Chapter 1
Welcome to my mind, I know it's pretty regular and nothing special but while you're here I might as well tell you about myself. My name is Moonlight, I won't say my last name because I hate it and you will laugh (not exactly a tough guy name). But I will tell you, in this, and the ensuing chapters my entire life story. Yeah I know what you're thinking, "shut up, we don't care about your stupid life or you stupid mind". Get out if you want to you don't have to ride this crazy train of emotional downpour. Now, where to begin...
We should start when I was little, like still couldn't fly little. I always had the best grades in my class, the best times for gym, and the best way to get fillies. I was "the pony" that everypony should know. I was the cool colt in school, until my father died and my life went into the toilet.
I come from a planet that we called Alicron. It's gone now, but when it was still thriving it was the center of attention in our galaxy. Nothing could get from one planet to another without it passing through Union City. I went to basic school like everyone else until I was 20 years of age (alicorn standards very young) then went to flight and general magic school to learn flight and general magic 101. My father passed away when I was about 36, still in flight and general magic school.
My father ran a huge construction and design company in Union City. He planned and oversaw the construction of his new buildings to make sure the job was done right. Occasionally he would schedule a "bring your colt to work day" and I was pulled out of school to go with him to his work.
Now before I go on to the days occurrences, there were these radical groups that roamed around causing mischief and vandalizing property. Most did not really have a purpose but they did cause a lot of destruction. Their planned target for that day, the building my father and I were working on.
It was like a lot of other bring your colt to work days, we have to get this, this, and this done, stay out from under hoof, and blah blah blah. We had just started when some explosions from below shook the building. A few minutes later, bigger explosions shook it even harder and my father told everypony to leave the premises. He called the authorities and then we got into the elevator to go down to see what the problem was.
When we reached the bottom we saw the broken support beams and the charring from the firebombs. We knew that the building could come down at any second. He called the authorities again and told them that it was a code blue situation and that they needed to evacuate everyone near the building. We began to run toward the exit when the snap of biosteel stopped my father. He turned and grabbed me.
He told me to spread my wings and threw me toward the exit. I looked back just in time to see him crushed by a huge chunk of the floor above him. At the last second, just before he was crushed, he cast a temporary protection bubble around me that left me an air pocket when the building collapsed on me. The demo team dug me out, still crying, hours later.
I did not talk for months after that incident, my grades in school went to crap, my life went down the drain. Four years later, on my 40th birthday my mother killed herself. Plasma weapons are a bad thing to have around a depressed mare who just lost her husband.
Age 40 with no parents I was sent away to an orphanage until I was old enough to go into work. The 50 some odd years I spent there were filled with school and depression. I was a rebellious little critter and always went looking for trouble and fights, wherever they were. I was smaller than most of the colts in school and was picked on and teased constantly.
Though I was small, I always had a mind for battle and never lost in a hooffight. Eventually I got some unwanted attention from certain members of the battle school and they teased me and shoved me around daily. The school that I attended was far from the orphanage and to get to and from it I had to pass the battle school.
One day, they decided to take it up a notch from teasing and shoving, to punching and bucking... they quickly regretted that decision. There were three of them and only one of me. In my mind, I had them outnumbered two to one. They were all older and much larger than me, not that that mattered much as two were unconscious before the fight was broken up.
The tactics and warfare teacher was the one to break it up. Unfortunately (for him) I thought he was there to aid the bullies and almost hit him cold as well before he cast a spell that threw me into a wall and knocked me out. I woke up in his office with him giving me a dirty glare. He had several bruises and cuts on his face and about his body. "you fight like a warrior twice your size" he said coldly but in a way that wasn't (too) threatening. I shrugged and looked at my hooves, waiting for the punishment. "with training you might become a decent enough fighter to join the elite battle group" I looked up suspicious and nodded slowly, still unsure if he wasn't going to kill me.
He got up and walked to the back of his room and faced a window "I'm sure the other teachers will think, as I do, that you are a pony worth training in the arts of combat" he turned and stared at me, watching me bite my lip in thought. "how old are you?" He asked suddenly, I told him my age (96), not sure where he was going with this. "you can join the school at 95 years... what do you think?" I stared at him dumbstruck, I had beaten up his students, beaten him, and forced him to smash me against a wall to get me to stop... and now he was offering me a ticket out of the one place I truly hated? It was a dream come true and I moved out of the orphanage that afternoon, leaving behind my depression and the place that symbolized hopelessness and despair.
Things were looking (more) up for me.
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"Move it fillies, MOVE IT!" the PT instructor screamed at us. Thirteen miles down, seven to go. My legs screamed at me to stop running but, instead, I increased my pace. "You call that running Moon?!" He shouted at me, even though I was already two miles ahead of everyone else "get your little filly ass moving!!" I gritted my teeth, resisting the urge to punch the slightly overweight coach, and increased my speed again.
Twenty minutes later and many more 'filly' insults from the coach, I flopped to the ground with my legs throbbing from the twenty miles I had just ran. Titanium Crunch, the PT teacher walked over to me. "What the hell are you doing laying around missy?!" He shouted in my face "go run ten more m..." He never finished his sentence due to the black and silver hoof that had been smashed into his muzzle. Detention had never been more satisfying.
-later-
I sat glaring daggers at my squad leader, Sunbolt Glow, as he lectured me inside the barracks. "Come on Moony" he chastised "this is the sixth time you've received detention in the last week". He turned to me and shook his head "you need to stop beating up your superiors". I rolled my eyes and turned over in my bunk. He gave an exasperated sigh, "listen" he began "I'm getting leave to go to my marefriend's house this weekend," I rolled over to look at him questioningly "if you keep your muzzle clean the rest of the week, I'll take you with me." Now that was an incentive all in itself, the rumors about Sunbolt's MF were legend. Needless to say I was an angel the rest of the week.
I rode the train with Sunbolt to the outskirts of Union City and arrived at a small station that was in an even smaller neighborhood. We walked along many blocks and received many interested stares from the locals. I was about to ask Sunbolt about it then I realized that none of them were alicorns like me or him. Most were unicorns or normal ponies but there were a few scattered pegasi around.
Many blocks later Sunbolt turned into a driveway and headed up to the door. I followed him to the door very anxious to see his legendary MF for the first time. He knocked on the door and it opened. as it did, my heart stopped at the immense alicorn that stood there. He ushered Sun and I in with a huge welcoming smile. "Celestia is upstairs" he said in a deep voice that seemed to make the house rattle. We headed up the stairs where three doors waited for us.
The one to our right had a crescent moon carved into it, the one to our center had an odd symbol that reminded me of a tree, and the one to the left had a sun on its front. Sunbolt headed to the left door and opened it. As soon as he did he was tackled by a white alicorn and they rolled until she ended up on top of him.
"Hi" she said, grinning ear to ear. She nuzzled his shocked face and proceeded to sit on his stomach. "Ack! Please-huuh-get off!" Sun managed to spit out. She put her hoof to her face in a perfect thinking pose and seemed to come to a decision "nope!" She said cheerily "not 'till you say you love me" and squished him even more by putting her whole weight on him. "I-huuh-wub-huuh-you!" He said, gasping for air. She processed his response while crushing him even more, "okay!" She said cheerily and jumped of of his belly, further pushing the wind out of him, and turned to face me.
To be quite honest I had been sitting there staring at her the butt whole time, but as soon as she looked at me I looked away and pretended to be cool. "And who is this?!" She asked to no one in particular. She half bounced half flew over to where I was standing and looked down at me. My cheeks must have been a crimson red because she was at least 9 hands taller than me.
She stared at me mischievously and looked at the moon door. "Luuuuunnaaaaaaa!" She called in a sing song voice. A little silence passed until an annoyed voice replied "what do you want Tia?" The door cracked open a little bit and an indigo mare peeked out. 'Tia' looked at the figure in the door and said "come here, I want to see how tall you are compared to this shorty!" I felt like sinking into the floor.
The indigo mare huffed, opened the door, and came to stand by me. Celestia began to laugh hysterically, I was shorter than the mare. She rolled her eyes "I'm going back to reading Tia" she said, sounding bored "let me know when you want to pick on someone your own size" she began to head for her room.
Celestia smile became evil as she grabbed her sister "where do you think you're going!" The indigo mare struggled and yelled at her captor "Let me go Tia, I'll tell mom!" Celestia stopped swinging her sister around and frowned. "How can I be at fault" she said her devilish smile returning "when you haven't said hello to our guest yet!" And with that she hurled her sister through the air at me, right above the stairs.
She collided with me and the momentum carried us both over the edge of the stairs. There was much thunking as we caromed painfully down the long flight of stairs. The mare landed at the bottom of the stairs on her back and I soon followed landing face down, right on top of her. There were many, many awkward sorries and attempts to get up, only ending in more awkward positions. The whole time we fumbled at the bottom of the stairs, both Sunbolt and Celestia were rolling around laughing there heads off.
The indigo mare glared daggers at her sister as if she were trying to light her on fire. She lead me up the stairs and pulled me into her room without saying a word. She didn't say anything until the laughter died down and the door to her sister's room shut. She sighed and walked to her bed, flopped onto it and weakly pulled a book into view. I stood by the door unsure of what to do. She looked at me, smiled, and motioned for me to join her.
I walked to the side of her bed and stood there unsure until she laughed and said "come on, I don't bite... often" I smiled and crawled up next to her on the bed. "My name is Luna" she said, and motioned to the high pitched laughter emanating from the other room "sorry about my sister, sometimes she's a real bitch" she laughed and punched my shoulder playfully "what's your name silent Sam?" I shook my head and smiled "My name is Moonlight, Moonlight -insert last name-" I looked around her darkened room "Sunbolt usually doesn't act like that, he's my squadron leader and always acts professional but still compassionate." I frowned "I guess some things don't add up the way they should".
She nodded and went to reading her book, I looked over her shoulder. "Biomechanics huh?" I said "doesn't seem like someone as cool as you would read that junk". She glanced at me with the most obvious 'does-it-look-like-I-care' look and went back to her book. "You seem smarter than to regard this as 'junk'" she said distractedly "how old are you?" I was caught off guard "I'm 98, why?" She frowned to herself and said "I'm still younger dammit" she looked over at me "wanna be friends?" I smiled "sure," I said "sure".
