A Beautiful Night
It was a beautiful night.
It had been for almost two years now.
Pinkie had always been more of a morning person, though.
The Castle of the Old Pony Sisters in the Everfree was spooky at night, so it was always spooky, because it was always night. Twilight kept the place lit with candles at all times, and the windows covered with heavy black curtains so no one could see them. It was really witch-y.
Twilight stalked the libraries, hair fraying out like broken wiring, yelling into books. She never threw them, or tore them, or let their pages get ripped. But she didn’t watch her language around them either, or say many kind things about them.
With the castle, and the night, the mad pony, it sometimes took a moment to remember that Pinkie was on the good side. Twilight might have been a bit kooky, but her heart was in the right place. Nightmare Moon, on the other side, was just plain evil. Maniacal laugh, end-the-day, had an even spookier castle, creepy batponies... Which kind of made Twilight a good-witch?
Twilight hadn’t been amused when Pinkie explained her reasoning, and had made more of an effort to brush her mane since.
Pinkie missed the Cakes. They’d apparently just had twins — Twins!!! — and she wanted so bad to babysit them, and dote on them, and be an amazing auntie... but good-witch Twilight was right. If they gave up, the twins might grow up without ever seeing the sun. They could go their whole lives without playing outside during the day.
So Pinkie stayed to help.
Right now, Pinkie’s main way of helping was moral support. With Twilight’s brother running the big underground resistance, Queen Nightmare Moon didn’t really have time to deal with Twilight, but Spike was too busy helping Shining Armor to help Twilight take care of herself.
Pinkie wasn’t really needed for guard duty either. Black Snooty was probably just waiting for the forest to eat them. Or maybe she thought Twilight still fighting her after all this time was kind of funny. Futile resistance seemed to be the Queen’s kind of comedic sensibilities and all that.
Anyway, all that was to say there wasn’t really much defending to do. And Pinkie wasn’t smart enough in the same way Twilight was to help her go through the books. But Twilight wasn’t... sensible enough to look after herself when she went through them. Looking after Twilight was a full time job, because Twilight was determined to overtax herself no matter what.
Most wake-up times, that meant making her pancakes. But sometimes, pancakes just weren’t enough. The entire weight of the world was on her shoulders, or so she said a lot between anxious shouting at books, and that’s something pancakes just couldn’t fix.
On those occasions Pinkie made waffles.
This was one such wake-up time.
Pinkie had the whole castle kitchen to herself. Facilities meant for an entire staff being handled just by her, which was the exact right amount of ponies needed. There was still grain, and milk, and eggs in the long night. There weren’t really seasons anymore, everything was just kind of forever late autumn, so even though the food plants grew slower without the day, they grew all-year-around now. You nearly ended up with more, but it was way more work on the earth pony farmers.
Now Pinkie felt guilty about more than just how much sugar she was putting into this batter. She was an earth pony, she could be out helping on the farms rather than just making waffles for Twilight. But if she made waffles for Twilight, that might help the farmers more in the long run.
Blueberries too. For the good of Equestria. Fresh strawberries, even though they didn’t taste as good as they used to. Also for the good of Equestria. Some whipped cream? That wasn’t especially for the good of Equestria, that was for Pinkie’s own good.
Healthy delicious waffles made (it had fruit, so it was healthy), and some extra-strong, extra-sweet coffee to go with it, and breakfast was ready. Which was good, because the grumpy stomping down the stairs meant Twilight has woken up.
“G’morning Twilight!”
“Why do I have to get up? It’s still the middle of the night.”
It was Twilight’s favourite joke when she was grumpy about waking up. It was funny how ingrained not-being-a-morning-pony was into the core of Twilight’s being. Even now that days were a super arbitrary concept, she still refused to get out of bed before 9am.
Pinkie was feeling playful though. “Well, maybe if you didn’t stay up all night reading.”
Twilight winced at that one. “You made waffles, so you get to live. Another pony might not be so lucky,” Twilight attacked the plate, ravenous as always. She hadn’t gained as much weight being catered by Pinkie as she thought she might; The brain was nothing but fat and sugar, maybe she’d been thinking hard enough to burn through all the calories.
Or maybe it was the constant anxious pacing. She never sat down to read anymore, pacing furrowed trenches into the castle stone with books at eye level. Sometimes a whole flock of books all around her head, cross referencing stuff between them.
It used to be that she’d always look up and smile when Pinkie passed her. Now she didn’t do that anymore. Why not?
“Why not what?”
“Huh?”
Twilight wiped some cream from her mouth, ‘cause she was such a messy eater. “You asked ‘why not’.”
“Oh, I was just thinking you don’t smile at me when you walk past anymore, if you’re reading, but you used to. I was just wondering why not.”
Twilight froze, like all the blood rushed away from her skin. “You noticed that?”
“Yuh-huh.”
Twilight stared down at her empty breakfast plate, so Pinkie took it over to the sink to do dishes later. “I’m just trying not to let myself get distracted.”
“Oh, am I distracting you?”
“I didn’t say that-”
“It’s okay! I’m just glad it’s not because you’re mad at me.”
Twilight cringed, like a cockroach had landed on her bare chest. “No! Never! Pinkie-”
It was okay, though. Pinkie wasn’t upset or anything, just curious. “I know you’ve been extra stressed lately, or just regular stressed but for a long time now, so I’ve been fussing over you a lot more. I’m just trying to be helpful, but I guess it’s not helpful if you’re trying to study, huh?”
“Pinkie, you are helpful. You’re extremely helpful!”
“But it’s okay to say if I’m distracting you! I can just head out to Ponyville today and stay out of your mane for a while.”
Twilight was panicky, wringing her hooves. She really was an anxious pony. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Then what did you mean?”
Twilight was silent, but she looked like she was trying to swallow a billiard ball and it got stuck halfway down. “I... I don’t know what I meant.”
Pinkie was all smiles and cheerfulness, because if you moved the conversation along you could stop it from crashing on the rocky bits. “Do you want anything from town?”
“Maybe... do you have enough bits?”
“Twilight,” she giggled, “the vaults were full when we got here. How much do you think I’m spending on groceries?”
“I don’t know, I never thought about it until now.”
The truth was, honestly, kind of a lot. Food was more expensive than it used to be, too. At this rate, they’d only have another three hundred and forty three years worth, between the two of them. Hopefully they’d have beaten Nightmare Moon long before then. “It’s fine. We have plenty. What did you want?”
“Chocolate?” Twilight asked in a voice that rose in pitch over the length of the word, the sound of uncertainty, “Or ice cream.”
“How about chocolate ice cream?” Twilight hesitated, so Pinkie corrected herself, “Chocolate chip?”
Small, apologetic nod, the kind you give when you’re grateful for a big, horrible inconvenience you’re putting on someone. “That would be perfect, thank you.”
“Are we good for candles? You seem to burn through a lot of them. But I guess that’s what they’re for, right?”
“Only some of them! Most of the flames are magic, they’re the ones that don’t flicker as much. It just helps to make enough real ones so you still get heat, and the sound, and the flicker. Otherwise it messes with your head too much.”
“Is it really that noticable?” Pinkie was interested, sure, but Twilight was currently Explaining something, which was pulling her right out of her anxiety -- she had something to think about that wasn’t her problems, wasn’t her being a problem.
Twilight nodded twice, short and sharp and bobbing, and her smile lit up the dining room more than any candle could. “Have you ever poured a kettle and just knew it hadn’t boiled enough, even before you checked it? You can actually hear how hot water is by the pitch of the pouring, even if you don’t know it’s a thing you know how to do. There’s so much your brain just does that you never notice it doing, because it’s always doing it.”
“Which is why we still go through some normal candles, even though most of them are magic.”
“Yep! If you’re really, really quiet and listen for it, you can hear them snap and crackle. Magic fire doesn’t do that, because it’s not actually burning anything. You don’t hear it normally, because your brain filters it out. But, and here’s the interesting part, you’d notice it if it wasn’t there, because your brain was noticing it wasn’t filtering it out, even though you don’t notice yourself noticing it. Also, magic flames are more purpley, so the normal ones help make a warmer light.”
“Is that the proper scientific term for it? ‘More purpley’?”
Twilight’s smile disappeared, poof, absolute stern-faced seriousness, a doctor giving a dreadful diagnosis. “Oh, yes, very technical terminology that. ‘Purpley’.”
“Is it less purpley, or fewer though.”
“Less purpley light, fewer purpley candles. But now we’re arguing semantics.”
“Is that bad?”
“Not if you find semantics interesting, I suppose. Do you?”
“I find it interesting when you explain it to me. You have a way with words! A way with words about words, too.”
Apparently that joke -- was it even really a joke? What would you call that? -- was really bad because Twilight got extremely quiet about that, and you could hear the crackling of candles, if you listened for them. So Pinkie smiled. “Sorry, I’m distracting you again, aren’t I? Chocolate chip ice cream, right?”
“... right. Yes, right. Thank you, again.”
“I’ll talk to you later, if you want, okay?”
“Okay.” Twilight said to herself.
Pinkie grabbed a satchel bag and trotted jangling towards the front door. When she looked back over her shoulder into the dining room, Twilight was already nose pressed into a book, completely lost to the world. Pinkie sighed.
It had been nice to hear from happy talky Twilight, in between anxious Twilight and stressed Twilight. But what could she do if she stressed about the time she spent not stressing?
A conundrum, a riddle. The sort Pinkie was good at, and would probably be helped with ice cream.
The trip through the Everfree was scary at first, especially because it was always spooky in the always night time. You could giggle at the ghosties all you want, but a Timberwolf would still rip you to shreds and a cockatrice could just kill you stone dead if you didn’t have a handy helpful Fluttershy on side.
But after two years of traps, running away, occasionally whapping a few snouts, tactical confetti blasts and partillery fire, it was just kind of... it was just a walk in the park now, really. Most things smaller than a hydra were now more scared of her than she was of them.
It was so weird, she never thought she’d get used to walking through the Everfree, but now it was just kind of a thing she had to do every time she ran to the store to get milk. So Pinkie just sort of enjoyed the walk, and was extremely aware of the fact that that was about it.
Maybe it was because of what Twilight was saying about the candles that she noticed herself noticing it.
Ponyville hadn’t changed much, either, except in a lot of little ways.There was enough light by the full moon overhead, and no tree canopy blocking it like in the Everfree, so there were still the street markets going on, still ponies running produce stands. Some food grew better than others in the night -- Rarity called it terroir once which meant... something fancy probably -- and so the dynamic in the markets shifted. Rhubarb especially was the big new thing... the night growing actually made it taste a lot better, and grow a lot faster.
Golden Harvest, who’d been experimenting with forced rhubarb for years before Nightmare Moon’s takeover, suddenly found her little hothouse hobby had made her the agrarian powerhouse of Ponyville.
Mostly because apples didn’t fare so well.
“Heya, Applejack!”
“Howdy, Pinkie.” Applejack tilted her hat in greeting, even though there was never any sun anymore for it to be useful for. The habit ran too deep. “What can I get you?”
“Can you get me some arugala? And do you mind if I keep saying arugala? Because arugala sure is fun to say.”
“Knock yourself out there, pardner. Three bits for the bundle.”
Pinkie dropped a tied together patch of leafy green into her satchel, and took three coins out from it. “I remember when this cart used to be bright red, and filled with pies and fritters and stuff. It’s weird seeing you become a salad mare. You can’t really deep fry kale, can you?”
“Well, you can. Just wouldn’t recommend it. Actually, if you oven-bake it and brine it, you can make some right crispy chips out of it. I actually prefer it to potato crisps, if you’d believe it. Healthier for you too, if you care about that sort of thing.”
“I don’t!” Pinkie beamed, pulling out another two bits, “But I’ll give it a try. Twilight might care more for eating healthy, anyway.”
Applejack clucked her tongue. “You still babysitting that crazy mare in the woods, then, I take it?”
“Eeyup!” Pinkie grabbed a stack of kale leaves and put it in the bag too. “Still trying to figure out how to, you know, bring back the sun or whatever.”
“Well, you’re always welcome at Sweet Apple Acres if you want to try your hoof at doing some good that’s any good, you hear? We finally got the dwarf apples cultivated into the old trees, so if we play our cards right, we might even have first harvest in time for cider season.”
“Oh, Applejack, I haven’t had fresh Apple family apple cider in yeeears. You gotta tell me as soon as you’re ready, okay?”
“I’ll let you know.” Applejack nodded. “You want anything else?”
“Ah, I think I’m good for the moment, actually. I was more coming out here for the walk.” Pinkie admitted, patting her satchel.
Applejack grimaced, staring at her weirdly, tight eyes and lowered eyebrows and squinting. “You just went out for a walk through the Everfree? That’s just a normal thing for you these days, huh?”
“Yeah, I guess so. It’s amazing what a pony can get used to, huh?”
Applejack stared up at the moon, nodded and shrugged. “Eeyup. Guess it is.”
“Is there anything you, like, really miss? Like, really, really miss now that it’s eternal night?”
“Ponies not giving my hat weird looks.” Applejack glared at a stallion watching her from the town fountain, and the stallion moved along, “I’m still allowed to like it, dang it.”
“It’s a good hat. It looks good on you.”
“Thank’n you kindly. How about you?”
“I don’t think I’d be able to make it work like you do, though I’ve always wanted to wear a bowler hat.”
“I mean, what do you miss most?”
Pinkie had to think about that. “I feel like it’s really important. It’s the day, right? You can’t just... not have the sun. But every time I think about why it’s really important I just can’t... I can’t think of anything. It’s too big! It’s this big, silly, abstract ball of something, and every time I try to explain a little bit of it I push the whole thing away and I can’t grab at it anymore. You know?”
“Ah, no, Pinkie. I really don’t. But if you ever figure out what you were trying to say there, you get back to me?”
“Maybe I’ll be able to explain it over cider.”
“That sounds like the best darn plan I’ve ever heard. I’ll get right on making it happen.”
“Thanks, Applejack. You’re the best.”
“Anytime Pinkie. Oh! Say, maybe go check out Roseluck’s stall, while you’re out here. If you haven’t been to town lately, you might not have seen her yet.”
“Roseluck’s selling flowers again? I thought you couldn’t really grow them at night. Well, except for like, really poisonous ones I guess.”
“Hoo-wee, you really haven’t seen them, then, have you? You go take a gander, and I’ll see you around.”
Roseluck’s stall was where it always was, or where it had always used to be. The life of a flower pony was such that most days you’d get no business, then some days you’d have all of it at once. Since there were no funerals, holidays or weddings going on at the moment, Pinkie was going to get to have Roseluck and her flowers all to herself.
Actually, that did remind her.
“Hey, Roseluck! Happy birthday for last month. I think it was a Thursday, wasn’t it? Sorry I wasn’t there to say hi. Hi!”
“Pinkie? Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie nodded, yes, that was her. “Oh, it’s so good to see you! How’ve you been?”
Roseluck kept talking, but Pinkie didn’t catch any of the words. She was too busy looking at the flowers, now.
Holy smokes, those flowers.
They’d looked like Hearthswarming lights on the walk over, which didn’t really make sense, because it wasn’t that time of year yet, and also Hearthswarming wasn’t really a bouquet-of-flowers holiday. They made for good presents, though? Still! It hadn’t made sense.
No, the flowers were the little fairy lights.
A lot of them glowed, blues and greens. The other flowers were orange and red and pink and all the other pretty flower colours, and they were really shiny, tinted floral mirrors. So the blues were a constant light, while the shiny flowers made flashes of colours as they moved in the breeze. A bouquet of fireflies winking between the stars.
“Wow.”
“Oh! The flowers. I’m going to be honest with you, Pinkie Pie, when the sun went down for good--”
“Well, maybe not for good...”
“-- I thought I’d be out of a business. But nature finds a way. They still need to attract bees and other pollinators. So these ones,” she held up a glowing blue bulb flower, “produce light for the insects to see. And these ones,” she twisted and twirled an orange-and-red lily that sparkled as it caught the light at all sorts of different angles, “try to do as much as they can with the light they have. So you put them together...”
Roseluck threw a bouquet at Pinkie and it moved through the air like a firecracker, the rapid changes of all sorts of different angles and lightsources sending rippling sparks through the bundle in the night.
Pinkie almost didn’t catch it, she was so stunned. But it would have been a crime to let something so pretty drop.
“Wow. Ah, how much? I’ll take them.”
Roseluck smiled, waved it off. “On the house, Pinkie. For remembering my birthday.”
“Oh. Ah, thanks! Anytime. Well, at the right time, next year, I mean.”
“Have a good evening, Pinkie. Enjoy the flowers.”
That was really, really nice of her.
Pinkie absolutely, definitely had to show these to Twilight right now. She took off towards the Everfree at a gallop.
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Arugula.
Mare walks down the street in that hat, people know she's not afraid of anything.
Threw.
SHE FORGOT THE ICE CREAM!
You've captured the season one feel pretty well so far. Except for Shining Armor existing, but Nightmare Moon is surely working on that.
Okay, [Romance] tag, Pinkie giving Twilight flowers, let's do this.
Really interesting so far, can't wait to see where this goes.
Until proven otherwise, I'm assuming Black Snooty put Celestia in the Moon to infuse moonlight with solar magic.
Of COURSE poisonous things like Nightshade grow well under moonlight.
Rhubarb is poisonous too actually. I'm sensing a trend. I bet Asparagus does great too, and Tomatoes as a relative of nightshade. Oh, and potatoes. Tobacco, if they have it.
Magical ecology adapts MUCH faster than the mundane counterpart, especially when Earth Ponies get involved.
Twilight is going to HATE those flowers, mostly because she likes them.
Well, that's enough speculation. Onwards!
Mushrooms, dreamberries and bodark apples!
Makes you wonder if those flowers are edible... Well okay, edible to ponies.
Good start
Pinkie forgot the ice cream tho
Let the binge read begin
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You might be suprised to find that a majority of flowers are completely edible for humans. Nasturtiums are a particular favourite of mine.
Not sure if glowing flowers would be as good. I imagine there's some sort of wacky chemical reaction going on there....
Or maybe magic. This is Equestria.
2 things that don’t make sense with the whole eternal night thing.
1: more then 99% of all life gets it’s energy from the sun, either directly or indirectly. Most plants would die, and the few (if any) plants that could survive would be eaten to extinction, then the food web collapses after that. So where would the energy be coming from for this to work without mass extinction?
2: how is everything not freezing?
The moon does not reflect nearly enough to make a difference.
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magic
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Even Magic has its limits.
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It only has as many limits as the writer gives it. Or as many as it takes to not break your suspension of disbelief.