//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: The Longest Night 
// by Mister E 
//------------------------------//

Bartlet was panting heavily, each breath steaming in the bitter winter air. He was completely exhausted. They all were. It had been the worst night any of them could ever remember. By the flickering torchlight he examined the devastation. It was all he could do to choke back a sob. They had all lost so much this year. But it was over. HE was gone.

Aged Nashi approached him on shaking hooves. "It is over," she said. "We have respite."

"But only until next year." Bartlet replies bitterly.

"Not so," Nashi counters, pointing a hoof at a bare spot in the snow.

"The lantern... it's gone," Bartlet says in a tone of surprised wonder.

"Indeed Nashi replies. "We have respite. It will be some pony else who shoulders the burden next year."