Moondust

by Parallel Black

6 - This Monster

Her hooves burned.

It had been such a cute sound; Twilight’s strange, talking doll had been having a sneezing fit all day. It had sounded cute enough to bring a smile to her face, but the true purpose of the action had become clear as soon as she’d gotten close enough: Spike was practicing.

Now she lay here in the corner of the room, surrounded by her classmates who stood like statues, watching to see if she would die or not. She could barely feel her forelimbs, but what little sensation made it through was painful like nothing she’d ever experienced. She couldn’t speak, she couldn’t even think. That was a real dragon. She’d been fooling herself for months now, but that was a real dragon, riding on her best friend’s back and reading books right alongside them, learning about them.

A dragon didn’t need to know anything about ponies - it only needed to know how to breathe fire. That would be enough.

The tiny filly slowly eased herself up, her hooves feeling like they were crumpling like paper as they braced against the soft carpet, and she looked for her friend through the layers of tears. She couldn’t see anything past the others. Was she ok? She’d been sitting closer when Spike attacked them. Was she dead? Was her best friend dead now because of that thing she thought was a living plushie? Would it be her fault for not warning her how dangerous dragons were?

The Princess emerged from behind the others and she stared too. For a moment, Moondancer thought she was going to be left there to fade away with the pain, but her surroundings turned golden and the pressure on her aching, useless hooves lifted away. Celestia spoke some comforting words and Moondancer found herself breaking out into a bawl all over again. The pain slowly ebbed as the Princess stroked her mane, until she was cradled like the foal she was and the world around her slipped into a comfortable darkness.

When she awoke the Princess was nowhere to be seen and neither was Twilight. Sitting there with its claws clasped over its chest was the dragon, staring at her with its giant, green eyes, fanged mouth opening to finish her off.

She screamed and cried until someone came to find her.

-----

The road gradually sloped away from the natural area to their left, but the crowds came back into view as they ascended a set of large, curving steps that served as the very edge of the long stairs, past which the rooftops were once again backed by solid stone as the field met the curving wall of the mountain. From here the outlet of the lake could be seen flowing into a brickwork tunnel that would spiral down inside of the rock to run alongside the train line running parallel to it. Thankfully there was a grate of pure octite covering it, but Moondancer nonetheless shuddered at the sight, imagining the pitch black of the tunnel, followed by the sound of a train’s wheels racing past inches from her hooves as she fell.

“Moondancer? Are you coming in?”

“Huh? Yeah.” Moondancer rubbed her eyes. She needed more sleep than this.

The cafe Twilight had chosen was an ornate affair of marble designs and shaded windows suited to the untimely moonlight. It stood raised off the road to overlook the lake and the line of ponies travelling to and from its edge. Most of the families were mere commoners and didn’t have the cash to spare for such a fancy place, but Twilight had assured her she could cover it. It honestly looked like something that belonged in Upper Canterlot.

The inside, too, was fairly high-quality, though not high-strung. With a deep blue carpet and walls that slowly faded from white at the bottom up to a darker blue, the place looked almost like an open observatory with its scattering of tiny crystals embedded into the arched ceiling, mimicking the stars. The braziers lining the walls were pointed at the floor, giving the place the look of a quiet study with how the light reflected off of the tables. It could have been a nice place to come and read had she known about it sooner. Meadow View was the restaurant’s name, though there wouldn’t be much grass to see between the throngs of ponies just trying to survive.

Moondancer reclaimed her chest and slid it carefully underneath their chosen table beside one of the windows. The table was a very hard wood that had been polished to a shine, like something one would expect to see in a mansion, and the seat was solid but comfortable and had a few gaps in the back to account for tails and wings. Despite the fact that the staff were dressed like a bunch of butlers, the place didn’t seem too bad.

She looked back at the host behind the counter and felt another small chill running down her spine. He carried himself with a practiced professionalism and his clothing seemed free of any stray fur, but his eyes were small, yellow and suited to glinting in the moonlight, and his sharp teeth carved his long face in two whenever he smiled. He was making conversation with Twilight about something before he motioned to the table with a stubby, black claw, followed by a polite bow.

“I didn’t even realise there were any dogs in Canterlot,” Moondancer muttered to herself.

“He didn’t realise there were any dragons,” Spike replied as he clambered up onto his seat like something climbing out of a well. He sounded more confident now that he thought he was her friend. “Apparently his sister was eaten by one,” he added with more of a hush.

“Uh-huh.” Par for the course up there, Moondancer thought. The dog had a light-grey coat - fluffier on the shoulders and cheeks and less jagged around the lower jaw; a clear sign that he was a Dust Dog of the northern regions. He must have come here seeking the chilly atmosphere of a mountain city, only to find hordes of chubby herbivores waiting for him. She recalled a story her father had told her of when her great-grandfather fought off a pack of his kind trying to raid the farm. Meat products seemed a magnet for carnivores, even if those meat products were still capable of screaming for help.

Twilight trotted over looking happy with herself for having made a new friend. “Here you go,” she said, sliding a couple of menus onto the table. “So, you’ve never been here before, Moondancer?”

Moondancer shook her head. “I don’t really go out much.”

“Well I can guarantee this place will be better than school lunches.”

“Ugh,” Moondancer grimaced. Carrots and lettuce lost all their flavour when they were mashed into paste. “I’d rather eat paper than that stuff.” She unfolded the menu and glanced over a few of the options. Much to her annoyance, it was all drinks. “Do they have a menu for the actual food?” she asked.

“Hm? Yeah, they take drink orders first and then the food afterward. It shouldn’t be long before we get served.”

“Alright.” There were all the usual options like concentrated fruit juice and overpriced tap water, alongside a few more interesting and expensive options like wine, stonebud milk, and something involving the sap of a cherry blossom. Despite its location on the cusp of the Rabbles, this was definitely a place Canterlot nobility would enjoy.

A happy, measured trot signalled the arrival of the waitress. She was a middle aged unicorn with the kind of well-kept mane one would expect from a place that took style this seriously. “Can I get anything for you three?” She nodded at Moondancer, but smiled at Twilight and Spike. They probably knew the staff by name if they were regulars.

“I’ll just have a couple of waters, please,” Twilight replied.

“Can I have the stonebud milk?” Spike asked Twilight instead of the waitress. Twilight nodded and the waitress wrote it down.

“And how about you, miss?” she asked.

Moondancer quickly glanced over her options again, settling on the burgundy-coloured bottle. She definitely felt like drinking herself into a stupor at this point. Maybe that would help get these annoying thoughts about Spike being anything other than a monster out into the open. She imagined herself stumbling home through the dodgy backstreets, surrounded by the increasing sense of desperation of the Rabbles and thought better of it. “Just orange juice is fine,” she replied.

The mare nodded with a forced smile, jotted the selection down, and trotted back to the kitchen. Perhaps her frustration had come through a little too heavily in her tone.

The shadow on the sundial should have been just about turning to the evening, but the light of day still streamed in through the window. From where they were, the light had to bounce off the mountain first before entering the building, painting their table in a very dusky grey-pink-blue. The lake had a similar effect going on, with its waters appearing to shine oddly.

Moondancer frowned as her gaze drifted further towards the mountainside. From here it was clear that the party they had heard was no small affair. There were well over one-hundred ponies moving around in front of a makeshift stage that was playing host to some band or another.

“Didn’t that Vigil guy say the lake and the field were for emergency use only?” she asked.

Twilight leaned forward in her chair to get a proper look. She raised an eyebrow. “He did.”

“What a massive bag of pony sticks.”

“Mhm.” Twilight sat back. “So… are the ones in the Rabbles like him?”

Moondancer nodded. “Officers like that are everywhere down there. Their new favourite thing is to stop random people and try to implicate them in whatever mess happens to be nearby. It’s like a game of connect the dots to them.”

“Has anyone actually been arrested because of that?”

“Oh yeah, a few people. They’ll take any chance they can get to make things worse.”

Twilight seemed to stare into the distance for a moment, though the only thing visible through the window from her current angle would be the mountain wall as it curved back towards the edge of the city. “Sorry,” she said after a fashion. “I didn’t want to believe things were as bad as they are, but after everything I’ve seen… I get where you’re coming from. There’s so much vandalism up here in Middle Canterlot as it is. If it’s actually even worse down in the Rabbles then I don’t even know what to say, other than that I wouldn’t want to be living amongst it.”

“Sure would be nice if leaving was the easy option. I think I mentioned it to you before; the price of train tickets has been artificially inflated to keep people from getting away. I don’t know if it was the station or the princess that did it, but that’s why I’m trying to sell some of my collection and pay up before they decide to increase it again.”

“I hadn’t heard about that. Is it true that one of the supply trains got attacked?”

“Yep. It was only like five ponies though, so they all got caught. Security is a lot tighter in general now.” She paused. Should I tell her this part? she asked herself. She’ll hate you for it, said the changeling on her shoulder. It’ll be funny though, its pegasus twin suggested. “It’s normally pretty relaxed and friendly, but they even caught the fake ticket I got a couple of days ago.”

Twilight’s eyelids flipped open like she’d just found what an infant Spike had left in the class’ cookie jar. “What?!” she exclaimed.

Moondancer smirked. “What? I bought it fair and square, just not from the right vendor.”

“You’re lying,” Twilight stated, pointing a hoof at her.

“Nope.”

“You’re messing with me.”

Moondancer couldn’t hold back the grin, and it gave way to a short bout of laughter. “Of course I am! Holy crap, Twilight, you think I’d get involved with that kind of thing?”

She was lying, of course. The prices hadn’t increased, Twilight was just rich and had no sense of perspective. Getting out of Canterlot by train had always been expensive. As for the ticket, it had been sourced from the only changeling in the city Moondancer knew she could trust. The bug-mare ran an apothecary as a front for less legitimate practices. Those practices consisted of little more than a printer with a couple of magical addons to make convincing forgeries. Lots of potential, but not much of a customer base due to the big spenders staying far away from the stinky underparts of the city.

Moondancer recalled the sensation of creeping doom weighing down upon her as she watched the conductor and a guard stare at the ticket for just a little too long, before the latter landed a great big fine on her head for trying to take the easy route. She had a number of worthwhile books in her collection, but she had a feeling it wasn’t going to be enough. If worst came to worst she could try to sneak through with a real ticket without paying the fine, or perhaps buy a glamour and pose as a different pony. If even that didn’t work, travelling several hundred miles north on hoof was always an option, assuming she didn’t starve.

Twilight held her face in her hooves. “Oh my god, why would you say that? I thought for a second you’d gotten yourself in real danger.”

Moondancer chuckled to herself, her smile falling away. “There’s still the problem of the rent. Until I sell more of my books I’m pretty much stuck.”

Twilight placed her hooves back on the table and gave her a tired look. A smile appeared on her face and she suddenly found it difficult to look her in the eye. “Um… I guess I could help,” she suggested.

Moondancer raised her fuzzy eyebrows. “Are you sure? There’s always the hoof path if I don’t have enough…”

Twilight snorted. “No! I wouldn’t make you do that if you’re intent on… leaving.” She paused again. “I get it now. I still really think you should stay, but if your area is getting that bad then this is probably safer… unless you wanna move up into the Market with me?”

An image played across her mind of Celestia’s dour, empty eyes gazing upon her students like they were a group of brainless rabbits. You don’t get it at all. You don’t want to get it, but if you’ve acknowledged how much this place sucks then I guess that’s enough. “Blitz’ guards will probably be extending their curfew further into Middle Canterlot at some point, assuming the princess doesn’t murderise him for it first, so that would only be a temporary fix.”

Twilight offered a sad smile. “I see. Well, after we’re done here I guess I could buy some of those books?”

“Don’t you have enough as it is?”

Twilight gave her a look of innocent bewilderment.

Spike responded for her, “Better for the books to go to someone you know will take good care of them.”

“I guess.”

The gentle clinking of ice against glass signalled the arrival of their drinks. The waitress placed a bottle of orange juice and a pair of tall, fancy glasses of water filled with ice between Twilight and Moondancer, and what looked more like a small bowl of soup in front of Spike. The broth-like substance was grayish in colour, complete with its namesake halved and stuck onto the side of the wide mug like a lemon slice, its other half laying on the saucer beneath it. It looked like something that had been fished out of a drain.

“Is it normally this colour?” Spike whispered, looking understandably worried.

“It’s a lot better than it looks,” Twilight assured him. “Take a sip first, though, it’s got a pretty big kick to it.”

“Will you be having anything to eat today?” asked the mare. Twilight nodded and the waitress left to fetch the menus.

“There we go. It won’t be long now,” Twilight said with a chipper little smile.

“I feel like my stomach is shrinking,” Moondancer replied before taking a few big glugs of juice. This would help, at least. It was fresh, but it had that over-refrigerated quality that made her want to chew on some grass to make sure it went down properly. The flavour kicked in, lighting up her mouth and throat. She’d needed this more than she realised.

Twilight started on her water, tonguing one of the ice cubes into her mouth. “So…” she began, mid-chew, “what’ll you do once you reach Vanhoover?”

“I’ll be making my way to my family’s farm.” Another sip. “Assuming I remember how to get there. I literally haven’t gone to the actual farm since starting at the school.”

“Huh. Has your family visited you here, at least?”

Moondancer quirked an eyebrow at her. “Yeah. You’ve met them. Multiple times.”

“Oh.”

“This is actually pretty good timing. My sister’s getting married soon so I’ll be there for that.”

Twilight’s face lit up. “Oh! That’s awesome! Who’s the lucky stallion?”

Moondancer shrugged and grinned. “Some guy she met late last year. He might be enjoying his freedom right now but if you’ve ever met my sister you’ll know he’s going to be under a short leash pretty soon. He got her pregnant while they were dating so our dad is pretty much forcing them to go through with it.”

Twilight’s face only glowed brighter. “You’re going to be an aunt?” she asked in amazement.

Oh no she’s actually doing this, Moondancer thought. How could one sound so obsessive and yet so common at the same time? “Eheh, yeah. I guess I am, which sucks because I hate kids.”

Twilight grinned, no doubt imagining what a tiny, squealing clone of Moondancer would look like. “My mother was like that too until she had my brother.”

Spike placed the two halves of his stonebud together. “Can we add conversations about pregnancy to the list of ‘weird stories around Spike’?”

Twilight shook a hoof. “Oh come on! Foaling is one of the most beautiful things in the world!”

Moondancer found herself groaning in disgust right alongside him.

The little dragon stared at the stonebud for a moment. “Ponies come from eggs now,” he stated, before popping it into his mouth. He immediately realised the kind of image he’d just created, sending a look of alarm in Moondancer’s direction. “Urhm… I didn’m meam dat.”

“It’s ok,” Moondancer replied with half a smile.

Twilight still had a look of glee on her face. She clopped her hooves together. “Look at you both! It’ll be so great when you’re finally friends!”

A trio of menus floated their way onto the table. The waitress gave them a smile and a nod, and waited patiently for them to make their choices.

Twilight opened hers. Her eyes reappeared over the top of it. “Oh! Moondancer, what if we did something before you go?”

“What do you mean?”

“Something for you and Spike to do together for a change. Maybe we could… y’know, help you push past it before you have to say goodbye?”

“I-it’s fine, really,” Moondancer replied, hiding herself behind her menu. Staying any longer than absolutely necessary wasn’t on the cards. There were plenty of interesting choices one would expect from a restaurant; steamed vegetables covered in a fruity sauce, a thick, nutty stew with chunks of softened carrot, cucumber flavoured ice cream… “What’s wormroot pie?” she asked.

“That’s one of our mountain farm specialities,” said the waitress, eagerly. She looked like she’d had a few herself. “It has a very veggy kind of taste thanks to the turnips and beets, with an added flair of apple-pepper from the Palette Plains.”

“I see.” Her stomach growled, audibly. It sounded like a decently hearty meal. “Hm, fine. I’ll go with that, can’t be worse than a ready meal.”

Twilight looked mildly surprised by the choice, but then she wasn’t the one dying of starvation. The other unicorn flipped to another page in her menu, lit her horn, and engraved their choices onto a thin surface of magical energy upon the tabletop to show the waitress. Then she leaned over to spy on Spike, as if making sure he was doing his homework. “What’re you thinking, Spikey?”

Spike scratched his chin. “Hmmmm…” He looked to her for approval again, a lopsided smile on his face. “Since I had that chicken pie earlier, do you think I could have the… cheesy beef soufflé this time?”

No. The previous conversations all faded from Moondancer’s mind, replaced by the underlying fears she’d well and truly managed to keep under lock and key for once in her life.

He’s just a kid, remember? said the pegasus on her shoulder. He’s definitely not going to tear you to shreds, said the changeling on the other. He was going to eat beef and he was going to enjoy it. He was going to grow too large for gems and snacks to sustain him. Not yet, said the pegasus, but soon, the changeling added. He’ll get a taste for meat and then he’ll come for you for hating him for his entire life, and Twilight will keep making excuses even as he turns you into-

Moondancer adjusted her glasses. Like a blood vessel bursting in her eye, images of herself as one of those red piles filled her vision in immaculate detail. She could even see the parts Celestia had been kind enough to cook beforehoof. She shifted them again. Maybe they weren’t on right. Maybe she’d used up too much magic today to sustain the enchantment and the bad thoughts were going to break through, and Spike was going to see her at her weakest. She didn’t want anyone to see her like that. She was stronger than this and he was just a stupid kid who had accidentally doused them both in flame back when he couldn’t control his third lung. She didn’t even need these anymore.

“I… don’t think you’re ready for beef just yet. I’ll get you the molten loaf if you want?” Twilight suggested.

Spike threw his hands up in the air. “Yay!” They came back down and his gaze met her’s, and he froze.

“Moondancer? What’s wrong?” her best friend asked with a frown.

Moondancer’s eyes went even wider for a moment. “Huh? What?” She looked away and shifted her glasses once more. No good. “S-sorry, I just have to… go to the… somewhere. Somewhere else.” She got down off the chair but messed up the landing, one forehoof slipping from under her. Not quite enough to let her fall, but more than enough to look suspicious. “I’ll be right back. I feel sick.”

With her companions and the waitress all staring at her with worried eyes, Moondancer left her seat and made for the toilets. The carpet switched to grooved tiles and the artistic, subdued style of the main room vanished in an instant, replaced by stark white and grey walls, the colour draining from her vision as the blood drained from her face.

The Moondancer in the mirror looked like she’d been fished out of a lake; her hair was an oily mess trying to escape her bobble and her woolen jumper - which she seriously regretted wearing on a day like this - looked frayed and in need of a wash. Her whole body looked like it was in need of a wash. Taking the spectacles in one hoof she gently placed them to one side of the basin and doused her face in cold water. She could feel the same sensation she got whenever she laid down in bed starting to creep over her, when the ceiling began to breathe and the walls began to bleed.

She looked to her glasses as if expecting them to explain themselves. They had been a gift from Celestia herself. Moondancer had been making promising progress in catching up to the other students, but after Spike’s accident she receded into her own tiny, dark world under her bedsheets. She didn’t speak beyond a gibbering, reassuring chant she’d long since forgotten, and she held the covers around her tightly enough to affect her breathing, worsening the sensation of danger.

Not even the princess was capable of breaking her out of it. She’d almost resorted to sending a letter to her parents, but that was when she’d found the glasses. Apparently they once belonged to the former captain of the palace’s Medical Bay, used as a way to block out the horrors they had experienced in their time on the field. She recalled the sense of terror as the sheets lifted away, soon followed by a soothing blur flowing across her vision, blotting out the horrible images and letting her see what was right in front of her again.

Unlike Twilight, the spectacles were the only gift Moondancer had received from Celestia, but they had been more than enough. Her studies sped up, her friendships improved, and she was even able to look at Spike without feeling the urge to cry or puke out of fear. She rubbed her brow and put them back on, feeling that familiar wave of soothing calm flow through her thoughts, hiding away all the nasty things that snapped at her heels.

Mere moments passed before they returned. She adjusted them, making sure the handles were resting comfortably behind her ears and the bridge was sitting just right over her snout. No change.

“Shit.”

Had she simply run out of magic for the day? She released a stressed breath. The last time this had happened the princess had been there to give her a boost, but Twilight didn’t even know about the enchantment, let alone the event that had warranted its use. As much as she cried and suffered, Moondancer had never wanted anyone to see her as someone who needed help. Her lack of magical versatility was already enough to prompt random students to come up to her and attempt to “help her” with the absolute basics.

She couldn’t let Twilight see her like this. Not a chance.

Right on cue, a purple face appeared on the far side of the mirror and Moondancer flipped round to see her friend entering the room. Twilight looked hesitant but gave a hopeful smile when she saw her.

“Is everything ok?” she asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I was just feeling a bit… awful from not eating anything.”

Twilight trotted closer regardless. She glanced at the tattered mare reflected in the mirror. “Are you sure? You looked like you’d seen a ghost. You’re not in pain or anything, right?”

Yes, now leave me alone. “No, I’m fine, Twilight. I’ll be with you in a minute.”

Twilight didn’t seem to know what to say, so, after some hesitation, she simply turned around and left. That was when Moondancer saw the other face peeking through the door.

He can smell your fear, said the changeling, jabbing its spear against her neck.

She brushed at her shoulder. A freaking gopher could smell my fear, Moondancer’s more measured mind responded. The images had faded slightly while Twilight was here, but now they were back in full force, and Moondancer found herself frozen to the porcelain surface, gaze fixed on her own eyes behind the lenses with a fire throbbing between her shoulder blades.

“You’re not ok, are you?” came a little voice from the doorway.

Slowly, she looked back to the little face in the mirror, then to the real one. Spike somehow looked even more worried than Twilight, his deep brow line making a meal out of the expression. He stood half-hidden by the doorframe, the only thing stopping him from coming in being the female symbol beside the entrance.

The giant, crimson face of her nightmares took on a lavender sheen and she shook her head, removing her glasses to rub her eyes again. “Why are you here?” she asked.

Spike stayed quiet for a moment. “Because I was worried,” he answered simply. “You looked really scared back there.”

“No I didn’t,” she replied with grit in her tone. “It doesn’t matter. Leave me alone.”

Spike glanced behind him before setting one foot beyond the threshold. “But it does,” he half-whispered. “All I did was mention the word ‘beef’ and now you’re in here!”

Moondancer turned on him, fury filling her face. “Oh for Sleipnir’s sake, don’t!”

“I’m not eating it!” Spike continued, taking another step. “I’m getting something else that isn’t even meat! You don’t have to be afraid!”

Moondancer didn’t respond. She felt more vulnerable now than she had all year, and it had absolutely nothing to do with Spike’s encroaching proximity. Her ever-present weakness stared her in the face in the form of a pair of lenses, reflecting the pallid light of the restroom. It wasn’t as if she could have done anything when she was just a filly, or even when she was bullied by mere ponies. If only he was lying right now, then he’d just be the snivelling little reptile she’d always convinced herself he was.

But insults wouldn’t get her anywhere at this point. As much as she hated to admit it, she could feel a layer of the darkness clouding her subconscious slowly starting to peel away. She would be out of Canterlot soon. This was likely to be the last chance she would get to speak with Spike without Twilight there to hear it. There were bigger hills to die on, after all.

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re a weird kid, Spike?”

“Er… sure?”

“‘Cus you’re with somepony who hates your guts, and yet you’re still standing there. You’re not worried I might try to flush you down the toilet or something?”

He snirked. “Twilight would do the same thing to you.”

“Of course she would, which means you can do whatever you want with her around.”

Spike raised an eyescale. “Uhh… is that really how you see it?”

“Am I wrong? Twilight’s practically the most powerful unicorn in Canterlot. Literally no one can hurt you so long as she’s with you.”

“I mean… have you met her? She doesn’t let me do anything by myself. She doesn’t even trust me to collect groceries on my own yet.” He gave an awkward smile. “Mostly because I can’t help myself when it comes to snacks.”

“Just one more virgin sacrifice and then I’ll be out of your manes,” spoke the older, fatter Spike in Moondancer’s head. “Uh-huh. So she doesn’t trust you to keep her safe. It’s only the other way around?”

“Uh, I guess? I’d never… flame someone on purpose.”

Moondancer realised how cold her forehooves felt against the porcelain and she brought them back to the ground. “You haven’t done that since, at least.”

“That was an accident.”

“I know. Don’t remind me.”

“Sorry.” He fumbled with his hands for a moment. “I just wanna… make things ok, y’know? I don’t want you to be afraid of me forever, especially not if you end up leaving for real.”

He thinks the same way? Moondancer thought. The imaginary pegasus on her shoulder, now looking lonely, raised its hoof and brushed its lance against her, That makes everything easier, doesn’t it? You don’t want to hate him anyway.

She brushed her other shoulder with an annoyed frown. “Let me ask you something: Do you ever wonder what’ll happen in a hundred years when Twilight isn’t there to help you?”

The question took him off guard, but he mulled over it. “I don’t like thinking about that,” he replied. “I sometimes wonder what I’d do if I was bigger, at least. I mean… it would probably be fun, but I mostly just think about how I’d get around if I couldn’t fit through doors and stuff.

“Is that it?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, how would you feed yourself at that size? There aren’t enough gems in Equestria to feed every dragon.”

“I know… I don’t really know what I’d do about that.” He paused for a few seconds, glancing at her with the same look of approval-seeking he gave Twilight. “I’ve never liked the thought of eating meat, but… it’s good. I don’t wanna think about where it came from or, like… how it was made.” He held his ear-fins. “Maybe I’m not really a dragon in the first place, like you said. Maybe I can just eat fish.”

Moondancer felt her eyebrows rising. “You’ve thought about all of this, then?”

He nodded.

She considered that for a while. “Good.” He sounded mature for his age, the way he handled these concepts. She considered telling him what Celestia had done to his much-loved sister, but there was no way he’d keep the fact that he knew from Twilight, and then she’d be after her no matter how far away she travelled. Moondancer removed the glasses once more. The sensation of hot breath flowing over her returned slower than usual, and the image of a bleeding window was rendered still and old rather than a feast in progress.

“You have to promise not to tell Twilight any of this,” she began, looking him in the eyes. “If you break it, then I’ll break you.”

“Whoa, geez, ok. I was gonna make a dragon promise but I guess I’ll stick with ‘don’t hurt me’.”

From out of nowhere, Moondancer felt a bubble of laughter erupt out of her throat. She quickly shut her mouth but she could feel the edges curling at the mere thought. Why was this so easy? Why was he so open and friendly about all this? She had shown how much she hated him by virtue of his very nature, and yet none of it seemed to phase him.

The imaginary voice of fear landed back on her shoulder, trying desperately to come up with something that would make her hesitate and doubt that this was the right way to go.

She brushed the bugger off again and let out a long breath. “For as long as I can remember I’ve wanted to be strong, but I took ages to learn the basics. I wanted to become like Starswirl the Bearded just to prove to the universe that there wasn’t anything wrong with me, and then like Garland the Green when I realised I could make plants grow a little…” She sank into her thoughts for a minute. “Then, one day, the Great Dragon Migration passed over our farm, and… all my stupid illusions were thrown out of the window. I needed professional help after that, and a little while later I was accepted into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns on a fucking ‘special needs’ pass. My parents thought that would fix my magic and that being away from the farm would help to deal with the trauma, but you know how that turned out.”

This was a lot all at once, but Spike listened patiently to every word she said. “That’s… actually awful,” he replied. “Do you really think being at the school didn’t help? Not even a little?”

She shrugged. She had gotten stronger and her soon-to-be-sold book collection had benefited in a big way, but compared to most of the other students… “It did, I guess. Being away from home was definitely a good thing, but there were a lot of times when I wanted to see my parents and couldn’t. That’s part of why Twilight was such a beacon of goodwill amongst all the stupid teachers. She always had time to teach me what they couldn’t.” She glanced away from him. It felt as if she was admitting all this to Twilight herself. “She had everything I didn’t; happiness, skill, wealth, the approval of the princess. She even had the very thing that had ruined my life and treated it like a pet.”

“Brother,” Spike cut in.

“Not the point. Twilight was pretty much the solution to all my problems, but then, last week happened, and since then she’s…” She pursed her lips and stopped herself there. “No weird stories around Spike,” Twilight had reminded her. She would have to sugarcoat this more than a Snowdough Factory donut. Spike was already tilting his head in curiosity. He’d probably heard a thing or two about what happened, but given that he was fully on his sister’s side about staying in Canterlot, it seemed clear Twilight had kept the truth from him. The morning after, Twilight had almost convinced her it had been nothing but a dream, but everyone else in their class begged to differ.

The images of her home surrounded by carnage slowly gave way to a classroom occupied only by black marks spread evenly across the floor, as if only their shadows had arrived in attendance. No, she thought. This is enough for now. Even if the Moondancer that had entered that room hadn’t been able to make things right with Spike, whatever amalgamation of magic and artificial thought she was now would.

“Whatever. I’m sorry,” she said. The words came out far too easily, as if in insult to everything she had ever done to him. This was as easy as it could have been, had she not been such a messed up bundle of insecurities. “I’m sorry for… treating you like the other one for all this time. I thought all dragons were the same; just monsters with different levels of intelligence.”

Spike took another few steps closer, a small, hopeful smile on his face. He held out a hand again and Moondancer, hesitantly, put her hoof within grasping distance. The sensation of his tiny claws against her skin felt alarming for a moment, but it soon became clear that his grip was weak and the ends were blunt.

His hand felt warm compared to the chilly room around them. What a fool she’d been.

Comments

[Comickook]

Again, really good job on the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up in all the right places. Yeah, I DID enjoy that chat over lunch between Twilight, Spike and Moondancer. And, yeah, sounds like Moonie has at least ONE thing in common with Twilight's new friend Fluttershy (even though she's known Spike long enough to know he wouldn't do anything even one quarter as bad as she seems to think he would, it makes sense that a vegetarian would get skiddish about a species that eats A LOT of meat and can grow to sizes MUCH bigger than they are). And, yeah, Twilight acknowledges things HAVE gotten pretty bad, but still refuses to give up hope on things eventually changing for the better. Plus, the stuff about Moondancer's family was some good added detail of her life AND Twilight, at least, understands why Moondancer feels she needs to get out of Canterlot (but HAS offered to buy at least some of her books so they won't be going to somebody who would let them go to waste).

At any rate, very definitely looking forward to more of this.