Moondancer

“Twilight!”

Twilight staggered back with confusion, suddenly unsure of where she was or what was happening. There was a flash of silver magic beside her. The strange creature in front of her fell to the ground. Twilight, too, lost her balance and fell to the ground.

Everything was happening too fast. Where was she? What had just happened? What was that thing? Who had spoken? Twilight felt swamped by everything that was happening at once.

Twilight’s recovery was, however, commendably fast. Staring up at the sky above, she realised that it was a sunny summer day. Her forehead stung, but she was otherwise unharmed. Her backpack had cushioned her fall. She had a backpack. She was sitting on grass, but she didn’t recognise her surroundings. She must have gone hiking.

There was a crumpled creature in front of her. An Ethereal Thought-Eater, her encyclopaedic mind provided. It wasn’t moving, large bits of it were missing, and it looked slightly burned. It was dead. She had been attacked by an Ethereal Thought-Eater. Which was now dead. Ethereal Though-Eater attacks can cause disorientation and short-term amnesia. Her forehead stung. Ethereal Thought-Eaters are only to be found in the Everfree Forest. She had gone hiking in the Everfree Forest and had been attacked by an Ethereal Thought-Eater, causing her disorientation and amnesia.

She got up. There had been a voice to her side. Someone had killed the Thought-Eater and it hadn’t been her. She turned– and then everything fell apart again.

Moondancer was there. Moondancer was there. She was kneeling right next to her. Close. Moondancer was looking at her with concern. Moondancer was wearing a very tight T-shirt. She really was very close. Twilight was having a great deal of difficulty focusing.

“Twilight?”, asked Moondancer, “Are you okay? What’s wrong? Did it hurt you? Can you hear me?”

Twilight shook her head to try and clear it. “Uh, yes. I can hear you. What happened? Where are we? I mean, I think we’re in the Everfree Forest, but it’s a big place and I have no idea what we’re doing here. I think the Thought-Eater gave me temporary amnesia. Why is there a big barrier around this castle? What castle is that? What’s going on?”

Twilight might run out of breath, but she would never run out of questions. Moondancer knew this, so she hugged her to calm her down. When she pulled away, she noticed Twilight was silently blushing, and wouldn’t meet her eyes.

Moondancer sighed with relief. Noticing the bruise on Twilight’s forehead, she unslung her backpack and began rummaging inside. Whilst still rummaging, she began answering Twilight’s questions.

“Amnesia, huh? Right. Well, I'm Moondancer and I’m a friend from school. That castle is the Castle of the Royal Sisters– yes, in Everfree. We went looking for the castle, and found it too. Unfortunately we also found that it was full of those things.

“You refused to give up, so we lured them away from the castle, you then teleported us back here, and created a barrier to keep them out. Unfortunately, one managed to get close before you got the barrier up, and it attacked– Aha!”

Moondancer pulled out a small green pack of greaseproof paper from her pack. She carefully opened it to reveal a white, greasy-looking paste.

“I didn’t come prepared for amnesia,” she said, “but this this stuff should at least cure the bruise.” She sat Twilight down and began to lightly dab a spot of the healing salve onto her wound. The small amount of magical balm was almost painfully hot on Twilight’s skin – enough to make her gasp and tense – but when it cooled the pain was gone.

“Thanks, Moondancer,” Twilight said, rubbing her forehead where the welt had been, “White fire balm is handy stuff. You brought a lot of it, too.” She was eying the pack of balm in Moondancer’s hand; there was enough there to heal a battle-worn regiment.

Moondancer blushed. “Well, you never know when it might come in handy,” she said cryptically.

“Well, I’m grateful for your over-preparedness."

"Did it do anything for your memories?" Moondancer asked hopefully, "You look better, but you still seem a bit disconcerted."

"I still feel a little dizzy, and I can only remember up to the test on the Griffon Wars. Everything after that is a blur."

"Ohh. That's not good. That was seven days ago. We need to get you into the shade. Maybe some food will help. Hold on a moment. I think I saw somewhere."

Moondancer handed Twilight one of her canteens full of cool, refreshing water, and Twilight drank deeply. Moondancer then got up and started walking to a shaded archway some way past the bridge with long, easy strides, leaving Twilight slumped against one of the bridge posts.

"Wait!", called Twilight, "what if there are more of them? Or some other danger?"

"We counted them when we scried them out, Twilight. All the others are trapped outside. And, as you said when we came up with this plan, there wouldn't be any other living animal anywhere near a Thought-Eater nest."

“Oh.”

Twilight looked down at her canteen with pursed lips. She looked back up in time to see Moondancer go through the archway, and then stop.

"Yes!" shouted Moondancer, holding aloft a triumphant fist. She marched out of sight.

Twilight finished drinking and put the cap back onto the canteen. Soon enough, Moondancer came back in sight, grinning and eating an apple. She came to a stop when she saw Twilight, and stopped chewing. She quickly recovered, however, and jogged back to where Twilight was resting.

"Apples!" She said happily, pulling Twilight up to her feet with ease. She gave one to Twilight, and then lead her through to the archway. Behind the wall was a heavily overgrown garden, complete with several apple trees. Twilight slumped down in the shade of the nearest tree to eat her apple.

"Thanks. This is good," Twilight said between munches.

"Hey, no problem, Twilight," replied Moondancer, squatting against an opposite tree to enjoy her own apple, "We can wait here until you're ready to explore."

"Thanks" Twilight found herself studying the woman opposite. Much to her embarrassment, she caught herself staring at Moondancer’s chest. She blushed and looked away. It was no good; Moondancer pulled her gaze like a magnet.

"Like what you see?" Moondancer asked archly, looking highly amused.

"Yes! I mean– No! I mean... Urgh. I was looking at your T-shirt. 'Negative Entropy'. That's your band, right?"

"Ha ha! I kinda like you too, Twilight. Yeah, they're my band. When I graduate from uni, we'll go professional. Might have to do a few side-jobs to begin with, but we'll make it big soon enough. Rockstar life here I come!"

Twilight found her grin at the other's word fading when she thought on what Moondancer had said. Trying to keep the edge of disappointment from her voice, she said "You only 'kinda' like me?"

Moondancer sighed. "Twilight, you are the... Look. I like you, okay? I just haven't fully forgiven you for that skirt incident a couple of years back. It was really embarrassing, it was all your fault, and you lied to me when I asked you about it."

“The skirt incident? Wait! You KNEW I did that?”

“I knew that somebody put some slimy gunk on my chair. After I spent half the day walking around uni with people laughing at me behind my back. It looked like I had wet myself! Vista teased me about it for months! And worst of all, when I thought it might have been you, I asked you if you knew anything and you LIED to me!”

Twilight winced.

“Uh, Moondancer, I’m really, really sorry,” she pleaded with clasped hands outstretched, “That spell was an accident. Y- you walked away before I could– And when you came back to ask me you were really upset and I was really scared. And embarrassed. I'm really sorry.”

“Twilight, you lied to me and I believed you. I blamed someone else and they wouldn't speak to me for a term.”

“Moondancer, I’m really sorry that happened. I know how you must feel...”

“No you don’t!”

“I really want to make it up to you...”

“You don’t know how it felt. And you lied to me!”

“I’m sorry!”

An evil glint caught in Moondancer’s eye. “You want to make it up to me? You want me to forgive and forget?”

“Yes! I’ll do anything! Please.”

“Okay: give me your shorts.”

“What?!”

“Your shorts. The ones you’re wearing right now. Give them to me. You can spend a day walking around like that. I’ll give them back when I think you realise how embarrassing your 'accident' was for me.”

“Oh. Uh,” Twilight looked around desperately for help, for anything, but she was out of luck, “Oh no. Oh dear... O-okay”

I really hope I put on clean underwear this morning... thought Twilight. She stood up, red-faced, unbuttoned her shorts, and let them drop to her feet. It was far worse than she had thought: she was not wearing her usual underwear at all. She was wearing frilly, black-laced panties that she had never even seen before.

Moondancer was openly delighted at the sight. “Ha ha! Sexy! Do you normally go out dressed like that, or is that for me?" her tone turned mockingly knowing, "Were you planning on seducing me?”

“I don’t know!”, she wailed. Twilight wished the ground would open up under her feet. The heat of her blush and her suddenly churning stomach made her feel strange. She tried to pull down the tank top to cover her panties, but it kept rising back up, and she couldn’t hide them with her hands for the rest of the weekend.

Eventually, in resignation, she stooped down, picked up the shorts, and then threw them at Moondancer. “Here, take them.” She then stood with arms crossed and flushed face and bore Moondancer’s blatantly mocking ogling with poor grace. The heat in her belly just seemed to be getting stronger.

Moondancer finally stopped leering and said, “Well, spend today dressed like that and you might realise how embarrassed I was.”

Twilight shyly sat back down, propping her back against the tree trunk so that her bottom didn't come into contact with the ground. She continued eating her apple, her blush seemingly permanent.

Moondancer seemed taken with the ruins. She wandered around the orchard, looking up at the tower, walls, and battlements with some admiration.

“My mum would love this place, you know.”

“Well, you could bring her here, you know. It’s public land.”

“It’s wild land, Twilight. And mum’s an artist. I don’t think she’d be up for fighting off a swarm of thought-eaters, no matter how nice the view.”

“Sorry. Wait. I thought your family were craftspeople. Silverlight Constructs, yes?”

“That’s my dad’s side. Mum’s a sculptor. They both make stuff, but that’s about as much as they can agree on. They squabble over everything else, including me. It worked out okay, really. They were so busy arguing over how I should live my life that they didn’t notice me living it as I pleased. Fun!”

“Aww. That’s sad.”

“Nah, it’s okay. They do love me, and each other. I just find it easier to love them back when I’m living under a different roof. They can just be a little controlling sometimes. Dad really wanted me to follow in the family footsteps and take over Silverlight one day.”

“And your mother supported your musical side?”

“Ha! As if! No, she hates my music. If she had her way I’d be, I don’t know, playing violin in the Canterlot orchestra or something. Something refined. As I say, she and dad argue, I slip out the door and do things my way.”

Twilight absently polished off another apple, lost in thought. A lot had happened to her today, even discounting the amnesia, so she took some time to refind her balance. The bruise from the attack was gone now, and her methodical mind was free enough from distractions to start asking useful questions.

"Okay, I'm feeling better now,” said Twilight eventually, “From what I recall about Thought-Eater attacks, my memories will recover over a few days. All I need is a little patience. So we need a plan. That means we need a goal. What in Equestria were we doing looking for the Castle of the Royal Sisters in the first place?"

“Well, you see, I haven’t been doing too great in History...”

“Go on...” Twilight said in a warning tone.

“And, well, I really needed some extra credit if I wanted to keep my GPA up. And if I don’t keep my GPA up then my dad will insist that I drop all this ’singing nonsense’ and join Silverlight. And I don’t want to spend my life enchanting knick-knacks or what-have-yous. It was, kinda, the deal between me and him: I could stay at uni so long as I got good grades. If I flunk History, my singing becomes history, too...”

“But you're really smart. How could you be failing History?”

“I, uh, keep getting distracted," Moondancer blushed and looked away, "Anyway. I realised that Professor Tablets really doesn’t like me, and I’d really need something special to get me out of jail free. So I went to you. And you agreed to help. Out of the kindness of your heart.”

“I agreed to give up a weekend of studying to help you pull up your grade in History, because you haven't been paying attention in class, out of kindness? Moondancer, I did mention that Thought-Eater amnesia is only temporary, right? I’ll get all my memories back in a few days.”

“Oh. Um. It was kindness– honest. Maybe you were so frustrated with the quality of other people’s research that you felt impelled to go out there and show them how it’s done?”

Twilight looked at Moondancer with open suspicion, but sighed when she realised that Moondancer wasn't going to budge on her story. Moondancer, for her part, relaxed a little when it was clear that Twilight had let it drop.

"Okay, so what are we looking for here?"

“Uh, you didn’t say, exactly.”

“What?!”

"You found mention of this castle in some old book in the archives. You said that it was a key part of Equestrian history that had been forgotten, or buried, or something. You said we needed to come out here to prove your suspicions and dig up what happened here."

"Hmm. 'Castle of the Royal Sisters'. You have to wonder who that name refers to. Some people from before Princess Celestia? Before Discord? I’m not sure... this castle is in excellent shape… probably has a lot of preservation magics still working… looks younger than it is… it might be a thousand years old, but not five thousand… Uh, what I’m trying to say is: I'll need to think about it."

"That's why you're here, babe," Moondancer said with a grin.

Twilight was focussed, now, and barely even noticed Moondancer's remark.

"Right. So we need to explore the castle. We then need to escape the castle. Exploring should be easy; there shouldn't be any dangers apart from falling masonry, and the castle is in very good condition. Leaving will be harder.

"The problem is the barrier. It will last for several days, and we're trapped so long as it’s up. If I drop the barrier we’ll be swarmed by Thought-Eaters. We need a safe way of dealing with the Thought-Eaters. So, how did you kill the one that attacked me?”

“When they first showed up, I got this out.” Moondancer held up a thick and stocky wand. It was barely two feet long, had very little tapering, and bore runes cut so shallow that they were barely visible.

“Wow! I haven’t seen a siege wand in that style outside of a museum. It looks like Farcaster herself could have made it!”

“Yeah. Family legend says my great to the nth uncle was apprenticed to Farcaster. This thing is nearly three hundred years old. One of the first wands ever made, even. The trigger energy is sky-high, and it’s much slower to respond than a modern wand, but it hits like a rampaging Ursa."

Twilight took the wand, inspected it carefully, and then sighed. "It’s too slow. We'd be overwhelmed in seconds if we tried to use this." She returned it to Moondancer, who stuffed it back in her pack.

"Moving on, how are we for supplies?"

“I brought enough food to last a couple of days; we were only supposed to be gone for the weekend. Oh, and plenty of water. How about you?”

“Oh! Good question. I have no idea. Let me see what’s in my pack.” Twilight started emptying the contents of her voluminous pack onto the grass one item at a time. There was a small two-person tent, a bedroll, a couple of large canisters of water, a walking stick, and a coil of rope all strapped to the outside the pack. From inside, she took out an instant campfire, a towel, paper, ink, quills, a crude looking map of the Forest, her own over-generous supply of White Fire healing balm – “Huh. I must have been as paranoid as you when packing” – and a squeezy bottle containing some liquid that Twilight didn’t recognise. Twilight sniffed the liquid and squirted some onto her fingers, rubbing them together. “Hmm, smells sweet. Some sort of gel or oil. Maybe I was worried about stuck doors?”, she mused aloud.

Twilight reached into the pack for the next item, then suddenly stopped, turning bright red. She then hurriedly started stuffing everything back into the pack, clearly trying to hide the contents. “Uh, looks like have enough food for a couple of days too, and lots of water.”

“What is it?”

“Nothing. Nothing. Nope, nothing wrong here.” Twilight’s blush didn’t fade.

“Ooh, sounds like the fun type of ‘nothing’. Come on, Twilight, we’re both stuck here together. We need to trust each other, don’t we?”

“Plan! We need a plan! Let’s not get distracted by minor details!”

“Okay, okay. I’ll let you off. For now. What’s the plan?”

“Well, okay. Plan. We know the negatives, let’s look at the positives: we’re at the place we were heading to, we’re safe from the Thought-Eaters, there will be no other animal threats to worry about because the eaters will have killed them, and we are unharmed.

“The plan is simple enough. We have enough food and drink to survive several days, and we can supplement them with apples from this garden. All we need to do is wait until Firstday: I have a meeting with Princess Celestia first thing every Firstday. I am never tardy. When I don’t turn up for that meeting, she will ask where I am. She will then come to the castle to rescue us. She can pop my barrier like a soap-bubble, and if the Thought-Eaters decide to attack her then we can watch the pretty fireworks as they explode.”

“Heh. Vengeful, much?”

“Stupid Thought-Eaters”, Twilight grumbled, rubbing her forehead.

“Still, I like your plan. It sure is nice to have your own goddess watching over you.” Moondancer was very amused. Twilight just stuck her tongue out at her.

“So we explore the castle,” Moondancer continued, “camp out for a couple of days, and wait for divine intervention? Let’s do it.”