Stability of the Past: The Beginning

by GoodieTwo-Shoes

Chapter 3: Mysterious Night Lights

“Pst…,” a little voice broke the silence of the moonlit night. “Pssst…,” the yellow creature whispered again. The short grass rustled in front of her. Startled by the movement, she cowered back with a quiet yelp. The sleeping orange creature in front of her stirred again. She shivered and covered her light green eyes in fight. The orange creature moved around, finally turning over.

“Pansy?” a groggy voice spoke.

“H-H-Hon-n-ney,” Pansy managed, uncovering her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Honey asked with more concern, rubbing her tired eyes.

“I-I’m sc-scared,” Pansy answered, shaking with fear.

Honey stood up and stepped the short distance to the freighted yellow filly. She lied down beside her and put her orange wing over her. Pansy gratefully leaned into the embrace, still shaking.

“What are you afraid of?” Honey asked gently.

“The dark,” she squeaked.

“It’s not all dark. We still have light,” Honey said, lifting her wing and pointing with her hoof at the moon and stars. Pansy uncovered her eyes and glanced up.

“Bu-but it’s st-still dark,” she said, hiding her eyes again. Honey looked down hopelessly at her cousin. What could she do to make her not afraid? She was shaking with freight, hiding under her wing. Then a smile formed on the orange filly’s face.

“Maybe it wouldn’t be so dark if you uncovered your eyes, silly,” Honey laughed while moving Pansy’s hooves away from her eyes.

Pansy’s eyes cracked open. She looked up at Honey. A little smile found its way onto her face. She hugged her cousin around the neck. Honey smiled. Her eyes looked up at the tree above them. She could see the various yellow and orange limbs and green, tan, and blue tails of her sleeping family members hanging from the branches. She looked back at Pansy.

“Do you want to get up in the tree with the rest of our family now?” Honey asked, still being hugged. Pansy didn’t answer. She was still nervous about falling.

Earlier that night, the pegasi had decided that staying up off the ground was the safest place to sleep. Hurricane and her parents slept on a cloud above the trees, so Thunder Cloud would be the first to see any possible incoming danger. Then he could warn the others. Pansy’s and Honey’s family slept in the trees with the rest of the pegasi. Pansy was not a good flyer at all. She was afraid she would fall out of the tree and wouldn’t be able to land safely. Pansy’s mother would have stayed with her on the ground below, but her father had insisted that they shouldn’t baby her. She needed to learn to be tough like the other pegasi. If she wanted to sleep with them, she would have to get into the tree. Her mother had reluctantly agreed. It was for her own good. Once everypony had fallen asleep, Honey had quietly slid out of the tree and went to sleep on the ground near her cousin.

“Pansy, we’ll be safer up there with our family,” Honey insisted after a moment. Pansy looked up at the tall, daunting tree. Her eyes widened. She began shaking again. “Don’t worry. I have an idea,” Honey said with a smile.

The next thing Pansy knew, she was being pulled up the tree by a vine that was tired around her waist. She had her eyes covered as she was gradually hauled up towards the tree branches. Honey was up in the tree pulling the other end of the vine. She strained and grunted. Finally, she dragged her cousin onto the branch the vine had been lying over. Honey carefully hopped to the branch and tied the vine around the trunk of the tree. She smiled at a job well done. She tapped Pansy’s back. She slowly uncovered her eyes. She looked to where Honey was now pointing. She turned her head at the vine.

Pulling on the vine attached to the tree, Honey whispered, “See. Now if you fall, the vine will catch you. Then I can pull you back up.” Pansy studied the vine for a moment longer. She looked up at Honey and smiled. Honey was surprised by a sudden tight hug.

“Thank you, Honey,” she whispered thankfully, hugging her cousin.

“You’re welcome, Pansy,” Honey replied with a soft smile.

After a short moment, their embraced ended. Exhausted, Honey got comfortable on the branch. She yawned and laid her head on her forelegs.

“Why do you think the other light left?” Pansy asked quietly.

“Hum?” Honey asked tiredly, slowly raising her head. Her eyes were unwilling to open.

“Do you think it will come back?” Pansy asked, looking up through the branches at the night sky.

“I don’t know,” she replied with a slight groan, laying her head back down.

“Oh, I’m sorry. You’re probably tired,” Pansy quickly apologized.

She laid her head down, not shutting her eyes. After a few silent moments, Honey’s eye cracked open. She looked at her remorseful and slightly scared cousin. Then she glanced up at the sky. She groaned to herself. Guilt and curiosity getting the best of her, she lifted her head.

“It’s okay Pansy. We can…yawn…talk if you want to,” Honey said with a yawn. Pansy raised her head. “I’m curious too,” she said, rubbing her eyes. Pansy smiled. Together, they looked up in wonder.

“Why do you think these new lights are here? I wish the big bright light was back. These new lights aren’t bright enough. There could be scary, mean creatures hiding in the dark,” Pansy said, looking down into the dark forest. Honey moved over next to her.

“I’m sure it’ll come back,” Honey said with hope. “Maybe the other light went away so we could sleep. It would be kind of hard to fall sleep with that giant bright light, wouldn’t it?” she joked, trying to put her cousin at ease.

“I guess it would,” Pansy said with a yawn. She rested her head on Honey’s back. Honey laid her head down as well.

“I think these other lights are prettier anyway. The other light is too bright to look at,” Honey yawned.

“Yeah,” Pansy said tiredly. They closed their eyes and finally joined their family in a peaceful slumber.

On a small cloud above them, a blue filly was looking down at them. Then she looked up to the sky in thought.

“Huh,” Hurricane said. “Why are these lights here?” she asked herself. She looked at her dad and then over towards the small mountain where the unicorns had went. She squinted her sliver eyes at a dim light in the distance. It lit up a cave at the bottom of the mountain. She shook her head. Her eyes hardened.

“My dad’s right. This is just the unicorns’ doing. Trying to get us to beg them to bring the other light back and admit that they are better than us,” Hurricane whispered. She looked at her sleeping father. “Not that they are better than us,” she added quickly. “We are totally the best. I mean, just look at these awesome wings!” she said a little too loudly.

“Hurricane, who are you talking to?” said her tired mother. Her eyes still closed.

The filly gasped. “Um…no pony,” she quickly said.

“Then go back to sleep,” her father ordered quietly.

“Yes, sir,” she said with a quick salute. She swiftly lied down, closing her eyes.

“I might have to have a talk with those unicorns when we awake up,” he added, laying his head down. His wife made a noise in agreement.

In the dimly lit cave, a purple unicorn filly was rambling on eagerly. The other exhausted unicorns were not happy.

“Where do you think it came from? How did it get there? What made the other one go? Maybe it’s magic. Do you think we could learn to control one day?” Clover asked her parents with excited curiosity. The other unicorns groaned.

“Sweetie, maybe you should go to sleep now,” her mother encouraged.

“Your mother’s right. We can talk about this more when we wake up,” her dad said. The unicorns sighed in relief.

“But it’s just so fascinating! Didn’t you notice how it gradually got darker?” Clover said, walking to the cave’s edge. “And then all these other lights came out,” she continued, pointing up at the stars and moon. “They seemed to come from nowhere,” she said with awe. Her parents smiled at their inquisitive daughter. The unicorns groaned again.

The purple mare walked to her daughter’s side and said, “I know it’s all very interesting. And I know you are very curious about it. And I’m glad you want answers. But right now, we need to sleep.” She patted her green mane. Clover’s ears went down. They walked back towards the group.

“But why…” Clover began again.

“Clover, was it?” Platinum asked quietly from her spot by the fire.

“Yes,” she said as they reached the group.

“I would like to say that the lights are marvelous. They really are beautiful. And I enjoyed admiring them on our walk here,” she said with a smile. Clover smiled back. “But that is all. So would you kindly go to sleep?!” the gray filly whispered harshly. The other unicorns mumbled angrily in agreement. Clover hunkered down and joined her parents.

“Learn to control your filly,” Platinum’s mother whispered bitterly to Clover’s mom. Clover lowered her ears and ducked her head. Her mom patted her head and smiled kindly. Her dad gave Platinum’s mom a mean looked. Silver Sapphire raised his head and gave him a nasty look in return. The smaller stallion quickly turned his head away.

“Everypony go to sleep,” Silver decreed. Everypony lied back down. Some sighed in relief. Finally they could sleep. Clover sighed as well, but for an entirely different reason. Her green eyes looked back at the cave entrance. Her mother patted her head. They smiled at the night sky, but soon the exhaustion from the walk caught up to the curious filly.

Back in the field, a couple of earth fillies still had not found rest. It was mostly because one of them was just too excited about the new thing in the sky.

“Maybe it’s a giant cookie,” Puddinghead whispered excitedly to Smart Cookie.

“It ain’t no cookie,” Cookie whispered back.

They were lying down in the grass near Cookie’s parents. Cookie was about asleep when Pudding had wondered over to them after her own parents went to sleep. She had said her parents wouldn’t mind because she could still see them. Apparently, the pink filly was no longer mad at Cookie for what she had said earlier. Or she was just too interested in the giant thing in the sky to care.

“But it looks like a cookie,” Pudding insisted.

“How would ah cookie get up in the sky like that?” Cookie argued.

“I don’t know. How does anything get into the sky?” the pink filly disputed.

“Uh, with wings,” she stated.

“It doesn’t have wings,” she said, pointing at the moon.

“Ah didn’t say it had wings,” the brown filly explained.

“I could see its wings, if it had them. They’d be huge,” she said, spreading her hooves out for emphasis. “It would be dumb if it had wings, like those meanie pegasususes.” She crossed her forelegs over her chest.

“Birds have wings too, ya know,” Cookie pointed out.

“I think it was those stuck-up unicorns,” Pudding said, ignoring her. “My mom said they took away the light using their stupid magic.”

“Why would they do that?” Cookie asked.

“So they could put a giant cookie in the sky to torture us!” she quietly yelled. Cookie gave her a weird look. “I bet they are working with the pegusususes. So they can fly up to the giant cookie and take a bite. That way we’ll be even more tortured, forced to watch them eat the cookie. And they won’t share any of it, not one single nibble!” she continued in an angry whisper. Cookie just held her expression, unsure of how to respond. Pudding took heavy, angry breaths. After a moment, Cookie shook her head.

“Ah don’t think they are tryin’ to torture us. They probably don’t have nothin’ to do with it. It’s just ah light in the sky so we can see. That’s all,” Cookie stated.

“How do you know?” Pudding asked with accusation. Cookie rubbed her chin.

Then she simply answered, “Cookies don’t glow.”

Pudding didn’t know what to say. The brown filly was a cookie after all. Well, her name was Cookie anyway. Actually, her name was Smart Cookie. How could she argue with a smart cookie about a cookie? Cookie laid her head down with a satisfied grin, closing her eyes. Pudding made a face and looked up at the moon. She looked back at Cookie and then back at the moon. After a moment, she walked back to her parents. She watched the moon during the entire short walk. Once she reached her family, she lied down. She gave the mysterious orb one last look before closing her eyes.

“Why are those ponies so interested in that boring moon and stars? And why do they want Harmony’s sun back so soon? The night is fun. That’s when all the good creatures come out,” Chaos said, rubbing his stubs together. He was watching the ponies through the Viewer again. Harmony had gone to rest, so her power could build up faster. “At least they are still arguing,” he said to himself.

“Why are you not resting?” Harmony suddenly nagged.

“Ah! What?!” Chaos screamed. He spun around quickly. His eyes were wide, and his breathing was rapid. He held his chest with one stub. His other was bracing him against the holographic screen. “Harmony! Don’t do that!” he yelled.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you,” Harmony apologized. He breathed out, putting his stubs down. Then he gave her a look.

“You didn’t scare me. You surprised me,” he corrected. She rolled her eyes. “I thought you were resting,” he accused.

“I was, but then I noticed that you weren’t,” Harmony defended. “Control wants us both to rest. We used a lot of power making those creatures today. He wants our energy to be at least at half capacity tomorrow,” she reminded him.

“Why? It’s not like we’ll need it to just watch the creatures,” he said with distaste.

“It doesn’t matter why. He told us to, so we will,” Harmony insisted.

“Well, I don’t care what he says,” he said. She gasped. “I’m not missing the first night of my creatures. I designed most of the scariest ones to come out after dark,” he said with an evil smile. Harmony looked shocked and appalled. Her eyes roamed up to the Viewer. She saw the earth ponies sleeping on the screen. Her expression turned to a grin.

“Your creatures?” Harmony asked. He looked back at the screen. “You’re watching the ponies again,” she teased. His eyes widen slightly, but he quickly recovered.

“The Viewer was still set to tract the ponies. I just got the Viewer back out,” he defended coolly. She gave him a suspicious look.

“Are you saying you didn’t watch them?” she asked.

“No. I just watched them long enough to see how they reacted to the night. The pegasus ponies are getting close to my forest. One of my creatures could have come out and ate them. I definitely would love to see one of my chaos creatures eat one of your precious ponies,” Chaos explained, ending with a grin.

“Did they?” Harmony gasped.

“Nooo,” he sighed. She sighed with relief. “Most of the ponies are just sleeping. Some fillies were arguing about the moon, stars, and sun though,” he said with disinterest.

“Really?” Harmony asked. “They really are intelligent. They’re wondering about things larger than themselves,” she said excitedly.

“Yeah well, they are all asleep now,” he said. “So now I’m going to watch some true chaos. It’s time for my night creatures to emerge from the creepy darkness,” he said, holding his stubs up in a scary fashion. He turned around towards the screen and slowly moved them towards his forest.

“You need to rest,” she told him.

“I don’t have to listen to you,” he said. He stuck his tongue out in concentration.

“You have to listen to Control,” she warned.

“Control is not here,” he said. He smiled as he found his forest. “And I know you will not disturb him this late,” he said with satisfaction, turning toward her again. She pursed her lips.

“Fine. But he’ll know you didn’t rest when he sees how little power you have in the morning,” she said, crossing her stubs and turning away. He glanced at himself. His pink color was the only real color he had. Just from the little rest she had, Harmony already had not only her purple stripe, but most of her blue stripe as well. He waved a stub at her dismissively and turned back to the Viewer. She narrowed her eyes. Then she disappeared.

“It’ll be fine,” Chaos assured himself and happily watched the screen as a large, black feline-like creature attacked its helpless prey.

Author's Note:

Finally got this chapter up!

This chapter was not planned, but I thought it was important to include a chapter of what the ponies think of the night time. You know considering the controversy about the night with Nightmare Moon. Their first night seemed like a good place to put it. I felt like I kind of cut this part short at the end of chapter two, but I didn't want to make that chapter any longer.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading. Feel free to comment!