//------------------------------//
// A long journey ahead 
// Story: Starlight 
// by Mr Tinkertrain 
//------------------------------//

Moonshine was looking on the map of Equestria. According to it, it would be a long trip to the north. He thought about what he needed to get for this trip. At least he got enough money from his newest customer to finance the trip. He actually guessed that she gave him too much funds. But who was he, to tell her? 

Anyhow, he had a lot of preparations to do, and if he could cut the costs here and there, he might be able to keep a good part of the money she gave him. If she threw out money like this, he didn’t care – but he wouldn’t do the same. He estimated around 3 months to get there by hoof, if he traveled by train it would take him about an entire day if the journey went without major interceptions. 

And less time needed to travel meant less provisions needed. Some might say he was greedy, but when he started his business, he learned to budget and to cut costs where he could to keep himself alive in times where customers were rare.

It took him only a half an hour to create a checklist of the items he would have to get. As he went outside with his saddlebags, he walked off to the town’s market to get some supplies for the trip – and probably some warm clothing, since his destination was far up in the northern region. 

He quickly gathered everything for the now rather short journey to Skygate, but as it seems it was inevitable that Moonshine would run into Cloudfeather, a pegasus of a light blue color and a friend of him. Moonshine liked her, she was quite a nice pony to hang around with – but not the kind of pony he liked to work with … which he remembered once again as their paths crossed.

“Oh, hey, Moonshine! I heard you’ve got a new customer?” The pegasus immediately asked, nosey as always.

“You heard right …” Moonshine started, but was cut off by his friend. 

“Can I come with you? Oh please!” She begged him, as soon as she realized that the journey would go out of town. 

“You know that I prefer to work on my own.” He tried to walk around her, but she blocked his path.

“Oh come on! Let me come with you!” Moonshine could see that Cloudfeather wouldn’t stop until he would give in. 

“Fine, you can come with me if you want, but if I take you with me, you’re going to assist me with my work.” He sighed. He really rather worked alone, but it came to his mind that Skygate was a city almost completely inhabited by pegasi – it could become quite difficult for him, as he was a unicorn. 

“Sounds fair, I guess.” The pegasus said with a grin on her face, knowing that she won once again. “When do we leave?”

“The train leaves in two hours. If you miss it, you stay here.” He turned away and left the pegasus at the market. 


Two hours later, Moonshine was already waiting at the train station for Cloudfeather. He should have known that she was late – like usual. He sighed, as she finally came insight, and to his relief only with saddlebags and not a ton of luggage like he suspected. 

“There you are.” He didn’t even bother to greet her. He didn’t want to put up with her, and he had no problem with showing it. “Let us get on the train or it will leave without us.” 

He didn’t even wait for a response as he boarded the train. He didn’t look back to the pegasus. He knew that if she would lose him in the train, she would be kicked out at the next station without a ticket. It was probably better that way anyway, he thought. Just a second after those thoughts Cloudfeather entered the cabin. 

“You’re not getting away that easily!” She said with a smile on her face, but it quickly became a serious look. “What are you looking for in the first place?” 

Moonshine shrugged as he told her what his customer ordered from him. He didn’t answer on her question how he intended to find anything at all with such a description. He had no idea himself. He just guessed that he could find it.

“Well, if this thing actually exists, someone would have heard about it. An object which is said to be made of pure starlight, with which means however, wouldn’t stay unnoticed for very long.”

The pegasus just shrugged and looked out of the window. Moonshine did the same. The train started to move. There were still a lot of ponies on the train station, and they just rushed away as the train began to pick up speed. Soon they had left the station, and they saw how the trees and the green landscape seemed to fuse to a single, green flurry, which only was interrupted when the train went by a farm or another building.

Moonshine had the feeling that it would be a long, boring and quiet ride. He kept right – until the sudden squeaking of the wheels of the train threw him out of his thoughts. He hadn’t even no time to react as the train abruptly slowed down to a full stop. Cloudfeather screamed up as she was catapulted towards the ceiling of the cabin. 

The unicorn was just happy that they had no luggage with them, else his friend could have suffered heavy injuries – and even more weight would land on him. So he was just buried under the pegasus falling on him. He could see it in her eyes that she was a bit confused of what just had happened, and she ran to the door as fast as she could, without even apologizing. 

Whilst Moonshine got on his hooves again – he needed a while to accomplish it – Cloudfeather tried to open the door, but it was stuck. She tried to complain as the unicorn shoved her to the side and tried to open the door himself. He even tried to open it with his magic, but the door was still stuck.

“Well, I guess we will have to find another way out of this cabin.” He said as he looked to the window. He opened it up with his magic and jumped outside, as he felt a pull on his tail which pulled him back into the cabin. He looked at the pegasus who was now looking out of the window.

“Always look before you jump down somewhere.” She said as she turned her look to the unicorn and pointed her hoof down. “We’re on a bridge and you almost jumped out.” Moonshine gulped as he went to the window and looked down.

It was a far drop if she hadn’t pulled him back into the train. However, there was a small ledge he could walk on. He didn’t need long to make a decision. Carefully he climbed out of the window and then down on the ledge. He knew that one wrong step could be the end of him, but he couldn’t just wait till somepony came to get them out of the cabin.

It didn’t take long for Cloudfeather to follow him. He just looked at her with envy as she was hovering next to him in the air. There were times when he wished for wings instead of magic, but it wasn’t his decision that he was born a unicorn. And it didn’t matter at all; he reached the land without wings. But there was still one thing to check, which went better if he had wings. So he turned over to his winged friend.

“Cloud, could you fly up and check what is going on at the engine?” He asked the pegasus, who didn’t even bother to answer as she flew along the train, towards the engine. It didn’t take long for her to return.

“It seems like the engine is broken. Something doesn’t work, and they said that they couldn’t get any spare parts out here.” The pegasus hovered a hoof over the ground, waiting for Moonshines reaction. 

“Well, it looks like we’re going to walk then.” He said and started looking on the wagon of the train in search of a ladder up to the roof.

He found one pretty fast and climbed up. It was safer than balancing on the small ledge next to the train on the bridge – if you didn’t count the gaps between each wagon. But he could deal with that. He wasn’t an athlete, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t exercise at all. While he was walking on the roof and jumping from wagon to wagon, Cloudfeather kept on hovering next to him.

Soon they had left the bridge behind them. Now it wasn’t that hard to find their way to Skygate, even with the accident with the train engine. It would just delay for around a half a month. And it would shorten their budget, Moonshine thought. But he didn’t say it. 

They surely would come along another town soon. And when they did, they could still ask for directions to the next town and buy what they needed to get there. 

“When do you think we’ll arrive in Skygate?” Cloudfeather asked and astonished Moonshine once more with the fact, how fast private news travelled. If they could be so fast they would be in Skygate in less than a single day.

“By my estimation we should be halfway to Skygate. This means, we still have around 2 weeks to travel by hoof.” He looked over to the pegasus. “You might want to walk. Not that you ruin your precious wings.” He noticed the insulted look on Cloudfeathers face, and it made him somehow sorry that he said that.

But he wouldn’t apologize for it as he turned away and started walking. After a while he threw a look back to check if the pegasus was following him. She was almost walking directly behind him, but didn’t speak a word. Moonshine got the feeling that he seriously insulted her, but he didn’t think that his words were that harmful. She was probably just acting it up. At least he told this to himself over and over again.

After some days he got the idea that if they fixed the train, they could have just continued the travel. But then it came to his mind that the engine broke down on the middle of a bridge and far away from any greater town, so it could be around two weeks until the spare parts got there. Therefore he came to the conclusion that they could also walk the other half of the way to Skygate.


Two weeks later, Moonshine almost couldn’t feel his legs anymore from all the walking and Cloudfeather was hovering next to him, they were walking through a snowy landscape. Moonshine was lucky that he brought some warm clothes, but Cloudfeather still had nothing to protect herself from the cold. Though he didn’t like travelling with her; he lent her his coat from time to time so she could warm up a bit.

He just hoped that they would reach the next town soon enough for her. He could see that she needed a warm chimney. When they set up a camp for the night, he was sometimes counting his bits till deep into the night. It was a good thing that his customer gave them such a large budget. Sometimes he wondered if she knew what would happen to him and Cloudfeather.

On the next day, the pegasus gave up and lied down in the snow. Nopony should be in such heights without warm clothing. Once more, he took off his coat and pulled it over her before he went on. A single hour later, he came across a shield. A shield that read: Welcome to Skygate.