Spring Cleaning at Moondancer's

[Crescent]

Moondancer dragged a full sack, holding it by the teeth and straining to pull it out of the cottage door. It was so big that it got quite stuck to the doorway, not fitting outside. She pulled and pulled but it wouldn't budge. Sighing, she let go of the huge sack and walked closer. She pressed her hooves against the sack and tried to push it back inside, but now it had got stuck to the doorway too well to move to either direction.

Dancer sighed and tossed her mane back from her face, stopping to stand by the sack quietly. She looked around the little yard of her cottage. The flowers were beginning to bud and the grass was growing. She sighed at the sight of several smaller sacks and a few pieces of furniture spread all around her cottage. She had not realised how much old stuff she had had lying around her cottage. She didn't understand what she would do with it all. Hold a garage sale? But she didn't even have a garage.

She sighed and turned her attention back to the sack. What was she going to do with that? Should she open the sack and try to empty it a little?

After a moment's of pondering she decided that was the best course of action. So she began to fight with the knot next.

[Crescent]

A quiet form of a yellow mare approached Moondancer's cottage. Cascade didn't exactly know what she was doing there; only that she wanted to have a stroll, and this was where her feet brought her. She spotted Dancer struggling to open the knot of a large sack halfway out of her cottage door. The mare tilted her head to the side and stopped. She saw other sacks and a few pieces of lovely old furniture spluttered about the cottage. Her brow furrowed. What was the white unicorn doing?

Cascade wanted to find out. Perhaps the older mare needed help. She trotted closer carefully, then stopped a few metres away.

"A-hem," she said quietly in order to attract Dancer's attention.

The dark-red-maned mare jumped a little and turned around. Her eyes searched for danger, but when they stopped on the younger mare, she relaxed. She didn't know Cascade, but she could see she was kind enough. The unicorn composed herself and looked at the yellow mare.

"Yes?" she asked. "Is there something I can do for you?"

In a way, she hoped there would. She had not been doing anything important in such a long time that she felt herself... lost sometimes. Her heart ached as the memory of her daughter passed her mind. She would have been more than enough of company for her.

Cascade approached the unicorn carefully, placing her hooves as delicately as she could. There were some smaller stuff lying about, and she didn't want to step on anything to break it.

"I was merely curious of what you were doing," she said as she had reached the other mare. She looked at the sack meaningfully. "And wondering if you needed help." She smiled and looked at Dancer, extending a polite hoof. "I am Cascade," she said.

Dancer was surprised but in a good way. To be met by such an open, helpful mare was strange to her, but she still had enough of faith on ponykind to take her up on her offer.

"Moondancer," she introduced herself. "But you can call me Dancer. And I suppose, if you wanted, you might help me to untie this sack. I'm doing a spring cleaning, and seem to have over-filled this one."

Cascade gave a laugh.

"Oh, certainly," she said, and started to tug at the knot. Dancer watched her skilfully open the knot, and couldn't help but wonder. Of course, helping out at the healing house and being trained enough a healer, Cascade was agile with her hooves. As soon as the knot was open, she looked around on the yard. "Are you really throwing away all this?"

[Crescent]

Dancer glanced at where Cascade was looking. Then she shrugged as she dove inside the sack and started taking out stuff one by one.

"Take what ever you want," she said from inside the sack. A rolled up canvas flew out, then a bunch of horseshoes. Whatever she had done with those, she couldn't understand.

Cascade looked around with interest.

"I have been in need of a new table," she said as she approached the small nightstand a little ways off of her. She examined it closely. "There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it." She sounded puzzled.

"That was from my guest room," Dancer said as she came out of the sack, carrying a pot in her mouth. She dropped it and looked at Cascade, just a small touch of sadness strapped onto her face. "But no one ever comes these days, so I doubt I shall need it anymore."

But the one in Baby Moondancer's room she was to keep. She couldn't bring herself to part with it, in hopes that one day her daughter would yet return. It was a distant hope, but she clung to it. How old was she now? 18? 19? She couldn't remember. The years jumbled together and became one long dragging motion. She had kept up her room all these years, changing it according to the way she thought her daughter would have evolved. At first it had been baby toys. Now it looked more like an adult mare's room. She had bought a little stuffed toy and put it on the bed. Every night she dusted it.

She still couldn't understand who could have taken her baby. Who could be so cruel?

[Crescent]

Cascade watched the other mare quietly as she talked, and then suddenly grew silent. So very silent. The pain and sorrow reflecting in Moondancer's eyes made her shift her hooves a bit uncomfortably. She wanted to help, but she wasn't sure how. She thought over her words, and realised their full import.

"You don't have visitors often," she said quietly, but it was really more of a statement than a question.

Dancer sighed and tossed her head a little, looking at the other mare. Yes, she supposed she might as well tell her.

"I haven't been much out for the past... years," she said, feeling more comfortable with ending her sentence that way. It was nearly twenty years, but she didn't want to make her loneliness that obvious. She turned back to the sacks. "So, take whatever you like," she said while she cleared the way for the now less full sack in the doorway. "I don't think I shall need any of this stuff again."

And then she took the sack into her teeth and started dragging it out. It was still so heavy that she could hardly get it to move. Cascade smiled gently and came close to her, grabbing the sack as well. Together, the two mares managed to get the sack out, and when she was pleased about the position of it, Dancer looked at the younger mare. Her eyes were gentler now. She had not come across kindness for such a long time now. She had nearly forgotten how good it felt like.

"Thank you," she said warmly, and touched the other mare briefly on the nose with hers. She didn't realise the other might not fully understand what she was being thanked for.

Cascade smiled a little and inclined her head a little.

"My pleasure," she said and then looked out around them. Suddenly she had an idea. Just what the older mare needed! She looked at Dancer intently. "Would you join me for a walk?"

Dancer jumped a little at the suggestion, but then relaxed and looked down. Then again, why not? She looked around her on the yard. Yes, there was nothing but old memories there, scattered about the yard. She sighed and then smiled wearily, looking at Cascade.

"Sure," she said. "Why not?" And she walked to the door of her cottage. She locked it and then turned to Cascade.

The younger mare smiled happily and started to lead the older one away, towards a randomly chosen spot. She wanted to bring Dancer into contact with other ponies. She looked like she might be in need of some company.

[[cont. somewhere else]]

[Crescent]

[[cont. from the picnic thread]]

Moondancer winked back into the yard of her cottage. She shook her mane and looked around. Then she sighed. The furniture and the rest of the junk lying about depressed her. This work would never end. She walked to the nightstand Cascade had been admiring, and stared at it for some while. There were some memories attached to it. But they were all the bad kind.

Determinately, she started to move the nightstand to a little farther off, to reserve it for Cascade.

[WingSong]

A small blue filly walked past the cottage, with goggles settled down over her eyes as she prodded a set of shoes with a screwdriver. "There!", she exclaimed with a satisfied grin as she threw back her hoof. Her expression changed to a thoughtful frown when the motion sent the tool flying into a nearby bush. After turning back to look at the shoes once more, she glanced in the direction it had gone and muttered, "I needed that..."

Walking over to pace around the plant, Baby Gadget came to the conclusion that it would be possible to recover the screwdriver, but the process would require a bit of time and a lot of little scratches from the branches.

I'll want an alternative option, then, she thought. Glancing around, her eyes finally settled on Moondancer's cottage, which looked a bit cluttered at the moment. I don't suppose anyone would be home, then... She looked over to the side slightly, at one of the windows. ...So no one would even notice if I borrowed some tools...

Gadget walked over toward the window and fiddled with the latch for a moment. When she'd gotten it open she pushed it up slightly, and due to her small size was able to slip inside without much trouble. The filly tumbled to the floor and looked around, blinking several times to feel more oriented after the fall as the window slammed back down with a loud BANG behind her.

She wasn't very concerned about someone hearing her, but flinched simply because she was bothered by such a loud noise. Looking around, she didn't think she was in a very promising place to find a screwdriver. The room she was in didn't seem to match what she'd seen from the outside of the house, in the sense that it seemed neat and meticulously well-kept. Trying to ignore that what she had just done would be considered breaking and entering, the young pony put on her goggles and took comfort from the feeling of professionalism they brought, and the friendly atmosphere of the room.

((So there's Gadget, my li'l burglar. I made some assumptions about the cottage, but I tried to keep it somewhat vague. And btw, I've placed her in Baby Moondancer's room.))

[Crescent]

[[haha, that's perfect! And don't worry about appearances, I haven't any blueprints done in my head anyway]]

Moondancer jumped slightly when she heard the bang inside the house. She blinked and her heart felt a flutter. What could the noise mean? Was someone inside? How could there be? She hadn't invited anyone, or left anyone inside. She swallowed and took a few tentative steps toward the house, then she stopped again, cold shivers running through her. It was moments like these she wished, more than ever, that there was a stallion living there with her. Her mind went distantly back to Phoenix, then drifted back to the situation at hand. The gypsy pony could not help her.

Dancer stared at the door for a while, then took courage and took out the key. She opened the door and stepped in, looking round carefully. It was rather dark there, as she didn't have lights on and many of the curtains were over the windows. She swallowed and, very carefully, called up the light at the end of her horn. It illuminated her and her immediate surroundings as she carefully walked through the living room, trying to listen for any more sounds.

Maybe it was a cat, she thought to herself, trying to convince herself that it could be nothing more than that. Yes, a cat. A cat got in through a window or something.

[WingSong]

((Ah, good.))

Gadget spotted a faint glow in the hall and pressed herself against the wall, trying not to make a sound. Oh no! Now I'm going to get arrested, and then I'll get thrown in jail, and I don't have a lawyer so everyone will forget about me and I'll just be a moldy corpse in some cold dungeon and I'll never see the light of day again and it's all because of those stupid shoes...

The filly's thoughts came out in one long, nervous, rambling stream of fleeting ideas.

[Crescent]

Moondancer kept walking round, very cautiously. She at first looked through the living room, then continued to the door of her bedroom. Verry slowly. She stopped at the door, and closed her eyes tight, concentrating on illuminating the bedroom completely. Only then she realised it didn't make much difference if she closed her eyes, so she opened them again and scanned the room. Nothing there.

Behind her, there was an open passage from Baby Moondancer's room to the outer door.

[[in case she wants to try to make a run for it. She might stumble in the dark or something.]]

[WingSong]

The filly spotted a way out and darted towards the door, slipping a little and skidding into the wall. Clutching the shoes for balance, she picked herself back up quickly. She might have still had time to run out the door, but suddenly she felt overcome with guilt. Would she feel bad about this the rest of her life? Breaking into a total stranger's house and running away - she could end up a fugitive from the law, even!

Taking a deep breath and making sure the goggles weren't crooked over her eyes, Gadget slowly retraced her steps back into the house, and called out, "I'm really sorry. Really. I don't want to go to jail!"

[Crescent]

Dancer jumped high at the noise of the escaping filly behind her. She turned around, and looked around, only getting a glimpse of a stumbling filly somewhere near the door. She blinked, then concentrated on dimming the light of her horn when she realised it was blinding her.

Then Gadget called out, and she blinked once again. Wait a minute. This wasn't a burglar. It was a filly. Young one, at that. Moondancer took a step forward, and tilted her head to the side.

"Oh..." she said, then recalled herself. "Oh! Do calm down, dear!" She trotted to the filly and examined her with her eyes more closely. She still looked a little harsh. "But what were you doing in my home?"

[WingSong]

"Well, I was fixing my shoes but I lost my screwdriver and I broke in here, but I don't want to be a fugitive so I turned myself in, but I still don't want to be a rotting corpse in a dungeon!", Gadget said quickly, assuming no further explanation would be needed.

The mare looked nice, but that only made the filly feel more guilty. She tensed up a bit, waiting to hear what would become of her.

[Crescent]

Moondancer listened to the filly, trying to comprehend everything she said though she spoke rather fast. She had to smile when she finished. She examined the youngling with her eyes, realising only now that she was really very young. Surge of compassion and motherly instinct rose in her.

"Come now," she said, trying to calm the filly. "Don't be upset. I won't call the police." [[or whatever the DV law enforcement department is called]] She stepped aside and motioned with her hoof. "I was just startled. I'm not sure if I have a screwdriver anywhere, but I'm sure we can figure out something to help you with your shoes." She hadn't really understood that part of her story, but felt it was better to leave it at that. "Do come in, dear. I'm sure I have cookies somewhere. You look like you might be hungry."

Dancer turned and trotted over to a few tables, lighting candles. [[candles because I started thinking and I'm not sure if they have electric lights here]]

[WingSong]

Gadget smiled, feeling suddenly very calm.

"Oh, good", she said as she trotted behind to keep up, following very closely. "I am kinda hungry. I haven't eaten much lately cause I've been trying to get the shoes to work. I think they're doing better now, but they still can't fly yet."

One of the many ways the filly took after her father was that she obsessed over her work. Still, she supposed a short break wouldn't hurt - after all, those cookies did sound rather tasty.

[Crescent]

Moondancer blinked when she mentioned flying shoes. She opened her mouth to ask, then closed it again. She was now a little unsure if the filly was all right in the head, but as she liked to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, she figured it was just some game she liked to play. So she smiled and closed the door after Gadget, taking her to the couch.

"Do sit down," she told her. "I'll get the cookies. Would you like something with them? A soda, perhaps?"

She was a little worried over how... ragged the little pony looked like. Where were her parents? She hoped she wasn't young enough not to be able to tell her.