Chasing the Night

by Bright Keys


1007 AN

Moonstone Gleam woke up when the sun filtered in from the window across the room. She was in her study, in her apartment above her shop. She sat up and snapped awake as she saw the journal, her translation notes, as well as her letter to Luna, pushed across the table. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes before checking the journal and letter for any damage. Whoever had found the journal had doused it in too much restoration magic before they died. Any more and the magic would start to do more harm than good.

Once she was satisfied that everything was in good condition, she checked the time and was startled to see how long she had overslept. Her shop was set to open over an hour ago! Moonstone quickly hopped out of the chair and put some toast on, preparing herself to open her shop, which primarily dealt with the more mundane curios and antiques she fished out from various ruined sites across Equestria, the city known as “everfree” her main focus at the moment.

Fifteen minutes later she unlocked the door to Ancient Treasures, three ponies trotting in almost immediately.

“Good morning! Welcome to Ancient Treasures!” she announced, greeting the ponies at the door as they all walked in.

“I heard that you made another expedition out to the Everfree Forest yesterday.” Twilight Sparkle, a regular to her store even before her own Ascension, albeit more for conversation than interest in trinkets, asked.

“I did, but I’m afraid that my most recent journey yielded artifacts too valuable to be sold. I’m currently drafting a letter to Dusty Tome in Canterlot to get them admitted to the Museum of Ancient Equestrian History.”

“Ooh, so you found the home of somepony important out in that city?”

“Apparently so,” Moonstone said, walking behind the counter, where two ponies were looking at the shiny jewelry she had placed there.

“I still remember getting that particular piece like it was yesterday,” Moonstone said, eyeing at the large golden broach set with a ruby shaped like the sun that the two were marveling at, “It’s not often that I have to compete for artifacts, but that old palace is a veritable hive for people who would do these artifacts harm and maybe even sell them to the wrong kind of people.

“This one in particular I believe was ceremonially worn by the head of the Solar council, and as such was more for formal affairs such as attending council or making public appearances on behalf of the Princess. The grave robbers I took this from believed it to be magical on the merit that it simply had ancient Equestrian writing on it. I was able to draw them away, then take all the artifacts they had stored before they came back.”

“Did they have anything magical?” the blue-haired stallion asked.

“Like I said, they believed it to be magical because of the engraving. Most of the others were the same. There were a few minor good luck charms, but those were nearly faded.”

“Oh,” the stallion said, slightly crestfallen, “well, how much for this one?” he pointed at the broach.

“Well, I’ll cut you a deal for letting me talk your ear off, so how about two hundred?”

“Sounds like a deal!” the stallion said, counting a bag of bits out onto the counter.
The work day passed similarly, with ponies walking in, looking at Moonstone’s wares, occasionally listening to a story, then leaving either with wares or without. Twilight hovered around the entire day, making attempts to prise information from her whenever she got a moment to breathe. After the fiftieth attempt, Twilight finally seemed to get the memo and left, if a bit disappointed. Finally, as Celestia’s sun set and Luna’s moon rose, Moonstone flipped the sign on her store to closed, and went upstairs to study once more, making a second draft on her letter to Luna…

Dear Princess Luna,
I have in my possession a set of items that may be of interest to you…