I Barely Know Me

by Trinity Copper-Fox

Three: Trust the God of Chaos?

What in Equestria did I just do?

I was pacing in a small room off to the side of the main library area where everypony else was waiting for the princesses. I couldn’t be certain, but I thought maybe Discord was peeking in at me every few minutes. Either way, I was much too focused on the fact that I’d told them about my lack of memories to care. It wasn’t as though I could trust any of them farther than I could throw them—which wasn’t very far to begin with.

And yet, I had told them that I couldn’t even be sure Lunar Rainbow was my real name.

“Oh, horse feathers,” I mumbled, plodding over to the doorway. Resigning myself to think over it later, I took a hesitant step toward the group of friends only to pause on the threshold. Everypony was huddled together, whispering furiously to each other. Discord towered above them, his expression unreadable as he glanced over at me. All I could tell was this couldn’t be good.

Then he grinned and shouted, “Warning!” I cringed inwardly as he snapped, hoping he wouldn’t do anything too crazy. I ended up in the middle of the group again, this time without my cloak, and I couldn’t feel my wings at all. I looked at my back and one horror was swapped for another.

My wings were gone.

“Well, that clears that one up,” he murmured, shrugging as though he didn’t know the truth and holding my cloak in his paw. “Just as I told you.”

“Sorry ah doubted ya,” Applejack muttered, followed by similar apologies from Rainbow Dash and Rarity. Fluttershy had a smug look on her face, although it was much kinder than the cocky expression Discord was sporting. Oh, I’m gonna wipe that grin off his face, I thought. Pinkie Pie and Spike weren’t getting involved at all.

“Discord, may I speak with you alone?” I snapped, my nerve endings still searching in vain for my wings as I brushed past him. Rather than follow me back to the other room, he shrank himself down and lounged on my back as I did the walking. Once I had closed the door behind us, I bucked him off.

“Well, that was hardly polite,” he scoffed, floating in front of me, the tone of his voice at odds with the grin that spread across his face right after he finished speaking. “I believe it’s customary to apologize for rudeness.”

“Are you trying to give me a heart attack?!” I hissed, foregoing his request. “Or maybe a panic attack! Mental breakdown, perhaps?!” I would have kept going, but he zipped my lips so I couldn’t speak anymore. Instead, I huffed angrily through my nose and waited.

“When you said you’re socially inept, you weren’t kidding,” he sighed, standing now. “My dear, they were ready to make you take the cloak off anyway. Had I not acted in the manner I did, well, I’m sure you don’t want to think of that.” He snickered, snapping again. The zipper on my lips vanished before I could formulate a response and I floundered for a long moment.

“I appreciate the thought,” I ground out at length. “However, your actions have left me uncomfortable on increasing levels, and there are a few of my things which I would like to have returned to me at once.” As I spoke, I rose up on my back hooves, trying to get closer to his eye level.

“I thought you would like this ability of mine to take those off for a while,” he mused, waving his paw at me. My wings instantly unfurled and fluttered a few times on my back. “Less chance of being found out and all.”

I sighed, folding my wings against my sides again. He had a point; in fact, he was steadily turning the scolded I’ intended for him back on me. But my stubborn nature wouldn’t allow me to let him know what I thought about his valid points.

“Even so, I would prefer you don’t repeat that trick unless it’s absolutely necessary,” I grumbled at last, avoiding looking at him for some reason. “Or, you know, unless I ask you to.”

“I suppose I can agree to that,” he grinned, his face popping up on top of my muzzle. Gasping, I scrambled back and was brought up short by a tug around my neck—my cloak, which Discord still had a hold of after draping it back over me. His expression was now puzzled, back where it belonged on his head. “Don’t you trust me, Lunar?” he quipped, tying the strings on my cloak with a flourish.

“Do I have a choice?”

He just laughed, lounging in midair as I rolled my eyes and strode back into the main room after opening the door. At that same moment, all four alicorn princesses entered the library, the mayor following close behind. Celestia seemed to notice Discord’s laughter, and after sending the mayor off with a task or ten, she wandered over to stand with me.

“I do hope Discord isn’t teasing you too much,” she said in what I now realized was her usual, friendly voice. “He doesn’t quite know how to react when something or somepony catches his interest.”

“Oh, so I’m doomed,” I deadpanned, unsure if I was funny or not. “I’ll get my affairs in order tonight.” She laughed softly and I felt a tiny smile on my face. I made a joke… That feels nice…

“Who will the beneficiaries be?” she asked as the other princesses walked toward us.

“Orphans. Who else does a pony with no family or friends give their things to when they die?” I murmured, stepping back slightly as the others walked up. “There are more important things to discuss, though.”

“She’s right,” Twilight interjected. “We need to figure out what to do about this Nightmare Light pony.”

“I forgot her,” Luna frowned, lowering her head. “And when I remembered, I thought she’d been destroyed. I should have tried to find her…” She shook her head and looked at Twilight.

“Just how dangerous is she?” Rainbow Dash asked, hovering over to us.

“When I was Nightmare Moon, I created her to be my successor. She would have all the Shadow Magick that you removed from me. That way, if anything happened to me, she could ensure the sanctity of my plans.” Luna shook her head again, her face scrunching up in thought. “I’d thought the Elements of Harmony had undone her existence, but it seems they simply pushed her into dormancy.”

“So, we got no way of defeatin’ her now,” Applejack surmised, seeming slightly dejected. “The Elements bein’ in that tree an’ all at the moment.”

“Now, I do believe you’ve all forgotten about me,” Discord chuckled, rising out of the floor in the middle of our group. “Does nopony remember how I scared her off last night?”

“That’s true,” Pinkie Pie chimed in, bouncing a bit too close to my side, making me step away to avoid her jostling my wing. “He also stopped her from blasting us by grabbing her horn!”

“Celestia blinked at Pinkie, then looked up at Discord quizzically. “You can negate Shadow Magick with that old trick of yours? I thought it was just alicorn magick and unicorn magic.”

“That trick works on any kind of magic, Celestia, but I’m afraid I can’t successfully use it on her again for a long while,” he responded, sighing as he stepped between Pinkie and I. “Since she is an alicorn, she developed a resistance to it, which can last anywhere from a month to a year. However, I can negate Shadow Magick in other ways as long as there is sunlight.”

“But how can that help at night?” Luna asked, appearing slightly flustered from what I was seeing. “It isn’t as though we can keep her from showing up again.” Her eyes seemed to say that they shouldn’t keep her out of Ponyville, even if they could.

“We can instate a curfew until she’s defeated,” Twilight suggested, looking to Celestia for confirmation. “Keep the citizens inside at night until we’re certain she won’t return.”

“Yes, that would certainly be a helpful temporary solution,” Celestia agreed, watching curiously as discord started messing around with my mane as he’d done the previous day. “Twilight, I’ll trust you and your friends to arrange and enforce the curfew from sunset to dawn, effective immediately. You will each have two guards with you at all times, which your brother will arrange as soon as he can be sent for.”

“Actually, he and a few troops are already on their way here,” Princess Cadance interjected, draping one of her forelegs around Twilight’s shoulders. “I flew here ahead of them. He can make that decision once they get here.”

“Sister, I would like to set up lodging here in Ponyville,” Luna said, turning toward Celestia. “I must be here to assist in reforming Nightmare Light. Regardless of how she came into being, she is my daughter. If we can strip the Shadow Magick out of her, she might just transubstantiate as I did.”

Everypony looked shocked by her request, except for Celestia, who simply smiled. “Of course, sister,” she murmured. “Do you have a suggestion of how we might go about reforming her?”

“Not yet. I will be able to form a plan once I see her again.”

“In that case, I suggest we all arrange for what is to come. I must return to Canterlot for a few hours, but I will return before I have to set the sun. While I’m gone, Luna will oversee arrangements here.”

With that, Princess Celestia headed toward the front door, but paused to look at me before she left, her eyes swimming with curiosity. “I will see you all soon.”

My heart stuttered as she left, the idea that she might know swirling in my mind.

---

I’m running. They don’t know that I’m an alicorn yet, so I’m running. They’ll never know because I’m running.

Suddenly, my leg is in that cast again, my cloak is gone, I’m clinging to that letter in my teeth, and I’m flying. My past has caught up to me, so I’m flying. They’re all chasing me because they found out, so I’m flying. Voices I haven’t heard in years are screaming from the mob behind me.

“She’s the one!”

“What are you planning?!”

“Get her!”

A one-fanged grin looms ahead of me and I’m caught. Several ropes coil around my midsection, snapping bones in my wings. I scream, and so many faces grin at my pain. A strong paw and claws slip around my throat, squeezing.

“No, let go!” I sob before the constriction on my throat begins to prevent speech.

“My dear Lunar Rainbow,” Discord chuckles, his face the only thing I can see clearly, my lungs straining for air, I’m dying. “Don’t you trust me?"

“NO!” I cried, kicking at the black mass twisted around my body. I was gasping for air as I finally got it off me, and I realized where I was.

I was in my big, cold bed, the blanket now a shapeless heap on the floor. I’d come home, exhausted, just before sunset, with Discord as my escort. I saw the sliver of the moon through my balcony door, then the box holding the evidence of my past.

My left foreleg tucked itself closer to my body of its own accord, the nerves tingling under my skin. The black sheet I’d had draped over the box for the past few years was lying, neatly folded, nearby. Feeling very much like a coward, unable to face the past, I draped the sheet over the box with my magick as the first hot tear leaked from my eyes.

Author's Note:

In case you haven't noticed, there are three different ways I'm representing magic now: Magic, which is going to be used to refer to unicorns using it, as well as a general substitute when ponies are talking about magic with no particular kind in mind; magick, with a k at the end, to refer to alicorn magick; and Magick, with the k and a capital m for Shadow Magick. These different reference ideas is mostly for my own peace of mind going forward. If you would like me to change it in the first two chapters, let me know.
Anyway, the spelling is derived from Wicca, as magick is used in the religion to refer to real magick, where as magic is used to represent the fake stuff you see in movies and such. So, yeah. Enjoy~
~Trinity Copper-Fox

Comments

[Mad Maudlin]

Well, this is an interesting turn. I look forward to finding out why Discord is being so friendly. Or did he just add Lunar to the his Friends list 'because'?