I still remember it like it was yesterday, though it was countless moons ago, after HE was defeated, not much of our once beautiful home was left, and the two brave ones ruled Equestria from then on. One day, the younger one, saddened by her daily struggles, proposed to form a new colony, where all of us would grow strong and happy. But the elder one forbade it, for she felt it would divide and shatter the weakened kingdom FOREVER. Nopony knows that we are still here, smiling beneath the moonlight while remembering our dear mother, for we will forever be her children of the night.
I always loved the night, even during the time when discord ruled, when night fluctuated to day in a matter of minutes rather than a fluctuation of a day. Once the war against Him was over and one of the two sisters who triumphed over Him was charged with ruling the night, I was overjoyed. I constantly stayed up deep into the night enjoying the twinkling stars, swirling nebulas and of course the pale white light of the moon. I always imagined I saw different images made out in the stars. However the orphanage I was forced to live in enforced a strict curfew, so I was forced to sleep through most of Luna's beautiful night. And unless it was raining, I was also forced to endure Celestia's blazing morning. Sure, most ponies enjoy the daytime, but I sure didn't. If you ever got a good look at me, you would think I belonged to the night. I am dark blue colt with a pitch black mane, plus with a scowl on my face, I was able to avoid most everyone at my orphanage. It wasn't all bad; most of them weren't worth talking to anyways. On the plus side, I have two amazing friends. They both love the night almost as much as I did. North Star was a deep olive green unicorn colt half my age with big sappy eyes a shade darker than his coat and a chestnut brown mane. He still talked like a little kid and used to be bullied because of it when I met him two years ago. He reminded me of my little brother who was the same age when he was kidnapped by an agent of Discord, so thusly I felt protective of him. Even at the age of ten I was quite intimidating and usually got my way. If I had been a more ruthless kid, I would have been an ideal bully, but the thought of putting others down disinterests me and so I settle away from the crowd and just try to avoid being called out. But North getting bullied during the designated outside time at the orphanage ruffled my feathers the wrong way, so I got in their faces, spread my wings and got as big and menacing as I could. It worked to my advantage and the bullies left North alone with so not so much as a side glance. I quickly put on my nicest face to examine the startled colt.
"You ok little guy?" I asked him. He just stood there shaking and staring, eventually the events what had just happened dawned on him and he wiped his eyes, clearing out the tears that had formed.
Still shaking he responded in the most innocent voice I've ever heard.
"I t-thwink so, bwut who are woo?" my heart melted on the spot for the little guy. I was overcome with the sudden feeling that I need to look out for him, and that I had been given another chance at being a big brother.
But then the impact of his question hit me hard.
"My name?" I questioned. As sad as it sounds, I had forgotten my name, cast it aside with my old life when my parents and brother died. He tilted his head sideways, drawing my attention back from the past. The innocent look on his face made me want to avoid a talk like that with him. I had known that I had to come up with a new name eventually, but I had never thought on it. I guess now was the best time. "My um name is uh" I scratched my head in thought. I could have chosen any name in the world, but none seemed to fit. I had to think of something fast, you can't form a relationship if the other pony doesn't think you can trust them with something as trivial as a name. I looked back at the colt and just blurted out what was on my mind, which was no more than gibberish. "Laszive" was what came out. The little unicorn misheard me and inadvertently gave me a name I decidedly stuck to.
"Lahzive huh, nwice to mweat woo! I'm Nowth Staw," he replied, struggling not to mess up the dribble that I gave for my name. He extended a hoof to shake and I eagerly shook it lightly. "You're name is hawd, can I just call woo Laz?" I nodded, willing to go with whatever he said; I was admittedly alone so I didn't want to screw up this friendship.
"Sure thing North" was my response. I noticed he was sweating. "Hot day out, huh?" I may not have many friends but at least I could talk to people.
"Yeah," he responded, wiping the sweat from his forehead, just below his horn. "I dwon't like the daytime much, it's so lawng and hawt," he begrudgingly looked up towards the sun.
"Me either," I responded "I usually stay up as late as possible, just staring out my window and looking at the stars," my voice faded out wheb I regarded the twinkling lights.
"Could I watch them with woo sometwime?" He asked innocently. He seemed really excited by the prospect of stargazing. If I said yes, the headmaster would have my wings on a platter, but when confronted with a face like that, how do you say no.
"Ok, sounds fun, it'll be nice watching them with a friend instead of by myself." I smiled and turned to North. He looked back with a happily surprised look
"F-fwend? I've never hwad a fwend befow," he looked close to the tears and so I put my arm around his shoulders.
"Of course I'm your friend. Just don't tell too many ponies about me watching the stars, I don't want the windows crowded," I said nonchalantly. He nodded and we spent the rest of the day sitting in the shade of a tree and talking about nothing in particular. North confided in me that he didn't remember much outside of the orphanage and that his parents had disappeared as far as he could tell. The pony that found him had given him his name. I sat and listened until it came time for me to talk. I wasn't sure where to go. On one hoof I had just accepted a new name and I didn't want to delve into my forcibly forgotten past. On the other, North had just told me all about him in complete honesty and was due the same. I sighed and decided to go with telling him as little as possible while still completing my half of the conversation."Well, I was found by the headmaster when I was begging for food on the streets. He brought me to the orphanage and I've been living here ever since." It was true, after I buried my parents I lived on the streets for some time, begging frequently and often going hungry. My seventh birthday was celebrated by my finding of a half eaten cupcake in the garbage. The headmaster found me a short few days later. Like most of my past, I choose not to think about it.
The rest of the day passed by uneventfully, and that night North and I watched the stars.
"Do woo know any names of the staws?" North asked without looking at me.
I too could not stop gazing at the canvas of stars and planets. We were sitting on chairs at the window, North had to constantly look up and I had my nose almost pressed to the glass. "No, I don't," I replied, my breath slightly fogging up my half of the window. I giggled at this and drew a star in the moisture before the window dissolved it, "but I want to find out. I want to know everything about the stars and the moon."
"Maybe that will be youw spwecial tawent," North said. Their was a feeling of joy in his voice. "maybe you'll get youw cwutie mawk having to do with astwo-astwol," He fumbled over the strange word and almost bit his tongue.
"Astrology," I completed for him. I then started to contemplate what he said. I was never one to fantasize about cutie marks but his words got me to contemplate it a little. I shot a glance at my flank to see it still the same dark navy blue of my coat. I frowned slightly in disappointment then shook my head. I shrugged and continued to look out the window. My special talent would come with time, I just had to keep my eye open and try not to force it. The teachers at the orphanage had to hammer that into some of the overeager foals and fillies. In any case I resolved to read up on stars, it seemed like a rather interesting topic. I just decided to do this when I heard a yawn from my side. I looked down and saw that North had gotten tired and had fallen asleep leaning against me, still in his chair. I tutted and put the unconscious little guy on my back and carried him to bed. I tucked him in and he snuggled into his covers.
"Goodnight Laz,"he sleepily said just before he started lightly snoring. I smiled and started to walk to my bed on the other side of the room.
I managed to get to my bed and clutched my covers around me, more for comfort than warmth. It was a hot summer night and I had made a friend that day. I was warm inside and out for the first time since my parents death and I was determined to never let that happiness slip away again.
Over the next few weeks, whenever we weren't in class, we'd sit and chat about anything. I read up on some stars but the library wasn't very helpful. Most books had very few names or information. The more I read on them the more I realized that the stars were vastly undocumented and unknown. On one particular Fridayafternoon, upon leaving the library, I was walking through the halls of our little school off-unit to the yard to meet up with North, when I saw an interesting spectacle. A new filly had joined, she was a sunset orange girl with freckles and a lightening blue mane. She didn't approach me, I didn't approach her, so needless to say, we had a good relationship by my standards. But there she sat, arm wrestling an older colt, and winning! It was impressive to say the least. I hung back by the door so I could watch. She had her back to me and the colt's face was too screwed up in pain to notice anything but the competition. I chuckled lightly. I knew earth ponies had strength, but this was ridiculous. She heard me chuckle and turned back, still holding her own in her contest.
"You think something is funny?" she spat towards me.
Her straightforward attitude and gruff voice made me bite my usually smart-alecky tongue. At first. "Who, me?" I asked feigning innocence. She glared at me and finished her opponent with ease. The disgruntled guy limped away, hiding his face in shame.
She looked me up and down then decided I wasn't a threat. "what do YOU want?" she asked as though I had hurt her. She kept glancing down at her flank expectantly. Whether the question was rhetorical or she just didn't remember she had asked it, but I never found out because she suddenly slammed her hoof on the table. "I was sure I could get my cutie mark in arm wresting" at that I rolled my eyes and snorted.
"You fillies need to realize a cutie mark can't be forced" I said knowingly. This got me a killing glare.
"If you know so much about cutie marks, why don't YOU have one" was her response. I didn't bother hesitating to answer.
"Because I haven't gotten it yet, that's why. I still haven't found what about myself that makes the world a better place, and to be honest, I don't mind waiting, and you should mind either," somewhat paraphrasing the main teacher, Ms. Hayworth. She rolled her eyes. Of course she must have heard all of that before, we all had. Their was a long pause. I looked over at her and she had a look that made me realize that she wasn't about to give up her fruitless quest. "How about this, We'll arm wrestle, if you win, you might get your cutie mark and either way, I'll leave you alone. If I win, you have to stop trying to force it, deal?"
She thought it over before quickly dropping her arm on the table and sneering. "You've got a deal" she said.
I braced myself. I had never arm wrestled before and judging by how badly that other stallion had limped out she was quite good. "On three" I said as I linked my forearm with hers.
"Okay." she said. "One. Two. Three" as soon as the last syllable left her lips she screwed her face in a tight grimace and started applying force against my arm. I almost lost right then and there before some sort of instinct kicked in and I started fighting back. It took a few minutes, but it felt like years, to get our arms back to upright and neutral. For the next short while it was just us two in a continuous back-and-forth battle with nopony clearly having the upper hoof. I started to get a little red in the face straining myself to keep in line with this foal. I was only concentrating on the task at hoof until I noticed the light outside changing. Paying a single iota of my concentration out the window, I saw that the already late time had descended into nightfall, with the moon rising up over the valley. My thoughts began to clear and suddenly I became calm, though I was still applying enough pressure to the foals arm to maintain our deadlock tie. Suddenly I remembered I was to meet North at sundown and I was officially late. With renewed vigor I began to push back even harder than before, soon lowering our arms to a forty-five degree angle on the table. I was winning though I could feel my arm giving out fast. With one final gritting of my teeth I forced all of my strength into my arm and slammed my opponent's arm into the table, causing small cracks to appear in the wood. Gasping for air, we both proceeded to collapse.
"I...win..."I said between heavy breaths. "Will you...please...excuse...me. My friend...is waiting" I got to me hooves as best I could though the arm I had used for wrestling felt like limp noodle. Somehow this filly had recovered faster than I had and had walked over offering a hoof to help me up.
"Good match. You won fair and square," she said without a hint of remorse or shame. "My name is Kora. Kora Clipse."
I took the hoof and got to my hooves, managing to return feeling to my overused limb. "I'm Laz" I told her, "just Laz. Now if you don't mind, I have someone I'm late to meeting." I said before walking out the door. "Nice meeting you" I called over my shoulder before stepping out the door and jogging down the hall.
I was halfway down the hallway when I heard Kora call out. "hey, Laz, Wait up." I stopped where I was and looked back. "C-can I come too. There isn't really many people I can hang out with and since I'm not going to go after my cutie mark anymore, can I join you and your friend?" she asked.
I blinked several times, dumbfounded that anyone other than North would want to spend any sort of time with me."Um, uh, sure, I guess." I said at last, realizing that the longer I stood here the later I was to meeting up with North. "walk with me" I said over my shoulder as I turned and started briskly walking to the window where North was pacing at. There was two chairs and a candle, the usual equipment for a night of stargazing. North looked up when he heard Kora's hoofsteps. She had been walking rather fast and loudly trying to keep up with me.
"Lawz, whewe hawve woo been?" he asked up at me before noticing the young pony next to me. "Who awe woo?" he nervously asked, moving slightly around me to hide.
"North, the reason I was late is because I was making us a new friend. North, I would like you to meet Kora Clipse. Kora, meet North Star," I said, pointing to each pony respectively as I introduced them. Kora was noticeably less shy than North and took the initiative to make a good impression.
"Hey there North, I'm Kora. I'm kinda new here," she smiled sweetly and held out a hoof. North looked to me, then at the unfamiliar ponies hoof then back to me. I nodded and motioned to Kora's outstretched arm, silently telling him to shake it. He slowly moved out from being half behind me, talking short, tentative steps as though the ground was going to explode at his feet. Kora was being completely patient and stood there with her hoof outstretched. Finally North reached a hoof out and shook Kora's gently.
"I'll get a third chair" I said and then walked off, giving the two of them some time to meet. That night, the stars felt even brighter and in greater abundance, like Luna was trying to make the night out-beauty the day.