//------------------------------// // BONNIE BONES // Story: TALES FOR NIGHTMARE NIGHT! A collection to read AFTER the lights are out! // by De Writer //------------------------------// Junea turned her mostly skeletal head to her mate Zom. She sighed. “I know that she was abandoned in the graveyard on Nightmare Night, dear. Do you really think that it is a good idea to take her in? I mean, raising ones like that is far from easy.” Zom watched the young filly playing friskily among the tree shadows cast by the bright moon overhead. He nodded. “What you say is true, Junea, my love. Still, if we do not, who will? At least until the snow flies, she can eat the grass about the graves. We can help her to gather and make hay of as much as we can. It may be enough to get her past the winter.” Junea nodded in her turn. “It feels strange to share our crypt with one of living blood. I have to admit that I do like it. Bonnie Bones is the filly that we never had.” Through long frigid winter nights, their crypt was cheered up by the presence of the black maned and tailed Bonnie Bones. Junea and Zom had a difficult time, at first, remembering games and other entertainments for their adopted filly. Other members of the community visited, too. Young Bonnie learned many things. Her adopted parents watched indulgently as she practiced what she had learned from the many ghosts. She faded from sight and returned. Her naturally pale fur, a cloudy white, was a real help in the disappearing. She was still having difficulty in passing through solid objects as spring rolled around. Junea, watching Bonnie drift, ghost-like, up to nibble aspen buds in the moonlight smiled as gently as her nearly skeletal face allowed. “It stills my heart with joy to see our Bonnie now. Zom, you were so right. It has been worth all of the trouble that raising her has been. “There are so few books here in the graveyard, but our Bonnie has learned them all. She reads better than I used to when I was under Celestia's Sun. Teaching her has let me remember so many good things.” Zom leaned up against his mate and replied thoughtfully, “You are not alone, Stillness of My Heart. Many here feel the same. It is as if our little Bonnie Bones was connecting us back to the living. And not in a bad way. “I remember how she drove off those vandals that wanted to topple gravestones! She got her cutie mark on that Nightmare Night!” Zom chuckled, “I had almost forgotten about them until that happened! The VANDALS called the police ponies into the graveyard, saying that there was a monster loose!” Junea sat, chuckling herself. “She told me later that our vamponies taught her how to be strong! The lamia, Flowering Ash, taught her some tricks as well! Watching those vandals go flying over the wall without wings was so much fun!” A few nights later, Bonnie, tired from playing with the zombies and ghosts of foals, settled under a tree for a quick nap. She awoke to a hoof tapping her peremptorily. “What are you doing here, young mare?” demanded the uniformed pony. Confused by the brightness and the presence of a living pony where, in her experience, none had the right to be, she replied sleepily, “I was taking a nap. Sorry if it bothers you. I'll just go home. It isn't far.” He took her in his unicorn magic, snapping, “You don't get out of going to school that easily, you filly. You can go home after school lets out!” He carried her out of the cemetery and strode off to a strange building a distance away. Bonnie struggled at first but settled down as soon as she saw that it was of no avail. The truant officer set her down in Miss Cherrilee's office. “Miss Cherrilee, I have caught one of your students who has either fled the school or not come at all.” Taking one look at Bonnie, Miss Cherrilee replied mildly, “She is not a student of the school. We will have to enroll her and check the level of her education to decide what class she should be in. Where did you find her?” The uniformed pony replied, “I found her sleeping under a tree in the graveyard, over in the old section, close to the Everfree Forest.” Miss Cherrilee frowned, “I only know of a few families that live in the Everfree. None that I know of live in that part of the forest.” Turning to Bonnie, Miss Cherrilee asked kindly, “What is your name, dear?” Sullenly, she replied, “Bonnie. Bonnie Bones.” A jeering voice from the door to the hallway called out, “BONES! No wonder she has a tombstone for a cutie mark!” Miss Cherrilee snapped at the blue furred, green maned colt, “Morgripe! That is QUITE enough! You are supposed to be out to recess. GO.” Bonnie volunteered, “THAT is why I like Night . . . ponies. Day ponies like him are mean! He was one of those who tried to vandalize the graveyard Nightmare Night last.” “I see,” mused Miss Cherrilee. “Tell me, who are your parents?” On her guard, Bonnie looked away. “Don't know and don't want to know! I was abandoned, um, near the Everfree.” Miss Cherrilee made a note. “Bonnie, do you follow a particular belief, like Celestia, Luna or the Assembly of the Twins?” “The Night Mare.” As Miss Cherrilee started to write Luna, a gray hoof stopped her. Bonnie stated flatly, “Not Princess Luna. The Night Mare.” Miss Cherrilee nodded to herself and corrected her note. She observed, “Not only can you read, you could read what I was writing upside down. How well can you read?” “I do like to read. I can read almost anything.” Miss Cherrilee pointed as she said, “I believe that I have a book that you would enjoy, Bonnie. It is up on that top shelf.” Bonnie appeared to barely lift her gaze and returned to looking at Miss Cherrilee as she replied, “You mean, Elane, Vampony of Canterlot? That does sound good.” Miss Cherrilee's ears shot forward in interest. “You saw that so quickly?” She offered, “I will go get a step stool so that we can get it!” When she returned to the room with the stool, she found Bonnie examining the book reverently. “I love poems. This whole book is one long poem and it is about a vampony, too.” Miss Cherrilee blinked a few times. “You can use that stunted horn far better than any would guess.” Bonnie looked back wide eyed and retorted, “Really?” Miss Cherrilee made up her mind about this student and suggested, “Let's put you into a class.” Miss Cherrilee led her to a room of students a bit older than Bonnie appeared to be. “Pardon, Mister Colter, but I have a new student for your class. Class, this is Bonnie Bones. “Bonnie, tell the class a little about yourself.” Before Bonnie could say anything, a blue furred, green maned colt sneered, “She come from the CEMETERY! Look like a sick ghost and BONE-IE got a tombstone for a cutie mark!” Bonnie just started for an empty desk. Mister Colter spoke sternly, “You did not introduce yourself, young filly!” Bonnie gave him an embarrassingly long look up and down before replying, “Miss Cherrilee gave my name and YOU allowed that cemetery vandal to complete my introduction for me, including getting my name wrong. “He must be a worthless student, if he can't hear and learn better than that!” Miss Cherrilee put a hoof over her mouth to stifle a chuckle. Mister Colter reddened and snapped, “I shall give you a demerit for insolence!” Bonnie promptly retorted as she sat, “Right! I get a demerit for being correct. No demerit for the loudmouth graveyard vandal who interrupts a new student AND tells the police ponies wild tales of monsters in the graveyard!” Laying his ears back in outrage, Morgripe yelled, “That wasn't no story! That thing bucked all three of us right over the cemetery wall! I done lost my dad's good prybar and a sledge hammer!” Bonnie replied serenely, “And you have just confessed to both trespass of the closed graveyard and intending vandalism of gravestones or other monuments. There is no other explanation for having a prybar and sledge in a closed and locked graveyard after dark on Nightmare Night.” Suddenly Morgripe looked like he might want to slink out of the classroom. Miss Cherrilee's gaze hardened like quicksetting concrete! She said softly, but with steel under it, “Mister Colter, I wish to speak with you privately, during the luncheon recess!” Mister Colter stiffened and turned back to the chalk board and said, “Students, open your arithmetic books to page fifty four. Today's lesson is multiplication.” When the lunch recess finally came, Bonnie did not rush out like the other students did. She stopped by the office and asked politely, “Miss Cherrilee, may I borrow Elane, Vampony of Canterlot?” Bonnie did not go to the cafeteria. After grazing quietly in the shade of a few trees, she settled down and began to read Elane avidly. Shortly, Morgripe and two cronies approached. The two went past her as if they were going somewhere else. Morgripe stomped straight up to her. Bonnie stood, facing him. While his gang sneaked up from behind, Morgripe growled, “You got me into a lot of trouble, BONE-IE!” Utterly calm, she replied, “No. You got yourself into trouble by being rude and loud.” Miss Cherrilee joined Miss Whinly on playground duty. They were watching the developing scene carefully. Miss Whinly asked, “How did it go with Mister Colter?” Miss Cherrilee replied grimly, “Not well. I asked him about his favoritism to the colts in the class and he denied that there was any. There was more, too. I pointed out that he allowed Morgripe to interrupt and make fun of the new filly, Bonnie, and then gave HER a demerit for standing up for herself.” Miss Whinly was about to start over to the developing playground situation. Miss Cherrilee put a hoof on her shoulder and suggested, “Not fast, Whin. When I went to get a step stool to get Elane down from that high shelf, I saw something. “I was bringing the stool in. I would swear that I saw Bonnie floating down with the book. I waited a moment for her to be settled and looking at it before I went in.” Whinly responded, “Unicorns can't fly. You know that.” At that moment, the two toughs sneaking up on Bonnie pulled out a pair of shears. Stepping up to grab her tail, they were met by a double buck! Both went flying tails over head to land in a heap! At the same moment, Bonnie switched ends almost faster than could be seen! A second powerhouse of a buck sent Morgripe flying! Stepping over to the fallen Morgripe, Bonnie grabbed his mane and dragged him, like a cat carrying a kitten! She dropped him across his stunned accomplices. Leaning close, she snarled, “Some ponies DO NOT LIKE being attacked, THREE on ONE! They do not like being embarrassed or having their names made fun of either! My name is BONNIE BONES! If you can't say it right, DON'T SAY IT.” She turned her tail to them and let out a loud fart. Carefully gathering up her book, she walked over to Miss Cherrilee and asked politely, “Have you any quiet place to read? I only got a few pages into the book before I was interrupted.” Miss Cherrilee smiled and pointed to the school building. “Go to my office. Miss Graymane, the secretary, will let you read in peace until the bell rings for classes to begin again.” She escorted Bonnie into the building, leaving the playground in Miss Whinly's experienced hooves. Aside from the almost daily chore of having to discipline Morgripe and his buddies, Miss Cherrilee's day went quietly. When the bell rang for the day's end, there was the usual near riot of students escaping to freedom! Miss Cherrilee looked up in surprise because she had not heard her office door open. Bonnie was before her, clutching the copy of Elane, Vampony of Canterlot. She quietly asked, “I really love this book, Miss Cherrilee. I could not get even a quarter of the way through it. May I please borrow it? I promise that I will return it when I am done with it.” Miss Cherrilee looked up from the thick file of disciplinary notes on Morgripe and his buddies to smile and say, “Of course you may, Bonnie, my dear.” Bonnie left as silently as she had come. Miss Cherrilee glance up just in time to see Bonnie's tail going through the door. She shook her head in disbelief. “I could swear that she just walked through that door without opening it! “I wonder if Truant Officer Grabbem has any idea who he picked up in the Ponyville Cemetery.” Miss Cherrilee was disappointed when Bonnie did not return to school the next day or any day after. It was Nightmare Night. The door lantern of Miss Cherrilee's cottage was lit and she had a nice big smiling jack o' lantern sitting out in front, on her porch. There was a knock at her door. She opened it on a lone filly. She was mist colored and had a black mane and tail that all went perfectly with her cute witch costume. She chanted, “Nightmare Night! What a fright! Give me something sweet to bite!” She took a treat from Miss Cherrilee's Foal Bowl and put a book into it. Smiling, she said, “I told you that I would return it. We all loved it so much that we wrote out our own copy! That is what took so long!” With that, Bonnie, in her witch costume, mounted her broom and sailed off into Ponyville's Nightmare Night sky, heading toward the Cemetery.