A Moon and World Apart

by Evilhumour

Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

Despite Love Hearts claiming she needed to get back to work, she had reassured him a number of times that she wouldn't get in trouble if she was a bit late and that she wanted to know more of him.

So Shining told her the truth, or as much as he could.

"Really, you're the second in command of your village's defences?" she asked, licking her ice cream with Shining nodding his head. They had stopped at an ice cream parlor before heading back to her workplace and Shining had insisted on paying for them, citing the fact that she had already spent a lot of bits on the models. "That's really impressive Shining."

"Yeah, but Onyx is really much better than me," Shining said with a blush. "I'm really just good at shields and protective bubbles." He took a moment to take a nibble of his ice cream before looking at the mare. "I'm honestly surprised you're believing all of this."

"I like to think of myself as a good judge of character; I have a knack for seeing what's in ponies' hearts," she said with a giggle. Shining was unable to help but chuckle back, smiling at her.

"I think Twilight would like you," he said.

"Another friend?" Love Hearts asked, arching an eyebrow.

"My little sister," Shining Armor replied. When Love Hearts gave an understanding smile, he continued. "She spends most of her time reading or working on her own projects, and she isn't perfect when it comes to relating to people outside our family, but she's got a good heart, and she does make the effort."

"What kind of books does she read?" Love Hearts asked, tilting her head at him.

"Mostly nonfiction," Shining told her. "She loves to research." He gave an amused smile. "And the whole reason she started really practicing her telekinesis was so she'd be able to read and walk at the same time."

Love Hearts giggled. "I'd like to have seen that," she said.

They chatted amicably as they continued along, until finally, Love Hearts slowed her pace. "Shining Armor, it's been wonderful getting to meet and know you," she said. Then she frowned as they turned the corner with a castle looming in front of them and she gave him a guilty look. "Though I have to admit, I wasn't exactly being honest with you."

That's when Shining noticed a pair of guards approaching, and tilted his head before Love Hearts shook her own head at them. "He is with me," she said with Shining about to ask her what was going before she began to glow, a horn revealing itself on her forehead as she disabled what must have been an invisibility spell on it.

"By the stars and moon," Shining breathed as he stared at her in awe. "You're an alicorn? I didn't know there was more than one here."

Love Hearts turned on him, glaring intently at him before her eyes widened. "You're not just a moon celebrating pony, are you?" she asked with Shining cursing his slip of his tongue.

"I suppose I wasn't exactly honest with you either," he said, preparing to teleport away and send a flare into the sky that Vinyl would hopefully see and recognize as a signal to retreat to the fallback point. "The truth is, I'm from the moon. Will it be a problem?"

"No, no," Love Hearts said, shaking her head as she continued into the castle, Shining following suit. "In fact, it might be good for us all."

Shining Armor looked at her questioningly, but decided it could wait. "So these miniatures," he asked instead, keeping in pace with her in the corridors. "What are they for?"

"My team uses them to keep track of the avengers," she said, looking at his confused face and sighed. "Right, you might not have heard of them, considering how distant and isolated your village is." She tilted her head at the guards around a door, who opened it to let them into what appeared to be a soldier's operation room with how the ponies seemed to be gathered around tables and non-holographic boards, with different maps and lists of information that he did his best to memorize for later. She continued past them, leading Shining to what appeared to be a bedroom of all things, shutting the door behind them. "The avengers call themselves this due to what happened after the Longest Night."

"Or the Night of Departure," Shining offered with the mare tilting her head before realization dawned on her.

"I see," she said before blinking and shaking her head. "As I was saying." Before she could continue though, Shining Armor raised a hoof.

"Wait, before we go on, what is your real name?" he asked her as he'd begun to doubt Love Hearts was her real name after she exposed her true status to him.

Love looked at him briefly, before closing her eyes and sighing. "Formally, it's Mi Amore Cadenza," she said. "But among friends, I go by Cadance. I take it your name isn't a lie?"

"No, I really am Shining Armor," he replied. "We didn't think we'd need aliases for this."

Cadance smiled briefly at that before going back to business.

"These 'avengers' claim they're out to 'right the wrongs done to Equestria by the night-lovers'," she said, looking rather disgruntled at that for a moment, and Shining Armor couldn't blame her.

"After our two nations split apart, Princess Celestia went ahead with the trials for the ponies who'd left with her sister," she said. "Due to the absence of your ancestors to defend themselves, the courts found the day-ponies innocent of the accusations that they'd started the conflict, meaning they weren't to be held responsible for all that occurred."

Shining Armor snorted in disgust, and Cadance gave him a look of agreement before she continued.

"This wasn't good enough for some of them, however. They wanted to achieve what they felt was proper 'justice' for those that died in the conflict, so they started a crusade, which is still ongoing, against any and all ponies who preferred the night, calling themselves the 'avengers of the bloody night'. Not only do they perpetuate all the negative myths about your nation and your people, these avengers also attack any ponies that they know to have moon or night based interests or any that they deemed to be a night or moon based pony."

Shining Armor grimaced, and Cadance continued. "Ever since I found out about them and what they do, I've been working to counter this as best as I could. I gathered a team of like-minded ponies, and I feel we've made incredible progress so far in curtailing their influences, powers and damage."

Shining took a moment to process all this before slowly tipping his head. "And these miniatures?" he asked, looking at her.

She blushed, looking off to the side. "Well, we do need representation of them and we kinda broke the last ones," she said with a giggle. "I wasn't lying about us needing new ones."

"Well," Shining said as he opened the door back into the conference room. "I guess I should start painting to help you guys out."

Cadance looked grateful. "You mean it?" she asked.

"I do," Shining nodded his head. "The main reason I'm here is to see what the ponies of Equestria are like as people; their attitudes and the like, seeing how they've changed in the past thousand years. Kind of a... hippologist from space."

"You and your friend?"

"As well as others," Shining Armor said. "I will not reveal exactly where they are; I do hope you understand why."

Cadance nodded. "For their own protection," she said. "I don't blame you."

Then she closed the door again for a moment. "One more question, while we're in here," she said quietly. "Is... is Aunt Luna all right?"

Shining Armor's eyes widened. "You're..."

"Celestia adopted me as her niece after I ascended," Cadance said. "And ever since I found out I had another aunt, I've been wanting to meet her, to let her know she has more family now." She looked at him more hopefully. "How is she doing?"

Shining Armor smiled. "I can't speak for her directly, but I think she'd be happy to know about you, and about your work," he said.

Cadance looked very happy at that. "I truly do wish I can meet with her, Shining," she said, walking up to him. "Preferably before she meets with her sister again, though I doubt it will happen that way." Shining gave a raised eyebrow before she shook her head. "You and your sister surely had your spats before you came to your senses, right?" Shining nodded his head with Cadance sighing as she walked over to a dresser with a mirror atop of it. "Well I have my worries that their first meeting will bring up those old grudges and grievances between them and I don't know if they will be able to let them go for the best of our nations. I hope that I could meet with Auntie Luna, Princess Luna, so I could try and make a connection with her and be an anchor of stability for her here."

"I hope so too," Shining told her. "We all know about our history in regards to Equestria and Luna does talk about it from time to time, especially when we're honouring the founders, but she very rarely mentions her sister and almost never by name."

"Aunt Celestia is the same," Cadance said with a sigh. "I only found out about my other aunt by accident. I don't know if she would have told me otherwise."

Just then, there was a knock on the door, and Cadance opened it slightly to reveal a concerned-looking face of a guard in the same simple looking armour, though Shining suspected it had its own protection spells built in. "Cadance? You okay in there?"

"Just fine," Cadance told the other pony. "I was explaining what we do here to my new friend."

"Gotcha." The other pony nodded. "Oh, and we're investigating something. Seems Prince Blueblood was spotted in the vicinity of a suspected avenger, and we're checking it out. Could be coincidence or it could be a connection."

"Be careful then," Cadance told him. "You know how Blueblood gets."

Then she saw Shining Armor's surprised look, and gestured for him to speak.

"Did they say, prince?" he asked. "As in, another alicorn?"

Cadance shook her head. "No, the only alicorns we know of are my aunts and I. The title's purely hereditary in Blueblood's case, he's descended from Princess Platinum of the old kingdom of Unicornia."

Shining Armor nodded. "Right."

"Trust me, Blueblood is the last pony we'd want to see ascending," Cadance told him. "I don't like to speak so harshly of somepony, but... he is a jerk, plain and simple, if not possibly worse."

Shining Armor nodded again. "I see. Somepony to avoid then."

"I only wish I could," Cadance said. "He leads the noble court in the senate for now. That gives him far more political power than I'm comfortable with him having, and Sunset feels the same way."

At Shining Armor's curious look, she elaborated. "Sunset Shimmer is Aunt Celestia's personal student. I used to foalsit her when she was little." She looked down for a moment, as if she were considering something, then continued. "She had... some issues for a while, but she got much better after a particularly rough patch, and now we're good friends."

"That's good to hear," Shining said, nodding his head. "Is there anypony else I should know about?"

"Probably," Cadance said. "I'll tell you more while we work."

Shining Armor nodded, and the two exited the room, heading to one of the tables where the new figurines lay waiting for them.

---

Once she'd seen Shining Armor was in good hooves, Vinyl had taken off to wander around the city herself, browsing a few places and generally doing her best to blend in while listening to the ponies around her.

While some of the ponies she encountered were jerks, and there did seem to be some prejudice against those deemed moon/night ponies - which in itself was a loose grab bag for intellectuals and social outcasts, the real mood she was getting is that most didn't actually care about the Lunar Republic. Or the possibility of what happened to the founders when they left Equestria, if she was being precise.

Which made sense, Vinyl thought to herself. For Equestrians, Director Luna had left with her ponies a thousand years ago and ponies nowadays had more important things to worry about. Sure, they had kept some history of the Night of Departure and they hadn't forgotten about them. But for most, it just wasn't worth thinking about.

Though some of the ones who were being jerks about it, she knew they'd have to keep an eye out for the worse examples.

Right now though, she was indulging in one of her own interests while still listening to the ponies around her: music. She'd found a store that sold musical supplies, including some interesting-looking records, and was browsing the shelves when she heard it.

She wasn't one for the normal, classical music in the Republic but this... this sounded good, and she couldn't help but bob her head to the beat, such as it were.

After a few minutes of the music, it stopped, and then she heard an elegant, refined-sounding voice saying, "Excellent work as always, sir. That was invigorating."

"No problem, miss Melody," a voice she recognized as one of the store's employees, whom she'd heard speaking around the time she came in. "Always glad to be of service."

The other pony must have smiled, because she sounded happy when she spoke again. "And a wonderful service it is, good sir," she said. "Your skills at instrument repair and tuning are invaluable to me." There was another sound, like somepony opening a case and putting an instrument into it, and then a clinking noise that must have been the instrument's owner hoofing over a bag of bits.

Another few moments of conversation, and then a gray Earth pony mare with a raven-black mane and wearing a pink bowtie came in Vinyl's direction, carrying a large cello case on her back. Vinyl hesitated for a moment, then stepped towards her. "Hey."

The mare gave her a look. "Er, hello."

"What I heard a bit ago," Vinyl started. "That was you trying out your instrument, seeing how it played after it got fixed, right?"

"Well, yes," the gray mare said.

Vinyl nodded. "That was fantastic playing," she said. "I don't think I've ever heard classical that sounded that good to me in my life."

The gray mare smiled. "Well, thank you, miss..."

"Vinyl Scratch," Vinyl said, sticking out a hoof, which the other mare accepted and shook.

"Octavia Melody," she replied. "Pleased to meet you."

"Pleased to meet you too," Vinyl said.

Octavia looked at her more closely. "I don't think I've seen you around before," she said.

"Just got into town today," Vinyl replied. "I'm normally a small-town girl, but I felt like checking out the big city for a while. See what the whole scene here was like." She waved a hoof. "And, of course, the music scene. I like the big beats."

Octavia nodded. "I am a classically-trained musician myself, but there is a certain elegance to some of the other genres," she said. "Especially the more rustic ones. I typically perform in Canterlot, but my true home has its own musical stylings, and they are quite good, if I do say so."

Vinyl nodded approvingly. "What kinds do you get out there, and around here?" she asked.

"Well..." Octavia blushed. "One of my extended kin specializes in a rhythmic country style that is quite popular in the area."

"Ah." Vinyl nodded again. "That must be neat. Most ponies tend to forget that those songs are usually where all of the original songs began from, with how they tie into the basic instructions for our ancestral parents telling their kids what to do and not to do in a way they can understand and remember."

Octavia looked at her in surprise, and was clearly pleased. "Will wonders never cease," she said. "Somepony who actually remembers and appreciates where country style comes from. Most up here would just dismiss it as old-fashioned, folksy stuff."

"Hey, a big part of learning music is all the possible styles and genres you can play in," Vinyl said. "Ponies who don't realize that are missing out on the whole point. Most dismiss me as a DJ because I just mix music but it's more a retelling of the stories in a unique, new and different way."

Octavia smiled. "Quite."

Then, with a gesture, she beckoned Vinyl onward. "Would you care to accompany me while I take my cello home, and then continue this discussion over dinner?"

Vinyl grinned, widening her eyes behind her shades. "I'd love to. Lead the way, Octavia."

Octavia nodded, and the two headed out, Vinyl with one thing on her mind.

I've a feeling this is the start of a beautiful new friendship, she thought gleefully.

Comments

[New Rebellion]

Okay, I'll say it: I'm surprised at how easily Cadence and Shining Armor got along after they revealed their respective secrets. Vinyl making fast friends with Octavia makes sense and it was amusing to see that connection form so smoothly.

[PK-Pony 2002]

Let the shipping begin!

[Comickook]

Absolutely loved the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up here. Absolutely loved how well Shining and Love Hearts/Cadance got along, even and especially after they trusted each other with their own biggest secrets. And the bits of history of the "avengers" (DEFINITELY NOT to be confused with much more famous [and FAR more genuinely heroic] groups of the same name just to get THAT admittedly predictable and almost-obligatory joke out of the way) was well placed. And Cadance's stuff about wanting to play mediator between Celestia and Luna is definitely admirable. Also enjoyed Vinyl's first meeting with Octavia (in THIS universe).

VERY certainly looking forward to more of this.

[Dorath]

"Well..." Octavia blushed. "One of my extended kin specializes in a rhythmic country style that is quite popular in the area."

Octavia is an Apple?

[AnoneMouseJr]

10790351
Not by blood, but in this setting at least, she has a maternal first cousin who is. "Fiddly Twang" (so named by her mini-figure toy; her trading card calls her "Fiddly Faddle", and she's fan-named Fiddlesticks), who appeared in canon as the fiddle player in a four-part bluegrass band that was present for Ponyville's Nightmare Night festival, and attended the Apple family reunion in season 3.

Her picture is here: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/4/40/Fiddly_Twang_ID_S3E8.png

Until next time...
Anon e Mouse Jr.

[rikithemonk]

You know, this is a very interesting concept. I like how its being done and how things are being handled, however my one complaint is how trusting and open Shining Armor is. He is too free with information and too casual to walk into the lions den of foreign soldiers. He is second in command of the armed forces of his country with all the tactical information that it entails. Rather than the thought process of, if I get into trouble, the moon is screwed, he is acting like he is no more important than a janitor.

While it isn't un-repairable moving forward, I think him acting a little smarter and a bit more cautious would be a bit more realistic.

All in all, my only real complaint.

The Monk
“What else to do? How did people survive boredom in olden times? ... Oh yeah, lots of stabbing." -RushyFiction

[Asolem2]

Love Hearts giggled. "I'd like to have seen that," she said.

It was no doubt adorable

Cadance looked very happy at that. "I truly do wish I can meet with her, Shining," she said, walking up to him. "Preferably before she meets with her sister again, though I doubt it will happen that way."

Probably not no

I've a feeling this is the start of a beautiful new friendship, she thought gleefully.

Most likely yes

[Evilhumour]

10790996

I'd like to think he is hedging his bets at the moment; right now he has access to sensitive information to a section of Equestria's operations while endearing himself to one of their top political figures which is part of his mission; collecting the general opinion and mindset of Equestrians. That in addition he also mentioned he has the means to teleport away and a fall back plan if stuff does go south.

"I suppose I wasn't exactly honest with you either," he said, preparing to teleport away and send a flare into the sky that Vinyl would hopefully see and recognize as a signal to retreat to the fallback point. "The truth is, I'm from the moon. Will it be a problem?"

So while he could take more precautions, the position he has fallen into was incredibly lucky and he only gave himself away due to a single slip of the tongue and undoubtedly saw that if he tried to lie or backtrack it would not only damage his current standing - as Cadance is a princess of Equestria and if she thought he was being dishonest with her, she would have been less friendly with him, it would also be out of character for him to be a truly conniving individual. I do have some ideas in addressing this little bit in a future chapter but thank you for your concerns and your kind words so far.

[bronyclone1497]

So much for secrets.

[Velvet-Fresh]

10790351
In SamRose's Silent Ponyville. She's 'Marble' before "Marble" was given her official name. She was called Iinkie back in early season 2 ish. And in SP "inkie" became Octavia