//------------------------------//
// 4 - Lynchpin 
// Story: Moondust 
// by Parallel Black 
//------------------------------//

From far away Canterlot looked like a glorious fairytale of white and gold spires rising from a set of giant disks, clinging to the mountainside like mushrooms to a tree, but up close its more functional shapes became apparent. In the distant past, when the forces of nature rolled through the sky uncontrolled, a city like Canterlot would have been washed from the mountainside without magical defenses, but Celestia had made sure there were plenty of physical alternatives.

Twilight and Spike were on the incline now, heading down towards the middle of the city. The tiny rivulets carved into the marble slabs grew in width and combined into miniature aqueducts either side of every inward-facing street, which in turn ran into the various fountains and decorative streams along the way. Where the trickle turned into streams, some of the water was syphoned away beneath the marble into the sewer network that prevented Sunflare’s Walk from turning into a raging torrent.

The great red and white road came into view over the shops, the incline finally gaining enough of an angle to make the center line of the city visible. Second only in length to the Canterlot Lap, which wrapped unbroken around the entire city, Sunflare’s Walk connected the entrance at the base of the Rabbles all the way up to the gates of the castle. Visible beyond it was the opposite side of the Market District, which lined the mountainside in a network of white marble and grey stone amongst a myriad of colourful rooftops and park areas. There hadn’t been much in the way of rain lately, but given that the entire city was shaped like a trio of giant, disc-like troughs it wouldn’t take much to cause a devastating flood should every hole be plugged and every underfloor facility be shut down.

Spike wanted to see the lake, but it seemed the lake had come to them instead.

The path levelled out as they reached one of “shelf” estates that decorated either side of the incline in this part of the district. This one happened to be shaped like a bowl. Twilight recalled the names of the streets; Fellspring, Loftspring, Bentworth. Twenty homes and counting, all partially submerged. The small maintenance house just before the well was nowhere to be seen beneath the surface. Given the ill shade the water was turning, the sight was more reminiscent of a clogged toilet than a wishing well.

“What in Equestria happened here?” Spike asked as they walked along the edge of the estate.

“Looks like it’s blocked or something,” Twilight replied. “Maybe a lot of somethings, looking at the damage…”

The Spiralis Well was meant to be a small marvel of drainage engineering. With the nearby streets all slanting towards it in a spiral, the well provided an effective defense against storm waters, though Canterlot hadn’t experienced a large enough storm to fully test it in generations now, so perhaps it simply hadn’t been maintained. A number of workers were busy gathering what they could from the flooded homes, wading in and out amongst the residents to help retrieve their personal belongings.

They watched as they walked. It took until her hooves touched something cool and wet for Twilight to notice she’d accidentally gone down the wrong path. She frowned. She hadn’t even realised she was travelling inwards. “Ugh. I need to stop being so fascinated by what other ponies are doing.”

“I was gonna say, but it seemed like you knew where you were going.”

Annoyed, she trotted back up and found where she’d gone wrong. The estate was surrounded by a single, circular street that fused seamlessly into the main road, drawing one away from the flow of traffic and into the bowl. Continuing on, they passed a pair of carts loaded with furniture, all dry, likely from the homes that hadn’t yet been affected.

“You’d think we wouldn’t have to worry about flooding in all this heat,” Spike commented.

“I know, right? It feels like the ends of my mane are starting to curl.”

Spike laid out across her back, head and tail dangling off either side. It was something that had been adorable when he was tinier but now made him look like a dead thing being carried back to the cooking pot. “That’s ok with me!” he exclaimed. “I feel like laying next to a pool and just taking it all in.”

“You’ll have plenty of time for that once we reach the lake,” Twilight replied, giving him a slight jostle to make him sit straight. “I might just take a bath while we’re there at this rate.”

They continued down, Sunflare’s Walk bobbing in and out of view as they travelled through each shelf. Halfway down, the path levelled out once more into one of the more impressive plazas. It was a major shopping area of the district, featuring a large, circular fountain in the middle whose sides rose into ornate walls, its pillars stretching further to create a stone gazebo over the whole structure. Across the middle was a cross-shaped walkway over the water, leading to a ring surrounding the central fountain which sprayed a constant stream into the pool.

Normally the fountain was full of playing foals and the plaza surrounding it with ponies going about their daily spending sprees. It was nearing half-past four and there was barely a soul in sight. The trash, at least, had been swept to sides here, so it seemed someone was taking care of the place. The small army of market stalls that congregated each day was looking thin, with most of the permanent fixtures remaining unoccupied. Only a middling group of colourful fabric roofs were visible with the rest either stored away inside the wooden counters, or left on top to be used or stolen.

As they drew closer the relative quiet of post-riot Canterlot gave way to the more usual sounds of chatter and hoof against stone. A small crowd was browsing between the stalls, a sight which let a tiny ray of colourful sunlight into Twilight’s heart. Normality was a resource in desperately high demand.

“This is a good sign,” Twilight commented. “At least there are some ponies here. Maybe this means the community is starting to come back together?”

“Is that guy selling a pair of dentures?” asked Spike, pointing at an old stallion sitting beside the fountain. He lacked a stall, having nothing more than a piece of cardboard with “High-quality chompers for sale!” written on the front and a travel bag next to him.

Twilight frowned and turned Spike away, only to spot a mare behind a stall selling what seemed to be the contents of her kitchen cupboards. The pots and pans, rather than the food.

The fleeting sense of security left as soon as Twilight laid her eyes on the set of suitcases the mare was sitting on top of as she plied her trade, and it became clear why some of these people were here. While the watchmaking griffon had her homemade clocks laid out just as professionally as always, and the minotaur smith from Upper Canterlot displayed his works with just as much enthusiasm, other traders’ stalls were covered in random items plucked from their homes. Some sold knick knacks, and others, pieces of furniture. They were leaving.

It was just as Chestnut had said. Looking around, almost all of the shops that surrounded the plaza were shut, some with simple “CLOSED” signs hanging on the doors, others with notices of a more official nature, designating the building as empty to discourage looting. In the second week there had been a small exodus of richer citizens fleeing the riots to their other homes, and now it seemed some of the regular ponies had decided Canterlot wasn’t for them, either. Twilight couldn’t imagine leaving her home, and not just because her family’s manor was located on the richest rise in the city, well away from the panic and disorder. She had a certain aggravated fondness for the clean, white streets and organised park areas of Canterlot. A sense of familiarity that told her this was her home. She didn’t have that many friends here, but living in the dormitory she wasn’t too far from her parents and was in constant contact with the Princess herself; her mentor.

Twilight’s eyes grew from concerned to fearful as she saw the next stall, the thoughts of Celestia and her parents falling to the wayside. The stall was stacked high with books: Magical tomes with large spines and big, intimidating encyclopedias rose higher than the sides of the stall itself, the fabric roof laying discarded on the ground. The mare standing behind it held one of her prized magical manuals, explaining to her earth-pony customer, in great detail, how useful it would be to their unicorn relatives, and that if they didn’t have any unicorn relatives, how useful it would be if they decided to make one at some point.

The customer left with a confused frown on their face, the cream-coated unicorn glaring after them from beneath a pair of thick, red eyebrows.

“Moondancer?” Twilight called as she walked up to the stall.

Much like Twilight, Moondancer was a social shut-in, but in her case it showed. The dark jumper she insisted on wearing looked more ragged and old than usual and her mane was halfway out of the bobble she’d tied it back with, strands of red and violet hanging loose over her thick, black glasses.

She placed the book back on the front of her stall, more with a shove than a respectful slide. “If you’re looking for my collection of Prospian literature, those were the first things to go,” she responded with annoyance ripe in her tone. She was staring Twilight dead in the face but it seemed to take her a few moments to register who she was looking at. When she did, she suddenly looked far less comfortable. “Twilight?”

Two emotions swirled in Twilight’s head as she took in the scene. Panic and heartbreak. Denial came next, only to in turn be overcome by a deep, low-burning rage. “What are you doing?” she asked simply. “You’re not actually thinking of selling all these, are you? This is half your collection!”

Moondancer leaned away. The annoyance on her face slowly reappeared. “So what? They’re just books. The station jacked up the prices so I need to get rid of them for the ride to Vanhoover. On top of that I’ve got my last month of rent to cover.” She spoke matter-of-factly, as if her reasons should have been obvious, though she avoided Twilight’s gaze.

Spike hopped off her back and hurriedly gripped the edge of the stall with his clawed hands, pulling himself into view. “And then you’re coming back… right?” he asked.

Moondancer sent him a look that was nothing short of a glare. “No,” came the response, directed at Twilight rather than Spike.

Twilight felt the end of a spear jabbing at her heart as she heard that. She looked down to the book that had been pushed to the front of the stall. It was a copy of Bubble Bloom’s Magic for Fillies. The little, colourful book was something Moondancer had owned for longer than Twilight had known her. It had helped her find her magical footing when she was little and it likely held precious memories.

“You can’t sell these. This isn’t just a book,” Twilight said, raising it into her magical grip. “None of these are just books, they’re literally pages of your childhood!”

A few seconds passed. Moondancer looked between the book and the unicorn holding it, her eyes lingering upon the vibrant, purple-pink aura of magic that surrounded Twilight’s horn. She unfolded her hooves and grabbed the book out of Twilight’s levitation, landing it on the wooden surface of her stall with a quick slam. She sat back down, a smile forcing its way onto her face. “I’ll buy new ones once I’m in Vanhoover. This place has fallen apart without the Princess, so I’m getting out of here before something else bad happens.”

Twilight’s ears went flat against her head. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Moondancer had always been one to complain about mistakes and things that were out of place. She was OCD like Twilight in that way. She generally left the actual solving of those problems to other ponies, but she had never been the type to back down in the face of an unsatisfactory situation. “But… how can you leave?” Twilight asked. The words came out with more emotion than she intended, but Moondancer’s smile only wilted.

“Just today some asshole tried to steal one of my collector’s edition encyclopedias. That’s how. I don’t know where you were when ponies were rioting in the streets last week, but I stayed in my apartment, and those freaks still threw a brick through one of my windows. I’m moving back in with my parents where it’s safe,” the other unicorn replied, a hint of dejection in her tone. She sat back in her chair and folded her forelimbs, indicating that the matter was closed.

Moondancer watched in growing irritation as Twilight levitated her stacks of books aside, placing them neatly upon the large chest beside the stall. Twilight placed her forehooves on the wood and leaned in close. “No, don’t you dare sit back and say that. You can’t just leave! What about all of your studies and your research projects? What about your future?”

Moondancer gave her an odd frown. “I already quit, Twilight. That's not even the conversation anymore, so keep out of it." She brought some of the books back to separate them. "I don't need you whining at me to 'hope for the best' when that's clearly not on the cards after what the Princess did."

Twilight felt her brow starting to bead with stress as her face screwed up in fury. She stomped a hoof against the wood. “You… why are you being so… so…”

“Logical? Reasonable?” Moondancer suggested. “I’m just keeping myself safe, Twilight.”

“You didn’t plan any of this, did you?” came a little voice from between them.

Moondancer rarely paid Spike much attention. Or rather, she tended to avoid Twilight entirely whenever Spike was around. As the miniature dragon pulled himself up so that he could sit on the stall’s surface, Moondancer’s scowl melted into something far more vulnerable. She visibly leaned back as he leveled his eyes with hers.

“What do you… mean?” she asked cautiously.

He pointed a claw at her. “I mean, something’s off about all this. Everything you’re saying sounds super emotional and react- rea…”

“Reactionary?” Twilight offered.

“Reactionary. So much for logic when you’re trying to sell everything at once.”

She adjusted her glassed and the glare returned in full force. “That’s because I want to be out of here tomorrow, if not today! I don’t wanna spend one more minute in this horrible place, where I could be robbed or killed or burned alive at any moment!”

Spike gave her a confused look. “It’s seriously not that hot.” He frowned. “Wait, you didn’t mean me, did you?”

Twilight nudged him aside. “No, she didn’t, Spike. The heat is just getting to her.” She looked between them for a moment before letting out an awkward cough, attempting to get the knives out of her throat. The moonbeams focusing between her shoulders felt like they were causing her coat to curl. “Look, Moondancer, I don’t want you to leave. You’re one of a very, very select group of people I consider real friends and that’s because you always do things for a reason, after obsessing on them for hours or days beforehoof.” She paused. “I guess what I’m trying to say is… if you leave, then I don’t know what I’d do without my best study buddy to hang out with, once all this is over.”

The annoyance finally, slowly, drained from Moondancer’s face. Left behind were a pair of fuzzy, worried eyebrows and a mare who was starting to feel the weight of her own decisions. She opened her mouth to reply, then closed it, then found the wrong words; “Why would you need a nobody like me?”

Spike answered first. “Because she’s your friend! Sticking together is what friends are for, right?”

“Yeah… r-right,” Moondancer replied after a pause. “Look… I can’t stay here. I don’t want to stay here. I don’t know what’s going on and I don’t think I want to know.”

Twilight’s brow tweaked in worry. “Nothing’s going on. Nothing’s even happening now, now that ponies aren’t rioting anymore.”

“Then why is everypony leaving?”

“Because they’re still scared and confused, just like us. But I don’t want to leave. I want to stay and help fix things.” She pointed at the other unicorn. “The more ponies who give up, the worse it’ll be for everyone else.”

Moondancer paused again, considering that. She opened her mouth to respond again, only for a noisy gurgle to come from behind the counter. She and Twilight had more in common than being obsessive bookworms. “Uh… what time is it?” she asked with a blush, realizing she had skipped breakfast.


	---


The makeshift market folded out of view and they turned onto one of the main arteries leading to Sunflare’s Walk. As large commercial buildings and apartment blocks gave way to corner shops and terrace houses, the canopies of the center line rose into view over the rooftops. Their great boughs swayed in the wind, the stone-like bark covering even the smallest twigs turning each tree into a living monument. They were great oak trees of the old-Equestria variety; larger than most houses towards the base and rising higher than the walls of the castle. The road they bordered was similarly huge, made up of red and white bricks and decorated with an array of gardens and water features as it travelled uphill.

Twilight’s hoof landed on something that felt almost like card, yet soft and ridged. It was a leaf as wide as her head, bluish-green in colour with a sturdiness that had made it a prime material for all manner of uses back in the mists of pony history. The leaf was one of many that had fallen from the great oaks, coating the ground in what almost looked like a deep shadow next to the bright white and rich red bricks. The fact that so many had fallen this early in the year could only mean the trees had been under some form of stress. Twilight had little opinion of whether plants could sense emotion, but it seemed to be a clear response to the goings on around them.

Moondancer had her gaze locked to the boughs far above them. Her chest was stuffed full of her remaining books and floated alongside her in a thin, greyish-pink glow. The aura rippled, struggling with the effort of holding something that was twice its owner’s weight.

“I can help you carry that, if you want?” Twilight asked, noticing the way the light around Moondancer’s horn wavered and flickered. “It looks pretty heavy today.”

“It’s fine,” Moondancer replied, looking back to the road. “It’ll be lighter when I carry it to the train station, anyway.”

“Are you absolutely sure you want to sell all those books? I could help with the train cost if you need money…?”

Moondancer gave her a look bordering on a scowl, but it softened. “I thought you wanted me to stay, not to help me leave,” she stated.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “It was just a suggestion.”

“Yeah, I know. I just don’t… want your help right now. Not with this stuff.”

Twilight couldn’t think of a response to that, so the walk descended in an uneasy silence. I’ve never seen her like this, Twilight thought. She’s never looked so defeated before. As she rose through the year groups Moondancer had made it crystal clear on a growing number of occasions how she felt about other ponies. Those who could help her with her studies were the only exceptions to this, and among them, Twilight had been the only one with enough patience to stick with her. More often than not, Moondancer wore a frown, but the look of forlornness from that very first day at the school still showed through every once in a while.

Looking around, it seemed the feeling was shared by much of the crowd. Even with everything that had happened Sunflare’s Walk was still the busiest stretch of the city, complete with a wide variety of stalls and traders who had made the trek up the mountain paths on hoof. Behind them, further up the road, there was even a pair of travelling homes whose bold, red roofs stuck out above the throngs of ponies. She felt a random pony brush past her and looked back to the crowd ahead.

It’s busy, she realised. This isn’t what I thought it would be like. There aren’t any broken windows or piles of garbage… She closed the gap with Moondancer again, moving into the wake she was leaving as ponies did their best to avoid running into the giant chest floating by her side. 

“I don’t know how my business is going to survive through next month if things keep going the way they are. Half my customer base has already vanished into thin air-”

Chestnut Buckle was the type of pony who knew about these things, using social circles Twilight didn’t even know how to find. He was a straightforward stallion but wise when it came to other ponies. How could half of his customer base have vanished if it was still this busy? He could have been exaggerating, but past his confident smile he had sounded genuinely worried for the future. Still, if there was a chance that he was wrong, that he was only seeing one side of things, or that some parts of the district were simply being affected more than others, then she had to latch onto it and not let go.

“Hey, Spike, how many stalls do you see?” she asked, sensing a way forward.

Spike raised an eyescale but had a look, leaning over one side, then the other, his slit pupils picking out more details than Twilight’s reading eyes could manage. He sat back down. “About… thirty-something, I think. Why?”

Twilight let out a breath she hadn’t realised she’d been keeping, and smiled. “I guess I owe you an apology. This place is the lifeblood of the entire city; if you’re seeing that many stalls just in this one stretch then… maybe things aren’t as bad as I thought.”

“... Huh.”

Twilight zeroed in on their companion. Moondancer wore that look she got when she didn’t want to deal with other people; a mixture of frustration and boredom that made her look far snootier than she actually was. This means I can still help you, Twilight thought. She trotted up next to her. “Hey, uh, why don’t we go somewhere a bit less crowded?”

“This is the fastest way to the lake,” Moondancer replied.

“Yes, but, well, it’s really busy, and I don’t wanna risk getting separated.”

Moondancer gave her the look now. “You know Lodus Oculus, right? Just cast it on me. We’ll be fine.”

Oh dear, Twilight thought. Lodus Oculus was a spell she had learned specifically for keeping track of Spike during his nightmarish escaping phase. It turned the target, whether it be an object or a person, into a temporary part of one’s mental map, so to speak. It wasn’t quite a third eye, more like gaining a second focal point in one’s vision, leading to constant distraction and potential disorientation for the uninitiated. It was also completely illegal to use without Celestia’s permission.

“Are you… super-duper sure you want me to do that? What if Celestia finds out?”

“Does it really matter what she thinks?”

Twilight felt a flight of panic rush through her at that. “Er, yes it does! Do you have any idea how angry she would be if I used Haycartes’ Curse? This is like that!”

The look turned into a frown, but Moondancer slowed her pace and turned. “Fine, if you’re really gonna be that way about it.”

They passed through the second line of great oaks into an area Twilight was unfamiliar with. Moondancer kept the lead, weaving through streets with her chest in tow and her stomach rumbling in desperation. Things really did seem more normal here. Fewer closed shops, more ponies wandering around, a little more shelter from the overbearing Sun. This was as good a time as any, but without the crowd to get in the way.

“So… Moondancer,” Twilight began.

“Yeah?” Moondancer replied with suspicion ripe in her tone.

“I think things might be ok. For Canterlot, I mean. Lots of ponies left, but, you saw how busy it was back there, and I think trade is still happening and everything, so…”

“So that means I don’t have to leave?”

“Yes. I mean… aside from my own reasons, don’t you think you should be trying to stay and help? I’ll be helping Quilliam fix his library and if I get a break from studying I might help with the clean up in our area.”

Moondancer didn’t respond for a moment. “I’d be ok helping out Quilliam, but there’s no point in trying to fix trash other people made themselves. He got robbed, everyone else got lazy.”

“What about the community?

Moondancer turned on her. “What community? You don’t even take part in the community. I don’t take part in the community, either! Why should I have to stay behind when I could be safe with my parents?”

“Well that’s what I’m saying! You don’t have to leave in the first place; things aren’t as bad as we thought, so it won’t take as much effort to return everything to normal.”

“Really? Do you know that for a fact?”

Don’t hesitate. “I do,” Twilight lied. “And once that’s done you can come back to the school instead of abandoning your studies.”

“I’m not going back to the school, Twilight.”

“Wh-”

“Neither are Juniper or Amethyst, and you know damn well why.”

“W-what?” I didn’t even know they’d left. Then again, she hadn’t seen Moondancer herself leave, either. It must have been when she was in the depths of study, ignoring reality. “They… you’re overreacting. It’s not that bad. You saw how busy it was!”

Moondancer stopped walking and placed her chest down. Twilight could feel a storm coming. “Celestia didn’t do something to you, did she?” the other unicorn asked.

Twilight felt the memory of her mentor’s hoof holding up her chin and instinctively rubbed the area, where the little cut from Nightmare Moon’s blade should still have been. “All she did was apologise.”

“She did a hell of a lot more than that to us, Twilight, but I’ve spent every day trying not to think about it, so I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.” She looked back to the road ahead. “As for Canterlot, we’re screwed if we stay here, anyway. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have divine protection from everything that could possibly go wrong in my life, and judging by how everypony is acting, I’m definitely not the only one. The only thing I can do to get away from all this is to literally get away.”

Twilight felt her ears twist back. “There are so many more options than that! It doesn’t have to be so final. Things aren’t that bad. Why won’t you listen?”

Moondancer stomped a hoof. “No, we’re fucked, Twilight! Do you want me to prove it to you? Because I can. Easily.”

Twilight opened her mouth to respond, but Moondancer’s chest had already left the ground and she was on her way out into the open once more. As she started after her friend she could feel Spike’s claws digging in as he held on. She was thankful for Moondancer stopping the argument before it started, but Spike had heard more than she wanted him to already. She’d been able to shrug off her dazed state that day as nothing more than general fatigue, telling him Celestia had left in a rush over hearing news of Luna’s condition. That was part of the truth, at least. No doubt he would have questions on his mind, but the answers were something a young child should never have to deal with…