//------------------------------// // 14 – Moon // Story: Applied Starlight // by Unknownlight //------------------------------// She focused. Blah blah the stars swirled blah blah. This creation did come with something different though: while all other previous creations had the vaguely-equine-shaped bright white blob stay in one spot as it formed into a pony, this blob just couldn’t stay still—it was rushing around the back room trying to handle fabrics using hooves and magic it didn’t yet have. She’s trying to do her job before she’s even born! Now that’s a work ethic! Before long, the light settled into the form of a unicorn mare, who was still rushing around the workshop and seemingly unaffected by the fact that moments ago she didn’t possess the magic that she was now using to work her fabrics. The unicorn wore the colors of the night, with a midnight-blue mane and tail and a pure white coat reminiscent of the full moon. On her flank was an image of three sparkling diamonds. Like a diamond in the sky… In the mare’s haste, she had failed to notice her visitor. Said visitor chose to rectify that. “Ahem.” Without breaking stride or even bothering to look at her visitor, the unicorn announced, “Welcome to Princess Rarity’s Carousel Boutique, where every garment is chic, unique, and magnifique! We’re closed right now, but if you wish to order a commissioned piece please leave your name and address on the sheet on the front counter. If you wish to see me now, please wait in the main room and I will speak to you in five minutes.” Nah, that wasn’t happening. “Ahem!” Rarity bristled. Without taking her eyes off her work, she began to admonish her visitor. “I will have you know that it is extremely rude for one to interrupt the dealings of another pony, especially when one is a guest in another’s household”—the unicorn slowly turned to face her visitor directly—“and especially when one is speaking to a princess! I have half the mind to… why hello there, Twilight!” Rarity exclaimed, switching her tone of voice to one of a friendly greeting so suddenly that it almost sounded practiced. “Hello, Rarity,” she responded, taking mental note of the possibility that the pony before her may be prone to sudden mood swings, if her apparent ease in changing her outwardly visible emotions was anything to go by. Either that, or she was just very good at acting—a drama queen who enjoys making her every emotion fit for the stage. “You’re still working so late at night?” “Why of course, dear,” she said with a dramatic sigh. “The life of an artist is always a busy one. A dozen of these garments must be made by the end of the week. Shush, don’t tell me. I know you would rather me ask for help, but I know no one with even a smidgen of an eye for artistic detail, and I refuse to let the quality of my work drop with quantity. Each one shall be an individual work of art when I am finished; anything less would tarnish my reputation and my pride!” A drama queen. With a lot to say. Well, that’s nice. “I suppose, then, that in your busy work here you forgot to raise the moon?” she said, conveniently leaving out the fact that Rarity didn’t exist until a minute or so ago. (As well as leaving out the fact that she wasn’t even sure if Rarity knew about her moon-raising responsibilities.) The lunar princess’s eyes widened comically. “W-what? I am… I was certain I raised the moon over an hour ago!” “Well, you didn’t,” she stated blandly. “Would you mind coming out and raising it, please?” “Oh! Why, yes, of course,” she said, flustered, as she began toward the door and the darkness beyond. “I… am deeply sorry, Twilight. I promise nothing like this will happen again.” She left the door open as they exited the boutique, letting the light from indoors spill out into the darkness and illuminate the surrounding area. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” Rarity nodded and closed her eyes, visibly trying to gather the large amount of magic necessary to move an entire celestial body. At first, it appeared that everything was going well—Rarity was calm and focused and sufficient power seemed to be collecting around her. However, after a minute, the mare’s eyebrows furrowed, followed closely by a very un-ladylike grimace forming on her face. After a few minutes of this, with Rarity now starting to look panicked and the moon no closer to rising, she felt it was time for her to step in. She placed a hoof on the lunar princess’s shoulder. “What’s wrong?” Rarity dispelled her magic and whipped her head toward the pony beside her, eyes wide in horror. “The m-moon,” she whimpered. “I can’t feel it. The moon… it’s, it’s gone!” Dammit. So she had to make everything herself after all. She couldn’t just create a pony to deal with the moon and have a moon magically appear because of that. Why did life have to be so difficult?! “What will we do?!” Rarity almost shrieked. “How can there not be a moon?! How will we be able to see at night? What are we going to tell Equestria?! How could I have not noticed my own moon disappearing? What if—” “Jeez, calm down,” she mumbled to herself as she patiently waited for Rarity’s panic-fueled tirade to die down enough for her to get a word in. “Is this a sign of things to come?! Will the sun be next? Will we have to—do you hear that?” Rarity suddenly asked, once again effortlessly and unnaturally changing her tone of voice. She just stared blankly at Rarity for a moment, but then she began to hear something as well. It sounded like… laughing? Who would be laughing at them? Apparently Rarity knew exactly who, as she raised her head and scolded into the darkness, “Rainbow Dash!” Out of the black of the moonless night came a snorting and chortling blue pegasus mare with a rainbow-colored mane and tail. “Heehee, you should’ve seen the look on your face, Rarity!” she exclaimed with a sense of pride. “It was priceless!” “I presume this was another one of your pranks, Rainbow,” Rarity said, giving off a contemptuous air that fully displayed her lack of amusement. “Now, please return the moon. All of Equestria needs it; stealing it just for a silly prank is extremely immature of you at best.” …What. Rainbow stuck her tongue out at the unicorn. “Well excuuuse me. C’mon, you gotta admit this was a pretty awesome prank! You were totally freaking out!” Rarity glared at the pegasus. “Put it back, Rainbow Dash.” Rainbow sighed. “Fine, fine…” From behind her the pegasus pulled out a very familiar-looking misshapen stone of the very purest of purest whites. Gripped within her hooves, the stone reshaped itself into a perfect, unblemished sphere. With a theatrical heave, Rainbow threw the rock into the air. She was almost about to catch it with her magic, lest the rock fall on one of them, but then she remembered that the entire world was utterly nonsensical, and she might be better off to just watch and see what happened rather than try to interfere. As a part of her expected, the rock was completely unaffected by the laws of gravity and continued flying straight and true toward the sky at impossible speeds. What she didn’t expect was for the rock to completely ignore the laws of perception too. While the rock was obviously flying further and further away from them, it still looked exactly the same size as it did when it was in Rainbow’s hooves, as well as keeping the exact same level of brightness. In fact, in a way, it looked as if the rock wasn’t moving at all—just hovering over their heads. And yet, it was so clear, so very clear to her eyes, that the rock was moving away from them at a hundred million miles an hour. After a mere eight seconds, the rock halted its trajectory and placed itself in a nice, cozy spot in the sky, right where the moon would go. Its whiteness illuminated the night, finally ridding the world of the blanket of black that had been such an inconvenience. She stared. None of this makes any sense. “There, isn’t that so much better? I’ll let you get away with it this time, Rainbow Dash, but believe me, I certainly will not if I find you doing anything of this caliber as a prank ever again. Promise me, Rainbow.” Rainbow sighed. “Fine, fine. I promise I won’t steal the moon again. Happy?” None of this makes any sense! Rarity smiled. “Very. Now that this is all cleared up, I simply must get back to my work. You two dears understand, of course?” “Yeah, and I have to get some shuteye, myself. That was a long flight,” Rainbow said, rubbing her sore shoulder. “Hey, I hear Fluttershy’s back from her vacation. How about we all have lunch tomorrow and catch up? I’ll tell AJ if one of you tell Fluttershy—Pinkie’ll know about it somehow no matter what.” “It’s a date,” Rarity agreed as she reentered her shop. “I’ll see you two tomorrow.” “Sounds good. See ya, Twi!” Rainbow called as she too began flying back to her cloud house, disappearing from sight as Rarity closed her door. A lone pony was left by herself at night in the middle of the street. She chose a random direction and started walking.