What Moonlight Made Her

by Storybelle

Chapter 7. Dark Side of the Moon

“Next!”

Moon Shadow steps forward in the queue. It hadn’t taken her long to pack her saddlebags with some necessities and rush to Canterlot station. There’s a train for Manehattan leaving in ten minutes and she hopes to be on it.

The sullen ticket master passes a ticket to an elderly stallion and shouts for the next customer. Shadow steps forward again and prays that she’ll get there in time. There are still two more ponies in front of her.

She’d made arrangements for a neighbour to feed Icarus, just until Tea Leaf gets back. Icarus barely pays attention to whomever feeds him anyway. She’d also sent a note to the castle for Celestia and to Midnight’s apartment. She felt awful for skipping again but she’d just have to make it up to her friend somehow. She couldn’t have made dinner with Midnight and made it to Manehattan in time to settle in before going to work.

“Next!” shouts the ticket master and Shadow jolts back to the real world. All the ponies in front of her have bought their tickets and moved on. She sheepishly moves up to the desk and places some bits on the counter.

“Ticket to Manehattan, please,” asks Shadow, nervously. The stallion takes her bits and prints out her ticket. Nearby a train sounds its whistle. Shadow realizes that she might just have enough time to jump on before the last train departs the station.

“Two bits change,” says the stallion. “And your ticket. Next, please!” Shadow sweeps her change into her bags and clutches her ticket in her teeth. If she runs, she might just make it.

“All aboard for Manehattan!” shouts the conductor. Moon Shadow leaps onto the train just before the doors slide shut. She’s panting so hard that she nearly swallows her ticket. She stashes it in her saddlebags and moves into a nearby carriage. Hopefully she can find a seat to sleep in: the trip to Manehattan will take at least three hours. When she arrives, she’ll have enough time to dump her bags and eat. How she’s going to find someone’s dreams to invade, she’s not sure. She’ll have to figure that out when she gets there. Tomorrow, after she’s slept, she’ll begin her investigation.

Shadow moves through the carriages until she finds a quiet spot to spread out. She could have paid for a sleeper carriage, but it didn’t seem worth it for such a short trip. She can make do. She arranges her saddlebags into something resembling a pillow, pulls the curtains on the window and curls up as best she can. There’s only the distant chatter of two mares several seats down. Not many are going to Manehattan this late at night, she realizes with relief. Shadow tucks her hooves in a little more and wonders if Kimono will appear while she sleeps. Right now, Kimono is her best shot at getting answers.

There’s only one way to find out.

Moon Shadow closes her eyes and, to the rhythmic clicking of the train, falls asleep.

---

Disoriented, she wakes up in a strange room, on a flagstone floor.

“Ugh,” mutters Shadow, as she tries to get up. She once again curses the strange rules of the dreamworld– her hind legs feel like they’ve been asleep on a cold stone floor for hours. She gives up and glances at her surroundings.

The room is huge. It looks like the throne room at Canterlot castle but it is made of stone and wood, instead of pristine glass and marble. There are tapestries hanging from the walls in every colour and a grand dining table set alongside one wall. Not Canterlot, Shadow surmises. And probably not the present.

“Kimono?” she calls out, while trying to pull her stiff legs up off the floor. “Kimono! Are you there?” There’s no answer from her spirit-bound, sister Sandmare.

Shadow finally makes it onto her slightly sore legs and turns around, only to gasp. She is in a throne room. At the other end of the large hall, she sees a raised platform with two elaborate chairs. Large chairs, Shadow notices. Larger than any regular pony would need. They are like the one Celestia sits on. Presumably they’re made for alicorns.

Alicorns?

Shadow takes a slow step forward and winces when she hears the loud clack that her hooves make on the stones. She creeps forward more cautiously, until she’s at the base of the stone steps, staring up at the grand thrones.

One throne is as yellow as the sun, bright and shining under a matching banner, hanging from the ceiling. The one on the left is as dark as an inkblot and the banner above it is many shades of blue. If it weren’t for the different colours, the thrones and tapestries would be identical to each other.

Two thrones meant for two alicorns. Two princesses

“That’s not what I brought you here to show you,” whispers a voice in Moon Shadow’s ear. Shadow jumps a mile. She nearly has all four hooves off the ground before she recognizes Kimono’s voice. It’s extremely unnerving to address somepony without knowing where to look. Kimono’s voice seems to come from everywhere, making it hard to place where she actually is.

“Kimono!” she exclaims, heart still pounding. “Where have you been?”

“I’m sorry,” replies Kimono, softly. “I was trying to make sure your dream was protected from intruders before I could join you.”

Moon Shadow is stunned. She blinks back her surprise. “You can do that? How?” she asks in amazement. She wonders what kind of magic was taught to Kimono, or that Kimono has herself.

She recalls her limited knowledge of Sandmares, to try and connect Kimono’s magic to her own. Sandmares don’t share the same cutie marks – they all have their own individual talents. Glory was said to have a shooting star, to represent her strong leadership skills. Galaxy, the first Sandmare, had the North Star to symbolize her light magic. Moon Shadow herself has never really understood the point of hers, beyond the basic mark of a Sandmare. The day she first stepped into the dreamworld and successfully banished a nightmare, her cutie mark appeared on her flank – an elaborate bronze moon overlapped by a bright yellow sun, similar to Celestia’s mark.

“Later,” Kimono sharply insists. “Right now you must focus. We don’t have a lot of time and there’s much you need to see.”

“All right.” Shadow replies, uncertainly. “Can you start with where we are?”

“That’s…not important,” answers Kimono, hesitantly dismissing Shadow’s question. “We’re in the past, many years ago.”

“It doesn’t look like Canterlot this time,” agrees Moon Shadow, turning to get a closer look at the tapestries on the walls. She doesn’t know all that much about fabric but she’s pretty sure that these all look hoof-stitched. No such thing as sewing machines here.

“That’s because Canterlot doesn’t exist,” says Kimono dryly.

Shadow’s mouth drops open. She doesn’t reply for a moment. “What?” she finally answers, stunned. “But…but that must mean we’re…”

“Over a thousand years in the past,” finishes Kimono for her. “A thousand and two hundred years, precisely.” Moon Shadow swallows dryly. This is a place that existed over a thousand years in the past. How many ponies alive will ever get to see this?

“So…why are we here?” asks Shadow. “I’m pretty sure we’re not here for the décor.”

“No,” says Kimono. “But some of these tapestries do hang in the Canterlot castle today. Not very many though. I’m afraid most of them were destroyed.”

“How…?” Moon Shadow starts, before the other mare cuts her off.

“That’s not the story I’m telling you today,” Kimono reminds her. “Remember that.”

“Well, what are we here to see?” Shadow finally snaps. “I don’t have long! The minute somepony comes to check my ticket or we arrive at Manehattan station, I’ll wake up!”

“I know that,” Kimono sharply replies. She lets out a breath and purposefully directs Shadow forward. “To the left of those thrones, there’s a door behind a curtain.”

Shadow looks to the left of the platform and sure enough, there’s a blue curtain covering one section of the walls. She walks over, moves it aside and sees a small wooden door. Shadow puts her hoof on the doorknob but doesn’t turn it.

“Shall I go through?” wonders Shadow aloud. With Kimono’s murmured agreement, Shadow pushes it open and steps through, making sure it shuts behind her.

“Now what?” asks Shadow, standing in a small hallway. It’s fairly bare and stretches in front of Moon Shadow, to the left of her and to the right. It’s even draftier here than it was in the grand hall.

“Go right,” instructs Kimono, from behind her. Shadow quickly tempers the urge to jump or bolt. Instead, for the next ten minutes she follows the disembodied voice across the abandoned corridors. Her footsteps echo across the vast silence with each turn as she traipses across the dark and silent castle. Shadow soon realizes that she really needs to start rethinking her life. Even a nap on the train has turned into something weird.

“Are we nearly there yet?” Shadow eventually complains, as she climbs up yet another flight of stairs. She plans to appreciate future architecture far more. The stairs of the past are huge, steep and not at all sturdy. Shadow constantly worries about falling, which seems somehow unfair in the Dreamworld.

“Nearly,” responds Kimono quietly. She seems faraway. “The last door is just up ahead.”

Shadow makes the last step and sways, slightly out of breath, on the landing.

“I really am going to a gym in future, I swear,” she swears to herself. Kimono doesn’t reply. Shadow takes a deep breath and moves forward, lighting her horn to touch the handle. While Kimono remains mute, Shadow readies herself and pushes it. As it opens, Shadow realizes that she can hear soft singing. She steps cautiously into the room and immediately winces at the bright light. She’s been so used to this castle being so dark. It surprises her that this one room can be so warm and light. It holds only a bed, an ornate chest and an empty bookcase.

The mare inside is as bright as the room itself. Her coat is pristine and white and almost glitters in the light. Her golden blonde mane is almost the colour of sunlight, only matched by the thick, long tail that trails behind her. Her cutie mark is just as bright, a trio of the sun, moon and stars. Everything about her shines and suggests comforting, warm light. She moves from one side of the room to another, taking items out of a chest and placing them in saddlebags on the bed, as she sings softly to herself.

“Hello?” greets Shadow, curiously. The mare just continues singing and packing. It is as if Shadow has gone completely invisible. As the young Sandmare tries to process this, her companion’s voice sounds near her ear.

“She can’t hear you,” explains Kimono. Shadow is surprised but listens closely to her friend’s instructions. “This is a memory that I can show you through a dream. You can’t interact with anypony here except me.”

“Who is she?” asks Shadow curiously. The mare continues to hum softly as she uses her magic to pull carefully-bound books off of the shelf. She looks so happy and at peace.

“Her name is Bright Lights,” Kimono tells her softly. “You must remember that name. Bright Lights.”

“Bright Lights,” Shadow repeats, committing the beautiful mare’s name to memory. She pauses to blink, as she suddenly makes a connection. “Wait. Is she a Sandmare?”

Kimono is silent for a few moments, leaving only Bright Lights’ song to fill the silence.

“No, she is not,” Kimono finally replies, and her voice is tinged with sadness. “But she is very important. Remember her. Remember her as she is now and not…not however you might see her in the future.”

Moon Shadow just stares at the mare, who is surely dead by now. Now she just has more questions than answers. She has a nasty feeling that Kimono’s method of teaching is much like Celestia’s version. Here’s a little bit, but not enough to answer your question. I expect you to solve this one on your own. It’s not at all what Moon Shadow needs or hoped for. But, then again, perhaps it is to be expected? If Kimono was truly a Sandmare and taught by Celestia, then maybe it’s no wonder her methods are the same. That said, does everypony have to be so bucking cryptic?

Shadow waits to open her mouth again. “Who is she?” she finally, carefully asks, uncertain if she’ll receive any more useful answers.

“She is a gifted unicorn, very bright for her time. She was apprenticed by a powerful sorcerer.” Kimono pauses and Shadow waits, continuing to listen to her guide. Continuing to wait for answers that aren’t coming. “Now that she’s older, she’s packing to move into her own rooms in the village.” Shadow watches in silence as the golden mare gently places a hoof-sewn teddy on the top of her belongings. She closes the bags up. A white aura lifts the bags up and over her back but Bright Lights doesn’t leave the room just yet. Instead she lingers, as if in contemplation.

“Why is she important?” tries Moon Shadow again. She feels a bubble of irritation rise when Kimono remains silent, yet again. “Fine, don’t tell me!” snaps Moon Shadow, the end of her tail flicking furiously with frustration.

“I can’t tell you!” responds Kimono, regretfully. She almost sounds desperate, which causes Shadow to pause. “I wish I could, but I actually can’t. All I can do is show you.”

“Wait,” says Moon Shadow. “When you say you can’t, does that mean…?”

“It means I am physically unable to,” admits Kimono. As upset as Shadow is with the circumstances, the pain in Kimono’s voice is obvious. Shadow tries to patiently listen. “It is a very powerful spell meant to bind a pony’s tongue and therefore extremely forbidden. Celestia banned its use thousands of years ago because it denied ponies free speech. Unfortunately, it is still used deviously by those who would do anything to keep their secrets safe.”

“That’s all right,” answers Moon Shadow, guiltily. “I didn’t mean to snap.”

“It’s okay. I know you must be frustrated,” says Kimono. Shadow knows that she understands. She must have been exactly in the same spot as Shadow now stood. Shadow considers this, before asking her next question.

“Does everypony lie?” she finally asks, sadly. Kimono is mute again, but this time Shadow guesses the silence means Kimono is thinking rather than being bound by a curse.

“In our line of work, I’m afraid so,” replies Kimono gently. Inside the room, Bright Lights appears to be done with reminiscing and with one last glance at her old home, strides past Moon Shadow and out the door.

“Should we follow her?” asks Moon Shadow, as the white mare vanishes down the long staircase.

“Yes!”

Moon Shadow sets off after Bright Lights, clattering down the stairs as quickly as she dares. When they reach the bottom of the tower staircase, Bright Lights veers off to the right and down a different corridor to the one Shadow and Kimono came through.

“Whose castle is this?” asks Moon Shadow, in awe as they walk through as grand a hall as the throne room, complete with glittering chandeliers and magnificent stained glass windows. But Kimono appears to be tongue tied again. Shadow quickly interprets her guide’s silence. “Can’t tell me?” realizes Shadow wryly.

“No, it appears not.” Kimono is unsurprisingly apologetic.

“Who put this spell on you in the first place?” asks Shadow, as she follows Lights at a decent pace. Going down the stairs was less of a struggle than ascending them, thankfully.

“Guess.” replies Kimono, facetiously. Moon Shadow rolls her eyes.

“Grogar?”

“Got it in one,” answers Kimono dryly.

“But why? No offense but aren’t you…well, dead?” responds Moon Shadow bluntly. “It’s not like you can talk to anypony.”

If Kimono were corporeal, Moon Shadow suspects she’d be getting quite a look right now.

“No pony but you,” corrects Kimono. “He would rather you be unprepared for what’s coming, as I was. He will not hesitate to kill you if he sees you again.”

“Got it,” Moon Shadow quips, in an attempt to hide her fear. “Stay away from the massive demon ram with pointy horns.”

“I’m afraid it’s not quite that simple,” Kimono sighs. Bright Lights emerges into a large entrance hall, possibly even bigger than the one at Canterlot Castle. Giant tapestries hang from the walls and ceiling. There’s a thick, red rug leading all the way up to the main staircase. “He will come looking for you. He was defeated by a Sandmare before and he faces that risk again while you are still alive.”

But Shadow is paying more attention to the tapestries overhead. The blue one is reminiscent of the night sky, with a crescent moon at the centre, surrounded by stars and planets. The golden one, on the other hoof, has a very familiar symbol in the centre.

“That’s Celestia’s mark,” Moon Shadow says, dumbfounded. “All this time, we were in Celestia’s castle?”

“We are,” confirms Kimono. “This is where she lived, over a thousand years ago.”

“That means-” Moon Shadow turns but Bright Lights has already gone. The snow white mare had through the main doors and is now out of sight. Moon Shadow ignores the mare’s sudden departure. She knows she’s on to something. She’s so very close to a conclusion. What is it? “That means that Bright Lights was Celestia’s student!”

“Yes, one of the first,” Kimono says and once again, her voice rings with sadness. “Very talented. Most suitable to be apprentice to the ruler of the sun. But that’s all I can tell you, I’m afraid. Grogar’s curse won’t let me tell you more.”

Moon Shadow turns her gaze back to the other hanging. It is marked with a half-moon shape in a soft gleaming blue. Shadow goes back over what she saw in the throne room. There were two chairs. There are two hangings. But that doesn’t make sense. Celestia moves the sun and the moon. Who could possibly sit in that throne?

“Alright,” Shadow agrees, reluctantly. “Was this all you brought me here to see?” Kimono inhales sharply, aware of something Moon Shadow can’t sense.

“It doesn’t matter. The rest will have to wait. I’m sorry,” she tells her gently. All of a sudden, Shadow can feel the edges of the dream slipping away. The castle begins to crumble away, the tapestries becoming blurry. She’s being woken up. Moon Shadow has no choice but to let go of the castle and the shining white mare and return to the waking world.

“Miss? Miss?” A pony in uniform is the first thing she sees when she opens her eyes. He smiles down at her as she blinks blearily. “Well, there you are, miss. It’s time to depart the train now,” he tells her, kindly.

“We’re here?” Shadow asks him, sleepily. Drowsiness settles on her like a fog. Outside the window she can see the bustle of Manehattan station - even at this late hour, ponies are coming and going in the city that never sleeps.

“Yes, miss. The Big Apple!” He turns and walks down the train. As he departs, he calls over his shoulder, “I hope you enjoy your stay!”

Shadow rubs at her eyes and gathers up her things. Kimono’s dream hasn’t helped. She now has to figure out who is Bright Lights and why she’s important. She lived over a thousand years ago. She should be dead now.

Shouldn’t she?

Author's Note:

I am very sorry for the delay. I got a new job and then I did Nano with a friend. I have had very little time, sadly. However, I aim to post a chapter a month at least next year. Let's hope I can stick to it.

Thanks as always to my betas, ScarletJul of MLPArena and AncientDragonDuelist. Yes, I know I sound very British, I'm sorry! It can't be helped.

I am starting to accumulate characters portraits so I hope to have these uploaded soon. :)

Until the New Year! Happy holidays, everyone xx