Nightmare Mom

Ponyville had seen better days, that much was clear. Many of the downtown buildings were closed, and had been for years. Its streets were abandoned, not a single window lit, leaving you alone to walk through it in the moonlight. You pass a sweets shop, decorated to look like one of those old gingerbread houses you saw in books. The door was off its hinges, indicating scavengers had gotten into it. You'd be surprised if scavengers hadn't gotten into one of these buildings, as they were the only residents here now.

You stop and look inside, imagining what it would have been like when it was open. Perhaps the owner was a chubby pony, rounded from tasting all of his sweets like a master chef tasting is creations as he went. Perhaps they were so good he couldn't help but have a cupcake or two. He must have been tall too, a jolly stallion who would greet every pony that entered, wearing an apron that was constantly stained with various colors of icing and flour.

You pull yourself away before you get hungrier and proceed down the road, a familiar tree rising from behind a few houses. You remember pulling a few books out of it yourself the last, and only, time you were here. You start imagining a kindly old mare ministering to the needs of the library and a young, far more energetic colt helping her reach the high places asking you if you needed help finding anything. If she was real, you would have asked her about your list from Mother, about various forbidden subjects, and kept them for yourself. But no, Mother wanted all of them brought to her, likely to be burned. You never found out what happened to the rest of the books, only being able to find two.

You pull away again before you add depression to your hunger, and start walking. Your path takes you toward the orchard. This time, the memories that visit you are not pleasant imaginings of their occupants, but the emerald eyes of the orange pony who tried to protect that orchard, and the magenta eyes of her blue friend.

The proclamation of the seizure of the orchard had been issued days before, and you had been sent with a force to secure it. You had expected the owners to simply leave, as many ponies had come to fear you over the years, and simply arriving here should scare the occupants off. You were only told to secure the farm and ensure compliance from the residents. From there, the orchard would be brought under new management, loyal to the new crown. And so you marched in, thirty guardsmen at your back, when you found them.

There weren't many. There was a big red stallion, almost as big as you were, the orange mare, the cyan mare, and a few others. You knew if they resisted, it would be a one-sided fight. Their images appear before you as your image approaches the orchard, you and the thirty guards not far from them. The ghosts of the past begin to play out what you already knew, but you found it impossible to turn away. You swallow nervously, your stomach turning at the sight of the orange pony getting up in your face.

As it turns out, you didn't frighten them at all, and orange one wasn't about to let you walk in and take over. You knew the look you adopted, one of indifference and superiority, as though the pony before you was barely worth consideration, a look you learned from Mother. The orange one isn't fazed. In fact, the blue one comes to back her up, and the others bear in as well. The guards ready their weapons. The next look you adopt is your own, a scowl that said, “You poor fool.”

The images are clear now as you watch, as though you actually were sitting off to the side of the engagement that night. You watch as you deliver your ultimatum to the orange one: surrender or die. You know what she chose, and a cold sweat overtakes you as events play out. The red one pushes you back and places himself between you and the orange pony, only to receive your hoof crashing into his face and knocking him down. The guards move in as the orange pony and the cyan one jump you.

You turn away, tears forming in your eyes. If only they were scared and left when you arrived, if only they had just left when they were told, you wouldn't have had to put them all down like flies. You remember their expressions, the defiant fire dying in the blue one's eyes as your hoof crushes her throat against a tree, her limbs slowly falling limp, and the scream from the red one as you snap the orange one's neck with your magic like a twig, and how you ran him through with your horn.

During the cleanup, you had entered the house to find the remainder of the family cowering from you in the corner of the living room. A little light green filly shot you death glares from behind her tears, you remember that well. And you remember how the bile rose in your throat as you saw the photo album on the table, left open to a page showing pictures of what must have been the rest of the family. A picture of the orange pony as a filly posed on the back of the red one caught your eye then, sending you out of the house.

You storm away from the orchard as said events play out behind you. Very soon, you'd be behind the house, vomiting. Just remembering it made your stomach churn. You try to calm yourself as you walk, but the faces of those ponies won't leave you. They follow you, their stares so full of hate, even in their death, the images bored into your brain.

The very stars above seem to take the shape of their faces, each one glowering with the hatred only the restless dead could feel. You continue to trudge along, your own rage being sapped by the accusing stares above, your tears flowing fast. “I know what I did was monstrous, but there's nothing I can do for you...” Your strength leaves you, pulling you to the grass. You cover your face with your hooves. “Just leave me alone!”

The only moving you do is for the occasional sob that wracks your body. Time melts together, and you have no idea how long you stay like that. You only know that you have no desire to move. Something bright peeks through your hooves and hits you in the eye.

You look up and see something silhouetted against the full moon, sitting on a hill in the distance, wings spread. “You!” You wipe away your tears as you gallop toward the figure as fast as you can, determined this time to meet her. However, as fast as you're going, the distance between you doesn't seem to get smaller. You jump and spread your wings, hoping flight will get you to her, and the distance finally seems to close. Your heart races, the figure rapidly approaching, a smile starting to form on your face, the figure almost close enough to touch.

You catch a glimpse of cyan eyes, you can swear she's reaching for you, and then she vanishes. You land, looking around for the figure, but she is nowhere to be found. “WHY ARE YOU TAUNTING ME?!” you scream, circling, stomping, hoping the figure appears again. “WHO ARE YOU?!” You blink away newly forming tears, determined to see this figure somewhere else and find her. But she is gone, leaving you with the hateful stares of the stars as your only companions. “And why won't you even talk to me...”