Reading by Moonlight

by Duelist925

Chapter 01

Frost hefted a duffel bag on her back, head high as she stepped out of the Lunar Barracks. She paused and glanced back at the old building. Memories. Like most recruits, she’d lived there during basic. As an officer, she’d held a decent office. But that was over now. She was officially a civilian. Medical discharge, honorable, pension, everything.

She’d miss it.

The thestral shook her head and settled the bag between her wings. A pair of smoked goggles was the only thing saving her eyes from the harsh light of day as she made her way into the city proper, hauling the last of her belongings to her home.

She took the scenic route, around the city’s rim. The view was simply amazing—a pony could see for miles, and spot a half dozen villages in the distance. Ponyville was a splotch of color, almost close enough to reach out and touch, with the dark woods of Everfree just beyond it.

Frost found herself distracted though. She nudged the goggles up a bit, her pupil shrinking to a thin slit at the sudden intrusion of light. She sucked in a hiss of pain…but it was something she’d need to get used to. And the view was simply beautiful. The bag slid from her back, thumping to the ground as she took it in.

Green and tan, as far as the eye could see, broken only by equestrian villages and towns. She breathed deep, letting the scent of the park she stood in rush through her. Some mountains in the distance, breaking up the horizon, a barrier between earth and sky. Clouds floating gentle in the endless blue, few airships making their way along, a balloon burning as it crashed towards the ground, and birds riding the winds as-

Wait, what?

-|-

“Crap! Crapcrapcrap!”

Reed had been having a pretty decent day. He’d gotten to spend some time with the research department, managed to get his hooves on an extremely rare magical tome for a little over an hour, and he’d even been picked to make a delivery of books to Princess Twilight’s new library, installed in her crystal castle. He’d been looking forward to meeting Equestrian’s newest royalty—from what he knew of her, she’d take this shipment personally.

Of course, that was before the balloons burner had made a funny noise. A rather gravelly noise not dissimilar to a dragons cough. A noise that preceded the nice, steady, even flame it produced turning into a raging inferno. It had gone from a controlled burn to using up all of its fuel reserves in roughly thirty seconds—and setting a decent chunk of the balloon on fire.

Reed felt his heart twist as he heaved another box up to the side of the basket, letting them tumble into the air. He had to lighten the thing up! He was going to crash, and hard, but if he could slow the damned thing down he had a decent chance of being able to walk away!

Well, limp. Maybe crawl.

He reached for another box and paused as the sound of fraying ropes starting to snap reached his ears. He looked up and whimpered—two of the four main ropes holding the basket to the balloon were burning. One was already halfway gone…

With a resounding crack, it snapped and the basket tilted to one side, starting to swing and sway. He screamed and clutched to another rope as tightly as he could, clinging with all of his inconsiderable might.

This worked surprisingly well until the second rope burned through enough to snap. The basket swung wildly, books spilling out in a rain of white paper.

(No one believed Berry when she claimed she got the idea for her newest drink when a hardback copy of “A Guide to Equestrian Beverages” struck her head. Regardless, the “Pageturner” was a moderate success at her bar)

Reed managed to hold on, whimpering and trying not to sob, for a grand total of thirty more seconds before his hooves slipped and he fell, screaming wildly, to his death.

He was rather surprised that “death” smelled like sweat and cinnamon.

After a moment more of wind whistling past his ears, he dared to open his eyes. He found himself staring up into the face of a grey furred pony wearing smoked goggles.

Fortunately for him, he was too frozen in fear and shock to start trembling or struggling enough to risk her grip on him until she was just a few feet from where she’d started. The thestral dropped him to the ground and landed next to him. Poor thing was trembling like a scared foal after that. She glanced back out, taking note of where the flaming wreckage was drifting towards before she turned her attention back to the civ.

She shook her head. Her fellow equestrian—can’t think of them as civs, Frost. She stepped close to where he’d collapsed in a shaking heap and patted his shoulder. “Hey, you ok? That was almost a nasty fall. You didn’t get burned, did you?”

To her mild surprise, the stallion took a deep breath and climbed to his hooves. “I-I uh. I’m ok. No burns.” He was still trembling, but not quite as badly as before. “Thank you. Thank you so much, you saved my life.” He said, stumbling over the words in his rush to say them. “I, I don’t know if I can ever repay you.” He shook his head, taking in another long and shuddery breath.

She chuckled. “No worries. It’s my jo—was. It used to be my job. Just keeping in practice.” She grinned at him. “We’re gonna have to report that crash though.” She glanced back just in time to see the flaming wreckage smack into a tree. She could make out clouds scurrying towards it—at least the fire-suppressor team was on it. “You know where the nearest guard station is?” He shook his head. “Alright. You good to walk? Theres one up the street.” He nodded. The trembling was down to a light shake every now and then. He seemed ok.

“Lead the way. Thanks again.” He said, somewhat quietly.

“Like I said, no worries. Oh, names Frost.” She stuck a hoof out. He bumped his against it a touch tentatively, and she resisted the urge to snap. He’d just gone through a major near-death experience—that’d make anyone a bit shaky. Not necessarily tribalism.

“I'm Reed." He replied.

Comments

[Grekoy]

Looks good so far.

[Boulder]

(No one believed Berry when she claimed she got the idea for her newest drink when a hardback copy of “A Guide to Equestrian Beverages” struck her head. Regardless, the “Pageturner” was a moderate success at her bar)

Nothing like bookcramming into your head to get a business advantage.