Luca - 3

>Dusk of the Third Day.
>Feelings of terror have been rising in the Hollow Shades community.
>For the third night in a row, the moon still has not shown its face.
>Something was wrong, and Luca was the only pony that could solve the mystery of the missing moon!
>By reading.
>The enthusiastic mare rushed all around her library, gathering book after book, flipping through page after page.
>Our Moon changed almost neglibily.
>She had been through every single book she owned about the moon's folk lore, all of her fairy tales, and everything she had about Princess Luna and early Equestria.
>Everything she could find and cross-reference, everything she could think of, she could not get that wood-bound book to reveal any more of its story.
"I don't understand you."
>She held it in her hooves and flipped it over, just staring at the cover.
"A strange stallion comes in and gives you to me. A mare gives one of your friends to me. What is next? Another guest to give me more information?"
>Luca laughed to herself setting the book down.
"This is all writing out as some grand mystery of plot and intrigue."
>A smile played across her muzzle.
"I suppose I am the main character. And what does the main character do when she comes to an impasse?"
>"She tries something unexpected. Usually the last thing she'd think of. Yet, surprisingly, it always works out for the heroine of the story."
>With a gasp and a yelp, Luca jumped up.
>She hadn't heard anyone enter her library!
>Turning around, she came face to face with a large, dark-feathered gryphon.
>"All of this is so far above your head, and I haven't the faintest idea why you were entrusted with this."
>Luca opened her mouth to speak, but a claw pressed to her muzzle.
>"Whatever they see in you, I am blind to it. It is not my position to question; I am merely a messenger."
>A scroll presses to her chest and falls onto the desk.

>"I don't know if this is the last piece of their little puzzle. For your sake, I hope so."
>He turned for the door, but Luca's soft, frightened voice called after him.
"Wait! What's happening?"
>The gryphon turned; a look of fleeting regret was apparent on his face.
>"Tomorrow night, if this bell rings and the moon is still not on its throne, you run. Run south and don't look back."
>The bell rang as he opened the door.
>"Don't try to run until then. They'll find you, and we need you."
>The door slammed shut, and with that he was off.
>Luca was left alone, terrified at what the future held.
>She felt the urge to start packing and flee, but if what the gryphon said was true, she needed to wait.
>The scroll sat on her desk for a worrying period of time.
>She paced through the library.
>Terrified, lost, and unsure of what to do, she hid beneath her desk.

>As the night dragged on, and her fears were slowly forgotten, she crawled out of her hiding place.
>The fright still nagged at her mind, distracting her further as she poked and prodded at the scroll.
>Luca was terrified at what it might hold, at what it might hide.
>The emblem that clasped the ribbon tying the scroll shut was not a familiar one.
>Etched into the gold was a quill with three curved line-segments circling it.
>Every book she read, and every bit of Equestrian history she knew, nothing ever mentioned anything like this.
>Either it was a new royalty, or it was something that could erase itself from history.
>Considering the circumstance of her three visitors, it was safe to assume the latter was true.
>In her nervous prodding of the scroll, she opened it.
"Better get this over with now."

>Flattening the parchment to her desk, she placed paper-weights at the corners to keep it from curling up.
"In the midst of the night, she woke with a fright, to find her moon in plight. The princess of the sun, with haste in her run, did find the night undone. With no moon in the sky, no light shining high, small white specks caught her eye."
>Luca stared at the scroll, hooves tapping against the paper.
"No moon... Princess Celestia... White specks in the sky? Stars?"
>She chuckled to herself a little bit.
"This tells me little, and gives me no more lead. Unless..."
>Opening a drawer on the side of her desk, she pulled out a dusty old tome.
>On its cover, a circle was etched, with little flared spikes carved all around it.
>Not many batponies were interested in the sun.
>Luca kept a few books about it around, but hardly ever cracked them open.
"A Comprehensive Compendium of Celestia's Celestial Sun."
>Everything in the book that was common sense throughout all of Equestria, was of little help to Luca.
>It was, of course, great help to the wood-bound book.
>As Luca turned to it and flipped through its pages, she found even more written than any of her previous referencing had revealed.
>Skimming through it, she gathered the meat of it all.
"On the first night the princess of the moon sat atop her lonely hill, basking in the dim light of the setting sun, she lifted the moon. It rose high into the sky, its own pearly white light engulfing the Equestrian lands in its dim glow. In her own amazement, she lost her focus. In her excitement, she put too much strength into her hold. In her carelessness, the moon shattered and scattered across the sky."
>Luca stared at the book in disbelief.
>No other book she had ever read mentioned anything like this!
>She kicked and squealed as she hugged the book, but noticed it was getting late... or early.

>Luca grabbed the scroll, both books her previous visitors had given her, and her copy of Our Moon.
>With her fear nagging at her, she carried her books to her bedroom and packed them up in her saddlebags.
"I would prefer to be prepared, should I need to flee."
>She hustled around her library and her home, gathering up any little things she cared about.
>Anything that she felt she needed, or would keep her safe.
>Just in case.
>Her fear did not retreat as she crawled into her warm bed.
>It did not dissipate as she closed her eyes and buried her face into her pillow.
>Peaceful sleep refused her.