Eternal, Nightfall

by Coldfire Hart

Chapters

1. Nightfall
2. Adapting to New Things
3. Warming Up to the Idea of Friendship
4. Making A Connection
5. Nightfall and Rain Clouds
6. A Face to Match the Voice
7. Trouble Follows You Home
8. The Choices We Make Today...

1. Nightfall

Momma, Momma…
Why don’t you hear my call?

Momma, Momma…
Do you not know that I hurt when I fall?

Momma, Momma…
Do you not love me at all?

Your own flesh and blood, Momma.
Your eyes, your mane, your coat.

Why don’t you hear my call?
Your posture, your stature, your royalty.

And yet you look right past me and ignore me like a lone leaf in the fall.
Why, Momma?

Momma, Momma…
Do you not love me at all?

~==~==~==~==~

The filly looked up at the moon with watery eyes while she tried her best not to make a sound as she wept. Atop the cliff, she’d perched for five hours and counting now, pondering what she had done to be hurt so badly and every thought returned back to a singular source: her Mother.

What had she done to deserve such animosity from the one who gave her life? This question she asked herself for three years now and still she had no answer nor a clue. It ate at her like termites feasting on the hardwood of the Everfree.

“I love you, Momma. Why don’t you love me back?” the filly pondered, “I love you, Momma. Please love me back.”

With one last look at the moon and the mare she saw in it, the little filly turned away and dragged her hooves back from whence she had come. When she came to a halt, she was now at a pond and afraid to look into it. Why was she afraid to see herself in its serene mirror? Was she scared that she would see the reason she was not loved, but hated? Or maybe she was afraid that she would see her mother looking back at her instead of herself. Whichever it was, the filly was reluctant to peer into the water and chose instead to notice the fog that had set in around her.

She tried to recall the last time she had seen daylight or daytime at all. Alas, the memory avoided her like the lack of love from her beloved mother did and this made her cry once more. But that was minute in comparison to the filly who had abstained from everything that she could since she ran away from the place she called home. She soon focused on one thing off in the distance and felt her heart stop when the castle she stared at seemed foreboding. She gazed at it long enough that everything was starting to catch up with her so she averted her eyes and looked down into the calm water.

She felt her body beginning to ache from how long she had ran and how far too. Her mind screamed to be comforted by anypony that would notice her and give her any kind of attention at all. And her stomach made loud gurgling sounds as it begged the filly to intake some sustenance.

“Momma, why don’t you love me?” she asked for nopony in particular. She was all alone in the wilderness, after all. There were no other souls except for the glow-bugs, the frogs, and the other critters that stalked the night.

Her belly spoke again but this time in much more force that she doubled over in pain. Good thing she was crying already, because it made it easier for her to let out foalish sobs as she fought the pain until it subsided. Once the pain had ceased, the filly laid there on her side for a moment before she sluggishly got back onto her hooves and lugged herself over to the one thing that seemed to bring her some serenity, as sick as it might sound if she ever told anypony, before she held her head over the small lake and looked down into it.

Being so lost, so hurt and broken, the filly’s mind began to speak words of doubt to her en masse now. The voice in the back of her mind told her all the reasons why she was unloved and hated by all but until this point, she had fought against it, which was futile after she stared down at her own reflection that was revealed to her by the grace of the wretched moon.

“Momma, do you not love me because of my eyes?” the filly questioned as she stared at the pond’s doppelganger of her and its bright teal eyes.

Nothing responded to her aside from the croaks of the frogs that sat on the lily pads and the crickets chirping; playing their soft melody to one another and the voice in her head.

Momma hates you for what you are.

“Is it my wings, Momma? Do you not like my wings?” she asked her visage next and it seemed to respond silently by unfurling its feathery wings and holding them out at length for the filly to see. Nightfall saw the black wings and the under feathers that were laced with streaks of purple and red and frowned at the thought that maybe it was because of her wings. But then she also saw the streaks of dark lilac in her ebony coat and got scared when she thought she had seen her mother’s face for a moment.

Momma can’t stand the fact that she gave birth to a mistake like you.

“Momma, if not my eyes or my wings, then is it my horn?” the filly stared at the crooked magenta horn sticking out of her forehead with a frown.

Momma would be much happier if you had never existed.

The filly quickly turned away and hid her face in her hooves and bawled loudly without a care anymore if she’d be heard—not that her wish would be granted anyway.

“Maybe she would be happier,”

Momma never wanted you, Nightfall. She despises your existence.

“Why does she hate me?” Nightfall asked the voice and found herself staring back at the teal-eyed filly in the lake.

Why don’t you go ask Momma yourself?

That voice in the back of Nightfall’s head was beginning to seem like it was right about something; but just what that something was, was a mystery to Nightfall. Although right then she couldn’t think of any other better answer to accept, even with her stomach growling once more for something to eat.

Nightfall spread her wings and took to the air and flew home to the castle in the distance. She glided through the open window and landed on the red rugs that adorned the bedroom’s granite floor. The twin bed to her left was neatly made, with its royal red comforter complementing the matching pillows and the tapestries that hung above it.

With how immaculately the room had been spruced up it told Nightfall that her mother’s assistant, Rarity, had done her daily rounds around the castle and made sure everything was prim and proper. It brought a sense of comfort to Nightfall though as she stared at her bed and saw herself curling up in it for a well-deserved rest, but she couldn’t, not yet. She had to do something still and trotted to the door and pulled it open, then stepped out into the hallway. Knowing the castle by heart Nightfall went left and mosied on down the hallway until she came to a set of stone stairs, then she trotted down them to the ground floor and guided herself towards the throne room.

It was there that she found the pony she was looking for. Sitting on her throne in all her majesty was a mare of surreal beauty. Her black coat glistened in the pale moonlight that shined through the large moon-shaped skylight and accentuated her ethereal blue tail and mane. Nightfall stared in awe at the ruler, both admiring the iron helmet they wore and fearing them too.

Nightfall stalked towards the throne with her head down low and hesitation in every hoofstep. She wasn’t trying to be quiet or sneaky necessarily, but she was trying to keep her heart from pounding and her breathing in check as she approached the matriarch.

“Halt! Who goeth there?” the mare shrieked.

Nightfall froze in place and held her breath.

“I’ll repeat once more. Who goeth there?” the alicorn asked before opening one eye. Her face soon went from frightening Queen of the Night to one of disgust and loathing when she realized that the filly before her throne was none other than Nightfall, her daughter. “Oh, it’s just you.”

Nightfall’s body quaked at her mother’s loathful response to her presence and her head dropped further down to hide the tears that were now present in her eyes.

“He...hello, Mother,” Nightfall whimpered.

“What is it you want?” Nightmare Moon questioned her daughter.

Nightfall did not respond. She instead stayed quiet and tried to fight back her tears while her mother’s cruel words hit her harder than Iron Will’s headbutt. It wasn’t until Nightfall felt the granite beneath her hooves rumble and the sound of her mother stomping the seat of her throne that she looked up and met her eyes.

“Well? Answer me!” Nightmare Moon shouted at Nightfall. “Or get out of my sight!”

Get out of my sight. Those five words made Nightfall’s heart shatter in front of her face. Those cut her deeper than any name she had ever been called but not as deep as the scowl on her mother’s face as the two of them exchanged looks; Nightfall stared at her mother in terror and hurt while her mother looked down upon her with disgust and hate.

“Begone then!” the ruler of the night yelled at Nightfall. “Get out of my castle!”

“Why don’t you love me?” Nightfall asked her mother. “Why don’t you love me?!”

“You’re a disgrace,”

Nightfall’s jaw dropped, her pupils shrank and her breathing became ragged while her body shook in pain at what she had just been called by her own mother. She didn’t know if she was still breathing or not as those two words dug into her chest like Diamond Dogs burrowing beneath the quarry in search of diamonds before feeling like it was being ripped open afterward.

I love you, Momma. Nightfall thought to herself.

“You’re worthless,” Nightfall’s mother stabbed again.

Why don’t you love me, Momma? Nightfall wondered now, cringing at the next words Nightmare Moon said to her.

“You’re a disgrace. Useless and worthless, just like your father.”

“Shut up!” Nightfall screamed out of desperation to stop her mother from talking about her like she was trash. “Why don’t you love me? Why?!”

Nightmare Moon’s wings snapped open and she got a menacing look in her eyes towards her daughter.

“You’re worthless like your father, that’s why!” Nightmare Moon shot back. “And just like him, you are nothing to me. Nothing but a nuisance that needs to be dealt with!”

Nightfall couldn’t take anymore and she turned away. As she did so she heard her mother’s thunderous laughing behind her and her mother’s final words as she cantered as fast as she could out of the throne room.

“Run! Run fast and run far. Run back to your worthless father!”

2. Adapting to New Things

After having been hurt by her mother’s uncaring attitude—and the total lack of love thereof—Nightfall did what she was told to do: run. So she ran and she didn’t stop running until she found herself deep in the Everfree Forest. It was here that Nightfall stumbled over her own hooves and tumbled across the dirt until she skidded to a halt by crashing into a log.

Nightfall laid there, tired and devoid of energy to move. She felt her stomach twisting itself into knots again, causing her intense pain. She wanted to cry but instead, she simply groaned in pain and sobbed afterward.

“Why don’t you love me?” Nightfall whimpered and laid on her side, staring off into the dark, foggy distance in front of her.

Are you happy now, Nightfall? The voice inside her head spoke to her. You got your answer. You were a mistake all along.

“Momma, what did I do to make you hate me so?” she asked herself without a care in the world that she could hear rustling in the nearby bushes.

Through the bushes, a pair of blue eyes stared at the log. They were fixated on the horn they saw. And by its short stature, they could tell their target was young, either a filly or colt. Thoughts ran through their head on what they should do, but then they heard sobbing and they stopped thinking such cruel thoughts. By the octave of the sobs, Nightfall’s voyeur could tell the unicorn was a filly and she was crying.

As quietly as she could, the pony stepped out of her hiding place and approached the log with caution. Although she was just a filly, she was still a unicorn and from prior experience, this pony knew that even unicorn fillies could be surprising and potentially dangerous. So she snuck up on the filly, stopping every so often to gauge if she’d been heard or not, before continuing. It was when she made it to the log that she readied the makeshift spear above her head and leaned over top of the downed tree.

But before striking, she gasped when Nightfall came into full view and saw that she was not just a filly or a unicorn, but rather she had wings too. The filly was an alicorn! But that was impossible; and yet, before this predator’s eyes, she was very much possible.

“I want my Daddy,” Nightfall whined as her stalker listened quietly.

The filly kept repeating herself over and over again and her stalker got the gist of it now. The filly wanted her father, her mother didn’t love her, and she was starving and tired and cold. She felt her heart stop at how much pain the filly was in, both physically and mentally.

This poor filly is lost, she thought to herself as she looked down at Nightfall. Lowering her spear she quietly set it down on the ground then slowly walked around the log and reached into her rucksack.

“Excuse me,” she spoke and Nightfall jumped to her hooves, her teal eyes meeting the newcomer’s ocean blues.

Nightfall backed away with a look of terror on her face at the cream-colored mare whose poofy blue and pink hair was adorned with sticks and leaves.

“It’s okay, little filly. I’m not here to hurt you. My name is Bonbon.” the mare greeted Nightfall, setting down the muffin she held in her hoof, “Here. Eat up. You need it,” she told Nightfall.

Nightfall stared at Bonbon for a minute, then eyed the muffin hungrily, but hesitation had ahold of her and she did not move as she was afraid this was nothing but a trick to get her closer to the earth pony who could easily overpower her. But soon her hesitation diminished when her belly grumbled and demanded food. She lunged for the muffin and took hold of it, chowing down on it like a ravenous timberwolf. Bonbon jumped back during the filly’s lunge because she didn’t know if Nightfall was going to attack her, or the food she offered up as an olive branch.

Nightfall finished the treat then coughed and plopped down. She didn’t realize just how hungry she actually was until the tasty meal had touched her tongue and hit her empty belly. Bonbon soon pulled out a flask of water and approached Nightfall before popping the cap off and holding it out to her. The filly looked up at Bonbon weakly before reaching up for it only for her hoof to fall short and hit the grass.

“You poor thing,” Bonbon commented and got closer to her before sitting back on her haunches and cradling Nightfall’s head against her lap, helping her drink from it. “You’re dehydrated and starving,” she remarked after Nightfall had emptied the flask and coughed again from having drunk too fast.

“Thank you,” Nightfall whispered, her eyes growing heavy shortly after.

Bonbon smiled at the sleepy filly, but it was not a happy one as she stared down at Nightfall, lost in thought as to who this alicorn was and why she was all alone out in the Everfree. Seeing that Nightfall had fallen asleep rather quickly, Bonbon lifted her up onto her back and trotted off back in the direction she had come from.

~==~==~==~==~

Nightfall’s eyes fluttered open, and she brought her hooves up to cover her face once the bright light hit her. She groaned and closed her eyes before she rolled over and pulled the blanket over her head.

Wait, a blanket? Since when did she have a blanket to cover up with? She jolted upright and looked around her environment with renewed fear. She was in a room whose walls were a sky blue and adorned with clouds, trees, and animals decals.

“Where am I?” she muttered, then looked down at the plain yellow blanket she had draped over her lap. “A room? But when?”

Nightfall gulped hard as the terror struck further and she began to hyperventilate. Then she heard the creaking of a door opening and her head snapped in its direction instantly.

“I just wanna see, alright, Bons?” Lyra pushed open the door and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Nightfall was wide awake and having a difficult time breathing. “Bons, she’s awake! Get in here. Now!” Lyra screamed in urgency as she ran into the room just before Bonbon came barreling into the room.

“Nightfall?” Bonbon called out to the frightened filly.

Nightfall didn’t respond. All she could do was hyperventilate more until she broke down into loud sobs. Bonbon raced over to her and took hold of her, pushing Nightfall against her barrel and whispering softly to the filly.

“It’s okay, Nightfall. You’re okay,” Bonbon told Nightfall and stroked her hoof through the child’s mane, secretly admiring how the way the colors of lilac and black compliment each other.

Like the crying foal she was, Nightfall buried herself deeply into Bonbon’s chest and cried. Lyra watched the scene with a warm smile before she left the two alone, closing the door behind her before she headed to the kitchen to get breakfast made for them.

Alone now with Nightfall, Bonbon let her cry as much as she needed without a word and just sat there comforting her. She had thought everypony in Equis had a hard time over the past few years since Nightmare Moon had taken over, but to see Nightfall crying like she was and what she had heard the filly say in the Everfree, Bonbon now knew that maybe she has had the hardest time of them all.

“Where are we?” Nightfall mumbled in between her sobs to Bonbon.

“Ponyville, Nightfall. At a friend’s cottage,” Bonbon answered her, looking right back at the filly who was now looking up at her.

“When?”

“A few hours ago. After you mauled that muffin and inhaled my water you fell right asleep. So I brought you somewhere safe, and cozy.”

“Oh. Thank you.” Nightfall then relaxed against Bonbon and said to her next, “I need to go to my Daddy.”

“You’ve said that a few times now, Nightfall. Where is your father anyway?”

“Far away.”

Bonbon just stared right back at Nightfall for a moment while she processed things, then her brain slapped her and showed her the worry on the filly’s face. “What were you doing out in the Everfree?”

Nightfall froze for a second at Bonbon’s inquiry but then quickly came up with a response. “I was out visiting some friends. We were playing hide and seek and thought the forest would be the best place to play the game.”

Bonbon’s brow raised and she looked smugly at Nightfall. She had to give the filly points for trying to fool her, sure, but they both knew that was a white lie. Now the only question Bonbon had on her mind was why Nightfall just tried to lie to her. She supposed that with all the trauma the filly had gone through in only a matter of hours she would leave it be for now. Maybe she’d get lucky and earn the alicorn’s trust to be let in on her “secret” someday.

“Are your friends still out there?” Bonbon asked Nightfall.

Just then the door flew open and three fillies pounced inside, scaring both Bonbon and Nightfall that they nearly fell off the side of the bed.

“There she is! Lyra wasn’t kidding!”

“Aw shucks. Now we have a new friend!”

Nightfall instantly began to shake against Bonbon and hid from view which made Bonbon sigh and close her eyes, rolling them before looking at the three excited fillies.

“You three scared her. Apologize,” she said to the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

“Scared her? Oops.” Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo all blushed and lowered their heads. “We’re sorry,” they apologized.

Nightfall cautiously turned her head and peered at the three with one eye, sniffling before Bonbon smiled at her and nodded; giving her approval that they were alright.

“Hello,” Nightfall stuttered back.

The CMC looked back up with new smiles then walked over to the bed and sat on their haunches. Nightfall slowly slipped out of Bonbon's hold and sat at the edge of the bed. The Cutie Mark Crusaders soon introduced themselves and Nightfall returned the gesture. The five of them then heard Lyra calling up to them that breakfast was ready and as if Nightfall and her new acquaintances had been friends for awhile, they bounded out of the bedroom and down to the kitchen before Bonbon could even close the door before heading that way herself.

Fillies are something else. But Nightfall...she’s an enigma, Bonbon thought to herself.

When Bonbon entered the kitchen she saw Nightfall and the CMC chatting and mowing down on their meal while Lyra waited at the table for her to join. She’d no more than sat down when the front door opened and two voices called out.

“We’re back!”

Bonbon knew those voices and smiled. “Welcome back, Twilight, Spike.”

Nightfall looked over to the entrance to the kitchen and saw a tiny purple dragon walk in accompanied by an alicorn. She stared blankly at Twilight Sparkle even when the older alicorn glanced right back at her with the same expression.

There was now an awkward silence in the kitchen as the two stared the other down and time seemed to slow down until finally, Spike noticed Nightfall as well. It was at that very moment that the three of them pointed at each other.

“You’re an alicorn!” Twilight and Nightfall both squealed.

“Okay then.” Lyra stood up, cleared her plate, and walked between the two statuette ponies to the kitchen sink.

Bonbon sighed and brought her hoof up to her head. She was starting to worry about Nightfall’s sanity at this point. First, the filly is starved to death and exhausted, then she passed out only to wake up and get frightened by Lyra; then thrice more by the obnoxious entrance by the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and now Twilight and Spike. If Nightfall didn’t have a heart attack at her young age then Bonbon could say she herself wasn’t a real pony.

“Crusaders, take Nightfall upstairs, please. We mares have to discuss some things,” Bonbon spoke to Sweetie Belle, Applebloom and Scootaloo.

“Okey dokey!” Applebloom was the first to jump up and lead the way. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo followed with Nightfall in tow between them.

Twilight shook her head vigorously then looked at both Bonbon and Lyra, still awe-stricken by seeing another alicorn in person. Once the three heard the scampering of four fillies up the flight of stairs, then a door slamming shut seconds after, they all let out a bated breath.

“Is this real?” Twilight asked Bonbon.

“As real as Spike,” Lyra chimed in immediately.

“Where did you find her?” Spike questioned.

Bonbon sighed and shook her head. “I found her in the Everfree while I was out looking for signs of Zecora.”

“What’s a filly like her doing out in the Everfree? It’s more dangerous than ever since Nightmare Moon shrouded Equestria in eternal darkness,” Spike spoke out scratching the side of his face.

“She was playing hide and seek with some of her friends and they thought the forest would make it more fun,” Bonbon answered back without hesitation.

Twilight sat down at the table with Bonbon and Lyra while Spike opened the fridge. Both Twilight and Bonbon looked each other in the eye.

“She was in the Everfree with her friends? Then where are they?” the Princess of Friendship asked the confectionary artist.

“I’m assuming they are still out there, Twilight. When I found Nightfall she was alone slumped up against a log. She was so dehydrated and starved that she passed out on me,” Bonbon told her.

“Wait, if they’re still out there then why hasn’t anypony gone out to look for them?”

“I did, Twilight. I found no tracks to indicate there were any other ponies out there,” Bonbon explained. “I’m going back out shortly to see if maybe something’s changed.”

“Well if that is the case then maybe I’d better talk to her,” Twilight said, and stood up. “Maybe I can get her to tell me who they are at least.”

Bonbon warned Twilight as she trotted away, “Be careful, Twilight. She gets anxious around strangers.”

Twilight stopped and looked back at Bonbon. “I’m the Princess of Friendship, remember? I’ve got this.”

Upstairs in the bedroom, the CMC and Nightfall were giggling as she listened to them tell her some of their adventures when they were searching for their Cutie Marks, when a knock came to the door as Twilight stepped inside.

Twilight waved to Nightfall. “Hello. I’m Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship.”

Nightfall, who stopped listening to the three fillies beside her when Twilight spoke, stared at the alicorn absentmindedly. Twilight got the feeling that she had shocked the filly and sighed.

“Girls, could you give me and Nightfall a moment please?”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders huffed and rolled their eyes then escorted themselves out of the room, with Applebloom being the only one to say something about it. “Why can’t we have time to talk to her?”

After she shook her head and put on a smile, Twilight closed the door then walked closer to Nightfall just so the two of them could sit and talk comfortably. However, that would not be the case because as soon as Twilight took one hoof forward, Nightfall screeched and flared her wings then jumped up to the ceiling.

Twilight herself jumped back out of shock at the filly’s aggravated response, then she face-hoofed herself and heard Bonbon’s warning screaming at her.

You’re the Princess of Friendship, remember? Ugh! Twilight yelled at herself inwardly then looked up at the scared filly who had her back against the ceiling. “Nightfall, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you. I was just going to sit down so we could talk, that’s all.”

Nightfall glued her teal eyes onto Twilight and made not a peep. But after she heard the apology and saw in the mare’s composure that she was apologetic, the filly gulped and slowly descended until her hooves met the hardwood floor.

“O...okay,” Nightfall stuttered and shook in place as she tried to relax.

Twilight walked over to the bed and sat on her haunches, patting the bed for Nightfall. “Why don’t you sit up here and we can talk?”

Nightfall nodded her head slowly, hesitantly; then lifted herself up onto the bed, staying as far away from Twilight as she possibly could. For her, Twilight was now a visage of terror and Nightfall felt that if she was too close to the alicorn that she would be consumed by monsters like in the stories she had heard about through her mother’s assistant, Rarity.

Seeing that she wasn’t going to get that closeness she wanted with Nightfall, Twilight accepted it and told herself that she had been warned, for starters and two, Nightfall was just a filly; scared, alone, and helpless. The poor thing was found in the Everfree, passed out, then woke up in a bedroom for Celestia’s sake! Even the Princess of Friendship couldn’t fault Nightfall for being so afraid of strangers after all the crap she’d been through.

“So let’s start again,” Twilight said then put on her best smile and held out her hoof. “Hello. I’m Twilight Sparkle. I’m an alicorn and the Princess of Friendship.”

Nightfall gave Twilight credit since she was trying to make amends, or was it friends, with her? Whichever it was, Nightfall gulped again, still hesitant to move even an inch, but she did clear her throat.

“Hello, Twilight. I’m Nightfall, an alicorn too,” she finally spoke in response.

Twilight’s smile seemed to glow now when Nightfall introduced herself, even if she didn’t trust Twilight yet. She was just glad to see the two had broken the ice and could start on the track to trusting the other.

Twilight began to run through her checklist in her head as for where to go next with conversation. She checked off introductions, which included—but was not entirely limited to—giving your name first, tell your acquaintance a little about yourself, and be sure to smile and show them that you genuinely wanted to have a meaningful conversation!

She felt that those had been done so now it was time to move forward. She brought her hoof down and kept her focus on Nightfall. “I’m from Canterlot but then I moved to Ponyville, where I live now. Where are you from, Nightfall?”

“Far away,” Nightfall answered curtly.

“Where’s “far away”?” Twilight asked her.

“Far away,” Nightfall answered back.

“Is it a city? A village? A small town?”

Nightfall was beginning to feel irritated at Twilight asking her a second time to speak of where she was from, “It’s far away, okay? Please stop asking.”

Twilight must have gotten the hint after Nightfall spoke back to her because the mare lowered her head and blushed with embarrassment, then quickly apologized to her.

“Well, how many of your friends were you with while you were playing hide and seek in the forest, Nightfall?”

“Three.”

Wow. Twilight took Nightfall’s hint and backed off a bit. “Well, Bonbon’s going out to look for them soon, so is there anything you can tell me to help her find them?”

“I’m feeling a little tired. Can I just take a nap?” she asked Twilight and faked her eyes getting too heavy to keep open.

“Uh, sure, yeah. I’ll uh, I’ll just go then.”

Twilight quickly excused herself and left Nightfall alone, and she couldn’t have been happier. Nightfall soon curled herself up under the covers and closed her eyes.

“It can’t be,” she whispered to herself. “It just can’t be.”

3. Warming Up to the Idea of Friendship

Nightfall laid awake and stared ahead of her out the window. The afternoon had come and gone, but how would Nightfall know? It had been eternal night since she was born. Good thing she had seen a clock on the wall that told her it was two o’clock.

She sat up and looked down at her hooves with a sigh. “I want my Daddy.”

Outside of the bedroom, she heard the soft hoof steps of somepony stopping before the door, and again the filly sighed. The door soon creaked open enough that a mint green head popped in. When she saw Nightfall was awake, Lyra pushed open the door and walked in, then pushed it shut with her rear hoof.

“Morning, sunshine,” she greeted with a wave to Nightfall.

“Morning…?”

Lyra giggled at Nightfall’s confusion and walked over to the dresser that was only a few feet from the bed the filly sat in. “It’s a saying I use whenever anypony sleeps in late like you did.”

“Oh, okay.” Nightfall was still guarded around everypony except Bonbon, but she could accept Lyra so long as she wasn’t Twilight Sparkle in disguise. “Is it day or night?”

“I want to say you’re a silly filly for asking that question, but being it is eternal night, I won’t.” Lyra laughed again at her own joke, then looked back at Nightfall and saw that she was neither laughing or smiling, but more looking back at her with teal eyes of what the buck? “It’s evening now. You feeling better?”

Better? “Oh, yes. A little,” Nightfall answered, then rubbed the side of her head. “Still a little sleepy.”

“Well, that’ll pass in no time. Why don’t you come downstairs and have some dinner?” Lyra offered the filly with a smile.

Just hearing the word “dinner” was enough to make the filly’s belly grumble in an agreement which made her blush, and made Lyra snicker, then turn around and head back towards the door.

“Oh, I’m Lyra by the way.” she said, and flashed her a smile and pulled the door open.

“Lyra, where’s Bonbon?”

“Bons? She and Twilight went out to the Everfree to look for your friends. They’ll be back soon,” Lyra answered her, then tilted her head. “Anything else, Nightfall?”

Nightfall shook her head from side-to-side and Lyra nodded, then left the room. As soon as the door shut and she heard Lyra leaving the bedroom, she jumped for the window and looked outside. From the second floor, she could see the thick landscape of the Everfree in the distance.

“I want my daddy,” she said to herself before glancing over her shoulder at the door, then back out of the window. “Daddy, I miss you.”

Nightfall so badly wanted to just sneak out of the bedroom through the window and take off as fast as her tiny wings would let her and head for her father’s home, but her stomach disagreed with another thunderous bellow followed by her subconscious instincts to run to Bonbon and cry some more.

Just run away, Nightfall. You know they’re just pretending to be nice to you.

“They’re not like Momma.”

Not yet, they aren’t. But they will be and it’s only a matter of time before they find out that you lied to them.

“I want my daddy,” Nightfall argued back, then shook her head and silenced that miserable voice of doubt in the back of her mind.

She decided to fly over to the bedroom door and open it. She was hungry and Lyra told her that there was dinner waiting for her, so why shouldn’t she eat? She nearly starved herself once and then she was found by Bonbon and brought to a place that was warm and cozy. She left the room and scampered down the stairs, then straight into the kitchen where she was met by the three fillies she’d met earlier sitting at a smaller table with a vacant seat. They all waved to Nightfall, then pointed to the open seat and smiled, which made her smile back and join them.

Peeking into the kitchen from the living room, Lyra smiled at the sight of the four fillies all sharing a meal together and chatting it up then, went back to the couch and relaxed with a smile on her mug.

“And Twilight said the filly was afraid of her. Heh.”

~==~==~==~==~

Twilight, Spike, and Bonbon crept through the Everfree Forest in search of signs or clues that may lead them to the whereabouts of Nightfall’s three friends that she was supposedly with. They had spent the past two hours scouring the woods, and even with Bonbon’s tracking prowess they came up empty-hoofed, so they took a small break at the log where Bonbon had found Nightfall.

“This is it, Twilight,” Bonbon told her and looked around the surrounding area, “I saw nothing that pointed to any other ponies with her, not even animals nearby.”

“Well, it is the Everfree, Bonbon,” Twilight retorted, then closed her eyes and lit up her horn for a moment before expelling a radiant light that advanced out in a twenty-foot radius before it dissipated.

Bonbon and Spike both looked around as prints of varying shapes and sizes appeared in the form of lavender light. Twilight opened her eyes and looked around with her companions. She immediately saw footsteps tinier than the rest leading from the log away from it and deeper into the woods.

“These must be Nightfall’s,” Twilight discerned. “Let’s see where they lead. Maybe we’ll find more clues.”

“Sounds good, Twilight,” Spike agreed, while Bonbon simply nodded in silence and kept her own ideas on Nightfall’s story to herself.

The trio followed Nightfall’s ethereal hoofprints into the forest for a hundred feet before the magic wore off and Twilight sat down.

“Let’s take a break, guys.” Twilight huffed and licked her lips as she tried to rehydrate her dry mouth.

“Twilight, are you alright? I’ve never seen you this lethargic in such a short amount of time,” Bonbon inquired when she sat down next to Twilight.

Spike sat down on the other side of the alicorn and rubbed Twilight’s back as she gulped and nodded in response to Bonbon’s question.

“I’ll be fine, Bonbon. It just happens that magic can take a lot out of me,” she answered the mare.

Even having honed her spell-casting abilities, there were some spells that just took too much out of her, and the Ethereal Tracing spell was one of them. Without being asked to explain it, Twilight began telling Bonbon how it worked.

“See Bonbon, the spell I cast is called the Ethereal tracing spell. It isn’t a complex spell to learn or cast really. Its function is simple, too: it tracks things like lingering magic, or, in this case, footprints left by things that contain either heat or magic,” she explained. “While the heat from Nightfall’s hoofprints dissipated hours ago, because she is an alicorn and radiates a very minute source of magic naturally, they showed up to us.”

Bonbon nodded her head in understanding, but had a question on her mind now that Twilight soon shed light on after her momentary pause in speaking to catch her breath.

“The spell’s drawback is in how much is revealed in a twenty-foot radius. We got lucky that it picked up only six sets of recent prints; Nightfall’s own and a small pack of timberwolves’. Had there been more then I would most likely be taking a nap right now instead of talking to you and Spike.”

“Even as an alicorn, such spells can take a toll on you? And here I thought alicorns had massive amounts of magic reserves compared to the average unicorn,” Bonbon commented after listening to Twilight’s explanation of the spell she had just used.

“Yeah, being an alicorn doesn’t really mean they have unlimited power,” Spike said soon after while he kept his eyes on Twilight.

“Well, it looks like her hoofprints stop at that tree line there. Give me a few minutes and I’ll cast the spell again,” Twilight said to them.

“No need, Twilight. You don’t need to overexert yourself,” Bonbon denied. “I can help from here. You just take all the time you need to recover, all right?”

Twilight nodded to Bonbon, then laid down and closed her eyes. Spike cuddled up next to her while Bonbon circled the perimeter and kept her eyes open to even the smallest of movements nearby; her ears open to the slightest new noise that wasn’t already present; and her nose weary of any scents that were not natural forest smells—grass, the nearby streams, and even the dung from forest critters.

“Far away,” that’s what she said. So just how far away exactly? Canterlot? Manehattan? Phillydelphia perhaps?” Bonbon mulled over her question to herself while she thought back to how Nightfall refused to answer her honestly about where she lived.

Even knowing Nightfall was just a filly who didn’t fully trust herself, Twilight, or Lyra, her answer seemed more worried about how Bonbon might react if Nightfall had told her where she lived. This thought just made Bonbon all the more curious as to who Nightfall was and where she came from.

Bonbon stayed focused on those two words as she came up with any possible place that was far away from both the Everfree Forest and Ponyville. Just then her train of thought was broken when she heard something flying through the sky. Her head snapped upwards just in time to see a large shadow speeding right for her. Bonbon hit the ground just in time to feel the light caress of hooves brushing against her back followed by a gust of wind. She recovered quickly and saw that Twilight and Spike were on alert now as well.

“Twilight, behind you!” Bonbon called out as she saw the figure darting right for them.

Twilight hopped around and flared her magic, firing a magic missile at the oncoming shadow only for it to miss. They rolled out of the way just as the creature swooped down and leveled themselves out and sped towards Bonbon again.

Now that she got a good look at the steely black figure charging her, Bonbon could tell it was a thestral, a batpony. She had dealt with several thestrals recently and learned a technique to combat them. She tapped her rear hoof three times, each with a two-second delay. On the third tap, the threat was on top of her, or so they thought. She ducked down and kicked up her back hooves, the bottoms of them connecting with its snout and sending it back into a tumble. Twilight and Spike jumped out of the way just in time to not get hit by it, but the thestral recovered by snapping open its wings and bringing itself back onto its hooves before skidding to a halt.

Twilight’s horn lit up with its aura and she was about to cast a spell at the bat pony, but before she could, it opened its mouth and released an ear-piercing shrill that brought the three of them to their knees before it darted off into the sky and out of view. After a few minutes of suffering from ringing ears and massive headaches, the trio recovered only to grimace at the intense pain and the lingering resounding of the bat pony’s scream.

After their attacker fled and the trio had time to regain their focus and hearing, they looked at each other with questioning looks on their faces.

“What just happened?” Bonbon asked blankly, not knowing why they had just come under siege by a thestral in the Everfree.

“I know the Everfree is home to many creatures—most territorial and hostile—but I have never seen one of them in it before,” Twilight pointed out, baffled as well.

“I think it’s time to leave,” Spike suggested as he looked around himself cautiously.

Twilight and Bonbon agreed wholeheartedly with the dragon and as soon as they could stand back up, they headed back to the entrance of the forest and to Fluttershy’s cottage. Along the way, they discussed their failed attempts to find any clues on the whereabouts of Nightfall’s friends and what had just transpired with their attacker.

For Twilight and Bonbon, nothing made sense. Even when she had gone into the Everfree alone on several occasions in the past, Bonbon had never come into contact with a thestral that aggressive before. Was the Everfree Forest just getting more dangerous? It was the only explanation that made sense. For some reason though, she had a strange feeling that there was more to it than that.

“Bonbon!” Twilight shouted, pulling her from her deep thoughts. Bonbon nearly jumped and looked straight at Twilight. “Wha…?”

“You were muttering to yourself. Is everything okay?” Twilight asked her.

“Huh? Oh-oh! Yes, everything’s fine. I was just wondering if Nightfall’s friends are okay.”

When they finally made it out of the forest and back to the cottage where they were staying, the door opened and bounding out like rabbits were the four fillies that resided with them. Twilight, Spike, and Bonbon stared at the fillies as they waved at them, then rounded the bend to go play. Twilight smiled when she saw how Nightfall had seemed to warm up to the CMC, but at the same time she was reminded of the look of terror on that same smiling filly’s face when she looked back at her.

“Spike to Twilight, hello!” Spike called out to Twilight while he waved his arm in front of her face.

Twilight blinked, then shook her head. “Huh? What?”

“Are you okay? You zoned out for a minute there,” Bonbon said to her.

“I’m fine,” Twilight answered back, then trotted inside.

Bonbon and Spike followed behind Twilight and smiled when they saw Lyra in the kitchen finishing up some of the dishes from dinner.

Lyra waved back at them with a smile. “Welcome back. Any luck in finding her friends?”

Twilight hung her head low and pulled up a chair to the table.

“No, sadly,” she answered back.

“We did get attacked by a bat pony though,” Spike told Lyra.

“What?! Are you guys okay?” Lyra screamed.

Bonbon, Twilight, and Spike all cringed at her loud shouting and hissed at her.

“Lyra, please,” Bonbon snapped back, “quiet down. Our ears still hurt.”

“Yeah. Who would have thought that bat ponies could scream so loud,” Spike grumbled.

“Oh, sorry. I’m sorry,” Lyra apologized. “Well you’ll be happy to know that Nightfall’s up and had dinner.”

“We know. We saw her with the Cutie Mark Crusaders just now. She seems to be a bit more cheerful now than earlier,” Twilight remarked.

Outside, Nightfall and the three fillies with her kicked a ball around and talked. She found that she enjoyed hearing of their adventures and getting to know them a bit more. She might even say that she made three friends, but then she remembered how she never had any friends because of whose daughter she was, and that hurt her inside.

When Sweetie Belle had finished telling of the time she and her friends entered a parade, Nightfall let out a tiny giggle, then grabbed the ball when Scootaloo passed it to her.

“I know, let’s play hide and seek,” she suggested to them. “I’ll be the seeker first.”

“Great idea, Nightfall!” Apple Bloom cheered happily and looked to Sweetie and Scootaloo, who both smiled in agreement.

Nightfall then left the ball in place and trotted over to the tire swing that dangled from the tree.

“Okay, my eyes are closed,” she announced and closed her eyes. “One...Two…”

The three fillies quickly scattered in search of their perfect hiding places, and when Nightfall no longer heard their scampering and silence ensued, she stopped counting and looked around. Her smile soon turned to a frown.

“Ready or not, here I come!” she said out loud.

She looked up in the tree and found nothing, then looked to her left at the garden and saw Scootaloo’s tail poking out from behind one of the other trees. She decided to head around the side of the house and saw Apple Bloom hiding under the bridge that connected the abode over the creek. Now that she had located two of them, she went off in search of Sweetie Belle.

Once she had found the three of them she would decide who should be the first to be found and tag them. She didn’t have to look for long to find Sweetie Belle hiding behind some large boxes that sat up beside the other side of the house.

Now that Nightfall had found where each one of them was hiding she turned back to the back of the house and took to the air so that Scootaloo wouldn’t see her coming, then slowly descended until she tapped the top of Scootaloo’s head.

“Found ya. You’re it,” Nightfall laughed before she flew off and found the other two. They then met back at the tree and shared a laugh between them when Nightfall revealed to them how she was able to find them so easily.

“All right. I’m it now so go hide,” Scootaloo said and turned her head to the trunk of the tree and closed her eyes.

They scattered with haste, and Nightfall took to the air once more and perched herself on top of the roof to blend in with the branches. When she heard Scootaloo announce that she was finished counting, Nightfall watched her closely as she moved away from the house and towards the front of it.

“Daddy, I’ll be home soon,” she told herself, then took to the sky and looked towards Ponyville. She glanced back one last time with a sad smile then heard three sets of hooves closing in on her location.

Nightfall had wanted to run away right then and there, but something begged her not to. With a quiet sigh, she buried herself into the tree top and listened closely. Her stomach had butterflies in it and her heart beat with a sense of joy. She had been introduced to a new lease on life and it was something completely new to her because for once she felt like she was wanted.

~==~==~==~==~

Bonbon quietly pulled the door closed, stopping only to steal one last look into the bedroom at the sleeping filly, before smiling to herself and letting the door’s latch click into place. She returned to the downstairs where she joined Lyra and Twilight in the kitchen.

“Did you sleep at all, Bons?” Lyra asked her friend when she saw the bags beneath Bonbon’s eyes.

“Do you really need to ask, Lyra?” Bonbon replied, then dropped her head onto the table.

“What kept you up all night? I thought she fell asleep quickly?” Twilight spoke up.

Bonbon blinked her eyes then lifted her head up and shook it. “She fell asleep pretty fast but after an hour she started to have bad dreams. I couldn’t leave her be, so I did what I could to ease her back into a peaceful sleep.”

“Well, that was kind of you, Bonbon.” Twilight smiled in appreciation for the care she showed to Nightfall. She had expected no less from Bonbon, of course.

“So what kind of dreams was she having?” Spike asked out of nowhere as he walked in.

“I don’t know exactly. She wasn’t exactly mumbling loud enough for me to hear, but whatever it was, little Nightfall wanted her father,” Bonbon answered Spike. “That was the only word I could understand fully.”

“If she wants her father so bad, then why is she all the way out here?” Twilight wondered out loud.

Bonbon just shrugged while Lyra leaned up against the countertop just listening to the conversation. She could see the dense air in the room with Twilight pondering whatever she was and Bonbon most likely worrying about Nightfall, as she had been for the last two days.

“Maybe they got separated?” Spiked suggested with a raised hand.

“I’m gonna get some sleep now,” Bonbon said and stood up.

She left the kitchen and made her way back upstairs, passing by Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. They had just woken up themselves from the looks of it, but where was Sweetie Belle? Bonbon didn’t stop to ask and headed back to Nightfall’s room.

Bonbon opened the door and found Sweetie Belle talking to Nightfall. Her heart raced now when she saw the filly was a wreck and crying loudly again.

“What happened?” Bonbon asked and trotted over to the two fillies.

Nightfall immediately threw herself at Bonbon and cried against Bonbon. Without hesitation, Bonbon held Nightfall and began to whisper to her to calm her down.

“I heard sobbing when I was passing by and peeked into see Nightfall crying,” Sweetie Belle answered Bonbon, “I think she had a bad dream.”

“Thank you. You can go get breakfast now. I’ll take care of Nightfall.”

Sweetie Belle nodded then hopped off the bed and exited the bedroom. With just the two of them alone now, Bonbon ran her hoof through Nightfall’s mane until she managed to relax a bit and look up at the mare.

“Another bad dream?” Bonbon asked Nightfall in a soft voice.

“Mhmm,” Nightfall answered her, “I want my daddy.”

“We’ll get you to him, Nightfall. But we need to know where he lives.”

That was the one thing Nightfall would refuse to answer, even to Bonbon, but with still being a filly and still a bit reluctant to open up around herself and the others, she could at least feel some warmth in her heart that it seemed like Bonbon really cared about her.

Care. A word that Nightfall didn’t understand and it was something the voice in the back of her head would not allow to slip inside of her thoughts. And it did this by uttering only a single word.

Nightmares.

4. Making A Connection

Nightfall looked up at the moon lost in thought. She couldn’t believe that she had spent the past week with Bonbon and her friends. It surprised her with all things considered, since Nightfall was usually shunned by everypony. She remembered going to school only to be treated badly by her fellow peers. Sure, it was like that at any elementary anyplace else. There were always those cliques that looked at you differently from the rest and it was usually for something as little as your mane style or the color of your eyes, wings, or horn; each depending on what you were. And in Nightfall’s case, she was an alicorn, so of course she was seen in a dim light and automatically picked on.

Did it hurt when ponies made fun of her hues of purple or magenta in her wings or coat? Of course it did. And did it wound her further when they laughed at how she had no friends while the rest of them did? Of course, but even through all of that, it never hurt any worse than when she’d return to her home and stand in her mother’s shadow. While her classmates knew how to hurt her with remarks about how she wore her mane or the colors in her coat, nothing hurt worse than her mother’s hateful comments or the look of loathing she’d get anytime she walked past.

While Nightfall gazed at the moon and its beauty, she remembered one time in school when she tried to make friends with a pony by the name of Silver Spoon. Things had been going well for the first week, at least she had thought so. In the end it turned out to be a ruse, and it ended up with Nightfall crying herself to sleep alone beneath the moon.

She didn’t know why she was looking back on painful memories, but it always seemed to happen whenever she tried to find solace beneath the moon that reigned over everything day in and day out. As a filly, Nightfall had so many questions about the world around her, so maybe she thought that the moon would give her some answers, or maybe she always thought of her bad experiences because it reminded her of her mother. After all, the moon was part of her mother’s Cutie Mark.

Cutie Mark. There was another bad memory that haunted her as well. Retreating back to her horrible school days, Nightfall remembered being ostracized for being the only blank flank among the class. She soon found herself staring at her barren flank with a frown.

“Is that why Momma hates me?” Nightfall wondered. “Is it because I don’t have my Cutie Mark yet?”

She then heard a rustling behind her and looked up. Bonbon came into view wearing a smile and carrying her saddlebags on her back.

“There you are, Nightfall,” she spoke to the filly as she joined her company and sat beside her.

Nightfall didn’t answer back but instead returned her view to the moon. Understanding her silence, Bonbon smiled and sat down next to Nightfall and looked up at the moon with her.

“You like stargazing, don’t you?” Bonbon asked her, and Nightfall nodded back silently. “I do too. I find myself spending time outside at least a few times a week. I thought you might too since I’ve seen you sneaking out of the bedroom through the window these past three nights.”

Nightfall straightened up and gulped. Bonbon knew about her sneaking out when everypony else was fast asleep? Was she in trouble now? Nightfall wanted to run away out of fear that she would get yelled at, but when she heard Bonbon laughing, she looked at the mare in confusion.

“It’s all right, Nightfall. As long as I know you’re not going to run away, I don’t mind you coming outside when the rest of us are asleep,” Bonbon told her with a kind smile. “Does it help you relax at all?”

“A little,” Nightfall spoke in answer, then returned to looking up at the sky and stars. “Sometimes it does, but it mostly reminds me of how worthless I am.”

“You’re not worthless, Nightfall, so don’t say that again, okay?”

“I feel like I am though,” the filly argued back.

“How so? Because you don’t yet have your Cutie Mark?”

How did she know? Nightfall thought to herself. “Yes…” she mumbled and dropped her head down in shame, “...I was always made fun of for being a blank flank back in school.”

“Oh Nightfall, you can stop thinking like that then if that’s the only reason,” Bonbon replied. “We’ve all been there before. I didn’t have my mark while I was in elementary.”

“Really?” Nightfall’s head perked up and she found herself intently looking back at Bonbon.

“Really. I remember being a blank flank too. Everypony goes through that when they’re young, Nightfall. It’s just a way of life. Some find their talent early on and some don’t. I remember when Lyra got her Cutie Mark before I did. I felt all sorts of emotions. I was sad, disappointed in myself, and I was angry too. She’s a dear friend of mine but that didn’t stop me from disliking her for getting her mark before me,” Bonbon told Nightfall, then laughed and shook her head.

“Did you ever feel worthless?” Nightfall asked Bonbon.

“Yes,” Bonbon answered curtly, “there are times I still do though. Again, it’s how life is, Nightfall. So trust me when I tell you that it will get better. You’re not alone in feeling sad or hurt for one thing or another.”

Nightfall was astonished that Bonbon had once been a blank flank, and Lyra too. For the longest time Nightfall had thought that she was meant to be a mistake solely because she did not have her Cutie Mark yet, or at least that’s what her mother led her to believe when she finally had taken notice that she was the only markless filly (combined with some slurs from her so-called classmates).

“As you know from the three other fillies living with us, they were blank flanks once too,” Bonbon went on to say to Nightfall. “They call themselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders because they wanted to have Cutie Marks just like their classmates did, so they made it their goal to find them. The stories they’ve told you really happened, and in the end, they discovered their special talents. So don’t worry, okay? You will find your talent too.”

“What if I don’t have a talent?” Nightfall questioned with haste.

“Everypony has a talent, little one. It’s what makes us all special in our own way. I’m sure yours will be special too when you find it. But you can’t do that if you keep feeling like you’re ‘worthless’, now can you?” Bonbon looked down at Nightfall and their eyes met.

“No, I guess not.”

“So what will you do then?”

“I’ll find my talent and get my Cutie Mark, right?”

Bonbon nodded once to Nightfall, then pulled the filly against her and rested her head on top of Nightfall’s own before whispering to her, “You’ll find it, Nightfall. Just don’t be afraid to ask for help or make friends, okay? The Cutie Mark Crusaders will gladly help you if you ask.”

“Bons, can I ask you something?”

“Anything, Nightfall. Don’t be shy.”

“Do you want me?”

Bonbon blinked at Nightfall’s question and wanted to ask her why she would ask such a thing in the first place, but something inside her told her not to, and she obliged. But that wouldn’t mean she’d let it be and pretend it never happened.

“Yes.”

It was a simple answer to a simple question, but even so, Bonbon wanted to know the reason behind Nightfall asking it. Even though she had started to warm up to everypony, Nightfall was still quite a mystery and very, very tight-lipped when it came to topics about her mother and father, one being painful for her to speak of and the other, a sign of comfort, in their own respects.

Whatever your mother has done to you, I swear I will beat some sense into her. Bonbon thought to herself as she cradled Nightfall and started to sing a lullaby to her.

After Nightfall had fallen asleep with a gentle smile on her face, Bonbon delicately lifted her up onto her back and carried her back into the house where she tucked Nightfall in once she reached the upstairs bedroom.

“Sleep peacefully now, Nightfall,” Bonbon whispered, then placed a kiss on the filly’s forehead before exiting the room.

Now that the last filly had been put to bed Bonbon quietly returned downstairs and into the living room where she found Lyra, awake and bearing a cheesy smile toward her.

“What?” Bonbon squeaked at Lyra.

“Oh nothing, Bons.” Lyra played it off and quickly turned back around. “Never thought you had a sweet side,” she giggled.

Author's Note

I hope you enjoyed this little SoL chapter as much as I did writing it and that you will continue to read as each chapter arrives to see what is to become of Nightfall and this world she lives in.

Feel free to leave a comment and a like too! I'm always open to feedback--it helps me to know how I'm doing!

5. Nightfall and Rain Clouds

The cottage was lit by candles and full of happiness. Even with how far away the stranger was, she could see three fillies jumping around, playing and just having a good time, then off to the side she saw another filly fly past the window. It was Nightfall, and just seeing how happy she seemed to be brought a tear to the observer’s eyes.

“Seven days, Nightfall. It has been seven days since they found you, and now look at how happy you are. I’m sorry,” she said to herself, then turned and started to walk away. “What do I do now? I was a fool to think I could handle this on my own.”

Your own? What about Twilight? A voice asked her.

“What about her? She’s not going to be happy in three days.”

Does her happiness really matter to you though? All you did was answer a filly’s cry for help.

“I know.”

You followed your gut and helped a filly who reminded you so much of yourself. So whose happiness takes precedence here: Twilight’s or Nightfall’s?

“I know, all right? But again, following my gut has only brought sadness now. Celestia, why am I talking to my own conscience?”

She promptly sat down and raised her head up to the night sky, and another thought came to her. “Maybe I could give her another week before I shatter her world?”

You could. You do have the power, don’t you? I mean, you should, considering all you’ve done so far. Her conscience remarked before it quieted down.

While she contemplated her next course of action, the cottage was slowly settling down.

“All right fillies, time for bed,” Bonbon spoke as she exited the kitchen.

Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo all stopped jumping around and looked at Bonbon while Nightfall, who was hovering above the three, also turned her attention to the mare. All four fillies let out a defeated awwww, then gave her their best puppy eyes in hopes that she’d let them stay up a little while longer.

“You know that doesn’t work on me,” Bonbon told them, and giggled behind her hoof.

“C’mon now fillies, you got school tomorrow, remember?” Lyra said as she walked down the stairs.

Another round of defeated whines filled the room before Twilight and Spike walked in from the backyard, both smiling at the fillies.

“Come on, girls. I’ll read you a book before bed,” Twilight told the four of them.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders jumped gleefully then raced upstairs, nearly running Lyra over in the process, but once they were upstairs Nightfall was the only one who didn’t move. She lowered herself to the floor and looked back at Bonbon until Twilight and Spike followed the fillies up to their room, then frowned.

Bonbon and Lyra both smiled before Lyra made her way over to the couch and laid down on it. Nightfall dragged herself closer to Bonbon and looked up at her before she hid against the mare.

“I’ll tuck you in, Nightfall. Don’t frown, okay?” Bonbon said to Nightfall, then nuzzled the filly.

Nightfall silently nodded back before heading towards the stairs with Bonbon right behind her. Up in her room, Nightfall climbed into the bed and waited for Bonbon to close the door. After the door closed and Bonbon was pulling the blanket over Nightfall, the filly smiled softly and nestled herself in.

“There’s that smile,” Bonbon teased her, then booped the filly’s nose with her own and sat down. “Want me to tell you a story tonight, Nightfall?”

“That’s okay, Bons. Could you just stay with me until I fall asleep?” Nightfall asked instead.

“Of course I can,” she answered back warmly. “What do you want to do tomorrow, Nightfall?”

“Find my daddy,” Nightfall replied curtly to the question.

Of course. Bonbon thought to herself. “Then maybe tomorrow you and I can go for a walk into town. Maybe we can find some clues?” she suggested to the filly.

“Maybe,” Nightfall whispered back, “but how would anypony know if they’ve seen him?”

Bonbon tilted her head curiously to Nightfall’s question and seeing that expression, the filly closed her eyes and sighed. She was starting to feel bad for lying to Bonbon, but as with everypony else who asked about her mother and father, Nightfall was reluctant to divulge just who her parents were out of fear that if Bonbon knew that her mother was Nightmare Moon, she’d be tossed out immediately.

Bonbon smiled and began to hum sweetly to Nightfall. If she had learned one thing about this particular filly over the past week, it was that her humming seemed to calm Nightfall down and lull her to sleep. After Nightfall had finally fallen asleep and slumbered peacefully, Bonbon quietly slipped out of the bedroom and back downstairs to Lyra.

Still awake as usual, Lyra smiled and made room for Bonbon to join her on the couch. The two of them stared each other for a minute in silence before Lyra finally said something, and she said it with admiration.

“You’ll make a great mother someday, Bons.”

~==~==~==~==~

Not again…
No, not again. Not here. No!

Nightfall shouted to the blackened sky, but her voice went unheard amongst the empty streets of Canterlot. She shook with fear and felt her heart jam itself up into her throat as she looked around to the twisted deformations of what used to be trees and bushes; each now grotesque and gnarled like something right out of a horror flick.

“Daddy?” Nightfall cried out.

The air was silent and calm, almost too calm. It made Nightfall wheeze, and she started to look around herself as if she felt eyes staring at her from the shadows. She’s been having these nightmares now for two weeks and they always played out the same way.

Nightfall would always find herself in the deserted city of Canterlot, as she did now. Then an eery mood would set in, as it did, and she would feel like she was being watched. After her body was stricken with fright and frozen in place, she began to hear dark whispers all around her.

They always said the same things to her.

You were a mistake.
Momma never loved you.
Run to Daddy. He won’t want you soon enough.

And once they began to get to her she’d cower and curl up into a ball on the stony ground and cry uncontrollably, like she was doing currently. And as she wept, the voices continued, and they held nothing back as they drilled pain and suffering into her mind every minute.

“Daddy, where are you? Please, Daddy,” Nightfall whimpered.

Nightfall’s eyes snapped open upon hearing a new sound. It wasn’t one she remembered ever being in her bad dream, but it sent a chill down her back regardless. It was laughing at her, and it was a dark laugh. Afraid to move at all, the filly listened to it more closely until she heard it getting closer to her.

Closer? Was the laughter getting closer to her? This frightened the filly more now than ever, and it made her scream out in terror as she jumped up and spun around to look behind her. When she did so she saw who it was that was laughing at her. It was her very own mother.

“Momma?” she gulped in-between sobs.

Nightmare Moon just glared at her while she laughed. Why was Nightfall’s mother in her dream now? She wanted to wake up but she couldn’t. She was in a state of shock and with no control of her voice, she cried out.

“Why don’t you love me, Momma?”

“You’re worthless, Nightfall. Worthless like your father,” Nightmare Moon chided before fading away.

“What did I do?” Nightfall yelled.

“You were a mistake and nothing more. You are worthless,” Nightmare Moon whispered into her daughter’s ear.

Nightfall jumped and turned around, but her mother wasn’t there. “Why do you hate me? What did I do wrong?!”

It didn’t seem like she was going to get an answer from her mother as Nightmare Moon proceeded to ignore Nightfall’s question and continued to drive in just how much of a mistake the filly really was in her eyes. “Just like your worthless father, you’ll be alone forever.”

“Stop it!” Nightfall screamed back.

“And your new friends will disown you soon enough. So run while you can. Run to your father!”

Nightfall, being unable to hear any more from her hateful mother, turned tail and cantered as fast as her little hooves would let her. She ran through the empty streets and didn’t dare to look back. All she could do as she turned down one alley then another was listen to her mother’s condescending laughter that seemed to surround her, unending in its slurs of spite.

She soon came to the end of the road and was met by a very tall brick wall. The open road now seemed to creep in on her until there was nowhere left to run. What was she to do now? There was no way she could fly up to the top of the wall that impeded any chance of escape from the Tartarus she found herself in.

“What did I do to you, Momma? Why don’t you love me?” Nightfall whined as she shrunk down into the fetal position, shaking and sobbing as fresh tears began to fall.

Momma hates you, Nightfall.
You should just run away and never stop running.
Run to Daddy, Nightfall. Run to him and be worthless together.

The voices started back up and she grabbed at the sides of her head and purposely cried even louder in an attempt to tune them out. She did so until her lungs were exhausted, her mouth was dry, and her throat was scratchy.

And just when all seemed lost for Nightfall, a beacon of hope suddenly came to her. Unlike the cruel whispers that always put her down and filled her with doubt and sadness, the one she heard was sweet and enlightening. She opened her eyes and through her blurred vision, she thought she saw streaks of turquoise and purple, a dark plum-colored purple.

She wiped her eyes clean of the tears that distorted her vision and looked again, only to find that the pony she had thought she’d seen was no longer there. But where the vision of this angelic being was nowhere to be seen, she did hear its kind voice and the directions of where to go it told her. She stood up and looked around her to find herself no longer in Canterlot, but rather in Ponyville.

“Find me, Nightfall. I’ll wait for you at the train station for three days.”

“Why?” Nightfall asked.

“I’m sorry, Nightfall. Wake up now.”

~==~==~==~==~

She then heard another voice calling her name. This one was familiar to her, and Nightfall blinked. It was Bonbon’s voice, and she was shouting at her to wake up. “Nightfall, wake up! Nightfall!”

Nightfall’s eyes shot open and she gasped for air. The first thing she saw was Bonbon’s worried face, then she felt the mare shaking her until she realized that she was awake. Immediately Nightfall threw herself at Bonbon and wept, grabbing at the mare like a foal. After she felt Bonbon’s own hooves embrace her, her body started to shake less and less.

“I’m sorry,” Nightfall whimpered to Bonbon, “I’m sorry.”

“Hush now, little one. It’s okay now. You’re okay,” Bonbon answered back and proceeded to rub the back of the filly’s head in a comforting manner. “You had another bad dream, didn’t you?”

Nightfall nodded, afraid to look up at Bonbon or even speak to her; all she wanted to do was cry and feel somepony’s attention and to feel like somepony wanted her; both of which she was getting right now, but even while she started to feel safe again, she could not escape the harsh words she heard in her nightmares and without understanding why yet, she felt the need to run away. She had to find the mysterious voice that told her to find them in three days, although she didn’t know why. And out of everything, she felt something in the back of her mind urging her to trust this voice and to seek them out.

6. A Face to Match the Voice

Nightfall quietly floated down the staircase until she reached the front door. She grabbed the knob with her magic, then stopped and looked out towards the couch where she saw Lyra and Spike were sitting and playing a game of cards.

“I’m going to walk around town,” Nightfall told them.

“All alone? Twilight won’t like that,” Spike pointed out, peeking out from over the back of the couch.

“Yeah, and neither will Bons,” Lyra agreed. “Why not take the CMC with you?”

“They’re busy already,” Nightfall answered back. “I’ll be fine. It’s just Ponyville, right?”

Lyra hopped off the couch and shook her head while she wore a smile. “Spike, keep the CMC here for a while, will ya? Me and Nightfall are gonna take a walk.”

Spike saluted to Lyra. “Roger that.”

Nightfall looked away and scowled at Lyra inviting herself instead of just letting her leave the house alone. Did Lyra forget that she had been on her own in the Everfree already? She wasn’t a stranger to being all alone wherever she went, so why was Lyra butting into her personal space by insisting they were going out for a walk when she wanted to go by herself?

With a defeated sigh, she walked out the front door with Lyra right behind her. Lyra pulled the door shut, then booped Nightfall on the top of her head and looked down at her with a smile, which made the filly blink and look back at her in return with a frown.

“Bons trusts you, Nightfall. I trust you, and so does Twilight. So don’t think I’m foal-sitting you or anything else, all right? We’re here to look after you, it’s our job as adults,” Lyra explained to Nightfall, “and if Bons heard that you ran away or got injured, well...I’d rather have Twilight punish me than Bons.” She giggled, then stopped and face-hoofed herself and ran back inside.

Nightfall watched Lyra rush back into the cottage, then immediately took to the air and headed for Ponyville as fast as she could while she still had a chance to put as much distance between herself and Lyra as she could.

“I gotta find that pony who called to me,” she told herself as she watched Ponyville come into view below her.

Nightfall landed gracefully in the town market and looked around at the busy streets, seeing the myriad of ponies walking around. Some were at stands browsing the vendors’ goods, others were carrying their groceries away to their homes or other businesses, and others still were enjoying a meal. But while they all seemed happy on the outside, Nightfall could see a sadness in their eyes that she couldn’t explain. She shook her head and reminded herself why she was in town now.

She spent the next five minutes loitering about and asking around, but everypony she spoke with ignored her, some even going so far as to look the other way and pretend she wasn’t there. She flinched when she saw that and sulked away with her head down low. The next time she raised it she was in front of a large statue that stood atop a stump made out of crystal.

Nightfall’s eyes widened in fear when she looked up at the statue of a headless pony with only its right wing extended out, the tip broke off, while the left wing was broken down to where it connected to the shoulder of the statue’s body. The statue itself was so weathered that it had lost its once pristine marble shine and was now covered in vines and wilted plants.

“It’s just like the picture in Momma’s gallery,” Nightfall gulped as she lowered her gaze to the tablet at the pony’s hooves. “The Enemy of Us All”,” she read. “Long Live the Moon.”

“Nightfall?” a voice came from behind Nightfall.

Nightfall jumped and snapped her head back to see a pony dressed in a black dress. Her white coat and purple mane made Nightfall cower against the dusty ground and freeze in place. Rarity reeled back herself after seeing Nightfall cower before her, but she quickly regained her composure and trotted to the scared filly.

“Nightfall, darling, it’s okay. It’s me.” Rarity comforted and soon rubbed the top of Nightfall’s head like she always did whenever the filly was afraid or had a bad dream.

The filly looked up with one eye at Rarity, then, as if she was safe once again, nuzzled into the mare’s hoof and slowly stood up. With a smile of her own, Rarity stopped the caressing and booped Nightfall on the nose.

“What are you doing out here, sweetie? Is this where you’ve been this past week?” Rarity asked Nightfall. “I’ve been terribly worried about you.”

“I’m sorry.” Nightfall apologized and lowered her gaze. “I got lost in the woods and was found by somepony,” she told Rarity, “they helped me and I haven’t wanted to leave.”

This was news to Rarity as much as it was to know that Nightfall had run away, again. And while Rarity was acclimated to Nightfall’s gallivanting, she was not used to Nightfall disappearing for more than a day or two, much less not being someplace in the Everfree where she could be easily found or watched over by one of the Queen’s thestrals.

“So you’re saying you’ve made some new friends then? That’s wonderful, darling!” Rarity cooed and placed her hoof underneath the filly’s chin, lifting her head up so they could see eye-to-eye.

“Are you mad at me?” Nightfall asked Rarity with a frown and tears watering up in her eyes.

“Mad? Oh no, no, darling. I will admit that I am a bit upset at your running off and not returning like usual, but I could never be mad at you for having made new friends,” Rarity answered back, still smiling at Nightfall.

Nightfall felt relieved to hear that next to Bonbon, the one pony she felt the safest around wasn’t upset with her, just worried, and now happy to know she had made some new friends. Nightfall wiped her eyes clear, then looked back at Rarity.

“You’re not going to tell Momma, are you?”

“No, darling. I will not tell her I found you in Ponyville. But...”

“What?”

“You should hurry to your father, Nightfall. Your mother believes you ran back to him a week ago, and if she discovers that you’ve actually been here, she will not be happy.”

Shocker. Nightmare Moon happy? Nightfall wanted to laugh, honestly, but instead of laughing out loud, she did so inside. Rarity was right about one thing though, she should go back to her father before her mother decided to send an envoy to him, if she didn’t already, to bring Nightfall back to her. After all, it was her mother’s month for Nightfall to spend with.

“She hasn’t sent anypony to him yet?” Nightfall asked curiously.

“Not yet. She’s been preoccupied with the local dignitaries. It is that month, after all,” Rarity told Nightfall.

That was a relief to hear, and Nightfall could feel her heart reduce its pace and relax now, as did the rest of her the longer she spent in Rarity’s presence. And knowing that her father was unaware as well gave Nightfall an idea.

“Rarity, I want to ride the train, but I don’t know where it is.”

Rarity cocked her brow at Nightfall’s dilemma and wanted to ask her what in Equestria had made the filly want to take a train, but then she remembered her curiosity as a filly and how she had wanted to ride a train and smiled again.

“I can help you with that, darling. But only if you’re going to your father’s home,” Rarity spoke back, lighting up her horn and pulling something out from one of the dress’ pockets. She then held up the tiny note card in front of Nightfall and gave her a stern look.

“I promise, Miss Rarity. I’ve wanted to ride a train since you told me that story about when you first rode one,” Nightfall quickly answered as she reached for the card that Rarity lifted just out of her reach.

“You’ll have to do better than that, young lady. Remember, I know when you’re trying to fool me,” Rarity snapped and narrowed her eyes at Nightfall.

Nightfall quickly sat back on her haunches and lowered her head in shame. She didn’t forget that Rarity knew her better than her own mother or any of the Guard. She had just really wanted to get to the train station before Lyra showed up.

“I’m sorry, Miss Rarity. I promise you that I will go straight to my Daddy’s house.”

“That’s better. Here you go, darling.” Rarity lowered the card in front of Nightfall and let the filly take it from her aura. “Now hurry along. The train station is just a few blocks from here,” she told Nightfall and pointed in the direction behind her.

“Thank you.” Nightfall quickly hugged Rarity, then hopped into the air and took off as fast as she could.

“Safe travels, dear,” Rarity said to herself before heading back towards the market.

“Nightfall! Nightfall!” Lyra shouted as she ran through the streets of Ponyville, looking all over for the filly who had escaped her watchful eye.

She kept running and calling out Nightfall’s name, turning her head from left to right every few seconds to see if she might spot the filly soon. But while she was panicking about what Bonbon might do to her if she didn’t find the filly and bring her back home, she wasn’t paying attention to what was right in front of her until she felt her body run into something (or somepony). She tumbled head over hooves until she hit the ground and laid on her back in a daze.

“Watch where you’re going!”

Lyra heard a voice yelling at her, and when her eyes stopped rolling around and her vision focused again, the unicorn looked at who she had hit and quickly blinked. She rolled over, then jumped to her hooves instantly.

“Rarity?!” Lyra squealed.

“Ugh, yes, that’s me,” Rarity snapped back as she rubbed her head. “Just who do you think you are, running into me like that?”

Her eyes came to meet Lyra’s and she gasped. She was staring at Lyra Heartstrings, and was being stared at right back. This only fueled Rarity’s anger as she got to her hooves and marched right up to Lyra.

“Well? What are you in such a hurry for?”

“Sorry, Rarity. I didn’t see you there.”

“Obviously not since you’re in such a hurry!” Rarity snapped back, stomping her hoof to make her point to Lyra.

Of all the ponies Lyra could’ve bumped into (well, tumbled over) it just had to be Rarity. Rarity, of all the ponies in all of Ponyville! Just her luck. Lyra sighed and slouched her head for a minute before raising it back up.

“I’m sorry, Rarity. I didn’t mean to run into you, honest. I’m just in a hurry looking for somepony,” she apologized, then blinked when she saw what Rarity was wearing. Her heart stopped and her body felt like she had just been hit by a runaway peanut cart.

Of course she’s yelling at me for plowing over her. She’s wearing one of her fancy dresses. Lyra thought to herself before sighing again, silently counting to three before she’d feel Rarity’s verbal wrath.

“In a hurry or not, Lyra Heartstrings, you should be paying more attention to what is in front of you,” Rarity scolded. “Now look at my dress. I just had it ironed this morning! And now look at it, it’s dirty and scuffed!”

Yup. As Lyra suspected was going to happen now, Rarity went into a tangent about her dress and its appearance. She bit her tongue so as not to say something back to her, but that was pretty hard to do on a normal day, and today was anything but that for Lyra.

“I’m sorry, okay? I’ll pay for it to be cleaned. I just have to go right now.”

“Who are you looking for that you’ve lost your manners and ran into me?” Rarity growled.

Lyra bit her tongue again but this time leered at the fashionista and how she was rudely speaking back to her. Lyra was seriously considering snapping right back but with Nightfall on her mind, all she wanted to do was end the conversation and get going. And then Rarity started tapping her hoof impatiently while glaring at her. Now Lyra had to make a choice: listen to Rarity berate her about damaging one of possibly ten of her favorite dresses, or just answer her and get on with her life. Either way, Lyra figured she wasn’t going to get out of having to listen to the mare’s lecture.

“I’m looking for a filly,” Lyra told her, “she’s about yay high…” Lyra raised her hoof up a foot, “...gray and magenta, has wings—”

“—oh, you must be one of Nightfall’s new friends!” Rarity squeed, doing an impressive 180-degree spin on her attitude.

Lyr’s mouth dropped and she just looked at Rarity, more impressed with how Rarity went from being mad at her for ruining her dress to happy that she knew Nightfall and was one of the filly’s friends.

“Uh...yeah, right, her,” Lyra squeaked, nearly speechless and still shocked.

“You just missed her. I ran into her about five minutes ago. I told her to go back to her new friends, and she did,” Rarity told Lyra.

“Wait, I just missed her?” Lyra repeated before she brought her hoof to her face and mumbled to herself, “never thought to look up. Way to go, Lyra.”

Rarity brought her hoof up to her mouth and giggled at Lyra’s reaction, then shook her head.

“She’s probably back at your place by now, Lyra. Speaking of which, where are you living now?” Rarity asked the musician.

Lyra bit her cheek. “Living over at Fluttershy’s place at the moment, I guess,” she told Rarity. “Anyways, thanks Rarity. I gotta go now. Bye!”

Lyra was gone before Rarity could say a word to her, so she just watched as Lyra cantered off back towards Fluttershy’s cottage. Once the mare was out of sight, Rarity smacked her lips together and decided it was time for her to return to her own residence in the Everfree Forest.

“Mistress will be quite happy to know where Nightfall has been all week, and with whom she’s been staying with.”

~==~==~==~==~

Nightfall saw the train station pop up into sight and made her way to the ground, then trotted happily along until she came up to the platform and the train that was just rolling in from Canterlot. For the time of day it was, or night, it was decently busy. She counted at least three families waiting to board the train while seven stepped off of it, each carrying bags with them.

She made her way towards the ticket building but stopped short and looked at the card Rarity had given to her. She felt a flurry of emotions bubbling up inside her all of a sudden: joy, excitement, nervousness, even uncertainty. Her heart pounded happily at the mere thought of being able to go home to her father, but then it took a sudden turn and she felt afraid of such a thought. She could only remember how her father had been the light in her darkness for what seemed like forever, but now she had made new friends and found warmth in their presence, especially Bonbon’s. Nightfall smiled at that thought.

Daddy… She thought before frowning. “Bons,” she whispered softly.

Nightfall was in a predicament now. Did she really want to return to her home—to her father—or did she want to stay with Bonbon, Lyra, Twilight and Spike, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders? She began to think over the two choices she now had on her hooves and chewed on her cheek anxiously.

Somepony must have seen the filly’s dilemma, because they approached her without her even realizing it until a sweet voice had spoken to her, shocking her out of her thoughts. When Nightfall looked up, she saw somepony shrouded in a purple cloak that hid their face, but she could see the bottom of their hooves and the horn that poked out from the shadow of their forehead.

“H-hello,” she stuttered nervously, her hooves quaking slightly as her mind was telling her both to run away from the stranger, yet stay for some reason.

The stranger then spoke again to Nightfall, their voice ever so calm and warm. “You must be Nightfall. I didn’t think you’d actually come here.”

They knew her name and they didn’t believe she would actually come to the train depot? While Nightfall found that a tad bit odd, she was also curious now, and that was when it clicked with her. She pieced it together and after having listened to the pony talk to her again, she recognized the undertone of the voice.

“A-are you the one who told me to come find you?” Nightfall asked sheepishly, her body no longer shaking in fear.

“Do you recognize my voice now?” they asked her back.

Nightfall nodded once and held the card close to her chest. The stranger nodded slightly back, then gestured for her to follow them as they walked away. She wasn’t sure why or what compelled her to do so, but Nightfall felt obligated to follow this unfamiliar pony, and so she did. She followed them away from the depot until they were far enough away that the sounds had died down and all seemed calm.

“Who are you? How do you know my name?” Nightfall asked after a few minutes of silent walking.

The stranger led Nightfall to a tree, then turned around and sat back on their haunches, looking at Nightfall from behind their veil of blackness. Slowly, they raised one hoof up to their head; a kind gesture to assure Nightfall they were not going to try and do anything unruly to her. They stopped for a moment after gripping the side of their hood, then pulled it back all the way.

Nightfall’s eyes widened when they revealed themselves. They were a mare, and their mane was two-toned of purple and teal. She felt her heart flutter when her teal eyes met those bluish-purple eyes and felt her body relax as if she were bathing in a hot tub.

“I’m the one who heard your wish, Nightfall,” the mare answered the filly. “My name is Starlight Glimmer, and I am the one who has come to help you.”

“Starlight...Glimmer?” Nightfall tilted her head sideways at the mare’s name. She had never heard that name before, but she did find it to be a pretty name for the mare.

“You’re the one from my dreams. The one that told me to wake up and come here,” Nightfall pieced together finally as she remembered the streak of purple and teal colors that she had seen in her recent nightmare.

Starlight smiled at how much Nightfall recalled from just a brief glimpse of her in that dream and nodded curtly to her. She then sat down fully and wrapped her tail around herself, laying it across the tops of her crossed hooves.

“That I am, Nightfall. I heard your cry for help and answered it, so here I am.”

“I didn’t think anypony would,” Nightfall said back to her, sitting down herself now. “Are you going to help me help my momma love me and not hate me?”

“I’m going to try, Nightfall,” Starlight answered, “but I don’t know if I can do it alone.”

“What do you mean? What did you mean by ‘for three days’ and ‘I’m sorry’?” Nightfall questioned next.

Starlight’s smile turned upside-down when the filly brought up that bit of information. She was still coming to terms with how to handle that fast-approaching ordeal herself and she still didn’t know if she would be ready to face her mentor, Twilight Sparkle, when that time finally came.

“I got some friends of mine to help me,” Starlight said honestly, dropping her head with a sigh, “but I did so without asking them directly.”

Starlight jumped and got a scared look on her face suddenly, which made Nightfall jump as well. She was going to ask what was going on but it became apparent in ten seconds when she looked back towards Ponyville and saw what Starlight saw: a cotton candy-colored mane and a vanilla-cream coat thundering towards both her and Starlight.

“Bons!” Nightfall yelled with glee and hopped to her hooves to run to Bonbon, but stopped short when the mare was already a few feet away.

“Nightfall!” Bonbon answered back with a smile on her face as she pulled the filly close to her and nuzzled her, “you had me worried, little one.”

“I’m sorry,” Nightfall said back to her in a whisper, hugging her back.

“What were you thinking, Nightfall?” Bonbon asked, a hint of frustration underneath her worried tone.

At first, Nightfall twitched against Bonbon when she heard her scolding, her but then she looked up and saw a warm smile on Bonbon’s face and worry in her eyes. She was at ease again, even hesitant to say anything back, but then she glanced over at Starlight and smiled.

Nightfall stepped back from Bonbon and looked right at her. “I was going to my Daddy, Bons. But then I met her,” Nightfall pointed a hoof at Starlight.

Bonbon looked over at Starlight, who was a bit disconcerted about having been pointed out by Nightfall. She was about to say something to Starlight, but she suddenly had a bad headache and closed her eyes, holding a hoof to her temple. Starlight took that opportunity to teleport away and leave the two behind.

“Bons, what’s wrong?” Nightfall asked her out of concern for how pained she seemed now.

The pain stopped as fast as it had started and Bonbon opened her eyes to see Nightfall’s concern all over her face. She smiled and shook her head, then lowered her hoof back down.

“It’s nothing, Nightfall. Let’s go home, okay?”

Nightfall tilted her head in confusion at Bonbon’s response, but hearing her say they should go home did make the filly smile again, and even though she really wanted to see her father, she decided she was much happier right now with Bonbon. And as soon as Bonbon turned and walked away, Nightfall looked over at where Starlight used to be, but no longer was.

“Starlight?” Nightfall wondered before Bonbon called her name and she went skipping away to catch up to her.

I need your help. I can’t do this alone. Will you help me?

For the entirety of their stroll home, these were the words that Bonbon heard in her head and every time she heard them, her head throbbed like she was getting a migraine but it’d last only a moment then vanish. For Bonbon, it was a mystery as to why she was hearing these words, but even more so as to who was calling out to her with them.

Who are you? And who did I agree to help? Bonbon wondered.

7. Trouble Follows You Home

“—wasn’t scolding her though!” Twilight threw her hooves up in the air in her own defense against Bonbon’s insisting that the princess had berated Nightfall only two hours ago.

“Then why is she upstairs crying, Twilight?” Bonbon demanded with a stomp of her hoof. “I even told you to stop and pay attention to her, but no, you wanted to keep going.”

Spike and Lyra both watched from the sidelines of the living room as the two mares butted heads. Normally, Spike would be scared to see what Twilight might do to anypony who was screaming back at her, but seeing as how Bonbon didn’t let a title such as “princess” mean anything, he found it entertaining somehow. On the other hoof, Lyra was sitting on the couch with her head in hoof chewing on the bottom of her lip. She mumbled something incoherently every now and then and even fidgeted in her seat.

For an hour since Nightfall screamed at both Bonbon and Twilight and cantered upstairs, the two of them had been arguing back and forth and it was going nowhere. Finally, Lyra was getting a headache, and she let them both know when she put her hoof down and her horn flared up, casting a Silence spell on the two of them.

“Ah. Much better,” Lyra said with a sigh and leaned against the couch, crossing one leg over the other.

“What’d you do to them?” Spike asked her when he could no longer hear either Twilight or Bonbon shouting at each other, only noticing that they seemed to still be doing so without realizing that neither of them could no longer be heard.

“A simple reverse Silence spell, Spike,” Lyra said back to the tiny dragon, “They can still hear each other, but nopony else in this house can. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

“That’s a nifty trick, Lyra. Can they still hear us?”

“Nope,” Lyra said smugly with a cheesy grin on her face.

Spike tried not to laugh at Lyra’s smug response, but failed horribly and fell off the back of the couch and onto the floor holding his sides as he laughed. After a couple more minutes passed by, Twilight and Bonbon had stopped fighting and turned their attention to Lyra.

“Finally!” Lyra howled, throwing her hooves into the air before casting another spell, removing the hex on them both, “both of you done now?”

“What’d you do to us?” Twilight demanded.

“Lyra!” Bonbon growled at her with dagger eyes.

“I cast a spell so nopony else had to listen to the two of you bickering like fillies over the same colt,” Lyra answered earnestly. “Look at both of you. Friends don’t fight like this, do they?”

Both mares went to speak in response but Lyra held her hooves up to the two of them and continued talking.

“So Nightfall gave me the slip when I forgot my saddlebags. Okay, fine. It happened, my bad. You,” she pointed to Bonbon, “found Nightfall in town at the train station but she returned with you. And you, Twilight, I understand why you tried to teach her a lesson, but you did raise your voice at her a little. You did frighten her and we all saw it but you didn’t, so she screamed back and ran off.”

Twilight tried to interject but Spike, who had walked around the side of the couch, shook his head at her.

“Lyra’s got a point, Twilight,” he said to her, “Nightfall isn’t like any of the fillies we know. Yelling at her was not the way to go.”

“But I wasn’t yelling!” Twilight huffed before she lowered her head in shame when she finally caught herself raising her voice again. “...oh.”

Bonbon, at this time, also hung her head low then perked back up and looked at Twilight. “I’m sorry, Twilight. I shouldn’t have shouted at you because you scared her.”

“No, I’m sorry, Bonbon. I don’t know what came over me. Maybe it’s because I was worried she had gotten hurt.”

Seeing them apologizing brought a smile to both Lyra and Spike, and they both hugged their respective ponies. With one big pile of hugs, both the princess and the candymaker glanced at the other then shook hooves.

“I’m going to talk to her now,” Bonbon told the group and slipped out of their embrace. “I’ll explain things to her, then I think you owe her an apology, Twilight.”

“Let me know, Bonbon. I have quite the apology to give.”

Bonbon smiled, then headed right upstairs in search of Nightfall, but just as quickly as she had left, she came barreling down the stairs and looked like she had seen a ghost.

“Bons…?” Lyra managed to say before she flinched and laid her ears flat.

“Nightfall’s gone!” Bonbon cried.

“Gone?!” Lyra, Spike, and Twilight shrieked together in shock.

“The train!” Bonbon bolted out the door like she had been shot out of a cannon and raced off towards Ponyville.

“Spike, make sure the CMC stay here when they get out, and keep them here,” Twilight told him, then looked at Lyra and nodded before she ran out the door next.

Spike scratched his head after Lyra pulled the door closed behind her and headed upstairs.

“This can’t end well,” Spike said with a sigh, shaking his head afterwards. He looked at the clock. “School’s out in an hour.”

~==~==~==~==~

Twilight and Lyra had just stepped hoof into Ponyville when they saw Bonbon over by one of the stands talking to the pony in charge. They approached Bonbon and got noticed almost instantly by every pony in a ten-foot radius. The entire market got dead quiet and all eyes fell upon Twilight Sparkle.

“Weird,” Lyra whispered to Twilight.

The stall owner who Bonbon was talking to, who had just been explaining to the mare why her roses weren’t as bright red as they once had been, was also now staring at Twilight. Be it absentmindedly or not, Twilight caught Roseluck looking and looked back. In her eyes, Twilight saw something unsettling. So much so that she felt her stomach knot up. In Roseluck’s eyes she saw an emptiness that saddened her, but that emotion was fleeting as the flower pony’s eyes soon grew to the size of dinner plates.

“Roseluck, what’s wrong?” Twilight asked her.

Roseluck suddenly screamed, and everypony that was looking at Twilight screamed back and took off in a hurry. All around them, Twilight, Bonbon, and Lyra watched as every open door slammed shut, every open window pulled closed and blinds drawn so that they could not see the now terrified ponies—with the exception of Roseluck, who was now crouched low behind her stall quivering and silently muttering to herself.

Bonbon leaned over the tabletop and looked down at Roseluck. “Roseluck?”

The mare didn’t say a word to her, she simply started rocking herself and closed her eyes. Lyra blinked, then pulled Bonbon away as Twilight looked down at Roseluck with confusion.

But as if Roseluck knew that Twilight was now staring down at her, she opened one eye and looked up before shrieking again, this time saying something.

“You’re dead though!”

You’re dead though!

Those three simple words brought down a ton of weight atop Twilight and her company. She was at a loss for words, even with her maw agape wanting to say something, but couldn’t. It was then that it hit Twilight as she continued to blankly stare at Roseluck for a second time: that look of terror on Roseluck’s face, the ghostly feeling in her eyes, and the trembling. Twilight had a flashback to only a week ago when Nightfall had looked at her in that very same way.

“Twilight?” Bonbon pressed a hoof against her wither.

I’m dead? But I’m not, I’m right here. Twilight thought to herself, completely oblivious to Bonbon’s nudging and calling her name.

Lyra grabbed Bonbon’s hoof and shook her head when her dear friend turned to her in shock. Twilight then blinked and snapped her wings out, jolting high up into the sky before she darted off towards the one place she just had to see now: her castle.

“Twilight!” Bonbon yelled out in vain.

Lyra squeezed her friend’s hoof, then took chase after Twilight. Bonbon didn’t have to be told where they were both going because she already knew. She also knew that somehow they may just find Nightfall wherever Twilight was going. She didn’t know for sure, but Bonbon’s intuition was assertive in its argument to follow Lyra and Twilight.

They didn’t have to run for long as the castle was just beyond one final hill, or at least a very large, empty space where it should be. Both mares’ eyes bugged out when they saw Twilight standing only a few feet in front of them, her wings dragging against the dirt and her body as solid as stone.

When they trotted up to her and stood on either side, their mouths fell open at the sight beheld: a large crystal stump that belonged to the once proud-standing Castle of Friendship, jagged with remnants of crystal branches and foliage of withered plants and vines. But the centerpiece to this travesty was the marble statuette they all saw, and the tiny filly who seemed to be screaming at it.

“Nightfall,” Bonbon whispered silently, recognizing the light streaks of red and magenta against a gray palette of fur.

I… I’m dead in this world? Twilight told herself, hooves shaking as she slowly stepped toward the statue, lost in her thoughts and now oblivious to the filly sobbing next to it. It all makes sense, but… My friends… If this is what it takes for me to die… then what will I have to live for after my friends are all gone? Is this Twilight better off than me?

“Why do you hate me?!” Nightfall’s scream snapped the three mares out of their stupors.

“Nightfall!” Bonbon rushed at a steadfast pace towards the filly.

Nightfall’s ears twitched and her body jumped in shock when she heard the sudden voice. She turned around and faced Bonbon with watery eyes and anguish on her face. She was both crying out in sadness and scowling with rage. This made Bonbon stop short and reel back. As she tried to read Nightfall’s body language, somehow gauge the best way to interact with the distraught filly, Nightfall saw Lyra and Twilight now in the distance behind her and snarled.

“You’re dead!” she pointed a hoof at Twilight.

Bonbon mistook it as it was she who Nightfall was pointing at. “Pardon?”

“Me…” Twilight said sullenly next to Bonbon.

Twilight sulked by Bonbon with Lyra in tow, her head low but her eyes locked onto Nightfall the whole time. “...Isn’t that right, Nightfall?” she asked and fell back onto her haunches.

Nightfall, scowling at Twilight, said nothing back to her until the two of them came to terms that the other really was in the same place, and walked by the other. Now seeing as how Nightfall had no intention of speaking to her, Twilight lowered her head in defeat and frowned. She was honestly hoping Nightfall would say something to her, anything at all as to why she looked at Twilight with such disdain and animosity.

“May I?” she asked the filly in a low voice, with melancholy dread in her words.

Still anguished and leering at the depressed princess, Nightfall stepped aside, her head never moving nor her eyes ever leaving Twilight’s being as she did so. The princess now looked at the statue that Nightfall had been yelling at and her heart stopped beating as her body caved.

Twilight now had a better view of the marble sculpture and the headless pony that it was made to resemble. She saw that only its right wing was fully extended, albeit broken off at its tips, while the left wing had only a jagged pike that stuck out where it was supposed to be. Her heart throbbed in her throat now and was intent on choking her out, but where the statue instilled a sense of loss and reality, what made Twilight’s eyes fill with tears was the plaque that the pony stood upon.

“The Enemy of Us All...” Twilight spoke to herself, gulping hard as if to swallow her still heart—and her pride—letting her subconscious fears of what her immortality brought with it pummel her with every ounce of morality that she fought so very hard to defy. “...Long live the Moon.”

And as if the statue—in its decrepit state—or the hurtful words that it spoke to her weren’t enough to drive home the fear that both Roseluck and Nightfall had filled her with, then the symbol she saw chiseled into the back of the slogan—a pink five-pointed star with five white points behind it surrounded by five smaller, white five-pointed stars—did for sure.

“...M-my C-cutie...Mark...” Twilight’s head fell and she dropped to the ground, hiding her face in her hooves as she started to bawl loudly into them. She wrapped her wings around herself like she was trying to find shelter or comfort in them and to push away all the bad she had seen as she cried.

Lyra and Bonbon looked at one another then treaded lightly towards both Nightfall and Twilight, with Bonbon going over to Nightfall with open arms, and Lyra seating herself down next to Twilight with a hoof on her wing to try and comfort her.

Nightfall ran to Bonbon and buried herself in her adopted mother’s embrace, now crying freely herself as her anger dissipated only sadness remained, repeating apologies to Bonbon in between every latent sob. Bonbon put on the strongest face that she could and held Nightfall close to her chest, caressing the little filly’s mane and letting her cry and find solace.

I need your help. I can’t do this alone. Will you help me?

Bonbon heard those words again, but this time she didn’t even feel the applebucking pain that came with them; she only heard Nightfall’s broken sobs and moans and felt only the filly’s shaking body against her own stoic self. But then she heard somepony new speaking and she recognized next that it was actually herself, and she was speaking in reply to whomever had asked her for her help.

Why me? What can I do? I’m just a candy maker.

Trust me, Bonbon. You’ll help in ways you never thought you could.

8. The Choices We Make Today...

“She’s worrying me, Lyra,” Bonbon sighed as she stared out the second floor window.

“Bons, there’s nothing we can do. She wouldn’t budge and she ignored us. All we can do is let her come to grips with her existential crisis and hope she comes back soon,” Lyra answered her back.

In light of the dark truth that they had all learned a couple hours ago, Bonbon still had not accepted anything she’d been exposed to. Just where were they living now? Night ruled over all. She could deal with that since it had always been that way. But to know that Twilight Sparkle was supposedly dead? It wasn’t possible, it couldn’t be possible. So why was there a monument in Ponyville, clearly worn by time?

Bonbon looked back at the filly who was sound asleep in her bed and frowned. It had been a stressful day for Nightfall as well and Bonbon finally got to see why she yelled at Twilight earlier that morning.

“Now it makes sense,” Bonbon whispered to Lyra, who had now walked over to her side.

“What does, Bons?”

“Why Nightfall said those hurtful things today. Now I see it. She was afraid, Lyra… afraid of Twilight because she’s supposed to be dead.”

“Bons...” Lyra didn’t know what else to say now as she saw the guilt on her friend’s face take hold.

A soft knock on the door snapped both Bonbon and Lyra out of their thoughts as they saw Apple Bloom peeking inside.

“Ah, there’s somepony downstairs looking for you both,” she told Bonbon and Lyra. “They say it’s important.”

“Alright, we’ll be right down,” Bonbon told the filly and smiled.

“Is Twilight coming back?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Soon,” Lyra answered, then led Bonbon to the door so they could go see who was looking for them.

When the two mares reached the bottom of the steps and peered into the living room, they both saw a pony waiting for them on the couch. Bonbon saw the two-toned mane and felt her head throb suddenly. Lyra placed a hoof on her wither and looked at her with concern, but then she heard their company’s soft voice and she, too, felt her head explode with pain.

“We have to talk,” the mare said to them both, listening for their hoofsteps as they made their way closer to her.

“Who are you?” Lyra asked as she held the side of her head and heard a conversation taking place in it that she didn’t understand at first until she heard herself talking to somepony.

“That won’t matter much once we’ve come to an agreement,” the pony answered Lyra back.

“Starlight, right?” Bonbon remembered Nightfall calling her by.

Starlight grimaced, then looked away with a frown. She knew Bonbon would remember her name and her face, but now Lyra was going to as well, and she didn’t want that; but because of how she chose to go about getting them all to help her, she now would have to face the consequences.

“Starlight Glimmer?” Lyra whimpered as her head pounded harder and the conversation she heard came faster and faster until it was too much for her and she shut down and curled up on the floor.

“Bonbon, I’m going to ask you one simple question, and you’ll have to decide,” Starlight spoke to the mare who was faring better with the throbbing headache than Lyra was. “Do you remember what you agreed to?”

What I agreed to? Bonbon thought upon hearing Starlight’s question, and then she recalled the conversation that was inside her head now and how she heard herself answering those questions. “Yes,” she answered Starlight, “I remember.”

Starlight smiled a bit, but then looked down at her hooves. “Will you help me, Bonbon?”

“Why me? What can I do? I’m just a candy maker.”

“Trust me, Bonbon. You’ll help in ways you never thought you could,” Starlight replied back, then looked over to Lyra. “Lyra, a filly needs your help. Will you help her?”

Lyra, who was gripping her mane, stopped and looked up at Starlight instantly. “I’ll help her. Just tell me what I can do,” she responded.

“Be there for Bonbon. Be there for this broken filly who knows nothing of love nor friendship,” Starlight said next before she closed her eyes and chanted something. Her horn then lit up and a bright light flashed before their eyes.

When they were able to see again, Bonbon and Lyra stared at Starlight Glimmer. The three mares all held their sights on each other for what felt like hours, neither moving in the slightest, and had it not been for their breathing or beating hearts, a passerby might have believed them to be taxidermied plushies, not living ponies.

Starlight had chosen to stay silent because she had just cast a spell on Bonbon and Lyra and it was taking its toll on them. They both had so much to recall that they couldn’t fathom recognizing they were in a room staring at Starlight at that point in time. But finally, Bonbon blinked first, then shook her head.

“Starlight, what’s going on?” she asked.

“Bonbon, we’re here to help that filly you agreed to look after,” Starlight answered her.

“Nightfall, right?” Lyra chimed in.

“Yes.”

“What are we supposed to do, Starlight?” Lyra asked next.

“You look after her and teach her about friendship and what it is to be loved, Lyra,” Starlight said back, then frowned at Bonbon. “I have to be honest with you both now, and you both need to promise me you won’t say a word to Twilight afterwards.”

“Why can’t we tell Twilight?” Lyra questioned, but Bonbon shook her head.

“She’s still at her castle, Starlight. You don’t want us to tell her because you haven’t spoken to her yet, right?”

“That is correct, Bonbon. And right now it is best that she doesn’t remember what I did to her as I did to all of you,” Starlight replied. “I know you can’t forgive me for placing you under a spell and I won’t try to justify my actions. All I ask is that you help Nightfall in her time of need and nothing more.”

“You put a spell on us so that we wouldn’t remember how we got here, isn’t that right?” Bonbon spoke to Starlight. Starlight nodded her head in mute response, then turned away.

“Where are we?” Bonbon asked her next after looking outside to see it was night.

“This is why Twilight can’t know just yet,” Starlight told them both as she looked at them again, “You’re all in a timeline that, while hypothetically does exist, shouldn’t,” she explained. “This world is a reality that could have existed in the Equestria we’re all from, but doesn’t because of how history took place.”

“So we’re living in a world where night is forever?” Bonbon spoke up.

Starlight nodded again, then slid off the couch and turned around. “Bonbon, Lyra. To fully understand why I asked you both and Twilight to help me, you need to get Nightfall to open up to you. She trusts you both so much that it hurts me to know that what I am about to do is not going to be pleasant.”

Bonbon raised a brow, as did Lyra now to Starlight’s foreboding remarks.

“What are you going to do to her, Starlight?” Bonbon growled and walked in front of her.

“I’m going to make her forget all of you,” Starlight answered, and was swiftly met by the back of Bonbon’s hoof followed by the side of the couch meeting her face.

Lyra jumped at the sudden strike and pushed Bonbon away from Starlight. The sheer anger she saw in Bonbon’s eyes was menacing to say the least, but for Starlight it was surprise.

Rubbing her cheek now, Starlight lowered her gaze and did nothing but let Bonbon’s rage hit her. She knew something like that was bound to happen, but still it did not change her mind as to what she had to do.

“You won’t do such a thing to her, Starlight,” Bonbon growled at the mare. “She’s just a filly, for Celestia’s sake! How could you do that to a filly and be okay with it?”

“I’m not okay with it, Bonbon. It has to be done though, there’s no other way.”

“There’s always another way. Magic isn’t the answer to everything.”

Starlight flinched at those words as she recollected Twilight scolding her and saying the exact same thing. Her eyes began to water up and she sniffled as she looked directly down at the floor. Magic didn’t solve everything, but yet she still had not learned that important lesson. If it couldn’t, then why was she born a unicorn in the first place? Why had Starlight been gifted with a much larger magic reserve than the average unicorn if it wasn’t to help ponies?

“What would you do then, Lyra?” Starlight asked the only other unicorn in the room.

“What would I do? I’d leave Nightfall alone.”

Right. Starlight thought, then lifted her head up and gulped. “I have to make a choice, Bonbon, Lyra. It has to be done even if I don’t want to,” she informed them both. She remembered her fight with Twilight when she had wanted to stop Rainbow’s rainboom so that she would never have lost her good friend, Sunburst, before going on further. “I can’t just leave Nightfall untouched. I need to do something that will not be kind, so I’ll leave the decision up to both of you.

In place of making her forget all of you, I can instead make her forget any recent event in the last twenty-four hours completely. Or, I can make her answer any question you wish no matter whether she wants to or not. One must be chosen though.”

Bonbon, who had calmed down now, leered at Starlight as the two choices were put before them both. She wanted to slap Starlight again and yell at her, but hearing the options made her stay in place.

“Why must we choose?” Lyra asked Starlight for Bonbon.

Starlight chewed on the corner of her lip then responded. “To try and circumvent the consequences of our actions in this timeline.”

“Consequences?” Lyra queried next.

“When messing with time magic and alternate timelines, our actions have drastic effects on the world around us, Lyra. And with how close Bonbon has gotten to Nightfall, it is only a matter of time before we will begin to rewrite its history,” Starlight told them. “And the longer we stay here and continue to defy what has already been set in stone, the more dire they will become.”

I could ask her who her parents are and she would tell me? Bonbon thought to herself.

The idea of being able to ask Nightfall any question at all and getting an answer regardless of what Nightfall wanted sounded great, but it was also unreasonable; inhumane even, to force a pony to answer things that they did not want to of their own volition. But even so, Bonbon wanted to know who Nightfall’s parents were and why she was so insistent on going back to her father.

“Well?”

Lyra looked at Bonbon and smiled, whispering to her. “What would you do, Mother Bons?”

Bonbon closed her eyes until they stopped watering, then opened them. The internal struggle she was wrestling with was slowly tearing her apart inside. She already knew that she would not make Nightfall forget any of them, that was the morally correct thing to do.

But now she had to decide whether or not Nightfall should forget any event that happened in the past twenty-four hours. She already decided that if she went that route she would want Nightfall to forget her big fight with Twilight that morning and in town.

“I don’t feel right for having to make such a choice…” Bonbon whispered back as she looked directly into Starlight’s eyes, “...but knowing that magic always has a price, I want Nightfall to forget why she is scared of Twilight. A filly should not be scared of somepony as nice as her, even if in this world she is no longer alive.”

Starlight’s frown became a sad smile at Bonbon’s choice, and she began to walk toward the stairs to go up to Nightfall’s room when she was stopped by Bonbon calling her.

“Are you going to Twilight next?”

“Yes, and I will make sure she forgets why Nightfall is so afraid of her as well,” Starlight answered her.

“No!”

“What?” Starlight looked back at Bonbon in shock and confusion.

“No. Twilight wouldn’t want that, Starlight. As her one and only student, you should know her better by now. Would she actually want you to forget something as tragic as I want Nightfall to now?”

Starlight didn’t answer Bonbon’s comment, and instead ran up the steps to do what she had to do with Nightfall before she’d take her leave and figure out what to do with her mentor and friend.

Starlight entered the room and saw Nightfall fast asleep in bed, the blanket wrapped around her like a cocoon and wearing a smile on her face. It broke Starlight’s heart to see how happy she seemed to be asleep, even though she knew how hurt the filly was after the events of earlier.

“Forgive me, Nightfall. I’m so, so sorry. I shouldn’t have ever done what I did because now all of us have to pay a price. At least Bonbon is here for you. You’ve been so happy since she found you. She’s a good friend indeed.”

Starlight closed her eyes and her horn began to glow. Quietly, she began to chant a spell and slowly a yellow aura embraced Nightfall. The light lasted only a couple of minutes before it disappeared, but by then Starlight was on the verge of crying as she looked down at the unaware filly.

“I’m so, so sorry,” she whispered, wiping her eyes with her hooves, “I’m sorry.”

Starlight then left the room and headed down the hall to where she knew the CMC had to be. She snuck inside and saw Apple Bloom staring back at her while the other two were fast asleep. The filly said not a word to her as Starlight closed her eyes and let her horn ignite. After the flash of light, Starlight was gone and Apple Bloom laid back down and fell asleep.

Starlight appeared downstairs and headed for the door, stopping only to look at Lyra and Bonbon both with pain in her eyes. “It’s done, Bonbon. She won’t remember the fight with Twilight. You remember how to find me, right?”

“Thank you, Starlight. Yes, I remember our conversation,” she answered back.

“What’s going to happen now?” Lyra asked Starlight.

“When you play around with time magic, Lyra, or rewrite events in history, the repercussions are random. All we can do now is wait and see.”

She then walked out of the house and teleported away in a flash of blue light, leaving Bonbon and Lyra to look at each other worriedly and wonder what was going to happen now that Starlight had intervened.

~==~==~==~==~

Starlight approached Twilight and Spike, both of whom were staring straight at the statue still. She stopped and went to speak and get Twilight’s attention, but was surprised when Twilight turned around and faced her, her eyes still full of despair.

“Is this why you made them forget their talks with you?” Twilight asked her. “Why haven’t you learned yet that magic doesn’t solve all of your problems, Starlight?”

Starlight gulped hesitantly, her legs shaking as if she had to force them not to run away. She was more afraid of how Twilight knew who she was and knew when she was behind her, but moreover that she knew Starlight had cast a spell on Bonbon and Lyra to make them forget they had agreed to help her.

Starlight buckled under Twilight’s melancholy stare and hit the ground, hiding her face in her hooves. She screwed up, again, and she knew it. She had known it from the moment she decided to cast a spell on the chosen ponies before sending them to this parallel world.

Spike walked over to Starlight and sat down next to her while Twilight sluggishly walked closer before she sat down and laid one wing over the crying mare. She let Starlight cry and mumble to herself for a bit before Starlight had calmed down and now looked at Twilight remorsefully with puffy red eyes.

“Just tell me why you felt you had to make us forget, Starlight. I’m not mad at you.”

“You’re not?”

Twilight shook her head and smiled the best that she could at her former student. “No.”

“I’m sorry, Twilight,” she whined, and hid herself in Twilight’s hooves. “I didn’t know if you’d all forgive me if I just sent you to this place without making you forget.”

“Starlight, you should know by now that you can just talk to me. You were my student, remember? I would have listened and talked you through it,” Twilight told her sweetly. “You have a good heart, Starlight. You heard a cry for help through the fabric of reality and chose to help them. I commend you for that, even if I don’t quite understand how it was possible. I also commend you for asking for help from myself and Spike, Bonbon, Lyra, and even the Cutie Mark Crusaders. But I still do not understand why you felt the need to make us forget how we got here.”

Starlight sniffled more and wiped her eyes clear before looking at Twilight in shame. “I thought that if I told you I needed your help in a timeline that Nightmare Moon ruled that you would decline,” she answered back, “so I chose to make you all forget that I asked you for help and sent you here with the inclination that you have always lived in a world that was eternally night.”

“I see. So what will you do now, Starlight?”

“I-I don’t know. I’m trying to figure out how you weren’t affected, Twilight.”

Twilight let out a giggle. “After you came to me with your problem and I agreed to it, I took precautions, Starlight. I put a spell on Spike and myself that would counteract a few likely spells that you might have tried using on us,” Twilight answered honestly. “Then when you gathered us all in the castle and cast it on us I pretended it worked so that you would send us off. I’m ashamed to say that I did it because I knew you would use magic, but I did it also so that I could stay ahead of whatever might happen in this universe.”

“Then what about that?” Starlight pointed a hoof at the dilapidated statue.

Twilight looked over where Starlight had pointed and frowned, then turned back to her friend.

“That’s just how this world is, Starlight. Yes, it has hurt me a lot to see this is the reality I am in now, but it was also a nice reminder of my own mortality and what it means now to be a princess.”

“What should I do now, Twilight?”

“You tell me. What did you do to Nightfall?”

“I made her forget the fight with you. It was what Bonbon wanted, and I see why now.”

Twilight’s frown faded and a smile replaced it at Starlight’s honesty and her decision to abide by Bonbon’s wishes in regards to Nightfall. That much alone showed Twilight how far Starlight has come since the first day they met and she was proud to have called the mare her student.

“What is it you see now, Starlight?”

“Friendship, Twilight,” Starlight answered her quietly. “I saw friendship in both Lyra and Bonbon when I spoke of Nightfall. But…” Starlight then brought a hoof up to her cheek and rubbed it. It still stung from where Bonbon had slapped her and she still had a headache from when she met the side of the couch afterward. “...I see how much Bonbon really cares about that filly too.”

“Is that why your cheek is swollen? Did Bonbon hit you?”

Starlight nodded. “She has a right hook, let me tell you, Twilight,”

Twilight tried not to giggle but she failed, horribly, and hugged Starlight. The act of kindness took Starlight by surprise and she nearly jumped into the air, but instead she closed her eyes and relaxed a little. It felt nice to her because now she felt like she hadn’t completely screwed up with her recent choices and the consequences that had followed thus far, but she still couldn’t stop wondering about what was to become of this timeline now that they had all made an impact on it.

She kindly pushed herself back from Starlight and looked into the mare’s eyes. In them, she saw worry and fear and it made her sad, but she knew why all the same. Little did Twilight know, Starlight was doing the same and in her mentor’s eyes, she saw concern, wonder, and thought.

“Twilight,”

“Starlight,”

They both shared a tiny giggle at them both trying to talk to the other at the same time.

“Starlight, we should get back to the others now. I’m pretty sure they’re all worried about me,” Twilight said to her.

Starlight nodded her head then took the lead back to Fluttershy’s cottage with Spike in tow behind the two of them.

“So Starlight, is this timeline exactly like the one I saw when we fought each other?”

Starlight flinched at the bad memory and even bit her lip. “Kinda. The base history, yes. But with the life of Nightfall, so much has changed. I haven’t gotten to look into it much yet.”

“I see. So Nightmare Moon won and enslaved all of Equestria and had a daughter, Nightfall, the filly whose prayer you heard and answered. It makes sense why this alternate universe wouldn’t be exactly the same as the one I experienced.”

Twilight sounded kind of down, even though knowing what she did now eased some of her worries, at least until she heard Starlight coughing hoarsely. She looked behind her to see her former student was standing still and coughing like she was choking.

“Starlight?” Twilight was by her friend’s side and tried to think of something she could do.

“It’s okay, Twilight,” Starlight answered in-between coughing fits. She covered her mouth and turned away, coughing harshly one final time and nearly gagging in the end.

“Um, excuse me,” a new pony spoke to the group.

Twilight and Starlight turned in the direction of the pony and were surprised to see Roseluck and a friend of hers standing before them. The flower mare’s friend, a unicorn, was levitating three glasses of water.

“Roseluck?” Twilight tilted her head to the side in confusion.

Even though both mares were doing their best to stand in place and not show how afraid they really were, Spike and Starlight saw the minute shaking in their hooves, as did Twilight.

“H-hello, P-princess. May we offer you three a glass of water?” Roseluck’s stuttering really gave away how scared she was to be engaging with Twilight herself.

“We’d really appreciate that,” Twilight answered with a smile, then took the glasses and handed one to her companions.

After she topped off her glass and handed it back, Twilight noticed that Roseluck had been staring at her the entire time silently. She kept her smile on her face and raised a hoof.

“Something on your mind, Roseluck?” she asked the mare.

“I, uh, umm…” Roseluck flinched and looked to her left then to her right, then back at Twilight and gulped. “...H-how?”

Starlight and Spike exchanged looks, then turned their attention back to Roseluck, who was now all alone since her friend took their glasses as well and trotted away. Twilight knew something was on her mind and waited for the question to be asked.

“How is it possible?”

Twilight frowned. “How am I alive?”

Roseluck nodded to Twilight’s remark.

“It’s simple, Roseluck…” Twilight took a moment to ruminate on how exactly to answer even if she knew no matter how she did so, she could not do it without changing history more. It would be a necessary consequence if she wanted Roseluck to see her as hope and not dread. “...I had to fake it.”

“Fake it? But why?” Roseluck whispered.

“Twilight?” Starlight stepped forward and was halted by Spike and Twilight.

“Roseluck, when I challenged Nightmare Moon I knew I may be no match for her. I had to fake my death so that I could save my people and come up with a way to free Equestria,” Twilight explained. “I did what was necessary to plan ahead and make a comeback. I am just terribly sorry that I had to stay away for so long.”

Roseluck turned away and rubbed at her eyes with a hoof, hiding her tears from the princess and her friends. She wholeheartedly accepted Twilight’s explanation and without even a doubt knew that Twilight was telling her the truth.

“Then there is still hope, Princess Twilight?” Roseluck asked next, staring into the alicorn’s eyes.

Without skipping a beat or showing falter, Twilight nodded her head. “Yes. Yes, there is always hope even in the most dire of situations, Roseluck. You just need to believe and keep that hope alive.”

Starlight tapped Twilight on the wither then nudged her head towards their destination. Twilight nodded once then walked up to Roseluck and put her hoof on the mare’s wither.

“Keep hope in your heart and see to it that everypony else does too, Roseluck. I promise to you that I will make things right and your flowers will bloom again.”

Twilight and her entourage started their walk back to the cottage while Roseluck watched from a distance, a smile on her face with tears in her eyes.

“I never lost hope, Princess Twilight.”

~==~==~==~==~

After their interesting encounter with Roseluck followed by their walk back to the cottage, Twilight lost herself in her own thoughts while Spike and Starlight followed without a word. The only noise next to the sounds of their hooves clopping against the ground was that of Starlight coughing every so often.

Coughing. That was at the forefront of Twilight’s mind. It was her student’s health that concerned her. Was she okay? Was she coming down with a cold? These questions made Twilight keep a close eye on the mare even after they reached their destination and sat down with Lyra and Bonbon, each happy to see the other and gave apologies for past trespasses. After the mares finished their discussion and made amends, Starlight spoke up after another one of her coughing fits.

“I think it's time I return, or we do, to Equestria. I need to check in with Sunburst and Twilight, you have to see Princess Celestia and the others, right?”

“I nearly forgot!” Twilight shrieked. “Yeah, I do have to see the others. They have to be worried sick about us, not to mention the Princesses too!”

Unaware that their commotion had woken the four fillies upstairs, one watched secretly from the stairway as Starlight, Bonbon and Lyra, and Spike headed outside while Twilight looked towards the staircase curiously. She headed upstairs and rounded up the CMC, escorting them down the steps and out the front door.

“That's everypony.”

“What about Nightfall, Twilight?” Bonbon asked the purple princess.

“Oh, right,” Twilight sighed. “I will go speak to her.”

“We can't just leave her here alone,” Bonbon told Twilight.

“But we can't take her with us either,” Starlight interjected, worried for Nightfall just as Bonbon was.

“I can stay with her,” Lyra offered up. “If we leave this way she will think we abandoned her.”

“Lyra, you have a performance to attend in a week and we don't know how long we will be gone,” Bonbon reminded her best friend.

“You're all leaving me?” Nightfall whined.

Everypony turned and saw Nightfall sitting on her launches with tears in her eyes and her lower lip trembling. Nightfall’s saddened posture brought Bonbon’s heart to a stop.

“Nightfall, we have to go back to our home for a bit,” Twilight said to Nightfall.

Nightfall shook her head and huffed then looked at Twilight with conviction. “You're leaving me!”

Bonbon stepped forth and smiled at Nightfall, lowering herself to the filly’s level. “I'm not going anywhere, hon. I would never leave you. Ever.”

Nightfall rubbed her eyes and sniffled as she tried not to cry and look at Bonbon at the same time. The candy maker had to keep her own smile the best that she could so she did not start crying as well.

“Twilight, go on without me. I'll stay here. I won't leave Nightfall alone,” Bonbon said in a motherly voice.

“Bons-” Bonbon held up a hoof to Lyra, stopping her from saying another word.

“Bonbon, you have to come with us,” Twilight said shortly after seeing Bonbon’s attachment to the filly in clarity.

Bonbon shook her head in disagreement and pulled Nightfall close to her barrel. “I won't leave without her, Twilight. So either I stay, or she comes with us.”

“Bonbon, we can't take her with us. We've already messed with the timeline here too much,” Starlight intervened. “We don't know what will happen if she enters our world.”

“I don't care. I will not leave Nightfall behind. That is final.” Bonbon put her hoof down and stared all of her friends down.

Having steeled her resolve to make it very clear to Twilight and Starlight both that she would not be leaving without Nightfall really pulled her heartstrings so much that she quickly reanalyzed herself and stepped forth.

“Take responsibility for your actions and her own then, Bonbon,” Starlight spoke firmly, “and she can come with us.”

A loud gasp filled the space around Starlight as all eyes fixated on her, both Twilight’s and Lyra’s mouth agape, whereas Bonbon could only smile with glee.

“I promise, Starlight. I am, after all, her mother,” Bonbon answered the time user, snuggling Nightfall.

“Bonbon, we can’t—” Twilight argued, only to be cut off by Starlight.

“—She’s made her choice, Twilight. We need to get going. Now.”

Twilight Looked at Starlight, bewildered of how she was okay with bringing Nightfall with them, when she had merely minutes ago spoke of consequences with messing around in alternate timelines. She felt something push against her so she looked down and saw Spike waving his hand in front of her face.

“C’mon, Twilight, it’s time to go,” Spike said to her and pointed to the wormhole Starlight had summoned.

Bonbon looked down at Nightfall with a smile. “Nightfall, are you ready to go?”

“With you…” Nightfall looked up at Bonbon and silently moved her mouth with a smile.