When I Wake in the Morning

After a few hours of uneventful forest, I finally leave it behind for some lush green hills and large snow tipped mountains. The path is a lot clearer, making trotting not so much of a tripping hazard, and eventually I come across a village.

The village is a small one, with about fifty houses at the most, then some shops and work buildings. Most of the buildings have heart shaped engravings in the wood they are made of, with pink and yellow the main colour scheme; giving the place what I could guess as a happy theme. That theme is ruined by the occupants.

More colourful horses roam around, heads hanging low with a faint feeling of despair. Some of them are trying their best to smile, yet fail anyway, giving them a worse look of hopelessness.

As I approached, some of them noticed me and their eyes started to glimmer with hope as they ran my way.

“Dark Moon, did you do it?”

“Is Twilight OK? Where are the others?”

“Did you defeat Sin?”

The most I could answer them with was looks of confusion and a “Hey, watch it!” when one of them bumped into me. Their eyes soon reflected my look of confusion, before more depression came to their faces as they backed away; eyes never leaving mine.

“The fuck do you guys want? Quit staring at me, sheesh.” I said before quickly moving deeper into the town.

I walked for a while, not quite sure of my destination, knowing this place was starting to creep me out. As I passed some buildings, I noticed that some were boarded up or collapsed completely; others badly burnt. I found the crater of a building that didn’t have any remains, except a sign that said ‘Ponyville Library’. Whatever the fuck happened to this place, it wasn’t nice in any perspective.

The streets started to darken and the sun slowly dipped towards to horizon, it looked almost pretty except for the mass of ruined buildings sitting around me. Instinctively, I started off in a direction and follow a road to a house. It matched the rest of the town, but the paint was far from faded and could hardly be called colour. The door opened without a key, and the inside glowed only from the slimming sun.

I walked through a living room to a set of stairs. At the top was a single room, a bed room, not having been touched in months judging from the dust lifted from opening the door. Under the dust were hundreds of notes and pieces of ripped paper, having a crunching noise as I walked around.

By the bed was a nightstand, and sitting on its lonesome was a book. I picked it up, somehow with hooves, and blew dust off the cover. The cover read: ‘Research diary of: Dark Moon.

Inside were words, obviously, and the words were about some kind of research project with someone called ‘Twilight Sparkle’ and how it was such a great honor and privilege to work with her. After a few pages of rushed notes and endless paragraphs saying what an honor this was, it finally started in something one could call a ‘diary’.

^\/^\/^\/^

Day five of research, two weeks since finding of the book

This is the research diary of Mister Dark Moon. I was given this by the one and only Twilight Sparkle in order to keep track of our notes and write about these experiences. I must say, working with her is such a great honor; I spent the first ten pages repeating it! But now, I must write about my experiences as Twilight said.

I was a small time writer, doing what I could to get by, mostly writing short stories for anyone who liked my style or found them amusing. As such, I did a lot of reading myself to pick up ideas and inspire my work. As my ideal day was reading, writing, or just going for a walk all day, I never got into be social. I would go to the library, pick the books I wanted, and then leave again; trying to avoid conversation which I deemed ‘awkward’.

One evening, just before dusk, I was on my way to return and pick up more books, when I saw a cloaked pony leave the library through the window, carrying a very old book.

“Hey!” I called out, wanting to know what this pony was doing. Instead, he or she took one look at me and ran.

I like to imagine myself as the big hero in books and day dreams, but when it comes to real life I would rather hide under my bed than fight a dragon. Despite that, I somehow worked up the courage to give chase to the pony.

He, let’s just call him a he, weaved and ducked through alleyways and doorways, doing his best to avoid me. But rather than speed out of sight, he stayed within view; presuming him to be as unfit as me, I guessed.

The chase ended when he took a wrong turn and slammed into an alleyway wall. I stood at the only exit, leaving him with no way of escape, unless he was a unicorn; which indeed he was. He charged his horn and lowered it at the ground, blasting a shock-wave that sent him over the wall. The book he was carrying did not follow him, and instead fell before me.

Perhaps it was fate, or just incredibly dumb luck, or some other ridiculous thing that made the book open on a page in front of me, perfectly facing my way. It was a book about myths and legends apparently, and the page it landed on was a description of a powerful being with the power to grant knowledge, locked away in a cave whose door was made from the gems of over a hundred dragons dens!

What stuck my interest more than that was the key required? It matched a relic my grandmother picked up on one of her wacky adventures, a sapphire statue of a kind of dog. She used to tell me about all the different traps protecting it in an old temple, as well as some strange fellow who summoned cats to do his bidding. It was one of my favorite stories, and soon became my most famous success in writing.

Unfortunately, the sun was setting, and I didn’t want to be caught with this and have people thinking I’m a thief, so I returned the book.

Twilight Sparkle was quite relieved to have it back.

“Oh thank you so much! I don’t what I would’ve done if somepony had got away with such a priceless work such as this. Did you happen to catch a look at the thief?”

“No, he jumped a high wall before I could get a good look. The pony was a unicorn though, if that helps.”

She nodded and smiled. “Every little bit does. Did you get to read it before you brought it back?”

I normally would of left it that that and leave, but I had to talk to someone about my little discovery.

“I managed to read a page of it, and it was very interesting. It actually reminded me of something I own.”

“Oh really?” Her eyes lit up a little bit. “Could you point it out? It does sound intriguing.”

I showed her the page and explained what I thought about it. To say she wasn’t interested was as far from the truth as you could get.

“Wow, this is amazing! You’re the author of the Daring Doo series, and not only that, but you might possibly have something that could unlock one of the world’s greatest secrets! Do you mind if you could bring the artifact here? I would love to study it myself.”

Me, a lowly author, being able to help the student of princess Celestia herself?! There was no way I could say no, and raced home to get the statue. A couple days later, she turned up at my doorstep asking for my help with a project she was starting surrounding the artifact and the door. I humbly agreed, and have been working with her ever since!

I will update this again when we find something, and that shouldn’t take long! Ooh, I can feel the excitement of making a grand discovery already!

Yours truly

-Dark Moon