Unwanted

Wasting moonlight.

The young princess walked through the gilded halls of the massive palace that she called her home. Today was the day of The Summer sun celebration so everypony was walking through streets of Canterlot, praising the name of the royal family.

The silence was so evident in the palace halls that the sound of her hooves hitting the floor echoed through the place. She sighed as she looked down at the floor. “Everypony but me..” she whispered.

Luna was as her mother so casually called “A bastard child.” A foal born out of wedlock. Her father had an affair with one of the servants of the palace and from their union came Luna. An outspoken but sweet little filly.

His wife desired that the foal was removed from her mother and placed under the care of the royal family. This way they could pretend that the child was hers. It would be a great dishonour to the royal family if the truth was ever revealed. So she lived her life, hidden within the palace. If Luna hadn't been born an alicorn things would be a lot different.

The kingdom rejoiced with the coming of Celestia's sun. After a thousand years of darkness the world was enlightened once more. Everypony walked through the daylight happily but not Luna. No, she had always been different.

When the sun went down and the sky was dark and void she made her escape. She climbed out of her window and just ran through the night. There was always something so soothing and safe about shadows.

Perhaps it was knowing that nopony could see her. That she had the freedom to be herself. On one faithful night, when she reached the peak of her power, she lifted her horn to the sky and created her beautiful moon.

She looked in awe at her own power. She remembered how proud her parents were when they saw Celestia's sun and she was so sure of the fact that they would be just as proud of her but sadly, they were not.

Nopony was.. Nopony cared.. Hell, most ponies took forever to even notice it. Her parents were furious. “How could you soil our sky with that hideous lump of rock?” they said. All she ever wanted was to make them proud. She wanted the life that her sister lived.

So every night, after the sun went down. She ran outside and used all of her power to create a single star. They represented her sister's sun but they had her touch. And every night she would show her star to her parent's but they never paid any attention to it.

Eventually she gave up but she kept making the stars, one by one. Each of them meant something to her. She associated each and everyone of them with a certain event in her life, a certain feeling. And so, year after year, the sky was filled more and more with the tiny little lights that she adored so much.

So slowly, but surely, the night became brighter and brighter until the time came that she deemed it her own. She crowned herself as the princess of the night. A reflection of her beloved sister. She loved Celestia dearly, more than anypony else, but still.. she could never shake that feeling of jealousy.

Jealousy.. one of the pony's worst demons. It slowly eats at you, day after day. Taking a bit of you away with each painful bite. Until you start to change into something that the mirror doesn't recognize. It forces you to turn on the ones you love.

But the night did not last forever. Eventually, the time came that she had to sneak back to the Royal Palace, into her room. As an alicorn she had almost no need for sleep so she used the tiny amount of time between the descent of her moon and the ascension of her sister's sun to get her rest.

But the days often got lonely and this one was no exception. She filled her hours with study, learning everything about what it meant to be a princess but some of her hours were spent simply walking through the golden halls and corridors of the royal palace.

The sound of Canterlot's masses celebrating outside of the palace filled the air. She decided to take a look out of the window. Suddenly, she was greeted by the sight of hundreds of ponies, dancing through the streets of Canterlot, having the time of their lives.

The streets were covered in white and pink, in honor of the beloved princess Celestia. A small frown appeared on Luna's face. She turned her gaze to a small group of fillies playing and dancing happily to the music as confetti fell around them.

“I wish I could be out there.. I wish I was more like them..” she said sadly. Luna never had any friends, not because she was such an unfriendly pony though. In fact, Luna had always been a kind and playful filly. She loved to dance and sing, but never in the presence of her parents. It was “Unacceptable behaviour for a princess.” as they called it.

Luna decided not to dwell on it further and continued her lonesome march through the halls of the palace. She walked past the small chapel attached to the palace. She cleared her throat as the memory of that horrible night returned to her.

She still remembered it perfectly. Her mother had taken her and Celestia to learn about the concept of Love and courtship earlier that day. They were Princess' after all and it was expected of Celestia that she would one day marry a colt so that they could rule over Equestria together.

The foals of some of the richest stallions and mares of Canterlot were gathered in the palace so that Celestia could choose one for her studies. Luna could only hope that her mother would never force her to this. She was never all that interested in colts.

She did see the allure of romance though. Sometimes when she laid her eyes on one of Canterlot's fillies she could not help but feel attracted to them. Luna was far more mature than most fillies of her age, but never paid much attention to this attraction. In fact, she never thought there was anything wrong with it until that day.

After a few hours of what Luna could only describe as an embarrassing display of begging and show-boasting from the colts Celestia had finally chosen a lucky colt. None of them actually looked like they wanted to be there. They were foals after all and much to young for romance. But every parent in Canterlot wanted their foal to become Celestia's mate.

Their mother walked over to Luna who had been sitting awkwardly in a corner of the room as she so often did, avoiding any eye-contact. "So Luna." she giggled. "Would you like to choose out a cute little foal for yourself too?" she asked. This caused the little filly to hide her face behind her mane in embarrassment before she got up and walked as close to her mother as possible, putting her head to her mother's ear.

"But mommy.. I don't want to.." she whispered softly.

"Why not dear?" her mother asked, obviously taken aback by the fillies statement.

"I don't like colts.." she whispered even softer, not wanting anypony else to hear her.

"Of course you don't Luna." she laughed smugly. "You're far too young for that. But, you might as well choose one now rather than later." she said.

"No mommy.. You don't understand.." she said as the volume of her voice descended to a practically inaudible level. "I don't want a coltfriend. I want a fillyfriend." she whispered.

Her mother looked at her with a mix of confusion and anger. "Don't talk such nonsense Luna." she snapped at the little filly in a soft but obviously angered tone. "I don't want to hear another word from you. We will talk about this later." she said with a look of disapproval.

"But mommy.."

"That is final Luna! Go to your room." she said as she turned away from the filly and walked towards their guests to wish them farewell.

The filly heeded to her mother's orders and started to slowly walk up the large stairs in the middle of the palace hall. Small tears escaped from her eyes as she thought back at how angry her mother was at her and she didn't even know what she had done wrong.

Luna walked through the hallways of the royal palace, shaking on her little hooves as she did. Her mother had ordered her to come to the small chapel that stood attached to the palace that night. She already started to prepare herself for another one of her mother's yelling sessions.

She entered the darkened chapel, the dim light coming from the candles that filled the place bounced of the walls giving the entire place a dark, medieval touch. Her mother stood at a large bookcase standing against the wall of the room. Luna slowly shuffled over to her mother, keeping her head low to the ground all the while.

"M-mother?" she said softly. "You wanted to talk to me?" A heavy storm had swept over Canterlot that night and the sound of the rain attacking the palace filled the air.

"Yes dear, I wanted to talk to you about what you told me this afternoon." she said sternly. "You see, your father and I are very worried about this.. phase of yours. We simply can't have our daughter run around the palace saying things like that."

Luna, as naive as she was, had no idea what her mother was talking about. "What do you mean, mommy?" she asked in a silent tone. "I'm sorry if I did anything wrong.. I didn't mean to.." she said as she shied away behind her mane once again.

The stern expression on her mother's face turned to one of anger. She firmly grabbed the little filly by the arm and dragged her to the bookcase. "You don't even know what you did wrong!?" she yelled. as the filly started to cry heavily.

"Mommy, you're hurting me!" she cried out. Her mother grabbed a book out of the bookcase and forced the filly onto her haunches. She opened the book at a certain page and started reading. "If a mare lies with another mare as she lies with a stallion both of them have committed an abomination and must be put to death." she yelled.

The filly, obviously terrified by her mother's tone and words, had to muster all of her courage to speak up. "I don't understand what's so wrong about liki-" Suddenly she felt a heavy pain in her face as she fell to the floor. In her rage her mother had hit the young filly.

Her crying worsened as she put her hoof to her eye. "I'm sorry mommy! Please don't hit me!" she cried.

"I don't want to hear anything more about this obsession of yours! Go to your room!" she yelled causing the filly to run away in fear.

Luna quickly tried to force the memory out of her head but it was a lost cause. Tears started to pour from her eyes as she began to run through the corridors of the palace causing small streams of tears to fly from her eyes. She started running faster and faster. She just wanted to run away from it all.

Suddenly she collided with something causing her to roll over the floor and land into the wall. She groaned as she got up on her haunches and rubbed the back of her head with her hoof. She examined the hallway to look for whatever it was that she ran into.

A young white earth pony filly lied collapsed on the floor, groaning softly in pain. Luna's eyes lit up as she ran over to the filly to help her up on her hooves. "Are you all right?" she asked with a voice of concern as she pulled the little filly up from the ground.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I wasn't looking whe-" suddenly the filly's face filled with horror as she looked at Luna. "Oh my god, Princess Luna! I'm so sorry mistress! I didn't see you coming!" she said as she bowed her head in a benign manner.

Luna truly hated it whenever ponies acted so timid and inferior to her. "That's ok.. I should have looked where I was going." she said shyly. "P-please.. stop kneeling." she said softly causing the young filly to get back up on her legs. Luna's heart suddenly fluttered as she looked into the fillies eyes.

She had a short mint green mane and shining golden eyes. The sunlight reflected off of her white coat. The filly was wearing a smaller version of the uniforms that the maids around the palace wore. "Thanks." she said as Luna helped her back up on her hooves. "My name is Lily." she said as she smiled at Luna. "Me and my parents work around the castle."

"Pleased to meet you.." she said shyly as she hid her face behind her mane. Suddenly she could feel the little filly wipe her mane out of her face.

"What are you doing silly!" she said laughingly causing Luna to blush slightly.

"I.. I'm a little shy.." she said softly. Luna was many things but shy wasn't one of them. There was something about Lily that just made her stumble over her words. "Why aren't you outside celebrating like everypony else?" she asked curiously. This caused the little filly to frown as she looked at the ground.

"I would love to.. but I have to work today.." she said sadly.

Being the clever little pony that she was, Luna suddenly got an idea. "As your princess I command you to spend the rest of the day playing with me!" she said in a royal voice as she tried to contain her giggling. This caused the little filly's frown to turn into a huge smile.

"After you, my princess!" she said, giggling twice as loudly.

The two laughing fillies entered Luna's immense private room. Lily's eyes lit up at the sight of the princess' quarters. "You sleep here!?" she exclaimed as she looked around the room. Golden tapestries hanged above the glistening windows that surrounded Luna's room. Dark blue curtains hanged from them, swaying in the wind. several toys were scattered across the floor and a massive bed stood against the wall.

"This isn't anything like the worker's quarters!" she said in amazement. This caused Luna to feel a bit guilty. She could never sleep comfortably in her bed at night, knowing how much worse other ponies had it.

"I don't spend much time here." she said as she got up on her bed. Lily cheerfully skipped after her and jumped onto the bed. She positioned herself right next to Luna causing a faint blush to appear on the princess' face. "so.. What do you want to do?" she asked.

Suddenly the sound of the street music filled the air of Luna's room causing the two fillies to get off of the bed and walk towards the window. They saw the ponies of Canterlot dance cheerfully to the music of the Summer Sun Celebration. Lily smiled broadly at Luna as she took her hoof and ran to the middle of the room.

"Wanna dance?" she asked happily.

Without so much as a warning Luna grabbed Lily's other hoof and started dancing through her room cheerfully. Sometimes their eyes would meet causing both of the fillies to blush slightly.