A long, long time ago, when the Township of Ponyville was little more than a collection of earth pony homesteads, there lived a farmpony named Mighty Steppes, his wife Grassy Steppes, and their daughter, a small filly named Little Steppes; all of which were earth ponies. The Steppes were a family of earth ponies with various sades of red coloured fur: Grassy was a paler shade of red, while her husband was a much darker shade; their daughter was a light coppery brown. They weren't wealthy, not by any regard, owning only a fairly small cobbler's store on the outskirts of the still relatively new Ponyville. But like many earth ponies, they were diligent and hard-working, for the most part...
Little Steppes breathed a sigh of relief as she heard the last of the galloping hooves outside as the other students of the schoolhouse went to play, she had been one of the first out, like a lightning bolt and had gone to hide in a bush, a bush which was located conveniently under an open window to try to combat the stifling heat of the summer afternoon. It was known fact that Mr. Chalk, their teacher, was known for falling asleep at his desk during break-time, leaving the schoolroom unattended. This was especially interesting information as Apple Rose, the teacher's pet from the rather wealthy Apple family, had brought a plateful of sweet apple tartlets for him. Little Steppes could see them, they were right there, on his desk, and since she was hungry, she wanted one. In the time during the previous lesson, she'd thus hatched a plan: She knew the front door was quite squeaky, floorboards near the front door were especially squeaky! The open window was right next to the teacher's desk, so all she needed to do was quietly climb through it, and sneak up to the desk and help herself, simple!
She took a breath. "Okay, you can do this!" She thought to herself, placing her hooves on the windowsill, she wore a set of worn black school shoes on her hooves which gave her a little bit of extra grip. Counting to three in her head, she pulled herself up with her forelegs. She felt a snag on the skirt of her school dress as the bottom of it was caught on a rouge branch, ripping slightly as she went and sending her off balance, tumbling inside the schoolroom. She quickly readjusted, turning what would have been a heavy thud into a slightly more elegant if still heavy forward roll into the room. She breathed a sigh of relief, which lasted only for a moment when she saw the tear in her school dress (which also doubled up as her day-to-day wear): Great, her mother wasn't going to be happy about yet another tear to her clothes needing to be fixed.
She crept through the classroom, a twang in her heartstrings at each creek of the boards under her hooves like a off-tune guitar string. Her school shoes weren't helping, they were big and scruffy and clumpy and stupid; she carefully kicked them off to finish the heist in her socks. As her name suggested, Little Steppes was very small for a pony of her age. This offered her a number of problems, but occasionally it was very useful: This time was one such time, her small frame made her very light on her hooves, and she knew she could move very quietly if she wanted to: More than once this had been great for helping her steal sweets from the kitchen at night.
They were right there, withing hoof's reach! Sweet Celestia, those apple tarts smelled good... "I probably shouldn't take too many" she thought to herself, as it would be obvious that somepony had stolen some of them when Mr. Chalk woke up if she did. "I'll just take the one, and then Mr. Chalk could have the rest!"
She trotted up to the desk, rising to her hind legs while keeping a forehoof on the desk, she swiped one of the apple tarts up in her mouth, enjoying its sweetness, the flaky pastry and the juicy fruitiness of the apples therein. It was warm, tasty bit of loveliness. Oh, surely she could take just one more, there were many on that plate after all, and she was still pretty hungry.
So another went down, as pleasant to the young filly's pallet as the last. Then another... And another. Oh, the Apples were good cooks! As she went to take her fifth, the door to the schoolhouse suddenly swung open, causing Mr. Chalk to jerk awake!
"Mr Chalk, Mr Chalk!" The familiar lilt of Miss Smith's tone called. "Me an' Apple Rose are real worried 'bout Lilly! She was lookin' all skin an' bone through class, an' now we can't find her anywhere! Can ya'... Oh, there y'are Lil' Steppes..."
An awkward silence clung to the room. Mr. Chalk, already miffed at having been so suddenly woken, was giving the most vicious dagger eyes to Little Scopes, who gulped, part in fear, part to empty her crumb-covered mouth before giving the nervous grin of a pony caught red-hoofed, before speaking in a very small tone. "Erm... Hi..."
Busted. Needless to say, Mr. Chalk was NOT happy to see Little Steppes stealing from his desk, again. He'd warned her about if she did this again: The first time he'd found her sneakiness quite clever, and she'd nearly gotten away with it too that time; the second time, he'd given her a stern talking to and detention. This time, he'd had no choice, as he'd warned her this was going to happen: She was getting a detention, he was going to tell her parents, and she was getting the cain...
And so, she was sitting in the schoolhouse after the day's end and the other ponies had gone home, the clock ticking painfully as she had to write "I must not steal", over and over her detention was over... At 4:30pm. She was tired, she was bored, her jaw was cramping up from holding the pencil in her mouth, and her flank was red and sore (but hey, at least for the next few hours she could technically say she wasn't a blank flank anymore).
Once again, old Chalky was napping, occasionally twitching slightly: It was RARE that he ever actually used corporal punishment on anypony, and he always looked more sad than angry whenever he did it. He was known to hit the colts harder than the fillies, and would often just stop one the foal started crying: He was a big softie really, this sort of thing just wasn't in his nature. Little Steppes had considered trying to cry to get out of it early, but in truth, she liked Chalkie, all the students liked old Chalky after all, so she wasn't going to cheat him: Little Steppes HAD stolen from him, after all, so she was already pushing her luck.
There was a sly tapping on the window close to where Little Steppes was sat for detention (it was her seat in class, and unsurprisingly the reason the window was open for her scheme). She turned, silently undoing the latch and pushing it open for whoever was trying to get her attention.
"Psst, heya' Lilly." Whispered Apple Rose through the window.
"What do you want?" Little Steppes whispered back.
"Me an' ma' cousin were looking for ya'. We could'a heard ya' grumbling belly from the other side of the class. Ma' cousin twisted ma' leg on it, and wanted to ask if ya' wanted some of our lunch. We were tryin' ta' find ya'."
'Lilly' blinked. "You were? Why?"
"It jus' we saw how much ya' were eyin' up them tartlets for Ol' Chalky, and felt a little bad. We know that yer' family can't always afford to buy the pastries we make an' stuff."
That remark stung a little. Everypony knew the Apples were one of the most successful families in Ponyville: They were one of the first to settle in the area, and had the most land and the best produce of anypony around. Still, there were no more decent folk than the Apples, or so Little Steppes was often told: They weren't the types for condescension, but they were the types for blunt, sometimes tactless honesty. "My folks would never allow it. They don't much care for 'charity'."
Apple Rose frowned. "An' they care for ya' thievin'? Come on now, ya' now that's no good."
"Yes, I know, mother and father are going to remind me about it as well."
"Ah, yea', sorry... But ya' don't 'ave to tell 'em 'bout our talkin'? Jus' stop stealin' from Chalky, an' I'll happily share ma' lunch with ya'. Ah' don't even know why ya' do it so much. For goodness sake, Lilly, ya' make yer'self look bad!"
"I... I don't know. it's not even about the thing I'm stealing, it's just so much fun sometimes being stealthy and going places where you're not supposed to. Even just climbing into the schoolhouse was such a thrill! It's like all those adventure stories, stealing the treasure right from under the nose of a sleeping dragon!" She sighed. "It's much more fun than being a cobbler's daughter. It'd be nice if we could make nicer shoes than the black or metal ones everypony wants."
Apple Rose and her cousin were both a little older than Little Steppes, and everypony said they were quite mature for their age. Little Steppes knew that she couldn't argue with Apple Rose's logic, she made a very tempting offer, and it'd make Chalky feel happy, as it'd look like Little Steppes learned her lesson and so he wouldn't have to hit her again. And so, Apple Rose left Little Steppes with a small slice of apple pie on a napkin, and Little Steppes left Apple Rose with the promise that she'd "think about it". Once Apple Rose was gone, the window was still open... Little Steppes sighed again, and closed the window, staring at the clock: 3:50. It was going to be a long 40 minutes...
Little Steppes' parents, mercifully, weren't going to use corporal punishment for her misdemeanors, she'd suffered enough in that regard they decided. However, they were more than happy to read her the riot act...
"Again?" Mighty Steppes groaned, looking up at his daughter while he worked: He had a lot of orders in today, and didn't really have time to stop work to tell his daughter off, so he was attempting to do both at once. "This is the third time from that school alone. We've taught you better than that, Lilly!"
Grassy, who had brought Little Steppes to her father so she could tell him in person what she'd done. "She was probably hungry. It's been a long time since we had treats like that."
"Don't try and justify her thieving!" the husband snorted. "We were all living on the basics here! Lilly shouldn't be stealing from her teacher!"
"I said I was sorry!" Little Steppes winced. "But I was REALLY hungry, and there were loads of those apple tarts, and they smelled SO good! I couldn't help myself!"
Mighty saw his daughter, a little shorter than most fillies her age, and he sighed. "Made by that goody four shoes Apple Rose, hm? ...The Apple family make the best damn pastries in ponyville. The Apples literally ARE apples in this town."
"So, what do we do?" Grassy asked her husband. In answer, he finished up with the pair of shoes he was working on, setting them on a wooden workbench. He stood up, removing his brown apron and throwing it aside.
"She needs to learn a trade. Or do something productive, so she learns the importance of hard work." Little Steppes looked ready to groan. "Don't give me that, Lilly! If you weren't such a sticky-hooved little thief we wouldn't be having this problem!" He snorted, looking down at his work. "Yes, I think it'll do you some good."
"But..."
"No buts, missy." Mighty snorted. "Would you rather I just grounded you instead? You have to learn from this, after all."
Grassy stepped in. "It won't be THAT bad." She tried to soothe her daughter. "It might be difficult, or a little boring sometimes, but you really do take pride in making something yourself." She gave her a little hug. "Do you remember when we'd bake things together?"
"Yeah."
"So, and you made the dough for the bread, and you kneaded it yourself, you rolled it and knotted the dough up into little rolls. They were really good when they came out the oven."
She smiled slightly. "They were pretty tasty."
"I'll say! They were the best bread rolls we'd had in a long while. Far better than the ones Flour Sack makes in his bakery."
"Heh, his taste like sawdust..."
"Indeed. So, try to feel that sense of pride in making things when you're working with your father. Then you'll do fine!"
Little Steppes had gotten off quite lucky, it seemed. At least at first. Sure, she'd have to occupy her free time with the new chores her father was going to make her do, but it wouldn't be THAT bad... She was going to be cooped up indoors all day though, and he did still seem pretty angry at her about the whole stealing thing, though... Hopefully he'd calm down a bit tomorrow.
"Alright, Lilly." Might spoke as he produced a cutting knife from a cupboard. "I need you to hold down that piece of leather while I cut out the shapes for the shoes. Hold still, okay. Otherwise I might end up cutting you by mistake."
She suppressed a bored groan as he carefully cut out the leather pieces, marked with chalk outlines, with the blade: The first time this had been pretty interesting, and she was fascinated that her father could cut the material so carefully and so well with the knife... Using his mouth! This, however, was the 6th pair of shoes she'd had to help with now, which means she'd been holding down pieces of leather, standing there and watching this process 12 times now: It had lost all novelty for her by this point. All of his shoes were the same! Tough, black leather which could double up for practical outdoor work or, with a bit of polish, smart indoor shoes: This was the only kind of shoe that Mighty ever seemed to make, even though he had way more fancy, pretty looking things on display in the shop windows.
"Why can't we ever make anything more interesting than these?" Lilly asked as he finished, binning the discarded remains and sorting the cutlets into neat piles organized by the sizes the shoes would end up when they were done.
"Because, the fancy designs are more expensive." He answered. "Nearly everypony here works in a farm of some sort, and everyone wants practical, hardy, and efficient work shoes. If anypony wants something else, they have to commission it in advance, since we can't afford that sort of thing. It's not like Canterlot where everything HAS to be the latest fashion."
She sighed wistfully. "Tell me about the story about Canterlot again?"
He huffed. "I've told you about them a thousand times."
"Please." Lilly asked again. "I know that's where you met mother. It all sounds so lovely."
He rolled his eyes. "Alright..." He set down his tools and invited Little Steppes to come sit with him. "Okay. So many years ago, me and your mother used to live in Canterlot. I would work in the Cantering Dragon, in the Market Quarter. And yes, we made all kinds of different shoes for all kinds of different ponies. But, a lot of them were just practical work shoes, or the refitting and fixing up the boots worn by the Royal Guard." He pointed to a pair of large, gold horseshoes sat in the corner of the window display: The boots of the guard ponies who protected the towns and cities of Equestria (fixing their boots, if you hadn't already guessed, was the second most common thing Mighty Steppes worked on). "I was paid fairly well, since my master was a rather kind, if strange and energetic young unicorn. Since she was a unicorn, she could often put spells on her work, which made them all the more valuable, since then shoes can change to fit their wearers, or make them run faster, or kick harder, or... Well, anything, really."
He smiled, which always made Lilly feel happier: He didn't smile very often, after all. "It was there where I met your mother. She was one of those wealthy elites living in town, and she'd asked for a smart pair of dancing shoes to go with this beautiful red dress, the most amazing thing I'd ever seen. So, I worked and worked through the night, making the best pair of red shoes you ever saw. When I showed them to my master, she offered to put a spell on them which would help her dance better than she'd ever done before." Another sigh, but this time it was happy. "When she tried them on for the first time, she looked at me with a glisten in her eye, and asked me to dance with her, right there in the shop! I'd fell in love with her from the second we locked hooves and started to waltz. Even if she hadn't been wearing those shoes, I still think she would've taken to the dance as if born to it... When my apprenticeship was over, my master gave me a loan so I could set up a shop of my own. Me and Grassy eloped on that night, and we never looked back."
"You eloped?" She asked: These were new additions to the story, she'd not been told about the loan, or the eloping before.
He gave Lilly a gentle hug, for he was so much larger than her. "Now, I think you're old enough to know about it. And it's one of the reasons I get so cross with you when you steal from ponies, and why we can't always have nice things. I swore that I'd pay back every bit my master gave me, because she was practically family to me. You see, I was a homeless urchin as a foal, forced to do what you did to your teacher, steal food just to get by, where you do it out of envy, and because somepony has something you wanted. My master took me in, fed and clothed me, and taught me how to do better. And, when I see you stealing from the markets, your classmates or the teacher..." He trailed off. "Please. Just promise me you'll try not to do that sort of thing anymore. You're a better pony than that, and a far smarter pony than I was at your age, and you're spoiling everything that's good about you, and for what? An apple? A necklace? Some baked treats? I worry that others won't give you the chance I was given if you keep doing this sort of thing. I need you to promise you'll try to be better than that."
Lilly nodded: That last part stung, but not in the same way as her father simply shouting at her. He wasn't shouting, but it was equally painful to be on the receiving end of. She sighed as she trotted off and her parents finished telling her off... Maybe, maybe she should try to behave herself for a little bit? Just until things calmed down at least...
The bell rang at the front of the shop, signifying the arrival of a new customer. He stood up. "Lilly, could you go out front and see who that is? I need to finish up back here."
She shook herself to, a little shaken by the story this time, in a way she hadn't been before: The new context had rather changed things for her, and she felt a whole new sense of guilt for things. "Yes, father." She nodded quickly trotting out front. "Hello." She greeted. "Welcome to Steppes and Knoll's Cobblers. How can we..." She trailed off, the customers were Precious Stone, the owner of an importer of fancier goods from the big cities, and her daughter, Silver Stone. Silver Stone didn't like Little Steppes very much, and hadn't done since she'd stolen a silver necklace from her desk in school a few months ago. "Erm, hello. How can I help you?"
Precious was civil, even if she gave Lilly a very discerning look. "Well, where is your father?"
"Erm, he's in the back." She answered. "Making some more work shoes."
"And why are YOU here?!" Silver spat. "Or were you sneaking off to steal from the cash register?"
"I'm not! He's showing me the trade, he's just busy out back!"
"SILVER!" Precious hissed at her daughter. "Watch your tongue! If her father wants her to pay off her debts to society, and try to make an honest pony out of her, that's his prerogative." Silver shrunk back, but still stuck that unwatched tongue out at her rival. Precious ignored this, and continued speaking, dumping a pair of silver slippers on the table. "Me and my daughter will be leaving for Canterlot in a week, but my daughter's grown too big for the formal shoes she wants to wear. She tried, and she broke part of the frontage." She beckoned to a small part of the intricate front weaving, which had snapped off. "I need them repaired and enlarged by the end of the week." With this, she dumped a large bag of bits on the table and Lilly wrote down the order on a scrap of paper.
"Don't worry." Lilly forced a smile. "My father should be able to get these fixed for you."
"Good. Let me know once he's finished. I don't want to be kept waiting." That said, she turned to leave, though Silver lingered.
"Stupid peasant." She hissed. "I've not forgot what you did."
"You got your stupid necklace back, and I apologized, didn't I?" Little steppes retorted.
"I don't care!" Silver snapped. "I'll get you for stealing from me! You'll see!"
"Come along, Silver!" Precious Stone called, and the grey filly turned and left too. Lilly sighed: Well that sucked...
Determined to not let Silver's empty threats spoil her day, Little Steppes pressed on, helping her father with his work. He generally seemed happier thanks to her helping out. He seemed pleased that he was FINALLY starting to get through to her, even if she didn't necessarily enjoy shoe-making as much as he did.
Still, Paver felt a little bad about things at the moment, and wanted to try to do something nice for her father... Perhaps she could bake something!
She went to go ask her mother about the idea, once she'd finished her work in the shop for the day. She knew that Grassy had kept some extra flour lying around.
Grassy tapped her chin with her hoof, thinking. "...What about tackling two problems at once? Our money troubles, and your desire to something nice for your father?" She offered: "There's a lot of wild fruits and other plants growing in the Everfree Forest. Some of the bushes and trees have some nice berries, wildflowers and mint. We could send Lilly to go gather some and bring it home. I have some spare flower sitting around, I could make a pie! Perhaps two at a stretch, one for us, and we could see the other for some extra bits."
"Oooh, that sounds fun!" Lilly perked up, she knew her father enjoyed berry pie, and baking was always fun!
"It'll be pretty dangerous though." Grassy warned. "The Everfree isn't the safest place in the world, and there's some strange magic in there sometimes."
"I know, I'll be careful!"
"I know you will." Grassy smiled. "You're a smart kid. Stay to the outskirts of the forest, stay alert and come back before dark, I know you'll be fine. Besides, it's not as dangerous as it used to be. There used to be dragons in the mountains, but they were been banished from Equestria hundreds of years ago."
"So I can go?"
Grassy nodded. "Yes. I'll tell your father that I plan to send you to the woods tomorrow to gather berries for me to sell in the market, and we can make the pie the day after. We can keep it a secret, a nice surprise for him, and I'm sure a whole pie will bring in some nice money for us if you can find enough berries for two."
THAT sounded like a challenge! She continued to ponder what tomorrow would bring as she slept that night. The Everfree Forest was scary, sure, but she'd be the bravest pony in Ponyville to happily meander through it each day to pick up tasty berries and herbs and stuff! Plus, it was the Everfree Forest! Scary stuff aside, nopony ever went there! Imagine what sort of adventures she could have in there. There were even tales of an old castle nestled deep within the woods... If she could find it! Ooooh, that'd be amazing!
"Ouch!" She yelped, sharply retracting her hoof from the ground, seeing the sharp stone nestled among the leaves of the woodland floor that she'd initially missed. She sighed, seeing the hole it had punctured through the bottom of her shoe, leaving a hole in its sole: This trip had not been amazing. Finding all those lovely berries, wildflowers and herbs had been harder than she'd been expecting, especially in keeping with her father's rule not to go too deep into the forest. That wasn't to say that she'd had slim pickings, she'd already filled up one of her two admittedly-small saddlebags with some incredibly juicy looking blackberries (which she'd thoroughly enjoyed nibbling on from time to time!). She just wasn't getting the adventure vibe she was expecting. Instead, she was getting tripped by gnarly tree roots, scartching herself and her clothes in bush brambles, and now the uneven and rocky ground had ruined her only pair of shoes!
At least the weather was lovely: Another gloriously sunny day, so perfect that even the thick canopy of the Everfree Forest was punctured with countless rays of Celestia's golden sunshine. Even though it was proving a bit tricky, she WAS still enjoying her walk through the woods, and if she failed to find more wild fruit, she knew where Sweet Apple Acres was, and surely they didn't need every apple in their orchards...
Ah, But that wasn't adventure! That was just stealing again, and not in the fun sneaky way! More in the 'steal from the ponies who being nice to you like a jerk' kind of way!
...Why couldn't she go deeper into the forest? Not THAT much deeper, mind. She'd only go until she couldn't see the outskirts anymore, the woodlands weren't THAT thick after all... Hmmm, okay, well, the Everfree forest was to the west, as was the deeper stuff, and Ponyville was back east from here. Okay, so all she needed to do was go due east when she was done in the forest, simple!
She wasn't sure, but she was beginning to think that the horror stories about the Everfree had been a load of hooey. This was great! Heading deeper into the forest had almost immediately brought her upon a nice patch of mint, which she was quite happy to pack up into her saddlebags and go on her merry way. Maybe, maybe the forest was worse at night, but during the day it was lovely!
As she continued on her journey, Little Steppes eventually came across a small clearing. Time had passed, and it was starting to get dark, though it wasn't REALLY starting 'starting', it wasn't evening! She could spend a little longer here before she went home: She had packed a storybook to read if she had time after all. That storybook could wait though, as she wanted to look around first. This clearing was almost entirely covered in flowers, a treasure trove of colours. However, what REALLY caught Lilly's attention was a large, flat rock at the top of this tiny hillock which the natural terrace of flowers, a rock with something sparkling tantalizingly atop it, as though this treasure trove of flowers housed a real treasure at its heart.
She drew closer to this stone, growing more excited as it came more into view. Atop the stone was a set of shoes, extremely beautiful, elegant shoes made out of a blue-metallic and glittery material, lined inside with a soft, silvery silk. They looked positively regal! As Little Steppes reached to touch one of them, something strange happened: As her hoof drew closer, the rather large shoes shrunk to what looked like her size! She gasped, the shoes were magic! She wasn't imagining it, the shoes actually got smaller! They were the size of an adult mare's hooves originally, and a pretty big one at that, and now they were the size of a young filly's; how else could that be justified other than being a pair of fancy magic shoes which changed size to fit their wearer?
She looked around: There was no sign of anypony else having ever been there, not even so much as hoofprints in the dirt. They were faint though, so the wearer had just left them there. Did they not want them anymore?! Lilly certainly wanted them: Her shoes were old, scruffy, and falling apart on her hooves! These new shoes however were in perfect condition. She picked one up, realizing it was actually pretty heavy, not extremely so, but they were heavier than ordinary leather shoes; these were ACTUALLY made out of some kind of silver, or even... She'd heard stories about mithril, a legendarily rare metal which was as light and as beautiful as silver, but tougher than steel! Could these shoes be made of that?
She'd heard enough. If whoever had left them wasn't coming back for them, then finders keepers! She was going to take the shoes. Perhaps she could find whoever their owner was; perhaps she could just keep them, Lilly knew she wanted to; or, if she couldn't find whoever owned them, she could at least sell them in the market: Who knows how much she could sell such fine shoes for? It could set her family up for an incredibly long time!
For now though, Little Steppes needed something to wear home, and her current shoes were ruined. She pulled them off, and tossed them into her saddlebags, leaving her standing in her stocks in the clearing. Then, one by one, she slipped her hooves into these new shoes. She stood up, trotting about to test them: They were quite a tight fit on Little Steppes' feet, but they weren't really uncomfortable, and she figured that they might be less so once she'd broken them in. She beamed, staring at her new shoes as she pranced around the hillock: What a find!
A lot of the flowers in the clearing were actually edible for ponies, and there were a ton more than she could carry. That didn't stop her from filling her saddlebags though, and she spent the rest of the time in the clearing on the large, flat stone, reading her storybook until evening came, when she made her way back home.
"Mother, father." She called as she entered the house. "I'm back! And I found loads of lovely things!"
She trotted up to the table in the front room of their home, setting her saddlebags down upon it as her parents joined her.
"Hmm, you have been busy." Mighty exclaimed, looking through the bags. "Quite a healthy amount here. MORE than enough berries for that pie Grassy was talking about, right Grassy?" Grassy nodded in reply. "Some wildflowers, some herbs, and..." He stopped when he saw Little Steppe's old shoes in her bag. A little confused, he turned to look at his daughter properly. "Erm, excuse me." He spoke sharply, staring at his daughter and pointing a hoof at her new shoes. "Where did you get those?"
She looked down for second. "Erm, I found them." She answered.
"You found them?" Grassy gave her a look. "In the Everfree Forest?"
"Oh yes, that's likely." her father snorted, anger in his tone.
"It's the truth!" Lilly protested. "They were in a clearing in the woods, on a rock surrounded by flowers. It's where I got all those daisies and dandelions, and all the other wildflowers."
"And a pair of shiny new shoes with not so much as a scuff on them?! Tell the truth! Who did you take these from?!"
"I'm not lying!" She cried. "I didn't take them from anypony! They'd just been left in the forest, they're mine!"
He snorted as Lilly turned extremely red in the face.
"It's too late to do anything about it now." Grassy stepped in. "Maybe somepony left them in the forest and forgot to pick them up. Either way, we'll find out the truth tomorrow. I'll take Little Steppes out into town tomorrow, and we'll find out who their original owners are."
Lilly winced. "But..."
"No buts, you!" Mighty gave her dagger eyes. "Your mother may have given you the benefit of the doubt, but it's going to take more than words to convince me you've not just been a little thief again."
"Mighty, don't be cruel! Even if they're not her shoes, she said she just found them in the woods. People lose things all the time. You're her father, and if you can't see any good in her, who will?!" He huffed. "Innocent until proven guilty. If Little Steppes stole them from somepony in town, we'll know. If she genuinely found them in the woods, and they belong to somepony in Ponyville, we'll give them back, won't we, Lilly?"
"But... But..." She sighed. "Yes mother. But what if they don't belong to anypony here?"
The two parents looked at one another, pondering their answer. "...Well, Lilly's shoes have been in a bad state for ages, and it looks like the soles finally gave out today." Grassy answered.
Mighty grumbled a little. "It'll mean I won't have to make her a new pair, and they look pretty sturdy."
"Yes, yes they are! So can I keep them?"
"IF they don't belong to anypony else in town, and if you take care not to break or lose them, then yes, yes you can."
"And if she's stolen them?" Mighty asked.
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Grassy answered. Mighty nodded, before walking out.
With Mighty gone, Grassy sighed. "Don't be too upset by your father. He's all thunder and noise, but he cares about you."
Lilly looked away. "He thought I was lying. I wasn't lying. I wasn't!"
"I know, but let's face it: You've lied to ponies before, including me and him. Of course he's going to be suspicious. But trust me, if you're telling the truth, I know he'll come around." She sighed. "Just, don't be lying, okay? If you've done something silly, now's the time to tell me. I'd rather you were honest with me."
Lilly turned an even deeper shade of red. "I'm not lying!!" She yelled.
Grassy frowned. "Alright. Well, take off your shoes and come inside for dinner."
Little Steppes nodded, kicking at her hoof to shake off her shoes. She too frowned when it didn't work. She pushed at one of the shoes on her forehoof with the other, but the shoes were too tight on her feet, and she couldn't push it off. "Come on." She growled, stepping on the back of one of the front shoes with her other forehoof and lifted the pinned hoof, but still the shoe wouldn't come off.
"Are you having trouble?" Grassy asked as Lilly rolled around, trying to pry the shoes off with all the strength of her hind legs, to no effect.
"I'm trying to get them off." She yelled. "But, I can't get them off! They're too tight!"
Grassy walked back over. "Come on, sit up, let me help." Together the pair tried to remove the shoes from Little Steppes' feet. The mother got up and fetched a shoehorn from the cobblering tool cupboard, trying to crowbar them free. After several minutes, and a broken shoehorn, even then the shoes stubbornly clung to Lilly's feet.
"Lilly..." Grassy groaned. "What were you thinking? How did you cram your hooves into these shoes if you knew they were too small for you?"
"But, but they weren't!" Lilly protested, slumping onto her haunches and staring at the shoes on her hooves. "They were much bigger when I found them. They got smaller when I put them on so they'd fit me. They're magic, and now I'm trying to get them off, they're too tight." She huffed, kicking her shoes against the floorboards. "It's like the more I try to pull them off, the tighter they get." She felt her heart pounding in their chest. "It's like they're trying to cling on, and won't let go of my hooves!"
Grassy gave her a look. "Magic shoes?" Grassy sighed again. "You knew they were magic, and you put them on anyway? ...Alright. We'll just have to go the library. Hopefully Mrs. Gleaming will have a spell to help get those things off you. Otherwise, you'll just have to wear them inside for now, it's too late to deal with them tonight."
It just wasn't fair: She goes to steal some tarts from her teacher, and she gets busted by a pony trying to find her to share their lunch with her; she goes to have an adventure in the Everfree Forest, and she breaks a part of shoes and gets a stone stuck in hoof; she finds a shiny new pair of shoes after wanting a pair for so long, and now she had them, they wouldn't come off! Life seemed to be full of nasty little ironies like that, it really wasn't fair at all. She had to wear the shoes inside, much to the ire of her father, then she had to wear them to bed as well: It was strange wearing her night gown with shoes and socks, but she didn't have any choice...
In the dead of night, Little Steppes tossed and turned in her bed: She couldn't sleep, and she felt a tingling in her hooves, and an itch to stretch her legs. She tried to sleep, but she simply couldn't lie still as the moonlight flooded in from her bedroom window, bright enough to quite easily illuminate her room, even with all the candles blown out.
She climbed out of bed, her hooves silently connecting with the floor as she stepped out and carefully onto the floor: This wasn't the first time she'd got out of bed during the middle of the night, and once again, her small, light frame made sneaking around the house very easy in the dead of night, while her parents were sleeping. She drifted towards her window, staring up at the night sky. The moon was full and silvery bright, dominating the horizon beyond her window. Something was strange, however: The moon usually had the face of a unicorn in it, the Mare in the Moon... Except the surface of the moon was pure white and unblemished: That mare was missing.
She turned away from the window and back into her bedroom, she still wasn't sure how she was going to get to sleep tonight, she felt a surge of energy flowing through her, tingling in her nerves like electricity: She didn't even feel tired, as awake as she had been in the middle of the afternoon several hours ago. Maybe she needed a glass of water, so she made her way out of the bedroom and down the stairs. However, turning left and into the rather small kitchen of their home. However, rather than stopping at the water faucet, her hooves suddenly kept going, walking her past the tap and drain and towards the back door, they wouldn't stop! She couldn't grab anything to force herself to be still, nor could she make her hooves turn around, but her legs and hooves continued to move as if possessed, grabbing the door handle and pulling it open, her shoes glittering excitedly in the moonlight... The shoes, it was the shoes! They were controlling her feet!
She tried to call for help, but she couldn't: Either it was the shock of her dilemma, or some force which kept her silent, but nothing short of a cracked, silent squeak escaped her throat as the shoes continued to walk her down the garden path and out the back gate in a quick trot. The night was cold, and she shivered in her gown as she continued to be taken on the shoes' journey, down the dirt streets of Ponyville and past its outskirts, towards the Everfree. Now, she understood completely why this ancient forest was considered so frightful to ordinary ponies. No light showed her the way through this cursed woodland, the sounds of creatures hidden in the shadows could be heard all around... And still she walked, against every screaming nerve in her body, her every instinct telling her to stop, turn back and run home to safety, she continued on.
Perhaps this was a nightmare, Little Steppes thought to herself, struggling to suppress her fear, constantly reminding herself that she was a brave pony, and brave ponies could handle anything. If she could just wake up, it would all be okay! Perhaps she'd still be stuck in these evil shoes, but at least she'd be safely in her bed. She bit her tongue, hard, yelping at the pain, as the magic controlling her had no need to suppress her voice anymore, but she was still caught in the trap of the shoes. No, this was DEFINITELY happening, and now her tongue was bleeding. Lilly struggled to think how this could possibly get any worse!
Maybe it was a prank, was her next, slightly more desperate theory: Some pony was getting revenge on her for something! Oooh, it was probably Silver Stone! Yes! That little mare had never forgiven Lilly for stealing from her, and she HAD sworn she'd get her back for it: She'd probably paid some sneaky unicorn to put a nasty spell on them to scare her! Once the shoes had taken them to wherever they were going, perhaps this would all end. She'd get laughed at for being scared, then she'd get the blame for 'stealing' another one of Silver Stone's things, and then she'd probably be grounded for the rest of her life and the nasty, spoiled little Silver Stone would never let her forget it! ...but at least this would all be over!
The darkness started to lighten, if only slightly. Not because of any change to the night sky (although Little Steppes had no idea how long she'd been walking for), but simply because they were reaching a clearing in the woods. Little Steppes looked behind her, seeing only blackness, which chilled her to the bone even more: In this night, perhaps she could just do as she had done earlier, and just go due east to return to Ponyville, but that assumed two things: The first was that she'd have to wait until daylight for even a shred of navigational help on that front; the second was that she'd ever regain control over her own feet.
Then, a large, ruinous castle began to come into view: This was the place the shoes were taking her! She knew this as they sharply turned towards a rickety rope bridge to the castle, which she was made to cross before walking up a flight of old, crumbling stairs, and through a cavernous set of old, wooden doors. Once inside, the doors sharply swung shut, causing Lilly to jump in surprise, but now she was still: She had control over her legs again.
Her first instinct was, of course, to try to take the shoes off again. She practically lunged at herself, pushing, pulling and prying at the silver shoes on her hooves, but to no avail. She even tried biting them, clamping her jaws around the shoes and tugging with her all strength, she HAD to get these things off! She gave up once her jaw began to cramp up, sitting on her haunches, exhausted as her legs lay limp and aching on the ground. Once she'd stopped, the tightness they employed the cling onto her relaxed, noticeably so now, they didn't even have so much as bite marks! Stupid mithril shoes! It was true, they didn't WANT to come off. Could shoes even be alive? And if they could be, did these shoes actively seek to taunt her, and stay stuck on her hooves permanently? Why would shoes want that?! They were shoes!
Okay, so magic shoes stuck on her feet, Lilly could live with that; philosophical debates about the sentience of enchanted footwear may be very interesting, but she wanted to go home! Her second instinct was to try just that. She turned to the doors, now sealed shut. She rattled against them, trying to push, pull, even buck them open, but they were locked shut, and these mighty oaken doors were not about to be burst open by a small filly's kicking. There were windows, many lacking any glass to speak of, but they were all fitted with wrought iron bars, and they were too narrow for her to squeeze past. She was trapped, the only way she could go was forwards, deeper into the castle.
She pushed open another pair of giant double doors, seeing a narrow slit of light peering through them. It was a struggle for such a small filly, lacking in a unicorn's magic or the strength of a larger pony; nevertheless, the doors creaked open, revealing a large, long room, faintly illuminated by moonlight through holes in the ceiling, and rows upon rows of torches hung on the walls, each burning with a cold blue flame.
"Hello?" Little Steppes called out as she entered the room, the doors shutting behind her. "Who's there?! Silver Stone?!" Silence. "Okay, you made your point, very funny! I want to go back to bed, let me go!"
"Oh, my dear. I don't think THAT'S going to be happening just yet." came a silky, sinister soft, decisively NOT Silver Stony voice from the shadows at the far end of the room. That wasn't good, Lilly didn't recognize that voice, but it made her blood run cold nonetheless. She wanted to turn and run, but now she found her shoes rooted to the ground, unable to life her hooves to flee. The voice then boomed. "Come here, child, NOW."
In sharp, almost puppet-like movements, despite Lilly fighting to resist her ever step, she began to march forward, towards what she now realized was a large, elegant throne, carved out of stone and a pale, crystal-like glass, resembling bat wings: The throne was infinitely better maintained than the castle which contained it, and was the seat of a towering alicorn, as dark as the night sky itself.
"You're... You're Nightmare Moon?"
She chuckled coldly, rising to her hooves, her bare hooves. "And you, you're Little Steppes, the slimy little thief who thought she could steal from me? The Princess of the Night, and the RIGHTFUL ruler of Equestria!"
She winced at the strength of the princess' furious voice. "But it wasn't me!" she protested. "I didn't steal them!"
"Oh, and you expect me to take the word of a liar and a thief? A filthy village earth pony who dirties MY SHOES with her smelly peasant hooves?!"
"Hey! I'm not dirty!" Lilly snapped back, it was a common stereotype for earth ponies to be unwashed farmers, and while many were farmers, the label of them as dirty was one Little Steppes' family resented. "My family aren't farmers! We're shoe cobblers! And my mother makes me bathe twice a day. The only reason I couldn't yesterday was because your shoes won't come off my hooves! ...My socks would've shrunk in the bathwater" She added that last part a bit quietly: She'd ruined a nice pair that way (which her mother wasn't too pleased about) when trying to help with the laundry.
"And I am an alicorn princess! Do you think I care about your cobbler father or your bathing habits?!"
"I, well, no... But how do you know about that anyway!?"
The princess smirked. "Do you think me ignorant of what goes on in your earth pony hamlet, so close to my castle as it is? I cannot leave My sister has weakened my powers, and her banishment leaves me trapped between the moon and this castle, but I can STILL observe the dreams of ponies! Your father, having nightmares about his precious little daughter locked up in a dungeon as a common pickpocket. Or your teacher, having flashbacks of being caned as a foal until his flanks bled. I know all about YOU and your sticky hooves. I may not be able to leave, but I've known about YOU for quite a while!"
...Hold on a moment, Lilly pulled a face: Something didn't quite add up there. "Wait a moment." She called out suddenly. "You're lying! You said you couldn't leave this castle! But I found your shoes in a clearing! How could they have gotten there if you can't leave here?!"
Nightmare Moon went silent for a moment, before chuckling. "Hm. Clever little filly."
"So you knew! You knew I was going to be in the Everfree Forest, and you laid a trap to bring me here! That's why I can't get these shoes off!"
"Correct." The princess answered. "As I said, those shoes are MINE. They will only go where I want them to go, and they will only do what I want them to do. My control over them is far stronger at night than during the day, but once night fell, I wanted my shoes to return to me, and here they are."
"Well..." Lilly stammered slightly. "Why were you trying to make it look like I stole them? Why didn't they bring me straight here?"
"I have less control over my magic during the daylight. I had to wait until nightfall to have you brought to me. And besides, you're a little thief in the eyes of your family and your town. I suspect Daddy had words, thought you a thief? Well, how's it going to look when you ran away from home in the dead of night, rather than face the fact you got caught stealing from somepony again? It'll confirm all of their suspicions about you."
"But that's not fair!" Lilly cried. "I didn't steal from you, and you know it!"
"True, but it's your word against mine. And you're not going to be there to protest it."
She winced, all of the ponies she'd hurt, and all of them would so quickly believe this was yet another example of her being a liar and a thieving little mare. But she wasn't! Not this time! "You can't just keep me here! I want to go home!"
"Ah, but you see, my little filly. The second you put those shoes on your hooves, you became mine too. You'll only do what I want you to do, and you're only going to go where I WANT you to go! The only reason you're still speaking is because you're so adorably entertaining."
"So, so I'm supposed to be your slave now?"
"Hmm... Slaves are so... Sombrian. You can be my personal herald. My voice in Equestria while I am trapped here. You'll run along and do whatever I tell you to do, and one way or another, you're going to help me get free if you ever want to see your family again!"
That didn't sit well with Lilly, she was nopony's slave! "S-so? What if I refuse? You can send me to water, but you can't make me drink it!"
"Well, if you're that desperate to remove those shoes you were so eager to wear and skip around in. I can simply kill you now and take them off your corpse?" She gulped: No, that wasn't any better! "Oh? I didn't think so. You'll do as I say, Little Steppes, and only once you help me get my strength back enough to challenge my sister proper will I consider freeing you."
Get her strength back... hmmm... Little Steppes had an idea, a risky one, but she had very little else to loose right now!
"But... You're Nightmare Moon." She said, adding a little lilt of admiration to her tone, looking up at the princess with her biggest possible eyes. "My mother would tell me stories about you all the time! About this mythical mare in the moon, who created the most beautiful night skies, and who grew so jealous because everypony was sleeping during your nights."
"Oh, come now, do you think you're smart enough to fool me with flattery?"
"Erm, no, not really..." She lifted up a hoof, wiggling the magic shoe clinging to it up at the princess. "I mean, I'm only HERE because you managed to outsmart me in the first place."
The alicon gave an amused smirk. "Touche. What's your point?"
"My point is, princess, I know. I know about your nights. You said you knew what I did, you saw my dreams. You must surely have known I'd woken during the night, and that I stared up at your night sky before you brought me here. I know about how powerful you are! How you can lure ponies away in the dead of night to eat them."
"Eat them?!" She roared. "You silly foal, I am many things, but being a cannibal is nothing more than hysterical nonsense! I have never eaten anypony!"
"Exactly!" Lilly cried. "You're better than that! You're a princess! And the only princess in this whole kingdom who had the nerve to challenge Princess Celestia in the first place!"
"Foolish foal! There are only TWO princesses in this kingdom!"
"And one of them is ruling Equestria! The other's hiding in a castle, relying on a filly to do what an alicorn princess is more than powerful enough to do alone. Come daylight, she wouldn't even be able to stop her stop her running home to her family without killing her, and then she'd be alone, back to square one! Only everpony would know you are here, and you wouldn't be able to set another trap like it!"
Nightmare Moon, at the behest of Little Steppes' berating, looked half ready to kill the young filly, and was halfway between an enraged glare and more thoughtful pondering. After a long while, she sat back, another snort escaped her.
"Nightmare Moon, Princess of the Night, taking council from a cobbler's daughter..." She chuckled somewhat. "You're a braver pony than most of my subjects. I'd have clipped their wings, amputated their horns or cut off their heads for such insolence, for daring to speak to ME as you have done." A small smile emerged on her face, an evil one. "But, you're right. I am the Princess of the Night! The RIGHTFUL ruler of Equestria, and I will NOT cower in my castle as my sister lords it over me! This night will last forever! And If she comes to challenge me, I will banish her as she banished me! Nearly a thousand years on the moon! A THOUSAND!"
Well... That worked exactly as intended. Nightmare Moon had said it herself: She was too weak to take on Celestia at the moment. And yet, if the night didn't end as it was supposed to, where was the first place that Celestia was going to look for the answer to this phenomena? Who was going to be the first pony she'd suspect? Celestia had beaten her sister once before, and Nightmare Moon had time to prepare back then.
...There was, however, one small problem with Lilly's scheme. Actually, it was a HUGE problem: She'd just convinced Nightmare Moon to make this night permanent. The sun would not rise, and if the sun didn't rise, the shoes' power over her would never waver long enough for her to otherwise flee and seek help. In short, if Celestia DIDN'T defeat Nightmare Moon, or help free Lilly from her enslavement... Well, unless Nightmare Moon showed her mercy, she'd likely end up as her slave forever...