“Sunshine, please don’t, like, get all shiny when you meet her, ‘kay?” Moonlight Raven levelled her sister with a stare so piercing it rivaled the sharpest swords of the Royal Guard.
As usual, it glanced off of Sunshine Smile’s impenetrable cheer.
“Ravey, I’m just soooooo happy for you!” Sunshine hopped a few times, her sun-bleached hair gleaming a little in the sun. “This is totally the most bitchin’ thing that’s ever happened since, like… ever!” She giggled and quickly nuzzled her sister. “My lil’ sister is making a friend!”
Moonlight groaned softly, her eyes turning up at the sky as she gently pushed Sunshine away. “You’re only older by one minute.”
“Still the older one!” Sunshine sing-songed.
Moonlight groaned again. Louder.
She wasn’t trying to be a jerk. But her sister could get a little much… and quite frankly, Sunshine knew this, too. She just needed pointed reminders not to let her sunny exuberance blind everyone in the vicinity.
They were on their way to Eerie Lantern’s house. Sunshine was smiling so hard, the white gleam of her teeth burned in Moonlight’s retinas whenever she closed her eyes. Hovering next to the blonde in a soft pink glow was a tray of her signature spinach and cream cheese sandwiches.
Hovering by Moonlight in her dark blue aura was a covered pitcher of fresh lemonade. She kept eyeing it, wondering if she’d done a good enough job of keeping the seeds out.
Moonlight was, in fact, nervous. Her face didn’t show it— rarely did her features betray more than a slight tilt toward irritation or interest. But there was an actual sheen of sweat to her coat, and more than once she wondered if she hadn’t already ruined her chances of being Eerie’s friend.
She wasn’t a fool. She could recognize an anti-social pony when she saw one. Moonlight herself was anti-social. She didn’t know how to talk to other ponies and endear herself to them, and honestly she didn’t care to. Most ponies were dull and annoying anyway. It’s why she had a night job. This “lunch” was actually going to be her dinner.
Moonlight also didn’t know the finer points of etiquette or boundaries. It hadn’t even occurred to her that inviting her and her sister over for lunch to a pony’s house they’d never been to was a faux pas till after Sunshine mentioned it to her.
“Oh, b-but if she didn’t tell you no, then I guess it’s fine!” Sunshine blurted at Moonlight’s crestfallen stare.
It was easy to be this socially clueless when you lived on the outskirts all your life. Moonlight wrestled with things nopony else even knew existed. Being alone just seemed natural. Other ponies… they were just distractions from the truth.
The truth of what was really out there.
Another existence, unseen by any creature.
Moonlight’s pursuit of the hidden went back as far as she could remember. It had started simple.
It started with her love of the dark.
She liked the dark’s dense secrets and pure embrace. It came to the world effortlessly… After all, life sprang from the darkness. The stars and the elements they catapulted into the universe came from an inky mass— or so some ponies theorized.
All Moonlight knew was that the light struggled to hold onto its territory, even at the height of the day. But darkness? Darkness sprang up around the roots of existence like it was meant to be there.
Moonlight wished she could be so certain of where she was meant to be.
She worked nights, more from preference than necessity. She was well aware of how this choice left her poor for opportunities to meet other ponies, but…
The daytime wasn’t for her. That was her sister’s world.
She loved Sunshine Smiles. It didn't matter that they didn't always understand each other. What two sisters did? Celestia sent Luna to the moon once, didn’t she?
What really mattered to her was that Sunshine tried. She tried to understand.
And Moonlight felt a little guilty that she didn't always make the effort easy. Since they were foals, she took the cryptic ways of night to heart. Her gaze had always been turned elsewhere, to the underbelly of the world where the shadows lurked.
While other foals were getting excited over flowers and cute puppies, she was busy shoving dead birds into her saddlebags.
She never killed anything. She just… had a weird knack for finding dead things.
When she magic-scanned the animal corpses she took home (usually in secret, because her parents had a fit every time they caught her—and ugh, she was sick of the shrink visits!) she’d always get a little… feedback on her horn.
A small taste of fear.
Of aged exhaustion.
Of oblivious contentment.
But she never got more than that. Years later, she would guess that something about animal souls just lacked the power needed to give her a stronger echo of their last moments.
When she got her mortician’s license, Moonlight found access to much more potent material.
Becoming a mortician’s assistant had been a great relief to her parents. Their daughter wasn’t a serial killer! Oh, what a relief!
She supposed it was due to her fairly immovable features that they felt no qualms saying this right in front of her.
Ponies did that all the time. Just… spoke their minds to her without restraint.
Other times they walked away from her while she was in the middle of saying something to them, completely oblivious (or uncaring) of her words.
They must have thought she had such thick skin—and she guessed she did. It was a rare day when she cried or got angry. She just didn’t see the point in wasting her life force on such temporary inconveniences. There was something infinite out there, and she wanted her spirit strong for the beyond.
Eastern ponies had the right of it. Every action drained you. They called the life force, chi. Moonlight was very conservative with her chi.
So today was momentous. She was devoting quite a bit of her spiritual power to befriending Eerie, the only pony aside from Sunshine who understood, in the realest sense, that there was life after death.
Ghosts.
Yes, Sunshine knew. For years, now.
Moonlight looked at her sister sidelong, one eyebrow quirking.
Sunshine knew because she had the annoying tendency of allowing herself to be possessed.
The first time it had happened was when they were young adolescents, nearly done with school. Sunshine had gone with Moonlight to an antique store in Canterlot. It was all so normal until…
Moonlight sensed a presence.
The young filly’s head lifted, her sleek ears pivoting this way and that as if she could hear it too.
It wasn’t like the sensations she felt from the animal corpses she scanned. No. This was… vibrant. Ever changing.
She stared up into the air over a rack of old hats, her pupils dilating with excitement. She’d never felt something this strong before! Moonlight was picking up all kinds of things—curiosity, excitement, hunger—
She reared back, her eyes fluttering.
Hunger? Real hunger! This wasn’t an echo of a past life, it was a present need that made her body tingle and her mouth salivate.
But… how?
Then the energy started to move.
Moonlight’s heart skipped a beat, and perhaps for the first time in her life she felt fear seize her heart.
This isn’t right! This is—!
She didn’t get a chance to finish her thought. The energy blew straight past her, like a cold mist streaming with the wind, and it went straight for—
Her eyes widened. “Sunshine!” she yelled—another rare thing for her. But this afternoon was quickly shaping up to be just that kind of day.
Sunshine Smiles barely looked up from her examination of a doll house before the energy struck her.
Moonlight’s ears pinned and she galloped to her sister, ignoring the clerk’s irritable reminder not to run in the store. Her horn lit up as she cast a frantic scan over her sister. She felt her insides chill as she realized…
The foreign energy was masking her sister’s spirit.
Oh, Sunshine was still in there. But she was buried—lost under whatever or whoever this was.
Then Moonlight Raven watched, bewildered, as her sister began to speak.
“I say!” Sunshine exclaimed gruffly. “This filly is dreadfully saccharine. She could use with a long sit with Pollstoy, eh wot?” She laughed, a stuffy and controlled laugh, before licking her lips ponderously and looking around. “Now where the devil is that thing… ah!”
Sunshine’s eyes lit up as she trotted over to the hat rack. Her horn glowed and she levitated a dusty old top hat from the top rung to her head. It was entirely too big for her and slid off to the side, swallowing one of her ears as the brim sat awkwardly against her horn. She appeared undeterred however as she went to pay the clerk.
Moonlight ambled up to her slowly, her eyes wide. “Sunny…?”
Sunshine didn’t turn around as the clerk counted out her change.
Moonlight tried again, louder. “Sunshine?”
Sunshine’s ear flicked in Moonlight’s direction, and finally she turned her head, a nonplussed expression on her face. Her eyes brightened. “Sunny? Sunshine! Ah, yes, of course, that is her name. Apologies.” Sunshine looked back at the clerk and smiled. “Thank you. Good day!”
After placing her bits into her saddlebags, Sunshine looked at her sister with what seemed like an apology. “I’m afraid I will have to commandeer your sibling for a short time, young miss.” She touched her new top hat with a little wince. “After I freed myself of the confines of the hat, I was quite disheartened to find the only sort of existence that awaited me was watching the world pass me by.”
Then Sunshine brightened again. “But your sweet sister has quite the open spirit! It was practically a vortex, pulling me in!” She reared back on her hind legs and spread her arms. “And now I may finally leave this place!” When Sunshine returned to standing on all hooves, she winked and started for the door. “And I know just what it is I must do!”
Moonlight watched, open-mouthed, as her sister (No, it’s not my sister!) marched right out of the door. Quickly, she followed.
Not-Sunshine led Moonlight through Canterlot, straight through all the familiar places they knew until they were trotting in strange new streets where only the most elite could be found. The two young fillies earned many stares, for it was getting to late evening on a school night—no doubt their parents were wondering where they were.
“S’cuuuse meeee?” Moonlight called to Not-Sunshine. “Like, where are we going? I need to take my sister back home before my parents search my room!”
Which would no doubt lead to them discovering the dead opossum under her bed...
And animal bones in her desk...
And the altar in her closet draped in animal skins with blood sigils and strong-smelling herbs...
The blood was hers, okay?
...Mostly.
Not-Sunshine laughed jovially, “Ah, but we have arrived!” He/She stopped in front of a little shop. The building looked old, but well-maintained. A woodcut sign swinging over the door read: The Canterlot Hatter.
Moonlight blinked, her mouth wrinkling. “You buy a hat, then march us across the city to… a hat store.” Her lower jaw jutted forward with displeasure. “Cuz that makes sense…”
Not-Sunshine laughed that posh laugh again and only beckoned for Moonlight to follow. The filly sighed and did so. At least they weren’t walking anymore. Her hooves needed a break!
In the store, a young earth stallion with a combed back gray mane and light brown fur examined a ledger behind a counter. He wore wire-frame glasses and a black vest. He looked up briefly as they entered, then his eyes snapped to a grandfather clock at the rear of the store.
The stallion looked at his latest guests with a mild frown. “Evening, young ladies. I’m afraid we don’t have much time before closing. Is there something I can assist you with?”
Not-Sunshine cleared his/her throat, pulled the silk top hat off their head, and asked in a voice that was closer to Sunshine’s actual way of speak… except, not really: “Yo! What is uppity-up, gentlecolt?”
Moonlight made a face as she sat near the door. “Ugh, barf me out… just don’t.”
Not-Sunshine peered back at her, one ear drooping. “Hmm… Is that not what you youngsters say?”
“Didn’t get a lot of ‘youngsters’ at the antique store, I take it?”
“Fair point.”
The stallion cleared his throat. “Ah, Ladies…?” They both turned to him. He closed the ledger in front of him with a snap. “Are your parents perhaps close by? It is getting rather late, you know.”
“Yeah. Really… late. Hint, hint,” Moonlight deadpanned.
“Er, yes,” Not-Sunny said. “Quite right.” They took a step toward the desk and raised their muzzle in the air. “Sir, are you perhaps a descendant of Flawless Satin?”
The stallion’s brow arched. “I am… He was my great, great, great grandfather.” He gestured around at the shop. “He’s the one who established my family’s business. Why?”
Not-Sunshine smiled and placed the hat on the desk. “Then please, accept this gift. It was one of his proudest works.”
“Know what else is someone’s proudest work?” Moonlight remarked suddenly. “My sister. To my parents.” She slouched. “Cuz, like, I’m pretty sure I’m adopted.” Her stare turned withering. “Seriously, I can’t go home without her. They’ll think I killed her.”
The others stared at her for a long moment, then slowly regarded one another again.
“Is your friend all right?” the stallion asked in a not-so-quiet whisper.
Not-Sunshine waved a hoof. “Please don’t mind her. She’s in counseling.”
Moonlight frowned. “Rude.” Then she added in a sullen mumble, “My last visit was a month ago...”
The stallion’s eyes tensed in confusion as he looked between the two fillies before him. With an air of uncertainty, he peered over the rim of his glasses at the top hat. “You say this hat is from my ancestor?”
Not-Sunshine nodded eagerly. “Yes! Sadly, it has languished in an antique store for many years. This filly—er, I mean—I have brought this to you, knowing full well you are someone who would appreciate and cherish it.”
The stallion gawked, his glasses sliding down his face. “Pardon my asking, but… who are you?”
“Who am I?” Not-Sunshine’s ears drooped and they looked at Moonlight sharply. “Er, who am I, again?”
“Sunshine Smiles,” Moonlight snapped, her lips pursing.
“Ah! Yes! Of course.” Not-Sunshine looked at the stallion triumphantly. “I am Sunshine Smiles!”
“Uh… huh.” The stallion raised an eyebrow. “The counseling is shared then, I'm assuming?”
Not-Sunshine flattened their ears. “Rude!” Moonlight smirked behind them.
The clerk closed his eyes and took a breath. “Ah. Apologies. You are correct, I was out of line. It’s been a long day.” He held out a hoof. “My name is Lucky Duke.”
They shook hooves. Moonlight groaned and looked at the clock. They weren’t going to make curfew. “Okay, like, you gave the dumb hat. Can I have my sister back now?”
Lucky Duke scowled at her. “I certainly haven’t been trying to keep you!”
Moonlight turned a cool eye on him. “I wasn’t talking to you.”
The stallion batted his eyes, then gave a shake of his head and turned the hat over. He peered inside it through the lenses at the base of his muzzle. His eyes widened. “My goodness!” He looked at Sunshine, awe pulling his features long. “This… This really is from my great, great, great grandfather! It has his signature stitched into the lining! I know it’s authentic because of this thread! He only ever used mulberry silk dyed in gold!”
“Naturally,” Not-Sunshine said with a wink. They gave a little bow. “I can think of no better place for it.”
Lucky Duke grinned as he pushed his glasses back up his face. “Thank you so much! Is there anyway I can repay you?”
“No, no, old chap. Please. I really must thank you for keeping Flawless Satin’s legacy alive.” Not-Sunshine turned away and walked back toward the door, leaving Lucky Duke to marvel over his latest acquisition.
She/he regarded Moonlight with a friendly expression. “And I must thank you as well,” They came closer and lowered their voice. “I realize this was a terrible inconvenience for you, but I assure you, your sister is fine. I shall release her now.”
Moonlight glowered at them. “It’s not like I knew how to get rid of you…” she muttered.
Not-Sunshine bobbed their head. “I suppose.” They smiled warmly as they brushed past her, out the door. “But you had faith that I was not a malevolent spirit, otherwise you would have fetched a powerful unicorn to oust me.”
Moonlight’s eyes brightened as she followed. “You can do that? Cuz I totally would have done that.”
“I was an earth pony in life, but…” Not-Sunshine paused before the storefront and held up a hoof, both ears perked. “In my time, there were soothsayers who claimed to have the power to banish spirits from the flesh. I’m sure the libraries at the Canterlot School of Magic must contain some whispers of this?” They winked at her. “Might be a good thing to look into, eh wot? Your sister is spiritually vulnerable. There may be… others who are not as kind as I am.”
“Others like you? But what are you?” Moonlight pressed, her gaze growing wider by the second.
Not-Sunshine blinked. “What am I? Silly miss! I’m a ghost! I thought a clever thing like you would have gathered that by now?”
“A ghost…?” Moonlight sat on the paved street, her rump landing hard. “You’re a ghost?” Little stars danced in her eyes, and she wondered if her face would be hitting the street next.
“I believe so, yes.”
Moonlight pointed a shaking hoof behind them. “Are you that stallion’s—?”
“Great, great, great, great grandfather, actually. I am Noble Charm.” Noble sighed, turning Sunshine’s face up towards the burgeoning night sky. “Flawless Satin was my son. I’m afraid I wasn’t very supportive of his efforts in opening a new hat store in what was then a much younger Canterlot, blasted fool that I was.” He closed his eyes. “I was a cad.”
Moonlight stared. She’d always known she was scanning some lingering spiritual energy from the animal corpses she found, but… a ghost? A real live (well, ‘kay, not alive) ghost? Even now, she’d been leaning more towards some sort of strange interdimensional being, not the spirit of a pony long dead.
“So… like… are you gonna ‘move on’ now?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. She still couldn’t believe it.
There’s life after death!
“Hmm?” Noble looked at her, then chortled. “Oh? What? Heavens, no! I dare say, if I were moving on, I’d imagine something would have happened by now.” He shook Sunshine’s head. “No, my dear… I only wished for a change in scenery. That and to be reunited with my son’s ancestors. I think I shall quite enjoy seeing how his offspring have fared all these years!”
Moonlight’s brow wrinkled and she looked back at the store. “So… the hat?”
“Precisely.” He cleared Sunshine’s throat. “Now… I do believe you and your sister have somewhere to be?”
Moonlight turned back to him, about to ask something else—she wasn’t even sure what. There was an avalanche of questions in her mind about the afterlife, things she was dying to know—and no she would not apologize for the unintended pun—
But just like that, Noble Charm was gone. Back in his place was Sunshine, and Moonlight’s sister looked very sleepy and very confused.
“Ravey… I just had the weirdest dream!” she mumbled. Sunshine swayed on the spot as she looked around, her eyes going wide. “Oooh… How did we get here?” She smiled drunkenly. “Did’jou practice teleporting again?”
Moonlight took a deep breath. With a light bump on the shoulder, she nudged her older sister to walk with her, back the way they had come. “If I tell you what happened, will you freak out?”
“Whaaaat?” a sleepy giggle. “Pssh. Noooo… Why would I freak out?”
Of course Sunshine freaked out.
When her spirit-induced drunkenness wore off, and she realized her dream was being accurately described to her in great detail by somepony who shouldn’t have known anything about it, she lost her mind.
It wasn’t even a moderate freak out, either. It was like the rumored megaspell bomb had dropped on their sleepy little house, destroying any peace it held. Sunshine put the screams of the best horror productions to shame. Ponies three streets over would be talking about the meltdown for days.
Their parents assumed Moonlight had hexed her sister, and thus, grounded her. More shrink visits were scheduled.
But Moonlight bore through the injustice, and the screeching, and even being roped into her sister’s panicked hoodoo bath cleanse— because Sunny needed to know. Knowledge was power, right? Even if that knowledge came reeking of hyssop.
Except once Sunshine came to terms with what happened, she almost invited it to happen again.
Sunny had always been a very happy-go-lucky pony, and she delighted in trying new things. Like Moonlight, she believed in things not taught at magic school— like chi, and karma, and—
“Positive thinking, Ravey!” Sunshine practically sang in the present. “Just totes believe that this mare will understand us and want to be our friend!”
Moonlight’s ears actually flattened. Briefly.
‘Our’ friend? She was only bringing Sunshine along so she would quit hounding her about meeting new ponies! Did her sister even realize who they were meeting?
Moonlight rolled her eyes, her lip pouting a little. Get real. Sunshine always had to have hooves in what we did. Then her mouth tilted up in the tiniest of wicked grins. Not the dead animals, though.
Actually, there was that time Sunny had stepped in what was left of a run over frog…
Her grin widened.
They were almost there. The road had ceased to be paved ages ago, practically just a trodden path now as they left the intercity railroad behind them. They were approaching the river, and just ahead was the pumpkin patch Eerie tended during the summer and autumn months. Green vines wreathed over the dirt in chaotic lines, the small wooden stand by the road empty, save for a messily painted sign that simply read, Pumpkins.
Moonlight recalled coming here last autumn, when Eerie Lantern’s popular pumpkin patch was open. It was the one time of the year Eerie interacted with anypony…
If hiding under the counter and squealing fearfully about thieves was considered ‘interacting’.
It wasn’t until the last Nightmare Night that Moonlight even got a glimpse of Eerie, and that had been at a great distance, when the lavender mare made a beeline for her home at day’s end.
Further along the path lay the modest woods at the base of Foal Mountain, where the home in question lay in wait.
Moonlight’s withers tightened.
Would she commit another faux pas? What would she talk about? Could she bring up ghosts right away, or did she need to talk about… like… the weather first?
She was pretty sure she’d rather undergo a live autopsy than suffer small talk.
Sunshine jumped and twirled in the air with a happy cheer. “I bet she has all kinds of neat tricks for gardening! I can’t wait to pick her brain!”
For a harrowing moment, Moonlight imagined her sister on the autopsy table instead.
They were going into the woods now.
Through the tree line, a squat home became visible, small and sad in its modesty. But, as they neared, some things became clear.
Despite its weather-worn, mossy wood, and wild front lawn, the small dwelling had bright and healthy flowers hanging from planters along its sides, and the dirt path to the door was inlaid with flagstones that were swept clean of debris.
“Wow! What a cute house! I never would have thought someone lived in these woods,” Sunshine said as they approached the front door.
“Just, like, remember what I said, all right?” Moonlight replied.
Sunshine glanced at her sister curiously as she knocked on the door. “About what?”
There was a loud clatter inside. Then in the next moment, the door opened just a crack, a surprising number of security chains clear on the other side.
Eerie Lantern’s wide orange eye peered through, her pupil looking dilated.
Sunshine pressed in close with a smile. “Hiyeee! I’m Sunshine Smiles, Moonlight’s sister! Nice to meet—!”
The door slammed shut. It only took a moment to realize the chains weren’t coming off.
Sunshine sat hard, blinking at the door.
“About being too shiny,” Moonlight spat.
Her sister chuckled nervously. “W-Well, maybe we can—?”
The pair jumped as the door rattled, the sharp sound of grinding metal piercing through the wood all at once. Then the doorknob turned, and the door swung inward, hinges creaking.
No one was on the other side.
The sisters exchanged looks.
“Still wanna talk about gardening?” Moonlight asked with a small smirk.