The Headless Horse

by GhostQuill

Fairy tales becoming true

‘Hey Scoots, you in here?’ Rainbow Dash had recently taken to care for the little filly and had her living in her cloud-house with her. But the sun was setting and day was drawing to a close, so that meant bed time for Scootaloo, if Rainbow could even find her. She was peeking into the bathroom to see if Scootaloo was cleaning up before bed but there was no sign of her.

‘Scootaloo come on, where are you?!’ She heard a shuffling and looked around, there was no one behind her in the hall, but there was a certain suspicious looking cabinet close by. Flying over to it, she opens the door and out shoots an orange blur shouting,

‘I’m not tired! I don’t want to go to bed yet!’ She sprints down the stairs and Rainbow Dash rolls her eyes before following. Scootaloo thought that she was getting away from Rainbow easily, that is until she felt herself being picked up from underneath and lifted into the air.

‘Come on Scoots, you have to go to bed. You have school tomorrow and I will not have you falling asleep in class again.’

‘That was one time! And it was history, we weren’t even doing anything interesting.’ She slumped in Rainbow Dash’s arms as they flew to her room and she was plonked down on the bed.

‘Yes, and you failed the history test because of it, now get into bed.’

‘No!’ Defiantly Scootaloo threw her blankets off the bed and crossed her hooves turning away from Rainbow Dash.

‘Urg’ Rainbow groaned, had she been this difficult with her parents? She wasn’t used to this, having to look after someone. Only recently had she been looking after Scootaloo, after that incident they had while on that camping trip. She’d taken her under her wing as Scootaloo had put it and now looked to the little filly as a sister of sorts. She cared deeply for her but damn it she was difficult sometimes. Then an idea struck,

‘Hmm, will you go to bed if I tell you a story?’ At that Scootaloo turned slightly so she could see Rainbow and a smile lit her face. Lying down with her head against her pillow she looked up to Rainbow to pull the covers back on her bed and waited eagerly. Rainbow smile and lifted the blankets onto the bed and covered Scootaloo in them as well, which she promptly poked her head out of and laughed. Settling down, Rainbow sat at the other end of her bed and held a hoof to her chin thinking of a story.

‘Now what type of story would you like to hear?’

‘An awesome one! About you Rainbow Dash, you have lots of cool stories about you.’

‘But you’ve heard all of my coolest and most awesome stories before, twice even! Isn’t there anything else? Oh! I could read you a bit from Daring Do and Temple of Doom?’

‘Okay!’ Snuggling down deeper into her covers, Scootaloo had her nose peeking over her blanket as she listened to Rainbow Dash tell of Daring Do deciding to brave a temple after finding out foals were being taken from their homes. Rainbow Dash was really getting into the story and almost didn’t notice the young filly fall asleep 10 or so pages into the story. Closing the book and blowing out the candles that lit the room, Rainbow left and went to her own room to go to bed.

Scootaloo smiled in her sleep because she was dreaming that Rainbow Dash was her favourite fictional pony Daring Do, and she was her little sidekick Short Bread from the tale of the Temple of Doom. It was at her favourite part of the book where they were in mine carts barrelling down the rails like a rollercoaster as people attacked them from a mine cart behind.

‘Short Bread! Get the brakes! If we go too fast around the corners we’ll fly off.’ The cyan pony said throwing a lump of wood that was in their cart at the robed ponies behind them.

‘Got it Daring!’ She pulled on the brakes with all her might trying to slow the cart down but suddenly the brake stick broke off in her hooves. ‘Uh oh…’

‘Urg, Short Bread!’

‘You said get the brakes!’ Daring face-hoofed but quickly her expression changed when she saw what was coming.

‘Quickly hold on!’ The track ahead suddenly dropped. Both their yells echoed throughout the tunnels as they descended the track like a bullet, it quickly inclined and both Daring and Short Bread were treated to head wrenching rollercoaster of a ride. Suddenly something they feared could be seen up ahead; part of the track was missing. Which they could only worry about for a short moment because the robed ponies behind them were quickly gaining and throwing rocks at their wheels trying to get the old mine cart to veer off the track. Daring saw one of the wheels wobble and quickly looked for something to throw back. There in their cart was another lump of wood, picking it up Daring dropped it on the track behind them and Short Bread watched as it crashed into the oncoming mine cart. Suddenly she felt like gravity wasn’t working cause she didn’t feel it’s constant tug on her body to stay on the ground, then she realised that’s because they were in the air. Looking over she saw the other side of the track coming towards them, she braced for impact and collapsed to the mine cart’s floor as they crashed back on the track rocking from side to side. Spinning around Short Bread saw as the robed pony’s cart flew through the air, it came short of the rail due to the log slowing it down and all of the robed ponies fell below her view. She heard their bloodcurdling yells as they fell to their doom.

Waking up suddenly her ears pricked as she heard an odd whinny sound into her room. Rubbing her eyes she tried to figure out if she had dreamt it but she was sure she hadn’t, it had seemed so real. It still echoed through her mind as she looked out her window over Ponyville. The moon shone high in the sky, radiant against the dark star blotted sky, the Everfree forest, just a shadow over the ground, stood menacingly off to the side covering the horizon. Trying to dismiss it, she pulls the covers back over herself and closes her eyes. She’d almost drifted off but suddenly it was there again. Shooting up and leaning her head out the window, she listened to the elongated whinny in the night, it sounded like none she had ever heard, there was just this unearthly thing to it, like if the wind had a voice. Her eyes caught sight of birds flying off suddenly somewhere over the Everfree forest and as she leaned over and tried to squint to see anything within that untamed land, she lost her footing as her blankets slipped and she fell out the window.

The air pushed against her face as she fell hurtling to the ground, any shouts were lost with the wind pushing at her face. Although Rainbow Dash had been teaching her the basics of flying, she still wasn’t that good and her small wings only buzzed uselessly as she saw the Earth grow bigger and bigger. Looking around for anything to help her decent she spotted some clouds that she could try to latch onto. Focusing and trying to aim her body, she spread her buzzing wings out flat and tries to glide over to one of them. Without her wings buzzing she was gaining speed and was afraid that she might even break the cloud when she hit it, but if she stopped gliding now then she would miss the cloud and plummet further, she had to just hope that it wouldn’t break.

There it was, the cloud she was aiming, for, it was so close now, she panicked that she might miss it, maybe she would overshoot it or a gust of wind would push it away. Her panicking mind brought all sorts of terrible thoughts to her mind, pushing them back she focused just as she did when performing a trick on her scooter, she just had to trust that she was doing it right and wouldn’t miss.

Only metres away now, a few more, her hooves so close. And suddenly, the soft cushiness of the cloud hit her, rather than breaking it bounced her back up and she fell once more onto its softness. Clutching the cloud for dear life fearing she hadn’t done it, she opened her eyes and was greeted with the white fluffiness that was the grateful cloud. Letting out a breath she’d been holding she gave a sign of relief. It took her a moment work up the courage to move but she turned her head and looked back up to see Rainbow Dash’s cloud home high above her. She had no idea how she was going to get back up there. Thinking there was no other way, she buzzed her wings while holding onto the cloud and slowly made her way to the cloud home. Her eyes kept drooping as she flew further up, and a cold wind had started to blow making her teeth chatter. All of a sudden a giant blast of cold wind hit her and sent her cloud over. She waited for the cloud to stop tumbling and tried to continue her way back to Rainbow’s once again far away home, but she was hit again by the unrelenting wind. It sent her reeling away with the other clouds towards the frightening overcast Everfree forest. Giving a final shout out to Rainbow’s shrinking home, she was whisked away from the safe haven on Ponyville.

It was an average night in the Everfree forest, clouds forever overhead, always blocking out his Mistress’s beautiful moon. God how he hated those clouds.

The Headless Horse as he was obviously now known, walked through the Everfree forest, ignoring the trees baring his way as he passed through them. He figured he was called the Headless Horse because of all the ponies that he came across. They always shouted at him the Exact. Same. Name. No it’s not like they couldn’t have just asked him what his name was, and he wouldn’t even mind the new name if it weren’t for the fact that every time a pony used it they had to yell it at the top of their lungs or stutter it under their breath like an idiot with their eyes as wide as baseballs. He’d like to hit them with one if he could. Sadly this ghost business didn’t allow him to actually touch anything, it didn’t even let him float around for damned reasons which he didn’t understand. Some bloody rule in the made up ghost handbook, he’d like to have a look at one of those cause if there was one, maybe it’d tell him why he was still haunting an empty castle ground for the past thousand years, rather than doing whatever it was when ponies died and moved on. But seriously, getting back to the matter, was it really that hard to contain themselves from screaming and blatantly pointing out his lack of a head right in front of him? Repeatedly. Apparently not.

Finally making it through the line of trees that had invaded the once Castle Gardens, he was greeted by the very familiar sight of what currently was left, of the Castle Gardens.

All around shrubbery and thorn bushes were the prominent rulers here. Each statue which once stood tall, now laid covered in vines or broken on the ground. One certain statue however always managed to bring a smile to his absent face. It was a statue of Celestia, when she was a thousand years younger and stood in a regal pose with one leg raised up. Sure the statue had once looked regal, but not anymore. Thorn bush vines had quickly taken over residence of this statue and as the years had worn on, so had the stone used to make the statue. The tail had fallen off and the leg that was raised had fallen, bits and pieces here and there fell as well, but what really made him smile, was the head. The neck had weakened some centuries ago and the head too had broken off, only the thorn bushes covering the statue had been adamant in holding onto her head. So now the statue stood with the head hanging off, almost touching the ground, but being held in the air from the neck by thorn bush vines. Always an amusing sight to him.

He went over to another part of the castle, where a statue of his Mistress was; Princess Luna. Her statue hadn’t fared the years any better than any of the rest, but that didn’t mind the Headless Horse, he liked it anyway. The Princess held a simple pose, all four hooves planted firmly on the ground, her wings outstretched wide, although they had become chipped and broken through the years. And her head stared off to the distance surveying her land. He wished he could’ve done something to help the statue, but sadly, the ghost thing stopped him. He was just glad that her head hadn’t fallen off like Celestia’s, it was probably her fat head that caused it to fall off in the first place he thought with a smirk. But that smirk was quickly replaced with a frown when he saw the big black birds all sitting atop her statue. Running over to the blasted birds, he tried waving at them and telling them to leave.

‘Hey you birds! Shoo! Shoo!’ When that clearly didn’t work he ran up to the statue and started waving his hooves through the birds. They passed through the beasts harmlessly but it was only enough to get a couple of them to leave. He was getting annoyed with these defiant birds but he had one last idea left. Stepping back and puffing out his chest, he gave one huge whinny at them. It was an unearthly, ghostly whinny which sounded like multiply voices were yelling at once, but only came from one creature. This spooked the birds and made all of them fly off of Princess Luna’s statue, many left but some just moved to another statue. But he was riled up now, he didn’t want to see these birds back here again. Giving it all he had, he shouted that same ghostly whinny again and with satisfaction, watched as they all flew off above the tree line. Which brought his gaze back to the clouds, and his annoyance at not being able to fly. If he could, he would fly high above that dreaded cloud line and watch his Mistress’s moon pass through the sky all night. He could care less about the sun. It wasn’t too long ago actually that his Mistress, the Princess Luna had returned to this world. He didn’t know how long exactly, it was hard trying to tell the time in a forest where you never saw the sun or moon and especially after a thousand years of being here, everything sort of just merged into one long, unending day. But that day when Princess Luna had finally returned to this Earth, that was the greatest of all the days! Sadly he had not been able to speak to his Princess, the pain of not having been able to speak to her had been practically torture to him. It was those blasted ponies, the ones who had stopped her plans to make the whole world covered in an eternal night. Sure they turned her back into her sweet old Luna self, but if they hadn’t been there then he could’ve spoken to her! But something about those ponies just told him to stay away, every fibre of his sectoral being screamed to him they were bad news. So he stayed away, and watched them. Unfortunately his Princess did not stay around to reminisces and hasn’t come back since, so he’s been stuck in this desolate, wearing away city for another however long. Just brilliant.

His thought ranting was interrupted quite rudely by the distant shouts of something, he didn’t much care what, but since there was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do, he thought that it would amount to at least a few moments of not complete and utter boredom to go and check it out.

Watching overhead where the noise was coming from, he saw a random small cloud travel close to the top of the trees, and soon when it flew out of sight, he heard what sounded like something crashing into said treetops. Casually walking over to the crash site he found the tree he was looking for and watched as an orange blob fell out of the tree, hitting every branch it could possibly hit on its way down. Finally the line of branches ended and the orange blob landed heavily before him on the ground and gave out a small wheezing sound. This close up, the Headless Horse could now see that the orange blob was really an orange foal. It had a purple mane and tail and lied there like it was unconscious. But sure enough, it twitched and groaned some more. For some reason the Headless Horse found its noises annoying, but not as annoying as that blasted yell every single pony gives him.

‘AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THE HEADLESS HORSE!!!!!!!!!!!’ If he could’ve face-hoofed at that moment, he would’ve. The filly looked like it was trying to run off, but clearly that massive fall from the tree had injured her somehow, still didn’t stop the pathetic thing from trying. It took about two steps before it collapsed from the pain from one of its legs. Instead it opted to staring at him with those baseball size eyes and cowering against the tree.

‘Please don’t get me Headless Horse! Or uh.. Mr Horse if.. that’s what you prefer?... I don’t want to be taken! I want to be heard from again!’

The Headless Horse stood there for a moment, had this filly just asked him what he preferred? He was starting to like her already! Never had anypony ever asked him what he preferred to be called! Alright yes the filly was in a state of shock, and her survival instincts were trying anything to stop him getting her as the stories went, but even if it was just her shock talking, this was just about the greatest thing for him since Princess Luna’s return! If he had one, there would have been a giddy smile plastered across his face.

‘Oh, uh…’ Now that he had the choice, he couldn’t figure what he wanted the filly to call him. Mr Horse just didn’t work for him and although he could say his real name, he wasn’t really sure if her wanted a filly or just about anyone knowing his name. The filly had her arms over her head in a pathetic attempt to shield herself but was growing curious as time went by as to why nothing was happening. Quickly he stammered out a reply.

‘Just... Just call me Headless.’ He said sternly. Opening her eyes the filly looked up to him with a confused expression on her face. Headless shifted from hoof to hoof occasionally unsure what to do, he could practically feel the awkward passing between them. Finally he asked,

‘Got a name kid?’

‘…’

‘What were you doing in that tree anyway?’

‘…’ Still she didn’t do anything, she didn’t even move, and he doubted he’d seen her blink yet. She was making him more creeped out as every second passed. Finally with nothing left to do, he started leaving.

‘Wait!’ That small voice called out to him and he turned to it. ‘Aren’t… Aren’t you… Why haven’t you done anything?’

‘I asked for your name, I thought that was something.’

‘… It’s Scootaloo… But don’t you take the heads of anypony you come across?’

‘A common misconception my dear Scootaloo.’ She looked at him quizzically. Sighing he replied again, ‘No I do not take pony’s heads. That’s just a tale.’

‘But you are the Headless Horse?’

‘No I’m the Bodyfull Horse, completely different thing.’ Again that same confused look was directed at him. ‘Yes I’m the Headless Horse.’ He groaned at the incompetence.

‘You’re the Headless Horse, but you don’t take pony’s heads.’

‘Urggggg, listen Scootaloo, as much as I love playing “repeat thy sentence” over and over with you, I don’t think my non-existent brain cells can take much more of this torture.’ He started to leave but that annoyingly pleading voice shouted at him again.

‘Wait! Can you help me please?’ Groans appeared to be escaping his lips frequently tonight.

‘With what exactly?’

‘Well… I think I hurt myself and I can’t walk, I need help.’

‘Sorry to disappoint kid but I don’t think I’ll be much help.’ Walking over to Scootaloo he moved a hoof toward her and it passed right through her. ‘I’m a ghost remember? Can’t touch anything.’

‘Well, could you get help? Ponyville’s not far from here.’

‘Can’t help there either I’m afraid kid. Being a ghost as I mentioned before, I am bound to only traverse a select amount of land, that being the old City of Canterlot, up to where my body was buried. Which means I can’t leave the Everfree forest.’

‘Oh.’ Her face fell. Headless, while he looked at those watery eyes, seemed to feel something, he couldn’t tell, but it might’ve been… pity? Damn it, he was caring for the foal. Sighing again he said something he’d probably regret.

‘I can watch over you though if you want, I tend to frighten off just about anything around here, and anything that doesn’t leave at the sight of me usually does when I yell at them.’ In Scootaloo’s thoughts she thought that was kind of sad and must be depressing for him.

‘I… I guess.’ Sitting down next to her, both Scootaloo and Headless sat in more awkward silence than before, he hadn’t believed that possible. Trying to get over her fears, she attempted not to think of the ghostly being next to her as the stories had depicted him and wanted to try and get to know the real Headless Horse. Cause if even Discord could be given a second chance, then surely a ghost could too.

‘So, how long you been here?’ She asked. Headless didn’t even bother to move.

‘Last time I checked, a thousand years.’ Her eyes bludged at that. A thousand years wandering the Everfree forest, she could hardly even imagine it.

‘That’s a long time…’

‘I guess, I can hardly tell, there’s no real distinguish between day and night here aside from everything becoming slightly darker or lighter.’

‘Then how do you know it’s been a thousand years?’

‘Well when I died, it was just after Princess Luna was banished, and a while ago, she reappeared. Hence the prophesy that she would return in a thousand years must’ve come true.’

‘You were there a thousand years ago when Princess Luna was banished!?!’ Her face lit up with curiosity as she stared at him.

‘Yes.’ Was his only reply, clear that he did not want to talk about it.

‘Oh…’ They both sat in silence again and Headless was getting annoyed at doing nothing and having to sit with his foal.

‘Are you sure you can’t walk?’ He asked impatiently.

‘Pretty sure. Let me try.’ Moving her feet carefully and wincing when she did so, it was clear she wasn’t going to go anywhere soon. Headless huffed his annoyance and sat there with his arms crossed. Scootaloo was still trying to comprehend the fact that she was sitting next to THE Headless Horse.