Chapters A strange customer (Prologue)
Moonshine was famous for his ability to unravel ancient mysteries and tales; he even managed to build a small business upon it. When he started with this business, he wasn’t sure if it would be successful, but he didn’t have to worry about it. Although most people hired him for finding their lost or misplaced stuff and it didn’t pay much per customer, there were plenty of them around. Why looking for yourself if you could hire a professional?
But it changed one day, as a customer entered his office. The customers face was covered up by the dark hood of a cloak, but it was clearly a female voice coming from underneath it.
“So … you’re the famous Moonshine, the unicorn who finds everything for the people around here?” She asked him with a strange accent he never heard before.
“Yes, you found him. How can I help you?” He asked politely.
His visitor looked around in his small office. Moonshine didn’t know what she was looking for; he just had some cupboards and a desk in here. Occasionally he had to travel far across the land, and when he came back he didn’t want to have a lot of cleaning to do. She walked around without saying something. Moonshine guessed that she wanted to make him nervous so he would just accept anything she suggests just to get her out of his office.
If she really thought that this would work, she must be thinking that it would be worth the try.
“I heard that you’re always successful when you’re tasked with something …” She looked him directly in the eyes now. “I’m looking for a special artifact. It is said to be made out of pure starlight.”
Moonlight watched her as she continued her wandering through the office. It was the first time he actually inspected the cloak, and the ornaments on it weren’t similar to anything he had seen on his journeys. He had no idea how this mare would know about him, but he didn’t care. He waited for the mare to continue speaking.
“This artifact was locked away and hidden … and I want you to find it.” She said as she moved her head closer to his. “If you succeed ... you will receive an amount of gold worth a fortune.” She said.
Moonlight somehow knew that she didn’t made empty promises. It was merely a feeling, but if she would keep her promise … It wouldn’t be too much, he guessed. Maybe he would earn enough to lay back and quit this job.
“So … you want me to find this parchment.” He asked again, and the mare nodded. “Then I need certain information.” The mare nodded again. “First of all … Where should I start with my research for your desired item?”
The mare didn’t say anything, but she pulled out a map of Equestria. She pointed her forehoof on one of the points on the map. A fine print above the point read Skygate. Moonlight heard about that town. About ninety percent of the inhabitants were pegasi. And since he was a unicorn, it would be quite difficult to get there. But that was nothing that would stop him.
“Accepted. Let us set up the contract …” He said and went to his desk, preparing a scheme of a contract, ink and a quill. “If you would sign here, please …” He pointed on a dotted line.
Even though he knew that this was actually senseless since he neither knew the name nor the origin of the mare, he insisted on that formality – To keep a bit of his routine when he worked for the local townsfolk.
“How am I supposed to contact you when I’m done?” He asked his new customer, who just shook her head under the hood.
“I will know when you succeed. And I will know if you should fail … Trust me. When you come back, I will be waiting for you.” She said.
Moonlight didn’t believe her, but either she knew more than him or she was just arrogant. He didn’t care. A journey to Skygate, doing a little research, finding the artifact, whatever it was – he didn’t care at all - and then back home. It was an easy job. What could possible go wrong he thought.
The mare signed the contract and walked out of Moonlights office. He thought he could hear her laugh, but then he shook his head and moved on to prepare the journey. A long trip was waiting for him.
This was what he thought, back then. Two years later, at the edge of the known world in the town Skygate, he weren’t so sure anymore. Though, he would still finish this job. After some time it became his personal interest to finish it. He never failed and he had to keep his reputation up. He needed to do some side jobs, find some things here, find some stuff there, but his main objective was still that artifact.
Moonshine was looking on the map of Equestria. According to it, it would be a long trip to the north. He thought about what he needed to get for this trip. At least he got enough money from his newest customer to finance the trip. He actually guessed that she gave him too much funds. But who was he, to tell her?
Anyhow, he had a lot of preparations to do, and if he could cut the costs here and there, he might be able to keep a good part of the money she gave him. If she threw out money like this, he didn’t care – but he wouldn’t do the same. He estimated around 3 months to get there by hoof, if he traveled by train it would take him about an entire day if the journey went without major interceptions.
And less time needed to travel meant less provisions needed. Some might say he was greedy, but when he started his business, he learned to budget and to cut costs where he could to keep himself alive in times where customers were rare.
It took him only a half an hour to create a checklist of the items he would have to get. As he went outside with his saddlebags, he walked off to the town’s market to get some supplies for the trip – and probably some warm clothing, since his destination was far up in the northern region.
He quickly gathered everything for the now rather short journey to Skygate, but as it seems it was inevitable that Moonshine would run into Cloudfeather, a pegasus of a light blue color and a friend of him. Moonshine liked her, she was quite a nice pony to hang around with – but not the kind of pony he liked to work with … which he remembered once again as their paths crossed.
“Oh, hey, Moonshine! I heard you’ve got a new customer?” The pegasus immediately asked, nosey as always.
“You heard right …” Moonshine started, but was cut off by his friend.
“Can I come with you? Oh please!” She begged him, as soon as she realized that the journey would go out of town.
“You know that I prefer to work on my own.” He tried to walk around her, but she blocked his path.
“Oh come on! Let me come with you!” Moonshine could see that Cloudfeather wouldn’t stop until he would give in.
“Fine, you can come with me if you want, but if I take you with me, you’re going to assist me with my work.” He sighed. He really rather worked alone, but it came to his mind that Skygate was a city almost completely inhabited by pegasi – it could become quite difficult for him, as he was a unicorn.
“Sounds fair, I guess.” The pegasus said with a grin on her face, knowing that she won once again. “When do we leave?”
“The train leaves in two hours. If you miss it, you stay here.” He turned away and left the pegasus at the market.
Two hours later, Moonshine was already waiting at the train station for Cloudfeather. He should have known that she was late – like usual. He sighed, as she finally came insight, and to his relief only with saddlebags and not a ton of luggage like he suspected.
“There you are.” He didn’t even bother to greet her. He didn’t want to put up with her, and he had no problem with showing it. “Let us get on the train or it will leave without us.”
He didn’t even wait for a response as he boarded the train. He didn’t look back to the pegasus. He knew that if she would lose him in the train, she would be kicked out at the next station without a ticket. It was probably better that way anyway, he thought. Just a second after those thoughts Cloudfeather entered the cabin.
“You’re not getting away that easily!” She said with a smile on her face, but it quickly became a serious look. “What are you looking for in the first place?”
Moonshine shrugged as he told her what his customer ordered from him. He didn’t answer on her question how he intended to find anything at all with such a description. He had no idea himself. He just guessed that he could find it.
“Well, if this thing actually exists, someone would have heard about it. An object which is said to be made of pure starlight, with which means however, wouldn’t stay unnoticed for very long.”
The pegasus just shrugged and looked out of the window. Moonshine did the same. The train started to move. There were still a lot of ponies on the train station, and they just rushed away as the train began to pick up speed. Soon they had left the station, and they saw how the trees and the green landscape seemed to fuse to a single, green flurry, which only was interrupted when the train went by a farm or another building.
Moonshine had the feeling that it would be a long, boring and quiet ride. He kept right – until the sudden squeaking of the wheels of the train threw him out of his thoughts. He hadn’t even no time to react as the train abruptly slowed down to a full stop. Cloudfeather screamed up as she was catapulted towards the ceiling of the cabin.
The unicorn was just happy that they had no luggage with them, else his friend could have suffered heavy injuries – and even more weight would land on him. So he was just buried under the pegasus falling on him. He could see it in her eyes that she was a bit confused of what just had happened, and she ran to the door as fast as she could, without even apologizing.
Whilst Moonshine got on his hooves again – he needed a while to accomplish it – Cloudfeather tried to open the door, but it was stuck. She tried to complain as the unicorn shoved her to the side and tried to open the door himself. He even tried to open it with his magic, but the door was still stuck.
“Well, I guess we will have to find another way out of this cabin.” He said as he looked to the window. He opened it up with his magic and jumped outside, as he felt a pull on his tail which pulled him back into the cabin. He looked at the pegasus who was now looking out of the window.
“Always look before you jump down somewhere.” She said as she turned her look to the unicorn and pointed her hoof down. “We’re on a bridge and you almost jumped out.” Moonshine gulped as he went to the window and looked down.
It was a far drop if she hadn’t pulled him back into the train. However, there was a small ledge he could walk on. He didn’t need long to make a decision. Carefully he climbed out of the window and then down on the ledge. He knew that one wrong step could be the end of him, but he couldn’t just wait till somepony came to get them out of the cabin.
It didn’t take long for Cloudfeather to follow him. He just looked at her with envy as she was hovering next to him in the air. There were times when he wished for wings instead of magic, but it wasn’t his decision that he was born a unicorn. And it didn’t matter at all; he reached the land without wings. But there was still one thing to check, which went better if he had wings. So he turned over to his winged friend.
“Cloud, could you fly up and check what is going on at the engine?” He asked the pegasus, who didn’t even bother to answer as she flew along the train, towards the engine. It didn’t take long for her to return.
“It seems like the engine is broken. Something doesn’t work, and they said that they couldn’t get any spare parts out here.” The pegasus hovered a hoof over the ground, waiting for Moonshines reaction.
“Well, it looks like we’re going to walk then.” He said and started looking on the wagon of the train in search of a ladder up to the roof.
He found one pretty fast and climbed up. It was safer than balancing on the small ledge next to the train on the bridge – if you didn’t count the gaps between each wagon. But he could deal with that. He wasn’t an athlete, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t exercise at all. While he was walking on the roof and jumping from wagon to wagon, Cloudfeather kept on hovering next to him.
Soon they had left the bridge behind them. Now it wasn’t that hard to find their way to Skygate, even with the accident with the train engine. It would just delay for around a half a month. And it would shorten their budget, Moonshine thought. But he didn’t say it.
They surely would come along another town soon. And when they did, they could still ask for directions to the next town and buy what they needed to get there.
“When do you think we’ll arrive in Skygate?” Cloudfeather asked and astonished Moonshine once more with the fact, how fast private news travelled. If they could be so fast they would be in Skygate in less than a single day.
“By my estimation we should be halfway to Skygate. This means, we still have around 2 weeks to travel by hoof.” He looked over to the pegasus. “You might want to walk. Not that you ruin your precious wings.” He noticed the insulted look on Cloudfeathers face, and it made him somehow sorry that he said that.
But he wouldn’t apologize for it as he turned away and started walking. After a while he threw a look back to check if the pegasus was following him. She was almost walking directly behind him, but didn’t speak a word. Moonshine got the feeling that he seriously insulted her, but he didn’t think that his words were that harmful. She was probably just acting it up. At least he told this to himself over and over again.
After some days he got the idea that if they fixed the train, they could have just continued the travel. But then it came to his mind that the engine broke down on the middle of a bridge and far away from any greater town, so it could be around two weeks until the spare parts got there. Therefore he came to the conclusion that they could also walk the other half of the way to Skygate.
Two weeks later, Moonshine almost couldn’t feel his legs anymore from all the walking and Cloudfeather was hovering next to him, they were walking through a snowy landscape. Moonshine was lucky that he brought some warm clothes, but Cloudfeather still had nothing to protect herself from the cold. Though he didn’t like travelling with her; he lent her his coat from time to time so she could warm up a bit.
He just hoped that they would reach the next town soon enough for her. He could see that she needed a warm chimney. When they set up a camp for the night, he was sometimes counting his bits till deep into the night. It was a good thing that his customer gave them such a large budget. Sometimes he wondered if she knew what would happen to him and Cloudfeather.
On the next day, the pegasus gave up and lied down in the snow. Nopony should be in such heights without warm clothing. Once more, he took off his coat and pulled it over her before he went on. A single hour later, he came across a shield. A shield that read: Welcome to Skygate.
Moonshine lifted the book with his magic and put it back into its place and pulled another one out of the shelf and sighed. The local library wasn’t as useful as he thought. Since they arrived in Skygate, he was searching for that artifact, but he didn’t even find a trace of it. It was hard enough for him to return to the library each day since this town was made for pegasi and not for unicorns or earth ponies. So he had a hard time to get around in the town.
This town was like a labyrinth, if he didn’t watch out for a moment he would get lost immediately. Moonshine thought that this was the main reason that almost only pegasi were living here, they were just flying above the maze of the town. Sometimes when he was searching for somepony to ask about that artifact, he got lost while trying to figure out a way to his destination in this maze.
Sadly, Cloudfeather still didn’t recover from the journey through the cold mountains. The nurse said that she caught a bad cold and should stay in for a few days. And those few days turned into weeks. After some time, Moonshine didn’t know what he should think about it. He started to suspect that the nurse was wrong, though he was hoping otherwise. He didn’t really want that she got injured because of him.
That was when he realized that he forgot where he was headed. The thought about Cloudfeather distracted him too much. The best would be to return to the library and start from scratch again, so he turned around – and faced a wall. He sighed. He really started to hate this town and wondered what ponies who built that city thought – that there would only live pegasi there and that nopony else would come up here? Moonshine wished for a pair of wings as he began to walk ahead again.
The sun was suspiciously low as the hospital of the city came in sight. Moonshine had long forgotten where he actually wanted to go, and was surprised that he ended up at the hospital. After a short thought he decided to drop in to look after Cloudfeather. It was the least he could do for her.
He stepped inside the hospital. His steps were echoing from the walls of the building. It was completely silent. The entrance was absolutely empty. Nopony was around, not even a nurse at the desk to welcome eventual visitors.
“Hello?” His voice echoed in the empty hall – and without the answer he hoped for.
He became nervous, standing alone in an apparently empty hospital. That was, until he hear a distant echo of steps. He had no idea if this were still the echoes of his own steps or if this was somepony else. Also, he couldn’t imagine a reason why a hospital should be empty.
“Oh, hello there. We haven’t expected visitors today … Can I help you?”
He turned around as somepony entered the hall and spoke to him. It was just a nurse, a pegasus like the other population of Skygate, and the nametag on her jacket stated that her name was Hope. Moonshine shrugged.
“I’m looking for a pegasus who came in a few days ago. Her name is Cloudfeather. She arrived with me in this town.”
The nurse put her hoof at her chin and she seemed to look through him.
“Hm … We have many pegasi here. You know, crashes and accidents … I don’t know if this will help you much, but we have only one pegasus in here who doesn’t live here in Skygate. She is in intensive care.”
Moonshine just stood there for a while, as if he was waiting for the nurse to continue speaking. It took a few moments before he processed what the nurse told him. He felt like icy claws were grasping at his intestines.
“… In intensive care? Would you please tell me why she is in intensive care?” He gulped as he noticed that his voice was fading. He didn’t know why, but he somehow felt … guilty.
“Oh, the doctor just said something about pneumonia, if you know what this is. I don’t even pretend to have understood what he said, but I think he mentioned ‘frozen starlight’ or something like that.” The nurse smiled. “I’m sure your friend will be better soon!”
But the last part of what the nurse said woke Moonshine out of his trance. This ‘frozen starlight’ would fit into his research! But why would a doctor, a man of medicine, know something about it? Maybe his way was completely wrong …
“Do you know something about that ‘frozen starlight’ the doctor mentioned? Please tell me what you know about it.” He pledged the nurse.
“Well … There is an old tale about a piece of pure, frozen starlight. I don’t know it completely, but it is said that it is an alchemic product created by one of the greatest scientists of all history! It is also said, that it could cure any sickness or disability if you heat it up and breathe it in. Duh, that’s something everypony in the hospital knows.”
Moonshine was just dumbfounded. He always expected a treasure or something valuable; he would have never guessed that he was looking for a medicine. And that especially Cloudfeather would cause the revelation … He would have to thank her later. And this nurse lived up to her name.
“Does the story tell where this … medicine for everything can be found?” He asked the nurse.
But to his dismay she shook the head. “From all I remember it says that the alchemist went to the top of the mountain to hide it there. That is where the story ends. Oh, I’m late already! I can stay here and talk all day, gotta go!”
The nurse just rushed out of the entrance into one of the hallways next to it and left Moonshine alone again. The unicorn looked a while after her, as she disappeared and thought about what she had told him. He stepped to the window and looked outside. It faced the mountain. The top was covered in snow; he already heard that the snow on the top of this mountain never melts.
“To the top of the mountain …” He said to himself. The thoughts about Cloudfeather vanished and there was only one thing on his mind again: The artifact, which turned out to be actually a medicine, and how he would get it into his hooves. He left the hospital without checking on Cloudfeather as he had planned and went to the Inn he rented a room in – where he prepared a journey to the top of the mountain, into the eternal ice … and to his goal.
Ice-cold winds were blowing through Moonshines mane, and he felt the frost under his skin as he continued his journey up to the top of the mountain, where the nurse back in the village said the artifact would wait for him. At least he hoped that the tale contained a small bit of truth. Else his journey would be worthless.
He shook of the thought of doubt, it has to be true. He tried to not think about it anymore, and took step after step through the snow. He blinked as a snowflake dropped into his eye and looked up into the sky. Snowflakes started to fall down. He knew that this could possibly the first signs of a storm, but he decided not to seek shelter and continued to climb up the mountain.
Soon after the ground became very steep, sometimes too steep to walk normally, so he had to use his magic to levitate himself across those areas. But it still slowed him down, and even when he didn’t have a set time limit, he felt somehow compelled to hurry up and he got annoyed by those spots since they slowed him down significantly. He had to find a way to get up there faster, but he couldn’t think of any.
His coat was covered with frost as the snow began to fall. Icy winds blew the snowflakes in his face, and he could feel the chill in his bones. Thick flakes covered his mane and dyed it in white. Although he couldn’t see even a hoof ahead, not to talk about seeing where he stepped, he carried on, still feeling compelled not to stop there because of the snow, even if he felt the voice of reason in his mind, which whispered that he should seek shelter now, before the snowfall gets worse.
And he ignored it. He kept on walking, even if he walked through a grown snowstorm now. The winds pulled at his coat and mane, everything covered in snow and ice. He had to squint his eyes to actually see a little, but ahead of him was only white. Occasionally he took a step too far and managed to jump back before he fell down the mountainside. He couldn’t even see his hooves in the snow, so it was a hard to guess how deep he would fall if he didn’t manage to jump back in time. Even at this time, he just shrugged and kept on walking.
The wind caused serious problems already, pulling at his clothes with icy talons. If he had any reason left, he should have turned back and went back to the town or should be seeking for shelter now. He did neither. He kept on walking; he felt his goal close, like he had felt often when he was on journeys for customers.
Suddenly his thoughts travelled to Cloudfeather, back in the town’s hospital. He didn’t know why he could think of her in a situation like this, in a snowstorm and close to reaching the goal of his journey. Moonshine couldn’t help himself but to think of the words of the nurse about that ‘frozen starlight’. He shook his head, feeling a tingling on his face as the ice crystals from his mane sprayed over his face. This wasn’t the time for that!
He kept o walking until he felt the ground under his hooves loosen. He let out a scream as he crashed against the mountain beneath him and slid downwards, feeling how the rocks were breaking his bones and maltreated his skin and flesh. When the fall stopped, he hardly breathed. He felt the snowflakes gathering on his side, as he was lying in the snow.
He felt like this was the last of his journeys, as he saw a shadow above him. His vision was blurred and he couldn’t recognize the shape of it, but it didn’t even matter as his consciousness slipped away and his vision went black as the night. The last thing he remembered was the icy grasp of the chill and frost around him. Then, there was nothing else than darkness.
When he came back to his senses, Moonshine felt warmth spreading through his body. He didn’t open his eyes, but he could hear the crackling of flames and some steps around him. He opened his eyes and looked around, but he couldn’t see anything besides a campfire and the walls of the cave he was in. As his eyes fell upon his side, he saw that it has fully healed.
He got up onto his hooves and looked around another time in the cave. He sighed and stepped outside. The snowstorm was gone, the sun shone down on the mountainside. He lifted his head to the top of the mountain. It was covered in fog, but he somehow felt that it wouldn’t be too far to the top now, so he started to walk.
A half an hour later he reached the top und almost fell down. What looked like a tiny needle from the town was actually a small crater. In the mid he could see something that appeared to be an altar, and on top of it was an orb. The orb seemed to be white, and white specters were floating around it. Moonshine couldn’t tell if the specters were emitted from the orb or if they were created by the fog around.
He cautiously walked towards the orb, feeling warmer the closer he got. One of the specters parted from the others and went into the direction from where the unicorn came. As it almost close enough that he could touch it with his hoof, it took a form of an unicorn – except for the face, as it was lacking any facial features as eyes or a mouth. And still it ‘spoke’ to him.
The voice of the unicorn-specter was only a whisper in the wind, yet Moonshine could understand every single word of it: “What do you want? Do you prefer personal gain or a social life? The choice is yours to be made …” Then it disappeared into thin air.
The other specters around the orb also parted from it, each taking another shape, leaving the orb lying on the altar all alone. As Moonshine walked towards it, it began to glow with more intensity the closer he went to it. As he stood before the altar, he felt an incredible heat, and the orb almost blinded him. He longed for it, and in the moment his hoof touched the surface of the orb, it emitted a blinding flash.
The next moment he could see anything, he was back in Skygate again, in the middle of the town square. It was unusual that it was empty and nopony was there, but he knew where he was going. He headed for the train station, but as he was almost there, he turned back and walked through the small streets and sideways of the town.
Until he found himself in front of the hospital. As he was standing in front of it, he took a deep breath and looked at the gentle glowing orb in his coat pocket. It somehow assured him that his decision was the right one. Then he stepped through the door and went to the intensive care, into the direction where he guessed Cloudfeather would be.
On his way he didn’t meet a single pony, but he knew that he was going the right way. And he knew that it was the right room when he opened the door. He walked through the empty beds until he stopped at the last. The clipboard read Cloudfeather. He pulled out the orb, not knowing what to do now. Seemingly, the orb knew what it had to do; it began to glow and slowly melting down in his hooves.
The goo almost instantly vanished into the specters he saw before, swirling around the body of his friend, before they disappeared through the walls of the room. Moonshine thought he could hear small sighs of relief, as if those specters were imprisoned for a long time. The last one materialized before him for a short moment to speak to him.
“Only an act of selflessness could set us free … thank you for releasing us …” And then it followed the previous ones, leaving him alone with Cloudfeather. After he while, she opened his eyes, and he felt a relief like he never felt before, and, for the first time in his life, he felt it impossible to speak. Hu just stood there and watched Cloudfeather waking up. After she did, she looked at him, as if she knew what he had done. And then she pressed her lips onto his.
In another house in Skygate, a certain pony stood at the window, watching the specters flying through the sky and vanishing into starlight again. She knew she wouldn’t have been able to do this, but she knew exactly who could do a thing like this, and what was necessary to achieve it. She smiled and turned away, slowly fading away until nothing in the room was left but old furniture and dust.
As the night fell down and the stars were sparkling in the velvety, blue sky, two ponies, a pegasus and an unicorn left the town, side by side. They came as friends, and left as a couple.
