybe she should but she just has this little voice at the back of her mind that’s telling her no. Don’t tell her. Well, trusting her gut has always worked until this point. ‘’-he went thataway.’’ She points to where he left storming off.

‘’Thank you fair Applejack.’’ Luna turns around and leaves just as quickly as she came back. Applejack sighs and her shoulders droop. The princess didn’t buy a thing, no one still bought anything except for that one pie.

Another group of ponies by her stand taking one look and turning their head around losing all interest.

‘’Let’s go to the buffet for some… hors d’oeuveres.’’

Huh? No wonder no pony wants her food. They’re all fillin’ up all on that fancy-schmancy vittles. Well, her apples are way better than what they are servin’ up here. She just has to dress em up a little.

‘’Rarity?’’

‘’Y-yes?’’

‘’That pink one is your friend right?’’

‘’Well I don’t mean to sound rude-’’ Sound rude, please don’t. ‘’-can you tell her to umm stop?’’

The pink one was now blasting something a DJ would blast at a nightclub, I don’t know why. Maybe she’s just an idiot? Maybe she just wants to liven up the party.

‘’She means well…’’ Rarity looks away and tries to hold her smile.

‘’Sure.’’ I sigh and look around for Luna again. She got Rarity to make this suit for me and she is not here?

‘’Alright, you high-class ponies I got something you will all finally like.’’ What is that voice? Don’t tell me that apple bitc-...deep breaths. Turning my head so slowly that it would bring snails to shame I see that tick making her way toward the middle of the room while pushing a cart that had a huge cake on it.

‘’Ah, shall we eat some apple cake?’’ Rarity asks while eyeing the cake.

‘’No thanks. You can have some but none for me-’’

‘’STAGE DIVE!’’ Wha-? I snap my neck to the yelling and see the pink one has just jumped from the stage…and she is flying towards the cart.

*crash*

Ufff, she landed right on the edge. That’s gotta hurt, good, no, not good. Wait why is everyone running away? I raise my head ever so slightly and come face to face with the bottom of the cake. Ah.

*splash*

Agh! My whole body and face get covered in the cold icing and the bits of cake. My feet, they’re slipping! I fall down backward, and my back hits something hard? Using every bit of strength left in my body I wipe the icing from my eyes.

Is that Celestia’s face coming closer? That’s her statue, we’re gonna get crushed. We’ll endure. Huh, I always thought that Celestia would be my downfall. I didn’t think it would be like this. I close my eyes. No…

Suddenly my eyes are pried open and I feel like every muscle in my body is tensing up, it’s like I’m being pumped full of adrenaline. I feel…I feel, Powerful. Seems like it’s not over for us yet. I put all four of my hooves upwards to try and stop the incoming statue.

*whooosh*

A burst of wind, or a lightning strike? The rainbow one is right on top of me in the blink of an eye and she is holding my impromptu golden executioner on her back. All my muscles relax, I lose all the strength I thought I had and let my head fall back on the ground.

‘’Agh.’’ I groan

‘’Heh, The Wonder Bolts are sure to see me no-woah!’’

Oh no, she is staggering. I cover my head and try to crawl from under her. A weight gets lifted off me, I see my savior wobbling left and right with the statue on her back. The statue bumps into one of the many columns. Can we just have a second of peace?

The first one falls towards the second one and the second one falls towards another one, it creates a domino effect each and every single column falls, thankfully none of them injure anyone or me. Whew looks like I used all my bit of luck here now.

‘’Luna?’’ Celestia was on her way to the main hall with Twilight beside her, they greeted all the incoming guests, she could finally eat some cake tonight. Hehehe. But before they entered the hall she saw her sister.

‘’Sister?’’ Luna stops before she opens the door and looks towards her.

‘’Ah, I don’t see your knight anywhere, still haven’t found him?’’ She giggles.

‘’He should be here, no use waiting any longer.’’

‘’Oh? Impatient to spend some time with him?’’

Luna sighs and opens the door. They all draw back from the sight. The whole hall is a mess. All of Twilight’s friends look guilty. Luna in a panic throws herself into the room.

‘’Laika?!’’

‘’...Luna?’’ A voice comes from behind a fallen down column. She quickly leaps
over it and sees her knight. Covered in cake, icing, and dust from the destruction. Thankfully no injuries were in sight. She uses her magic to slowly lift him into the air.

‘’Are you hurt?’’ She pulls him closer and examines him again.

‘’No… but I feel like shit. C-can you just take me to my room?’’ He closes his eyes and leans on her.

‘’Of course. We’re so sorry for not being by your side.’’ She gently places him on her back, and slowly walks towards the ways she entered.

‘’Is he alright Luna?’’ Celestia puts a hoof on her sister's shoulder and looks toward Laika to see if he is hurt.

Luna sighs. ‘’Yes, but we will be taking him to his room.’’ Her voice gains a sudden edge and she looks towards the silent Twilight behind her sister. ‘’Listen here girl, if one of your friends is directly responsible for this-’’ She cranes her neck and looks towards the disheveled elements, who try to make themselves smaller. ‘’-you’ll never set a hoof in this castle ever again.’’

‘’I-I- understand Princess.’’ Luna leaves without saying one more word.

At least things can’t get any worse. Who is that guy to Princess Luna anyhow? She seems very protective of him- Why is the room shakin- The door across from them bursts open with animals trying to escape from something.

‘’YOU’RE GOING TO LOVE ME!’’

‘’Um-I-uhh.’’ Twilight looks towards her teacher, unsure of what to say.

Celestia leans down. ‘’Run.’’ All of them including the princess make a quick getaway.

Uhhh, where am I? I slowly open my eyes and see that I’m in my room? Huh, did Luna carry me, yes we asked her to, remember? Right. I’m in my bed, in my room, after a cake fell down on me and I almost got crushed to death, twice.

‘’Laika! How do you feel? Are you better?’’ A voice from my right interrupts my thought process. Is that Luna?

‘’I’m fine, wait wasn’t I covered in cake?’’

‘’We cleaned you and put you to bed.’’ She sits beside my bed.

‘’…sorry for that.’’

‘’Why are thou apologizing?’’ She looks away almost ashamed. ‘’It should be us who is apologizing, we were not by your side.’’

‘’Well, it’s fine. You told me to stay by Celestia and I didn’t, we just couldn’t bump into each other I guess.’’

‘’Still-’’ She tries to apologize again, nope not gonna happen.

‘’Luna it’s okay. It’s not your fault you know?’’

‘’Okay…we’ll leave you to rest.’’ She leaves my side and is making her way to the door. Say something? What? She is dressed up. She is. She is wearing a dark blue dress that fell down to her back leg’s wrists, and the front which goes up the knees. And a beautiful moon right in the middle of it. Oh and moon earrings too, well she is the Princess of the night.

‘’Luna! Wait!’’ She stops and looks back. ‘’You look…you look amazing.’’ Her eyes widen and she quickly looks away.

‘’W-we thank thee. N-now rest, you can gaze upon us when thou are better.’’ She quickly leaves the room and almost slams the door in a hurry, I can hear her hooves clopping on the marble floor, is she running?

Well, at least one good thing happened this night. I want to- no I need to sleep. If I go out and see that apple bitch I will suffocate her in her own cake. I close my eyes and hit the hay. Hah, hay, get it? Enough. You’re no fun.

I wake up and I’m not in my room? Everywhere is whiteness, is this a nightmare again? Can I actually not have one moment of peace?

‘’Hellooo.’’

‘’Hey pal.’’

Turning my head I see two humanoid figures. One all black, I mean like pure darkness. Wearing a mask that is sulking, almost frowning? And the one next to it is all white, with a mask that is smiling, or laughing?

‘’I’d say laughing.’’

‘’What? You can-’’

‘’Yeah, yeah, are we an idiot? You’re us and we’re you.’’

‘’Huh, why are you wearing those masks though? Wait aren’t those ancient Greek theatre masks?’’

‘’Yeah, they are, looks like we don’t really have an active imagination. Couldn’t come up with an original idea.’’

‘’I personally like them.’’

‘’Soo? Is this a dream? Or have I finally lost it?’’

‘’Oh no pal, we’re not insane…yet.’’

‘’This place? Well, it’s your mind. But we can just say you’re in a dream.’’

‘’Forget about it, we have a bigger problem.’’

‘’What? How? I mean It’s our mind, right? We can just imagine it away.’’

‘’Well, the thing is, we’re not alone here.’’

‘’We can’t just imagine this away.’’

A voice, a foreign voice, a voice that does not belong here cuts through.

‘’Hehehe, you really are something.’’

Both of ‘me’ look above me and glare at the origin of the voice. I gulp and slowly turn around to face the music. I see…Luna?

‘’It’s not her.’’

‘’She’s dangerous.’’

‘’A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Sir Knight.’’ She gives out a small bow. ‘’I believe we have so much to talk about.’’ And gives me a smile that is both terrifying yet so beautiful at the same time.

23-My Beating Heart, My Adamant Shield.

I look at the pony in front of me. She is just like Luna, but the one I’m looking at is darker much darker as if her skin is of charcoal. Her eyes are sharper, more…

‘’Predatory.’’

‘’Don’t forget her fangs.’’

‘’Oh? You’re examining me with such a gaze? I didn’t know that you were such a stallion.’’ She chuckles lowly and raises her head ever so slightly.

‘’Wh-what?’’

‘’She’s trying to make us flustered.’’ I take a step back.

‘’It’s clearly working.’’ I take step forward.

‘’Who or what are you?’’

‘’Ah, how uncourteous of me.’’ She takes a step forward. ‘’You may call me…Selene.’’

Selene? Another moon-based name? Is she somehow related to Luna? She definitely should be she looks more like her sister than Celestia. But why? Why here? How is she in my mind, is she real? Is she just my imagination of Luna?

‘’Oh no she definitely is real.’’ I cross my arms.

She smirks and looks me in the eye. ‘’I can assure you that I am entirely real and not just a figment of your imagination.’’ She looks towards the figures behind me and furrows her brows. ‘’Unlike those…parts of you.’’

‘’Well…she is not wrong.’’ I put a hand on my chest in mock offense.

‘’Doesn’t make it any better.’’ I scoff in actual offense.

‘’How are you here?’’

‘’I took up sanctuary…in your mind. I escaped from a prison of mine, to here. While I may be real I do not have a physical form.’’

‘’Why…me?’’

She sighs. ‘’You have no magic.’’ And starts sauntering towards me.

‘’I-...know that?’’ She doesn’t look like she has any ill intent so I don’t back off, although a small part of me is screaming at me to run.

‘’We should.’’

‘’No…we should stay a little.’’

‘’Nay, you don’t have any magic in you. Magic is essential to sustain a life. All living things have magic circulating in them.’’ She comes to a stop right in front of me and looks down. ‘’But you’re not from around here, are you?’’

‘’Oh…’’

‘’Fuck.’’ Both of my shoulders droop and my arms fall down to my sides.

‘’Oh indeed.’’

‘’Hahaha, do not worry.’’ She laughs and circles behind me. I do not dare move out of…what? Out of fear? Out of wonder? Out of curiosity? I do not know. ‘’With your, surprising origin, I am able to be here.’’

‘’W-what if I don’t want you here?’’

She leans down next to my ear and whispers. ‘’Oh, believe me, you need me. Just as much as I need you.’’

I turn my head to her and our eyes meet. Her eyes are… like the soft night sky of this world. I feel as if I could get lost in them.

‘’Beautiful...’’

‘’Bewitching…’’

She smiles and raises her head back again. ‘’Have you realized how…don’t take offense, weak you are compared to ponies?’’

I wince, it’s true. ‘’I have…isn’t the ponies I met just stronger than me?’’

‘’Well yes, some of them truly are strong. But some of them are just your average pony. Such as that maid.’’

‘’Ugh, it’s because we don’t have any magic is that it?’’

‘’You’re a quick thinker. One might look at you and think that you are an earth pony-’’

‘’But earth ponies have physical strength…’’ It was in one of those books Pony Biology 101.

‘’Exactly. And how do they have that kind of strength?’’

‘’...because of the magic inside their bodies.’’ This explains a lot. How I couldn’t overpower a bunny, how Moonlight threw me over across the room. Selene doesn’t say anything but nods.

‘’How would we need you then?’’

‘’And you need us?’’

‘’I am a being of pure magic, I will be your magic in this world, and you will be my…sanctuary.’’ Her eyes sharpen and she scowls. ‘’I won’t go back to that place.’’

‘’My magic huh? Hey, when that statue was falling on me, and I felt this…power, was that you?’’

‘’Yes, I couldn’t have you die, without magic or that pegasus saving you surely would have perished under that disgusting statue. ’’ She looks away to somewhere far away in this unending whiteness but I can see the anger and hate on her face so clearly.

‘’I am guessing you are not really in cahoots with the princesses, are you?’’ She freezes and turns her face to me. There is no emotion on that face.

‘’...If they ever discover that I am alive and with you…that would be the end for both of us.’’

‘’So you are dooming us?’’

She raises her voice and takes a step forward. ‘’I’m giving you a chance to live! Without magic who knows how long you would live?! You may not have been a pony before but now?’’ She takes another step. ‘’I-I- just want to-’’ Her voice grows weaker and weaker by each word. ‘’-I want to live too.’’ She whispers out and hides her face.

She looks so desperate and…fearful. None of her bravado is seen now.

‘’...alright.’’

‘’What?! You can’t be serious! We can’t trust her!’’

‘’Maybe we can? We don’t have any other option, she is right about the magic.’’

‘’But we are not from this world! Maybe it doesn’t affect us at all!’’

‘’Are we willing to bet our life on a ‘maybe’?’’

‘’...’’

‘’Selene?’’ She raises her head and looks at me with a small, hopeful smile. I walk towards her and stand right in front of her. ‘’Can you lean down a little?’’

‘’I…okay?’’ She complies and lowers her head towards mine although a bit confused.

I touch our foreheads together hold her right cheek with my hoof and close my eyes.

‘’You will be my beating heart in this world.’’

‘’...and you will be my shield against the world.’’ She puts a hoof on my cheek as well.

I open my eyes, let go of my hoof, and see her small smile. ‘’Welcome to my mind, I guess. Feel free to do whatever.’’

‘’I’m watching you.’’ I point a finger at her.

‘’I’m watching you too.’’ I smile at her.

‘’Ugh.’’

She heartily laughs. ‘’Thank you for your hospitality, please do take care of me.’’

‘’Wait, did I even tell you my name?’’ I didn’t right? Yeah, no, she probably already knows my name. But it would be rude not to tell her. ‘’It’s…Laika, call me Laika.’’

‘’Such a unique name. What does it mean?’’

‘’You already know that I’m not a pony. You’ll learn it soon enough.’’ I look around the emptiness. ‘’So when will I wake up?’’

‘’Oh? Do we bore you?’’

‘’No, it’s not that it’s just that this place is so, empty?’’ I look at the figures. ‘’Hey, why is our mind empty?’’

‘’It’s probably because we don’t have any actual important thoughts.’’

‘’It’s so that we can fill it with whatever we want!’’

‘’So I can just imagine it and it’ll pop into existence here?’’

‘’It is your mind so you should be able to, but you are right this place is rather empty.’’ She sits on the imaginary white floor. ‘’Could you create a more comfortable place?’’

‘’Alright let me try.’’ I put both hooves on my forehead, close my eyes, and start humming.

‘’...what are you doing?’’

‘’Hummmmm, I’m concentrating.’’

I open my eyes and see that I’m in a room, specifically my room in the castle. It is furnished with everything inside. That being that one huge pillow, a table, a chair to accompany the table so it doesn’t get lonely, and the bed.

‘’Really original pal.’’ I slowly clap.

‘’Hey, it’s comfy enough.’’ I throw myself on the bed.

I look to Selene. She has a mischievous smirk on her face with one of her brows raised up. ‘’Oh? You’re taking me to your bedroom? I didn’t think that you would be this forward.’’

‘’Wha-? No?!’’ I try to hide my flustered face, she laughs.

A little unicorn filly with fur as dark as the deepest caves, sat on her bed leaning on the pillow. She flipped a page in her book with her horn. It was the most useful thing that thing on her head could do. Flip pages.

‘’And so the princess who was locked away by an evil griffon was saved by a courageous knight, and they lived happily ever afte-’’ She couldn’t even finish the sentence when a group of ponies entered the room. She sighed and put her book down on the nightstand. It was a group of five ponies two unicorns, two pegasi, and one earth pony. The unicorns were her ‘’doctors’’ the rest? Guards.

‘’You know the drill.’’ One of the unicorns said with impatience clear in his tone. He didn't want to spend one single second here. She knew what he was talking about, it was time for her ‘’medication.’’ She shuddered and prepared her body for the pain to come, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

The unicorns readied up their horns and pointed them at her. And then, slowly, not so gently, they injected her body with raw magic. It hurt. It was like she was being stabbed with small needles all over her body. It never stopped hurting after all these years. She should get used to it but she just can’t. It was a new kind of pain every time.

Once they were done, she was left drained of all energy and without any grace flopped down on her bed. The ponies left without spending another second in the room with her, they didn’t ask how she was, they never did. She is cursed after all. No one wants to be near a cursed pony. Unless someone is paying them of course. And her mother was paying them, not that she was pleased about it. If she was not the first born foal of the family she doubts she would live to see another day. But was she even alive? All she ever saw for the past years was this room and the garden beneath her window.

After a few minutes of silence broken only by her panting and groaning, she rolls over her bed and looks out the window. She looks out to the Moon and she smiles. It’s so beautiful. She wishes she could one day go there. She read a book where the Moon was made of cheese, she giggles and hopes that is true. With a small smile her eyes slowly close and she sleeps under the calming moonlight.

The same day will pass tomorrow and the day after that…and the day after that.

‘’So how long have you been inside my mind?’’

‘’Well, the moment I sensed your presence, I made my escape and entered your consciousness.’’ Selene sits on the pillow on my balcony. ‘’I had to act fast because if a unicorn or Celestia-’’ Her face scrunches up and her brows crease. ‘’-used any kind of magic on you, they would realize that you lack it.’’

‘’But Celestia stopped me when I first came here?’’

‘’She didn’t notice anything because I entered your body just moments before you crashed into the castle. With me within you, if any pony tries to use magic on you they’ll just see a normal pony with normal, if little magic. Not one without any.’’ She looks and her face softens up, almost in… shame?

‘’But I…I couldn’t help you when you were suffering from nightmares.’’

‘’Oh…you saw them?’’ She nods. ‘’Don’t feel bad. In fact, if I have any more nightmares just…keep away from them okay?’’ Her eyes widen.

‘’But-’’ I cut her off.

‘’They are my nightmares. Let me have this privacy. Please.’’

She takes a huge breath. ‘’...as you wish.’’

‘’I haven’t had any nightmares in a while though.’’

‘’Well…you do have a fickle mind.’’

‘’Fickle?’’

‘’You are prone to drastically have bouts of emotional…-’’ She ponders the right word to continue. ‘’-outbursts. Which is completely understandable for one in your situation. But most times it causes you harm. Such as this night we had to step in to stop you from revealing anything more important to the Element of Honesty.’’ She says.

‘’That orange bit-...she is an Element?’’ I still don’t know what that is but that makes her important, fuck.

‘’Yes, you have met all of the Elements tonight except for the Element of Kindness.’’

‘’I have? Who are them?’’

‘’The Element of Laughter. The pink one who caused a cake to fall down on you.’’

‘’That one is the Element of Laughter?!’’

‘’Well, she certainly didn’t make us laugh.’’

‘’The Element of Loyalty. The one who tried to attack you and after that saved you.’’

‘’I still don’t like her.’’

‘’She did save us in the end, I suppose.’’

‘’The Element of Generosity. The one who made your suit and tried to court you tonight.’’

‘’Huh? She was trying to do that?’’

‘’Well, she does look like one who would go for those fancy people. Are we fancy?’’

‘’Pfft, no chance, she probably saw our title and went ham.’’

Selene laughs. ‘’It was quite amusing to watch you be completely oblivious to her. The Element of Kindness. The yellow one with the pink hair who took you in earlier.

‘’She did clean us.’’

‘’She did seem like a kind one.’’

‘’The Elements of Honesty. The one you hate.’’

‘’Yeah, she did seem really honest when she tied us up.’’

‘’...I have nothing to say.’’

‘’And the last and most important of all. The Element of Magic. She is the most dangerous of them to us.’’ She takes a deep breath and continues. ‘’They wield the Elements of Harmony. The enforcers of balance and peace…’’

‘’Why did I feel so much…fear because of her?’’ I almost had a mental breakdown right on the spot. That purple unicorn awakened a primal fear in me. If I have the chance I don’t want to ever see her again. I lie down on the pillow next to Selene and rest my head.

‘’That is because she is the spark. Without her the Elements are nothing. But even by herself, she is magic incarnate. Her whole body overflows with boundless power.’’ She slowly starts running her hooves through my hair, it feels…nice. ‘’She is unnatural, to you.’’

‘’I hope we don’t have to face her again.’’

‘’I hope so too…’’ Selene says in a quiet tone, almost akin to a whisper.

‘’Pardon me princess but did you say the ‘Everfree Forest?’.’’ Twilight says with a small piece of donut stuck to the corner of her mouth.

‘’That is right dear.’’ Celestia replies to her student, with a small piece of cake stuck to the corner of her mouth too.

‘’So you want us to investigate the Everfree for what exactly?’’

‘’I believe you have all met my sister’s knight and friend Laika?’’ Celestia looks towards all of the elements. All nod except Fluttershy.

‘’Um…I’m sorry but I didn’t meet him.’’

Rainbowdash leans in and whispers to Fluttershy. ‘’It’s the apple thief-’’

‘’Please don’t call him that darling.’’ Rarity sitting next to Fluttershy interrupts Rainbowdash.

‘’Ehhh, it’s fine. He’s not here.’’ Rainbow blows a raspberry but subtly checks over her shoulder.

Celestia sighs. ‘’Yes, well. I want you all six to look around the Everfree for any sign of him, maybe where he lived, or just ask around the forest.’’ She turns to her student. ‘’You told me about a zebra that lived in the forest, she could know something.’’

‘’Excuse me for interrupting you Princess but could I say something?’’ Applejack raises her hoof a little.

‘’Of course dear, go ahead.’’ Celestia smiles and lets the element of honesty talk.

‘’I…uh, kinda got into a scuffle with him today. He said some uhhh, things.’’ Celestia’s attention is immediately fixed on her.

‘’Oh? Such as?’’ She doesn’t even ask about the fight.

Applejack wasn’t really comfortable with the princess’s attention on her. ‘’I-I- didn’t really couldn’t understand much of it since he was yelling and was speaking really fast. But uhh he said somethin’ about waking up in a forest not bein’ able to walk, and crawling away.’’

‘’Waking up in a forest and not being able to walk?’’ Celestia murmurs the words.

‘’Ummm, that would explain why he was so dirty-’’ Celestia turns her head to the now talking Fluttershy who almost immediately crumbles. ‘’-w-when I found him, h-he was covered in mud.’’ Celestia says nothing but ponders on the words.

‘’...Anyhow, you don’t need to focus on this task, just do it when you are available dear.’’ She turns to Twilight and smiles.

‘’I understand Princess. We’ll not let you down.’’

The filly looked outside through her window, it was the most she could get of the outside. Ever since the physicians told her family that her already low magic reserves were now non-existent. They couldn’t believe it. Her father denied it, his child couldn’t be somepony defective or worse, cursed. So he didn’t believe that she was his own foal, and he blamed her mother, and lost the love he had for her. With her mother being accused and her husband losing his love for her, she lost the love for her foal too.

So she was locked away, in her own room. Since she was the firstborn, she couldn’t just be thrown away. The first-born foal of a noble family was always important. She didn’t know why. She thought that if that wasn't the case, she would have been dead by now. But maybe that could have been better? She shakes her head. No, in the books she read they always had a happy ending, surely she will have hers too. A knight in shining armor would come take her away and they would live happily ever after.

So she waited for her knight. And waited…and waited…and waited… She never stopped waiting for her knight. But one day somepony showed up. They were not her knight. They were Princess Celestia herself.

The filly observed the Princess in the garden from a distance from her window. She was talking with her parents. She looked so graceful and radiant. Celestia raised her head towards the window and looked at the filly.

She was frozen, what was going to happen? Her parents wouldn’t want their cursed child to be seen by the Princess. Would they punish her? Was the Princess here to…She smiled. The Princess smiled at her.

She hadn’t felt this happy in all her life. Maybe she would get her happy ending?

I wake up from my sleep and look at the ceiling of my room. Huh, was it always this high up? Yes. Wow, you didn’t take long. You agreed, and now you are stuck with me in your head, you wouldn’t kick a lady such as myself out, right? I hear soft laughter from far away. Never, if you don’t give us a reason…Of course, I wouldn’t.

I yawn, roll over to the right, and leisurely open my eyes. A wall of pink and two baby-blue orbs greet me.

I scream.

24-Cupcake

I stare at the spheres so blue as if they were plucked from the bright sunny sky itself, and the white corners around them are from the soft clouds themselves. I gaze long enough at the orbs of the sky that they start to gaze back at me. I’m petrified I can’t move but I can not take my eyes off them.

The sky and the clouds are surrounded by a light pink wall but as one’s eye goes further above, the pink becomes darker and darker. My entire vision is covered by an assault of pink, except for the clouds and the sky which are still staring into my soul. Am I dead? Is this heaven? I don’t know what this ‘’Heaven’’ is but you’re not dead. …Selene? Yes? I’m not dead? No… I wouldn’t let you die in your sleep. SO WHAT IN ALL THAT IS HOLY IS IN FRONT OF ME.

…It’s the Element of Laughter. Oh, that explains everything the-explain, please …She is the most unpredictable of them all. Which is why she poses the biggest amount of threat to us, after the Element of Magic. Okay, that’s good to know, but that doesn’t explain why she is staring into my soul. I have no idea, as I told you she is unpredictable.

I’m going to scream now. And panic too.

‘’Aghh!’’ I pull back and get tangled in the bed sheets. As I try to untangle myself from my soft web-like prison, I fall from the side of the bed, taking half of the bedsheet. Yeah, that’s right if I’m going down, you’re going down with me. We’re all in this together. All for one, one for all. I hear a small giggle at the back of my mind.

I shake my head and look towards my bed from the ground. I see a pinkish blur leap from the other side of the bed and land right on top of me. Two hooves place themselves to my right and my left, I’m locked in place. Raising my head I see the pink one grinning with a smile so big that I have trouble believing that is even possible. I mean how can something stretch their facial muscles that much? Maybe she is an eldritch monster? Nah, she doesn’t have the tentacles. I must admit it is quite a mystery how she can do that.

Oh? Even our resident mind-crasher doesn’t know how? Okay, it might actually be a monster. Shouldn’t we panic? We are panicking. It doesn't feel like we are. Mind-crasher? Yeah, like a couch crasher, but you know, you’re in my mind? Not my couch. Hahahaha*snort*hahahaha! Oh, that is hilarious! I heard them before but experiencing them first-hoof? Wa-wait, if I am a mind-crasher would that make you th-the ‘mindlord’? Hahaha! Are you serious?See? She gets it. Oh god, there are now three of them. You’ll get used to it. I don’t want to get used to it! Too bad.

‘’Uh-’’

‘’Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie! What’s your name?’’ Pinkie Pie? Her name is actually Pinkie Pie? Nice parents. Well, there probably are worse names out there. She leans in closer and our noses touch. She is close, waayyy too close! Kick her off. No, don’t do that.

‘’I-uh-I’m Laika.’’ I awkwardly return her greeting.

‘’Ohhh, that’s such an amazing name!’’ Pinkie Pie squeaks out while bobbing her left and right.

‘’Y-yeah, now get off me-’’

*click* The sound of my door being opened makes me lean my head down and look at it.

‘’Hey Laika, I heard what happened at the gala-...oh.’’ I see an upside-down Moonlight. Who looks at me then looks up a little, looks at Pinkie Pie then looks down and sees me right under her, who was still too close to my face.

Moonlight's eyelids fall halfway down and she adopts a sly smirk. ‘’I thought you would need some cheering up,-’’ She looks up at Pinkie. ‘’-but it looks like you won’t need it.’’

Before I can open my mouth to say something the Pink Monster above me speaks. ‘’Yup, we’re going to have lots of fun! Wanna join us?’’ She says yet again in that squeaky voice. Still on top of me though.

That takes Moonlight back a little. ‘’I-uh-...’’ Her face gets progressively redder with each second. ‘’-ohIforgotmykettleonbackatthekitchenIgottagobye!’’ She slams the door.

‘’No, Moonlight wait!...aghhhhh.’’ I groan. For the Element of Laughter, she really is not bringing much of a smile to my face. ‘’Get off me.’’ I looked up at the Pink Menace above me who was still looking at the closed door.

‘’Huh?’’

‘’I said get off!’’ I raise my voice.

‘’O-okay.’’ She hurriedly moves and finally lets me go. I slowly get up from the floor and look at her, she is still wearing that smile.

‘’What are you doing here?’’

‘’I came to meet you! And become friends!’’ She hops in place a few times.

‘’...You made a cake fall on me.’’ She stops hopping, looks down on the floor, and puts a hoof on the other one.

‘’I came to apologize for that too…’’ She says in a low voice but then immediately her tone changes again in a flash. ‘’So I baked you this cupcake!’’ She puts a hoof in her messy mane and pulls out a small cupcake with the letters I’m sorry written in icing. She presents the cupcake to me with both hooves and a toothy grin.

Don’t touch that. I…wasn’t going to? Wait, is there something wrong with it? Apart from the place it came from? Just don’t eat it…it brings up bad memories. It won’t affect you if you eat it but just… don’t, please… Alright, I wasn’t going to eat it anyhow. Thank you.

The little filly was lying on her bed as usual. She had finished the same book again, she thinks she might have even memorized the whole book by now. They didn’t give her any new books, she was already a drain, why should they drain themselves even more?

Suddenly, unexpectedly her door opens. Weird, she thinks, it’s still not nighttime yet, her ‘’doctors’’ would only come when the soft moonlight shone through her window. The sun still shone, creating a warm spot on her bed.

Turning her head she doesn’t believe what she is seeing, has the remaining magic been dried out of her body and, she’s seeing illusions? Standing in her doorway was Princess Celestia herself?! She still didn’t believe that the Princess herself smiled at her last week.

‘’So you’re -------- ?’’ The Princess said in a soft voice slowly approaching the flabbergasted filly. The filly finally realizes that her mind is not playing a game on her and the Princess is actually real, so she frantically nods and tries to get out of bed.

‘’Oh please, I don’t want to disturb your peace.’’ Celestia stops the filly. She looks conflicted but the smile of Celestia slowly makes her lie back down on her bed again. Then something bellows from deep within her, oh no. Please, don’t.

Her stomach lets out a roar, that is akin to a lion's. Right in front of the Princess. She still hadn’t eaten anything, the food they brought her was nothing more than tasteless slop but it still suppressed her stomach. But the filly hears something that surprises her even more. Was the Princess… giggling?

‘’Tehehe,’’ She puts a hoof on her mouth. ‘’ I suppose you’re hungry aren’t you dear?’’ Her horn glows with radiance and purity. ‘’I got something for the both of us, I hope you’ll like it.’’ And a silver tray with some mouth-watering cupcakes pops in front of her.

The filly looks at the Princess, who smiles and nods. She reaches forward and grabs one. Bringing it closer to her mouth the sweet smell hits her nose, she hasn’t smelled something this good in…well forever really. She waits for the Princess to eat first then slowly takes a small bite.

‘’Is it to your liking?’’ Celestia asks. ‘’I didn’t know what you would like so I baked every type.’’

The fillies’ small blue eyes start to water and she nods once. It was the best thing she had ever eaten in her entire life…

‘’Uhh,’’ I push the cupcake away. ‘’How about instead of a cupcake, you tell me what you were doing in my room?’’

She deflates a little but still keeps the smile on. ‘’So I could apologize and become your friend of course!’’

‘’Why would I want to become your friend?’’

‘’Y-you don’t want to?’’

‘’No.’’ She ruined my night. She didn’t really mean to. ‘’ What I want is for you to leave my room.’’ I open the door and gesture for her to leave. ‘’Right now, if you would be so kind.’’

Her hair falls down alongside her head and she slowly moves outside. She turns back to say one more thing. I slam the door before she can speak. Who does she think she is? Torturing my ears, throwing cake on me, then sneaking into my room and watching me sleep? Then expect me to be her friend? Fuck off.

‘’Ughh, now I gotta explain what happened to Moonlight too.’’ I groan. I’m doubting her position as the Element of Laughter. Selene you are sure that is her, right? I mean she did laugh a lot. She definitely is the Element of Laughter… I wouldn’t lie to you. Huh, the way she said that…it sounded normal but toward the end, her tone seemed a little hurt?

Since the gala was yesterday, it should be a slow day. So let’s use this time to read up on whatever I can. Moving to my trusty chair and table which had numerous books on them now. I sit on the sturdy chair and pick out a random book.

‘’Eeny, meeny, min, moe. I choose…you!’’ I select the book with the brown cover, put it on the table, and read the title. ‘’The Princess and The Knight, heh.’’ Don’t read this one. Huh? Why though? It’s just an old made-up tale, it has nothing important. Plus the author is…a horrible creature. Oh? Have you met them? I thought you didn’t have a body? I did have a body. I didn’t look like what you see now before she… The voice ceases. Selene? Forget it. Just don’t read it. …okay, whatever you say. How about this one then?

I pick out another book and then read the cover. It reads: ‘The Glorius Map of Equestria.’ Right in the middle with golden colored letters. Below the flashbang of letters and small, brown letters that say: ‘And other places.’

Are all books in this place written by propaganda officers? Probably, a possibility.

The filly was reading the same book again. Although she was not sad, quite the opposite. The Princess comes to visit her every week. She didn’t know why, and she didn’t really care about it. She was just happy that she had someone to talk to and that someone was the Princess!
Her door opens and in comes Princess Celestia with the grace and light of the Sun itself. The filly is ecstatic she quickly closes the book, puts it away, and waits for the Princess to come beside her. She starts to bow but quickly raises her head back up, the Princess didn’t want her to bow, so she wouldn’t bow.

‘’How are you today dear?’’ Celestia smiles and pats the filly's head. The filly smiles and shows her the book she was reading.

‘’Oh, you were reading a book?’’ Celestia reads the title and giggles. ‘’The Princess and The Knight?’’ The filly nods enthusiastically. Celestia leans down and whispers. ‘’I want you to keep a secret for me, do you think you can do that?’’ The filly slowly nods. ‘’I wrote that in my earlier days before I became a princess.’’ The filly eyes widen and her mouth drops.

She looks at the book and then at the Princess. She repeats this process a few times all while Celestia softly laughs. The filly might have to read this book again.

Alright, so we got Equestria in the middle. Damn, that’s a huge ass country. The Capital, Canterlot is in the middle of it too. So we’re in the middle of the hugest country in this world. To the north, there is The Crystal Empire. And of course, there are important towns such as, get this. Manehattan, Las Pegasus, Fillydelphia, Baltimare. I…I don’t even know what to think about it. Selene were these towns always named this way? Yes. …anyway.

Outside of Equestria to the east, there is The Kingdom of Griffonstone…and that’s it. WHAT KINDA ATLAS IS THIS?!? I pick up the book to throw it away but just before it slips from my hoov-hands a noise stops me.

*knock-knock*

Someone knocks on my door.

‘’Who is it?’’ No answer comes. I sigh and walk up to the door. Who could it be? Luna? No, she would come in after knocking or at least announce herself. I open the door, and a blue cannon with a pink artillery pony behind it greets me. Shit. Do not worry. My muscles tense and I feel that strange sensation again, as if my heart was pumping iron and not blood.

‘’Suprise!!!’’ The cannon fires and I’m hit. I get knocked back but that’s about it? Wait. I look upon myself and see that I’m covered in chocolate. Oh… All my muscles relax, and I collapse on the floor, my face in a chocolatey mess.

‘’Pinkie Pie?’’ I say in a low growl.

‘’Yes?!’’ She laughs and comes inside the room while pushing the cannon. ‘’I thought to myself what would he like? Then I remembered that you had a small chocolate bar as a medal at the gala! So I prepared this! Did you like it?’’

‘’Give me that cannon.’’ I get up and take the cannon. Selene? Yes? You know what to do. Oh yes… I feel the power come back. Should we be doing this? Yes. I’m not so sur-

‘’Oh, you got a little something on you!’’ She licks my face clean of chocolate. … …no hesitation. I take Pinkie by the hoof and shove her into the cannon. ‘’W-woah, you’re really strong!’’

I quickly get behind the cannon aim it at the hallway and pull the rope.

*boom*

‘’Wheeeeee’’ The pink invader flies off and she suddenly has a helmet? What? Ho-...I’m not going to question it. We may find answers, which could lead to unforeseen consequences. I agree, let’s not tally on her.

She hits the wall, and I rush ahead and quickly close the door. Chair. I take the chair and place it just under the doorknob. Whew.

*Bam-bam* OH GOD.

Is she banging on the door?! What the fuck!? Leave me alone! I retreat further into my room in slow, heavy steps while keeping an eye on the door. The banging ceases after a few seconds which felt like hours and I release the breath I’ve been holding.

Am I safe now? I should be. Unless she breaks down the door. I don’t think it will come to that though. Are we sure? Yeah, it should be fine. Remember what I told you, she is unpredictable. That sends a shiver down my spine, eughh, please don’t bust my door down. I need fresh air. I turn to move to the balcony.

*knock-knock* My head snaps to the door.

‘’Ummm, Laika? It’s me Twilight, remember we met at the gala? I was with the Princess.’’

Oh…oh no. I don’t know if she is better or worse. Worse, we can’t make a mistake with her. Gee, thanks for the confidence boost. …sorry, but please do be careful. I will.

I move towards the door and start talking with Twilight, though I don’t remove the chair. You never know, you know?

‘’Y-yes? How can I help you…Twilight?’’ Okay, didn’t mess her name up, one point for me.

‘’I was just wondering if we could chat a little, we didn’t really have a chance to talk at the gala.’’ She says with a cheery voice.

‘’I-...maybe after breakfast? I haven’t eaten anything yet.’’ It’s not a lie, but even if just for a second I don’t want to deal with her.

‘’Oh, I thought of that, so I got both of us some breakfast they were serving up. The cook even gave me something wrapped up and told me to give it to you. He said you would know.’’ Okay, no more escapes then. Let’s get this over with, maybe it won’t be that bad. Laika… I know, I’ll be careful, but if I mess up I got you with me right? You’ll stop me like you did yesterday. I…Of course. I feel calmer as if I got hugged by the clouds themselves. I take a huge breath, remove the chair, and slowly open the door.

I see the purple unicorn with a floating tray beside her. And a small package on her other side, which looks exactly like how one would hide drugs, that most definitely contains chocolate. Oh my god, Hearty Meal you…you.

‘’Hehe.’’ I chuckle at Hearty’s antics. He gets really into the character. I wonder where the ‘Shady Chef’ ends and Hearty Meal begins actually. Oops, Twilight is looking at me funny. Shit. ‘’Uh, sorry, I’m not laughing at you. Come in.’’ I step back and let her in. ‘’You can drop what Hearty gave you on the nightstand.’’

She does so and quickly looks around the room, noticing the books on the table she quickly makes her way to them. ‘’Do you like reading?’’ She looks at a couple of them. ‘’Ohh, you read very interesting ones too.’’ She picks up the brown book. ‘’I love this, ’The Princess and The Knight.’ It’s a classic really, but still one of my favorites, and oh! This on…’’

She doesn’t stop talking, I didn’t know someone could talk about books with such fervor until now. I think she doesn’t even know where she is, and she is still holding the tray in the air too. You know…she doesn’t seem that bad. Still, let’s not drop caution. I still feel like I could drop dead at any moment now.

‘’-and that’s why I think this atlas should be completely removed from-’’ She picks up the piece of propaganda I was about to throw earlier and turns to show it to me. Her eyes widen, oh did she finally snap out of it? ‘’Oh…sorry.’’ She blushes and looks away.

‘’It’s fine.’’ It was better when her attention was on the books. Every single hair on my body feels like needles.

‘’Let’s eat! I’m sure you’re very hungry, especially with me holding you now.’’ I look at the tray and it’s just two sandwiches and two glasses of orange juice. Eh, could be worse.

‘’We can eat on the balcony.’’ I walk to the balcony and sit on my luxurious pillow.

‘’Alright!’’ She quickly moves behind me, sits on the pillow, and sets the tray on the marble floor.

Finally, something to eat I can hear my stomach setting plans for widespread revolt, looks like he already has the bladder and the lungs on his side. I trust you guys to take care of it. Aye, aye. Let’s listen to what they have to say. I don’t negotiate with hippies. I can hear a soft giggle at the back of my mind.

I take my sandwich and open my mouth to take a bite. Why is everything dark? Did they shoot out the sun? I hope they did. I see Twilight quite flummoxed by the change in light too. So I look up.

‘’Hello, Laika! Oh hi, Twilight!’’ I see a huge pink balloon head for my balcony with the pink demon manning the helm.

I told you she was unpredictable…but this? I can’t even eat a sandwich, I'm totally cursed. ...

25-Globophobia

‘’Twilight?’’ I say to Twilight without looking at her. I don’t dare leave my eyes off the Pink Baloon in fear of what would happen.

‘’Y-yes?’’ She responds a little surprised not expecting me to talk to her.

‘’Are you seeing what I’m seeing?’’

‘’Ohhh? What are you seeing Lai-Lai? Ah! Is it a giant piece of chocolate?’’ Pinkie Pie leans on the balloon basket, puts a hoof on her forehead, and looks around. Did she just call me…Lai-Lai!? She did.

‘’No…I don’t see a giant piece of chocolate. I see an unrelenting hound that won’t leave me alone!’’ Harsh, is it wrong? Well, she is unrelenting, that is for sure.

‘’Silly Laika, hounds cannot be on the air,’’ Pinkie laughs.

‘’Yeah? I’m looking at one that can right now!’’ I say while trying to stare a hole into her and make her leave.

‘’O-oh…’’ Pinkie’s eyes widen and her smile vanishes when she finally realizes what I’m talking about and that the hound is actually her.

‘’Umm, what is going on?’’ Twilight decides to cut into the conversation that I was having with Pinkie Pie.

‘’You guys are friends right?’’ I turn my head to Twilight and suppress the urge to run away when I come face-to-face with her again. She nods. ‘’Well, your friend has been a pain in my side since yesterday. She was watching me while I was sleeping just so she could say ‘sorry’.’’ Twilight sucks her teeth in a little. ‘’She blasted me with a cannon full of chocolate! Then licked the chocolate off my face.’’ Twilight’s face winces. ‘’And now this!’’ I point to the Pink she-demon in the hot air balloon.

‘’But I just want to apologize!’’ Pinkie tries to protest. ‘’I’m really really really really really sorry!’’

‘’And I really really really really REALLY don’t want to see you! So leave me alone!’’ I yell back.

‘’Pinkie maybe you should come down from there? It doesn’t seem safe,’’ Twilight asked a bit concerned for her friend. I think she should come down from that too, I don’t want another balloon incident on my hands. It wouldn’t be on your hooves it would be on hers. Still, I don’t want to be involved in one.

‘’Will you accept my apology if I come down?’’ Pinkie Pie said with closed eyes and crossed arms.

‘’Wha-no?!’’

‘’Then I’m staying here,’’ Pinkie Pie blows a raspberry.

‘’Pinkie…’’ Twilight tries to appeal to Pinkie Pie.

Is that…is she trying to coerce me into accepting her apology?! It appears so. I’m never going to accept that apology in a million years now. Maybe after a million years. Maybe…

‘’Pinkie Pie?’’ She perks up and smiles probably thinking that I’m going to accept that damned apology of hers. ‘’Get it through your thick skull that I’m not going to accept your apology.’’ She flinches and her smile vanishes. ‘’And if you don’t leave me alone-’’

A soothing feeling envelops me. Ssh, calm down now. It's like I’m floating through the sky. Anger leads to ruin …and ruin is not pretty. My muscles relax a little. I’m with you, take deep breaths.

Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

I close my eyes take...a deep breath through my nose, and exhale it out from my mouth. and open them back up again. I saw Pinkie’s eyes begin to water. Oh, damn. I wanted her away sure, but I didn’t really wanna make her cry. Ever the compassionate one. Of course, I am. Didn’t I take you in my mind? Which I am happy to do. …You did.

‘’Look Pinkie Pie,’’ She sniffs and looks at me, her hooves dangling from the edge of the basket. ‘’Just come down and apologize like a normal pers-pony then we’ll talk. How about that?’’

‘’...Okay.’’ She nods.

‘’So just land the balloon and come to my room we ca-what is that?’’ I see…something from behind the balloon coming closer and closer to the balcony.

‘’Isn’t that…’’ Twilight narrows her eyes and looks at the approaching mass. ‘’-one of The Wonderbolts?’’

Huh, it is one of the Wonderbolts, wasn’t this guy eating the pie yesterday? Hold that thought why is he coming here? So fast too? My eyes widen he’s diving towards the balcony!

‘’Waghhh!’’ He screams while coming here. ‘’I can’t seeeee!’’ He hits the barrier of the balcony with such speed that it shatters on impact and with the barrier broken and the huge gust of powerful wind the balloon gets blown towards the balcony.

Suddenly I tense up and my body gets thrown to the side. The diving pegasus crashed right into where I was sitting, his body rolled into the room and got halted at the door. Wa-was that you Selene? Yes. Don’t relax just yet the balloon is coming. I look up and see the pink balloon is about to crash onto the balcony. I can see the Pink pony trying to hold onto the sides with panicked eyes. Twilight’s horn glows and she raises it to the balloon. The balloon stops mid-air.

‘’Pinkie I can’t pick you up too! You need to jump!’’ Twilight yells. I look up at Pinkie Pie and she seems like she won’t be able to jump.

I get up, take a step forward, and open my arms. What are you doing?! Get away! I’m going to grab her. I may not like her but I don’t want her to die. You’ll help me, right? …I’m getting you out if it looks like you may be injured. Thanks.

‘’JUMP!’’ I yell at Pinkie Pie who looks down at me. She closes her eyes and jumps out of the basket and towards me.

‘’Ughhh. Can we leave now?’’ Rainbow Dash groans and throws her head back.

‘’Hush.’’ Applejack puts her hoof on her mouth to shut her up while Rarity continues talking to the Sea Serpent with the fabulous mustache.

‘’So you’re telling me you haven’t seen a pony like that in the forest?’’

The sea serpent rubs his chin and hums. ‘’Nope, I haven’t seen anyone like that, and I’ve been living here like forever.’’

‘’Ah, well thank you for your time darling. Oh and before I go, your mustache is looking as dashing as ever.’’ Rarity bids her goodbyes.

‘’Thank you, you’re the best darling!’’ The sea serpent waves goodbye.

Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy wait for their friend and when she joins them they begin their journey back home.

‘’So we got nothing? Booo.’’ Rainbow Dash begins dragging her hooves.

‘’Nope. Zecora said she never saw somepony like him too,’’ Applejack says, she takes her hat off, wipes her brow off the sweat, and puts it back on.

‘’The animals said the same too,’’ Fluttershy adds in.

‘’I don’t know about you girls but I’m leaving this…’’ Rarity steps in the mud. She shudders. ‘’Has Celestia forsaken me?’’ She shakes the mud off and begins marching in front of everyone.

‘’Well, we can try again when Twi and Pinkie come back,’’ Applejack says.

‘’And why did they stay in Canterlot anyhow?’’ Rainbow Dash gets hit in the face with a branch. ‘’Ow! I bet they stayed because they didn’t wanna deal with this.’’

‘’I don’t know about Pinkie but Twilight said she wanted to know him better.’’

‘’I wonder how that’s going.’’

‘’Aghh.’’ I lay on the floor back-first with Pinkie on top of me. ‘’Are you -ugh- okay?’’ I ask her and raise my head a little to look at her. She seems fine. Are we fine? Well…we should be? We’re fine.

But before I can push the shaken-up pink pony on me we both get enveloped in a violet glow wha-? I look past Pinkie Pie and see Twilight approaching us worry clear on her face, with her horn glowing.

‘’Celestia above please be okay, please be okay!’’ Wait…wasn’t she holding the balloon? Twilight’s face goes from worry to instant relief and the glow surrounding us disappears.

‘’W-weren’t you holding the balloon?! What are you doing!?’’ I ask shouting.

Twilight flinches from my shouting. ‘’It’s okay! I sent the balloon away,’’ She says while pointing to the place where the balloon was supposed to be. I follow her hoof and lo and behold there is only air, no balloon.

‘’What do you mean you sent it away?’’ I asked still looking at the empty space.

‘’I sent it away to someplace else.’’

‘’How?’’

‘’Magic, actual-’’

‘’Okay, fine I don’t care how anymore.’’ Fucking magic. The bane of our existence. Oh? I’m your magic now, am I the bane of your existence? Of course not. You know what I mean. ‘’What was that you just did?’’

‘’I scanned both of you to check if you were injured or not,’’ She smiles. ‘’Fortunately, you both are okay!’’

‘’How about that guy?’’ I point to the still groaning pegasus on the opposite side of the room.

‘’Oh! R-right!’’ She nervously laughs and quickly does the same thing she did earlier. ‘’Huh, he’s surprisingly tough, no serious injuries only some minor bruises.’’

‘’Ohhhh, wha- happen- whaah!’’ Hearing the pink one above me start to talk I finally throw her off her me and get up.

‘’Twilight how about you take your friend and that-’’ The pegasus groans again. ‘’-yeah him. And take them both to the infirmary?’’

‘’I-...what about you?’’ Twilight’s horn glows again and Pinkie Pie and the Wonderbolt get picked up.

‘’I’m fine. Just need some rest.’’ You always need rest. I wonder why. ‘’So please, just…leave me alone?’’ I was practically begging her to leave now. Well, I wouldn’t really beg. Nah, I totally would. You would? No, of course not…maybe.

‘’Okay…I’m-we’re sorry.’’ She lowers her head and moves towards the door with both the Wonderbolt and Pinkie Pie floating behind her. She leaves and I close the door and collapse at the foot of it.

I put my hoo-hands on my face and rub it while groaning. Why? Why? Why? Is it truly that much I ask of? A moment’s peace, a quiet moment, a simple breakfast. No, it’s not. It really is not, right? Of course. So is it just simple luck? I’m sure it is. Some malignant force is cackling over us I bet. Lucky or not, I’ll be with you. Yeah? Yes. That is…comforting to hear. I’m glad. Alright, let’s get up before something else happens.

‘’Laika are you okay?!’’ Before I can even think about moving my legs the door burst open and I get squished behind it.

‘’This is an utter outrage! We have never even been so-’’ The nobles of Canterlot were all gathered in the throne room. Well, most of the snobby ones anyway.

They were all saying the same thing basically. They were mad about the gala, and they would complain to the sisters about it. Yeah, the sisters, not Celestia herself. Luna didn’t want to but Celestia didn’t give her a choice, saying she needed to learn how to deal with modern nobles one way or the other and this seemed like the best opportunity for her.

Luna called her out, Celestia just didn’t want to deal with the nobles alone. Celestia neither agreed nor denied the accusation. Luna begrudgingly complied and here they were both listening to the same thing over and over again. However, Luna might have tuned them out a long time ago. Her mind was elsewhere.

It was on her friend. He certainly had a bad night. There was one thing Luna and the nobles could agree on it was the elements that had ruined the night. Ohhh, how she would banish them from the castle if she had the chance. But alas poor Luna, they were too important to be exiled, bah! her sister wouldn’t allow it anyway.

…She could still do it though? She doesn’t bow to her sister, she’s not above herself. But they’re equal. So if Celestia tries to do something Luna doesn’t approve of she can stop her. So it’s fine…right?

‘’-and my sister also shares how I feel, right sister?’’ Celestia’s voice cuts her line of thought like a knife and she snaps out of it.

‘’Huh? Yes, of course.’’ She quickly forms a response, not the best one but it will do. Her sister says nothing but smiles.

‘’Well that didn’t really change how it wa-’’ And the nobles start talking again. Ugh, is this what her sister goes through every day? She’d rather be having breakfast with her friend. Luna solemnly looks outside one of the many glasses in the room towards his.

Is that a balloon? She shakes her head quickly and looks again. Yes, that is a balloon. A pink one at that.

…

She leaps out and runs towards his room, ignoring both the cries of the nobles and her sister.

‘’Twilight am I a bad pony?’’ Twilight heard the voice of Pinkie Pie talking in a small voice laying on one of the many beds in the infirmary.

‘’Of course not Pinkie Pie,’’ Twilight got up from the chair she was sitting on to comfort her friend. ‘’He just doesn’t want to be bothered. He’s like Cranky.’’

‘’But Cranky became my friend. I don't think Laika will...’’

‘’Maybe he will, maybe he won’t. That’s up to him.’’

A silence filled the room only cut off by the irregular groans and moans of pain from the Wonderbolt lying on the bed beside Pinkie Pie’s.

‘’Does he hate me?’’ Pinkies puffy hair was nowhere to be seen now.

‘’No…if he did, would he catch you?’’ Twilight truly believed that, but she could still be wrong.

‘’...that’s true.’’ Pinkies sad eyes regained a bit of their shine back, just a bit.

Twilight's mind wanders to that moment, she teleported the balloon to a faraway mountain. But she doesn’t stay on that, no. It’s when she scanned both Pinkie and Laika. They were both fine. But something felt odd, their magics weren’t similar.

She’s sure that Laika is an earth pony. But he didn’t have that feeling to it. An earth pony's magic feels heavy, strong, and sturdy. A unicorn’s magic feels gentler, refined even. And pegasus magic feels cool, swift, and free. Of course, everyone’s magic is different but the same races have a similar feel to them.

They weren’t similar at all. He didn’t look or feel like any other pony. He was almost like a…combination of all put together. It was strong, it was gentle, and it was…free. Is he-Is he? There is no way, right? It’s just not possibl-

‘’Woah, you good dude?’’

‘’No…everything hurts.’’

Her thoughts get interrupted by the Wonderbolts coming to see what happened to their friend.

‘’What happened to you? You just started spiraling out of control.’’

‘’My goggles. They-they became fogged up all of a sudden and I panicked.’’

‘’Your goggles?’’

‘’Yeah! In fact, you gave them to me Fleetfoot!’’

‘’Huh? I didn’t do that? What are you talking about?’’

Captain Spitfire finally talks. ‘’She was with me the entire time, there is no way she could have.’’

‘’W-well, I heard her voice, and the goggles were tossed to me.’’ Soarin groans again when he tries to explain what happened.

‘’I think you should just rest dude, that pie made you see things,’’ Fleetfoot said.

‘’I guess…I’m going to sleep now, guys. Could you say sorry to Laika for me?’’ Soarin put his head on the pillow and slowly closed his eyes.

‘’Yeah don’t worry bout it,’’ Spitfire assured her friend and left so that he could rest.

His goggles fogged up? Things were getting weirder and weirder by the minute. Maybe this Laika guy is more important than she thought? Twilight hugged Pinkie and told her goodbye. She needed to talk to The Princess.

Celestia was not having a great day that was for sure. After the gala, she knew the nobles would come knocking but she didn’t expect them to be this much. That’s why she wanted Luna to be with her too. And it went as well as she expected it would. Luna didn’t do much. But her presence alone helped her immensely so she was sure she could have this done by the hour.

…Well that is until her sister suddenly jumped and started running. Celestia tried to stop her but to no avail she was gone by the second. Leaving a room full of confused guards, nobles, and one princess. Everything was silent, and then all hell broke loose.

It took two hours to get every noble pony to at least calm down enough to be escorted to their rooms. Celestia was…exhausted, to say the least. She quickly retreated to her room and ceased all court activities for the day. She needed this rest.

‘’Finally…’’ She said finally being able to not be tense for just a split second.

*knock-knock*

And of course, it had to be ruined.

‘’Princess Celestia? It’s me Twilight!’’

Or not! Celestia’s face instantly lit up. She missed her dearest student, this could be a great chance for them to catch up. She let her in.

They talked for hours, and every second was a delight for Celestia. She truly did miss her. She was so joyous when she heard tales of her life in Ponyville. But she seemed troubled.

‘’Twilight my dear, are you alright?’’

Twilight froze, looked at her, and sighed. ‘’So I went to visit Laika and-’’

Celestia now understood why Luna had suddenly done what she had done. She is probably with him now. He really did attract trouble. But it seems everything had been solved so why was Twilight so unsure?

‘’It looks like everything ended well, but you still look troubled dear,’’ Celestia asked Twilight while she draped a wing over her student sitting beside her. She didn’t expect the incoming question.

‘’Can I scan you, Princess?’’

‘’I…of course.’’ Celestia didn’t expect this but she still complied with Twilight’s request.

‘’...Just as I suspected,’’ Twilight muttered when she was done with her spell. Celestia didn’t like the sound of that.

‘’What do you mean dear?’’

‘’Princess…’’ Twilight bit her lip. ‘’Why does Laika have Alicorn magic?’’

‘’...what?’’

‘’Ugh, Luna I’m fine!’’ I tried to plead to Luna while I was being levitated to my bed.

‘’No, thou art not!’’ She basically tucked me into bed like a baby, while checking if I was okay.

This went back and forth until I managed to convince Luna that I was okay. And now I had to explain what happened to her. And the more I told her I could see her becoming angrier and angrier by the words.

‘’That little! How dare she! I’ll have her-’’

And then I spent another thirty minutes not to throw Pinkie Pie to the dungeons. She calmed down, or I think she did. I hope she did. Assuring that I was fine, we finally started talking normally. She told me about the nobles and boy did they not sound pleasant to talk at all. They're not, she is right.

‘’They sound like a pain in the ass.’’

She laughed. ‘’Thou would be correct! But we still have to deal with them.’’

‘’Well, you have my sympathies.’’

‘’I’d rather have you with me while dealing with them.’’

‘’Oh no, thank you, but I’ll have to refuse my lady.’’ I’d rather not do that. Are you lazy? No, I just don’t want to deal with snobby people. That’s fair.

‘’Hmm, actually that is an order. You’ll now help us deal with the ‘pain in the asses’.’’ She laughed again. Great. Maybe they won’t be so bad?

After more talking, I felt tired so Luna bid me farewell and let me rest. The moment I lay my head on the pillow I was already asleep before I could even blink.

And here I am on the plains of snow.

‘’Plains of snow? Really?’’

‘’Yeah, they’re more like, hmmm, clouds?’’

‘’I like the snow, Lai-Lai.’’ Selene said in a sharp, yet gentle and playful voice.

‘’Thanks for pulling me away from that pegasus,’’ I said to Selene.

She approached closer and sat behind me again as she did last night, she practically formed a half-circle around me. ‘’I wouldn’t let my shield be broken that easily.’’ Her words made me feel…safe and tingly.

My dreams were shaping up to be quite interesting.

26-Dance Floor

The little filly was once again lying on a pillow in her bed. Usually, she would be reading the same book, or just looking out the window, a smile rare on her face. But this time? This time it was hard to catch her face not without a smile. Why? Because today she was spending time with Princess Celestia again.

‘’So I told them that they could either lower the tax or-’’ The Princess was telling the filly how one particular noble had raised the taxes so much that the peasants had to talk to the Princess herself. The filly didn’t really understand what the Princess was talking about, she used words that flew over the filly's head like one of the Thunderbolt performers. Oh, how she wished she could see them again, she only saw them before this curse wrought her body. But they were stunning to watch.

‘’-and so in the end I had persuaded The Duke to-’’ Ah! Duke, she knew that word, her father was one too. She didn’t know what it was exactly, but it was important, that she knew. Her father loved to remind people of how he was one so it had to be important right? ‘’-lower the taxes.’’

The Princess finally stopped pacing around the room and looked at the filly. She would usually do that when telling stories or anything really, the filly found it a little funny and wondered how her head didn’t spin.

‘’Oh dear, I’m sorry I got a little too into it, again.’’ The filly giggles, she doesn’t mind, she could listen to the princess talk about anything for hours, even if she didn’t understand it. Celestia lightly laughs too.

But their moment is interrupted by her door abruptly opening.

‘’Alright, you know the dril-’’ The ‘doctors’ move in as usual but stop dead in their tracks when they see the imposing figure of the Princess with her distinct smile that is absent on the face of the Master of The Sun.

‘’Ah, have I not taught my subjects to respect someone’s privacy?’’ Celestia speaks with her usual tone but a sign of annoyance is clear in her voice which she does not try to hide.

They all throw themselves to the floor when they finally realize what is happening.

‘’W-were sorry, Princess! We’ll leave right away!’’

‘’You have come to administer -------- with her medicine, have you not? I wish to see how it is done. If you would allow me of course,’’ Even when Celestia asked for permission, her voice carried absolute authority, making even the strongest of wills bend to her request.

‘’O-of course! It would be our honor.’’ The thought of rejecting Celestia never once crossed the mind of the unicorn still bowing. He did not dare raise his head even just a millimeter upwards so as not to incur the wrath of the princess.

‘’Well you may start-’’ Celestia sat on the edge of the bed. ‘’-whenever you wish.’’ She looked at the filly and smiled, her smile had relaxed the filly maybe this time it wouldn’t be as bad?

‘’Ahhhh, this is just what I needed,’’ Rarity said while slowly getting deeper into the mud bath. ‘’I’m glad you joined us Applejack.’’

‘’Yeah, I guess.’’ Applejack touched the surface of the mud and smelled it. ‘’You know, you were just complaining about the mud just thirty minutes ago. Now you’re bathing in it, I’ll never understand ya.’’ Applejack joined Rarity in the mud.

Rarity raised one of the cucumber slices in her eyes. ‘’This is a different kind of mud darling. This one is good for you.’’ Just before she closed the slice back a cyan hoof reached over and took the slice.

‘’This feels wayyy better than the weird mud in the Everfree.’’ Rainbow Dash tossed the slice up into the air. ‘’Plus they gave us these awesome snacks to eat.’’

‘’Those are not for eating darling.’’ Rarity caught the slice before it could make its way to Rainbow Dash’s stomach and put it back on her eyes.

‘’Well, they’re tasty,’’ Rainbow Dash shrugs, Rarity sighs.

Fluttershy joins the mud bath without saying any words at all and all of them finally get to relax after a tiring day at the Everfree. None of them speak, and so the silence continues but from behind the door a sound, although faint could be heard. It sounded like something or someone was walking? No, this was someone running. The noise only got louder and louder and when the sound finally reached the loudest the door burst open.

‘’Guys, guys! You need to go to Canterlot, now!’’ Spike was waving a small piece of paper around the air like a mad pony.

Looks like they couldn’t rest just yet. Such is their life, they didn’t ask for it but it’s theirs.

‘’What are you doing?’’ I look at the jester in front of me.

‘’Dancing!’’ I don’t look at the grumpy head in front of me, and continue my glamorous dance.

‘’Why?’’ I try to take my eyes away, forcing my foot to not tap along to my humming.

‘’Why not?’’ I spin around with a flourish and throw my arms back and forward. ‘’Care to join me?’’ I extend an arm with an open hand towards the now less grumpy head.

‘’And why would I do that?’’ I scoff and roll my eyes.

‘’Cause you wanna dance too.’’ I laugh. ‘’We can’t dance now so, you want to do it so bad even though we suck at it.’’

‘’...Fine.’’ I take the hand, and with a foot forward start dancing.

I watch myself dance with…myself? It’s somewhat weird but...amusing.

‘’You want to dance Lai-Lai?’’ The chilling but soothing voice behind me makes me break my gaze to the dance of the self.

‘’No and stop calling me Lai-Lai!’’ Selene’s been calling me Lai-lai ever since I fell asleep and woke up again in this place.

‘’Hmmm-’’ She looks towards the black and white figures dancing and smirks. ‘’-I think you want to dance. I can see you and you dance so fervently,’’ She chuckles. ‘’But I don’t see you dancing.’’

‘’...okay, maybe I do wanna dance but look at me.’’ I gesture towards my pony body. ‘’There is no way I’m dancing.’’

‘’Oh? And why ever not? Do you think ponies are not able to dance?’’ She raises one of her eyebrows, the smile still not leaving her face. ‘’I’ll have you know that…’’ She stops mid-sentence.

‘’Huh? You’ll have me know what?’’

‘’Actually, I can’t dance too.’’ She sighs and her shoulders sag. ‘’But that won’t stop me from trying!’’ She suddenly gets up from the pillow we were sitting on and looks down at me. ‘’And we’ll learn together!’’ Wha-? Where did she get this sudden burst of energy?

I’m pulled up from the ground by two hooves holding me by my shoulders but before I can say anything I catch the sight of her eyes, her eyes so sharp that they could cut steel, her eyes so sharp that would make anyone cower in fear, her eyes so full of excitement and wonder that they betray their shape as if they didn’t belong to her.

I can’t bring myself to reject them.

‘’Okay, let’s dance.’’ I can see her irises widen and her mouth turn into a full-on grin, revealing her fangs, though they don’t feel sharp to my eyes.

‘’It all makes sense now,’’ Celestia muttered frowning, while circling inside her room.

‘’Princess?’’ Twilight tried to keep up behind her but their body sizes alone proved that difficult and her legs were getting tired.

‘’His refusal to be caught, his sudden mood changes-’’ The Princess’s face portrayed one of shock and comprehension. ‘’-his closeness with Luna.’’

Twilight had now given up trying to talk to the Princess, none of her efforts yielded any fruit so she just sat on the ground silently following Celestia with her eyes, though even her eyes were starting to get tired now.

‘’His so few outbursts are surprising considering what kind of mental torture he is probably going through.’’ Celestia’s face changes into one of worry and she stops suddenly. ‘’Twilight, how fast can your friends get here?’’

Her teacher's sudden attention to her surprises Twilight. ‘’Huh? Oh! I uhhh, they should probably arrive by midnight.’’

‘’Good.’’

‘’Princess, what is going on?’’ Twilight was getting more worried by the second.

‘’Nightmare Moon is back.’’ Celestia continues without letting her student speak. ‘’And it’s inhabiting the body of Laika.’’

‘’Wha-? How? Isn’t Nightmare Moon…Luna?’’ Twilight was still in the process of understanding the words Celestia spoke. Nightmare Moon back? Didn’t they defeat her months ago? Princess Luna was saved…wasn’t she?

‘’Yes, but no.’’ Those words confuse Twilight even more. ‘’Nightmare Moon is both a part of Luna and a completely separate entity.’’ Celestia adopts a sorrowful face and looks away from Twilight. ‘’An entity which has probably tormented that poor stallion for who knows how long?’’ Celestia looks back at Twilight with a determined face. ‘’Twilight, we must save him from his torture.’’

''But what about Princess Luna?'' Twilight asks.

Celestia looks away and sighs. ''Luna must not know, only you, me, and your friends shall know of this.''

Before we start dancing, I look around the room.

‘’Is something wrong?’’ Selene asks with a curious voice.

‘’We need an atmosphere,’’ We were still in my room from the castle. ‘’and music too.’’

‘’So change it,’’ I yell while aggressively tapping my feet in a rhythm.

‘’Yes! Some music would be nice.’’ I laugh while swaying my whole body in a smooth motion.

Hmmm, what should I do? …aha! I got it.

‘’No…’’ My eyes widen in horror, yet I do not stop dancing.

‘’Hahahahaha, yes!’’ My eyes widen in excitement and anticipation, and I continue dancing.

The room around us slowly fades into nothingness and then the floor slowly gets covered in colorful LED panels all flickering light with so much power that it looks like they could break down easily but they do not hurt the eyes.

‘’Wh-what is this?!’’ Selene looked from over my shoulder around the floor. She reaches slowly with one hoof and touches it lightly, the panel reacts with light and Selene instantly retracts her hoof back.

I laugh and get on the dance floor, turn my head back to her, and extend my arm. ‘’This my dear, is an arena of dance.’’ An upbeat, catchy music starts, and Selene’s eyes widen further.

She takes my hand and joins me on the floor, I smile and she nervously smiles yet it is still filled with enthusiasm, two figures of black and white rush past us.

‘’Whoooo! Let’s go, time to bust out my moves!’’ I let my legs move and stop in command of the rhythm, filling the stage with a burst of color.

‘’Move over, I’ll show you some moves.’’ I don’t let the rhythm take command of me and do the robot.

‘’Don’t look at them, I don’t dance like that normally.’’ I look away from her eyes.

She laughs. ‘’Really? Maybe you should, it seems fun.’’

‘’Yeah embarrassing too,’’ I laugh back. ‘’Well come on then-’’ I gesture with my hand for her to hold it. ‘’or are you scared…Sel-Sel?’’

‘’Did you just-’’

‘’Yes, it’s payback for calling me Lai-Lai, Sel-Sel.’’

Her nervousness slowly fades away and gives way to a genuine smile. Taking my hand she steps into the arena.

The filly was wrong, it wasn’t any better this time. It hurt so much again, it was a searing hot pain all over her skin, she felt as if she was on fire. Did the doctor do this on purpose? He already left with his posse after another quick bow. She was now panting on her bed sweat dripping down her forehead. She tried so hard to not make a sound so as to not inconvenience The Princess, but it was so hard.

‘’Does it hurt?’’ The Princess asks in a quiet voice.

The filly doesn’t say anything but nods. She tries not to cry but a few tears dare make their way to her eyes. Suddenly the pain drops down in intensity and she glowls in a soft golden hue. The filly looks up and sees The Princess’s horn glowing.

‘’I’m sorry dear, but this is the best I can do for you until the pain passes away.’’ She sounded sad, was the princess sad for her? For…her? The filly's arms reach forward sluggishly as if searching for something and she finds it.

Celestia leans forward and wraps the filly in a hug. The filly buries her face deep into the chest of The Princess and she cries, she cries until the pain goes away. It hurt so much, yet she was so happy. So, so happy. She would bear the biggest of pains just to experience this happiness again. Can anyone, anything even make her happier?

‘’How would you like to move into the castle with me dear?’’ Celestia says in a soft tone while patting the fillies’ back.

…

It seems she was wrong, she could be happier.

I bop along to the music with my head and my shoulders, swaying them from right to left, right to left trying to keep up with the rhythm as awkward as it is. I can see Selene watching me with curious eyes. I smirk, get up on my hind legs, and hold her shoulders for support, her eyes widen in surprise but she makes no move to step back.

‘’Are you just gonna keep watching me? You dance too.’’ I let her go and turned back to my swaying. ‘’You gotta fight in the arena or your out!’’ I laugh.

‘’I-...how?’’ She seems conflicted.

‘’Just do whatever your body tells you to.’’ I see her tail, ethereal it maybe swinging from side to side in line with the song, and one of her hooves is tapping along with it. ‘’Let the music flow through your limbs.’’

She looks away but slowly I can see her start to move more and more, hoof forward and backward, backwards and forwards. As the song picks up she starts to throw her head around from side to side in a gentle manner.

I join her and try to use all four of my limbs to my best advantage. ‘’Yes! That’s it, you're getting it!’’ I take a step forward, get on my hind legs again, and hold her shoulders. ‘’Now show me what you got!’’

‘’O-okay!’’ She laughs and with her stature, she doesn’t need to bend down for us to be on equal footing. While we dance together, with me on two legs and her on four, with each step we take the ground fills with colors. I feel like…I feel like I’m human again, hehe, I can dance on two feet.

‘’That’s a huge smile.’’ Selene remarks. Did I really smile that much? Maybe I did, but I can’t help it, I’m just having way too much fun. Dancing with the bodiless voice inside my head.

‘’Yeah? You don’t like it?’’

‘’No…’’ She leans forward and our eyes meet, though we both don’t stop dancing. ‘’It’s the best smile I’ve ever seen.’’ She leans back with a small smile on her face. ‘’Keep it on please.’’

‘’W-well, if you ask.’’ I look away to…what am I doing?

‘’Go! Go! Go! You’re killing it!’’ I cheer on my comrade in dance.

‘’Watch and learn, watch and learn!’’ I do a headspin and keep it going with my hands with the music building up in the background I get faster and faster. When the beat drops I stop and pose. ‘’And that’s how it’s done!’’

‘’Yeahhhh! My turn!’’ I throw myself to the colorful floor and masterfully perform the worm.

Maybe I should not look away…I look towards Selene again and…my foot slipped. Nice going hooves. Seems like I can only feel like a human. I stumble forward and crash into Selene, we both fall down onto the vibrant floor.

‘’Uff, sorry my foot slipped.’’ Nothing hurts though, well I guess since it’s a dream nothing would hurt. I look to my left and see Selene on her back laughing.

‘’Oh oh, I never had so much fun!’’ She turns to me and looks at me with a grin.‘’Let’s dance again!’’ She says in a way akin to a kid which betrays her piercing voice.

‘’Sur-’’ I catch a sight of her eyes again. How can one’s eye be so scary and so…innocent? Her deep teal eyes, so deep that one could fall down in it, yet as safe as a shallow pool, so predatory yet so soft.

‘’...Beautiful.’’

My heart tingles.

‘’Oh no.’’

‘’Oh no.’’

Oh no.

‘’I-...oh, I-’’ Selene tries to say something but keeps stuttering. She was not ready for those words. I wasn’t ready too, why did I say that?

‘’Uhh, sorr-’’ I try to apologize.

‘’No! It’s…okay, t-thank y-you.’’ She doesn’t let me.

How can one feel the heartbeat so fervently in a dream?

But suddenly everything goes black and my eyes open again, I’m in my room. What happened? S-selene? You need to get up and lock the door! What is going on? I sense Celestia’s magic in the hall. So- And the rest of the elements! oh fuck.

I rush to get up from my bed and fall down in the process, get up. I scramble to get up and run to the wooden chair. Faster. She’s almost at the door! You’re not helping!

Gripping the sides of the chair I almost break the chair, I throw myself to the door and place it under the doorknob as fast as I can and then take a step back and take quick breaths keeping my eyes on the door. I hear the sounds of walking outside my door, the sound only a lot of ponies can make and then they stop. The door’s handle slowly turns without making so much as a noise. But it doesn’t open. After a minute of this-

*knock-knock*

The voice of Celestia comes through the door. ‘’Laika, could you open the door?’’

Selene, you’re with me, right?

…Always. I want to dance with you again later. Her voice brings a certain calmness to my nerves.

Yeah…me too.

The filly was being carried on Celetia’s back. She still couldn’t believe it, The Princess asked her to live in the castle with her and so she was now being transported to the castle. But the filly couldn’t walk, even her legs had now lost all function.

She was prepared to crawl to the castle if need be but that didn’t happen. With a smile, Celestia took her on her back. Passing through the garden of her previous house she finally sees it. The Princess's chariot looked breathtaking, and the Moonlight made the golden shine even further. Celestia gently laid the filly on the back of the chariot and told the royal guards the takeoff.

The filly watched as the chariot sped up and slowly rose from the ground. This was it, her life was going to get her a good ending, a better life, a new life and what does a new life need?

She nervously touched The Princess’s back to get her attention.

‘’Hmm? Yes, dear?’’ Celestia leaned down to hear what the filly had to say, the filly whispered her desire. ‘’You wish to…have a new name?’’ The filly nodded and pointed to the Moon.

The Moon, the only thing she loved, the only one who was always with her through the lonely nights, she wished to be related to the moon in a way.

Celestia's smile wavered for a second although the filly couldn’t catch it. ‘’The ponies of Southern Equestria call the moon, ‘Selene’.’’ Celestia raised her head and looked at the moon. ‘’Would you like that dear?’’

Selene…

Selene loved her new name.

27-A Flight to The Moon

Okay, think we have to think. How do I-we, get out of this? I look around the room for any kind of escape. Under the bed? No. The closet? We’re not clothes we would be found in a second. Fuck, okay okay. Behind the door maybe? No that’s just stupid.

*knock-knock* The white door, my only wall of defense against whatever comes is banged on again with more force behind it.

‘’Laika, open the door.’’ Celestia’s voice with even more force comes through.

What do I say? Do I talk at all? Just keep her busy for a few minutes, I need some time! We’ll get out of here. Okay, okay, okay. I wipe the sweat off my forehead and talk.

‘’W-wha? Cel-stia?-’’ I give out an exaggerated yawn as if I just woke up. ‘’Why are you here at this hour?’’ I slowly walk back from the door careful not to make a sound, never once leaving my eyes from the door in fear of what could happen. Don’t even blink.

‘’I have something important I need to talk to you about dear. It’s about…Luna.’’

‘’I uh, sure but can you give me some time? I’m in a…compromising position.’’ That should stop her for a few moments right? Even at the cost of my dignity…right?

‘’ENOUGH! I will not play along with your act any longer!’’A booming sound, almost enough to break the door itself comes through. ‘’Nightmare Moon! Is it not enough that you torture him, you must shame him as well!?’’Nightmare Moon? Wha-

Before I can even think about who Nightmare Moon is, the door explodes into a million pieces with splinters flying everywhere and I get thrown back further into the room.

Ignoring the pain I raise my head and blink a couple of times, the place where my door used to occupy is now a cloud of dust and smoke, and through that cloud comes a very angry-looking Celestia and six others, all wearing golden jewelry adorned with huge gems. Selene, whatever it is you're doing, you gotta do it now!

…

Selene? Where are you? Did you leave me? Did you leave me to the hounds? Did you leave me to die? Am I alone? I am. Why do I feel cold? Don’t leave me.

A beam of rainbow comes out of the six ponies, each beam joins together and gets directed toward me. My entire body freezes, I can’t move a muscle. Then it hits me. I scream.

My skin is scalding, my blood is boiling. I open my eyes and I’m on a desert stretching for eternity. The harsh sand storms peel my skin off. IT HURTS, IT HURTS. MOM HELP ME.

My abdomen is pierced, andthe boiling blood spills out. I open my eyes and I’m lying on a bed of spikes each of them penetrating deeper and deeper. IT HURTS, HURTS. DAD HELP ME.

My body freezes over, everything feels dead. My limbs freeze. I can’t move, I open my eyes and I’m inside a glacier unable to move, gradually I lose all sensation. I DON’T WANT TO DIE.

And then it comes, something foreign enters my body. It forces itself through the pores of my skin. This is wrong, is this magic? It doesn’t belong here, this is wrong. My body rejects it, I reject it, it is wrong. I try to remove it from my body. My skin color begins to change it’s turning into a sickly pale white. I feel lost, my soul is being ripped out of me. The whiteness reaches the base of my neck.Using my hooves I bash my arms. get it out, get it out, get it out. I have no nails yet I must claw my skin.
GET IT OUT OF MY BODY.
OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT

I’m falling through the endless darkness, with nothing in it. Not even my own body, just my mind. I’m falling.

I open my eyes. I’m on the moon. I feel no pain, no magic, just myself. There is nothing here except gray ash. No other planets, no moving thing, no sound. Just the moon…and myself. Have I died? Is this the end that was waiting for me? All alone? Luna, are you there? Moonlight are you there? Selene, did you leave me to suffer? Did you not want to dance together again?

Selene where are you? I don’t want to be alone. I’m scared.

…it’s so cold here.

Pinkie blew the hair that was in front of her face for the fifth time. Today sucked so much. She tried to apologize to Laika and become friends with him through a cupcake. When that didn’t work out she tried a different approach.

Maybe she shouldn’t have tried that though, it got worse. How could she have known that could happen!? So she was brooding in her bed, trying to come up with ways to apologize…again.

Just as she was in the middle of making a plan on how to make the biggest chocolate cake Twilight, The Princess, and all of her friends arrived all with serious faces. Twilight quickly explained what was going on.

Her future friend was being possessed by Nightmare Moon. This meant that he most likely, definitely didn’t hate her, Nightmare Moon was the reason he was like that. She should feel bad, but a small part of her was happy? She felt angry at herself for being happy.

She wore her necklace and they all busted through the door of Laika. Without hesitation, they all used The Elements of Harmony on the startled pony, with Princess Celestia’s help of course. Pinkie was looking forward to talking to Laika after all of this was over and he was saved.

He screamed, but it was not a scream of defeat it was one of pain. They didn’t let up, it was painful but he needed to be rid of the nightmare. His scream turned into a howl. Pinkie saw his fur began to change color into a pale white.

‘’Do not let up! We are almost there!’’ Celestia said from behind all of the elements.

His cry became louder and louder...were they really helping him?

Pinkie Pie faltered, and a white flash filled the room from the wailing stallion knocking Pinkie and all of her friends, leaving her exhausted and unable to get up, she looked at her friends and all of them seemed to be in the same state.

From the flash, a pony with a body of white and a head of brown emerged, it was him but he was no longer screaming. His eyes looked different, they were no longer the soft gray. Now they were a sharp teal. Those once soft eyes were now frowning, he opened his mouth, and out came his voice.

‘’Celestia…do you know what you’re doing?!’’ He screamed out with anger dripping down every word.

Celestia wasted no time and positioned herself behind Nightmare Moon and The Elements, shielding them.

‘’Saving a poor tortured soul from you!’’ Celestia screamed back with equal force. ‘’Was my sister not enough?! You either release him or else!’’

‘’YOU WERE KILLING HIM!’’

These words were not what Pinkie Pie was expecting to hear, and neither it was for Celestia too.

‘’W-what do you mean?! Explain yourself!’’

‘’He has no magic, similar to someone you might have known. I was barely able to save him.’’ Pinkie noticed how the words at the end were almost…painful?

‘’...No magic?’’ Celestia was becoming more confused by the second.

‘’Yes, no magic.’’ He spits the words out with fire and accusation rooted in his tone.

Twilight had gathered enough energy to speak up with great difficulty finally. ‘’B-but if he has no magic, h-how is he alive?’’

‘’Through me, I am his magic.’’ Laika’s face softened. ‘’I’m his beating heart…and he is my shield.’’

‘’S-so the alicorn magic?’’ Twilight managed to stand up, her legs were shaking barely holding on.

‘’Me. Not him.’’

Before Twilight could speak further Celestia interfered with a booming voice. ‘’Enough! You will not trick me, Nightmare Moon!’’

‘’I am not tricking you like you tricked me, Celestia.’’ He slowly moved backward until he reached the balcony. ‘’We will be leaving now, for us freedom is dear.’’

‘’You will not be leaving.’’ Celestia’s horn glowed and she was getting ready to charge if necessary.

Laika’s eyes closed and he heaved a big sigh, he looked up to Celestia with a small smile. ‘’Goodbye, Mother. I loved you.’’ he jumped out of the balcony with those words leaving a frozen Celestia.

‘’No!’’ Twilight cried out, Pinkie tried to move any part of her body, even her mouth but she was entirely unable to. Pinkie couldn’t save him.

A few seconds later he emerged back with dark blue wings of magic protruding out of his back. With the moonlight shining on him it looked as if the stars themselves were carrying him to the moon, flapping ever so gently. He was gone after a minute and the room was silent.

‘’...Selene?’’ A small whisper came out of the frozen Princess. Pinkie saw a single teardrop make its way down Celestia’s face and hit the floor.

Who is Selene?

Moonlight was cleaning the floors as usual. Trying not to think about what had happened earlier in Laika’s room with one of the elements.

Shaking her head she heaves a sigh and puts the mop back in the bucket and looks out the window. She could use a break.

She expected to see the city with its magnificent night lights, but what she wasn’t expecting to see was Laika, flying away toward the moon with wings of stars.

She could only watch as her hero flew away.

Amidst the silence, I wander the moon finding nothing and no one, its deserts stretch as far as the eye can see, its mountains the highest I’ve ever seen. Yet there is no sound. I close my eyes and let my body fall to the floor.

‘’My, my, already making yourself comfortable?’’ A feminine voice filled with mystique and elegance and power appears out of nowhere. I throw myself into it.

‘’Wh-what!?’’ I see a dog, a dog whose fur is white to the neck, its head a light brown with a horizontal streak of white in the middle of its face, have I seen this dog before? ‘’Who are you?!’’ I don’t know if I should be scared or happy. The dog had strength and power I could not even imagine, it radiated that power just by existing. I could somehow feel it, though I wish I didn’t.

‘’Calm down, I’m not here to hurt you.’’ The seemingly familiar yet foreign dog speaks.

‘’T-then…am I dead?’’

It laughs and smiles. ‘’No, no you’re not dead. I just wanted to speak with you and ask for your help.’’

‘’My help? W-why?’’

The dog looked away into the empty void. ‘’Because I can’t. Maybe you can.’’ A soft piano plays at the back of my head. ‘’There is this one…’’ The dog's eyes wander around as if it’s trying to think of the right word. ‘’-girl. She suffered much and she always looked at me for comfort, I tried my best yet I could only give her so little, I’m not my brother. My light always did reach her and she always loved me for it and I loved her.’’

‘’Who is this girl?’’

‘’You’ve already met her. She took my name, ‘Selene’.’’

Selene? She…she abandoned me, left me in my time of nee-

‘’No, she would never do that.’’ The dog adopts a frown and looks deep into my eyes. ‘’She is the reason you’re alive right now.’’

‘’S-so she didn’t leave me?’’

‘’Never.’’

That word brings comfort I didn’t know I lacked.

‘’I want you to help her.’’ The dog's tail slowly swings from left to right. I swear I saw this dog before somewhere.

‘’I-...how?’’

‘’Help her live, help her feel alive…help her dance.’’ It chuckles. ‘’Don’t leave her alone, she’s been alone for far too long. Be her shield, and she’ll be your heart.’’

‘’I think…I can do that.’’ I want to see her eyes again and dance with her again.

The dog beams and its tail starts swinging in swift motions. ‘’You’re just as wonderful as I thought.’’ Wait…I think I know this dog.

‘’Laika?’’

‘’Oh, took you long enough!’’ It-she laughed. ‘’I took on this form from your memory.’’

‘’Wai-wait I’m confused, who-what are you?’’

She grinned and took a step forward placing her face way too close to mine.

‘’You look at me every night and call me a queen yet you still don’t know me?’’ She laughed again. ‘’I’m flattered dear but I’m a little too old for you.’’

I-what? What the hell is she talking about? I don’t remember anything about me calling someone a queen. All of a sudden the ground shakes and I struggle to stand up and not fall down.

‘’Looks like that was our time. Hopefully, we won’t meet again.’’

‘’What is going on?’’ I look around and see that the pieces of the void are being cracked and falling onto the moon’s floor leaving behind a white light that shines through the openings.

‘’You’re waking up.’’ The real Laika, or whatever it is placed a small kiss on my cheek. ‘’Please do dance with Selene a lot, and just know that I’ll always be with you and her through my light.’’ She pushes me and I fall down onto the ground, it cracks and I descend into the void which turns into a hallway of stars from all directions.

‘’Goodbye ‘Laika’. May I bring light to your way through this journey of life in this world.’’

I wake up.

I would never leave you, you told me that we would dance later again.

The voice of Selene instantly greets me. I’m glad.

Of course, we will. I’m sorry for thinking that. It’s…alright, I won’t blame you. It’s me who should be sorry. I was too late, and your body suffered for it. How bad is it?

…It’s best if you see for yourself. I finally raise my head to look around and see that I’m in a forest, the sound of a small river’s water flowing could be heard to my right. So I slowly walk towards it and look into the water.

I see the same face, the same tan color but it has a white line right between the eyes and the body? My body below the neck was ivory white almost as if the colors themselves had died.

Another transformation…I’m getting further and further away from being human. I’m sorry.
Don’t be it was not your fault. I turn away from the water and look around again, stopping my shaking arm. Selene where are we? The White Tail Woods.

…okay? And?

Oh, sorry, We’re west of Canterlot. Thanks. I lay on the soft grass and looked up at the stars and the moon, the latter seemed to shine even brighter, at least to my eye.

So where do we go from here? Any suggestions? I propose we go even further into the west, to the west is unexplored territory. Equestria has no influence there. So we won’t be found by Celestia…and Luna there? It’s our best bet.

I look to my left and see moonlight passing through the leaves of trees, they look as if forming a road. A soft tune of piano plays in the back of my mind.

Hey Selene where does that lead? I point to the road of light. That way? Hmm, it should be west. I stop my shaking arms, stop it, get up, and follow the road. The piano slowly fades.

Even though it’s night time it doesn’t feel as cold.

‘’Let me go!’’ Scootaloo screamed at her captors while pulling on the bars of the small cage she was thrown in.

‘’Quiet you!’’ The small diamond dog with brown fur and a nose that was always drooling with snot banged on the bars with the shaft of his spear, barely missing Scootaloos hooves holding the bars.

‘’You’ll all see when Rainbow Dash gets here and kicks all of your butts!’’ Scootaloo yells again but she doesn’t hold the bars this time.

How in Celestia’s name did she get here? Diamond Tiara had made fun of her wings again about how they couldn’t be used for anything and she was worth less than a normal pegasus. She was used to it at that point, so she learned to ignore Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon’s endless jeering.

But Diamond crossed the line when she said her wings were the reason why her parents left. Scootaloo barely held herself back from jumping at Diamond. Her friends tried to comfort her but it still stung.

She would prove that she was better than that pink obnoxious filly, so she got on her trusty scooter in the dead of the morning and took off. Her mission? Find a diamond prettier than that Celestia damned tiara.

She may have gone too deep into the hills and she may have gotten captured by these ugly, dog things but it was fine. Rainbow Dash would come in and save the day when she learned that Scootaloo was missing! …right?

Suddenly her cage got picked up from the ground and was put on a cart.

‘’W-what’s happening?!’’ Scootaloo asked at the same guard who tried to hit her hooves earlier. The dog licked its snot and snickered at Scootaloo.

‘’You’re being shipped off to the Kingdom! It’s far away west, so your pretty princesses can’t do anything! Hawhawhaw!’’ He laughed and snorted.

Rainbow Dash would save her…and she’d show her paren-Diamond Tiara that she was not useless.

28-Blue Carriage

Scootaloo huddled in the corner of her cold cage, it got colder and colder by every hour the caravan traveled. She tried to warm herself up with her wings but it proved useless.

‘’Stupid wings…’’ She grumbled while her wings tried to cover her body, proving futile. They couldn’t reach her torso.

So she hugged herself with her hooves to keep some semblance of warmth. Sometimes the cart she was on would drive over a hole, or a rock and she would bounce into the air landing harshly on the solid wooden bottom of the cage.

‘’Ow…’’ She rubbed her backside.

At first, she didn’t worry, Rainbow Dash would swoop in and save her she thought, everything would be solved she thought, she would go back to Ponyville to her friends she thought.

She continued thinking that for a time, a day passed and she still believed it, another day, she believed it. After five more days, her faith was broken. Rainbow Dash wasn’t coming to save her. Why would she? She was a pegasus that couldn't even fly.

The caravan moved slowly through the barren hills. Sometimes it stopped and the guards would give her something to eat, most of the time it was just some hard bread. Her cart had grinned down to a halt causing Scootaloo to look up, expecting a piece of bread or anything else, but the bread hadn’t come.

What did come was the noises of the guard yelling(?) or maybe laughing, Scootaloo couldn’t tell, all of their voices sounded the same and she hated all of them the same.

‘’Hawhaw-’’ Oh yeah, they were laughing. She recognized that it was the same sound when they were making fun of her. ‘’-we finally caught another one! Maybe this expedition really won’t be as much of a waste.’’

Another one? Did they catch another pony? Was it Rainbow Dash!? A small glimmer of hope had sparked inside of Scootalo. But that had been put out when her cage door was opened and a pony that was not Rainbow Dash had been tossed inside.

‘’You can become friends now-’’ The guard dog snorted. ‘’-or whatever you weird ponies do.’’ He pinched his snout. ‘’Though this one could use a wash.’’ He slammed the cage door and even though Scootaloo knew it was coming the sound of it made her flinch.

She looked at the groaning mostly white pony lying face down on the wood floor. She was curious about him so she slowly got up and approached the jumble of groans. As she got closer, she could hear some of the words.

‘’You- when- I- puking…’’ Puke? That would explain the smell at least. Though she still didn’t understand a thing he said.

‘’M-mister?’’ She cautiously approached the pony and poked his side.

‘’Weugh?’’ He made a weird sound and raised his head.

He looked awful, Scootaloo was in captivity for a week, and yet she still looked better. His eye bags were larger than Rarity’s handbags, and his mane was ruffled beyond repair with bits of stick and leaves jutting out of random places from it.

‘’Wha-? W-who-where am I?’’ He asked trying to get up, looking around he saw the cage bars, sighed, covered his face with his hooves, and then screamed.

‘’AHHH!’’ Scottaloo took a step back and winced at the shrill screech. But the screaming stopped after a second. Opening her eyes she looked at him unsure if she should even start talking.

He heaved a sigh. ‘’Okay, I’m fine. I’m fine.’’ He quickly shook his head and slapped himself on the cheeks a little. ‘’Sorry, I yelled.’’

Scootalo tried to say something, only to be cut off by a loud bang.

‘’Hey! Stop screaming, we’ve already dealt with with your smell and filth.’’ It was the guard dog with a snotty nose. ‘’I don’t want to put up with you any longer.’’ He banged on the bars again with his spear threateningly before leaving again.

‘’Yikes. I already hate him.’’ He said as he shrugged and looked back again at Scootaloo his eyes widening when he actually looked at her. ‘’Wait how-how old are you?’’

‘’I’m ten.’’

‘’Seriously? They got a fu-kid?’’ He said as he turned around and glared at the snotty dog. ‘’How long you’ve been here?’’ He leaned down and asked.

‘’I-uhh…I don’t remember but um…’’ Scootalo was not actually sure how long it had been.

‘’It’s okay. You don’t have to answer, that was answer enough.’’ He showed a small smile and patted Scootaloos head. Oddly enough, she enjoyed it, even though he was a bit stinky and his hoof was cold, but that was probably from the chilly night.

He opened his mouth to speak again but he turned backward just as fast and while holding both ends of the bars started barfing outside the cage.

Scootaloo peaked over his shoulder and saw that he was puking out…rainbows. Wait what?

‘’Umm, mister? Are you…okay? That doesn’t look good.’’ And it didn’t smell good either. Scootaloo thought, not voiced only thought. She didn’t want to be rude.

‘’I’m-eugh-fine…’’ He turned around and wiped his mouth. ‘’My body is just uhhh…detoxifying, yeah, detoxifyingitself.’’

Deto…what now? Scootaloo couldn’t even pronounce that word. Let alone know what it was. But it didn’t sound good.

Seeing her confusion he explained. ‘’Think of it this way. I…ate something terrible and now my body is throwing out the terrible thing since it shouldn’t be there.’’ Scootaloo could see his hooves shake a little, was it from the chilly breeze of the night?

‘’But it’s rainbow? And it’s sparkling.’’

‘’Yeah, well, uhhh the thing I ate was magical. And I ate a lot and I mean a lot.’’

That just raised more questions for Scootaloo but she decided to let it go for now.

‘’Anyhow forget about that, how about you tell me how you ended up here?’’ He said and sat beside Scootaloo.

Scootaloo wasn’t sure how to begin, she kept opening her mouth to say something but the words wouldn’t come out and even if they did she would cut herself short. The longer this awkward silence-short-word-thing went on, the more nervous she became.

‘’Hey, it’s okay, we’re not in a rush.’’ He pats her head again. ‘’Take your time and take a breath too, like this.’’ He inhaled a lot of air through the nose ‘’Inhale…Exhale’’ and exhaled them through his mouth. ‘’Remember not to hold it in too much or you’ll be inflated like a balloon!’’ The joke brought a small smile to Scootaloo.

So she closed her eyes, inhaled through the nose…and exhaled through the mouth. She didn’t hold it in for long, she didn’t want to be a balloon!

She started talking, and now all of the nervousness had washed away. Words just came pouring out of her mouth, and he listened, occasionally agreeing with her or nodding his head. Scootaloo left out the part where Diamond taunted her parent's absence.

‘’Well, that was pretty stup-Ow!’’ When she was finally finished he started to talk but was cut short by…something?’’

‘’Are you-’’

‘’I’m fine…just stubbed my hoof on something.’’ Scootaloo sucked her teeth in, that hurt pretty bad. ‘’What I was saying is that what you did was pretty…reckless. Very courageous but reckless nonetheless.’’

‘’I...I know.’’ She lowered her head. ‘’I just-’’

‘’Hey, it’s okay, we all make rash decisions from time to time though yours have resulted in-’’ He scratched his chin. ‘’-less than favorable circumstances.’’

That was an understatement of the millennia, hehe. Scootaloo got to use that word, she didn’t think she would when she learned it in schoo-wait, Scootaloo never asked his name!

‘’Sorry mister but um, what’s your name?’’ The mister’s eyes had widened.

‘’Huh, I’ve never told you my name?’’ He scoffed. ‘’How rude of me!’’ He quickly lowered his head and extended a hoof towards Scootaloo. ‘’Knight of The Moon, Laika, at your service.’’

Scootaloo giggled and took his hoof. ‘’The rider of the fastest scooters and the second coolest pony in Ponyville, Scootaloo, at your service!’’

His smile wavered a bit but Scootaloo didn’t notice it in the dark. ‘’Oh, such an honor for me to meet The Tamer of Scooters! I admire your bravery to handle such beasts, and would wish to see you do it.’’

‘’You really want to?!’’ He nodded with a huge smile plastered all over his face. ‘’I can show you…’’ Remembering that they were not free, her enthusiasm vanished as fast as it arrived.

Leaning over he whispered to her. ‘’Well when we get out of here, you can show me all the cool tricks you can do.’’ He leaned back and yawned. ‘’But now? I have to sleep. I’ve been-’’ He yawned again. ‘’I’ve been awake for way too long.’’

He collapsed on the wooden floor and laid his head on the ground. ‘’Oh and if something happens wak-’’ He was out cold in a second, snoring happily. Woah, he was really sleepy.

She yawned too, either his yawn was infectious or she was sleepy too. Unconsciously Scootaloo shimmied closer to Mr. Laika and laid her head on his side.

His fur was cold as ice.

But it felt warm to her.

Twilight silently crept through the castle's halls in the dead of night.

It had been one week since…Twilight couldn’t even explain what to call it. What was supposed to happen was that they were going to defeat Nightmare Moon, again, and save Laika and that would be the end of it.

But it wasn’t as simple as Twilight thought it would be.

The halls were empty and quiet. No one was working at this hour, not even the guards. Normally they would but after what happened Celestia and Luna both closed themselves in their room.

Luna in rage, and Celestia in…Twilight had never seen her teacher like that in her entire life. She was completely frozen when Laika left, only uttering sorries to the wind. Twilight didn't know what happened between Luna and Celestia, she and her friends had been weakened so much that all of them lost consciousness after Laika's escape. Twilight woke up after two days in the castle infirmary, and her friends soon followed.

They were still in the infirmary, sleeping. Twilight should have been resting too, but she needed answers. What truly was Nightmare Moon? Why did Nightmare Moon call Celestia ‘Mother.’?

Celestia hated being called mother, Twilight accidentally called her mother once, and it was the angriest she had ever seen her dear teacher. She remembered not to call her anything close to that.

But when Nightmare called Celestia that, she didn’t become angry, she became shocked. From what she heard from the castle staff, she hadn’t come out of her room not even once.

She passed by a dark blue door, and the sounds of muffled sobbing could be heard through it, she wanted to stop but she thought it was best not to.

Finally, Twilight was facing down the door of Celestia’s room. It was quiet. She didn’t know if that was a good thing or not. Taking a huge breath, she reached over and knocked on it.

‘’Princess? It’s me Twilight.’’

No answer came.

‘’Can I come in?’’

Still, no answer. Twilight didn’t lose her resolve though.

‘’I wan-I have to talk to you,’’ Twilight asked again.

But no answer came.

Twilight sighed and reached over to the doorknob. It was locked. Blinking a few times, she tried to open it again, but the door did not budge.

‘’Why… Why won’t you talk to me?!’’ Twilight almost screamed.

Her screams were not enough to rouse the Princess.

Frustrated, she used her magic to open the lock from the other side manually. This took considerable effort on her part since she was still weakened. She finally heard the click and released the breath she didn’t know she was holding.

Attentively she turned the doorknob and pushed the door. She was assaulted by the darkness of the room. The dim moonlight creeping through the windows was the only source of light. The room was untouched as if nothing had moved from a week prior, it gave Twilight the creeps.

Twilight cautiously entered the room and looked around but couldn’t see Celestia. She heard a noise and turned to look and finally, she saw Celestia.

She was in the darkest corner of the room, hunching over. She was whispering but Twilight couldn’t hear what. She looked as if she hadn’t moved from that place, or had any sleep in a week.

‘’Princess?’’ Twilight asked but Celestia didn’t even react in any possible way. She was in a trance that couldn't be broken.

Twilight got closer and closer until she could make up some of the words Celestia was whispering.

‘’It’s not possible, she can’t be-but she is…no! This is a trick by Nightmare Moon.’’ Celestia was clutching a small book. Twilight couldn’t see what book it was and she couldn’t tell it by the cover too.

‘’Princess?’’ She asked again, and Celestia didn’t react or show any type of emotion to it again.

‘’My sweet little…no I-I-I-, she’s gone, she’s gone, she’s gone and-’’

‘’PRINCESS!’’

That broke Celestia out of her trance. Looking up but not letting go of the book, she saw Twilight. Her eyes widened and she tried to say something, anything. No words left her mouth.

‘’Princess. What happened?’’ Twilight pointed to the small book Celestia was still clutching as if her own life depended on it. ‘’What is that book?’’ Twilight could feel the magic radiating from the book.

It had some kind of preservation spell cast on it, a powerful one. Now that she was closer to the book she could get a good look at it. It looked ancient, the cover had already faded away. How old was this book?

Celestia looked at the book with a small, pain-filled smile. ‘’It’s her book. It’s the only thing I have left of her.’’

‘’Her? Is ‘her’...Selene?’’ Twilight asked and sat beside her teacher.

At the mention of her name, Celestia looked away from the book and closed her eyes. So it was her book.

‘’Princess, who is Selene. Why did she call you mother?’’ Twilight asked again hoping to get some answers this time, and since she was close enough she could see the cover name on the book at least.

‘The Filly and The Knight.’ Huh, Twilight had never actually heard of it before it sounded similar to one of her favorites though.

‘’I... I will tell you Twilight Sparkle, but this must not reach my sister’s ears.’’ Celestia raised her head and agreed to answer. ‘’Only yours, not your friends, not your family, not my sister.’’

‘’But-’’

‘’That is my only request from you Twilight. Luna cannot bear any more burdens on her back. Especially not now.’’

Twilight bit her lip, this was the second time Celestia was asking this and the first time didn’t go so well. But Celestia looked completely different this time, when she first asked Twilight it was almost akin to a command, this time? This time it was akin to begging.

‘’Okay, I won’t tell anyone.’’

‘’Then let me tell you about my greatest folly.’’ Celestia caressed the book in her hoof. ‘’Let me tell you about a small filly.’’

Sometimes ignorance truly was bliss, Twilight didn’t know that this night.

She wished she knew.

‘’You calling somepony reckless is very ironic,’’ Selene said as she lay under the shade of a giant oak tree.

‘’I’m offended. How dare you call me reckless.’’ I try to defend myself from these baseless accusations while laying on the verdant fields of the hill the tree sits upon.

‘’Yeah, when have we ever been reckless?’’ I defend myself from the branch of the tree.

‘’Well I have several memories-’’

‘’Shut, up.’’ We both silence the would-be traitor.

‘’Jeez, fine.’’ I motion my hand across my mouth as if closing a zipper.

The situation has yet to particularly develop to my advantage. First I get mad stomach aches and then start throwing up a rainbow. Yeah, literal rainbow, sparkly ones at that. Selene said that was how my body threw out the leftover magic from my impromptu execution by a magic death ray.

Second, I get captured by these dogs, while vomiting. Not a fun experience. May have got a bit of rainbow bile on one of them, a little revenge for me I suppose, the following whack with the shaft of a spear was not worth the revenge.

And third, I was now stuck with a kid, with no escape in sight. I couldn’t even have Selene use her…magic… to help. Why? Well, apparently Luna was trying to get into my dreams but Selene was blocking her using her magic and since she was using most of her energy that way, she was left with barely any left.

‘’That reminds me why did you pull my tail?’’ I got up from the grass and headed towards the tree.

Selene gave me an unamused face. ‘’You were about to call that filly ‘stupid’.’’

‘’Well, she did something stupid.’’ I shrugged my shoulders, when kids do something stupid you make sure they don’t do that stupid thing again.

‘’Yes, yes, but you don’t tell a child that.’’ Selene rolled her eyes. ‘’And wouldn’t that make us stupid too? Since we both ended up in the same place as her?’’

‘’Hey, I never said that I wasn’t stupid.’’

‘’Are you calling me stupid too?’’ She narrowed her eyes and her voice both at me.

‘’Careful now, let’s not step on any land mines.’’ I swung from the swing tied to the branch.

‘’I was a minesweeper in my past life,’’ I stated confidently.

‘’Past life? How did we die?’’ I looked up to the branch while swinging.

I narrowed my eyes too. ‘’Yes.’’ and stepped on. I was not a very good minesweeper, clearly.

Time seemed to slow down as I blinked and saw Selene pounce on me. Ah, so this is how I die? Total mind death by an angry magical entity, after everything I survived? …eh. Could have been worse.

Time continued on and I was pushed onto the ground leading both I and Selene's tumble down the hill. It didn’t hurt, we both rolled down the hill with the sounds of laughter following the sounds of both bodies rolling over the grass.

As we neared the foot of the hill, the environment changed. The hill was no more and both me and Selene were boxed from all sides. I was thrown to one comfy seat and across me was Selene, on the same comfy red seat. I was getting used to this dreaming stuff, so now I could change the place like this on the go.

So now we were at a train booth, and the train was named-

‘’All passengers, The Silly Train is about to take off, please show your tickets to the ticket man, we wish you a safe and pleasant journey.’’ Using the intercom, I wished everyone aboard well.

‘’The Silly Train? Really?’’ Selene said with a small snicker.

Before I could respond with my reason as to why the train had that glorious name, the door to the booth had been opened and-

‘’Alright, present your tickets, and if you don’t have one. Well, may god have mercy on you, for I won’t.’’ The familiar grumpy face with a red suit and cap, and was that a baton?

‘’Yes.’’ I raised the baton in a way to establish that I had power over them.

Not wanting to be on the other side of the ticket man I quickly got my ticket and reached it out to him. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Selene look confused as hell.

I took the ticket and stuffed it into my ticket coat, the coat of many tickets. ‘’And you miss?’’

‘’I, umm, I don’t…’’ She kept avoiding eye contact with the monstrous, ticket man. She quickly leaned towards me and whispered. ‘’Where is my ticket?!’’ I just gave her an impish smile filled with mischief.

‘’No tickets eh? I see, I see, well th-Oof!’’ Just before I could enact my punishment, I was pushed out of the way.

‘’Any drinks? Maybe some peanuts, or peanut sandwiches?’’ I pushed the hardass out of the way.

Now the attendee had arrived with a blue suit and cap, pushing a cart full of beverages, and a disoriented ticket man being pushed out of the way. It looks like Selene had barely managed to be spared from the ticket man's wrath. I could hear a small sigh of relief come from her.

‘’No? Okie dokie, have a fun trip.’’ I said and closed the door pushing the bore even farther and farther.

‘’You jerk! You didn’t give me a ticket!’’ Selene said and started slapping my head.

‘’What? Did you want a ticket to the silly train?’’ I laughed and raised an arm to block the incoming slaps.

That seemed to stop her, she huffed and went back to her seat. It was silent, that was fine by me, I liked watching the passing environment. But there was a question in my head, a big one.

One that I had avoided since I escaped the castle, there were more pressing matters at that time, such as not dying. Well, I’m captured but I can’t do anything about that.

‘’Selene?’’

‘’Mhn?’’ She hummed in response.

‘’Who is Nightmare Moon? Why did Celestia call ‘me-you’ that?’’

Selene didn’t turn her head towards me, but I could see her pupil shrink a bit from the glass reflection, and her ears pressed towards her head. She didn’t say anything for a solid minute and then sighed.

‘’I guess it was inevitable. I wished I didn’t have to tell you, but you have a right to know.’’ She finally turned her head towards me with her piercing eyes focused right on my own eyes.

‘’Let me tell you the story of how I became this.’’ She said with obvious bitterness dripping from her tongue. I didn’t like how she seemed to hate what she became, I like her this way. ‘’Let me tell you about a small filly.’’

Our blue train was streaming forward, smoothly the long path spread before us and it was running straight into the horizon.

29-Junction of Dreams

A soft wind grazed the meadow, its touch moving the blades of grass in a graceful dance. The sparse clouds moving with the support of local pegasi helped travelers, merchants, and all sorts of ponies move comfortably throughout the many masterfully created and maintained roads that led to the castle.

The Everfree Castle sat on a small hill in the middle of sun-blessed plains. Sisters of the Sun and Moon built it from the ground up. When Discord reigned chaos upon Equestria, the sisters stood against and defeated the Lord of Mischief. Ponies, overjoyed that their chaotic shackles had been broken threw themselves to the Sister of the Sun yelling out.

‘’We’ll be free forever!’’

They pleaded with Celestia to help them rebuild and lead them. Celestia humbly accepted the task and with her sister, they started unifying the broken nation bit by bit. The Everfree Castle signified the nation’s prosperity over time, the castle became grander and more opulent the richer the country became.

And now it was at the peak of its magnificence, with hundreds of rooms of all varying sizes dotted the halls lit by steel braziers. The rooms were mostly for the castle's personnel, but a sizeable number were dedicated to guests; one of the guest rooms, in particular, was avoided by staff and guests alike.

One would feel the hairs on their back rise and a feeling of dread and terror as they passed in front of the door of that accursed room. But it was not the room itself that was cursed.

It was the… thing inside the room that made the room so incomprehensibly fear-inducing. The Herald of Windigoes, Child of the Void, and The Harbinger of Chaos were a few of the titles given to it. But one in particular stuck out.

The Nightmare.

Selene woke up with a yawn. She was doing much, much better! It was all thanks to Mo-Princess Celestia. With considerable effort, she stretched her front hooves into the air and let them fall on each side of her head after she was sure that they were stretched properly. She couldn’t stretch her legs though, not that she didn’t want to; she lost all feeling below her belly. Alright, it was time to start her day, she didn’t want to be late for breakfast after all!

She took a large breath and closed her eyes.

…

And let it all out, and opened her eyes.

Time to move.

She took hold of one of her back legs with shaky hooves and threw it to the edge of the bed. Okay, this was going fine, time for the other one.

‘’Ah-’’

*thunk*

Ow.

She threw her leg with too much force, and now she had a surprise meeting with the wooden floor. Hello, Mr. Plank. They were meeting awfully often these days, haven’t they?

Normally, a maid would help her, but she hasn’t been showing up lately. Was it something she said? Selene didn’t know, but the maids never stuck around her; a new one would replace the previous one every week or so.

No use thinking about it now, she’s got her sights set on something else.

‘’Hello Wheelie, did you miss me?’’ She giggled and slowly dragged herself towards ‘Wheelie’.

Wheelie stood on the other side of the room, it was a wooden plank that stood upon four wheels. There was a small yet comfortable red pillow on top of it, when she still had some sense in her bottom it helped massively but it was of no use to her now. She still kept it on though, it made Wheelie look more regal.

It was a gift from Celestia to Selene, and she could never thank her enough for…anything. This was just another one on the list for which she would be forever thankful.

Selene pulled herself on top of Wheelie and took a minute to rest, her working hooves were already tired.

‘’Onwards we go! Hehehe.’’

Selene positioned her hooves on each side of the cart.

‘’And, one,’’ she pulled a little forward.

‘’And, two,’’ she pushed a little backward.

‘’Three!’’ she pushed with all her might towards the door and let go of her hooves, moving at record speed to the door.

‘’No wait! Slow down!’’ Unfortunately, she might have used a bit too much power to push her already light-as-a-feather body.

Fortunately, she was able to slow herself down just enough to hit the door but not hit it too hard, resulting in a light tap on her head.

‘’Owie.’’ she rubbed the light swelling on her forehead before reaching for the door, opening it, and pushing herself to the hallway.

It seemed like the hallway was empty, strange she thought; why was it always empty when she came out? Even when a maid was helping her it was empty. Well, Selene preferred it this way, she could get around an empty place with much more ease. So, with the occasional wheel squeak, she made her way through the empty halls quite fast.

Ah, a corner. Unfortunately, Wheelie wasn’t ideal for corners; a long straight path and she would fly but a corner? She’d have to slow down regrettably.

An idea popped into her head, a brilliant idea she had the last time she was faced with a corner but couldn’t apply it because the hall was filled with ponies, but this time she would be free to apply it.

Instead of slowing down, she picked up speed. Selene’s eyes narrowed, her head leaned forward and she focused on the incoming corner. At this rate, if she didn’t do something she would crash into the wall.

Just as she crossed the point of no return, she exerted much of her physical strength and planted her left hoof on the ground, and using the remaining amount of her energy she pushed as hard as she could while trying to keep her left hoof steady. Her efforts proved fruitful and she was able to make a sharp left turn clumsily yet successfully avoiding the intimidating stone wall in front of her.

‘’Y-yes! I did it!’’ she kept pushing, using both her hooves to keep the momentum up as she flew at speeds she had never reached before. ‘’Omfhp!’’ Until she crashed into an unsuspecting maid.

Selene was thrown off Wheelie and again she had a surprise meeting with the floor, this time hurt a lot more though. Before she could do or say anything she heard a gasp.

‘’I-it’s you!’’ the maid half yelled half whispered, as she backed away little by little.

It was Dew Drop! Her first helper when she arrived here, she hadn’t seen her in a while. Hey, maybe she could help Selene get back on Wheelie? Where was he anyway? She hoped he wasn’t broken.

‘’He-’’

‘’Don’t speak to me! I don’t want to be cursed!’’ she spat out the words, and the harsh words were accompanied by a glare that could bore a hole into Selene’s head.

‘’I won’t curse you…’’ Selene said meekly, her downcast head concealing her eyes. They always looked scared when they saw her eyes. So she tried to hide them.

‘’Shut up! Shut up! Please shut up!’’ The terrified maid yelled out and started running away.

Selene was left alone on the carpeted floor. She silently watched as Dew Drop fled as if she saw a monster. Selene didn’t say anything as she crawled over to the knocked-down Wheelie and flipped it with a huff. She crawled over to the wall and leaned towards it to rest for a minute before returning to Wheelie. She rubbed away the wetness in her eyes and slowly pushed herself towards the dining room.

Selene didn’t dare say anything lest she curse something for the rest of the journey.

She slowly grew to enjoy the silence of empty halls.

Selene was back in her room. The Princess couldn’t make time as she was busy with…something she didn’t really know or was informed about but it must have been pretty important.

Now there was yet another challenge for her to prevail against.

‘’It’s you and me again,’’ Selene said to her foe, who didn’t bother replying. ‘’I won’t lose to you today.’’

Selene glared at the chair from down below on Wheelie. She didn’t like getting up on the chair it was easier with a helping hoof but, well…

She didn’t think she would get much of that soon.

‘’Okay, I have to do this. I won’t fall this time.’’ Selene reassured herself and with newfound confidence threw her hooves over the seat of the chair. Alright, the first step was a success.

‘’Come on!’’ Selene whispered through gritted teeth as she tried to pull herself up to no avail. With shaky hooves, she pulled herself. She pulled like there would be no tomorrow because maybe there wouldn’t be one.

Finally, she thought, flopping her legs down and letting them swing from the chair as she sat up. Although her face was one of exhaustion she had a huge smile on her face. She had won.

‘’Take that, stupid chair.’’ She lightly slapped the seat of the humbled chair.

Selene looked at the table covered in all sorts of papers. Some papers were filled to the brim from back to front. Some were crumbled up and tossed around haphazardly. And some empty ones were silently whispering to her, with honeyed words so sweet. She let the words slip into her ears and she picked up the quill.

After hours of vigorous work, she had made considerable progress. Selene set the quill back down and picked up the last page she worked on.

‘’Yes! I like where this is-afhk, ack, koff!’’ A violent coughing fit took over her body.

Selene's head hovered over the table, leaving her a panting mess. After taking a few breaths to calm down and rest, she opened her eyes to have her vision painted red. The paper she had just finished working on had been ruined. She looked at her hoof, and it was similarly covered in this redness.

These coughs had been becoming more of a nuisance lately. Selene wiped her hoof on the now useless piece of paper; the crumbled ball of red and yellow was tossed away from the table.

She grumbled and took a moment to reorient herself before continuing. She had been working on this ever since Celestia gave her a stack of papers and a quill. It was something she had wanted to do for a long time but couldn’t do because her parents never gave her the opportunity. It was no masterpiece by any means but it was hers.

Her hoof started to ache so she put the quill down, she didn’t want to waste pages with her already sub-par calligraphy skills and the coughs becoming increasingly common. She already wasted enough paper.

Once she tried to use her mouth to hold the quill, it might not have been her most brilliant plan. She might or might not have choked on the feather.

‘’Selene, are you here dear?’’

Before she could reminisce about not-so-fun memories a knock on her door broke her out of her deep concentration. The knock was followed by a voice sweet as honey, the moment it reached Selene’s ears she was already trying to get out of the chair to rush towards the door. Her rushed attempt at getting off the chair failed and she crumpled to the ground once again taking the small wooden chair along with her.

‘’Selene?!’’ screamed Celestia, in panic. ‘’I’m coming in!’’ Before promptly slamming the door and charging into the room. As soon as she saw Selene on the floor she hurried to her.

‘’I’m okay, I’m ok-’’ Selene couldn’t even finish her sentence before she was engulfed in a golden aura and lifted up into the air.

‘’What happened?’’ Celestia asked, her voice was laced with obvious concern.

‘’...I fell off the chair.’’

Celestia hummed in deliberation while she moved closer to the table. Selene allowed her eyes to be closed, she felt as if she was swimming in a sea of love. Much to her dislike though, she slowly lost the feeling, and opening her eyes she saw that Celestia had placed Selene in her bed.

‘’Do be more careful dear,’’ Celestia whispered from the side of the bed with a smile.

‘’I don’t wanna sleep.’’ Selene hummed out. ‘’I wanna talk to you, Princess…’’

‘’As you wish my courageous filly.’’ Celestia sat on the foot of the bed.

They talked for hours, but to Selene, it felt like mere seconds, about their days, about their thoughts, about yummy cakes. Celestia talked and Selene listened she loved every second of it. She didn’t care if she was cursed if it meant she could be with Celestia. Their moment was however cut short as Selene’s eyes slowly started to droop and she allowed a small yawn to escape from her equally small mouth.

‘’You should sleep now,’’ said Celestia as she placed a small kiss on Selene’s forehead.

Selene smiled. ‘’Good night, Mom. I love you,’’ said Selene without even realizing what she said.

Celestia paused for a second. ‘’I love you too dear.’’ The words sounded hurt. Selene didn’t notice.

Selene felt the blanket being drawn over her body and she slowly drifted into a peaceful slumber under the serene Moon.

…

She saw the crumbled-up paper. She knew it might have been too late. She knew she had to do something. She might lose her dignity, she might go behind everything she stood for. But she can’t lose them. She will save both of them.

She went to talk to the statue.

Luna watched intently in the endless space. Ignoring the nightmares of other ponies, they weren’t important now.

She looked for any signs, any possibility of his dreams. They existed, she saw them before but she didn’t interfere with them even when she was they were in turbulence. She thought he would wish that way.

How she was wrong. And now he was suffering because of her. She lost her only friend because of herself. Luna would save him from her.

She wandered the cold space for hours, navigating expertly in the realm. Where was he? Was Nightmare Moon hiding his presence? Was Luna not strong enough to even see through that?

A flicker of light. A flame dying slowly. She felt it, it was him. She could feel it, somehow Nightmare Moon was severed from her friend. Luna rushed towards the flame and grasped it as if her life depended on it, and her vision became black.

Luna woke up in a railroad car. The sounds of the wheels moving along the tracks were almost deafening. She looked around cautiously, half of the wagon was filled with seats along the windows, and the other half had a small bar with many high stools on one side.

‘’L-Laika?’’ Luna slowly took a step forward, calling his name.

The cart door opposite of her opened and a figure clad in red foreign cloth walked in. Luna immediately took a step backward in an alert. Upon closer look, Luna realized that the figure's two-legged ‘body’ was made of an ethereal black mist. If it did not have its dull crimson clothing and tiny cap of similar color, one would assume it was just smoke. Its mask was the most attention-catching part of the creature: A beaten and battered mask of wrought iron showing the face of anger, sadness, and disgust in one face with a frown that almost covered the eyes of the mask.

The masked figure walked with heavy strides towards her. Luna could sense its feelings of hostility growing with each step, she unconsciously took a step backward each time the figure took one.

‘’What are you?’’

It stopped. ‘’I’m the Ticketmaster. Now, tickets.’’ it declared with a masculine voice similar to that of Laika’s but distorted, corrupt, wrong. As the ‘arm’ of the creature extended forward with an open hand.

Luna composed herself, ‘’Where is Laika?’’

The figure didn’t reply, he just stared at Luna expectedly with the arm not moving.

‘’Where is he?!’’ Luna asked again with more force.

‘’You don’t have a ticket?’’

‘’No! Where. is. Laika?’’

No reply came, the figure lowered his arm. ‘’He’s busy.’’ was the last thing that came out of his non-moving mouth before raising his misty arms and moving his equally as misty legs. His posture didn’t seem friendly to Luna at all.

Luna took a low stance in response, lowering her head closer to the cart floor. Her horn glowed a dark blue shine, and multiple meteors of smaller size were forced into being forming a half circle above her head. She released the breath she was holding in. And in rapid motions started flinging the space rocks with great speeds toward him, each one leaving fiery trails behind them and tearing parts of the seats they went through.

The ticket master didn’t even bother dodging the shooting stars. A barstool was lifted and thrown at the first projectile so quickly that it struck the streaking meteor first, resulting in both projectiles being destroyed on impact. He took a stool, threw it, and took a step. This process was repeated until Luna was only left with one itsy bitsy meteor.

‘’Rocks? You’re going to defeat me-’’ He paused, amused. ‘’-with rocks?’’

‘’Silence, beast of Nightmare.’’ she spat out with a glare that bore the force of a thousand moons.

The figure didn’t bother to reply, but Luna sensed its anger. The black mists that formed his body moved faster, whirling with rage, contorting with fury; his clothes ripped and tore around various places, struggling to keep up with the change. Along with the changes to his body came the changes to his mask, it now showed only one emotion: anger.

‘’I’ll show you a beast,’’ he said, voice akin to a low growl.

He started walking, each step cracking the wooden floorboards.

Luna had only one meteor left so she would make it count. She reeled her head backward and charged considerable magic on the tip of her horn. The meteor slowly got into position and was launched forward with magic right behind it, pushing it with even greater velocity.

Undeterred, The Ticketmaster picked up the last remaining stool and ripped out the metal legs of the from the seat. He forced all four of the legs together and merged them, forming a crude bat. He fixed his cap and grasped the bat with both hands. Moments passed and he waited for the space rock to come closer, the second it was in his range the bat was swung.

*tink*

A strange sound came at the moment of contact and the shooting star was launched back to Luna even faster than it was before. Following the tink, a couple of figures similar to her opponent appeared, eliciting thunderous applause and cheers in the remaining seats. When Luna blinked, the figures were gone with their cheers disappearing into nothingness as if it didn’t happen at all.

What a tortuous realm this is.

Luna shook her head and focused with her horn on the incoming meteor. She was able to heat the meteor enough for it to turn to ash just before reaching her. Unfortunately, this had the side effect of the ash hitting her in the face, obscuring her view. She heard a cackle.

Wiping her face she saw him in the air traveling towards her with an outstretched fist. Not having enough time or place to dodge Luna decided to brace. She would be hit there was no avoiding it. Wings covered her face, forming a shield. This would have to do.

But did she just see the frown turn into a sneer?

The Ticketmaster had a change of plans mid-air, lowering his fist and raising his leg he slammed down onto the floor with enough force that the railcar risked falling over and toppling. The wooden boards under his feet were raised from the ground, forming a wave made out of wood that traveled toward Luna.

The wave was rising in size as it picked up momentum and the unfortunate planks underneath it. The wooden wave had transformed into a wooden tsunami as it picked up most of the floor and it was on its way to swallow Luna whole.

Faced with the incoming woody doom she prepared her wings and legs. She knew what to do as she remembered a conversation with a dear friend.

Wasting no time she threw caution to the empty void outside and jumped forward. Her wings flapped with hurry and uncertainty, yet she pressed on. While in the air, using her magic she created a semi-transparent board underneath her hooves. She braced for impact and landed on the wave with the board underneath her.

She had to balance herself, her back hoof almost slipping out. This monster would be tamed. Back hooves raised, Luna slammed as hard as she could. The power was great enough for the wave to change paths. And now she was riding the wave against the Ticketmaster. Whose face of anger had changed into one of shock.

It slowly turned into a neutral face with the three faces taking place on the mask, although the corners of his mouth had a small tilt upward to them.

Just before he was hit by the now Luna-ridden tsunami and faced with an oaky demise, he took off his cap. ‘’I should have known that wouldn’t work.’’ He exhaled but instead of air nothing came out. ‘’You’d just swim back out.’’

The tide came crashing down, destroying half of the cart. The figure was swallowed by the wave, and his hat and coat were consumed alongside. He disappeared into it.

Luna prepared herself for the impact. The wave had become uncontrollable so the best she could do was to lower her head, close her eyes, and hope for minimal damage. As violent as it came the wave crashed just as violently into the door of the cart. Caring not for any of the obstacles in its path it continued on.

Even though the destruction had quelled it a bit it still kept on going and reached about a quarter of the way through the other cart before stopping.

She had done it, the beast proved no match for her skill. She would still be able to save her friend. Yet there was something off about the creature. She couldn’t put her hoof on it, but his last words…

‘’Well, well, well. You really did mess him up.’’ a voice the exact same as the Ticketmaster came from in front of her. ‘’Eh, he probably deserved it.’’

When she opened her eyes in the blink of an eye and raised her head expecting to see him back she was mildly surprised. It wasn’t him, not exactly. This figure had the exact same clothing but this one was clad in a vibrant blue. Its body was not made up of a black smoky mist instead it was made up of condensed opaque white smoke, resembling clouds. The mask was changed too, instead of the boorish frowning mask this one had a shining brass mask. Joy and happiness occupied this mask, its mouth in an eternal smile that almost took up the entire mask.

‘’Could I interest you in a snack?’’ he said and procured a bag of peanuts from…somewhere. ‘’I’m the Steward, if not a snack maybe a drink?’’ With his free hand, he reached into his coat and retrieved a glass of chocolate milkshake.

‘’...No. Tell us where Laika is or we’ll ground you into dust.’’ she wasn’t willing to deal with these nightmares any longer than she had to. However, the milkshake did look tasty.

‘’Ah, I see. No snacks then.’’ the bag and the glass were hurled out from a window. ‘’What can I get you then?’’

‘’Get me Laika.’’

‘’No can do.’’

‘’Then get out of my way.’’

‘’No can do again.’’

Luna narrowed her eyes and looked at the figure with clear hostility. How long had Laika been riddled with these beings? How long was he being tortured by Nightmare Moon, days, weeks? It hurt Luna, it bit at her heart. She was supposed to protect her friend, help him, not be the source of his pain.

She was going to rid him of his curseno matter the cost. Her magic surged within, her vigor renewed, her duty clear. Her horn started glowing.

The Steward sighed. ‘’Guess we gotta do this.’’ he tilted his head from right to left and somehow a series of cracks were heard.

Luna, for the second time, got ready for battle.

‘’Hey, Luna?’’ came Laika's voice from beside her. The cold winds almost carried his voice away but she heard.

‘’Yes?’’ she didn’t open her eyes yet answered.

His voice filled with hesitation he asked. ‘’Have you ever…surfed?’’

‘’Surfed?’’ now curious, her eyes opened and she looked at him.

‘’Yeah, you know.’’ he got up from the pillow and waggled his head and hooves. ‘’Go with the flow, ride the waves, and all that jazz.’’

‘’We have not ‘riden the waves’ as you say. But, I have heard of it.’’

‘’Hmmnn-’’ He sat back on the pillow. ‘’I wanted to surf for a time. My dad used to take me to the beach and he’d always bring his board.’’ he looked towards nowhere in particular his eyes clouded. ‘’And every time we went he would always ask me if I wanted to try it.’’

He blinked and the cloudiness was gone. ‘’And I always said no.’’ he said, sighing.

‘’How so? You didn’t want to?’’

‘’Well, I did want to but I was scared…scared of falling off, scared of not doing it correctly, scared of-’’ He stopped for a second. ‘’-something. I guess I was too used to sitting on the sand.’’

‘’You didn’t know how to swim?’’ Luna concluded, that if some pony was scared of water it must be because they couldn’t swim, right?

‘’No, I did.’’

‘’Then why be scared? Thou could simply swim back up, no?’’

He chuckled. ‘’Yeah, I can already see it, flapping around with your wings in the water. Cursing the board.’’ he motioned with his hooves imitating her. ‘’ ‘Foul water, how darest thou defy me!’ Heheh-ow.’’ for which he received a wing slap.

‘’Don’t make fun of your Princess, Knight.’’ Luna huffed with a small smile. ''We'll show you that mere waves are no match for us in the future.''

''I can't wait.''

Author's Note

It's been a hot minute, hasn't it? Sorry to keep you all waiting, (If anyone was waiting for it at all).

30-A Narrow Path

Drooping eyes, blurry vision. Who was that?

Irregular breathing, throat…itchy.

Ah, it's Mom. Why was she here? She was supposed to be working, wasn’t she?

Her mom smiles, gently caressing her with her wings. It felt better than being on clouds, at least she thought it was.

Dry mouth, water.

Chest tightening, air struggling to get into her lungs, a battle with each breath. A battle she’s slowly losing.

No Mom, don’t cry. Please.

She doesn’t want to see her cry, she’s done nothing wrong. She was the only reason why, a life, even a short one, had been worth living.

So, please.

The sickly, thin hooves try to wipe the tears away.

They fail.

Don’t cry, mom.

All she sees is golden. It’s comforting. Her mom bids her to sleep, to rest.

She can’t find the strength to argue, sleep might be good. Then she can talk to her mom again. They can read her book later together. That sounded nice.

Selene peacefully drifted away to sleep under the soft moonlight.

The dungeons lay in the depths of Everfree Castle. They barely see any use. However, there is one cell, one heavily guarded and monitored cell where no one is allowed except a couple of ponies.

‘’Leave.’’

‘’H-huh?’’

‘’Leave, I wish to be alone.’’

‘’My Princess, you can’t be-’’ A single look silenced the guard. ‘’...As you wish.’’

Bang. And the heavy iron door closed. Celestia was now alone.

She gazed inside the grand cave. There was a stone bridge leading to a single platform in the middle of a deep chasm. Numerous torches helped illuminate the place, although the light from the torches got dimmer and dimmer toward the platform.

Celestia took a huge breath. There was no going back now, but was it truly the right thing to do? Luna, Selene…

She shook her head, no time left. An unknown force pushed her legs forward. Desperation? Maybe.

Drip, drip, water from the roof.

Her breathing and the burning torches were the only sound she could hear. Regardless, there was a mad laughter inside her head—a voice, crooked beyond belief. The voice only got stronger and stronger as she neared the statue in the middle of the jagged platform.

‘Fee’ said the voice.

‘Fi’ laughed the voice.

‘Fo’ cried the voice.

‘Fum’ yelled the voice.

‘I smell the ruffled feathers of a little pony.’’ said the voice, giggling.

Celestia stopped, raised her head, and finally looked at the statue. The weathered stone that stood had its body almost covered entirely in moss, yet through the green one could see the statue’s proportions which were a mish-mash of random creatures stitched together with a cursed stapler. The head was left in a state of perpetual scream, the lone antler and the sharp horn adorning it.

‘Oh, I know I’m beautiful but you didn’t come here to gaze upon me now have you?’ said the sultry voice.

‘’S-silence!’’

‘And how are you going to silence me dear? Encase me in stone-’ he stopped for dramatic effect. ‘again? No, I’ll talk as much as I want.’

Celestia heaved a sigh. ‘’...As much as it pains me to do so I-’’

‘Yes, yes. I already know of your little problem.’

‘’H-huh?’’

‘I still have a lot of vaguely bird-shaped friends. I know what ails you, little Princess.’ The now condescending voice continued. ‘Such a conundrum isn’t it? You can save one, pretty easily might I add?’ he laughed, again. ‘But that was always the plan, wasn’t it? Save your dear sister.’

‘’I-no, I didn’t-’’

‘Ah come now, even I couldn’t predict that you would become attached to that sacrificial cursed lamb. You even gave her a name! What was it Seluna?.’

‘’She’s not cursed!’’ Celestia yelled, her voice coarse.

The voice finally stopped laughing, it didn’t speak for a time. Was it angry? Was it calculating something insidious? Celestia didn’t know. Did she just lose her one chance? She hoped not.

After some grueling minutes of silence, she finally heard him again.

‘As much as it pains me to do so, I may have a solution.’

Celestia gulped, her eyes narrowed. ‘’What is it?’’ She tried to ask in a composed manner.

‘Well, you might not like it with all your-’ the voice sounded disgusted. ‘-harmony, and all that other stuff.’

‘’Just tell me.’’

‘I see someone’s desperate. Very well. I, being the most generous creature in all of time shall help this poor little Princess.’

The statue seemed much more imposing, much more threatening. Celestia had this urge to run, never look back, seal this cell, and throw away the key.

But she stayed, for her sister and her…daughter.

‘She’s dying.’ The voice said bluntly.

‘’They’re both dying.’’ the words felt like thorns on her tongue.

‘Yes, your little lamb because of her ‘not curse’ and the even littler Princess because of her turbulent emotions.’

An Alicorn's emotions were much more powerful than the regular emotions of regular creatures. They can eat up the alicorn bit by bit if not taken care of, affect their body, change their minds, and slowly kill them. In Luna’s case, it had been decades now. Gradually rotting inside her room, isolated from the rest of the world, unable to live.

At this point Celestia was powerless to stop it, so she took drastic measures. Selene was the perfect candidate.

But no longer. No pony will die.

‘You need to use it.’

Celestia knew what he meant. ‘’N-no! There has to be another way!’’ She objected, the idea abhorrent.

‘If there were another way, you wouldn’t have come to me.’ said the voice without laughter, without fun, without humor.

Words failed to form both inside her head and outside her mouth, her instruments of vocality tangled up in her throat, begging to be released: to spit fire on the monstrosity in front of her. But that sensation was squashed.

‘I’m glad you understand.’ it gained back its usual sound, somehow Celestia preferred this one. ‘They both need to be free.’ he said as a lone drop of water landed on the head of the statue, feeding the moss growing on it.

‘The littler Princess needs to be free of her emotions, while your small lamb needs to be freed from her body.’

The latter half of the sentence made Celestia shudder. ‘’What do you mean?’’ she demanded, her voice trying to convey whatever authority she thought she might have at the moment, yet only a small voice laden with fear came out.

‘One’s soul has an excess amount of magic, to the point that it’s killing her. While the other one’s soul has a deficit so grand that it’s killing her. So how about a trade?’

The torches around the statue slowly started getting dimmer and dimmer. Their light and warmth barely reached Celestia.

‘If one has too much and one has too little. How about they give each other what they need?’

‘‘...But Selene wouldn’t survive, her body is too weak.’’

‘Ah, who said it would happen in her body? Only her soul needs to be freed.’

Celestia's eyes widened, she choked for a second before unleashing a wave of screams upon the statue. ‘’You want me to kill her?! Are you insane!? Wait, why am I asking? Of course, you are!’’

‘Oh calm your feathers, I never said you had to kill her. I only said her soul needs to be freed.’ he said dismissively. ‘Besides, you have the perfect tool for the job, something which belongs to me might I add?’ he said with words dripped in venom.

She shuddered under the intense words, and even harsher implication of the words. But she considered them. What he was suggesting was theoretically possible. Or at least it should be possible. But Soul Magic is a wicked art.

However, Celestia was willing to be the most wicked creature if need be. And the need had presented itself now. So she relented.

‘’...how?’’ she hung her low and closed her eyes so as not to look at the statue.

She could hear him smile. ‘Listen carefully my dear. For if you make a mistake or if something interferes, even I do not know what would happen.’

Celestia looked at Selene's sleeping form, which was so thin and fragile yet so strong compared to her. The tears staining the wooden floor beneath her hooves, Celestia wiped them away and gently crawled into the bed lying alongside Selene.

‘’My sweet child,’’ said Celestia, looking upon her daughter, not of blood. ‘’My most precious treasure.’’ She hugged her child and lay on the bed with her for some time.

Selene was enveloped in a faint golden hue, her sickly body floating in the air. Her head hung, and a small smile was on her sleeping face. Celestia got out of the bed and headed towards the door, Selene was comfortably placed upon Celestia’s back. The moonlight clutched onto Selene’s body as Celestia left, begging her not to go.

To stay.

The weak hold of the Moon was broken with little resistance. Celestia felt a shiver pass through her spine not knowing why.

The halls were empty. Under Celestia's orders, no one dared venture out of their rooms, not even the guards. The creaking of the dark wooden floor and the sound of soft breathing reverberate through the marble walls.

Celestia moved to a part of the castle that Selene was not allowed to go to, the section surrounding Luna’s bedroom. She could not have them meet each other, it could mess everything up.

A group of ponies stood outside Luna’s room, forming a half circle, their faces obscured by their heavy wool hoods. They murmur between each other, hushed whispers of emotional venom they spat. Celestia’s ear tried to catch a few words but failed as the whispers ceased once they saw her coming and all promptly bowed quickly and unceremoniously.

‘’M-my Princess, we did what you asked us to.’’ said one of the ponies, head not raised.

‘’Good, now bring her out.’’

The hooded heads rose and a couple moved inside the room, leaving only a handful behind. Who finally notice the lump of blackness sleeping quite soundly upon the back of their ruler. They all took a step back slowly. Celestia’s brows crease and her eyes narrow, as her wings block out Selene. They don’t see her as she does. She needs all the help now, she can’t reject them. She’s worked with the arch-enemy now, what’s a few unruly subjects?

Luna’s door opened and gave way to a sleeping Luna, who was being moved through the air with three of the figures holding her up in the air. Celestia looked upon her sister form: a disheveled shell of an alicorn, where stars of unparalleled beauty occupied her mane now stood the empty blackness, starvation caused not by food but by feeling her ribs poke out threatening to burst out of her chest. Celestia almost broke down at the sight of her.

Almost.

‘’Put her on my back.’’

One of the ponies tried speaking up to protest but the glare he received from Celestia shut his mouth pretty quickly. When the body of her sister was placed on her back, she barely noticed the difference.

Celestia turned around to see the same hallway she came through look darker just moments ago. Braziers provided just enough light to see the way but not enough to illuminate the hallway fully. The glasses lining the wall let moonlight in but it helped little, way thinner than it should have as if the moonlight was trying to make the journey harder.

She felt a slight weight shift on her back but resisted looking back. But just in case she slowed down her gait a little. They thought that Celestia wouldn’t be able to hear their wicked tongues murmur. She chose not to hear them, blocking them out of her mind lest she lose her temper.

The throne room was as empty as the rest of the castle with its only occupants being the vacant thrones. Celestia looked at the thrones with an empty look before craning her neck and looking back.

‘’Mmmhh, sofht,’’ Selene mumbled out, muzzle tucked inside Luna’s neck. Her slight drool stains Luna’s fur. Who had her head laid upon the side of Selene’s head with the smallest of smiles. Stained glass on the walls and roof allowed the spears of reflected illumination to strike both of them, bathing them in dim yet radiant light.

‘’...’’ Celestia bit her lip.

‘’Uhm, my princess? I-is something wrong?’’

Celestia realized that she was indirectly staring at them shook her head quickly and broke her gaze turning her neck back. ‘’No. Bring it out.’’

Again one of the hooded ponies scurried past Celestia, hurriedly moving towards the thrones. He ran up the stairs and went behind Luna’s throne. A click was heard and then he just as quickly went behind Celestia’s throne and after a second another click was heard.

Stone against stone, metal against metal, a slow grinding sound reached everyone's ears. Celestia took a step back, as did her entourage. The centerpiece of the room opened up and a small pedestal was raised, a gleaming gem on top of it. The many sharp but somehow soft protrusions of the gem stuck out of everywhere abiding by no laws of symmetry, one could compare it to the spikes of a hedgehog yet that would not be a fair assessment and it would be an insult to the hedgehog. A hedgehog’s spikes were orderly, organized, and had structure. This could only be called chaotic.

Yet the gem was free, it cared not for the air around it nor its presumed shape, it cared not for its color, changing at every possible second. And for that reason, Celestia had a use for it. Even if being in the presence of it made her want to hurl.

It was the weapon that Discord wielded with great cruelty, wreaking havoc upon the lands of Equestria and many more; yet it fell to the Elements of Harmony. It was the singular, loathsome Element of Chaos.

Freedom.

‘’Pick it up and follow me.’’

Silence.

None moved. All petrified in the presence of this object.

Celestia looked back and saw the figures frozen, not even their breathing could be heard.

‘’I said pick it up and follow me.’’ Said Celestia, with a slightly commanding voice. A few of the ponies were broken out of their stupor and rushed forward without thinking.

Yet when they reached the gem none touched it, none even tried to move it. They all looked terrified at the gem. One looked at the Princess, begging her with her face.

‘’Pick. it. up.’’

The brave pony’s fear of the Princess won against whatever fear she was feeling and she quickly snatched the gem. The moment, it was moved away the pedestal retreated into the ground and the floor closed back off.

‘’Good. Now follow,’’ Celestia moved towards the thrones and moved up the stairs. She moved to the wall behind the thrones; out of the side of her eye, she saw the pony from earlier who was trying to make himself as small as possible behind her throne. She ignored him and touched the wall with her hoof. She took in a breath and moved her hoof along the wall.

Her hoof slid to the right. Three, two, one, stop. Her hoof followed down. Three, two, one, stop. Her hoof again glided towards the right. Three, two, one, stop. Celestia stopped when her hoof felt a slightly different texture. She pushed it.

Another slow screech of the stone made its way to the ears of everyone there and the wall infront of Celestia was split in two revealing a long path forward. She moved in without hesitation expecting others to follow, which they did just not as confidently as Celestia. This was a part of the castle only known by Celestia, not even Luna knew of its existence.

Darkness enveloped the hallway, Celestia led her flock through the darkness with light coming from her horn. They all stopped before finding themselves infront of a long set of spiral stairs. But at the bottom level where they were, light pierced through. When one looked up through the light one could see the extraordinarily long stairs with its middle empty allowing light to seep through the roof.

A few of the ponies unconsciously heaved groans of frustration, the thought of climbing these stairs a suffering they would rather not endure but those ideas were extinguished as quickly as a slight side eye of the Princess passed over them. She took a step forward and began climbing, they followed.

It would be a long night.

The longest one there is.

Luna kept her stance, her eyes not leaving her opponent. It looked as if this cart was the designated eating space with tables and chairs full of silverware lining the walls. Or at least Luna thought that was what it was from the other side of the cart. Since her side had been unceremoniously destroyed by her, leaving behind only scrap pieces of wood and the occasional spoon on the floor.

‘’You know how much that’s going to cost to fix?’’ The Steward sighed, ‘’More than I earn that’s for sure.’’His face changed into an innocent smile and he jumped up on one of the tables and reached into his coat. ‘’Or I could scrap by some money with my musical talent eh?’’

An ancient-looking accordion, that was clearly too big to fit into his coat, was pulled out and he played a joyous tune on it. ‘’I think I would be a big hit, wouldn’t you say?’’

She snarled and charged, how dare he!?

Her hooves stamped with fury, destroying pieces of the floor and bending some of the unfortunate silverware beneath them.

With her horn lowered, she focused most of her magic on it. Her horn glowed and in its place formed a lance made of pure magical energy, ready to skewer the abomination in front of her.

She increased her speed even further, her eyes only focusing on the mocking being still playing the accordion with a delightful smile.

Luna balanced the lance, she would make sure it would hit.

She made contact.

The table he was standing on broke in half, but not him. What? Where is he?

Luna’s neck snapped back instantly when she heard that accursed instrument behind her. He was up on another table, seemingly uninjured, still playing.

‘’You know, I don’t think-’’

Luna gave him no chance to talk and rushed towards him again.

He jumped to a different table before the one under him was destroyed.

‘’Would you please-’’

Again, the table was destroyed. He hopped to the single remaining one.

‘’Look-’’

He sighed when Luna cared not to listen and moved to destroy both him and the last table. He stopped playing for a second and let his hand go of the keyboard.

The keyboard went flying, and the metal reeds extended and extended before striking her right on the muzzle. Luna, stunned by the attack, stumbled and was forced to stop.

But when the accordion flew back into his hand and those insidious notes came out again and her rage returned, yet she stifled that anger just enough to not charge in blindly.

“Oh? Have you come to your senses-” Again, he spoke; his body following the accordion as he played it, balancing on the table.

His word was yet again cut short, this time by one of the many bent spoons being thrown at him, intending to scoop him out.

One of the windows shattered and a small object flew and hit the spoon, throwing it out of course, and making it fall right at his feet with a pitiful crash.

“A spoon? You couldn't even use a knife on me?” he said as one of his hands let go of the accordion and reached towards the object that flew out and stopped the spoon.

Was…was that a peanut? Didn't he throw those out earlier?

Before Luna could even process what was going on, the remaining glasses were all broken, and dozens of peanuts came flying out towards The Steward. Whose accordion was playing a different tune.

Luna could not just wait idly with…whatever this was, going on. So she picked up whatever she could from the floor, be it a knife, fork, scrap pieces of wood, and even the mighty spoon.

Unfortunately, none of them hit, the peanuts that formed a circle around him stopped them with precise hits before they could even get close.

“I call it my Peanut Buffer.” He laughed and moved his accordion while playing it, the peanuts moving in sync with the music.

“Get it? Peanut. Buffer. Like peanut butt-”

“Thou hast the comedic sense of a cactus and the humor of a rotten book. Cease your wicked tongue, or we shall cease it for you.”

He stopped playing for a moment, the peanuts froze alongside him. Interesting.

His face had completely molded into one of shock and disbelief. “...tough crowd,” he muttered.

The peanuts stirred back to life when he slowly started playing again, this time the tune felt a little less joyful yet he still played it.

She just needed to stop him from playing it, even for a second. Her eyes scanned for anything she could use and they landed on her target.

The real question was how she could accomplish it. She couldn’t just charge again; he would simply do something outrageous and get out of the way. But she also couldn’t do anything from far away.

Her line of thinking got interrupted by another strike of the accordion, this one barely missing because of Luna’s pony-like reflexes.

‘’Daydreaming are we? I don’t know how you can do that when we are literally in a dream but, you do yo-woah!’’ He almost fell from the table but balanced himself at the last second. ‘’Creaky table, gotta get that fixed.’’

That’s it.

‘’Alright, let’s finish this. Or you can just leave?’’

‘’...’’

‘’Please?’’

‘’...’’

‘’Pretty please?’’

‘’...No.’’

He sighed and the accordion was freed from his hand, pushing forward to strike Luna. She would need to hit and silence that accordion. As it closed in Luna reared her head to the side and prepared.

The invincible string holding her head back seemed to snap, and her head darted right before the accordion reached her.

O u c h

She was able to hit it, but the impact left her dazed. From the ringing in her ear, she was sure her ear fell or at least it felt like it did. Even though her vision was blurry she was nevertheless able to see the accordion travel backwards.

‘’Yikes, that looked like it hurt.’’ The Steward sucked his teeth in an understanding yet mocking way. ‘’And you kno-ah!’’

He wasn’t able to finish his sentence as the accordion that was thrown off course from Luna’s strike flew wildly back and struck the legs of the table he was on, the momentum and the weight breaking them effortlessly.

The Steward could not respond in time as one of the sides of the table fell down and he fell alongside it. The now table-turned slide pushed The Steward toward Luna. Unfortunately for him, the peanuts still hovered in the same they were before and he rapidly slid towards Luna.

He ground down to a stop just infront of Luna, who had a small smile on her face. He looked up at Luna, his face changing into one expression: Nervousness.

‘’O-oh, would you look at that! Heh h-heh.’’ He said, raising his hands a little.

Luna said nothing, her front hooves raised. Finally to destroy him and that accursed accordion.

‘’Well, it was fun,’’ he said and closed his eyes.

The Steward didn’t even try to move out of the way of the incoming stampede or use his accordion.

Hooves rushed down, massacring the strapped accordion first. It’s dying breath, releasing one single note before being put out of commission for good.

Over the distance, her ears picked up on the sounds of the peanuts falling. She cared not enough to look.

Hooves went through the blue fabric, dispersing the soft and cool clouds. The hooves did not stop until there was nothing left on the floor except numerous amounts marks and a panting Luna.

She calmed herself down. She would not be goaded into Nightmare Moon’s provocations any longer. Anger would only lead to her destruction, well it did lead to something's destruction at least. Her eyes passed over the annihilated piece of accordion before leaving the cart.

Could he be here? Did she finally get rid of the beasts? How was Nightmare Moon able to conjure up such strong guardians? Even if she was able to escape from The Elements, she should have been quite weak. These were the strongest, and most annoying nightmare monsters she had dealt with until now.

‘’Ha, you lost to that?’’ A rough familiar voice cut through her ears.

…No.

‘’She is tougher than she looks.’’ A lively familiar voice slashed through her ears.

No.

‘’Yeah, I can attest to that. You know I had pieces of wood in my underwear?’’

‘’We don’t have underwear.’’

‘’Imagine how bad it was then if I found wood there.’’ She saw the two of them standing side by side.

‘’Oh, she’s here already.’’ said The Steward.

‘’Really? That was fast.’’

‘’Move.’’ Luna declared.

They both looked at Luna and then at each other and then Luna again. Two of them spoke, yet it felt like only one voice was speaking. It was the most familiar, the most correct, the most right-sounding voice.

‘’Can’t.’’

Luna sighed and for the third and final time got ready for battle.

Author's Note

Hehehe, peanut buffer.

The funni aside, please do leave some comments about the chapter! They're always a delight to read and help a lot! :yay:

1-Not Here

I woke up with the golden rays of sunshine hitting my eyes and the sound of birds flapping their wings, wait... birds?

Opening my eyes almost instantly I saw the trees towering above me blocking the sun but allowing some light to pass through small openings.

''Fuckkk, trees!? am I... am I in the middle of a forest?!'' I scream at the top of my lungs, why am I here? I just went to bed last night, didn't I? Getting up and trying to find my way home seems like the only possible option but the moment I try to get on my feet I see what has happened.

I have no legs or arms, well not human ones instead I have a set of four tan-coloured short cylindrical legs, I scream.

''AAAAAHHHHHHHHH, WHERE ARE MY LEGS WHERE ARE MY ARMS!?!''

My breath becomes erratic as I begin hyperventilating, The sound of jagged, short breaths fills the air, and I panic.

''Wha-what happened to me?! Where am I?! Where are my hands and feet!''

The questions of how, why, what, when, and where are starting to repeat over and over and over, but eventually I barely manage to calm myself down. Alright, let's try to get up and find my way out of this forest.

*Thud*

I can't get up. I attempt to get up on my hind legs again.

*Thud*

I fall again, and my efforts to get up on two legs prove too difficult so I try to walk like a horse since I have 4 legs apparently.

*Thud*

This endeavor proves useless as well. What do I do now? Forget finding a way back I can't even walk. I spend at least thirty more minutes trying to get up on both two legs and four legs but to no avail.

''Fuck me...''

Finding no other solution I start crawling through the forest, left then right left then right slowly I drag myself through the forest, moving slowly I come face to face with my biggest boon yet... a river. On one hand or hoof? At least I have water to drink which I hope is clean enough since I cannot purify the water on the other how the hell am I going to cross this river? I can think of a solution while resting my body is demanding some rest crawling really puts a strain on your body crawling through rough terrain puts even more, finding a stray log near the river I crawl over and close my eyes listening to the river rushing and the odd sound of the forest calms my nerves a little.

''So how do I cross this river? or should I even cross it maybe just follow the river on this side?'' I mumble to myself while stretching my weird appendages. ''Actually what the hell do I even look like?'' Curious to know what has happened to my body I crawl over to the edge of the river and look at my reflection and it was my biggest mistake thus far.

''...'' I stare at the tan-coloured brown maned horse-pony in the river and I stare long enough to make it stare at me back. This is not me, I am human not... not whatever this is. I bring my hand to my face to see if this is real and lo and behold the figure brings its hoove to its face too, at this point I cannot bring myself to look at the figure any longer and break my gaze.

It takes me all my energy to not panic and faint right there but taking deep breaths and trying not to think about the image keeps me from breaking down. Don't think about it just focus on survival for now I push the thoughts to the far corners of my brain, I cannot even look at myself if I am dead I can worry about it later but now I need to find civilization. I won't die in this place, not here.

Wait, should I even find civilization? If someone sees me like this then I can kiss my freedom goodbye, but what if I am not even on earth anymore I don't think anything that can turn me into a goddamn horse. A debate begins inside of my mind but in the end, finding some type of settlement wins out in the end.

''I really hope that this is not earth and the people on this hunk of rock are like me in some kind of way and do not get freaked out at the sight of me'' I whisper to myself and start crawling.

Left, right, left, and right slowly I am getting better at crawling, heh if only the path I am currently going through was clear then crawling would feel a whole lot better, though calling it a path would be giving it too much credit, it's just some cleared dirt along the river the animals probably use, so it has a lot of small rocks and what-not and those rocks are starting to hurt. After more crawling, I find a clearing of sorts and drag my worn-out body there to rest.

I lay on the grass and turned my body around so that I was facing the sun. Wait wasn't the sun in the exact same position just some hours ago? And all of a sudden the fucking sun starts moving at speeds that my mind can't even comprehend and then after a minute the moon rises up and takes the place of the sun.

''H-how does that e-even happen!?!'' Seeing the night come in the blink of an eye hurts my already fragile state of mind.

Should I even continue on my path if it's night? Since this is a forest there may be predators and I don't know if I should take my chances at night since I can't see jack shi- wait is that light? I focus on the point where I think some light of some kind is coming from.

''Please be the light from a house, please be the light from a house'' I start crawling towards the light hoping that I finally found civilization. As I start getting closer to the light I finally get out of the forest and see a house with a green rooftop and a lot of windows.

''Oh god yes!'' My crawling becomes frantic and I use the last of my energy to make it to the house, following the path through the river I cross the small bridge and make it to the door of the house. I knock on the bottom of the door hard enough to make some noise and it works after about twenty seconds I hear the words.

''W-who is it?''

''Help...me.''

I force the words out of my throat and my exhaustion and stress catch up to me and after the words, my eyes start closing, I hope they will help me.

The last sounds I hear are that of the door opening and a woman gasping.

3-Still Standing

I am still in the bush, waiting for the blue pony to stop searching for me or at least for the sun to go down and let the moon take its place but I don’t know how much longer I need to wait for night to come since the sun is not moving. It looks like the mighty king of the sky has decided to stay still and not move a meter.

‘’... My mind still can’t comprehend what happened the last time, how does the fucking sun move like that?’’ I say, not taking my eyes off the sun in fear of the sun disappearing and the moon just casually strolling its way to the sky.

‘’No use just laying here in some bushes and doing nothing.’’ I mutter and gather myself to finally learn to walk… yes, learning to walk like a baby who is taking its first steps. I won’t be able to do much of anything while crawling.

Taking a quick look outside the bushes to see if Flutters is outside or if that blue one with wings is still looking around in this area, I can’t risk being caught with me lying on the ground like an animal… Okay, it looks like the coast is clear, good, I should be able to try getting up and walking.

Now, how does a horse get up from the ground? Hmm… I think it was the front legs first then slowly the hind legs. My legs are shaking a little while I’m trying to get the legs up annnd… yes! I have done it! Now I’m just sitting like Flutters while she was talking to the Bunny, it’s not much but it’s still progress.

‘’Yes!’’ I quietly shout to myself and this little victory brings me such joy that I can’t help but smile.

‘’Alright, now the back ones and then I can at least stand still.’’

I slowly and a bit wobbly get my hind legs up and now I am standing up just like a pony. Now when people see me they won’t think, ‘’Why is that pony crawling?’’ they will think ‘’Oh, just a normal pony’’

‘’Hahaha! Yes, yes, yes! Look at me world! I am still standing!’’ I say my smile a now full-on grin, barely holding myself back from shouting to the sky and making my presence known to Flutters or the blue one.

Now let’s try to slowly walk forward, so… uh… left front leg first? I move my left leg forward a bit then set it back down again and then my hind right leg? God this feels weird, I’m a human, not a pony I walk on two legs, not four. Alright, after that let’s move the front right leg and the hind left leg then repeat the process. Okay, okay… Nice! Now I am slowly walking while repeating the motions. Left front, right hind, right front, and left hind. Yep, I got it! Now I am a certified walker.

Peeking out the bush to scan the area one last time, it still looks like Flutters is inside and the blue one is nowhere to be seen. I slowly get out of the bush not crawling but by walking and god, that makes me so happy walking not crawling. Turning my head right I see the apple orchard and my stomach begs me for food once again.

‘’Now, let’s reward myself for the hard work eh?’’ Of course, I don’t take the main road there, that would just be an announcement to the blue one to come and take me away, I ain’t getting picked up and flown away to some weird horse hospital by a blue pony with wings, not here.

I steer clear of the dirt path and slowly make my way to the bushes and trees, they should provide the minimum amount of cover at least.

‘’Ow.’’ I fall but this time I get up albeit a bit slowly and with wobbly legs but I still get up.

The moment I am going through one of the bushes I hear a distant sound but it sounds like the flapping of… wings. Damn, the blue one is back again. I throw myself to the ground and hide amongst the leaves of the shrubbery. The sound is getting louder and louder as the seconds go by. It’s now like a fly is buzzing right now, is she… is she right on top of me?! Shit, shit, shit! I hold my mouth as if she can hear my faint sound of breathing.

‘’You are one sneaky pony ain’t ya?’’ I look up at the pace of a snail and can only hope that she is talking to herself. She leaves and the sounds of wings flapping get quieter and quieter and quieter… Now there is no longer any sound of her anywhere.

That was close… way too close! The realization hits me like a truck. The smallest of movement or any kind of sound and I would have been toast! It becomes harder to breathe, any kind of oxygen going through my nose becomes stuck there.

‘’No, no, no, calm down! She didn’t see anything, she just stopped here to look around!’’ I try to calm myself and it works, not a lot though, but my breathing becomes calmer. She wasn’t talking directly to me it’s fine, it’s fine… or does she already know where I am, and when she saw me heading into the orchard she went to ambush me there? No, that’s stupid if she knew I was here she would have already caught me why would she bother with a trap? It’s fine, I’m fine, I’m still not found…right?

Shaking my head and slapping my cheeks with my hand- oh yeah, I have hooves, not hands that hurt a lot more than I imagined they would. With one final look around to see if the blue one really did put up a trap or if she was around I get up and continue my journey to get some apples or whatever else there is in my stomach.

After a few minutes, I am now near the entrance of the orchard and once again hiding in some bushes. The entrance has a sign with an apple on it, wow, how did they come up with such an idea for a sign, looking down there is another sign with some writing on it.

‘’Sweet Apple Acres, huh,’’ I mutter to myself and then circle the fence around so that I can get to the apple trees without alerting someone.

Now how do I cross these fences? Maybe jump over it like a human? Yeah, let’s try that, I might fall a couple of times but that seems like the only way I can but not now since it is still da- oh would you look at that the sun is moving again… fuck me… and here comes the moon. In the span of a minute, all the light that the sun provided is now gone and the farm is slowly getting lit up by lanterns or small candles.
Well, I should still wait a while it just became the night the people over there are probably still awake. I lay on the grass and observe the place from my place of hiding not a bush but on the top of a tre- yeah no, maybe if I had actual hands I would be able to climb that but no, I’m still in a bush.

Looking out I see an orange pony now with a light brown stetson hat yeah, now we got pony cowboys, cowgirls… cowmares? I don’t even know man, oh and she has a dog… wait a dog?! Fuck! Please tell me that you keep that dog in the house at night time, you know terrible things happen at night you should probably keep the dog in the house, a terrible monster might come and eat it u-. Yes! The dog is in the house… hmm I still don’t feel comfortable enough, what if that dog is super-smelling and will just destroy me the moment I step foot in the orchard?

Can I fight a dog? No way, I got overpowered by a fucking small bunny no way in hell that I am going against a dog.

Oh! Maybe if I cover myself in mud that can camouflage my scent with mud, yeah, that can work.

Approaching the fences near the orchard the ground is a little wet probably from when they water the trees, it seems like the excess water flowed towards the fences and I find the mud I am looking for, now to roll in the mud like a pig… ‘’I am a human, not an animal, I am a human, not an animal this is just to get food no other reason’’ I reason with myself so that I can keep what dignity I have left.

That should be enough, I get up and yep, I am fully covered in mud that should at least cover my smell a little. Now to get over this fence. Getting on my hind legs I hold the fence with my arms an- woah!

‘’Fuck!’’ I fall down onto the ground, no wonder, my legs were all shaky. Okay, let’s try this again.

‘’Agh!’’ Once again I fall to the ground, well I’m getting even more muddier I guess that’s good?

‘’There we go.’’ Looks like the third time’s the charm, holding onto the fence post with both of my arms, I am now standing upright on my both legs, now, let's try to hop over this and one, two, three!

‘’Hyuup!’’ I jump over the fence and roll down on the ground causing some noise, getting up and looking over the house I breathe a sigh of relief when nothing happens, looks like the ponies are still asleep.

Walking stealthily as best as I can as a pony I go over to the apple trees and scan the ground for any fallen apple. Since I won’t be able to climb any trees like this the ground seems like the best choice to look for apples.

‘’Oh? What’s this?’’ At the foot of one of the trees, I find a bottle with a screw cap taking it with my hands I twist the cap off and sniff… is this cider? Looks like someone was slacking off the job and enjoying themselves. Oh yeah, I’m taking this with me. Taking the bottle with one of my hands really slows me down but I ain’t passing an opportunity like this if need be I can just throw it away.

There were only about three apples on the ground so I’m still moderately hungry but damn was those apple good. I should probably leave I can just come back tomorrow and gather some to eat again.

I roll the bottle under the fence and get ready to jump the fence to go back into hiding.

‘’Ahhh!’’ Suddenly I am tied with a rope and pulled down onto the ground. FUCK! Rolling over and looking up I see the orange pony from before with the rope on her mouth and the dog beside her growling at me.

…Well I’m boned.

4-Big Thinkin'

I fucked up. I fucked up real bad, how in the nine hells did I not notice the orange pony sneak up on me?! I was so close to getting out of the orchard and just when I was about to jump over the fence my arms got bolted to my sides and I went crashing down onto the earth right on my back.

‘’Ahhhh!’’ Screaming out in panic I try to get out of my ropey prison but the orange pony pulls more and the rope gets even tighter than I thought it could.

Rolling over I get face to face with the angry pony she is looking at me with fire in her eyes while holding the rope between her teeth. Shit, what do I say now? How do I bullshit my way out of this? Why is she coming over? Do they have cruel laws in this place like a life for petty thievery? Oh god she is turning me around, now I am literally kissing the grass I don’t think I can even scream right now would screaming even help? Probably not the people would not pick the side of thief.

‘’Now what in tarnation do you think you're doin' mister?!’’ She lets go of the rope and starts tying me up. Shit, shit what do I say now? She probably saw me wandering and eating the apples around the orchard.

‘’Um… I-I-’’ I struggle to form a response while trying to think of a good enough lie.

‘’Yeah, you! I saw you eatin’ ma’ apples what have you got to say for yourself?!’’ She seems really angry, no, she is really angry… Aha! I got it, please believe this little and perfect lie that no one can tell is a lie!

‘’Uh… I am an inspector miss, I- uhh I came to check if the apples you were selling were up to code and not uhh hazardous?’’ Please just take it and go!

‘’The inspector was here only two weeks ago! And why would an inspector come at midnight? Are you lying to me?!’’ Fuck! Come on think, why would an inspector come in the dead of night and snoop around the farm…

‘’T-that’s because I am the second inspector miss! I came at this hour because, uhm, you know how some people only show the good produce to the inspectors and keep the bad stuff hidden away? I come and check to see if they are telling the truth and miss you are one hundred percent up to code!’’ I try to show a smile to calm her down a little and make her believe the stupid lie.

‘’Then why are you covered in mud?’’ Right, yeah I do look like a pig, not a government official or just any kind of respectable person.

‘’I fell?’’ Well, it’s not a complete lie.

‘’...’’ Her eyes looked to be half closed with one of her eyebrows rising and her mouth even scrunched up a bit, she looks unamused, and it seemed like my perfect lie didn’t work out. Off to Pony Dungeon, I guess.

‘’Heh, heh…Not buying it?’’ The smile on my face goes away while trying to get out of the bonds.

‘’Nope!’’ She takes the rope in her mouth and tightens it once again, raising me from the ground with only one arm she puts me on her back and starts walking, wow she sure is strong, I should not anger her anymore, better to keep my mouth shut.

She started going somewhere with me in tow most likely into town and to the prison well there goes my freedo- wait, why are we getting further away from the entrance?

‘’Umm, where are we going?’’ The fear inside of me grew bigger and bigger the further we got away from the entrance, she didn’t decide to enact her own justice upon me right?

‘’To the barn.’’ Oh fuck, she is going to enact her own justice, I’m so fucked I gotta get out of here! Trying to wriggle out of my bonds earns me a quick hoof to the side.

‘’Settle down now, I don’t have any energy left to deal with ya any longer.’’ No… no, no, no, she is going to kill me and then feed my body to the pigs or whatever they got here! ‘’So I’m gonna put ya in the barn and get Twilight in the morning to deal with this she knows more about this law thing.’’ I almost burst into tears right there, hearing that I wouldn’t be killed was like music to my ears so I stopped struggling and turned my face upwards to the starry night.

Woah, I can see the stars so clearly they look… they look beautiful, I never had the chance to see the stars with such clarity since I lived in the city and didn’t travel much, and the moon! It looked like the moon was the queen of the sky and the stars obeyed her every word she outshone every other star that I saw. Just when I finally relax my vision gets filled with the red roof of the barn instead of the blue sky that I was just looking at.

‘’Here we are, now keep it down or I will bind your mouth too ya hear?’’ Too occupied with my stargazing I didn’t even notice that we arrived at the barn, I got tossed inside, and the orange pony left the barn and she forgot to close the door? Woah score! Wait why is she coming back Wait! Is that a hos-

‘’Bwawwhh’’ I get hosed down with cold water before I can even finish my sentence, cold!

‘’I ain’t lettin’ you get ma barn dirty with all your mud and think of this as a part of your punishment.’’ She smirks while holding the hose and blasts every part of my body, oh she is enjoying this, that bitch! At least I am clean. Well, soaked to the bone but clean nonetheless.

‘’There, all clean, you should be thankin’ me.’’ She lets go of the hose and starts walking back to the door.

Oh, I’ll show you one day you orange whorse I’ll burn down this orchard then you can use that hose again. Of course, I don’t say these words if I did she would kick me back to the forest all the way from here.

‘’Just keep it down or else I will really bind your mouth too.’’ I nodded vigorously and seemingly satisfied with my answer she left and closed the door, hah that dumb broad! She didn't lock the door I can just crawl outt-

*click*

‘’...’’ Why must god damn me so?

Sighing I allow my rigid and wet body to flop the ground and let it relax. At least the night is not cold what would I do if I got sick right now, go to the pony doctor and get some medicine? Nope, that ain’t happening who knows how these ponies treat their wounded would they put me down if I had a broken leg?

Looking to my right, I see a couple of things first of all there is a great amount of hay stacked neatly in one part of the barn, like a lot. It makes sense these are horse people so they probably eat that, well I am a horse now too but I am not eating that I am a human. Secondly, there are about three to four milk churns, do they milk cows around here? That seems weird, animals milking other animals… do…do the cows talk too? No, no use wondering about that now.

Looking to my right I see a cart and some empty bottles, the bottles look exactly like the one I saw earlier, looks like the cider is produced locally. Nothing else except for more stacked hay.

Looking at the walls, there are some windows on each side of the walls but they are pretty high and closed I don’t think she locked these windows so I should be able to open them if I ever get out these ropes.

Damn, there doesn’t seem like anything here that can help me get out of these binds! Trying to wriggle my way out of the rope doesn’t work so I huff and start thinking of something, anything to get me out of here.

Can I use the edges of the milk churn to cut these ropes? Hmmm… I start once again crawling my way over to the churns to see if the edges are sharp enough and since I got pretty good at crawling over the last two days I get there pretty fast. No dice, the edges of these are not sharp enough they are too blunt. I crawl back to my original spot and start working my mind again, come on brain work harder!

Suddenly I get a revelation, the bottles! I can break them and use a glass piece to cut myself out! Yes, thank you brain I knew I could count on you! No problem bud.

‘’...’’

… Am I talking to my brain and was the brain talking back? Yeah, I’m officially on step one of insanity.

Shaking my head I drag myself to the bottles and look at them, now how do I break them? I can’t use my hands since they are tied and I ain’t throwing my whole body onto the bottles that would make too much noise then the orange one would kick my ass. I gotta use my head here, hmm… wait use my head? Yes! I can break one bottle with my forehead, it’s going to hurt and I will probably get a cut and a bruise, but I am willing to pay that price and it seems like the only choice right now. I am not going into pony prison, not here.

Taking one of the bottles with my teeth I bring the bottle to one of the corners of the barn so that the sound of crashing doesn’t travel as far. Alright, I dig a little hole with my mouth or muzzle? so that the bottle doesn’t roll when I try to hit it and plant it there. Now to line my forehead just right with the bottle. Positioning myself so that my forehead hits the bottle directly in the middle, I take a big breath and hit the bottle with as much force as I can gather.

The bottle doesn’t shatter.

‘’Fu-!’’ I bite my tongue so as to not wake up the orange one. That’s gonna leave a bruise. I take another huge breath and try again putting even more force this time and…

*Crack!*

The bottle shatters.

‘’Ow!’’ I see red liquid drip down from my chin onto the ground and yep, just as I suspected I got a cut, let’s hope that it’s not a deep one. Looking over my handiwork, I must say I am quite proud of it. I absolutely destroyed that poor bottle and there are pieces of it big and small everywhere in the corner, sorry bottle you were a necessary sacrifice for the greater good. Finding a big enough piece of glass is easy and I spot it, carefully making my way over to it to not get any more cuts I hold the piece with my hands and it slips out of my hands.

‘’Shit, come on hands or hooves whatever you are don’t fail me now!’’ I whisper to my hands or hooves I guess, and try again to pick up the piece of glass and, success! I am now firmly holding the glass, I am getting used to holding stuff with these hooves.

Cutting myself free from the ropes took more time than I thought it would, that pony used some strong rope for little old me.

‘’Ugh, finally’’ With one final snap, I am now free from my jail of flax, standing up and stretching some bones pop with a satisfying sound. Now how do I leave? She did lock the doors so no use trying that path, how about the windows? Nah, I can’t reach them… unless?

I look over to the stacked hay and move over to a pile of them. Can this even hold me? Getting on top of one of them, wow these are rock solid, yeah this can hold me no problem. Now to stack em up high enough to get to one of the windows.

Ugh, this is pain the hay blocks were heavier than I thought they would be because of course they were, it took me even more effort to stack them up in a neat little stair to one of the windows, my jaw got so much exercise that I think I can chew iron now.

‘’There we go, my half a pyramid of hay’’ Looking over my work it really does look like the front side of a half a pyramid. Alright, enough wasting time it’s time to get out of here, I gotta treat this cut I can’t risk an infection.

‘’Woah, easy there.’’ Getting on the hay stair it wobbles a little but I am able to keep my balance. Now I am looking out the window and, umm, I am really high above, would jumping out and landing on the ground break any of my bones? or even worse make so much noise that the orange one wakes up?

I look outside the window to see if there is anything high enough or soft enough to make the fall not hurt and I come up with nothing. I should at least make the fall shorter, I grab the edge of the window and let my legs go outside, I am now dangling from a window it should help, not much but any kind of help is welcome at this point.

Taking a gulp I let my hands go.

With a heavy thud, I landed on the grass, and… it didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would sure it did hurt, like a lot it felt like my legs were going to give out and I was going to flop down on the ground, but I was able to keep myself on all fours.

My head darts towards the house and I watch it to see if anything happens, after a minute of watching the house, and much to my joy nothing happens it seems like the orange one is still asleep and heard nothing, oh she’ll be surprised to see what happened in the morning.

Scanning the area for the final time I slowly walk over to the exit and leave the orchard. I just wanted to eat some apples and look what that got me. Putting a hand on my head some blood gets on it, yeah and now I gotta deal with this. I wonder if there is a hospital that I can break into now.

I start making my way into town.

5-Just a Sip

The streets are mostly empty except for the odd pony, looks like these guys are not very nocturnal and since it is still night time even if there is a pony out on the street they probably can’t see my face with blood dripping down it but still, I take extra caution and use the backstreets and if I can’t I try to keep my distance from any pony I can see.

‘’Wha… is that a building?’’ While passing by through the main street I see an odd-looking building it kinda looks like a cake but it has windows and a door, wait it has a sign too which has a cupcake on it? Huh. Guess this is a pastry shop, looking inside through a window proves me correct and I see candies, cakes, and all other sweet stuff lining the shelves.

‘’No, don’t try it, too risky, everyone will hear it.’’ I try to keep my stomach from ruling over my mind since all I ate was three total apples since I came to this weird and unnatural place.

I hold my stomach when it aches a little but still, I can’t try anything right in the middle of the town. Maybe later, but not now.

I turned around and continued my journey to find a hospital or any kind of medical care, I spotted another weird structure and it kind of resembled Flutter's house, with a green top an- wait is that just a tree?

‘’Yep, a tree.’’ Taking a closer look, it literally is just a tree with windows, balconies, a door, and another sign that has a book on it, I guess a bookstore or a library? How can even ponies read books? Can these hooves turn pages?

They probably can since even though I had some trouble at first I could hold a bottle and even the glass shard. Eh, no use thinking about it now.

Turning my head a little to the right out of the corner of my eye I see the red cross sign at the bottom of a huge building seems like I found my target and a cross. Did they have a pony Jesus and pony Christianity? Ugh, even more questions I most likely won’t get answers to.

I started walking to the hospital but just when I was about to leave the bookstore I noticed a little something at the back of the building going to investigate I stumbled upon something amazing and my ticket out of this town.

‘’No way, is that what I think is?’’ Whispering to myself and getting closer to the object and… yes! It is what I think is! A hot air balloon! Hahaha! I can just fly away even if it takes me somewhere random, I just want to get out of this weird town maybe there are more normal ones.

While celebrating my little fortune, I touch my head and realize that I am still bleeding and need to go to the hospital and get this treated.

‘’Fuck… what do I do now? The hospital or the balloon?’’ Looking over the balloon and then the hospital, do I have enough time to go to the hospital and then make my escape with the balloon? Looking at the sky proves useless since the moon has been sitting at the same place for hours and I have no way of knowing when the sun will rise again.

Biting my lip, I make my decision and get into the ballon, I will get it treated in another place there are two ponies looking for me in this town the blue one and the angry orange one what if I get forced to stay in the hospital until morning and one of them finds me? No, I am not taking that risk.

Alright, there is plenty of room in this basket, I can at least get comfortable while in the air. Looking upside I see the burner and pull it for some time to get this balloon in the air.

Finally airborne I let go of the burner and sit on the ground of the basket. Looking inside the basket it looks like I dirtied it with my blood. Getting up and looking out of the basket it seems like my mighty steed and I am heading into a city with a huge castle on top that totally looks like it came out straight from a fairy tale.

‘’Woah, is that a waterfall going through the castle?’’

The winds don’t change ways and I slowly make my way to the castle. Oh, there we go, goodbye Lady Moon. There really wasn’t that much time I am glad I picked the balloon over the hospital if I did go to the hospital I would have lost this balloon.

Annnd here comes the sun, all in the span of five or so minutes. That is going to take a lot to get over. Well, at least now I can see the city more clearly and it is larger than I thought it was, I can blend in more easily there.

Relaxing for the first time this day I lay back on the basket and start singing a little to cheer myself up a little.

‘’If I had a hat, and a woolen coat, and I didn’t have a headache, If I had vodka, just a sip of vodka, anything else I don’t care!’’ Ah, if only I took the cider from earlier I could have myself a sip.

‘’If I had a flat and just a bit of luck, and if my flat had my nice things, if I had just a jacket and a neighbor, anything else I don- Woah!’’ The winds pick up suddenly and the basket shakes, getting up I see that I am heading straight into the castle.

‘’No, no, no, stop! Slow down!’’ I try to look for anything to stop the ballon but come up empty-handed. The vent! These balloons should have some kind of vent to release air and slow down to land! Looking up I see a handle next to the burner and pull it, I am not going to crash and die inside a goddamn air balloon, not here.

‘’Come on, come on!’’ The vent releases air and it slows down a bit but the winds are ferocious. Taking a quick glance towards the castle to see if there is any distance lef- Fuck! It’s gonna crash right into the huge window!

At the last moment, I hold onto the edge of the basket and brace myself.

*CRASH!*

The balloon crashes right through the window and the basket gets thrown to the side violently, which causes my grip to falter and me to be tossed inside with the same force.

‘’Agh!’’ The basket comes to a stop and screams fill the room. I slowly open my eyes and see that the basket flipped over.

‘’Ugh, that hurts.’’ I got turned into a bug inside the basket and it felt like a kid was playing with me. Groaning I lift the basket with the little strength that I have and crawl outside to see what happened.

I come face to face with a disaster, the room I am in is huge and the fabric is the balloon is covering the side of the window I crash into. Ponies who have armor are forming a circle around a throne. A throne? Fuck me, did I crash into the throne room of the pony royalty? I should have picked the hospital.

At the throne, I see a big white pony who has a horn and wings, and is that a crown? Squinting my eyes to see more clearly and yep, that is a crown, well… I might have just lost my privilege of being alive. Getting up with blood all around me, I decide to take the best course of action.

‘’Uhhh… Hello?’’ No, I don’t try to run away. I fucking greet the pony monarch. Great job me.

Suddenly a guard from behind me tries to jump me and I panic using my back legs I kick him as hard as I can and he gets thrown to the ground. In my panic, I start running away as fast as these legs can carry me and run to the door.

‘’Stop!’’ Some of the guards shout and begin chasing me. Just as I was about to reach the doors to my escape my vision was filled with a slight yellowish colour and I was suddenly on the air.

‘’What the fuck!’’ Hovering in the air I try to get out of this… whatever it is but come up empty-handed.

‘’Hello, my little pony are you alright?’’ I get turned around and now I am face to face with the big white one and her horn is glowing yellow too. And did she just call me her little pony?

‘’Yeah! I am okay can you let go now?’’ I don’t like this, I can’t do anything just flail around in the air.

‘’You seem hurt,’’ she replies right back with a motherly tone.

‘’I just seem hurt, but I am fine just let me go now!’’ I shout back to make her let me go but it doesn’t do anything.

‘’You just crashed through my window, you can’t be okay!’’ Damn, she is not backing down, alright let’s try this.

‘’Okay! Okay, I am not fine everything hurts! So can you let me down and let me see a doctor or something?’’ I am getting the hell out of here the moment I touch the ground.

‘’And let you walk in this state? Let me take you to the infirmary, and on the way we can even talk about how you got my student's ballon and crashed it.’’ FUCK! Just how unlucky can I be? Of course, I take the queen's student’s ballon of fucking course!

‘’...’’ I don’t reply and look away.

‘’Well?’’ She doesn’t let me down and starts walking out of the room with me floating beside her.

‘’I… borrowed it.’’ I try my best not to sound guilty.

‘’You borrowed it?’’ She replied in an inquisitive tone, oh yeah she totally doesn’t believe that.

‘’Yeah, I borrowed it, now can you let me go?’’ A drop of blood lands on the ground and we both look at it then each other… Yeah her eyes are all the answer that I am going to need.

This is bad, real bad. How can I get out of this? I can’t do anything while in this glow, and she is the one doing this, maybe if I break her concentration it will go away? But the moment I am free I need to escape to somewhere where she can’t see me maybe near a door… yeah that can work.

‘’I have a hard time belie-’’ Once we get close enough to a door I suddenly scream.

‘’GAHHHH!’’ It worked! She gets surprised and I am dropped to the ground.

I throw myself through the doors and close them behind me. Looking around the room I spot a bed and quickly crawl under it. The door opens and the white one walks in, I bury myself deeper under the bed and hold my breath. Once she gets to the other side of the room I will make my escape.

‘’Hello, sister have you seen a pony go inside?’’ What. Sister? There was someone else inside? Suddenly I get pulled out from under the bed and now looking at very annoyed a dark blue pony with wings and a horn too.

‘’Is this the one, sister?’’ She holds her gaze on me and replies to her sister.

‘’Yes, that's the one sister, now why would you do that?’’ She looks at me with a smug smile. Ugh.

‘’...’’ Not replying again I once get enveloped in a yellow light… wait I can’t even move my limbs! What did she do?!

‘’What the hell did you do!’’ At least my mouth can move.

‘’To keep you away from hurting yourself more.’’ She replies and takes me out of the room.

Once again I get levitated beside her and she starts walking through the corridors again. Talking isn’t going to get me anywhere and she probably won’t fall for the same trick twice so holding my tongue and not even replying seems like the best option.

‘’That gave me quite the fright, well not like your crash but still… why did you do that?’’ She says while looking at me.

‘’...’’ Nope, not gonna say anything.

‘’Not in the mood to talk more?’’ Turning her head around she continues walking.

‘’That’s okay we can talk a lot after you get treated.’’ Uh-huh, yeah, that ain’t happening.

‘’...’’

‘’Here we go, now be a good little pony alright?’’ She goes through a door and I look around the room filled with white beds and medical equipment, huh, she really did get me to get treated? She sets me up on a bed and calls for a doctor. The doctor arrives and he is a pony with a horn and a stethoscope around his neck.

‘’What happened princess?’’ Oh, so she is a princess and not the queen. Was the king or queen away for her to be sitting on the throne?

I tune out the conversation and look around the room to see if there is anything that I can use to escape. The room is just like a normal hospital room it even has a window. Can I jump out the window? If it's too high I would most likely fall to my death but would that be so bad? I burst through the window of the fucking royalty, and I tried to hide under the bed of one of them. She is probably going to execute me publicly or even torture me.

‘’Now, I’m going to let you go so the doctor can look at you, so stay still, please.’’ Her horn stops glowing and I can finally move my limbs, Stretching my limbs I look over to the princess and smile at her, and she smiles back.

When the doctor gets close I leap out of bed and jump towards the window.

‘’No!’’ I hear the princess yell but I already jumped out and crashed through the window the shattered glass pieces cutting up my body as I start falling to the ground into my imminent death.

‘’Well… I got this far at least.’’ Looking over I see the princess leap out the same window too, oh right, she had wings didn’t she? She flies towards me and I once again get enveloped in the same yellow light.

6-Not Human

My meeting with the ground gets cut short and I am stopped by the same sickly golden light surrounding my body which causes me to float in the air in the same spot, while a concerned-looking pony princess flies down next to me.

She takes hold of me with her wings and looks over my body with worried eyes seemingly satisfied a quick sigh escapes her lungs and her eyes quickly turn from worry to anger and she yells.

‘’What has come over you!? What would happen if I didn’t catch you in time?!’’ The princess says while slowly ascending to the window while carrying me.

‘’I would die.’’ Should I play dumb? Maybe say that I thought we were ground floor and that was why I jumped.

‘’Yes! You would die!’’ She yelled back even louder than before.

‘’I thought it was the ground floor…’’ I try my best to sound guilty and sorry but she doesn’t buy it.

‘’We both know that is a lie.’’ Yeah, no, she didn’t buy it.

‘’...’’ I don’t reply and let the princess carry me back through the window.

She sets me back up on the bed but this time she doesn’t let go. And when the doctor approaches me the glow gets even brighter and I can’t even move my mouth. The pony doctor looks over me again with no difficulty this time and bandages my forehead and the small cuts I got from the balloon crash and my earlier ‘escape’ attempt.

Once I am done being treated the princess picks me back up again and we leave the room she chides me even more but her words don’t seem to come from a place of anger but from concern… No, these are just honeyed words to get me to let my guard down, I am not going to fall for them.

She stops in front of a door and tells the guards something that I cannot hear, all of a sudden I fall to the ground, not wanting to let this chance go I try to get up and run away as fast as my tired legs can carry me but the moment I take one step I am halted again.

‘’Ah-ah-ah you are going nowhere mister.’’ The princess says and goes inside the room. I don’t get it, her horn wasn’t glowing then how am I stuck?

I look up and see the guards have horns too and theirs are glowing… well, seems like the princess is not the only one who can do this magical bullshit or whatever it's called. I let my head flop on the ground and wait for them to release me.

My ears perk up from the noises inside the room, what is the princess doing there? Wait… is she preparing my torture chamber?! That’s why she didn’t let me fall earlier! So she can kill me herself! Yes, that must be i-

‘’There we go, you can let him go now, thank you.’’ She comes out of the room levitating a whole bunch of stuff that has a mirror among all things and some other things I cannot make out. Why a mirror of all things though? I try to think of a reason but come up empty-handed.

She puts the pile of bits and pieces on the ground and nods at the guards and they release me but just as their horn stops glowing her horn glimmers and I cannot even get up.

‘’Now let me show you where you will be staying for the foreseeable future until I am certain that you will not try anything like before.’’ What? Where I will be staying? So she is going to lock me up! Before I can even form a word of protest I get dragged inside the room.

She sets me right in the middle of the room and the glow goes away, I can finally move, and getting up slowly I look around the room or more like the stripped version of a room. There is a bed on one side of the wall which looks quite luxurious, a simple wooden table that has some drawers with a chair on the other side, and a cabinet near the bed. But the part that has most of my attention is the balcony with two big windows on each side which brings in a lot of sunlight.

‘’I’m quite sorry that it is barebones but I had to take a lot out.’’ She finally says after staying quiet and observing me.

‘’It’s… okay.’’ Going over to the drawers underneath the table I open them one by one but they are all empty. I turn my head to the princess watching me and look at her with a questioning gaze.

‘’If you show me that you will not hurt yourself and improve I will bring them back.’’ She says while softly smiling at me, which sends shivers through my spine.

‘’Where can I send a letter to your family informing them of your stay here?’’ What? Family, uh yeah… My parents are probably worried sick right now, I’m sorry for worrying you guys.

‘’I, uhh, don’t have any family left.’’ I mean it’s not a lie I don’t have any family left in here.

‘’Oh… I’m sorry dear.’’ Once she hears my words her eyes soften and she stretches her wings and covers them with me, is this a hug? I don’t hug back.

I don’t reply to her and go towards the balcony and to my surprise the princess doesn’t do or say anything… weird. She did something, didn’t she? Yes, that must be it, if she didn’t do something to these windows or this balcony then she would at least do something.

Turning around I look at the princess to see if there is anything I can spot on her face but she just looks at me and smiles. No, I don’t like that face, it’s like she is so sure that nothing bad will happen that she doesn’t even feel the need to say anything.

‘’What did you do?’’ I say trough gritted teeth.

‘’Hmm? Did what dear?’’ She replies back while still showing me the same smile…

Oh that bitch, what the fuck did she do?! Should I even approach the balcony? If I do will something happen? …Fuck it, no use trying to figure out what she is thinking I can’t make it out at all. I slowly walk over to the balcony and just before setting foot outside the balcony I look back to her for the final time. Yeah, no, she is still smiling.

Looking out the balcony I see the window I crashed into, the princess steps out onto the balcony too, and looks where I am staring. Once she realizes where I am looking she lets out a small giggle.

‘’I really want to know how you got my student’s ballon and crashed it… but that can come later, for now, you should rest.’’ She says in a caring tone, ugh, I don’t like that at all. I think she even called me her little pony earlier! What the fuck is wrong with her? A guy bursts through your window in a stolen ballon and raises hell in the castle and she gives them a room?

‘’Okay…’’ I reply back hoping that she goes away and I can try something.

‘’Rest now my little pony and please remember that your life is so precious.’’ There! She called me her little pony again! What the fuck! Well, at least she is leaving the room now.

I wait for her to leave the room she looks back one final time and smiles at me before leaving the room and closing the door. Alright, let’s try this. Getting up on my hind legs I try to hop on the stone railings of the balcony and I get pushed back and fall to the ground…what the hell! I knew she did something! I try repeatedly but each time I do I get pushed back even further.

‘’Goddamned princess…’’

‘’Yes, is something wrong?’’

Looking up from the ground I see the princess tower over me. Crap…When did she come back? How the hell did I not hear her?!

‘’Yes! What is this?!’’ Getting up from the ground I touch the invisible wall over the balcony.

‘’Oh, I just put up a barrier around the balcony and the windows so you don’t hurt yourself again, did you try something?’’ She says while looking very displeased.

‘’...no.’’

‘’...You should stop at least sleep for a while.’’ With that, she leaves again and I am left on the ground. I don’t try anything anymore as it would just be a waste of time.

Huffing all the way I drag my worn-down body to the bed an- wow it’s way more comfortable than I imagined it would be, huh. Setting my head on the pillow, and looking around again to see if there is anything or anyone, I close my eyes and almost immediately fall asleep.

Opening my eyes I expect to see the room I was given but instead, I am greeted by whiteness, not snow, just white all around like the whole world got erased but me. Looking around I see a figure and it looks like a human? Holy shit! I start running as fast these legs can carry me but when I get closer the figure looks really familiar… wait, is that… me?

‘’Hello, pal.’’

‘’I-I-’’ I struggle to form any kind of words just staring at well, ‘me’.

‘’Yeah, you! What have you got to say for yourself?!’’ Unbridled rage fills his eyes, rage directed at me. Why would I be angry at myself?

‘’W-what do you mean?’’ I reply back although just barely.

‘’Look at you! You’re an animal!’’ He steps closer to me, I take a step back.

‘’No! I am a human!’’ I started getting angry too, I will not allow anyone even myself to call me an animal!

‘’It doesn’t look like that from here buddy! All I see is a dirty horse walking on four legs! Even if you were human before you seem real comfortable in that ‘body’ of yours!’’ He steps even closer pointing at me accusingly, and I take another step back.

‘’Ugh, you even step back like a horse you really know how to use that body of yours huh? And you can’t even die right when you get captured!’’

I’ll show him, I am not an animal, I walk on two legs, not four! I force myself on two of my back legs and stand there my legs shaky.

‘’Fuck you! Look I c-can walk on two legs I-I am not a hors-’’ The figure pushes me and I l fall instantly.

‘’No human falls that easy! Don’t you dare think that!’’ He says and marches over me and takes hold of me I try to get out of his grip but I fail.

‘’I am disgusted that I am even sharing a name with you!’’ With that, he tossed me toward the emptiness and I started falling and the whiteness turned black.

‘’Ahhh!’’ I scream and start gasping for air. What the fuck was that! Was that a dream?! Looking around, the only thing I see is the same room as before but only the darkness of the night covering it. Looks like I slept until nightfall.

Throwing over the covers I get out of bed and go to the middle of the room and take a huge breath. Who does me think he is huh?! I’ll show him! I’ll show him that I am still human! Getting up on my hind legs I can stand on them for only five seconds before falling.

‘’No, no! I walk on two legs, not four!’’ I get up my hind legs again and fall again in five seconds… What kind of human can’t even stand up straight?! I try repeatedly but I can’t pass ten seconds forget walking like a human I can’t even stand up like one!

My jagged and short breaths fill the room as I try even more, my legs are now shaking uncontrollably but that doesn’t stop me I still try getting up. If I fall I get back up again and try.
Ignoring the pain I try again but fail again. I won’t lose my humanity… not here.

Stop! I can’t do this right now, I need a clear mind, I can’t even think straight right now. Barely managing to control myself I slowly head over to the balcony, I want to look at the moon and the stars they are the only ones that have made me just a smidge calmer in this bizarre world.

Stepping onto the balcony my face gets hit by a slight night chill. Looking down I see the city below the whole city looks like a starry night with its many lights, and finally looking upwards I see the beautiful moon and I once again get captivated by its beauty. It looks just like the night before, my breath gets slower and I just continue watching the moon and the stars for some time.

‘’Have you decided to jump to your imminent death again?’’

The princess’s sister from before gets in front of the moon and blocks it almost entirely but the silver moonlight passes between her wings…why is she here?

7-Fourteen Minutes

What the hell? Why is she blocking the one thing that has brought me the smallest bit of comfort in this world, who does she think she is!? I can’t even relax for one second in this fucking place…

‘’Well?’’

Oh right, she asked something didn’t she? Calm down now, I can’t just get angry against a princess or whatever royalty she is, and blow up at her right now, if I do that, I will most likely kiss my neck goodbye. What did she ask again? Am I going to jump again? Taking a deep breath I finally answer her.

‘’No… even if I wanted to I won’t be able to.’’

‘’Whyever not?’’ Her face contorts into a confused look and she tilts her head slightly to the side. Does she not know about the barrier?

‘’Uhm… because your sister put up a barrier around the balcony.’’ I hesitantly answer hoping that satisfies her curiosity and leaves…annnd nope, she is slowly coming over to the balcony.

‘’Ah yes, sister did mention a barrier of sorts.’’ She gets even closer and then stops suddenly bringing out one of her hooves she touches the barrier, and from the point of contact small waves form over the barrier and spread out.

‘’ ‘Tis a strong barrier sister didn’t want you or anything else to break it without considerable effort.’’ Of course, she did…She touches the barrier again after that she stops touching it and looks at me again.

‘’Then what is thine reason to be out at the balcony at this hour?’’ I can ask you that same question lady, what the fuck do you even want from me? Just go and leave me be. Looking at the moon behind her I answer.

‘’I was watching the moon until someone blocked i-’’ I quickly shut up. Fuck, fuck, fuck! My emotions got the better of me! She is going to stick my head in a pike and parade it around the castle now!

‘’Hold thy tongue knave! We will not answer to a criminal about how we spend our own time in our own castle!’’ Fuck! She got angry, of course, she did! and she was right, wasn’t she? I was a criminal right now.

‘’We should throw thee in a dungeon and throw away the key!’’ She says while getting closer and closer to the barrier. With one swift move, she breaks through the barrier and lands right next to me on the balcony. I thought the barrier was supposed to be strong!

My legs were trembling now, I was barely able to stand up. Any semblance of air failed to find its way into my lungs, and she knew this, slowly walking over to me she was looking down on me…

She is looking down on me? This fucking horse?! A fucking horse princess thinks she is better than me!?

‘’Shut the fuck up!’’ I finally snap the stress from the last days and the nightmare gets to me and I start screaming back… I’m done for.

‘’W-what?’’ All of her anger vanishes and she gets flustered taking a step back, I take a step forward and look her right in the eyes.

‘’Come on! Throw me in the dungeons! or better yet here!’’ All of my frustrations have mounted up and I scream even louder while lowering my head down on the floor, I had enough! I just want to escape this! I don’t belong in this place, not here.

‘’What are you doing?’’ She gets confused all of her rage is now gone just replaced with confusion.

‘’I am presenting my neck to you princess! Cut it down right here right now!’’ I look her right in the eyes never breaking eye contact.

I hear a small gasp from her but after that, all is silent all that fills the room is my short, labored breaths from all the screaming… Yeah, I’m totally gonna die, this is it. After some tense minutes, she finally speaks, not with anger but with genuine curiosity.

‘’Why were you watching our moon?’’ What? Her moon? Did she just claim the moon? This… this is outrageous! How dare she claim the goddamned moon as her own! This dark blue princess is making me angrier by the minute.

‘’It’s not your moon…’’ I mutter between my teeth.

‘’Pardon?’’

‘’It’s not your moon! The moon is no one’s! Anyone who claims that it is theirs then they have an ego the size of the moon itself! ’’ This time I yell it.

‘’...’’ Her brows form up a crescent and she stays silent.

‘’Do I have to answer?’’

‘Oh, oh yes! ’W-I.. would appreciate it.’’ She probably didn’t expect me to talk again… Fuck it, I need to talk to someone, anything even if they are a horse-pony princess. Sighing and after taking a deep breath, I start talking.

‘’I…like the moon, actually fascinated is the right word and she’s the only beautiful thing I have seen in a while, I just want to get on a caravan of rockets and explore them… the stars I mean, maybe even leave some footprints on the dusty paths to the planets.’’

‘’That’s a wonderful dream.’’ Is she smiling? That’s the first time I have seen her smile, granted I didn’t give her any reason to smile actually, heh. Maybe she is not that bad? …no, again these are just honeyed words to put your guard down! Don’t trust these ponies, but why would she want to put my guard down at this point? If she wanted to kill me I have given her ample opportunity did I not?

‘’...thank you.’’

‘’You’re most welcome.’’ Both of us falling silent she makes her way inside the room and takes a quick look around. I follow her and stand beside her. After a quick sweep of the room with her eyes she looks at me and asks.

‘’I thought our guest rooms were supposed to be more, hmmm.’’ She tries to find the right word and I complete the sentence for her.

‘’Furnished?’’

‘’Yes, furnished but this one seems empty, might I ask why?’’

‘’Your sister did that too along with the barrier.’’ The room really does look quite empty for such a sizeable one.

‘’Why would she do that?’’ She tilts her head again in a questioning manner, weird.

‘’Same reason she put up the barrier.’’

‘’Oh, that makes sense…’’

‘’Yeah.’’ Though I wish she didn’t, would end a lot of my problems.

Looks like she had enough she is going to the balcony probably to leave, yeah that would be nice, some quiet is just what I need, I gotta form a plan need to get out of here… wait, why did she stop I thought she would leave?

‘’Come, join me.’’ She sits on the ground of the balcony and pats the empty ground motioning me to join her. I hesitantly approach her and sit beside her.

‘’Let’s enjoy the moon together.’’ With that, she looks at the sky and watches the stars and the moon. Joining her I continue observing the gray gem up in the sky.

In silence we watch the moon together, the stars doting on the sky are unfamiliar but comforting nonetheless even if this is a different world the stars are always there.

‘’Wha-’’ Suddenly my backside gets pulled up from the ground, wha-what is going on!? Is this the same thing from before when the white princess was levitating me? Looking to my right I see the princess horn glow, yes! It is the same thing! Was I wrong? Was she not trustworthy?!

Sensing my panic the princess decides it best to explain herself.

‘’No reason to panic, here. I thought we should be more comfortable.’’
My backside gets lowered to the ground slowly and it’s met with softness. Looking down I see that I am now sitting on a pillow the same one from my bed. Turning my gaze over to the princess she looks at me and shows a soft smile and brings the other pillow from the bed with her magic, I am calling it magic now there is no better explanation than it, and does the same. We are both sitting on pillows now, huh, I guess I overreacted. Yeah, it is more comfortable this way.

After settling down I look over to the castle wall in front of me and see the huge glass shattered the princess casts an eye over where I am currently staring at and giggles a little. I turn my head away a little embarrassed.

‘’Now how did that happen I wonder? Hmmm?’’ She teases me a little while giggling along.

‘’I have no idea what you are talking about.’’ I try to not look at the broken glass and not face the princess.

‘’Oh, of course you don’t, most likely some horrendous beast did it.’’ Oh she is going to keep this going, is she?

‘’Hey, the beast didn’t think that a huge gust of wind would come all of a sudden… and he was probably really dashing and handsom- hey!’’ Mid-sentence she pokes my nose with the tip of her wing.

‘’Yes, but he should have thought of that now, shouldn’t he?’’

Yeah, ok maybe she is right I really should have looked around in the balloon and not fucking sung, maybe I could have avoided this whooole thing.

‘’So what is the name of this ‘handsome’ and ‘dashing’ beast?’’ Oh… oh fuck, what do I say? Do I give her my real name? No, names have power, no real name just a fake one, and probably these guys don’t have usual human names. I think I heard the names: Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Flutters, these names don’t sound human if they do who the fuck names their children Rainbow Dash? Yeah, a fake one.

‘’Laika.’’ I turn over to the princess and nervously put out one of my hands.

‘’Luna.’’ She takes my hand and shakes it.

‘’As in the Moon?’’ I turn and look back to the moon.

‘’Yes, and your name? What does it mean?’’ She turns too and continues watching the sky with me.

‘’Maybe, I’ll tell you later.’’ How the hell do I even explain it to her now?

‘’You’re no fun.’’ Sh- Luna replies, whew she didn’t use her authority as a princess to get it out.

‘’I know.’’

The night gets colder and I shiver a bit, did I sleep so much that I awoke at this hour? I probably did. While trying to rub my hands together warm-up, a soft blanket? Finds their way into my back and wraps me up, checking out the blanket it seems like the blanket is not the cloth type but more like the feather one, Luna stretches one of her wings over to me… wow they sure are soft.

‘’Uhmm…’’

‘’Is it uncomfortable? I saw you shivering.’’ Luna asks with a shy voice. I mean, it’s not uncomfortable the opposite actually but it feels kinda weird, never been covered by a winged pony.

‘’No, it’s really comfortable, thank you.’’ I bury myself deeper in her wings and enjoy the warmth it radiates.

‘’It’s our pleasure, and do be grateful it’s quite embarrassing.’’

‘’Yeah, I am, thank you.’’

Silence takes over again but it’s not cold again but warm, a nice kind of warm like a roaring fire is fighting a battle against the cold on my cold and the fire is winning. This… this is nice, I like this.

After what only feels like seconds, the warmth leaves surprising me a little leaving me looking over the princess, oh is she leaving? I did want her to leave, didn’t I? Looks like I got my wish…

‘’I’m sorry, Laika but I must attend to my duties, and don’t worry neither me nor mine sister will throw you in the dungeons.’’ She gets up, stretches and flexes her wings a little, and prepares to take off the balcony again.

I get up and try to think of something to say, thank her? I should probably thank her, other than the stars and the moon she is the only thing that made me feel… happy? And her name is Luna what a coincidence. Are we friends now? I guess we are or maybe I can’t become friends with her since she is a princess, or should I even become friends with her, what if my true nature comes about and-and… I don’t know… Gulping I decide what to do.

‘’Hey, umm, thank you, Luna, I needed that.’’ I need friends in this world, even if I deny human is a social creature sooner or later, I will go insane.

She gets closer and wraps me with both her wings, is this a hug? I guess it is. Now I know how it feels to be hugged by soft wings from a pony princess… yeah my life is a joke.

‘’Anytime, thou are a friend now, yes? That’s what friends do.’’

‘’Yes, I suppose that is what they do.’’

She lets go of me and bids a quick goodbye again. With that, I am alone again, looks like I got my first friend in this weird, bizarre world… Maybe I won’t die horribly. I am still a human, not a pony though never forget that.

About fourteen minutes after Luna leaves the moon leaves and lets the sun take its place.

8-Not There

After Luna had lowered the moon and let her sister raise the sun, she was going to have breakfast with her sister as usual. Walking through the halls of the castle some of the servants looked at her with eyes filled with fear when they saw her, she couldn’t blame them, Nightmare Moon was still fresh on their minds so it was expected, she understood that they needed time to get used to her, though that didn’t make her any less upset when she could not even talk to a maid without them being in a catatonic state.

But, she didn’t notice those gazes today because she just made her first proper friend! Sure, Twilight had helped on Nightmare Night but they did not interact much after that.

Their introduction could have been a bit more civil, with her threatening the dungeons she was sure that he would have cowed and begged for mercy and he did look like he was going to just do that. Much to Luna’s surprise he just snapped and started screaming which prompted her mind to fumble and when he lowered his neck she became even more confused.

Asking him what he was doing proved her suspicions correct, he was asking for death. She had heard from her sister the mysterious pony who barged into her room and had thrown themselves under her bed without realizing the princess on the other side of the room prompting her sister to enter without much delay and ask where he was. After he was pulled away from under the bed her sister left with him. She tried to continue her day as usual but her mind seemed stuck in that strange encounter. She decided to ask her sister what had happened, it seemed like a lot had happened.

The pony did actually cause quite the commotion in the castle, crashing through one of the mosaic glass of the throne room on Twilight’s ballon no less, and even trying to jump out of the window when her sister dragged him to the clinic trying to help him with the injuries he sustained during the crash. Sister told her that he was not willing to be treated but her sister insisted which prompted his many escape attempts one them in her own room.

The fall would no doubt cause his death but thankfully it seems her sister jumped after him and saved him, Prompting the ever-caring Celestia to put him under protective care effective immediately even if he caused so much chaos in one day. So she was quite intrigued by this weird pony.

Celestia had told her where she placed him and told her to just let him rest, at first Luna did try to leave him be but her curiosity got the better of her so she went to take a quick look, it was late at night so she was sure that he was sleeping. She was surprised to see him on the balcony watching he-... the moon so she decided to talk to him.

She learned that her sister put up quite a strong barrier around the balcony, of course she would, her sister didn’t want him to cause himself any more injuries, his forehead was wrapped in bandages, and some other parts of his body too.

Learning that he wasn’t going to jump again, even if he did Luna was there but he could not even jump with the barrier, she asked him what he was doing at this late hour, which prompted their fight.

When he was asking for his neck to be cut down she could not believe the words coming out of his mouth while never breaking eye contact with her… At that moment she finally got a closer look at his face, he was as generic as a pony could be his eyes were the usual big pony eyes with a vibrant gray but his ones were drooping and had many bags under them, and his mouth was the simple small mouth of the ponies but his corners of the mouth were drooping and his lips were quite chapped.

Looking at his exhausted yet still angry and defiant eyes, in their gray, she saw… she saw a part of her moon, her oh so beautiful moon… She was back on the moon wandering its ash-colored and lifeless but still bewitching desert, watching the stars… blinking she was back in the room, not there…

Calming herself with a deep breath she gazed into his eyes again she saw something else it was fear, it was small so small that she almost missed it, in his fiery and tired eyes there was a tiny amount of fear. But still, through that fear, he still wanted, nay! demanded her to strike him down. Of course, she wasn’t going to do that but she had to ask him why.

‘’Why were you watching our moon?’’

She heard the words that made her so happy and even embarrassed.

‘’It’s not your moon! The moon is no one’s! Anyone who claims that it is theirs then they have an ego the size of the moon itself!’’

He claimed that she did not own the moon and no one could and should not claim the moon, basically implying that the moon is not something that can be owned, that made Luna strangely enough happy? Even she cannot explain why it made her so.

Processing what happened she was surprised to hear him speak, he asked if he had to answer, well he didn’t have to but that would leave Luna quite disappointed she just wanted to know the reason but much to her delight he did answer and she could not have asked for a better answer.

He was fascinated by the moon, saying that it was the only beautiful thing he had seen in a while even talked about getting on a caravan of rockets and exploring the stars and leaving footprints on the dusty path to the planets, she, admittedly didn’t not understand the part about caravan of rockets, what was even a rocket? She did however understand what he wanted, he wanted to explore the vast space traveling from star to star… if he was fascinated by the moon then she was now fascinated by him… Barely holding herself from taking him with her magic and flying into the starry night getting him as close as she was able to the stars, she makes her way into his room.

She did not expect his room to be this empty, she had seen one of the guest rooms before and they were a lot more… furnished! Yes, furnished. She asked him why and it looked like her sister didn’t want him to find any kind of way to hurt himself, so she removed any kind of possibly dangerous objects.

Luna decides that she should really leave him alone and let him rest so she makes her way back to the balcony but she can’t just bring herself to leave she wants to talk to him more and learn more about him, but she doesn’t want him to exhaust to himself even more so she compromises.

Sitting on the floor of the balcony she invites him to watch the stars together. That should be alright right? She turns towards the sky and starts watching and…Huzzah! Out of the corner of her eye, she sees him sit beside her and join her. She discreetly looks over to him and sees that his eyes have relaxed like all the exhaustion they have carried has been whisked away to the sky he is currently watching.

Her backside did get a little sore from sitting on the bare stone of the balcony. An idea comes to her mind, and with magic she levitates his backside a little to the up, he almost immediately gets panicked so she reassures him pulls a pillow under him, and sets him down as quickly as he got up, she does the same to herself and sits on the pillow. They are doing wonders and it seems he is thinking the same thing his body becomes looser not much but still better than how rigid it was before.

He looks right ahead and she follows to see what he is looking ahead. Oh… oh, he really did that huh? She didn’t see what actually happened in the throne room but the image alone provides many answers. The thought causes her to giggle a little and she can’t help but tease him about it.

They start talking, she even pokes him on the nose with her wing when he calls the ‘beast’ handsome, she does not deny him though. She realizes that she doesn’t even know his name and he, hers, so she uses the opportunity to ask for his name his body freezes up and he becomes uncomfortable, she regrets asking for it but nevertheless he brings up a hoove and answers.

‘’Laika.’’ Yeah, that’s a fake name if Luna ever heard one but that’s okay she will learn his real one in due time.

‘’Luna.’’ They shake hooves and she asks him the meaning of his name and he tells her that maybe he will tell her later, he did not deny her so that is a plus in her scroll.

She notices that he is shivering she does not know what to do this time, well, she can use her wing but that would be extremely embarrassing… maybe the blanket from the bed? Shaking her head she bites her cheek and drapes a wing over Laika. He tries to say something, oh no! Did she make him uncomfortable? Agh! She should have just used the blanket! What was she thinking?

After asking him if he is uncomfortable she is relieved to hear that he is actually the exact opposite, he buries himself deeper in her wings which makes her even more embarrassed over the whole thing, but she still enjoying herself. After a few minutes, she sneaks a peek, and… he is smiling? Oh, she finally made him smile and now she can see how soft his smile is.

Hours feel like seconds to her but all good things must come to an end and she realizes that it is almost time to lower the moon. She almost didn’t let her wing go but she had a duty that she had to follow so she reluctantly pulled her wing back.
Assuring him that he will not be sent to the dungeons by her or her sister she prepares to take off the balcony but the sound of his voice stops her.

He thanked her, oh moon, he thanked her. Does this mean that they are now friends? She hopes so, hugging him one final time she says that it is what friends do and he replies in kind. Bidding a quick goodbye she flies away to lower the moon.

But she made her first actual friend this night! Thinking about it she feels even more giddy humming a little tune on her way to her post, some servants who got up seem quite confused about her behavior this is the first time they have seen the princess this happy ever since she returned with her sister all those months ago.

Luna might have missed her time by about fourteen minutes she hopes that no one can notice it, she lowers the moon hurriedly and makes her way to have breakfast with her siste- oh! She is already here, Luna just can’t wait to tell her sister all about her new friend!

Almost kicking the door she enters the room seeing that her sister is drinking tea she gets near her and speaks to her.

‘’Sister we have made a new friend!’’ She hugs her sister which surprises her a little.

‘’Oh, I’m so happy for you sister and who is this pony?’’ When Luna lets go of the hug her sister begins to take a sip of her tea.

‘’The pony who crashed into our window just yesterday sister!’’ Her sister spits out all of the tea in her mouth onto her face.

Oh, she was drinking lavender tea.

9-Golden Brown

With Luna’s departure, I head back inside ‘my’ room. After a few tries, I was able to sit on the table like a human with my legs hanging down not touching the ground. There is not much to do right now, can’t even leave, Luna’s sister definitely locked the doors so no luck ther- wait. She did lock them, right? I didn’t hear a lock, I didn’t even try it.

Getting up from the chair I rush to the door, please tell me she forgot to lock it. I reach the door, grasp the handle as best as these hands can, and throw it open. My eyes greet a grayish hoove coming fast, oh fuc-

‘’Agh!’’ I failed to get back in time and a hoof struck my face, though it was not very painful still I staggered back a little.

‘’Oh! I’m really really reallyy sorry! Please don’t be mad! I was just about to knock on the door and the door just opened I couldn’t stop myself!’’

Shaking my head a little I try to understand what is going on. Focusing my eyes on the pony in front of me... is that a goddamn maid's dress? Blinking a couple of times to confirm and yeah that is a pony wearing a black and white frilly maid’s dress… who has a lime green mare. what the hell, this place is getting weirder and weirder by the minute.

‘’I was just bringing you, your food but look what I made, Please forgive me!’’

She was still trying to apologize? Damn, what am I the honored guest of the kin- oh, guess I am, huh. Well, a house prisoner would be more accurate but tomayto tomahto.

‘’Calm down! I’m not mad… what are you doing?’’ Was she bowing? Since she lowered her head I can see her back, are those pancakes? Oh god please the only things I have eaten since I came here were those apples, my stomach is going to stage a coup at this point storming the castle(my skull) with the odd organ here and there and hang the tyrant(my brain) maybe even establish a democracy in the body… what is wrong with me? This place is getting to my head.

Wait stop, the tray is sliding off her back it’s going to fall! Raise your head, you Buffon!

‘’Oh, you’re not mad! Thank you! It won’t happen again!’’ I don’t care about that just raise your head its going to fall!

‘’Yes, yes just raise your head! The tray is going to-’’

*Crash*

‘’Eeep!’’

‘’-fall…’’

The maid pony makes a shrill cry and covers her head with her hooves trying to hide herself, I decide it’s best to break the silence or she is going to break under this nonexistent pressure she is feeling.
‘’Look…’’

‘’M-moonlight Sweeper.’’ That is a name? Wow, Luna was more on the normal side I guess.

‘’Moonlight Sweeper, it’s fine just raise your head alright? I’m not going to banish you to the desert or something like that.’’

She slowly raises her head some of her hair is covered in syrup.

‘’You won’t?’’ I mean I don’t think I would even be able to do that, she probably has more authority than me.

‘’I won’t, and why would I even do that?’’

‘’Thank you.’’ She nervously smiles a little, that’s better she looks better with a smile on her face.

‘’Alright, now come here.’’

‘’W-what?’’

‘’Just come a little closer.’’

She takes little steps towards me and gets closer. I raise my hand.

‘’Hmn!’’ Moonlight squeals again and seals her eyes shut in fear.

I lick my hand and get the syrup out of her hair, that’s better.

‘’There we go, you got some syrup in your hair.’’

‘’I did?’’

‘’Yes, look.’’ I show my hand covered in syrup. She looks at my hand and when she notices the syrup on my hand she brings one of her hooves to her hair and feels the sticky spot where the syrup used to be.

‘’Now how about you go and get us another plate of pancakes, yeah?’’

‘’Hmm? Oh… oh yes! Excuse me for a moment!’’ She starts sprinting back to get some more pancakes.

‘’Be careful!’’

‘’I wil-’’ …yeah she fell.

‘’ I’m okay! ’’ She quickly gets back up and continues sprinting.

As silence takes hold, I look down and see a gruesome sight. All I can see are the parts of a hero lying on the ground, everywhere covered in delicious brown blood… My stomach protests at the sight but I can’t take my eyes off it, I can feel my mouth waterin- No! I’m not an animal, I’m not going to eat a pancake of the fucking ground, not here. I still lick the syrup out of my hand though.

Steeling my will I head back inside my room and wait for Moonlight to bring back the pancakes. Lying on the bed I start thinking about her. Is she really that clumsy? Was that all an act, maybe the princess sent her after me to learn more about me after I befriended Luna?

Rubbing my forehead in frustration I hear the sounds of hooves hitting the stone hallways of the castle looks like Moonlight is back. The sound stops right in front of my door and I wait for her to enter or knock.

‘’Umm… I’m back.’’ She is taking another option well with the door incident earlier I can understand why.

I open the door and let her in she gets a little surprised when I suddenly open the door but fortunately, she doesn’t drop the tray this time. I step back and let her come inside, she enters with a quick thank you and immediately starts looking around the room… hmm.

‘’You can drop them on the table there.’’ I point to the table.

She doesn’t say anything and makes her way to the table, oh I wonder how she is going to place them on the table.

With a swift motion, she turns her neck a little to the side expertly and grabs the side of the tray with her mouth, and puts the tray on the table with ease… wow, how the hell can she do that? Seems like she actually knows what she is doing, so why did she drop the tray earlier? Did she really forget about them in the heat of the moment or was that planned?

‘’Hey, how about you join me?’’ I want to test something, maybe even make another friend if I am wrong. She stops right before she is about to leave and turns to look at me.

‘’Is… is that alright?’’

‘’Yes, please I would love to chat with someone.’’ No, of course not I would rather be alone.

She squeals again but this time it’s not because of fear but of excitement? What?

‘’I would love that too! I wanted to talk to you since I saw you yesterday at the throne room!’’

‘’You… you saw me?’’

‘’Yes! One moment I was just cleaning a part of the throne room before the nobles came and then all of a sudden A ballon crashed through one of the windows and it was chaos all around everyone screaming, me included, guards forming a line to protect the princess, and a pony crawling out of whatever was left of the ballon!’’
Woah, she said that all in one breath. Pausing to take a huge breath she continues almost immediately.

‘’And then the pony greets the Princess like nothing happened! But a guard tries to jump at you and you were all like hai-yah!’’

Is she doing karate moves while making the sounds with her mouth? Cute… no stop that! Don’t think about the weird pony in a maid’s dress doing fake karate moves in front of you as cute!

‘’And you almost made your escape but Princess Celestia-’’ Her name is Celestia? Yeah, she was celestial alright. ‘’- stops you and takes you out of the room.’’

Is she done? She seems out of breath, I guess it’s my turn now, annnd no, she is opening her mouth again… oh god I’m going to be stuck here for hours!

‘’Then later that same day when I was cleaning another part of the castle I got bored so I thought why not look out the window I love watching the city below so I did just that but do you know what happened?!’’

‘’Umm, what happened?’’

‘’I see the pony from earlier jumping out of the infirmary window! I was all like nooo! But then the Princess jumped right after him and saved him!’’

She is panting really hard right now. Well, she did just sum up the events in like a minute so that’s pretty normal. I wait for her to gather herself and rest a little. After a little, I decided to speak.

‘’Are you alright?’’

‘’Yes…’’ All of a sudden she seems downtrodden and she hangs her head down.

‘’You must think I’m weird now.’’ What? Why would I even think that, because she got excited over something?

‘’No? I don’t think that.’’

‘’You don’t?’’ She asks with a hopeful tone and raises her head to look at me she is almost on the brink of crying, what the hell? Why is she acting like this all of a sudden? Does she think she is weird or other people? If not then wh- oh, oh I get it this is a trick right? Trying to gain my sympathy while acting weak and vulnerable, very clever Moonlight…

‘’Of course not, now, how about you join me for breakfast?’’

‘’Join you for breakfast? A-are you sure?’’ She asks while eyeing the pancakes on the table.

‘’Yes, I am not that hungry anyway we can even talk more while enjoying some pancakes together!’’ Nah, I’m so hungry I could eat a hors- Uh, yeah brain? If you say something like that out loud we are actually going to die.

‘’Yes! That would be awesome!’’ With that, she gains her energy right back and starts tapping on the ground repeatedly with her hooves.

Hmm, she is good at this, she just changed her whole demeanor in a second, this is going to be harder than I thought it would be.

Turning my head to the table I see that I only have one chair in the room. Where is she going to sit if I sit on the chair? Aha!

‘’Just wait a moment will you?’’

She nods repeatedly. I walk over to the table and push the chair out of the way, holding onto one of the sides of the table I grasp them tightly and start pulling it toward the bed, damn this is heavy or I am weak as hell seeing as how I lost to a bunny I think it might be the latter option. Suddenly it seems like the table becomes lighter I turn my head and see that Moonlight is pushing it from the side with her head, she looks up and smiles at me. With her pushing and me pulling we get the table to one of the sides of the bed quite easily.

‘’Thanks,’’ I say while huffing and puffing a little.

‘’I should thank you! You pulled so that I could sit too right?’’

‘’Well, yeah.’’

‘’So, thank you too!’’

We both sit with me on the bed and Moonlight on the chair we are just staring at each other, hah, now we are doing this eh? Alright, let’s do this, I’m not getting poisoned or magically-poisoned by fucking pancakes.

‘’You go first.’’

‘’Oh, I can’t possibly do that, it would be very rude of me and you are our guest now.’’

Hoho, the politeness card eh? How about this then…

‘’Well, you are my guest now so I insist.’’

‘’Okay! That’s fair I’m digging in!’’ Wha- she just ate one of the pancakes… so are these safe? Bringing my nose close to one of the pancakes I sniff it. It smells like… well it smells like pancakes, did she pick that one specifically?

‘’Hey, Moonlight.’’

‘’That’s me!’’ She responds just before eating another one of the pancakes.

‘’Can I have that one?’’

‘’This one? Why?’’ She asks and tilts her head to the side, does every one of these ponies tilt their head when they get confused? Weird.

‘’Uhh, that one was done just how I like it so… please?’’

‘’Oh, you know your pancakes! Sure here you go!’’ She pushes the pancake towards me, huh I well I suppose I these are safe, I take a bite of the pancake and oh god… this is delicious!

Before I knew it the two of us finished the pancakes in record time. While rubbing my belly I hear a light burp looking up I see Moonlight covering her mouth looking quite embarrassed.

‘’Excuse me, but those pancakes were so gooood!’’

I start laughing and lay on the bed while holding my gut, oh god it hurts to laugh but still.

‘’Hey! Don’t laugh! You know they were good I saw you scarf them down like an alligator.’’

‘’I was hungry!’’

‘’I bet you were! Why did you even say that you were not hungry then huh?’’

‘’I wanted to eat breakfast with you.’’ Yeah, so that I knew if these mouth-watering pancakes were poisonous.

‘’...’’ She says nothing and looks away I almost didn’t notice it but her cheeks show just the barest amount of pink, just barely.

After that, she turns around looks at me and then the bed, and then throws me a smirk. What is she thinking? Wait… no.

‘’Moonlight, no!’’

‘’Moonlight yes!’’ Oh god, she is preparing to jump!

‘’Here I come! Cannonball!’’ She dives into the empty space beside me and I get tossed out of the bed and soar through the air like a plastic bag, landing hard on the floor just a few meters away from the bed.

‘’Agh!’’ Fuck! That hurts, I hope I don’t fucking vomit all of the pancakes.

‘’Oh my Celestia! No!’’ Moonlight rushes to my side.

‘’Are you okay?! I’m so sorry, please be okay! I didn’t mean to throw you out like that! Please don’t be ma-’’

‘’I’m okay!... I’m okay, just… just help me to the bed, please?’’ She nods her head frantically and helps me get up and gets me to the edge of the bed.

‘’You can let go now.’’ She doesn’t let go, in fact, she is holding me even tighter.

‘’...’’

‘’Moonlight? You can let go of me now.’’

‘’Oh… yes, sorry.’’ She lets go and I slowly drag myself to the bed and make myself comfortable. I close my eyes to relax for a moment.

*sniffle*

Was that her? Please don’t be crying, please don’t be crying. Slowly opening my eyes I see she is barely holding her back from full-on crying the dam is about to burst.

‘’Oh, Moonlight… please don’t cry, I’m not mad at you.’’ Maybe I am just a little mad.

‘’Bu-but I hurt you more! You are already hurt enough you are covered with bandages I don’t want to add another one!’’

‘’You didn’t I’m okay, it just hurt a little bit don’t even feel it anymore.’’

‘’I still hurt you.’’ Oh, come on what do you want from me? Want me to tap dance so that I can show how healthy I am to you? No, noooo, the dam burst she is full-on crying now! What do I do, how do I comfort her? Seeing no other option I open my arms and she practically lunges at me the moment I open them.

‘’You’re not mad are you? Please, don’t be.’’

‘’I’m not mad at you.’’ I say while patting her on the back of her head.

I didn’t think that my morning would be like this, comforting a maid pony for hurting me, but that’s how it goes I guess.

Disgusting

What was that?

10-Bird Brain

‘’Hey, Moonlight?’’ She is still hugging me it’s been like five minutes is she not going to let go? Well at least, she stopped crying.

‘’Yeah?’’ She responds but doesn’t let go.

‘’Wanna, uh, let go?’’ I said hoping that she would break the hug.

‘’Hmm, no.’’

‘’What do you mean no?’’

‘’Don’t wanna, I’m going to hug your injuries away! and you’re mane is sooo soft.’’ She says while burying herself deeper in my neck.

It seems like her cheery attitude is back so that’s nice. Wait, my man-... hair, is soft? Wow, I don’t… I don’t even know what to say to that.

‘’Wha- Moonlight come on let go!’’

‘’No! Please, one more minute!’’ She whines like a kid not wanting to get up for school.

‘’I-you… fine. One minute! Okay? Just one!’’

‘’Yes, yes only one more! I promise!’’

After five more minutes, she finally let go and I could breathe again. She steps back looks over at me and smiles.

‘’That was not one minute.’’

‘’You didn’t say anything so I didn’t notice it.’’ She shows a mischievous smile and sticks out her tongue.

‘’Uh-huh, I’m sure you didn’t.’’ Sighing I get out the bed stretching all my limbs.

‘’Oh! I forgot! What’s your name you know mine but I still don’t know yours!’’ Right, I didn’t tell her my name.

‘’Laika.’’ I extend my hand.

‘’Moonlight Sweeper but you already knew that.’’ She takes my hand with her hoof and shakes it up and down repeatedly.

‘’Let’s become the bestest of friends!’’ Wow that is one strong grip, is she built like a tank? With her throwing me out of the bed with just jumping on it, that seems like the case.

‘’Ohhh, we are going to have so much fun today! We can play games, read books and and annnd we can even eat more delicious pancakes!’’ She starts circling around the room while listing other things we can do but I don’t understand most of it.

She is not going to stop, is she? Shaking my head I decide to cut her off or I would be stuck here and probably take root in the floor.

‘’Moonlight?’’

‘’There is this one game where you buy places and become rich by taking other players' money,’’

‘’Moonlight.’’

‘’one time I took the last of my sister's money in the game and she didn’t talk to me for the whole day!’

Yeah, she not hearing me, and wait isn’t the game she is describing fucking Monopoly?

‘’MOONLIGHT!’’

‘’Ahhh!’’ My voice breaks her out of her trance, and she jumps back a little, finally I got her attention.

‘’Oh, sorry…’’ she finally notices and looks quite embarrassed, covering her face with one of her hooves.

‘’It’s… fine. Look I would uhh love to do all that with you but don’t you have like more important work?’’ Please don’t say that Celestia didn’t make your work be glued to me please don’t.

‘’Pfft, don’t worry about that my work changed just about this morning!’’ Oh god no.

‘’H-how did it change?’’

‘’The head maid, she kinda scares me sometimes, gathered all of us and then said that she needed a volunteer for Princess Celestia’s new guest, weelll most of the maids were kinda scared of you-’’

‘’The maids are scared of me?’’ Huh, did I do something to scare them? …okay, maybe smashing through the mosaic window of the throne room and then kicking a guard may make me look a little uhhh, bad?

‘’Yeah, almost all of them, not everyone was there like me but the ones that were there told the others what happened so no one wanted to volunteer.’’

‘’Sooo, I’m guessing you volunteered?’’

‘’Yep! That I did! Some of the maids were really surprised even the head maid herself could not say anything!’’ She nods quite proud of herself, look at you, brave little pony maid you.

‘’So why did you volunteer then?’’

‘’Well, I told you earlier didn’t I? I wanted to talk with you or even be friends!’’ Hmm, sureee.

‘’But then, why were you so scared earlier when you dropped the pancakes?’’

Oh, she’s covering her face again how many times can one pony get embarrassed?

‘’Ehehe about that… Well, the other maids kinda talked a lot and sent me like it was the last time we would be talking so it kinda got to my head, heh. I’m glad you are not like that though!’’ She beams up again a smile on her face from ear to ear.

So she thought that I was going to do something bad when she dropped the tray? Heh, let’s mess with her a little, a little payback would be nice.

‘’Who said that I was not like that?’’

‘’W-w-what?’’ The smile instantly drops from her face replaced with pure dread. Yep, she bought it.

‘’You thought that you would go unpunished when you hurt me earlier?’’

‘’Bu-but you said you we-were not mad!’’ Oh god, she is on the verge of breaking down okay let’s not push her much further I don’t need her to cry again.

‘’A-are you laughing?!’’ Not able to continue any longer and not wanting her to cry again, I laugh.

‘’Oh, you should have seen your fac- ow!’’ She starts punching me on the shoulder.

‘’You… You big meanie! I thought you were going to do something bad for real!’’

‘’Ow! Hahaha! Stop, ow!’’

‘’No! Say you’re sorry!’’ She continues hitting me.

‘’Okay, okay, I’m sorry but it was too funny! Consider it payback for you launching me across the room earlier.’’ I wipe a few tears forming in the corners of my eyes, whew, I needed a laugh like that.

‘’Not accepted!’’ She pouts and turns her back to me.

‘’Wha- what do you mean not accepted?’’

‘’Hmn!’’

‘’Moonlight?’’ When I try to get to her right side she turns to the left and pouts even more.

Sighing, I turn back and head to the balcony. Maybe this will make her forget.

‘’It’s too bad that I will have to watch the city alone from the balcony, oh woe is me, if only there were someone who liked watchi-’’

‘’You’re forgiven.’’ In the blink of an eye she is beside me walking to the balcony, wow that really worked.

‘’That was quick.’’

‘’I never looked it through this room, it’s my first time here!’’ She says with her excitement becoming more and more apparent the closer we get to the balcony.

‘’Woah,’’ Woah, indeed the city looked beautiful at night but even at this time it hadn’t lost its beauty.

‘’Yeah, my first time seeing it this close.’’

‘’Hmmnn, wait, first time?’’ While looking at the town she stops and turns to me.

‘’I mean I did see it from a distance from the balloon, but I couldn’t get a good look at it.’’ I could not be bothered with sight-seeing while I was fighting for my life there.

‘’Ohhhhh, that reminds me! Tell me about the balloon!’’

‘’Uh, what do you want to know?’’ What the hell should I even tell her, I mean there isn’t much but I for sure am not going to tell her that I stole it.

‘’How was it when you were in it? I have never been on a balloon before.’’ She asks, huh, that I can answer.

‘’It was… it was fun I guess? Looking at the city from far away was nice, well until a gust of wind came from nowhere!’’ Let’s make this a little bit more fun story for her.

‘’No way! And then what happened?’’ She gasps and asks with genuine wonder. Smiling I make motions with my hands to add to the story.

‘’I was lying down on the basket when the winds came knocking me around, but with how extraordinary I am I quickly gathered myself and tried to wrestle the balloon to be steady.’’

‘’Were you able to, were you able to?!’’ She was now fully engrossed in it. I felt a smile form on my face.

‘’The beast proved to be a challenge, it didn’t give up but I didn't either! Looking up I was face to face with one of the grand windows of the castle, seeing no other option I braced for impact.’’

‘’And then you crashed!’’

‘’Yes, quite violently, most of these bandages are from that except for the… anyway, I got tossed around the basket like I was stuck in a washing machine… all I heard was the glass shattering and the screams followed up by it which probably included yours.’’

‘’It did! I screamed, like a lot.’’

‘’I thought I squashed a chicken turns out it was you.’’ Actually, the screams were secondary I was trying not to fall unconscious.

‘’Hey! I don’t scream like a chicken!’’ She lightly hits me again while I’m chuckling.

‘’Of course, you don’t.’’

‘’I don’t!’’ Ignoring her strikes I continue, and she stops when I start talking again.

‘’After getting brutally thrown around the basket it finally stops and I realize that I am still alive so I crawl out of whatever mess I created, and you know the rest.’’

‘’Wha- no I don’t! I don’t know about you falling from the infirmary window so tell me about that!’’

‘’Maybe later.’’

‘’Pleaseeeee.’’ She is begging right now with her hands joined together like a kid begging for sweets.

‘’There really isn’t much to tell though, I thought that it was the ground floor so I jumped out of it, turns out it wasn’t.’’

‘’But why would you jump out of it?’’

‘’To get away from the princess.’’ I don’t like where this is going.

‘’Why would you want to get away from the princess?’’

‘’Because I thought tha-...’’ I cut myself short, I don’t want to or should answer these questions, why was she asking these ones too? Was she told to ask them? Or does she genuinely just ask out of simple curiosity, hmmm.

‘’You thought?’’ She asks with a curious tone, or is it?

‘’Nothing, let’s stop with the questions I want to enjoy the view.’’

‘’But-’’ She tries to protest but.

‘’I said let’s stop with the questions.’’ My firm tone makes her back away and the conversation is cut short… dammit I liked talking to her, why did she have to ask those pesky questions.

We watched the city together in silence for about ten minutes, but it looked like she was going to talk again and probably couldn’t handle the silence.

‘’I’m sorry.’’ Why is she apologizing? Does she think I’m angry?

‘’Don’t be, I don’t want to talk about it now okay? Maybe later but not now.’’ I take a deep breath and turn to look at her.

‘’Okay…’’ She replies as quietly as a mouse, she looks so downtrodden… I don’t like that, a smile suits her better, let’s get it back shall we?

‘’Oh, look at that, I wonder what happened there.’’ I look right in front and see the still half-broken remains of the window.

‘’It’s like a horrible storm hit the castle.’’ I say while glancing at her her face slowly goes from a confused one to a wry smile.

‘’Or a huge bird hit it.’’

‘’Wow, what a bird-brain he was.’’

‘’Yeah, I think so too.’’ There we go! She is laughing again, great job Brain, I will protect you from the stomach if he ever threatens you again don’t worry about it! Thanks.

Shaking my head, I see that Moonlight has gained back her energy and now is looking at everywhere sometimes when making ‘’ooo’s and aaahhh’s’’ so mission accomplished.

‘’Hey, Laika.’’

‘’...’’

‘’Laika!’’

‘’Wha-! Yes, that’s my name…’’ Fuck, right that’s my name right now for the foreseeable future should get used to it.

‘’So, uh, don’t want to seem too inquisitive but umm, what is your cutie mark?’’ What. What the hell is a cutie mark?

‘’Uhmm, what is a cutie mark?’’ Should I have even asked that, if it’s something an elementary school kid knows then I might be boned.

‘’You don’t know what a cutie mark is?’’ Crap, her tone makes it clear that it is something everyone knows I might have shot myself in the foot.

‘’Is it something I should know?’’

‘’Well duh! It is probably the most important thing in a pony's life!’’ She seems, no is really surprised about how one cannot know something as important as this, uhhh, let’s try the homeschooled card.

‘’My parents were a lot…different then usual ponies.’’

‘’Hmm, really?’’

‘’Yeah, they kinda didn’t want me to go to school and I was homeschooled all my life and they didn’t teach me anything about ‘cutie marks’, and we lived in a real remote part of the country, like we lived in the woods with just me and my parents.’’ Nah, I rarely saw the forest back in my home, lived quite deep inside the city.

‘’Oh yeah, that would explain it, still weird they didn’t teach you anything about them.’’

‘’Hey, don’t ask me I don’t know why.’’ I shrug my shoulders and hope that she drops the topic.

‘’Okay well let me become your teacher then!’’

‘’Would you? That would be quite convenient, please do explain them’’ I say with a hopeful smile.

She pretends to wear glasses and points at a non-existent class board.

‘’The cutie marks are obtained when ponies discover a unique characteristic that sets themselves apart from others, such as I, look!’’

What is she doing? Oh god, she is pulling the skirt of the dres- what is that?

‘’This is my cutie mark! You probably saw the other ones too.’’

Huh, so those were cutie marks I thought they were tattoos, so Luna has a moon cutie mark? Curious.

And Moonlight has a cutie mark of a bell? What, does it symbolize service so she became a maid? Really weird thing this cutie mark.

‘’D-don't stare…’’ She lets go of the dress and her flank is covered in fabric again.

‘’What? Oh! I’m sorry, didn’t mean to.’’

She coughs, embarrassed, and continues explaining what it is. After about ten to twenty minutes she is done.

‘’Any questions dear students?’’

‘’No, you explained it pretty well.’’ Her chest puffs up in pride.

‘’Thank you, so what is your cutie mark? I can’t see it because of the bandages.’’ I don’t remember seeing a magical tattoo on my ass if I did have one I would have seen it right?

‘’You’ll see it when the bandages are gone.’’

‘’What?! Come on tell meee, I expect payment for my lesson so tell me.’’

‘’Nah, you’ll see them in due time.’’

‘’Whyyy??’’ She asks in annoyance.

‘’Makes me seem more mysterious.’’

‘’Fine, keep your mysterious mark, I’ll see it anyhow.’’

She moves closer to the railing and looks out to the city again.

‘’Oh, oh I can see where my parents live!’’ She is now leaning from the railing a little… it should be fine right? Celestia did put up a barrier so it should be fine… wait didn’t Luna break it yesterday?!

‘’Moonlight get bac- MOONLIGHT!’’ Her grip slips and she is about to fall, not having a moment to think I throw myself at her and try to drag her back up, I won’t let her die, not here… I managed to throw Moonlight back, ah...my foot slipped.

‘’LAIKAAAA!’’ All I hear through the wind is her scream of terror.

Ha, she really does scream like a chicken.

Moonlight's face gets smaller and smaller and the ground is getting closer and closer, seems like this is it. Wasn’t even me that jumped, well such is life.

Just as I was about to the ground everything went black… am I dead? Is this the afterlife? Just utter blackness? I hear a faint noise though, Is that someone talking? It’s barely loud enough for me to make out some words but I can hear.

‘’We a-e s-rry, ple- f-org-ve us!’’

11-Why jump?

‘’Ugh, sister!’’ Luna says while wiping her face with a cloth from the table.

‘’I’m sorry, but did you say that it was the pony I told you to leave alone?’’ Her sister says while coughing and wiping her mouth with some cloth too.

‘’We could not help it, we were too curious sister…’’ Luna, now a little embarrassed sits on the opposite side of the table across from her sister. Her sister sighs and refills her teacup.

‘’So, how did you become his friend?’’

Luna, with happiness clear in her voice, tells her sister how she met Laika, how she got angry then how he got angry, then how she tried to learn why he was watching the moon and how protective he became of it, and how they spent the rest of the night watching the endless sky and even becoming friends.

Her sister listens to her face changing emotions on different parts of it, on the part where they fight she chides her sister about threatening to throw some pony to the dungeons, in the part where she heard that he demanded Luna to cut him down her eyebrows rise and she becomes saddened but when he gets angry with her sister because she claimed the moon, she becomes even more curious, and her smile gets wider and wider when her sister tells how they become closer, and eventually, friends.

She knew how her sister still struggled with making friends. She hoped that her student, would help but that proved for naught, with this new and frankly out-of-nowhere addition, she hopes to help both this ‘Laika’ and her sister with opening up, and they becoming friends is unexpected but not unwelcome it would be like eating cake with one bite!

‘’So his name is ‘Laika’? quite the unusual name, what does it mean?’’ She had never heard a name such as his so Celestia was curious about its meaning, it’s not of pony origin that she knew.

‘’We don’t know sister, but he told us that we would learn it later.’’

‘’Well, that means that he wants to continue talking with you.’’ Celestia says with a soft smile.

‘’Truly? We wish that as well but sister… you know that is a fake name right?’’

A fake name? Does this Laika truly not trust both Luna and herself that he would not give up his actual name… it is most likely true, as how he resisted so hard to get even simple treatment.

‘’That… seems likely.’’

‘’But no matter sister! We shall learn his trust in time and get him to share it with us!’’ Luna says in a determined voice, much to Celestia’s surprise but her surprise turns into happiness at how Luna is acting.

‘’Yes, I hope to become his friend as well any friend of my sister is a friend of mine.’’ She genuinely does hope to become his friend, she has not seen a pony act like him in many years. Almost as if he is not a pony…

‘’You didn’t ask him about his cutie mark right Luna?’’ She hopes her sister didn’t ask such an inconsiderate question as how he doesn’t have a cutie mark, almost all ponies earn their marks when they are in their teenage years but some may still not have one due to unknown reasons which may bring them great strife in life. She thinks that why he acts that way is because he doesn’t have one.

Luna seems a little offended. ‘’Of course not, doth thou think us as that tactless?’’ Content with her answer Celestia nods and continues her breakfast.

‘’Oh, I should have invited him to dine with us, he is most likely hungry sister.’’ Luna stops eating and realizes that her friend mayb- definitely is hungry.

‘’Don’t worry Luna I talked to the head maid and asked for her to send one of the maids to accompany him through this day.’’ And for the maid to report what kind of a pony he is as well, she does trust her little ponies but extra caution is always appreciated, with him becoming her sister's first friend she is glad she did it.

‘’Still, we would like to dine with him.’’

‘’We can do it tomorrow Luna, we can even have it in the gardens.’’

‘’That seems nice, I would like that sister…’’ Luna continues eating her breakfast which is delicious pancakes! She is going to thank the cook for this delicious meal after it’s over she hopes that Laika is eating it too, he probably is in that empty room…

‘’Sister?’’

‘’Hmm? Yes?’’ Celestia puts down her cup and waits for her sister.

‘’Are you going to keep his room so… bare?’’ She doesn’t want her friend's room to be so empty! He is a guest now, and that room is in the likeness of a prison cell much less a guest room in the castle. Sighing her sister gives out her reasoning.

‘’Well until he proves that he is not a danger to himself… and I’m sorry but he has given me no reason to believe that might be the case.’’

‘’But why sister?! He became friends with us has he not?’’

‘’He may have and that is wonderful for both you and him but you told me he demanded you to cut him down sister… if he shows improvement I will grant him more freedom.’’

‘’I… understand sister.’’ She understood, truly, but it still hurt.

They continue their breakfast but Celestia stops suddenly which causes her sister to become confused.

‘’Sister? Do you not enjoy these amazing pancakes?’’ She eats another and looks at her sister.

‘’Luna… how did you enter the room?’’

‘’Through the balcony, which reminds us, you have made quite the strong barrier sister, why? is something the matter?’’

‘’Luna, you did repair the barrier after breaking through it, right?’’

‘’...’’

All noise inside the room stopped, the only thing that was heard was the sound of cutlery drooping onto the plates.

‘’Luna?’’

She doesn’t reply and in the blink of an eye all Celestia can see is the door bursting open and her sister becoming a blue blur… Oh, Luna…

Luna ran, she ran through through the halls of the castle as if her life depended on it.

No, no, no, NO! She won’t lose her first friend because of her carelessness. How could she forget such an important thing?! She even left through the balcony for goodness sake! Oh how she hoped that Laika didn’t notice it. If he did would he…would he throw himself to the winds of the world again? He would not, he said it so himself when she first asked him he said no… but what if that was a lie? No! He would not do it, she would never forgive herself and him if he did it, she wouldn’t lose her first friend, not here.

‘’Woah!’’

‘’Watch out!’’

‘’Oh Celestia!’’

Galloping to Laika’s room as fast as her legs can carry she knocks down a few unsuspecting servants but she cannot and would not stop for them she doesn’t even throw them a glance. She is almost there! Her ears perk up hearing a voice shout, a stallion's voice… it’s Laika’s!

‘’MOONLIGHT!’’

Something happened… she picks up her pace and with one final push she finally makes it to his room bursting through the doors she only sees a maid leaning over the railings.

‘’LAIKAAAA!’’

Without a thought, Luna jumps into the air through the balcony and dives down hoping that she can save her dear friend, there! She sees Laika falling and she forces her wings to get just close enough so that she can stop him with her magic.

Come on, come on, come on! YES! She barely manages to make him halt in the air just before crashing into the earth if she was only a second late… no! She was not late. Now to get him to safety, pulling him upside she quickly examined his body to see if something happened, and she realizes that he had been knocked out. But thankfully that seems to be the only thing if he was… gone, through her magic she would know, but his life force is still ablaze. Now to get him a doctor, and a soft bed so that he can rest.

‘’We are sorry, please forgive us!’’ She makes a quick apology, she knows that he doesn’t hear it but she has to apologize. Slowly she begins levitating him to her side.

‘’Ahhhh!’’ She hears a shrill cry and something crashes into Luna’s back but she doesn’t break concentration and can hold her magic. Looking up she sees the same maid from before holding onto her back.

‘’Hast thou lost thy mind!?’’

The maid opens her eyes, and she becomes surprised at the sight of one of the princesses.

‘’Wha- Princess Luna?!’’

‘’I ask of thee again, hast thou lost thy mind?!’’

Sputtering the maid becomes speechless she tries to get some words out but fails, but finally, she manages to say something.

‘’Is Laika okay?!’’

Did… did this mare just jump out to save him? Luna can’t believe what she is seeing. She doesn’t even have wings!... yet still she jumped after him. What did she hope to accomplish? Shaking her head she answers the crazy maid.

‘’Yes, he is not hurt but unconscious.’’

‘’Oh thank-thank…’’ The maid is unable to finish her sentence and bursts out crying. Luna doesn’t say anything and slowly makes her way back up to the balcony with one extra passenger.

Getting back in the room she places Laika gently in his bed the maid gets off her back and immediately hugs him while weeping, Luna almost tries to stop her, almost…

‘’I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, please be okay, please be okay, I’m sorry-’’ Luna decides to cut her wailing short and get some answers so she drags her and looks her in the eye.

‘’What. Happened?’’ Her tone makes her anger quite clear if this pony did something to Laika she would really throw her to the dungeons and throw away the key.

‘’I-I-I almost fell and h-he saved me! And- and then he slipped and I couldn’t- I couldn’t catch him!’’ That did answer her questions but still, she had one more.

‘’Then pray tell why would thee jump?’’

‘’I… I wanted to save him, I wasn’t thinking, I just… jumped.’’ The maid turns back to look at him and her eyes tear up again. Shaking her head with a sigh Luna turns her back to herself and talks.

‘’Enough! Go and get a doctor this instant!’’

‘’Wha-yes!’’ She hurriedly scampers off the room.

Luna, now alone moves to the side of the bed. He is breathing… and she feels a few tears make their way up but she wipes them away, she doesn’t have to cry, nothing bad happened he is okay.

‘’You should have been borne a pegasus.’’ She laughs a little and caresses one of his cheeks with her hoof.

12-Chocolate Milk

Ugh, I feel like shit… but if I am feeling something then that would mean that I’m still alive right? That would mean surviving the fall. I don’t think I would have even the slimmest chance of staying alive from that height, but maybe this pony body can withstand that kind of fall. I did hear someone's voice it sounded like, Luna’s? I’m not sure.

I’m scared to open my eyes. What if I am in a coma? What would I do then, just lie on the bed, alone with my own thoughts, and lose my mind slowly? Maybe Moonlight or some other maid will take care of me? Probably not, maybe Moonlight would but I think the crown would rather just pull the plug on me, that’s what I would rather have. I’m not going to live like a plant in this world, not here.

…there is no other choice, I take a huge breath and prepare for what’s to come.

Slowly my eyelids part ways. I’m in my room and it’s really dark, is it nighttime? Turning my head towards the right I see the balcony… not going there anytime soon that’s for sure. I hear a faint noise to my left, is that snoring?

‘’Oh, oh Moonlight…’’ Turning left I see at the edge of my bed a gray pony whose head is lying down on the bed. Did she stay with me all this time? I don’t even know how much time passed hours, days?

How did I survive the fall though? It can’t have been Moonlight she doesn’t have wings like the princesses or other ponies, and she doesn’t have a horn too so she can’t do any of that weird glowy thing, so how?

‘’I hate this place, can’t even have peace for one day.’’ I mutter quite enough so that I don’t wake Moonlight up. She stirs a little and my body goes rigid, did I wake her up?

‘’C-mer I’m gonn- eat yo-’’ She mumbles and continues her light snore.

Yeah no, she is dead asleep, what kinda dream is that? Wait, are these new bandages? Looking over myself, and yes these are new bandages, huh. I wonder if Moonlight saw that I have no weird magical ass tattoo, looks like I lost that whole mysterious thing, oh well.

I wonder if I can leave? Is the door locked? But where would I go if I even left the room without alerting Moonlight? The castle is probably crawling with guards and I don’t think they will allow me to leave, and I am not going to mess with those fucking armored and armed ponies no sir. I even kicked one of them, maybe they still hold a grudge because of that, I mean… I would, don’t think that I forgot about you, you orange bitch!

Shaking my fist in mock rage in the air. My eyes fall on Moonlight again, she seems really… tired. Her hair is a mess her dress is the same, her eyes look puffy… has she been crying again? How can one pony cry so much in one day, please don’t tell me it’s because of me.

‘’Hwaaa-’’ With a yawn, she wakes up but cuts herself short when she realizes that I’m awake.

‘’He-’’ I don’t get to finish my sentence as she throws herself at me and I reflexively open my arms to catch her, and like a flash of light she is on me. She is not making any noise though.
‘’...’’

‘’...’’

She continues her silence and I don’t dare to disturb it. She finally breaks the silence of the room.

‘’I’m-’’

‘’Don’t say you’re sorry.’’

‘’...okay.’’

‘’And don’t cry either.’’

‘’...okay.’’

I don’t think she would even have any tears left to shed after crying so much in such a short amount of time, but even if she was able to, I still don’t want her to.

‘’I’m-’’ is she really going to apologize?

‘’-glad you’re okay.’’

‘’...I’m glad you’re okay too.’’

‘’I was so scared, I couldn’t even think straight, I couldn’t even breathe right until the doctor said you only needed some rest.’’ Moonlight says with a shaky voice.

I don’t like her tone, it doesn’t suit her, I want a cheery Moonlight, not a sad Moonlight.

‘’I even got in a fight with Princess Luna.’’ She got into a fight with Luna? So Luna saved me?

‘’Did Luna save me?’’ I ask while petting her mane, so soft.

‘’Yes, when I brought the doctor she wanted me to leave I… refused, I didn’t want to leave you alone.’’ Wow, she has quite the courage to refuse a princess’s order, she is just a maid.

‘’Oh, you sweet little idiot of mine, you do know that I’m not wort-’’

‘’Shut up, you are, you saved me.’’ Okay, she is not going to argue about this. Best not to push it any further.

‘’So? What happened?’’ I hope she doesn’t get fired or even thrown in the dungeons for insubordination.

‘’She relented.’’ Wow, she made a princess relent?

‘’Remind me not to get on your bad side.’’ That gets a small giggle out of her, yes!

‘’Feed me enough ice cream then we will see.’’

‘’Of course, Your Majesty, only the finest of ice creams!’’

‘’Hmm yes. I only eat ice cream from the which has been made by cows that eat the best grass so they can produce the greatest milk.’’ She replies in a mock snobbish voice.

She breaks the hug and looks at me with a small smile on her face, yeah a smile does suit her better, and I smile back.

‘’Are we disturbing something?’’ I and Moonlight looked towards the door and Luna was standing in the doorway, how the hell are these princesses sneaking up on me all willy-nilly?

‘’No, come in.’’ I say while Moonlight gets off the bed. Luna slowly makes her way towards the bed and then she sits on the left side of it. It looks like she wants to say something, opening her mouth and then quickly closing it. Is it because of Moonlight? Maybe, I don’t know but Luna probably still wants to talk one on one. I turn to Moonlight.

‘’Hey, Moonlight can you get me something to drink maybe milk?’’ She gets rather surprised, most likely she didn’t think that I would talk to her now.

‘’I-you-... okay.’’ She quickly heads towards the door and with one last look, she closes the door.

‘’We thank thee.’’ Yeah, seems like she was the reason Luna couldn’t speak.

‘’Ah, no problem, I heard you guys uhh got in a fight?’’ She winces a little.

‘’Thou would not be wrong but we would not call it a fight, we didn’t want her to be with thou since she was the reason for your current state, but she seemed quite adamant about not leaving thine side.’’ she says and looks over my body again quickly checking every place with her eyes.

‘’Hey, looking ain’t free you gotta pay.’’ I laugh and her face gets painted with a streak of crimson.

‘’That was not our intention! We were just making sure that you were well!’’ She tries to hastily defend herself.

‘’Of course, of course.’’

‘’If thou can joke like this then we see no reason to stay any longer, hmph!’’ she huffs and turns to leave but her steps get slower and she stops at the door.

‘’Not going to leave?’’ I ask with a sly smile.

She turns back and makes her way back to the same place she was sitting.

‘’Thou were supposed to stop us.’’ Luna says frowning a little.

‘’Oh really?’’

‘’Yes.’’

‘’Luna, no stop, please don’t leave me.’’ I say with a robotic voice.

Her frown disappears and she looks amused.

‘’Thou needs more practice.’’

‘’I thought it was perfect?’’

We talked about other things such as breakfast this morning, seems like we ate the same pancakes and we both agreed that they were delicious and we wanted more. She told her sister about what had happened and thankfully I’m not going to change rooms, in fact, her sister wants to talk to me too, I don’t know about that, I mean she called me her little pony, that makes me uncomfortable. But Luna seemed excited about it so I eventually agreed.

‘’She seems quite fond of thee.’’

‘’Hmm, Moonlight?’’

‘’Yes, did she tell you she jumped after you?’’ What? Moonlight…she jumped after me?

‘’S-she did?’’ I ask with a weak voice. Luna nods. I try hard to find the next words but they don’t come to me I can only make one word.

‘’Why?’’

‘’She said she wanted to save you and didn’t think about it, crashed onto our back when we caught you she wasn’t even aware of our presence.’’

Oh god, I don’t… I don’t know what to think of that, should I be happy? should I be sad? should I be angry? I don’t know. I feel like crying but I don’t want to, are these tears of joy because someone wanted to and tried to save me even if they knew they couldn’t, or are these tears of sorrow because someone tried to throw away their own life to save mine?

I feel the droplets of water landing on my arms, am I crying? Huh, I even told Moonlight not to cry, but what am I supposed to do when Luna told me this? Through blurry eyes, I see Luna getting closer. She wraps me with both her hooves and her wings and I cry into her chest for a solid minute.

Luna’s horn glows and I see a tissue fucking levitating towards me. A magical pony princess is levitating a tissue for me to use, I can’t help but laugh at my situation. Luna looks at me worriedly and asks.

‘’Are thou okay?’’ Luna asks with her eyes wider and her eyebrows raised slightly.

‘’Yes, yes. I’m just laughing at, ah forget it you wouldn’t understand.’’ I take the tissue the use it to wipe my face.

Luna opens her mouth to say something but she gets cut short by the knocking on the door. Oh, Moonlight’s here.

‘’Do you wish for us to send her away?’’ Luna says as she looks towards the door.

‘’No…no it’s fine, but can you leave? I want to talk to her alone.’’

‘’We understand.’’ She nods and moves towards the door.

Luna opens the door and comes face to face with Moonlight with a tray on her back that has two glasses, oh? She got one for herself too, of course she did. Moonlight and Luna look at each other, with Moonlight craning her neck a little to look her in the eyes.

‘’Princess.’’

‘’Maid.’’

Luna leaves and lets Moonlight in, she closes the door and carefully puts the tray on the nightstand.

‘’So, I didn’t know what kinda milk you would like so I just brought you plain old delicious white milk, I like chocolate milk the best but-’’

‘’You jumped after me?’’ I cut her off.

‘’...’’ Her eyes widen.

‘’Did you?’’

‘’Y-yes.’’ She looks away.

‘’But why?’’

‘’Why?!’’ anger is evident in her voice she yells. ‘’Because I didn’t want you to- to…’’ but with each word, she gets quieter and her head gets lower, her head is almost touching the ground now. I take a huge breath and get out of the bed. She tries to protest.

‘’You shouldn’t get o-’’

‘’I’m fine.’’ Well, every part of my body aches and I just want to sleep but that’s not important right now.

‘’You, stupid crazy pony! What did you think would happen?!’’ I blow up at her.

‘’I-’’

‘’No! You would have died with me! What would happen if Luna didn’t save us both?!’’ I yell even louder.

‘’Ple-’’ Moonlight seems like she wants to cry. When she opens her mouth to say something, I cut her off.

‘’You don’t even have wings! or a horn!’’ I’m out of breath, taking small and quick breaths of air, I continue.

‘’But despite that, you still jumped after me without a thought… just to save me?’’ My voice is barely above a whisper. Moonlight looks up and she speaks her voice is so quiet that a kitten would make more noise than her.

‘’ye-’’ Moonlight falls down backward as I tackle her onto the ground and wrap my arms around her. She gets confused but she realizes that I’m hugging her she wraps her arms around me too.

‘’...thank you for trying to save me, you stupid crazy pony.’’

Moonlight doesn’t say anything and we stay there for some time in silence only the howling of the winds can be heard.

I try to break the hug but Moonlight just pulls me in closer, well. It’s not that bad. So we stay on the ground a little bit more but after five or so minutes she lets go of me and I get up and extend a hand to her she takes it with her hoof and smiles, and I smile back.

‘’I don’t know about you but I’m really sleepy.’’ I say with a yawn.

‘’Me too.’’ She yawns too.

I walk over to the bed and turn to say my farewell to Moonligh- is she following me?

‘’Uhh, Moonlight, I’m going to bed.’’

She doesn’t say anything and just smiles. Does she want to sleep together?

‘’No.’’

Her smile instantly turns upside down and her eyes widen, is she…is she trying to give me the puppy eyes?

‘’Don’t give me those eyes.’’

‘’Pleeeeaseeee, my room is so far away! Just this one night.’’ She begs with her hooves joined together.

‘’I-...fine, get in.’’ I gave up, those eyes were too much, and she stayed with me when I was knocked out, what’s the worst that could happen?

‘’Yaaay!’’ She dives into the bed and gets inside the covers crawling to the other side her head pops out of the covers and she lays her head down on one of the pillows. With a smile, I enter the bed and lay my head on the soft white pillows.

‘’Goodnight Moonlight.’’

‘’Goodnight Laika.’’

Just as I close my eyes, they open, as if I didn’t sleep at all. But I’m not in my room with Moonlight no. This place… this place is all white.

‘’Hello, buddy.’’ A familiar voice dripping with anger calls out to me turning to the origin of the sound, I see… me.

13-Teacup

As I turn to look I see myself, again.

‘’Hello, buddy.’’ He says in a tone as if he is looking at a lifelong enemy.

‘’Wha-wh-’’ I try to say something, anything to him but no words come to my mouth.

He walks towards me with a heavy stride each step feels as if they are shaking the world around me. I barely manage to stand up straight.

‘’What? The animal can’t talk?’’ He says with a low chuckle.

‘’I’m no animal!’’ I say trying to defend myself.

‘’Sure, of course, you are not. What was my name again?’’ He stops in front of me and I have to bend my neck to look him in the eye. I open my mouth to answer but before I can even get the first syllable out he cuts me off with a shout.

‘’WRONG! I have a human name! You on the other hand-’’ He gestured towards his right hand. ‘’- have the name of a dog! Quite fitting if I do say myself.’’ He smirks at me.

‘’What would you have me do?! Want me to give them our real name?’’ I was angry, what the hell does he want me to do?

Wait, why is he holding my hand? I try to get out of his grip but it is too strong. He brings my hand up and I’m forced to go upright with my back legs.

‘’What is this?’’ He says while shaking my hand.

‘’My han-’’

‘’WRONG! I have a human hand! You on the other hand-’’ He gestured towards my han- hooves. ‘’- have hooves like a horse!’’ He screams and throws me back onto the ground. I land on my back with a heavy thud. He walks towards my back and… fuck! That hurts! W-why is he backwards?!

‘’What is this? Huh?!’’ He is holding my tail! I didn’t know that I was such a bastard!

‘’It-it’s my t-tail.’’

‘’YES! THAT IS A TAIL! JUST LIKE AN ANIMAL!’’ He shakes me left, and right and drops me onto the ground again.

‘’Fuck you! I didn’t want this! I am human! I just need to find a way to turn back into on-’’ He stomps on my neck with his foot and I feel like the whole world fell on me.

‘’Oh no you won’t. You are going to die in this world as an animal.’’ He pushes even deeper, I can’t do anything as my vision gets darker and darker but squeak out a small whimper.

‘’I’m… human…’’ The last thing I hear is a snicker.

‘’You keep telling yourself that.’’ Then everything goes black with a crack.

‘’Agh!’’ I woke up with a sharp gasp. While panting heavily I touch my neck with my hoov-... hands. Looking up I see Moonlight approaching me with a worried look in her eyes, ah is that the milk from earlier? Looking over her back I see that she is indeed carrying the white nectar of life on a tray with an empty glass beside it. She drank hers, didn’t she?

‘’Laika! Are you okay?’’ Moonlight says when she arrives beside the bed and puts the tray on the nightstand. She gets the glass of milk and holds out the glass for me to take.

‘’I…I’m okay, just a nightmare,’’ I take the glass and drink it in one go. Woah, this is some good milk…wait, I hope the cows realllllly don’t talk in this place or I don’t think I will be able to drink milk again.

‘’Oh, do you wanna talk about it?’’ She asks in a concerned tone.

‘’NO!-’’ Moonlight gets startled and jumps back a little, whoops. ‘’I…don’t really want to talk about it, let’s just forget it okay?’’

‘’O-okay, but are you sur-waaghh.’’ I flick her nose.

‘’Don’t worry about it, now let’s eat some breakfast!’’ I rub my belly which growls in response, good boy. ‘’I’m starving.’’

At the mention of breakfast, Moonlight’s ears perk up, and her whole demeanor changes. This maid man, I should get them ice creams soon, but my debt is piling I still have those five carrots to pay, ughhhh. Maybe I can poison them? I would be ridding the world of a devil.

‘’Ohhh yesss, let’s get some breakfast! I hope it will be as good as the pancakes!’’ I hope so too Moonlight, I hope so too.

‘’So? Where do we eat?’’

‘’I was about to head to the kitchen to bring us some food but somepony scared me.’’ Huh, somepony… taking a deep breath I try my hardest to smile.

‘’Sorry, can you get us some breakfast, please?’’

‘’Wellll, since you asked so nicely, guess I'll do it.’’ She waves me goodbye as the door is closing and I can hear the noise of her hooves hitting the marble flooring getting further and further away, and now there is silence.

Getting out of bed I look around the room and it is still the same as last night only now with the addition of two empty glasses, one on the table and one on the nightstand. My gaze falls to the balcony. I wonder if the barrier is back again. My curiosity gets the best of me. With slow steps, my feet make the same sound as Moonlight…
*clip-clop-clip-clop* I only hear that sound nothing else, not the winds or anything else, my ears only hear that horrendous clip-clop I am so focused on it that I don’t even realize that I am already on the balcony and I hit my muzzl-...nose, on the railing.

‘’Ow…’’ I saw while rubbing my nose. The balcony still looks the same, did they actually forget? If so then SCOOOOORE! One more escape path. If not, eh, that’s how it goes. Okay, be careful now I don’t want a repeat of yesterday. At a pace that would leave a snail astonished I get up on my back legs and slowly extend my hand. My hand get stopped and a different colored barrier appears this time dark blue, and at the place my hand touched the same effect shows itself as waves appear and spread out over the barrier.

‘’Huh, looks like they didn’t forget.’’ I rub my hand and look over the barrier disappearing from view again, it’s different this time. Did Luna make this one? Eh, no matter still can’t get through it. Shrugging my shoulders I decide to look around and see what the city and castle has got for me.

My first target is the window I crashed through I look over and, huh, there is some ponies with wings, they were called pegasus or something like that right? Anyway, there are some pegasus with hardhats on carrying a huge mosaic glass. They are already replacing it? Looks like they work fast or that Celestia had some in storage, but who would keep extra mosaic glass? Weird.

I watch the pegasus wor-holy shit! The glass slipped out of their hands, it’s going to fall!

*whooosh*

Three pegasus with blue suits and googles appear out of nowhere fly toward the falling glass at mach one speed, and catch it. What. the. fuck. They carry the glass back to the worker pegasus and they all cheer.

‘’Woooo! The Wonderbolts are awesome!’’

‘’They saved the glass!’’

‘’Did you see how fast they were!’’

The ‘Wonderbolts’ go away as fast as they came and the worker pegasus puts the glass back in place although they go about it more slowly than when they first tried. The Wonderbolts huh? Are they like the Air Force or something? Hey, wait a minute! Why the hell did they not catch me?! Or even stop the balloon?

*knock-knock*

My thoughts get interrupted by a knock on the door, looks like Moonlight is back.

‘’Come in.’’ I say not looking at the door, I just continue watching the workers they are almost done. I hear the sounds of someone making their way toward me, huh, I thought Moonlight would talk, but she is unusually quiet.

‘’Moonligh- Oh, hello Luna.’’ Looking over my shoulder I see Luna.

‘’Greetings Laika, were thou expecting the maid? Did we disappoint thou?’’ She asks with a sly smile.

‘’Yeah-ow!’’ I promptly get smacked in the back of my head.

‘’Hmph! Thou will have to make do with us.’’

‘’Sorry, sorry-’’ I laugh a little while rubbing the back of my head. ‘’I thought Moonlight came back with breakfast.’’

‘’Did thou forget? We will be dining with mine sister this morning.’’ She asks and looks towards where I’m looking seeing the pegasus workers.

‘’Right, right… Uh let me tell Moonlight first then we can go.’’

‘’Don’t fret over the maid, we have already informed her of thine feast with us.’’

‘’Uh, thanks.’’ She nods and looks over where I'm staring at. I point with a hand towards the workers and ask.

‘’You guys are already replacing that window? Did you keep like, a spare or something? hehe.’’

‘’Actually yes, we do. Thou wouldst not believe how many times we need one.’’

Oh, okay, I’m not going to ask about that. It’s like the white house keeping extra doors because their doors get busted a lot.

‘’Okay, so when are we going to have this ‘feast’?’’

‘’Right now, we were on our way to pick you up.’’

‘’You know you could have sent someone to bring me to you and your sister, I don’t think princesses should pick up commoners from their rooms, think of the headlines!’’

‘’We are a princess of the people not of the noble.-’’ Luna says with a proud voice ‘’- And thou are not just a simple commoner thou are a friend of the Princess of the Night!’’

‘’Oh? That’s your title? It fits you.’’ I mean she is dark blue and has a Moon uhh what were they again? Cutie mark yeah, she has a Moon cutie mark. For god’s sake, her name is Luna. If she was anything but the Princess of the Night it would be a crime.

‘’W-we thank thee for thine compliment.’’ Luna says and quickly turns her head back, but I can see the barest hue of pink. ‘’Follow us, let us not keep our sister waiting any longer’’ Luna begins walking to the door and I start walking beside her. I get to the door by myself and realize that Luna stopped. I look over and see that Luna is glaring at my bed, huh?

‘’Uhh, Luna?’’ She doesn’t hear me or she is hearing and not responding, it’s like a cat looking at a corner of the room.

‘’...’’ No response.

‘’Luna?’’ I ask getting closer.

‘’...’’ Still no response.

‘’What is there like ghosts haunting my bed or something?’’ I stand beside her and look at what she is looking at and see nothing just the bed, well the sheets are all over the place but that's about it.

‘’...’’ She is literally going to murder those bed sheets with her stare alone.

‘’LUNA!’’

‘’WAH! …Laika?’’ She gets surprised and realizes that I’m here too.

‘’Is my bed haunted or something why are you staring at it like that?’’ I ask finally able to break her out of her trance of glaring.

‘’No…no, you don’t have to worry about it, it just reminded me of something.’’ She says in a flat tone, but I can sense just a tiny amount of anger? I don’t think she will answer me even if I ask her, so let’s just let it be.

‘’Okaaay?’’

We leave the room and start walking the halls of the castle. Passing by some guards and maids or other kinds of servants some of them get spooked? Weird, are they scared of me? I mean I understand the maids I guess, but the guards? They can kick my ass.

‘’Don't pay them any attention Laika.’’ Luna says while looking and walking straight ahead not paying any attention to the other ponies.

I realize that some of them are not looking at me but at Luna, are they scared of her? I mean, she did threaten the dungeon when we first met, is she giving staff the same treatment? If so then their reactions are uh, somewhat understandable.

When we walk through some of the parts where there is no one but us, I can only hear that damming sound.

*clip-clop*

It makes me realize that, yes I really am a talking horse and yes I am walking with the princess of the talking horses to eat breakfast with the other princess.

‘’The gardens are just beyond this door.’’

‘’We are going to eat in the gardens?’’

‘’Yes? Will that be a problem?’’

‘’No, no, quite the opposite actually.’’

Luna shows me a small smile and opens the door. Alright, let’s do this. I see that the gardens are really big, like enormous big. There is a huge fountain with a pony statute on top which is spitting water from its mouth. To the left of the fountain, a path leads to a place with a grand table and chairs, and in one of the chairs ‘Celestia’ herself is sitting.

Luna and I make our way to her sister and when she notices us she smiles.

‘’Ah! Welcome, I thought Luna kept you all to herself.’’ ‘Celestia’ giggles, and gets up from her chair.

‘’Sister!’’ Luna exclaims, and her sister laughs more.

I look at the table and it is covered with food and drinks. What catches my eye is some delicious-looking eggs. Oh god, if only there was some bacon. Before I sit Celestia talks again.

‘’I’m sorry dear, but I forgot to get your name before when we first met, You can call me Celestia.’’ She says with a soft smile, it makes me feel weird, I don’t like this. I avoid her gaze and answer her.

‘’Uhh, It’s Laika, nice to meet you.’’

‘’And a pleasure to meet you too, I hope to become your friend, any friend of my sister is a friend of mine.’’

‘’Sure.’’

‘’Ah, sorry, you must be hungry, let’s eat!’’ Finally! My stomach is killing me.

We sit on our chairs and I start digging in, I can hold a fork, well I hold it like a caveman but still, it's better than nothing.

‘’So Laika I heard that you saved Moonlight?’’ Celestia says and Luna's eyes narrow a little and she stops eating.

‘’Hmm? Ah yeah.’’ I say with a gulp and finish the eggs on my plate.

‘’I, thank you for your bravery, You saved her life.’’

‘’Well I almost died but Luna saved me, hehe.’’ I say a little embarrassed. At the mention of her name Luna’s ears perk up and she smiles at me.

‘’Yes, when Luna told me what had happened I thought about changing your rooms, but she changed my mind.’’ She did? Hell yeah, thank you, Luna! I mouth a thank you to her and she nods with a smile.

‘’Uhh, yeah, I’m happy in my room, would rather not change it.’’

‘’I understand, after your heroism, I would not dream of it.’’ Is she trying to butter me up? Hmm.

We talk more and Celestia doesn’t seem that bad honestly, but she did call me ‘’my little pony’’ which is still weird. When I asked her if she could deliver my thanks to the chef she giggled and said.

‘’You're very welcome dear, I didn’t know that I made breakfast that good.’’ Did she make these? These are delicious! I thanked her again.

We continued our breakfast and I ate a banana, not going to eat apples after what happened. Celestia’s horn glows and my body becomes tense for just a moment but I realize that she is just levitating a tea kettle and some tea cups and I relax again, yeah I could go for some tea right now.

‘’Would you like to drink tea with us?’’ Celestia asks as she starts pouring the tea into the cups except one and waits for my answer.

‘’Yes please, some tea would be nice.’’

Celestia doesn’t say anything but she smiles and pours me tea and levitates the teacup in front of me. It smells like, lavender? I like black tea but eh, I’m not going to ask the ruler of a nation to get me a different type of tea. Celestia and Luna’s horns glow and they drink the tea while it's in the air.

How do I hold this? I should be able to right?

‘’The doctor says that you should be able to get out of those bandages in a few days, isn’t that great?’’ Celestia says something but I don’t hear a lot of it, I’m just focused on the cup.

‘’Yeah, that’s great.’’ I reply without thinking. Let’s try this. I try to hold the cup with shaky hands and it falls.

‘’Oh, let me get that for you.’’ Celestia brings a napkin and wipes the table before filling the cup back up.

‘’Thanks.’’ Fuck, okay let’s try this again, I should be able to do this, I’m a human, and humans can hold teacups with ease.

‘’Would you like some help with that dear?’’ Celestia asks in a motherly tone.

‘’NO!.. I mean no thank you.’’ I try to hold it again this time a bit more successful but it falls again on the plate with a crash, and both Luna and Celestia are looking at each other and then at me.

I will hold it, I’m not an animal, I can hold cups... Trying to hold the empty cup again results in a crash.

‘’Laika let us help you.’’ Luna tries to hold my tea cup with her horn and it floats in front of me.

‘’Luna, let it down.’’ I say in an aggressive tone.

‘’Laika, please, everyponyneeds some help sometimes…’’ Luna says with a soft, friendly smile.

…every…pony?

‘’I can hold a teacup on my own! I’M NOT AN ANIMAL!’’ My reaction makes both the princess pull back and my cup slowly lands in front of me. I try to hold it again but this time instead of falling, it shatters from the pressure I’m putting on it.

‘’Laika!’’ Luna rushes to my side and tries to tend to me with Celestia slowly coming over.

‘’Oh dear.’’

‘’...’’ I look over my bloody han-hoof… I can’t even hold a teacup.

Maybe I’m really an animal? A human would be able to hold it, but I can’t, not here…

14-Green String

Luna was in a good mood this morning, again. Her mane glowed even brighter than usual days, and the stars in them were dazzling and eye-catching. Each of them a star shining brighter than the moon at night. Why? Because she was going to have breakfast with her friend and sister! Such fun they will have, maybe even her sister would make a new friend? She hopes that they make good friends too, and then she could spend time with her sister and her friend simultaneously! How efficient would that be?

After his accident, she knew that he needed some much-deserved reward and as such she had helped her sister make a grand feast for him. And of course, she has made a meal fit for the gods! …okay, she might have burned the eggs, a couple of times, the castle was now devoid of a dozen eggs but still! Her dear sister's assistance proved vital and they finished up their preparation. Luna doesn’t like to brag but she thinks that even the most gourmand of nobles would be amazed at their meal.

Celestia told Luna that she would set the table and she should get her friend. Luna told her sister that they could just send one of the many servants available to get him for them. With a shake of the head, Celestia told her sister:

‘’He is your friend Luna, you should get him yourself, he would want that too I imagine.’’

She was right, Luna thought if Laika did something like this she would have wanted him to come pick her up too. So she went to gather him. She was slowly making her way to the room. Halfway through the way, she spotted a peculiar lime-maned maid with a tray on her back. Which had waffles? Oh, she was on her way to bring breakfast to her friend? That would not do, he was going to have breakfast with her… and her sister too. So she moved in to stop the maid before she could proceed any further.

‘’Maid.’’ Luna declared from behind her.

‘’AH! Oh-... Princess, you scared me.’’ Moonlight jumps back and almost drops the tray but she manages to balance it on her back at the last second. Luna doesn’t apologize for scaring her.

‘’Where are thou headed?’’ Luna is almost sure the answer is Laika’s room but she still asks her.

‘’Me? Uhh, I was on my way to Laika’s room to bring him breakfast. Hearty Meal made these amazing waffles today.’’ Those waffles indeed did look amazing but they would not compare to her breakfast.

‘’That will not be necessary you may resume your duties as Laika shall be dining with us and our sister this morning.’’

‘’Oh, I see… t-that’s okay, let me get Laika.’’ Moonlight's smile faltered a bit.

‘’That would not be required as well for we shall collect him ourselves.’’

‘’...okay.’’ Moonlight stops for a moment her smile gone now just a neutral look on her face. ‘’I will go back then.’’ Moonlight turns around and only the clattering of the plates on the tray can be heard as she leaves. She didn’t bow.

Luna resumes her journey towards Laika’s room. In the hallway towards his room, Luna hears a gust of wind like some very fast pegasus just bolted in the sky. She doesn’t panic, she knows who made the noise. It’s the Wonderbolts, yesterday she informed the Captain to train and keep a lookout in this part of the castle in case something like a balloon crashes or a very stupid pony falls out the balcony trying to save another even stupider pony. And with a shake of the head, she knocks on Laika’s door.

She hears him say come in and she slowly comes inside. Seeing him sit on the balcony sets off alarms in her mind but she remembers that she repaired and even made the barrier stronger so her worries are quickly dissipated.

Luna doesn’t say anything when walking towards him, maybe he thinks that the maid is here? Perhaps she can scare him a little? No, that would be too cruel in his current state.

‘’Moonligh- Oh, hello Luna.’’ Laika looks over his shoulder and sees that it is Luna and not that maid. She tries to tease him but his response just gets a quick slap to the back of the from him. A light slap of course Luna doesn’t want to add more to his growing injuries and she doesn’t want to see more bandages on his body.

They talk more and it seems like Laika forgot that he was going to be dining with her and her sister, silly little pony. He even compliments her, she has to look away to hide the assault of pink on her cheeks.

When they start moving she spares a brief glance to his bed, which looks just like a normal messy bed. But something catches her eye, any normal pony would not have seen it but she is no normal pony.

Luna sees a single strand of green hair shining above the sheets of his bed… is that… is that from the maid?

‘’Uhh, Luna?’’

Why is her hair in his bed? On the floor or anywhere else she understands since she was in this room for quite some time but why on his bed?

‘’Luna?’’

Did she… did she sleep on his bed?... with him? No, that would be insane, he would not allow it… would he?

‘’What is there like ghosts or something haunting my bed?’’

Luna swears that if that maid did something outrageous to Laika, she would have to bring out the old chopping block! That maid would not dare to do that after he saved her life by trying to sacrifice his own!

Her sister would not allow that though. Hmmm, she could get her fired and have all of Equestria know what kind of mare she is. Would that be enough?

But…but what if Laika wanted her to do… those things? What could she say then? Nothing, she could say nothing, Luna’s only hope is that Laika is not that kinda stallion but she doesn’t get that impression from him.

And if he is?... Luna could help him with his problem, she is his friend after all! That is what friends are for, helping each other. Luna would accept him and help him break those habits and become a better pony.

‘’LUNA!’’

‘’WAH!...Laika?’’

Luna might have lost herself in thought, she may have even forgotten the person she was thinking about was right beside her trying to get her out of her pit of thought before it got even deeper.

Luna reassures him and they leave the room and moving through the marble-tiled halls of the castle make their way to the expansive gardens. Passing by some of the guards and other staff Luna notices their gaze but she pays them little attention, actually wait, some of them are not staring at her but Laika? Their eyes hold the same fear when they look at her.

Of course, the mysterious pony who made a grand entrance and the Nightmare Moon walking together makes them nervous. How does Luna feel about this? Well, she doesn’t really care about it that much she kinda got used to it in these months but what about Laika?

‘’Don’t pay them any attention Laika.’’

She thought that with him saving that maid the staff would be more welcoming towards him, maybe that mare didn’t tell anyone about his bravery? That ungrateful wench!...but she does seem to care a great deal about him.

Her thoughts don’t get finished as they finally come to the doors of the garden, Laika’s question sparks a little worry in her but it gets put out quickly as fast as it came. Luna opens the doors and steps through with Laika following beside her.

Luna always liked the garden, she loved spending time with her sister but sometimes she wanted to be alone and at those times she would to the gardens at night, lay on the grass amongst the trees, and watch the moon and the stars. Due to how big the garden is and at her well…you know, sometimes short temper and with her being Nightmare Moon and all that, the staff didn’t search for her so she was left by herself. Maybe she could invite Laika sometime?

They make their way to her sister and Celestia of course teases her. Luna watches Laika look at the table with hungry eyes, he is especially eyeing the eggs, and she hopes that he likes them.

Even though Celestia knows his name from Luna and Laika most likely knows Celestia’s name too, they still exchange names. They all sit and start eating their meals. Luna sees Laika take the eggs and eat them with a smile on his face, which brings a smile to her face too. Luna brings the fork to her mouth and goes in to take a bite out of the eggs.

‘’So Laika I heard you saved Moonlight?’’

Luna couldn’t bite the eggs. Her mind wandered back into that pit again at the mention of that maid’s name. Luna knows that she is probably overthinking it. Her hair most likely just drifted there because of the wind from the balcony.

‘’Well I almost died but Luna saved me, hehe.’’ Was Laika talking about her? She kind of tuned out the conversation between him and her sister. But she hears her name so she gives out a small smile.

‘’Yes, when Luna told me what happened I thought about changing your room, but she changed my mind.’’ Yes, she did do that. Celestia deemed him to one of the rooms on the lower floors. But Luna thought he would mourn the loss of the balcony, she even found him there when they first met. She didn’t want to take that away from him because he saved somepony’s life at the risk of his own.

Luna can see that his mouth forms a quiet ‘thank you’, she is glad that she was able to change her sister's mind now. They could still watch the stars together on his balcony now. She smiles at the thought and nods at Laika.

Laika wanted to deliver his thanks to the chef? When Luna heard that she almost squealed with delight but didn’t say anything.

Celestia saw her sister grinning from ear to ear. She wondered if she should tell Laika that Luna made those eggs he ate up so happily but decided against it. Luna should tell him herself Celestia thought, she can’t hold her hand every time.

Everything was going swell…then came the time to drink tea.

At first, Luna was a little worried that he wouldn’t want to drink tea, and would take his leave but that didn’t seem to be a problem, since his face lit up a little at the mention of tea and he quickly agreed.

Her sister pours tea for all of them and Luna and Celestia begin sipping their tea. It’s lavender again? Celestia sure likes lavender, doesn’t she? Well, Luna doesn’t mind, she is quite fond of it too, so she drinks her tea without a complaint.

‘’The doctor says that you should be able to get out of those bandages in a few days, isn’t that great?’’

‘’Yeah, that’s great.’’ Luna sees him reply and tries to hold the cup in a really awkward way, oh he spilled it, that’s fine they got a whole kettle full of tea. Celestia wipes the spill with a napkin quickly and pours another one.

‘’Thanks.’’ Laika replies but this time he sounds a little frustrated? Huh, well Luna would be a little frustrated if she spilled her tea too.

Luna looks at Laika and sees him struggling to hold the cup and before Luna can offer help Celestia already asks.

‘’Would you like some help with that dear?’’

‘’NO!...I mean no thank you.’’ His quick rejection surprises both sisters, and he drops the cup on the plate this time. Luna looks toward her sister and Celestia looks towards her too. What should she do? She should help him, right? That is what a friend does. Celestia subtlety gestures towards Laika without him noticing and Luna understands. She knows him more than Celestia so maybe he would react more positively to her help?

‘’Laika let us help you.’’ She uses her magic to slowly lift the cup away from him.

‘’Luna, let it down.’’ He says in a tone similar to the one she used when her sister tried to help make the eggs this morning when she failed. But her sister explained that it was okay to get some help sometimes, nopony is perfect not even if that pony was a princess. So she uses the same sentence that her sister used earlier.

‘’Laika, please, everypony needs some help sometimes…’’ Luna says in the same voice Celestia used and shows him the softest smile she can, this would make him understand it made even a stubborn pony like her understand so why not him too? Laika pauses for a moment and Luna thinks that he is slowly understanding but then…

‘’I can hold a teacup on my own! I’M NOT AN ANIMAL!’’ He screams.

His voice was the loudest she ever heard him, not even when they were fighting or him falling down from the balcony was it ever this loud. It was like thunder had struck, and Luna and Celestia were like little kittens hearing for the first time.

Luna can’t do anything but comply silently and places the cup in front of him slowly. He doesn’t say anything and tries to hold it again with his hoof. Luna can see the cup cracking but before she can say anything.

*shatter*

The porcelain cup explodes in his hoof. Luna rushes to his side seeing that he is once again injured.

‘’Laika!’’ Luna takes his hoof and looks over it, small bits of porcelain was stuck in his hoof causing him to bleed.

‘’Oh dear.’’ Her sister comes beside them too.

‘’...’’ He doesn’t say anything.
Luna uses her magic to lift his entire body into the air, she waits for him to resist or even say something but he is completely silent, she doesn’t know if that is a good sign or not.

At the infirmary, the doctor removes the porcelain pieces stuck in slowly and carefully, after removing all the pieces, he starts applying the gauze and after that is done he bandages it.

‘’You are one unlucky pony aren’t you?’’ The doctor says while in the process of bandaging Laika’s hand.

‘’...’’ He doesn’t say anything but a brief shiver passes through him, which makes Luna even more worried. Celestia makes her way over to Laika and puts a hoof on his shoulder

‘’Please excuse me but I must leave now, Laika please if you need anything even just to talk be sure to tell me or Luna.’’ Celestia says.

‘’...’’ Laika doesn’t say anything but only avoids her gaze. Celestia after waiting for an answer that won’t come, removes her hoof and leaves.

Luna and Laika leave the infirmary but no words pass between them, he is floating beside her, it wouldn’t be a good idea to let him walk with that. Arriving at his front door she enters and sets him down on the bed.

‘’...’’ He doesn’t say anything but close his eyes. He probably wants to be alone right now. She turns to leave but just before going through the door, she looks back.

‘’Laika…just, remember that we are your… friend, We will do our best to help you… I don't want to see my friend hurt themselves more.’’ She says in a tone barely above a whisper. She leaves and closes the door.

She doesn’t leave right away though, no, she stays in front of his door for a few minutes. A few tears dare to make their way to her eyes but she quickly wipes them away. She won’t cry, not here…at least not in the hallway.

Why would Laika do that? What reason did he have to act this way? He was angry that much is true, but was he angry at her? She didn’t know, maybe at himself? But why would he be angry at himself, no one was going to laugh or belittle him just because he couldn’t hold a teacup, she knew a lot of ponies who couldn’t. Even one of those elements of harmony couldn’t do it, was her name Applejack? No matter, the point is most earth ponies usually could only hold delicate teacups like that received some training, most likely nobles. So an earth pony not being able to use their hooves to hold a teacup was normal.

Did something happen to him last night to act this way? Hmmm but what could that eve-...that maid. She… she did something, didn’t she?

Luna took off running.

Moonlight was sweeping the floors while humming a happy tune. She was really happy right now, even if she couldn’t have breakfast with Laika, she probably had one of the most amazing waffles in her life…even if she wanted to share them with Laika. That pesky princess.

Shaking her head she continued sweeping, a bit harder than earlier though, these floors were definitely getting cleaned! It was fine, they could still spend some time today, it was only breakfast, wait, but what if the princess had breakfast with him every day?! She doesn’t want that!

‘’Thy end is nigh you wench!’’

Moonlight doesn’t have any time to turn her head to the bellowing scream as she gets pushed to the wall.

‘’Agh!’’

Barely able to open her eyes she is face to face with a face full of fury from the princess herself.

2-White Devil

I awoke to the sound of humming, a woman’s voice, such a sweet sound. I’m almost tempted to not open my eyes because if I do and I see a pony or something of a similar nature to that then it would mean that the events before were not a product of my imagination. Please don’t be a pony, please just be a nightmare. I open my eyes so little that they probably still look closed.

‘’...’’ I should have left my eyes closed.

It’s a pony. In front of me was a yellow pony with a pink mane which had wings, yeah wings, I don’t even know what to think of that and it was giving some food to a bunny, what. The pony was filling a bowl of food in front of a bunny.

‘’Here you go Angel, eat up!’’ said the yellow pony while holding a bag of food.

Yeah, the pony talked. The pony with wings talked to a bunny… wait is the bunny pointing at me?!

‘’What is it, Angel?’’ The yellow pony was now looking at what the bunny was pointing to and that thing was me.

Shit! I close my eyes and do my best to still look like sleeping adding some light snoring should do the trick.

‘’Oh, what about the poor pony we found in front of our door last night?’’

Was she… was she having an actual conversation with the bunny?

‘’You think that we should have taken him to the hospital?’’

The hospital? No! and was the bunny talking back to her? I didn’t hear anything else talking other than her.

‘’Well… I thought that I should do that too, but when I brought him inside it seemed like he didn’t have any serious injuries. His front soles and underside look really dirty though the back soles were still dirty but still cleaner than the front, like he was crawling for a long time.’’

I don’t like this, I hate this, I gotta get out of here, do I just bolt and run towards the exit? Wait… forget running I can’t even stand up straight! Should I just wait for nightfall to come and then make my escape? Yeah, okay that seems like a better plan.

‘’Well I’m going to get some of my friends to help me with him maybe Rainbow Dash can help, she doesn’t have work today’’

… And my brilliant plan has just died. Wonderful, wait! I can wait for her to leave to get her friend then leave!

‘’Actually thank you for reminding me Angel I should find Rainbow Dash now.’’ She says and begins trotting to the door.

Yes! I can leave! I heard some trotting and the creak of the door an- why did she stop?

‘’Oh, can you please keep an eye on our guest here while I’m gone?’’ and then she left and closed the door.

No! That’s bad! How do I leave now?! I mean it’s a bunny but this is not a normal world who knows what that bunny can and will do to me? I gulped and slowly opened my eyes and the bunny was in front of my face, glaring at me.

I may have panicked a little bit… okay I panicked a lot and may have fallen from the couch I was laying on and made a mad crawl to the door.

Almost there and just as I was about to make it to the door a sharp pain from my backside stops me in my tracks.

‘’Ow! What the hell!’’ I yell and turn back to see what happened, it looks like the bunny is pulling my tail, oh I have a tail too, joy. Wait, did I just got stopped by a goddamn bunny? How weak am I to be halted by a goddamned bunny?!

‘’Hey, Let go!’’ Me pulling my tail back starts a tug of war between the bunny and me.

‘’Come on just let me go!’’ I pull harder and the pest pulls back even harder, w-wait am I moving? He is pulling me back to the couch! HOW?!

‘’H-how about this, if you let me go I will come back later and give you a lot of carrots, you would like that no?’’ I can’t believe I am actually bargaining with a bunny to have it let me go, how far I have fallen, oh but would you look at that the white-furred menace stopped once a bunny always a bunny I suppose, he isn’t letting my tail go free though and raises one of its hands with its paw spread out. Are we in the bargaining phase now? I-I- … Fine. Let’s just play along.

‘’Y-yeah, I will get you five carrots how about it?’’ I force my facial muscles to take the form of a smile even though I want to punt this thing to the stars it seems like a bunny is stronger than me so the best option looks to be making a deal with this thing.

It smiles? and lets my tail go free and extends a paw. I shake hands or hooves I guess? with a bunny.

‘’I knew you would understand friend! I will get you your carrots in a week.’’ He scrunches up his muzzle and takes hold of my tail again, shit. ‘’Okay, okay I will get them in three days!’’ It smiles again, fuck me I’m getting extorted by a bunny. Oh, of course, I won’t get its carrots, how the fuck am I supposed to find carrots and bring them back, nope he aint seeing one bit of carrot in three days and hopefully, I will be far away from him in three days.

‘’See you in three days!’’ I say and continue crawling back to the door. Seeing me crawling and not walking like a normal pony amuses the bunny and he hops beside me while crawling.

Finally making it to the door I look up and try to reach the door handle. My efforts to reach the door handle prove useless and that white stain begins laughing. I huff and try to get on my hind legs this time and I can make it up to the door handle annnd my hands slip from the handle and I stumble and fall over backward.

‘’Slippery handle...’’ I mutter while rubbing my backside.

The rat is now on the floor crying its eyes out in laughter. I give him no mind and try again and this time I do not fail and the door opens ever so slightly, pushing it I open the door fully and go back to crawling again finally leaving the house I look around. The sun assaults me with its vicious attack and I have to squint my eyes and let them adjust, wow there are a lot of birdhouses here I didn’t notice them last night.

An apple orchard in the distance catches my attention and my stomach gurgles oh yeah I haven’t eaten anything since yesterday, I look around for the final time to see if any pony or any other creature has seen me and then I begin my journey on my stomach to fill my stomach.

Just when I start crawling again I hear the distant sound of galloping horses, fuck is the yellow pony coming back? Did I lose too much time to the bunny? The fear of getting caught fills my insides with a sense of dread and I start scrambling for a nearby bush, Diving into the bush I hide myself as well as I can. Then the gallops sound volume increases and now they have passed my bush, I release a sigh of relief and poke my eyes out of the bush to see who or what is it and I stand correct, it is the yellow pony but back with her friend a light blue pony with wings who is flying, yep flying I rub my eyes and look again and yeah still flying and she has a rainbow mane a. rainbow. mane… I’m going to lose my sanity in a week.

‘’Angel -ere is -e?’’ I barely hear some words but I’m guessing the yellow one is asking the bunny where I am since she left me with him, please don’t talk little one we made a deal that I will not honor but you can be the bigger man.

‘’Yo don’t kno-?’’ Yes! I thank whatever god up above seems like the little one kept his word, maybe I will get him his carrots back someday. Wait, the blue one is talking, I lean closer.

‘’Want me to look around Flutters?’’ She is noticeably louder than the yellow one or Flutters? So hearing what she is saying is no problem at all. She starts looking around like a radar, crap! I scoot back and completely surround my body in the bush now I can’t see but I hope it is enough so that she won’t see. Please Flutters just say that I probably felt fine and left your house to get back home, please!

‘’Ye- please he looked roug-ed up las- night, I am afraid of him gettin- in anymore dang-’’

Oh, come on you don’t even know me! You don’t have to be that kind to someone you don’t even know! Should… Should I maybe reveal myself? I mean she did take me in last night and cleaned me up maybe she really just wanted to help? No! I can’t trust these… these ponies or whatever they are! She probably only helped because she was a pony, not a human, what would have happened if she knew what I was? Would she alert the authorities and the fucking pony police or secret force comes and takes me away? No, I won’t lose my freedom, not here. But I will survive I just need to learn how to walk and then skip town, after that I can blend in and try to find my way back to my body and home.

‘’You got it Flutters! I’m gonna find your guy in a minute just wait here!’’ I dare to peek out and see that the blue one has flown away like a jet in just a second, one more reason not to trust these ponies that flying is not natural. I look over to Flutters and she looks around one final time and heads back inside.

I release the breath I didn’t know that I was holding and let my head lie on the ground. If that blue one can fly that fast I have no chance of avoiding detection while crawling like a snail. I should probably wait here for some time and when she gives up searching I can make my way over to the orchard and finally eat something.

The sound of wings flapping really fast overhead sometimes does not fill me with confidence.

15-The Apple Thief

Applejack woke up with a big yawn, smacking her lips she looked at the clock, it was about six in the morning as usual, she always would open her eyes at this time of the day, and her body tuned itself to wake up at this time of the morning, it was a biological clock, at least that’s what Twilight told her.

But she was still a little tired, well that would be because of her new guest who woke her up in the middle of the night. Winona woke her up and she found the apple thief. She caught him just as he was about to escape.

He tried a really poorly disguised lie, even if it was a good lie she probably still would have known. She was already tired from all the work that day and had no energy to deal with him at that moment so she just tossed him to the barn and…well she kind of blasted him with a hose. She was angry, he was stealing from her family! Of course, she wouldn’t hurt him but she still had her little revenge.

Applejack got out of bed and stretched, after washing her face and brushing her teeth she headed downstairs to eat some breakfast with her family. Entering the kitchen she saw all of them, like her they had the same biological clock as well, all of them woke up at six too.

As always Granny Smith made a mouth-watering breakfast, the moment everything was set up they wasted no time and began to attack their meal.

‘’Big Mac, I gotta deal with something this mornin’. I’ll be back so you start work without me.’’

Big Mac said nothing but just nodded.

‘’What something? Can I come with?’’ Applebloom asked after gulping down a whole plate of eggs.

‘’Nope, you just go to school, and don’t forget your homework this time!’’ Applebloom forgot to bring her homework to school yesterday, and Ms.Cheerlie wasn’t having the I forgot it at home excuse.

‘’Aw, fine, I won’t forget it this time.’’

Applejack didn’t want to tell her sister about the thief in their barn, she knew her sister, even if Applejack said not to approach him, Applebloom with her endless curiosity would still do it. She didn’t want that thief to even be near her sister.

Finishing breakfast she quickly thanked Granny Smith and left the house. On her way to the barn, she gave Winona a little treat for waking her up yesterday, the dog happy with its treat wasted no time eating it in one bite.

‘’You could have savored it a little, well you keep waking me up when there are more thieves on the farm and I’ll give you lots more.’’ Applejack laughed and patted her head before continuing her way to the barn.

Unlocking the lock she pushed the doors open. ‘’Alright now wake up-’’ Applejack says in a not-so-quiet way ‘’-I’ll be takin-what in tarnation happened here?!’’

The inside of the barn was a mess she saw the ropes, well more like the remains of the ropes she tied him with, a corner was filled with broken glass with a trail of blood droplets between the way of the corner and the ropes.

To her right, the hay blocks inside the barn were stacked like stairs that led to one of the upper windows. Quickly scurrying outside she goes under the window which the makeshift stairs led to and she can see a few droplets of blood again.

‘’Looks like you won’t be getting any treats, Winona.’’ Applejack quickly leaves the farm to get to Twilight and her friends.

‘’Muhahahah! I will destroy allll of Ponyville!’’ A huge beast roared.

‘’Celestia save us!’’ A mare cried.

‘’I have so much to live for!’’ A stallion bawled.

‘’I never got my first kiss!’’ A colt wept.

‘’Me neither!’’ A filly wailed.

The monster was about to crush all of the town with its enormous foot, he let out a ghastly laugh.

‘’Rainbow Dash get up!’’

‘’That’s too bad!’’ Just as his foot was about to make contact with the town a heroic voice broke through the sky.

‘’Oh no you don’t!’’ Rainbow Dash the super-ultra-extreme-awesomazing pegasus of all time flies at a speed that the beast can not even comprehend and stops his foot with no effort at all.

‘’What! How could this be?!’’ The Monster asks in clear confusion and fear.

‘’Rainbow Dash I said get up!’’

Rainbow Dash holds his foot with just one hoof alone she even yawns, and turning to the crowd she yells in her beautiful voice.

‘’Never fear, your friendly neighborhood Rainbow Dash is here!’’ The crowd erupts in cheer.

‘’RAINBOW DASH I SAID GET UP YOU LAZY PONY!’’

‘’Waghh!’’ Rainbow Dash jumps in shock and falls from the branch of a tree she was sleeping on, and her pillow lands on top of her head which she quickly pushes away.

‘’Finally! Now get up we gotta get the others.’’ Applejack forces her to get up she starts leading her.

‘’Wai-wait! Don’t just wake me out of nowhere and make me follow you!?’’ Rainbow stops in place making Applejack turn back.

‘’Look something important came up we gotta get the others.’’ Applejack says in a hurried tone.

‘’What came up?’’ Rainbow asked now a little more serious when she heard Applejack’s tone.

Sighing Applejack decided it was best to explain what had happened, cause she knew that Rainbow would not let it go. Rainbow was waiting with her arms crossed.

‘’Fine, well Winona woke me up last night and she led me to the farm, where I found a pony eating my apples -’’

‘’A thief?!’’Rainbow with a face of surprise cuts off Applejack.

‘’Yes, I caught him just as he was about to leave. I didn’t have any more energy left to deal with him so I just threw him in the barn. I was about to get him and go to Twilight.’’

‘’So where is he?’’

‘’That’s the problem he is… gone.’’

‘’What?! We got a thief loose in Ponyville?!’’

‘’Yeah, so let’s get everyone and deal with him before he steals more.’’

‘’Oh, I’ll show him! You don’t just steal from Rainbow Dash's friends!’’ Rainbow exclaims angrily and frowns. Applejack nods and begins galloping again this time Rainbow flying beside her.

‘’Here you go Angel.’’ Fluttershy fills the bunnies' food bowl with the usual. Angel looks at the bowl then to Fluttershy who adopts a hopeful smile and then back at the bowl.

‘’It’s very tast- hey!’’ Angel kicks the bowl away and turns his head.

‘’Come on now, it’s healthy and good for you.’’ Fluttershy says in her soft voice trying to make him change his mind.

The bunny doesn’t turn to face her but his harrumping continues. Fluttershy lets out a small sigh and her shoulders sag.

‘’Okay, I’ll get you something else.’’ She slowly makes her way inside the kitchen to get whatever Angel would like.

‘’Oh, I wonder if the pony from last night is alright…’’ Angel tenses up a little but he quickly becomes relaxed again before Fluttershy notices.

‘’Rainbow Dash will find him soon thoug-’’

*knock-knock-knock-knock*

A sudden sound of her door knocking breaks her out of her thoughts and she carefully makes her way to it.

‘’Who-’’ Before she can ask who it is a loud voice comes from the other side.

‘’It’s us Applejack and Rainbow Dash!’’

‘’Oh hello, what brings you her-’’ Fluttershy opens the door to face her friends but before she can say anything she gets pulled out of her house by Applejack.

‘’No time to explain let’s go, we need to get the others too.’’

‘’O-okay…’’ She doesn’t say anything but still goes along.

After a little while galloping a thought comes to her mind. What will Angel eat now?

Rarity was looking at one of the dresses she finished just minutes ago, it was good, but how do you say it, well it was just good, not great, or bad just good. She wouldn’t have that! Her clothes could only be magnificent! Any less would be an insult to her passion.

‘’Maybe I should have used more gemstones? Yes, gemstones are always great.’’ She said while looking at the dress which barely had any gemstones or diamonds on it. Only 150 pieces, can you believe that! It’s as if she didn’t put any on it.

Opening her jewelry chest she sees something that no pony should ever see… with a sharp gasp she throws herself onto the floor. The chest is empty.

‘’Oh, the travesty! How will I complete the dress now!?’’

*ring-ring*

Before she can continue her understandable grief, the front doorbell chimes, and she quickly gets up to greet her new guests and if they are customers she hides the bare dress away behind a changing curtain.

‘’Welcome to Rarity’s Botiqu-oh hello Darling what brings yo- woah!’’ Applejack cuts her off and pulls her outside.

‘’We need to get Pinkie and Twilight too, we need to deal with a problem.’’

‘’A-alright darling but let me close the shop up first.’’

‘’I-okay but be fast.’’

‘’Just a moment.’’ Rarity wastes no time and quickly locks the doors her friends seem serious so something has happened, maybe the reason her chest was empty was going to be revealed soon, that chest just suddenly became empty it was full before she started her dress so how could it be empty?

Pinkie was waiting for her friends in front of the Sugarcube Corner. Why? Well because this morning she just sensed something different for the first time, her knees were wobbly and her hooves were itching. So something must have happened and her friends are probably on their way to- ah there they are!

‘’Pinkie! Let’s go- wait why are you outside?’’ Applejack asks.

‘’Oh I just knew you would come, now let’s go to Twilight’s house!’’ Pinkie says and rushes forward ahead of everypony. They all look at each and and wordlessly follow her, they know better than to question Pinkie.

‘’Ughhhhhh, Spike where is the book on creatures of Southern Equestria?’’ Twilight Sparkle says in frustration. Today was book rearrangement day and she just couldn’t find this one particular one.

‘’Spike?’’

‘’..mhm-’’ A snort comes out of the little purple dragon. Twilight turns around and sees that Spike is sleeping while standing up.

‘’Spike!’’

‘’Wahhh! Twilight?’’ Spike jumps back and falls on the floor looking up he sees Twilight with a frown.

‘’You didn’t go to sleep last night when I told you to didn’t you?’’ The little dragons adopts a guilty smile.

‘’Hehe, well about that.’’ Spikes chuckles and rubs one of his feet on the floor with his hands behind his back.

‘’Ugh, well you’re still going to help me find this book, consider it your punishment.’’

‘’Fineeee, what did you need again?’’

‘’It’s about a book on the creatures of Southern Equestria.’’

‘’Alright, let’s start looking.’’ Spike quickly starts looking all over the library to find that book that Twilight oh so desired.

‘’Oh, Twilight I just remembered!’’ Spike exclaims after some time.

‘’Yes?’’

‘’You were going to get the Balloon insured, in case something happened you know?’’

‘’The balloon? Right! Thanks, Spike, I’ll get it done this week.’’

‘’By the way, I think I found the book too, here is this it?’’ Spike digs out a large green book from one of the many piles and shows it to her.

‘’Let me look, yes that’s it, thank you again, Spike.’’ She takes the book and slots it on the correct shelf.

‘’Only about 457 books left to organize!’’ Twilight exclaims in delight while Spike groans.

‘’I wish something interesting happened right about now.’’ He hopefully points to the door and waits.

‘’It doesn’t work like tha-’’

*knock-knock-knock-knock*

‘’Twilight! Open up something happened!’’ The voice of Applejack booms through the door.

Spike’s eyes widen and he throws a smirk at Twilight. She groans and goes to open the door, once she opens it all of her friends pour in hurriedly.

‘’Woah, what happened?’’ Twilight asks Applejack.

‘’I want to know too Darling.’’ Rarity sits near Twilight.

‘’M-me too.’’ Fluttershy asks in a low whisper.

‘’Me three!’’ Pinkie squeaks out.

Applejack looks at all of them and taking a huge breath she talks.

‘’Girls, we got a thief.’’ Before she can get one more word out all four of them plus Spike speak at the same time.

‘’A thief?’’ Twilight asks in surprise.

‘’Oh dear…’’ Fluttershy says again in a whisper although quieter this time.

‘’I knew someone was eating my cupcakes! Wait, that was me! Hehehe.’’ Pinkie gets surprised too but quickly laughs.

‘’I hope my games don’t get stolen.’’ Spike says in a worried tone while chewing his nails.

‘’Aha! That explains it! That thief stole my gemstones!’’ Rarity yells out.

‘’Your gems were stolen?’’ Twilight asks facing Rarity.

‘’Yes, I went to get some for my new dress this morning but it was all empty! It was full before I started it so somepony must have taken it!’’

‘’Do you know who it is, Applejack?’’ This time Twilight asks Applejack. Every one of the girls is full-on quiet now waiting for Applejack's answer.

‘’Yes, I caught him last night.’’

‘’I’m guessing he escaped?’’ Twilight asks in a worried tone.

‘’...Yes.’’

No one made a sound the room was quiet as a desert night. No one dared to speak up, a thief loose in Ponyville? This was dangerous. Twilight decides to break the silence.

‘’This is quite serious.’’

Applejack sighs and answers. ‘’It is.’’

‘’What does he look like?’’

‘’Uhh, he was tan-colored and had a light brown mane.’’ Applejack answers but before Twilight can say anything Rainbow speaks up.

‘’Wait, A tan-colored, light brown maned pony? Fluttershy wasn’t that the guy you had me looking for?!’’ All eyes turn to Fluttershy who just tries to hide herself under her mane.

‘’I-um, yes he d-did look like that.’’

‘’I was looking for a thief huh? That explains how he was able to evade me all day!’’

‘’Wait a minute, Fluttershy do you know this guy?’’ Twilight asks Fluttershy.

‘’Well, yes, no, I-I never talked to him-’’ No one interrupts Fluttershy and waits for her to continue careful not to scare her. ‘’The night before yesterday I was preparing to go to bed but then I heard a knock on the door and when I-I went to ask who it was all I heard was a small ‘’Help me.’’ and when I opened the door there was a roughed up tan colored pony on the ground.’’ Taking a huge breath to compose herself she continues. ‘’So-so I took him inside and looked over him he looked fine physically but he was really dirty, like he was crawling on mud all day. I just cleaned him and let him rest on the couch.’’

‘’He was in your house, right? How did he get out?’’ Twilight asks.

‘’I don’t know, he must have left after I went to get Rainbow Dash.’’ Now everyone’s attention was on Rainbow Dash.

‘’Well, I looked for him allll day but couldn’t even find a trace of him at all! He must be a really good thief.’’ Rainbow Dash said while crossing her arms. ‘’But I’ll find him today no doubt! No pony can hide from the super-ultra-extreme-awesomazing Rainbow Dash!

‘’Applejack you told us that you captured him last night, can you tell us what happened?’’ Twilight asks Applejack ignoring the last sentence from Rainbow Dash.

‘’Yeah, I was sleeping and Winona woke me up in the middle of the night, I followed her into the farms and saw him eating my apples, I caught him just before he leaped the fences.’’ She takes a breath and continues. ‘’I didn’t want to deal with him at that time so I threw him in the barn I was going to bring you him this morning but he was gone.’’

‘’Hmmm. Let’s go to the barn maybe we can find clues as to where he went?’’ Twilight rubs her chin in thought.

‘’Yes! I already have my magnifying glass ready!’’ Pinkie finally speaks up and brings out a huge magnifying glass, and a detective costume.

Everyone except Spike leaves the library and starts heading to the barn of Sweet Apple Acres. After a short journey, they arrive at the barn and Twilight is the first one to head inside.

‘’Applejack you tied him up right? How did he get out of these bonds?’’

‘’I’m guessing he used one of those pieces to cut himself loose-’’ Applejack turns to everyone. ‘’Everypony be careful around that corner there are glass pieces everywhere.’’

After some looking around Twilight has already formulated a plan inside her head about what could have happened.

‘’Alright, I’m guessing that he broke one of those bottles-’’ She points to bottles on the other side of the barn and continues. ‘’in the process hurting himself-'' She points to the drops of blood on the ground. ''-and he used one of the pieces of glass to cut the ropes, after that he used the hay blocks to form these stairs and jump out of the window.’’

‘’That’s what I was thinking too.’’ Applejack adds.

‘’Let’s look around the window he jumped from maybe we can find something?’’

They all gather under the window and look around again but this time it doesn’t take long.

‘’Hey guys! I found something!’’ Rainbow Dash calls everyone over and points to the ground.‘’The blood continues in a line I think this is where he went!’’ Twilight comes over and looks over the blood.

‘’Hmm, yes that could be it, let’s follow this trail and see where it leads us.’’ Slowly they follow what blood they can see, sometimes they lose the trail and have to look around, but they eventually make their way into town, first, they stop in front of Sugar Cube Corner.

‘’Wow, looks like he wanted to steal some of my delicious cakes! Good thing he couldn’t though.’’ Pinkie says.

‘’I don’t know about that Pinkie, maybe he was looking for future targets?’’ Twilight sighed out.

Following the trail they stop at a crossroad on the right side, the hospital and the left? ...Twilight’s library. And where does the trail lead? The left side…

‘’Uh, I don’t like this.’’ Rainbow says in a nervous tone.

‘’...’’ Twilight couldn’t find the words but she dashed forward, all of her friends following after her. They left Spike there! What if something happens to him?!

‘’SPIKE?!’’ Twilight bursts through the front door expecting something horrible to happen, but she doesn’t see anyone, Spike? He is...not here. That fills her with even more worry, did the thief take Spike away?! Her thoughts get clouded but a voice breaks her out of these horrible thoughts.

‘’Twilight? Is that you guys? Did you catch him?’’ It’s Spike! He was yelling from the back of the house, where they kept the balloon. She lets out a sigh of relief and collapses on the floor.

‘’No! We couldn’t.’’

‘’Oh, uhhh you might want to see this then!’’ His voice is a little nervous. Twilight wastes no time and goes outside with everyone following her to the back, wait is that the trail? Why is it going through here?

‘’Hi.’’ Spike waves at her and her friends she quickly hugs him.

‘’Hi.’’ She lets go of the hug and smiles at him, he shows her the same guilty smile he showed earlier, oh Celestia did something happen again? Looking to the right she finds her answer.

‘’Spike?’’

‘’Y-yes?’’

‘’Where is the balloon?’’

‘’Well about that.’’

The only thing outside was the trail disappearing and the balloon gone with it. She just got her balloon stolen, didn’t she?

‘’...I should have gotten that insurance earlier.’’ She collapses on the grass and covers her head.