The Melody Of Moonlight Castle

Chapter 1: When History Becomes The Future

BBRRRIINNGGG!! Ka-thump!

Gah!! And yet my alarm makes me fall off my bed once again, my face meeting the smooth wood floor for the 3rd time this week...I have yet to figure out a way to lower the volume, I get up from my tumble and grab my glasses off the nightstand and put them on, finally now I can see without tripping every 8 seconds. I get up and open up my window to get a breath of the morning breeze, my neighborhood was quiet since it was 6:57 in the morning, so most were at the morning market speed shopping for groceries, and if I am correct Jack would've been out of bed by now and setting up shop to work on his next batch, this time is wheel bases for a carriage company in Manehatten.

I rub my eyes in response to my yawn as I got out of my room and went to the bathroom, I took a morning shower and got ready for the day ahead of me...it was the weekend so I didn't have Cloud Duty today and neither did Hope, I was planning to sit in my workshop and work on my High Altitude Flying Suit, which would allow pegasi to fly higher without feeling tired or dizzy as it would help the body cope with the absence of enough oxygen, but I didn't want to waste my day either so I was unconfirmed.

I head down the oak stairs as I look at my bulletin board of pictures I have of memories I've shared with my friends, there was one about the time Kenji was knighted by the Princess Of Friendship to defend her castle...a memorable moment indeed, and then there was the one when we were at the grand opening of Jacks Smithing And Steel, it was a tearful moment for him because he had worked his flank off for months to get that place when others were bidding for it as well, to be honest I helped him from the background, I got to know the owner and seller of the shop and basically put in a good word for Jack when he was deciding who would get the shop lot. And then the rest were traveling pictures as well as my notes and blueprints.

I made myself some breakfast and then headed up to see what I would do for the day, on my way to my room I noticed a box in my storeroom that stuck out with a neon red marker on the side, it was buried behind a mountain of my boxes which were filled with my projects and doodads, I went in and moved back the boxes and brought the unusual box back to my room as I placed it on my bed. I got my letter opener and cut the tape open and pushed the flaps up, everything inside was old, grimy, and very very dusty...It took one breath for the colony of dust to cover my glasses. This is gonna be a project by itself...boy...

I got a cloth and cleaned the contents of the box and organized them on the floor, it was a collection of journals, books which were so faded you couldn't even read it and a bundle of notes strung together. I untied the string and layed out the notes, it was mostly scientific research notes by an old professor I once had an essay on, I wrote a paper on his theory of "Multi-National Relationships" he was very thorough with his words and explained how countries and nations banded together in a peace treaty to work together and avoid conflict. His notes were mostly on his work as well that I mostly already knew, but one small stack of notes had a reoccurring word in them and he had made sure to make those words look important, he usually would circle them, make them in bold and even wrote it in a numerical code. The place was called "Moonlight Castle".

Curiosity is a strong emotion, so I did what most ponies would do and went into my bookshelves and dug out a geography and history book. I went into my room and flipped through the pages of The Complete History Of Equestria: Where And When Part IV and landed on the Palace's and Castles chapter, it only had a brief two pages on The Legend of Moonlight Castle.

" Moonlight Castle is a dreary place on the far outskirts of The Crystal Empire, most do not dare to set hoof in that sinister place. Once used for gatherings and meetings of Equestria's power wielding ponies, is now decrepit and in disrepair due to its abandoning 86 moons ago, it is said that the place still holds the spirits of the ponies who gathered there to discuss Equestria's fate, and that the place has indeed claimed the lives of a few daring ponies who tried their luck to find whatever valuables was left there long ago. The castle is located in the Frozen North, and it's towers reach above the clouds, legends are told that the moons light has been powering something in the castle for many centuries"

Wow...spooky castle that is abandoned, great...I look through the journal and there was only sketches of the castle, its interior and explanations of it in the professors words...the place definitely seems abandoned and run down, but the professor seemed so invested in it, what could it have been? That rumor?

I had almost no time to look into the rumors before I heard a knock on my front door, I quickly rushed downstairs and opened it, it was Hope.

"Sorry, I came over to see if you were still holed up in your little work room." She said with her always soft and warm tone.

"Yea...any other reason why you came over?" I responded, still gasping from almost leaping down the flight of stairs.

"I invited K and J over to the café, and I thought why not drag you over as well?" She brightly muttered.

"Uhhh...okay...sure, let me get ready" I rushed back upstairs as I saw Hope come in and take a seat. I got my saddlebags and put the notes and journals in them as I knew that either Jack or Kenji must know something about what the professor was so committed to finding, I went back downstairs as me and her walked out the door and onto the street. My curiosity is definitely piqued and I want answers, who else better to ask than a unicorn who's known these things before and a blacksmith who has connections?