Moonstone Gleam looked over her gear for her next trip into the Everfree. Glancing over her map, she caught sight on her next target: an unexplored section of a city that was currently creating an ugly, blank area on the piece of parchment. A length of rope for scaling any walls or collapsed roofs, a hard hat for any unexpected cave-ins, and finally some rations and camping materials in case the trek went long. With all the components collected, Moonstone Gleam set out for the lost town of Everfree...
The cobblestone roads quickly gave way to marsh as Moonstone Gleam passed a half-sunken statue of some ancient pegasus. Her main quarry today was a somewhat submerged house that drew her for reasons that she could not place, but she told herself that it clearly was a noble's house, however small, and would likely contain some good artifacts.
The door was sunken in unfortunately, and the windows were too obscured with a millenium of dust and grime to get a good look at the inside of the house, so she made her way to a hole in the top of the roof where there was already a rotting rope leading down into the home.
So, somepony else made it inside first. Moonstone thought, hopes falling somewhat. This only stalled her for a moment before she secured the rope and made her own descent, where she saw the previous explorer, long dead and crushed beneath a broken beam.
She combed the place top to bottom, only finding common trinkets, but some fine silverware and ceramic, adorned with lunar imagery. Packing the items away, taking care with the delicate ceramic, a glint caught her eye from beneath the corpse of the adventurer. She delicately moved the poor adventurer's arm to reveal a leatherbound journal, with glints of silver and more lunar imagery. It smelt of magic, presumably because its previous hopeful owner had mostly likely cast a preservation spell on it to freshen it up. A quick look inside revealed words in ancient Equestrian and scrawled notes and doodles. Whoever this was, from what Moonstone could understand, whoever had written this was close to Luna, although how she couldn't tell for sure. She put the journal in her bag, and made her way out, already thinking up the letter she would write to the Lunar Regent.
She made one more stop on her way home, the Canterlot Library to pick up a translation guide on Ancient Equestrian. This was her third time this month borrowing it, as a lot of jewelry and artifacts that she found and sold had the language written on them, and ponies liked to know what it said.
Finally sitting at home, both books opened in front of her, Moonstone Gleam finally opened the journal to the first page, labeled the fourth of Sunrise, 1246 After Ascension...
Concerning the alchemist that I persuaded Celestia to hire...
The summer sun shone brightly on the town of Everfree, the Castle rising into the robin’s egg sky above. Ponies talked as they exchanged bits for goods. Colts teased fillies and chased them through the streets, the foals laughing and romping in the warm afternoon. As Painted Lily trotted slowly down the cobbled road, it seemed as if the entire world had forgotten the terrifying night that had swallowed the world only two weeks ago.
“So it’s true?” she heard a farm pony ask, “Princess Luna is gone?”
“Afraid so,” the salespony sighed, “Celestia banished her to the moon.” Painted Lily glanced at the speakers as she passed. She shook her head softly, her long, fuchsia mane falling about her face. The thought of it felt so wrong. One princess banishing another? How surreal.
You’re not here to listen to gossip, Lily, she reminded herself, focus. The white mare looked up, trying to locate the proper street. She’d never been to the castle before, but with a job offer such as this, how could she refuse? Chief Apothecary. What an honor! She was surprised word of her talent had made it to castle seeing as she lived deeper into the forest where the best herbs grew. Turning up the road, she made her way up the slope towards the impressive grey bulk of the castle.
She thanked the guard as they reached the meeting room and walked to the desk.
“I’ll let him know you’ve arrived,” the stallion said, dipping his head. The door closed softly, leaving her alone with her thoughts and a luxurious, mahogany desk. Her horn flared with energy as she lifted her saddlebag onto the desktop. From it, she produced three stoppered bottles of pale, lavender liquid. The door opened again and Painted Lily turned to face it. She pursed her lips.
“You.”
The pegasus standing before her smiled, ruffling his wings in greeting. He wore a silver chain around his neck with a dark blue gem in the shape of the crescent moon. His ruffled, powder blue hair, his harvest moon eyes - she had forgotten them until now.
“So you’re the one who called me here?” she flicked her ear in irritation.
“Yes,” he said, smile still affixed to his face, “Painted Lily, right? I’m-”
“Perilune, I know.”
He paused, tilting his head, “Really?”
“Yeah,” she snorted. He tilted his head further, scrunching his face to the side.
“Your eyes…” he said slowly.
“Excuse me?”
“Do I… Know you from somewhere?”
Lily raised her eyebrows. “Are you serious?”
“Yes, I swear I know you from somewhere… I just can’t remember.”
“Five years. When we were foals. Every night. None of this is ringing a bell?” The stallion stared at her for a moment more, his wings shifting absently. Suddenly, his smile widened massively.
“Oh! Painted Lily! I used to visit your dreams when I was a colt!”
“Now you remember,” she rolled her eyes.
“Yeah! Oh, wow, I can’t believe it! What a coincidence, right?” He trotted into the room, approaching the desk. “These the sleeping potions?” He asked, looking at the three bottles.
“Yes. That’s what you ordered,” Lilly said curtly, glaring at him.
“The fastest a sleeping potion has taken effect on me was thirty seconds. If the rumors about you are true, then yours should work in ten.” Perilune took one of the bottles and uncorked it, taking a drop on his wing. He sampled it, and his eyes widened in shock. “Maybe less. I’d advise adding pegasus feather to these, but otherwise, I think you have yourself a job.”
“Which one of us is the alchemist here?” she grumbled, flicking her tail sharply. “What exactly do you need sleeping potions for?”
“My occupation requires that I be able to fall asleep at a moment’s notice. Especially since the… incident a few weeks ago.”
“You mean Nightmare Moon?” she asked, eyes narrowing.
“That’s not her name!” Perilune suddenly shouted, stomping the floor. He pulled back almost instantly, wings tucking in embarrassment. “Sorry. It’s just… a bit of a touchy subject.”
Confused, Painted Lilly simply nodded. “Understood.” She trotted closer, lifting one of the bottles with her magic and then plucking a feather from his wing. Not a flight feather, of course, just a little one. Perilune winced slightly.
“That should dilute it a little. It was a joke. Mostly.”
“Hmph.” She didn’t look at him as she stirred the feather into the potion, crumbling it into little pieces. After stirring it for a moment, she set it on the desk again.
“Now, on the subject of payment,” she began, looking sidelong at him.
“Right. Fifteen bits for every sleeping potion, thirty for each spiritual revitalizer, and you choose the fare for if I get ill or injured. How’s that sound?”
“You’re planning on getting injured?” she asked, a scowl tugging at her features.
“Well yeah. I plan on fighting Nightmares, so I bet I’m going to get roughed up quite a bit and-” He suddenly cut himself off, his face showing that he had definitely not meant to say that.
“Nightmares? You mean like-” she stopped herself before she set him off again, “The one from a couple weeks ago?”
“No, like the ones that you dream about, the ones that… actually might be threats. It happens sometimes. Hence the spiritual revitalizer. I’ve fought a couple already, and the fights take a lot out of me.” Perilune said a bit sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.
“Uh huh.” Painted Lily said slowly, not sure what to say. “How often does this occur?”
“Not that often, once every week or so.” Perilune hesitated for a moment, and just as Painted Lily was about to speak again, he piped back up with, “I should probably show you where you’ll be creating your brews and doing most of your work. As well as the home that has been set aside for you to live in if you’d like.”
“Will there be any pay besides your out of pocket expenses?”
“Well, as you can imagine, budgets are tight right now due to reparations and-”
“Enough with the babble. Out with it.”
“We were able to get you market space in the city square for a quarter of the typical cost.”
“And what? I’m supposed to make brews wholesale while at the same time supplying to you?”
“Equestria is entering a new age of expansion. There are plenty of ponies in the city who need potions.”
“And what is the fee I’ll be paying for the space?” Painted Lily said, trying to keep her disappointment and frustration as hidden as possible.
“Fifty bits per month.”
Great.
Moonstone Gleam woke up when the sun filtered in from the window across the room. She was in her study, in her apartment above her shop. She sat up and snapped awake as she saw the journal, her translation notes, as well as her letter to Luna, pushed across the table. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes before checking the journal and letter for any damage. Whoever had found the journal had doused it in too much restoration magic before they died. Any more and the magic would start to do more harm than good.
Once she was satisfied that everything was in good condition, she checked the time and was startled to see how long she had overslept. Her shop was set to open over an hour ago! Moonstone quickly hopped out of the chair and put some toast on, preparing herself to open her shop, which primarily dealt with the more mundane curios and antiques she fished out from various ruined sites across Equestria, the city known as “everfree” her main focus at the moment.
Fifteen minutes later she unlocked the door to Ancient Treasures, three ponies trotting in almost immediately.
“Good morning! Welcome to Ancient Treasures!” she announced, greeting the ponies at the door as they all walked in.
“I heard that you made another expedition out to the Everfree Forest yesterday.” Twilight Sparkle, a regular to her store even before her own Ascension, albeit more for conversation than interest in trinkets, asked.
“I did, but I’m afraid that my most recent journey yielded artifacts too valuable to be sold. I’m currently drafting a letter to Dusty Tome in Canterlot to get them admitted to the Museum of Ancient Equestrian History.”
“Ooh, so you found the home of somepony important out in that city?”
“Apparently so,” Moonstone said, walking behind the counter, where two ponies were looking at the shiny jewelry she had placed there.
“I still remember getting that particular piece like it was yesterday,” Moonstone said, eyeing at the large golden broach set with a ruby shaped like the sun that the two were marveling at, “It’s not often that I have to compete for artifacts, but that old palace is a veritable hive for people who would do these artifacts harm and maybe even sell them to the wrong kind of people.
“This one in particular I believe was ceremonially worn by the head of the Solar council, and as such was more for formal affairs such as attending council or making public appearances on behalf of the Princess. The grave robbers I took this from believed it to be magical on the merit that it simply had ancient Equestrian writing on it. I was able to draw them away, then take all the artifacts they had stored before they came back.”
“Did they have anything magical?” the blue-haired stallion asked.
“Like I said, they believed it to be magical because of the engraving. Most of the others were the same. There were a few minor good luck charms, but those were nearly faded.”
“Oh,” the stallion said, slightly crestfallen, “well, how much for this one?” he pointed at the broach.
“Well, I’ll cut you a deal for letting me talk your ear off, so how about two hundred?”
“Sounds like a deal!” the stallion said, counting a bag of bits out onto the counter.
The work day passed similarly, with ponies walking in, looking at Moonstone’s wares, occasionally listening to a story, then leaving either with wares or without. Twilight hovered around the entire day, making attempts to prise information from her whenever she got a moment to breathe. After the fiftieth attempt, Twilight finally seemed to get the memo and left, if a bit disappointed. Finally, as Celestia’s sun set and Luna’s moon rose, Moonstone flipped the sign on her store to closed, and went upstairs to study once more, making a second draft on her letter to Luna…
Dear Princess Luna,
I have in my possession a set of items that may be of interest to you…
Author's Note
Welp, here we go again. I've gotten a modicum of motivation and so you can expect one more chapter at least before the end of the month... probably.
