The old unicorn had spent the previous hour staring at the wooden surface of his reading desk, trying his best to fight off the fatigue and frustration that clouded his mind. This was the fourth day this week in which he had found himself suddenly awoke in the middle of the night and unable to immediately go back to sleep. For the first three days, the stallion's solution to curing this ailment was to walk around the front of his yard under Luna's moon until the weight of tiredness made his eyelids droopy and his mouth produce continuous yarns. But tonight was different. He had woken up two hours ago and spent nearly an hour wandering in the grass, but by the time he returned to his home, he could not yet return to his bed to count his sheep. Therefore, in a final bid of desperation, he hoped that staring at his desk in his bedroom would cause him to fall under sleep's spell.
But though the task he assigned to himself worked in boring him out of his mind, boredom was not enough for the elderly stallion to fall asleep. Frustrated, the unicorn slammed his chin on the desk and released a slow croak that eventually transformed into a loud grunt. Old age had not done the unicorn any favors since his retirement from his traveling years long ago, though he can assume that growing old is not supposed to help anypony in general -- not just him. Since residing at the town of Ponyville at his old friend's suggestion, the unicorn had spent years visiting doctors and therapists due to problems with his health, in which every newer ache would be worse than the last. It made him a greatly upset, knowing that the robust youth that he once was now relied on the assistance of ponies who could never handle the dangers he once faced. He did not hate his caretakers, as their weekly visits to his home reminded him to be grateful for their concerns, but the reminder that he may one day be unable to have full control over his body loomed over him like the grim reaper's shadow. The thought of helplessness was always on his mind.
But until that day came when he found himself confide to the town's hospital or nursing home, being unable to move anything other than his wordless lips or blind eyes, for now all the unicorn had to worry about was putting himself to sleep. By this point, he doubted that he would be able to force himself to go to sleep, so he figured that he might as well amuse himself until his body naturally found its way to his bed. Sadly, he was not able to immediately think of what he could do at the moment, so it felt necessary for him to lift himself off of his cushion and slowly walk towards the door leading outside of his room. Just before he used his magic to open the door, the unicorn stared at a nearby window and gazed at the sight that lay beyond the glass.
Distances away, from the backyard of his home, Apollo could see the Castle of Friendship, and besides that was the School of Friendship. Though it was night time, the full moon above provided enough light to reveal the crystal splendor of the castle -- which shone with rays of purple, blue, and golden lights. The school, made of simpler material, also demonstrated a beauty under the moonlight, with the waterfalls and the lake that was fed by them sparkling with the mesmerizing twinkles of diamonds. The sight outside his window kept the unicorn's hooves on the floor for some time, as he began to reminisce of his first few years in Ponyville.
When the unicorn retired from his vagabond days, he returned to his hometown, hoping he could find employment suitable to a stallion advancing in age. Though things appeared to be working at first, he found himself struggling financially. It was not until his old friend, who had left the adventurer gig long before the unicorn had, heard about these troubles that the unicorn suddenly found himself a chance to move to Ponyville. The old friend had landed a position in the School of Friendship and was close to the principal, and had suggested that the unicorn would do well as a part-time instructor of extracurricular activities.
That decision to move to the small town was made decades ago, and ever since then the unicorn had not found a single reason to regret his choice. He loved being physically active with the students for as long as he could, and it was nice to connect with his former partner. Sadly, that old friend died a few years ago, and not long after the old stallion's body could not keep up with the expectations set for a teacher of physical education. Nonetheless, the first years in Ponyville gave him the best feeling he had since his youth.
"It was a good thing we had," the old unicorn said softly in a near whisper, as if he was talking to another pony in a crowded room during a quiet demonstration. He brought his front hoof to the window glass, still staring at the castle and school. "I'm thankful for what you gave me, even though it was for a mere while."
Then all of a sudden it came to him. In one moment, the unicorn retreated from the door and went over to stand between his desk and his bed. With a magic glow appearing around his horn, he levitated a small wooden chest from underneath his bed and set it down near the bottom legs of the bed frame. Facing the chest, the unicorn used his magic to open one of the drawers of the desk and retrieve a small copper key. Using the key to unlock the padlock guarding the entrance, he swung the lid of the chest open to reveal a small, yet diverse, collection of notebooks, sheets of paper, and pictures. The first object that the unicorn's frail eyes spotted was a slim crimson red spiral notebook with a golden eagle imprinted on the cover. However, that was not what the old stallion was looking for.
After the funeral, his friend's offspring had given the unicorn a collection of items that were meant for him. Many of these items included special books that the friend believed would be of great interest to the unicorn. Indeed, the old pony had browsed through the descriptions of a few, he never got to truly read them, as they reminded him of the grief he was facing. Now, however, tonight seemed like the perfect opportunity to give these books a try, since his mind was too stubborn to fall asleep.
"What was that one called? What was that one called?" the unicorn muttered to himself as his hooves shuffled around the chest's interior. "I think it was purple. And it was about Ho Chi Mane city, right? Or was it dark blue?"
Eventually, the unicorn found a purple book with a pink ribbon attached to the spine that acted as a bookmark. The book was titled 78 Days of Endless Nights, and though he was not certain, the title sounded familiar enough for him to levitate the book to his desk. Resuming his seat at the cushion, he opened the book to its first page to read the description of the general plot of the story. The story focused on a unicorn stallion named Silverrun, a government agent in search of his estranged brother, a private investigator named Golden Luck, who went missing after accepting a case in Ho Chi Mane city. Along the way, Silverrun will uncover a hotbed of corruption within the city that the criminal underworld can not allow him to leak to the public.
A big smile formed underneath the unicorn's beard. "I'm pretty this is based on that job with the business tycoon," he chuckled. He looked at the clock above his desk to see that it was around 2am. He knew that a caretaker from the hospital would arrive by 8am, so he thought it best to be done with his reading by 4am and try to get in bed -- regardless of whether or not he would sleep. Hopefully, when that caretaker came, he could discuss with them a need to have an appointment scheduled concerning his troubles sleeping.
"I should read about three chapters. Hopefully, that'll be enough for me."
Browsing through the table of contents, the unicorn flipped over to the fourth chapter of the story, which contained nothing more than a single short paragraph summarizing the plot of the chapter. In fact, most of the pages of the book had very few writing, other than the general plot description and the plot summaries of each chapter. The unicorn placed the ribbon bookmark on the page of the fourth chapter and then returned to the first page of the book.
Below the description of the first page was an imprinted rune circle with an "X" in the middle. Closing his eyes, the unicorn cast a spell on the circle, and soon enough a white flash engulfed his vision, with the last thing on his mind being that if he enjoyed this book, he would need to read the rest his friend had left him. The unicorn sincerely doubted that he would make it another decade, and thus he felt he needed to get a move on.
The sound of ocean waves and seagull cries filled the unicorn's ears as the white light clouding his sight disappeared. Once he felt comfortable to open his eyes, he found himself on the front deck of a ship moving through the waters. The sky and overall atmosphere around him were painted dull grey as mist and fog were all around him. There were other ponies on the deck with him, some were ship workers, mostly stallions, while others appeared to be simple passengers. Through the cloudy atmosphere, the unicorn was able to make out the shadowy outlines of a city nearby. All of a sudden, he heard a loud male voice speak out from out of nowhere, and as he spoke, words appeared in the air above.
The sight of Ho Chi Mane city in the distance was an unsettlingly sight for Silverrun. The federal agent had always been eery of the destinations he was sent on for a job. The feeling of dread over unforeseen events was something that had become routine for the young unicorn as he had become desensitized to the tragedies he had encountered over the years. It was for this reason that he doubted that he would find anything mundane in the city, whose towering skyscrapers grew closer to him like dark colossals as the ship neared the docks. But as he stood near the dock rails while his thoughts concentrated on his job, a voice called over to him from behind.
"Detective Silverrun," a male voice said from behind the unicorn. Turning around, the old stallion spotted an earth pony wearing a sea captain's coat and hat. "I don't mean to bother you, young sir, but I just wanted to check on you. I hope last night's accommodations were to your liking."
The earth pony's comment of the unicorn being a "young sir" confused the old pony, until he looked down at his body to discover that he was in possession of a much younger body, one that had a yellow coat and an orange mane and tail. For a while the old unicorn played around with his legs and hooves, feeling a sense of nimbleness that he has not felt in quite a long time. The sight of this youthfulness was enough to make him laugh, but soon enough he realized that he had to answer the captain's question when he saw the pony waiting for him to respond.
"Everything's fine, sir," the unicorn said with a beam in his smile. "I don't think anything's going to ruin my mood anytime soon."