One Hearths Warming Eve
In Equstria there is a holiday that is said to be celebrated by everypony. The holiday is supposed to be a time of love and compassion. Not for me though. My name is Darkfall. I have been wondering from place to place for three years. I now sit on a bench in a park in a place called Ponyville. It’s a nice town. Small, cozy, everypony knows each other. Right now none of that matters to me. It’s dark, and I sit alone watching the snow fall. I imagine in my mind that the snow can erase all of my problems. That after Hearths Warming Day I can go home and have friends again. A false hope.
I begin to leave through the town square. I’ve been here too long and it has begun to bring back memories, bad ones. I have no friends, no family, nothing to call home. This town resembles my home too much. Some say that on Hearths Warming Eve wishes come true. I vainly wish I wouldn’t be so alone; that I had at least one friend left in the world, but it was best not to dwell on that. Just keep walking and don’t look back.
I passed several shops. Some had candles in the windows, others were completely dark. I came upon a large shop with a bright candle in its front store window. I could barely make out the sign. Sugar Cube Corner, it said. My mind tells me that it must be a candy shop. A figure stood in the window as I passed. The glass was frosted over but I could make out a small pink filly.
My heart stopped. The figure had the biggest smile I had ever seen, and she waved me towards the door. I stumbled over, still awestruck. Nopony had ever looked upon me with kindness for years. The feeling felt odd. I was an outcast, some one that nobody wanted to get involved with. No one should have to. The door opened. The figure turned out to be a pink filly with puffy hair.
“Hi there mister!” she said. “What are you doin’ out on a night like this? Wait who cares? Come in and get warm!”
She backed up to let me in. I slowly walked into the shop. A fire was lit on one wall. The door closed behind me.
“Here! Let me take that.”
The pink filly took my cloak and bag. She set them on a chair near the fire. I asked her;
“What’s your name?”
She bounded over to the counter on the far side of the room.
“My name’s Pinkie Pie! What’s yours?”
I almost told her my real name but then caught myself. I didn’t want to get this filly in any trouble. I thought of the best name of the top of my head.
“My name is uh, Silverlight”
She smiled, her teeth shining like the snowfall outside.
“Well hi Silverlight! Where are you from?”
I froze at the question. Where was I from? I was from a country where if you told the truth about your friends’ attacker and the attacker happened to be your brother, you were disowned and then put on trial for lying under oath. She didn’t need to know that. What’s a city I had visited in the past month?
“I’m from Manehattan.”
“I’ve been there! It’s really big!”
I sat down near the fire.
“Uh, yeah it is.”
“I’ll be right back! I’m going to get us some hot chocolate.”
She dashed into another room. I wondered how this had happened. Less than five minutes ago I had been out on the street by myself and now I was in someone’s home a step away from a steaming cup of hot, enjoyable liquids. By the time this thought had run through my head she was back with two steaming mugs. She handed me one.
“Here you go! I assumed you wanted marshmallows so I already put some in your coco.”
She smiled again and sat down. I asked her a question.
“So where are your parents?”
“On a rock farm.”
The way she said it was so casual I couldn’t help ask another one.
“So who are you living with right now?”
“Mr. and Mrs. Cake. They own the shop. Oh that reminds me. We have to be kinda quiet. They said I could stay up but
that they were going to bed. Sorry.”
“No need to apologize, I’m still a bit surprised you just let me in off the street. I’ve never met you before in my life, so may I ask; why did you let me in?”
She shrugged.
“I don’t really know to be honest. Like you said, we’ve never met before, so maybe it’s that I don't like not knowing ponies. I don’t know.”
She turned towards the fire.
“I mean you seem nice…”
The sentence trailed off. We both stared at the fire. The silence stood until she asked a question.
“So who are you staying with here in Ponyville?”
I winced. I’d been avoiding the question all night, well before I had entered the candy shop. I considered lying but it didn’t seem right. I couldn’t lie to her. Especially on a night like this. So I told her the truth.
“I’m actually here alone, I... I wandered into town yesterday and you actually caught me on the way out.”
My face was downcast now. I had kept moving for years to avoid dwelling on memories, but now they wouldn’t stop cropping up. They came at me like an unstoppable barrage.
She could tell from the look on my face that I was hurting. She moved a little closer.
“Tell me.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“You look like your scared and sad. I may not look like it, but I know some things about running. Please, tell me.”
I sighed; there was no stopping it now. I told my story.
“It started about four years ago in a far off country. The name doesn’t matter, just know that it is very different from Equestria. I had a really good friend. We did everything together. Couldn’t break the two of us apart. One night he was attacked. He was brutally beaten and I couldn’t save him in time. By the time the ambulance arrived he was gone. Taken from me…
I started slowly, but as I spoke it came faster, the emotions spilling over until I broke down in tears, unable to continue.
She put her hoof on my shoulder.
“You don’t have to keep going. If it hurts this much I understand if you can’t go..”
I shook my head.
“No, I can finish."
With a shaky breath I continued.
"A few days later the police declared it a random act by a stranger, but I knew better. The day before I had found a bloody bat in my brothers’ room. I declared him guilty and took him to the courts. That very day my family disowned me. They said I was just looking to harm my brother with false accusations and lies. Eventually due to a lack of evidence he was declared innocent. He spread rumors that I had done it, that I had killed my own friend. Everybody I knew turned against me. They drove me out of the town I had been born in. So I began to wander. Not a friend left in the world.”
I was sobbing by this point.
The hurt felt as fresh as the moment I had realized that the ambulance wouldn’t be fast enough. I held my hoofs to my face. I could still remember these being covered with my friend’s blood.
“What was his name?”
I looked up.
“What?”
Pinkie looked me straight in the eyes.
“Your friend, what was his name?”
“Silverlight, his name was Silverlight.”
“But that’s your n..”
“I lied when I told you my name; I had hoped to keep my burden from you. My real name is Darkfall.”
I felt even worse now that the truth was out. But yet again the filly surprised me again. She hugged me. After a moment I hugged her back. They sat there for a few minutes before they broke apart. I stood and moved towards the door.
“Thank you for letting me tell you my story and for giving me your kindness. It was something I haven’t felt in a long time. I don’t want to be a burden, however, so I guess this is goodbye.”
She hopped to her feet.
“But... but you're all alone, where will you go?”
“I don’t know. I might wander in the forest for a while, I haven’t really thought of where to go next.”
She pawed the ground a little bit.
“Well if you don’t have anyone to stay with, then why not here?”
I stared at her for a second. I had never been offered a place to stay. Not for years, but this, this was so… kind and thoughtful.
“Will they mind?”
I nodded towards the ceiling. She shook her head.
“They're nice ponies. They would let anyone alone stay here on Hearths Warming Eve.”
We both walked back to the fire.
“You keep bringing up that holiday, and I’ve heard a lot about it, but I don’t know what it means.”
“You’ve never had a Hearths Warming Eve?”
“We didn’t celebrate it back home.”
“Hearths Warming is a holiday to celebrate harmony and friendship. Everyone spends it with someone else. I usually celebrate with my parents but since I moved here I’ve celebrated with the Cakes.”
My face fell again.
“Ah, that’s probably why I didn’t see many ponies out. They were all at home with their families.”
The conversation stalled. The room was silent, save for the fire.
“So what kinds of things have you seen while traveling?”
And so it began. I started with my travels and the conversation went back and forth. Once Mr. Cake came down to see what the ruckus was. He saw the two sitting by the fire chatting about his travels, about her life, laughing all the while. He slowly crept up the stairs.
A few hours later we both fell asleep. The fire died out. I was the first to wake up. I knew it was time to leave, but… I didn’t want to. What I had felt last night was nice. I couldn’t leave her alone for no reason.
I wrote a small note and left it next to her. I grabbed my things and silently slipped out. I was ready to start over. My first stop was to register as a citizen under my new name. I was Silverlight, and I would live up to the name.