What Moonlight Made Her

by Storybelle

Chapter 3. My moon and stars

Icarus is knocked from the bed by Moon Shadow’s failing hooves as she jolts back into wakefulness. He hisses in shock as he lands on the floor.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Moon Shadow babbles. “I’m sorry.”

Her chest is rising and falling like she’s run a marathon. There’s sweat on her brow and her back and all of her fur feels like it’s standing on end. Sunlight is filtering in from behind the curtains and that helps a bit. It is day and nothing can hurt her under Celestia’s sun.

“I’m sorry, Icarus,” she says again, when she’s slowed her breathing. She uses her magic to scoop him off the floor and deposit him on the bed next to her. He gives her a baleful look but pads around and curls up once more.

Moon Shadow lays back, her heart still pounding. What was that? Is this what other ponies feel when they have nightmares? Sandmares don't have dreams because it's safer for them not to. Ponies constantly dream of falling or losing their teeth or being chased by a crazed axe murderer. Dreams are all too real for Sandmares, as real and tangible as the waking world. It would be all too risky for a Sandmare to go to sleep and wake up in the morning, missing her teeth or a limb.

And what…who was that voice? Whoever it was, it had woken Moon Shadow just in time. She didn’t doubt that the figure from her dream could have harmed her – and even more worryingly, would have enjoyed doing so. The malevolent magic she’d felt was no joke.

So the creature in the fog must be able to walk the dreamworld too. Moon Shadow’s magic was the same in dreams: tangible, real, and able to affect the world and the dreamscape. It was different from a lucid dream that regular ponies have. The dark magic had been so strong it had nearly forced her to her knees. She’d never encountered magic like that before.

But Celestia would have.

No, Shadow decides. She wouldn't tell her yet. It was just one dream, hardly something to trouble the princess over, especially since she'd been so aloof and cagey recently. Shadow would try and figure it out on her own first.

Moon Shadow looks towards the window, where behind the curtain the sun is probably already high in the sky. She might as well get up. There’ll be no sleeping after that.

She leaves Icarus behind, curled up in the bed and trots towards the kitchen for a glass of water. The apartment is quiet. Tea Leaf has long since left for work.

Moon Shadow pours herself a glass and sips it slowly. She should go out. The fresh air and warm day will make her feel better. Besides, she has errands to run and friends she can see. Midnight Tale asked her to lunch at the Sugar Berry café and bakery today. She can probably make it now.

She puts her glass in the sink and walks to the bathroom to spruce herself up. It’s no surprise when she looks in the mirror she sees a frazzled, tired mare staring back at her. She hurriedly fixes her hair and tries to do something about her tail, which has tangled itself while she was asleep. She spritzes herself with vanilla perfume and remembers to grab her saddlebags on her way out the door.

Canterlot is busy and bright, with plenty of ponies out enjoying the day. Moon Shadow feels the tension drain out of her as she slowly walks along the road to the café. The sun is warm on her back and the idea of carrot cake makes everything brighter.

Her friends frequently gather for these lunch dates but Moon Shadow is usually asleep at this time, so she can rarely make it. It’ll be nice to be able to go for a change.

She picks up her pace as the café comes into sight. Her mother’s hot chocolate seems like a distant memory and her belly reminds her that the last time she ate was dinner before she went to work. Well, breakfast for her.

The Cotton Candy café looks busy, as usual. It’s run by two sisters and is known as one of the best bakeries in Canterlot. The rose pink chairs are nearly filled outside, as ponies eat and drink under pink and purple umbrellas. The smell of vanilla and fresh pastry wafting from the windows makes Shadow's stomach rumble with anticipation.

Moon Shadow pushes open the door and inhales the scents of coffee and pastry. This is what she wants. A regular life, able to go out for lunch with her friends. No ghosts and ghoulies and a secret other life.

“Shadow!” calls a voice excitedly. “Over here!” Many patrons look up, startled and then turn their eyes to Shadow as she stands just inside the door.

Shadow turns to the pony calling her name. Of course. Only Pumpkin would scream her name in a crowded restaurant.

The table by the window has three out of four seats filled. The first mare is the one who shouted to Moon Shadow: a slight tangerine mare with wild rose pink curls. This is Pumpkin Spice. Her cutie mark is a gold and orange masquerade mask, displaying her talent for disguises.

The second mare at the table has her golden mane piled up in a messy bun. Her coat is almost blood red, suiting her profession. Midnight Tale is a horror writer, with several best sellers already under her belt and a cutie mark of an elegant feathered quill. There's usually a pair of wire frames, a pen or a paperclip stuck somewhere in her unruly curls. Even from here Moon Shadow can see ink stains on her hooves.

The last mare is a pegasus, dark blue with a shimmery green mane and bright blue eyes. Northern Lights is suitably named, both for her job as an astronomer and the elaborate swirl of stars on her flank.

“We hoped you’d make it,” says Midnight Tale, with a smile. Shadow sits down gratefully, placing her saddlebags on the back of her chair.

“Well, I woke up in time. Couldn’t miss this,” she says, lifting a menu with her magic. She's the only unicorn in the group, to much envy of the others at times. Midnight has often begged her to help with the special effects to make her book signings just that more frightening.

“Get enough sleep listening to the old colts in Night Court?” Midnight asks, perusing her own menu.

“Something like that,” Shadow lies and turns her eyes back down to the table.

“Well, glad you made it,” says Northern Lights. The blue Pegasus has piled her mane up with varying clips and bands – she usually grabs anything to hoof to put back her hair when she’s working. "We so rarely get to see enough of you these days."

“Me too,” Shadow agrees. “Am I very late?”

“Not at all,” North says. “We just got here.”

“Would have been here sooner,” Midnight comments. “But somepony decided to play dress up and we couldn’t go to lunch until we figured out who she was.” Midnight and North both turn to stare accusingly at Pumpkin.

“What?” Spiced Pumpkin asks, with wide eyes. “I had new outfits in at the shop! I had to test them out.”

“It wasn’t necessary!” Midnight replies. “I practically tackled that old stallion, thinking it was you in disguise!” Shadow suppresses a snicker at the thought of Midnight leaping on a poor, innocent stallion. The problem is that sometimes Pumpkin's disguises are so good you have absolutely no idea who or what she might be. It more than works as advertising for Pumpkin's costume shop.

“What were you anyway?” Shadow asks, before they can get into a fight. Midnight can and will debate just about anything, usually with so much sarcasm that you can never tell if she's insulting you or not. Shadow's so used to it, she just ignores it and while Pumpkin never seems to notice or care, North can find it a little trying at times.

“A window cleaner,” Pumpkin says, with a shrug.

“You ordered in window cleaner outfits for your shop?” North asks, sceptically. “What purpose could you possibly have for…wait, never mind, I don’t want to know.”

Midnight narrows her eyes. “You have a costume shop. Are you telling me somepony wants to dress up as a window cleaner? What kind of outfit is that?”

“Uh, a good one?” Pumpkin asks. “You never guessed it was me!”

Shadow stifles a giggle as the other mares think about this. This is typical Pumpkin logic.

“I guess not,” Midnight says, grumpily.

A pretty pink mare with lavender hair trots up to the table, pad and pen ready in her hooves. “Alright, what can I get you girls?”

“Hi, Sweet Berry,” Shadow says, with a smile. Sweet Berry owns the café and bakery. She runs the café part while her older sister, Sugar Rose, bakes most of the treats and cakes they sell. Sweet Berry could rival Tea Leaf for her delicious fruit smoothies.

“Hey, Shadow, long time no see,” Sweet Berry says, cheerfully. “What are you having?”

“Um…a chai latte and a slice of cinnamon cake,” Shadow decides. Her stomach rumbles at the thought of moist carrot cake and Rose’s delicious buttercream frosting.

“She will also have a daisy sandwich and hay fries, because she can’t just eat dessert for lunch,” Midnight interrupts. Shadow shoots a look at her oldest friend but the mare just grins at her. Midnight's been her best friend since they were both in daycare together, which means glares and threats have no effect whatsoever.

“And a sandwich too,” Shadow concedes, with a sigh. She really should eat proper food and not gorge on cake but her sleeping schedule means that her meals are all over the place sometimes. It’s hard eating porridge for breakfast when your mother is eating dinner and it’s just getting dark. Sweet Berry writes it down and moves on. When all of her friends have ordered, Berry promises to be back with their drinks soon and walks away.

“So, what’s everypony up to?” Shadow asks eagerly. It's only been two weeks since she could properly sit down with her friends but it feels like a lifetime. Anything could happen in those two weeks. Midnight could have gotten another book deal. North could have discovered a new constellation. She misses so much of their lives. “How’s the book going, Midnight?”

Sweet Berry shortly returns with a tray of drinks as Midnight explains the research for her latest mystery novel. Shadow sips her latte, luxuriating in the warmth and taste. Berry's chai lattes are almost as good as her mother's hot chocolate.

“I don’t know, Canterlot just isn’t really a good market for horror,” Midnight concludes, swirling the straw around in her frappe.

“Well, I guess not,” Shadow says. “Romance is popular when the nobles even read a book. But you’re selling pretty well elsewhere though, aren’t you?”

“Fillydelphia and Los Pegasus both are doing really well,” Midnight says, perking up a bit. “I think that ‘All the Lost Fillies’ is high up on the sales list in both cities.”

“It feels like you just finished that one,” North says. “And now you’re researching for another!”

“Well, it’s not like I can take a break!” Midnight says, with a laugh. “I have to move onto the next one or I don’t get paid! Thankfully by now, I know a lot about murder and old myths. New ideas just come to me.”

North shrugs. “Well, I guess that’s why you’re the writer and not me!”

“You write things,” Pumpkin points out. “You do write papers and they’re part of your job.”

“I write about stars and the sky,” North says. Northern Lights is one of the few selected astronomers who works at the Canterlot observatory, monitoring Celestia's night sky. For hundreds of years the observatory has monitored and recorded whenever a new star appears or a constellation is created. “It’s not the same, just observing and writing down my findings. Like the other day…no, never mind.”

“What?” Pumpkin asks. Sweet Berry arrives at the table with trays of food, dishing out perfectly prepared salads and sandwiches in front of each mare. North stays very quiet until she’s gone.

“Well,” North says, picking at her avocado salad. “It was something I saw the other night from the observatory. But I must have imagined it because it can’t have been real.”

Midnight flicks her tail. "Try me. I bet there's nothing I haven't heard of." North hesitates. Whatever it is, it must have frightened her badly. Out of all of them, she's ironically the most down to Equestria. Midnight is too buried in book plots, Pumpkin has a fantastic imagination and Shadow knows all too well what's out there. North is usually perfectly logical. The fact that she's even considering something absurd means it must be huge.

“No, it was…well, I could have sworn that for a minute I saw the stars…move,” North says. The other three mares stare at her silently for a moment.

“That’s not possible,” says Midnight, bluntly. “Stars don’t move. Not unless Celestia moved them. And she wouldn’t. Couldn’t have.”

“I know!” North says in frustration. “I study the stars; I know that better than anypony! But I was so certain that they were moving. I wanted to tell someone but they stopped before I could show anyone.”

“Maybe you were tired,” Pumpkin suggests gently. “Maybe you just thought you saw it.” It's not unheard of. Sometimes North's schedule is as messed up as Shadow's is.

“Maybe,” North says softly but Shadow can see she doesn’t truly believe it.

“Cake, everypony!” sings out a pure white mare with soft rose curls in a bun. This is Sugar Rose, Berry’s sister, who, despite working in a bakery all hours of the day, is never anything less than pristine and perfectly clean.

Berry, on the other hoof, will go around all day quite happily covered in flour and with a raspberry jam smudge on her nose. It doesn't stop stallions from noticing her though.

“Carrot cake, elderflower and caramel cupcake, red berry tart and a chocolate fudge cake!” Sugar Rose says, placing each plate in front of the mare who ordered it. “Can I get you fresh drinks?”

Moon Shadow orders a smoothie this time and North refreshes her herbal tea. Sugar Rose trots away, back to the counter to place their order.

Shadow dips her last few fries in ketchup and crams them all in her mouth at once. The slab of carrot cake looks even better than she imagined. Sugar Rose is a genius when it comes to desserts.

“I’m doing a book tour next month,” Midnight says. They all notice that she's deliberately changing the topic but nopony says anything.

“That’s great!” North says. “Your very first.” As a young debut author, Midnight has only so far done book signings and promotions in and close to Canterlot. This is her chance to travel to other cities and meet more of her fans.

“It’s not going to be huge,” Midnight says excitedly, nibbling at her cupcake. “Just a few key cities, where ‘All the Lost Fillies’ is doing really well. A few bookstores in each town, some signings, a promotional event. It’s going to be great. Trottington, Whinnyapolis and Manehattan as the last stop for a midnight party.”

“Manehattan!” Shadow shouts suddenly, nearly spitting out her mouthful of cake. Her friends turn to her, looking confused. Shadow coughs awkwardly, a sultana stuck in her throat.

“Sorry, I just…remembered something,” Shadow says sheepishly.

“About Manehattan?” Midnight says, with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes,” Shadow says, after a pause. “Yes. That I must go visit my grandparents soon.”

“Really?” Spiced Pumpkin asks, scrunching up her face. “But you hate visiting your grandparents. They always feed you alfalfa and ask when you’re going to get a coltfriend!”

“Yes,” says Moon Shadow. “But…it’s Grandmother Bonnet’s birthday soon. So I’ll get points for being a good granddaughter. You know how they complain when we don’t visit enough.”

It’s four months until Lace Bonnet’s birthday but they don’t need to know that. Tea Leaf always marks down the dates for visits on the calendar in bright red pen. Every visit requires a large portion of hayburgers and fries afterwards and heavy retail therapy.

“Right,” Midnight says, slowly. “As I was saying…”

Sweet Berry comes over to the table, carrying Shadow’s smoothie and the mug of tea for Lights. Shadow sips at her straw, hoping to sink into the ground. Her mind, however, is ticking over the new information she has gained.

No wonder that place seemed so familiar. The long, cobblestoned streets, the tall buildings, the distinct skyline. She’s been there before, to visit Tea Leaf’s parents.

But that house…Moon Shadow has wracked her brain but can’t remember seeing that house before. Granted, it was dark and foggy so she doesn’t have a clear picture of it but she’d remember a house like that. The lingering memory of the dark magic makes her shudder still.

“Shadow? Hey, Shadow!” Pumpkin’s voice calling her name jolts her out of her thoughts.

“Oh. Sorry,” Shadow says. “What’s going on?”

“We’re going shopping, can you come?” Lights says. Shadow sucks the remains of her smoothie until she’s reached the bottom of the glass. She has time before she has to go to work and she’s gotten her allowance from the castle for this month. She could go shopping.

“Sure, I’ll come,” she says.

But the minute they turn away to chatter about hats and dresses and new books, Moon Shadow’s mind drifts again.

What is in that house?

And more importantly, why have I never heard of two other dreamwalkers before?

Author's Note:

Betaed by ancientdragonduelist. Chapter edited 29/07/2016

Comments

[Storybelle]

6891852

In my head she has a pretty low-pitched voice, without any particularly strong accent. She can pull out a Canterlot accent when she wants to though, having lived among noble and society ponies so long. She usually has a pretty sarcastic and dry tone to her voice, because sarcasm is her way of dealing with things.

[Storybelle]

6890467

Thanks. If you ever see mistakes, please let me know so I can fix them. I do have a beta but sometimes things get missed, especially when you go over it frequently. I wrote this for nano so I've read it a lot over the past few months!

[ancientdragonduelist]

I can see all the makings of a great story. The style of writing makes me feel as if I'm right there with her. Pulling a late shift (which I've done. My day friends never understood why I had to sleep), wondering what your mentor is up to... I didn't do a good job of describing that, but I never was a good writer.

My point is, I really like your writing style and Moon Shadow as a character.

This story snowed up in the G1 group, so there are horrible monsters from long ago in this story. I've only watched a few, but Lord Tirek, Grogar the Demon Ram, and Sonambula were all awesome villains. I hope this mystery monster is just as awesome.

I wonder... Has Celestia created an alternate Sandmare to replace her lost sister? Will Moon Shadow be released from her duty if Luna is purged of the Nightmare? Is that terrible Mist the Nightmare itself? Who saved Moon Shadow from a terrible fate?

I can't wait for more. I wish I could wrote like you.

[Storybelle]

7164009

Thank you so much. :) I'm writing the fourth chapter right now and tbh, it's been a bit hard going. Your comment was great motivation for me to get a huge chunk of it done. I'm glad you like Moon Shadow, I've tried really hard to make her real and likeable.
I wouldn't worry, just practice. :) That's the best thing for you to do, write as much and as often as you can. In a few years, you'll look back and be amazed by how much you've developed. It's something I frequently do when I see my old stuff.

I think you'll be pleased. :) This fic will be very heavily influenced by G1- having watched it as a kid and as a collector now, I think it has so much to offer by way of villains, characters and plot lines. I like G4 using them but sometimes they don't do so great. That episode with the smooze is one of my most hated episodes!

Ah, all very good questions. ;) But you'll have to wait and see! Chapter 4 is on it's way very soon now. I'm hoping by early next week it will be ready to be posted. I really hope you'll keep reading.