Moonlit's Journey

Dancing Embers was an Earth Pony with sunset orange fur, two tone red mane, and green eyes. Her cutie mark was an anvil and a gem. And why not? She was a magic blacksmith, one of the best in her village, especially studying under her father. And she had set out to search a ruin for magic imbued stone.

Ember had just reached Tanzanite, a village that was one of the first Unicorn villages to fall. It saddened her to think of all the lives lost during that war. Well, she was too young to know much about it, but she heard the stories the older ponies told. A horrible thing, that’s what they called it, right on the edge of peace, and the Pegasi tried to wipe all the Unicorns from existence. “This is really a sad place,” Dancing Embers said to herself as she walked through the deserted roads. “I thought that there would still be bodies of the Unicorns. Unless somepony had cleaned up the bodies.”

She stopped and stared around. “But… nopony’s been here since that statue was erected in 129. Who cleaned the streets then?”

Moonlit was just staring at the statue, completely stunned. “What year is it?”

She turned towards her home and just gazed at the sky. She slowly made her way home. As she passed by the old market, she sensed something odd. It was almost as if something familiar was nearby. But, looking around she thought that it was just the loneliness that made her feel that way. Continuing on her lonely walk home, she tried to think about what she was going to do. ‘Well, now what?’

Standing outside her house, she made her way around back and laid in front of the grave she made for her parents. A few tears streamed down her face when she realized that she would never get to see them again. “I wish I could do something, anything,” she mumbled to herself, frustrated that she was useless during the attack on her village. “Why did you seal me in sleep for this long?”

She walked back inside and up to her room to sleep; falling into a dream just as a figure walked passed her house into the ruin.

Ember walked into the village and noticed a grave behind the house she passed. Curious, she walked up to it and read:

“’Here lies Black Night and Sapphire Radiance.’ Who dug these graves?”

Looking around she noticed more graves, rows and rows of mounds each with a stone marking it as a graveyard. She took notice that only some of them had names on them. “It’s almost as if whoever dug these didn’t know everypony that they buried… or couldn’t identify what was left,” she said to herself. A note on the first grave caught her eye. “’I’ll miss you, love Moonlit.’ Moonlit? That is definitely a Unicorn name. But… where is this Unicorn? Could they still be in this village? No. Every Unicorn from this village was killed. There was no warning, no time to react. It… it was a slaughter.” A tear fell from her eye as she thought about how heartbreaking the event was.

Leaving the makeshift graves, Ember walked along the now clean roads and made it to what was left of the marketplace. A shiver went up her spine as she walked passed the stalls. A glow emitted from her saddlebag. Looking into her bag, she pulled out a necklace that her father had found when he helped put up that statue. It was an odd piece of jewelry, since it never fell into disrepair and never lost its luster. A silver chain with triangle cut sapphires placed into an intricate design. She knew that it was of Unicorn make and it was very beautiful. He said that he found it in a house on the outskirts of the village. In a house where two Unicorns were killed in the living room, near the cellar.

‘Two Unicorns?’ She thought. She turned to the house she passed and wondered if this Moonlit was the owner of the necklace. ‘Well, if I ever meet that Unicorn, I’ll ask.’

On the other side of the marketplace, she spotted the statue. The bronze had turned a pale green from age, along with the weeds growing up around the base. Her highness, Queen Cypress, commissioned this statue eight years ago. It was well made and showed the expertise of her father and the other blacksmiths who molded it together. It just looked eerie standing like a sentinel over a deserted village.

Ember made her way to the park and marveled at the burnt tree that continued to struggle for life. “Magic definitely was strong here. I wonder what other secrets can be found in the air and stone of this place.”

Moonlit shivered and opened her eyes. She knew she hadn’t been asleep long since the sun was still in the sky. Getting out of her bed, she stretched and began to head down the stairs. That odd sense she felt at the marketplace was there again, but she paid it no mind. Instead, she left her home and walked out of the village towards the small hill just a short trot away. Reaching the hill, Moonlit lay down and watched the sun set while marveling at the beauty of it. A sad beauty that sparked a sense of loneliness in her. Moonlit could only sigh as the sun touched the horizon.

‘If only there was somepony left to enjoy this with.’

The sun was almost behind the distant mountains of the Gaia Kingdom when Moonlit decided to get up and head into the village again. Her growling stomach reminded her of something she had dearly forgotten about. “Oh no, where am I supposed to find something to eat?”

Moonlit doubted that anything in the village would be edible since, for all she knew, it had been at least two years she had slept away in her cellar. ‘Somepony was bound to have some edible food that could last this long. Otherwise, I’m bucked,’ she thought bitterly. “Well… let’s get searching.”

Despite having gone a whole day without food, Moonlit wasn’t feeling drained from lack of nourishment. She barely wondered at that while she entered every house on the first street. Starting on the next road, she entered the third house and started rummaging through the cupboards and cabinets. Using her magic to check every nook and cranny so she didn’t miss anything, she stumbled upon a sealed jar of something she couldn’t identify. Opening the container she noticed that it had a pleasant smell, but she was hesitant to taste it. ‘Oh, just taste it already.’

With a sigh, she licked the substance inside and was amazed at the flavors that hit her taste buds. ‘Mmmm, it tastes like spiced apples and peaches.’ She greedily gulped down the rest of the sauce and looked around for more. She found four more containers and decided on taking them back to her house so she wouldn’t have to find where this house was again. She stopped at a few more houses on the way back to her home and picked up more sealed jars full of various ingredients. “Well… it’s not the same as a cooked meal but I can’t really complain,” she told herself as she walked into her kitchen, setting down the food and heading to her room for another nap.

Dancing Embers had long since left the park and was now inside the burned and collapsed town hall.

“Ugh, why is this so hard?” She whined as she stumbled for the third time on the debris. “I never thought searching for magic imbued items would be like this. I thought, ‘Hey, maybe the magic will jump out and say Here I am!’ but nooo. It has to be sooo difficult.”

She continued her whining while she searched through the building for anything that set her ears twitching. She walked down the first hall and through the door to the meeting room. She was standing there with a sad look on her face at something she couldn’t understand and began searching the cabinets in the corner of the room. Her ears were twitching once she went into the next room and, immediately, got a smile on her face. “Oooo, gonna get me some artifacts here.”

Ember shifted through the wrecked room looking for that one object that set her ears twitching. Moving a fallen support beam out of the way, she found a stone. An unremarkable pale blue rock. But she knew from the buzz she felt in it that it was filled to the brim with magical energy. Energy she knew could make her weapons stronger.

After putting the stone into her bags she left the Hall. Walking in a deserted ghost town was depressing and since the sun was starting to set, she decided to set up a camp near the village, not really wanting to sleep in any of the houses. Walking towards the outskirts again, she passed by the ‘Tanzanite Graveyard.’ A movement out of the corner of her eye made her stop and look at the house.

What she saw was enough for her to gasp out loud and draw attention to herself…

(5 minutes earlier)

Moonlit woke up from her nap several minutes ago and was currently scooping out candied jelly out of a jar that she found in one of the houses. She wanted some real food but didn’t have the supplies needed for a journey to another village. As she finished the jar of ooze, she wondered what she was going to do. After a couple minutes, she decided to just sit by her parents’ graves and remember the good times they had. With her first idea in her head, she walked towards the back door and outside.

The moment Moonlit stepped outside she heard a loud gasp. Startled, she spun to face the noise and noticed an orange Earth Pony staring at her. “NO!” Moonlit shouted. She lit up her horn and teleported into her room. She didn’t know what else to do. ‘No… how can an Earth Pony be here? It doesn’t make any sense.’ An image of the statue flashed into her mind and she gasped. ‘My village belongs to them, of course there would be Earth Ponies coming here.’ Moonlit groaned. “I really didn’t think that through at all…”

“Hello…?”

Moonlit’s ears perked up at the summons and she didn’t respond. ‘Oh, I’m a fool.’

“Um… I’m sorry for startling you. I’m Dancing Embers. Umm…” sigh “please come out. I promise I’m nice.”

“HA! And I’m supposed to believe that?” Moonlit thought sarcastically.

“Umm… yes?”

Moonlit’s eyes widened as her pupils shrunk. ‘I really said that out loud?’ She snapped her head to her door as she heard knocking. “Please, just… just leave me alone,” she called out.

The other pony stopped knocking and spoke softly through the door. “Did you live here?”

Moonlit tried to fight back the tears that threatened to fall as she said, “Yes…”

The door opened slowly and the Earth Pony walked in. “I’m sorry. This is a sad place and I can only imagine what happened here.” She walked closer and sat in front of Moonlit with a sad look on her face and her ears pointed down. “It was a tragedy what happened to Tanzanite. I wish I could’ve seen it before that war happened.”

Moonlit looked at the other pony and noticed how sad she looked. It only brought back images from the past that finally started to break her down. A few tears escaped her eyes and Ember noticed. Coming close, Ember wrapped her hooves around Moonlit as the floodgates were released. Moonlit cried for what happened, cried for everything she missed, and everything that can never be. She’ll never see her parents again and it started to press down on her. She cried into this pony’s shoulder until the tears finally stopped.

“Do you feel better?”

“I do. Not much better but… thank you.”

When they finally let go of their embrace, Ember spoke up, smiling. “I’m Dancing Embers. What’s your name?”

Moonlit smiled back and said, “I’m Moonlit Night. It is certainly a pleasure to meet you.”

Ember’s mood damped a bit hearing that and Moonlit noticed. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

Ember scraped her hoof on the floor and said, “You’re the pony who dug the graves, huh?”

Moonlit’s ears drooped and nodded. All of a sudden she noticed that Ember’s bag glowing. “Umm… did you know your bag is glowing?”

“What?” Dancing Embers asked, confused. Looking at her bag she remembered the necklace in it. “Oh… umm it’s a necklace my dad gave me that he found in this village.”

“A necklace? It wouldn’t happen to be silver with triangle cut sapphires, would it?”

“So it IS yours. I thought it would be when I noticed your name on the grave. Since it’s yours you can have it back.”

She pulled the necklace out of her bag and held it out to Moonlit. Moonlit’s eyes started to water again. She used her magic to put the necklace on and pulled an unsuspecting Ember into a tight hug. “Oh thank you! You have no idea how much this means to me,” she cried, smiling as she continued to crush Ember.

“It’s… fine. Can’t… breathe…”

“Oh no. I’m so sorry.” Moonlit let go of Ember so she could suck in air. “It’s just… my mother made this for me when I was a filly. It’s the last thing I have of her.”

“Hmm… did you, by chance, have say… a fire ruby?”

Moonlit gasped as she jumped on Ember, knocking her over. “You found that too? My cousin gave me that.”

“My dad found a lot of items here years ago.”

Moonlit froze. “Years ago…?” She backed off of Ember and walked to her bed. “Say Ember?”

“Yes?”

“Umm… what year is it?”

“Oh that’s easy. It’s 137,” Ember said smiling.

“…”

“Is everything ok, Moonlit?”

“I’ve been asleep…”

“Well, yeah. Everypony sleeps silly filly.”

“You don’t understand. I’ve been asleep since 127… I’ve been asleep for ten years,” Moonlit told her, softly.

“…oh.”

The sun had long since set and Ember just realized she had nowhere to set up camp. She jumped up and exclaimed, “Oh no, where am I supposed to set up camp around here?”

Moonlit looked over at her with a confused look on her face. After a moment she said, “Why don’t you just sleep in my room? I’ll go sleep in my parents’ old room.”

Ember stopped pacing and stared at Moonlit. As Moonlit was starting to feel uncomfortable Ember tackled her into a hug. “You are the nicest pony ever! Thank you!”

“Gah!” Moonlit squeaked as she was being crushed by the other mare. “Too…tight.”

“Oops,” Ember said sheepishly as she unlatched her hooves from her friend. “Sorry, I was just happy I didn’t have to sleep outside. Though I sleep outside on almost a daily basis.”

Moonlit’s ears perked up at hearing that and asked, “Why do you sleep outside so much? Don’t you live with your parents?” It shocked Moonlit that Ember would consider the outdoors to a warm bed. But, she wasn’t really in a position to question the strange pony in her room.

“Oh… well the thing is… I kinda move around from village to village,” she explained as she kicked her hoof on the ground. “I enjoy it but… it gets kinda lonely. The only friend I made was Shadow, he’s been with me for a while and he is waiting at the last village for me to get back from this field trip I wanted to go on. I mean this is Tanzanite! The first village to get hit in the war and the village that the Earth Ponies took away from the Pegasi. I wanted to see it… and look for magical items to make my weapons stronger.”

Moonlit just stared blankly at Ember for a few moments. “You travel? By yourself? Why would you do that?”

“I said I travel with my friend Shadow. And because I’m a travelling blacksmith wandering and collecting raw materials for my craft and making money to keep from going hungry…” Ember was cut off by the growling of her stomach as she blushed.

Moonlit laughed, but soon followed with a blush as her own stomach growled. The two mares looked at each other and started to laugh at the look on the others faces. After a minute of laughter, Ember looked through her bag as Moonlit walked down to the kitchen where she stored her jars of jelly. As she made her way down the stairs her ears swiveled backwards as Ember came rushing out into the hallway. “Moonlit!” She skidded to a stop in front of her as she spoke again. “Where are you going? I wanted to eat my dinner with you.”

“Oh, I was just going to get a couple things that I found around the village earlier. Just a few jars of preserved fruits…”

Ember gasped an impossible amount of air and got within a hoof’s distance of Moonlit’s face. “You have ten year old fruits in a jar?! Are they good? Can I have a jar? Please please please?” Ember begged with a sad puppy look that would probably melt ice.

Moonlit looked into those eyes and couldn’t help but sigh. “Fine. You can have a jar if you really want one. Bring your food to the kitchen and we can eat there.”

Moonlit continued down the stairs as Ember bolted back to the room, grabbed her food and was downstairs next to the other mare in the kitchen, startling Moonlit in the process.

“How do you do that anyway?”

“I just put one hoof in front of the other, silly,” she said, giggling.

Moonlit stared at Ember for a couple moments before replying, “Really? You are a strange pony, you know that?”

“Yep I do. My dad always said I was special and I believed him,” Ember laughed as she made her way into the kitchen to set her bags on the table that was, amazingly, still usable. She then started taking out daffodil sandwiches and a fruit salad. The food made the two ponies stomachs grumble again.

Moonlit went to the cabinet and took out two jars of spiced fruit. As she set them on the table, Ember gasped and tore one of the jars away from Moonlit’s hooves. “You have spiced strawberries? I love strawberries! Ooo can I have it, pleeease?”

Caught off guard by her sudden begging, Moonlit just sighed, “Fine, you could’ve just asked instead of pleaded. I would’ve let you have it anyway. I actually prefer the apples to any berries.”

Ember surprised Moonlit again with another bone crushing hug. “Oh, thank you. You’re the nicest pony ever.”

“Gah! Can’t… breathe.”

And for the second time, Moonlit got dropped on her flank. “Hehe. Sorry, Moonlit.”

“Well, it’s fine. Can we just eat now? I’m dying here,” Moonlit said, as she made her way to the table to sit down. Ember walked to the table as well and sat opposite Moonlit. After they finished laying out all the food, they started to eat. Moonlit grabbed one of the sandwiches as Ember started opening the jar of strawberries.

“So… how did you become a traveling blacksmith?”

“Oh. Umm… you see, my dad was the best blacksmith in our village. If I wanted to get any of my stuff sold I was going to have to do that in another village. My dad was completely for the idea probably to see if I’d be able to make it on my own.”

Moonlit wondered on that for a minute then asked, “How did the first village go?”

Ember shifted in her chair for a while before answering, “Umm… well, I guess starting out was harder than I thought. You see, I’m a magic blacksmith. I work with magical items and artifacts. Like medallions and amulets. Even enchanting weapons with magic stones I come across. But at that first village, most ponies didn’t buy into the magic thing because of the war between the Pegasi and the Unicorns…”

Moonlit’s ears drooped when she said that. After an uncomfortable silence, Ember spoke up, “What about you? You said that you were asleep for ten years. You must’ve been awake before the war, right? Say… how old are you, anyway?”

“Umm… well, I was eighteen when my parents put me to sleep. But, it doesn’t look as if I aged while I was under the spell. Either way, because of the year I’m twenty-eight, I guess?” Moonlit answered. They sat there for a good few moments before Ember blurted out, “Wow… you’re old.”

Moonlit’s face lit up as she heatedly replied, “I am not old! I haven’t aged in that sleep.”

Ember just fell out of her chair and laughed at the look on her friend’s face. “You… your face is… haha… priceless.”

Moonlit cast a glare towards the laughing mare and asked, “How old are you then?”

Ember quickly stopped laughing and looked straight at Moonlit before saying, “Oh, I’m seventeen. I’ll be eighteen in a few months.”

Moonlit’s face broke into a sly grin as she thought about what to say to that. “Well if I’m an old mare, I guess that makes you a little filly.”

Ember’s face lit up in return as she stumbled over her words. “Hey… but you… I… Oh, you’re good.”

They both started laughing until they couldn’t breathe. Sitting, or rather lying, on the floor for a few minutes while they calmed down enough to sit back at the table, they felt relieved that they could have a laugh with a good friend… something Moonlit hasn’t been able to do for the last few days.

“You know? You are a very fun pony to hang out with,” Moonlit said, as she lay down in her parent’s bed. “Aside from being completely random, you are funny and kind. I wasn’t expecting that. So… thank you.”

“Oh you’re welcome. You are pretty fun yourself. You’re a nice Unicorn. I still can’t believe that the Pegasi tried to wipe you all out… But, it’s ok now. There’s peace in both remaining kingdoms,” Ember replied as she got into Moonlit’s bed that they managed to squeeze into the master bedroom.

Moonlit looked toward Ember as they got comfortable. In the darkness, it was a calming feeling to have another pony nearby, especially after all she went through in the past couple days since she woke from the spell. “Hey, Ember?”

“Yes?”

“…”

“What’s wrong?”

“Umm… we’re friends… right?”

Ember smiled into the night as she replied, “Of course we are. You, Moonlit Night, have nothing to worry about. I’ll be here for you.”

Moonlit smiled at the thought. “Thank you, Dancing Embers.”

They both drifted off to sleep wondering what the new day will bring them, content that they both found a new friend.