Not Here

by ulcuran

Blue Carriage

Scootaloo huddled in the corner of her cold cage, it got colder and colder by every hour the caravan traveled. She tried to warm herself up with her wings but it proved useless.

‘’Stupid wings…’’ She grumbled while her wings tried to cover her body, proving futile. They couldn’t reach her torso.

So she hugged herself with her hooves to keep some semblance of warmth. Sometimes the cart she was on would drive over a hole, or a rock and she would bounce into the air landing harshly on the solid wooden bottom of the cage.

‘’Ow…’’ She rubbed her backside.

At first, she didn’t worry, Rainbow Dash would swoop in and save her she thought, everything would be solved she thought, she would go back to Ponyville to her friends she thought.

She continued thinking that for a time, a day passed and she still believed it, another day, she believed it. After five more days, her faith was broken. Rainbow Dash wasn’t coming to save her. Why would she? She was a pegasus that couldn't even fly.

The caravan moved slowly through the barren hills. Sometimes it stopped and the guards would give her something to eat, most of the time it was just some hard bread. Her cart had grinned down to a halt causing Scootaloo to look up, expecting a piece of bread or anything else, but the bread hadn’t come.

What did come was the noises of the guard yelling(?) or maybe laughing, Scootaloo couldn’t tell, all of their voices sounded the same and she hated all of them the same.

‘’Hawhaw-’’ Oh yeah, they were laughing. She recognized that it was the same sound when they were making fun of her. ‘’-we finally caught another one! Maybe this expedition really won’t be as much of a waste.’’

Another one? Did they catch another pony? Was it Rainbow Dash!? A small glimmer of hope had sparked inside of Scootalo. But that had been put out when her cage door was opened and a pony that was not Rainbow Dash had been tossed inside.

‘’You can become friends now-’’ The guard dog snorted. ‘’-or whatever you weird ponies do.’’ He pinched his snout. ‘’Though this one could use a wash.’’ He slammed the cage door and even though Scootaloo knew it was coming the sound of it made her flinch.

She looked at the groaning mostly white pony lying face down on the wood floor. She was curious about him so she slowly got up and approached the jumble of groans. As she got closer, she could hear some of the words.

‘’You- when- I- puking…’’ Puke? That would explain the smell at least. Though she still didn’t understand a thing he said.

‘’M-mister?’’ She cautiously approached the pony and poked his side.

‘’Weugh?’’ He made a weird sound and raised his head.

He looked awful, Scootaloo was in captivity for a week, and yet she still looked better. His eye bags were larger than Rarity’s handbags, and his mane was ruffled beyond repair with bits of stick and leaves jutting out of random places from it.

‘’Wha-? W-who-where am I?’’ He asked trying to get up, looking around he saw the cage bars, sighed, covered his face with his hooves, and then screamed.

‘’AHHH!’’ Scottaloo took a step back and winced at the shrill screech. But the screaming stopped after a second. Opening her eyes she looked at him unsure if she should even start talking.

He heaved a sigh. ‘’Okay, I’m fine. I’m fine.’’ He quickly shook his head and slapped himself on the cheeks a little. ‘’Sorry, I yelled.’’

Scootalo tried to say something, only to be cut off by a loud bang.

‘’Hey! Stop screaming, we’ve already dealt with with your smell and filth.’’ It was the guard dog with a snotty nose. ‘’I don’t want to put up with you any longer.’’ He banged on the bars again with his spear threateningly before leaving again.

‘’Yikes. I already hate him.’’ He said as he shrugged and looked back again at Scootaloo his eyes widening when he actually looked at her. ‘’Wait how-how old are you?’’

‘’I’m ten.’’

‘’Seriously? They got a fu-kid?’’ He said as he turned around and glared at the snotty dog. ‘’How long you’ve been here?’’ He leaned down and asked.

‘’I-uhh…I don’t remember but um…’’ Scootalo was not actually sure how long it had been.

‘’It’s okay. You don’t have to answer, that was answer enough.’’ He showed a small smile and patted Scootaloos head. Oddly enough, she enjoyed it, even though he was a bit stinky and his hoof was cold, but that was probably from the chilly night.

He opened his mouth to speak again but he turned backward just as fast and while holding both ends of the bars started barfing outside the cage.

Scootaloo peaked over his shoulder and saw that he was puking out…rainbows. Wait what?

‘’Umm, mister? Are you…okay? That doesn’t look good.’’ And it didn’t smell good either. Scootaloo thought, not voiced only thought. She didn’t want to be rude.

‘’I’m-eugh-fine…’’ He turned around and wiped his mouth. ‘’My body is just uhhh…detoxifying, yeah, detoxifying itself.’’

Deto…what now? Scootaloo couldn’t even pronounce that word. Let alone know what it was. But it didn’t sound good.

Seeing her confusion he explained. ‘’Think of it this way. I…ate something terrible and now my body is throwing out the terrible thing since it shouldn’t be there.’’ Scootaloo could see his hooves shake a little, was it from the chilly breeze of the night?

‘’But it’s rainbow? And it’s sparkling.’’

‘’Yeah, well, uhhh the thing I ate was magical. And I ate a lot and I mean a lot.’’

That just raised more questions for Scootaloo but she decided to let it go for now.

‘’Anyhow forget about that, how about you tell me how you ended up here?’’ He said and sat beside Scootaloo.

Scootaloo wasn’t sure how to begin, she kept opening her mouth to say something but the words wouldn’t come out and even if they did she would cut herself short. The longer this awkward silence-short-word-thing went on, the more nervous she became.

‘’Hey, it’s okay, we’re not in a rush.’’ He pats her head again. ‘’Take your time and take a breath too, like this.’’ He inhaled a lot of air through the nose ‘’Inhale…Exhale’’ and exhaled them through his mouth. ‘’Remember not to hold it in too much or you’ll be inflated like a balloon!’’ The joke brought a small smile to Scootaloo.

So she closed her eyes, inhaled through the nose…and exhaled through the mouth. She didn’t hold it in for long, she didn’t want to be a balloon!

She started talking, and now all of the nervousness had washed away. Words just came pouring out of her mouth, and he listened, occasionally agreeing with her or nodding his head. Scootaloo left out the part where Diamond taunted her parent's absence.

‘’Well, that was pretty stup-Ow!’’ When she was finally finished he started to talk but was cut short by…something?’’

‘’Are you-’’

‘’I’m fine…just stubbed my hoof on something.’’ Scootaloo sucked her teeth in, that hurt pretty bad. ‘’What I was saying is that what you did was pretty…reckless. Very courageous but reckless nonetheless.’’

‘’I...I know.’’ She lowered her head. ‘’I just-’’

‘’Hey, it’s okay, we all make rash decisions from time to time though yours have resulted in-’’ He scratched his chin. ‘’-less than favorable circumstances.’’

That was an understatement of the millennia, hehe. Scootaloo got to use that word, she didn’t think she would when she learned it in schoo-wait, Scootaloo never asked his name!

‘’Sorry mister but um, what’s your name?’’ The mister’s eyes had widened.

‘’Huh, I’ve never told you my name?’’ He scoffed. ‘’How rude of me!’’ He quickly lowered his head and extended a hoof towards Scootaloo. ‘’Knight of The Moon, Laika, at your service.’’

Scootaloo giggled and took his hoof. ‘’The rider of the fastest scooters and the second coolest pony in Ponyville, Scootaloo, at your service!’’

His smile wavered a bit but Scootaloo didn’t notice it in the dark. ‘’Oh, such an honor for me to meet The Tamer of Scooters! I admire your bravery to handle such beasts, and would wish to see you do it.’’

‘’You really want to?!’’ He nodded with a huge smile plastered all over his face. ‘’I can show you…’’ Remembering that they were not free, her enthusiasm vanished as fast as it arrived.

Leaning over he whispered to her. ‘’Well when we get out of here, you can show me all the cool tricks you can do.’’ He leaned back and yawned. ‘’But now? I have to sleep. I’ve been-’’ He yawned again. ‘’I’ve been awake for way too long.’’

He collapsed on the wooden floor and laid his head on the ground. ‘’Oh and if something happens wak-’’ He was out cold in a second, snoring happily. Woah, he was really sleepy.

She yawned too, either his yawn was infectious or she was sleepy too. Unconsciously Scootaloo shimmied closer to Mr. Laika and laid her head on his side.

His fur was cold as ice.

But it felt warm to her.

---

Twilight silently crept through the castle's halls in the dead of night.

It had been one week since…Twilight couldn’t even explain what to call it. What was supposed to happen was that they were going to defeat Nightmare Moon, again, and save Laika and that would be the end of it.

But it wasn’t as simple as Twilight thought it would be.

The halls were empty and quiet. No one was working at this hour, not even the guards. Normally they would but after what happened Celestia and Luna both closed themselves in their room.

Luna in rage, and Celestia in…Twilight had never seen her teacher like that in her entire life. She was completely frozen when Laika left, only uttering sorries to the wind.
Twilight doesn’t know what happened between Luna and Celestia, she and her friends had been weakened so much that all of them lost consciousness. Twilight woke up after two days in the castle infirmary, and her friends soon followed.

They were still in the infirmary, sleeping. Twilight should have been resting too, but she needed answers. What truly was Nightmare Moon? Why did Nightmare Moon call Celestia ‘Mother.’?

Celestia hated being called mother, Twilight accidentally called her mother once, and it was the angriest she had ever seen her dear teacher. She remembered not to call her anything close to that.

But when Nightmare called Celestia that, she didn’t become angry, she became shocked. From what she heard from the castle staff, she hadn’t come out of her room not even once.

She passed by a dark blue door, and the sounds of muffled sobbing could be heard through it, she wanted to stop but she thought it was best not to.

Finally, Twilight was facing down the door of Celestia’s room. It was quiet. She didn’t know if that was a good thing or not. Taking a huge breath, she reached over and knocked on it.

‘’Princess? It’s me Twilight.’’

No answer came.

‘’Can I come in?’’

Still, no answer. Twilight didn’t lose her resolve though.

‘’I wan-I have to talk to you,’’ Twilight asked again.

But no answer came.

Twilight sighed and reached over to the doorknob. It was locked. Blinking a few times, she tried to open it again, but the door did not budge.

‘’Why… Why won’t you talk to me?!’’ Twilight almost screamed.

Her screams were not enough to rouse the Princess.

Frustrated, she used her magic to open the lock from the other side manually. This took considerable effort on her part since she was still weakened. She finally heard the click and released the breath she didn’t know she was holding.

Attentively she turned the doorknob and pushed the door. She was assaulted by the darkness of the room. The dim moonlight creeping through the windows was the only source of light. The room was untouched as if nothing had moved from a week prior, it gave Twilight the creeps.

Twilight cautiously entered the room and looked around but couldn’t see Celestia. She heard a noise and turned to look and finally, she saw Celestia.

She was in the darkest corner of the room, hunching over. She was whispering but Twilight couldn’t hear what. She looked as if she hadn’t moved from that place, or had any sleep in a week.

‘’Princess?’’ Twilight asked but Celestia didn’t even react in any possible way. She was in a trance that couldn't be broken.

Twilight got closer and closer until she could make up some of the words Celestia was whispering.

‘’It’s not possible, she can’t be-but she is…no! This is a trick by Nightmare Moon.’’ Celestia was clutching a small book. Twilight couldn’t see what book it was and she couldn’t tell it by the cover too.

‘’Princess?’’ She asked again, and Celestia didn’t react or show any type of emotion to it again.

‘’My sweet little…no I-I-I-, she’s gone, she’s gone, she’s gone and-’’

‘’PRINCESS!’’

That broke Celestia out of her trance. Looking up but not letting go of the book, she saw Twilight. Her eyes widened and she tried to say something, anything. No words left her mouth.

‘’Princess. What happened?’’ Twilight pointed to the small book Celestia was still clutching as if her own life depended on it. ‘’What is that book?’’ Twilight could feel the magic radiating from the book.

It had some kind of preservation spell cast on it, a powerful one. Now that she was closer to the book she could get a good look at it. It looked ancient, the cover had already faded away. How old was this book?

Celestia looked at the book with a small, pain-filled smile. ‘’It’s her book. It’s the only thing I have left of her.’’

‘’Her? Is ‘her’...Selene?’’ Twilight asked and sat beside her teacher.

At the mention of her name, Celestia looked away from the book and closed her eyes. So it was her book.

‘’Princess, who is Selene. Why did she call you mother?’’ Twilight asked again hoping to get some answers this time, and since she was close enough she could see the cover name on the book at least.

‘The Filly and The Knight.’ Huh, Twilight had never actually heard of it before it sounded similar to one of her favorites though.

‘’I... I will tell you Twilight Sparkle, but this must not reach my sister’s ears.’’ Celestia raised her head and agreed to answer. ‘’Only yours, not your friends, not your family, not my sister.’’

‘’But-’’

‘’That is my only request from you Twilight. Luna cannot bear any more burdens on her back. Especially not now.’’

Twilight bit her lip, this was the second time Celestia was asking this and the first time didn’t go so well. But Celestia looked completely different this time, when she first asked Twilight it was almost akin to a command, this time? This time it was akin to begging.

‘’Okay, I won’t tell anyone.’’

‘’Then let me tell you about my greatest folly.’’ Celestia caressed the book in her hoof. ‘’Let me tell you about a small filly.’’

Sometimes ignorance truly was bliss, Twilight didn’t know that this night.

She wished she knew.

---

‘’You calling somepony reckless is very ironic,’’ Selene said as she lay under the shade of a giant oak tree.

‘’I’m offended. How dare you call me reckless.’’ I try to defend myself from these baseless accusations while laying on the verdant fields of the hill the tree sits upon.

‘’Yeah, when have we ever been reckless?’’ I defend myself from the branch of the tree.

‘’Well I have several memories-’’

‘’Shut, up.’’ We both silence the would-be traitor.

‘’Jeez, fine.’’ I motion my hand across my mouth as if closing a zipper.

The situation has yet to particularly develop to my advantage. First I get mad stomach aches and then start throwing up a rainbow. Yeah, literal rainbow, sparkly ones at that. Selene said that was how my body threw out the leftover magic from my impromptu execution by a magic death ray.

Second, I get captured by these dogs, while vomiting. Not a fun experience. May have got a bit of rainbow bile on one of them, a little revenge for me I suppose, the following whack with the shaft of a spear was not worth the revenge.

And third, I was now stuck with a kid, with no escape in sight. I couldn’t even have Selene use her…magic… to help. Why? Well, apparently Luna was trying to get into my dreams but Selene was blocking her using her magic and since she was using most of her energy that way, she was left with barely any left.

‘’That reminds me why did you pull my tail?’’ I got up from the grass and headed towards the tree.

Selene gave me an unamused face. ‘’You were about to call that filly ‘stupid’.’’

‘’Well, she did something stupid.’’ I shrugged my shoulders, when kids do something stupid you make sure they don’t do that stupid thing again.

‘’Yes, yes, but you don’t tell a child that.’’ Selene rolled her eyes. ‘’And wouldn’t that make us stupid too? Since we both ended up in the same place as her?’’

‘’Hey, I never said that I wasn’t stupid.’’

‘’Are you calling me stupid too?’’ She narrowed her eyes and her voice both at me.

‘’Careful now, let’s not step on any land mines.’’ I swung from the swing tied to the branch.

‘’I was a minesweeper in my past life,’’ I stated confidently.

‘’Past life? How did we die?’’ I looked up to the branch while swinging.

I narrowed my eyes too. ‘’Yes.’’ and stepped on. I was not a very good minesweeper, clearly.

Time seemed to slow down as I blinked and saw Selene pounce on me. Ah, so this is how I die? Total mind death by an angry magical entity, after everything I survived? …eh. Could have been worse.

Time continued on and I was pushed onto the ground leading both I and Selene's tumble down the hill. It didn’t hurt, we both rolled down the hill with the sounds of laughter following the sounds of both bodies rolling over the grass.

As we neared the foot of the hill, the environment changed. The hill was no more and both me and Selene were boxed from all sides. I was thrown to one comfy seat and across me was Selene, on the same comfy red seat. I was getting used to this dreaming stuff, so now I could change the place like this on the go.

So now we were at a train booth, and the train was named-

‘’All passengers, The Silly Train is about to take off, please show your tickets to the ticket man, we wish you a safe and pleasant journey.’’ Using the intercom, I wished everyone aboard well.

‘’The Silly Train? Really?’’ Selene said with a small snicker.

Before I could respond with my reason as to why the train had that glorious name, the door to the booth had been opened and-

‘’Alright, present your tickets, and if you don’t have one. Well, may god have mercy on you, for I won’t.’’ The familiar grumpy face with a red suit and cap, and was that a baton?

‘’Yes.’’ I raised the baton in a way to establish that I had power over them.

Not wanting to be on the other side of the ticket man I quickly got my ticket and reached it out to him. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Selene look confused as hell.

I took the ticket and stuffed it into my ticket coat, the coat of many tickets. ‘’And you miss?’’

‘’I, umm, I don’t…’’ She kept avoiding eye contact with the monstrous, ticket man. She quickly leaned towards me and whispered. ‘’Where is my ticket?!’’ I just gave her an impish smile filled with mischief.

‘’No tickets eh? I see, I see, well th-Oof!’’ Just before I could enact my punishment, I was pushed out of the way.

‘’Any drinks? Maybe some peanuts, or peanut sandwiches?’’ I pushed the hardass out of the way.

Now the attendee had arrived with a blue suit and cap, pushing a cart full of beverages, and a disoriented ticket man being pushed out of the way. It looks like Selene had barely managed to be spared from the ticket man's wrath. I could hear a small sigh of relief come from her.

‘’No? Okie dokie, have a fun trip.’’ I said and closed the door pushing the bore even farther and farther.

‘’You jerk! You didn’t give me a ticket!’’ Selene said and started slapping my head.

‘’What? Did you want a ticket to the silly train?’’ I laughed and raised an arm to block the incoming slaps.

That seemed to stop her, she huffed and went back to her seat. It was silent, that was fine by me, I liked watching the passing environment. But there was a question in my head, a big one.

One that I had avoided since I escaped the castle, there were more pressing matters at that time, such as not dying. Well, I’m captured but I can’t do anything about that.

‘’Selene?’’

‘’Mhn?’’ She hummed in response.

‘’Who is Nightmare Moon? Why did Celestia call ‘me-you’ that?’’

Selene didn’t turn her head towards me, but I could see her pupil shrink a bit from the glass reflection, and her ears pressed towards her head. She didn’t say anything for a solid minute and then sighed.

‘’I guess it was inevitable. I wished I didn’t have to tell you, but you have a right to know.’’ She finally turned her head towards me with her piercing eyes focused right on my own eyes.

‘’Let me tell you the story of how I became this.’’ She said with obvious bitterness dripping from her tongue. I didn’t like how she seemed to hate what she became, I like her this way. ‘’Let me tell you about a small filly.’’

Our blue train was streaming forward, smoothly the long path spread before us and it was running straight into the horizon.

Comments

[Mix-up]

Nice to see an update on the story again and it was interesting. So I am guessing that the filly was supposed to replace Luna in the stewardship of the moon or something? And for a time was Celestia's daughter. What does Laika looks like now exactly? Keep it up.

[Aiwhisper]

Nice cliff hanger. Can’t wait for the history next chapter.

[ChaoticSymphonies]

Looks like next update is story time from both sides. Celestia you need to learn that keeping secrets is not a smart plan.

[Hollowed Specter]

Well I guess that is a stagecoach in A way. Also, vomiting real ass rainbows to detoxify one's system is defiantly one way. But on the magic thing, I bet if he tries really hard enough, he can use a wand as long as it has its own mana pool. After all he must build something now that almost everything is in ruin.

[LoserkidUwU]

Silly train is simply too much fun, and way too goofy!

[ulcuran]

11905714
Well, he is entirely pale white up to the neck, after that, it's his original light brown, with a white streak in the middle of his face between his eyes.

11905762
I hope not to be too late to post the next chapter!

11905812
Somepony needs to teach Celestia the benefits of being honest!

11905841
Ah, but would he want to?

11905869
There is no getting off Mr. Laika's wild ride!

[Gohot]

I thought you are dead.
It is a good idea about parents and children. Celestia have lived more than one thousand years. We don’t know maybe she is two, three or several thousand years, did she have children and who are her parents?
Maybe her parents were gods, like Orion, Loki and etc. One, two, three kids or no one? We don’t know.

[f0st3r21]

Nice chapter! I hope Laika and Scootaloo get to have a good adventure.

Scootaloo peaked over his shoulder and saw that he was puking out…rainbows. Wait what?

: Princess Luna, what’s that sound coming from Princess Celestia’s room?
Luna: Hmm? Oh, we put some concentrated Harmony in her dinner cake this eve.
: What! B- but she ate the whole thing!
Luna: We art aware.

Twilight woke up after two days in the castle infirmary, and her friends soon followed.

I’m imagining the doctor pony becoming more Dr House-like as the story goes on.
Doctor: skin, clammy. Lips, worm-like. Mane, receding, combed over. Purple, monochromatic. Musculature, underdeveloped. Bony protrusions, undernourished. Autistic spectrum, swings wildly. Genitalia… healthy? You are a stallion, right?
: I’m… an element of Harmony.
Doctor: Ooh, how prestigious.
Lol

[ulcuran]

11906178
This is why Luna turned into Nightmare Moon!

[Chrysaorix]

And here comes the 'train-ride' of a story😏