Light of the moon

Moon Light awoke with a start. Despite the cool breeze rolling in from his opened window, he still felt the burning rays of that cursed sun burning him. He sighed and looked out the window. The dark grey sky showed that it was early, and the sun was not even breaking the horizon. Knowing he would not be able to get to sleep again, Moon took stock of his possessions. Going through his small bag, he found exactly what he expected to find: His bits, his dream catcher, and a tattered, ruined cloak. There wasn’t anything special about it, so Moon decided to get outside and do some work on the farm. Clumsily flying out the window, Moon sighed at the cool, soothing breeze.

The dim lighting of the moon and stars cast strange shadows on the orchard. After all of his nights out in the darkness, reading his two books, Moon was mostly unaffected by the lack of lights. Looking across the orchard, he saw several trees, their apples grey in the twilight, ready to be harvested. Moon grabbed a large bucket near the gate, and flew towards the closes t tree, his injured wing barely keeping him aloft. Thinking back, he remembered what the farmers back home did to get fruits out of a tree. Landing, he reared up on his front legs, and kicked as hard as he could.

Ow. Moon almost collapsed, and was afraid that he had broken both of his legs. Setting them gently on the ground, he looked them over and did not see any signs of broken bones. He shook his head, and sighed. This would be hard.

He tenderly stood on his back legs, and reached up to put his hooves on the tree. He pushed hard, using his wings to get extra speed, but it was all for naught. Nothing fell.  With grim determination in his eyes, Moon began to climb the tree, and tried to pull an apple off. No matter what he tried, the apples did not seem to want to come loose.

He was tired of this. “You stupid apple, come HERE!” He shouted at the apple, just before biting into it and jumping off the tree. He easily made it to the ground, the apple still in his mouth. Picking himself up off the ground, he went toward the basket to put the apple in. However, the farther he got from the tree, the more difficult it became to move. He quickly released the apple while turning around to see why he had problems walking.

A long, black line attached the apple to the tree, and did not seem to be broken. Moon stared in shock for a single second, before something hit his head hard. The force of the impact pushed him straight into the tree, and his injured wing cried out in protest. Falling off the tree, Moon noticed the apple he had grabbed had returned to its original position, seeming to taunt him. His eyes narrowed.

The metal bars of the cage began to glow. In the complete darkness surrounding it, the light illuminated nothing. With a sharp crack, a pony appeared inside the bars, beside the gold pony already present. The ruby stallion looked around at the utter darkness, and growled. The darkness didn’t bother him, because he was angry.

Moon released a shout of anger and leapt at the tree. He didn’t care that it didn’t work before. He dimly heard a door slam behind him, but that wasn’t the first thing on his mind. He bit onto the apple, and dragged it to the ground. Using his hooves, he held the apple while biting at the stem.

“Wait! Moon! Don’t do that, it’s dangerous!” A familiar voice called from behind him, and the Pegasus lifted his head from the stem to look. Running toward him, he saw Applejack.

Moon laughed. “They are just apples! How can they be dangero—“

With a sharp snap, the apple flew back to the tree, with Moon’s hooves still wrapped around it. Upon reaching the tree, however, his legs kept going, launching him high up into the air. Knowing his wings were too weak to stop his flight, Moon began preparing himself for the eventual crash.

The sounds of nature waking up let Dream Reader know the time. Her hooves clicked on the gravel road that she followed. The road had gotten smoother over the last hour, and she theorized she was coming to a place with many ponies. Perhaps a settlement. The smell of fertilizer and freshly cut herbs let her know exactly what type of village she was approaching. It must be some sort of agricultural meeting ground.

Suddenly, she stopped. The sounds of breathing filled her ears, and she knew she was not alone.

“What do you want?” she asked the other figures. They walked out and surrounded her. Only five of them. This would be easy, but hopefully avoidable.

“We don’t take kindly to you magicky types here. Y’all bring nothing but trouble. Well, trouble and money. Hows about you give us tha money, and we don’t have no trouble?” The voice was definitely one of an Earth pony, probably poorly educated. The chances of this devolving into physical confrontation were rapidly approaching one.

Dream smiled slightly, and addressed the leader of the gang. “I don’t want trouble. I want to keep going, and for that, I need my money. I am only stopping to buy food, if I can, and I will continue. Please do not feel threatened.”

That pushed the leader over the edge. “I ain’t scared of you! Come here!” He jumped at the unicorn, and she inhaled.

As the stallion jumped at her, she pivoted on her left foreleg. She raised a hoof, and caught him across the chest. Stepping to the side, she slipped her back legs under his, and tripped him. Rolling with his tumble, she quickly righted herself and found him underneath her. Planting a foot on his face, she exhaled. Three seconds. Not bad. Sloppy on the fall.

The crowd surrounding her quickly backed off, save for two. The soft flapping of restless wings betrayed one of them as a Pegasus. The other one must be an Earth pony, if the leader’s arcanophobia was any indication of the rarity of unicorns.

“Alright. Now that that is over, do you two mind letting me buy some things, and continue on to Ponyville? I have friends I need to meet.”

The response came from the Pegasus, with a soft, delicate voice, bubbling with excitement. “Well, ok, but on one condition. Take us with you! We want to go see our friend too!”

Moon looked at his target. With the lack of clouds, he had no easily obtainable landing platform, so the giant tree would have to do. It was definitely going to hurt.

He attempted to aim for one of the lower branches, but as he got closer, he realized where he was going. The tree had some holes, covered in glass… Oh dear. It was a house. He was about to crash into somepony’s house, on his first real day back.

The window he slammed into gave way easily, and he crashed into a warm floor. The air was steamy, and Moon felt the moisture collect on his wings. The sound of running water showed that this was definitely a bathroom, and somepony was currently in the shower. This was not going to go over well. At least it wasn’t one of his new--

“Spike, was that you?”

Oh no. Oh no. No, no, no, no, no…

Twilight Sparkle stuck her head out of the shower and stared at the Pegasus lying on the ground.

“What? What are you doing in here? Were you trying to...” Twilight’s eyes grew wide, and then narrow, and Moon felt himself get pulled up so quickly he slammed into the roof.

“Twilight, I can explain, please, just let me—“

Before he could finish, he went sailing out through the broken window, his behind smarting from the powerful hit her magic had done. Luckily, it seemed like he was going to land somewhere in Sweet Apple Acres.

The sun was just barely coming up, and he had already managed to fly from one end of Ponyville to the other. Oh, boy, Moon thought. Today’s going to be grand.