Once upon a time, on a cliff high in the hills of the Foal Mountains sat a black bat-pony mare named Sonydon Song. All things considered, she was not the type of mare who really could stand out in a crowd—that is, if you didn’t notice her eyes. Sony’s eyes were bright yellow and had a way of looking through ponies. You could say that is why she was there. High above the the town, away from anyone and everyone.
“Cousin Sony?”
That is, until she showed up. Sony tore her gaze away from the moon and its glory down to her much younger second cousin, a pink pegasus with a blue and white braided mane and tail. Sony gave the filly a half-smile. “Yes, Songbird?”
The filly blushed, landing on the cliff beside her. “Grandma wants to know if you are coming to bed tonight.”
Sony chuckled, “She still trying to bring me in?”
Songbird nodded. “Yes, Cousin Sony. She told me to come straight back. But I ain’t gonna.”
Sony raised an eyebrow. “You aren’t?”
With a firm shake of the head she said, “Nope. Mom ain’t home, and I prefer sleeping out here anyways. I’m a big filly. I don’t have to sleep inside like a fluffy unicorn.”
Sony couldn’t help but chuckle again. Songbird was as rough and tumble as any one of her ancestors, and that fact had built tension between her and the rest of the family for years. Sony was one of the few who understood it, she herself having that same need to be one with the wind and sky. “Well then, I can’t make you.”
“Good,” Songbird said firmly. “So, what you doing?”
“Thinking.”
Songbird looked up. “About what?”
Gently, Sony directed Songbird’s nose upwards towards the moon above. “Our mother.”
The filly shivered, smiling happily. “She ever comin’ home?”
“Coming, Lilting Songbird,” her cousin corrected. “The legend says she will. We are almost there, according to the story.”
“We are?”
Sonydon nodded. “Yes.”
“Sony, are vampires real?”
Sonydon raised an eyebrow. “Vampires?”
Songbird nodded. “Everypony in school is talking about them. Are they real?”
Sony chuckled. “Is there such a thing as a vampire bat? Yes. They do exist and they cut a slit in the fruit and then lap it dry. Overseas there is a variety that does the same for blood, however, we don’t talk about it.”
“How about werewolves?” Songbird asked.
“As far as my knowledge goes, no. It’s just something that was made up to scare ponies.”
“Ghosts?”
“Spirits of the dead. That is a yes and no answer. Is there such a thing as a ghost? Yes, but it’s not the spirit of the dead. It’s either an illusion or something I don't want you dealing with." She locked eyes with the young filly. "Got me miss ‘I can take on Equestria without any help from anypony else’?"
Songbird looked uncomfortable. "How about zombies? Thunder was telling me about them yesterday. Are they real?"
It was now Sony's turn to become uncomfortable. Eyes returned to the moon while she came up with an answer. "What they mean, no. But we do have something... that are," She said quietly.
"What’s that?" Songbird asked eagerly.
"Well, maybe I should sit you down and just tell you the story, or... No, come." Sony spread her wings, and leapt from the cliff, angling towards another cliff a ways away. Songbird was right behind her.
It didn't take long for the pair to land on the other cliff. This one was bigger, much bigger. The place was known as Pegasus Lake, and for good reason, as Songbird was about to find out. "Have a seat," Sony said, plopping herself down in the lush grass on the water's edge. The place was like Angel Falls: High above everything else with a little plateau of lush green plants, a bubbling pond, a waterfall, animals and creatures. To the naked eye, this place looked to be the most beautiful place in Equestria. However, the plants were covering up much. Much of their painful past.
They both waited in silence, eyes closed, listening to the steady roar of the waterfall as it fell both into the lake and farther down back out. Finally Sony, stood up and collected a few choice plants from around the place. The first was a type of moss, the second a leaf, and the third a root. These three things she lay on the stone. "Lilly," she said, using the filly's real name, not her normal pet one. "Lilly Feathers, Motivation, representative of us all. What I am going to tell you, I want you to take to heart and remember. Remember when you go out of these mountains to dwell among other ponies. Remember who we are and what would happen if it were to happen again. You see these three plants?"
Lilly nodded. It wasn't very common for Sony to use her real name. The filly figured that Questioning Sony, probably wasn't a good idea at the moment.
"Touch them, smell them, know them."
Lilly did as she was told, not daring to do anything else. The air grew thick. She gently touched each one, lifting it in a hoof, smelling them, examining them closely. She raised the soft, fuzzy, yellow-green mushroom to her mouth.
"No!" Sonydon Song snapped. "Don't eat it!"
Lilly froze, then set the mushroom back down, watching her cousin out of the corner of her eye as she examined the other two plants.
"Do you know them? Can you find them?"
The small pink pegasus nodded rapidly.
"Good, now sit down and listen."
Lilly did, her eyes almost filling with fear. She knew that voice, and she wasn't about to disobey.
"These three plants have been the cause of much grief among us ponies of the mountains. They nearly wiped out all of your kind and much of my own. No tribe was safe from these three plants... when we decided to turn them against one another." Sony's eyes turned once more to the moon.
Lilly shifted uneasily. "What—what happened?"
Sony sighed, "Listen Songbird, and listen close."
"You said that!" the filly said, beginning to grow annoyed. "Is this like your brother's goon story, or is this real?"
"Match was trying to make you sit still." Sony glared. "Before I tell that story, let's back up in time. You know how the Mountain Ponies were founded?"
"Easy!" Lilly said, "Luna brought us here after the banishment of Sombra and Discord as a safehouse for all the foals without families."
Sony nodded. "Indeed, and what did Princess Luna call herself around us?"
"Mother." Lilly replied without hesitation.
Sony shot her her a half smile, "You are a smart one."
Lilly shrugged, "Nah, mommy just likes that story."
Sonydon Song shook her head. "Indeed. So what happened next?"
"Next?" asked the filly.
"After we were brought here. What happened?" Sony explained.
"Oh!" Lilly smiled. "Well, then Pri—" she suddenly smirked, "Luna." She watched a moment for a reaction in those bright, yellow eyes. Nothing. Not even a blink or a hard stare. Lilly shrugged, then continued. "Princess Luna got angry and turned into Nightmare Moon. Then Celestia-"
"Princess Celestia," Sony corrected again.
"Yeah, her. She sent Luna to the moon."
"Pr- Oh never mind. Indeed, then Princess Celestia sent her sister, Princess Luna to the moon—"
"On a time out!" Lilly snickered.
Sony glanced up at the moon, saying a quick prayer to help keep her composure. "Indeed. After Celestia—er, Princess Celestia—sent her sister to the moon, the elder princess came up here to report to us. How did we respond?"
Lilly's ears flopped down. "Like idiots," she said.
It was official: It was past the filly's bed time. Lilly was popping bad jokes. "Yes, we were not smart. What did we do though?"
"Could you tell me again?" Her eyes looked pleading.
Sony shook her head, lying down beside the filly in the grass and draping a wing over her back. "It was a chilly night when it happened. Eyewitness accounts say that the ground shook and the sky was as bright as the day but with no rain. Everypony huddled together in the dark of the cave, shuddering every time the two clashed. Their magic was strong, then it was over. They went outside, and on the face of the moon was—"
"LUNA!" Lilly shouted.
"Princess Luna," Sonydon corrected. "Indeed, they all stood looking up at the sky in horror and shock. It wasn't supposed to end like that."
"Really? Was Princess Celestia supposed to be up there? Is she really the monster? Is she a Zom- Zombie?"
"No," Sony said, "Quit interrupting, or I will take you home to sleep."
Lilly lay her head down on her hooves, once again frightened. Sonydon sighed. "Alright, back to the story, little one. We had just gone from Princess Luna being our leader to nothing, nothing at all. The great princess of the sun landed before us, looking us each one in the eye. Regret and sorrow marked her movements. We all knew just by the way she smelled what had happened. She was dirty, bleeding in some spots. On her side she had a big bruise."
"Nightmares play rough?" Lilly asked.
"Yes Songbird, Nightmares play rough."
The filly thought about this for a moment. "Alright, continue."
Sony shook her head, giving a quick roll of her eyes. "Alright, so, how do you think we accepted Princess Celestia?"
"We kicked her out BOOM!" Lilly said, leaping to her hooves and giving a small demonstration against a fallen log.
"We sure did,” Sony sighed, “Probably the most foolish thing we ever did as a group.”
“Why is that?” Lilly said, returning to her cousin’s side.
“Well Lilly, it’s like this: Without a leader, ponies do what they think is right and not what really is right. Instead of ‘laws,’ we have ‘feel good doctrine.’ Instead of ‘justice,’ we have ‘wimps’ or ‘dictators.’ And that is what happened during this time. The pegasi blame the bat ponies, the bat ponies the unicorns, the unicorns the earth-ponies, and so on. It was a never-ending battle of pointing hooves and playing the ‘name game.’”
“Name game?” Lilly inquired.
“‘Name game,” Sony clarified, “When instead of presenting reasonable arguments, you just call the other ones names. Typically used when they find themselves with nothing to say, but are bent on ruining the other side. Bullies do it a lot. Listen Songbird, if any of your classmates start calling you names, remember they are just playing the Name Game and ignore them. The last thing you want is to go into a spiral like the one our ancestors did.”
Lilly nodded solemnly. “So, what happened?”
Sonydon swallowed, her eyes looking to the hills for a moment, before she looked back and continued talking. “Well, it wasn’t all at once, but what had started as a difference of opinion turned into all-out warfare, and rather quickly too. Within fifty years of Princess Luna’s banishment, we found ourselves in a war that none of us knew how started, but none of us were willing to back off from. All were in it, with the exception of the stable and dependable earth ponies. They had moved off before the fight got too big and had planted farms and were prospering.”
Lilly clapped in excitement. “So they were happy?”
WIth a sad smile, Sony shook her head. “No, as with all fights, they didn’t stay out for long.”
With a roll of her eyes, Lilly rolled over onto her back and started playing with a leaf. “Then why did you just say that they weren’t in?”
Sonydon chuckled, “Because that is where the story really begins.”
Lilly sat up. “All that and we haven’t started the story!”
With a sad chuckle, Sony shook her head. “It’s like this: For every good story, you also have to have a good beginning. Now you are ready to hear the story without so many explanations.”
“Is this something I have to know to be a bard?”
With a quick nod, Sony confirmed Lilly’s suspicion. “You asked me, ‘What is a Zombie?’ I told you our version, and the world’s version was very different. And it was at this time in history they came to be.
“It was a day like any other—”
“Don’t all stories start like that?” Lilly interrupted again.
Sony raised an eyebrow, glaring down at the child. “It was a day like any other,” she insisted. “The Persimmon family was hard at work tending their fields. However, that ‘like any other’ didn’t stay that way for long. No, without warning, a horde of pegasi flew down out of the mountains onto the unsuspecting family. Without so much as a howdy do, they had taken their freshly harvested crop, the two sons, and the one daughter.”
“Was she my age?” Lilly inquited.
“No, older, closer to my age.”
“Oh. What about the brothers?”
“The brothers?” Sony asked.
Lilting Songbird nodded, “Yep, what about them?”
Sony shrugged. “It says they were young and dashing.”
The filly feigned a swoon. “Oh brother,” she commented.
The elder cousin rolled her eyes. "Don't even," she ordered, her eyes finishing their roll to bore holes once more through the filly.
"Why? You do it!"
Sony frowned at her younger cousin. Sighing, she continued with the story, not willing to answer such a question. "So, the three foals were taken to the leader of the Pegasi, who put them to work as slaves."
"I thought this was a story about zombies! Not servants!" Lilly complained.
"Both, Songbird, it's about both."
Lilly grunted, "Fine, continue."
"So, they were slaves, and not the least bit happy about it either. They hadn't even known a war had been going on, and to be ripped from their families was not the most pleasant of circumstances.
"Prim, for that was the mare's name was... treated uniquely, and she hated it. As I said, without a leader, they were doing whatever they wished without any thought of remorse."
"Remorse?" Lilly asked.
"They didn't feel sorry," Sonydon explained.
"Oh. Why should they feel sorry? Prim wasn't doi-"
Sonydon sighed. "Not 'them' as in Prim," she said, "'Them' as in the ponies who captured her."
"Oh!" Lilly said, rolling back onto her back and returning to frolicking with the local foliage.
"Prim was not happy, and she was out for revenge. However, there were not enough of the earth pony tribe to even attempt to join the war. So, her talent being in herbalism, she came up with a very creative method for joining the war without joining the war."
"What was that?" Lilly asked.
Sony pointed to the three plants. "You see, before she was captured, Prim had spent her life working with the local 'doctor' learning how to conjure up medical blends. She knew every plant and how it affected the pony's bodies. These three are all mild anaesthetics."
"Ani- what is it?"
"Medicine that helps put patients into deep sleeps so that the doctors can operate," Sony again clarified.
"Oh!" her younger cousin again said, once more comprehending the meaning of the unfamiliar word.
"So she and a few more of the servants got together to create a blend that would simulate a pony's death. However, it would not kill them in reality. Then, once they figured that out, they used different plants to again wake the pony up... but let me get to that later.
"So, they had their plan. A plan that, by the way, was beyond brilliant."
"You said that!" Lilly groaned, "Did it work? What did they do?"
"Well, that night it was Prim's job to 'tend' to the master," Sony explained. "So, in his meal, after taking the antidote herself, she slipped in their potion."
Lilly gasped, "What happened?"
"Well, it took a while. It wasn't the fastest acting stuff, but he did 'die,'" she said, making air quotes with her hooves, "In his sleep that night."
Lilly gasped again. "That's horrible!"
"He wasn't really dead, but that was part of their plan for 'joining' the war." Again, Sonydon's eyes turned to the moon. "The next morning the house was in an uproar. As far as anypony knew, the master was dead. For some, that was exciting, for others, beyond crushing.
"The ones in the know were overjoyed with the results. After examining him closely, they found that he was, in fact, still alive. But in such a deep coma, it was hard to really tell. So, secretly rejoicing, they followed custom and helped with the burial."
Lilly by this point had again quit fidgeting and was now trembling.
"Don't worry Songbird, he'll be alright... kinda," Sony reassured. "He was only in the ground for little over a full day before Prim and her brothers returned and dug him back out. After giving him the antidote, they didn't wait to see if he did fully wake back up. Not that they needed to, for the next morning, who did come knocking on the door but the old master, slightly green from the moss and stuff that had been in the hole with him. His mind was the most affected. With not enough oxygen, his brain had begun to die, making him rather crazy, not to mention tipsy.
"As expected, the phenomenon spread like wildfire. Now that they knew it worked, the 'underground' began slipping the recipes between places, slowly attacking household after household, not killing anyone, but damaging them to the point they couldn't fight."
"And that ended the war?" Lilly asked.
With a sad shake of her head, Sony placed a wing over Lilly's back. "No, tamed it for a while, but it didn't end the war, not by any means. That was only the beginning of the great and terrible Zombie wars. One night, an entire army was found dead, then a week later, was found alive again. Their movements were jerky and their speech slurred. They killed without thinking. In fact, it was almost worse than it had been before.
"For generation after generation, this continued. Eventually other ponies discovered the blend and started sharing the secret. But that didn't stop the stories of the 'undead' and their 'war' on the living. In fact, Songbird, the last battle happened here. About two-hundred years ago."
Lilly looked around. "Here?"
Sony nodded. "Wait here." She plunged into the cold water, disappearing from view. Lilly stood at the water's edge, trembling in a deep and indescribable fear. Finally, Sony returned to the surface. In her hooves she held a simple dagger. This she handed to her younger cousin.
"Most of what remained of that battle is buried beneath those waters. When that war ended, only about two-hundred pegasi remained, and a thousand bat ponies. However, the other two tribes faired much better, which is why there are so many. Ponies speculate it was getting rid of the pegasi that ended the war. I disagree, for that same year, a pony decided to leave the mountains in search of Princess Celestia.
"At that time, the war had raged for eight-hundred years. It desecrated this land, it destroyed trust, and it plunged us deeper and deeper into poverty. This," she pointed to the dagger she had given to her cousin, "Obviously belonged to a leader, for it is made from a horn of a unicorn, which was a sign of great wealth and courage. Most of the army either had wooden or none at all. When it was over, we were in pitiful condition. Princess Celestia, despite our Father's sins, was merciful to us and helped to restore the land. However, there was one rule."
"What is that cousin?"
Sony smiled, "You see, we were charged to make sure that every foal learned how both the poison and the antidote was made. A balance of power if you will. That way, if we did get into a spat of that size again, the same thing couldn't happen twice.
"Wars are bloody, they are scary, and they are no place for a mare. But a war that is fought in secret, not only is it a coward's war, but it adds a new level of danger. But giving the knowledge to both sides, neither would use it lest it be used on them.
"Songbird, there are three lessons you can take from this. One, knowledge is power. If you know something the other side doesn't know, you can use it to your advantage to win the war, or argument. It gives you power over them. A good leader is always open to knowledge and can discern between the truth and the lies.
"Second, never say you don't need the leader or rules, for without rules, anything can and will happen. Depravity is at the very soul of each one of us. Darkness, a deep and wicked sense of longing. Rules are in place to keep them from blowing up and causing problems in a society.
"Third, every scary thing, every story, has an origin. You just have to seek deep enough and find it," Sony concluded.
"What about werewolves?"
"I said I don't know," Sonydon Song sighed.
Lilly shrugged. "I bet they were just foals that were left to die. Like you said, some mommies die when they can't care for a foal, then were raised by wolves. Like my friend Williwaw," Lilly said excitedly.
Sony shrugged. "You might be right. I won't say those foals are exactly," she coughed, "Safe."
Lilly shook her head. "Williwaw sure isn't. I bet she'd eat me if she thought she had a chance. Just like wolves."
Sony sighed, now seriously regretting sparking the young pegasus' imagination in such a dark way. But the filly lived in the outside world. Knowing where a story came from was probably the safest thing she could give her cousin, for Knowledge Is Power.
Lilly rambled for some time, then suddenly grew still and quiet. Gently, Sonydon Song lifted her cousin up in her hooves, collected the trinket, and turned back to the valley and to their home.