Acid and Dox stand outside of a small brick school. Parents say goodbye to their kids before leaving them at the school. The kids group up with each other as they wait outside for the day to start. Dox is huddeling himself into Acid's side, with Acid's arm wrapped around his neck. Dox looks around at the kids nervously as his body shakes.
"It's all right Dox," Acid says, looking down at him as he gently squeezes Dox's neck. Dox looks up at Acid with worry. He goes to question the validity of Acid's statement, but is interrupted by Acid. "Trust me, a lot of ponies will call you names and will see you as different, but try and find someone who doesn't." Acid says, letting go of Dox and turning to face him directly. "It might take some time, but someone will come up to you and say hi," Acid finishes with a big smile. Dox smiles and confidently nods his head in agreement. "I'll see you at two, all right?"
"Yes," Dox replies.
"Have a good day, squirt," Acid says before walking away. Dox turns and walks up to the group of kids by the school entrance. Acid looks back in worry as students already start to judge the little guy. Acid turns away and takes a deep breath to try and calm down his instinct to go back and grab Dox away from the school.
"He'll be fine," Acid whispers to himself. "I hope,"
(Time Skip)
Acid sits at his desk in his lab with a silver necklace, like the one Celestia and Luna wear around their neck. Embedded into the necklace is a blue crystal with wires haphazardly attached to different circuit boards. Acid grunts in anger as he stares down the necklace. His hooves press against his temples as he leans his elbow on the table.
"Why will you not work!" Acid yells out. He slumps his head against the desk as he lets his hooves go limp. He quickly sits back up as a terrible realization starts to wash over him.
"What if I can't fix this? What if I was never able to actually make stuff and was just taking other ponies stuff and frankensteining them together and hoped it would work?!" Acid's heart starts to race as he starts to panic. "What if I'm not actually good at this? What if my cutie mark means something else?!" Acid stands up and looks back at his flask cutie mark. "Ok Acid, pull yourself together," Acid says as he takes a deep breath. "I'll go on a walk and think about it… ya, that's what I'll do," Acid nods to himself as he makes his way to the door.
He opens the door and walks out into the hallway before closing the door and walking down the hallway. His metal horseshoes are clanking against the ground, echowing out into the empty, dark hallway. The hallway is lit by the torches placed along the walls. He takes a few deep breaths as he walks along the hallway with windows lining the right side. He looks outside the window to see the moon almost all the way up.
A calm washes over his body as he looks up at the shimmering white orb in the sky. The bright light reflecting into his eyes, dimming the stars dotting the sky away from vision. He stops and stares up at the moon with a small smile on his face as his heart rate slows down.
"Acid?" Acid jumps a bit before turning to see Luna walking up to him.
"Princess Luna," Acid says with a smile as he calms his racing heart. He gives a little bow as she walks over. Her blue mane shimmers in the light of the moon like the stars in the night sky. "What are you doing out of the throne room?"
Luna smiles before replying, "We felt a disturbance within the castle. We followed the feeling until we found you," Luna explains.
"Oh," Acid replies. "What does that mean?"
"We felt you were having a problem," Luna replies back.
"I'm fine, trust me," Acid replies, turning to look back up at the moon. Luna sighs and looks up at her moon in the sky.
"We know you are lying, but we will not force you to speak," Luna says as Acid sighs to himself. "But you must remember, we are here to help you,"
Acid closes his eyes as he takes a deep breath in before slowly releasing it out of his mouth in a sigh. "I've been having problems coming up with fixes and new ideas lately."
"Sounds like stress," Luna replies softly.
"It's more than that I think," Acid looks down at the ground as his eyes wander the ground. Luna stays staring up at the night sky as she patiently waits for him to answer his own problem. "I've been feeling like I've never truly made anything, that all my ideas come from others. I feel like I don't matter," Acid finishes as his ears flop against his head. Luna slowly takes a breath in before letting out slowly into a sigh.
"We know that feeling all to well,"
"You do?" Acid asks, looking over at her.
"Yes, we too once felt useless, like we did not matter," Luna says, looking down at him. "We were jealous of our older sister getting all the attention, and felt like we only got the attention we got because our sister was there," Acid looks up at Luna with sadness in his eyes.
"What happened?"
"We tried to take the throne for ourselves. We were rightfully punished with a thousand years in the moon," Luna finishes with a small smile. "We then released when we came back that we were loved, that ponies who once feared us now admire us for our hardship. If you are to take anything away, please do not fall into self hate and jealousy,"
"Trust me, I won't," Acid replies, placing a hoof over his heart.
"It is not that simple Acid," Luna replies as Acid lowers his hoof back down. "Hating oneself is easy, but self love is much harder. It is easy to wallow in hating the world for your misfortunes. The world does make things hard, all because you were born," Luna explains. " But do not hate the world just because it hates you,"
"Wait," Acid thinks for a second as the gears in his head start to work again.
"What is Acid?" Luna asks, tilting her head slightly to the right.
"I know what you are putting down," Acid pauses before going on. "But I just got an idea from your little speech,"
"Do tell us," Luna responds with a small smile on her face.
"The problem I was having with the teleportation necklace was not having enough power supplied for sustained teleportation," Acid starts explaining as he scratches his chin. "But if I use the pony wearing it as the magic source, I can suck the needed amount of magic out of them and into the crystal before expelling it into the spell and releasing it back into the environment!" Acid yells out in excitement as his tail wags back in fourth in happiness.
"What are you waiting for, get to it," Luna replies.
"Thanks Princess!" Acid yells as he turns around and runs down the hallway. His mind rushing with ideas for new set schematics. Luna smiles as she watches him turn down the hallway and vanish.
(Time Skip)
"And that's when I got the idea," Acid explains to Moon as they walk along the stone brick road of Canterlot.
"Sounds like it was a productive day," Moon replies with a smile.
"Not really, The schematics work in theory, but I still have to test them," Acid replies as the two walk up to the gate entrance to the small school. Kids are running to their parents and hugging them and chattering as the pair look for Dox. Their smiles quickly turn to frowns as Dox walks out of the school with a frown on his face and tears streaming down his face. Acid and Moon instinctively rush over to him as Dox sits down on the stairs.
"Dox, what's wrong?" Acid asks as he sits down next to Dox. Moon sits down on Dox's other side. Acid gently wrapping an arm around Dox's back while placing his other hoof on Dox's shoulder. Dox leans into Acid as he hiccups, more tears flowing out as he sniffles.
Moon's eyes glisten with tears as she looks at Dox in pain. She blinks them away before sliding her arm around Dox's back and placing a hoof on his leg. "Sshhh, it's all right, we're here now," Moon coos into Dox's ear as she gently rubs his back. Dox slowly calms down as the tears dry onto his face.
"What happened?" Acid asks again once Dox had calmed down a bit.
"They called me names and laughed at me," Dox says, his voice cracking as he speaks.
"What did they call you?" Acid asks.
"T-they called me an evil love sucking bug that s-should go crawling-back to the hive," Dox says as tears fill his eyes. "They laughed at me for wanting to join in their games,"
"Did anyone show any compassion?" Acid asks. Dox shakes his head in respouns. Acid sighs in sympathetic pain.
"Dox," Moon says as she gently places a hoof against Dox's cheek before turning his head to look at her. She looks down at him with pain in her own eyes. "I know it's easier said than done, but you have to ignore their taunting and teasing. They don't understand." Moon says before gently rubbing away Dox's tears. Dox looks up at Moon with a slight sparkle in his eyes.
"I was once called names, bullied, left out." Moon starts as she looks down at the ground. "I was told to leave, to crawl back into the cave I came from. I was even physically abused by not just my fellow ponies, but by my own mother," Moon replies as Dox looks at Moon in slight shock and sadness. "But one day a unicorn stood up for me," Moon says, looking down at Dox with a small smile. "He failed spectacularly, but it was the thought that counted. We were great friends," Moon takes a deep breath before sighing. "But I had to leave to move down to Ponyville with my mother, and the bullying happened again,"
Moon flinches a bit before looking down to see Dox hugging tightly against her leg. Tears ran down his face as he nuzzled into her leg. Moon's eyes start to tear up as her heart beats a bit faster. She wraps an arm around Dox's body before hugging him back. "Thank you Mom," Dox says as Acid watches with a small smile on his face. Moon's heart skips a beat at being called mom.
"Ya," Moon nods in agreement. "No problem Dox," Moon says as Dox pulls away. "What I was saying was, find something or someone you love, and don't let the world take it from you. No matter how much others hate you for it." Moon explains as Acid stands up.
"I think I understand," Dox replies as he stands up. Moon smiles as she stands up with them.
"Let's go home and eat," Acid says. Dox smiles as he hops off the stairs and runs to the gate. Moon and Acid walking after him side by side. "You're a true mother now," Acid says, looking up at the Moon. On her face was a content smile plastered cleanly across.
"Ya, I guess I am a mother now," Moon replies, looking down at Acid before wrapping a wing around Acid's back and pulling him closer to her. Acid smiles bigger as he nuzzles into her body.