//------------------------------// // Ch. 3 - Ponyville // Story: Child of Nightmares and Everfree // by Georg //------------------------------// Child of Nightmares and Everfree Ponyville Ponyville looked much different in the noontime sun from ground level than it did in the moonlight from a cloud. Sergeant Sunshine Symphony of the Royal Guard (Night Division and Temporary Courier) stumbled off the train with a lumpy bag full of clean armor and a smaller bag containing a few personal possessions over his back. The pair of sunglasses he had grabbed from his clan home helped cut the glare down from head-splitting to only severely annoying, but he still moved from one tree’s shadow to the next as he made his way to the Ponyville Town Hall. This year the mayor will listen. Princess Luna’s word must be worth something. He nodded as he passed through the mayor’s outer office, the secretary taking one glance at the broad-shouldered Nocturne and finding something far more interesting to look at in the bottom of a file cabinet like a bureaucratic ostrich. After all, the secretary probably expected to hear the same upcoming argument he had suffered through several times before. By Sunshine’s count, he had met with this Ponyville mayor four times now, counting today, and had only lost his temper once. He was determined not to make the same mistake again. “Good morning, Madam Mayor.” Sunshine had the folder with Princess Luna’s symbol on it in his right hoof before the mayor could open her mouth. He dropped it on the paper-covered desk and promptly plunked his rump onto the visitor’s cushion, setting his jaw and remaining determined not to say anything until she had read the letter. “Good afternoon, Sergent Sunshine.” The mayor nudged the closed folder and favored him with a very unfavorable look. “I must say our conversation is starting off better than usual. To answer your questions before you ask, there have been no reports of any unicorn matching the description of your deceased wife, nor any reports of any of your variety of pegasi, young or old, within the Ponyville valley area, including the Whitetail Woods and the Canter mountain valley.” “I saw her last night,” said Sunshine, almost under his breath. “I saw Emerald Dreams and I lost it. I went screaming after her like some madpony.” “So that was you?” The mayor seemed to be interested, as opposed to the normal impassive shield she projected. “I heard somepony go screaming off into the woods last night, and the candy was spread all over the place again this year. I thought it was Rainbow Dash trying to pull another prank.” Sunshine remained quiet and sitting on his cushion until the mayor opened up the folder and began to read. There were a few “Hmmm’s” and an “Interesting” or two scattered around the page flips, but he concentrated on his breathing while she was reading, even when the secretary poked his head into the office to check why it was so quiet. Eventually, Mayor Mare closed the folder and just watched him while tapping her forehooves together. “Until a few weeks ago, I might have thought you were crazy to say somepony is living in the Everfree Forest right outside of town without us realizing it. Then we found a zebra of all ponies who had apparently been living there for some time, and only has been recently befriended by our resident celebrities.” “So you’ll help?” he asked, trying not to breathe heavily in anticipation. “As much as we can,” said the mayor. “I’ll send Pokey over to Fluttershy’s with a message so she and her animals can check the edge of the Everfree Forest.” “What about the sheriff?” asked Sunshine. “Can he put together a search party?” “The sheriff moved to Appleoosa.” Mayor Mare looked out the window as if she were also considering a change of venue. “Right now, all we have is a prisoner on work release, and Jailbird’s parole won’t let him leave the city limits of Ponyville.” “Oh-kay.” Sunshine Symphony took a deep breath. “Who does that leave us with to search?” ~^^~ “Attention everypony,” announced Twilight Sparkle to the growing crowd of ponies. “We have a lost little pony out in the Everfree Forest. Sergeant Symphony says she started at the statue of Nightmare Moon last night and flew towards the forest in an erratic pattern. She’s probably lost and frightened, so try not to scare her away if you spot her.” “Do you have a description?” called out one pony from the crowd. “She’s one of Princess Luna’s nocturnal pegasi,” said Twilight, reading down her sheet. “She has a bat wing for a cutie mark, green eyes, and—” She paused and waved a hoof rather generally at Sunshine “—looks like him.” The general enthusiasm of the crowd lessened slightly. “Did the Ghost Foal of Nightmare Moon return this year?” asked one little filly out in the crowd. Twilight Sparkle frowned. “No, I’m fairly certain Princess Luna does not have any foals, natural or supernatural. Anyway, I’ve put together a search pattern for our teams that should cover the entire near side of the forest and— Sergeant Symphony? Where did he go?” In the middle of the crowd, a young light-purple unicorn filly abruptly found herself the focus of the large batwinged guard as Sunshine forced himself to stop a length away and ask, “Did you see her? Did you see my daughter?” Although several of the little ponies around the filly took a step or two away from him, the fearless little filly just nodded slightly at his question. “I think so, Mister Symphony. It was last year when we were all down at the statue of Nightmare Moon. I saw this little filly who looked a lot like you hiding in a bush. She had the biggest green eyes, but she was really skinny and didn’t have a candy bag, so I kinda-sorta left mine behind for her.” Sunshine Symphony’s heart leapt with joy. He wanted to scoop this little filly up and give her the biggest of hugs, but with great effort, he managed to stay almost perfectly still as he asked, “Can you show me where you saw her?” ~^^~ Emerald’s hiding place turned out to be an ordinary bush in the light of day, sitting to one side of the path the little colts and fillies would use to bring their candy sacrifices to the statue of Nightmare Moon. A small collection of investigative-minded citizens had trooped down the path to it, following Dinky Doo as she happily rattled on about the events of last year and just where she had seen the ghostly little filly. Even though this particular trail was a year old and cold as winter, Sunshine could still see in his mind’s-eye a little filly sneaking through the bushes in order to watch the festivities she had undoubtedly been forbidden to join due to her mother’s order. Spark Gap had hated the idea of Nightmare Night, and had always found a reason to fight with him during the event. Their fights had been legendary, and the make-up sessions twice as good, but he never knew from one day to another just what wife he would return to when he went home, and sometimes not even then from the way her abrupt personality changes had only gotten worse with the pregnancy. He turned his attention from the past to the present, having Dinky stand where Emerald had been a year ago and slipping through the woods to approach her along the same path his daughter had probably followed. Three little fillies called the ‘Cutie Mark Crusader Investigators’ assisted him, including a verbal comparison of last night’s exciting occasion of Luna’s visit to the fairly ordinary Nightmare Night of a year ago. What they could not do was tell just where his daughter had gone last night. “Detective Prancy Drew always has a reenactment of the crime,” stated Sweetie Belle, a small unicorn filly who was wearing a fedora reminiscent of a crime detective. “Why don’t you fly in the direction she did, and somepony can follow behind to look around?” “Like Rainbow Dash!” suggested a second little pony with a joyful bounce into the air, although her little wings could not sustain her altitude. “Or Fluttershy,” suggested a little earth pony. In the end, several pegasi volunteered to follow him as Sunshine attempted to duplicate the erratic path of the little pony from last night, only slower, and stopping at the edge of the Everfree Forest. It would not have mattered if he had gone in anyway, because the small flock of pegasi following him did not look as if they would have followed. He returned to the clearing with the heavy tug of failure weighing down his heart, only to find Fluttershy talking with Mayor Mare and Dinky. It looked like they had uncovered a possible lead, but when he rushed over to find out what it was, the shy yellow pegasus managed to vanish almost instantly. “Smooth,” said Mayor Mare. She produced a tattered Nightmare Night bag with the word ‘Dinky’ scribbled on the top. “Fluttershy’s ferrets sniffed this out in the bushes. It has fresh candy in it, Dinky confirmed it was hers from last year, and—” She held up the cloth handle and pointed to a series of sharp tooth marks. “Emerald Dreams,” breathed Sunshine, holding out his hoof but unwilling to actually touch the first physical indication he had of his daughter in eight years, and the evidence of his wife’s survival. “Spark Gap has to be out there somewhere.” “I’m… not convinced,” said Mayor Mare, looking away into the woods. “I’ve sent for Twilight Sparkle, since I’ve never seen a dirty bag used by a unicorn before. She should be able to detect if another unicorn has used her magic on it.” ~^^~ Naturally, the first thing Twilight Sparkle did with the bag was to pick it up with her magic, which spoiled any chance for finding out if Spark Gap had touched it with her magic earlier. Still, a careful examination showed leaf litter, a little bit of squirrel fur, and some bark residue, which was enough to narrow down the search for where it had been for the last year to some sort of tree. Since the Everfree Forest was made up of trees, that did not help much. Their second attempt into finding out where Spark Gap and Emerald Dreams was did not fare much better either. Fairly soon after their abortive attempt to learn about the bag had gone south, Sunshine Symphony found himself trudging into the Everfree Forest with all six of the Elements of Harmony on an expedition to the fabled Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. The trip was all very sudden, giving him barely enough time to stuff himself into his spare set of armor. It was also quite odd, as in the bright afternoon sunlight, recreating the legendary terrifying journey of the Elements of Harmony through the dark forest turned out to actually be a casual stroll. Although it still was quite odd. Meeting the sea serpent was what really threw him for a loop. He could not work up the nerve to trot along his back the way the six legendary heroes did after their greeting and introductions, along with confirmation that Steven also had not seen either Spark Gap or Emerald Dreams. Instead, Sunshine flapped along overhead, trying to convince himself that keeping an eye out for other threats was more important than proving his stallionhood by a foolish display of… Well, the Everfree Forest’s reputation was creepy enough to make anypony skittish, particularly one who was supposed to be a protector of others, like Sergeant Sunshine Symphony. It was a humbling experience to say the least, but not as humbling as walking into the broken Castle of the Two Pony Sisters, with shattered stones and fallen buildings all around and the ghosts of ponies a thousand years dead seeming to moan in the unceasing cool breeze. On a deep and primal level, it frightened him right down to his armored shoes, and this was during the day. Every snap of a twig or rattle when a breeze disturbed a loose stone made him whirl and look into the growing shadows, who all seemed to look back at him with unbridled malice. As his hooves crunched through the dry grass and the imagined dry bones beneath it, he thought about the original pony named Sunshine Symphony who had followed Princess Luna here so many years ago. Even though Luna had only been purged of Nightmare Moon and returned to Celestia’s side a few scant months ago, Sunshine could not think of the two sisters as being able to be divided, ever. Still, a thousand years ago when Luna had succumbed to the temptations of Nightmare Moon, the royal sisters had clashed with tragic consequences. His own membranous wings twitched with the thought, as the race of Nocturne had been born in this place when the Nightmare had transformed Luna’s followers, only for them nearly to be wiped out to the last foal when Nightmare Moon drew back the power of their creation in order to fight Celestia. What would the world look like if Luna had been purged of her dark taint without her banishment and the destruction of her followers, the newly created ponies of the Night? What could ponies and princesses have accomplished in a thousand years without that destruction, the forces of Day and Night united with a common goal? Nightmare Moon had clung to her stolen power so tightly that the removal of it had shattered far more than just herself. It had killed Luna’s followers, hurt Celestia far worse than she admitted, and thrown Equestria into a thousand years of near-stasis. Was he clinging to his daughter in the same way? If he really found his wife and daughter, would he destroy Spark Gap by removing the only child she had known for eight years? “Um…” Fluttershy was gently touching him on the shoulder, and from the looks of the rather irritated rabbit with her, had been poking him for some time without him noticing. “I didn’t want to disturb you, since you were thinking.” “Did you find Spark Gap?” he asked, although without the enthusiasm he had really expected. If they had found his wife, the confrontation he had been dreading for the last eight years would be unavoidable, and although he would be ecstatic, a certain portion of him did not want to face her again. He had failed his wife and infant daughter, and no number of years could take the sting out of that bleeding cut. “No. I’m sorry. None of the creatures here have seen any ponies other than us for a very long time. I’m sorry.” “Don’t apologize,” said Sunshine almost out of reflex. “Never apologize for something which isn’t your fault. If there’s anypony who needs to apologize, it’s me for dragging you girls out here.” “We volunteered,” said Fluttershy with just the smallest hint of ire in her voice. “Whenever I have a lost animal, my friends always help look, no matter what.” It took a few minutes of internalized anger before he could respond. “You’re right. My wife and daughter are more important than some lost animal, so I shouldn’t feel guilty about asking you to help. Still, it should be me who apologizes, because this is all my fault. I… wasn’t a very good husband. My wife was not… She suffered some mental issues, and after she gave birth, they only got worse. Even with treatment, she wasn’t getting any better, and I didn’t think I could take care of a foal without her help, so I… asked her to give up Emerald Dreams for adoption.” “And she ran away,” said Fluttershy, still sitting very quietly at his side. “I drove her away,” said Sunshine. “She ran away,” said Fluttershy. “Some creatures can’t accept help when they’re wounded. They lash out at anypony who tries. Sometimes they even… run.” She spoke the last word in a husky whisper, and the little rabbit who had been scowling at him from the cover of her pink tail hopped up next to Fluttershy’s hoof. Angel wrapped two paws around her foreleg as far as he could reach and glared at him while Fluttershy continued. “They’ll hide as far in the dark as they can go and wait to die. Sometimes if the creature is a mother, they’ll even take their little babies with them down into the darkness before they die. If nopony finds them, the babies die too. That’s why we look, even if it seems hopeless. Because if we can save even one life—” Fluttershy gently stroked Angel down the back “—all of the pain is worth it.” ~^^~ It took longer than he was comfortable with to get all of the young mares gathered up for the trip back to Ponyville, with Rarity having brought one of the old tapestries out of the castle for possible restoration and Pinkie Pie having to be dragged out by the tail by Rainbow Dash after losing a short game of ‘Hide-and-Seek-Before-Night.’ The trip back to Ponyville went by without incident, even though Moonrise happened while they were still in the outskirts of the forest, and the sounds of night-roaming creatures caused all of the stalwart adventurers to speed up to a brisk trot. It was just getting comfortably dark when Twilight Sparkle brought all of the Elements of Harmony together for an impromptu staff meeting at Fluttershy’s house, which was the closest point to the Everfree Forest and therefore the most convenient. It was not a very friendly location for Sunshine, as all of the animals were just a little cranky at having their caretaker away for the afternoon, and they seemed to have pegged him as the reason for her absence. “That weren’t nearly the trip ah was hopin’ for,” said Applejack, turning down a glass of tea from a family of ferrets, who had been waiting anxiously for their return. “Sorry, little guys. Ah gotta get to bed to get up early tomorrow. Ain’t too many days before the snow flies, and we’ve got a lot of work to do out at the farm first.” Twilight Sparkle had spread out a map of the Everfree across Fluttershy’s table and placed several empty teacups to hold it down. She was studying it with unusual intent, even though for the most part it was featureless and blank except for the ruined castle they had just come from and several small incursions into the outer edge of the forest. “There are a few promising areas of the forest to start our expedition into tomorrow, but a thorough exploration may take a few weeks as we work our way inward—” “Weeks!” said Rarity, clutching the wreckage of her formerly-elegant mane. Her eyes flickered over to Sunshine with the unmistakable expression of a merchant seeing their last bit go spiraling down the drain. He could understand her reluctance and quickly managed to interrupt as she stiffened her spine and opened her mouth to respond. “No, Miss Rarity. And Miss Sparkle.” He shifted uncomfortably under the sight of the six mares but quickly picked up again. “My daughter was flying into the forest. I thought my wife could only be at the outskirts of the forest because it was so dangerous, but we went a long way into it today. Even if Emerald was hiding her trip from Sparky, because Spark Gap hates Nightmare Night, flying means both of them could be living nearly anywhere on this half of the map.” “Yeah,” said Rainbow Dash, hovering over the map. “I could make it all the way to the other side and back in an hour.” “We could get some pegasus carriages and search the forest from the—” started Twilight only to be stopped by the barest touch of a yellow hoof on her foreleg. “That won’t work either, Twilight,” said Fluttershy. “If they’re frightened and hide, we’ll never see them from the air, and if there’s a lot of pegasi flying around, they’ll both be very frightened.” “If Emerald is like the rest of our kind, she will be sleeping during the day anyway,” said Sunshine. “Do you think you can see a sleeping foal from a flying carriage in the thick forest, Miss Sparkle?” It took a while, but eventually the young unicorn shook her head. “I thought as much.” Sunshine turned for the door. “I’ll go out on my own tonight.” “No!” As he passed through Fluttershy’s doorway with wings half unfurled, his forward progress was abruptly halted by the clamping of a set of powerful jaws on his tail. He landed awkwardly on his chest, scrambling a little to get his hooves under him, but he stopped after turning around to snap at his captor. “No,” repeated Fluttershy, a little muffled from the mouthful of tail hair. “I’ve got my armor,” said Sunshine, feeling a little embarrassed about having the Element of Kindness clamped onto his tail like a tick. “I’ll be fine. Besides, I’ve read most of the published books about the Everfree, and my wife and daughter have been in this forest for eight years. It can’t be too dangerous.” “Yes it is!” said Fluttershy, seeming to be almost in tears. “Some of the creatures in the forest at night aren’t very nice.” “I’m going!” said Sunshine, trying to shake Fluttershy off his tail without hurting her. For such a meek little pegasus, she certainly had strong jaws. Twilight Sparkle took several steps forward. “I don’t think—” Whatever Twilight Sparkle was about to say was cut off as a pair of bear paws wrapped around Sunshine Symphony’s chest. It was a very large bear, but at present it did not seem to be too terribly angry, and Sunshine felt no real crushing desire to find out what would happen if it became angry. After all, the bear could peel him like a can of peas. Despite being provided by the best low-bid contractors the Royal Guard could find, the armor should protect him, but there was a lot of distance between theoretically should and untested in practice. “Nice bear?” The bear did not exactly roar, but he did emit a somewhat cross-sounding growl with a snort. “He’s just upset,” said Fluttershy once she had politely spit out Sunshine’s tail. “He sure looks that way,” said Sunshine. “Shush,” said Fluttershy. “I wasn’t talking to you. Now let him go, Hairy. Gently.” The bear did, although it still looked irritated. “And say you’re sorry,” said Fluttershy. “Sorry,” said Sunshine automatically. As an apology, the bear licked him on the face, which was an aromatic and physical sensation much like going face-first into a Royal Guard trash can after lasagna night. Fluttershy patted the bear on the back and fixed Sunshine with a deadly serious glare fully as strong as any he had received from the fiercest drill instructor at the Academy. “I don’t want you to hurt any of my friends! The forest has scary monsters but it also has some very misunderstood creatures.” After a careful look at the nearby bear, Sunshine swallowed once. “That’s too bad. My wife and daughter are in there somewhere, and I’m going after them.” “Tomorrow,” said Twilight Sparkle with a disturbing note of command in her voice. “You’re exhausted, we’re tired, and I want to put together an organized plan before we go off into the forest again. Promise me you won’t go running or flying off into the Everfree Forest tonight.” For some reason after Twilight said it, Pinkie Pie gave him a cupcake. He ate it carefully and nodded, which seemed to make the whole group relax. Well, except Pinkie Pie, who looked as irritated as the bear did earlier. After their meeting broke up, the five other mares went back to their homes while Sunshine flew up into the starlit sky above Fluttershy’s house, taking a few minutes to relax by just making large circles around the town. He could trace their paths by the lights going on in their homes and then going out a few minutes later. It left the entire town cloaked in darkness except for the oak tree library, which he suspected would remain lit until nearly daybreak if the stories about Princess Celestia’s student were even close to correct. He made one last circuit around the small town before a disconcerting thought made him hesitate in flight. All of my gear is over in the Town Hall. It would not be the first time he had camped outside since joining the Royal Guard. He glided down to the ground, considering the background information he remembered from his packet. For some reason, the apple trees at Sweet Apple Acres were rated four hoofprints for sleeping comfort, but there had been a reference to a zebra alchemist who lived just outside of town in the… He turned to look at the forbidding forest and considered his promise. After all, a nighttime visit to one of Ponyville’s more odd residents would not be considered breaking his promise to not fly away into the forest, at least in court. It should be perfectly safe.