I Barely Know Me

by Trinity Copper-Fox

Five: What's a Prepper?

I awoke groggily the next morning, a burning pain along my right foreleg. Groaning, I rolled off my bed. It was a mistake to put my right foreleg down first as I instantly crumpled in a heap in a pool of blood.

I looked at my leg and saw blood soaked bandages wrapped around it. Trying to remember what had happened last night, I removed the bandages to reveal three long gashes. All I could remember from the night before was that Discord had led me home after finding me in the Everfree Forest. The rest was blank, for it had seemed that I had instantly been waking up from sleep.

I stood again, this time keeping my right foreleg off the ground entirely. It took me a moment to remember how to walk with only three legs, but I got to my first-aid kit. Granted, of course, my first-aid kit was more extensive than would be found in most ponies’ homes, but I hadn’t been to a doctor in years. I examined the injury and determined that my leg wasn’t broken but that some of my muscle tissue had been damaged. It would be a while before I could walk on it again; were I to try to walk on it again now and continue to, it wouldn’t heal right and I'd have a limp for the foreseeable future.

As I wrapped my leg, it struck me that the gashes looked like scratches from some bird of prey. My suspicions instantly arose; I knew only one pony with an eagle claw large enough to cause this kind of carnage. Or, rather, one draconequus.

I didn't like that thought and pushed it away, wrapping the bandages extra tight and digging for the sling I knew I had buried in the bottom of the box. Once I found it, it took some adjustments to fit it to my right leg rather than my left. I stretched my hoof in different directions, a routine to help prevent stiffness, and calculated that a week would be a good rough estimate for how long I should wait to walk on it.

My cloak, I found, had been left in a heap on the floor by the door to the balcony. Why had I done that? I always made sure to hang up my cloak in the front closet. I tried to piece together what might have happened the previous night as I packed parchment and a bottle of ink into my saddlebags, but to no avail. I stuck my quill delicately into my mane and, while looking over myself in the mirror, I thought I saw my eyes flicker green for a split second.

---

Ponyville wasn’t entirely crazy when I got there, but there were quite a few ponies wanting to speak with me. Spike had been gathering information from ponies up until my arrival in town.

“Hey, do you want me to go with you and help you out?” he offered, looking over his list of information one more time. “I scribe for Twilight all the time.”

“Oh, uh, Spike, thanks,” I responded. “But, actually, I think you should probably stay here in case other ponies come looking for me.” I took the list he’d already made and gave him a new parchment, turning to go, and I paused. “Hey, let Discord know I’m here if you see him,” I muttered, half hoping he didn’t hear me, and trotted down the lane.

I didn’t know why I said that. But, either way, I headed to the first place on the list: Golden Oaks Library. The construction was coming along. The earth ponies on the project had finished regrowing the section of tree that had been blasted away, and the unicorns were working on restructuring the interior.

“We’re going to be using materials from the inside to rebuild the balcony,” a pegasus explained, concluding a status report he was giving me. “We should be done in a couple days.” I wrote down the last detail and offered my quill for his signature. Once he signed it, I replaced the quill in my mane and rolled the scroll.

“I'll get this report to the princesses before the end of the day.”

“Thank you,” he replied, turning to continue overseeing the construction.

I moved on to the next pony on my list; next was a young mare who wanted to know if the princesses were setting up any form of evacuation plan. I made a note of it and told her that I’d make sure that a plan was created and posted in Town Hall in the next day or two. Trotting along, I crossed her off the list and noted the name underneath.

The third pony on my list was a kid—I came across a pair of colts at the orphanage who wanted to know if there would be a safe place for them and the rest of the orphans to go if needed. I smiled at them.

“Of course,” I murmured, “we’ve already got an evacuation plan in the works. I will personally ensure that you kids are safe.”

“Thanks, Miss Rainbow,” the taller of the two said. “I’m sure glad that you’re around for all this.”

I didn’t let on that I had my reluctance to be a part of the crisis in Ponyville. My dislike of the situation didn’t matter when children were involved. “I should be going. I have more ponies to meet with and reports to give. I’ll come back and check on you when I can.” Waving my injured hoof just a bit, I turned to head for the next pony on my list. I was a little ways down the lane when I was interrupted.

“Oh, dear!” an irritatingly familiar voice cried. I sighed and turned to see Discord looking upset. “Oh, your leg!”

I looked down at my bandaged leg in it’s sling and shook my head. “I don’t know how it happened. I woke up, and my leg was…well, not exactly shredded, but there’s some deep muscle damage.” I eyed his claws suspiciously, as he was clutching them close to his chest.

“Lunar, I’m sorry. I hate to say it, but what’s happened to your leg is…my fault.”

“What?” I hissed, taking a few quick steps away. “How—”

“I didn’t mean to harm you!” he instantly backtracked. “Nightmare Light was here, and I was fighting her, but she’d put an…enchantment on you. She said that any harm that came to her would be matched on you, but I had already…”

“Oh,” I mumbled, though I wasn’t entirely sure what to believe. “Alright. I, uh…”

“How was your night?” Discord interjected, trying to undo the unpleasant moment he’d created.

“Ah, well, fine,” I evaded. “I, uh…went to bed early. It’s a wonder this leg didn’t wake me up.” Discord seemed to shrink at that comment. “Do you, uh, want to join me? I’ve got two more places to go before I check in with Spike.”

“Of course!” Discord brightened, snapping his fingers. My list was suddenly gone, and he was holding it up in front of his face. “Where to?”

“I don’t know,” I muttered, raising an eyebrow at him. “I was just crossing off the last ponies. Now I don’t have the list.” He laughed, and I smiled as he held the list out to me.

---

Discord and I picked up a quick to-go lunch on our way back to where Spike was stationed at Town Hall. As I made my way over to Spike, I spotted a gray pegasus stallion pacing nearby. He didn’t notice me right away, but his dusty ocher tail was periodically flicking like a whip.

“Ah, Lunar Rainbow,” Spike called when he spotted me—he’d been watching the stallion, too. “Did you find everypony on your list?”

“Yeah,” I responded, sitting down next to him. “I've got their reports and requests. Has anypony else come by yet?”

“Well, there’s that stallion over there,” he offered as I passed him a basket of hay fries. “Other than that, nopony’s come by since you left.”

“Hmm,” I mumbled as I bit into my sandwich. Discord shrank himself and his food down and perched on my head to eat. “If I find crumbs in my hair tonight, I’m kicking your butt into next week.”

“Fine,” Discord pouted, flashing to my side instead. “Be that way.”

“I will be that way.”

“Hey, are you the unicorn liaison to the princesses?” the stallion called, finally noticing us and approaching.

“Yes. Go ahead, I’m listening.” I pulled out a fresh scroll and my quill. “What can I help you with?”

“Name’s Dusty Geode,” he introduced himself as I started taking notes. “I’ve been working on a project for many years which I think will be of interest to the princesses. I’ve been working on it since before Luna’s return. It’s pretty well constructed, if I say so myself.”

“Wonderful!” Discord enthused, before continuing dryly, “What is it?”

“A large underground structure, reinforced with steel and magical inscriptions. It’s called a bunker. I had originally designed it large enough for only a couple families, but expanded on the design. It is currently large enough to hold everypony from a city as large as Canterlot.”

“Why would anypony need to fit a whole city underground?” Spike balked while Discord just started laughing uncontrollably. I frowned, casually tossing a few pebbles in his direction.

“Oh, my goodness!” Discord finally burst out. “Lunar, he’s a prepper! Oh, I didn’t know that they existed here in Equestria!”

“What is a prepper,” Dusty Geode sneered, “and why does it sound like an insult?”

“I don’t know,” I replied, turning back to look at him. “Ignore Discord, he’s insane. Please, Dusty, tell me more about your bunker and why the princesses should know about it.”

“Surely you must be working on some form of evacuation plan? The thought is that the residents of Ponyville can evacuate into the bunker in case of an emergency. There are entrances all over town, and—”

“Oh, this is wonderful!” I gushed suddenly before clearing my throat and calming down. “Of course, the princesses will be extremely interested in this development. I’m going to stop you there, though, and I will report this to the princesses in my next meeting with them. Come here tomorrow and I’ll let you know what we can start planning.”

“Of course, wouldn’t want to give away all my secrets right away,” Dusty laughed, looking around now. “I’ll be here at noon tomorrow, alright?”

“Absolutely.” I paused, thinking back on the two young colts. “I think, from what I’ve been dealing with today, that the first thing to be done is to move the orphans from the orphanage into the bunker.”

“Right,” Dusty smiled before trotting away. Discord harrumphed at his back, and I kicked him.

---

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. Discord tried to explain what a “prepper” was—a paranoid pony who spent their time preparing for the decline of society or the end of the world, or whatever. I didn’t get it. A few ponies came by asking about emergency evacuation plans and I told them we were working on it. There was one mare that wanted to protest the curfew, but she seemed to have been drinking, so I sent her home. Finally, it was time to join the princesses and make my report.

Discord decided to hitch a ride in the ends of my mane as I followed Spike into Town Hall, where the princesses and Twilight Sparkle’s friends had gathered in one of the conference rooms. I glanced around and wondered whether this was really a safe place for all four princesses of Equestria to gather in the present situation.

“So it’s true!” I heard Twilight gasp as I entered the conference room, and my eyes zeroed in on her. “Nightmare Light did put an enchantment on you.”

“I’ve had worse,” I said, glancing down at the leg in its sling. “Just needs some time to heal.”

“We’ll have to work on a counter spell to remove it,” Celestia commented, nodding her head. “For now, can you report what’s been going on in Ponyville?”

“Right, well,” I began as Discord disentangled himself from my mane and took his place by Luna. Spike was next to Twilight, and everyone was present, so I settled myself into the open seat. “I got a progress report from the ponies working on rebuilding the library, and that seems to be coming along well. It seems that the main concern of the town thus far is the formation of an evacuation plan. I don’t know how much you may have planned, but I was approached by one stallion named Dusty Geode about the use of his…bunker. It’s a steel-reinforced underground structure capable of housing the inhabitants of a city the size of Canterlot. With your permission, I’d like to work with him on the plan. My first move would be to have the local orphans and their caretakers moved down into the bunker. He said he’d meet me at noon outside of Town Hall again tomorrow.”

“Of course,” Luna replied, taking the scrolls I offered as Twilight took the one about the library. “The Mayor and Prince Shining Armor will join you at that time to work out the plans. Once you've mapped out the evacuation plan, Celestia and I would like to inspect the magical protections and make sure there's enough.”

“I will be joining them tomorrow, too!” Discord interjected, throwing his claw up in the air like a school pony. “I don’t trust this Dusty Geode fellow, so I am going to be there as well.”

“Very well.”

The meeting continued, the princesses going over some ideas of how to defeat Nightmare Light without harming her, ideas on setting a trap for her. After several ideas fell through because of one detail or another, Discord became disruptive and the princesses kicked him out of the room with him picking me up and taking me with him.

“Discord, what the hay are you doing?” I asked dryly as he started out toward the streets.

“Lunar, do you think it’s a good idea for you to be staying alone in that tower in the woods?” he asked suddenly. “Surely, it would be better for you to be somewhere where you could remain under protection.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you’d be much safer here in Ponyville. Maybe you should stay here for a while.”

“Are you serious?” I laughed, squirming until he set me down. “I can’t stay here. I mean, really, I couldn’t sleep here. You get that, right?”

“Well…”

“No, Discord, I have to go home. Staying here…”

He frowned at me a moment, then nodded, and walked me back to my tower.

Author's Note:

I'm so bad at being active. I'm sorry~ But here! New chapter! Yay! I do get busy, and I have a lot to deal with too, so yeah. Thanks for not giving up on me!