The Headless Horse

by GhostQuill

The Gravestone Sword

Reaching the edge of the forest, Princess Celestia’s carriage was waiting for her. Celestia climbed on her carriage and turned to Twilight and her friends.

“My dear subjects. Meet me in Canterlot as soon as you can, I have something I need to show you, will explain as much as I can then. Farewell.”

“We’ll be there Princess.” They said and she was off. Flying high into the sky and back to Canterlot.

Making their way back to town, they each questioned what had just happened between the Princess and the Headless Horse.

“What do you think all that was about? Do you really think Celestia could’ve ordered somepony to kill him? And his best friend no less...” voiced Rarity. All the others were thinking the same thing, just what had happened for his best friend to kill him? These were questions they all really wanted to know.

“I don’t know, it just doesn’t seem possible.” Twilight wasn’t sure what to think.

“Ummm… well, maybe she was stressed…” They all turned to Fluttershy, timidly hiding behind her hair. “She, she had just lost her sister after all… She was probably sad that she was gone, and then maybe he just… set her off?”

“That still doesn’t seem like an acceptable reason to kill somepony!” said Applejack,

“Yes but… how do you think you would feel losing Applebloom? If you had the power, there’s a small chance that in your state of mind, you might just do something you’d regret.” Applejack looked away and towards her farm in the distance, she wasn’t sure how she would feel losing her sister like that. But Fluttershy had a point.

“Hey! We don’t even know if that Headless Horse was telling the truth! The Princess would never do something like that!” said Rainbow Dash, she still didn’t trust Headless.

“We’ll have to ask the Princess when we get to Canterlot.” Said Twilight. “I want to check out the Canterlot library to see if I missed anything on this Spell Bound. I’m sure I should’ve read about him if he saved the Princess.”

“We’re behind you the whole way Twilight!” Beamed Pinkie Pie.

“Thanks girls. I just know something’s up, especially with that Headless Horse, and it’s great to know that you’ll all be there with me.”

“Oh course Twilight, we’re your friends, we’ll always help you.” They each went off to their homes to grab a few essentials and to tell their families where they were going before meeting Twilight out front of her library.

“Hey Twilight, we’re all here and ready to go.”

“Thanks girls, we’d better hurry if we want to catch our train.”

“Wait!” Suddenly from out of the library came a young dragon. He ran up to Twilight and said, “Why can’t I come Twilight?”

“Oh Spike, because I need you to stay here and watch the library.”

“The library? Twilight, they’re just a bunch of books, they aren’t going to go anywhere.”

“I know Spike, but it’s not just the library, with us gone, we need you to watch over the girls, they’re going to need someone to look after them and Scootaloo will need someone to visit her.” She said sincerely.

“I still think I should stay with her.” Said Rainbow Dash annoyed.

“You know what the Princess said, she wanted all of us there. This is important Dash.”

“Fine.” Rainbow said looking over to the hospital. Sighing Spike said,

“Alright I’ll watch them. Geeze.” He was still annoyed but farewelled his friends all the same. They all headed off to the train station while he went grumpily back inside the library. Unknown to them, but Scootaloo had overheard them talking from the hospital and was now curious as to what happened with the Headless Horse for them all to suddenly head to Canterlot. So while the group were waiting impatiently on the train during the long and starry night. Scootaloo was sneaking out of the hospital with her scooter. She used it to reach the forest seeing how she was still injured. She had to know what had happened. Spike had been cleaning up the library after Twilight’s crazed studying and saw Scooatloo leave the hospital. Quickly he followed after her, he started to get very scared the closer she went to the Everfree Forest. But Twilight had trusted him to look after her so he ran in after her, no matter how much his entire being protested.

Scootaloo was finding her way into the forest hoping to find the Headless Horse. She travelled to the castle, but stayed hidden and silent as she passed it in fear of the manticores. She saw hoof prints in the ground, and followed them. Finally she found the clearing with a sword sticking out of the ground and Headless lying pitifully on his grave. He had his arms over his neck trying to pretend that he wasn’t in the forest. It was so quiet in this part of the forest and Scootaloo’s whispered greeting broke the silence like a brick impacting a wall. Turning around Headless looked over to his visitor and instantly sighed rolling over again.

“What do you want kid? Shouldn’t you be in bed or something?”

“I wanted to come see you. What happened? I saw the Princess in town today and now Rainbow Dash and her friends are going to Canterlot.”

“Oh miss high and mighty? Let me guess, she didn’t even pay you a visit? You were hurt, and she was more concerned with returning home than to pay a visit to an injured foal who was practically right next to her. Typical Celestia.” Scootaloo was taken aback by this, he was insulting the Princess? No one ever insulted her, unless they were trying to overthrow her but it didn’t look like he was so it confused her. (Oh Scootaloo…)

“Don’t you like the Princess?”

“Like her?! I hate that so-called ruler. She sent her own sister to the moon, just because she was feeling neglected. Well guess what Celestia, I’m sure she wasn’t feeling neglected on the moon for a thousand years.” He grumbled something under his breath and continued to mull on his grave. Scootaloo sat on her scooter unsure what to do.

“Hey Headless, to change the subject…”

“What?” He was about as uninterested as they came.

“Why can’t you leave the forest?”

“Kid, I’ve been asking that question for a thousand years.”

“No I mean, why only up to the castle and your grave? Why not the edge of the forest.”

“A thousand years ago, this was the edge of the forest.”

“It still doesn’t make sense.”

“And it never will, stop worrying about it kid, it’ll just give you a migraine.” Slowly scooting up to him, Scootaloo was right next to him and said,

“Why don’t you like the Princess?”

“Because she killed me. I think that’s reason enough to dislike somepony.” Scootaloo was shocked.

“But… But Princess Celestia would never kill anypony?! She, she loves everypony and cares for them.”

“Oh I’m sorry, you misinterpret my meaning: Celestia didn’t directly kill me,” Scootaloo sighed in relief as he got up and started to walk around her into the clearing, “she gave the order to kill me.” Scootaloo gasped in shock at that. “And by my own bloody best friend, chopped my head clean off without a second thought.” Scootaloo was choking on her air now, taking in too much at once and getting caught in her throat. His own friend?!!! She could never imagine one of her own friends doing that.

“Your… Your FRIEND?!! But… Bu.. how… why? How could your friend just do that?! Just like that?!”

“Well, technically we weren’t friends anymore. We actually hated each other at the time. Past events and such.” Gulping she asked,

“What happened?” Turning on her suddenly Headless shouted,

“Is that really any of your concern?!” She fell off her scooter and was crawling backwards as he yelled at her. “What is it with everypony today asking me questions?! Did they ever think I didn’t want to tell them what my past was like?! Did they ever think that just maybe, I wanted to forget it all? No! They just expect me to answer their questions because they are so much more important than me and can tell me what to do.” Scootaloo was leaning against the sword on his grave and looked scared up to him as he ranted before her. She cowered against the sword and pushed against it trying to get away from him. Suddenly, a voice hollered out between them,

“HEY!” A purple dragon ran between them and said, “Leave her alone!” He stood defiantly in front of the Headless Horse but his trembling body gave away the terror he was feeling.

“Oh? What’s this? A dragon? And a baby one. Pha! What you gonna do? Knaw me to death? I’m already dead!” Spike was trembling and it took all his strength not to collapse on the ground, all the feeling in his legs was leaving him.

“Just… Just leave her alone.” Headless looked at the little dragon, he was defending this little… foal. How odd. Calming down, Headless chuckled to himself and lied down in front of them. Crossing his hooves over and stared at them, he said to the dragon,

“Tell me dragon, just why are you defending this pony?” Spike looked at him confused,

“Ummm, she’s my friend.” He said it like it was already obvious, “And Twilight asked me to watch over her while she was gone.”

“Hmm, Twilight, that’s that annoying purple unicorn right?”

“Twilight’s not annoying! … not a lot anyway…”

“Mmhm… Anyway, how did a little dragon like you come to know these ponies? Last I checked; dragons didn’t associate with ponies.”

“Well… they don’t, but Celestia found my egg when I was young and Twilight hatched it, so I’ve just always lived with ponies.”

“How interesting.” Scootaloo was getting annoyed now.

“Come on Spike, let’s go.” She said pulling on his arm.

“Huh? Why?” Spike was confused, this Headless Horse didn’t seem nearly as scary as he had a moment ago.

“Because he’s being unfair.” Headless perked himself up a bit at that,

“Just how am I being unfair?”

“Because, you keep asking Spike about who he is, but you won’t tell anypony else who you are!” She started towards her scooter and pulled Spike along with her. Headless stood there in silence, unsure what he should say, finally he said,

“I’m not ready to tell anyone my past. I’ve lived so long trying to forget it, that I’m just not sure whether I’m ready to remember it. Trust me kid, it’s not a good story.” Scootaloo thought this over, but she still got on her scooter and buzzed her wings to leave. Spike on the other hand, was staring at the sword which marked his grave. Living with Twilight had made him a very observant dragon, and there was something about this sword that seemed familiar.

“You know, I think I’ve seen this sword before…” Scootaloo’s ears pricked up at that, where could’ve Spike had seen the sword before?!?! Her foolish curiosity getting the better of her, she backed up suddenly in excitement. Scootaloo accidentally drove her scooter into Spike without realising and caused him to fall over into the sword. It wobbled and fell down, loosened from the ground by Spike’s impact. Headless stopped and stared in silence at what had happened. This was his sword, the marker to his grave, and they pushed it over! He was furious, you don’t just push over somepony’s gravestone. It’s their gravestone! Standing stock still, he said;

“Move.” The both of them stayed frozen.

“MOVE!” He shouted. Scootaloo jumped from where she was and buzzed her wings scooting backwards away from him. Spike was still frozen in place, Headless took a step forward and yelled, “MOVE!!!!” Spike crawled away from the sword as he came closer. Just then, Headless felt like something was… off. Something was different. He paused and looked around, it was still silent all around, and then he looked at the ground. The sword laid on the ground before him, but he realised he was standing on ground he had never stood on before, it was further than he had ever been as a ghost. Shock came across his face as he tapped at the barrier which was now further than previously. After living in this forest for a thousand years, he had come to unconsciously know where the barrier always was, and he was certain it had moved.

“Kid,” he said suddenly quiet, “can you pull my sword towards you?” Confused Scootaloo slowly did as he said, she couldn’t move too well, so Spike helped and managed to drag it towards them. Headless had his hoof resting on the barrier and as the sword moved, so did the barrier. He laughed in realisation.

“It was the sword! The sword was the barrier! How could I have never seen this before? Quick kid, take the sword and put it on your… thing you’re on.” He said excitedly pointing at her scooter. Dragging the sword once more, she pulled it over to her scooter and placed it on it. Then standing on her scooter with Spike on as well, she buzzed her wings and headed off back the way she had come. Headless was ecstatic as he followed in a rush. He was travelling on ground he has never seen before in thousand years. His excitement was rubbing off on Scootaloo because her wings were buzzing faster as he sped up and they raced through the forest. The edge of the forest was near, he could see the line of trees ending. Suddenly they burst through and were out of the Everfree forest. Headless stopped in his tracks. Scootaloo skidded to a stop too and they looked back to see him looking up to the sky. He was staring at the night sky, in all its beauty. With its full moon high in the sky and stars spotting the vast blackness. He hadn’t seen it in over a thousand years, his favourite sight, and he was finally able to see it in all its glory. How he had dreamed of this day. Meanwhile, Spike was nibbling his claws in anxiety.

“What are we going to do? He’s a Headless Horse! If anypony sees him they’ll go crazy.” His words fell on deaf ears because Headless was ignoring them, staring to the sky, and Scootaloo had fallen asleep on her scooter. Spike was ready to fall asleep but he was too worried.He got off the scooter and started to push it back to town. He had hoped that the Headless Horse would stay away from town but a quick look over his shoulder proved him wrong. Headless was silently following them. Headless looked down at the small dragon and was trotting behind them, gazing occasionally up at the sky. It took a while with Scootaloo unconscious, but finally Spike made it to the hospital and managed to put her back inside without anypony finding out. Leaving her scooter with her, Spike headed back outside to find Headless wandering around, looking inside buildings and walking through them. Spike clutched his head with worry in his eyes and ran towards the Headless Horse.

“What are you doing?! You can’t just go into somepony’s house, they might see you!”

“So?”

“So?! They. Might. See. You.” He repeated, “These ponies live a very peaceful life, and you’re going to give them all a heart attack!”

“Pfft, they’re all asleep, I’m not going to wake them up. If anyone is it’d be you, not being very quiet. Yelling at ghosts and all.” Headless wandered off again and Spike was struggling to follow him while lugging his sword behind him.

“Wait up will you?! I have to get… to the library!”

“Why would you need to go to the library?”

“It’s where I live… And I need.. to send a letter… to Twilight.” Spike stopped, this sword was heavy and he was straining to pull it after Headless, now he wished he’d brought Scootaloo’s scooter. Finally Headless stopped and turned back to the small dragon. He really didn’t want to go to some library but this dragon was helping him so he thought it was the least he could do, plus, he was the one with his sword. If he didn’t want the dragon to dump it in the river or something, he’d have to follow him. Signing he said,

“Alright, where’s this library then.” The dragon perked up and continued pulling the sword. It was a tedious walk, Headless would take one step every once in a while but spent most of it standing still, because if he went any faster, he’d leave the dragon behind. Besides, he needed the dragon to show him the way to the library. Bored, he thought maybe some conversation would quicken this trip.

“So…. What’s your name?”

“Spike.” He stated flatly trying to breath air quickly.

“Spike…” He tested out the name bored. “I remember Scootaloo saying that. Did that Twilight come up with it?”

“Yep.”

“Where is this library?”

“It’s that tree… over there.” Looking forward, Headless saw a huge tree with windows and a door on it. It appeared to be carved out from the inside. Unamused he said,

“Oh goody, a tree. Just when I get out of a forest filled with them, I get to go inside one. Fun.” Spike ignored him and finally they were at the front door to the library. Opening the bottom half of the door, Spike dropped the sword against the wall next to the door. Headless just waltzed inside through the door. Looking around it was dark until Spike lit a few candle and he saw all the books lining the sides of this huge hollowed out tree. He continued to walk around the inside while Spike ran off and grabbed a quill and paper. Quickly he wrote a message on it;

Dear Princess Celestia,

When Twilight reaches you, can tell her that the Headless Horse is in the library. I’m sorry to be so blunt but there’s no other way to explain the situation. Something to do with his sword; somehow he’s able to leave the forest if the sword is taken out of the forest.

-Regards Spike.

Spike was about to roll it up and send it away but a voice behind him stopped him.
“Get rid of that last part.”

“Ah! Don’t sneak up on me like that!’ Calming down he said, ‘Why? What’s wrong with it?”

“I’d rather if the pony who hates didn’t know how to keep me stuck in the forest forever. Not really something I want to make public.”

“Twilight doesn’t hate you.”

“Not Twilight; Celestia. There’s a bit of a feud between us, and I just know she would love to trap me in the forest for eternity.” Spike could see why he’d want to keep it a secret. So he scrunched up the piece of paper and wrote it again, but without the part with his sword, and blew fire on it, sending it away to Celestia.

“What was burning the paper supposed to do?” Headless asked.

“Oh, I didn’t burn it, sort of, it’s like teleportation magic. My fire sends it to Celestia, and she can send messages back to me.”

“Weird. Have you always been able to do that?”

“Um, well, since I can remember.”

“Can you send letters to anypony?”

“No, just Celestia.”

“Weird.” After a moment of awkward silence and Spike yawning loudly. Headless said,

“Well I’m going to take a look around town.”

“What? Wait!’ Spike ran in front of Headless trying to bar the doorway and said, ‘You can’t go out there! What if somepony sees you?!”

“They’re not going to see me. Everypony is asleep anyway.” Headless ignored the little dragon and easily passed through him and the door. Opening the door in a hurry, Spike went to follow him but wound up collapsing on the ground. He curled up into a small ball on the grass and fell asleep. He’d been up so late already, his body just shut down on him. Headless was surprised at his sudden collapse. He went back to check on Spike, but seeing that he was just sleeping, Headless continued on his way around the town. The library was side on to the Everfree forest, so Headless could only explore half of the town but he didn’t care. He barely even looked over most of the houses or buildings in Ponyville. Instead he just went over to a nearby field between Ponyville and the forest, and spent the entire night, staring up to the sky. He knew Celestia would find out sooner or later about his sword, so he was going to lap up this view as much as he could.

Celestia had finally arrived back at the castle and she wanted nothing more than to fall instantly to sleep in her nice comfy bed. But she had to see to something first. From outside the castle, she flew up to the top of the castle, to a balcony where her sister Princess Luna was looking over the land.

“Hello Celestia, was what Twilight and her friends said true? Is there a Headless Horse in the Everfree?”

“Sadly yes Luna. And apparently both you and I know him.” Luna looked at her confused and tried to form a question, but Celestia stopped her. “He says that he’s the ghost of the Commander of the Lunar Guards, from a thousand years ago.’ Luna’s eyes went wide at this.

“How could the commander be a ghost in the Everfree sister?!’

“I fear I may have something to do with that. You see, after… after I sent you to the moon…” Celestia paused, “There was a revolt. All of the Lunar Guards stormed the castle and demanded that I return you to Equestria. But I refused. I’m sorry sister. I’ve regretted that day for years.”

“I forgive you Celestia.” Luna said draping a wing around her sister.

“Thank you, but it’s not just that I regret, when they revolted, I fought back, I sent my guards at them. And when it was all over, I found the pony who had started it, he was the Commander of your guards and I killed him. I had him beheaded! And now I find out he’s been in the forest for a thousand years!”

“It’s okay sister, I’ll help you sort this out.”

“Thank you Luna, Twilight and her friends will be here soon. But I must ask you… Just who was your Commander of the Lunar Guards. He won’t tell me his name and you are the only one who knows.” Celestia turned to her sister and looked desperately at her. This was clearly something that had been bothing her for years. Smiling, Luna saw no reason not to tell her.

“His name is Ember, sister. Ember Sword.” Smiling Celestia hugged her sister and thanked her. She got up to leave and hopefull to get at least some sleep before the sun had to come up, but a rolled up scroll suddenly landed on her nose instead. Lifting it up Celestia wondered what Spike could be writing to her about, had Twilight and her friends not left Ponyville yet? Opening it, it read;

Dear Princess Celestia,

When Twilight reaches you, can tell her that the Headless Horse is in the library. I’m sorry to be so blunt but there’s no other way to explain the situation.

-Regards Spike.

Celestia dropped the scroll as her mind tried to process what she had just read, finally she found her voice and said perhaps a little too loud;

“WHAT?!!!”

Comments

[moguera]

I notice that Princess Celestia is conveniently leaving out talking about the part where she went to the Lunar Guards and insisted that they work for her or be dismissed. "Cause, you know, it's not like that might've been the straw that broke the camel's back. Selective memory is a wonderful thing isn't it.

[GhostQuill]

2361945
: Heh heh I don't know what you're talking about. My memory is as good as ever...

[Soaringhere]

Great chapter and glad to see this story back again