Moondust

by Parallel Black

10 - Just the Same

“I am Her bulwark, and I will do my duty so that my Queen can take her place as this world’s goddess. Leave and I will not chase you, stay and I will not attack, but if you try to cross, you will be erased.”

Like a silent referee, the Moon watched from on high as the gruesome fight played out.

There might have been another watching them. Not only the God of Death, but the God of Balance, too; weighing up their chances and stacking the darkness high enough to block out the Sun. This was a fight for the sake of the world, after all, and Twilight and her new friends were hopelessly outmatched.

She didn’t even know why she was here. She knew she had to be, otherwise who else would? The adventure had been fun until now. She could so easily die here. She had almost died multiple times just getting to this point. This wasn’t where she was meant to be; she was just a magic student, just a surrogate mother for a baby dragon, just a mortal mare. For sure, she was strong, the strongest in her class, but that meant nothing compared to whatever ungodly might had created that landbridge.

Rainbow Dash growled as she pulled herself back to her hooves. She shrugged the others off, raised her wings up high, and took flight once more, leaving behind little pools of red where she’d landed.

Within seconds she returned, a flash of moonlit gold interrupting her path through the air and sending her careening back to the other side of the ravine, a new pair of cuts running along her side. The endless lengths of mane swayed, losing their metallic nature as quickly as they had gained it, and flowed back to the creature who served as their final obstacle before their meeting with the dark mare behind it all.

“Peace” she called herself. That name only held true for the fact that she hadn’t moved a muscle throughout the fight. Her mane had done all the work, flowing through the air like a horde of eels before twisting together into a myriad of weaponry to fend off the group’s only chance of making it across. Twilight had little idea of what they were meant to do once Rainbow touched down, anyway; she’d already tried giving the pegasus some magical shields, but Peace’s blade-like locks had pierced straight through.

Now, Rainbow Dash was bleeding. Badly. With each round she lost more feathers and her expression grew grimmer; she was clearly in pain, yet she continued, one leg wrapped in the remainder of Rarity’s mane, another tied with Fluttershy’s extensions.

Some worried noises were soon followed by a yell of pain as Rainbow Dash was coiled up by the lengths and hurled back to them like a living volleyball. The others rushed over but Twilight hesitated. This felt hopeless. This wasn’t a fight, it was a joke. “R-Rainbow…” she began.

With aching, twitching limbs, the pegasus got up once more, snarling through the pain. “Wh-whatever you’re ab-bout to say… shut up!” she warned. “I can do this. I… I-I have to!” Amidst the desperate cries of her friends, Rainbow grabbed one of the makeshift bandages in her mouth and tore it off. Another snarl and Fluttershy’s offering went too, letting the red cuts bleed freely.

“Rainbow, what are you doing?!” Twilight cried, her legs finding the motivation to move again.

“They’re jus- agh… they’re just slowing me down. Th-they’re not aerodynamic enough. I can do this.”

“But y-”

“Shut up and trust me already. I got this.”

Without another word she positioned her wings behind her, readied herself like a track runner, and performed a miracle.

In a blink she was gone, the space she had occupied pulling at their manes as air rushed to fill the void. Twilight only saw the rainbow-coloured trail for an instant, but it seemed to light up the exposed rocks and the ropeless wooden stumps as Rainbow Dash made it further than ever before.

In the next moment the darkness came back, and the air filled with blades. A row of defensive grates made of those metallic tendrils formed before Peace, but after a few seconds of silence, she let them go, revealing a blue backside stuck halfway out of a bush several meters past her.

If any gods had been placing bets, they must have lost a lot of money that night.

-----

The smouldering temple vanished behind the trees and shrubbery as they turned the corner, the Judge of Victory’s golden statue still laying robbed and defeated before its former entrance. Whatever had caused the damage, no amount of money could have deterred such a determined act of vandalism. At least, assuming it had indeed been vandalism and not a coordinated robbery conducted by a mare who loved dragons more than the one she served.

More events added themselves to the story in Twilight’s head. Winter’s Break had come to Canterlot to gain wealth via Prosperism, only to find that it wasn’t what she’d dreamed. She cared more about the dragons she grew up around than a fickle thing like money, but as the owner of a temple she had sunken too far into theological debt to simply leave.

“For someone so materialistic she sure seemed happy to write it off as divine intervention,” Moondancer commented.

“I’m sure she meant well,” Twilight replied, “but it was pretty suspicious.” This was silly, she knew. The whole thing was as plain as day to her studious mind, and yet something held her back from saying it out loud. In spite of the strange explanation, with Winter’s not hearing a thing until the temple was already ablaze, she had seemed genuinely dismayed over what had become of her home.

Spike folded his arms. “Can we not start accusing every pony or dog we come across of having bad intentions?” he asked. “I had a good thing going there.”

“Sorry, Spike. I just don’t want to take any risks, especially when it comes to religion. I don’t want to prioritise one over another. Who knows what the ponies around here might say?” Maybe Winter’s had simply grown attached to the place and was sad having to commit arson and lie to her own underlings just to escape whatever system she’d found herself trapped in.

Moondancer grinned. “It’s not like this whole belief thing isn’t bull from the start. They’re all hypocrites. Nopony’s ever seen any of these supposed ‘gods’ and yet they devote their entire lives to them instead of doing something actually useful.”

Twilight couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at that. Nearly her entire family history had been one Octenist after another, and as far as she could tell they certainly hadn’t suffered for it. “That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?” she asked, knowing exactly what the response would be.

To her surprise, Moondancer only gave her the side-eye, then asked, “Do you believe a word that mare said?”

“Uh…”

“You’re allowed to give me the stupid answer. I’m just genuinely curious to know if you think she burned the place down or not.”

Twilight didn’t want to mar Spike’s positive experience any further. Moondancer had clearly gotten a kick out of the mere suggestion that the damage might have been done intentionally. “I… guess I’m skeptical when it comes to the whole merchandise thing, but I don’t know what to think of the destruction itself,” came her safe, balanced response.

Moondancer looked disappointed. “Lame. I think it’s obvious; she stole the money beforehoof and then pulled some kind of crazy plan to make it look like the place had been robbed.”

Nope, nope, I’m not having a conversation about this if it’s going to mean more misery, Twilight thought, annoyed. “Whatever the case, it’s behind us now,” she replied, shutting the topic down before it was too late.

“What if it was a giant minotaur?” Spike spoke up.

Twilight let out a groan. “Then it would mean it was a very coordinated attack. Either that or what Winter’s said about it being ‘a sign’ was true.” She shut her mouth. She could hear the doubt in her own voice. None of it made sense, but that didn’t matter, because it had all been fine until Moondancer began questioning things. Spike needed all the positive experiences he could get in this place filled with ponies who found him threatening, and at this point Twilight was starting to feel the same. She desperately needed some sense of relaxation, some sign that her own demi-goddess was coming back to put her at ease.

The road gradually dipped as it turned, heading downhill alongside the streets that surrounded most of the Terrace Gallery. The houses and shops were separated from the district by a wide border of greenery. The entire place was something of a giant park populated by temples instead of flower patches, each trying to look more impressive than the last. The empty marble troughs ran alongside the path, periodically meeting small pools that would have given the flow the look of a staircase of miniature waterfalls. Further down Twilight could see many of them congregating into a pond in the terrace’s very center, around which more places of worship could be seen along with an abundance of decorative trees and other plants.

Perhaps this would be a suitable replacement for the larger lake. She and Spike even had layers of foliage to run through to relive old times.

She rubbed her chin as she walked.

The next structure had a grandiose staircase leading up to the entrance, which was a mixture of earthy and fiery colours. The entrance beyond the wooden gazebo lining the front was embellished with detailed metal designs and a number of paintings, proudly displayed in the open and thoroughly untouched by the chaos that had engulfed the rest of the city. Perhaps religious art wasn’t in high demand on the black market.

The longhouse was the home of Solarism; the belief in a deity known as the Sun Mover. His or hers was an absolutist kind of faith that rejected all others. To those ponies, their deity was the sole creator of the Sun, the Moon, and Epona, and was solely responsible for the birth and death of all life on the planet. When she had been researching religions, Twilight had made some comment on how the Sun Mover was portrayed; white in coat with a mane of every colour. Celestia had confirmed her suspicions, along with an annoyed little tidbit about forcing them to remove the sun-symbol cutie mark the deity used to possess.

There were definitely ponies who thought that way, that Celestia was a god. Twilight wondered what they might think of Luna; the would-be “Moon Mover”. As far as she’d read Solarism didn’t have any equivalent. It was all just one pony in the sky, controlling everything, in spite of the fact that Luna had supposedly been able to control the Moon before she was banished.

It wasn’t like the world was short on potential deity-esque candidates, yet among their ranks only Prosper’s Equilibrium, Mesomic, who served as the physical voice of the Five Judges, came close to the fervent following Celestia had once enjoyed, back before her faithful had decided to shun all other religions in favour of their goddess in the flesh.

Belief was a terrifying thing, Twilight had found. It could make ponies think anything, do anything. No wonder Celestia had shut them down and declared herself mortal.

No wonder they hadn’t believed her; she could bring ponies back from the dead, after all.

Twilight shivered. That spot between her shoulder blades throbbed in response, like a spiritual growth sapping away at her willpower.

There was no point in thinking about it, because if there was something to these worrying thoughts, then that could only mean Twilight Sparkle was already on the other side, watching in horror as her former body lived her life, read her books, interacted with her friends, and made all the wrong choices. She recalled the look on Haycartes’ face again. He had smiled in spite of the pain in his eyes, even as Celestia drew him away to give him whatever rest awaited a mere golem.

“You ok?” asked Moondancer.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Twilight answered.

“Why’re you frowning at nothing?”

“I’m…” Twilight rubbed her face and shook her mane. “I’m sorry, I don’t know. I’m just stressed out from today.”

A few seconds of silence passed before Moondancer responded. “Wanna sleep over?”

That was sudden. The suggestion would have seemed so innocent and meaningless had it come from anypony else, but Moondancer had said it with such hesitation and under just enough of a mumble to make Twilight think she was embarrassed for a change. Her eyes widened. “You sure?”

Moondancer grumbled and kicked at the ground. “I figure if we aren’t going to see each other again for a while… then why the buck not? I’ll do a stupid teenage filly thing if it means something, and knowing you it could be months and months before you finally take a vacation, so we should make the most of it.”

“Can… I come too?” Spike broached.

Moondancer opened her mouth, but hesitated. Being ok around him day-to-day was one thing, letting him into her home was another.

Twilight stepped closer to her friend, bringing Spike within poking distance if he wanted. “Come on, it’ll be a good chance to get used to each other some more,” she suggested.

“Ugh, fine,” Moondancer relented.

There was still some lingering unease there, the thought of letting the long-feared dragon into her safe place bringing back whatever nasty memories had caused this whole division. She placed a hoof on Moondancer’s shoulder. “I’ll bring my old copy of Snowy Brew’s Calculus for Colts with me…?”

The air bubble was almost visible as it travelled up Moondancer’s throat, before she burst out laughing. She made to say something, the snide remark almost audible on the end of her tongue, but she merely smiled. “Sure.”

With a feeling of elation welling up in Twilight’s heart, the little group continued down the road. The subtle flecks of yellow in the sky were starting to dominate the eastern horizon as the Sun crept through the early evening. The shadows were starting to grow. Off the side of the road a giant wind chime clinked gently, casting a disembodied shadow with how it floated above the ground. The symbol was suspended by a large clump of dense cloud which released a slow trickle of water drops down the chime’s wooden pieces. A number of pegasi were sat below it, some sleeping in its shade, others praying.

Something about the sight made her smile. It was wholesome to see the sense of comfort they seemed to feel from such a simple contraption. The wind chime was the heirogram of a goddess known as Valkrui, a deity comparable in age to Sleipnir and his wife. Valkrui’s tiny faith spoke of the freedom of the winds, how they flowed around the world unhindered, without worry or responsibility. Thanks to Equestria’s practice of curating natural weather patterns that idea of freedom rang a little hollow, but then Twilight wasn’t the faithful type. The idea brought comfort to its believers, and if it had survived all this time, then perhaps that was enough.

The pegasus nomads of the pre-Equestria era had brought the faith east with them from Canaria, coming into conflict with Sunflare’s more dedicated view of one’s surroundings and Sleipnir’s encouragement of ambition and personal strength. The latter’s values certainly shone through the closer they got to the last stretch. Despite being located on the lowest end of the gallery the Octenic Hall’s eight black spires reached higher than anything else in the district, and the eight leg-like supports bracing the building’s sides beneath them made it one of the largest.

Before it came Sunflare’s colosseum-like hall. It was a far less imposing structure than her husband’s, possessing softer arches that wrapped around its circumference and a single, large spire rising from the center of its dome roof, tilting and spiralling as it went, like the horn of a gigantic alicorn. It bore a round tip, contrasting with Sleipnir’s sharp, draconic spikes. The white brickwork was interlaced with a bold red similar to that found on Sunflare’s Walk, flowing from the roof and waterfalling down the arches, before transitioning seamlessly into the crimson leaves of the plants that surrounded the structure.

Naturally, these were the biggest faces in Canterlot, and the road widened once again, turning into something more akin to a long plaza, in order to accommodate the two titans. Though Gaia predated them both, Sleipnir and Sunflare shared the bulk of followers throughout Equestria, as the size of the congregations outside their two halls showed.

“Looks like the crazies are out in force today,” Moondancer commented with no small amount of derision. “Maybe they’re celebrating what happened to Athena.”

Twilight could feel her unease around crowds starting to rear its head. This was almost as busy as the lake and field, but stuffed into a smaller area. Luckily the bulk was gathered outside the Octenic Hall, before which came the road leading out of the Terrace Gallery that would take them to Moondancer’s home. No big deal. They would only have to wade through the edges of one crowd, unless they wanted to take a detour through the foliage. Moondancer’s chest came into view as the other unicorn took the lead, once again using it as a makeshift water break to create a path through the mass. It was slow going and a lot of dirty looks got sent their way, but it was still better than having to push through shoulder-to-shoulder. Twilight offered a brief apology to everypony they passed, but after one too many angry mutters she opted to simply keep her head down.

A song of some kind flowed through the air, the soothing, opera-like tones emanating from the center. Even here on the outskirts of the gathering Twilight could feel a sense of peacefulness washing over her tired legs. Spike’s little walk had turned into a proper day out and she was more than ready to take a rest at Moondancer’s place. In front of the colosseum stood a symbol of Sunflare’s power; a giant inkwell, from which she had defined her creations with the gift of sapience. Atop it was a mare enveloped in a myriad of colourful feathers, with a collection of red ones draping down either side of her face. Two black-coated stallions stood with her, together representing Sleipnir’s elongated body.

The assortment of colourful dancers surrounding the inkwell made the congregation look more like a theatre performance, perfectly in line with Ungulism’s focus on the arts and emotion. The dancers swayed in time with the music, ribbons and veils coursing through the air in their wake, as if gaining a life of their own. The two stallions were slowly rotating around their rainbow-embellished bride, protecting her beauty with matching steps.

Twilight was about to look away, but a collection of golden ribbons caught her eye.

She stopped for a moment. Just a moment.

It was nothing. She continued on.

Comments

[Comickook]

All I can say is great job on the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up in this latest chapter. Definitely have to respect the work that went into the flashback with Rainbow and some of Nightmare Moon's underlings before going back to Twilight, Spike and Moondancer as they reflected on such things as belief in gods (and understanding why Celestia denies the title, but ISN'T believed when she does) and how it was much more likely somebody they talked to stole the money themselves and was just looking for a scapegoat (though, given that this IS Equestria, the "giant minotaur" deal, while VERY unlikely, is NOT impossible). And, yeah, I can also understand how Moondancer could be so quick to catch Twilight when she was so deep in thought and DID appreciate how not only did she offer to let Twilight stay the night after she admitted to reflecting on some really bad stuff, but also relented concerning Spike.

All in all, VERY certainly looking forward to more of this.