The Day AFTER Nightmare Night!
Author's Note
This is the first of this year's Nightmare Night themed stories.
I hope that you enjoy it and the tales to come.
The Day AFTER Nightmare Night!
I really should have known better. It was the day AFTER Nightmare Night. Morgan and I were out strolling around, looking at the remaining decorations and assorted minor pranks that had been played.
Sawnax’s Lumber Yard office had got it by at least two or three pranksters. It was covered in ribbons of cheap toilet paper and the windows had been painted over with egg whites and liberally dusted with dirt. It was understandable, if not really excusable. He was always too cheap to put out a Foal Bowl.
Passing Caramel Treat’s Sweets, we saw that Ponyville’s genuine werewolf was still in the form of the gigantic Everfree Ridgeback Wolf that was her when she was not a pony. Smiling, she was passing out treats to any who were still in costume.
A good many foals knew of her habit and were lined up, chanting, “Nightmare Night has passed away! Now it is Nightmare Day! Please give us something sweet to bite, to celebrate the daylight!”
She was happily giving treats out and posing for pictures with the assorted little ghouls, alicorns, very phony deer, liches, and witches.
We watched for a little and went on our way.
It was not long before we were passing the shoulder high stone wall of the Ponyville Cemetery. We found a perfectly lovely and unusual gray mare staring at us, over the wall. She smiled, keeping her lips shut, and said with mild humor, “So, looking over the wall between life and death?”
“Sort of,” Morgan replied. “Canbe and I are out looking at all of the assorted pranks that have been pulled, that’s all.”
She kept pace with us, she on the inside, and we out. Her head swayed in a sort of undulating way, instead of bobbing a little, like a pony’s usually does.
She offered, “Are you just looking, or are you doing anything to help fix the pranks? I am not sure why, but some ponies think that it is fun to mess up the graveyard. Do they think that they will disturb the rest of those who have passed beyond life or are they trying to upset the living by knocking over or wrecking grave markers?”
Actually looking across the wall, at something besides the lovely mare’s head and shapely neck, I commented, “I don’t see any damage here. What happened?”
Sadly, she replied, “You can’t see it from here. There is a really ancient part of the cemetery. Nopony knows how old it is. It is far older than Ponyville. It has crypts, tombs, mausoleums and markers that nopony around here now knows how to read. It is over the hill, there, where those big trees show their tops.”
She pointed to an area that I had never paid attention to before.
I sort of shook my head in surprise. “I did not even know that those trees were in the cemetery! Old stones that nobody can read? That sounds really neat, actually. If I come to help you, would you mind if I made some rubbings of those stones? Maybe a scholar like Twilight Sparkle could read them.”
The gray mare raised her eyebrows in polite surprise. “That would be a true boon, if she could. So many old things are simply forgotten.”
Morgan snorted, “Never could figure out why anypony bothers with history! Basically, it is a pack of lies told by the winners to make them look better than they were!”
The gray mare gave Morgan a disturbed look. “That is partly true. The truth of what did happen can often be found out. It is the best understanding of the past that can serve to guide you and help you to avoid the mistakes that your ancestors made.”
Bitterly Morgan snapped back, “I was one of those ‘mistakes’ that somepony made! I was abandoned on the steps of the Ponyville Orphanage without even a note! I don’t want to know who my mother or dad was!”
Morgan rudely turned his rump and stomped off.
The lovely gray mare turned to me and gave me a beseeching look. “Will you come to help us? We cannot undo the work of the vandals alone.”
I shrugged and opened the gate. Entering I offered, “Sure, why not? What is to fear now that it is broad daylight?”
The mare had hidden behind a large stone monument. She pointed a shapely foreleg and hoof skyward. “That is a common misconception. So long as the Moon of Nightmare remains in the sky, we can be abroad. That, I fear may tell you who you are coming to help.
“I will guarantee your safety if you do come to help us do what we cannot do ourselves alone.”
I paused to think over this development. “I will make you a small deal, my sweet pony. Show me yourself. If you are an undead, as you have said, and guarantee my safety, I will aid you as well as I can to fix what the vandals have damaged.”
She nodded gracefully and slithered out from behind the stone. Her body, from the navel back, was that of a huge serpent. “As you can see, I am a Lamia. Had I not guaranteed your safety, I could easily crush and rend you. You may still leave and I will thank you for even considering giving aid to such as I.”
I kind of shivered all over but gamely offered, “Lead the way, my Lovely Mare Lamia. I am known as Canbe.”
She led me across the hill. If I remembered correctly, the back wall of the cemetery was down the hill only a little ways. Before we got to where the wall should be, I noticed that the Lamia cast no shadow from the light of the sun. She did, however, cast a shadow. It was from the light of the moon, still in the sky, though getting low.
We passed under the trees without coming to the cemetery wall. Long streamers of moss like stuff hung from branches that almost seemed to move of their own volition. The foliage of them was a far darker green than it had appeared when seen from the street in Ponyville. It almost looked black. That was when I noticed that nothing here, not even me, cast any shadow but one from the full Moon of Nightmare which was now at zenith, rather than nearly set.
I nearly fled when I noticed that. My promise held me.
I was led to a fallen obelisk about two or two and a half meters long. I saw the marks where it had been pried from its base. I pointed out, “I cannot lift this, it is too heavy for me.”
Several voices replied, “We can lift it if you will help us. Lay your mortal hooves on it and keep them on it until we have restored the stone to its place. This work takes the cooperation of both the mortal and those beyond.”
As I laid hooves to it, a little past the center, the stone was seized by hooves of several undead sorts. I did try to help with the lift, but it was the strength of those ponies who were long past the grave who actually did most of it. As the stone was properly replaced, the break appeared to simply vanish. The stone stood tall and proud again.
As we were walking to the next damaged monument, I stumbled on a fallen slab of stone. A simple grave stone. I paused and asked, “What about this one? It has fallen too.”
The Lamia looked back and replied, “True, it has. Time did that, not vandals. You agreed to help us to undo the vandalism. This goes past your agreement.”
I sort of surprised myself by replying, as I scraped at the moss grown stone to get a better grip, “Not quite so, my lady Lamia. Time is the greatest vandal of all. Let us set to rights all that we can. Even the simplest grave deserves to be remembered.”
The many undead here all looked at me thoughtfully and agreed, “What he wants to do goes beyond our agreement. We should do the same for him.” If appearance was any guide, faces that had not smiled since they died smiled in agreement.
As we were lifting the stone back up to standing in a well dug socket hole, one of the liches actually shed a tear. He stated, “This stone and grave are mine. Thank you, Mortal.”
I think that the others were astounded when I held his apparently rotting body and said, “You are welcome. Now I am doubly glad that we did it for you.”
We all went on, from grave to crypt to mausoleum fixing and setting things to rights. If I could touch even so much as a rotting bit of an ancient oaken and iron bound door, some one among them was able to make it whole again. We did the same for the decayed remains of coffins in the ancient crypts.
It did take a long time to do. I was bone tired at the end of our labor. Not hungry. Not thirsty. Proud. The ancient necropolis was now well tended and all was as it ought to be.
I looked up. The Moon of Nightmare was unchanged in the sky. It was still at its zenith.
My lovely Lamia saw my glance and spoke softly, “Our lives spring from and are ruled by Her. The Princess of the Night. We may be of the Nightmare Realm but our Ruler is not without compassion.
“We did notice something about you as you helped us to restore our ancient homes. Not only did you not shrink from us, going so far as to give comfort and share happiness with a zombie, you appear to like us. Is that true?”
That sort of opened up my eyes. I had been getting along with these once living beings far better than I ever had with any living ponies. It just took Lamia’s question to make me notice it!
I nodded sort of slowly as it sank in. “That is true, my lovely Lamia. If there was some way to stay with you, my friends, and keep this gift of helping you all, I would have no desire to return to ponies who do not care about me at all.”
The Lamia stood up, supported by her elegantly coiled snake body and said softly, “My name, Canbe, is Flowering Ash. You have asked a boon of Our Princess of the Night and we in no way forced you to it or tricked it from you.
“Do you truly ask of Princess Luna, Ruler of the Night, Harbinger of Dreams and Sometimes the True Embodiment of All Nightmare, the boon to stay with us, keeping the ability to aid us in preserving our places of rest, our homes?”
I did not hesitate, “If it can be done, Flowering Ash, I do ask that boon of Princess Luna.”
There grew a shadow on the Moon of Nightmare overhead. Gliding down to a landing as silent as a dream was Princess Luna. She alighted before me and smiled.
“Canbe, I have favorably heard your request. You are a creature of the Day. A pony who grew up under the sway of my Sister, Celestia. Would you renounce her to fulfill your request?”
I thought carefully and she gave me the time to do it. “Princess Luna, you and your Sister Celestia are two parts of a whole. I had not heard that you two are in contest.”
I gathered the lovely Flowering Ash on one side and the zombie whose grave I had restored on the other into a hug. Still holding them, I went on, “Knowing that you two Sisters are not in contest, I will willingly do whatever is necessary to fulfill my request.”
Princess Luna bowed her horn to just touch my forelock. A fine wisp of midnight magic, shot through with stars flowed between us.
She straightened and proclaimed, “Canbe, as the subject of us both, Myself and my sister Celestia, you may stay here with your friends. Here, you will retain your Mortal Gift to aid them. Here, you will not age. Here, you will not hunger. Here, you will not thirst. When you do much, as with this night’s labor, you will tire. A little rest will cure that.
“You may leave here and return at will but only through the Ponyville Cemetery. While you are away, you will age. While away, you will hunger. While away, you will thirst. While away, you will tire from labor as you always have.
“You have chosen more wisely than you know.”
With that, Princess Luna spread her huge wings and made a powerhouse of a downstroke. She flew up, seemingly to the Moon of Nightmare.
Luna alighted on a patio of the Palace of Canterlot and trotted into the Dining hall. There she found Princess Celestia happily munching on chocolate topped donuts.
Princess Celestia’s snicker suddenly turned to a stricken look as she saw Luna’s expression!
With a grin that showed her perfect teeth, Luna reported, “I WON!
“Canbe did NOT renounce me when he was put in with those Nightmares! Most interestingly, he chose to STAY with them but he was clever enough not to renounce YOU either!
“Now pay up!”
Luna hoofed over a substantially sized tray.
Glumly, Princess Celestia began to pile on tan topped pastries. She returned the tray to Luna with a sad, “Farewell, my butterscotch treats!”
~~THE END~~
