Starlight, Trixie, And The Cursed Manor
Starlight looked over the map in the room with an awestruck expression. Both her and Trixie's cutie marks were hovering over a part of the map just west of the city of Neighpols. Currently Twilight was having a freakout.
“How did this happen? The map has never called Trixie before. Does this mean that she is going to be sent on more missions in the future? Is this going to be like that time that Sunburst was called too and this is all just one big family problem? What about-”
“Twilight. Calm down. Trixie and I were called to go on an adventure. Let's just see how this goes, perhaps it's just a magician that's lost their creative spark and just needs to have someone motivate them.”
“Obviously no one is better able to motivate a struggling entertainer than THE GREAT, AND POWERFUL, TRIXIE!” Trixie then threw down one of her smoke bomb pellets, releasing a great plume upon impact.
Starlight, having been exposed to her friend's shenanigans quite often in the last few years, only released a small cough while Twilight was sent into a full-blown fit. When the smoke cleared Twilight still had to cough for another few seconds, after which she sent a death glare over to the blue unicorn. For her part, Trixie didn’t seem phased in the least by the princess’s anger.
“Well, it might not be what you think. I was looking up the location where you two are going and found out that it’s the old home of the Stirrup family. It's one of the larger and more modern manors in Equestria.”
“Ok then, so maybe the current owners are just having some buyer’s remorse and are angry with the realtor for selling them the house.”
“Not quite. The manor is still owned by the Stirrups but it's been abandoned for decades now. I have no idea why there would be a friendship problem there, let alone why the problem would require two ponies to solve.”
Starlight glanced over at the part of the map where her and Trixie's cutie marks were floating. The area looked to be a dense forest and with little space, if any, where a clearing could be seen. But right underneath their cutie marks, she could see a small structure, almost obscured by the canopy surrounding it.
“Twilight, when did you say that the manor was abandoned?”
“Oh, I just found the history book not too long ago, give me a second.” Twilight turned around and began levitating the books that were spread out in the room in front of her. The books passed by her rather quickly, so fast that if Starlight and Trixie didn't know her they would have assumed she would have only been able to read every third book title.
“Found it!” The procession of books immediately stopped and a single brown book with some age wear and silver writing on the binding lay floating in front of the purple princess. “The Complete Modern History of the Architecture and Development in Equestria and The Crystal Empire.”
Quickly flipping the book open, Twilight began flipping through the pages on the hunt for a specific section that only she knew. And almost as soon as the flipping had begun it stopped.
“Here we go, the Arborial Mansion, manor of the Stirrup family.” Twilight set the book down and rotated it around so the two unicorns could read it too. “Construction was finished on the manor on April 7th, 954 A.L.B. for an estimated thirty-four thousand bits. The manor was abandoned fifteen years later following the death of five individuals and over a decade of failed business ventures by the family. The manor was declared cursed as after the family vacated it the family began seeing profits in their businesses again. The manor has been listed one time for twenty-one thousand bits from 984-994 A.L.B., but due to no interest being shown due to its history the structure remains in the Stirrup family to this day.”
Trixie was showing signs of becoming more and more nervous as the story progressed. The mentions of deaths and the idea the house could be cursed only made what she was hearing worse.
“Perhaps you can make an exception this time over who goes. I’m sure you would be a far better candidate than the great and not scared Trixie. I have some important practice I need to do for a show I'm doing.”
“No, Trixie. The map chooses the best ponies to take on the task, and if it decided that the two of you are the best for the task at hoof then that's what needs to happen,” Twilight explained as she grabbed the retreating Trixie with her magic and deposited her next to Starlight.
Starlight leaned into her friend in an attempt to comfort the mare. “Don't worry Trixie, I highly doubt that the manor is actually cursed. In all likelihood, it was just the family having a run of bad luck and nothing magically based.”
Trixie seemed unconvinced but seemed to have accepted what she needed to do. “If you say so. But if I see a single pony not trotting right or some fillies ask me to come play with them I am out of there.”
Starlight chuckled. “You watch too many horror movies, Trixie. Twilight, do you think I could bring some books with me to read on what the deal is with this manor?”
“Sure, take everything you need.” Twilight quickly closed the book they had been looking through and levitated over several other books and placed them on top of the first. “Make sure you take notes on your trip so I can see what it was like.”
The train going to Neighpols was a long one. Starlight spent most of the time reading through what she could find about the history and events surrounding the Stirrup family and the manor. Trixie on the other hoof was constantly looking through the window or reading through a gossip magazine. After the fourth time she had tried to initiate a conversation with Starlight on what was in the magazines and been shut down she relegated herself to looking over her next performance and redesigning it in new ways. By the time the train arrived in the Neighpols station around three in the afternoon, she had tuned the performance from a simple show to entertain the town to a massive display involving a hydra, Starlight in a poncho, and several students from the friendship school playing poker underwater while the surface was on fire.
The two of them agreed that they probably had enough time left in the day to head to the manor to solve the friendship problem and still be able to make the night train back to ponyville. So with that, the two began the several kilometer trek through the Lasso Oak forest to their goal.
“Are you sure this is the right way to the stupid house?” Trixie complained. It had been about an hour since the two had departed the city and the only indication the two had that this was the right way had been the directions of a local and the few cobblestones of a pathway they saw every once and a while that had not yet been reclaimed by nature. “I love forests and all, but even I get bored of looking at the same trees over and over again.”
“Yes Trixie, this is the right way. We shouldn't be too far now. I would say that we should see it sometime... there it is!”
The building in front of the two ponies was a large structure befitting the title of a manor. While it wasn't as large as some of the more ostentatious mansions that some of the nobles of Canterlot possessed, it was still a proud structure that spoke to the wealth and status of the family that it belonged to. Or it would be if time had been more kind to its once elegant grandeur.
The once well-maintained gardens that had decorated the front yard of the manor now lay either overgrown or overtaken by the native plants. The front of the house had been almost completely covered in large, entangled masses of ivy. Starlight figured that they had once been fairly well groomed, but the decades that had passed since the last time any gardener had seen to them had allowed the front to now resemble a building-sized bush.
The actual manor had seen better days without a doubt. Several windows looked to be broken along with large sections of brickwork missing from what wasn't covered in the green vines. Additionally, several sections of the roof seemed to have caved in as the framing now lay exposed and rotting. The only part of the manor that the two unicorns could see that still looked to be in relatively good shape was the large front double door, and even then, the best thing one could say about it was that it hadn't yet been covered in vines and was still on its hinges. From the distance the doors looked highly age-worn and seemed to have large pieces missing as the doors looked to have been made out of a white wood painted black.
“Are you sure that this place isn't haunted? Because this looks like the exact type of place that would be haunted.” Trixie’s voice was strained, her fear and trepidation evident in her tone.
“Yes Trixie, it isn't haunted or cursed.” Starlight did her best to sound confident to ease her friend's nerves, walking towards the front of the house with Trixie following closely behind for fear of being left alone. “From what I learned, nothing bad that happened here was due to anything more than simple bad luck. The reason the family fell on hard times was simply due to trade negotiations being reworked between the griffins and Equestria after the invention of airships changed how things would be imported and exported. Their hard times lasted for so long because their head of house, Profit Margins, decided to try and reinvent the family business when things first got bad. If he had just ridden out the hard times the family probably would have been back to normal within a few years.
“But that doesn't explain the ponies that Twilight said died here. How do you explain that?”
“Simple, three of the deaths were from a Hearth’s Warming party where two ponies and a griffin had too much alcohol and fell off the observatory. The other two were from a cooking experiment from a member of the family that didn't know that you need to heat bitter almonds to make them safe to eat.”
“Alright then, I’ll trust you. But don't think for a moment that this means I feel safe.”
“I don't think you should. While we might not be in danger of curses or evil spirits, that doesn't change the fact this house hasn’t been maintained in several decades. I wouldn't be surprised if we see termite damage. We should watch out for weaknesses in the floors and ceilings while we’re in there.”
Trixie looked to her friend like she had grown a second head. “Then why are we going in there? If it's so dangerous why would someone be in there?”
“I don't know, but if there is somepony in there we should go inside to check on them. The last thing I need is to know is that somepony was injured when I could have prevented it.”
Starlight first proceeded to the one of the windows along the front of the house. If she could get a look at what the house looked like inside she might have an idea of what her and Trixie were about to walk into. Unfortunately, a curtain had been drawn across the window. She tried other windows along the front of the house but was met with either drawn curtains, or in the case of broken windows, something large like a wardrobe pushed up to the window, preventing anything from entering.
How strange.
Figuring that all of the windows were probably going to be like this Starlight decided to head back to the front door to rejoin Trixie and see if they could use the front door to enter rather than look around for an alternative entrance.
When the two arrived at the front doors Starlight was surprised to find out that the white sections of the door had not been missing sections or age wear, but were actually parts of the wood itself. The door was obviously wood but it was like nothing she had seen before. The wood was a deep, inky black with sections of almost pure white in either streaks or large ovals. However, what was of greater interest than the strange wood the door had been made of was its condition.
It was immaculate.
The double door was covered in many intricate carvings and designs, obviously from a master craftspony. But despite the decades of abandonment that the manor had received, none of the carvings were in any way damaged. Even stranger, the entire door looked to have been installed yesterday. There was not a single imperfection Starlight could see from where she stood. This got her thinking. Why would the front door be the only thing on the outside of the house to be untouched by time?
“Trixie, doesn't this look strange to you?”
“All of this looks strange. Let's just head inside, I want to get this friendship problem solved as fast as we can so I’m not in there when it collapses.”
Starlight carefully extended a hoof to each side of the seam between the two doors and pushed. Surprisingly, the doors proceeded to open. The doors had not been locked, and just like the door itself, the hinges were in great condition, allowing the heavy doors to swing inward silently with little resistance. But what took both ponies breaths away was the interior of the home.
The inside, in contrast to the exterior, was showing almost no indication that the manor had ever been abandoned save for a coating of dust and the occasional cobweb that covered the chandelier and most every table and piece of furniture in the front hall.
Before Starlight could begin to fully process what she was seeing she began to hear hoofsteps behind her slowly moving away. Starlight instantly lit up her horn.
“Hey, what's that for?” Trixie demanded as she was levitated next to Starlight by her friend’s magic. “Aren’t you seeing what I am? This has all the signs of being haunted. Why else would the inside look so good while out here is a dump?”
“As I told you, it isn't haunted.” Starlight continued to walk into the manor, but she had definitely become more hesitant and cautious. ”Most likely someone’s been living here for a while and has been keeping everything inside maintained.”
“Without ever dusting?” Trixie dragged her hoof across a table next to the left door, and as she did a thick pile of dust began to collect, revealing an expensive wooden table beneath the flour-like coating.
“Perhaps they just haven't gotten around to it just yet.” Even Starlight had to admit that it was by far the weakest excuse she could have come up with. The state of the interior was something that confounded her. She had seen that several windows had been broken, and at least one of them should have left the room open to the outside. She at least expected leaves, dirt, or other things to have flown in or be brought in by animals that found their way in. “Well, on the bright side, at least we probably don't need to worry about the floor or ceiling giving out on us.”
Trixie didn't seem to be in the mood to look on the bright side of things. Instead, she just walked closer to her friend and signaled her irritation and discomfort.
Starlight, taking the hint, decided it would be best to hurry this up so her friend wouldn't be even angrier at her later. She decided to take a look at the right side of the manor first and see if she could find anything that would indicate that someone was indeed living here.
The first room she came across was a dining room. The room was lit by the evening sun being cast through a white curtain across the window, turning the room a dark yellow. Unlike the entry though, the table was not covered in any dust. The table itself was a large one, able to fit at least twelve ponies. It was also set up to do as much. She could see a plate and utensils in front of each chair, all reflecting the sunlight coming through the window and begging to be put to use.
Wait, shining.
Starlight took a closer look at the plates and utensils, and as she had suspected, they were all in pristine condition. Like the rest of the table, they all lacked even a single speck of dust.
“Starlight, how long did you say this place has been abandoned?” Trixie's voice was fairly shaky. It was fairly obvious that something was wrong.
“Almost three decades. Why do you ask?”
“Because I’m fairly certain that there aren't any foods out there that can last for several decades.”
Starlight began walking to where she had heard the sound of Trixie’s voice coming from. When she rounded the corner to where she figured Trixie had gone she was met with the sight of the kitchen. Starlight noticed Trixie standing in front of what she assumed was the pantry and looking in with a mix of surprise and fear.
When she made her way over to her friend and followed her gaze she realised just what had been the cause of Trixie's concern. While most of the pantry was empty, the bottom few shelves still had some items on them, and they looked to not be rotten. Sitting on the lower shelves were a mix of mushrooms, berries, roots, and even a few pieces of what looked to be dried meat.
This was all the proof Starlight needed to know that there was some pony living here, or more accurately, some creature. The fact that they had stored meat was more than enough proof to show that an omnivorous creature had taken up residence in the manor.
Starlight turned away from the pantry and began examining everything else in the kitchen. Trixie did the same, closing the pantry door as she left. Other than what one would usually find in a kitchen owned by a wealthy family there was nothing really of note. Nothing besides a massive arched double door.
The door was larger than the one at the front of the house, and unlike that one Starlight could tell immediately that this door belonged to a wealthy family. It was made from aged oak and had simple yet pleasing designs along its face. Across the middle was a thick oak bar resting on two hooks on either side of the seam between the doors. A third hook could be seen on the right door along with a peg on the left side of the wooden bar. Starlight figured that more than likely the bar was meant to swivel around a pivot.
Just as Starlight was about to say something a creak from a floorboard in the next room had both Trixie and Starlight turning their heads in the direction of the noise. The two waited for several seconds to hear if any other sounds were going to be made. When nothing happened Starlight ever so quietly made her way over to the door to the other room. When she arrived she slowly peaked around the corner only to find nothing. Well, nothing would be the wrong word. The other room turned out to be a family room, complete with luxurious couches and a massive fireplace, but nothing alive that would have made the noise.
“Do you see anything?” Trixie's voice was strained, trying to speak softly but with enough volume to have her stress come across.
“No.” Starlight turned back towards the large oak door. “It was just a family room. More than likely it was just the floor settling.”
Trixie didn't look convinced but chose not to voice her concerns. Starlight made her way to the door. When she flipped the bar across the door to unlock it and tried to open it with her magic she found that it was incredibly heavy. She pulled with a significant amount of force on the right door and began to feel the door begin to finally open. When the door was open enough so that a pony could comfortably walk through it she let go of the door.
She then approached the opening she had made and discovered why it had been so hard to open. The doors were a good four to five inches thick, each one probably weighing over one thousand pounds. She had learned that the Stirrup family was rich but the amount of money this must have taken was incredible.
Peeking in past the doors, Starlight found a set of stairs leading down. In all likelihood this was a wine cellar for when the family was planning to entertain guests. Starlight closed the door again and turned to exit the kitchen.
Again, a creak could be heard from the living room. This time though, Starlight rushed into the room as fast as she could, expecting to find whatever it was that was living here.
Only to again find nothing.
“Are you sure that noise was just nothing? You seem to have run in here awfully fast over some settling floorboards.” The skeptical tone of Trixie's voice as she entered the room made it all too obvious that she knew Starlight was just as on edge as she was.
“I’m fine. It’s just… it’s just that the food in the pantry, I know somepony’s living here.”
“That’s kind of obvious, Starlight. What I want to know is just WHAT is living here.”
The two began to explore the room, but turned up nothing more than more dust and expensive furniture. As the two were about to head into the next room Starlight could make out a strange sound, almost like what one hears when playing with toy slime, come from out of the kitchen. She immediately turned back around and bolted into the kitchen with Trixie in tow.
When the two arrived back in the kitchen they were met with the same sight they had seen for the last few minutes. Nothing was out of place. Nothing except the open pantry door.
Starlight instantly ran over to the pantry to look inside. What she found was what she had expected to see, all except for the food that should have been on the shelves.
“Trixie, I think that whatever is living here is watching us.”
Trixie didn't say a word, her eyes instead darting across the room, trying to find any little discrepancy that might tell her where the thing that had taken the food might have gone.
“Perhaps we should check to see what else we can find in the house,” Starlight suggested while turning to face Trixie.Trixie didn't seem to register what she had just said so she tried again. “Trixie!”
“I heard you the first time. It's just… I have a bad feeling about trying to find whatever is living here.”
Starlight sighed. She didn’t know of anything that she could say that might help ease her friend’s mind. Instead, starlight began to walk back into the entryway of the house. When she arrived she looked around at the surroundings and found a hallway leading the the left side of the house. When Trixie had caught up she began walking down the hall with her.
Suddenly, a loud impact could be heard from the second floor. Starlight wasn’t a betting pony but she would put bits on the sound coming from whatever was living here having fallen down.
“Quick, upstairs!”
Without waiting for her friend Starlight took off towards the stairs. Judging by the volume of the sound and where it had come from she figured that the noise must have come from somewhere above the dining room. She bolted up the stairs and into a hallway to the right. She turned right when she saw the hall split in two directions. She was now in a hallway with several doors on each side. She was good with knowing relative positions and knew that where she was standing was right above the dining room. She just needed to wait for whatever was living here to make another sound.
Starlight suddenly heard the same wet squelch she had heard come from the kitchen followed by the caw of a crow and the sound of wing beats in the rooms on her left. Starlight immediately grabbed onto the door handle and flung the door open. She was greeted the sight of a massive study. She could also just see as a crow flew out of the room through one of the broken windows she had seen from outside.
Looking around, Starlight noticed just how dilapidated the room was. Every piece of furniture was either water damaged or showed signs of exposure to the elements. There were few things left in the room that could be called undamaged. Even the books that lay on tables or on chairs had curling pages and mold clinging to them. This was the exact state she had expected the rest of the house to be in when she had seen the broken windows and caved-in roof.
When Starlight walked back into the hallway she saw that Trixie had caught up with her and had returned to examining every little detail in an attempt to find whatever it was that had been stalking them and making those weird noises.
“I think we should try the outside. I saw that one of the windows had been broken, maybe whatever is living here went outside.” Starlight, while suggesting this to try to help Trixie’s paranoia, was mostly suggesting this for herself. She was starting to question if she had been wrong about the house being haunted. While it made sense that somepony was living here now, every time she tried to catch a glimpse of it she found nothing.
Trixie looked to be relieved at her suggestion, adopting a small smile on her face before calmly nodding, the two began the trip back to the front door. As they rounded the corner to the hallway leading to the stairs they found a door on the right side of the hallway to be open slightly.
“Trixie, you wouldn’t have happened to have opened any doors when we were galloping past here, would you?”
“No.”
“I was afraid of that.”
Starlight and Trixie began to approach the door that seemed to have opened on it's own. Carefully, Starlight approached the door, trying to peek in as much as she could. What she saw seemed to be a foal’s bedroom, more specifically a colt’s. Gently she began to open the door inwards, but was only met with silence and a wider view of the room.
When she had finally opened the door to the point she could enter without further moving the door she carefully crept into the room. When she looked around the room she was treated to the most unsettling sight she had seen so far. The room, while a disaster in terms of toys, books, and other assorted items for a foal, did not give off the impression of a room in an abandoned house. The room looked like it had come from a normal house, with everything in relative order. It was unnerving.
“Is it just me or should this room not look so good?” Trixie peeked in on the room and looked to be just as shocked.
“No, it shouldn't.” Starlight began to examine the room. Nothing in the room looked dusty and everything on the floor, while a disaster, was nothing she wouldn’t expect from a young colt.
Starlight began to make her way further into the room, stepping over the occasional toy or book. When she reached the bed she found a small pile of papers. When she looked closer she found that the first paper was a drawing that must have been from the colt whose room this was, judging by the quality of the art. On the page there looked to be two individuals, a light brown earth pony labeled ME and a timberwolf labeled MOSSY among some trees. Flipping through the rest of the pages she found that they all contained the light brown earth pony labeled me and something labeled Mossy in a new location. The operative word being something due to Mossy never being the same in any of the drawings, be it timberwolf, bird, cat, or at one point another pony, the individual labeled Mossy was never depicted the same way.
Looking at the drawings again she noticed that they seemed to have been out in a light rain at one point because on each of the pages she could make out places where water had contacted the paper and damaged them.
“What’s this doll doing here?” Trixie wondered aloud.
Starlight turned to face Trixie, who was currently facing a large set of shelves. Following her friend’s eyes she saw that there was indeed a doll situated on the middle shelf just left of the door. The doll was a small unicorn pony that almost looked to be the result of a dozen different items of cloth being sewn together by a pony that didn't quite understand proper proportions nor of the proper placement of external features. The doll had offset eyes that didn't seem to be the same size and the horn had been sewn on off-center, so it resided above the right eye instead of the center of the forehead. Starlight figured that the pony that had made this didn't care about aesthetics due to the odd structure of the doll and his frankenpony-esque application of different materials.
Picking up the strange doll, Trixie began examining it closer. As she did this its left foreleg fell off. Trixie picked the leg up and examined it and the hole where the limb had come loose and found shoddy stitching had been done on the doll with a black thread. It was painfully obvious that the same hooves that had stitched the doll together were not the same that had done the patch job. While the doll looked ugly the stitching was serviceable, and this leg seemed to have been attached almost as an afterthought.
“This is officially the most likely item in this entire house to be haunted.”
“I told you, the house isn't haunted. Also, I think I know whose room this is,” Starlight said, looking over the toys and books that were laying around the floor.
“Really?” Trixie placed to doll back on the shelf she had found it on, with the leg sitting somewhat off to the side. “I wouldn’t have figured that you could have solved the mystery so quickly.”
“Just process of elimination. The toys and books here look to be for a colt in the middle of primary school. The family had two colts when they moved but only one of them would have been old enough for this to be their room. I think this room belongs to Kind Spirit.”
Trixie just stared at her friend. “Should that name mean anything to me?”
“Not really. While he is now running the family business, it's not as big as it once was. I only know his name because of what I was able to read on the train.”
“Well why don't we just head back home and talk to this pony and get him to sort out whatever is living here.”
“Trixie, the map chose us to solve the problem.”
“I realise that, but look around. Isn’t it obvious that whatever is living here likes this Kind Spirit pony?” Trixie waved her hoof in front of her, pointing around the room. “Don't you think the friendship problem might require us to bring that pony here?”
Starlight was about to object but couldn't find the right words. Trixie’s logic was sound. Whatever was living here now obviously cared about the pony that had first lived here. What better thing to do than bring the pony in question here to sort out just why this creature cared?
“Yeah, that makes sense.”
Trixie smiled and began waking out of the room, fast enough that it was obvious that she wanted to leave the manor as soon as possible. Starlight began following after her but then stopped.
“What are stopping for? It isn't like standing around is going to get us closer to the pony whose room this was.”
“I know, I just need to grab something,” Starlight said before lighting up her horn
“What could you possibly need to… why of all things would you want to bring the doll?”
“Simple. What else in this room is so unique that it would instantly prove to Kind Spirit that we were here?”
“Well what about… or maybe… ok fine, you win.”
Starlight placed the doll and its disconnected leg into her saddle bag and followed Trixie out of the room. The walk back down the hallway was a little less unnerving than last time seeing as no doors had mysteriously opened of their own accord.
As the two were making their way down the stairs an ear piercing scream resonated throughout the entire house. The cry was as loud as a hydras but as shrill as a roc. It sent shivers down both of their spines and had caused them to both to cover their ears.
“I don't think that whatever is living here is happy with us,” Starlight said when she finally removed her hooves from her ears.
“You think! We need to get out of here before-”
Before she could finish her thought, a large chimera flew over the two of them and landed in front of them, between them and the door. The chimera was different from what Starlight and Trixie had seen before though. Instead of having two heads, this one had three; a leopard, an eagle, and a Tartarus-hound, judging from the glowing orange eyes, the fire like glow of its mouth and throat, as well as the smoke emanating from the sides of its mouth and nostrils. It also possessed bat-like wings similar to a manticore’s along with the usual snake for a tail that one found on chimeras. Its body, while lion like in nature, also had dragon-like scales along its back. Its forelegs were still those of a lion but its back legs were those of an equine.
Looking at the beast in front of them, Starlight was unsure if this was even a chimera at all. While it had the multiple heads and the snake for a tail, everything else was off. It was like Discord had decided to design a creature but went for lethal instead of goofy.
“Thieves! You come into my home and take what you want! I will end you!” the chimera yelled at them, pure hatred burning in its eyes. Unlike a normal chimera, each of the heads were talking at once, giving off the most unnerving voice either pony had heard.
The strange chimera then leapt at the two of them with claws extended and teeth bared. Starlight immediately cast a stunning spell out of instinct. When the Chimera was hit it was flung back against the door.
“I will kill you for what you’ve done here!” the eagle head spat before the body seemed to begin to tear itself apart, becoming a mass of pinkish flesh, fur, and scales before reforming into a dire wolf larger than even a manticore.
All the blood in Starlight’s face rushed out of it when she saw this. “Trixie, we need to run!”
Trixie didn't need to be told twice. Before Starlight could even finish what she was saying Trixie was already running down the hallway behind them. Starlight began taking off after her friend, but so did the dire wolf, and due to its size it only needed to take a single bound to catch up to Starlight and bite down on her tail.
Starlight let out a scream of agony as she could feel several bones in her tail break from the bite. She quickly cast a disorientation spell at the dire wolf to blind it and send a harsh ringing through its ears.
The plan worked, since as soon as the spell was cast she was released from the dire wolf’s grip as it howled out in pain and began to thrash around the hallway to stop the pain and loss of vision. Starlight, seeing her chance, took off down the hallway and into a room that Trixie was holding the door open for. As soon as she entered into the room Trixie slammed the door shut and tipped a large wardrobe down in front of the door to block it off.
“What in Tartarus was that?” Trixie was manic and shouting, her sanity seemingly straining under what she had seen in the last hour. She had begun to pace back and forth in what Starlight realised was a rather humble bedroom. “First it was some weird chimera and now it's some giant wolf. Is this some rouge changeling?”
“No, it's worse. That was a puca.”
“I’ve never heard of that before. And how do you know that?”
“I’m not sure many ponies have heard of pucas. They’re incredibly rare, long-lived shapeshifters that make changelings look like a joke. I realised it was one when I saw how it transformed. Only pucas transform by becoming masses of flesh like that.”
“So what makes them worse than a changeling?”
“While changelings can assume another creature’s form,” Starlight gulped, “pucas can also assume a creature’s powers. They literally become whatever they transform into.”
Trixie went pale. “Does that mean…”
“Yes. It means that if we aren’t careful we could end up facing some of the most dangerous creatures on all of Equis.”
A loud crash suddenly came from the door. “Come out, fiends! This door won't protect you for long!”
“What are we going to do? I don't want to die here.” Trixie had curled into the fetal position on the floor at the foot of the bed.
“We won’t die here. It's too big to fit through the door as a dire wolf, it will need to become smaller to follow after us. When it does that we, might be able to fight back.”
Trixie looked to be about to question Starlight on this but a second impact against the door, this time hard enough to knock the wardrobe a few inches back, stopped the words in her throat. Starlight simply picked up Trixie in her magic and set her down at the far end of the room away from the door before joining her.
The next impact against the door was enough to send it and the wardrobe crashing into the adjacent wall, followed by a heavily muscled grizzly bear.
“I have you now,” the bear half spat, half roared before it lunged at the two unicorns. Before it could get to them though it was hit by a spell from Starlight. As soon as it impacted the bear seemed to lock in place, becoming a life-like stuffed animal.
“Thank Celestia. You stopped it.” Trixie sighed as she looked to be trying to be get over the adrenaline rush she had just experienced.
“Not yet. We need to run, now. The spell is only a temporary fix.”
As if to support her point the puca bear began to growl as parts of its body started to become more fluid as it tried to change its shape, but was prevented from fully doing so from the paralysis spell.
Trixie didn't need to be told twice. She immediately took off out of the room with Starlight following close behind as the two rushed down the hall and towards the front of the house. But as Starlight was running a terrible thought came to her head, a thought that sent a chill down her spine.
“Follow me Trixie, into the kitchen.”
Starlight didn't give her friend a chance to debate as she took off into the kitchen. When she arrived she immediately headed straight for the cellar door and flung the bar into its unlocked position.
“Mind telling me just why we’re back in the kitchen? Shouldn't we be trying to run as fast as we can away from here?” Trixie said as she came running into the room after her friend.
“Trixie, you need to follow exactly what I say. I have a plan to beat the puca.”
“Really. Because I could really use some good news about now.”
“I just used a spell to paralyze him but judging from how he was shifting when we left it will probably only last for about a minute, so we need to act fast.”
“Let’s just make a run for it.” Trixie grabbed onto Starlight, but when she was about to head out she was stopped by Starlight.
“No, it can transform into whatever it wants. If we try to run it will immediately catch up. We need to trap it. If we can lure it into the cellar we can close and bar the door.”
“And how are we going to do that without making ourselves the bait? I’m not sure about you, but I don't want to be some monster’s dinner, thank you very much.”
“We just need to open the doors and hide. It doesn't seem to be thinking very clearly right now so I’m positive it will go down the stairs after us.”
“Are you sure that will work?”
Starlight looked down at her forehooves. “No, but it's the best I have right now.”
“Alright, I’ll trust you.”
The two then quickly began opening the two doors, all the while hearing the angry moans and shifting flesh of the puca as it raged against the spell placed on it. When the doors were opened enough Starlight grabbed hold of Trixie and cast an invisibility spell on the two of them when she had pulled her and Trixie against the wall next to the door.
It didn't take long after this for the puca to come into the kitchen in pursuit of them, this time in the form of a small, quadrupedal dragon. Seeing the open doors a snarl worked its way onto its lips.
“You’re only trapping yourselves, scum.”
The puca bounded into the cellar and passed the two disguised unicorns. When the sounds of clawed feet were quiet enough Starlight put the next part of the plan into action.
“Quick, close the doors!”
Unfortunately she had not waited long enough. As soon as the words passed her lips she began to hear an enraged roar from the cellar and the clawed feet racing back towards them. Her and Trixie pushed with all of their might against the heavy doors, and the doors closed as slowly as they had opened but with the threat of an angry shapeshifter the seconds seemed to take minutes. When the doors finally shut Trixie slumped down, but Starlight knew the danger they were still in. As fast as she could she grabbed the door bar in her magic and flipped it back down to lock the door.
And not a second too late. Almost as soon as the bar fell into place Starlight heard the puca impact the door. But due to the weight of the doors and the thick oak bar locking it there were few creatures strong enough to open this door. The puca raged against the door anyway, pounding and scratching at it with all his might, transforming into anything that might help to break it down.
“Give it back, thieves, villains, scoundrels! You will not take it from me! I will not lose anything else!”
Trixie was already bolting towards the front door. Starlight was about to follow her until the pounding and scratching on the door suddenly stopped. She could then hear another shift followed by a soft plop as she figured the puca had transformed and had laid down. What came next almost broke her heart.
She could hear the sounds of sobbing coming from the other side of the door. What was worse was that it wasn't the cries of the angry shapeshifter she had heard before, but the cries of a young colt.
“P-please, give it back. I-it’s all I have left of him. He was my only friend, I don't want to lose any more.” The sobbing began again, broken occasionally when the sounds stopped for a few seconds as she figured he wanted to say more, only for the cries to resume.
Trixie came around the corner with a frantic look in her eyes. “What are you doing? We need to get out of here before it can find a way to escape!”
“Trixie, I don't think it really wants to hurt us. It sounds like a desperate child.”
“It's a trap. Don't you remember the changelings? He's just trying to trick you into opening the door. Let’s just get out of here with the stupid doll and go talk to that earth pony you mentioned.”
“NO,” the puca nearly shouted through the tears. “Please, don't take Mr. Smiley, he’s special. Please, just leave him here for me. I’ll get as far away as I can from the door and you can open it. Please don't leave me in here, I’m afraid of the dark.”
With that, Starlight could hear the soft clop of a colt’s hooves as they walked away from her, along with sniffles and barely contained tears. This wasn't the angry, vile shapeshifter she had thought it when she first saw it, this was a scared and lonely child.
Starlight walked over to the door and went to unlock it before Trixie came barreling into her and grabbed onto the forehoof she had been reaching for the door with.
“What in Tartarus are you thinking? Did you not hear anything I just told you?”
Starlight simply looked to her friend and glared. “I did. Have you heard anything I’ve said?” She then pulled her hoof free from her friend’s grasp. “I just told you this puca isn’t going to hurt us. Twilight assigned me as a guidance counselor for the friendship school because she trusts my judgment on this kind of stuff. I thought you of all ponies would know that.”
It was a cheap shot and she knew it. Starlight didn't like it but it seemed like the best option at the moment to get Trixie to hear her out. And it seemed to have worked, as Trixie was standing there with her mouth open in an attempt to come up with a response. Unfortunately for her, this proved to be much greater challenge, so instead she simply closed her mouth and looked away, half in shame and half in anger.
Starlight turned back to the door and made another attempt to open it. This time, Trixie made no attempt to stop her. The door opened creakily and exposed them to the familiar dark void of the wine cellar. Starlight began her descent down into the cool dankness with Trixie following close behind.
Due to the darkness Starlight decided to cast an illumination spell so they could at least navigate without colliding into any racks and causing them to fall on them. The two followed the sounds of crying further into the cellar. They eventually reached the location where the cries seemed to be emanating, and true to his word, the puca had gone as far as he possibly could into the cellar and had wedged himself between two enormous wine casks that probably held well over one thousand liters.
“Hey there, we’re sorry we took your doll and locked you in here. We didn't know it was yours and we were afraid you wanted to hurt us.” Starlight then levitated the doll and its leg out of her saddlebag. “If you want it here it is.”
The crying seemed to calm down, and ever so slowly, the shape of a small colt made its way out from between the two casks and into the magical light. While Starlight was fairly confident no pony had ever seen the true base form of a puca, the little colt in front of her looked to be the closest thing to a natural form the puca had. It looked to be a colt no older than ten, with a mane that looked to be made of moss, the tail of a leopard, and hooves that looked to be made up of what appeared to be thickly braided stems and branches. His muzzle was a little short for a pony, but she could see two large canines protruding from its sides.
As soon as the little colt had moved close enough to the doll he grabbed it and the unattached leg in his forelegs and desperately clung to them, sitting down on his haunches and holding them close to his barrel like his life depended on it. He had not yet stopped crying but they were now soft whimpers instead of the bawling that Starlight had first heard.
“Trixie,” Starlight whispered, trying not to be heard by the colt in front of them, “do you think you can use some of your magic to try and cheer him up?”
“What!” Trixie while being louder than Starlight was still speaking soft enough that only the two of them could hear, “he just tried to kill us, and now you want to treat him to a magic show?”
Starlight simply looked back at her and extended her left forehoof to point at the crying colt, giving her a look that said: “he's just a foal”.
Trixie rolled her eyes and let out a sigh before approaching the puca. When she was within a meter of the puca he finally seemed to acknowledge her presence. He immediately curled into the fetal position and seemed to hold the doll and its leg even closer to him to make sure that they would never be taken again.
“Hey… little guy. Would you like to see some magic tricks?” Trixie's voice wasn’t very confident and easily betrayed how she felt about all this.
The colt looked up at Trixie with two bloodshot green eyes with slit pupils. It kind of reminded Trixie of bat ponies she had seen in the past. The look that the little puca gave her was one of fear though. It looked at her like it was afraid that she would eat him. He slowly nodded, whether out of a genuine like of magic or from fear of what she might do if he told her no, Trixie couldn't tell.
Seeing this, Trixie resolved to make the experience as enjoyable as she could for the little guy. Despite what he had done, she couldn't help but see the little guy for the colt that Starlight had said he was. His sorrow seemed to genuine, and looking into his eyes she was reminded of the time after she had met Twilight and had felt so small after being exposed as a fraud.
“Let's see what the great and powerful Trixie has in her hat.” Trixie levitated her hat off of her head, but not before she had quietly summoned one of her props, a wand, on top of her head.
She then reached into her hat and began rummaging around, pulling out a rubber chicken, an inextinguishable prank candle, and a second hat. “That's funny, I could have sworn I put my wand in here. How could I show this little colt a good magic show without my wand?”
“I-is that it on your head miss?” the colt weakly said, drawn in by the show but still too scared and emotional to let go of what had happened.
Trixie reached up to her head and grabbed her wand. “Oh, there it is. Thank you for your help, kind sir. Now to repay you, I see that you’ve been crying. How about we do something about that?”
Trixie tapped her wand against the side of her hat and offered it to the colt. The colt slowly, and cautiously, reached into the hat. When he pulled his hoof out he was holding a red handkerchief tied to a blue one.
“If you don't like the color you can just keep pulling until you find one you like.”
The colt, almost forgetting about everything else, began pulling out more and more handkerchiefs tied together. He had pulled out over three dozen before he finally stopped, most likely figuring the chain would last indefinitely. When the two unicorns looked at him again he still looked a little emotional, but the surprise and wonder he had on his face after that was a positive sign.
“Now that Trixie was kind enough to provide us with some cloths, why don't we take care of those tears?” Starlight said, grabbing one of the handkerchiefs in her right hoof and wordlessly asking to be able to approach him.
The puca colt looked between the two unicorns hesitantly but eventually nodded at Starlight. She approached him and began wiping down the sides of his face and his muzzle, eventually reaching his nose before she instructed him to blow. He did so and Starlight removed the used handkerchief and set it aside. Trixie looked on with a little disgust and began mumbling about needing a new handkerchief rope when she got back.
“Now, do you think you can tell us why that doll means so much to you?” Starlight was putting on her best guidance counselor voice in an attempt to earn the colt’s trust.
“It… it was a gift I gave to my best friend,” the colt quietly said, looking down at the doll in the death grip of his forehooves. “I made it myself. He used to live here and he would always play with me. He was super nice.”
The colt then shut his eyes and clutched the doll even tighter. “But then he and his family left. He told me he would be back soon. He said he would never forget about me. I’ve been trying to do my best with the house but it's so hard. I eventually gave up and just tried to make sure his room and his favorite door looked good.”
Starlight immediately perked up. “I don't be rude, but would your friend's favorite door be the two strange ones in front?”
“Yeah.” The colt held out the doll in front of him, looking at it like it held all the secrets to the world. “We loved to look at the carvings of the door and come up with awesome stories about what they all meant.”
The puca was now smiling, remembering the days he had spent with his friend. That smile soon faded as he began clutching the doll with a newfound fervor. “But that was so long ago. He forgot about me and now I’m all alone.” The colt soon began to cry again, this time into the doll.
Starlight approached the colt’s right side and pulled him into a sideways hug. She could tell that the poor puca needed somepony to comfort him, and after what she figured had been several decades of isolation, a shoulder to cry on was the least she could do. What she didn't count on was just how fully he would accept the contact. As soon as she wrapped her foreleg over him he whipped around in front of her and embraced her in a tight hug, burying his head into her chest and letting loose another round of tears.
“Why did he not come back? I thought he liked me. Is it because I’m not a pony? He always loved it when I transformed. I didn’t mean to scare him away. It's not my fault I’m not a pony. Why could I not have been born a pony, then he might not have left me. I don't want to be alone anymore.” At this point, the colt had been reduced to a blubbering foal yet again. “Please, I just want my friend back.”
Starlight began hugging the colt back and stroking his mane. As she had suspected it had the same texture as moss while his fur felt like a regular foal, except rather unkempt and dirty. But that didn't matter at the moment, all that mattered was comforting the colt clinging onto her in a desperate desire to have someone else in his life.
“There, there. I won’t leave you. Just let it all out.”
For the next half hour, the two ponies and puca stayed in relative silence save for the cries and whimpers from the broken puca for the first ten minutes. The twenty minutes that followed simply consisted of Trixie watching Starlight and the colt, Starlight calmly stroking the colt's mane and back, and the puca holding onto Starlight and savoring every second of physical contact he had had in several decades. Eventually, the puca pulled away from Starlight’s chest quietly, leaving behind a large wet spot on Starlight’s chest.
“Feel better now?”
The puca simply nodded, unable to meet Starlight’s eyes and instead just looking at his forehooves.
“Would you happen to be Mossy?”
Again, the colt simply nodded.
Starlight figured as much.
“Do you want to go upstairs? I’m pretty sure none of us want to be down here. We can go into your friend's room and talk about out what to do next. How does that sound?”
This only received another nod from Mossy.
Starlight stood up and motioned for Trixie and Mossy to follow. When Mossy got up he immediately pressed himself up against Starlight’s left side and began walking with her. Trixie followed the two as they all went up and into the room where the whole problem started.
When they arrived in the room Starlight sat down on the edge of the bed and was about to motion for Mossy to join her but the body that pressed into her shortly after signaled he had followed her up. She allowed him to lean into her as he still seemed to be in need of someone else to be close to.
Trixie, seeing how important the doll was to Mossy, decided she should at least try to help him out. While she still felt like she was justified in wanting to abandon him in the cellar after what he had done, she still felt bad for the kid after what she had seen down in the cellar.
“Hey, Mossy. Would you mind if I repair your doll for you?”
Mossy looked at Trixie and seemed to be debating if he really wanted to give up his doll so soon after having it taken from him. He looked up to Starlight but she didn't give him any indication as to what he should do.
“Can you… can you really fix him?” Mossy’s voice gave off the impression that he was very unsure of what he should do. His grip on the doll had softened.
“Of course. What’s a little sewing next to the great and powerful Trixie?” Trixie chose not to shout her famous line to hopefully help Mossy calm down and not scare him more than he already was.
Mossy ever so slowly released his vice like grip on the doll and began to move it away from him and towards Trixie.
“I never knew you knew how to sew, Trixie. I figured you mostly knew about stage magic and explosives.” Starlight genuinely looked shocked to hear that.
“Are you kidding? No task as simple as sewing would ever be able to thwart me.”
With that, Trixie took the doll in her magic and levitated out a needle and thread from under her hat. She then began sewing the leg back onto the doll with practised ease. After less than ten minutes Trixie snipped the end of the thread she had used and levitated the fixed doll back over to the puca who quickly grabbed onto it and went back to clinging to it for dear life.
“I learn something new about you every day, Trixie.” Starlight was rather impressed with her friend's assortment of skills and knowledge.
“I obviously needed to learn it to make such fabulous outfits for myself. How else would I get such an amazing cloak and hat?”
Starlight rolled her eyes and sighed at her friend’s self-reverence. She turned to face the puca in front of her and proceeded to try to continue the conversation they had been having in the cellar.
“You seem to hold Kind Spirit really close.”
Mossy nodded. “He was my only friend. We used to play together all the time. He made me feel wanted.”
“Well it sounds like the two of you need to get back together. If you would be fine with it, I’m sure we could take you with us on the train to see him again.”
Mossy looked up into Starlight's eyes with a look of pure childlike hope. “You would really do that for me, even after all I did?”
Starlight glanced at her mangled tail and then back at Mossy. “Yes, we came into here without your permission and tried to take something of yours. That isn't right. Both of us are sorry for what we did. It's the least we could do to make it up to you.”
“I… I want to do something. Could you… could you look me in the eyes?” Moosy sounded very hesitant, almost as if he was expecting her to become cross at his suggestion.
“Sure.”
Starlight looked Mossy in the eyes and watched as he transformed into one of the most beautiful white birds she had ever seen. It almost seemed to glow with a heavenly light. And its eyes, its eyes were a creamy brown that seemed to suck her in. Nothing else mattered but the bird in front of her, it and its special eyes. She could feel herself begin to slip away, all feeling in her body seemed to just vanish. It almost felt like she was floating. But as soon as the feeling came it was gone, the stunning brown eyes replaced with Mossy's green ones and Mossy himself.
Starlight was about to ask what he had just done when she realised that her tail didn't hurt anymore. She looked down at her tail and gave it a small flick. No pain. Whatever Mossy had done had fully healed her tail.
Starlight gabbed Mossy and pulled him into a hug. “Thank you, Mossy. Whatever you did was very kind of you. Now how about we head out?”
Mossy gave a small nod and drooped down to the floor next to her as she also dropped onto the floor. Starlight turned to Trixie, expecting her to be happy that everything had turned out so well, only to find her staring at the place on the bed she and Mossy had just been sitting. As she and Mossy walked past her she followed behind them wordlessly. Something about that last transformation Mossy had done seemed to be lingering with her.
The three made their way out of the manor, but as soon as they were out of the door Mossy took off in the direction of the woods with the doll on his back bouncing erratically as he ran.
“Wait, where are you going?” Starlight yelled as she began to chase after him.
“I need to get something. I’ll be right back!”
Starlight proceeded back to the Trixie and stood next to her and began to look towards the place where Mossy had run into the forest.
“What just happened back in the room?” Trixie asked her friend.
“I don't know. One moment I’m looking into his usual eyes and the next, I couldn't look away. It was like he had hypnotised me. I could recall every detail so vividly, it was like the best dream I’ve ever had.”
Trixie looked ahead, her voice taking on a somber air. “That must have been nice. I… I felt terrible. I felt so small when I looked at him, but I couldn't pull my eyes away. It almost felt like I had been abandoned, like there was nothing left in the world for me.”
“Maybe that's why he told me to look into his eyes before he transformed,” Starlight absentmindedly mumbled to herself.
Not too long after this Mossy slowly came walking back out of the forest with a book held in his mouth.
“Mokay, erm wredy ter ger nerow.” Mossy was trying to talk through the book filling his mouth. His tone though seemed to be one filled with sadness.
Starlight grabbed the book with her magic and gently tugged at it. Mossy semed to get the message and opened his mouth more to allow her to take the book.
“What did you say? I couldn't understand you.”
“I said I’m ready to go now. That's all I have.”
“Are you sure? We could always bring some stuff from Kind’s room if you want.”
“No, that's his stuff. That book is all I have. It was a gift from Kind to help me get better at transforming.”
Starlight looked down at the cover of the book and immediately understood. It was an old bestiary of Equestria. More than likely, Kind had given it to Mossy to have him learn how to transform into a bunch of other creatures. It was probably the reason Mossy knew so many creatures that he could become.
“Would you like me to carry it for you so you don't have to keep using your mouth?”
“Yes, thank you.”
With that, Starlight opened her saddle bag and placed the book in it before closing it again and beginning to walk down the path she and Trixie had walked less than an hour earlier. The two ponies and one puca continued on in silence for some time before Starlight decided to break it with a question.
“I would like to ask you, what was with that creature you were disguised as when we first saw you? I don’t think I’ve ever seen something like that before.”
“That's because it isn’t real.” Mossy’s voice was an odd mix of sadness and apathy. “I don't have enough control over my transformations when I get too emotional.”
“Maybe I can help you work on that if you want. I might not know much about transforming, but I do know how to help ponies keep calm.
Mossy didn’t seem to acknowledge what she had said, he just seemed to keep his head down as they walked down the forest trail and back towards the train station.
~One Week Later~
One unicorn and the disguised puca made their way into the Canterlot offices of the Stirrup Import Export Corporation. It was a fairly modern building with a great deal of glass and steel covering the exterior. As the two entered they were greeted by an almost empty lobby with only a few ponies walking around and the occasional one mingling here or there. Seeing that she had no idea what Kind might look like, she decided to look for the pony that looked to be the best dressed.
Starlight was looking around for anyone that might be Kind Spirit. She was looking at the walkway over them to see if anyone matched the description she knew of him when she felt a poke in her side. She looked over to Mossy and saw him pointing at a well-dressed business pony talking to a receptionist.
“You recognize him? Is that Kind?”
Mossy nodded. “I think so. It's been so long, but he looks like how I remember him.”
“Alright, let's go say hi.” Starlight started to walk forward but didn't couldn't hear the sound of hooves behind her. She turned around and saw Mossy looking down at his forehooves, unmoving.
“What’s wrong? I thought you wanted to see your friend again.”
Mossy looked into her eyes, his face pleading for comfort. “What if he doesn't remember me, what if he does and doesn't like me anymore, what if-”
Starlight brought him into a hug. “Then we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. You said you’ve been waiting for him for decades, and here he is. If it goes badly just know I’ll always be here for you. Now, how about we go talk to an old friend?”
Starlight began to walk over to the receptionist's desk, this time with Mossy in tow. When they arrived they caught the tail end of a conversation involving new airship safety regulations that were being implemented.
“Well, it looks like you have guests, Flower. Why don't you take care of them and I’ll head to the office? I need to get some work done anyway. Talk to you at lunch,” the stallion said to the receptionist as he began walking away.
The receptionist pony, Flower, turned to face them, smiling. “Welcome to the Canterlot offices of the Stirrup Import Export Corporation. What can I do for you?”
Starlight cleared her throat. “We came here to see Kind Spirit, is now not a good time?”
The receptionist’s smile faded at this. “Miss, I-”
“Don't worry Flower, I’ll take them to my office now. No point in making them wait,” the stallion said, having turned to look at the two of them when he heard the name.”
“Very well, Mr. Stirrup.”
Starlight thought this was rather fortunate that Kind was willing to see them this soon. He definitely lived up to his name. She then began leading Mossy with her as she followed the pony she figured was Kind Spirit to his office.
They eventually reached a rather nice double oak door at the end of the hallway with halls going in both directions. The stallion then opened the door and gestured for them to come in. Starlight first allowed Mossy to enter then followed suit.
The office was rather vacant, with only a glass desk, a comfortable chair, a small couch, and a low table in front of the couch. Starlight looked back and watched as the stallion entered the room behind her.
The stallion closed the door to his office and turned to them. “So, you came here to see Kind Spirit.”
“Yes, we did. But wait, aren’t you Kind Spirit?”
“No, he was my older brother. I’m Keen Eye.” Keen chuckled. “We do get mixed up all the time though.”
“Was?” Starlight didn't like the sound of that. She was starting to regret suggesting Mossy come with her.
“Yeah, he passed away last month in an airship crash. We've been keeping the news out of the public for as long as we can to prevent our stock prices from crashing. Why, did you need him for something?”
Starlight watched as all hope left the poor colt's eyes at learning that his one and only friend had passed away. She watched as tears began to well up in his eyes right before he grabbed her in a hug and buried his face into her chest.
“It's just not fair. I waited for so long and for what? As soon as I come to find him he’s gone.” His next words were barely a whisper. “I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”
“I’m so sorry Mossy. If I had known I would have never brought you here. Let's head back to the train, maybe Twilight will know what to do.”
Mossy unburied his face from Starlight's chest and nodded, tears still fresh in his eyes.
As the group was making their way out of the office they were stopped by Keen Eye.
“Wait. Did you say his name was Mossy?”
“Yes. Why? Does the name mean anything to you?” Starlight was perplexed as to why this stallion was so interested in Mossy’s name.
Keen Eye immediately bolted past them to the door. He opened it and looked around. There weren't very many ponies around right now but it seemed to be enough to warrant his closing and locking the door.
Starlight held onto Mossy tightly, she had no idea why he had wanted to keep them in the room and lock it after just hearing a name.
“Would you… would you mind… you know… transforming?” The look in Keen’s eyes was hopeful. It was as if he was a foal on Hearth’s Warming Day.
Starlight looked at him with suspicion. “Wait, how did you-”
“Please, I need to know. I’ll explain it later, just… I need to know if this is the right Mossy.”
Starlight looked at Mossy. He looked just as scared as her, if not more so. Nothing seemed to happen for a few seconds until Mossy pulled away from Starlight and quickly transformed into a large dog before transforming back.
“I knew it!” Keen Eye smiled and ran over and embraced the young colt before either of them could react. Mossy almost had a full blown panic attack at the sudden contact. He desperately hit and kicked his way out of the stallion’s hold before running and hiding behind Starlight.
Starlight was pissed. She had charged up an attack spell when she saw how scared Mossy was when he ran over to her. “You have exactly five seconds to explain why you nearly scared him half to death.”
“I’m sorry.” The smile was still plastered on his muzzle as he got back up on all fours. “I was just so happy to see that my brother wasn’t lying or just talking about an imaginary friend.”
“Wait, your brother told you about Mossy?” Starlight began to dispel the mana she had been collecting to fire her spell.
“Yes, it was his favorite thing to do when I was old enough after we moved. He would always tell me all these stories about a pony that could transform and keep him company.”
“He… he talked about me?” Mossy slowly began to creep out from behind Starlight, drawn in by the promise of a story about his old friend.
“Yeah, he…” Keen started up enthusiastically before he stopped himself. He remembered how the colt had responded to the news of his brother's death and figured such a happy and bombastic tone probably wasn't the best way to talk about his late brother. He instead decided to use a more measured, warm tone to talk about this.
“He loved to tell me about you. Quite frankly it was almost impossible to get him to talk about anything else for the first five years after we moved. Every year on his birthday, he would only ever ask for one thing. He wanted to go back to see his friend. Eventually, our parents sat him down and talked to him about it. They first tried to tell him you were just imaginary, that there weren't any ponies that could shapeshift. But when that didn't work, they reminded him that it had been five years. They said you had probably already left and found a new friend.”
Keen sat on his haunches and looked down between his forelegs. “He didn't come out of his room for a few days after that. He mostly just cried from what I could hear from my room. When he did come back out he was… different. He wasn't as happy as he once was. He never brought you up after that,” Keen looked up and into Mossy’s eyes, “but he never forgot you. I offered to go with him back to the old manor a few times but he always said no. He couldn't bring himself to find out if you had actually left to find a new friend. I think he didn't want to know because he was afraid you would still be there, waiting for him. If he found you waiting for him it would mean he had given up on a friend, that he wasn't willing to push our parents hard enough to go back to the manor. I think he felt it was better to think you had abandoned him so he wouldn't hurt so much.”
Both Mossy and Keen were looking at their hooves now, the weight of what had just been said almost suffocating them. It was worse though for Mossy. While Keen was the pony that had to tell his brother’s friend he had both died and had done so with regrets, Mossy was the one who needed to live with what had happened.
Starlight, seeing how the mood had changed, decided now might be the best time to leave.
“I think now would be a good time to go.”
“I agree. Let me get the door for you.”
Keen unlocked and opened the door and stood aside as the two left the room.
“That you for your time, Mr. Stirrup. While this might not have been the news we were looking for, at least Mossy could get some closure.”
“It wasn’t a problem.”
“Thanks, Mr. Stirrup.” Mossy’s voice was fairly distant, still trying to come to terms with what he had just learned.
“Mossy, look at me.” Keen had taken on a very serious tone and demeanor. Starlight was afraid he was angry at Mossy for something. Mossy timidly looked at Keen while mostly hiding behind Starlight. “Don't ever call me Mr. Stirrup. You were my brother’s best friend when he was a kid. As far as I am concerned, you’re family. As such I’m Keen or K.K., never Mr. Stirrup. Alright?”
Mossy nodded. While the serious tone scared him, being told he was part of a family, it was… it was… he didn't know how to describe it, but he felt more complete somehow.
Keen smiled. “That's good. Now, how about a family hug?” He sat down and opened his forelegs as an invitation for Mossy.
Mossy crept over to Keen and wrapped him in a hug. The two of them held each other in a warm embrace for a good half minute. When the two separated, Keen looked down at his new family with a smile.
“Now if you ever need anything my doors are always open. Don't ever hesitate or worry about bothering me. I’ll drop everything for you, nothing comes before family.”
Mossy just nodded and he and Starlight simply headed out as Keen went back into his office.
“What do I do now? I don't have anywhere to go.” Mossy almost whispered as they walked down the hall towards the reception desk.
“I think I know just the place you can go.”
~Two days later~
“Hello every creature, today we are going to have a new student joining the school. Would you all give a warm welcome to Mossy!”
Starlight stepped aside to reveal the cowering form of Mossy, currently in the shape of a dark green earth pony. Starlight and Twilight had tried their hardest to convince him to use his real form, that they had changelings in the school that came as their natural form, but he had told them he only let those he absolutely trusted see his true form. They had convinced him to at least keep his mane of moss undisguised.
“Mossy here is a puca, which means he can transform like a changeling. I hope you all can help him feel like a member of the school and hopefully some of you can become his friend. I would just like to ask you all not to pressure him to talk about his past. It's a rather sensitive topic for him at the moment.”
The class all clapped and welcomed the puca into their ranks. Mossy, uncomfortable with so many eyes on him, simply looked down to avoid their gazes. He slowly made his way over to an empty desk between Ocellus and Silverstream. He plopped down, keeping his eyes trained away from the other students and began playing with a pencil he had on his desk.
“Today we are going to see how much all of you have learned about friendship. Would you each group up with at least two other creatures and practice what you’ve been learning,” Starlight announced.
The original plan for today had been to learn about how friendships don't always need to be super upfront and could be more competitive, or look hostile from an outside perspective. But seeing as this would be Mossy’s first day her and Twilight had figured they should ease him into the school and not drop him into the middle of a difficult lesson.
Starlight watched as everyone grouped up, but was most concentrated on watching Mossy. Ocellus and Silverstream seemed to want to make friends with him and help him adjust to a new life here.
“So you're able to transform?” Ocellus asked, trying her best to make the fellow shapeshifter feel welcome.
“Yeah,” Mossy mumbled, taking an eraser he had found on the floor and pushing it in circles.
“That. Is. So. Cool!” Silverstream exclaimed as she hovered in the air and pressed her claws to both sides of her face. “What kind of transformations can you do? Can you just do a back and forth like I can or are you more like Ocellus and can do all sorts of transformations?”
Without saying a word Mossy transformed into a timberwolf, a house cat, and finally into a rabbit before reverting back to the form he had chosen to be his base form. Both Ocellus and Silverstream were awestruck at just how easily he had done the transformations and how fast he had been. While changelings could be fast when copying another creature there tended to be a period that it took before they could change form again. Mossy had shifted from one form to the next as soon as he had fully become the desired creature.
“Wow. You must be really good at that. I can barely transform into animals.” Ocellus looked at him with wide eyes full of astonishment. “It must be easy for you to transform into anyone you see.”
Mossy shook his head. “I’m not good at that. I’m only good at looking like animals.”
“This is perfect! You can teach her how to be better at transforming into animals and she can teach you how to transform into other ponies!” Silverstream did a flip in the air and proceeded to grab the two of them and place them closer together.
Both Mossy and Ocellus looked massively uncomfortable from being so close to another creature without doing it themselves. They both scooched away from each other to have a little of their personal space back. Mossy went back to messing with his eraser and avoiding eye contact with everyone else. Both Ocellus and Silverstream folded their ears against their skulls, thinking that they might have ruined any chance they might have had to be Mossy’s friends.
“That might be fun.”
The Changeling and the hippogryph looked at the puca. While he hadn't looked up from his eraser they could catch him glancing every so often in their direction. Small smiles crept onto their faces as they saw the potential friendship that could form.
Starlight smiled seeing this and decided to head back to her office. Twilight could handle the class when she got here. She wanted to be there for when Mossy met the rest of the class, but needed to talk to a student about their class work.
“Oh, is mommy Starlight seeing her kid off to his first day of class? How sweet,” Trixie said as Starlight came out of the door.
“You know it isn't like that, Trixie. And besides, he’s older than me. He just looks and acts younger because pucas live for hundreds of years.“
“Is it now? If I remember correctly, you asked Twilight to put him in the room next to yours in the castle. I also seem to remember you asking Twilight to make sure that in all of his classes he at least have that changeling girl or the hippogriff there to help him be more comfortable as a shapeshifter.”
“I… well…”
Trixie grabbed Starlight in a sideways hug. “I’m not saying it's wrong. It's sweet of you to want to care for him. Maybe one of these days you can be a real mother. You certainly have the personality and all the habits down.”
Starlight looked over her shoulder at Mossy. She couldn't deny she felt an almost familial attachment to Mossy. Even more than that, she had been the pony he had trusted to be his shoulder to cry on and he had let her help him when he was at his lowest point. She hoped she did well to make sure he could move past everything that had happened, to come into his own and make friends that could help mend the hole in his heart.
The Cutie Marks of the friendship school guidance counselor and the town’s resident magician began to light up, signaling they had finished their task.
But no pony seemed to notice.
Author's Note
Happy New Year. You know what this holiday needs? Sadness. I offered to write my friend Azure Drache ANY story he wanted as a Christmas present. And what did he pick? That’s right, horror. But in all seriousness, I really liked how this story turned out, particularly around Mossy. I had originally been planning to kill him off and make that the solution to the friendship problem, but Azure said nothing too depressing, so this is the story you get. Have a happy New Year everyone.
Special note, anyone that can correctly guess what Mossy transformed into when he healed Starlight, or name the type of tree/wood the front door is made of gets a prize. The first person to give the right answer I’ll be willing to write a short little thing for you.
