Nightfall Storm carried the memories of ancient, powerful creatures. Sometimes when she closed her eyes she could see the ancient days of Equestria, when darkness and chaos had ruled. Then she would blink, and see worse things from the eyes of a still-greater horror. There were forbidden suggestions in the darkness there, spells and dreams and nightmares.
But for all that, Nightfall had no idea what to expect from school. Princess Luna’s memories were only indistinct fragments, but somehow she doubted that places like this had existed when she was young. Ponies had been fighting for survival then, there was no time for foals to waste sitting around in a room all day.
These modern children had no idea how good they had it. Nightfall Storm spent a few, agonized minutes hiding in Cheerilee’s office, picturing the frightened mob that would explode out of the building once the young of Ponyville saw her. Then her time finally came, and… she received only boredom.
Only a handful of ponies even looked at her—ponies she’d seen the night before for a game of touchball. After fumbling through her cover story for the class, Nightfall shuffled back to an empty seat beside Featherweight.
“You’re here,” he whispered, when Cheerilee wasn’t looking back at them anymore. “I thought you might be too cool to come here.”
“No,” she whispered back. “My mom is, though.” The word was out before she even realized what she was saying—but it felt like the natural thing to say. Just another part of her cover story.
Her actual time in class was much like the test—a mixture of overwhelming success broken by stretches of brain-melting failure. One second she’d be flying ahead of everypony around her doing math, and the next she’d be failing to answer even basic questions about the history of Ponyville or the correct way to plant a certain kind of seed.
Eventually they got a break, and Nightfall was swept along to a back-corner of the playground with the same group she’d spent time with the night before.
“You could probably hang out with cooler ponies than us,” Liza said, eyeing the run-down set of play equipment. A duo of earth pony fillies were monopolizing it, speaking in a satisfied way to one another.
“Yeah,” Featherweight agreed, his voice flat. “Might as well just… now. Instead of later. After getting our hopes up.”
“I dunno what you’re talking about,” Nightfall said, feeling suddenly determined not to leave these ponies behind no matter how bored she got. Not that she was bored—anything to be out of the classroom for a few minutes. “I like it fine over here.” She lowered her voice a little, moving closer. “How long does this school thing go, anyway?”
“A while,” Zipporwhill said.
Featherweight fluttered away, going for a little rack filled with rubber balls.
“Longer than you want it to,” Liza added. “But at least Cheerilee is nice. We don’t normally talk so much about boring stuff. All that history. I don’t get what’s so important about things that are over.”
“I guess…” Nightfall hesitated. She didn’t want to argue with them. What if they didn’t like her? “It isn’t that boring to me. I like to learn about things that happened since I left.”
“Since you… left?” Liza asked. “Left where?”
Nightfall stiffened visibly, suddenly conscious of all their eyes on her. “Since I… since I left school!” She forced a weak laugh, avoiding their eyes. “C-cuz my town was so small, I mean. I haven’t had as much time to learn.”
“Oh.” Featherweight shrugged. “Well, you picked a great place to live if you want to be around important things. Sometimes it feels like everything in Equestria happens here.”
“Real weird stuff,” Liza added. “How did it start, Zipporwhill?”
“Nightmare Moon,” she whispered, voice timid. “That day the sun didn’t come up.”
“Oh, yeah.” Liza went on, enthusiastically. “That was it! You’d expect the scary monsters to go right for Canterlot, but they didn’t always. I dunno what she wanted with us.”
“The Summer Sun Celebration was here,” Nightfall said, her voice very small. “Celestia was supposed to… and then there were the Elements of Harmony. The ones holding them were the only real threat.”
“Woah,” Featherweight muttered, staring at her. “That sounds… exactly like what Cheerilee taught us. Motherlode school must be really good.”
Nightfall was spared answering by the bell. She hurried in before any of the other little ponies she’d been spending time with, dodging past a group of fillies trying to pick up the trading cards that had been scattered by the silver pony. She ignored Liza’s tiny voice calling after her all the way in.
Nightfall didn’t speak in class again for the rest of the day, afraid of what she might say. How did I know that? I didn’t remember that before. It wasn’t like remembering an interesting bit of trivia. She had seen the little town from far above, sensed Princess Celestia’s magic. Felt the anger of a pony betrayed and unloved.
She could still remember it by the time school finally ended, and Midnight arrived to retrieve her. She slipped out of the crowd of waiting students as quickly as she could, dodging Liza’s attempts to rope her into an afterschool game.
“What’s wrong?” Midnight asked, eyeing Nightfall and the other students. Those slitted eyes seemed to be looking right through her.
“I, uh…” She blinked, nudging past her towards the road. “Can we… talk about it somewhere else?”
Midnight didn’t argue, following alongside her to the road. They walked in silence until they had left the school far behind.
Midnight did not take them back towards the center of Ponyville. If anything Nightfall seemed relieved to see they were going another way, out towards the single lone cottage that seemed to supervise the transition between Everfree and Ponyville.
“What happened?” Midnight asked, as soon as they were far enough away from the school that none of the other students were nearby. She already knew it hadn’t been anything serious—she’d spoken to Cheerilee before picking up Nightfall. She hadn’t been revealed as a secret Alicorn. Or anything else serious enough to make them lose their place in town.
Nightfall looked up, ears pressed flat to her head. “I can… I remembered some things. When they were talking about Nightmare Moon. The things she did, I can… I can see some of them. Understand what she was thinking.”
Oh. Last night, Princess Luna had thought it important enough to visit and share a warning. She had seemed to think that some kind of temptation was inevitable. Midnight had denied her on principle, but maybe… maybe she hadn’t been completely wrong.
Only about that. It doesn’t change what I said. She isn’t going to turn into that pony. It isn’t her fault she has those memories. Midnight checked the path ahead, knowing they were expecting somepony. Rather than going with her to pick up Nightfall and invite some awkward questions, she had gone to meet them on the way.
I wish she would’ve just let me go on my own. She thought that, but some other part of her was secretly grateful for the help. But they hadn’t cleared the edge of Ponyville yet. They were passing the cottage, with its many little structures. There was a chicken coop, and some kind of animal hutch, and many other things. Practically overwhelmed.
“We knew you were going to be seeing those memories,” Midnight eventually said. “They don’t mean you’re bad.”
“I know,” Nightfall muttered, not sounding remotely like she believed it. “But they’re… I don’t know how to make them go away. They might make me… say something that hurts us. What if those ponies figure it out? Maybe they already did… they know I’m a monster.”
“No.” Midnight stopped her with a wing, glaring at her. “You listen to me. That little filly, Liza, she wanted to play with you! Those other ones seemed heartbroken that you weren’t staying after school. Do you think they’d feel that way if they were scared of you?”
“I…” Nightfall seemed confused for a few seconds, then her face relaxed. “Oh.”
They were almost to the treeline. There, waiting just out of sight, was Sapphire Breeze. She was wearing a pair of roomy saddlebags, and seemed to be watching for them. As they rounded the bend she rose, waving towards them.
“Yeah.” Midnight nudged her. “I can’t imagine what it’s like to be remembering all of those things. Maybe they will make you do something stupid. I’ve messed up before too, plenty of times. Friends will forgive you—they’ll want you to feel better.” It felt like the right thing to say. Even if Midnight hadn’t had friends like that in a long time.
But that wasn’t what little Nightfall needed to hear right now.
“Hey, you two,” Sapphire called, as they finally crossed into the shade of the Everfree. “Long walk we’ve got ahead of us.” She nodded towards the full-looking side of her saddlebags. “Brought supper. Figured packing up your old place would work us up an appetite.”
She thought about supper? Sapphire Breeze was basically a royal overseer, right? She’d been assigned to watch Nightfall, waiting for her to screw up and report back to Celestia. So why was she acting like a friend?
Nightfall stopped near the trees, staring into the Everfree in fear. This was something else Midnight had been worried about. She had spoken very little about her early experiences in here, but those bandages she was still wearing attested to how rough that had been on her. “Why are we… what are we doing here?”
This was the main reason Midnight had eventually caved to Sapphire. At least if she met them here, there would be somepony to take Nightfall back to Ponyville if she didn’t want to come.
“We’re living in Ponyville,” Midnight explained. “But I used to live out in the Everfree. I planned on going out to my old house and gathering up the important things. You don’t have to come with me. If… if coming back here is hard for you, Sapphire Breeze can take you back home. I’m sure there’s some homework you’re eager to get started on.”
Nightfall seemed to consider that for a few seconds. Sapphire Breeze had won a little trust from the filly with her gift of the illusion spell, but not enough to be brought into Nightfall’s world, not yet.
“I… okay. We won’t spend the night, right? Or go to that old castle?”
“No,” Sapphire and Midnight answered at the same time, though only the latter went on. “We’ll be back in Ponyville before it gets dark. If we hurry.”
“Fine.” Nightfall followed Midnight into the trees. She became a little more reticent then, walking much closer to Midnight as they set off down the path. But she still came.
“How was your first day?” Sapphire Breeze asked, politely.
Nightfall only looked weakly up at her, mouth opening a few times but no words coming out.
Midnight reached out, covering her with a helpful wing. “She did fine. A little rough start, but she’s already making some friends. She’ll do great.”
“Good.” Sapphire Breeze Looked away, obviously disappointed. “I’m happy to hear it.”
Midnight made polite conversation with her most of the way out there. After an hour or so of walking, conversation shifted to what it had been like to live in the Everfree. Midnight answered without even trying to distort things.
“Hunted, mostly,” she said. “Made most of my furniture. You’d be surprised what you can do with a tail like this.”
“Really?” She grinned. “You came to one of the most dangerous places in Equestria to build a house all by yourself. You didn’t go to Ponyville except to buy nails and doorknobs.”
“See for yourself.” Midnight felt her ears press flat to her head as the house came into view—but there was nothing for it now. This was the main reason she hadn’t wanted Sapphire Breeze along. Nightfall didn’t care, she wouldn’t judge her. But this fancy mare…
The house was an unfinished log cabin, melded into the front of a large cave.
Midnight froze, staring in at the broken window, the door hanging off its hinges, the interior in ruins.
Her home had been ransacked.