//------------------------------// // BONNIE BONES’ ERRAND // Story: TALES FOR NIGHTMARE NIGHT! A collection to read AFTER the lights are out! // by De Writer //------------------------------// The cloudy white mare with the black mane and tail trotted quietly up the street, minding her own business. Her shopping errand, this last day before Nightmare Night was interrupted by a pair of stout ponies. “There you is! You is the pony what ambushed us in the cemetery, two years gone! What did you do to Morgripe?” Bonnie looked at him and shrugged. “Aside from knocking him down off his hooves and gathering up the tools that you dropped, I did not do anything to him.” “Then where is he?” “I do not know. He was always a piece of shit. Likely he still is, wherever he is.” One raised a hoof menacingly. “Your errand just changed! Chaz and me gonna beat the crap out of you! You going to the Emergency Room at Ponyville General! Right, Chaz?” “Right, Gabe!” Bonnie did not wait. She unloaded a powerhouse of a double buck, blasting Chaz half way across the street! As she dropped to her hind hooves, she continued down almost to crouching and uncoiled directly at Gabe, striking his shoulder full force with both forehooves! Gabe found himself flat, Bonnie’s right foreleg pressing down firmly on the side of his neck, near the ear! He flopped helplessly about three times as her sleeper hold took effect. Chaz was calling, “Gabe! What she do to you?” and limping up to his still fallen buddy. Constable Crager arrived at just about the same time. “What have you done to Gabe? Not that he didn’t deserve it, mind you. I did see this happen but was across the way and could not stop them in time.” Bonnie looked down at Gabe with disgust. “I put pressure on an artery going to his brain. He passed out. He will wake up in about ten or fifteen minutes. These two were part of Morgripe’s gang. They tried to vandalize the cemetery four years in a row. They failed.” Chaz promptly snapped, “You done murdered Morgripe! We seen it! You dropped out'n the sky and bucked him and Gabe down! We run to get the police for your unprovoked assault! When we get back, Morgripe and our tools was all gone! Just his spilled paint was all that was left!” Bonnie rolled her eyes expressively as she nodded sarcastically. “RIIIGHT. PAINT in the CEMETERY? Dropped out of the sky on you? Tell me, constable Crager, can unicorns fly?” He looked about alertly before replying, “Not unless the rules of magic have taken a sudden change! Four pegassi with a net can carry one unicorn or other pony up. Two or three unicorns can lift one up for a little, but they will get tired pretty fast.” Bonnie pointed at her tiny, stunted bit of horn and pointed out, “I have trouble just picking up simple tools and the like. So, I think that you can dismiss that part of what he just told you, right?” He nodded reasonably, while putting manacles on the fallen Gabe. “So, you didn’t fall from the sky. Did you beat them up?” Sighing, she sat and replied, “Yes. I was cleaning tombs. They walked right past me, bragging about how clever they were. Going to bust things up and splash paint on sandstone monuments, where it would be super hard to clean up.” She shook her head, clearly disgusted. “I landed in their midst so that I could do a buck and strike like you just saw me do. I flattened Morgripe and knocked down Gabe. Chaz, there, like the hero that he is, ran off, abandoning his buddies. Gabe got up and ran off too. Morgripe was just lying there, blubbering. I picked up all three of their hammers and the prybars that they dropped. “Morgripe’s paint was all spilled, but I took his brush anyway. Went to a party and later gave the tools to Roe’s wife, Molly to use in their wood lot business. When I came back from the party, I looked. Morgripe was gone. “He has stayed gone and good riddance.” Constable Crager nodded and turned to Chaz. He touched his truncheon suggestively and asked, “May I manacle you, or must I use force?” Chaz rubbed the back of his head at an old memory and replied, “No, sir. I won’t resist. Once was enough.” While Chaz was submitting to being shackled, Gabe began to stir. Constable Crager returned his attention to Bonnie. “So, Miss Bones, if I draw up your statement to add to the Morgripe case file, will you sign it?” Bonnie nodded calmly. “Sure, Constable Crager. Just put it in the cemetery mail box and give me a return envelope. Duchess Red Hoof lets me use it for an address because where I actually stay doesn’t have mail service. I am there most nights anyway, so it works real well for when you need to contact me.” He nodded, “I will do that,” and escorted the two miscreants away. Bonnie returned to her shopping expedition. It took her several stores to get all that she wanted. Returning to the cemetery, she waited patiently by the solid stone back wall as the sun set. It was not long before the Nightmare rose. By Her moonlight the wall became a moss grown tumble down. Easily crossing into the Borderland of Nightmare, Bonnie happily called ahead, “Guys! Flowering Ash! Canbe! Look what I got for our Nightmare Night party!” The mortal Canbe looked up from where he was helping his wife, the lamia Flowering Ash, to set up some tables and ducking tubs. “Bonnie! We told you, we have arraigned for refreshments this Nightmare Night! What did you get?" Laughing, Bonnie began to unpack her bulging saddlebags. “No refreshments! I got us the tackiest Nightmare Night decorations that I could find!” Zombies and liches, giggling as well as they could at the joke of it, helped to string black and orange streamers, hang fake spiderwebs and put up cheap cardboard skeletons! Real bats were flying about, having a great time making the phony rubber ones bounce on their elastic strings! Cheap plaster skulls and phony bones sat about the party glade, on the tombstones between the mausoleums of the Ancient Ones and fake rubber spiders decorated the simple grave markers of the Forgotten Foals. Perfectly real ghosts were busy making cheap paper ones flutter in a non existent breeze! Roe, a light tan wish granting deer, and Molly, his wife, with their matching wedding bands around their left forelegs, trotted out of the basement of his candy shop in Ponyville. Her two foals, Mort and Sis, nearly grown now, trotted confidently along behind them. Seeing the many silly decorations, they couldn’t help but giggle! The foals made a beeline for a table made from a flat topped coffin of polished black wood held up by supports. The youngsters happily laid out cakes, fried twists, fruit chunks and piles of candies. They filled a big punch bowl and set out cups. They dumped a big bag of apples into the ducking tub. Roe, his horns sparkling with magic, brought a securely chained, but struggling pony through the passage to the Borderland of Nightmare that was his shop’s basement. Flowering Ash, the powerful lamia, snake bodied from her middle down, took him and secured him to the larger feasting table. She looked up at Roe, smiling around her fangs, “I remain amazed at how many foolish ponies think that it’s a good idea to rob a candy store on Nightmare Night! At least, it give us a steady supply of party refreshment!” Roe smiled back. “I give them every chance to back out of trying to rob that innocent little tan unicorn that I look to be. It is not my fault that they never figure out that it is better to be good ponies.” As the assorted Beings of Nightmare began to gather about their big table, Bonnie, Canbe, Molly, Sis and Mort gathered about their snack coffin for mortals. Sis and Mort leaned calmly against Bonnie and said, “Thanks for helping us through those first few Nightmare Night parties up at Roe’s place. You were a big help in getting us to accept our friends for who and what they are.” Bonnie, helping herself to a plate of fruit skewers, frosted cake and some candies, replied, “Thanks. I am glad that you like my family, too.”