The joyful shrieks of foals and the indulgent clucking of their mothers filled the air of the city, costumed colts and fillies cantering playfully up and down the streets. Carts filled with hay and pulled by strong draft horses rumbled over the cobblestones, backs filled to the brim with grinning, waving foals. Candy baskets, both purchased and makeshift, dangled from the mouths of the dozens of children racing down one particular side street. One foal in particular, a little blue pegasus colt decked out in a wolf costume his mother had assured him was 'terrifying', stuck close to his parent as they trotted easily below the streetlamps.
The long, blue, rabbitlike ears of her own costume bowed over her face for a moment, and she swept them aside with one brown hoof. Beaming down at her child, and sensing that he was overwhelmed, she wrapped one soft, downy wing around him as they soldiered on. His wide azure eyes took in everything they could about his favorite night of the year, and he flashed his mother an open, innocent smile.
"This is lotsa fun, Mommy!" His own tiny wings buzzed against his mother's side, making her chuckle.
"I'm glad to hear it, my little love. You're not too tired to keep going, are you? We can go home whenever you like." Her concerned eyes, the same shade of blue as her son's, fixed with his.
"No way, Mommy! I still hafta get more candy." The child broke away from his mother then, bumbling somewhat clumsily up the stairs of a row home, wolf paws on his hooves both adorable and cumbersome. The older pegasus followed behind gamely, one wing held out to steady his climb.
The soft golden glow of the porch light illuminated the chosen decoration for the home—a large silhouette of the head of Nightmare Moon. Lifting his hoof to knock, the little colt seemed to hesitate, appraising the decoration for a moment before finally bringing his hoof down. The inner door swung open a moment later, spilling out more warm light and the sounds of a celebration.
He held up his bucket, a plastic purple pumpkin, with a large grin. "Nightmare Night, what a fright! Give me something sweet to bite!" The stallion that answered the door, an earth pony the color of sunset, grinned down at the foal. Drawing over a large bucket of chocolate, he pulled one out and dropped it in the foal's bucket.
"Happy Nightmare Night, Ashes!" Adjusting the clasp of his ragged cape, he nodded politely to the child's mother. "And hello to you, Dancer. You two stay safe now, okay?"
"We will! Thanks, mister!" Hopping clumsily back down the stairs and buzzing his tiny wings to help, the foal jumped into the street excitedly. With a nod and a wave to her friend, Dancer headed down after him. Dodging a galloping blue unicorn filly in a leopard costume, she chuckled, drawing even with her son. His eyes seemed to be combing the doors and lampposts, lingering on the purple and green heads of Nightmare Moon.
Stopping below one lamppost, he fidgeted for a moment before looking up at his mother. "Mama? Who is that on the decorations?"
She glanced at the head festooning the lamppost they stood beneath, before turning back to her son. "That's Nightmare Moon. You remember the story of Nightmare Moon, don't you sweetheart?"
Ashes sat, wolf tail poking up comically in the back. He pursed his lips, and nodded. "Yeah. But isn't Nightmare Moon a princess now? Princess Luna?" He stood back up, stretching his hind legs, before lifting his candy bucket once more. "I thought Princess Luna was a good pony now."
Leaves rustled down the road in a gust of wind, dancing around the two as they began their trek once more. Dancer turned the question over in her mind for a moment, hooves crunching through the leaves as she extended a wing over her son once again. Ashes walked with her, content to wait for the answer. They approached another home, lit up with green and purple magelights, spiderwebs made of cotton balls adorning the front pillars of the porch. Smiling, Dancer nodded to the house, and the two angled towards it.
"She is a good pony, my Ashes. She just made a mistake." Ashes seemed to mull over this as they climbed the steps to the familiar porch, his thoughtfulness replaced with eagerness as he bounded up the last step and knocked his hoof on the door excitedly.
Encased in a golden glow, the door swung open, a white unicorn stallion smiling out at the two. "Hey, kiddo! Great to see you!" Shaking a lock of green mane out of his face, he smiled to his right, where a cheerful yellow pegasus mare emerged with a large bowl of candy balanced on her back. Ashes, however, ignored it for the moment.
"Mister Present? Miss Sky?" He fixed his eyes on Present Tense and his marefriend, looking comically solemn. "How come Nightmare Moon is a Princess now?"
Taken aback, the white unicorn blinked twice, before glancing at Dancer. She inclined her head slightly, and the couple shared a look before turning back to the little blue foal. Present Tense started, rubbing the legs of his Stable jumpsuit nervously. "Well, y'see, she's not Nightmare Moon anymore. She was Princess Celestia's sister, Princess Luna. She made a mistake and did a bad thing, and had to go away for a long time. Now she's back." Present shrugged awkwardly at Dancer, who smiled slightly.
"She just took a really epic time-out, that's all." Summer Sky grinned, patting Ashes on the head gently.
"Hmm." Ashes took a candy bar from their bowl, dropping it in his bucket. "Okay! Thank you, Mister Present and Miss Sky! Happy Nightmare Night!" He bounded back down the stairs, followed closely by his mother, and the two continued down the road. After a moment, Ashes looked up at his mother expectantly. "So, Mama... if Nightmare Moon was so bad, how come she only got a time out?"
Chuckling at the innocence of youth, Dancer sat to the side of the street, pulling her son to her. "It was a little more than just being put in the corner for five minutes, like when a certain somepony fails to clean up his toys when he's told." Ashes giggled, snuggling closer to the soft hooded bodysuit his mother wore. "She was gone for a thousand years. That's one thousand birthdays, Ashes. That's... that's longer than how long it'll take for you to have great-grandfoals."
The child seemed to think this over, cuddled in his mother's wing as other children yelled and ran and played in the streets. After a moment, he nodded. "Yeah, but... but she's a Princess now, right? How come they made her a princess if she was so bad?"
"She was a princess before. She just... got very sad, because nopony liked her night. So she tried to make it night all the time. Princess Celestia put her in the moon, and she came back a few years before you were born. The Elements of Harmony made Nightmare Moon go away forever, and Princess Luna said she was sorry about what happened." Dancer shifted awkwardly. She hadn't been expecting this conversation from her little son. I suppose I should have, though. He's too observant for his age.
"But if she wanted night forever, that's really bad!" He looked up at her with determination. "The police-ponies should have taken her away."
"And how long do you really think she should have been in trouble for it? Baby mine, she lost her kingdom for a thousand years. That's so long that other ponies thought she was just a scary story. She did a bad thing, was punished for it, and apologized. Nightmare Night is a tradition now, so we keep having it along with the decorations of Nightmare Moon, but none of this, since she came back, makes her a bad pony." Dancer realized she was getting slightly frustrated, and breathed deeply. He's only a child.
Ashes moped, looking down at the ground, scuffing at the pavement with a forehoof. "So, she was sad that nopony liked nighttime. And she tried to make it nighttime all the time. And then Princess Celestia put her in the moon, and ponies forgot about her?"
Dancer nodded.
"But wasn't that the problem in the first place, that ponies forgot about her?"
Blinking in surprise, she looked down at her son. "Well... yes. I guess that's one way of looking at it."
"Huh." They sat quietly for a moment, watching parents and children move down the roads towards Love Park and the Nightmare Night Fair being held there. His little brow furrowed as his eyes looked out at nothing, turning over the conversation in his head. After a moment, he stood, and turned to his mother.
"Mommy, if you ever go to the moon for a thousand years, I promise I won't let anypony forget you, okay? Because that's not nice." Nodding, as though the conversation were finished, he lifted his bucket and trotted off with the rest of the crowd towards the Park. Tears pricking at the corners of her eyes, Dancer followed, allowing a small smile to grace her muzzle.
Two hours passed as the duo visited house after house, well-wishes and candies given out in equal abundance. Love Park, home to the large statue of the simple word the park was nick-named for, was filled to bursting with happy revelers of all stripes. Ponies, zebras, camels, and even a giraffe or two mingled and mixed together under the softly glowing lamps; the children of said species happily partaking in the carnival games offered. An antelope bard strummed out the legend of Nightmare Moon on his lute, enrapturing the children as they huddled together, wing to claw to hoof.
The mayor of Fillydelphia, Mixed Nuts, looked on with pride as he mingled with his constituents and partook of the games himself. After one accidental dousing while bobbing for apples, he retired to his podium, watching from his much more dry vantage point. Vendors hawked their goods from carts lining the circular plaza, the scent of spices and curry mingling with that of fresh greens, hay, and sugar. Dancer and Ashes took full advantage, stopping for a late snack at a spanakopita cart before rushing off to the games.
Five apples, four spanakopita, and a full bucket of candy later, Ashes was beginning to droop. His bucket rested heavily between his shoulder blades, the contents considerably different after some shrewd trades with friends at the Park. Standing at the entrance, he gave his mother a sleepy smile. "Mama, I'm not a little sleepy."
Giggling, Dancer crouched down. "Oh? You're not?"
He shook his head slowly, and looked at her with all the practiced seriousness that comes with a whole five years of life. "I'm a lot sleepy." Ignoring his mother's amused smile, he clambered on her back, resting his candy bucket just behind her withers.
"Alright. We'll head on home. I hope you had fun tonight!" Dancer started a slow, gentle trot out of the park, wings fluffed slightly to keep her precious cargo on board.
"Mmmhmm."
She walked slowly down the streets, leaves crunching under her teal boots as she hummed to herself quietly. Several times, she thought her son had fallen asleep, but each time he shifted or lifted his head to look around. The usual easy silence between the two of them had morphed, somehow changed in the short distance they had walked, becoming heavier and more oppressive. Dancer found herself thinking back again to his questions earlier, and the implications of them.
"Mama?" Ashes' drowsy voice lifted Dancer from her reverie, and she turned her head with a small smile.
"Yes, baby mine?"
He shuffled his legs a little, resting his head against the back of her own. "How come I can't be like Princess Celestia?"
Pausing, Dancer turned back to him. "Why would you want to be?"
Sighing, he laid his head back down on his own forehooves. "'Cause if I were Princess Celestia, and Rock Crasher were Princess Luna, he could just say sorry."
She froze, ice water creeping through her veins as she vowed to choose her words very, very carefully. "Oh?"
"Yeah. And if I were Princess Celestia, I could say it was okay and we could all be a family again." His tiny sigh went nearly unheard as the older pegasus forced her wings to still, standing rigid in the street as she struggled to compose herself.
Two powerful white hooves snatched the brown mare, spinning her roughly and slamming her back painfully against the wall. Her wings flared, beating once to try to push herself back off the wall. One of his hooves swam up into her vision, tinged with red as it was, before punching neatly into her throat.
Her wings beat again, this time a panicked cadence as he bore down with all of his earth pony strength against her throat, the gigantic stallion easily holding down his frail wife as she tried and tried to scream or hit but nothing worked right anymore...
Vision blurring and fading, she clung like a drowning mare to her last threads of consciousness, unable to fight off the encroaching darkness. She could feel the light in her eyes extinguishing slowly, her muscles and brain refusing to fight anymore as her wings drooped. Ears pricking, she caught the sound of screaming. A foal screaming.
Ashes.
"Mama? Mom?" Dancer snapped back to reality, swaying almost imperceptibly as she shook her head to clear it. Smiling weakly, she turned back to her son.
"I'm alright, sweetheart. I was just thinking."
"So was I."
Three years removed from the events in her memory, more secure than she had ever been in her life, and she still found herself having to force her walk to start anew. She forced the fear and panic away and down, drawing her wings up around the tiny bundle of her son on her back. "I know... I know how bad it was. But... there's nothing stopping you from forgiving him, if you really want to."
"He was mean to us. And hurt you. And I love you, Mama." His little voice, so troubled with things no foal so young should be troubled with, drifted to her ear.
"I love you too, Ashes, but he's your father."
"Yeah. But he's not sorry. He said so." The little quaver, the tremble that warned her of breakdowns bade her stop, lifting her son gently and taking him in her forelegs in the street. Burrowing in his mother's embrace, he let the tears come freely, her soft wings shielding him from the world as he cried out his frustration. Dancer simply held him, keeping her gaze trained on the moon above, deep and calming breaths moving through her frame as she counted out each one.
A few moments later, his sobs turned to sniffles, and he pulled away slightly. Wordlessly, he planted a kiss on his mother's cheek before climbing back on her back. Settling her exhausted son carefully, his mother set off once more, still subdued.
As they turned up the final street towards their cheerful little home, Dancer heaved a small sigh of relief. Ashes peered up, seeming to contemplate the stars for a time, before breaking the last of their silence. "Hey, Mama?"
"Yes?"
"I'm not scared of monsters anymore."
"Me neither."
And with that, mother and child slipped into the home, the porch light winking out.
Author's Note
In order of appearance:
Ashes: Son of MidnightDancer
Midnight Dancer: MidnightDancer :3
Kalreas: Kalreas
Blue Skies: superpony55
Present Tense and Summer Sky: Winter Storm
Just something that's been kicking around in my head to be told, based on actual conversations with my five year old son. I know it's not my best work. I can live with that.
Happy Nightmare Night. Be safe, be careful, and have fun.
