Chapters I think I'll start at the very beginning, with some of my first memories.
Of course, I had no parents. Even I sometimes wonder how I survived as a baby, as well as how I came to be. some ponies once told me I was created through dark magic, from the combined power of the chaos and evil in the hearts of all ponies to bring about punishment for everypony who had ever committed an evil deed. I still deny this theory over and over in my head, but it has always haunted me being that I have no way to prove it wrong.
The first thing I remember is a deep, dark, cold forest.
I hated almost every moment of my existence. I was alone, cold, and hungry, surrounded by darkness and tortured by the sound of the terrifying creatures lurking around every corner. I scarcely saw much light, and to sustain myself all I could find were small, unsatisfying plants that grew on the floor of the forest.
However, there were times when my miserable life would become just a little better. It wasn't too long before I realized I had wings. Following the examples of the few birds I had seen, I began to flap my tiny wings in an effort to fly. After days of struggling and bumping into trees, I managed to hover a few feet off the ground.
Flying was a great deal easier for me than walking. When I had walked, it had always felt awkward due to my mismatched limbs. But when I flew, I felt free and rejuvenated. Because of my new ease of movement, I began to wander around and explore the forest more. I became curious, and it seemed like I saw something new and wonderful in the world everyday. My favorite amongst these discoveries was an open meadow. The first time I entered the meadow, I saw something that shocked me so much that I ran away from it at first. An enormous expanse of blue above, with fluffy white things drifting across it and- best of all- a huge, extraordinarily bright orb that was slowly creeping across it towards the horizon.
I didn't know what to think. Everywhere else in the forest I had seen,the trees grew so close together that I had never even seen the sky or the sun. As far as my knowledge went, the sky looked like branches, leaves, and vines.
But this place was, as I discovered, wonderfully different. The air was clearer, there was more open space then I had ever seen, and the sky- oh the sky! back then, I regarded it as the most wondrous thing ever. That is, besides the sun.
I loved the sun most of all. I loved the light the sun cast, the warmth of its gorgeous rays, and the beauty of the horizon as it rose and set. To me, the sun was the most wonderful and gorgeous thing ever to exist.
Little did I know that I still had yet to see the most beautiful thing in the world.
About 4 years went by with me living in the meadow. For all of those years, the sun was my only companion.
But then one day, everything changed.
I was just lying curled up in a tree, feeling more melancholy than ever, when I heard strange sounds in the distance growing nearer.
I had never been near other ponies, and I had never heard anypony talk, so I couldn't understand what they were saying. But their voices sounded light, friendly, and... Beautiful I thought, sighing happily, but quickly becoming quiet.
I felt my body become completely tense with pure fear as I realized that the owners of those lovely voices were now standing just below the tree and looking up. I remember what they said, even though I didn't understand it at the time.
"Sister, did you hear something?" The smaller one asked.
"Maybe it was just the wind", the other one replied.
"I don't know... it sounded... different. More intentional. Like somepony sighing or something."
"Are you sure you didn't just hear wrong because you're scared?", The larger one teased.
"Tia-!"
"Oh, come on Luna! You know I was just teasing!"
"Sure didn't sound like it... ", Luna grumbled. "Anyway, you know we shouldn't have come here in the first place. How many times have they told us not to-" She couldn't finish before the older one shoved her hoof over her mouth.
"Shh. I think I see something up there", The older one said, looking straight at me.
I gasped and hid my face in my paw while the younger pony stared in my direction. Her eyes widened with fear at the sight of me. She tried to gasp as well, but couldn't due to the hoof over her mouth.
The older pony stepped forward, removed her hoof from her younger sister's mouth, and spoke. "Hello up there!" she said loudly, but with a friendly tone. "I'm Celestia!" She pointed to herself as she said this. "and her name", she continued, pointing to her shocked younger sister. "Is Luna! we're from the royal palace! Do you know where we are?"
I slowly lifted my paw away from my face as she spoke. I couldn't tell what she was saying, but for some reason I began to get the feeling that they didn't want to hurt me.
" I-I don't think it can talk, Tia", Luna said. "L-let's just go before something bad happens."
Sometimes I wish Celestia had followed her sister's advice back then.
"I've got a better Idea!" Celestia exclaimed, smiling mischieviously. She then began to fly upwards towards me.
"Tia! what are you doing?"
Celestia looked back at her sister, still grinning widely. "We're going to take him home with us, of course!" She replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"We can't! Silver Hooves will-".
"I don't care what Silver thinks! that grumpy old butler never lets us do anything ! And besides, we can't just leave him here! He looks so sad and lonely..."
The moment she looked into my eyes, I felt a wave of joy and warmth fill my heart. Her smiling gaze was like a cozy ray of sunshine, a salvation from the cold darkness that had filled me all of these lonely years. She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, even better than the sun. Looking into her eyes felt relaxing, and it Immediately melted away the rest of my fear and sorrow. She carefully lifted me up with soft, gentle hooves and carried me down from the tree. She placed me on the ground in front of her sister. "See?", She said to Luna. "He looks so innocent and cute!"
Luna slowly turned to look at me. she still appeared frightened, but soon began to smile. "Yeah, I guess... he really is kind of cute. I suppose... it wouldn't be that bad to take him home".
"Good. now let's go. It'll be time for you to raise the moon soon." Gently lifting me up once again, she unfurled her wings and began to fly, holding me safe and warm in her arms.
I sighed as I cast another glance at the sleeping creature on my sister's bed. what were we thinking? how will we explain this? I wondered. My sister was kind and caring, and that was usually wonderful. But more often than not, my sister would take things too far and end up doing something crazy like...well, taking strange creatures from the Everfree into the palace. We weren't even allowed to go into the Everfree forest, let alone bring wierd creatures home from it. Sighing again, I walked over to the odd creature and timidly prodded it in the side. It moved a little, but didn't wake up.
what an odd little thing ,I thought. But i couldn't help but feel a little sorry for it. When we had found him, he was malnourished, and he had many minor injuries. Based on his condition and a brief search of the area we realized that he was, as my sister suspected, completely alone.
My thoughts were inturrupted by my sister entering the room. "Hey Luna! how's Draco doing?"
Celestia had affectionatley named the creature Draco. It was short for "Draconequis", the best name we had been able to make up for what he was. We had studied for hours in our massive library, and only discovered that nothing like him had ever exhisted.
"He's doing fine, Tia", I replied.
"That's good to hear." She smiled and then continued. "I brought him a little something." She began to reach into her saddlebag and pull out various things. Celery,candies, and to my utter horror a dead fish. She tossed the fish on the bed beside me like it was nothing.
Jumping back from the bed, I let out a shriek. "TIA! WHAT IN EQUESTRIA-!"
She laughed heartily and placed a gentle hoof on my shoulder. "Luna, calm down. It's just a fish."
"BUT WHAT IS IT DOING IN HERE?!"
"Well... Think about it. We just saved Draco and healed his wounds, but we still need to feed him."
I considered this for a moment. Tia had a valid point. Being that he was made up of so many creatures, we could only guess at what his diet consisted of.
"If we can't find out what to feed him, all of our efforts will have been for nothing", My sister said, flawlessly finishing my train of thought. "He's safe for now, but he could still die if we don't hurry up and feed him something. We need to explore every possible option until we figure it out."
I sighed heavily. "I guess I overreacted a little. Sorry, sis."
Tia smiled at me. "No problem, Luna. Now let's feed this thing!"
I carefully prodded Draco on the side a few times to wake him up. He slowly stood up and let out a sleepy little yawn,stretching his jaws wide like a kitten.
Celestia carefully walked towards him, holding up the fish in her magic field. "Here Draco. Come get the yummy fishy" She shook it a little, causing a little bit of fishy-smelling water to splash my face. I nearly shrieked again, but reminded myself to remain calm.
Draco sat and stared at it, waggling his tail as he watched it float. Then,in one startlingly fluid motion, he flew upwards and quickly snapped up the fish in his jaws.
I sat and stared, dumbfounded, as he gobbled up the fish. My sister began to giggle happily. "We did it! He's saved! Oh, this is so great!" I decided to join her in celebrating, and for a moment we acted like foals, dancing around and laughing with joy. However, this only went on for a moment before we noticed that Draco was making an odd, sad growly sound.
We stopped bouncing around and turned back towards the little creature. "What now?" I inquired, carefully examining the thing for any particular signs of new injuries or any other reason to be upset.
"Maybe he's still hungry." Celestia replied, turning back to the pile of random foodstuffs in front of the bed. She offered him the celery, but he smacked it away with his claw. She tried again with carrots, but he shoved them away and looked sadder than before. She stepped back a bit and looked ready to give up.
Just then, I had an odd idea. I didn't know why it occured to me. I guessed it was just some odd intuition, or maybe it was my desperation to solve the problem. I picked up a chocolate bar, unwrapped it, and shoved it right in his mouth.
He sat there for a moment, looking shocked and dazed. Then he removed the chocolate from his mouth and licked it curiously. As he licked the chocolate, an amazing thing happened. He started smiling at me.
I felt an odd warmth rising inside of me and smiled back at him.
"How did you know that was what he wanted?" My sister asked.
"Oh, that? It's simple, Tia. Everypony loves chocolate."
I struggled up the long flight of twisted,elaborate stairs. Normally these stairs would have been easy to climb (or at least a little bit easier...). But right now was different. Right now I was carrying more than 37 pounds of chocolate in my saddlebags. Sure, it doesn't sound like that much when you say it, but after hauling the saddlebags over only half of the stairway I was already exhausted.
"Luna!" I shouted up the stairs. "Can you come give me a hoof?" I waited a minute and,after what seemed like ages, my little sister appeared beside me and, taking my saddlebags, she began to whisper in my ear.
"Good job finding the chocolate,Tia," Luna began "But I wouldn't be shouting if I were you. Somepony might hear you."
"I needed help. It was the only way." I shot back.
"Where did you get that much chocolate anyway?"
"...Found it."
Luna stared at me for a few moments. Then, realizing the pointlessness of trying to get me to talk, she changed the subject. "He's getting really big. I don't think we'll be able to keep him a secret for much longer."
My sister was referring to Draco, a strange creature (a draconequis as we called it) we had found in the everfree forest. I had adored him instantly When we had found him, he had been lonely, timid, and malnourished. However, over the course of the past two weeks, he had grown to be the same size as my little sister. We guessed he was close to our age but had been previosly stunted. With my safe, cozy bedroom as his habitat (and a steady diet of fish and chocolate), he was growing closer to his current potential size. he even learned to speak two words- "hi" and "more".
We both knew that it was only by a stroke of incredible luck that he was still unknown to everypony else. And with him getting bigger, smarter, and more curious by the day we knew it was only a matter of time before our secret was revealed.
My train of thought was inturrupted by a happy sigh from Luna. We had finally reached the bedroom. Luna opened the door and placed her burden of chocolate on my fluffy pink bed. Then, turning swiftly around, she went to open the closet door and inform Draco that his food was here.
I realized even before I heard her gasp that something wasn't right. The room seemed too quiet, too peaceful. Something big, obvious, and chocolate-loving was missing from the room. I turned to my sister as she gasped. I felt my heart stop for a moment, and we both uttered the same horror stricken words at once.
"Oh,buck."
Swiftly turning around on her graceful, delicate hooves, my sister began to desperately search everything in the room. She yanked books from the bookshelves, shuffled through the toybox, and pulled every last pillow and blanket from the bed. her ocean-colored eyes seemed to grow wider with panic by the second.
My efforts were no less. In full panic mode, my heart beating so fast I felt it would pop out of my chest, I began searching. I shoved myself under my bed, my white fur becoming a dingy grey color from the dust. I went into the closet and pulled out every last dragon plushie in my collection, just to make sure Draco wasn't underneath. I shuffled through various bright-hued dresses, but none of them revealed a hiding draconequis underneath.
By the end of our search, the room was destroyed. Toys, books and pillows lay in heaping, unsorted piles all over the floor. Everything I had touched was covered by a light dusting of,well-dust. Luna and I sat down in the middle of it all, with bedraggled manes and looks of panic and exhaustion on both of our faces.
"He's not here. H-he's not here." I wheezed tiredly. "Oh Luna, where could he be? What are we gonna do?"
"I don't know, sister." wheezed Luna in response.
I stood up suddenly, a look of triumph crossing my face. "We can do it," I said. "We can find him. Why, even if we have to search the whole castle, I'm sure we can do it."
"Alright,Tia," Luna smiled a little, then continued. "You're right. Let's do this."
Grabbing several bars of chocolate each, we srode down the stairs to search for our lost little friend.
"Draco!" we both called out in unison as we walked down. "Come here! we have some nice yummy chocolate for you!" We waited a few minutes, but there was no response. We called out again "Draco! time to eat!". There was still not a sound in response to our calling.
Luna sighed, then muttered "I think this is going to be a lot harder than we thought."
"You said it."
"I mean, really! I know he could be anywhere in the palace by now, but how far could a thing like that go without being noticed?"
As if it were meant to be a wordless response to her question, we heard a scream coming from a downstairs hallway. Running as fast as we could down the stairway,we came to a halt on the thick,red carpet in the main room of the palace and listened carefully. We followed the sound until we found the pony who was screaming.
It was a blue unicorn mare with a long,spiky jet black-and-blue streaked mane, glittering sapphire eyes, and a short spiky tail the same colors as her mane. She also wore a shimmering black cloak that was currently being pulled by Draco, revealing her cutie mark( 3 light blue stars) underneath.
"Let go of my cloak, thou silly critter!Thou cloak-devouring beast!" She exclaimed, waving her hooves at Draco. The draconequis took no notice of her, however, and continued tugging contentedly on her cloak.
I began to giggle, struggling to hold back a fit of laughter. Luna, however, gasped and quickly strode up to Draco, attempting to dislodge him from the other pony's cloak. "My deepest appologies, dear citizen. The fault is mine. Art thou alright?" She began, attempting to calm the unicorn.
I couldn't help but admire Luna's ability to remember her proper speech in a situation like this. Proper speech was the manner of speaking we were supposed to use when speaking to the subjects(other ponies used it sometimes,too. But it was far from casual). Luna and I both hated proper speech, but we had to use it anyway. It was just what was expected of us.
I walked over to assist Luna in removing Draco from the cloak. Grasping Draco firmly around the waist with my hooves, I gave him a firm, unrelenting tug with all of my strength and...
RRRRRRRIIIP!
Draco was removed from the cloak, but so was half of the fabric. All three of us gasped in unison at the shredded piece of black fabric in front of us. It was clear that even if somepony attempted to mend the fabric by patching it or sewing it back onto the other part of the cloak, it would never be the same again.
Tears began to well up in the blue unicorn's eyes. "M-my c-cloak...My mother g-gave that to me..." She stammered. Then she collapsed on the ground in front of the shredded fabric, shedding silent tears as she stared down at the ruined cloak with wide-eyed disbelief.
Luna trotted slowly and silently over to the distraught mare and gently placed a hoof on her shoulder. the unicorn looked up at her, and Luna murmured something softly to her that I couldn't hear. The mare looked up into her eyes, seemed surprised for a moment, and softly spoke a single word.
"Thanks."
I looked away from thier conversation and walked over to Draco, who was now sitting in a corner. His head was hung in shame, indicating that he'd realized his crime. I looked him in the eyes, which were brimming with tears of regret. I'm sorry , his look seemed to say. I pulled him into a warm embrace in my hooves, as if to reply it's okay. We all make mistakes sometimes. He looked up into my eyes and smiled.
I looked back at Luna expectantly. Turning from the blue unicorn, she walked over to me and said "Sister, could thou take Draco back to thine bedchamber? I must retrive my purple cloak from mine."
It took me a moment to realize what Luna needed her cloak for, but then I realized it. I poked Luna delicately on the shoulder. "Your purple cloak? But that one's your finest!" Luna's purple cloak was a wonderful one, deep,dark purple and covered in sparkles with a blue star-shaped jewel on the front.
"She deserves no less. After all, it was our fault her special cloak ripped."
Even I myself would never be able to part with something as special as that cloak was to Luna. I could scarecely believe it. And now, here she was, giving her cloak to a random stranger to make up for a mistake that wasn't even completely her fault. That's my little sis, I thought proudly. She's so generous.
Smiling and waving to Luna as she headed off to fetch her cloak, I turned back to Draco and grabbed his paw in my hoof. Then I began walking back towards the long flight of stairs to my room. I had almost reached the stairs when I ran into two ponies who were walking by.
I opened my mouth to apologize for the inconvenience but my words caught in my throat as I looked up at the ponies standing before me. I pretended to clear my throat and nervously spoke, a sheepish smile crossing my face.
"Hello,mother. Hello,father."
