One evening, in the middle of Autumn, the young Nightfall Star was helping her mother clean the tree house that had been their home for the last 3 years.
The bat pony family had moved to Equestria to escape the war that was consuming their homeland. Nightfall had only just been born before they had left their house in the giant trees of Chiroequestria, sister country of Equestria. Unfortunately, just before they crossed the border, they were spotted and attacked by a patrol group for the anti-government terrorist group, the Sunsingers. The attack didn't last long, however. The patrol was suddenly surrounded by a loyalist strike group and the family managed to escape.
Unfortunately, Nightfall's farther hadn't made it.
"Mommy, are we finished yet? My hooves hurt." Nightfall complained as she swept the last of the pale orange and yellow leaves out the door and brushed of her dark grey coat.
"Don't worry honey, I'll finish up here. You go and get ready for bed." Nightfall's mother, Midnight, said as she smiled at her daughters whining. She was used to it.
"Thanks mommy! You're the best!" Nightfall exclaimed as she hugged her mother. "You're my favorite mommy in the whole world!"
Midnight grimaced as she watched Nightfall bound up the stairs. She knew that, even in Equestria, they weren't safe. With the war still not over, there was a high chance that there were groups out there looking for escaped bat ponies. Even with all the precautions that Midnight had taken, living in a secluded valley, away from towns and cities, they were still not safe.
They were never safe.
Because Midnight was so preoccupied with thinking about past events she didn't see three shadows slip past the window next to the door. She did, however, hear a knock on the door, which confused her. Nobody usually came here apart from the pegasus who brought their food from the nearest town.
He wasn't due for another week.
Midnight slowly creeped toward the door, grabbing her favorite frying pan along the way with her wing. She warily looked through the window but couldn't see anything. Who could be on her balcony anyway? They were thirty meters above the ground and there wasn't a ladder. Then the knocking came again, this time from behind her kitchen wall and it was followed by what sounded like muffled whispers.
Midnight cautiously walked toward the wall and listened. She couldn't hear anything else so, after checking the front door and kitchen wall again, she dismissed the knocking and whispers as the wind. There's no way it could be them... right? she thought, Still, I should lock all of the windows and the door, just to be safe.
Upstairs, Nightfall was cleaning her leathery, navy blue wings like she did every night when she thought that she saw something outside of the window. She watched it for a few seconds then dismissed it and went back to cleaning her wings.
There, all done, Midnight thought as she finished locking the windows. She walked up stairs and saw Nightfall getting into bed. As Midnight followed her into her room to say goodnight she thought that she heard the leaves, on the branches above their house, rustle a bit too much, like there was something, or someone, up there
"Nah, I'm just being paranoid," she muttered to herself.
"What did you say, mommy?" Nightfall yawned from her bed.
"Nothing, dear. Just thinking about tomorrow. I'll be teaching you how to fly, remember?"
Nightfall's eyes and smile widened as she took a deep breath.
"Oh, no you don't. I'm not going to stay up all night listening to you ramble on a bout flying." Midnight chuckled as she tickled her. Nightfall loved flying, even though she couldn't do it yet. She had read countless books with a pegasus as the protagonist, the Daring Do ones were her favorite. Midnight had even found her trying to fly on her own by jumping off of some of the storage crates downstairs.
"Oh, okay." Nightfall giggled.
"Now, goodnight my little star. I'll see you in the morning." Midnight kissed her daughter on the forehead and quietly left the room. What she failed to miss was the shadow just outside of the window, watching them.
Later that night, Midnight was getting ready for bed and saw how late it was.
"12 o'clock? Well, I must have been cleaning for longer that I thought," she chuckled as she slid under the covers and closed her eyes.
Midnight awoke to the smell of smoke.
Did I leave the oven on? She thought groggily. No, I'm not that forgetful. And since Nightfall can't cook then it must be... Midnight's eyes shot open as she scrambled out of bed, her sleepiness gone, replaced by pure adrenaline and fear.
She rushed out of her room only to be met with a wall of searing heat. Midnight held a wing over her face to shield herself from the heat as she galloped towards Nightfall's room. She burst through the door to find Nightfall coughing under the bed. She ran over to the bed and crouched down to help her.
Nightfall coughed as she clutched her stuffed manticore, "What's happening, mommy?"
"Don't worry, Nightfall. We're just, um... going to play a game, okay?" Midnight wheezed as she looked over her shoulder to see the glow of the flames almost to the door.
"Okay." She coughed.
Midnight motioned for Nightfall to get out from under the bed, which she did and said, "just hop up onto my back and everything is going to be all right."
They left the room just in time. The fire spilled into Nightfall's room and engulfed anything that could burn. Midnight ran towards her room and opened the window. She slid Nightfall off of her back and into her hooves. "Nightfall, I'm going to carry you to the ground and we're going to have to run, okay?"
"But what about the tree? Are we going to come back? What about my cuddly toys?" Nightfall whimpered.
"No, we're not going to come back but once this is over I'll buy you all of the toys you want." Midnight smiled, for Nightfall's sake. "Does that sound good?"
Nightfall nodded, holding her manticore close to her chest.
"Good, now I'm going to need you to hold on tight, alright?" Midnight said as she climbed onto the windowsill. She spread her wings and jumped into the air, carefully holding on to Nightfall.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Midnight felt something hit her on the head and then… nothing.
Nightfall gasped as she fell from her mother’s grasp and fell through the air. She landed on a large branch with a thud. She looked up and saw three bat ponies. She couldn’t remember seeing any other bat ponies apart from her mother before. Nightfall instinctively moved toward the trunk of the tree, where the leaves were denser. However, in her rush, she didn’t notice the
The three bat ponies that had attacked Midnight carried her unconscious body through the branches and into the floating carriage.
“Did you hear that? Something moved down there.” One of the ponies said as he strained his ears toward the noise.
The captain whacked him over the head, “Shut up, you idiot. The recon pony said there was only one resident in the house. It was probably just a bird.”
“Big bird.” The pony mumbled, which earned him a hard glare from the captain.
Nightfall hid until she was sure they were gone, then cautiously moved along the branch to have a look around. Her house, the only place she had ever called home, was now a burnt shell. She saw her manticore hanging at the end of the branch. As Nightfall carefully crawled toward it the branch creaked and bent.
Just as Nightfall grabbed the toy the branch snapped and she dropped like a stone.
Nightfall opened her wings without realizing and slowed for a moment. Then, suddenly, the branch crashed into her right wing with a snap that sent spikes of pain through her body and pulled her down with it.
She screamed as she was dragged down to her imminent death.
Suddenly, she felt hooves being wrapped around her chest. She looked up at the pony in a haze of pain as they slowly drifted closer to the ground.
“Mommy?” She asked, still clutching her manticore.
“Sorry, little one, but I’m not your mommy, I’m the pony who brings you food, remember me? Don’t worry though, I’m going to take you somewhere safe, okay?” The pony said as they softly landed on the forest floor. He carefully placed Nightfall on the ground and inspected her wing. “Ooh, that looks bad, very bad,” he mumbled to himself.
Suddenly the pony’s ear perked up and swivelled towards a patch of thick brambles. Then his head snapped up in alarm and he quickly, but quietly, moved Nightfall to the place the branch had fallen. The way that the branch had fallen against the tree had created a small alcove that was just big enough for her to squeeze in and it hid her perfectly.
“Now, don’t move until I come back, okay? Don’t make a noise, don’t move and don’t come looking for me, got that? Just nod, don’t talk.” He whispered, looking around cautiously.
Nightfall nodded.
“Okay, I’ll be back soon,” and with that he was gone.
Nightfall hugged her manticore closer to try to take her mind off of the pain from her broken wing. After about a minute she heard two ponies talking, then somepony yell and the sounds of fighting. After a few terrifying minutes of fighting, silence suddenly fell around Nightfall. She slowly perked up her ears and strained to hear anything other than the birds and insects.
Suddenly, there was a crash off to her left and a pony came out of the bushes.
Nightfall huddled back as far back into the alcove as she could. Then the food pony stuck his head in and smiled at her. He had numerous cuts in his muzzle and his fur was streaked with mud from the nearby river.
“Okay, let’s get you out of there.” He said as he gently pulled Nightfall out and carefully placed her on his back, in-between his wings.
As they walked away, Nightfall caught a glimpse of a bat ponies body through the leaves of the bush the food pony had come through. Overcome with pain and the need to sleep, she closed her eyes and slipped into unconsciousness.
Author's Note
It's finally done! Six months of setbacks and real-life drama and it's FINALLY finished!
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. I'm going to write a new chapter of Fluttershy's New Friend soon and kid of go back and forth between chapters for this one and the the other.
As always, let me know it there are any mistakes and have a good day everypony!
