Moondust

by Parallel Black


7 - That Monster, Too

Of all the threats in the city, Maredusa was easily the scariest. Her gaze could turn ponies to stone while the snakes in her mane drained their magic, powering her up and leaving a trail of statues in her wake. She skulked through the shadows and the sewers in search of her prey, more monster than mare.

Spike traced a claw along one of Maredusa’s snakes. He didn’t really feel like reading today but there wasn’t much else to do while Twilight was keeping him under lock and key. That was fine. Today had been quieter so far, but even from here, where the only view was of Equestria and the open sky, he could still see the faintest of fogs rolling past the dormitory from the number of fires that had been lit. At least Celestia was back. That meant things would go back to normal soon enough and it would be safe to go outside again.

The comic was vol.3 of an ongoing series which introduced Maredusa as the long-lost sister of the Mane-iac. Shining had taken offense at the character but she hadn’t bothered Spike up until today.

He closed the book. He didn’t want to think about ponies getting turned to stone right now, considering the Princess had done just that less than two hours ago. What was perhaps worse was the look on the stallion’s face. Spike had always thought getting petrified would be a terrifying thing to experience, yet the guy had just stood there, staring at Celestia like a brick wall as it happened. It gave him the creeps.

Celestia, too, seemed weird. She had just shown up on the doorstep of the higher learning dorm and announced that class was back in session. She had sounded enthusiastic at the time, but her demeanor changed as soon as she stepped in, as if the light outside had been showing them a different person entirely. She walked in slow, loping strides with her head lowered and her eyes staring straight ahead.

Spike sat up, wrapping his little arms around his knees and looking out of the window again at the Moon hanging in place far above. As worried as he was, he knew it would only take a little time. Celestia would sort things out and Twilight would be there to help her. She was dedicated to her work in a way he couldn’t understand, but he had faith that this would all blow over without much issue.

The door eased open and a unicorn walked in. Her coat was lavender and her curtain-like mane was a dark blue with a pair of purple and pink lines running through it. Even her cutie mark was the same, and yet as Spike stared at the mare approaching, something deep down was telling him to run. It was as if a stranger had just entered the room.

“Hey, I’m back,” said Twilight Sparkle with a friendly wave.

The feeling faded, his sister emerging from the stranger. He blinked, then frowned at himself. What was that?

-----

Spike strode back into the restaurant’s main room with a big grin on his face. He had finally broken through and made Moondancer his friend, or at least as close to a friend as possible. He was fine with that as long as she was fine with him. She had finally looked at him without even a hint of fear in her eyes, and that small gesture meant the world.

Everything Moondancer had just told him whirled around his head like a miniature typhoon, pushing thoughts about Canterlot and comics to the side for the time being. Before they left the restroom he had asked her what kinds of animals she had on her farm, and subsequently made a promise to never eat beef, even once he was an adult, and no matter how tasty it might be. Countless ideas ran through his mind of things he and Moondancer could do together now that they were friends, until they were inevitably overcome by the scent of food.

The food was already on its way to their table. The dog guy carried two meals beneath circular covers, while the waitress levitated the third under a much more rectangular one, likely containing a loaf hardy enough to survive a trip down the mountainside and end up just as edible as it had started. That was to say; extremely hazardous. Ponies didn’t have the sharp, crystal-crunching daggers suited to the natural draconic lifestyle of grinding through solid stone to find scraps of shiny stuff, assuming the books he’d read about his kind were true.

The dog placed his dishes down and gave them another bow, and the waitress gave him a smile as Spike climbed back into his seat. He smiled in return. He liked her and all, but he got the feeling she found him more amusing than adorable. Margery Tub, he reminded himself. Twilight tended to be the one who chatted with her, leaving him as the kid left to his own thoughts. He was only mostly ok with that, provided there was something to eat to help distract him as he quietly listened to every word.

Margery looked to his newest friend as Moondancer took her seat opposite Twilight. “If anything’s wrong don’t be afraid to let me know, ok?” she said in a profoundly motherly tone. She must have seen the state Moondancer had been in before she fled the room.

“Uh-huh. I’m fine,” Moondancer responded, giving her a look.

The older mare’s positivity was unbreakable. She placed the last dish down, her emerald tendrils of magic coiling around the knub atop each cover. One by one she revealed their contents; A steaming hot bowl of vegetable soup for Twilight with a couple of pieces of bread as a side, wormroot pie for Moondancer, which looked and smelled a lot better than it had sounded, and finally, a full loaf of perfectly cooked froggy bottom bread that would feel like chewing wood to a pony. Hidden within were veins of melted iron, poured in-house through the mixture to create “paths” through the meal which Spike liked to follow to the bundle of iron that often collected in the very center.

As the staff left them to it, Spike could feel a sense of elation filling the air beside him. Twilight clopped her hooves together. “So… is there any reason you two were looking so happy?”

Moondancer looked away and held her tongue. Spike saw his chance. “We’re friends now,” he answered as he managed to ease a chunk out of the loaf. Moondancer gave him a scowl and he zipped his lips shut with a wink.

“Really? That’s great!” Twilight exclaimed.

“I wouldn’t say ‘friends’,” Moondancer elaborated. “Just… not enemies anymore.”

“I never saw us as enemies, anyway,” said Spike.

“Yeah, I know. It’s fine now, is what I’m saying.”

“That’s so great, Moondancer! I’ve been waiting for this for literally years! I was getting worried you’d leave without setting things straight.”

Moondancer suddenly looked as vulnerable as she had in the restroom. She kept her gaze away from Twilight’s, one hoof covering the other. “I mean… yeah,” she admitted. “It’s a big weight off my back.” She looked Twilight in the eyes now, and lingered there. There was still work to be done here. There was still something she wanted to say, but for now, her gaze turned to the delicious pie under her nose and she practically fell upon it, taking a big bite out of the middle like a pig at an eating contest.

Spike took a long sip of his broth-like milk stuff and chewed at the edges of his loaf, revealing a few strands of iron. The stuff was still hot - how they formed it without the bread melting into sludge he had no idea - but it was tastier than a freshly baked scone. The ends of the exposed metal bent between his teeth before snapping off into chewable chunks like an extremely hard taffy.

Twilight started on her soup as well, taking much more polite slurps and giving it a little mix with the spoon. “Do you want the bread?” she asked. “I’m not actually that hungry.”

“Sure!” Spike eagerly grabbed them and started dunking them into the murky stonebud milk. The stuff had tasted bitter at first, but it was a lot nicer than it initially looked. Every time they came here he thought he’d found something nasty on the menu, only for it to turn out to be tasty anyway. The lake may have been a bust, but at least Meadow View was always a treat.

He looked over to Twilight and his smile faded quickly. She looked lost in her thoughts; the bad kind. She’d done this often before she started on that spellcasting project, but she had never told him what the problem was.

“You ok?” Spike asked.

Twilight looked up, surprised. “Huh? Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking.” She leaned down to slurp at her soup and quirked her eyebrows as she spotted Moondancer’s plate. She had eaten all but one slice of the pie and was resting back in her chair with an uncomfortable look on her face.

“You must’ve been starving,” she commented.

“I feel like death warmed up right now,” Moondancer replied as she patted her belly. “I seriously need to stop doing this kind of thing to myself.”

“At least you’ll have access to a healthier diet working on the farm.”

“Mhm.” Moondancer leaned forward again, steadying herself against the table as if she’d just gained a hundred pounds. “So,” she began past the air trying to bubble its way up her throat, “I wanted to ask you something out of- ump -curiosity.”

“Of course. Go ahead.”

“What would you do if you left Canterlot as well?”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“Like, if you had to leave as well. Putting all the stuff aside about helping out, where would you want to go?”

That’s an easy one, Spike thought as he remembered the scent of baked goods wafting through every street as he and Twilight wandered through Ponyville. Even the air had felt different; healthier, plant-ier, maybe a little bit smelly with the nearby farms. Unless he wanted to raid Rarity’s stash - which he would never dream of - then gems would probably be harder to come by, but the existence of Sugarcube Corner alone made up for it. “Ponyville,” Spike answered without hesitation. “I wanna taste Pinkie’s cupcakes again.”

Twilight smiled knowingly at him. She gave it some thought. “I guess I’ve always wanted to see what Canaria is like in person,” she answered.

That took Moondancer by surprise. “Huh. Not even somewhere in Equestria?”

“Nope. I’d wanna be somewhere I’ve never seen before. Did you know the skies around Griffendel are so turbulent that the capital is sometimes covered in storms for more than a week at a time?”

Moondancer smirked. “I hear they don’t control the weather there, so yeah.”

“I think it would be really interesting to see how they manage to deal with having so many floods and tornadoes.”

“I don’t think you’ve been reading the same travelbooks as me, but ok.” She sat back. “If I had to go on vacation somewhere I guess I’d make it Cabérico because I’m not a crazy pony who wants to look at tornadoes. They apparently have some of the best beaches in the world there.”

“Is that the place where everything’s made of crystal?” Spike asked. Years ago, back when he was still learning to read, Twilight had let him leaf through a travel guide whose bright colours had caught his eye. He recalled the name vividly but few of the details.

Moondancer nodded. “I’ve read that the jungles don’t have any shadows because of how everything is reflective. Apparently even the shorelines are partially crystalline, and certain places require ice-breaking ships to get through.”

“That’s a pretty cool choice,” Twilight replied. “But what about the heat?”

“I’ll just wear a dress for once in my life.”

“But they don’t have climate control there, either. What if there’s a freak heat wave and you’re out in the open?”

This place is sounding better and better by the minute, thought Spike.

Moondancer snirked and rolled her eyes. “Tornadoes and heat waves. You’re an adorable idiot sometimes.”

Twilight smiled. She shifted in her seat and hummed in thought. “Ok, my turn. What if you had to stay in Canterlot? What would you want to do?” she asked them both.

Moondancer’s reaction was far less positive than Twilight’s had been. Her mouth opened for a moment before she frowned in thought, casting her gaze back outside at the lake. Spike finished off one of his bread pieces before resting his elbows on the table. “If it were me… no, wait. If I were a unicorn I’d study magic. I don’t really know what else there is to do aside from eating out or going to a library.”

Twilight gave him a worried look. “There’s plenty more to do here than that. There’s theatres and museums, the stadium in the Cloud District. There’s the bowling alley near where Moondancer lives. Lots of places.”

The stadium sounded enticing, but Twilight had never been very good with busy public spaces. For some reason it made her panic. When it came down to it, Spike knew the only thing he wanted right now was to be somewhere other than Canterlot; there was too much misery here and not enough places to go that they both enjoyed. Ponyville would be different. Before their visit he’d never once considered how much he wanted to simply run as fast as he could through a wide open field, feeling the unmown grass bristle against him as he went, and the soft ground underfoot. Compared to that, the stony streets of Canterlot had become no different to the wood flooring of the indoors, and he felt stifled as a result.

Spike raised an eyescale as he chewed his loaf. “How come we never go?”

The look on Twilight’s face made it clear she’d been caught out. “Um… I guess I’m always just… busy. Busy with work and studying. Even eating and things takes time out of the day. Sorry.”

If there was a way to get another little break from all the book work they could make another visit and see how everyone was doing. Twilight had promised they would go back to Ponyville someday. Spike just didn’t know if that meant next month, next year, or longer.

“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked, tilting her head.

“It’s nothing. I get it. I just… wanna go somewhere else for a while, y’know?” An idea popped into his head. “I get that you’re going to be busy helping Celestia, but… since all you’re doing is paperwork, do you think she’d let you do it from somewhere other than Canterlot?”

Now Twilight raised an eyebrow. “You mean like… moving somewhere?”

Spike shrugged. “It wouldn’t have to be permanent. Just a… er, temporarily moving where we live so that the mail gets sent there instead of here? Is there a way to do that on vacation?”

Twilight frowned as she thought. “There’s probably a way to do that, though with Canterlot’s services the way they are, I’m not sure they’d be happy having to deal with a special exception on top of all the normal mail. How long were you expecting this trip to last?”

Spike awkwardly patted at the table. He wanted it to be permanent, or at least last a good while. Maybe a couple of months to see what it was like? However long it ended up being he knew it would be more fun than staying here. “Until everything stops being on fire?” he answered. “You could still help Celestia like you want to, but we won’t have to worry about being in the middle of it all.”

She thought again. Spike could almost see the objections on her face and knew what kind of answer he was going to get. “Spike,” Twilight began, predictably, “as much as we could both do with another vacation, I wouldn’t want to put any more stress on the system. There also might be ponies who object to having their personal information leave the city, even if it’s only temporarily. Plus, if anything happens then Celestia will protect us!”

“So when are we going to Ponyville again, then?”

Twilight looked panicked for a moment, no doubt remembering her promise. “When all this is over, we’ll go back for sure.”

“Will we?” he asked again. “Do you promise?”

“Yes. I promise.”

“You should probably just go now instead of waiting,” Moondancer cut in, still looking outside. “Things are only going to get worse before they get better, so maybe you shouldn’t be forcing him to stay just because you want to help out.”

Twilight looked put out by that. “You want to help too, don’t you, Spike?”

Spike shrugged. He didn’t, but it would be fine so long as he didn’t need to do any heavy lifting or ‘deep cleaning’. “I guess,” he answered, uncertainly, “but only if you promise that we’ll go to Ponyville right after everything is ok here.”

“I promise,” Twilight repeated.

She sounded genuine, yet he only half believed her. For as skilled as she was in organisation, Twilight had a habit of letting frivolous things like talking to people, having fun and not starving, fall through the cracks in favour of her latest list of research subjects. It had taken enough effort just to get her to bring them to the lake, so leaving the city entirely was perhaps more than he could hope for.

The conversation ended and he and his sister went back to eating. Spike chewed away a chunk of the bread and closed his teeth around an exposed vein of iron. It tasted the same, but this stuff felt a lot softer than that one time he’d tried to gnaw on a lamppost. Maybe he was just stronger now. A familiar image came to mind, of himself in however many years, rising high above the buildings as he strode down the thoroughfare getting greeted by everypony as some kind of hero. Sometimes he was on two legs, sometimes on four, sometimes he imagined himself as a dragon-sized pony with leathery wings and fiery breath, right on cue for that tiny pang of worry to ruin the fun.

He rarely thought about what Twilight would be like in those situations. When she did appear she rode on his back as he currently did on hers, taking part in the festivities and soaking up the crowd’s adoration right alongside him. She never looked any older than she did in reality. Spike couldn’t even imagine it. Slowly, the crowd went silent and the giant pony looked under his hoof to see what he’d stepped on. Spike’s chewing slowed to a stop, glancing between Moondancer and his bread as the uncomfortable thought played out in his mind. He wouldn’t be able to enjoy treats like the molten loaf for long. At some point he’d need a truck full for every meal. There was no way the Princess would tolerate him eating as many gems, and the thought of having to dig for his own minerals felt a bit alien to him. Dragons had only one renewable source of food: Other living things.

He recalled a bedtime story Twilight’s grandmother had told him. It was one of those “scare the foals straight” kinds that usually involved evil rabbits and melting witches. A pair of ponies wandered too far from home into the mountains. They got lost. One died, neither returned. He shuddered. The story had made him cry, so Momma, in all her wisdom, had reassured him that carnivores were much more resistant to Gaia’s Abandonment when they resorted to eating other sentient creatures. A good grandmother she’d been, a good babysitter, less so.

The dragon in his head doused the streets in flame, its eyes going feral and its mind going blank. Spike buried himself in the loaf, his teeth contacting the little lump in the center. He gave it a lick, his tongue rough enough to drag against its surface, leaving it shiny and even more appetizing looking. Maybe he could become a raider, swooping into quarries and lumber yards and gobbling up all the tools and machinery to get by. That would be better. It was either that or live in the Badlands where he wouldn’t get in anyone’s way as he dug endlessly for food.

“You’re lying, aren’t you?”

He flinched and looked up at Moondancer, but was relieved to see she was looking at his sister instead. He didn’t want anyone getting any weird ideas about his potential futures, least of all her. Lying? he thought, looking to Twilight. She had stopped mid-slurp and was giving Moondancer a quizzical look.

“Excuse me?” she asked.

Moondancer poked at her remaining slice. “Since when do you ever go on trips that aren’t for the sake of research? What possible reason could you have to leave Canterlot when you already have everything you could possibly need with none of the downsides?”

“Well… it’s not safe here. You said Blitz Wind is planning on extending his martial law into Middle Canterlot.”

Moondancer raised a bushy eyebrow and tilted her head, which she only did when she wasn’t taking an argument seriously. She didn’t normally do it to Twilight. “Oh? Now it’s suddenly dangerous to be here?” she replied. “I thought you said Celestia would protect you. Since you trust her so much and considering you were the only pony she even spoke to after what happened, I have absolutely no reason to think you might be in trouble here. Why would you leave?”

“We’re only talking about a short trip.”

“It shouldn’t be.”

Spike could almost see the air between them starting to boil under the sudden stress. Where had this come from? One minute they’d been having a nice conversation and then out of nowhere the intensity from earlier that day had bubbled right back up. He raised a claw. “Hey, uh… is everything ok?” he asked.

“It’s fine,” Moondancer replied, “I’m just calling Twilight out on her bullshit.”

“You really need to wash your mouth today, Moondancer,” Twilight commented.

He frowned. This didn’t feel warranted. He had his doubts about Twilight’s reasoning, but he trusted her a lot more than this. “We’re going to Ponyville pretty soon, right?” he asked.

Twilight glanced between them. “Of course. We’ll go as soon as we can, but not before we help out a bit first. It wouldn’t be right to just leave the city as it is.” 

“Then what’s wrong?”

Moondancer looked Twilight in the eyes again, and lingered once more. They narrowed. “What’s wrong is that Twilight’s rearranging deck chairs on a sinking airship. I’ll bet anything that Canterlot is way more messed up than either of us realise, so the idea that having one more pony and a baby dragon to help out is going to make any difference feels ridiculously desperate.”

“The offer’s still there if you want to bunk with me after your pay off your rent, rather than leaving straight away?” Twilight suggested. She reached across the table, only for the other mare to draw herself back. Twilight was looking worried now. “Besides, Vanhoover will probably be just the same as here. Manehatten, too.”

“I’m not going to Vanhoover, I’m going to a farm two-dozen miles east of Vanhoover.”

“Where there’s less of a guard presence?”

“House Roughtop is our guards. Yaks are a lot scarier than ponies.”

“My point still stands. You’re just as capable as any other unicorn-”

“My years of intensive study have truly paid off.”

“Moondancer, quit it!” Twilight exclaimed. “I’m being serious here-”

“No, you aren’t, you’re lying through your teeth so that you can keep pretending any of this is a good idea.”

Twilight scowled. “How is it wrong to want to help out? The Princess can’t do everything by herself!”

“The princess who hasn’t shown her face in public since that press hearing nearly two full weeks ago? She won’t be doing anything at this rate.”

“She’ll come back!”

“It’s been almost seven days since that ‘visit’ she gave us and there haven’t even been any rumors from the castle. It’s literally all conjecture. Ponies are starting to think Luna’s dead, and I think I might be one of them because it would explain basically everything.”

Twilight’s eyes darted at Spike, then back to Moondancer. “No talking about death around Spike.”

A smirk appeared on Moondancer’s face. “It’s fine, he can take it.”

“Uh, no? He’s just a kid. He shouldn’t have to think about that kind of thing.”

He didn’t let the frown show on his face. In spite of her usual protectiveness, Twilight had told him everything when she returned from the Everfree Forest; what was left of Nightmare Moon, the image of the castle being flattened with the dark mare and her accomplices apparently still inside, and even a lengthy description of a dead manticore whose body had been drained of all life, being cradled by its mourning mother. He set the feeling aside for now. “Why are you guys even arguing right now?” he asked. “You’re just going around in circles.”

His statement didn’t go over as planned. “As you can see, Spike’s more mature than you think,” said Moondancer with the tone of someone showing off a well-trained pet. She pointed an accusing hoof at the other unicorn. “I think you’re the one who doesn’t want to think about it, because you’re still worried that you’ll be blamed for it if Luna is dead. The only reason you’re staying in Canterlot is so that you can receive punishment if that ends-”

All at once something snapped and Twilight rose from her seat as she landed both forehooves against the table surface. She stared daggers at her friend as if she’d just declared war, yet Moondancer barely even flinched. That would have been worse - Moondancer was always calm when she was confident she was right - had the intensity in the air not changed to something so alien.
 
If Spike had hackles they would have pricked up at the feeling he was getting from the mare beside him. For a moment the sensation of residual magic flowing off of her body vanished along with her familiar scent, and Twilight Sparkle suddenly became a stranger. It felt as if she was there in body only, her presence scrubbed clean as if someone else was staring from behind her eyes.

“Twilight…” said Spike, leaning away from her, “what’re you doing?”

Another moment passed and she was back, his sister reemerging from wherever she’d gone. Twilight mouthed a word as the rage melted into worry. She looked down at her bowl of soup and the little spill she’d caused and slowly sat back down, shifting in her seat as if her joints were bothering her.

“I’m… sorry. I don’t know why I did that.”

Across from her, Moondancer stared. She sat back in her chair, looking satisfied for a few moments before she let her mean-spirited smirk fall away. “That was worse than I thought it would be.”

“I’m sorry,” Twilight repeated, staring into her bowl.

“Yeah, sure. You don’t see me smashing tables in rage. I think this proves that you’re staying in Canterlot for Celestia’s sake, not for yours or for Spike’s, let alone the city. So much for the community. Oh, and there goes your argument about keeping Spike away from violence, too, so good job.”

“It’s fine,” Spike spoke up, shaking his head. He wasn’t fine at all. Whatever this was he wanted it to stop… but at the same time he needed to hear it from Twilight. That reaction all but proved Moondancer’s words correct, or at least that she had struck a major nerve, and if Twilight was keeping them here out of fear… His frown deepened as he thought. Why would she be afraid of the Princess for something she wasn’t even guilty of? She hadn’t seemed that way, and she certainly hadn’t mentioned anything about being worried. He recalled the look on Twilight’s face as she emerged from the forest - those wide eyes, that strained mouth - were just the same as on that horrible night.

If she was keeping them here to make sure Celestia and Luna were ok, then she was probably putting herself through an obsessive hell thinking about it. No wonder she’d been so focused on her new spellcasting method; it was a distraction from the city, which in turn must have become a distraction from thinking about Luna.

Twilight said nothing. She mopped up the spill with a napkin, staring at each bit of cooling liquid as she no doubt attempted to create another layer of separation between herself and the truth.

“Is everything alright?” came a motherly but authoritative voice from behind them. Margery Tub trotted up to the table, eyed the little soup spill, then the stressed look on Moondancer’s face. “I was told there was a little ruckus going on…”

“We’re fine,” Moondancer responded gruffly. “She just kicked herself against the table.”

Margery looked between them. She could clearly see something was wrong here. “Well that’s not like you, Twilight. You should be mindful these days with all the mess piling up out there.” When Twilight didn’t respond, Margery’s forced smile wavered and she turned away. “If everything’s fine then I’ll leave you to it. Just be sure to finish your meals before you go; prices are only going to go up, after all.”

“Out of all your friends she’s somehow the weirdest,” Moondancer commented once the older mare was out of sight. “Too normal.” She looked back to Twilight now. “Are you actually going to say something so that we can have this over with, or are you just going to keep lying to all three of us?”

Twilight finally folded up the napkin and dropped it into what remained of her soup, but kept her eyes to the table. She looked tired. Not quite stressed, but sad. All the bad thoughts she’d been keeping locked away looked to have been forced to the front. “It’s…” she began, “um… I guess… the way I see it is that Celestia must have known Luna was going to come back, and that’s why she sent me to Ponyville. The others and I…-” She winced. “-we succeeded in stopping Nightmare Moon, but as for what happened to Luna… I don’t think that was what Celestia was expecting from me.”

“How is it on your back if there were five other mares with you?” Moondancer asked, carving her last slice in two.

Twilight frowned. “Because as far as I know they didn’t receive orders from the ruler of our country. It’ll be my fault, completely. I don’t-” She flashed a glance at Spike. “-I don’t know why it ended like it did, but I still feel like it was my fault. Maybe I… I don’t know. Maybe fear or anger affected the spell, getting rid of the bad parts instead of purifying them.”

“It’s possible. I’ve read that emotions and intentions can have an effect when it comes to Divine Magic.”

“I… didn’t know you were into religious stuff at any point?”

“I wasn’t. It’s just that the only information you can find on Divine Magic is divinely stupid and wishy-washy.” Moondancer took a bite of the half-slice. “Anyway… I take massive issue with the fact that your fear is what’s keeping you here when literally everyone else in our class is leaving because of the very same thing.”

“What are you saying?”

Moondancer pointed the pie-tipped fork at her. “I’m calling you a weirdo, Twilight. If you found a giant monster in the wild, would you be the only pony left screaming in terror at it after everypony else has run for the hills?”

Twilight pursed her lips, looking confused.

“The ‘giant monster’ obviously being Celestia in this scenario. You’re scared of what she’ll do to you for what ‘you’ did to Luna, despite the fact that you weren’t the only one who did it, and despite the fact that Celestia never even mentioned it last week.”

“Well… I doubt she’d want to talk about it.”

Moondancer let out a sigh. “Seriously, Twilight, get out while you still can before she actually decides to take you up on that offer. I don’t think any of us want to know what she’ll do if Luna is actually dead.”

“We shouldn’t be talking about this.”

“Why? Because you know you’re wrong?”

“Moondancer, please.”

“In case you haven’t noticed, Twilight, I give a shit about you, and I don’t want to see you get eaten or anything just because you felt guilty for stepping into some monster’s lair. That’s a stupid way to go and it puts Spike at risk as well.”

“None of us are in dan-”

“How’s your scar?” Moondancer asked suddenly. In a single beat her tone changed and her frown deepened.

“Wh- excuse me?”

A few seconds of quiet descended upon them. Moondancer gently removed her glasses and placed them on the table. A subtle shudder was the only sign she gave of whatever was happening underneath. “How’s your scar?” she repeated. “Show me. Is it healed yet?”

Twilight glanced between her friend and the glasses, then idly rubbed her chin. “You won’t even be able to see it from there…”

“After what Celestia did to us, my vision has literally never been better,” Moondancer retorted. “I only wear these because they’re comfy now.” She pointed a hoof at Spike. “Show him.”

Spike looked up from his loaf, now holding it by a pair of exposed protrusions. Most of the bread encasing the metal had been chewed away, bringing the creepy, tendril-y innards into sight. “Huh?” He looked to his sister. Twilight was doing her best to hide her chin from view, making it look like she was simply scratching it or something. What was this about now? That little, vertical scar on her chin had been Twilight’s only injury in her fight with Nightmare Moon - though apparently it had been gained when the dark queen placed her blade against Twilight’s neck rather than during the fight itself. It was disquieting to look at with the images it brought to mind, but Twilight had grown used to it as it healed, and it served as something of a battle scar to remember the adventure by.

Twilight met his gaze. Her hoof moved slightly, but she kept it in place until he reached up and moved it for her.

It was gone.

After the Unscheduled Night Twilight’s coat had grown back quickly so Spike had assumed it was simply hidden, but now there wasn’t even a subtle parting of fur. Why hadn’t she told him about this…?

Moondancer sat back in her chair and folded her legs. “So you just straight up didn’t tell him anything. I’d love to say I’m surprised, but I guess stressful situations show you who ponies really are.”

Spike’s brow tweaked as the questions began to circulate. “What is all this?” he asked, pulling away again. The little mark had been important, but maybe Twilight had been happy to see it gone, considering how hard she’d tried to ignore the world around them for days on end recently. Maybe that was why she hadn’t told him. “When are we talking about? Moondancer wasn’t even in Ponyville, right? When did Celestia heal your scar?”

“Do you wanna tell him or should I?”

“Moondancer, don’t. I’m warning you.”

Now Moondancer rose up from her seat, fury filling her eyes. “I may be one to talk, but I don’t want to see a kid put in harm’s way just because his sister-mother thing can’t get over her own problems! You’re keeping him here without even telling him what happened to us last week, aren’t you?”

The air changed and Spike’s imaginary hackles stood on end one more. The feeling faded quicker this time, Twilight re-covering her healed chin as the edges of a smile switched back to a look of horror. “He… doesn’t need to know this. Please stop.”

Moondancer looked to him now. “Do you want to know or not?”

Spike looked between them, utterly bewildered. None of this made sense. Why was Moondancer implying Celestia had done something bad to them, when they were talking about a healed scar? “Wh- when did it happen?” he asked his sister. “When did she heal it?”

“She didn’t,” Moondancer answered for her. “She did to us what Twilight did to Luna.”

The implications hit him and the image arrived fully formed, of Twilight and Moondancer standing amongst the Everfree trees, Celestia flying high above them, allowing a giant piece of lunar material to fall upon them as revenge for what had become of her sister.

Anger flashed across Twilight’s face. “It’s not like that,” she growled. “That’s not what she did.”

“Then what happened?” Spike whined, pulling on a foreleg to get her attention. “Why aren’t you telling me?”

Moondancer looked eager, like this was just a game to her. She opened her mouth to respond, only for Twilight to raise a hoof to silence her. “Don’t answer that,” Twilight commanded.

“Then you do it,” Moondancer replied, opening her forelegs to offer her friend the floor. “Instead of forcing him to stay here with a monster like Celestia, ready to burst out of the palace and kill us all whenever she feels like it, Spike should get to decide for himself, this time with all the information.”

Twilight said nothing for a while. She cast her gaze to the napkin floating in what remained of her soup, and let out a long breath. “I’m not going to do that,” she responded, bitterly. “And if you tell him instead, then you can forget what I said about helping you.”

That hit a nerve. Moondancer’s smirk wavered, then fell, and she drew her hooves back. She opened her mouth to say something, then closed it, thinking better of it as she went back to her pie in a glum silence.

Spike looked between them, the stress making him clench his jaw. “So… you’re not going to tell me…?” he asked.

A look of pain crossed his sister’s face. “I will when you’re ready,” she replied. “But it won’t be her call, and it certainly won’t be in a crowded restaurant.”

How many years would that be? For all her words about keeping him away from talk of violence and death, he vividly recalled the description of what the Elements of Harmony did to Nightmare Moon; rendering Luna little more than a burnt-... He stopped the train of thought before it could go much further, but Moondancer’s comparison made it through, and he imagined them both emerging in perfect health from a pair of blackened lumps on the ground. Was Celestia really capable of such a thing? Was she capable of causing such harm in the first place?

He looked to Moondancer’s glasses which were still resting on the table, forgotten as she enjoyed what little remained of her pie, and then back to where the scar should have been. The little, blank area suddenly gained a new meaning as he considered what must have happened: If Moondancer’s vision had “never been better” and Twilight’s scar was suddenly healed, did that mean other little nicks and bruises had been fixed as well? If Celestia could do that, then why hadn’t Luna shown up in public yet? Was the damage somehow worse than what Moondancer was implying had happened to them? Was it different because it was Divine Magic? Was Celestia somehow not already “divine” enough to fix what had been caused by something literally called the Elements of Harmony?

He needed more information, but it seemed Twilight had made her decision, however much she clearly hadn’t wanted to. For a moment he considered simply asking Moondancer again if they got another chance to be away from Twilight, but his sister wouldn’t want that. Whatever Celestia had done to them, it must have been bad enough to keep it a secret. By that logic it must have been even worse than what happened to Luna, considering what Twilight had told him.

“Did it hurt?” he heard himself ask, half under his breath.

Twilight glanced at him and shifted her shoulders as if they were growing stiff. “We’re both fine, Spike. That’s all that matters.”