I Barely Know Me

by Trinity Copper-Fox

Eight: The Great Pretender

I awoke to the throbbing pain of a burn on my hind leg, trying to remember the dream I’d had. An image surfaced of Discord carrying me. I shook the thought away, convinced that it couldn’t have actually happened.

When I shifted to get up, I found my leg had been bandaged carefully and Discord was there, pacing restlessly. He didn’t notice when I rolled out of bed, my hooves dropping down silently to the carpet. Holding my injured leg up, I padded toward the trunk across the room. Just as I reached it, he turned and saw me.

“Lunar!” he cried, lifting me up. “You should have told me you were awake.”

“Put me down,” I muttered, ducking my head. “I need to get my things.”

“What do you need, I’ll get them for you,” he responded, cradling me in one arm as he stooped to open my trunk.

“Discord, please, I can walk. Put me down.”

He hesitated, glaring resolutely into the trunk before he finally sighed and set me back on my hooves.

“Don’t push yourself,” he demanded, standing and crossing his arms. “You could catch yourself a fever if you’re not careful.”

“I’ll be fine,” I insisted, and I gathered bandages and a small jar of burn cream, storing them in my saddlebags. “I have work to do.”

“Not really. You can afford to take a sick day.”

“Maybe I could, but…” I hesitated as a thought hit me. “Discord, what happened when she attacked last night?”

He shrank down to my height, looking away. “Nightmare Light made a direct attack against Princess Luna. The Mayor initiated evacuation.”

The blood drained from my face and I dropped my hind leg, testing my weight on it. The pain radiated up to my hip and I winced.

“Lunar—”

“I’m fine!” I snapped, spreading my wings and lifting up off the ground. “I have to—”

In an instant, I was outside, draped in my cloak with my saddlebags in place. Discord was holding me in his arms, my legs folded under my body with my injured one dangling in the open air. I frowned up at his unreadable expression.

“Discord, you’re supposed to warn me before you do that.”

“I don’t have to if you’re hurting yourself!” he snapped, tightening his arms around me. “I refuse to watch you hurt yourself.”

“Discord.”

“Lunar, please—”

“Promise me you aren’t going to do that again.”

“No.”

“Discord, promise.”

“Lunar…”

“I need you to promise me.”

His eyes squeezed shut and a low rumble sounded in his chest. “Alright. I promise. But only so long as you’re not pushing yourself too hard.”

“Alright,” I acquiesced, checking my saddlebags; he’d packed my ink, quill, and parchments for me. “Now, we have to get to Ponyville.”

---

Ponyville itself was almost entirely deserted. The last few pony residents were straggling into the entrances of the bunker, carrying more than they probably should have stopped to get. Each family stopped by the entrance to give their name to whoever was stationed there, which Pinkie Pie was frantically checking against the town census in her head—she had apparently been running between all the entrances all night to do this.

“Is everypony in the bunker?” I asked her as I limped up to where she was trotting, running out of steam.

“Oh, just about,” she panted. “There’s only five families left, and it looks like they’re heading in now.”

“Good. Where’s the Mayor? And the princesses?”

“The Mayor went into the bunker about an hour ago to start getting ponies settled in. Celestia, Luna, and Cadance went to Canterlot to fetch a few more platoons from the Royal Guard barracks. Isn’t that a funny word? Platoon. Plaaaaa-tooooooon. Pla-tooooon. Pla—”

“Pinkie Pie.”

She stopped, grinning sheepishly at me. “Sorry. I had to relieve the tension.”

“I know. Where are your friends now?”

“They’re stationed at the entrances helping…oh, shoot, there’s Spoiled Rich with her entire house loaded on a wagon. I better go sort this out.” She picked up speed, galloping over to where the Rich family was causing a scene at the smallest entrance. I tried to follow, but I planted my injured hoof and instantly lost my breath.

Discord appeared at my side as I gnashed my teeth. “Lunar, perhaps you should—”

“I’m fine,” I snapped, hobbling toward the entrance. “I’m going into the bunker to help.”

By the time I got there, Filthy Rich had gone with Applejack, headed for the largest entrance with the wagon, and Spoiled Rich and her daughter had descended into the bunker.

---

Getting everypony settled in quickly became hectic; I limped around as fast as I could, but I soon realized that I had to walk normally. Each step sent fire up my leg, but I fought through the pain. Dusty Geode and the Mayor had done most of the work arranging the businesses around the main hub of the bunker, but the residential rooms were chaos.

“Discord, you’re not going to be any help here,” I muttered, looking at the list of residents and the map of the bunker at the same time. He’d been hovering the entire time, trying to keep everypony away from me. “Go check in with the princesses.”

He hesitated, but complied, vanishing after a moment.

I spent the next hour checking in with as many families as I could. Occasionally, a foal would scream and run headlong into me, shooting pain through my body. I was sweating and panting by the time Spoiled Rich stomped up to me, her snout in the air, and demanded a private suite for her family, complete with plumbing.

“All toilets are composting and water is to be conserved, ma’am,” I huffed, looking over the list again. “Dusty Geode has already dealt with your husband and assigned you the most private living quarters available.”

“And where are his living quarters?” she sneered, stretching to her fullest height—a couple inches shorter than my relaxed stance. I responded by lifting my head up and looking down at her over my snout.

“Dusty Geode has opened his home to you and the whole of the town. You will respect him and you will respect me as a representative of the government. Do you understand?”

“Oh, alright,” she hissed and held out about a dozen bits. “How’s this?”

I sighed, stepping around her and moving on. She must have stuck out a hoof as I was passing, because the fire flared up, radiating up to my spine. My vision dimmed and a strangled scream ripped up my throat as all four of my legs gave out.

Then Discord was there, a strange mix of concern and fury on his face. I moved to arrange my legs under me again, taking a breath to say I’m fine! again, but he put his claw on my forehead and the bunker faded to a gray blur behind my eyelids.

When I was properly aware of my surroundings again, Discord had carried me to the cavern of the bunker that had been allocated to the Ponyville doctors. The veterinarian was also given a portion of the cavern to care for animals, but the majority of those present were a few doctors and the nursing staff. I was laid out on one of the gurneys, and I couldn’t feel my wings.

Discord was sure to have them, of course, and since a doctor was examining my leg, I didn’t say anything. I spotted Discord by my side, holding onto my cloak and saddlebags.

“Lunar Rainbow, you should have come straight to us when this happened,” the doctor was saying, drawing my attention to him. He had his horn lit, casting some sort of healing spell over my leg. “Where did you get the burn cream that you put on this?”

“I don’t remember,” I lied, remembering exactly the night I’d stolen it from a clinic near Manehattan. “I’ve had it a while.”

“Well, wherever it’s been stored wasn’t the right place.” He took the jar—which had been sitting on the table next to me till now—and showed me the surface of the cream. “It grew something and an infection could have set in.”

I blanched and heard a strangled sound from Discord. “I’ll keep that in mind,” I muttered. My leg was starting to feel better now.

“I’d like you to stay here for observation, but we don’t have quite the facilities required for that,” the doctor continued. “At the very least, you should stay in the bunker for a few days. Stay where everypony can keep an eye on you.”

“Right,” I muttered, looking away as he smoothed some properly sterilized burn cream over my wound and bandaged my leg.

“Keep off that leg,” he demanded when Discord helped me down. “That bandage should hold until tomorrow, but anything can happen. Stay nearby.”

“Thank you,” I murmured, bowing my head and keeping my leg up.

I avoided Discord’s eyes as he helped me with my things—the bad jar of burn cream caught fire for a moment before the doctors glared at him. Once he was behaving again, I started hobbling out of the area, forcing him to follow after me as I sought out Dusty Geode and the Mayor. I updated them on the situation with the residents and warned them about Spoiled Rich before heading out of the bunker to check in with the princesses.

Today, they gathered in the too-quiet Town Hall, guard ponies swarming through the empty town.

“Lunar Rainbow,” Celestia called as I stumbled into the building. “Nightmare Light was injured last night, are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” I replied, ignoring Discord’s huff of disagreement. “I just saw the doctor about it. More importantly, I got the residents mostly settled into the bunker. Dusty and the Mayor got all the businesses taken care of and will be continuing to settle the rest of the ponies tonight.”

“Thank you, Lunar. Please, take time to rest and heal.”

The princesses went on to discuss other topics and I sat, resting on my haunches, near the door with Discord.

“You’re staying tonight, right?” he asked, quietly, shrinking down to sit in my mane by my ear.

“I can’t,” I murmured, batting at him with a hoof when the claws of his crocodile leg started to dig into my coat. He flashed to sit in front of me, hunching over to force me to meet his eyes.

“Lunar, the doctor told you to stay in Ponyville,” Discord insisted. “It’s for your safety. Just this one night.”

“For the last time,” I hissed, trying to avoid drawing the attention of the other ponies, “I can’t do that. You know why I can’t.”

“You realize I could force you to stay,” he intoned, his claw gripping my chin and tilting my head up. “I’ve been quite patient with you all this time.”

“You could,” I agreed, jerking my head away. “But you made me a promise you wouldn’t. And your friends won’t allow you to break a promise, will they?”

Something dark clouded his expression, making it completely unreadable. A chill overtook me and I found myself unable to move.

“Some things are more important than promises.”

Before I could blink, my cloak was ripped off of me, along with my saddlebags. I felt every eye in the room zero in on my back—my wings, puffing up against the sudden cold air that rushed to meet them. All conversation died in that instant, and I realized as tears pricked my eyes that I had made that crucial mistake again.

I had trusted somepony.

Author's Note:

Bet Y'all thought I was gonna take another 2-year break, didn't you? Nope! I'm planning on finishing the story this time! Getting pretty close to the end, so I feel like I can do it. Also, I'm a little surprised at the number of people reading this after actually looking at some of the stats. Thanks for reading! Enjoy!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

BLOOPER

“Dusty Geode has opened his home to you and the whole of the town. You will respect him and you will respect me as a representative of the government. Do you understand?”

“Oh, alright,” she hissed and held out about a dozen bits. “How’s this?”

I glanced to either side and swiped the bits. "Between the flower stand and the Cakes' settup, there's a path to a large, empty cavern. Don't let anypony see you."

"CUT!"