Moonstone

by Menti Ardenti

The Day Before

And so, the great wizard said to his foes, “You foul demons, I banish you back to the dimension of evil from which you crawled.” The demons did not reply for they were simple beasts who knew little of the ways of ponykind and instead tore the wizard apart, because for all his arrogance he was still a simple hedgewizard and they were still the servants of the Arch demons.
Excerpt from the Perils of Demons, author unknown

Twilight Sparkle woke up to the smell of burning bread. “Whaaat?” She moaned. A small unicorn filly with bright green eyes and an alabaster coat trotted into her range of vision.

“Hiya Twilight, you were asleep so I made breakfast, but I kinda sorta burnt the toast.” Sweetie Belle looked sheepish. Twilight sighed, she knew she would regret giving the filly a key to the lab but those eyes were just irresistible, she had no clue how Sweetie Belle wasn’t the most spoiled foal in Equestria.

“I’ll fix it.” Twilight had learned enough from watching the filly to know that fixing her meals generally entailed starting over again. “Hey, does your sister know where you are?”

Sweetie instantly looked guilty. “Well, she knows I’m around town.”

“Sweetie Belle! Go home and tell her next time, it was sweet to try and make breakfast,” although almost burning down the lab with burnt toast wasn’t all too smart, “but I can’t let you be here without her permission.” She gave a shudder at the last time Sweetie had conned her way into spending time here without permission, it had taken weeks for her eardrums to return to normal.

Sweetie Belle stuck out her tongue but excited, leaving Twilight to ponder why in the world she had fallen asleep on a hard floor of the front room instead of her comfy bed upstairs. Looking around she noticed papers scattered about.

I’m an idiot, I stayed up so late that I just feel asleep down here.

It wasn’t the first time it had happened and Twilight seriously doubted it would be the last. She pushed herself up and headed towards the kitchen.

The kitchen of the Golden Oak was rather nice. It had been built in the ample space behind the main room, with a tall ceiling whose skylight made it feel all warm and cheery. The wood was all laminated of course, and while most of the time yellowing laminate just looked tacky, this time it made the wood look much warmer. It was stocked with the latest in magilectric tech, because Twilight could never help immersing herself in science.

It was, of course, a complete mess because whoever had taught Sweetie Belle to cook was not right in the head. Still, Twilight had made far worse messes, the thought of her experiments with truly permanent glue still haunted her, and so it was fairly simple to clean. She dropped the blackened toast into the trash can, wiped down the batter spilt all over the floor, tossed out the fruit that was in something resembling a salad and cleaned off the inch of flour on the counter.

Thankfully, Sweetie Belle had stayed away from the hay bacon and veggie sausages and Twilight started to fry them up, the sizzling scent filling the room. She poured water into a kettle, setting it on the stove to boil while simultaneously toasting some bread, making sure it turned out a nice golden brown.

She carefully siddled the bacon and sausage onto a porcelain plate, and coated the top of the toast with butter. A whistling alerted her to the kettle and she poured the now scalding hot water into a chipped cup, already dropping a tea bag in as the last dregs dripped in. The smell was heaven sent, flowery and fruity and the green tea, oh! She dropped in a perfectly sliced lemon slice and just the right amount of sugar cubes. It took a great deal of Twilight’s self control not to gulp the whole meal down, she didn’t really remember doing much eating yesterday.

As she took carefully portioned bites interspersed with sips of tea, Twilight summoned her mail.

Hmmm, not much more than a few bits of junk mail, some advertisements, a letter from a fan, twenty letters from “concerned citizens” and one from…...Shining!

The letter from her brother was inside a deceptively simple envelope made from some expensive imported paper. Opening released the scent of steel polish and Shining's cologne. The letter inside was made from the same paper as the envelope and a message was written in her brother’s neat hornscript.

Dear Twilight,
It has come to my attention that, despite the five years worth of letters you have sent me extolling the wonders of spending the holidays with Mom and Dad, you have actually not attended a single one since moving to Ponyville. First off, shame on you for taking advantage of my rigorous schedule! Not only have I received a harsh scolding, but Mom had to attend counselling because her worries on you becoming reclusive brought back her hives and sleeping issues! Two, you have no good reason not to go! Your work is not more important than family time missy! If, perhaps, you had friends to spend holidays with, I could understand, but staying in Ponyville because you don’t want to make the trip back is inexcusable. I expect you in town tomorrow for the Equinox Festival or else!

With Love,
Your B.F.B.B.F. Shining Armor

She groaned at the letter. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to visit her family, it was more that in Canterlot, ponies knew who she was. A glance at her cutie mark was all it would take for a series of taunts, jabs and harassment to begin. She couldn’t tell him that, being the noble stallion he was Shining would attempt to intervene only for the Nobles, who already disliked the idea of a commoner captain, to accuse him of nepotism. But Twilight knew her brother would never let her forget not going.

“Well,” She said to no pony at all, “I guess I could always wear my peacoat.”

***

The rumor that the Pie Family was part dragon had been started by Picaxe, a rival rock farmer, two hundred years prior. While the majority of the paper was supported by rumors and half truths, he had made some interesting points. The Pies were able to eat rocks and gems with even less difficulty than the average earth pony, they did have an affinity for heat, and, most damning in his eyes, they guzzled hot sauce, chili peppers and all spicy food like it was as bland as his mother's gruel.

Pinkamena was most certainly a Pie, and so, she wouldn’t take her coffee without a specially made bottle of hot sauce and ghost chili pepper extract, imported from dragon territory. Expresso, one of her fellow cafe workers, had once tried her coffee and spat it out, eventually having to chug three glasses of milk to remove the taste from his mouth.

She chugged her mug without hesitation, washing the fiery burn down with a pastry. The cafe was closed today to do, well, actually she wasn’t quite sure why it was closed but it had something to do with a cup of tea, a very rude customer and a scarily angry Tea Leaf. Pinkamena had decided she’d paint on her off day, there was an annoyingly empty section of her bedroom wall she’d been meaning to fill with something. Her paints were out, along with several brushes in varying sizes and shapes, water to clean said brushes, and plates for mixing colors.

After an hour or so of staring at the blank space, a vivid vision of the night sky came to her. Oh, and how wonderful the color was, periwinkle and lavender dusting a backdrop of violet and a deep blue. The moon was a perfect circle set in the center of the sky, the craters arching almost like a mare’s silhouette. But the perfect stars, each a dazzling jewel shining up were the real, well, stars. She began to lose herself in the painting.

It wouldn’t be the first time she’d done this either, she’d lost three days building the armoire, when she had woken up, instead of some wooden planks was a perfect piece of furniture decorated with detailed faces covering almost every surface. This was a shorter one, Pinkamena was just starting to blend the paints when she suddenly realized it was hours later and she had a complete masterpiece. The night sky was an almost exact copy of the same one she’d fallen asleep beneath last night. There was something different, a single constellation missing, the Alicorn. In it's place just above the moon were six star line up in a perfect row, each with a unique color ranging from red, to pink , to blue. If she looked closer, each appeared less like a star and more like some indecipherable symbol.

Still, there was just something so right about it she couldn’t change it. Pinkamena turned to clean up the mess, only to find it perfectly clean. Not just the paint supplies either, the entire house was now neat, not a single paper out of place, and, despite not remembering doing any of it, Pinkamena knew exactly where everything was.

That’s never happened before. That one thought bounced around in her head like a tennis ball. She’d woken up with her entire body covered in paint splatters or with some new sculpture sitting on a table, but never had she ever cleaned up in her fugue state, it just didn’t happen.

Pinkamena gave herself a shake, it was frightening, really scary. The creative state she sometimes entered had always had certain rules it abided, and if it broke rules, she could wake up a national criminal or worse, never wake up at all.

She entered her kitchen, and opened a seldom used cupboard. Inside was nothing more than a bottle of liquor and plastic bottle of pills. Her hoof hovered over the liquor, but no, that would just make things worse. Pinkamena glanced behind her. There was a testament to why she couldn’t drink, a gray alicorn esque figure being enshrouded with a rainbow of orange, purple, pink, red, blue, and magenta. Her state really liked those specific colors for some unidentifiable reason.

Turning back to the cupboard, Pinkamena picked up the small bottle of pills and dropped two into her outstretched hoof. She went into her bedroom and, laying underneath the sheets, dropped both in and sank into the wonderfully sweet release of sleep.

***

Rarity was in a very bad mood. “Sweetie Belle, I’ve told you millions of times not to go to Twilight’s without my explicit permission!”

Instead of the guilty look she’d been hoping for, Sweetie Belle gave her an indignant stare. “You’ve only told me sixty three times Rarity. AND I did ask if I could into town.”

“Sweetie Belle, sixty three times doesn’t make much of a difference to my point.” Rarity told her.

“Still not a million.” Sweetie still refused to look guilty.

Rarity shook her head, one day that filly would hopefully understand how hard raising her was and perhaps than she’d appreciate it. “That’s beyond the point! And, you told me you were going into town. You said absolutely nothing about visiting Twilight! Do I need to get you another dictionary with explicit highlighted?”

This finally got some sort of rise out of her little sister, although she couldn’t tell if it was guilt shame or anger. Perhaps a mix of both. “No” She grumbled.

“Good.” Rarity was pleased, hopefully Sweetie would behave better in the future. She began to turn away.

“I still want to know why I can’t visit her without permission!” Sweetie shouted.

Rarity gave a start. “It’s because sometimes Twilight does dangerous experiments and I want to know where you are and she wants to make sure I know where you are so she doesn’t get in any trouble.” She lied. That wasn’t it at all, the real reason was the rumors that floated about once or twice in Canterlot about her, rumors that made Rarity nervous to have her little sister around the mare. Twilight knew she didn’t like it but was gracious enough to only have Sweetie around with permission, which was far better than most would do in her position.

“Oh, well can I go see her now?” Sweetie Belle brightened at the logical answer.

“No Sweetie, if you had asked before you could have but you didn’t. Perhaps you should visit Apple Bloom or Scootaloo instead, don’t you have some crusading to do?” Although the filly darkened at not be able to visit Twilight, she seemed much happier when Rarity mentioned instead visiting one of her fellow crusaders. She left in a blur.

“Thank Celestia for her friends.” Rarity told herself. She turned to her desk, where, among several things, magazine was opened to specific articles. The picture below the headline was a black and white cutie mark, made colorless in an attempt to protect the owner’s identify. Not that that mattered, it was a one of a kind mark, Rarity saw it at least once a week. The picture was just above a prominent line , “Now that the magical terror of the Royal Academy for the Magically Talented has reached majority, will any preventive measures be taken to stop another incident?” She closed the magazine, tearing her eyes away from the photo of Twilight’s cutie mark.

***

It had taken Fluttershy a day and a half to finally drag herself out of her apartment. Still, she wore large sunglasses to hide her reddened eyes, her messy mane was concealed in a ponytail and she made special care to avoid any of North’s usual hang outs.

It wasn’t by choice she left either, the charity ball was soon and she had to get everything ready. The Equinox Charity Ball had been a tradition since long before Fluttershy’s birth and would likely continue long after her death. Exactly who started it was disputed, but the point remained that twenty five years ago, the first ball was held and the tradition had continued, each year a different philanthropist was chosen to plan it.

It had been so exciting to be chosen, and she had been so happy to share it with North, and that appeared to be his breaking point. She shook her head out of the memories of her ex, she had work do.

The Equinox Charity Ball was being held in one the palace ballrooms, and already it was quite a sight. Banners hung down from the ceiling and from the pillars, ornamental statues and impressive flower displays were visible all throughout the room and the stage for the band to play was all ready, the instruments waiting for their owners’ hooves to pick them out and pull sweet music from them.

“Perfect,” she whispered to herself. And indeed it was, only the most decayable of decorations and the ice statues were not in their place. The food was not either, but she could smell the cooking from where she stood and it was rather enticing.

“Fluttershy dear, it’s simply marvelous to see you here!” Fluttershy turned to see Checklist, her assistant, trotting to her.

“Oh Checklist, it’s nice to see you too!” She brightly responded.

The acid green mare gave a confused glance, “Really, so you haven’t been moping around the house after North broke up with you?” she punctuated the last word with a piercing look.

“Oh, you heard about that.” Fluttershy gave an embarrassed mumble.

“Yes I have and I think he’s being such a jerk about the whole thing, he oughta know how much charity means to you by now.” Checklist gave a reassuring smile.

“I just miss him so much.” That smile broke through Fluttershy’s barriers and sent her sobbing into the kind hooves of Checklist.

“There there,” The blue maned unicorn gave a glare at any of the curious looks shot to them by the workers. “If that fool gives you up not only is he not the stallion you thought he was but he is also far dumber than I thought.”

Fluttershy’s sobs began to dissolve into dry heaves until she was too tired for that and just laid enwrapped in Checklist’s hooves. After what felt like hours but was likely just a few minutes she pulled herself out and adjusted her sunglasses to better hide her even redder eyes.

“I have work to do.” She gave Checklist a wane smile.

“I know dearie, oh I know.” The unicorn mare returned the smile, already leading her to the kitchen.

***

The three spies descended from the sky like great monsters wooping in on their prey. Each was enshrouded with magic to disguise themselves from the average pony eye.

Glamour stood waiting for them, her hoof boredly tapping the stone floor. “Well?”

The first stepped forward, her disguise disintegrating to reveal a pegasus mare with blue fur, gold eyes and a rose mane. “Ma’am, currently Shining Armor has shared his ideas with two others, both low level guards.”

Glamour raised an eyebrow, “Well, would I be wrong to assume you have their records?”

“No ma’am. Flash Sentry,” She threw a folder with a picture of a handsome pegasus stallion pinned to it. “ His father was a soldier, his mother a drunkard. He disappeared at the age of sixteen and reappeared two years later, now a guard. It’s likely he was involved in several undercover operations in enemy countries, although nothing confirmable.” She then threw down another folder, the picture on this one of a glaring mare. “Data, happy childhood up until the age of ten when she discovered her mother’s mutilated body. The killer was never found and her father turned to drugs to forget it. She and her sister were adopted by their grandparents, but at the age of fifteen, her sister disappeared, no evidence on that case. When Data turned sixteen she disappeared into the RIA, like Sentry we have no evidence of her work there, but she also appeared two years later.”

“Hmm, perhaps the events are connected.” Glamour mused. “ Well, in any case, thank you for this, you can go for your meal now.” The pegasus grinned before disappearing into the catacombs.

“Well, now that she’s gone, you two have anything else, on your special assignments?” Glamour’s demeanor instantly shifted into a far more serious one.

Both removed their own disguised, revealing a handsome earth pony stallion and a comely unicorn mare. Both were in full vampony mode so they could fly. The unicorn mare spoke first, running a hoof through her silky black mane, “Well, the Circus de Lune is unlikely to be able to gather enough troops if we attack, and there aren't any other major covens in Canterlot, too much restriction. Also,” She dropped her voice down to a whisper, “The Canterlot Vault we want in will be unprotected during the festival, you can get in then.”

“Thank you Sharp Eyes,” The white mare grinned at the acknowledgement. “Do you have anything for me, Quick Blade?”

The brown stallion gave a wince of pain as he rubbed a burn on his hoof. “Sorry, I was flying over some itty town, Ponyville maybe?, when the warding on some tree house cut off the disguise on the hoof that floated over it. Nopony saw me but it was during the day and I was flying so..” He trailed off but the others got the meaning.

“I have some cream you can have, but first, your mission?” Glamour questioned.

“Right, well, the filly definitely has the gift, although she doesn’t know it yet. Also,” He reached into his saddle bag. “I may have found something interesting, when I flew over that town, I picked up bursts of harmony magic, it’s possible some bearers of the elements might live there, maybe your theory about Celestia not scattering the elements but rather picking bearers in case they were needed was actually correct.”

Glamour shook her head “No, I have evidence it wasn’t. Likely it was just possible bearers, but still, good work!” She’d found reassurance helped to keep the two on her side. The trio headed into the catacombs, none of their kin the wiser about what they were really doing.

***

Nightmare Moon glared at the cracks of her prison, she had pounded at them for days to no avail. Although days did not seem much when compared with centuries, the closer she got to freedom the harder it was to wait. She was so close and therefore she wanted to leave so badly.

Nightmare Moon whacked herself against the cracks, not caring for any damage done to herself, because once freed she’d have access to her full range of magic not the pathetic parlor tricks she’d been restricted to here.

She felt something brush against her leg and, in her typical anger, shot a blast of magic to fast to recall her power. Instantly, she regretted it, whatever had brushed against her would likely be no more than dented and she’d have a headache for days for attempting to use such magic.
To her surprise, no headache came, and when she turned around, there was nothing but clouds of dust.

Haha, they might have been able to keep me locked up in here for a bit but my magic has returned.

Part of her wondered if she should just stay by the cracks, gathering power until she could break free easily, but no. Celestia would likely expect her to do that. It wasn't like there was a prophecy foretelling her return, now was there?

Comments

[Cross Lament]

Huh, an interesting bit of AU going on in here...

[Quick Fix]

I have to agree with Cross, this is certainly intriguing so far.