It has been decades since the Sunshine and Rainbows Day. Equestria slowly but surely began rising from its ashes. Settlements were developing into real cities with basic infrastructure, offering a somewhat quality life to their citizens.
Despite the lack of a unified government, factions like the Followers of the Apocalypse and the New Canterlot Republic fought hard to bring peace, health and friendship back to the Equestrian Wasteland.
One of the attempts was trying to bring back some traditions from the old world. Their original meanings were mostly lost, but it didn’t really matter to most ponies. Nevertheless, it was a beacon of hope for a future that may or may not be reachable, but the ponies sure as Tartarus were going to try.
Today was a special day, an anniversary of the day that the bombs cleansed the world with its balefire hell. To some ponies it was a somber day, especially to ghouls that had it forever branded into their memory. But for most ponies, it was a day to celebrate the life that withstood the balefire, the hope that would never cease to exist.
With that in mind, ponies all around Equestria turned an old holiday called Nightmare Night and extended its celebrations. Ponies mourned the past dreadful years during the day and enjoyed partying through the night. In that time fillies and colts of all ages, the real hope of the bright future, were allowed to go from door to door, asking for sweets and having fun with their friends.
Tonight was a busy night at Heartfelt’s Home for Lonely Foals. The orphanage was filled with fillies and colts running all over the place, grabbing anything they could to make their costumes for Nightmare Night. The three-storey building almost swayed from side to side as hooves thundered over the floors and wings fluttered through the halls.
Laughter rang out of the far left room on the third floor, excited chatter filtering through the door. It was a simple room with withered wooden floor under a small, ragged carpet. The only furniture was a small metal framed bed and a drawer. Countless drawings and other displays of “art” made by the foals decorated the dirty walls. Sitting on the ragged carpet, a beige earth pony mare was helping three fillies with their costumes. She was a ‘nanny’, volunteer at Heartfelt’s, always willing to help the old mare take care of the children with a smile on her lips. She was kind and patient, beloved by the children. She even had a separate room in case she had to overnight, watching over a sick filly or a colt with nightmares.
The young mare was carefully painting one of the fillies, creating an outline of a pony skeleton over her blue coat and feathers.
“Hold steady, Gloomy Sky. And… it’s almost… done!” she mumbled through the paintbrush in her mouth, giving the pegasus a happy wink. She put the brush back into the paint can, taking a step back to take a better look at her work.
The filly did a little turn around so she could see herself. “Can I use your mirror El?” the filly asked meekly, sounding almost sad. El nodded, leaning a cracked wall mirror to the side for the filly.
Inspecting the lines on her body, Gloomy replied with as ‘much’ enthusiasm as before, “It looks perfect, thanks El.”
El smiled. She knew that Gloomy loved her costume despite not showing it much, she was just a quiet filly. “I’m glad you liked it! Now we just need a bit of black to fill in the rest. Luckily for us, your light grey mane will probably fade away in the dark...”
“Oh I’ll get the black oil!” a younger unicorn filly squealed, darting to the door excitedly. A white-ish blanket flew behind her as she trotted away, her orange mane bouncing with each step.
Almost diving to catch the running filly, El brought her close to her chest, blocking the path to the door with her body. “Don’t worry Fire Starter, I think I have a small piece of black chalk in my drawer,” she said with a smile, placing the ecstatic filly down.
Fire Starter was too young and didn’t have full control over her magic yet. El had lost count of how many times she had to extinguish a fire after the unicorn filly had tried to help somepony with her magic. El herself still had a small lock of her mane seared after the last incident. Gotta make sure that that oil can is out of sight, she thought.
Rolling her eyes, the oldest filly, a green earth pony, asked, “Remind me again why we need to wear costumes?” Thorny Rose, the troublemaker of the group. Heartfelt always said that it was just a phase, that it was normal for her age. El didn’t remember herself going through such a thing, but hey, everypony was different. Other caretakers really disliked Rose, but El has seen the good side of her. Yes, she was a troublemaker but she would go out of her way to make sure that the younger foals were okay, even taking the blame for something that they had caused, further increasing her own infamy.
“Well, ponies say that a dangerous creature was unleashed during Nightmare Night on the old world, and that the only way to protect yourself from the creature was to wear costumes, pretending you are dangerous creature as well,” El provided, she knew it sounded a little made up, but since she didn’t knew the real truth, it was better than nothing.
“Well, it’s dumb. And even if such a creature even existed, it probably died after the bombs fell, so there’s no reason to keep doing it now,” Rose shot back, gesturing through the air and moving a strand of red mane from her eyes. She was lying on El’s bed, resting her head on a hoof in boredom.
“Well, you don’t have to if you don’t want to, but it’s fun,” El replied, trying to coax her into dressing up as well.
“Yeah Rose, it’s fun!” Fire Starter squealed in a little jump, small sparks coming out of her horn.
“Nah, just get on with it, I wanna grab something good to eat tonight!” Rose replied, jumping off the bed and walking out of the room.
Shrugging, El returned to the task at hoof, fetching her black chalk and finishing Gloomy’s costume. After a couple of minutes of painting, she was finally done.
“There, all set and rea—” she said with a sigh of relief, interrupted by the voice of an elderly mare calling her from the floor below.
“Eleanor, dear, can you lend me a hoof?”
Her ears shot up in attention, swivelling to the source of the sound. She returned the chalk on her drawer. “I’m going!” She gestured to the fillies that they could go and play now.
After every foal had their costume and everything at the orphanage was in its proper place, Eleanor gathered all the younger kids and left trick or treating, leaving the older foals in groups of three or four to go on their own.
“Come on girls, we gotta hurry up if we’re to get some candy!” Rose beckoned, fetching some rusty old spray paint cans from her saddlebags, each paint more colorful and flashy than the other.
Raising an eyebrow in confusion, Gloomy asked, “What are these for?”
Grimacing as if she was just asked the most obvious question in the world, Rose replied, “What, haven’t you heard? During Nightmare Night those who don’t pay the tribute in candy are to be punished by pranks!”
Cautious, Gloomy wasn’t so sure about that. “Uhm… aren’t ponies gonna get mad if we go spraying paint everywhere?”
Snickering, Rose shot back, “Nah, we have holiday immunity, so let’s make sure we get back home with our saddlebags full and these spray paint cans empty!”
Quickly grabbing the neon pink can, Fire Starter shot down the streets, spraying paint everywhere, leaving a colorful trail in her wake. All the while she was chanting, “Nightmare Night, what a fright, give us something sweet to bite!”
After managing to calm the spark battery that was Fire Starter, but not before she managed to paint one fourth of the neighborhood in pink, the fillies finally began their candy hunt.
They visited all the houses near the neighborhood, but like Rose feared, almost all of them had already given their candy to somepony else. Getting more pissed by the second, Rose dispensed her righteous justice upon the infidels and quickly ran out of paint. Now her only hope for relief lay in a ‘friend’ of Gloomy Sky that lived near the outskirts of the city, their next and last destination for the night.
“I can’t believe we only got what? About six pieces of candy each? Come on!” Rose whined for the hundredth time, stomping her little hooves as she walked down the dirty street.
“Oh, cheer up Thorny Rose, at least we got to use all this pretty paint!” Fire said, trying to console her older friend.
Giggling at the memory of her little prank, Rose replied, “Yeah, right. They better save some candy for us next year or they shall repent of their sins…”
“We’re here, gals,” Gloomy Sky interrupted, stopping in front of a rusty broken metal gate, leading to a pathway surrounded by tall, dried grass.
Following the path, the fillies reached an old collapsed house.. It probably used to be an apartment before the bombs fell, but now it was just a pile of debris fallen over a single, standing room. An eerie blue light seeped through the rubble. The isolation and creepy vibe would chase most ponies away, but not these fillies. Rose was dead set in getting something good to eat tonight while Gloomy, judging by how easily she found the hidden house, had been here before. And Fire, well… she was just too excited to care, she loved discovering new places and she never saw this house before!
Knocking on its rotting wooden door, Gloomy called, “Miss Peppermint? It’s me, Gloomy Sky.” She put an ear to the door to listen, but only silence answered her. “Miss Peppermint?” she called again, knocking on the door a bit louder.
This time, she was able to hear low crackings coming from the other side, the old wooden floor creaking under somepony’s hooves. Suddenly, a wicked laugh could be heard from inside. The door was thrown open, flying off its hinges. The silhouette of a machete-wielding pony loomed over the three fillies.
Rose quickly got herself between the assailant the her friends, assuming a defensive position. She could feel Fire Starter was shaking, though she couldn’t tell if it was from fear or excitement.
But then, just as suddenly as it all started, the laughing figure went into a coughing fit, dropping the supposed machete with a characteristic ‘thunk’ of wood on wood collision.
As the figure approached the far streetlight’s reach, it was revealed to be an old lady wearing a hockey mask and torn rags. She reached for the now broken door hinges and cringed. “Fuck… I think I overdid it.”
Gloomy skipped slightly toward her and hugged her, greeting the old mare. “Hello, Miss Peppermint! How are you doing?”
A bit surprised, the old lady returned the hug with a smile. “Hello there Gloomy, I’m still alive, so I guess I’m okay.”
Rose stood there, watching the exchange in disbelief. “What the fuck?! Who is that crazy old lady?!”
Frowning, Gloomy replied, “Hey, keep it cool, Rose. Remember I was having some cooking lessons? Well, this is my teacher, Miss Peppermint. Miss Peppermint, these are my friends I talked about, the unicorn is Fire Starter and the earth pony is Thorny Rose,” she introduced her friends, pointing a hoof at them.
“Keep it cool? She just tried to kill us or something!” Rose shot back, still keeping Fire Starter behind her. The unicorn was desperately trying to go forward and hug the granny as well.
Peppermint and Gloomy shared a look and started laughing at Rose’s extreme reaction. After calming down, Peppermint said, “He he, I couldn’t do that even if I tried, kid.” She turned, directing her attention back to Gloomy. “Wait here a sec, I’ll get you something!”
A couple of seconds later, Miss Peppermint returned with a glowing plastic bag in her mouth, the light blue glow exalting all her wrinkles. She put it down in front of the foals and pulled out the glowing treasure. Three bottles of Sparkle-Cola Quantum!
“Woah, thanks Miss Peppermint!” Gloomy thanked her in her usual, neutral tone.
“No problem. Now, it’s getting a bit late, why don’t you go back home so you can drink your Sparkle-Cola?” Peppermint said, nudging the fillies away with her snout.
“Thanks, granny. Sorry for freaking out earlier,” Rose said, waving her goodbye.
“That’s okay kiddo, have a good nig—” Peppermint replied, cut off by a small white unicorn jumping right into her face, squeezing her in a tight hug.
“Thank you miss!” Fire Starter squealed in her high pitched voice. If the old mare wasn’t deaf already, she was now.
“Bye Fire,” the old lady said as Gloomy all but ripped the filly out of her teacher’s face.
Waving their final goodbye, the fillies set on their way back home. The old mare turned, pondering a way to fix her broken door.
The fillies followed the streets through the outskirts of the city. It was darker and dirtier than the neighborhood they knew, making Thorny Rose uneasy. She wanted nothing more than to get back home and drink her Sparkle-Cola Quantum, the liquid making them look like a beacon on the dark streets now.
And sure enough, their presence was noticed. As they passed under a bridge connecting two two-storey houses, Rose couldn’t shake that nagging feeling of being watched. “Hey girls, let’s hurry up, shall we? I don't like this place…”
From the shadows, a rough voice called to them, scaring the fillies, “What’s not to like, little filly? Isn’t this a night for fun and games? And candy of course! Did you get any candy?”
A greasy looking stallion appeared from the darkness. His eyes left the fillies only for a few seconds to look around, as if to see if there was someone else watching.
“Hi mister! We did, but we didn’t get that much…” Fire Starter replied happily before Rose or Gloomy could silence her. The two sensed that it was better to leave as fast as possible.
“Oh, that’s a shame! Lucky for you, I have a lot of candy here with me!” the stallion continued, pointing to a wooden crate backed under the bridge’s shadow. Fetching a colorful gumball from his coat, he offered, ”Want to have a taste?”
Rose tugged at Fire Starter to back away but the naive filly grabbed the candy with her magic, bringing it to her mouth with a big smile.
“Stop there, villain!” a hoarse female voice boomed from the top of the bridge. Before anypony could react, a hooded figure jumped down the bridge and smacked the candy out of Fire Starter’s magic. “I have followed your steps for some time now, miscreant!” the voice boomed again, the figure pointing an accusatory hoof at the stallion, who backed away into the darkness.
“What the hell lass? What are you talking about?” the stallion shot back, raising an eyebrow in confusion.
“Peddling drugs to kids, are we? Today you face the Mare Do Well!” the voice announced triumphantly, like a superhero straight out of a comic book from the old world.
Even more confused, the stallion asked, “Uh… who? You know what? Forget it. Get lost, loser.”
The hooded figure walked toward him menacingly before pressing on, “Tell me where your stash is before I break your bones, evil-doer.”
Scared, the stallion slowly backed against a wall and raised his hooves. “I don’t have anything with me, I swear!”
“Oh, you want candy too? He said he had a lot of candy in that crate! Here, let me grab it for you,” Fire Starter said, happily, enveloping the crate in her magic, only for a small spark from her horn to set it ablaze. “Oops, sorry.” The bittersweet scent of drugs drifted through the air, proving the stallion guilty.
With Mare Do Well distracted, the stallion grabbed a switch blade from his coat and lunged toward the mysterious hero. She was able to dodge the attack thanks to Gloomy’s warning.
Mare Do Well jumped high into the air, opening her previously hidden wings. She did a loop around the stallion and gave him a flying kick like a kung-fu master, sending him flying over the foals and into the other wall.
With her enemy defeated, Mare Do Well walked toward the burned crate to make sure no drugs were left intact.
Shaking his head, the stallion woke up with rage in his eyes. Noticing that the hooded mare had her back to him, he pulled a small gun from his coat and took aim. But before he could shoot, Thorny Rose gave him a mighty buck in the head, sending him straight to the dreamy land.
The mare jumped into a defensive position when she heard the commotion, but upon realizing that the villain was neutralized, she relaxed and approached the fillies. “You helped me make the streets a safer place tonight, brave fillies. Something tells me that that low-life won’t be causing trouble again.” She beckoned the fillies, leading them out of the shadowy bridge. She fetched an elegant, silver pocket watch from her purple and dark blue suit. The small watch seemed to be broken, its arms resting in place. Beneath them, tiny panels appeared to form a fragmented picture of a navy blue pony.
Mare Do Well returned her attention to the fillies and said, “It’s past your bedtime little ponies. Come, the Mare Do Well shall see you to safety.”
After a walk filled with awkward silence, many questions and not many answers, the foals reached their neighborhood, with their orphanage just around the corner.
“Keep walking the path of justice fillies, and know that if you ever find yourselves in trouble again, the Mare Do Well will come to your rescue,” she said, nodding her goodbye before launching to the skies.
From inside the orphanage, a familiar voice called, “Girls? Where were you? I was worried sick!”
The three fillies, upon hearing Eleanor's voice, galloped inside and into her embrace. Fire Starter took a deep breath and shot out an avalanche of words explaining their crazy Nightmare Night. Thorny Rose listened on, thinking about how much of a fucked-up night had it been.
Somewhere around the skies of Equestria, Mare Do Well took hold of her watch one more time, only to realize that its arms were turning again, and another tiny panel turned around to reveal the next piece of the puzzle, a black and silver fedora on top of the mysterious pony’s head. She eyed his image, clutching the watch tighter. He’s around here somewhere, I know it…
Deep down in her mind, a familiar voice told her. “Your journey begins yet again…”