The Sun and I

by Ghostfriendly

Interlude: Moondancer

A week after being saved by Twilight from a furious Trixie with a coat-clipper, Moondancer sat in her usual corner of the library, reading A History of Hoofpolish. She looked up dully, as Minuette bustled round the corner.

“Hi. Good book?”

“Not really. Um, is…?”

“Twilight’s busy. Princess lessons. Sorry. The rest of us were going out for coffee, if you wanted?”

“Okay. I’m okay, I mean, um, yes.”

“She said she’d finish by Sunday. If you threw a thanks-for-saving-me party, or something, she’d come. We’d all be there as well.”

“No. She’ll be starting a new book, or having tea with Sunset Shimmer…I couldn’t ask. Couldn’t face her. I was so scared when Trixie caught me, I was humiliated…and she was so, so…”

Blushing, Moondancer buried her eyes in the sweater she wore for her weak chest. She had barely spoken with Twilight Sparkle since that day in First Year, when that cute, nerdy mare had shown her what a friend was. She had watched her, every day, and dreamt of study dates in the library every night, but her heart was too swelled and tender with love to speak. Only Minuette, everypony’s friend, knew her secret shame.

“…hey, Moondancer? Are you feeling okay?”

“Same as always. Reading. Alone. Gloomy, as always.”

“Hey.” Minuette poked her friend as she sat down, “I might not be the pony you wanted to see–”

“–but you’re here for me. Always. And Lemonhearts, and everypony. Sorry.”

“That’s okay. I like you.”

“Honestly…” Moondancer shook her head, “How can I be strong as you?”

“It’s not really me. It’s Lualus, the divine Alicorn, you know?”

Moondancer put her book down. She stared at Minuette as if her stripes had fallen off; Minuette cheekily waved back.

“I, um, sorry, I was just surprised.”

“What for? If you don’t want to talk about it..?”

“I mean, of course I believe in Lualus. I don’t think anypony can look at the great weave of reality, without knowing that a brilliant, limitless mind conceived it. Maybe not even at a sunrise, or field. But I, I mean everypony thinks Lualus made the world, then left it alone to run. Our tiny lives must be far below him; and what could he need, that we could give?”

“The love of his foals?” Solemn joy shone from Minuette’s eyes, “They say Lualus sang among the stars and rejoiced, on the day he finished his work. Don’t his Gifts, and the Cutie Marks he gives each one of us, show that he loves us as his children? Wasn’t he rejoicing over you, and me? When he gives us so much, when we can always say he loves us, isn’t it right to give him thanks and praise?”

“But…there are bad things in the world. In my life.”

“I’m sorry…I suppose, Lualus expects ponies to control the weather, and grow food, right? He must expect us to deal with bad things too; and give us the tools to do it.”

It all sounded so logical. It felt so wonderful to be loved. But still…

“How do we know, he ‘sang among the stars…’?”

Moondancer’s heart sank as Minuette picked The Trees of Chaos and Harmony from a library shelf. The title story was unassailable, but other
stories had inconsistencies, and scant physical or anthropological evidence. Many scholars dismissed it as a set of fables.

But she held her peace. Listened, as Minuette read. The first three foals walked in the first garden, searching for what they should be. Imitating each animal they found, as Lualus watched over them, a kind and majestic granddad. When the first Dragon King threatened the ponies, Lualus had cast him down in terrible wrath, crushing the great serpent’s head underhoof. When the divine Alicorn had condemned the Pegasus warlord Rapid Dash, for his pride, to live as a donkey, a father’s unflinching sternness and sorrow rang from his words.

It was like light breaking on a windowless room, like walls falling away. And the one standing outside, the maker of Cutie Marks and stars, Moondancer had never seen; but she knew him and loved him. She believed, and could only cry because she had never believed in her god before.

-0-
-0-

It turned out that Moondancer knew rather more than Minuette about Creation-Era history, and all the ponies who had claimed to speak for Lualus across the centuries, some more credibly than others. Minuette was fascinated, as were her group of Believing friends (which included Lemonhearts and Lyra, but not Twinkleshine. Or Twilight, who would’ve gone, but couldn’t find the time). The fillies met up weekly to help out at the Homeless Stables, pray as a group, sometimes worship through song or painting, or discuss Moondancer’s books. Lyra often said that any good thing ponies did could be done for Lualus. What mattered was where your heart was.

Moondancer had never had real friends before Minuette (or siblings; her parents were both busy with work and distant). She had certainly never met ponies who would listen and encourage so much. Who seemed to care for her, awkward and quiet as she was. The first weeks were almost frightening, as the joy of a changed life poured through her heart. And Lualus cared, and shared their joy.

But Moondancer still watched Twilight. Trotting to the palace, to meet with Princess Celestia. Pouring over her books, to craft palaces in her mind. Talking intently with Sunset Shimmer (she couldn’t watch that for long without fleeing). Chatting with Minuette and her friends, making them laugh, and laughing freely. Her mouth shone in the sunlight. Her glasses were crooked, but she didn’t care–nothing could daunt her at all.

“Everypony has been so good to me,” She confessed to Minuette, “And I even have the love of a god–but I can never really be happy without Twilight Sparkle. If there were some potion, or if Lualus could come down and cut these feelings away, I would praise him for it!”

“Or else you could ask Twilight to be your friend?”

“Yes, but…I could’ve done it in First Year, but now I’m practically stalking her! She’d be disgusted, if she knew how weird I was…”

“That’s pigswill. I know and I love you. Lualus loves you, and he knows more about our real failings than we do. The one thing needful is to trust him. Stay close to him. He’ll show you the right way.”

And Moondancer knew he would have. Had her pony heart not been too bitter and warped to be shown. She prayed, but did not let go of her silent torment. And, worse, she couldn’t stop hating Sunset Shimmer.

She was all wrong for Twilight. She treated her bad. Left her alone. She went about pretending to care, helping ponies with anything; dazzling them with confidence and talent. But it was all for herself. She only took and took, when she already had everything. An unstoppable, gorgeously satisfied pony, without even a thought of any god.

-0-
-0-

When Minuette and Lemonhearts were dragged to the palace infirmary, Moondancer followed–she needed a calming draught and a full hour to come out of her shock. Their limbs convulsed in her eyes, striking at her trembling core. The screams roosted in her brain like demonic bats.

Other ponies who had seen their friends invisibly racked were in much the same state. Violent crime was almost unheard of in Equestria; a dragon in the hills got the same national coverage as an aggravated assault by pony. Lyra and Twinkleshine hadn’t stopped holding each other and weeping.

“Oh, Princess Celestia! How could she let this happen?”

“H-how could Lualus let this happen…?” Lyra moaned.

Moondancer didn’t know. In the faces of her friends, tortured, the Cutie Mark argument seemed vanishingly weak. But Lualus had spoken to her, through those stories, and touched her heart. Only that let her pray, hear him again, and keep faith alive.

She didn’t know where Twilight was either. She finally discovered from a nurse that Twilight with the Princess, and that Sunset Shimmer had been escorted from her tower by Royal Guards.

Many grey-maned Believing ponies had written on the evils of gossip, but no ‘Thou Shalt Not’ had ever definitively come down from on high. It was a bitter frustration to Moondancer that Lualus issued so few anathemas, however she searched for them–how else could be sure her actions were free from guilt? In this case, however, as with many Believing young fillies before her, she was quite happy to follow her pony heart.

Within another hour, it was known by the school that Sunset had been arrested. Equestria had a very law abiding society. It was universal belief that anypony actually arrested, by Princess Celestia’s Royal Guard, was self-evidently guilty as charged.

As well as covering the palace with a shield, and meticulously searching all within its bounds, the Guard scanned all the students’ minds for anything, or any thing hidden there. Hypnotic commands, mental projections from outside, or psychic creatures–it was rumoured generally around that the two victims had been attacked through their dreams. Moondancer could only think of a couple of ways Sunset could possibly have done it.

“…she’s always had a scary temper,” she overheard Twinkleshine whisper to a Guard Investigator, “I don’t think there’s anything she’d not be capable of doing. She even had a terrible fight with Twilight Sparkle, her best friend, yesterday evening. I wouldn’t have thought it possible.”

“I see,” The investigator chewed his goatee, and wrote in his logbook, “We heard about the argument from your friends. But not what it was about…?”

Moondancer had knelt outside the door as Twilight poured out her frustrated woe to Minuette and the rest. She knew Twilight had made them swear to say nothing about it–but not Moondancer. With assertiveness alien to her character, she trotted out in before the Guard.

“I can help you with that. Just…don’t let this monster hurt one more pony. Please.”

Comments

[Golanth]

And after Sunset becomes trapped in the human world, or possibly Tartarus, it'll be discovered that Moondancer did it.

[Starlight Nova]

19/09/16 Major edits to chpt 1, 2, 4, 6, 7.

Why not edit chapters three and five?

[Ghostfriendly]

7612950 Major edits are new material rather than corrections. I felt some chpts were fine as they were at least.