Alone in the Dark Age
Thicket had been a paradox of a city. The hidden sanctum in the place where there was no shelter, the bastion of civilization in the ultimate wilderness, the home of those who tended to a forest that could look after itself.
Then Nightmare Moon returned.
The deer had long memories, especially when it came to the many enemies who feared and hated the Everfree. Cycad, the very first Heart of the Forest in recorded history, had left a detailed account of the pony princess Luna, and how he fought alongside her in the Chaos Wars. There, she was cunning, subtle, menacing, a knife in the dark compared to the solar sledgehammer that was her sister. Once Discord was sealed away, the deer were content to keep to themselves, even with the pony capital so close.
Asphodel, the third Heart, wrote of Luna’s rebellion, the ruination her madness brought to the pony castle watching over the Tree of Harmony, and Celestia’s dealings with the Everfree itself. From that point on, the ponies abandoned the forest, and the deer did not try to stop them.
A thousand years and a score of Hearts passed. Thicket flourished, even as pony settlements encroached on the forest’s edge. Some barely lasted for a season. One in particular exceeded all expectations. Some debated whether the mare Sugar Smith should have been allowed out of the forest with her ill-gotten zap apples, though all agreed no one could have foreseen her finding a way to actually cook the temperamental fruit.
Finally, the Mare in the Moon escaped her prison and returned to the world below, and to the ruins of her home.
“Should we interfere?” said Blackthorn, the Heart’s second.
“It is a pony problem,” said Aspen, and so they did not.
Six ponies led by a brash, blue unicorn pursued her, overcoming trials she set before them, though not without great struggle and cost.
“Should we interfere?” said Blackthorn, the Heart’s second.
“It is a pony problem,” said Aspen, and so they did not.
A final conflict occurred in the ruins of Castle Everfree, if it could even be called that when one side consisted of walking wounded, some in body, some in heart. The first new banner to fly from the castle was a star-spangled cape, and morning never came.
“Should we interfere?” said Blackthorn, the Heart’s second.
“It is a pony problem,” said Aspen, and so they did not.
From there, Nightmare Moon secured her reign. She sealed her sister in her moon through wicked sorcery, exploiting Celestia’s link with the sun to supply the world with its heat, if not its light. In those early days, uncertainty reigned as much as the Nightmare. Some regions bent the knee the moment they saw a new profile in the moon's craters, regardless of who it was or who put it there.
The forest itself grew unruly in the waning of light. The forest loved the sun, yes, but there were parts of it that were happy to embrace the darkness, to emerge from their burrows and claim the world for themselves. Timberwolves spread like weeds, poison joke flourished in the moonlight, and the roars of surfacing tatzlwurms filled the night.
And as the first week of the Nightmare’s reign drew to a close, once more did Blackthorn approach the Gilt-Leaf Throne, garbed for war in red-lacquered ironwood. “Should we interfere, King Aspen?”
“Does it matter?” said Aspen, head held low as though pressed down by his antler gilding. “I thought the matters of ponies could not concern us. That the forest would not welcome a creature as twisted as Nightmare Moon." He gazed out through the throne room's windows at what had become of his kingdom. Tendrils crept around every tree unbidden, and the moonlight washed out his brilliant white fur to a vague blue. "But now she twists it in turn, making it into the monstrosity ponies always believed it to be.”
“Would you have us do nothing, sire?" said Blackthorn. "Abandon our home to this interloper?”
Aspen shook his head. “Our stewardship must adapt to these changing times. We must look after those parts of the forest that Nightmare Moon does not deign to encourage. Cultivate them, bring them into sanctuary if we can." He sighed. "It is all we can do if both we and the forest are to survive.”
Blackthorn gritted his teeth and nodded. After a deep breath, he said, “I understand, sire. I will inform the others.” Another bow, and he left the room.
As he passed through the doors, he muttered, “If you’re going to eavesdrop, Prince Bramble, try not to do it from the same spot so many times in a row.”
“I wasn’t— Darn.” A fawn tottered out from behind one of the doors, more tan than white when compared to his father. He looked up at Blackthorn, despair clear in his eyes. “Are we really going to abandon the forest to that crazy pony?”
Blackthorn sighed. “We serve the will of the king, my prince.”
“But, but…”
He knelt down and, eye to eye with the prince, said, “To tell you the truth, Bramble, I don’t like it either. But it isn’t our decision.”
Officially, Blackthorn heard nothing else from the prince as he rose and walked down the corridor. Certainly nothing along the lines of “Maybe not yours.”
Rarity had always dreamed of making it in Canterlot. As what, she didn't know. Oh, the crystals of her cutie mark might impress, but if it ever got out that her special talent was taking inventory, there would go all her social capital.
In that sense, the advent of Nightmare Moon was something of a blessing. She could hardly blame Trixie for bending the knee at the end. They'd had a good run, yes, but they were up against an alicorn, and it was better to admit defeat than never be able to admit anything again. The Nightmare was even gracious in victory, awarding coveted positions to those of her would-be opposition who could still serve.
"A will strong enough to oppose me and a mind sensible enough to stop make for a valuable combination," their new queen had said. "Far better to make use of you than eliminate subjects willing to recognize their mistakes."
And so Rarity became the majordomo for the ruler of Equestria. Again, something of a blessing, if one didn't mind the whole "eternal night" situation. Given the alternative, it seemed a more than acceptable price to pay.
Unfortunately, recruiting other staff wasn't proving far trickier, even with Ponyville practically next door. Many other ponies were slow to accept that Celestia wasn't coming back. Even the areas that sent messages of fealty didn't send anything more tangible, like the seasoned construction crews they'd need to refurbish Castle Everfree after a millennium of neglect. Rarity had to wear many hats at the moment, and not in the fun way.
Given that, she felt she could be excused for being somewhat curt when she found some strange creature lurking in the entry hall. "Oh, what is it?"
At first, she thought it was just a wild animal, given how most of said entry hall's walls had crumbled away over the centuries. Then she noticed the little cask it wore around its neck, like a barrel of brandy carried by a St. Barnyard for avalanche victims. Then she realized it was glaring at her with the sort of condensed fury possessed only by young sapients who felt they weren't being taken seriously.
Rarity underlined her mental note to ask Nightmare Moon about when she could next visit her family. Sweetie Belle must have been worried sick.
The little deer spoke, bringing her focus back to the current moment. "I am Prince Bramble of Thicket, and I demand an audience with Nightmare Moon!" It came out like a colt in a school play desperate to get his line right, loud and frantic and with the vague sense that he was about to wet himself from fear.
"I see," said Rarity. "I believe I can be of assistance there."
"You can?"
"Yes." She offered her best reassuring smile. It had seen a lot of use lately, mostly to the Nightmare and sometimes in the mirror. "Her Highness has said she's been expecting diplomatic overtures from other nations. Please, come with me."
The throne room was the most thoroughly refurbished part of the castle, which mostly meant all the rubble and rotting tapestries had been cleared out. Nightmare Moon herself had helped repair the roof, though there was no helping the shattered windows at this point. The new ruler of Equestria sat on her throne, flipping through a history book as Rarity approached with the heaviest steps she could make. The book tucked itself behind the throne. Mistress and servant shared a look that silently agreed it had never been in the room in the first place.
"Presenting Prince Bramble of Thicket!" Rarity cried, for lack of any other available heralds.
"Thicket? Well, it's about time; I've been expecting an emissary for nights. King Asphodel never would have tolerated this state of... affairs..." Nightmare Moon trailed off as she took in Bramble. "Is this some kind of joke?"
"No!" Bramble charged across the room and jabbed a hoof at her. "You're ruining the forest and we need you to stop!"
"I acknowledge that the Everfree and I are interacting in a... novel fashion." Nightmare's hint of a grin fell into a certainty of a frown. "But I meant sending a fawn to play diplomat. Does the Heart of the Forest respect me so little that he would mock me thus?"
"I came on my own!" Bramble cried. Rarity held back a wince.
"Oh. Really?" Nightmare Moon smirked. "Tell me, child, what does your father think about my reign?"
"He..." Bramble looked away. "Well, he thinks it's too late for him to do anything. He wants us to look after everything you won't, preserve the Everfree's beauty even if no one else will." His head whipped back, snarling. "But that's not good enough!"
The Nightmare nodded. "I am inclined to agree."
"What?" said Bramble.
"What?" added Rarity.
"To think that the deer have fallen so far in my absence." Nightmare's gaze turned to the moon. "I may have had it backwards all this time. My sister may not have made the world slide into complacency. The world may have softened her. " She tilted her head and hummed. "What a strange thought."
Bramble scowled. "Can't you go think it in Canterlot?"
The slit eyes turned back to him. "Impetuous little whelp, aren't you?" Yet the Nightmare grinned. "I respect that. But no, Prince Bramble. I will not hie off to my sister's mountain retreat. I have been there, and the place all but reeks of her. I will stay in my home, even if I must rebuild it from the foundations. And you, dear neighbor, will have to relearn how to coexist with ponies.
"Your father was correct in a few senses. There is nothing he can do to oust me from my rightful place, and his wisest course of action is to look after the blooms and beastlings that cannot withstand the long night. I intend to do the same, to shape my ponies into a state capable of appreciating all my majesty. And if your father has further issues with me, I suggest he send a more experienced envoy."
She pounded a soulsteel-clad hoof against the floor, tolling out a deep tone like some dread clock tower. "Now go, before someone here does something they will regret."
Bramble delivered one last glare, then turned tail and ran out of the throne room as fast as he could.
Rarity watched him go, then turned back to her sovereign. "I... suppose that could have gone worse?"
Thankfully, Nightmare Moon nodded. "Indeed. The deer might have wrangled the Everfree fauna and laid siege to us. Rainbow Dash is a quick study in the art of war, but she would be quickly overwhelmed. Even I might be forced to retreat against the forest's full wrath. But it seems modern deer are cowards. So much the better."
Neither noticed the sound of tiny, cloven hooves slinking away, every step muted by a convenient patch of moss.
"Papa!" Bramble cried the moment he was through the great gates of Thicket.
Blackthorn found him first. "Prince Bramble? Where have you been?"
"Never mind that, I need to see my father!" Bramble didn't even slow down. "I know how to stop Nightmare Moon!"
Blackthorn darted in front him, eyes wide. "My prince, your father is furious with you right now. And I cannot say I blame him."
"But she said it herself! We—"
"You went to see Nightmare Moon yourself!?" The words shook the palace as Aspen stomped into view.
Bramble's ears folded back. "Um, well..."
"Are you mad? Impossibly foolish? Or simply suicidal?"
"Papa, please, she—"
"Save your words," Aspen snarled. "Your folly may have cost the lives of every deer in Thicket! Our only hope is to avoid Nightmare Moon's notice, and yet you went prancing before her like one of her pony subjects."
"The castle's still wrecked!" Bramble cried. "We can—"
"Get out."
Bramble's jaw dropped. He looked to Blackthorn, who seemed just as shocked. Finally, he looked back at his father and said, "What?"
"In these dark times, we cannot afford the kind of carelessness you displayed." Aspen turned away from him. "You are banished from the halls of Thicket."
"King Aspen," said Blackthorn, "he is your son"
Aspen spared one last glance back. Bramble had never seen such hatred in those eyes before. "I have no son." And with that, he marched off.
"I..." Blackthorn's gaze darted between the two for a moment. "I will speak with the king, Bramble. I will try to make him see reason."
Bramble shook his head. "No. It's okay." He tried to smile. "We serve the will of the king, right?"
Blackthorn opened his mouth, but couldn't get a word out.
"Goodbye, Blackthorn."
Bramble walked off into the night. By the time Blackthorn got Aspen to listen, he was nowhere to be found.
"Now, let's see, where to prioritize next," Rarity muttered as she looked over a diagram of the castle preserved in its library. "The old vaults, perhaps? Maybe a bribe will be enough to get somepony who knows their way around a stonemason's... chisel? Let's go with chisel."
"Miss?"
Rarity leapt back, definitely not screeching like a banshee. She cleared her throat once she registered just who it was "Ah. Prince Bramble. What brings you here?"
Not that she couldn't guess. The fawn had tear tracks in the fur under his eyes and an air of misery that no amount of ice cream could assuage. "I... came here without my father knowing earlier. He wasn't happy. Now I have nowhere else to go."
"Oh. Oh, you poor d—er, thing." Rarity cleared her throat and hazarded a smile. "Well, I'm sure Her Highness won't mind putting up a foreign dignitary for a time."
He looked up at her with wide, sparkling eyes that could put Sweetie's best effort to shame. "Really?"
"Oh, she has a soft spot buried deep in there. You just have to know where to look."
Thicket had been a paradox of a city. Ten years after the last sunset, it is a hollowed, burnt-out ruin, the torch lit by its forsaken son.
The Heart of the Forest serves Nightmare Moon now, as do we all.
A curious prompt, this one, especially given the presence of an elf. An elf of Shadowmoor, no less, a being who seeks out and tries to preserve beauty in a grim land of eternal night.
Oh. Well now. Starlight, you’ve done it again! (Please don’t actually do it again.)
Thicket and its deer are from one of the worst storylines in the comic, and are the second-best thing to come of it. (The best is, of course, this stained-glass window.)
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The harvest you reap will match the seeds you cultivate. Aspen of all beings ought to have known that.
That was charmingly grim
Obligatory reminder that I move that entire storyline into Whitetail in order to maintain the Everfree's mystique, and if you consider the deer to be a good thing then that's the main problem with it solved.
Decadence, complacence and rashness do not mix well. Aspen done messed up good.
That was chilling, especially the end! And frighteningly believable - I see Aspen's closed-mindedness reflected time and again in far too many, and his sense of not-my-problem even moreso.
I love seeing different interpretations of the alternate timelines.
How fitting for Rarity, Aspen, and Nightmare Moon as well?
----
I forget if Discord escapes in Nightmare Moon timelines, or if she manages to seal him again or something.
This chapter reminds me of "First they came..." with the deer in place of the narrator. If they had just done something sooner...
This gave me pause. I mean, it's too complicated to be a simple typo. Then I figured it out. And to help prevent others from asking: FOME is ponifying the name which was used to name the dog after.
Finally, I don't read the comics. What was the story line, and why was it so bad?
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With a name like "Whitetail Wood", obviously the deer make more sense as living there.
And yeah, I really like the deer, and agree that the comic storyline that introduced them was pretty lousy.
Soulsteel, huh? I would have taken her for a lunar exalted rather than abyssal.
That ending. How fitting that the last light of the forest was choked by brambles.
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That storyline was subpar for a number of reasons. The synopsis is that the deer nature-curbstomped Canterlot because they were upset about a minotaur trying out to be a Captain Planet villain by clear-cutting a chunk of the Everfree Forest to set up a cheap theme park. Also, the deer were being preachy about nature to ponies...
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For all he was trying to adapt, he had yet to learn humility among his own people.
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It certainly does help. I'm okay with the deer living in the Everfree so long as they don't present themselves as unappreciated caretakers of a delicate ecosystem. And if we ignore literally everything involving Well-to-Do.
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Fun fact: The working title for this chapter was "Climate Change Reprisal."
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Right? They offer so much storytelling potential, especially the ones where we got a good look at everything.
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Indeed. The issue is that each of them has a different definition of "beauty."
It's never made clear. My hypothesis is that since the Elements never changed hooves, the sisters' seal never weakened, and Discord ends up the last living being in an abandoned Canterlot.
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Oh good, I'd hoped someone would get that.
To elaborate on Bugsydor's explanation, everyone, and I mean everyone in the story is an idiot, a unlikeable jerk, or both. The Mane Six are rendered incompetent so the plot can happen, the Equestrian legal code doesn't appear to exist, the deer have to be reminded that the Everfree is full of weaponizable monsters after they've already weaponized them, the writer tries to make an environmental message work in a world where weather is an industry, and Celestia and Luna get perhaps their most egregious Worfing in the whole franchise.
And yes, I know that's really saying something.
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Let's face it, she'd absolutely invest the extra motes for the sake of her aesthetic. Even the new name is clearly trying to sound Abyssal, even if she's several words short of something a Deathlord might come up with.
Mind you, post-harmonization, she's definitely wearing moonsilver. Celestia's obviously in orichalcum. And in later seasons, we see purple jade growing around Ponyville, the Elemental Pole of Magic. (Don't ask where Cadence gets her starmetal. You're happier not knowing.)
That.. is not a flattering title, I'll be frank. You might as well call them the ones who do a job that doesn't need to be done.
Hold on a second...
This is one of the bad timelines from "The Cutie Re-Mark", isn't it?
Ah, so it is.
My mind immediately jumped to Exalted here, and I really hope that that's not that kind of soulsteel. Even for Nightmare Moon, that's more than a touch dark.
Then again it's pretty commonly accepted that she got her powers in a bargain with something nowadays. I suppose the Deathlords make as good a patron as anyone.
In conclusion: this was pretty fyaying dark.
Interesting take on how the world didn't freeze! I'm pretty sure I came up with it too at some point (when I wasn't trying to forget that finale existed.)
Interesting. And yes, not-my-problem tied with "my way out the highway" is rarely a good combination.
By the way, what's the first card? I can tell from the A/N that it's supposed to be a Shadowmoor elf, but the image is missing.