After the fall of the three tribes in the North, and after the great migration, the only place in the world where ponies were found was Equestria. This has not remained the case however. There have always been explorers, those restless souls that can only live free, looking forever to the horizon. And when they returned with word of fertile lands, there were always settlers: ponies who sought opportunity for growth, and found it by helping build a new place where ponies could thrive.
And though Equestria is wide, and parts of it remained unsettled to this day, not all pony expeditions have elected to remain within its borders. It is through the undertaking of one such group that this tale came to be known.
This group left the bounds of Equestria two hundred years ago. They crossed the eastern sea and came to the new world there. They arrived at Pinto bay, which had been settled some decades before and now supported a thriving port town. From there they trekked further east, until they arrived at a wide plain that remains nameless to this day. There they set down their caravan and began building their town, which they named Fargone.
They had no shortage of timber: the plain was bordered along the east and south by a great forest. This was not some sunny, open woodland like White Tail Woods; It is said that this forest was a match for the Everfree in the tallness of its trees, but far denser and darker. The ponies of Fargone cut down trees along its border, but never entered more than ten yards inside. They far preferred the bright open plain to the ominous forest.
Within a few weeks, most of Fargone’s buildings had been completed. The town centered around a round open space, where the first wagon encampment had been. Around this were placed some of the most important buildings. At the head of these was the town hall, where ponies gathered in the evenings and enjoyed each other’s company. Next to this lay the school, which was run by Inky Stylus, a young colt who was also a patient teacher. There were quite a few foals in town, as whole families had joined in the expedition to settle new lands.
The outer ring of the town consisted of farms. There were barns, which housed the flocks and herds that had come along, and silos to store the grain harvest. To the north, east and south of the town, fields of grains and vegetables had been planted. The west of the town was the site of the newly planted pear orchards, which weren’t expected to yield much fruit for some years yet.
The Pear family lived next to the orchard. There was Pear Cobbler, his old father Pear Bread, his wife Peach and their children Concorde, Conference, Bartlett and Sunsprite. Old Pear Bread had been complaining all his life about how pears had such an undeserved bad reputations in Equestria compared to apples. Pear Cobbler, who was a very amicable and easy-going colt, had finally suggested they move away with the settlers and try to popularize pears. After thinking about this for a few months, the family had finally decided to go for it. And now they were here. Over the long journey, they had become friends with many of the other settlers, who were now all eagerly awaiting the first pear harvest.
Every afternoon, the Pear family talked around the dinner table about how their day had been. Cobbler and Peach would tell how they had tended the orchard, or helped their neighbours with their fields. Grandpa would talk about keeping busy by making clothes for the next winter, along with some of the other senior citizens of Fargone. And the children talked about going off exploring with their friends from school. They usually galloped across the open plain, but Sunsprite had been told of repeatedly for going into the forest. Whenever she was caught, her parents would tell her again that she was forbidden to go in there, and she would again tell them that it wasn’t her fault: her friend Silver Gaze just happened to live in the forest. Her parents thought that no imaginary friend was worth the risk of going near those ominous woods. Still, no matter what punishment they gave her, every so often Sunsprite would be found near the forest.
Over the next years the inhabitants of Fargone settled into their new existence. The climate of the plains was mild, the winters short, and within a short time, the newly plowed fields yielded more than enough produce to keep the settlers fed. To the joy of the Pear family, the first pear harvest was a great success. Not only were the raw pears a favored snack among the villagers, but they were soon taught many of the recipes that had been handed down the Pear family for generations: pear pie, pear cobbler, sugared pears, stewed pears, pear ice creams… Old Pear Bread’s predictions came true: given the chance, pears became as popular as apples had ever been.
Life in Fargone was quite peaceful indeed. And yet, no matter how contended the villagers of Fargone were with their lot, the existence of the dark forest always underlay their thoughts. Though ponies paid it no mind during the day, at night it seemed somehow to be closer to the town. And there were always noises coming from within it. Nothing threatening, but they added to the mystery of that place. The forest was rarely discussed openly, but it’s presence was never forgotten. And whenever a conversation steered toward an ominous topic, ponies would glance in the direction of the forest, even if it wasn’t in sight.
Then early one morning the small herd of cows stormed into town, screaming wildly. The herd was hysterical, and not a straight answer could be gotten from them. So Jack took some ponies with him and went to investigate. His real name was Picket Fence, but everypony just called him Jack. He had been a guard for some time, and was now what might be called the sheriff of Fargone.
They had little trouble following the tracks of the herd, as their massive stampede had destroyed the plain beneath their hooves. What they found at the end of that trail turned the stomach of even such a weathered pony as Jack. Before them lay what remained of one of the cows. It had been eaten. Bones lay in the center of a brown stain, where the dirt had been turned to mud.
When the posse returned to town, the ponies had just calmed down the cows enough to hear the story from them. The herd had heard terrible screams in the dark, and as blind panic had gripped them they ran. It was only instinct and luck that had driven them toward the town. As Jack and his comrades explained what they had found, the settlers were struck with horror.
That night found Fargone barricaded by wagons and barrels, stacked against each other along every entrance into the town. Moreover, all buildings but one were empty: everypony had taken their families to the town hall. Except for a few brave ponies who patrolled the town, everypony was there. In the beginning, the noise had been deafening; ponies shouted at each other at cross purposes. Some had suggested they leave, but most had argued that they had come to far and worked to hard to let Fargone be destroyed by whatever threat. When every argument had been made, everypony tried, mostly in vain, to get some sleep.
Sometime during the night, Jack came in with most of the patrol.
"It’s no use", he grumbled. "Even with torches, we can’t see more than a few yards ahead of us. Anything could sneak up on us and we wouldn’t know until it was too late."
"You could ask Silver Gaze", a small voice said, causing Jack to look around in surprise. There stood little Sunsprite. "She can see in the dark, you know!"
Before Jack could respond, Peach had trotted up and started leading the little filly away, whispering harshly to her daughter: “You know we told you to stop talking about her. You should be asleep! Now off to bed with you.”
Jack quickly dismissed the little filly from his thoughts: he had more important matters to attend to. He split the patrol team into several groups and sent the first group off to stand guard around the building while the rest went to get some sleep.
The rest of that night passed uneventful. Except for a change in the watch every so often, not a sound was heard. When a new morning dawned on Fargone, its inhabitants started to relax a little. Whatever had attacked the cow hadn’t come back. Nor did it appear the next night, or the next. Though nopony thought the thread was over, it did grow less and less urgent, and ponies started to resume their lives.
But Jack did not forget what he had seen, and he began to make plans to defend against the unknown thread. After a lengthy discussion with the town council, he began work on a stockade around Fargone. The fields and orchards were left outside: it would take too long to build the wall around those as well. Four gates were built along the perimeter, and everypony was told to make sure they were inside before nightfall, when the gates were closed.
A week had passed since the completion of the wall, when one evening Happiness came to call on Jack. In tears, she told him that her husband Bees had not yet come home, and the gates had been closed hours ago. Wasting no time, Jack organized the citizens of Fargone to search for him everywhere within the walls. When it became clear that Bees was not within Fargone, Jack formed a party to go with him outside the wall to find him.
They started at the beehives where Bees usually spent his day, then followed his trail. At first, the trail was heading back toward the gate, but at some point Bees had stopped, and then galloped away from the wall, running as fast as he could, as far as Jack could tell. For an hour, they followed his tracks across the plain. But when they came to the end of it, it was clear that they were already much too late.
For a second night, the ponies of Fargone gathered inside the town hall. This time, the call to abandon Fargone and quit the plains was much stronger. But louder still was the group of ponies, led by a distraught Happiness, who wanted to exact revenge upon whatever creature had killed Bees. Even Jack, though he agonized about leaving the mares and fillies unprotected, agued to find the cause of the massacres he had witnessed and deal with it permanently.
So they patrolled the plains for the next six days, but found no trace. Believing that the thread only appeared at night, the villagers started to send out patrols after dark. When even they found nothing to report, another meeting was called.
"I hate to say it, but perhaps it really is better if we all leave here", said Jack. "We can’t find the monster attacking us, and if we stay it is only a matter of time before somepony else is killed."
Many ponies were nodding their agreement, when from the opposite side of the room Happiness yelled at them: “What about Bees? What about my husband? We buried him here, at least what that Celestia forsaken monster left of him! I will not abandon him. I will never leave this place.”
"Be reasonable", said Jack. "At this rate, your husband will not be the only pony to die here. Somepony’s filly might be next!"
"All we have to do is find that monster. It can’t be hiding on the plains, or we would have found it by now. That leaves only one place: the forest."
A buzz came over the town hall as this idea sunk in.
"That’s true, we never searched anywhere near there."
"It could be hiding in there, waiting to strike."
"I never liked those woods anyway."
"We should just cut it all down! Leave it nowhere to hide."
"That would take far too long. Let’s just burn that accursed place to the ground!"
Cheers sounded at this suggestion, as the people of Fargone started working themselves into a frenzy. Soon, ponies were running out to fetch oil and torches. Jack didn’t like the state they were getting themselves into, and he didn’t like the idea of burning down the forest that might be the home of thousands of creatures. But try though he might, he could not change their minds. They had focussed all their fear and anger and frustration on the thing they had all feared since arriving on the plain: the forest.
Evening was setting when the angry mob arrived at the edge of the forest. But as the first ponies trotted forward to start the blaze, Happiness included, a light green shape streaked around them and placed itself between them and the forest.
It was Sunsprite. Tears falling from her eyes, she screamed at them: “You can’t burn the trees! They’re Silver Gaze’s home! I won’t let you!”
Two ponies immediately ran forward: Peach and Pear Cobbler had been among the crowd. They tried to pull Sunsprite away, but she screamed and shoved and refused to be moved. She was young, but her anger gave her strength, and her parents could not get her away.
One colt holding a torch had stepped forward while the Pear family struggled, and was about to set fire to the nearest tree. But Sunsprite sprang over her mother’s grabbing hooves, sprinted forward and ran headfirst into the pony’s chest, causing him to fall backwards.
By now Concorde, Conference and Bartlett had caught up with their sister and stood with her. Their parents stood behind them with a look of desperation in their eyes. Happiness was stepping forward, a look of rage on her face, Jack was trying to get between them…
And then the entire crowd was startled by a voice coming out of the forest: “Sunsprite?”
The voice was soft, and yet it seemed to cut through the angry snarls of the mob. Not only because it was such a beautiful voice, but mostly because it was coming from inside of the forest.
Before the widened eyes and slack jaws of the crowd, a pony appeared amid the trees, coming toward them. She looked young, barely older than Sunsprite. Her build was delicate, as if shaped from fine porcelain. Her coat was light grey with a tinge of purple. But her most striking feature were her eyes. They reflected the firelight like a cat’s eyes, as if in place of irises she had two silver mirrors.
"Sunsprite," she said again. "What’s going on?"
"Silver Gaze!", Sunsprite shouted. "These ponies are trying to burn the forest down."
The silver-eyed filly looked at the mob in confusion. “What? Why would you do that? Don’t you know that the forest is our home?”
Jack was the first pony to recover his senses. “We? What do you mean little girl? Are there others in there beside you?”
The filly nodded solemnly. “My whole family lives here, and many other nightponies as well. We’ve lived here for as long as I can remember.”
"Nightponies? Is that what you are?"
"Yes. Mommy told me that we used to live during the day, like Sunsprite does. But then something happened and we had to move into the forest. It’s always dark in there, and at first we couldn’t see. But then some fillies were born who could see better in the dark, and later came fillies who could see even better. And now we can see just as well in the dark of the forest as we used to outside. It’s been that way so long that even grandpa’s grandpa didn’t remember when we lived outside."
Sunsprite spoke to her parents: “I told you she’s real. I wanted to bring her by, so you’d believe me, but Silver doesn’t like to leave the forest.”
"That’s right", Silver Gaze said. "It’s really bright, and the light hurts my eyes. I’m sorry I got Sunsprite in trouble. I didn’t mean to!"
This last comment brought a smile to Jack’s face. He turned to face his fellow villagers.
"You hear that? And you wanted to burn the forest down. You ponies should be ashamed of yourselves! Let’s just go home for now, okay? We’ll come up with a new plan after we’ve talked it over with the nightponies."
"Are you crazy, Jack?" screamed Happiness. "Look at her! She’s not a real pony. You can see it in her eyes. I bet she’s the real monster. That’s it! A magical beast who can transform into a pony, except for the eyes."
Jack thought that Happiness must have gone mad with grief. There was pure hatred in her eyes as she stormed toward Silver Gaze, screaming in fury, raising her torch like a club. Silver Gaze screamed. Sunsprite tried to intervene, but she was too slow.
But Jack had been ready for this. Just as Happiness was ready to swing the torch down, he intercepted her and grabbed hold of her hoof. Though she kicked and screamed, he managed to wrestle her to the ground. He called for help. The other ponies, who had stood flabbergasted until this point, moved in and together they took Happiness away toward the village. Most ponies went along, leaving only Jack and the Pear family behind.
"I’m very sorry." Jack said. "You’ll have to forgive Happiness. She’s lost her husband."
"I know." said Silver Gaze. "Sunsprite told me."
Pear Cobbler took this opportunity to apologize to his daughter. “I’m really sorry we didn’t believe you honey.”
"That’s okay dad. I’m just glad the nightponies didn’t get hurt."
"Speaking of the nightponies" Jack said to Silver. "I’d very much like to meet them. Would you take me to them?"
Silver Gaze smiled. “I’d love to!”
The following morning, the citizens of Fargone were once again in conference. Jack told them about his meeting with the nightponies.
They had shown him their own village, which lay deep inside the forest. It consisted of log cabins hidden away among trees so tall and big that little light ever made it down there, even during the middle of the day. Even then, the nightponies were nocturnal. For some reason, living in the dark for so many years had altered more than their sight. They felt more at ease during the night, and it seemed to them only natural to sleep during the day.
"But most important of all is that they have agreed to help us. They will send ponies to stand guard with us during the night, even to go out on patrol. With their night vision, nothing will be able to sneak up on us."
The ponies of Fargone agreed enthusiastically, and starting the next day patrols went out over the plains, consisting of night- and, for want of another word, dayponies. They found little to help find the cause of the two deaths. But this did not prevent every pony on patrol to come home with long stories as the two races started talking and telling each other about themselves.
The nightponies, as far as they could still remember, had come to this land as settlers, the same way the ponies of Fargone had. For a while they had also lived as farmers. But one day, for reasons they no longer knew, the village had been abandoned and they had fled into the forest in desperation. There were mountains, far away from the plains but still lying within the forests. After days of wandering, the ancestors of the night ponies had fled into the caves there, and there they remained.
They’d learned to live in the forest, living of nuts and berries, toadstools and other things that grew in a place where light never enters. In the beginning they had trouble eking out a living, but they learned and adapted. These days, the nightponies gathered food and materials from all over the forest, and had learned to make everything they needed from cloth to furniture, without ever having to leave the forest.
The two pony tribes started to become more neighborly. One evening, a watchpony brought his wife along to the village. She was hailed gladly by the other villagers, who were eager to hear the nightpony stories for themselves. The next night, another watchpony brought her husband along. After a week, dozens of nightponies came to visit Fargone each night, and dozens of villagers went to visit the nightpony village every day. And of course, Sunsprite and Silver Gaze got to play together as much as they wanted, or at least as long as the few hours each day that their bedtimes overlapped.
But although the citizens of Fargone were delighted by their newfound neighbours, they had not forgotten the thing that had caused their two races to meet. The patrols roamed farther and wider every night, but still no trace was found of that which had killed Bees and the cow.
A fortnight after the first meeting with Silver Gaze one of the patrols returned to Fargone in an awful state. Two dayponies were wounded, one was missing, and the nightpony assigned to them looked to be in shock. Jack had to shout in his face a few times before he could get a report out of him.
"It must have been lying in wait. I never saw it until it was running toward us. It raked Starburst’s chest and Toughnut’s back, then it had Doe’s neck in it’s mouth before I could do anything!"
"What did? What was it?"
"A mountain lion! A cougar! I’ve only heard of them. They live in the high range up north. One must have migrated south, looking for new territory."
"Did you see which way it went? We have to go after it before it disappears again!"
The nightpony, named Night Beam, told Jack that the cougar had headed southeast, toward the forest. Jack waited only long enough to gather the strongest and bravest ponies of all of Fargone, and a few brave nightponies besides, and they set off - galloping along the plain to where Night Beam had last seen their enemy.
If the dayponies had been alone, they would have lost the cougar’s trail quickly, but the nightponies had little trouble following it. It led the posse along the forest edge for a while before going inside. Among the soft soil of the forest, the trail became even clearer and the posse raced forward toward their intended goal.
After half an hour of galloping, they reached the end of the trail: it led up the side of a mountain, whose feet were still covered by the forest, and into a cave high up the mountain’s side. As the ponies were stepping into the cave, an angry hiss came out to them.
"Go away, long-necks! I’ve had my fill of you for now. Come back when I’m hungry again."
Jack turned toward Night Beam and whispered: “You didn’t tell me cougars can talk.”
"Of course they can. They’re just as intelligent as ponies, probably more cunning than we are. That doesn’t change the fact that they are hunters, and they hunt for us."
"It makes every difference." Jack grumbled. He held out his hoof, and shouted over his shoulder. "Stay back, all of you. I’m going in alone. I’ll see if I can reason with it."
The nightponies questioned Jack’s sanity, and the villagers of Fargone tried to persuade him to stay, but in the end he could not be swayed. Angry and frustrated, they nevertheless waited at the mouth of the cave and watched Jack walk in alone.
Jack took a few turns, and he could no longer see his friends. Then the cougar appeared in the light of the torch he carried. It looked vaguely like a cat, but it was bigger than Jack was, it stared at him with malevolent eyes and beneath those eyes its muzzle was red with Doe’s blood.
Jack hesitated, then he squared his shoulders, stepped forward and planted the torch in the ground so that he had his mouth free.
"You’ve been killing my friends."
The cougar shrugged. “What of it?”
"I want you to stop."
The cougar narrowed its eyes. “And why would I do that? I’d starve.”
This time it was Jack’s turn to shrug. “I don’t care. Find something else to eat, far away from here. You may be stronger than us, cougar, but there are a lot more of us. In the end, you will lose.”
"I don’t think so. I’m not just stronger, I’m faster, and I can see in the dark. If I run away from here, you’ll never find me again. I’ll pick you all off one at a time whenever I’m feeling hungry."
"We found you once, we can find you again. Some of us can see in the dark just fine. I’m giving you a last chance to leave peacefully."
The cougar did not reply, but rather started to crouch down. Slowly, keeping eye-contact for as long as possible, Jack reached back toward his saddleback and pulled out the sword that he had kept even after he had been kicked out of the royal guard.
Dawn was not far off when the search party returned to Fargone. The nightponies bid them farewell and disappeared into the forest. The rest were let in through the northern gate. Teary-eyed, they told their neighbours and family what had happened. When they had heard the sounds of fighting, they’d rushed into the cave. They found the cougar dead, run through the chest with a sword. The heavily mauled Jack had breathed his last before they could get to them. Deaths had been avenged, and Fargone made safe, but Picket Fence would never come home again.
Author's Note
The idea of nocturnal ponies was first brought to my attention by that great world-builder Sev.
