Eternal, Nightfall

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.