In a time known as Never, the Forgotten roam. The Lost gaze at the ever-present moons hanging in the dark sky. They all think back and wish that they were Remembered.

Celestia awoke with a stab of pain. A humanoid shape with midnight black feathered wings was poking her with its claws. Her scream was quickly stifled with a clawed hand over her mouth.
“Poor, poor girl,” the trees seemed to whisper. No wait, they really were whispering, about her! Celestia listened harder.
“Soon she will be a Forgotten just like usssss…” They trailed off into a swishing of leaves. Celestia wrenched the hand off her mouth and choked out, “Who are you? Is this a nightmare…” The creature opened its mouth and spoke with the voice of a young girl, “You are here because no one Remembers you, here is where the Forgotten things go. Did you have any friends, did you know anyone?”
Celestia answered, “All my life I’ve felt different than everyone else, in my heart I’ve never been quite human. I felt like I was something else, so I never really fit in. Everybody stopped paying attention to me, the teachers stopped calling on me. And then my mom died and that’s all I can remember.”
“Oh,” the creature sighed. “Then after 3 nights you will join us and be Forgotten… unless…”
“Unless what?”
“Unless you can find yourself.“
Celestia pondered this for a moment, then made up her mind. “Let’s start searching.”

They walked along for some time until they came to the Vanished Waters.
“I’m Annie, what’s your name?” said the creature.
“Celestia. How did you get here?” Celestia asked, dipping her toes in the waters.
“Oh that’s a pretty name,” Annie replied. “Where I came from, my dad does voodoo for the townspeople to cure their ailments and the Moon Mother told my dad to tie me up and throw me in a lake to make amends for his unnatural spells. If he had done that, I’d still be human, but instead he kept me so the Moon Mother brought me here…”
“How did you become, umm…” She trailed off, gazing at Annie’s strange form, the silhouette of her dark wings.
“I dreamt of angels all my life, and so I became one.” Annie said, stepping into the moonlight. Only now could Celestia see the grace she possessed, she did look like an angel.
“Does everyone become an angel here?”
“No, there are fairies and mermaids, elves and centaurs, each with an aura of darkness like me.”
Bong Bong! A powerful gong-like sound boomed out in the distance.
“That’s the Beals,” Annie said in response to Celestia’s unspoken question. “They ring the number of nights you have left to search.”

“I will show you a secret place,” Annie whispered to Celestia, after they had stood in silence for some time. “Grab my hand.”
Celestia complied and with a rhythmic flapping of great wings, they rose into the sky together. Annie took her over the clouds, it was so quiet and peaceful. They flew still higher, each wingbeat stronger than the last, and drew closer and closer to the fifth moon, its great glowing surface looming large before them. Then they crashed down and landed rolling together in a heap of laughter.
Celestia gathered herself up and screamed, “OW OW OW! My shoulders!”
For from her shoulders sprouted two stubs.
“You’re growing wings like I did,” Annie said. “Dipping them in moonwater will help.”
They walked side by side to a river that flowed with water as smooth as glass. “How come I can’t see my reflection in the water?”
“The Lost don’t have shadows, we are the shadows.”
“Will my wings disappear when I go back to the Before?” Celestia asked, wading into the water.
“Yes,” Annie replied.
“How?”
“You are asking an angel how? Don’t you know nothing makes sense here?” Annie burst into laughter, and after a second Celestia joined her. They were joined shortly by The Beals, laughing that there is one night left. It was time to return to the forest below.

“Give up Celestia, it’s hopeless. You will never ever get home.” The trees constantly muttered. “We should just give up,” Celestia spoke. “It’s hopeless.”
“I won’t let you, you have a chance to go back home, one that I would give anything for. If you squander it, I’ll kill you.”

“What is that?” Celestia wondered, listening. “It’s a song of stars, rain and magic. It’s beautiful yet dissonant.”
The music continued louder, a shiver ran up her spine.
“I have to see the source,” Celestia told Annie who was frozen midstep. Celestia ran trancelike, not noticing the rain stopped in midair nor the trees halted mid-sentence. She saw a glowing cave obscured by foliage and pushed it aside as she walked into the light. Inside was a crystal pool reflecting the glowworms and gems on the ceiling, and something else. She focused in on the “something else”, it was a big, dark shape, somehow familiar, almost like a…
Celesta yelled, “Wait, it also reflects me. I FOUND MYSELF!”
Annie flew in as the last Beal tolled and the water became a whirlpool.
“Well I guess this is goodbye, find my dad and tell him I love him.” She burst into tears.
“No, I’m not going back,” Celestia said firmly, “You are! You have a family who loves you. You deserve this, you showed me what a true friend is. Go, go live life to the fullest!”
Annie hugged Celestia and said through tears, “I’ll never forget you Celestia.” Annie jumped through the portal just as it closed.
Celestia choked out, “I will miss you Annie.”

60 years later

An old woman lay on her deathbed and her last words were “Tell Celestia I remember her.” And far, far away in a time known as Never a dragon roared, “I will never, ever forget you, Annie.” The old woman smiled her last and succumbed to the darkness of death.