Duskrunner Chronicles

by Gigglebrony

Ch2 Starting the investigation

Pagette almost skipped down the road as she headed for home. The new book in her bag was heavy but she didn’t notice the extra weight. She was excited to have a change to take a look at such an ancient mystery. She had always enjoyed mystery stories and loved to challenge herself by trying to solve mysteries she found around ponyville. Mostly these ended with her having wasted hours of her time when she could have just asked an adult. But she didn’t solve mysteries to get the answers, but because she loved the thrill of discovery.

Now she had the chance to try solving a mystery that was a thousand years old! She was so excited that she wanted to run home and start reading her book right away. But her mother would want her help in the crafts shop.

Page’s mother ran a crafts shop that sold everything a pony could need for any sort of artistic endeavor. The shop was full of scissors, paper, paints, thread, and everything else artistic. Many times in her life Page had been warned never to run in the shop or touch any of the sharp objects. Page rolled her eye. Like she hadn’t figured that out the first time she cut herself trying to make a birthday card for her friends. But she understood that her mother was protective of her; especially since her father had died before Page was born.

Still, it wasn’t all bad having a mother like hers. At least she never had to worry about running out of materials for her mysteries. With all the paper and pens they had, she could was never short of scratch paper for her notebook. Plus, her mom was a great cook, and made delicious food every night.

As she entered the shop, Page almost ran into Rarity on her way out. The white mare was obviously on her way home after buying thread and cloth for her dresses.

“Oops, watch out, Darling. Wouldn’t want to ruin all my new materials. Ta, Pagette.”

Page giggled. Rarity always sounded so funny when she talked. Page walked through the shop and into the back room that served as both the kitchen and her mother’s work office. Her mother was busy at her desk filling out order forms for more of everything Rarity had just bought. She turned around when she heard Page come in.

“Oh, hello Page. I heard Twilight Sparkle was a guest at your class today. Was it interesting?” Page’s mother, Ribbon, was a unicorn like her, but bright orange in color with a red mane and tail.

“It was great!” Page walked over to a peg on the wall and levitated her bag onto it, pulling the book out. “She told us about a really old pony that used to help the princesses raise the sun and moon.”

“Oh? I never heard of anypony like that. What was her name?”

“His name was Duskrunner. He was created by the princesses to run across Equestria to wake up Princess Luna every night. She used to sleep through her turn to raise the moon.”

They shared a chuckle at that, Ribbon turning back to her work. “So how come I’ve never heard of this magical pony?”

“Twilight says that he disappeared after Nightmare Moon was trapped. Nopony has been able to find him since. But he should still be around because he was made immortal like the princesses.”

“Sounds like you have a really big mystery to solve. Are you gonna try to find this Duskrunner?” Ribbon knew her daughter loved mysteries, and was sure that someday it would lead to her cutie mark. Page was always looking for mysteries to solve, and this one would probably keep her busy for weeks. Ribbon could only hope it didn’t affect her daughter’s school work.

=+=+=+=

Page almost ran into her room, setting the book down on her desk and opening it to the page that Twilight had left off on. It showed the picture of Duskrunner running across Equestria, blurring the sun and moonlight together. There were no words on the page, so she turned it and was delighted to see that the book was written clearly and had little pictures on every page, with several large ones taking up whole pages. It was exactly the kind of book that she loved, lots of details and little picture references. She would have lots of clues to help her with her newest mystery.

She started to read, and was amazed at exactly how detailed the book was. It was almost like the person who had written it had been doing so as it was happening. She was able to picture the scene with ease.

=+=+=+=

Duskrunner walked into Princess Luna’s chamber, yawning after waking from his rest. The princess was lying on her bed looking up at the stars. She turned to look at him as he came in. “Duskrunner. We are happy to see you again. Was thy rest peaceful?”

Duskrunner walked to the bed and lay next to her. “As ever, Princess, I am always at my most restful when in thy tower.”

Luna smiled, moving closer to Duskrunner and laying her head on his shoulder. It always comforted her to feel him next to her. Though he had been created by the combined effort of her and her sister, Duskrunner appeared much older than she did. He was nearly a head taller than her, and his horn was nearly twice the size of her own. He was smaller than her sister, but not by much. It had been Celestia’s idea to make him seem like an older brother to Luna, and she was grateful for the foresight of her sister.

Duskrunner nuzzled her, placing an arm around her shoulders and hugging her to him. “Princess, is something bothering thee?”

Luna sighed and snuggled closer to him. “Yea, Duskrunner. We… feel as though our populace dost not like us. They dost not revel in our night, but rest throughout. Dost they not enjoy our work?”

“Princess,” Duskrunner brushed his hoof down her mane to comfort her. “They do indeed enjoy thy work. But just as I need to rest after my strenuous exertions, so must they rest after their long day of toil. They simply to not have the energy to revel in the night thou hast made.”

“We know this, Duskrunner. But we are still lonely. Thou art the only company we enjoy during our night. And thou still require hours of rest, whence we must endure alone.”

“I am sorry for that, Princess. But I can nay more help my physical need for rest than thou can. But thou can be sure that I know of thy loneliness. I feel it every morning, while I must be away from thee.”

=+=+=+=

Page couldn’t help but let out a tiny “Awww” at the lovely scene described by the book. There was even a delicate little picture of Duskrunner and Luna together on the bed. It was so tiny that she needed to use her magnifying glass to see it properly, but was so detailed that it she could see the individual hairs on their manes.

But it had yet to give any clues as to where Duskrunner had gone. But it was now obvious why he had gone into isolation. He had obviously been deeply in love with the princess. After she had been imprisoned in the moon, he must have been very upset and angry at Celestia. No wonder he had left and hidden for a thousand years.

Still, she wasn’t looking for why he had disappeared. She was looking for where he had disappeared to. She was severely tempted to skip ahead and read about when he had left, but she knew that overlooking even a single detail could compromise her entire investigation. She needed to read the book thoroughly and take notes.

She got out her notebook and opened it to a clean page. At the top she wrote ‘Duskrunner Notes’. She put a bullet mark on it and wrote next to it ‘Was in love with Princess Luna’. She put another bullet mark down and then turned back to the book. She was going to have a lot of reading to do tonight.