//------------------------------// // Chapter 18: Look into the past // Story: The Misfits // by Cyber System //------------------------------// Twilight and Cyber got their friends together to inform them about Clockwork, who was wandering around Ponyville getting to know everything. "So, you finally did it, huh?" asked Dusty. Twilight nodded. "Yeah! This is amazing! And it looks like Clockwork is already adjusting to Ponyville too." "Who's Clockwork?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Clockwork is a highly technologically advanced automaton with complete mental capabilities and processing, giving him the ability to willfully make decisions as if he were a normal pony," answered Cyber, making Rainbow scratch her head. "Yeah, I don't speak egghead." "Figures," commented Dusty earning him a glare from Rainbow. "You didn't understand him either!" "I understood more than you, Rainbow Crash." Fang harrumphed to stop the two pegasi from fighting. "As I was saying," Cyber continued. "Clockwork is basically a robot with personality, and as such do not treat him like he doesn't, instead just treat him like a normal pony." "But won't we need ta keep him away from water?" asked Applejack. Lyra shook her head. "No, Clockwork's waterproof, fireproof, weatherproof, basically we made him resistant to almost anything that could seriously damage him in any way." "Um... is that him?" asked Fluttershy, pointing towards the incoming mechanical pony. "Yes, that's Clockwork," answered Cyber, waving to his creation, who waved back and approached the group. "Greetings!" Clockwork said happily. "I am Clockwork, and you must be the rest of the elements of harmony and The Misfits. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Fang, Dusty, Mixy, Moonlight Shadow, and Solar Eclipse. I've already met Pinkie Pie back when I was activated." Fluttershy backed away. "How- how do you know my name?" "Calm down, Fluttershy. Cyber must've told him after turnin' on," said Applejack. "Actually," Clockwork said, "I have your personality descriptions installed in my hard drive, so it's like we're already friends." "And that's the best part!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Well, I don't mind his personality, but did you really have to use bronze for his coat?" asked Rarity. "What's wrong with my coat?" asked Clockwork. "Nothing, dear, just if Cyber was going to make you out of metal, he could have just used platinum or gold." "Platinum was too expensive and gold is too heavy, bronze was the perfect fit being resistant and looking good," Cyber replied. "I suppose those would be an issue, but if you want to 'spice' up Clockwork's design, my door's always open." "Thanks but no thanks, Rarity," replied Clockwork Rarity shrugged. "If you say so, Darling." "Well, can he do cool stuff like shoot lasers or something?" asked Rainbow, Cyber could see Dusty roll his eyes. "Eh, no. Clockwork doesn't need weaponry, besides I don't make weapons anyway," Cyber said. "Nor would I even want to be filled with weapons, I'm comfortable being just a simple pony automaton," Clockwork added. "Well, how strong is he?" asked Applejack. "I've heard that y'all robots can buck all the apples in Sweet Apple Acres in one day." "Well as far as strength goes, I'm not sure. But I do have a near limitless stamina. So I can run nonstop for days and not be the slightest tired as long as I'm in the sun." "Are... are you dangerous?" asked Fluttershy. "If I so much as punch a pony intending to do harm, then may Celestia herself drag me to Tartarus." Fluttershy smiled. "Now onto the real question," said Pinkie. "When are you coming to your party? It's ready for you and nopony's there yet!" "I think I might want just a quiet afternoon, but thanks, Pinkie." "Come on, Clock-wreck," said Rainbow. "Pinkie's parties are legendary." "It's Clockwork," corrected the automaton. "Whatever," Rainbow replied. "Actually, I don't think Moonlight and I experienced Pinkie's parties yet," said Eclipse. "How many ponies will be there?" asked Moonlight. "None, just all of you," Pinkie answered. "I knew how much you don't like being with lots of ponies, so I'm making it a small, private party." "Then I'll be there." "Where is it?" asked Dusty. "At your house, silly!" Cyber winced. "I never said you could have the party at our house." "How about now?" Pinkie asked. "Yes?" "Okay, let's go, the readers are waiting to see what happens!" Pinkie hopped away, leaving the others confused. "Should we ask about that?" asked Mixy. "No, just don't, it's better that way," replied Twilight as they all trotted to The Misfits' home for the party. After a short trot towards the Misfits' home, the party started immediately, even including three cakes with small sculptures of the newest members on them, much like what Pinkie did when the original four misfits arrived. Then as the rest of the day passed, the Misfits had fun. Except Moonlight, who mostly just sat around eating cake, this was noticed by Twilight. "So, Moonlight," Twilight said. "You must be using magic to control the fork, right? So does that make you a unicorn?" Moonlight said nothing. "No? How about a pegasus? Earth pony? Alicorn even?" Moonlight just kept eating her cake. "Can't you say something about yourself?" Moonlight finally answered. "I don't like being asked personal questions." "What about your foalhood?" "That counts as personal." Twilight realized she wasn't going to get any information out of her and sighed. "Okay, okay, change in topic, what do you think of this party?" "Meh, it's alright." "Is that all? Just 'alright'? This is Pinkie's party." "In case you haven't noticed, I don't really have much of an opinion for anything." "But everypony has their own way to think about everything." "Everypony but me." "Well, maybe I could help you with something." "Help me? With what? Finding a way to get my cloak off, or maybe getting me to spill my secrets to Equestria." "Or finding your parents," Twilight suggested, this made Moonlight stop. Moonlight spoke with a noticeable lack of monotone in exchange for nervousness, "M-my parents? Why would I want to find them?" "Haven't you ever wondered who they are? Who gave you your powers and why you have them? Why you are alone all these years?" "My parents abandoned me, they left me alone, and my powers came mysteriously, and both are the reasons I was outcasted and are the reason I'm alone." "But your powers are also the reason you met Cyber and are such good friends with him," Twilight countered. Moonlight was stuck, she looked over at the cybernetic unicorn that brought her into The Misfits, who was having a good laugh with Pinkie, Applejack, Rainbow, Mixy, and Fang. "I... I... I... I need some time to think," Moonlight then phased into her shadow realm to be relatively alone. 'What do I do, what do I say?' she thought. 'Nopony's ever asked me that question before, it's the one I can't make my way out of with a simple "yes", or "no". Still, she's a princess, and she is smart, perhaps it may be time I finally looked into things I don't know and become more social, maybe even take off my- no, not yet, explaining my foalhood to this princess maybe, but taking off my cloak, no. Still, I'll have to tell somepony someday, so I'll make it this pony and now.' with her mind made up, she phased back into the real realm and faced Twilight. "I'll tell you," she said. "But first, let's go somewhere private." "I think I may know someplace," said Twilight. Deep in the Everfree Forest just past midnight, in the Castle of the Two Sisters, Princess Twilight Sparkle arrived in the most shaded area, where she was about to be told the story of a lifetime. "Ok, I'm here!" she called out into the darkness. "Moonlight Shadow, where are you?" Shortly the familiar black cloaked pony phased in from the shadow realm. "I almost thought you wouldn't arrive," said Moonlight. "I wouldn't miss this for anything, what is your story?" "Before I begin, just Pinkie promise not to tell anypony about this." Twilight smiled and nodded. "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." "Alright then, let's start from the beginning..." using the darkness, she created a small filly, hopping around happily. "The furthest I can remember, I was curious about everything, if it looked weird, I looked at it, closely, which of course led to disastrous results," the shadow filly stopped at a nearby flower and looked at it closely before a shadow bee emerged from it and stung the filly right in the forehead before being chased into a tree hole, which the filly emerged from again being chased by an army of shadow squirrels. "So, because nature seemed to hate me, I figured that life in the city would be better, I was wrong." They rose up in the air on shadow pillars as they could see dozens of shadow ponies in a busy street, only the one that stood out was the shadow filly from before. "I was incredibly shy, I tried to blend in, and I seemed to have done a good job, because ponies didn't even seem to know I existed, until one time..." the shadow filly bumped head on into a shadow stallion, who started saying incoherent words that seemed to scare the filly. Until... BAM!! A small shadow pillar emerged from the ground and hit the pony right in the face, sending him flying and hurtling towards the ground, earning the attention of everypony there. "All those eyes on me, I couldn't bear it, it was too much for me, I wanted to get away, to understand, to learn, and to be alone, that was when this happened," shortly the shadow filly started to cry, and cry she did until finally she started to phase into her shadow as she ran away sobbing. "Soon I managed to master my powers, but using them only made things worse to get ponies to appreciate me, and I thought that they were right, since after I lost the only thing that I had from my parents, I felt like I knew nothing." "What did you lose?" asked Twilight as they returned to the ground, shortly a shadow amulet flew in front of Moonlight. "It was an amulet, it could have been opened, but I didn't know about my powers before I lost it, so I couldn't open it. And come to think of it, opening that locket was the only thing I wanted to do, truly, but since it's gone, I lost my purpose." "Not really, that locket is out there and probably so are your parents." "You really think so?" Twilight nodded. "I'll make sure that the locket will be found for you." "Oh, I guess. So, I guess this is where I say... thank you." "No problem, Moonlight." "Alright, now continuing on..." Moonlight continued as more shadows rose from the ground to take the form of a forest, with the shadow filly wandering through, only it was now a mare and walking much more sullenly. "I spent most of my time in the shadow realm, just aimlessly about, filled to the brim with depression." "But weren't you hungry? Cold? You must have had some way to survive." Moonlight shook her head. "I don't know why, but every time I came close to death, I always somehow became regenerated and fully healed, which is why I never considered suicide an option, even though depression filled me." Twilight felt sorry for the mare, she lost her parents, the remnant of her parents, and spent most of her life alone and depressed. "Moonlight, I am so sorry..." "It's alright, I have gotten used to it anyway. Now, let's move on." the shadow mare continued walking, until a large, shadow version of Princess Luna came and landed in front of the shadow mare. "Soon after you and your 'elements of harmony' defeated Nightmare Moon, I was visited by Luna who claimed she feels my pain, but at first I didn't listen, so she managed to convince me by saying there is no point in wandering Equestria, which somewhat managed to get me to go, so we teleported to Canterlot. "At Canterlot, Luna tried whatever she could to make me happy, and every time, it failed and I just sat around thinking or doing nothing even Celestia tried her part in bringing out my locked up emotions, but had just as much success. However, a month later I discovered Luna's great alicorn power, while others would feel amazed, astonished, jealous, even power hungry, I felt desirous. I asked Luna to take me someplace where I can be alone for the rest of my life. She refused, and told me to ask for something else. I countered by saying the she and Celestia wanted to make me happy, and being alone is the closest I can get to being happy." "She really fell for it?" Moonlight nodded. "Pretty much, along with several others that I don't remember. Nevertheless, in the end Luna agreed and took me to a dark place where I was alone, Luna occasionally visited me, but I just stayed in the shadow realm until she left." "Where did she send you?" "I don't know, but I didn't care, I was alone at last, and that was all that mattered to me. Even though I felt just as empty as I did before I arrived, at least I didn't have eyes staring at me." "And what made you leave?" Twilight asked, still feeling sorry for Moonlight. "Celestia came and told me that staying there was just as pointless as going to Canterlot, so I accepted, then after a few days, I met The Misfits, joined them, and here I am now. I thought that things wouldn't be different if I met The Misfits, but Cyber said some things I have never heard before. He told me that I could be who I wanted to be, and I just took the wrong path, but it is not too late to turn around and try again. Hearing this actually made me feel... happy... and comforted." Twilight couldn't help but smile and hug Moonlight, much to her surprise. "Yeah, that does sound like Cyber to me." "Right... now could you let go of me?" Twilight released Moonlight, blushing. "Er... sorry, Moonlight." "It's alright, now let's go home." "I couldn't agree more." "And Twilight?" "Yeah?" "Thanks... for this... for being here... and listening to my story." "Anything for a friend." "Yeah... we're... friends..." "Best friends, Moonlight," Twilight corrected.