Night had long since fallen, and now only the moon and stars cast light down upon the forest clearing. The snow fell in a steady, soft pattern that left the trees and soil coated in a layer of white that caught the celestial light and reflected a ghostly blue all around.
Three stallions sat around a campfire, the flickering flames making their shadows dance on the canvas walls of the tent they’d erected nearby. One, a unicorn, used his magic to lift the lid from the stew pot that bubbled merrily while suspended over the flames. Using a nearby ladle, he stirred the concoction within, filling the cold air with the good, warm smell of cooking food. He dipped the ladle, then brought it to his mouth to sip. “Just about ready now. A few minutes more, I think.”
“Thank Celestia for small favors.” The younger earth pony beside him barely reigned in a sneeze. “Sooner I get some stew in my belly, the sooner I can get tucked in. I don’t know about you fellas, but I’m bushed.”
His companions nodded sympathetically, and the youngest of the three (another earth pony) took a pull from the flask he pulled from his saddlebags. He exhaled to soothe the burn in his throat that followed. “That hits the spot.”
The unicorn eyed the receptacle greedily. “Did you bring enough to share, I wonder?”
The dark yellow youth hugged the flask protectively. “Give me a break, Copper Star. This is the last I’ve got til we get back to Appleoosa.”
“C’mon now, Bitter Root.” The dark brown one beside him gestured that also wanted a sip. “Share and share alike. It’s Hearth’s Warming Eve, after all.”
“That it is.” Copper Star’s magic floated out a trio of bowls and began doling out the stew. “You should listen to Brown Jack, Bitter. If you know the stories, then you know that Apple Valley ain’t the place to be stingy on Hearth’s Warming Eve.”
Bitter Root snorted… but ended up tossing the flask to his friend. “This whole back-packing thing for the holidays was your idea. You wanted booze, you should’ve packed some.”
“Why? I knew you had it covered.” Brown Jack winked as he took a pull.
Bitter rolled his eyes even as he accepted the offered bowl of stew from Copper Star. “What was that you were saying? About Hearth’s Warming and Apple Valley?”
Copper chuckled as he traded Brown Jack’s bowl for Bitter Root’s flask. “You aren’t that much younger than us, Bitter. You must remember what happened. It was only five years ago.”
“I hadn’t moved to Equestria back then.” Bitter started on his stew. “My folks and I were still in the old kingdoms in the east.”
Jack nodded slowly. “I’d always heard that Princess Celestia tried to keep the whole thing under wraps. Makes sense that those beyond the borders wouldn’t have heard much about it.”
“Much about what?” Bitter leaned over his stew bowl.
Copper Star started on his own bowl. “Well, it did used to be a Hearth’s Warming Eve tradition to tell a ghost story or two.”
“Ghost story?”
Copper swallowed his mouthful and eyed his younger friend over the fire. “Alright, tell me something; did you ever hear of a little town called Ponyville?”
Bitter Root shrugged. “Maybe once or twice. The Elements of Harmony lived there, right?”
“Their bearers did, yes. Six incredible mares. They saved Equestria more times than I can count in just a few short years.” Copper’s eyes glazed as he looked back into his memories. “I never met them. Saw them in the distance once. Think it was at Princess Twilight’s coronation.” He shook his head and ate another bite of stew. “But yes, they lived in Ponyville. It was a perfectly ordinary little village. Decent population, low crime rate…”
“The town was adjacent to Sweet Apple Acres, the top exporter of apples in southern Equestria.” Brown Jack chimed in through a mouthful of vegetables.
“Anyway…” Copper Star set his now empty bowl aside and leaned closer to the fire. “Five years ago, this very night in fact, the whole town population gathered together in the city hall for your standard Hearth’s Warming Eve rager. That night, a freak blizzard descended on the town. The next morning, when Princess Celestia arrived to wish holiday greetings to the ponies there, she made a rather grisly discovery.”
“What?” Bitter also leaned forward, letting the fire’s warmth chase away the sudden chill in his blood. “What did she find?”
“She found the whole town buried in snow.”
“Were the villagers okay?”
Copper Star shrugged, the firelight dancing in his eyes mischievously. “No idea. No one knows… seeing as how they’d all vanished.”
Bitter’s mouth dropped open. “All of them?”
“Every stallion, mare, and foal. That’s what Celestia found; a snow-buried ghost town. They never found hide nor hair of any of them. Not even the Bearers of Harmony. Come spring, when the last of the snows melted and it was clear that there was nothing left to find, Princess Celestia ordered everything demolished. The town, Sweet Apple Acres… all of it. Razed the whole thing.”
Bitter reached for his bowl with shaking hooves. “What’s that got to do with where we are?” He asked, already knowing the answer.
“Because that land that was once Ponyville is now known as Apple Valley.” He gestured around. “For all I know, we could be sitting on the very site where city hall once stood.” His magic held the ladle aloft. “More stew?”
Bitter could only nod.
Copper chuckled as he refilled the bowl. “It’s quite a story. Quite a mystery. Nopony has any idea of what happened to all those towns-ponies.”
“That’s not what I heard.” Brown Jack finally finished his bowl and held it out for a refill. “I heard there were survivors.”
“Aw, they don’t count.” Copper waved his ladle dismissively. “For one, they weren’t even in town when it happened. They were up at the farm. And besides, they were just kids. They were probably traumatized.”
“Wait. What are you talking about?” Bitter took another bite.
Copper sighed as he scraped the last of the pot into his bowl. “When Princess Celestia arrived that morning, she found four foals. Apparently they’d been dumped at Sweet Apple Acres so the town’s adults could really cut loose. From what I’ve heard, they were all in a state of shock and suffering from extreme exposure. The farmhouse and barn had been heavily damaged in the blizzard, and they’d spent most of the night wandering in the cold. It’s a miracle they survived at all.”
“C’mon, Copper. Tell him all of it. He ain’t a colt gonna have nightmares.” Brown Jack chuckled.
“I ain’t telling him because it doesn’t bear repeating. They were kids, Jack. They used their imagination and crafted some fairy story to cope with losing their families.”
“C’mon, Copper; tell me.” Bitter was very much into the story at this point.
Copper Star sighed and tossed the ladle into the empty pot with a hollow clang. “Fine. From what I’ve heard, the kids told Princess Celestia that it wasn’t the blizzard that wrecked Ponyville and made everyone disappear. They said that some thing, some horrible monster,had come on the wind. Some ancient evil that fed on the misery of others. They said that it had punished the town for forgetting the spirit of Hearth’s Warming by spiriting them all away in the dead of night. They even gave it a name.” He spat into the fire. “They called it Grogar.”
A chill wind gusted through the camp, sending snow and sparks spiraling into the darkness. The three stallions shivered and huddled closer to the fire until it subsided.
“Load of nonsense.” Copper muttered.
“Maybe not.” Bitter Root swallowed hard. “My grandmother in Germaney used to tell me stories about a huge ram that would steal away fillies and colts that forgot the reason for Hearth’s Warming. She had a few names for him. Father of Monsters. King of the Windigoes.” He paused. “Grogar was one of the things she called it.” He shifted in his seat. “She even told me ways of protecting myself if…”
Copper sniffed and looked at Jack. “See? What did I tell you?” He rolled his eyes in Bitter Root’s direction. “Kid’s stories.”
Bitter Root swallowed his retort. “What happened to the kids?” He asked instead.
“Two of ‘em got sent to live with family elsewhere in Equestria. I’m sure they’re doing fine.”
“And the other two?”
“Heard they were so traumatized by what happened, they had to be locked away.” Brown Jack tossed his bowl to Copper who caught it in his magic. “Poor kids. Bad enough that they had to go through something like that, but on Hearth’s Warming Eve too?”
“Bad things just happen sometimes, Jack.” Copper shrugged as he returned the bowls to his bag. “Don’t really matter what day it is.”
“Excuse me.”
The three stallions jumped and turned as one to see a pony step out of the wood line. She was rail thin, like she hadn’t eaten in days. Her coat was so white that it practically blended in with the snow. Her purple mane was ragged and patched in places, the bangs hanging loosely over her eyes.
She visibly shivered as she reached for the trio. “May I warm myself beside your fire?”
The mare’s rough appearance quickly overcame the three stallion’s initial fright. Working together, they soon had the mare bundled up in every blanket and coat they had and placed as close to the fire as they were safely able.
“Sorry, ma’am. If you’d shown up a few minutes before, we would still have had some hot stew.” He reached for his bag. “I can whip you up something real quick…”
“No, please don’t bother. I won’t be long.” The mare shivered again despite her new accessories and location. She snuggled her face deeper into the covers. “You’re being very kind. Very generous.”
“It’s no trouble.” Brown Jack looked around. “Did you get lost out here? No offense, ma’am, but you look like you’ve been out here awhile.”
“Yes. Yes, I have been lost for quite some time. And I fear that I will be lost for quite a while longer.” Her voice dropped to nearly a whisper. “I’m being punished, you see?”
“Punished?” Bitter Root raised an eyebrow.
“Yes. And it’s not fair. I’m not a bad pony. I always did the best I could for everypony I knew. I gave and gave as much as I could… but for a single act of selfishness, here I am.” She angled her head at Copper Star. “You were mostly right. Bad things do just happen sometimes, but I can tell you from experience that when they happen on Hearth’s Warming they can be so much worse.”
The three stallions shared a look, but it was Copper who spoke first. “Ma’am… I don’t think we’re following here. What exactly happened to you?”
“It was such a lovely party.” The mare sighed wistfully. “The cider was flowing and the gifts were being exchanged. I had just stolen a kiss under the mistletoe from darling Thunderlane. And then…” She shivered again. “And then it got so cold. One instant, all was cheery and warm. The next, the fires had all blown out and everypony’s breath was misting in the air. After that, it’s a bit fuzzy. I remember something enormous landing on the roof, and the windows all blowing in. I remember the howling wind and… and something else.”
Bitter reached out, meaning to adjust her blankets for her. “What was it?”
“Bells.” The mare whispered. “So many jingling bells.”
Another rush of wind flooded through the camp, and this time the stallions shivered right alongside the mare. Bitter’s hoof touched an exposed stretch of her coat, and he yanked it away as though he’d been burned. “Yeesh! You’re still ice cold!”
“Oh, yes. I’m always so very cold now. Most days I can’t remember what warmth felt like at all.” She reached a hoof towards the fire, so close that the flames were practically licking her flesh. “I really do appreciate you three being so generous with me, though. It’s been a very long time since anypony treated me like a lady.”
“How long?” Brown Jack chuckled nervously.
“Ma’am…” Copper Star took a step backwards. “What did you say your name was?”
“Oh, how very rude of me. Here you are all acting like perfect gentlestallions and I’m forgetting my basic manners. I suppose five years of a frozen hell will do that to you.” She looked up and tossed her ragged bangs back, exposing her face to them at last. Her eye sockets were gaping voids of darkness. Tears ran down her emaciated face, all the way down to the rictus grin that stretched across her lips. “My name is Rarity.”
Another chill wind blew through the camp, and the three stallion’s attentions were torn from the horrifying specter before them by another rather shocking development.
They were no longer alone.
The clearing was filled with ponies. Stallions, mares, and foals. Dozens and dozens of them. They were all painfully thin, their ragged coats stretched tight over their frames. Each wept from empty sockets, each grinned with painful tightness. They stood still, save for the shivers that wracked their bodies every few seconds.
“It was a mistake coming here tonight.” Rarity told them as she rose and shed their blankets and coats. “He wouldn’t take us with him, you see? We weren’t even worthy enough to aid him as his other helpers do. He left us here. Left us to freeze, to ruminate on our sin, even in the height of summer. He rendered us unknowable, so that none could see nor hear our pleas for help. It’s only tonight, on Hearth’s Warming Eve, that we can be seen. That we can be heard. That we can be known.”
“Why… why tonight?” Bitter asked through chattering teeth, looking desperately for an escape route should these winter nightmares make a move towards him.
“Because tonight’s the night he comes to check on us, of course.” Rarity stepped into the fire, but the flames seemed to pass through her entirely. She shimmered in the steam and the smoke, like a mirage in a frozen desert. “You’d better watch out.”
The next gust of wind brought a new sound; a multitude of jingling bells.
“Everypony in the tent.” Copper ordered. “Now.”
Brown Jack and Bitter Root said nothing in reply. They followed without question. Once all were safe inside, Copper’s magic yanked the door’s zipper closed with such force that it broke off entirely. The three stallions huddled together in the center of the tent as the ringing bells grew louder and louder.
Something huge struck the earth beside them with such force that, for just an instant, all three were lifted wholly into the air by the impact.
“What…?” Bitter started, but Brown Jack’s hoof very nearly caved in his mouth before he could get another word out.
The trio looked at each other with wide, terrified eyes as the thing began walking around their tent with slow, heavy foot-steps. Each step shook the ground and was accompanied by a litany of ringing bells. The beast passed between the tent and the fire, filling the stallion’s visions with the flickering shape of something enormous, something with a pair of long, curved horns stretching from its head. They watched in horror as it leaned down towards the tent’s door and sniffed. The air in the tent suddenly became that much colder, and they held their collective breath as the fabric where the zipper was supposed to be began to push inwards…
“G…G…” Bitter tried to choke out.
The metal slide began to give, revealing a gigantic black hoof crowned in midnight blue fur…
“Good Queen Platinum last looked out on Summer Sun Ce’bration.” Bitter finally forced the song from his mouth.
The hoof froze at once.
“The ponies were all gathered there, one from e’vry nation.” He sang louder this time, gesturing for his companions to join him.
Copper Star and Brown Jack eyed each other warily, then quickly joined in. “Brightly shined the sun that day, with heat some said was cru-el…”
As the three friends continued singing together of Queen Platinum’s last act of Hearth’s Warming kindness, the intruding hoof retracted back into the darkness. The very air around them seemed to warm as their words grew in strength and volume. The silhouette of the monster outside was suddenly cast not in flickering orange but a deep violet hue. They heard a low, rumbling roar of anger or frustration. The beast bent at the knees and launched up into the air with an accompanying rush of freezing wind and an almost violent ringing of many bells. They kept singing even after the sound of the bells had long faded to nothing, and they were nearly hoarse by the time the fire outside had returned to it’s original coloring.
It was Brown Jack who reached for the door first. He looked back at his friend’s uneasily, but then steeled himself and pushed the fabric aside.
The clearing was empty, their possessions unmolested. The snow had continued falling unabated, obscuring any hoof prints that might have been left… but who was to say if their visitors were capable of leaving hoof prints at all? The fire had burned with such power and ferocity that it was nearly embers already.
Copper Star rounded on Bitter Root. “How did you know that would work? The singing, I mean?”
Bitter Root shrugged and smiled gently. “My grandmother used to tell me that singing was the one thing that the Father of Monsters hated and feared above all else.”
“Kid’s stories.” Copper Star shook his head. “Hmph. Guess I’ll be having more trust in kid’s stories from now on.”
“Same.” Brown Jack muttered. He found the discarded flask and tossed it back to his young friend. “Any chance of him coming back tonight?”
Bitter shook his head as he returned the flask to his own pack. “I don’t think so.”
The embers of the fire flared for an instant, revealing a detail that all three had missed in their first inspection; a single golden bell dangling from a branch overhead. Written around in the edges in an intricate, repeating inscription were three words;
For Goodness Sake
“Of course, it wouldn’t hurt to go ahead and get out of this valley tonight.” Bitter Root’s saddlebags were already on. “Just in case.”
His companions agreed, and in a matter of minutes the campsite was torn down, the clearing cleaned of any signs of occupation, and the three stallions were headed down the trail. They sang Hearth’s Warming carols together as Copper Star’s magic lit the way.
None looked back and saw the hazy shadows of dozens of ponies watching them leave. None heard their soft cries of longing and misery be swallowed by the night air. None bore witness as they vanished into the aether one by one until only one remained. None saw a tear appear as if from nowhere and strike the snow at her hooves just before this last shade faded into nothing.
The quiet stillness of a winter’s night descended on the place now known as Apple Valley.
But above that, just barely audible from where it hung in the trees, came the ringing of the single bell.
