The Luna Diariesby The-rogue-shadowChaptersEntry 2Entry 3Entry 4Entry 5Entry 6Entry 9Entry 11Entry 13Entry 14Entry 15Entry 17Entry 18Entry 20Entry 21Entry 22Entry 23Entry 24Entry 1Entry 7Entry 8Entry 10Entry 12Entry 16Entry 19Entry 25Entry 2Dear Diary, I am about to begin my first day of… ugh, high school. Tia believes that I am, as she put it, ‘too cute.’ I am not too certain. The black coat and purple mane seems fine, but the black rimmed glasses seem a bit too much for such a simple disguise. But I am assured that the glasses are essential. While I do miss my horn, I always enjoyed flying so being a Pegasus seemed appropriate. Tia, in the disguise of my mother, has preferred the shape of a unicorn. Tia has organised everything, every single aspect, even my new name; Moonfire. Shining Armour, captain of the royal guard, was the one who choose my new classes for me, apparently based on those that his younger sister found interesting and insightful. While I am grateful for the help, there are really only two subjects that I am looking forward to; History and Astronomy. The rest; Physics, Advanced Mathematics, Chemistry and one more. This one I got to choose myself, since Twilight Sparkle was having personal lessons from Princess Celestia for her final subject choice, and since I’m a Pegasus for now, it seemed only appropriate to do a class in flying. Okay, Tia is calling for me. It’s time to go. I just hope that everything goes smoothly. Entry 3Dear Diary, Just finished the first day of school and well… There was an incident. An Earth pony colt spent the first half of the day harassing me, calling me names, pushing me and other stuff. I tried to ignore it, but then he pulled my hair, and that was it. No pony touches the hair of a Princess and gets away with it. I may have… thrown him out of the window. And then got a detention… at lunchtime… for a week. Tia was called into the school to ‘discuss’ my attitude. As soon as we got home, Celestia burst out laughing, making me feel totally embarrassed. I tried yelling at her, but my smaller form that was a result of my disguise only made her laugh harder. It wasn’t long before I was laughing as well, rolling around on the floor of my bedroom. It was nice to do that again, neither of us have done that in so long. Even after my return, things have been awkward between us. Dinner is a silent affair, where we do nothing but eat. But that one moment, it was just like before, just like when we were fillies. Celestia’s surprisingly loud laugh and unprincess-like snort took me back to a happier time. After she changed me back into my usual shape, I gave her the longest and tightest hug I think I’ve ever given anypony, and it was so amazing. Well it’s time to go to bed, I have to go and apologise to the colt tomorrow. I hope the cast isn’t too itchy. I suppose I’ll have to get him a present or something. Perhaps I’ll give him a jewel encrusted horseshoe. It was the traditional apology gift a thousand years ago. I wonder where I can find one? Entry 4Dear Diary, Today at school went much better then yesterday. Most ponies seemed to find it preferable to avoid me, which I cannot blame them for, the incident with the colt was deplorable. I know that now. I saw him today… I actually learnt his name; Sly Starburn. The cast that he had on his right foreleg made it very difficult for him to flee when he noticed me approaching. The fear on his face didn’t bring me the same pleasure that I thought it would. Before the nightmare, I liked seeing the fearful respect on the faces of my subjects, but the look that Sly gave me… It honestly broke my heart. Even though Tia talked me out of the jewel encrusted horseshoe, I still felt obligated to give him something to say sorry. I came up with a box of chocolates at the suggestion of one of my personal guards. He reluctantly accepted it, but still asked me to stay away, promising that he wouldn’t harass me anymore. I suppose that it IS what I wanted to happen, but the cost; Sly’s broken bone, being treated as a Martyr… Was it worth it all? Speaking of my personal guards, I am not too certain about their true intent. I have my suspicions that they are more loyal to Tia than to me. I have seen them reporting to Shining Armour whenever I decide to do something myself other than the activities that Tia has ‘approved.’ I think that I shall have to find guards that truly care for me, that truly wish to dedicate their lives for my safety. Unfortunately, it requires some… changes of lifestyle, such as the altering of their bodies to better represent their new posting. Bat-like wings, black fur, and yellow, cat-like eyes. There are only two policies from the old times that I never liked and will surely abolish, such the removal of the genitals, so as to prevent any chance of temptation regarding their charge, which in this case would be me. The other one is being forbidden from a family of any sort, even contact with their parents or siblings. To me, it always seemed cruel to deny them these things, but it was what was expected from the knights of the moon. I took a look at the roster of available guards and there are only three that always ask for more shifts guarding me, two stallions and a mare. Their names are Swift, Silver Wing and the mare is named Heartstrings. I will approach them within the next few days and offer them the position. I don’t believe I will tell Tia right away, lest she deny me my personal choice in protectors for whatever reason. Bed time I think, I must get ready for school tomorrow. We have a field trip to the local observatory and I am very excited to see the place that studies my work… Even if it isn’t my work. I must ask Celestia for some more responsibilities regarding the night. It’s beginning to get frustrating the way that she never puts the Libra and Gemini constellations in the right place. I must refrain from too much naysaying regarding my sister. I don’t want her spies getting the wrong idea. Entry 5Dear Diary, The trip to the observatory today was, in a word, fantastic. I “learnt” all about the stars, the planets and the rotation of the Earth. I’m not going to lie, seeing all of the other students in awe of the night and the endless expanse beyond their own comprehension made my ego inflate just a little. Even Sly, the colt I threw out of the window seemed impressed, which made it difficult not to gloat, or even correct the pony giving the tour when he was getting things wrong. There was a pony near the rear of the tour that I hadn’t noticed until then. She was a white Pegasus with a scarlet coloured mane. What was different about her was the fact that she almost always had a teacher near her, and I couldn’t figure out why; so, curious, I decided to try and meet this mare. I discovered that her name was Aurora and, unbeknownst to me, she was blind. The teacher that was accompanying her was there to guide her and read the plaques as they were not written in something called ‘braille’ which I discovered was a very special type of writing that consists of embossed bumps on paper or metal or whatever. Aurora can read it by running the tips of her wings across each line of the braille. I kept talking to her for the rest of the trip, and I think I made a good impression on her. I’m very grateful that Tia’s disguise spell automatically changes my voice, mannerisms and according to her, the ‘volume’ of my speech, as I was informed that all of Aurora’s other senses are heightened as a result of her lost vision. It was nice to finally connect with a pony that wasn’t a part of my staff or bullying me. I started to wonder if Aurora was a friend or not. I had forgotten the feeling of having a friend after so long in isolation. Perhaps reading the reports that Twilight Sparkle sends to Tia every day as part of her assignment in the study of friendship would help me figure it out. It could very well be beneficial to me as school goes on. I should also mention that I confronted the three guards who I have selected to undergo the process to become my personal guards. All three of them were on guard duty at the time, even though the shift only requires two ponies at the one time. They all said yes, although Swift seemed a little reluctant at first, until a quick nuzzle from Heartstrings quickly changed his mind. I explained the changes that would be necessary and the responsibilities that went along with their new position. Even after learning of the risks involved with their transformation, they agreed. I knew then that I had picked the right ponies for the job. They are all going to be receiving special training in accordance with the old laws that governed the knights of the moon; with a few changes by myself of course. I do need to talk to Tia about it though, even if I HAVE made my decision, in the end, I’m asking her to give up three guards for the rest of their lives in service to me. I pray she is understanding. Now it is time for sleep. Despite my best efforts and natural habits, I have found myself needing sleep at much the same time as other ponies. I imagine that when I take back responsibility over the night that my sleeping patterns will change. Entry 6Dear Diary, With the weekend upon me I thought it best to confront Tia about my decision to appoint Swift, Sliver Wing and Heartstrings as my personal guard… The results were less than stellar. Tia disagreed with the entire idea of me having personal guards. I suspect that she is disappointed with losing her spies. I tried to explain my choice, saying that I needed ponies that I could trust if I was able to transition back into my life. It soon descended into an hour long argument that prevented Tia from attending from the rest of her duties, such as seeing to the concerns of ponies that visit the palace. I could see her getting increasingly frustrated, but I kept pushing, certain that I could break her down. I was always better at arguing than her, never backing down until I got what I wanted. She eventually relented, telling me that since it was my castle as well, then I have free reign within its walls. I could tell that she was trying to guilt trip me into changing my mind. I’m not proud of this, but in a moment of pure spite, I simply bowed in an exaggerated way, turned and left the room. I could almost feel her icy gaze on the back of my head as I walked away. The wall that she put up when I got back was stronger than ever, and even though we have shared a few rare moments of joy that harked back to earlier days; I doubt that things will ever get back to the way they were. I gathered Swift, Silver Wing and Heartstrings in my chambers soon after, and let them know that everything was going ahead. They would be beginning their training on Monday, and then a week or so after that, the rites would be performed that would signal their transformation into a night guard. I made certain never to lie to them at any point. Silver Wing and Heartstrings are going to experience incredible pain as their wings change into leathery bat-like ones and for the Earth Pony Swift, well he will have to adjust to the massive change in his lifestyle that the wings will bring. Their relationships will be forever altered because of the stigma associated with the frightening appearance that the knights of the moon are required to adopt. I was very surprised at the level of commitment that these ponies were willing to accept for me. Whether or not I deserve their trust will be completely up to me and how I behave as I try my best to adapt to the world. When I dismissed them, Swift and Heartstrings stayed behind. They apparently needed to discuss some concerns with me. Swift was still happy to become a guard, but was concerned as to just how much the change was going to affect them, as he and Heartstrings, who I was surprised to find out were married, which made their appointment all the more romantic in my eyes. They were trying for a child, and enquired as to whether the transformation would affect the child. Once again, I could not lie, and simply told them that no night guard had ever had children, as they have always been castrated. This did little to quell their fears or answer their questions, and in typical soldier fashion, both just nodded once and left. It broke my heart not to be able to give them a definitive answer, and I honestly hope that they find the child that they desire. Moon Knight or not. Entry 9Dear Diary, It’s done. I am proud to announce the addition of three new Moon Knights. Silver Wing, Heartstrings and Swift. The transformations went almost according to book, aside from a few unforeseen occurrences, such as when poor Swift was stuck with only a single wing for about half an hour, or when Silver Wing’s eyes wouldn’t change. It all worked out in the end and I was happy to see that all three of them were pleased with the change. Tia came to watch the ceremony, an act which I did not at all expect. She sat away from the proceedings, and even applauded once each pony had been changed and officially sworn in. I confronted her afterwards and demanded she explain her presence. Her infuriatingly simple reply of; “I felt as though I should be here” was not enough. I badgered her for a while longer; I did have a few hours to spare while my new guards were in recovery after all. Tia’s… lies, were always part of the way she talked to me. Even when we were fillies, she nearly always had to find some way of manipulating me through deceit or misdirection, and now the legends say that I am the bringer of lies and the master of deceit? How dare they! How dare SHE let that happen. I finally got the truth from her and all it did was make me even angrier with her. Apparently, she did not trust me with my chosen ponies’ lives and had come to make sure that I didn’t kill them. After that, I-I just had to leave. I flew off into the night and headed as high as I could. Higher than any Pegasus or griffin can fly, where the very air itself struggles to maintain its integrity. I stayed there, under a night that makes me uncomfortable with its very essence and simply cried. Why does she not see that I am trying? That I am no longer Nightmare Moon and that I have no wish to return to that awful prison of my own design? *** The dawn came about all too quickly for my taste, heralding not only a new day at school, but also another silent breakfast with Tia. I doubt that even my flying class today will do much to improve my mood. I honestly just hope Aurora is there today, I’d really like a… a friend, to talk to. Entry 11Dear Diary, This entry is being written not in the palace, but instead in the wonderfully old streets of my new favourite town in all of Equestria; Trottingham. I managed to squeeze myself onto the list for a school trip to Trottingham for three days. Aurora is with me as well, which is fantastic. We even get to share a room in the hotel. She even likes to admit that her blindness does come with some advantages, such as certain special amenities in our room, such as a larger shower and bathroom. Before we were left alone, our teacher, Miss PrimProse, made me read this pamphlet that detailed a few of the responsibilities that I had in looking after her. I had to make sure that she could get to the toilet and to her bed. I could see Aurora getting more and more embarrassed as she explained the situation to me. When she left, Aurora threw herself on her bed and groaned. I couldn’t understand why she was agitated, but then she explained that she hated feeling special or above everypony else just because she was born without the ability to see. I tried to comfort her, tried to tell her that I frequently forgot about her disability, which was true. The way that she acts, with all the confidence of somepony with sight, makes me think that she is at no disadvantage. Sure, I do notice that her pupils are a milky white, but it just gives her an ethereal quality that gives me a strange sense of peace. Leaving the hotel in a group of three along with Miss PrimProse, we headed along the main street in search of a tour for the next day. Apparently, the one that had been organised had fallen through, so we had to sort something else out. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the barest flash of Moon Knight armour. While I was impressed that they were trying so hard to watch me, they really needed to work on their stealth. Now Trottingham is one of the older cities in Equestria, and it shows in the architecture. The streets are all cobblestone and the buildings in the middle of the city were all built long before the Nightmare. I loved it. It was so familiar and I had to stop myself from going off on a nostalgia trip. It was interesting to see how different it was compared to the old days, as back then, Trottingham was not a very nice place to visit, but now; it seems to be a hub for tourists and businesses I do hope that this trip helps to take my mind off Tia. It’s already starting to help, but I am slightly dreading going home. Entry 13Dear Diary The countryside around Trottingham was so stunning, the rolling hills, the cliffs that are made almost entirely out of white stone and my favourite landmark that I have ever seen; Ponehenge. A massive array of impossible large stones that have been arranged in such a way that to me it looks like a massive horseshoe, but Nebula thinks it looks like a Zebrican tribal space. But then I DID get to see it from the air, and it does still look like a horseshoe. It was interesting to note that nopony seems to know how those stones came to rest there, because according to both our tour guide and Miss PrimProse, they are all from the centre of the Everfree Forest, and have some mineral in them that makes them impervious to magic. We ate lunch at the site and discussed all of the possibilities and conspiracies that surrounded it. Sly brought up one particular story that had little impact on me except to make me angry, although I did manage to hide it from the others. According to Sly, Ponehenge was the site where Princess Celestia finally managed to defeat Nightmare Moon and banish her to the Moon, which is preposterous. The final battle actually took place in our parent’s tomb in the Everfree, and was the reason for its destruction. Aurora’s suggestion that it was a place of meeting for the three types of pony before the time of unity made a lot more sense to me, even though I do not remember it being here when Celestia and I took over rule of Equestria. I must remember to check the archives for mention of this place when I get back to Canterlot. The carriage ride back to town did not go as expected. One of the wheels snapped in half when we struck a large rock, meaning that we had to wait for our guide to walk back to town and get a replacement. I and a few other pegasi offered to fly back to town to speed up the process, but all of the teachers refused to let us go on the grounds of safety concerns. It is times like now that I do miss my horn, as I could probably have used my magic to fix it easily. As a result of it all though, we just had to wait. The teachers tried to entertain us with activities like quizzes and the like, but even they lost their novelty after the first hour. I could see Miss PrimProse starting to get worried as the sun began to set, and when I asked her why she looked nervous, she told me that she didn’t want to be left in the middle of nowhere in the dark. I told her not to worry, because I knew that it was meant to be a full moon that night, provided that Tia remembered that fact. Sure enough, the night sky was soon lit up by the full moon, and I do remember just giving Miss PrimProse a little wink when she gave me a strange look. A few hours later, when the guide finally returned with the carriage wheel, we had already gotten settled in for a night out under the stars, and with some of us already asleep, we just stayed there. I got to show off my knowledge of the constellations and the night sky and it was awesome to see ponies so enamoured with what I was saying. Author's Note So a new author's notes feature... that's cool. But don't worry, I won't be spamming this. I just may use it occasionally to give you, the reader, some little bits of trivia about The Luna Diaries. For example; Trivia fact: The teacher, Miss Primprose, is the pony I designed for my Professional and Creative writing professor at university. Entry 14Dear Diary, We left our makeshift campsite not long after dawn, with not a single pony unhappy with the adventure. Since it was our last day in Trottingham, we were given free reign over what we did, as long as we stayed within our groups and didn’t do anything dangerous or against the law. All of us, even Sly, agreed to go down the main street and explore the multitude of stores that lined the cobblestone street. Each one had previously been a store in older times, and most of them had kept that same aesthetic. Aurora, Nebula and I ducked into a book store while Sunbeam, Sly and Miss PrimProse went into a souvenir shop that was next door. It didn’t take long for us to find the braille section for Aurora, and she found herself a copy of “The encyclopaedia of Equestrian Mythology” which she told me was a collection of a bunch of old stories, including “The Mare in the Moon” story. When I heard that, I immediately found myself a text copy so that I could research what has been written about me in my absence. The next store we went to was a place that Sly, Nebula and Sunbeam were very excited to see. The store was called “Gifts for the Geek” and featured a bunch of figurines and books, both comics and regular ones. But the regular books all had something to do with something fantasy related. An entire bookshelf had books related to something called “Dungeons and Dragons,” which I discovered was a fantasy board game. I also found a bunch of rubber swords and axes and other types of weapons, and Nebula told me that they were used for something called “Larping.” Since we had been put in the group together, Sly had seemed to forgive me for throwing me out of the window, to some degree at least. I saw him purchasing a book, and when I approached, he only jumped slightly when he saw me. Then once he realised I wasn’t going to hurt him, he seemed to warm up to me a bit more. We got to have a bit of a conversation about the book he had bought, which was apparently a mock survival guide on a zombie apocalypse. He told me that he had an entire plan set up for the worst case scenario of a zombie outbreak. I have to admit, even though what we were talking about something completely ridiculous, it was great to actually be talking to him. We left the store and walked around for a few more hours before we had to head back in time to catch the train to Canterlot. It was great to be out of the castle for a few days, and even though I am at home in my room, I still find myself thinking of all the amazing times I had in Trottingham, not to mention the farmland outside of the city. Right. Bedtime. I have to do a fair bit of studying in the archives tomorrow. I am determined to find out the purpose of the Ponehenge stones. Entry 15Dear Diary, Well I have to say, I’m thoroughly disappointed. I spent all weekend scouring the archives for any mention of the Ponehenge stones and well… I found it. Turns out that Ponehenge was an outdoor fast food restaurant that had been owned my zebras. Yep. So they had it set up so ponies in carriages would walk up to the first window and order what they wanted, and then move on to the next window, where they would be given their food. I also found out how they got the stones to the site; Zebrasai. A.K.A Pegasus zebras. They tethered the stones to themselves and then rested on clouds for the journey. They got shut down by the Equestrian guard after one of them found half a mouse in his lasagne and I suppose that everypony just forgot as time went on. After I finished my ‘research’ I went down to the statue garden and went for a walk so I could try and clear my head of the frustration that had been brought around by my discovery. I was joined by Heartstrings, who I have found myself increasingly bonding with. As with any artist, I keep finding little imperfections in the appearances of my guards. For example, Heartstrings still has a streak of her former light green mane colour on the side of her head, mixed in with the black mane that she now had. It’s happened to the others as well, like the way Swift’s right eye occasionally changes back to its usual deep blue, and then back again between blinks. Or the way that the tips of Silver Wings’ wings are still grey, even if they are bat like. Part of Heartstrings’ duties to me is to keep an eye on the other royal guards and inform me if any of them are saying anything about me. Her other duty is to attend to any of my other needs where the stallions would be… Unwanted. But today wasn’t really about duties or spy work, it was just two friends walking through the park together. A topic came up at one point that I had been expecting since they started their commission; the behaviour of the other guards in relation to them. She told me that the night guards were being shunned by the day guards, giving them angry looks and ignoring them in the mess hall. She also told me that Swift’s brother in law, Soul Fire, who was a day guard as well, blatantly refuses to acknowledge his existence, a fact I find utterly heart breaking. I came to the decision that I am going to have to talk to Tia tomorrow and see if she can talk to her guards about cutting my friends some slack. I am so exhausted, and with school tomorrow, I’m going to bed early tonight. Author's Note Trivia fact number 2: The idea for the true purpose of Ponehenge was inspired by the 'Artemis Fowl' series of novels. Entry 17Dear Diary, This morning at breakfast I finally built up enough courage to show Tia my first term results. Her reaction was so unexpectedly positive that I started to wonder if she had known before hand and rehearsed what she was going to say. For the first time in weeks, she gave me a hug and told me how proud she was. I’m a little embarrassed to admit this but it was difficult for me to keep my composure as she coddled me. I could see Shining Armour snickering in my periphery, but a stern look instantly silenced him. Just as I was leaving for school, Tia promised that she would have a surprise waiting for me when I got home, which made me very excited. *** At lunch, my flying teacher, Mr Comet Tail approached me with a very interesting offer. Apparently, the school runs an advanced flying class every Friday after school, with a focus on flying theory and practice. Part of the class is a scholarship for a six week boot camp style training at the cloudsdale summer flight camp at the end of the year. I briefly remembered Twilight Sparkle’s friends Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy talking about the camp, so I immediately accepted. Aurora and the twins gave me their congratulations, and it felt great to have the attention for a little while. I did, however, notice that I was very preoccupied with what the others thought at the time, and I can only put that down to the ‘need for approval’ that Tia frequently tells me I have. The rest of the day went fairly smoothly, nothing unusual really happened, although I did find Sly rummaging through my locker at the end of school. He galloped off before I got a chance to ask him about it though. *** I hurried home, so eager to see what surprise Tia had dreamt up for me. I initially thought it must have been a party, simply because of the way she was acting, but the truth was far better than anything I could have imagined. When I got home, the hall was empty. Not a single balloon or streamer and whenever I asked one of the staff or guards where my sister was, they could only grin like a foal and tell me that I would ‘find out soon enough.’ I eventually found Tia in the observatory, a room that I have spent many an hour in since my return, mostly just because I wanted a quiet place to do my homework. She was simply looking out over the expanse that is her country and smiling in the same way all of the guards and staff were. When she noticed me, she immediately changed me back into my usual self and hugged me once more, before telling me all about my surprise. Tonight, she was going to let ME raise the moon and stars. I soon started crying with happiness as my magic reached out and gripped the night. I felt it; all of the same nightly energies that had been my escape a millennium ago were again in my grasp. When I was done, Tia asked me why I had put the Libra and Gemini constellations in the wrong place. I couldn’t do anything but laugh. Today was simply the best day ever! And I hope tomorrow is just as good. Goodnight. Entry 18Dear Diary, I woke up in the observatory this morning, wrapped in my sister’s forelegs. She had been up for a few hours at that point, having had to raise the sun. I felt considerably better than I had since my return, stronger, more at peace with everything. When I eventually got in front of a mirror, I was pleased to discover that newfound connection with the energy of the night had had a more… cosmetic change on my body. My mane was now much darker in colour and moved on its own accord, much like Tia’s did. It hadn’t gotten any longer but I surmise that continued contact with my old friend the moon would restore me to my former shape. *** I got to school late today thanks to a wing cramp that forced me to gallop the whole way. But when I did arrive and went to put my bag into my locker, I was surprised to find a pink heart-shaped box of chocolates propped up against my book. There was a small tag that simply said ‘From an admirer’ scrawled in messy writing. Already late, I ignored it, grabbed my physics books and raced to class. I was lucky enough to not get a detention for being late, although the teacher was still fairly displeased. I sat down next to Sly and told him all about it. For some reason, he went very quiet and promised to help me solve the mystery. At recess I told the others about it all and both of the twins just laughed at me. Aurora told me that she would try to discover who put it there. I have to say, it was very strange to find out that there was somepony watching me from afar. I used to get it from my subjects, but it felt different to this. *** I told Tia when I got home and her child-like giggling not only irked me, but it was also seriously unhelpful. She must have noticed this, because she sat me down and explained that something like this was very common nowadays, and that it was nothing but a school yard crush that would eventually go away with time. I wasn’t sure if I was disappointed about that or not. I mean, I’ve been enjoying all of the attention that I’ve been getting and this was seemed like a level above that. I’m going to have to do some more investigating regardless. I feel compelled to find out who gave me those chocolates, which were absolutely fantastic! Tomorrow I’m going to get to the bottom of this. Entry 20Dear Diary, This morning was horrible. I woke up coughing as though my body was trying to evacuate my lungs from my chest. My muscles felt incredibly weak, so much so that I could barely lift my forelegs and I somehow managed to split my lip on the floor when I tripped over my own legs as I was trying to get out of bed. Heartstrings apparently heard the commotion of my failed attempt to get ready for school and came into the room just as I blew a large amount of phlegm into a tissue, making her gag uncontrollably. Ignoring my groans of protest she ushered me back into my bed, telling me that I would not be attending school before she galloped away to get the castle physician. I tried to tell her not to, that I would be fine with time, but again she ignored me. *** When the doctor arrived, I was surprised and a little nervous when I found that it wasn’t the doctor that I had interacted with before. He was a grey Pegasus with a brown mane and tail who introduced himself as ‘Doctor Neuron.’ He seemed nice enough, and was much gentler than the doctor that saw me when I first came back. When he told me I simply had the flu, I was suitably annoyed and tried to convince him to let me go to school. He told me that due to the fact that I had a very serious case of the flu, most likely because I had never been vaccinated against the virus and as a result, I was going to have to remain in quarantine for a week or so. *** Tia came to visit me after the doctor had left and tried to comfort me as I continued to go into long coughing fits. She was stroking my mane and simply talking, and I had to fight against the urge to fall asleep. It was so peaceful. Swift brought me a stack of books so that I could occupy myself during the week of my quarantine. Some of them had something to do with a one of my school classes, like a book about physics, but most of them were adventure books such as ‘Daring Do and the griffin’s goblet’ and ‘The temple of the Pegasus monks’ which was the first one I read and turned out to be a great story about an archaeologist who was accosted by a bunch of griffin mercenaries and forced to find some sort of magical artefact that was meant to do… something. I kind of lost track at one point because I kept falling asleep and somehow skipping pages. Well I suppose that this week is going to be very slow, but maybe I’ll get to spend some more time with Tia if she has the opportunity. Author's Note Trivia fact: Doctor Neuron is a default OC I use whenever I need a doctor character and appears in every single one of my fanfic universes. However, his cutie mark and species changes from universe to universe. Entry 21Dear Diary, It is day two of my forced exile to my bedroom. I’m still feeling incredibly weak, which makes me happy that my diary is voice activated. I couldn’t sleep a single wink last night because I kept having long coughing fits. Heartstrings was nice enough to stay with me and keep me company, at least to some degree. She had to go and check on other things every now and then, as well as going out to get me food; even if I could barely eat. I’ve already gone through most of the adventure books that Swift gave me, but I really can’t be bothered to read the ones for school, hence the reason for this update. *** So BORED! *** Some mail came for me today, the first mail I’d received in a very long time. It was a letter from Aurora and included the tickets for the play that her parents are in, as well as a get well soon card. I’m not entirely certain how the mail got here, since Moonfire’s address is obviously not the royal palace. I’m going to have to come up with some sort of backstory for Moonfire. Whenever somepony asks questions about me I end up having to change the subject and I know for a fact that it irritates my friends. How about… Moonfire and her mother moved from Trottingham and.. No, that won’t work. I don’t have a Trottingham accent. I might be able to make them think that I’m from Las Pegasus, but then my ‘mother’ is a unicorn so that wouldn’t make sense. Ah! Moonfire and her mother moved from Ponyville because her mother got a job at a local law firm. (Will have to run that by Tia.) I mean we will have to find some way of proving my story in case I ever have to go back to Ponyville with anypony for whatever reason. Heartstrings liked it, but thinks she can do better. Apparently one of her cousins is a writer by the name of Quill Scratch and she’s going to ask him to write me a backstory under the premise of it being for a story she wants to write. I said yes, but secretly, I was very pleased with my effort. I’m going to continue writing it anyway, even if it doesn’t get used. I may even just write a story in spite of this ‘Quill Scratch.’ Or maybe not. I think I may be a little delirious. Author's Note Trivia fact: Quill Scratch is the name of my ponysona. He won't be making an appearance in the story, but I thought I might as well poke it in there for a bit of fun. Entry 22Dear Diary, I think I might have a problem. I just had a coughing fit, and I suddenly got a bloody nose, which is honestly starting to scare me. Silver Wing has rushed to get the doctor, and Heartstrings has put a cold wet towel on my forehead for some reason. She keeps telling me that it’s going to speed up the clot, but I don’t really see how it can help. All I know is that my entire face is cold. *** So Doctor Neuron just left. Apparently my disease is causing my blood pressure to rise, which is what caused the rupture in the blood vessel and the bloody nose… Or something like that. I’m still feeling so dizzy. Tia accompanied the doctor when he came to see me and was nice enough to stroke my mane while I was being examined. I could hear her heartbeat and I was reminded of the way my mother would crawl into bed with me when I woke up from nightmares and cuddle me until I fell asleep. I remember… her mane. That light brown that I loved to nestle in when I was really small. I miss her. *** Tia came back to see me about an hour ago and helped me to the bathroom. She made the joke that she was taking care of a little filly and while I knew that she was just trying to cheer me up. I wasn’t in the mood for it. She helped me clean the blood off my face, as well as the general filth that comes from spending two days in bed. In all honesty, I was glad that she was helping me. My… Everything was in too much pain for me to do anything. While I was being washed, Tia started telling me all about that day’s court, and how ‘Prince Blueblood’ got his hooves tangled in one of the curtains and tripped in front of the Saddle Arabian ambassador. It hurt to laugh. Then she started singing me a song that used to be my lullaby when I was a filly. The song of the first star. ‘And so the Earth saw the sky and wept because it was lonely. Her tears floated away and into the black where they became the stars.’ I miss my Mum, but at least I still have Tia to look after me. Author's Note Hey guys, quick note. At the end of the entry you can see that I used the word 'Mum' That is the Australian spelling. I tried using the American 'Mom' but it just looks too weird for me. Entry 23Dear Diary, Day five of my quarantine. The doctor gave me some medicine that’s taken away most of the pain, but not the all-encompassing feeling of… Ugh. Heartstrings and Swift have taken to acting out scenes from my favourite books, which is nice, but I feel bad that I keep passing out in the middle of their performance. Speaking of a performance, Aurora’s parent’s play is in two days. I explained this to the doctor and he thinks that I should be well enough to go, but there is no way I’m going to be completely back to normal by that time. I’m just so tired of feeling this way. Before my exile I never had anything like this. The worst thing I ever had was a common cold, but even that paled in comparison to this. *** More mail today; this week’s homework from Miss PrimProse. I’m meant to do a report on supernovas for Astronomy, as well as an essay on the founding of Ponyville for History. Should be easy enough. I’ll make a start on them in a couple of days when I’m ‘supposed’ to be feeling better. *** Tia came by to see me again today, and for some reason, she ushered my guards out of the room, saying that she had to speak to me in private. I was a little bit nervous, because her tone was very sharp. But the thing was she wasn’t angry at me. She actually wanted my advice. Emperor Gregor had come to visit from the Griffin empire and had done nothing but be incredibly rude toward her. She recalled the story of how they had been having lunch and the fat griffin had made one of the servants cry by insulting her cutie mark. Needless to say I was infuriated. Or I tried to be. The pain medicine was starting to wear off and sitting up took quite a bit of effort. I simply told her to first console the servant, which Tia informed me she had already done and the next thing I told her to do was to kick Gregor out of the castle. She laughed, obviously thinking I was kidding. I liked hearing her laugh, so I didn’t correct her. I changed my advice to just talking to him about his behaviour. Tia nodded, but kept staring at the floor. The silence got steadily more awkward as she continued to stare at the ground, before snapping out of her trance and all but galloping out of the room. Tia was always kind of a weird pony when it came to unwanted situations Entry 24Dear Diary, Today is the day of Heart Song and Soul Fire’s play on the fall of Nightmare moon. Doctor Neuron assures me that I am well enough to attend, as long as I keep warm. I definitely feel better; the pressure in my head has subsided, I’m not passing out at random intervals, and while strength has not returned to my limbs, I’m able to get myself out of my bed. But even so, I am very nervous about going out tonight. None of the current era’s citizens really know the truth about what happened during the reign of Nightmare moon, regardless of the many books written since. Most of them are legends told by the survivors, or speculation made up of word of mouth. But all of them have been muddied by my sister and her vast network of spies that made sure that it was only Nightmare Moon that was slandered, not Princess Luna. *** When the evening came finally, Tia came to my room and helped me get ready for the night out, as she rightly assumed that I was still quite weak. She was already in her ‘mother’ disguise, complete with her round glasses and blue sapphire necklace. As she was cleaning my mane, I told her all about my idea for Moonfire’s back story and I was pleased to see that she seemed excited about the prospect of being a Ponyville lawyer. We continued to write our back story as I got ready, eventually deciding that Tia was a single mother and that Moonfire’s father had walked out on them after deciding that he preferred the company of stallions compared to mares. It might have been one best things we have done together, and all it consisted of was making up a story. Maybe meeting Heartstrings' cousin Quill Scratch won’t be so bad. Writing is fun. *** Just got back from the theatre and I’m felling… unsure The show was entitled; ‘Into the Nightmare’ and was heavily focussed on Nightmare Moon’s creation, before it jumped forward in time to the point when Tia uses the elements of harmony to banish me to the moon. Heart Song was playing me, providing the audience with a truly terrifying force on stage, complete with unrealistic dagger like teeth and the ability to summon lightning. It was hard not to react in any way, not only because of the fact that Aurora was seated next to me, but also because I didn’t want to cause a scene by leaving… or crying. There were a few moments that dredged up a lot of horrible memories. Entry 1Dear Diary, Well, I did what Tia said, ‘Start a journal of your thoughts and feelings now that you are back.’ I suppose she is right, it might help me to collect myself, focus on things, not to mention the fact that it will be good to have a record of my progress. I mean, I do have over a thousand years of Equestrian history to catch up on. I just wish the spell that Tia gave me wouldn’t change what I’m saying into so called ‘Modern Equestrian.’ Lazy and stupid if you ask me. Well I suppose I should start by saying hello, or should I? I’m the only one that’s meant to read this aren’t I? I shouldn’t have to say that my name is Luna and I am Princess of Equestria, what point does that serve other than to stroke my ego and create vanity within my heart. But it is strange to be sitting here in the dark with nothing but the glow of the magic and a single candle to help me see what I’m doing. I like the dark, it is my element after all, but there is something about it now that feels… off. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like it has a mind all of its own, that I have no pull over it like I used to have. I suppose that it is because of Tia’s influence on the night. I hope that I will be able to get back to my duties soon. I… I miss greeting the moon every night. I still remember everything from before the Nightmare. Everything that I did, that Tia and I did. But most of all, I miss the night, I miss dragging the stars into view, placing the constellations in the right positions. It was peaceful, quiet… at least, for a time. Tia tells me that ponies have begun to worship the night, that there is a whole section of the government devoted to the night and toward studying the stars. ‘The Equestrian Space Institute’ I’m not going to lie, I am quite proud of that. Well, I suppose that I should be getting to bed, I am quite tired. Tia insisted that I be introduced to the currant noble ponies and while most of them seemed nice, there were some whose personalities I found… grating. ‘Prince’ Blueblood, ha, there is nothing royal about him. By the moon, the only tie he has to us is very distant. If I recall correctly, Tia said that Twilight Sparkle is higher up on the line for the throne than he. He only retains the ‘Prince’ title through an ancient castle near Trottingham. But I have prattled on enough, it is time for bed. I start my education tomorrow; hopefully it all goes according to plan, although I’m a little apprehensive about going back to school with a bunch of teenagers. I just hope that they accept me, I know of the stories about me and Nightmare moon. It will be difficult, but perhaps this hardship is all part of my recompense. Entry 7Dear Diary, Today I went for a walk through Canterlot, in my disguise of course. The level of… apathy I saw was astounding. I noticed many a beggar in the tight alleyways, some of them looking starved or sick. Since it was Swift that was accompanying me in the guise of my older brother, as he was the shortest of my three guards and it made more sense, I asked him how Tia had let this happen. His reply was most disappointing. Apparently, control over the economy had long since left Tia’s control, and was instead in the hooves of banks and businesses. Consequently, some ponies were unable to keep up with the world of money and were forced out of their homes and onto the streets. He went on to say that Celestia was indeed aware of it, but didn’t know how to help them. She couldn’t just give them money like she used to do in the old days, because then everypony would be after her for more money, and the cycle would never stop. I gave one of them some spare bits that I had and continued to explore the upper parts of the city. The sheer amount of advertising and stores that I would consider to be unnecessary were phenomenal. There was one point where I saw four separate cafés in a row! Stupid! Just have one café and maybe a bookshop or something. I will admit, however, that the city is much more ornate and architecturally grand than I remember. Swift bought me some ice cream and took me to what he called his favourite place in the entire city and I must say; he was right. It was a very small little pathway that led into the wall near the edge of the cliff, but after some climbing (or in my case, flying) we got to the top of the wall. From that spot, I was able to see almost all of Equestria; The Mountains to the North, the seemingly endless Everfree, and of course, the little town of Ponyville. Since we were alone, I asked Swift why he had hesitated when I asked him to become my personal guard, to which he simply replied; “I knew that it was a full time job, and as you know, I’m very eager to be a father. I was just worried that I might not get the chance otherwise. But then Heartstrings looked at me in that way… I could never say no to her,” The way that he smiled when he talked about her, I could tell just how much he cared for her. It’s always nice to see that love can bloom even in the strangest of situations. While I do wish that I had somepony that cared for me that way, I also know that it is unlikely to happen, not only because of my position, but because I am… Socially awkward at the present time. Entry 8Dear Diary, Monday has finally come, heralding not only another day at school, but also the beginning of new lives. When I get home tonight, I will proceed to transform my chosen protectors into Moon Knights. Normally I would prefer to wait until their new training was more advanced, but since it is going to be a full moon tomorrow, and my magic is strongest then, it seems only fitting. Breakfast with Tia went as well as it could have. We actually managed to say more than two words to each other. She asked me what subjects I had today; (Physics, Flying and Astronomy) and if I was enjoying school. While it was nice that she was taking an interest, I could tell that it was only out of a sense of duty to me. While I do hope that she can overcome her coldness toward me, but I imagine that it is going to take quite a lot of time. Okay, it is time for school. I hope that I enjoy physics. I don’t really know what to expect. *** Well Physics was not as much fun as Shining Armour told me it would be. It involves far too much fancy mathematics and things that I just did not understand. I’m not stupid, and I am capable in the advanced mathematics class, but this just seems… impractical to everyday life. Although I wish I could just drop it, I would rather not hurt Armour’s feelings. He chose my subjects because he believes I remind him of his sister Twilight and that I would have the same interests. So I suppose I will have to just try and adapt. Okay, so Tia is beginning to bring on the night, which means it is finally time for me to get mentally prepared for the task of initiating my chosen guards into the order of the Moon Knights. From what I have gathered, Heartstrings and Silver Wing are a lot more enthusiastic than Swift, but I understand his reluctance. I hope that I remember the spell to start the change. Perhaps it would be prevalent to do a bit of study first. Thank the moon that Tia left my room the way I left it before I left, everything is in the same place that I left it, including the tome that has the ritual that I have to perform on the ponies. Entry 10Dear Diary, My night guards began active duty today. Well, two of them anyway. Swift has to go through some lessons on how to fly before he can start. On another topic, I got to ‘hang out’ (What does that even mean?) with Aurora today, which was great. I had the opportunity to talk to her about what’s been happening at home, but at the last second, I stopped myself. I’m not sure how I’m meant to talk to her about this without revealing who I really am. Heartstrings assures me that normal ponies have the same troubles with their siblings, but I am not convinced. I mean; do so-called ‘normal’ ponies get sent to a massive dead celestial body when they need their siblings help? I DOUBT IT. Ugh, I shouldn’t be so hard on Tia. I know that she did the only thing she could do at the time. The nightmare was a terrible force that had complete control over me and everything I did. Spawned out of my jealousy and anger, it gave me the means to get what I wanted…Attention. Now, when I say attention. I do not refer to a simple foalhood tantrum. I wanted to be worshipped in the way that Tia was. Sure, I had the Moon Knights and a few loyal ponies that referred to themselves as the ‘NLR’ otherwise known as ‘The New Lunar Republic.’ They wanted me to take control of the day to day workings of Equestria. I tried to discourage them in the beginning, but as time went on, I found them… flattering. I started to like the idea of taking over Equestria. Silver Wing tells me of rumours about the ‘NLR’ returning and I’m not sure what I’m meant to do with that information. I must have a look in the archives and… and why am I saying all of this. What the? DAMN IT TIA, A ‘TELL THE TRUTH’ CHARM!!! *** Blast my sister! I just got back from her room. I demanded to know why she put the charm in my room. Her blatant lies only served to make me angry and in my rage I…Blasted a hole in her wall. By the moon, it felt good. Tia got up and started shouting at me, calling me ‘a foal’ and lecturing me on the importance of restraint. I know that I shouldn’t have let my temper flare out of control, but her perversion of my privacy was unforgivable. I don’t know what to do about her any more. She does not seem to trust me. I can FEEL her spies watching my every move, and Swift has confirmed my suspicions. I think that I may have to get out of the castle for a while. I cannot deal with this for too much longer. Entry 12Dear Diary, The tour that we found around Trottingham was phenomenal. We got to see a bunch of ancient castles, some that I knew and some that I didn’t. I got to see the house of the famed detective Fetlock Holmes and a bunch of other places that had only recently become well known, such as the royal amphitheatre and a huge stadium that had been specially built for the upcoming oatlympic games. It was a great chance for me to do some catching up on recent history. We got to eat lunch by the docks, and I have to say, even though I never liked travelling by boats, watching all of the ships heading out to sea was enchanting. A few people suggested a swim, but our tour guide discouraged that idea on the grounds of not only icy cold water, but also the face that the water around the docks had become polluted because of ponies dumping waste without considering the impact on the environment. I couldn’t believe that the Earth ponies had let things get that bad. Before my exile, it was the responsibility of the Earth ponies to care for the land and make sure that everything was in balance with everything else. But now, it seems to be that they think that the world will just take care of itself. I had to not act shocked as they talked about it. I didn’t want to draw attention to myself and I expect that a full alicorn rage, thunder and lightning included, would completely obliterate my disguise. After lunch, the group split into three groups of five and spread out across the city, with each group being led by one of the teachers. My group consisted of myself, Aurora, Sly Starburn, who still had his leg in a cast and the other two ponies are our school’s resident twins; Nebula and Sunbeam. I have been told that they are the worst twins ever because they have such different personalities, but I think that it’s nice that they are their own ponies and not just clones of one another. Miss PrimProse gave each of us a map, although I was in charge of leading Aurora around. We then had to find certain landmarks and stores that are heritage sites. The exercise was meant to teach us how to navigate around a city, as well as to see how many of us were paying attention during the tour. SO for the next few hours, we trekked around the city, ticking off things on a list in a kind of scavenger hunt scenario. It was one of the most fun times I ever had. I am so exhausted, and I can’t stay awake much longer. Tomorrow we are taking a carriage out into the countryside to have a look at the white cliffs. I can’t wait. Entry 16Dear Diary, I talked to Tia today, and it seemed to go well. I’ve learnt since I got back that the easiest time to talk to Tia is during meals because she is… preoccupied. So during breakfast I asked her to speak to Shining Armour about the way the day guards are treating my night guards. She promised to do so, but her tone sounded insincere. I pray that she isn’t telling me this only to placate me and make me forget about it all. I was determined to make sure that some action was taken, so I personally headed out to the guard house to talk to Shining Armour. I was in my disguise at the time and I found out something very interesting at that point; not all of the guard is aware of my scholastic activities. I was turned away at least three times and even threatened before Shining Armour happened to walk out to see what the commotion was about. If any of the nobles had been passing by at that point, they would have gotten a very strange scene where a pair of guards were hastily bowing and apologising to a school filly while the captain of the guard laughed behind them. I like Shining Armour. For a career soldier, he’s a remarkably outgoing pony. Silver Wing once told me a story about the first time Shining had ever taken command. He went to every single one of his men and made it a point to learn their names and become friends with them, simply because it was the kind of pony he was. I explained the situation and told him the Celestia may or may not be speaking with him about it. He swore to try and help the situation, but did make a point to explain to me that it would be impossible to completely stamp out the bullying, but he said he would try his best. *** Miss PrimProse had us write a report of our trip to Trottingham, which for whatever reason, seemed to take us all day. I imagine it was because all of the students couldn’t stop discussing what we did and our impressions about the castles and such. Ponehenge came up at one point and it took all of my will power not to tell them the truth and ruin the mystique surrounding the landmark. At the end of the day Miss PrimProse gave each of us the results from our first term. Even though I’ve only been at the school for a few weeks, I still got the results from what work I had done. My results are as follows; Astronomy: A+ Flying: A History: A Physics: C+ Advanced Mathematics: C+ I’m reluctant to show Tia my results, purely because I have no idea how she is going to react. I may need to sleep on this decision. I do hope that when I tell her that she’s not too disappointed. Entry 19Dear Diary, Still haven’t managed to discover the identity of my admirer yet, despite having almost entire network of ponies throughout the school on the lookout for any kind of rumour or even evidence on who the pony was. A few of the older ponies in the school teased me by telling me that it was Aurora that gave me the present, but that theory was quickly rejected by an embarrassed Aurora. The twins both thought it had to have been somepony in our year, but Sly wasn’t so certain of that. *** Just before the end of school, Aurora got a message that said her parents were unable to pick her up at the end of the day and that Miss PrimProse was to take her home, despite the fact that she wouldn’t be getting home until it was dark. I immediately offered to walk her home so as to make it easy on everyone else involved. Miss PrimProse sent a message back to Aurora’s parents to make sure it was okay, and sure enough, her parents had no problem with that. *** As we walked home, we decided to take the long way, heading for the main shopping areas. The amount of café’s all in a row still irked me and apparently, Aurora felt the same. I kept seeing shadows flying over my head and across the rooves of the buildings. I was just glad that Aurora couldn’t see the night guards doing their jobs; otherwise it might raise a few too many questions. We arrived at her house just as her parents arrived home and it was a great opportunity to meet them. I found out that her mother’s name was Heart Song and her father’s was Soul Fire. Both of them were performers for the Royal Canterlot players, the most famous group of actors, singers and dancers in all of Equestria. The most surprising and unsettling part of the meeting was when they offered to give me and my ‘mother’ free tickets to their next show; an opera detailing the fall of Nightmare Moon. I accepted graciously, despite some misgivings about the whole thing. When I got home I told Tia all about it and even though she told me that I didn’t have to go if it made me uncomfortable, I felt as though it would be rude to do otherwise. The show wasn’t opening for another week, so I had time to think about it, but Tia does seem strangely interested to go. Great, I have just enough time to finish off this Advanced Maths homework before my bedtime, so I’d better stop procrastinating and get it done, otherwise Miss PrimProse will not be very pleased. I really should get last week’s homework to her as well… Entry 25Dear Diary, It was my first day back at school in over a week, with my friends giving me a small celebration at the first recess in the form of a huge hug, a ‘get well soon’ card and finally, a delicious chocolate cupcake. When Aurora asked me what I thought about the play, I didn’t know what to say at first, and I’m starting to understand the difficulties that Twilight Sparkle goes through as part of her study in friendship. I decided to tell her the truth; that I enjoyed it. However, I did not tell her about how upset I felt after the show. Mainly because it would be too hard to explain the reason why, but also because I had absolutely no desire to hurt her feelings. Sly came up to me during the transition between classes, telling me how happy he was that I was back. I was touched by his concern, especially when he gave me a blue carnation and a block of what appeared to be expensive chocolate. I was so shocked, it was the nicest thing that I had ever received from one of my friend, and I never in my wildest dreams imagined that it would have been Sly to do such a thing. I think I gave him the tightest hug I had ever given a regular pony, perhaps inadvertently putting some of my alicorn strength into it. It just felt so good to be acknowledged by somepony… But then he kissed me. Not on the mouth, but very close on the cheek, and it was at that point that I realised what his intentions were, and more importantly, what the gifts meant to him . I think that turning him down and telling him that I was not interested in that kind of relationship might have been the hardest thing I’ve had to do to date. The look of… devastation I saw on his face was so heartbreaking. I never meant to hurting him in such a way, but… I’m horrible. *** I talked to Tia when I got home, even going so far as to interrupt a meeting with the griffin emperor Gregor. He was not happy that a small filly, whom Tia explained as her newest ward, had no respect for ‘the proper political procedure’ but I think that my sister must have noticed my distress, because she immediately stopped the meeting. As I told her what had transpired, I could see her trying to hold back the laughter, something I did not appreciate. When I had finished, Tia simply smiled,, draping a wing over my shoulders, before her horn lit up and a large box materialised out of nothing. When I opened the box, I found it full of scrolls; Twilight Sparkle’s friendship reports. Tia told me to study them, in the hopes that I they might be able to help me figure out the complexities of friendship.
Entry 2Dear Diary, I am about to begin my first day of… ugh, high school. Tia believes that I am, as she put it, ‘too cute.’ I am not too certain. The black coat and purple mane seems fine, but the black rimmed glasses seem a bit too much for such a simple disguise. But I am assured that the glasses are essential. While I do miss my horn, I always enjoyed flying so being a Pegasus seemed appropriate. Tia, in the disguise of my mother, has preferred the shape of a unicorn. Tia has organised everything, every single aspect, even my new name; Moonfire. Shining Armour, captain of the royal guard, was the one who choose my new classes for me, apparently based on those that his younger sister found interesting and insightful. While I am grateful for the help, there are really only two subjects that I am looking forward to; History and Astronomy. The rest; Physics, Advanced Mathematics, Chemistry and one more. This one I got to choose myself, since Twilight Sparkle was having personal lessons from Princess Celestia for her final subject choice, and since I’m a Pegasus for now, it seemed only appropriate to do a class in flying. Okay, Tia is calling for me. It’s time to go. I just hope that everything goes smoothly.
Entry 3Dear Diary, Just finished the first day of school and well… There was an incident. An Earth pony colt spent the first half of the day harassing me, calling me names, pushing me and other stuff. I tried to ignore it, but then he pulled my hair, and that was it. No pony touches the hair of a Princess and gets away with it. I may have… thrown him out of the window. And then got a detention… at lunchtime… for a week. Tia was called into the school to ‘discuss’ my attitude. As soon as we got home, Celestia burst out laughing, making me feel totally embarrassed. I tried yelling at her, but my smaller form that was a result of my disguise only made her laugh harder. It wasn’t long before I was laughing as well, rolling around on the floor of my bedroom. It was nice to do that again, neither of us have done that in so long. Even after my return, things have been awkward between us. Dinner is a silent affair, where we do nothing but eat. But that one moment, it was just like before, just like when we were fillies. Celestia’s surprisingly loud laugh and unprincess-like snort took me back to a happier time. After she changed me back into my usual shape, I gave her the longest and tightest hug I think I’ve ever given anypony, and it was so amazing. Well it’s time to go to bed, I have to go and apologise to the colt tomorrow. I hope the cast isn’t too itchy. I suppose I’ll have to get him a present or something. Perhaps I’ll give him a jewel encrusted horseshoe. It was the traditional apology gift a thousand years ago. I wonder where I can find one?
Entry 4Dear Diary, Today at school went much better then yesterday. Most ponies seemed to find it preferable to avoid me, which I cannot blame them for, the incident with the colt was deplorable. I know that now. I saw him today… I actually learnt his name; Sly Starburn. The cast that he had on his right foreleg made it very difficult for him to flee when he noticed me approaching. The fear on his face didn’t bring me the same pleasure that I thought it would. Before the nightmare, I liked seeing the fearful respect on the faces of my subjects, but the look that Sly gave me… It honestly broke my heart. Even though Tia talked me out of the jewel encrusted horseshoe, I still felt obligated to give him something to say sorry. I came up with a box of chocolates at the suggestion of one of my personal guards. He reluctantly accepted it, but still asked me to stay away, promising that he wouldn’t harass me anymore. I suppose that it IS what I wanted to happen, but the cost; Sly’s broken bone, being treated as a Martyr… Was it worth it all? Speaking of my personal guards, I am not too certain about their true intent. I have my suspicions that they are more loyal to Tia than to me. I have seen them reporting to Shining Armour whenever I decide to do something myself other than the activities that Tia has ‘approved.’ I think that I shall have to find guards that truly care for me, that truly wish to dedicate their lives for my safety. Unfortunately, it requires some… changes of lifestyle, such as the altering of their bodies to better represent their new posting. Bat-like wings, black fur, and yellow, cat-like eyes. There are only two policies from the old times that I never liked and will surely abolish, such the removal of the genitals, so as to prevent any chance of temptation regarding their charge, which in this case would be me. The other one is being forbidden from a family of any sort, even contact with their parents or siblings. To me, it always seemed cruel to deny them these things, but it was what was expected from the knights of the moon. I took a look at the roster of available guards and there are only three that always ask for more shifts guarding me, two stallions and a mare. Their names are Swift, Silver Wing and the mare is named Heartstrings. I will approach them within the next few days and offer them the position. I don’t believe I will tell Tia right away, lest she deny me my personal choice in protectors for whatever reason. Bed time I think, I must get ready for school tomorrow. We have a field trip to the local observatory and I am very excited to see the place that studies my work… Even if it isn’t my work. I must ask Celestia for some more responsibilities regarding the night. It’s beginning to get frustrating the way that she never puts the Libra and Gemini constellations in the right place. I must refrain from too much naysaying regarding my sister. I don’t want her spies getting the wrong idea.
Entry 5Dear Diary, The trip to the observatory today was, in a word, fantastic. I “learnt” all about the stars, the planets and the rotation of the Earth. I’m not going to lie, seeing all of the other students in awe of the night and the endless expanse beyond their own comprehension made my ego inflate just a little. Even Sly, the colt I threw out of the window seemed impressed, which made it difficult not to gloat, or even correct the pony giving the tour when he was getting things wrong. There was a pony near the rear of the tour that I hadn’t noticed until then. She was a white Pegasus with a scarlet coloured mane. What was different about her was the fact that she almost always had a teacher near her, and I couldn’t figure out why; so, curious, I decided to try and meet this mare. I discovered that her name was Aurora and, unbeknownst to me, she was blind. The teacher that was accompanying her was there to guide her and read the plaques as they were not written in something called ‘braille’ which I discovered was a very special type of writing that consists of embossed bumps on paper or metal or whatever. Aurora can read it by running the tips of her wings across each line of the braille. I kept talking to her for the rest of the trip, and I think I made a good impression on her. I’m very grateful that Tia’s disguise spell automatically changes my voice, mannerisms and according to her, the ‘volume’ of my speech, as I was informed that all of Aurora’s other senses are heightened as a result of her lost vision. It was nice to finally connect with a pony that wasn’t a part of my staff or bullying me. I started to wonder if Aurora was a friend or not. I had forgotten the feeling of having a friend after so long in isolation. Perhaps reading the reports that Twilight Sparkle sends to Tia every day as part of her assignment in the study of friendship would help me figure it out. It could very well be beneficial to me as school goes on. I should also mention that I confronted the three guards who I have selected to undergo the process to become my personal guards. All three of them were on guard duty at the time, even though the shift only requires two ponies at the one time. They all said yes, although Swift seemed a little reluctant at first, until a quick nuzzle from Heartstrings quickly changed his mind. I explained the changes that would be necessary and the responsibilities that went along with their new position. Even after learning of the risks involved with their transformation, they agreed. I knew then that I had picked the right ponies for the job. They are all going to be receiving special training in accordance with the old laws that governed the knights of the moon; with a few changes by myself of course. I do need to talk to Tia about it though, even if I HAVE made my decision, in the end, I’m asking her to give up three guards for the rest of their lives in service to me. I pray she is understanding. Now it is time for sleep. Despite my best efforts and natural habits, I have found myself needing sleep at much the same time as other ponies. I imagine that when I take back responsibility over the night that my sleeping patterns will change.
Entry 6Dear Diary, With the weekend upon me I thought it best to confront Tia about my decision to appoint Swift, Sliver Wing and Heartstrings as my personal guard… The results were less than stellar. Tia disagreed with the entire idea of me having personal guards. I suspect that she is disappointed with losing her spies. I tried to explain my choice, saying that I needed ponies that I could trust if I was able to transition back into my life. It soon descended into an hour long argument that prevented Tia from attending from the rest of her duties, such as seeing to the concerns of ponies that visit the palace. I could see her getting increasingly frustrated, but I kept pushing, certain that I could break her down. I was always better at arguing than her, never backing down until I got what I wanted. She eventually relented, telling me that since it was my castle as well, then I have free reign within its walls. I could tell that she was trying to guilt trip me into changing my mind. I’m not proud of this, but in a moment of pure spite, I simply bowed in an exaggerated way, turned and left the room. I could almost feel her icy gaze on the back of my head as I walked away. The wall that she put up when I got back was stronger than ever, and even though we have shared a few rare moments of joy that harked back to earlier days; I doubt that things will ever get back to the way they were. I gathered Swift, Silver Wing and Heartstrings in my chambers soon after, and let them know that everything was going ahead. They would be beginning their training on Monday, and then a week or so after that, the rites would be performed that would signal their transformation into a night guard. I made certain never to lie to them at any point. Silver Wing and Heartstrings are going to experience incredible pain as their wings change into leathery bat-like ones and for the Earth Pony Swift, well he will have to adjust to the massive change in his lifestyle that the wings will bring. Their relationships will be forever altered because of the stigma associated with the frightening appearance that the knights of the moon are required to adopt. I was very surprised at the level of commitment that these ponies were willing to accept for me. Whether or not I deserve their trust will be completely up to me and how I behave as I try my best to adapt to the world. When I dismissed them, Swift and Heartstrings stayed behind. They apparently needed to discuss some concerns with me. Swift was still happy to become a guard, but was concerned as to just how much the change was going to affect them, as he and Heartstrings, who I was surprised to find out were married, which made their appointment all the more romantic in my eyes. They were trying for a child, and enquired as to whether the transformation would affect the child. Once again, I could not lie, and simply told them that no night guard had ever had children, as they have always been castrated. This did little to quell their fears or answer their questions, and in typical soldier fashion, both just nodded once and left. It broke my heart not to be able to give them a definitive answer, and I honestly hope that they find the child that they desire. Moon Knight or not.
Entry 9Dear Diary, It’s done. I am proud to announce the addition of three new Moon Knights. Silver Wing, Heartstrings and Swift. The transformations went almost according to book, aside from a few unforeseen occurrences, such as when poor Swift was stuck with only a single wing for about half an hour, or when Silver Wing’s eyes wouldn’t change. It all worked out in the end and I was happy to see that all three of them were pleased with the change. Tia came to watch the ceremony, an act which I did not at all expect. She sat away from the proceedings, and even applauded once each pony had been changed and officially sworn in. I confronted her afterwards and demanded she explain her presence. Her infuriatingly simple reply of; “I felt as though I should be here” was not enough. I badgered her for a while longer; I did have a few hours to spare while my new guards were in recovery after all. Tia’s… lies, were always part of the way she talked to me. Even when we were fillies, she nearly always had to find some way of manipulating me through deceit or misdirection, and now the legends say that I am the bringer of lies and the master of deceit? How dare they! How dare SHE let that happen. I finally got the truth from her and all it did was make me even angrier with her. Apparently, she did not trust me with my chosen ponies’ lives and had come to make sure that I didn’t kill them. After that, I-I just had to leave. I flew off into the night and headed as high as I could. Higher than any Pegasus or griffin can fly, where the very air itself struggles to maintain its integrity. I stayed there, under a night that makes me uncomfortable with its very essence and simply cried. Why does she not see that I am trying? That I am no longer Nightmare Moon and that I have no wish to return to that awful prison of my own design? *** The dawn came about all too quickly for my taste, heralding not only a new day at school, but also another silent breakfast with Tia. I doubt that even my flying class today will do much to improve my mood. I honestly just hope Aurora is there today, I’d really like a… a friend, to talk to.
Entry 11Dear Diary, This entry is being written not in the palace, but instead in the wonderfully old streets of my new favourite town in all of Equestria; Trottingham. I managed to squeeze myself onto the list for a school trip to Trottingham for three days. Aurora is with me as well, which is fantastic. We even get to share a room in the hotel. She even likes to admit that her blindness does come with some advantages, such as certain special amenities in our room, such as a larger shower and bathroom. Before we were left alone, our teacher, Miss PrimProse, made me read this pamphlet that detailed a few of the responsibilities that I had in looking after her. I had to make sure that she could get to the toilet and to her bed. I could see Aurora getting more and more embarrassed as she explained the situation to me. When she left, Aurora threw herself on her bed and groaned. I couldn’t understand why she was agitated, but then she explained that she hated feeling special or above everypony else just because she was born without the ability to see. I tried to comfort her, tried to tell her that I frequently forgot about her disability, which was true. The way that she acts, with all the confidence of somepony with sight, makes me think that she is at no disadvantage. Sure, I do notice that her pupils are a milky white, but it just gives her an ethereal quality that gives me a strange sense of peace. Leaving the hotel in a group of three along with Miss PrimProse, we headed along the main street in search of a tour for the next day. Apparently, the one that had been organised had fallen through, so we had to sort something else out. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the barest flash of Moon Knight armour. While I was impressed that they were trying so hard to watch me, they really needed to work on their stealth. Now Trottingham is one of the older cities in Equestria, and it shows in the architecture. The streets are all cobblestone and the buildings in the middle of the city were all built long before the Nightmare. I loved it. It was so familiar and I had to stop myself from going off on a nostalgia trip. It was interesting to see how different it was compared to the old days, as back then, Trottingham was not a very nice place to visit, but now; it seems to be a hub for tourists and businesses I do hope that this trip helps to take my mind off Tia. It’s already starting to help, but I am slightly dreading going home.
Entry 13Dear Diary The countryside around Trottingham was so stunning, the rolling hills, the cliffs that are made almost entirely out of white stone and my favourite landmark that I have ever seen; Ponehenge. A massive array of impossible large stones that have been arranged in such a way that to me it looks like a massive horseshoe, but Nebula thinks it looks like a Zebrican tribal space. But then I DID get to see it from the air, and it does still look like a horseshoe. It was interesting to note that nopony seems to know how those stones came to rest there, because according to both our tour guide and Miss PrimProse, they are all from the centre of the Everfree Forest, and have some mineral in them that makes them impervious to magic. We ate lunch at the site and discussed all of the possibilities and conspiracies that surrounded it. Sly brought up one particular story that had little impact on me except to make me angry, although I did manage to hide it from the others. According to Sly, Ponehenge was the site where Princess Celestia finally managed to defeat Nightmare Moon and banish her to the Moon, which is preposterous. The final battle actually took place in our parent’s tomb in the Everfree, and was the reason for its destruction. Aurora’s suggestion that it was a place of meeting for the three types of pony before the time of unity made a lot more sense to me, even though I do not remember it being here when Celestia and I took over rule of Equestria. I must remember to check the archives for mention of this place when I get back to Canterlot. The carriage ride back to town did not go as expected. One of the wheels snapped in half when we struck a large rock, meaning that we had to wait for our guide to walk back to town and get a replacement. I and a few other pegasi offered to fly back to town to speed up the process, but all of the teachers refused to let us go on the grounds of safety concerns. It is times like now that I do miss my horn, as I could probably have used my magic to fix it easily. As a result of it all though, we just had to wait. The teachers tried to entertain us with activities like quizzes and the like, but even they lost their novelty after the first hour. I could see Miss PrimProse starting to get worried as the sun began to set, and when I asked her why she looked nervous, she told me that she didn’t want to be left in the middle of nowhere in the dark. I told her not to worry, because I knew that it was meant to be a full moon that night, provided that Tia remembered that fact. Sure enough, the night sky was soon lit up by the full moon, and I do remember just giving Miss PrimProse a little wink when she gave me a strange look. A few hours later, when the guide finally returned with the carriage wheel, we had already gotten settled in for a night out under the stars, and with some of us already asleep, we just stayed there. I got to show off my knowledge of the constellations and the night sky and it was awesome to see ponies so enamoured with what I was saying. Author's Note So a new author's notes feature... that's cool. But don't worry, I won't be spamming this. I just may use it occasionally to give you, the reader, some little bits of trivia about The Luna Diaries. For example; Trivia fact: The teacher, Miss Primprose, is the pony I designed for my Professional and Creative writing professor at university.
Entry 14Dear Diary, We left our makeshift campsite not long after dawn, with not a single pony unhappy with the adventure. Since it was our last day in Trottingham, we were given free reign over what we did, as long as we stayed within our groups and didn’t do anything dangerous or against the law. All of us, even Sly, agreed to go down the main street and explore the multitude of stores that lined the cobblestone street. Each one had previously been a store in older times, and most of them had kept that same aesthetic. Aurora, Nebula and I ducked into a book store while Sunbeam, Sly and Miss PrimProse went into a souvenir shop that was next door. It didn’t take long for us to find the braille section for Aurora, and she found herself a copy of “The encyclopaedia of Equestrian Mythology” which she told me was a collection of a bunch of old stories, including “The Mare in the Moon” story. When I heard that, I immediately found myself a text copy so that I could research what has been written about me in my absence. The next store we went to was a place that Sly, Nebula and Sunbeam were very excited to see. The store was called “Gifts for the Geek” and featured a bunch of figurines and books, both comics and regular ones. But the regular books all had something to do with something fantasy related. An entire bookshelf had books related to something called “Dungeons and Dragons,” which I discovered was a fantasy board game. I also found a bunch of rubber swords and axes and other types of weapons, and Nebula told me that they were used for something called “Larping.” Since we had been put in the group together, Sly had seemed to forgive me for throwing me out of the window, to some degree at least. I saw him purchasing a book, and when I approached, he only jumped slightly when he saw me. Then once he realised I wasn’t going to hurt him, he seemed to warm up to me a bit more. We got to have a bit of a conversation about the book he had bought, which was apparently a mock survival guide on a zombie apocalypse. He told me that he had an entire plan set up for the worst case scenario of a zombie outbreak. I have to admit, even though what we were talking about something completely ridiculous, it was great to actually be talking to him. We left the store and walked around for a few more hours before we had to head back in time to catch the train to Canterlot. It was great to be out of the castle for a few days, and even though I am at home in my room, I still find myself thinking of all the amazing times I had in Trottingham, not to mention the farmland outside of the city. Right. Bedtime. I have to do a fair bit of studying in the archives tomorrow. I am determined to find out the purpose of the Ponehenge stones.
Entry 15Dear Diary, Well I have to say, I’m thoroughly disappointed. I spent all weekend scouring the archives for any mention of the Ponehenge stones and well… I found it. Turns out that Ponehenge was an outdoor fast food restaurant that had been owned my zebras. Yep. So they had it set up so ponies in carriages would walk up to the first window and order what they wanted, and then move on to the next window, where they would be given their food. I also found out how they got the stones to the site; Zebrasai. A.K.A Pegasus zebras. They tethered the stones to themselves and then rested on clouds for the journey. They got shut down by the Equestrian guard after one of them found half a mouse in his lasagne and I suppose that everypony just forgot as time went on. After I finished my ‘research’ I went down to the statue garden and went for a walk so I could try and clear my head of the frustration that had been brought around by my discovery. I was joined by Heartstrings, who I have found myself increasingly bonding with. As with any artist, I keep finding little imperfections in the appearances of my guards. For example, Heartstrings still has a streak of her former light green mane colour on the side of her head, mixed in with the black mane that she now had. It’s happened to the others as well, like the way Swift’s right eye occasionally changes back to its usual deep blue, and then back again between blinks. Or the way that the tips of Silver Wings’ wings are still grey, even if they are bat like. Part of Heartstrings’ duties to me is to keep an eye on the other royal guards and inform me if any of them are saying anything about me. Her other duty is to attend to any of my other needs where the stallions would be… Unwanted. But today wasn’t really about duties or spy work, it was just two friends walking through the park together. A topic came up at one point that I had been expecting since they started their commission; the behaviour of the other guards in relation to them. She told me that the night guards were being shunned by the day guards, giving them angry looks and ignoring them in the mess hall. She also told me that Swift’s brother in law, Soul Fire, who was a day guard as well, blatantly refuses to acknowledge his existence, a fact I find utterly heart breaking. I came to the decision that I am going to have to talk to Tia tomorrow and see if she can talk to her guards about cutting my friends some slack. I am so exhausted, and with school tomorrow, I’m going to bed early tonight. Author's Note Trivia fact number 2: The idea for the true purpose of Ponehenge was inspired by the 'Artemis Fowl' series of novels.
Entry 17Dear Diary, This morning at breakfast I finally built up enough courage to show Tia my first term results. Her reaction was so unexpectedly positive that I started to wonder if she had known before hand and rehearsed what she was going to say. For the first time in weeks, she gave me a hug and told me how proud she was. I’m a little embarrassed to admit this but it was difficult for me to keep my composure as she coddled me. I could see Shining Armour snickering in my periphery, but a stern look instantly silenced him. Just as I was leaving for school, Tia promised that she would have a surprise waiting for me when I got home, which made me very excited. *** At lunch, my flying teacher, Mr Comet Tail approached me with a very interesting offer. Apparently, the school runs an advanced flying class every Friday after school, with a focus on flying theory and practice. Part of the class is a scholarship for a six week boot camp style training at the cloudsdale summer flight camp at the end of the year. I briefly remembered Twilight Sparkle’s friends Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy talking about the camp, so I immediately accepted. Aurora and the twins gave me their congratulations, and it felt great to have the attention for a little while. I did, however, notice that I was very preoccupied with what the others thought at the time, and I can only put that down to the ‘need for approval’ that Tia frequently tells me I have. The rest of the day went fairly smoothly, nothing unusual really happened, although I did find Sly rummaging through my locker at the end of school. He galloped off before I got a chance to ask him about it though. *** I hurried home, so eager to see what surprise Tia had dreamt up for me. I initially thought it must have been a party, simply because of the way she was acting, but the truth was far better than anything I could have imagined. When I got home, the hall was empty. Not a single balloon or streamer and whenever I asked one of the staff or guards where my sister was, they could only grin like a foal and tell me that I would ‘find out soon enough.’ I eventually found Tia in the observatory, a room that I have spent many an hour in since my return, mostly just because I wanted a quiet place to do my homework. She was simply looking out over the expanse that is her country and smiling in the same way all of the guards and staff were. When she noticed me, she immediately changed me back into my usual self and hugged me once more, before telling me all about my surprise. Tonight, she was going to let ME raise the moon and stars. I soon started crying with happiness as my magic reached out and gripped the night. I felt it; all of the same nightly energies that had been my escape a millennium ago were again in my grasp. When I was done, Tia asked me why I had put the Libra and Gemini constellations in the wrong place. I couldn’t do anything but laugh. Today was simply the best day ever! And I hope tomorrow is just as good. Goodnight.
Entry 18Dear Diary, I woke up in the observatory this morning, wrapped in my sister’s forelegs. She had been up for a few hours at that point, having had to raise the sun. I felt considerably better than I had since my return, stronger, more at peace with everything. When I eventually got in front of a mirror, I was pleased to discover that newfound connection with the energy of the night had had a more… cosmetic change on my body. My mane was now much darker in colour and moved on its own accord, much like Tia’s did. It hadn’t gotten any longer but I surmise that continued contact with my old friend the moon would restore me to my former shape. *** I got to school late today thanks to a wing cramp that forced me to gallop the whole way. But when I did arrive and went to put my bag into my locker, I was surprised to find a pink heart-shaped box of chocolates propped up against my book. There was a small tag that simply said ‘From an admirer’ scrawled in messy writing. Already late, I ignored it, grabbed my physics books and raced to class. I was lucky enough to not get a detention for being late, although the teacher was still fairly displeased. I sat down next to Sly and told him all about it. For some reason, he went very quiet and promised to help me solve the mystery. At recess I told the others about it all and both of the twins just laughed at me. Aurora told me that she would try to discover who put it there. I have to say, it was very strange to find out that there was somepony watching me from afar. I used to get it from my subjects, but it felt different to this. *** I told Tia when I got home and her child-like giggling not only irked me, but it was also seriously unhelpful. She must have noticed this, because she sat me down and explained that something like this was very common nowadays, and that it was nothing but a school yard crush that would eventually go away with time. I wasn’t sure if I was disappointed about that or not. I mean, I’ve been enjoying all of the attention that I’ve been getting and this was seemed like a level above that. I’m going to have to do some more investigating regardless. I feel compelled to find out who gave me those chocolates, which were absolutely fantastic! Tomorrow I’m going to get to the bottom of this.
Entry 20Dear Diary, This morning was horrible. I woke up coughing as though my body was trying to evacuate my lungs from my chest. My muscles felt incredibly weak, so much so that I could barely lift my forelegs and I somehow managed to split my lip on the floor when I tripped over my own legs as I was trying to get out of bed. Heartstrings apparently heard the commotion of my failed attempt to get ready for school and came into the room just as I blew a large amount of phlegm into a tissue, making her gag uncontrollably. Ignoring my groans of protest she ushered me back into my bed, telling me that I would not be attending school before she galloped away to get the castle physician. I tried to tell her not to, that I would be fine with time, but again she ignored me. *** When the doctor arrived, I was surprised and a little nervous when I found that it wasn’t the doctor that I had interacted with before. He was a grey Pegasus with a brown mane and tail who introduced himself as ‘Doctor Neuron.’ He seemed nice enough, and was much gentler than the doctor that saw me when I first came back. When he told me I simply had the flu, I was suitably annoyed and tried to convince him to let me go to school. He told me that due to the fact that I had a very serious case of the flu, most likely because I had never been vaccinated against the virus and as a result, I was going to have to remain in quarantine for a week or so. *** Tia came to visit me after the doctor had left and tried to comfort me as I continued to go into long coughing fits. She was stroking my mane and simply talking, and I had to fight against the urge to fall asleep. It was so peaceful. Swift brought me a stack of books so that I could occupy myself during the week of my quarantine. Some of them had something to do with a one of my school classes, like a book about physics, but most of them were adventure books such as ‘Daring Do and the griffin’s goblet’ and ‘The temple of the Pegasus monks’ which was the first one I read and turned out to be a great story about an archaeologist who was accosted by a bunch of griffin mercenaries and forced to find some sort of magical artefact that was meant to do… something. I kind of lost track at one point because I kept falling asleep and somehow skipping pages. Well I suppose that this week is going to be very slow, but maybe I’ll get to spend some more time with Tia if she has the opportunity. Author's Note Trivia fact: Doctor Neuron is a default OC I use whenever I need a doctor character and appears in every single one of my fanfic universes. However, his cutie mark and species changes from universe to universe.
Entry 21Dear Diary, It is day two of my forced exile to my bedroom. I’m still feeling incredibly weak, which makes me happy that my diary is voice activated. I couldn’t sleep a single wink last night because I kept having long coughing fits. Heartstrings was nice enough to stay with me and keep me company, at least to some degree. She had to go and check on other things every now and then, as well as going out to get me food; even if I could barely eat. I’ve already gone through most of the adventure books that Swift gave me, but I really can’t be bothered to read the ones for school, hence the reason for this update. *** So BORED! *** Some mail came for me today, the first mail I’d received in a very long time. It was a letter from Aurora and included the tickets for the play that her parents are in, as well as a get well soon card. I’m not entirely certain how the mail got here, since Moonfire’s address is obviously not the royal palace. I’m going to have to come up with some sort of backstory for Moonfire. Whenever somepony asks questions about me I end up having to change the subject and I know for a fact that it irritates my friends. How about… Moonfire and her mother moved from Trottingham and.. No, that won’t work. I don’t have a Trottingham accent. I might be able to make them think that I’m from Las Pegasus, but then my ‘mother’ is a unicorn so that wouldn’t make sense. Ah! Moonfire and her mother moved from Ponyville because her mother got a job at a local law firm. (Will have to run that by Tia.) I mean we will have to find some way of proving my story in case I ever have to go back to Ponyville with anypony for whatever reason. Heartstrings liked it, but thinks she can do better. Apparently one of her cousins is a writer by the name of Quill Scratch and she’s going to ask him to write me a backstory under the premise of it being for a story she wants to write. I said yes, but secretly, I was very pleased with my effort. I’m going to continue writing it anyway, even if it doesn’t get used. I may even just write a story in spite of this ‘Quill Scratch.’ Or maybe not. I think I may be a little delirious. Author's Note Trivia fact: Quill Scratch is the name of my ponysona. He won't be making an appearance in the story, but I thought I might as well poke it in there for a bit of fun.
Entry 22Dear Diary, I think I might have a problem. I just had a coughing fit, and I suddenly got a bloody nose, which is honestly starting to scare me. Silver Wing has rushed to get the doctor, and Heartstrings has put a cold wet towel on my forehead for some reason. She keeps telling me that it’s going to speed up the clot, but I don’t really see how it can help. All I know is that my entire face is cold. *** So Doctor Neuron just left. Apparently my disease is causing my blood pressure to rise, which is what caused the rupture in the blood vessel and the bloody nose… Or something like that. I’m still feeling so dizzy. Tia accompanied the doctor when he came to see me and was nice enough to stroke my mane while I was being examined. I could hear her heartbeat and I was reminded of the way my mother would crawl into bed with me when I woke up from nightmares and cuddle me until I fell asleep. I remember… her mane. That light brown that I loved to nestle in when I was really small. I miss her. *** Tia came back to see me about an hour ago and helped me to the bathroom. She made the joke that she was taking care of a little filly and while I knew that she was just trying to cheer me up. I wasn’t in the mood for it. She helped me clean the blood off my face, as well as the general filth that comes from spending two days in bed. In all honesty, I was glad that she was helping me. My… Everything was in too much pain for me to do anything. While I was being washed, Tia started telling me all about that day’s court, and how ‘Prince Blueblood’ got his hooves tangled in one of the curtains and tripped in front of the Saddle Arabian ambassador. It hurt to laugh. Then she started singing me a song that used to be my lullaby when I was a filly. The song of the first star. ‘And so the Earth saw the sky and wept because it was lonely. Her tears floated away and into the black where they became the stars.’ I miss my Mum, but at least I still have Tia to look after me. Author's Note Hey guys, quick note. At the end of the entry you can see that I used the word 'Mum' That is the Australian spelling. I tried using the American 'Mom' but it just looks too weird for me.
Entry 23Dear Diary, Day five of my quarantine. The doctor gave me some medicine that’s taken away most of the pain, but not the all-encompassing feeling of… Ugh. Heartstrings and Swift have taken to acting out scenes from my favourite books, which is nice, but I feel bad that I keep passing out in the middle of their performance. Speaking of a performance, Aurora’s parent’s play is in two days. I explained this to the doctor and he thinks that I should be well enough to go, but there is no way I’m going to be completely back to normal by that time. I’m just so tired of feeling this way. Before my exile I never had anything like this. The worst thing I ever had was a common cold, but even that paled in comparison to this. *** More mail today; this week’s homework from Miss PrimProse. I’m meant to do a report on supernovas for Astronomy, as well as an essay on the founding of Ponyville for History. Should be easy enough. I’ll make a start on them in a couple of days when I’m ‘supposed’ to be feeling better. *** Tia came by to see me again today, and for some reason, she ushered my guards out of the room, saying that she had to speak to me in private. I was a little bit nervous, because her tone was very sharp. But the thing was she wasn’t angry at me. She actually wanted my advice. Emperor Gregor had come to visit from the Griffin empire and had done nothing but be incredibly rude toward her. She recalled the story of how they had been having lunch and the fat griffin had made one of the servants cry by insulting her cutie mark. Needless to say I was infuriated. Or I tried to be. The pain medicine was starting to wear off and sitting up took quite a bit of effort. I simply told her to first console the servant, which Tia informed me she had already done and the next thing I told her to do was to kick Gregor out of the castle. She laughed, obviously thinking I was kidding. I liked hearing her laugh, so I didn’t correct her. I changed my advice to just talking to him about his behaviour. Tia nodded, but kept staring at the floor. The silence got steadily more awkward as she continued to stare at the ground, before snapping out of her trance and all but galloping out of the room. Tia was always kind of a weird pony when it came to unwanted situations
Entry 24Dear Diary, Today is the day of Heart Song and Soul Fire’s play on the fall of Nightmare moon. Doctor Neuron assures me that I am well enough to attend, as long as I keep warm. I definitely feel better; the pressure in my head has subsided, I’m not passing out at random intervals, and while strength has not returned to my limbs, I’m able to get myself out of my bed. But even so, I am very nervous about going out tonight. None of the current era’s citizens really know the truth about what happened during the reign of Nightmare moon, regardless of the many books written since. Most of them are legends told by the survivors, or speculation made up of word of mouth. But all of them have been muddied by my sister and her vast network of spies that made sure that it was only Nightmare Moon that was slandered, not Princess Luna. *** When the evening came finally, Tia came to my room and helped me get ready for the night out, as she rightly assumed that I was still quite weak. She was already in her ‘mother’ disguise, complete with her round glasses and blue sapphire necklace. As she was cleaning my mane, I told her all about my idea for Moonfire’s back story and I was pleased to see that she seemed excited about the prospect of being a Ponyville lawyer. We continued to write our back story as I got ready, eventually deciding that Tia was a single mother and that Moonfire’s father had walked out on them after deciding that he preferred the company of stallions compared to mares. It might have been one best things we have done together, and all it consisted of was making up a story. Maybe meeting Heartstrings' cousin Quill Scratch won’t be so bad. Writing is fun. *** Just got back from the theatre and I’m felling… unsure The show was entitled; ‘Into the Nightmare’ and was heavily focussed on Nightmare Moon’s creation, before it jumped forward in time to the point when Tia uses the elements of harmony to banish me to the moon. Heart Song was playing me, providing the audience with a truly terrifying force on stage, complete with unrealistic dagger like teeth and the ability to summon lightning. It was hard not to react in any way, not only because of the fact that Aurora was seated next to me, but also because I didn’t want to cause a scene by leaving… or crying. There were a few moments that dredged up a lot of horrible memories.
Entry 1Dear Diary, Well, I did what Tia said, ‘Start a journal of your thoughts and feelings now that you are back.’ I suppose she is right, it might help me to collect myself, focus on things, not to mention the fact that it will be good to have a record of my progress. I mean, I do have over a thousand years of Equestrian history to catch up on. I just wish the spell that Tia gave me wouldn’t change what I’m saying into so called ‘Modern Equestrian.’ Lazy and stupid if you ask me. Well I suppose I should start by saying hello, or should I? I’m the only one that’s meant to read this aren’t I? I shouldn’t have to say that my name is Luna and I am Princess of Equestria, what point does that serve other than to stroke my ego and create vanity within my heart. But it is strange to be sitting here in the dark with nothing but the glow of the magic and a single candle to help me see what I’m doing. I like the dark, it is my element after all, but there is something about it now that feels… off. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like it has a mind all of its own, that I have no pull over it like I used to have. I suppose that it is because of Tia’s influence on the night. I hope that I will be able to get back to my duties soon. I… I miss greeting the moon every night. I still remember everything from before the Nightmare. Everything that I did, that Tia and I did. But most of all, I miss the night, I miss dragging the stars into view, placing the constellations in the right positions. It was peaceful, quiet… at least, for a time. Tia tells me that ponies have begun to worship the night, that there is a whole section of the government devoted to the night and toward studying the stars. ‘The Equestrian Space Institute’ I’m not going to lie, I am quite proud of that. Well, I suppose that I should be getting to bed, I am quite tired. Tia insisted that I be introduced to the currant noble ponies and while most of them seemed nice, there were some whose personalities I found… grating. ‘Prince’ Blueblood, ha, there is nothing royal about him. By the moon, the only tie he has to us is very distant. If I recall correctly, Tia said that Twilight Sparkle is higher up on the line for the throne than he. He only retains the ‘Prince’ title through an ancient castle near Trottingham. But I have prattled on enough, it is time for bed. I start my education tomorrow; hopefully it all goes according to plan, although I’m a little apprehensive about going back to school with a bunch of teenagers. I just hope that they accept me, I know of the stories about me and Nightmare moon. It will be difficult, but perhaps this hardship is all part of my recompense.
Entry 7Dear Diary, Today I went for a walk through Canterlot, in my disguise of course. The level of… apathy I saw was astounding. I noticed many a beggar in the tight alleyways, some of them looking starved or sick. Since it was Swift that was accompanying me in the guise of my older brother, as he was the shortest of my three guards and it made more sense, I asked him how Tia had let this happen. His reply was most disappointing. Apparently, control over the economy had long since left Tia’s control, and was instead in the hooves of banks and businesses. Consequently, some ponies were unable to keep up with the world of money and were forced out of their homes and onto the streets. He went on to say that Celestia was indeed aware of it, but didn’t know how to help them. She couldn’t just give them money like she used to do in the old days, because then everypony would be after her for more money, and the cycle would never stop. I gave one of them some spare bits that I had and continued to explore the upper parts of the city. The sheer amount of advertising and stores that I would consider to be unnecessary were phenomenal. There was one point where I saw four separate cafés in a row! Stupid! Just have one café and maybe a bookshop or something. I will admit, however, that the city is much more ornate and architecturally grand than I remember. Swift bought me some ice cream and took me to what he called his favourite place in the entire city and I must say; he was right. It was a very small little pathway that led into the wall near the edge of the cliff, but after some climbing (or in my case, flying) we got to the top of the wall. From that spot, I was able to see almost all of Equestria; The Mountains to the North, the seemingly endless Everfree, and of course, the little town of Ponyville. Since we were alone, I asked Swift why he had hesitated when I asked him to become my personal guard, to which he simply replied; “I knew that it was a full time job, and as you know, I’m very eager to be a father. I was just worried that I might not get the chance otherwise. But then Heartstrings looked at me in that way… I could never say no to her,” The way that he smiled when he talked about her, I could tell just how much he cared for her. It’s always nice to see that love can bloom even in the strangest of situations. While I do wish that I had somepony that cared for me that way, I also know that it is unlikely to happen, not only because of my position, but because I am… Socially awkward at the present time.
Entry 8Dear Diary, Monday has finally come, heralding not only another day at school, but also the beginning of new lives. When I get home tonight, I will proceed to transform my chosen protectors into Moon Knights. Normally I would prefer to wait until their new training was more advanced, but since it is going to be a full moon tomorrow, and my magic is strongest then, it seems only fitting. Breakfast with Tia went as well as it could have. We actually managed to say more than two words to each other. She asked me what subjects I had today; (Physics, Flying and Astronomy) and if I was enjoying school. While it was nice that she was taking an interest, I could tell that it was only out of a sense of duty to me. While I do hope that she can overcome her coldness toward me, but I imagine that it is going to take quite a lot of time. Okay, it is time for school. I hope that I enjoy physics. I don’t really know what to expect. *** Well Physics was not as much fun as Shining Armour told me it would be. It involves far too much fancy mathematics and things that I just did not understand. I’m not stupid, and I am capable in the advanced mathematics class, but this just seems… impractical to everyday life. Although I wish I could just drop it, I would rather not hurt Armour’s feelings. He chose my subjects because he believes I remind him of his sister Twilight and that I would have the same interests. So I suppose I will have to just try and adapt. Okay, so Tia is beginning to bring on the night, which means it is finally time for me to get mentally prepared for the task of initiating my chosen guards into the order of the Moon Knights. From what I have gathered, Heartstrings and Silver Wing are a lot more enthusiastic than Swift, but I understand his reluctance. I hope that I remember the spell to start the change. Perhaps it would be prevalent to do a bit of study first. Thank the moon that Tia left my room the way I left it before I left, everything is in the same place that I left it, including the tome that has the ritual that I have to perform on the ponies.
Entry 10Dear Diary, My night guards began active duty today. Well, two of them anyway. Swift has to go through some lessons on how to fly before he can start. On another topic, I got to ‘hang out’ (What does that even mean?) with Aurora today, which was great. I had the opportunity to talk to her about what’s been happening at home, but at the last second, I stopped myself. I’m not sure how I’m meant to talk to her about this without revealing who I really am. Heartstrings assures me that normal ponies have the same troubles with their siblings, but I am not convinced. I mean; do so-called ‘normal’ ponies get sent to a massive dead celestial body when they need their siblings help? I DOUBT IT. Ugh, I shouldn’t be so hard on Tia. I know that she did the only thing she could do at the time. The nightmare was a terrible force that had complete control over me and everything I did. Spawned out of my jealousy and anger, it gave me the means to get what I wanted…Attention. Now, when I say attention. I do not refer to a simple foalhood tantrum. I wanted to be worshipped in the way that Tia was. Sure, I had the Moon Knights and a few loyal ponies that referred to themselves as the ‘NLR’ otherwise known as ‘The New Lunar Republic.’ They wanted me to take control of the day to day workings of Equestria. I tried to discourage them in the beginning, but as time went on, I found them… flattering. I started to like the idea of taking over Equestria. Silver Wing tells me of rumours about the ‘NLR’ returning and I’m not sure what I’m meant to do with that information. I must have a look in the archives and… and why am I saying all of this. What the? DAMN IT TIA, A ‘TELL THE TRUTH’ CHARM!!! *** Blast my sister! I just got back from her room. I demanded to know why she put the charm in my room. Her blatant lies only served to make me angry and in my rage I…Blasted a hole in her wall. By the moon, it felt good. Tia got up and started shouting at me, calling me ‘a foal’ and lecturing me on the importance of restraint. I know that I shouldn’t have let my temper flare out of control, but her perversion of my privacy was unforgivable. I don’t know what to do about her any more. She does not seem to trust me. I can FEEL her spies watching my every move, and Swift has confirmed my suspicions. I think that I may have to get out of the castle for a while. I cannot deal with this for too much longer.
Entry 12Dear Diary, The tour that we found around Trottingham was phenomenal. We got to see a bunch of ancient castles, some that I knew and some that I didn’t. I got to see the house of the famed detective Fetlock Holmes and a bunch of other places that had only recently become well known, such as the royal amphitheatre and a huge stadium that had been specially built for the upcoming oatlympic games. It was a great chance for me to do some catching up on recent history. We got to eat lunch by the docks, and I have to say, even though I never liked travelling by boats, watching all of the ships heading out to sea was enchanting. A few people suggested a swim, but our tour guide discouraged that idea on the grounds of not only icy cold water, but also the face that the water around the docks had become polluted because of ponies dumping waste without considering the impact on the environment. I couldn’t believe that the Earth ponies had let things get that bad. Before my exile, it was the responsibility of the Earth ponies to care for the land and make sure that everything was in balance with everything else. But now, it seems to be that they think that the world will just take care of itself. I had to not act shocked as they talked about it. I didn’t want to draw attention to myself and I expect that a full alicorn rage, thunder and lightning included, would completely obliterate my disguise. After lunch, the group split into three groups of five and spread out across the city, with each group being led by one of the teachers. My group consisted of myself, Aurora, Sly Starburn, who still had his leg in a cast and the other two ponies are our school’s resident twins; Nebula and Sunbeam. I have been told that they are the worst twins ever because they have such different personalities, but I think that it’s nice that they are their own ponies and not just clones of one another. Miss PrimProse gave each of us a map, although I was in charge of leading Aurora around. We then had to find certain landmarks and stores that are heritage sites. The exercise was meant to teach us how to navigate around a city, as well as to see how many of us were paying attention during the tour. SO for the next few hours, we trekked around the city, ticking off things on a list in a kind of scavenger hunt scenario. It was one of the most fun times I ever had. I am so exhausted, and I can’t stay awake much longer. Tomorrow we are taking a carriage out into the countryside to have a look at the white cliffs. I can’t wait.
Entry 16Dear Diary, I talked to Tia today, and it seemed to go well. I’ve learnt since I got back that the easiest time to talk to Tia is during meals because she is… preoccupied. So during breakfast I asked her to speak to Shining Armour about the way the day guards are treating my night guards. She promised to do so, but her tone sounded insincere. I pray that she isn’t telling me this only to placate me and make me forget about it all. I was determined to make sure that some action was taken, so I personally headed out to the guard house to talk to Shining Armour. I was in my disguise at the time and I found out something very interesting at that point; not all of the guard is aware of my scholastic activities. I was turned away at least three times and even threatened before Shining Armour happened to walk out to see what the commotion was about. If any of the nobles had been passing by at that point, they would have gotten a very strange scene where a pair of guards were hastily bowing and apologising to a school filly while the captain of the guard laughed behind them. I like Shining Armour. For a career soldier, he’s a remarkably outgoing pony. Silver Wing once told me a story about the first time Shining had ever taken command. He went to every single one of his men and made it a point to learn their names and become friends with them, simply because it was the kind of pony he was. I explained the situation and told him the Celestia may or may not be speaking with him about it. He swore to try and help the situation, but did make a point to explain to me that it would be impossible to completely stamp out the bullying, but he said he would try his best. *** Miss PrimProse had us write a report of our trip to Trottingham, which for whatever reason, seemed to take us all day. I imagine it was because all of the students couldn’t stop discussing what we did and our impressions about the castles and such. Ponehenge came up at one point and it took all of my will power not to tell them the truth and ruin the mystique surrounding the landmark. At the end of the day Miss PrimProse gave each of us the results from our first term. Even though I’ve only been at the school for a few weeks, I still got the results from what work I had done. My results are as follows; Astronomy: A+ Flying: A History: A Physics: C+ Advanced Mathematics: C+ I’m reluctant to show Tia my results, purely because I have no idea how she is going to react. I may need to sleep on this decision. I do hope that when I tell her that she’s not too disappointed.
Entry 19Dear Diary, Still haven’t managed to discover the identity of my admirer yet, despite having almost entire network of ponies throughout the school on the lookout for any kind of rumour or even evidence on who the pony was. A few of the older ponies in the school teased me by telling me that it was Aurora that gave me the present, but that theory was quickly rejected by an embarrassed Aurora. The twins both thought it had to have been somepony in our year, but Sly wasn’t so certain of that. *** Just before the end of school, Aurora got a message that said her parents were unable to pick her up at the end of the day and that Miss PrimProse was to take her home, despite the fact that she wouldn’t be getting home until it was dark. I immediately offered to walk her home so as to make it easy on everyone else involved. Miss PrimProse sent a message back to Aurora’s parents to make sure it was okay, and sure enough, her parents had no problem with that. *** As we walked home, we decided to take the long way, heading for the main shopping areas. The amount of café’s all in a row still irked me and apparently, Aurora felt the same. I kept seeing shadows flying over my head and across the rooves of the buildings. I was just glad that Aurora couldn’t see the night guards doing their jobs; otherwise it might raise a few too many questions. We arrived at her house just as her parents arrived home and it was a great opportunity to meet them. I found out that her mother’s name was Heart Song and her father’s was Soul Fire. Both of them were performers for the Royal Canterlot players, the most famous group of actors, singers and dancers in all of Equestria. The most surprising and unsettling part of the meeting was when they offered to give me and my ‘mother’ free tickets to their next show; an opera detailing the fall of Nightmare Moon. I accepted graciously, despite some misgivings about the whole thing. When I got home I told Tia all about it and even though she told me that I didn’t have to go if it made me uncomfortable, I felt as though it would be rude to do otherwise. The show wasn’t opening for another week, so I had time to think about it, but Tia does seem strangely interested to go. Great, I have just enough time to finish off this Advanced Maths homework before my bedtime, so I’d better stop procrastinating and get it done, otherwise Miss PrimProse will not be very pleased. I really should get last week’s homework to her as well…
Entry 25Dear Diary, It was my first day back at school in over a week, with my friends giving me a small celebration at the first recess in the form of a huge hug, a ‘get well soon’ card and finally, a delicious chocolate cupcake. When Aurora asked me what I thought about the play, I didn’t know what to say at first, and I’m starting to understand the difficulties that Twilight Sparkle goes through as part of her study in friendship. I decided to tell her the truth; that I enjoyed it. However, I did not tell her about how upset I felt after the show. Mainly because it would be too hard to explain the reason why, but also because I had absolutely no desire to hurt her feelings. Sly came up to me during the transition between classes, telling me how happy he was that I was back. I was touched by his concern, especially when he gave me a blue carnation and a block of what appeared to be expensive chocolate. I was so shocked, it was the nicest thing that I had ever received from one of my friend, and I never in my wildest dreams imagined that it would have been Sly to do such a thing. I think I gave him the tightest hug I had ever given a regular pony, perhaps inadvertently putting some of my alicorn strength into it. It just felt so good to be acknowledged by somepony… But then he kissed me. Not on the mouth, but very close on the cheek, and it was at that point that I realised what his intentions were, and more importantly, what the gifts meant to him . I think that turning him down and telling him that I was not interested in that kind of relationship might have been the hardest thing I’ve had to do to date. The look of… devastation I saw on his face was so heartbreaking. I never meant to hurting him in such a way, but… I’m horrible. *** I talked to Tia when I got home, even going so far as to interrupt a meeting with the griffin emperor Gregor. He was not happy that a small filly, whom Tia explained as her newest ward, had no respect for ‘the proper political procedure’ but I think that my sister must have noticed my distress, because she immediately stopped the meeting. As I told her what had transpired, I could see her trying to hold back the laughter, something I did not appreciate. When I had finished, Tia simply smiled,, draping a wing over my shoulders, before her horn lit up and a large box materialised out of nothing. When I opened the box, I found it full of scrolls; Twilight Sparkle’s friendship reports. Tia told me to study them, in the hopes that I they might be able to help me figure out the complexities of friendship.
