Equestrian Tales

I listen intently as the last songbird hushes with the setting sun. The cicadas have been practicing all afternoon, and I nod as they settle into a perfectly synchronized zing, zing, zing. Then I fill my horn with magic, bringing my namesake up into the sky, signaling all of the crickets to begin their nightly chirping. Sighing with relief, I release the moon, as it is well on its way, and turn to the stars. One by one I paint a beautiful twinkling canopy across the sky, taking special care to name and place each one just so.  Once they are all in their places, shining as they seldom have over the past thousand years, I signal the katydids to begin their quiet thrum. Few ponies notice them, but I am enough of an audience to have them practicing until the early hours of the morning.

Finally satisfied that all is in order here, I turn around and head to my corner of the garden. Oh, how I have missed my old friends, who kept me company during the night’s lonely hours! I lean in to sniff each one in turn. Night-blooming Cereus, so sweet that I cannot resist a nibble on one of the petals, Lady of the Night, Night Orchid… of course all of them are collectively called “moonflowers”, but I prefer to know each one individually. Unfortunately, these are hardly recognizable as the tiny cuttings I planted so long ago. I sigh again. So much has changed…

Shaking myself from my reverie, I mentally remind myself that I must speak with the gardener who was able to synchronize their blooming. I idly wonder if magic was involved as I turn back toward the castle. As the two guards who I left stationed at the entrance of the garden fall in step behind me, I begin making my way towards the nearest entrance.

Of course the instant I got back, the first thing I did (after fully enjoying my reunion with Tia, of course) was familiarize myself with the entire layout of the new castle. I spent a few days exploring, with Tia popping in every now and then when she had the time, and am now able to get almost anywhere I wish to in a timely manner. I prefer not to use the secret tunnels when I have guards about, (especially since I have a brilliant prank planned for them later!) so I take the long way around, arriving at my destination in fifteen minutes rather than five.

The royal library. Imagine my surprise when I popped in here one night, only to find other ponies awake! Apparently Tia allows the unicorn students from her university access to some of the archives, and there is always somepony about, reading, studying, or doing something private in a dark corner. I had stumbled upon a few of these couples, and have taken to using the secret tunnels to get around while the guards remain at the entrance. It just wasn’t seemly, in my opinion, but the culture has changed so much since…

Moving on. I cannot allow myself to think about that. I nod and smile in greeting to the librarian on duty, and she reciprocates a tired smile before returning to her novel. Satisfied that nopony will bother me so long as I don’t make a big production of myself, I head in the direction of the tax records. I run the risk of stumbling upon some of the aforementioned couples, but the nearest secret entrance is hidden there. First, I must retrieve a key from the 1652 ledger.

That year had been a slow one, and so was naturally small, made even smaller by the tiny script of the unicorn who wrote it, so some past archivist had padded the back with extra blank pages. A tiny square was cut into each extra page, making it the perfect hidey-hole for a key.

Quickly looking around to be sure no one is watching, and then risking the glow to do a simple revealing spell, I sense another presence with my magic. Following my horn to see what it has unveiled, I am surprised, and relieved, to find the palace cat, Moonpaw.

He is a favorite of mine, not the least because he’s as nocturnal as I. He is black from tip to tail, but when he was a kitten he had snuck into the palace kitchen after a mouse. (It is still a mystery how the mouse got in there, as the palace wards should have kept it away.) As cats are wont to do, he stalked it, following it to and fro through the maze of stoves, sinks, and hooves. Finally the mouse darted into a bag of flour, and Moonpaw’s paw followed it. The black kitten then proceeded to present his catch to the night chef on duty. The chef, seeing his one white paw, named him Moonpaw, and the name stuck even after he had washed the flour off.

Smiling down at the cat bearing my namesake, I gently lift him and deposit him on my back (careful to shield myself from his claws) before retrieving the thick bookmark-shaped key. Finding one of the ubiquitous statues scattered about, I slip it into the stone book it is holding and watch a section of the nearby bookcase open just enough to squeeze through.

Sparing one last glance to be sure I am not followed, I slip into the secret passageway and ignore the resounding click of the closing mechanism. Igniting my horn once again, I use its pale glow to locate a quad of slippers. These had been haphazardly strewn about the corridors when I discovered them, but I had placed a set at each of the entrances I was aware of. Slipping them on, I tap one hoof upon the ground, and am satisfied that my clopping will be sufficiently muffled.

Of course, I could just use a muffling spell, but this tunnel has been disused for so long that if I use magic in certain portions of it, it can be detected by the castle wards. I carefully levitate a lantern to me and, with an extra flare from my horn, light it and take it in my mouth. As I allow the magic focused in my horn to dissipate, I wince, as Moonpaw’s claws dig into my back. I momentarily wish I had a blanket with me before I remember something, something I had forgotten such a long time ago…

Without another moment’s hesitation, I summon a blanket. Ordinarily the summoning of something you cannot see is difficult, draining, and downright dangerous, (especially if you accidentally grab a chunk of whatever’s around it, such as the ground) but this was no ordinary blanket, and it was in no ordinary place.

During the great prank wars of our teenage years, Tia had safeguarded her most prized possessions by locking them in a dimensional pocket. I, of course, quickly picked the lock and made off with them, rejuvenating our friendly rivalry and sparking several minor battles, after which one of us would have to make a new safe place and lock it better. We developed some quite elaborate setups, as I recall, until finally getting exhausted and proposing a truce. Our dimensional pockets were off limits, but the deal was off if one of us opened the other’s or hid something besides personal things in them. It was a nice herald of the eventual prank truce two years later, after both of us had clearly crossed the line…

What I have summoned has been known by several names over the centuries- the Golden Fleece, the Dragon’s Treasure, the Blanket of Many Colors, the Treasure of the Forbidden Palace, and the oldest of all names, (except the Golden Fleece, of course, since it was woven from that) is…

my Blankie.

Tia made it for me originally, from fleece given by the Takin Queen, and we have both embroidered it with so many spells that in today’s time it would probably be considered a dangerous weapon, an ancient artifact of unimaginable power. Of course, by now it probably is, but to me Blankie will always be the warm cuddly thing that I snuggled up in whenever I needed any sort of comforting and Tia wasn’t around. I ignore the spells that call out to me familiarly and magically command it to simply be a blanket, and it happily obliges by turning off its magical aura. I idly wonder how long it’s been since I’ve taken it out and sigh as I place Blankie underneath Moonpaw and make my way down the corridor.

I am headed for a “forbidden” archive, one I helped to create over a millennium ago. Even dear sister Tia did not disturb the files, for she left the magical wards intact when she moved them to this secret recess. Of course, I would not have minded much if she had allowed copies of the material to circulate, but she stated that it was my private library, and mine to command. She probably thinks my diary is in there.

Sighing again at the reminder of all the time I have lost, I make the now familiar turns and arrive at the doorway of a subterranean room. Rekindling my magic and turning my attention to the remarkably complex opening spell, I quietly answer the question the night guardian has used ever since I met him. Of course, Tia could have opened it herself after I … left, but she said she didn’t want to spoil her memories of me by seeing what was in there.

“Man eneth lin?”

“Isildur.”

“Heniach nin? Pedich edhellen?”

“Lau.”

“Hi Luna.”

“Hello Harmavaryon. How’s it going?”

“Fine. How’d the prank go?”

I smiled; Harry’s Old Equestrian was music to my ears. He refused to allow me to use it exclusively with him, though, saying that, “it gives me a headache trying to work with those stuffy old words. I prefer a language that moves and breathes.” It probably did give him a headache- he was magically tied to the books inside him, which updated constantly with new information. He couldn’t help it; he simply knew every new word when it popped up in writing, and so had been helping me learn the new speaking patterns that ponies use nowadays. I wouldn’t want another Ponyville incident, after all, even if it did afford me some new friends.

Remembering his question, however, I frowned and answered, “It didn’t go over so well. Remember the More Harma I tracked down? Well, turns out it was more More than I thought it would be.”

Harry groaned. “Sorry Luna, but your puns have not improved. Seriously, what happened? It’s driving me crazy not knowing about it.”

I sigh, resigned. “I… couldn’t go through with it.”

“What do you mean, you couldn’t go through with it?” If he had eyes, he would have narrowed them in suspicion.

“Well, you know how I wanted to make the entire Day Court smell like garlic? I was going to use the More Harma to make the smell more potent every time someone else tried to suppress it magically. But…”

An awkward moment passes, and when Harry can’t take the silence anymore he snaps, “Just tell me!”

“ItesteditintheguardbarrackslockerroomanditmadethewholebuildingsmelllikemoldycheeseandonionsandnowIcan’tgetthesmelltogoawaybecausethewardsarehardertocrackthanIthoughtIkepttryingbutitjustmadeitworseandTia’sgoingtosendmebacktothemoon.” I blurt out, before dropping to the floor, clopping my hooves over my mouth and hiding behind my mane.

Moonpaw lets out a screech as his perch suddenly disappears out from under him before landing on his four paws and taking off into the tunnels. I can’t say I blame him.

Harry takes a moment to sort through this information before bursting out in laughter. This goes on for a much longer period of time than one would consider healthy before remembering that Harmarvaryon is a being of magic and certain rare woods and metals and thus does not rely on lungs pushing air past vocal chords to produce sound. Finally his guffaws fade to chuckles and then giggles as he feels compelled to reiterate what I’ve just told him.

“So let me get this straight. You tracked down the More Harma from its hiding place in the mountains between the Everfree Forest and Appleloosa.”

I am still mortified, so likely he only sees a large mass of blue cosmic hair nod.

“You then devised this prank, and needed a place to test it. Instead of recreating the prank bunker we used in Everfree, you decided to test it in the guard barrack’s locker room because…?”

There are plenty of reasons. I was too lazy to recreate a magically-enhanced underground bunker with my weakened daytime magic, and too impatient to wait for nightfall. Besides, I wouldn’t want to sully a brand-new bunker with a magical stink bomb. No one was in the locker room at that time of day. There’s always an unpleasant smell in a locker room, no matter how clean it is, so a little background odor would go unnoticed. But the biggest one was…

“I thought that it would be easier if I tied it to the existing anti-stink charms.” I answer in my most apologetic tone. “I underestimated the reaction.”

“That goes without saying.” he answers. “I think I can guess what happened. You tested it in the Day Guard’s locker room, just after the noon shift change. You then spent the afternoon and evening making the smell worse, until finally being forced to stop and lower the moon. You then came here, hoping that one of my books would be able to help you learn how to control the reaction enough to release it in the Day Court. But my question is, how in Equestria did you manage to keep the late shift Day Guards from going into the locker room? One of my books would have told me if somepony had discovered it.”

I sheepishly look up at his gilded form. “I ordered all Day Guard personnel to remove their armor and congregate at the open field on the south side of the gardens for a Shadowbolt performance.”

Once I found out about my sister’s Wonderbolts, I decided to form my own team for nighttime weather displays. It seems that nocturnal storms have become popular in Equestria, since ponies prefer to have sunny days without rain, but also need the water for the plants to be healthy. It’s a win-win that it can rain when everypony else is asleep. This tends to give those pegasi erratic sleeping habits, but by now it’s a time-honored tradition, and really time that somepony made it into an art form. My Shadowbolts can create beautifully complex lightning patterns that simply take one’s breath away, and we even have a pegasus from Fairbucks up north who’s special talent is creating aurora borealis. In my opinion, if my stars are going to be obscured, it better be by something as spectacular as it is helpful.

Harry gave the box equivalent of a grin. (I don’t know how it works. I can’t describe it. It’s just part of his ancient magic.) “And so they’re going to get a little wet?” he asks. “Brilliant! Luna, if you had put half as much thought into your prank setup as you did to this coverup, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. That being said…” He gives me an appraising glance before letting a few stray chuckles escape. “Hard to believe you’ve been wearing the solution this whole time and didn’t even realize it.”

I look at him in confusion before turning to look at my flank.

Of course. My Blankie.

I jump off the floor and give Harry a hug as we both utterly lose our decorum. I am glad that these corridors are deserted, for if anypony had been nearby they would surely believe we had lost our minds. Our laughter finally fades as I flash him a grin.

“I’d better go take care of my mess before Tia finds out.” I tell him. As I turn around and start down the route that will take me back to the library, Harry calls,

“Don’t forget to come tell me how it goes with the Day Court!”

“Of course!” I call back before grabbing my Blankie in my teeth and breaking into a gallop. Behind me, I hear a resounding click as Harmavaryon reseals his secret chamber. I am an alicorn on a mission: those lockers must be clean by the time the Day Guard returns from the performance.

*Author's Note* Thanks for reading! Just so you know, Harry and Luna are saying phrases of Elvish I found online. If I translated anything wrong, please let me know!

Here's what the translation's supposed to be:

"Man eneth lin?" "What's your name?"

"Isildur." "Servant of the Moon."

"Heniach nin? Pedich edhellen?" "Can you understand me? Do you speak Elvish?"

"Lau." "No."

"More Harma" is supposed to be "Dark Treasure"