//------------------------------// // Into The Light // Story: Moondancer's misguided mission // by Paradise Oasis //------------------------------// Into The Light "C'mon, Moondancer! Hurry Up!" Sweet Stuff growled, as other ponies rush around the kitchen behind her. "Lunch just finished, and we need those dinner plates within two hours!" As the jewel-eyed mare with a blue coat and multicolored mane barked out orders, Moondancer simply went though the motions of the 'punishment' she had been given. Levitate, wash, scrub, rinse... the endless cycle of menial busywork dulled a brain already numb to any external activity. The mare with a disshelved mane and bloodshot eyes had swept and cleaned in the kitchen these past few days like an automaton, barely noticing what was transpiring around her as she silently went about her tasks. Her spirit broken and her mind nearly shattered, how could she care what punishment the council heaped on the unicorn? Her own daughter a monster, shipped away as punishment for her wrongdoing, the human girl she loved as a member of her own family turned against her- only Truly and Zigzag stood beside her in the castle, but that was of little comfort. Only the thought of her beloved husband, and the emotional ties to the pony she loved more than any other- kept the mare from ending her sorrow entirely. So for the sake of the one she longed for's return, the broken mare diligently carried out with her task. "Gingerbread, get that icing on the cookies now!" The white mare with the cupcake cutie mark snapped angrily, pulling a tray out of the oven. "I just got them out of the oven!" "I'm busy with the last batch, Cupcake!" The other earth mare snapped back, squirting the icing on several cookies from a tube. "If you want them done that fast, I'll have to fudge it!" "Go right ahead, I need to get desert ready before the top of the hour." Cupcake replied, shaking her mane. "If you have to cut corners, so be it!" Moondancer's ears perked up at that. Cupcake, the cook who demanded perfection, wanting something rushed? But before she had time to really contemplate this, two other angry voices filled the kitchen. "Sweet Stuff! Those meals you had sent to my room were too hot!" A pink mare with a chartreuse mane snorted. "Baby Shady almost burned her tongue on your overcooked drek!" "How dare you come down to my kitchen and complain, you weepy pile of mush!" Sweet Stuff snapped back, stamping her hoof. "I have half a mind to go to Twilight, and complain about your complaining while I'm trying to get supper ready!" Sweet Stuff... angry? And Shady....assertive? the wheels slowly began to turn in Moondancer's brain, pulling her up out of her grief-stricken haze. Behind her, Cupcake called out to the head kitchen mare; "Hey Sweet Stuff, it's time to take Megan's lunch to her room." The assistant cook called over. "Should I send Gingerbread down with it again?" "Actually, I could take it for you." Moondancer offered, levititating the tray with a silver lid over her head. "That would save you some time to work on the cookies." Sweet Stuff thought for a moment, then nodded her head. "Just make sure you get back here quickly, I have some more onions I want you to peel!" "You really know how to make a girl cry." Moondacer mock sobbed, trotting out Dream Castle kitchen's revolving door with the tray. "I'll be back as quickly as I can!" .... In the Dream Valley classroom, Sun Shimmer was going over her lessons with the student body. "...and so class, as the evidence gathered by pony scientists, we can concur that it was self-interest and material gain, not friendship and love that led to the advancement of pony society." The mare declared, pointing a hoof at one of her students. "Baby Butterscotch, what can we conclude from this?" "That sentimentality is a weakness, and friendship is holding us back." The orange filly with a blue mane and butterfly cutie mark answered simply. "Very very well spoken, my dear." It was at that point, the clock chimed the hour. "All right class, that's it for today. As always, be sure to share this new truth with your parents, and I'll see you tomorrow." As the other students filed out, Sun stopped one of her pupils. "Baby Butterscotch, I was wondering if I could ask you a favor..." The teacher handed the filly a notebook. "This is a lesson I had prepared for Baby Majesty, could you deliver it to her, please?" "Of course, Miss Shimmer! I'd be happy to!" The beaming filly happily took the folder in her mouth, and trotted out the door. As the last of her class left, a dark smile spread across the mare's face. "You thought you could her safe from me, Twilight?" Sun Shimmer thought to herself. "When the future queen bee falls before me, the entire hive will be mine!" ... As she continued on her way down the hall, Moondancer was greeted with more and more strangeness. As the unicorn passed Paradise and Wind Whistler, she overheard a conversation that further raised the hair on the back of her coat. "Are you sure you should accept the findings from this experiment, Wind?" The white Pegasus asked, as she and the other pony flapped by. "Logic would dictate that further tests would be needed to achieve a result." "I know that, Paradise." The blue Pegasus agreed. "But I just have a feeling that my current hypothesis is the right answer, I just know it!" "Paradise talking about logic? Wind Whistler talking about feelings?" The confused Moondancer thought to herself. Did I accidentally take a bite of loco weed or something?" Shrugging off her feeling that something wasn't right, the mare trotted up to the door to the human girl's room, and knocked. "Who is it?" A soft voice answered. "Megan? It's me, Moondancer." The mare said sadly, levitating the plate of food up to the door. "I brought you your lunch, and-" "Come in, Moondancer." The door unlocked with a small click, and the pony trotted in with her head down. Megan was lying on her bed on the other side of the room, turned away from the pony and facing the wall." "Here's your meal Megan, sorry I disturbed you." The sad unicorn resisted the urge to cry. "I-I'll just leave your meal here, and be on my way out." "Moondancer, wait." The girl turned to face her, getting up off the bed. "Before you go, I want to ask you something. Why did you save me from your daughter?" "W-what kind of question is that, Megan?!?" An incredulous unicorn asked her, tears streaming down her face. "Y-you're family, and we all love you so much! I couldn't just-" "Thank you, Moondancer. I'm glad to know you are still the same pony you always were. So many have changed in Dream Castle since the new teacher arrived." Megan replied grimly. "Twilight has told me that many of the pony's in the castle's perceptions have become warped, and I was afraid you weren’t the same as well." "Megan I would never-!" Moondancer started in horror, but the human girl held a finger up to silence her. "A few ponies have not had their opinions changed, like your friends Truly and Zigzag." Megan narrowed her eyes. "Twilight acts as if her outlook has been altered, and acts as the others do to convince them she has a new viewpoint. And she says a human wouldn't change their outlook under the circumstances, either." The girl took her food, and went back to the bed. "Don't you agree it would be best for you to go with the flow, and give the appearance your viewpoint had changed to that of the majority, as well?" Moondancer was confused for a moment, then her eyes suddenly went wide with understanding. Relief and joy quickly flooded the unicorn's heart, but it was quickly covered up under a scowling face. "You know something, human... you're quite right!" She turned around angrily, and stormed out of the room. "This will be the last time I bring you lunch. And the sooner you head back to your smelly and polluted human world, the better!" As the door shut behind her, the white unicorn picked up her pace back to the kitchen. She would have to find Zigzag and Truly after her kitchen shift was done- and the sooner, the better! ... In the hallways of Dream Castle, two mares- one earth pony and one zebra- were talking quietly between themselves, noticing their conversation was drawing interest from several of the passing ponies. "Ah rally don't undahstand why the otha members of the council ah actin so strangely." Truly shook her mane in confusion. "Ah mean , they nevah been so ruthlaiss with a misbehavin' foal befoah." "Many a mare in the castle is not herself." Zigzag agreed. "Their true personality left on the shelf." "Indeed. We're luckey the staillions ahnd colt's don't seem tah be changi'n thier ahtitudes." Truly shivered. "Could y'all inmagine thait much stgeth ahnd fightin' skill turned against the hearhd?" "I am pleased that the males have at least stayed true." Zigzag replied. "But I wish we knew why our fellow mares are so blue." "Actually, ah may have a reasohn whai thait may be." Truly whispered. "See, ah doin some reasach on this little teacheah of ours, ahnd found out she haid always been a bit of a rabble rousah. So much so, thait she was not onlay faiahed but bainished from Mustangia foh her actions." "So she has always been a troublemaker, that much seems clear." The zebra replied. "Bun once sent away, to where did she disappear?" "Thait's the muysertious pahrt." The earth mare replied. "Ahcordin' ta what ah read, she made her way ta the Dahkstone Mountians, ahnd came back a changed mairah. Thait's when she insisted ohn the transfaih ta Dream Valleh." "The Darkstone Mountains?!? Then we truly have a hassle!" The now-worried zebra replied . "For that means she serves -" "There they are!" Applejack voice called out angrily, as she pointed a hoof at the two mares. "There are the two troublemakers!" Truly and Zigzag soon found themselves surrounded on all sides by an angry-looking group of mares, who stared at the two of them with cold, unforgiving eyes. "Gahils, gails, puhlease!" The earh mare pleaded, trying to talk some sense into the ponies before her. "WHat seems ta be the trouble heyah? Wai are y'all lookin like yer abot ta seand a pony tah the glue factoreh?" "Sun Shimmer warned us about evil foreign influences." Ribbon growled, her horn glowing in anger. "And who's more foreign than a zebra, and a mare with a funny accent?" "But girls... ah've been livin heyah mah whole laife!" Truly protested. "Whaih would I sail out Dream Valleh?" "I'm sure you can tell us that," Sweet Stuff replied, in an unusually cruel tone. "From the inside of a jail cell." "Your judgment is clouded, that much is clear." Zigzag pulled a liquid filled glass vial out of her saddlebag. "So now is the time for us to.... disappear!" The zebra quickly dropped the vial from her mouth, shattering it on the floor. A cloud of purple smoke filled the air, and clouded the vision of the mob that had gathered. "What's going on?" Sweet Stuff called out. "I can't see!" Shady yelled. A unicorn created a blast of wind with her horn, blowing the smoke away. The mob quickly noticed that the two targets of their aggression had gotten away. "Hey, where'd they go?" Shady called out. "They musta headed for the zebra witch's potion lab," Applejack yelled, starting down the hallway. "after them!" The angry mob of mares galloped away, as the two equines stuck their heads around the corner. "Wail, at least we lost em'." Truly sighed in relief. "Yes, but our luck in this hiding will not last." Zigzag replied in a worried tone. "We must find our friend Moondancah, and fast!"