//------------------------------// // Hay and Beets and Nighttime // Story: Short Stories from Beyond Time, Space, and Shadow // by ZeroCore //------------------------------// It was a merry morning in the Sunlit Hills, a rather curious place in a rather curious realm, but then again it was ALWAYS morning in the Sunlit Hills. Like Equestria, Sunlit Hills, as well as the neighboring Moonlit Valley, was inhabited mostly by ponies, although there seemed to be rather few of them, the only noticeable ones in question seeming to be transparent, ghostly-looking figures that glided in and out of the trees that filled the surrounding area. Apart from these wayward eidolons, two fillies inhabited the nearby area. Both were alicorns, the girls, still young mares, sporting both a horn and wings. Curiously enough, they also both had faint, glowing rings which constantly hovered above their heads. Neither one really knew what they were for, or how they even got to this rather odd place at all, and an even further mystery were the ghostly pony-like figures that drifted about the landscape. One had a straw-yellow coat, with a mane and tail the color, and oddly the scent, of fresh oatmeal. After a great many days and nights living in this strange place, she'd collected up fallen sticks and timber from the trees, building a crude but still very sturdy barn in which she made her home. She was a very carefree filly and generally enjoyed having a good time. Frequently, she would sing to herself to keep some level of merriment floating through the empty rooms of her farm-like dwelling, singing to no one in particular at all. “Oh, in this land, that I call home that always stays the same, you'd think it would be boring but it's never ever lame! I have my home and yard and barn where I will always stay. It is filled with joy and harmony and soft and fresh, clean hay! I don't know what others say since no one's left or came, but I'm a little filly, Willy-Nilly is my name. I kind of lost the lyrics now, I don't know what to say, 'cause I'm just a little filly who was napping the hay!” After the short, fast song, sung to no one but the empty room around her, Willy-Nilly, the little alicorn filly, fell fast asleep in, as she usually did, the nearest pile of hay in her barn's lower loft. Her sleep didn't last long though as a gentle knocking sounded on her barn's front door, the filly slowly getting up, gliding down on her wings to the barn's main, and for that matter only, entrance. The wooden door creaked open, revealing a slightly smaller filly. Her coat was almost a completely white color, two deep, black eyes adorning her face. On her head was a horn, a similar golden halo above it, and on her back were two feathery wings. A black dress covered her body, the dark garment black in color but still charming in a way. In her smiling mouth she held a basket full of fresh, ripe beets, her favorite food and that which she took great care in growing. “Morning!” she said. “Hi, Nilly! I have those beets you wanted yesterday.” “Oh, hi Innocence,” Willy-Nilly yawned, greeting her neighbor and friend. “Thanks for bringing those over.” Innocence's name was no accident; the filly had never had a single aggressive thought in her life, at least none that she or anyone else ever remembered. Not once had she ever wished harm upon another pony, and although usually quiet aside from her somewhat loud greetings, didn't like the idea of injury or even the slightest scrape or bruise, on one's body or feelings, on anypony. EVER. She also had quite the talent for growing beets. “Anything new?” the snow-colored alicorn asked, her voice returning to its normal, soft tone. “Didn't you hear my song just now?” Nilly replied. “It's always the same around here.” “Well, I did hear you singing just a minute ago,” Innocence smiled, “but it's not entirely true; I found someone!” “Y-you mean another one of those s-spooky ponies?” Nilly shivered. It was no secret between the two that they both held a bit of fear for the ghostly forms that drifted about, the pony-like shapes never responding to a word they said, and occasionally staring at them, or what felt like THROUGH them with their bright, glowing eyes. “No, no, not one of those,” Innocence said. “This one looks sort of like us, only completely dark all over, like my dress... almost...” Willy-Nilly just tilted her head. “She has a mark on her flank that looks like a moon surrounded by a purple cloud.” “Do her eyes glow?” The yellow alicorn asked, still feeling nervous. “Don't know,” the white alicorn replied. “She's been asleep since I found her in my beet patch this morning.” “So she's back at your place?” Nilly asked. Innocence nodded. “Well, then, let's fly to your castle!” the yellow alicorn said, rising into the air, promptly hitting her head on one of her barn's support beams. “Ow...” she muttered as she landed. Innocence sighed. Willy-Nilly never was the most careful pony out there. The marble-coated alicorn shivered a bit, remembering the last time her straw-colored friend had said that. It took her a week to patch the hole in her one tower's roof. “How about we just walk?” she suggested, watching her friend rub her head. “Yeah,” Nilly responded, “just this once.” The two fillies began their relatively short walk towards Innocence's castle. Her castle, really more of a fort made of stones and wood which surrounded her cabin and beet patch, sat near the edge of the Moonlit Valley, a small, river-carved valley sitting where night time forever hung in the sky, the heavens illuminated by stars and a bright, eternally full moon. The castle itself was rather small, the walls hobbled together from various stones held together by clay mortar. The towers were arranged out of pillars of wood, made from logs, which held rock walls in place, each capped by a wooden roof and built by Willy-Nilly, along with the walls, after a time when Innocence became afraid to be on her own whilst asleep, the alicorn fillies still remembering that time when a ghostly figure appeared right outside the white alicorn's window. The two walked up to the castle's front gate, the wooden structure having a heart-shaped emblem carved into its front. Innocence's horn lit up with a faint white glow, the filly tapping gently on the door's surface. The heart emblem lit up with a dull pink glow, and with a gentle creak the door opened. Nilly smiled a bit, seeing how her friend's beet patch was doing so well. Innocence's beets had grown, the plant's sporting thick, healthy green leaves. Her cabin was doing well too, the small wooden structure well-kept and clean. Innocence herself was already trotting up to the door, going inside to check on her unusual guest. “Hey,” she called to her friend, “she's awake!” Willy-Nilly trotted inside, seeing Innocence sitting down next to a pony sleeping on her bed. The pony was an alicorn, no doubt about that. Horn, check... Wings, check... She looked like a filly, and sure enough had a cutie mark of a crescent moon over a purple background, a few stars here and there. The filly looked at both of them, a bit unsure of where she was. Nilly shivered a bit; the filly's eyes weren't round. Her pupils were thin vertical lines going up and down, her eyes being a turquoise green in color. “Aww,” Innocence smiled, “she has eyes like a cat.” “T-t-t-that's kind of w-w-weird,” Nilly shivered. “Relax,” her alabaster friend said, “she doesn't look like a ghost.” “Where am I?” the dark filly spoke, her voice almost sobbing. “Where am I? I... don't feel right... I'm missing...” “Missing?” Nilly asked, trying to calm her nerves. “I'm not all here...” the dark filly sobbed tears going down her cheek. “You look here,” Innocence softly spoke. “No,” the filly went on, “this isn't right... but... do I deserve to know?” The two other fillies tilted their heads slightly. “I... don't think we're on the same page here,” Nilly spoke, the yellow alicorn getting slightly confused. “Yeah,” her snow-white friend added, “first off, who are you?” “Nightmare,” the filly mumbled softly. “What's a nightmare? I don't think any of us are asleep,” Innocence asked. “My name,” the dark filly nearly growled, “is Nightmare Moon!” The two recoiled slightly at the filly's harsh tone. After a few seconds, Willy-Nilly spoke up. “So... what do you like to do?” “Nilly, I don't think that's the best thing to ask right now,” Innocence looked concerned as she replied. “Anyway, miss... Nightmare, that's my friend. Her name's Willy-Nilly, and mine's Innocence.” Nightmare gave a fast, sarcastic laugh. “Willy-Nilly, really? And Innocence? Does such a thing even really exist?” “Hey, I heard that!” Nilly said, sounding a bit cross. “Well, um,” Innocence struggled to respond, “yes. Nilly builds things out of wood and stone most of the time, and usually grows hay.” “And what do you do?” Nightmare asked, her one brow raised slightly. Innocence pulled over a small pale, the metal object full of beets. “Your special talent... is a bucket?” Nightmare flatly asked. “Not the bucket, silly, what's in the bucket,” Willy-Nilly responded. “Beets!” Innocence chimed. “A bucket full,” Nilly spoke. “Beet bucket!” Innocence chuckled. “Bucket beets?” Nightmare asked, a bit confused. “No, beet bucket,” the yellow allicorn spoke. “That's what I said,” Nightmare glared. “No,” Nilly responded, “you said--” “Bucket--” Nightmare said. “Beets,” Nilly finished. “A bucket of beets.” the dark alicorn glowered. “Beet bucket!” the alabaster filly chimed. “ENOUGH!” Nightmare yelled. “Tell me, NOW, where in Equestria I am.” The two other fillies looked quizzically at each other. “Where?” They both asked, heads tilted. Nightmare's expression went blank, her eyes wide. Were these two fillies serious? “You mean you've never heard of Equestria?” Nightmare said. “How is that even possible? It's the primary principality of our world, how can one not know of--”. The midnight alicorn's voice immediately stopped, her eyes turning up to the glowing rings above the two fillies' heads. Nightmare's heart sank. “No...” she said, feeling tears on her face again, “no... no, no, please no...” “What's wrong?” Innocence asked, becoming worried about her guest. “T-those rings,” Nightmare said, “do you not know what those are?!” The two fillies looked at each other's halos. “We've... always had those,” Willy-Nilly spoke. “They've always been atop our heads like that.” “We don't know where they came from, or where we came from for that matter, but we're here all the same,” Innocence added in. “No...” Nightmare started to panic slightly. “No, no... NO!” With a flash of purple haze and a pulse of shadow, Nightmare wrapped herself in a cloak of pure darkness and wind, the howling, spinning air carrying the void-shrouded alicorn out the front door and deep into the nearby woods, several dozen sets of glowing eyes watching her move past them. “What was that about?” Willy-Nilly asked. “I don't know,” Innocence replied, “but look where she went!” The two fillies started shaking as they spotted the ghostly figures beginning to move into the woods. “W-what if they get her?” Innocence stammered. “I don't want to think about it,” Nilly shivered. The two sat there for a few minutes, both fillies afraid to even dare beyond the castle walls. “We can't just do nothing,” the straw-colored alicorn eventually spoke. “B-but we can't just run off with those ghosts around,” Innocence shivered. “If we don't do anything then we'll never be able to help her,” Willy-Nilly spoke. Innocence noticed her friend sounding rather unlike herself; instead of carefree and aloof she seemed rather focused, her eyes concentrating on the dark woods that lay ahead of them outside of Innocence's castle. “I-if you come with me,” Innocence eventually said, “maybe the ghosts won't get us.” “Here's hoping...” Nilly replied. “Let's fly!” The two took to the air, Innocence still carrying her bucket of beets. Slowly, the two fillies made their way through the woods, crouching and stopping every now and then as the drifting, transparent spirits made their way past them. Nilly had the idea to follow the ghosts, staying out of sight the whole time. Innocence, shivering in fear, reluctantly agreed, and after a few minutes the two found themselves in a clearing, Nightmare in the middle of the grove under a starlit sky. She was surrounded by the ghosts, the phantasms kneeling down around her as she sobbed to herself under the open night sky. “No!” the two fillies called, fearing for their acquaintance. The two quickly placed a hoof over each other's mouth as the ghosts spun around to look at them. Shivering in fear, the two clenched their eyes tightly shut, screaming as the spirits cast their glowing gaze upon them. “Let them be,” Nightmare said. The ghosts backed up slightly, giving the shrieking fillies some room. Willy-Nilly and Innocence opened their eyes, their screams of terror soon ending. Nightmare motioned for them to come closer, and so they did, carefully making their way past the group of observant eidolons. “They're not dangerous,” Nightmare softly spoke. “In a way they're like me; feared for no reason other than that they're different. I suppose it doesn't matter now. Dead is dead, after all.” “Dead, what do you mean?” Innocence asked. “They're the only ones who look like ghosts here.” “And why did you freak out at our rings earlier?” Willy-Nilly asked. “What made you so scared of all this anyway?” “Nilly!” Innocence interjected. Nightmare just lowered her eyes. “Sorry about that,” Innocence softly spoke, kneeling down to Nightmare's eye level. “We're just...” “Scared?” Nightmare asked. “A lot of ponies fear me... You wouldn't be the first...” “Well, not so much you,” Innocence replied... “Maybe you should just tell us what's bothering you,” Nilly said, still feeling uneasy as the ghosts hovered around them. Several seconds passed. “Can they stay?” Nightmare asked. Reluctantly, the two fillies looked around, watching the ghosts watch them. Turning back to Nightmare the slowly nodded. “As long as they don't hurt anyone,” Willy-Nilly said. “They won't,” the midnight alicorn replied. Nightmare began her tale as the two other fillies listened, surrounded by their spectral onlookers. Nightmare spoke and they listened, listened to a tale of neglect, pain, sorrow, and night time eternal, and of six heroines who stopped her and separated her from the one who created her in the first place, and how the end of that battle seemed to have broken her apart, not just away. The two fillies couldn't help but cry along with their new friend as the listened, the story weighing heavily on their hearts. “S-so that's why you were so scared,” the yellow alicorn said. “W-where you come from, these rings only appear above those who are dead...” “At least in mythology, yes,” Nightmare said, drying her eyes. “A-and these ghosts... Eidolons, you called them?... They're just like you... sort of; shunned but not actually bad inside?” Innocence sobbed, feeling quiet bad herself for ever being afraid of the ghosts. Nightmare nodded. “Like me,” she said, “they're not actually out to harm anyone. They're just sad that no one seems to like them no matter what realm they travel to. Unlike me, however, they took it better... They didn't nearly doom a whole world...” “Hey,” Nilly spoke, “you only did that because you were in a lot of pain, right?” “Mh-hmm...” Nightmare nodded in agreement. “It still doesn't make it any better...” “Well, maybe not,” Innocence added, “b-but you don't want to do it again, right?” “N-no!” Nightmare nearly began crying again. “No, not again... Not again...” The fillies placed a hoof on the midnight alicorn's shoulder. “Then as long as you don't try it here, everything will be fine,” the two said in unison. “Also,” the yellow alicorn spoke, “I've noticed something.” Nightmare looked at her. “I've noticed that you don't have a halo,” Nilly said with a grin. “Even if... well, what you said about those is true...” “I sure hope it's not...” Innocence mumbled. “Anyway,” Willy-Nilly went on, “even if your spirit was fragmented, like you said, I don't think you're deceased since you don't have one.” Nightmare smiled, feeling reassured. “So, why don't you say here with us for a while until you can, you know, find a way to put yourself back together again?” Innocence asked. “And you could stay with me near Moonlit Valley; it's always night time over there.” “I think I'd like to stay with you, Innocence,” Nightmare replied, “a-and perhaps we can see your friend, Nilly, too?” “You bet!” Willy-Nilly replied. The three fillies smiled to themselves, the ghosts around them even seeming to grin. Eventually all three companions, and their ghostly escorts, walked back out of the woods together, Willy-Nilly flying back to her barn and Innocence and Nightmare heading back to the small stone and wood castle. Over time, Nightmare's power grew, the midnight alicorn locating many of the lost fragments of her soul. Some had found their way to foreign worlds, such as this one, whilst others still drifted in the void, now reconnected through a magical link Nightmare constructed. Eventually returning to her full size, she now towered over her small, filly friends, not that they minded. In the Sunlit Hills and Moonlit Valley, the three alicorns, and the ghosts they eventually came to call friends, lived together in a sort of harmony, Nightmare using her shadow magic to talk to the eidolon ponies. Strangely enough, they too had managed to grow horns and wings, now appearing as transparent alicorns with shining, friendly yellow eyes, appearing less like haunting spirits and more like benevolent guardian angels. Nightmare eventually, with their help, began sending telepathic, magical messages to Equestria and other worlds where her fragments lingered, even eventually making peace with her old adversaries, and Luna, the alicorn of Night who began her life in the first place, and although this fragment of hers stayed in this far off magical realm, she at least was able to talk with those back home. There was one mystery that she had yet to solve though. “Innocence,” Nightmare asked one day, the three alicorns eating lunch together, “mind if I ask you something?” “What is it?” the white alicorn filly replied. “Well,” Nightmare went on, “I've seen Willy-Nilly's cutie mark, a haybale with a cloud behind it, and you both know that mine is the crescent moon, but I've never seen yours since you always wear that black dress you have.” “Oh,” Innocence laughed, “that's easy. It's a beet!” “A beet shaped like a heart,” Willy-Nilly added. “A beet... shaped like a heart?” Nightmare asked. “Beet heart,” the alabaster filly smiled. “A... heart BEET?” Nightmare slowly said. The fillies looked at each other for a few seconds before bursting into laughter. “W-why didn't you think of that?!” Nilly laughed. “I-I don't know,” Innocence giggled. “Nice one, Nightmare!” The three laughed, a few ghosts laughing along with them as they overheard the commotion. Throughout their times together, and certainly that day, the three alicorns, and their spirit friends, remembered a lesson they all knew very well by then; just because somepony seems strange or different doesn't automatically make them bad, and certainly doesn't warrant anyone making fun of, or shunning them. You'll find that even the strangest of individuals can still be good friends, and you also might find that beets are good vegetables, that hay lofts are good for sleeping in, and the night time sky is very, very beautiful.