How Moonstruck Got Her Groove Back

Finite Sledgehammer

Disclaimer: Hasbro's toybox, I'm just playing in it.

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Chapter 5

There was a fine layer of frost at daybreak, and a thick blanket of fog. It was too dangerous to fly just yet, so they set off on hoof, taking to a nearby road at a brisk trot. The fog didn't lift for some hours, but they were able to cover enough ground anyway to make it to Stirrup Springs by nightfall. It was the first village Moonstruck had gotten to land in on their entire journey, she was surprised how much of a thrill it was to realize she'd be sleeping in a real bed, and eating hot food for a few nights while they made final preparations for her departure.

They landed just before sunset to no fanfare, although there were more than a few curious onlookers; it seemed Stirrup Springs didn't receive many visitors. Moonstruck was somewhat acquainted with arriving in tiny outpost towns, so she adopted her most casual saunter, ignored the onlookers, and ambled towards the nearest inn. Or, tried to, Luna muttered that they needed to meet with the mayor at once, so town hall was to be their first destination. A long bath and dinner would have to wait.

It became clear, as they made their way along the largest (and practically only) road in town, that most of the curious onlookers were watching Luna and Windwake. Moonstruck smirked as the reason became clear.

"You ponies need to be more casual."

"Pardon?" Windwake glanced over his shoulder at her.

"Yeah, L- Nightingale there looks like she's strutting her stuff for a fashion show, and you look like you're marching in a parade."

The others looked down at their legs, then back at Moonstruck, then around at the various ponies watching them with expressions ranging from bored interest, to intense curiosity, to outright suspicion. They exchanged glances, then slowed down, moving far less purposefully. Of course, by this point the damage was done, and the sudden shift in demeanor was even more interesting to the watching ponies. Moonstruck rolled her eyes and chuckled to herself.

She'd long mastered the art of blending in - even when she wasn't wearing an illusion to hide her horn (and/or wings) - which she had never even thought of before this trip. Trot was so small that everyone knew her anyway, so they really didn't care if she wandered into town - which she did fairly often for a while. There'd been an article in a magazine documenting the best ice cream parlors of Trot, and she, Breezy and Patch had gone on an impromptu tour of the queendom to sample them all over the course of a summer.

She frowned slightly as she wondered what her friends were doing back home. Probably the same old stuff, just without her around to let them mooch from the castle kitchens or get them into VIP events. They hadn't made any arrangements for them to continue the charity poker matches, now that she thought about it. She wondered if they'd decided to do it anyway – Breezy and Patch were competent enough players to keep that up for quite a while - even without her celebrity gimmick.

"Ah, this should be it." Luna said, gesturing to a modestly sized, and brightly lit two story building - one of the few multi-level buildings in town. They trotted up the steps, and through the front door to see a bored looking secretary behind a worn desk.

She bolted upright when they walked in. "V-vistors! Ah! Welcome to Stirrup Springs! I have plenty of brochures here of the local attractions, including the historic Saddleback Inn, the haunted mineshaft, the apple orchards and - "

"That will not be necessary, we have an appointment with Mayor Tumbleweed." Luna said curtly, dipping her head slightly.

The secretary froze. "Oh, uh... well it's a little late in the day, the Mayor will be heading home soon..." she said as she rifled through the contents of her desk and glanced up at a calendar. "Actually, I am unaware of any out-of-towners meeting with the mayor - "

"I'm afraid we never set an exact date, just a timeframe, which we are nearly at the end of," Luna said, "just inform him that the party from Canterlot is here."

"Canterlot!?" The secretary looked up in surprise. At that moment, Luna let her illusion fall from her visage. She held her head up high and gave the secretary a haughty look. Moonstruck shrugged and dropped her illusion as well, but she merely shifted her weight to give one back leg a rest. Windwake did a double take then came to attention, flaring his wings dramatically.

"I-I-I... P-Princess Luna! And P-Princess... Um, I'm afraid I don't - forgive me but I have never -"

"It's fine, just go tell the mayor we're here." Moonstruck said, waving a hoof vaguely before Luna could do anything irritatingly formal. The elder alicorn threw her a sharp look but did not comment.

The secretary nodded then scurried out of the room and down a short hall. There was the sound of a door being flung open, then a brief, hushed, excited conversation. The secretary reappeared a few moments later in a clatter of hooves.

"R-right this way, your highnesses!"

She led them to the mayors office, bowed nervously, then left. Mayor Tumbleweed - an overweight middle aged stallion whom strongly resembled the secretary - stood behind his desk, gaping at them for a few moments before he shook himself and sat down.

"Oh my - forgive me, I half thought the missive I received from Canterlot was some sort of joke. I-it's an honor to have you all here!"

"Thank you." Luna dipped her head. "I trust you have been keeping an eye on the Broken Mountains as we requested."

"Indeed we have - and please sit! You must be weary from your journey! I'll have my niece put the kettle on for tea..." He scurried to the door to stage whisper a request for tea to his secretary/niece, as the alicorns made themselves comfortable. Windwake remained at attention near the door.

"We've always kept an eye on the mountains - nothing's ever come out of there before this, but that in itself is pretty unsettling. We've kept double watch of it since that poor pegasus was found, and the airship was spotted." The mayor said as he made his way back around to his desk.

"When we got your package we knew something serious could be up, so we've set up a few observation points as close to the foothills as we dare." He produced a small stack of folders from a desk drawer and slid them to the alicorns. Luna and Moonstruck each used their magic to pick up a folder and flip it open.

"Oh my."

"Yes?" Moonstruck peeked over the top of her chosen folder.

"I - forgive me, we only have one family of unicorns here, so magic is something of a spectacle." Tumbleweed laughed nervously.

"Ah."

He cleared his throat and lightly tapped a hoof on his desk. "Anyway, the foothills have been quiet as near as we can tell - and unfortunately it is difficult to tell it's so confusing in those parts - but there's been some activity over the crest of the mountains, which is visible from here with telescopes. Mostly the zeppelin coming and going."

Luna and Moonstruck nodded absently, their noses buried in their respective dossiers, eyes scouring over various photo's of the airship in question. Moonstruck couldn't help but notice that there was an odd sort of distortion to the photo's, as if the airship was passing in front of a warped mirror, or behind something multifaceted.

"These photo's are - "

"Yes, we know they're distorted. That is a strange effect of the mountains, I'm afraid." Mayor Tumbleweed frowned. "There was an incident where the airship was clearly visible for several hours, but we were unable to spot it at all from the foothills - even though the view of the peaks it was floating near was at such an angle that the airship should have been clearly visible."

"This is not entirely unexpected." Luna grumbled, flipping through another folder. "The mountains can distort both time and space, it is entirely possible that you were actually seeing several reflections of the airship over several days. Or hours."

Moonstruck blinked a few times then pulled all of the photo's from her folder out to float them in such a way that she could look at them all at once. Then she did the same for photo's from another folder, then another. Luna added her own stash, and soon the room was filled with floating photographs, which the alicorns and the mayor walked among, examining each one carefully.

"This is all the same thing." Moonstruck said after a few minutes.

"The airship, yes." Tumbleweed said slowly, "As near as we can tell there's only the one."

"No no, sorry, I mean the same incident." Moonstruck highlighted a dozen of the photo's by making them glow blue. "See these, the time stamp says they're all from different days, but they're all of the same moment."

"These are the same as well," Luna said, highlighting a second set in bright green, "just a different moment."

"When was the most recent photo taken?" Moonstruck asked.

"Two weeks ago Tuesday." The mayor said, "It, uh... is that one." He pointed to a photo they hadn't highlighted. "We haven't seen the airship since."

Moonstruck and Luna exchanged glances, then started rapidly sorting through the photographs. Once sorted, they rearranged them them in the room, sending the photos in a dizzying dance to find their places, occasionally discussing which one came in what order. After a few minutes, they had arranged the pictures in chronological order - not in the order in which they were taken, but in the order that the incident actually occurred, creating a very clear time line.

"Holy oats..." Windwake muttered, breaking his stoic silence as the alicorns stood back to inspect their work. "It's like a comic book or - no a whatchamacallit for a movie."

"Storyboard." Moonstruck said absently, flicking her eyes over the line of action. The airship appeared over the crest of the mountains, heading towards town, pivots, appears to fire something at an unseen object, loiters in the area for a short while, then turns and leaves. Each action had a dozen photo's, all taken on different dates, from different angles, with varying levels of distortion, all of which reminded her of images being reflected in mirrors... many mirrors, some of which were warped or broken.

"These are echo's." Luna said softly.

"Yeah. I bet they're firing at Sarah here." Moonstruck highlighted the block of photo's in question. "And they loose her over the crest of the mountains - which they can't cross, so they hang around for a while."

"Yes. But they ultimately have to turn back." Luna nodded, highlighting another block of photo's.

"I'm sorry, I don't follow." Tumbleweed said meekly.

"Basically, what you've been seeing the past few weeks have been the same incident being replayed over and over." Moonstruck said matter-of-factly.

"Er..."

"As I said, the mountains displace time and space. The actual incident..." Luna furrowed her brow, "... to be honest, we do not know when the incident occurred in the mountains themselves, however, for the outside world, young Sarah was found roughly a month and a half ago. What you have been seeing have been echo's of the incident bouncing around all of the distorted magic of the Broken Mountains."

"I see..." The mayor said "sort of like when you use a bunch of mirrors to reflect sunlight down into a mineshaft?"

"Yes, precisely, but if the time it takes for the light to bounce is varied, and sporadic." Luna nodded.

"And sometimes it doesn't show up at all, even though it's sunny out." Moonstruck added.

"I... think I see." The mayor furrowed his brow. "So... what does that mean for us?"

"I do not know yet." Luna frowned. "It does clearly illustrate how difficult these mountains will be to pass, however. If something that only took a brief amount of time is still essentially happening in them..."

Moonstruck grimaced. "Oh goodie."

"Ah, yes, you're the one who's going to try to cross the mountains." Tumbleweed chuckled nervously. "Princess Moonstruck, is it?"

"Yep. All the way from the Queendom of Trot; running a fools errand for Princess Celestia and the good of ponykind." Moonstruck let loose an off kilter grin.

The mayor burst out laughing, then quickly controlled himself. "Sorry."

"No, no! That was the reaction I was going for!" Moonstruck chuckled.

The secretary appeared with the tea then, and nearly tripped over herself when she saw all of the floating photographs. Luna and Moonstruck quickly discerned that the casual display of magic was a bit much for the locals, then set about organizing the photo's and storing them in order in various folders.

"Do you have other copies of these photographs?" Luna asked as Moonstruck sipped her tea, and jotted down numbers on the backs of a batch of photo's.

"We have the negatives."

"Good, I would like to send these to Canterlot first thing in the morning."

"Er, the mail coach won't be here for another day, I'm afraid, but you may be able to talk a pegasus into flying down to Prariedog Junction to send it from there."

"How long will that take?"

The mayor scrunched his snout up and stared into space for a few moments. "The weather ponies don't think the fog will be so thick tomorrow morning, so a pony could get outta here by 9am, thereabouts. It takes about three hours to get to Prariedog Junction on a good day."

Luna scowled but nodded. "It will do. I suppose it will take me a little time to put my report together."

Moonstruck glanced over. "Do I have to send one too?"

"No. You need only report in when you get back."

"If I get back." Moonstruck muttered.

---

They finished up their business at the mayors office, then donned their illusions and set off for their inn. Or, the inn, rather. There was only one. And it had more than a few rooms available. They spoke little over dinner, then retreated to their respective rooms. Moonstruck happily spent a good long time soaking in the modest claw-foot bath tub in her rooms en suite bathroom, and was mildly disgusted by the color of the water when she finally climbed out.

She was surprised to wake well after sun-up the next day; she'd half expected Windwake to wake her up at dawn to keep her on a travelers schedule. It was possible that he'd tried, but being back in a real bed might have reactivated her ability to sleep through a hurricane. She noticed a note near her door as she slid out of bed. Yawning, she shuffled over to read it where it rested.

Princess Luna says we can take a day off to rest before we start runnin' around to get your gear in order. Don't go outside without your disguise, and tell no one of the mission. In fact, don't even discuss it with us in public. If you read this before noon, I'll be over visiting the weather ponies. After that, I dunno.

- Windwake

Moonstruck blinked a few times, threw a glance up at the clock, then gave her bed a long appraising stare. She shifted her gaze to the cheery sunlight filtering past the heavy curtains and scowled. She was torn; on the one hoof, these next few days were likely to be the last of civilization for a while and she'd be wise to take advantage of it; sleep, sample the local cuisine, have her mane and tail cut, maybe get her hooves done. On the other hoof, these next few days were likely to be the last of civilization for a while, and she'd be wise not to get used to it.

"Choices, choices," she muttered, deciding that she was hungry enough to stay awake for the time being. She ran a brush through her perpetually messy mane and tail, summoned up her illusion, threw a few bits into her pouch, then wandered out of her room in search of breakfast. It was not terribly late in the morning so this was not difficult. Soon she found herself on the dusty streets of Stirrup Springs, wandering aimlessly, occasionally ducking into curious looking shops. There weren't many; a few antiques shops and a couple of used book stores, and a cafe that specialized in some local cuisine that didn't sound particularly appealing to her.

Eventually she wandered into a museum, where she spent a bland thirty minutes learning about the history of Stirrup Springs. Apparently it started as a crystal mining town, but the vein of crystals from the Broken Mountains are few and scattered, and the bulk of the easily accessible deposits were mined out over a hundred years ago. What was left were of exceptional quality, but of so little quantity that Moonstruck was surprised anyone even bothered to search for them at all anymore - especially since the mayor mentioned that there was only one family of unicorns living in town. Unicorns generally had an easier time finding crystals, and extracting them from the rock, for that matter. She wondered if they were the last unicorn family to leave; all of the others likely left when the mines dried up long ago.

She was on her way out of the main exhibit, heading towards a geological survey, when she happened to read a snippet of a placard out of the corner of her eye. She paused, mid step and turned her head to read it carefully.

After the main mines close to town failed to turn up viable crystals, prospectors ventured into the foothills where they achieved minor success; establishing three deep mines that turned out crystals of exceptional quality. Alas, the mines were only active for ten years, as the strange, magical disturbance that has kept ponies from entering the Broken Mountains for the last 900 years began to effect the outer foothills as well. The magic seeped into the deepest shafts first, and slowly worked its way up and out. The last outpost was abandoned after an especially violent thunderstorm, and no pony has been able to approach it since. In fact, it can no longer be located at all, however it is visible via high powered telescope, such as the one we have on the roof.

Moonstruck stared at the large, detailed map next to the placard and noted the location of the last outpost. It was just twenty five miles from here, atop a tallish hill. She had been under the impression that aside from a few determined cartographers, and some foolhardy adventurers, nopony had set hoof in the foothills since the cataclysm. But if this was to be believed, ponies had been able to wander in a short ways until a century ago. They'd even been able to stick around long enough to mine. At least, until the magical distortion started kicking them out.

She stared into space for a few moments, her mind reeling. Then she hurried over to the geological history of the region. Everything matched up with what Princess Celestia had told her except for one, tiny detail: the magical field hadn't always extended as far outside the mountains as it did now. In fact, much of the foothills had been explored to varying degrees. None of the maps were of use now, as things were constantly changing, but at one point, ponies had even considered starting a settlement out there.

The very last exhibit was of the local weather; and it was as curious as the geological information. It seemed that the weather here had always been somewhat unpredictable, but it wasn't until the magical distortion reached further from the mountains that it became nigh uncontrollable.

Moonstruck made her way up to the roof, glad to see that there was indeed a high powered telescope; it was not currently being used, and it only cost a bit for a couple of minutes of long range sight seeing. She read over the various landmarks, and how to find them, popped a coin in the coin slot on the side of the telescope, and reared up on her hind legs to peer inside. She pivoted the telescope to point north west, fiddled with the focus, and pressed her lips into a thin line as the old outpost came into view. It was a small tower, like a windmill but without the, well, windmill.

It didn't look like it had sat empty for a hundred years; it looked absolutely pristine, she could even see well pruned rose bushes around the outside of the tower. Those should be overgrown at the very least. She wondered if she'd see somepony out there, if she watched long enough. If the magic was distorting time the way she and Luna thought it was, it was a distinct possibility. One would assume somepony would have noticed something like that though. She pivoted the telescope again to take a look at some of the more interesting rock formations, up to the peaks, then back to the outpost. Still nopony over there. Everything abruptly went black.

Her time was up. She blinked a few times and pulled her head back, tempted to shove another coin in there and just watch the outpost for a while to see if anything interesting happened. She shook her head and dropped back down to all fours. There was no telling what moment in time she was looking at over there; it could be stuck on a time shortly after the outpost was abandoned for all she knew. Instead, she went back down stairs. She bought a book from the gift shop that went into the more ancient history of the region in greater detail. It was not a thick book - which was both good and bad. Good because she had little time to read it, bad because there was so little information.

"Oh, you're up!"

Moonstruck whipped her head around as Windwake stopped a short distance away.

"Figured you'd still be asleep."

"I got hungry." She shrugged, nearly dropping her book which was tucked under one wing. "Been playing tourist a bit."

"Me too. The haunted mine's kinda cool." Windwake said, joining her on the boardwalk. They started in the general direction of the inn."And the weather ponies are pretty stressed. They can't do much about the weather, but they still try."

"Ended up checking out some of the local history." Moonstruck said, then filled him in on what she'd learned. She left out much of her speculation; secrecy aside, Windwake was probably thinking the same things she was.

"That's fascinating." Windwake said, then ducked his head closer to hers. "Um, we're not supposed to..."

"It's all in the museum, it isn't exactly a secret." She whispered back, rolling her eyes.

"Er... right."

---

Much of the day was spent hunting around for more juicy bits of history that Princess Celestia either neglected to mention, or simply didn't know about; but they didn't turn up anything further. The book Moonstruck bought seemed to have the most information, but it mostly discussed the mines in the foothills, and the various outposts in more detail, only mentioning the strange magic at play in passing, as if it wasn't of any particular importance. In fact, it seemed the townsponies seemed entirely unaware that their town was in danger of being swallowed up by the mountains influence!

It made her wonder if the lone family of unicorns was aware of the situation; she'd been able to feel the magical disturbance since they'd arrived - surely the local unicorns had. Well, unless they were completely used to it and simply considered it part of the normal magical background noise. She wished she could ask them about it, but she hadn't seen any unicorns all day, and it would be an awkward question even if she did bump into one, seeing as how she was disguised as a pegasus at the moment.

Princess Luna did not return until shortly before dinner, and seemed in a rather foul mood. Moonstruck waited until tummies were full, and blood sugar levels were restored to unload everything she'd dug up.

"I'm surprised you did all of this research today." Luna grunted after flipping through the book Moonstruck had bought, and a few pamphlets that she and Windwake had collected over the course of the day. They were camped out in Lunas room for the time being; sipping tea, and collecting thoughts.

Moonstruck shrugged. "I got bored and happened to wander into the museum. Plus, there just isn't that much. Stirrup Springs is kinda boring." She wrinkled her nose.

"The weather ponies say that it's been more and more difficult to manage the weather." Windwake added. "Which seems to confirm Mooney's findings."

"I wonder if we could calculate the speed of the expansion of the magic field." Luna said vaguely, flipping back through the pages that contained the accounts of the final days of the foothill crystal mines. "If ponies were able to explore almost up to the tall cliffs that bar entrance to the rest of the range for so long..."

"It seems like the region was relatively stable until they started mining out there." Moonstruck noted.

"It does." Luna agreed. "Perhaps the crystal deposits were acting as a sort of dam; remove the crystals, and the broken magic leaks out." She closed the book and scowled. "I never knew anything about this, I wonder if sister did."

"Was wondering that myself, earlier." Moonstruck drawled casually, gauging Lunas reaction carefully.

"I see no reason for her to withhold such information." Luna said firmly, still scowling. "But I will ask her in The Dreaming tonight."

"The Dreaming?" Windwake furrowed his brow.

"Oh yeah, forgot you could do that." Moonstruck grunted unhelpfully.

"I can walk through the dreams of all ponies, if I so choose." Luna said. "Though I usually only seek out those having nightmares and help to soothe them, and guide them to happier visions."

"Oh." Windwake's eyes were the size of dinner plates. "That's. Cool. You haven't uh - ?"

"Your dreams are safe, Captain Windwake." Luna smiled wryly.

He grinned nervously.

"Still having that recurring dream about the carrot that keeps bouncing around in a giant jar of peanut butter?" Moonstruck asked coolly. "'cause I'm pretty sure we all figured out what that means..."

"N-no!" Windwake sputtered, blushing darkly. "I haven't had that dream in years!"

"Oh, it must be the one with the - mrph"

"So! Princess Luna! How was your day!?" Windwake squeaked as he clamped a hoof over Moonstruck's mouth. She snickered and batted his hoof away.

Luna chuckled, and shook her head. "Stressful. I ended up having to fly to Prariedog Junction myself. It seems the local courier service does not make unscheduled trips unless it has more than three items to deliver."

She sighed. "The owners did not grow up here, and do not like the unpredictable weather, so they limit their flying time as much as possible."

"You couldn't find anyone local to deliver it?"

"No." Luna scowled. "The locals seem to be content to wait for the mail coach."

"That's small towners for ya," Moonstruck shrugged.

Something hit the window just then; a small something. Several more small somethings hit it shortly after that and continued to do so. The trio looked up as the rain started to come down harder.

"Dang, there wasn't a cloud in sight all day." Windwake murmured as thunder rumbled in the distance. "Not even over the mountains."