Esalar and the Moon Shards

by Ykayney

Chapter 4

As Princess Luna’s night was cast over Canterlot, one pony stayed out, a black mare with an equally dark red mane and tail lay at the side of a street, eyes closed. She slowly rose to her hooves, standing taller than most other ponies but not quite as tall as an Alicorn; the black unicorn began a slow walk down the street.

She took glances left and right as a few shops were being locked up later than usual. When her determined and angry looking eyes met with other ponies eyes they would look away quickly and pretend that they weren’t looking at the unusual mare.

The black Unicorn walked into a small late night pub that was near. As she walked in, she spotted a guard sat at the bar sipping on a drink. The mysterious mare walked over and took a seat next to him, placing a large of bits in front of him, she began to speak.

“Here, let me buy you a few more.” Her voice was soft with a hint of raspiness but by no means regal sounding.

The guard gave a look of confusion at the mare and then noticed how many bits there were in the bag. “What do you want?” He said warily.

“A distraction.” The black unicorn gave a large, sly smile.

>>><<<>>><<<>>><<<>>><<<

The morning sun didn’t wake Esalar the next day; instead he was forced awake by a loud frantic knocking at his door. The quickly jumped out of bed and made his way downstairs to answer the door as the knocking became louder. “I’m coming! I’m coming!”

He opened the door to see a panicked Twilight at his door. “Esalar you need to hurry, we’ve been asked by the Princess to meet her in Canterlot immediately.”

Esalar stood there looking blankly for a second, he didn’t expect to be going back to Canterlot for a few more days. “Okay, let me just get a few things together. Where are the others?” Esalar asked as he walked back inside, inviting Twilight to walk inside too.

“They’re already at the train station waiting for us.” She began to sound impatient.

Esalar hurried his packing, making sure he had the Moon Shards in his saddle bags along with a plentiful amount of bits and some snacks for the train journey. “Okay, I’m ready let’s go!”

They left the house and made their way to the train station, the whole way Esalar had noticed that Twilight was looking uncomfortable at the situation. “Are you okay Twilight? You seem a little, on edge.”

Twilight gave a sigh and dipped her head slightly. “I’m sorry Esalar. Even though she’s my teacher, I always get really nervous when the Princess asks me to see her. Especially when it’s urgent.”

>>><<<>>><<<>>><<<>>><<<

On the train, everypony had their own things to occupy them. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were playing a card game, Twilight was reading and Esalar was looking at the scenery whilst Rarity took to glancing over to Esalar every now and again between reading sentences from the fashion magazine she had brought with her.

Before they knew it, their train was pulling in to the Canterlot train station. As they got off the train Twilight noticed the royal carriage parked outside. “It seems the Princess sent a carriage to pick us up.”

As they walked over to the carriage the guard waiting outside of it greeted the pony he recognised as being Twilight and let them all on board.

Everypony, including Esalar, had their faces pointing outside the windows of their vehicle as they rode through the streets of Canterlot towards the castle. A few regal ponies outside, looked to the carriage as it rode past, it wasn’t everyday that they saw a royal vehicle riding in public.

This was the first time Esalar had been near the castle, let alone within the walls. It was a large as it looked from the windows in his house, which they passed to get to the main road a couple of blocks back. His eyes widened to take in every detail he could before they stopped.

Guards opened the doors on either side of the carriage to let the ponies out. Twilight led them through the front door to see a majestic but panicked Princess Celestia pacing left and right at the other end of the entrance hall.

“Princess! We came as fast as we could!” Twilight called over as the group trotted over to the Princess.

“Girls, Esalar! I’m so glad you came. We have a big problem on our hooves.” She walked over to a door at the left side in the back of the room. “Follow me.”

The group followed closely beside and behind the Princess as she walked them to the Hallway that housed the safe where the Elements of Harmony were being kept.

All 7 ponies gasped as they saw the scene at the end of the hallway. “As you can see, everypony. We have quite the problem.”

The safe that had been concealing the Elements of Harmony had been broken in to. The doors looked like they had been blown off by an explosive and the elegantly designed chest was laid open on the ground.

“No! How could this happen?!” Twilight ran over to the door. “Princess, I thought you were the only one who could open this door?!”

“Unfortunately Twilight, it appears the culprit of this crime used a highly advanced explosive to force open the door.” The white Alicorn turned her head to the floor with a frown. “You should also know that a couple of weeks ago, some of our most advanced machine parts were stolen from our labs. We suspect that the same pony committed this crime.”

Esalar spoke up from his silence. “What do you think they plan to do with the Elements and machine parts?” He stepped forward towards the Princess.

Celestia looked over to Esalar. “I’m not sure Esalar. But whatever it is, it can’t be good, and it must be the reason why the Moon Shards have returned.”

“Don’t worry Princess. Where ever this criminal is, we’ll find him and let him know the error of his ways.” Rainbow Dash flew into air and threw confident punches to give her sentence more power.

“Thank you Rainbow Dash, but I hope to not use violence.” The Princess walked to the front of the group and turned to face the other ponies. “The most important thing now, is that you find the rest of the Moon Shards. I understand you have six left to find?” Princess Celestia looked over to Esalar for confirmation.

“Actually Princess, we only have five more to find.” Esalar proudly lifted the two Moon Shards from his saddle bags.

The Princess smiled and nodded to the dark blue stallion.
“I have my best intelligence working around Equestria. A letter will be sent to spike as soon as the location of a Moon Shard is discovered.”

Twilight nodded to the Princess as Fluttershy spoke as she looked out of the window. “Oh, have we really been here that long? It’s getting late already.” The sun had begun to set on the horizon during the time they had spent in Canterlot.

“By the position of the Sun, Ah’m guessing the trains’ll stop running soon.” Noted Applejack out loud.

“Yes, you’re right. We’re going to need a place to stay overnight.” Rarity said worryingly.

Esalar noticed the Princess looking at him. When his eyes met hers, she nodded towards him confirming some thoughts in his head. “Hey girls.” Everypony looked towards Esalar. “My house isn’t far from here; you’re all welcome to stay the night.”

“Oh Esalar, that would be fantastic! Thank you!” Twilight said with a large smile.

Pinkie had a revelation which made her give one of her famous out bursts. “Oh oh oh! It’ll be just like a sleepover! We could tell jokes, have a pillow fight, play board games.” She gasped. “We could even build a book fort!” Everypony facehoofed as Pinkie Pie continued the bounce up and down in excitement.

>>><<<>>><<<>>><<<>>><<<

“Oh Esalar, your home is just fabulous!” Rarity was in awe of Esalar’s upper-class home.

Esalar began the scratch the back of his back with his hoof. “Yeah, it took quite a few years of hard work to save up for it.” He walked over to the stairs, lifting his hoof to point up them. “Please, let me show you all to your rooms.”

The six mares followed Esalar up the stairs, showing each of them to their rooms. “Ah hope you don’t mind me asking Esalar. But how come you have so many rooms in your house?” Applejack asked curiously.

Esalar giggled slightly. “Well, before I brought this house, it was originally a small Hotel. The owners began to lose money so they put it up for sale.” He opened the door to a large bedroom painted a light blue with furniture decorated with greens and browns. “This will be your room Applejack, I hope it’s to your liking.”

The orange mare walked in and began to look around the room in slight awe. “This is mighty fine Esalar. I’ll see you later.” She gave the stallion a wink before closing the door. Rarity responded with widened eyes and a slight lip twitch.

Esalar walked Rarity to the next room down. “And here’s your room Rarity. I hope you have a nice night.” Wished Esalar as he opened the door to the room.

“Thank you so much Esalar. I’ll see you in the morning.” Rarity gave a large smile and then continued to lean forwards and gave Esalar a small kiss on the cheek.

A silence quickly fell between the two of them, broken slightly by an awkward cough from Esalar. “Good night Rarity.” Esalar turned around and entered the room next door, placing his saddle bags on the floor and climbing into bed.

----------------

Where am I? What is this place?

“Do not fear what you see Esalar.”

What? Who’s there?! Where are you?!

“I am you, your mind, your inner self. I am here to guide you.”

Guide me through what?

“The journey you are about to go through will be tough. You need to stay tough, for yourself and your friends. You’re a key part, Esalar.”

A key part? How? I just found some strange Moon Shard and got pulled into this.

“The light, Esalar. The light.”