Author's note: Best enjoyed with this song.
During my sleep I couldn't see anything, I didn't dream at all, I was trapped in a black void of nothingness. I cried out for my sister whilst in the void, but it seemed as if the void swallowed my voice and didn't let it reach her.
For any four year old, the concept of death is nearly unknown; for me it was an eternal fear because with death came loneliness. I started crying and yelling for my sister, of course there wasn't an answer. I tried flying but I was unable to feel my wings, I tried to use magic in order to summon a light but that failed too, in a last desperate attempt at freedom I began running into the void; Not actually seeing where I was going and unable to hear even my own hoofsteps.
I kept running, never once my hope flickered. I don't know if you know Doctor, but small foals are always the last ones to lose hope when faced by a danger. I kept pressing forward, never once slowing my pace, I was getting tired of course and there were times in which I just wanted to lie down and sleep.
But there was something that pushed me onward, after some time I saw that a ray light was starting to leak into the void. My dark surroundings were starting to become more visible and I finally saw where I was running, I changed my course to head towards the source of the light. My strenght was starting to fail me, but my will at that moment kept me running to the light.
There was a point, in which I noticed that there was somepony in the light, at first I thought it was my sister, coming to save me. As I approached however, I saw that it was the pony who ran towards me before sleeping in the clearing,
"Hello!" said the pony as he waved in my direction. Without thinking even for a second I ran at him, each step cleared the darkness even more. The fear I had in me was washed away and I felt a tugging sensation in my heart that would last even until now, as I arrived in front of him I saw his eyes darting around nervously, as if he wanted to avoid eye contact.
"Hello..." I said in a low voice, I hadn't spoke with any other pony besides my sister in my life so this first "meeting" was kind of weird, I wasn't exactly known for having social skills you know, He chuckled at the sound of my voice as he looked at me with those blue eyes, filled with a promise of safety and comfort.
"Come on my little pony, it's time to wake up." said the pony as he extended his hoof towards me, a light iluminating everything behind him. I didn't hesitate and grabbed his hoof as I felt my eyes nearly burning due to the light.
I don't remember what happened after that, but I do remember waking up in a makeshift bed in a small, yet cozy room. My first reaction was to try and move, much to my amazement I managed to do so without any pain. I looked around the room to see that nopony was in there except me, my first thought was that this was Discord's prison and soon he would jump out and yell surprise.
That thought changed when I saw the open door; cautiously, i exited the room and found myself in a mixture of a living room and a kitchen. I saw a cauldron at the middle of the room boiling with a green liquid so I naturally thought, that Celestia and I had been foalnapped by a witch. Now that I think back, it was kind of a good deduction since he had all those herbs categorized using symbols instead of our normal alphabet.
It didn't help that I didn't know how to read.
I was about to get to the door when I heard some rustling coming from a door inside the house, If at the time I had any amount of common sense, I would've used it and I would've gotten out of there, but I was young and curious so I decided to investigate the noise. I quietly crept to a wooden door cleverly covered by some placed vines. Behind it I found a series of stairs leading down to a basement, it was actually quite illuminated and thus made it easy for me to make my way to the bottom.
I didn't know what to expect, but being young leaves you with an active imagination and thus I thought it was a dungeon in which the witch kept the foals until they were ripe enough to eat. As I looked around the room I saw that my suspicions were proven completely wrong, it was a garden. Now that I think back I have no idea how he even kept it hidden; the place was just so big, and so very beautiful.
It was completely illuminated, there were 6 trees in the garden, each one had its particular fruit growing in it. While I was watching the fruits I heard my stomach growl, It was very embarrasing to say the least and to add insult to injury, the rustling stopped for a while. I stood still, thinking that if I didn't move a muscle I would turn invisible or something of the sort.
"Are you hungry?" asked the familiar voice. I turned around to see him behind me, he was about my size give or take a few centimeters. As I already said before, he was grey and appeared to be discorded, but his mane was half green, half blue; so was his tail. He also had some freckles in his nose, kind of cute if you asked me.
He was holding an apple in his hoof and he was gesturing for me to take it, I was relucant about taking it because my sister taught me never to accept anything from strangers, the only reason I took it was that my stomach growled again, making me blush intensely. I ate the apple quickly while he looked at me with curiosity, the fruit was gone in a matter of seconds and I looked at him with a begging expression.
"Grab anything you like." said the pony as he gestured towards the trees. I quickly ran towards them and started grabbing the fruits from the trees, I ate the fruits in a very un-princesslike manner. Now that I look back, it was a miracle I didn't get a stomach ache or any stomach sickness for that matter. To describe you the taste of the fruits would be impossible, they ranged from sweet to sour and to both of them together.
They were perfect, for me they were at least.
Several fruits later I felt completely full, the colt looked at me with a smile as he sat in front of me. I began looking to my sides in hope of finding Celestia in here too, at the time I only wanted her to eat some of these fruits.
"Your sister is fine, she's outside with the animals." said the colt as she noticed me searching for something, I smiled at him before slowly building up the courage to speak to him.
"Thank you for the fruits, they were yummy." I said to the colt. He gave me a nervous smile as he laughed slightly, it was then that I noticed that he was similar to me in the aspect that he was an alicorn.
"Can you tell me your name?" I asked to the pony as I kept eyeing him in a completely indescrete manner. At that age I didn't have even the smallest amount of malice in me so looking at him all over didn't seem like a bad thing for me.
"Everfree, my name is Everfree and I live here with the animals." he said as he stood up on his hind legs and grabbed a berry from the bush.
"That's a nice name, I'm Luna." I said to him as I brushed a flock of hair off one of my eyes.
"You got hurt very badly outside princess, you're lucky your sister found me when she did." said Everfree as he began eating the berry, still seated ever so calmly.
"Princess?" I asked him in confusion. No one had ever called me a princess before, I didn't have any "royal" blood nor did I grow up in a fancy castle. The answer that he gave me pretty much chained my heart up, there were other moments in which his hold just got stronger but that was the moment in which he snuck his way right into my heart.
"Well, all the pretty fillies are princesses right?" asked Everfree naively, I looked at him in confusion, still unable to understand what he meant with that.
"But princesses live in a castle, and they have a prince to save them. Are you a prince?" I asked him naively.
Now that I think of it, I think we were hitting on each other when we just met. I look at what we said then and I can't help but feel embarrassed. Still, it was a happy memory and it never fails to bring a smile to my face.
"I don't think so, but you can live here if you want to." said Everfree as he was playing with a single blade of grass,
"I can?" I asked him in a surprised tone, at the time it was my dream to live in a place where things would stay still for a while. A place where nopony shouted mean things at you, in short words, a place like the Everfree Forest. Before I could answer his question, I heard hoofsteps coming in our direction and I saw my sister walking towards us ever so calmly. Out of instinct I ran at her and hugged her, someponies when they grow up bottle up their feelings; but foals don't care how other ponies react. They just show them, kind of strange isn't it? We actually become dumber when we grow up.
"I'm glad you're awake sister, did Everfree tell you about living here?" asked Celestia, I looked up at her and nodded.
"So do you want to stay?" asked Celestia, she could have all she ever wanted in here and yet she still asks for my opinion on this. Of course when I was little I payed little to no attention to those details, I immediately nodded my head at her. One of these days, I swear in front of you Doctor, I'll do something big to pay her back.
"This can be your castle!" said Everfree with happiness as he walked towards us. "You two can be the princesses and I'll be the prince, just like in the stories."
"We're not princesses." said Celestia as she looked at the ground in shame.
"But the books say all pretty fillies are princesses, you have to be princesses." said Everfree as a small amount of sadness started to creep into his face, he would later tell me why that was the case but for now all you need to know is that the both of us accepted relucantly to be called princesses.
That marked the beggining of our friendship, that's how we met.
As Luna finished, silence reigned over the living room. The Doctor was tapping what appeared to be a wooden copy of the Sonic Screwdriver against the edge of his chair. Each second felt heavier than the previous one as he looked with those inexpressive eyes directly at Luna.
"Luna... I need to tell you something important." said the Doctor in a serious tone of voice. Luna looked at him like a small filly would look at his parents before a scolding
"This is it, he'll tell me I lost it, he'll tell me I'm weak." thought Luna with fear. "But if it truly is my fate, then so be it."
"I know many ponies say this to others... but I want you to know that I truly know how you feel Luna. Don't think you're alone, because you have a great group of friends to back you up. You have a sister that loves you more than anything and I'm sure you love her too Luna. Don't think less of you for your mistakes, think more because you had a chance to live them and learn from them." said the Doctor as he grabbed her hoof and looked at her eyes,
"H-h-h-how..." began saying Luna but the Doctor hushed her and kept on speaking.
"Luna, please stop calling yourself weak and puny... if anything you're a strong pony, of that I'm sure." said the Doctor as he smiled slightly.
"Y-y-you don't even know me." said Luna as she looked away shamefully. The Doctor chuckled slightly, earning a weird look from Luna.
"Then I suggest we change it, how does tea and muffins at 8pm sound?" said the Doctor with a sly smirk, Luna didn't process what the Doctor had offered her and quickly nodded. The Doctor smiled and pressed the stop button on the recorder, he stood up and walked towards a desk in the corner of the room. Once in there he deposited the tape on top of the desk, his gaze was caught by a picture on the desk. It depicted him and a person he once held and still holds very dear, he smiled slightly at the thought of the person.
"I hope you're happy." Thought the Doctor as he looked at one of the last remaining links to his old life. A picture of him... and his rose, he had no idea who or what brought it here but he just accepted it and treasured the picture of what could never be.
"Anyway Luna, I think morning should come any minute; Luna?" asked the Doctor as he faced Luna sleeping blissfully in his couch. He gave a quick chuckle and walked towards a small closet in the far side of the living room, he opened the door and withdrew a blanket from it. He covered Luna with it and was about to go to his room when he thought about reading a book,
"Why a book? Well it's not like I can read a wall, though it might be interesting to try." thought the Doctor as he thought about it. There was a particular book he had in mind, one that he got from the library here in Ponyville but he felt really tired each night to read it.
"Perhaps one book wouldn't harm me, after all I need to keep my cultural knowledge fresh." thought the Doctor as he retraced his steps back to the living room. Once inside he grabbed a big red hard cover book encrusted with the royal emblem from the bookcase, he made a mental note to thank the librarian Miss Sparkle for lending him the books.
"An Equestrian Guide to the Common and Strange. Uncensored edition."
End note: Planning stories is cool. Any comments on the chapter folks?