A “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” Fanfiction
Written by Jade Dawn
Nopony in Smallville could have asked for a better atmosphere for the town’s Nightmare Night festival that year. The Moon was full and the sky was dark, painted over with clouds of varying shades of gray, eerily glowing in the light of the great white orb and drowning out the light of the stars for a great distance around. The wind blew and whistled through the trees, making the dried and half-bare branches creak, and whisking away whatever leaves remained in rustling swirls of orange, yellow, and brown.
It would’ve been a perfectly serene Fall evening had it not been for the lights and sounds that rose up from all over town, shining and echoing in the night.
The whole town was decorated in all manner of spooky looking accessories; Jack-O-Lanterns, bats, cobwebs, spiders, skeletons, and the like. Strings of orange and purple lights were hung between buildings, casting the roads beneath in vivid, eerie lighting. In the center of town a stage had been set up, where local musicians and performers were coming playing a variety of creepy yet peppy tunes, creating an aura of music that could be heard all over town.
Most of the young ones were going about in groups from door to door, Trick-or-Treating in their various costumes and outfits for the occasion, watched over by friendly neighbors. The children were far from the only costumed revelers; many of the teen and adult ponies were in costumes of their own, taking strolls in couples or groups through the decorated streets, or congregating in the center of town to dance to the rhythm of the music. Still others were content to cluster around the many tables bearing all manner of food, snacks, and beverages.
“That is a really good looking suit, Dawning,” Woven Light said to Dawning Hope as they hung near one of the tables. “Where’d you get it?”
“Nowhere. Made it all myself,” Dawning answered with a proud smile. The young stallion was clad in his very own Captain Equestria uniform, vivid navy blue with white and gold stripes, Celestia’s sun symbol on the chest, and complete with a metallic shield slung over his back. The outfit’s construction was immaculately detailed; it looked like it could’ve come right out of an Applewood movie production.
Woven whistled in admiration. “Daaaang, all homemade? Did you really make it all by yourself or did your Ma help with it?”
Dawning looked a little sheepish. “She, ah…may have had a hoof in helping…a little…”
“Hey hey hey, I’m not knocking it, it looks great,” Woven told him reassuringly.
“Well, thanks…” Dawning smiled. “I’ve been wanting to wear something like this for Nightmare Night for a long time. Wanted to make sure it was as good as it possibly could be.”
“I’ll bet. You’re probably the biggest Captain Equestria nut in town.”
“Excuse me, Miss Light, I think the correct term is ‘nerd’,” Dawning smirked.
“Pfft, fine, nerd.”
Dawning nodded to Woven’s costume. “And, uh, yours looks pretty great too.”
“Aww, thanks,” Woven beamed. Her costume for the occasion was an ancient-looking set of armor; a red metallic chest plate and blue leather skirt, both trimmed with gold. Large silver bracelets and armored boots adorned her wrists and back legs respectively, and a plastic sword painted in reflective silver and gold paint hung at her side. Her mane was tied back into a long braid, and a gold-colored tiara encircled her forehead just below the base of her horn. A pair of folded prop wings, coated in feathers for added realism, topped off the whole thing.
“So what is it, exactly?” Dawning asked. “Cloudsdale Royal Legion?”
“Nope! Close, though,” Woven chirped. “Actually it’s from the old myths of the pegasus mares of Themyscira. Best warriors in all of antiquity, or so they say. The stories even say that they enchanted their bracelets to be able to deflect any attack thrown at them; swords, arrows, even magic spells.” She held up a bracelet-clad foreleg. “Of course, uh, my magic isn’t anywhere near good enough to do something like that…” She looked up at her horn. “And I couldn’t exactly hide the horn, so…I kinda look more alicorn than pegasus, I guess.”
“I dunno, I think it works,” Dawning smiled. “Woven Light: Goddess of War.”
“Oh, stooop,” Woven giggled, playfully waving him off. “I’d much rather be known as Woven Light: designer of tomorrow’s enchanted fashion trends.”
“Conquering the fashion industry one bit at a time?”
“Something like that.” Woven smiled back. “Either way, I’m glad you like it.”
“Awww, you two got the cool costumes,” Flax bemoaned as he approached. The young stallion was in a comparatively simple scarecrow costume, shabby looking by design. “Kinda wasn’t sure what to do for this year, just threw this one together at the last minute…”
“Oh, it doesn’t look bad,” Dawning said, giving him a reaffirming pat on the shoulder. The straw hat Flax was wearing slid off over his face and drifted to the ground. “Uh…oops.”
Woven Light lit up her horn and replaced the hat atop Flax’s head. “So Flax, how’s work on the farm been going?”
“Who cares about the farm?” Flax laughed. “I wanna hear what you two professionals have been up to, give me some good news.”
Woven smiled. “Wellll, does getting a letter back from the Canterlot School of Magic’s adult program saying that I show a lot of promise and they’d be very happy to have me sound like good news?”
“No way!” Flax exclaimed with a grin.
“Wait, when did this happen?” Dawning asked curiously, though he was smiling too.
“Just today!” Woven answered happily. “Just got a letter back from them today, I can’t believe it either! They said there’s openings for the winter semester of the adult learners’ programs they have up there, so if I wanted…”
“Do it!” Dawning urged. “I mean…this is what you’ve wanted for all your life isn’t it?”
“Why, Dawning, you say that like I haven’t already made up my mind.”
“I…wouldn’t expect you to consider anything else,” Dawning replied with a sincere smile.
Woven smiled back at him, eyelids drooping by a fraction. “You know me so well.”
“What about you, Dawning?” Flax asked. “How’s life at the Gazette going for ya?”
“Hm? Oh, uh…” Dawning shrugged. “It’s nice. Actually, I’ve been enjoying it quite a lot.”
“Covered any really juicy stories yet?”
“Oh come on, Flax,” Dawning said in a playfully reprimanding tone. “That’s not what journalism’s about…well, ideally anyway.”
Woven giggled. “I mean, really though, there’s not much to cover around here…”
“Oh, that’s not such a bad thing,” Dawning answered. “I actually kinda like how chill it’s been so far. I mean, it’s only been a little less than a year so far, so who knows…”
“Is that what you like about it?” Woven asked. “The pace?”
“Not really. I think…” Dawning paused, as if thinking it over. “I think what I enjoy most about it is how many different walks of life you come by in it. So many different people, so many different perspectives, all unique…just lets you get in touch with lives beyond your own.” He shrugged again. “I, uh, I know that’s not really the point of it of course, and I don’t do it just for that, but it’s something I enjoy about it for the most part…I don’t know if it makes much sense…”
“Huh…I think I can get that, actually,” Flax said.
“Oh, good,” Dawning sighed. “I was wondering if that sounded too sappy…”
“Dawning, you never sound sappy,” Woven told him. “Don’t be hard on yourself. I’m glad to hear it makes you happy doing it.”
Dawning smiled modestly. “Well…it’s a living, if nothing else. Honestly, some days I think I’d be just fine if I just spent my whole life between the farm and the Gazette…”
A dry chuckle and a pair of loudly clapping hooves caught the three’s attention. Leaning against the table behind them was a young stallion almost as tall as Dawning Hope, if not taller with a light gray coat and an orange mane. He was dressed in a skin-tight dark blue suit, patterned a little like chainmail, with knee-high white armored boots and large golden epaulets on the shoulders. A large, sky blue cape was draped across his back, decorated with white trim and a number of white stars, surrounding a yellow sun sigil in the center, a little like Celestia’s cutie mark; all elements from the Equestrian flag. Like Woven he had a pair of false wings as part of his costume, but much less realistic-looking than hers, and with a prop horn poking up through his mane, giving him the appearance of an alicorn.
“Oh that, that’s just heartwarming,” the stallion sneered with a final clap for emphasis. “Really tugs on the strings there, don’t it?”
Flax’s ears folded back as he frowned. Woven rolled her eyes in annoyance. Dawning’s eyebrows lowered into a glare. “Hello, Briar Patch,” he murmured.
Briar Patch pushed off from the table into a proper standing position, slowly trotting around ahead of the trio. “Sorry, just, uh…couldn’t help but overhear the sounds of a complete lack of actual ambition.” He paused, squinting at Dawning’s Captain Equestria costume. “Where’d you get that, Party City? Also, Captain Equestria? Aren’t you a little old for the kiddie comic crap?”
“I don’t know about that,” Dawning replied, his tone irritated but cool. “Considering what you’re wearing.”
“Oh, please,” Briar snorted, turning slightly so they could get a better look at his outfit. “The All-Equestrian. Main villain of The Colts. Y’know, an actually good comic, not like the other pansy superhero stuff. I mean, come on, Dawning, who even likes Captain Equestria with how crappy the Royal Guard actually is?”
“Nice to see you’re just as petty as ever,” Woven grumbled. “Did you have an actual point you wanted to make or are you just here to show off your costume?”
“Well, I was getting there.” Briar snorted, turning back to Dawning. “Really, Dawning? Stick around on a farm in the middle of nowhere, write for a small-time paper in a rinky-dink town nopony else in Equestria cares about? That’s your big dream?”
“This ‘rinky-dink town’ just happens to be my home,” Dawning retorted.
“Yeah. Exactly.” Briar tapped the side of his head in a “mind blown” sort of gesture. “Half the point of growing up is getting out of the home, innit? Y’know, doing better things? I mean, look at me, I’m not staying in this dump, I’m getting out of here and I’m gonna actually be somepony. Professional hoofball, that’s where I’m headed.”
“Good for you. You’ve got your goals, I’ve got mine, what’s your point?”
Briar scoffed. “You don’t have any goals, Dawning, that’s your problem. That’s always been your problem. You’ve never really thought about what you actually wanna do with your life, have you?” He paused. “You know, maybe if you did, you’d actually get that cutie mark already…”
Dawning stiffened, his jaw clenching.
“Okay, that’s taking it too far,” Woven snapped, stepping between Dawning and Briar.
“What? It’s true,” Briar snapped back. “Come on, Woven, Dawning’s, like, twenty-something years old now and he still doesn’t have a cutie mark, and everypony knows it. Guy’s years behind the rest of us and he’s sitting there talking about staying this way forever!” He turned back to Dawning, the sneer returning. “C’mon, think about it Dawning…what do you really wanna do when you grow up?”
Woven’s voice dropped to a growl. “You meat-headed son of a…”
Dawning stepped in front of her before she could finish, standing up straight and looking Briar Patch right in the eyes. “What I do with my life,” he told him firmly. “Is my business. You wanna think I’m doing something wrong? Fine. Be my guest. I really don’t give a crap what you think. I’ve got my life, you’ve got yours. So if your idea of ‘big things’ is being the living breathing schoolyard bully stereotype you’ve always been, then you go right on ahead.”
Flax leaned his head around from behind Dawning. “Oh, and you forgot to cut off one of the Party City tags.”
“Wait what?!” Briar Patch literally jumped, spinning around in circles as he frantically looked over his costume, cape flapping around erratically and the prop horn slipping down over his forehead. “I thought I–”
Woven and Flax broke out into laughter. Even Dawning couldn’t help but snicker.
Briar’s face went beet red, his eyes narrowing and gritting his teeth in an angry glare as he pushed the fake horn back up. “You little fu–”
“Yo, Briar!” Came a voice from the crowd. Another young stallion, face and body partially obscured by a ninja costume, wormed his way through the crowds and came up to Briar Patch. “Dude, come on, let’s blow this place, there’s something really cool you gotta see!” He bounded off just as quickly as he’d come.
Briar scoffed, muttering under his breath. “Whatever…probably better than this lame excuse for a party…” He shot one last glare at Dawning and his friends before skulking off.
Flax snorted. “Asshole.”
“A toxic alpha wannabe dressing as a toxic alpha wannabe,” Woven mused, shaking her head. “Some ponies just really don’t grow up, do they?” She looked to Dawning, about to say something more before pausing. “…Dawning?”
Dawning was looking over his shoulder, the cool-headed defiance on his face now gone. Though it was obscured by the Captain Equestria costume, he gazed at the empty space on his flank wistfully.
“Come on, Dawning, don’t let it get to you,” Flax said. “Briar Patch has been picking on everyone else since the day he started talking. Like, maybe if he had a dad who actually loved him…”
Dawning shrugged. “I mean, yeah, he’s a jerk, but…he’s not wrong–”
“Dawning, you were just talking about how content you are with how things are going,” Woven pointed out. “And nopony worth listening to gives a crap about whether or not you’ve gotten your cutie mark by now. Really think about it, has anyone other than Briar Patch and you gotten on your case about it?”
She reached out and put a hoof under his chin, gently turning his head around to face her. “You get your life sorted out on your own time. Nopony else’s. You are who you choose to be…something like that.”
Dawning took a breath, the corners of his mouth slowly tilting upward again. “…yeah. Screw him.”
Woven giggled. “Exactly.”
By now the ambient music had taken on a slower pace. There was still an aura of playful spook to it, but now the mood was more of a hauntingly beautiful variety than the rest of the evening’s more upbeat party tunes.
Woven grinned, grabbing Dawning’s foreleg. “C’mon, Captain. The Warrior Goddess wants to dance.”
“Wha-buh-eh-I…” Dawning protested as Woven quickly dragged him towards the stage in the town square. Woven’s only response was to giggle, shooting a glance over her shoulder at Flax.
“Yeah, uh, I’ll just hang out here by myself,” Flax said. Nonetheless he was smiling, and shot Woven a wink as the two left.
Though stammering bashfully, Dawning allowed himself to be pulled towards the impromptu dance floor near the stage. They weren’t the only ones; a few other couples had thought to make their way to the same place, along with other ponies who had already been dancing the night away for hours prior and still hadn’t gotten tired yet.
Woven spun Dawning around and placed her forelegs around his neck, resting them on his shoulders. Her smile glowed beneath the themed jack-o-lantern-shaped lights over the dance floor.
“I…I don’t know how to dance,” Dawning admitted sheepishly. His cheeks flushed red beneath his tan fur, and his eyes blinked rapidly, darting in every direction save for Woven’s.
“Well, I don’t either,” Woven admitted. “Just place your hooves on my shoulders.”
Dawning slowly rose up onto his hind legs and placed his front hooves on her shoulders as gently as though she were made of eggshells. Woven’s smile widened and she began to lead him to turn in a slow circle in time to the music.
“There. Not so bad, right?” she giggled.
Dawning felt a small, nervous smile flit around his lips. “Y-yeah…this is okay.”
As they continued to revolve, Woven watched the visible anxiety on Dawning’s face melting away like snow beneath the springtime sun. They kept their gazes transfixed on each other’s eyes, watching the reflections of the lights dancing within them, ignoring all else; the other partygoers seemed to become vague, abstract shapes in the background, as all sense of time seemed to slow down and dull to them.
Neither pony knew how much time had passed before Woven finally broke the silence. “You know, um…” she whispered, just beneath the music. “I’m gonna miss you when I head off to Canterlot.”
“Well, um…” Dawning whispered back. “I’m gonna miss you too. But hey, um, not like you won’t be able to come back and visit us over breaks…”
“No no, I mean, um…I mean, there’s that, yeah, and I’m gonna miss everypony here, but…but I mean you…”
Come on, just say it already, she thought. You know him, he’s not gonna get scared off or anything…completely break down into stammering and blushing maybe, but other than that…
“You okay?”
Woven paused, biting her lip as she looked deep into Dawning Hope’s eyes. Those bright, jewel-like blue eyes that she could never remember seeing in anypony else for the whole time she’d lived here, not even his parents. She thought of the gentleness they held, the open-hearted kindness that had led him to befriend her well over a decade ago when they were mere foals, how he’d supported her all throughout her years of study no matter how difficult. How they, along with Flax, had become inseparable, doing virtually nothing apart from each other.
And how there came a point where she realized that–for her own part, at least–the bond she and Dawning shared had started to feel like something more.
Tell him.
“Dawning?” Woven asked.
“Y-yeah?” Dawning asked, his heart pounding against his chest like a sledgehammer.
Woven leaned in close, her hot breath tickling Dawning’s ear. Her heart was racing, and from this close she could hear his own heartbeat as well; it was starting to pick up speed, becoming just as fast as hers. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw his cheeks beginning to redden.
“I…” she whispered. “I lo–”
Dawning’s ears suddenly perked right up. For one last moment of bliss, Woven thought it was for what she was just in the middle of saying. Then she actually saw his face. He wasn’t looking at her. He was looking over her shoulder, out over the crowd. And the look on his face wasn’t a look of bashful shyness or peaking affection, no…it was one of horror.
And then came the roar, a distant, enraged howl that echoed through the night, slicing through the sounds of the party like a blade. Dancing ceased, the music came to a screeching, disharmonious halt, conversation and revelry morphed into either frozen silence or nervous whisperings.
Then Woven heard Dawning whisper beside her, “…run. We need to run, now.”
Woven looked at him, frightened but confused at the same time. “Dawning, what are you–”
Suddenly there was a loud cacophony of screaming and yelling. About a half a dozen ponies–all young stallions, costumes torn and disheveled, some nursing bruises or outright bleeding wounds–came pushing and scrambling their way through the crowd. Woven immediately recognized at least one; one of Briar Patch’s friends, the one in the ninja costume, though the black outfit was torn and the mask missing, revealing his terrified face.
And then came Briar Patch himself. The cape of his costume was gone, with whatever ripped portions still remained hanging from his shoulders as he ran. The prop horn was missing too, and one of the fake wings drooped. As he ran he tripped over it, but almost immediately scrambled back up and kept on running, his eyes wide and pupils shrunk.
“It’s coming!” he wailed. “IT’S COMING!”
“It was in the caves outside of town,” Woven said grimly. “We don’t know when it moved in or where the mother was. Briar and his friends didn’t even know it was in there. They were just exploring the caves for the heck of it. Thought it would be fun. They stumbled on it by complete accident…and those idiots wound up waking it up.”
“The Ursa Minor,” Fluttershy whispered to herself. The morning group meeting at the Cantering Cook came rushing back to her memory. “Oh no…”
It came through the streets with a loud crashing of its gigantic paws. It rose up thirty feet into the air at the shoulders, and on just all fours alone. Closely bear-like in shape, but wrought in a form of ethereal blue matter that glowed and sparkled in the dark, with a shining spot vaguely reminiscent of a white star set between two burning yellow-red eyes. It snarled through its gleaming teeth, spreading its maw wide and letting out a deep, angry roar that shattered what remained of the night’s ambience into a thousand pieces.
Panic came almost instantaneously. In seconds, the frozen townsponies had broken into a chaotic stampede of and screaming and running in all directions, into alleys between buildings, to the nearest way indoors, trying to get anywhere except around the Ursa Minor. Despite the mass attempt to flee, most of the crowd only succeeded in getting in each others’ way and turning each other around in the confusion, while the Ursa snapped its powerful jaws at and swung its gigantic paws around; at ponies, at buildings, at anything whether it was moving or not.
Someone struck Woven hard against the side as they ran, knocking her to the ground. She gasped for breath from the impact, spitting dirt as she tried to rise, only for someone else’s hind leg to strike her in the side of the head. She screamed, her head spinning as she fell to the ground again.
“Dawning?! DAWNING!”
“Woven!” someone shouted over the panic. She felt a hoof grip her own and pull her to her hooves, but it wasn’t Dawning. It was Flax. The hat of his scarecrow costume was missing, and he looked just as panicked as everypony else.
“Where’s Dawning?!” he asked.
“I don’t know!” Woven answered. “I-I lost track of him–”
“Oh buck, MOVE, MOVE!” Flax grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her along in a full-speed run. Woven looked over her shoulder for a second, only a second. It was enough to get a good view of the Ursa’s open jaws as it let out another bone-rattling roar.
To any observer it might seem that an Ursa’s body was completely transparent, literally made of star-stuff. Of course, this was merely part of the creature’s innate magic, an optical illusion. In truth, it had a solid body and internal anatomy like just about anything else.
Staring straight down the fanged maw of the thing made that very clear.
Fighting to keep from screaming again, Woven quickened her pace, running close behind Flax as they rushed towards a nearby hardware store. It had been closed down for the night’s festivities, but somepony had managed to unlock–or perhaps force open–the front door. Several ponies had already crowded inside, seeking shelter from the monster roaming the streets.
Flax stepped ahead to hold the door open for Woven. Just as soon as he did, he looked up in horror. “WOVEN, LOOK OUT!”
Something flew over both of their heads and smashed against the roof of the hardware store. Woven looked up just in time to see the shattered remains of one of the larger snack carts raining down from above. Out of alarmed instinct, Woven scrambled backwards–
–too late. The next thing she knew it had all come down on top of her with a loud crash in her ears. She felt herself flattened hard into the dirt, breath forced out of her lungs. Something heavy fell hard with a crushing sensation upon her left hind leg, and she felt an explosion of pain bursting from deep within; she screamed and gritted her teeth in agony. She was lying on her side in the dirt, pinned with a wounded leg beneath a pile of wood, glass, masonry, and other debris. She could still hear the chaos outside, but she couldn’t see…
She heard the sounds of frantic digging from outside, and in the next instant a large piece of wood over her head was being lifted away. It was Flax, straining with all his might as he heaved the heavy piece and pushed it aside. “Woven?! Oh Faust, can you hear me?!”
“M-my leg…” Woven whimpered. “I c-can’t move…”
“Hold on!” Flax grunted as he continued to pull away debris. “I’m gonna get you out, just hang on…” Suddenly he froze, ears flattening and eyes widening, lip quivering as he went silent.
Woven felt a wave of hot, fetid air blow against her, and–with what limited mobility she could muster–turned over to see the face of the Ursa Minor looming over her, nose wrinkling with deep breaths as it sniffed the ground around her and Flax, its angry yellow eyes locking on to the two of them. The bear-like animal parted its jaws…to roar, to bite, Woven didn’t know which. Either way, she screamed in pure terror.
Then out of nowhere as she looked up at the Ursa, a circular object flashed across her line of sight in a blur, and with a THWACK! had embedded itself in the thing’s cheek. The Ursa reared and howled in pain, clawing at the wound and embedded object with one paw, partially shattering it but leaving portions of shrapnel remaining in the wound.
Woven watched as blood and pieces of the object fell to the ground close to her, and it was only then that she suddenly realized what it had been: Dawning Hope’s Captain Equestria shield.
And then something larger rammed into the Ursa’s face, sending it staggering backwards with a blow that cracked like thunder and rattled the debris pinning Woven, ears ringing from the sound of the collision and the stomping of its hind feet so close.
Woven expected whatever had hit the Ursa to fall like the shield had…but it didn’t. It was still hovering in the air. Then she realized it was the shape of a pony, a pony wearing a Captain Equestria costume…
She couldn’t believe it. Absolutely could not believe what she was seeing.
But there he was, hovering in the air above her.
Dawning?!
“LEAVE THEM ALONE!” she heard him roar, so much more angry and more fearsome than she’d ever heard him that she almost couldn’t believe it was actually Dawning Hope’s voice. “GET OUT!”
As the Ursa regained its footing, it roared back furiously and lunged at Dawning with jaws wide open. The floating earth pony made a move upward as if to dodge out of the way…too late. The great jaws slammed shut over him–Woven screamed–and in a single motion the Ursa turned and threw Dawning over its shoulder, sending him flying into another store down the street like a missile. The entire front was caved in instantly, the roof coming down just after, plumes of smoke and dust billowing into the air from the sudden collapse. The Ursa licked its lips, rubbing its tongue over the bleeding wound in its cheek and snarling as it began to slowly stalk towards the ruined shop.
Woven suddenly felt a sharp pain racing up her leg, and she winced as the piece pinning her was shifted and finally pulled away. She felt Flax’s forelegs wrapping around her and dragging her clear, but her gaze was still locked on the Ursa as it loomed over the wrecked building.
“I got you…” She heard Flax whisper shakily. “I got you…”
“D-Dawning…” Woven murmured. “…that was Dawning.”
Flax stopped in his tracks. “What?”
Suddenly there was a bright flash from amidst the cloud of dust, and the Ursa scrambled backwards with a howl, a smoldering, smoking scar now seared across its face just below the gash in the cheek. Dawning Hope, covered in dirt and soot, came crawling out of the wreckage, eyes glowing a bright red and air rippling around them. As Dawning advanced, his eyes flared up into a brilliant white, quick and bright like a camera flash, and another scorching scar flashed into being against the Ursa’s hide along the left shoulder. Another flash, and shimmering heat flared and sparked against the creature’s chest. Another flash, another wound sparking just above the right eye, if not blinding it physically then certainly by the intense flash. Then another, one after the other in rapid-fire against the animal’s body.
Enraged, the Ursa raised a paw high in the air and swatted it down at breakneck speed over Dawning…who caught it in his front hooves, teeth clenching, knees buckling and the ground beneath his hind legs sinking as he pushed back against the great crushing weight. With a tremendous push of his legs he shot back up into the air like a rocket, forcing the Ursa’s giant limb up and aside in his wake and twisting the paw hard to the right with a loud CRACK of the wrist. The star-studded bear howled and recoiled the wounded limb close to its chest, the paw bent now at an unnatural angle, as Dawning looped back around and rammed into the Ursa with enough force to knock it flat onto its back, hitting the ground with enough force to rattle the whole town, and shaking Woven and Flax where they watched in dumbstruck silence.
Dawning hovered above the fallen Ursa, as if waiting to see if it was down for the count or not. He didn’t have to wait long. With a roar, the Ursa reached upwards and swiped at him with its left forearm, the clawed appendage whooshing in the air and missing Dawning by a fraction as he darted out of the way. As the creature righted itself, somewhat awkwardly now down to three functional limbs, it reared up as high as it could go and snapped at Dawning with its jaws. Dawning darted down low towards the ground, while the Ursa lashed out with its left paw again–smashing the front off of another building in the process–and flew in an arc around it, leaving a trail of dislodged dirt and dust in his wake while the Ursa spun around in pursuit, snapping its jaws behind him, always just out of reach–
–until the Ursa got lucky, clamping its maw down over him once again. This time, however, Dawning was ready. As the Ursa bit down, he braced his hind legs against the lower jaw and his hooves against the upper, and pushed them back open with all his might, the Ursa growling as it fought to shut its mouth over its opponent. Dawning’s eyes flared up red, sending rippling beams of heat straight down the Ursa’s throat; it roared, loud and hoarse, its jaws parting just enough for Dawning to speedily float backwards out of its mouth.
Just as quickly as he’d flown out, Dawning rocketed back at the Ursa’s face, a hoof connecting with its lower jaw with a loud CRUNCH! The Ursa howled, the jaw now bent noticeably askew as it staggered backwards. It swung its left arm out again; Dawning ducked, reeling his hoof back and striking out with a fast, hard blow to the Ursa’s torso, and the resulting CRACK! of ribs was so loud that Woven and Flax felt it as if it were in their own bones, and they simultaneously winced. The Ursa’s howls turned into choking, hacking coughs, blood spurting from the back of its throat and dribbling down its cheeks and jawline. Dawning threw another blow, an uppercut, striking the Ursa once again in the jaw. There was another CRACK! as the jaw was broken again, and the animal’s head violently tilted backwards with the force of the blow, spitting dark drops of blood up against the moonlight.
Groaning, the Ursa took one giant step back, then another, and then finally lost its footing entirely, falling backwards between two buildings just behind it, their walls crumbling beneath its weight. Directly behind was a tall support tower for the town’s power lines; as the Ursa fell, the tower crumpled beneath it like aluminum foil, cables and wires snapping and flailing wildly like snakes, sparking and flashing as the whole thing came crashing down beneath the Ursa, smoke and dust erupting from the point of impact.
Dawning waited a few moments to make sure the Ursa wasn’t getting back up again, then turned and arced back around towards the hardware store, landing in the ruined street and skidding to a halt in front of Flax and Woven. He was panting for breath, chest heaving, shoulders sagging from fatigue, sweat dampening his fur. His Captain Equestria costume was in tatters, whole parts of the suit torn away or hanging by threads, the whole thing covered in dust and dirt and drying blood; from the Ursa or perhaps his own, it was impossible for the two to tell.
“Woven, Flax…” Dawning panted. “Are…are you…”
The two ponies stared back at him with eyes wide and jaws slack. They didn’t say anything. They couldn’t think of anything to say. They couldn’t think of anything to do at all. They just stared at him blankly, minds still reeling.
Dawning’s face began to fall, his ears folding back. “W-wait…” he whispered nervously. “I-I know it looks…I-I mean, I…please–”
Suddenly the lights of the hardware store–of the entire street, actually–began to flicker wildly, flashing rapidly on and off. There was a loud howl, loud enough that it shook Woven and Flax from their stupor and made them jolt in fright. Dawning’s ears perked up, turning quickly to look behind them.
Down the street, they could see the Ursa struggling to rise back to its feet, only to fall back onto its side once again; it had become entangled in the power lines it had fallen upon, several now wrapped tightly around its midsection and limbs, pulling taut with each time it struggled. Sparks and bolts of white-hot electricity ripped and crackled across its star-studded body, burning flesh and fur, while the stricken Ursa wailed and howled in agony as it thrashed around.
It was hard for Woven to see Dawning’s face clearly from behind. But as he began to slowly shake his head, she could just make out a growing look of horror.
“No…NO!” Dawning kicked himself into the air, dust blowing against Woven and Flax as he shot off. They blinked, fanning the cloud out of their eyes as they tried to see what was happening while the lights of the town went mad around them.
As they watched, they saw Dawning fly at breakneck speed back towards the Ursa, so fast he was there in a blur. He came around behind the animal, gripping the cables with his hooves and pulling them hard upwards. They saw the electric current suddenly coursing up through him too, lighting him up like a Hearth’s Warming tree, and they just barely were able to hear his own cries mixed with the Ursa’s. Still he pulled on the cables, until finally–
SNAP! The cables came bursting apart. All around, the lights flashed up one final time, and then went black, plunging Main Street into darkness.
Now freed from the power lines, the Ursa Minor fell headlong into the middle of the street, hitting the ground with a tremendous impact that shook the earth beneath. Dawning flew down and landed in front of the wounded animal, tentatively approaching it. Even from this distance, Woven could just make out a look of regret on his face. His mouth was opening and closing, as if he was saying something to it. She could not make it out from where she sat. All she could hear from this far away was the remorseful, pleading tone in his voice.
The Ursa lay unmoving before him, raising no paw to strike or jaws to snap. It was still and silent save for its chest slowly, laboriously heaving in ragged, whispering breaths. Smoke rose from its charred fur, blood trickled in streams from its mouth, nostrils, and the wounds all over its body. The star-like patterns and the blue glow radiating from the animal began to dim, and the translucent appearance it bore began to fade into opaqueness.
The Ursa Minor took one last rasping, pained breath in, and slowly, quietly, let it back out. Dust and small bits of dirt blew in its wake as if in a warm breeze. Its eyelids drooped, slowly coming down over its eyes until they were at last no longer visible, and the animal’s glow faded out for good.
Silence descended over Main Street.
As Woven watched him, she saw Dawning Hope’s body begin to tremble, shaking uncontrollably. His blue eyes stared wide, wider and more fearful than she could ever remember seeing in anypony, and his mouth opened and twisted and quivering as if he were trying to wail without voice. Without taking his eyes off the dead Ursa, he fell back onto his haunches, forelegs rising almost unconsciously, like he meant to wrap them around his shoulders without realizing it. Abruptly, he stopped, looking down and holding his hooves, caked with dirt and blood, out before him. His shivering intensified, he began to shake his head, and suddenly he was rubbing his hooves against each other and against whatever remained of the Captain Equestria suit, as though trying frantically to scrape them clean. His movements were frantic, desperate; he almost fell over onto his side as he struggled with himself.
Then suddenly he was looking straight at Woven. His blue eyes locked right onto her own and stared back at her from down the street, face still wrought with horror, so intense that now she was seeing it face-to-face, Woven actually flinched backwards. Dawning recoiled, looking desperately over to Flax, and then at–
Woven had been so focused on watching Dawning and the Ursa that she had not noticed the other ponies gradually poking out of their respective hiding places. All around Main Street she could see faces poking out from around corners or watching from windows, some standing out in the open, all silently watching Dawning in quiet shock. She saw Briar Patch hiding in the doorway of Turnip’s Groceries just across the street, half crouching against the floor as Dawning’s gaze passed by him; where barely an hour ago he had looked at Dawning with a condescending sneer, now he watched him in cowed terror.
Dawning turned around in a full circle, then back around in the opposite direction, still shaking in terror, looking back as half the population of the town regarded him with shock, with fear, with confusion, with–
Then almost before Woven realized it was happening, he had scrambled to his hooves and broken into a run, and the sight of it at last snapped Woven out of her stupor.
“D-Dawning!” She called out to him, pushing herself to her hooves. “Wait, don’t–AAGH!” Her left hind leg practically screamed in pain the second she put weight on it. She began to fall until Flax quickly moved alongside to hold her steady steady. “Dawning!”
“Come back!” Flax added.
Whether he heard them or not, Dawning continued to run, the ponies nearest to him frantically scrambling backwards in fright as he passed. They watched him kick his back legs against the road, rocketing himself up into the night sky over the darkened street, and disappearing into the void.
“I’ll never forget that look on his face for as long as I live,” Woven Light said. “I don’t know what he saw when the Ursa died. But whatever he did, it…it shook him in a way that I don’t think anyone besides another like him could ever truly know.”
For the entire duration of the tale of the Ursa, Fluttershy had been leaning forward in her seat. Only now as the mood of the story shifted did she lean back again. Her heart was a cocktail of emotions; on the one hoof, Fluttershy loved animals of just about every kind. It was one of her defining attributes that she was known for, and as dangerous and monstrous as the Ursa species was, she simply could not feel both pity and horror at the fate that the poor adolescent had endured. But on the other hoof, she cared for Dawning. She knew who he was and what he was like, more so than ever by now. And so, for perhaps the first time she could remember in recent years, her pity and care for the animal was superseded by something else.
Fluttershy remembered what Dawning had said about how he saw and felt the world and living things and tried to imagine what he must’ve seen in the Ursa’s death. What would it be like, she wondered, to see the heart make its last beat, to hear the flow of blood slow to a trickle and then cease, to witness cells begin to wither and die, and to watch the warmth of life fade into nothingness? To see mortality as none around could ever dream of? And to know that it was your fault?
She thought she had some idea of it. Only some. But even in shuddering as she thought of that fleeting grasp of it, she found herself agreeing with Woven; it was something that no other being save for one like Dawning could possibly hope to truly grasp.
“…w-what happened then?”
Cornstalk softly cleared his throat and then, dejectedly, resumed the story.
“Clover Patch saw it heading for Main Street,” Amber Grain panted as she pushed through the front door. “Faust, the kids…Cornstalk, do you even know if that thing’ll work?”
“Tartarus if I know…” Cornstalk muttered as he fumbled with the shotgun in his hooves, loading it as quick as he could possibly manage. “Good enough for blowing away timberwolves and scaring off conspiracy theorists, hope to Celestia it does some good…” He finally finished loading the gun, racked it once, and slung it over his shoulder. “Alright…alright, heading for Main Street you said–”
Then from outside, through the open door, they heard a loud whoosh of air and a light rustling of grass, and the sudden shattering of a window from the floor above. Cornstalk and Amber stopped in their tracks; they knew exactly who the noise from outside could possibly have been from, and knew their home well enough to know exactly which room had been broken into. Cornstalk shared one glance with Amber before hurriedly un-shouldering the gun, leaving it on a nearby table before bolting up the stairs, Amber following close behind him. It only took them a few seconds to race all the way up to Dawning Hope’s room and open the door.
The window at the far end of the room had been shattered inward, with such force that there wasn’t even a single shard of glass left within the frame. Dawning Hope sat on his haunches in the middle of the room, surrounded by little shards of glass and the discarded and broken remains of his Captain Equestria costume all around the floor. His head was down, eyes wide and staring blankly, his chest expanding and contracting rapidly as he breathed heavily, his fur dampened from sweat and blood. He did not look up at them as they entered. His only immediate reaction was a little flicking of his ears, unthinking, instinctual.
Cornstalk stepped through the door first, slowly and gently. “Dawning…what happened?…”
Dawning hesitated, his lip quivering like he was struggling to not break down on the first word. “…I killed it, Pa…I…I killed it…I-I wasn’t trying to, it…it was going to hurt Woven, I was so terrified it would and I…” He began to shudder, breath picking up speed. “I-I was only trying to help…I was trying to save them, I d-didn’t want to hurt or s-scare anypony and…I watched it die…oh Faust, I watched it die…”
Cornstalk and Amber were at Dawning’s side and holding him close between them at practically the exact second his voice cracked from stuttering speech into a sob. He threw his head into his hooves as he broke down weeping in full, streams of tears flowing around and down his hooves, washing away caked dirt and blood as they went dripping to the floor, while his body shook and trembled in his parents’ arms as he swallowed great gulps of air between sobs.
The two parents held Dawning tight between them in a simultaneous hug, gently stroking his back, his shoulders, his mane. But in between, they cast each other worried, fearful glances.
“…w-what’s wrong with me…” Dawning began to whimper. “What’s…what’s wrong with me?!…”
“Dawning…” Amber said, trying to sound as soothing and calm as she possibly could. “Nothing’s wrong with you–”
“S-STOP!” Dawning suddenly snapped, turning his head quickly to face her, with such abruptness that Amber couldn’t help but recoil. “Stop…stop saying that, you keep saying nothing’s wrong, everything’s going to be alright…and it’s not! I-I have all these powers and not even any cutie mark to show for it, a-and…they know now…they’re going to be asking us questions…looking at me like…t-they’ll never see me the same way again, I won’t ever be able to pretend I’m normal again, and…and I don’t know why I’m this way!” He looked frantically between his mother and father, eyes wide with growing panic. “W-what are we going to tell them?! What are we going to do?!”
“Dawning,” Cornstalk interrupted, gripping Dawning’s shoulders firmly but gently and turning him towards him. Dawning froze, staring into his father’s eyes as if suddenly in a trance. “Everything. Is going. To be fine. We’ll get this taken care of and figured out, nothing…” He swallowed. “…nothing bad is going to happen, I promise you, just…” He relaxed his grip on Dawning’s shoulders. “…just wait here for now, rest…let us go out there, see…let us take care of it…please?”
Dawning nodded slowly, his voice a quiet, cowed murmur. “O-okay…okay…”
“Good…thank you,” Cornstalk nodded back as he let go of him. As he and Amber released Dawning, the young stallion’s posture drooped once again, head slowly turning back down to face the floor.
“It’s going to be fine, Dawning,” Amber said, softly and reassuringly as she and Cornstalk headed back for the door. “Please, trust us…it’s going to be okay. You’ve done nothing wrong.”
Dawning didn’t reply, and it was only with slow reluctance that the two willed themselves to turn away.
As they made their way from their home towards the center of town, Cornstalk internally tried to remind himself of the very words he had spoken to Dawning. This…well, there wasn’t any getting around it, this was bad. The little family had always feared–and known deep down–that the day would come where Dawning’s secret would out itself. But they had always hoped that at the very least it would be some relatively small slip-up. Something that only someone close to him, like Woven Light or Flax, might notice. Faust knew he’d had several near-misses over the years; it was impossible to keep his powers completely hidden. The family had been lucky so far.
But that luck, it seemed, had just run out forever, and in the worst possible way. To have Dawning outed so violently, so abruptly, so publicly…
No, no, he told himself in his mind. Don’t panic. There’s a way through this. Ponies in this town are an understanding bunch, mostly…maybe…maybe we can say they didn’t see it the way they think they did, buy ourselves some time?…
When they actually arrived at Main Street, however, it became immediately clear to both Cornstalk and Amber that there would be no downplaying or covering up what had happened. The place was in ruins, as though a hurricane or an earthquake had swept through it. Several shops were either severely damaged or collapsed completely, and plenty more had at least a few windows shattered or cracked by debris; very few establishments had escaped completely unscathed. Fallen strings of lights, Nightmare Night decorations, and discarded pieces of costumes littered the road. All of Main Street and several blocks around were shrouded in darkness, the power still cut off. And then there was the body of the Ursa itself, still wrapped and entangled in the remains of the power lines it had fallen onto. Even in the gloom the two could see the severity of its wounds; the burns from both heat vision and electric sparks, the slashes and scars still dripping with red, the crookedly bent paw…
Cornstalk and Amber went to work pitching in where they could. Several ponies were already going to and fro working on the damage, clearing away rubble and debris, tending to the wounded, and so on. Some had already been in the area when the attack happened, others had just arrived from the surrounding neighborhoods and farms. They saw the town Sheriff and his small group of deputies clustered around the Ursa, seemingly discussing and debating how best to move the corpse. On another street corner, they saw a pair of nurses tending to Woven Light’s leg, while Flax sat close beside her.
Nopony said anything. Nopony verbally brought up what the two parents could already tell had spread around to everyone else, or hurled any accusations towards them.
But they did stare at the two while they worked. Stared with wide eyes and looks of confusion and uncertainty on their faces, all silently asking the same questions that their tongues would not. Even when Cornstalk didn’t see them directly, he could still feel their accumulated weight pressing down upon him.
As much as he hated to admit it, even in the midst of his panic, Dawning had been right. Nothing was going to be the same ever again. And he had no idea what they could possibly do about it now.
It was an hour or so later when Amber was finally able to get a chance to take Cornstalk aside. The two of them slunk away into a back alley leading off of Main Street, Amber looking over her shoulder to make absolutely certain they were alone before she spoke to him, her voice low and intense.
“We need to tell Dawning the truth.”
Cornstalk balked. “Wh–now? Ambie, we can’t–”
“We have to. We don’t have a choice anymore.”
Cornstalk shook his head. “No…no…w-we can find a way around this, if we could just–”
“Cornstalk. It’s over. We tried our best, but you and I both knew the day would come when we wouldn’t be able to keep the secret anymore. And maybe…” She sighed, lowering her head for a moment. “…maybe we shouldn’t have. Maybe that’s where we went wrong, right from the start.” Regaining her more serious composure, she went on. “But we’re past that point now. They have questions, and there’s just as big a chance that they’ll ask Dawning as much as they will us. We can’t keep how we found him hidden from him anymore. He deserves to know.”
“I…I…” Cornstalk stammered, trying his hardest to come up with a good counterargument in his mind. He could not. “…alright…alright, you’re right. You’re right. Just…can I ask one thing?”
“Yes?” Amber asked.
“I’d…I’d like it to be me who tells him. Just…if there’s anyone who’s going to let him down, I’d rather it be me. N-not that I don’t trust you, I mean, I just…”
Amber’s voice softened, putting a comforting hoof on his shoulder. “It’s alright. I understand.”
Hours later, well past midnight and into the early hours of the next morning, the two finally trudged back to their little home on the farm. Poor Dawning, they saw when they checked on him in his room, had fallen asleep on the bed, though even in the dark they could see him twitching and stirring uneasily in his sleep, and there they let him lay.
While Amber rested herself in the two parents’ bedroom, Cornstalk journeyed out to the barn, clearing away a little patch of worn, flattened straw in the middle of the floor to reveal a little hidden door, no more or less than around a foot wide and tall in dimension. The little hidden chamber was lined with lead; before Dawning’s x-ray vision had begun to kick in, simply hiding it beneath the floorboards was enough.
Laying at the bottom was a small, simple wooden box. Carefully, cautiously, as though the thing within was something either sacred or cursed, Cornstalk lifted the box out of the little chamber and opened it. Within, resting on a little bed of folded white fabric, was the very same crystal that had been hanging around Dawning’s neck all those years ago in the ship; like an icicle in appearance, blue-white with a reflective sheen, softly glowing within its core, marked at the wide flat end with that curious, snaking “S” symbol.
Cornstalk held the crystal in one hoof, looking down at it as he slowly made his way back into the house, its glow reflecting in his eyes and dimly illuminating the grass and dirt beneath him as went. His heart, already heavy, felt even weightier as he stared at the thing. He felt like he was looking down at a dagger, and preparing to drive it through his son’s heart.
It might as well be, he thought as he shoved the crystal into his shirt pocket.
He hated what he was about to do to Dawning. Amber was right, but knowing she was just made him hate it even more. All he could hope and pray for was that whatever further hurt would come, they would able to get through it and pick up the pieces.
The next morning, the two silently waited for Dawning at breakfast; a simple affair of toast and scrambled eggs, far simpler than Amber’s usual cooking. Dawning came down the stairs quietly, moving slowly and wearily; even though they knew he had been sleeping, it looked like he hadn’t gotten any rest at all. He ate his breakfast silently, not looking at his parents or verbally acknowledging them. In return, they silently let him finish.
Only when he was done did Cornstalk finally speak up, feeling honest-to-Faust like that crystal was going to tear a hole through his heart.
“Dawning…I’d like for you to go on a walk with me. There’s some things we need to talk about…”
“So you told him?” Fluttershy asked.
Cornstalk nodded sullenly. “I told him. Told him how we found him, showed him the field where he came down, showed him the crystal. Everything.”
“And…how did he take it?”
Cornstalk said nothing. His gaze drifted down and away from Fluttershy’s, staring emptily at the table. Then abruptly, he pushed his chair away and stood, trotting over to lean against the wall, facing away from the others, head hung.
Fluttershy felt a growing feeling of sickening apprehension beginning to well up in her chest.
After a hesitant pause, Amber continued. “Dawning was quiet for the next week afterwards. And I mean quiet. He didn’t say nary a word to anyone that whole week. Did all of his chores on the farm and his work at the Gazette without a single word. When he had free time, he’d spend it alone in his room.”
“It was like the soul had just gone right out of him,” Flax added. “He just went through the motions of living like clockwork. No life.”
“Did any of you try talking to him after Nightmare Night?” Fluttershy asked.
“Some of us thought about it,” Woven said. “I know I did. We all wanted to know what had happened, how long his parents or even he’d known about his powers, how he had them at all, but…in the end most of us just figured it’d be best to leave him be. We figured he and his parents would tell us when they were ready to.”
“And then,” Amber went on. “One day he came down for breakfast carrying a pair of loaded saddlebags. And after he’d finished, he looked up at us and said…”
“…you’re leaving?” Amber repeated.
“Well…yes,” Dawning answered. His voice was almost monotone in a melancholy sort of way, his eyes distant, like he wasn’t altogether there. “I’ve been doing some thinking, and…well, I thought it was about time I struck out for a while. It’s not like I don’t have options. My college grades were pretty good, and I have some journalism experience already at the Gazette. I can pick up freelance jobs or small papers here and there…”
“I mean, sure, but…Dawning, isn’t this a little sudden?”
Dawning shrugged. “I don’t think so.”
Amber and Cornstalk exchanged a glance before the latter leaned forward. “Dawning,” he said. “You’re good at a lot of things, but lying isn’t one of them. What’s this really about?”
Dawning hesitated. Only now did his eyes begin to focus on the two, his melancholy body language beginning to morph into subdued, but bitter, determination. “…I have to find the ship. It’s out there somewhere. I need to find it.”
“You…what?” Cornstalk blinked. “Dawning, it’s gone. It just disappeared without a trace, it could’ve shot right back up into space for all we know–”
“You don’t know that.” Dawning interjected. His voice was starting to get less sullen, more intense.
“Well…well no, but–”
“Exactly. It could still be here somewhere. Somepony might have taken it or it could be somewhere…somewhere else, I don’t know.” He was straightening up in his seat now. “But I have to find it. I don’t care how long it takes me, I have to find it.”
“But Dawning,” Amber asked. “Why? What could you–”
“‘Why’?” Dawning repeated incredulously. “‘Why’? You seriously don’t understand why?” He stood up from the table–abrupt enough to shake it–and gestured out the nearby window. “There’s a whole side of my life that I didn’t even know existed up until now…and I need to know what it is! For Faust’s sake, I can fly. I can shatter stone with a punch and light fires with a blink of my eyes and hear the sounds of everypony and everything dying all around me…and I can’t even get a cutie mark for any of it!” Dawning shook his head with a scoff. “All this time…all this time I thought it was because there was something wrong with me…and it’s actually because I’m not even from here.” He snapped his head back up to glare at his parents. “I can’t just ignore all that! I want to know where I come from! I want to know why I’m this way! I want to know who I am, and…and if you had told me sooner maybe I’d have had some of those answers by now!”
“Now hold on just a minute…” Cornstalk retorted defensively, standing as well to look Dawning in the face. “We never were trying to hurt you by keeping it as long as we did, we were just trying to protect you–”
“From what?!” Dawning snarled back. “What could you be so afraid of? What could you possibly have to lose from just being honest with me sooner?!”
“I…I…”
“Dawning, Cornstalk, please…” Amber tried to interject.
“Damn it Dawning, you’re my son!” Cornstalk finally exclaimed. “I just–”
“Except I’m NOT!” Dawning exploded back, so loud that the room itself seemed to shake. “This isn’t my real home, and you’re not my real father! I don’t belong here, I…I…” As loudly as his anger had erupted, it began to die back down, Dawning panting for breath as he trailed off.
But Cornstalk was already silent, staring back at Dawning with heartbreak etched into every feature of his face. His head slowly lowered, closing his eyes as he took a deep breath.
“Dawning…” Amber whispered in shock. No anger, no reprimand. Just shock.
The last hints of Dawning’s previous frustration melted away into regret. He began to shake his head. “I…I mean…”
“No…” Cornstalk said suddenly. He pursed his lips as he straightened up, staring back at Dawning; though his posture and voice were firm, Amber could see him just barely shaking. “No, you’re…you’re right. You’re a grown…a grown adult, you can make your own decisions. Don’t need us telling you how to live your life anymore.” He began to step away from the table, shrugging his shoulders. “That’s what you think you oughta’ do, go ahead. Not like we can stop you. Nopony can.”
Abruptly, Cornstalk turned and marched away, out of the dining room and up the stairs. Dawning reached a hoof out and opened his mouth as if to say something, but he was gone before he could. The young stallion slowly shut his mouth and lowered his foreleg, ears flopping as he looked helplessly between Amber and the now empty stairs.
Amber was just about to get up and go to him when Dawning suddenly huffed through the nose, grabbed his saddlebags, and hurried towards the door.
“Dawning, wait…” Amber called after him, rushing to rise to her hooves and catch up with him. But even in walking Dawning was faster, and he’d gotten to the front door and pushed it open even as he slung his bags over his sides.
“Wait, please, he didn’t…I know you didn’t…” Just as Amber reached the doorway, Dawning broke into a run, dust kicking up behind him as his form shrank away towards town, Amber futilely reaching a hoof out after him. “Dawning! Dawning!…”
Only after he had completely disappeared from her view did Amber Grain finally allow herself to slump against the doorframe, putting a hoof to her mouth as she struggled to not break down weeping.
“…he didn’t look back. That’s…I think that’s what hurt me the most. He didn’t look back.”
Woven and Flax were still silent. Cornstalk was still leaning against the wall, still facing away. Fluttershy could just see him lifting his forelegs up to put them around his shoulders.
And she herself was doing everything she could to not break down crying herself, blinking water out of her eyes and fighting to keep her breath from morphing into heaving, though she strained every part of herself to do so.
“Was…was that the last time any of you talked to him?”
“Not…quite,” Woven answered. “Flax and I had decided to finally check on Dawning personally by then, and there was something I wanted to give him anyway. We…heard about everything when we came by the house. Too late for when it happened…but we did manage to catch up to him at the train station…”
Dawning Hope was sitting all alone on a bench in the train station when Woven Light–a little bag slung over her side–and Flax entered, bearing no other luggage besides his saddlebags. He sat still and quiet, staring blankly ahead across the field-filled horizon beyond the station. Held in his hooves was a little pointed, crystalline object that he was idly turning over and around in his hooves.
Only as the two approached did his ears flick and head turn to face them, quickly putting the crystal back into his saddlebags, and they stopped in their tracks as they did. For a moment they stood silently looking back at him, hesitant to speak, and unsure of who between them should speak first.
Dawning eyed them up and down. “You know?” he asked bluntly.
“We…we were just by the farm,” Woven answered. “They told us…is it true, Dawning? Are you really leaving?”
It was Dawning’s turn to hesitate. “…yes. I am.” He turned his head away again.
Flax stepped forward to speak up next. “Nopony’s gonna hold what happened on Nightmare Night over your head, Dawning. We…we all know you were trying to help. A-and, I’ve been talking to folks around town, we’re not going to go blabbing around about it. This doesn’t go any farther than Smallville if that’s what you want. Heck, even Briar Patch agreed he’d keep it secret.”
Dawning nodded. “Thank you, but…it’s more than just that.” He took a deep breath and stood, turning to face his two friends directly, looking them in the eyes. “I’ve had so many questions about myself all my life, and…and the answers just aren’t here. I’m only going to know for sure who and what I am if I go looking…and I need to know. I…I can’t just put this aside and go on pretending I’m just Dawning Hope anymore. I wish I could…but I can’t. I’m…” He trailed off for a moment, his crystal-blue gaze shifting to meet Woven’s own. “…I’m sorry.”
Woven held the shared gaze for a moment before sighing, ears lowering by a fraction. “Well…I suppose you’re going to need these after all, then.” She reached a hoof into her bag and pulled out a little parcel–crudely wrapped in brown wrapping paper held together by tape–and held it out to Dawning.
Dawning tilted his head in confusion. “What’s this?”
“Something I’ve been working on the past few days. I…I figured it might help you stay under the radar after what happened the other night.”
Dawning pulled away the wrapping paper, unveiling the parcel. It was a little black eyeglass case. And upon opening it, sure enough, there was a pair of glasses resting inside. Large, rectangular with rounded edges, the smooth glass of the lenses reflecting Dawning’s face.
“Glasses?”
Woven shuffled her hooves. “I put some of my magic into them. Or tried to, anyway. There’s a perception filter spell on them, low-level, but it’s there. Generates a feeling of ‘normal’ when ponies look at you wearing them…or at least it’s supposed to, I don’t know if it’ll even work. Um, try them on, I want to make sure they fit.”
Dawning complied, carefully placing the glasses over his muzzle and adjusting them into place. As the lenses slid over his eyes, Woven saw that their unearthly vibrant hue was cut and dulled. More…well more “normal” looking now.
“How do I look now?”
“Well, the spell won’t work on us, we already know you. But when you meet new ponies, and use your powers out there, um…it’ll be a bit harder for them to connect you to…the other side of you, if that makes sense. Throws them off the scent a bit. Not completely, it’s not mind control. You’ll probably need to disguise yourself a bit more to really make it work, at least if I did the spell right…and I don’t even know how well it’ll actually work out in–”
“Woven,” Dawning gently interrupted. “Thank you. I’ll be sure to use them.”
Woven trailed off, allowing herself a small, sad smile. “…you’re welcome.”
Flax stepped forward, looking like he was fighting back tears. “H-hey, um…listen…whoever you turn out to be, wherever you came from, uh…d-don’t forget about us back down here, okay?”
“I…I would never, Flax. I promise.”
At that moment there was the loud hooting of a train whistle, and the chugging of wheels on tracks as the train pulled into the station, brakes hissing steam.
Dawning looked between the train and the two ponies, slowly beginning to back away. “I…I’m sorry, I’ve got to…”
Woven suddenly bounded forward and threw her forelegs around Dawning’s shoulders, pulling him into a sudden hug. Dawning stiffened in surprise, but then slowly, gently wrapped his own hooves around her, returning the hug. Woven nuzzled his cheek; unconsciously, her muzzle began to move steadily across the side of his face, her lips slowly approaching his…
…until she stopped, pulling away and looking into his eyes. “D-Dawning…the other night at the party, I…what I was trying to say was…was…”
Dawning sighed. “I…I know…but, you know why…” He shut his eyes for a moment and swallowed, as if it was a foul-tasting thing he was trying to spit out. “…why we can’t now, right?”
Woven’s eyes were beginning to water. She blinked, trying to hold herself together. “…I know…”
She could feel the reluctance in Dawning’s body as he at last pulled away, carefully putting the glasses Woven had given him into his saddlebags and slinging them over his shoulders. “I’ll…I’ll try to write when I can, let you know how I’m doing. Take care of…of them for me, will you?”
Woven nodded. “We will.”
In spite of her best efforts, her voice finally cracked.
Woven and Flax stood together as they watched Dawning Hope give them one final, regretful look, then turn and trot into one of the open train cars. Soon enough the doors were shut, and the train was chugging its way out of Smallville, and out into the big world beyond the fields and farms of the little town and all the secrets it bore.
“That was the last time any of us saw him in-person,” Woven said sadly. “He still writes, and we write to him. Mostly just ‘how are you doing’s, ‘doing fine here’. Just to say we’re keeping in touch really.” She sighed, slumping a little in her chair. “So…there you have it. The whole story, so far as we know it.”
Fluttershy was quiet. Her head was hung, her ears drooped, blinking moisture out of her eyes. Her heart was aching. For everypony, at this point; for both Dawning and his family. She was so lost in processing everything she had heard that she wasn’t sure what to say now.
Amber leaned forward. “Dawning’s a good boy, he really is,” she said. “But when he found out where he really came from, it…it swallowed him up and just hasn’t spat him back out. When we heard on the news about what happened with the train we’d hoped that maybe things were going better for him, but…well…”
Flax straightened up again, clearing his throat. “Is there anything else you want to ask about? Anything else you want to know?”
Fluttershy looked up. “I…n-no…I-I think I have everything I need, um…thank you. I’m…I’m sorry to have taken your time like this…”
“No, no…” Cornstalk finally spoke up, turning back around and coming back to the table. “It’s no trouble. Really. Would rather it be a pony like you than someone else lending their ear.”
“Would you…maybe like to stay for lunch?” Amber offered. “You could even spend the night if you want, we wouldn’t mind.”
Fluttershy thought about the offer. In truth, she didn’t really want to return to Manehattan just yet. She still needed time to process everything she had just heard. And she especially didn’t feel ready to finally confront Dawning…
“I…I’d like that, actually.”
Despite the somber story that had been shared, the rest of the day passed, for the most part, rather pleasantly. Cornstalk and Amber proved to be as generous in their hospitality as they were in the information they had shared. Lunch and dinner had been delicious, and the time between that had been spent touring the farm and the rest of Smallville, or sharing more pleasant stories about Dawning’s foalhood; like the time when a pair of conspiracy theorists had snuck onto the farm and had been convinced by Cornstalk–with the help of his shotgun–to beat a hasty retreat, or the time a young Dawning Hope had tried to run away to join the Royal Guard, or the time when, with the help of his budding X-ray vision, had discovered an attempted changeling infiltration in the town and managed to warn the authorities just in time.
The guest room Fluttershy had been offered proved to be equally comfortable, cozy and warm in the same homely way as the rest of the house. But even as she settled down for rest later that evening, she found that the rest of the day and the comforts of hospitality ultimately did little to soothe her.
When she’d journeyed down here she had hoped that whatever had been causing Dawning to be so reclusive, as both Supermane and even as just himself at the Planet, would be something that she and her friends could navigate. They’d certainly had plenty of experience resolving problems by now. But now that she’d heard Dawning’s story, at least from ponies who had been close to him growing up, she wasn’t sure of that anymore.
The most complicating part of the whole ordeal was that Dawning, to her mind, hadn’t really been completely wrong. Of course he was entitled to try and find answers to his questions. Fluttershy would go so far as to say he deserved it. And yet in his grief and longing, he had seemingly chosen the most self-destructive way possible to find those answers.
Back after the attack on the Constitution, she had believed his sincerity when he had explained why he put himself on the line to aid ponies in distress. And yet he had ducked her inquiries about whether he, paradoxically, saw that need to help as a burden. She wouldn’t assume until she had another chance to talk with him, but by now she was convinced that he did indeed see his own sense of altruism as a problem.
And that just raised further problems, especially when it came down to the other ponies he had saved. What if he hadn’t stepped in to fight the pirates raiding the Constitution, or rescued ponies on the sabotaged Bronclyn Bridge, or saved the LexCorp monorail with her and Rainbow Dash aboard? His instinctive need to help seemingly had won out each time…but what if his desire for secrecy had triumphed instead? Manehattan had been lucky…but it just as easily could not have been.
Maybe Equus wasn’t truly Dawning Hope’s world after all…but was closing himself off from other ponies, hiding behind the masks of the hooded vigilante and the shy-but-sweet reporter, really the best way to look for his true home? Fluttershy didn’t think so. As far as she was concerned, he was doing more damage to himself than good.
Dawning was not the outsider he seemed to think of himself as…but if his own adopted parents couldn’t get him to see that, then what hope did Fluttershy and her friends have?
There was a gentle rapping at the door. “Oh, um, come in,” Fluttershy answered.
The door creaked open, and Cornstalk entered. “Howdy,” he said. “Just checking in. You okay in here? Need anything?”
Fluttershy shook her head. “Oh, thank you, but I’m fine for now. You’ve been very hospitable.”
Cornstalk smiled politely and nodded. “Well, if you need anything, just holler.”
He was just making to leave when Fluttershy spoke up. “Uh…actually, I wanted to talk to you for a second.”
“What’s on your mind?”
Fluttershy hesitated. “…do…do you blame yourself?”
Cornstalk’s friendliness faded, replaced by the more sullen look he had borne earlier. “I…yeah, I suppose I do…”
He stepped fully into the room, passing beside Fluttershy and leaning by the window looking out on the farm. “I’m just a farmer. My head’s in the earth and the things I grow in it, not bouncing around the stars in silver rockets. Ambie was always better at wrapping her head around that sort of thing than I ever was. That night Dawning came to us, I was so rattled by it, and I don’t think it ever really went away. Even as he grew up and I got to loving him. I didn’t want all this outer space super power drama, I just…I just wanted my son.” He sighed, rubbing his forehead with a hoof and pushing up his cap. “That day just before he left, he asked me what I had to lose from not telling him sooner, and…truth is, there was something I thought I’d lose. It was him.” He chuckled ruefully. “And what do you know, that’s exactly what I ended up losing. Because I wanted so darn badly to keep him mine.”
“It isn’t your fault, sir. Really, it isn’t.”
Cornstalk softly scoffed. “Well…with respect, Ambie’s been telling me the same thing for two years. Still haven’t gotten around to believing her either.” He paused, turning to look Fluttershy in the eye. “…help him. I don’t care what happens, I don’t care if he hates me til the end of the days, just…help him find the peace he’s looking for.”
“I’ll…we’ll try.”
Cornstalk nodded, then turned to make his way back out.
“O-oh,” Fluttershy called after him. “There was one more thing I wanted to ask…whose property did you say Dawning’s ship landed near again?”
Cornstalk shrugged. “Old grouch who used to live near here named Stellar Lexicon. Real reclusive nut, that one; hardly ever saw him around town. Heard he was some dropout from one of those big universities in Canterlot. Mystic Tome, I think it was.”
“Was?”
“Was. He passed away a little less than a year after Dawning came. Some accident with a fire in his home or something like that.”
Fluttershy swallowed. “Did…did he happen to have a son, by any chance?”
Cornstalk paused for a moment. “Actually…he did. Little colt named Tech. Kid moved out after Stellar died. Think he ended up setting himself up in Manehattan, some big tech company…or something like that, anyway. I don’t keep track of those kind of ponies. Why do you ask?”
Fluttershy’s heart stopped for a beat, but she managed to fix a reassuring smile back on her face before Cornstalk turned back to face her. “Oh…no reason, just asking.”
It was only after Cornstalk had left that Fluttershy allowed her face to display the concern she was now feeling. All of a sudden, her mind was racing through everything she and her friends had seen and heard. She thought about Dawning’s story, how his ship had arrived and vanished without trace. She thought about Lucky’s chart of where he’d been across Equestria, all of the confirmed and possible sightings made of Supermane until his arrival and reveal in Manehattan.
She thought of LexCorp, with the technological leaps it promised.
And she thought of the whole train of events and near-disasters that had been happening to Manehattan over the past week…only after Dawning had revealed himself as Supermane in broad daylight.
Dawning’s looking for his ship…it landed near…and Lex…what if he…
A cold chill ran down her spine.
Oh no…