The Headless Horse

by GhostQuill

Rating: teen
Tags: Other, Adventure, Scootaloo, Princess Celestia, Main 6, Princess Luna, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark
Length: 24012

What happens when the tale of the Headless Horse of Scootaloo's nightmares turns out to be true? And when it turns out he has a thousand year old grudge with Celestia, how will the main 6 handle the truth of those days after Luna's banishme

Once a soldier of Princess Luna's guard, an Earth Pony whose name was lost to the ages, was killed by Celestia for a revolt he lead against her after she banished Princess Luna to the Moon. Now a thousand years have passed and he wanders the Everfree forest as a spectral ghost. That is until he comes across a certain orange filly with a purple mane. How will they all react to the new discovery of a Headless Horse? How will he react to seeing Princess Celestia and Luna again after a thousand years? Especially after Celestia had him killed.
The mysteries of the Headless Horse will be revealed...

(This isn't really a full on gore story, I just put it there because there are occations where blood is spilt and ponies die. So don't expect somepony to have a blood filled, serious injury all the time, just maybe occationally).

Published 2013-03-04 08:30:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-04-22 15:47:08 UTC

Prologue

Years ago, there lived two alicorns, both Princesses who ruled over the waking and sleeping land of Equestia. It was a peaceful and wondrous land. But when the Princess of the Night felt forgotten from her subjects, she turned on them. Declaring that she would make her subjects live in her beautiful night and respect her for the true Princess she was. Few agreed with her. Except for her personal guards. They had spent their time under her rule, basking in the beauty of her night and believed that all ponies should too. Sadly the Princess of the Night’s sister; Princess Celestia didn’t see things as her sister did. And sent her to the Moon to stop her sister’s rampage. This was a bad move. Princess Luna’s royal guards were furious at what happened to their beloved ruler, and when Princess Celestia came to them and told them all to put away their Lunar Armour and don her Celestial Armour, and those that wouldn’t, would be fired.

That was the last straw.

She was telling them to turn their backs on the Princess they had served all their career and forget her. Celestia didn’t realise the repercussion this would have.

That night, under the Moon of their fair Princess Luna, they attacked.

It started with one pony, one earth pony who stood at the entrance to the city of Canterlot. Donning his complete Lunar Armour over his pale brown fur coat, he looked up to the Moon with the Alicorn shadow on it for confidence. With his face set in determination and dark brown mane flowing over his deep red eyes, he took one stomping foot forward on the worn cobblestone road. It echoed through the whole city reaching all corners. Taking more he marched through the streets of the Canterlot of old, shouting out over the city;

"My brothers! Join me, stand by my side and fight with me!"

The further he went, the more who joined, all soldiers wearing Lunar Armour, marching further and further towards the looming castle of Canterlot. Following the Earth Pony and listening to his words.

"We must stop this tyrant who claims to be our ruler, who sent her own sister to the moon so she could rule all of Equestria by herself. Follow me and we will reclaim the throne for the rightful ruler!"

"TO THE CASTLE!" They all shouted as they marched quickly to the castle gates. More recruits came out of the alleys of shadowed streets, others walked out the doors of their homes, all stood behind that one Earth Pony. With practiced precision, all of them marched in unison, their hooves slamming on the cobblestone like thunder.

High up from the balconies of the castle, Celestia and her guards watched as the thousand Lunar Guards made their way to the castle gates from the streets below. Unmoving and with one order, she made the command to stop them all;

“Kill them.”

Her Celestial Guards left and barricaded the gates to the castle while the pegasi guarded the skies; weapons at the ready and magic sparking with anticipation. The Lunar Guards were not hurrying, they stayed with their slow march and chants. But 200metres from the gates, they ran. Shouting a war cry that chilled the bones of everyone who heard it.

Breaking unison but staying in line, they sprinted to the gates while the pegasi took to the sky. Hooves and swords clashed above them while magic bolts were shot at the gate to break it. The Earth Pony stood before them all facing his troops as the unicorns fired at the gate.

"We can break through! Come my Brothers! We will storm the castle! Take back what is ours!"

Each side strained to hold the barrier longer, but the Lunar Guards finally broke through, the gate blew off its hinges and shot into the closest Celestial guards trapping them momentarily.

"Follow ME!"

And now the war began. Like a tidal wave hitting a cliff-side, the two sides clashed in a moment of chaos. The Earth Pony stood at the front and led the Lunar guards in a ‘V’ formation through the Celestial Guards, a light sword clutched in his teeth which he swiped from side to side and charged straight forward through them all, the others following him confidently. None could match his skills; he’d swipe somepony in front of him while bucking a guard from the side with one of his back legs. Reaching the front doors, the V parted and from the middle of them, came six ponies all carrying a huge log. As soldiers defended from the sides, the group holding the log bashed it against the door repeatedly, like a huge war drum. The Earth Pony shouted at them;

"We must advance! Break through these doors and we will stop our oppressor!"

The doors cracked and fell to the polished marble floor. There was a pause, and then they charged. While others fought off the Celestial Guards, the rest sprinted through the halls of the castle, knocking over everything in their path and tearing paintings from the walls. The Earth Pony, still in the lead, ran with his head low and close to his chest, his breathing heavy, angry, and loud. Drool dripped down the sword he kept in his mouth. As they all rounded the corner to the main hall, lines of the Celestial guard stood in their way. Without hesitating, they struck. The Earth Pony cut up all around him; barely giving the enemy a chance to strike with his unbelievably fast moves. Kicking all and striking down anyone in his way, the Earth Pony pushed against the doors to the royal hall. Finally the doors to the main hall burst open. Celestia’s guards at the door defeated and Luna’s force stood before the last might of Celestia’s army. The Earth Pony and his force stood in the doorway, unmoving, as across the room, Celestia and her force stood still, neither side taking the first move. And then finally, the Earth Pony spoke to the Princess,

“Give up Celestia! Your army is defeated.”

“Stop this now! There is no need for more bloodshed Commander.”

“Only if you release Princess Luna.”

“You know I can’t! The world cannot live in an eternal night, it needs both day and night to balance it. If I bring Princess Luna back she will try to plummet the world into darkness again.”

“Then die with your precious sunrise!” Their armies attacked. Celestia stood still and let her forces run before her. The Earth Pony and his forces poured in from the doorway and charged forward. Many tried to engage him in a fight but he leapt away from them and made his way to Celestia, dodging attacks from all sides, and even from above. With one last line to push through, he jumped onto them, and used them to push off of and rocket at the Princess. He came leaping at her, sword in mouth, and hooves aimed for her. Centimetres away from her, she beat her powerful wings in one huge sweep and flew into the air away from him while he landed where she once was. Like instinct he dodged to the side right before a magic blast from her horn hit the ground where he once stood. With this second of opportunity while she was performing the spell, he flicked his head and threw the sword at her. It swept through the air, making barely a whistling sound. Caught off guard the sword struck into Celestia’s wing and stuck there. With only one wing holding her up, she fell from the air and landed hard on the castle’s stone ground. All around the fights of Lunar and Celestial guards stopped and stared as the Princess had been grounded by her foe. He pulled the sword from her wing and held it above her. He got ready to strike, but Celestia’s injured wing struck out at him first and sent him reeling, her blood spattered across his face as he held the sword firmly in his mouth. Pulling herself into a somewhat regal pose she readied herself to attack again, her wing dragged on the ground beside her bloodied.

“I’m giving you one last chance Commander, end this now.” She spoke.

“You know my terms Celestia.”

“And you know I can’t allow it.”

“Then death it shall be!” He lunged at her and she blew another blast of magic, it missed and hit the carpet igniting it. Some ponies tried to put it out but she kept firing and setting more carpets or curtains on fire as the Earth Pony dodged each of her blasts. One such blast that he missed, instead hit one of the Celestial Guard who had tried to put out the fire. She barely noticed, focused entirely on the Earth Pony. Her guards around him helped the poor guard who’d been shot but the fire was now out of control. None of them wanted to continue to be in the castle as it spread but Celestia and the Earth Pony ignored them, and the fire. Every pony fled. The fire chasing after them, the blazing inferno sent clouds of smoke bellowing out the top of the castle, even the city ponies fled to the surrounding land for safety. All but the Princess and Earth Pony. He closed in and went to strike but she suddenly grabbed a sword herself and blocked it, each pushing harder to break the other’s defence, fire licking at their heels and the flames dancing around them. As he pushed against her sword, he kicked her in the leg and she fell on her side. She tried to lift her head but he stood one of his feet on top of her horn and pulled back his head to stab down into the exposed flesh of her neck. Just as he was about to stab her, a magic blast from the side hit him and he was flown back into the wall. His fur singed from the fire and as he tried to get up, a beam from the roof collapsed and trapped him under it. His whole side was burning from the heat of the beam and he yelled out in pain. The Princess was getting up with help from her saviour; a unicorn with a deep dark purple coat and blue mane, his cutie mark had three bright white stars on it. He was one of her guard who ran back to check if she was okay. He helped her to her feet and created a shield above them from any debris.

“Thank you. I apologise for not knowing your name.”

“It’s Spell Bound my Princess, but we really should leave, the building’s coming down.”

*cough* “Yes of course.” When she was about to go, she heard a groan and saw the Earth Pony stuck underneath the beam, fighting to get out while coughing raggedly with fire licking at his fur. She was going to leave him to die in the fire, but she stopped. Going over to the Earth Pony, he was trying to pry the beam off of himself but the smoke was going straight into his lungs and he was coughing and the smoke went into his eyes so he could barely see. He was becoming weaker and less aware of his surroundings. With a last effort he pushed at the beam and managed to get it off himself. But he no longer had the energy to get up, coughing a few times and taking a blurred look around, he collapsed to the ground, his hairs still burning slightly. The Princess looked at his lifeless body and with the help of Spell Bound’s and her magic, they carried him out of the castle while trying to not have the whole place fall down on them as the walls fell down behind her.

Outside the castle and outside the city limits as the whole thing went up in flames, all the ponies watched in silent horror as their homes, their lives, went up in smoke.Many fell that day, their bodies burning with the fire, None of the Lunar Guard were seen, supposedly fled. All except the unconscious Earth Pony. Taking him into the forest with his sword and a few guards, he awoke after having his head dunked in a river. He turned to look around and was in a sudden rage when he saw Celestia. He tried to attack her but many guards held him down and he really didn’t have the energy after having his lungs filled with smoke. He recognized the purple unicorn standing by her as the one who have shot him and threw insults at him. Ignoring them, the Princess came up to him and said,

“Commander, you have committed crimes against the crown and Equestria’s ruler. Crimes that are punishable by death, have you anything to say before that punishment is filled out?”

“Only that your mangled wing looks beautiful in the moonlight.”

“Fool!” She went to hit him but stopped and took a breath. He took this moment to speak,

“Me!? A fool! You’re the one who took me from the burning fire, I would’ve died in there but for some reason you decided to take me out here?! What? Didn’t want the fire to get me? Wanted to save the privilege of killing me to yourself?!” He spat at her feet and turned an angered gaze at her. Through clenched teeth she said,

“Please give your name Commander,” the words like a foul taste in her mouth, “so all will know of the Stallion who died trying to overthrow the crown and burned down the royal home in doing so.”

“If I recall correctly, it was your terrible aim Missy, which set the castle on fire, you even hit one of your own guards.”

“Remember who you speak to! You will address me as Princess Celestia or her Highness! Now what is your name.”

“You are no Princess, none that I follow! You are an oppressor, and you are not getting anything out of me, Missy.”

“Very well.” She nodded and her guards moved him so his head was resting on a rock and he couldn’t move. The dark purple magic of Spell Bound wrapped around the hilt of the Earth Pony’s very own sword and levitated it above him.

“For you crimes against the crown and myself the ruler of Equestria… I sentence you to death.”

The unnamed Earth Pony was buried within that forest which would one day become the Everfree Forest. His resting place shown only by his sword acting as a head stone stuck in the ground where his body and severed head lied, but the area where he was buried was forgotten to the ages. As the years passed, many ponies said they’d seen a headless horse wandering that very forest, and made-up tales of a headless ghost; saying he was searching for his long lost head and that if you weren’t careful, he might take your head instead. But this is all fake right? He was buried with his head, so what reason does this headless ghost have to wander the forest at night…

Fairy tales becoming true

‘Hey Scoots, you in here?’ Rainbow Dash had recently taken to care for the little filly and had her living in her cloud-house with her. But the sun was setting and day was drawing to a close, so that meant bed time for Scootaloo, if Rainbow could even find her. She was peeking into the bathroom to see if Scootaloo was cleaning up before bed but there was no sign of her.

‘Scootaloo come on, where are you?!’ She heard a shuffling and looked around, there was no one behind her in the hall, but there was a certain suspicious looking cabinet close by. Flying over to it, she opens the door and out shoots an orange blur shouting,

‘I’m not tired! I don’t want to go to bed yet!’ She sprints down the stairs and Rainbow Dash rolls her eyes before following. Scootaloo thought that she was getting away from Rainbow easily, that is until she felt herself being picked up from underneath and lifted into the air.

‘Come on Scoots, you have to go to bed. You have school tomorrow and I will not have you falling asleep in class again.’

‘That was one time! And it was history, we weren’t even doing anything interesting.’ She slumped in Rainbow Dash’s arms as they flew to her room and she was plonked down on the bed.

‘Yes, and you failed the history test because of it, now get into bed.’

‘No!’ Defiantly Scootaloo threw her blankets off the bed and crossed her hooves turning away from Rainbow Dash.

‘Urg’ Rainbow groaned, had she been this difficult with her parents? She wasn’t used to this, having to look after someone. Only recently had she been looking after Scootaloo, after that incident they had while on that camping trip. She’d taken her under her wing as Scootaloo had put it and now looked to the little filly as a sister of sorts. She cared deeply for her but damn it she was difficult sometimes. Then an idea struck,

‘Hmm, will you go to bed if I tell you a story?’ At that Scootaloo turned slightly so she could see Rainbow and a smile lit her face. Lying down with her head against her pillow she looked up to Rainbow to pull the covers back on her bed and waited eagerly. Rainbow smile and lifted the blankets onto the bed and covered Scootaloo in them as well, which she promptly poked her head out of and laughed. Settling down, Rainbow sat at the other end of her bed and held a hoof to her chin thinking of a story.

‘Now what type of story would you like to hear?’

‘An awesome one! About you Rainbow Dash, you have lots of cool stories about you.’

‘But you’ve heard all of my coolest and most awesome stories before, twice even! Isn’t there anything else? Oh! I could read you a bit from Daring Do and Temple of Doom?’

‘Okay!’ Snuggling down deeper into her covers, Scootaloo had her nose peeking over her blanket as she listened to Rainbow Dash tell of Daring Do deciding to brave a temple after finding out foals were being taken from their homes. Rainbow Dash was really getting into the story and almost didn’t notice the young filly fall asleep 10 or so pages into the story. Closing the book and blowing out the candles that lit the room, Rainbow left and went to her own room to go to bed.

Scootaloo smiled in her sleep because she was dreaming that Rainbow Dash was her favourite fictional pony Daring Do, and she was her little sidekick Short Bread from the tale of the Temple of Doom. It was at her favourite part of the book where they were in mine carts barrelling down the rails like a rollercoaster as people attacked them from a mine cart behind.

‘Short Bread! Get the brakes! If we go too fast around the corners we’ll fly off.’ The cyan pony said throwing a lump of wood that was in their cart at the robed ponies behind them.

‘Got it Daring!’ She pulled on the brakes with all her might trying to slow the cart down but suddenly the brake stick broke off in her hooves. ‘Uh oh…’

‘Urg, Short Bread!’

‘You said get the brakes!’ Daring face-hoofed but quickly her expression changed when she saw what was coming.

‘Quickly hold on!’ The track ahead suddenly dropped. Both their yells echoed throughout the tunnels as they descended the track like a bullet, it quickly inclined and both Daring and Short Bread were treated to head wrenching rollercoaster of a ride. Suddenly something they feared could be seen up ahead; part of the track was missing. Which they could only worry about for a short moment because the robed ponies behind them were quickly gaining and throwing rocks at their wheels trying to get the old mine cart to veer off the track. Daring saw one of the wheels wobble and quickly looked for something to throw back. There in their cart was another lump of wood, picking it up Daring dropped it on the track behind them and Short Bread watched as it crashed into the oncoming mine cart. Suddenly she felt like gravity wasn’t working cause she didn’t feel it’s constant tug on her body to stay on the ground, then she realised that’s because they were in the air. Looking over she saw the other side of the track coming towards them, she braced for impact and collapsed to the mine cart’s floor as they crashed back on the track rocking from side to side. Spinning around Short Bread saw as the robed pony’s cart flew through the air, it came short of the rail due to the log slowing it down and all of the robed ponies fell below her view. She heard their bloodcurdling yells as they fell to their doom.

Waking up suddenly her ears pricked as she heard an odd whinny sound into her room. Rubbing her eyes she tried to figure out if she had dreamt it but she was sure she hadn’t, it had seemed so real. It still echoed through her mind as she looked out her window over Ponyville. The moon shone high in the sky, radiant against the dark star blotted sky, the Everfree forest, just a shadow over the ground, stood menacingly off to the side covering the horizon. Trying to dismiss it, she pulls the covers back over herself and closes her eyes. She’d almost drifted off but suddenly it was there again. Shooting up and leaning her head out the window, she listened to the elongated whinny in the night, it sounded like none she had ever heard, there was just this unearthly thing to it, like if the wind had a voice. Her eyes caught sight of birds flying off suddenly somewhere over the Everfree forest and as she leaned over and tried to squint to see anything within that untamed land, she lost her footing as her blankets slipped and she fell out the window.

The air pushed against her face as she fell hurtling to the ground, any shouts were lost with the wind pushing at her face. Although Rainbow Dash had been teaching her the basics of flying, she still wasn’t that good and her small wings only buzzed uselessly as she saw the Earth grow bigger and bigger. Looking around for anything to help her decent she spotted some clouds that she could try to latch onto. Focusing and trying to aim her body, she spread her buzzing wings out flat and tries to glide over to one of them. Without her wings buzzing she was gaining speed and was afraid that she might even break the cloud when she hit it, but if she stopped gliding now then she would miss the cloud and plummet further, she had to just hope that it wouldn’t break.

There it was, the cloud she was aiming, for, it was so close now, she panicked that she might miss it, maybe she would overshoot it or a gust of wind would push it away. Her panicking mind brought all sorts of terrible thoughts to her mind, pushing them back she focused just as she did when performing a trick on her scooter, she just had to trust that she was doing it right and wouldn’t miss.

Only metres away now, a few more, her hooves so close. And suddenly, the soft cushiness of the cloud hit her, rather than breaking it bounced her back up and she fell once more onto its softness. Clutching the cloud for dear life fearing she hadn’t done it, she opened her eyes and was greeted with the white fluffiness that was the grateful cloud. Letting out a breath she’d been holding she gave a sign of relief. It took her a moment work up the courage to move but she turned her head and looked back up to see Rainbow Dash’s cloud home high above her. She had no idea how she was going to get back up there. Thinking there was no other way, she buzzed her wings while holding onto the cloud and slowly made her way to the cloud home. Her eyes kept drooping as she flew further up, and a cold wind had started to blow making her teeth chatter. All of a sudden a giant blast of cold wind hit her and sent her cloud over. She waited for the cloud to stop tumbling and tried to continue her way back to Rainbow’s once again far away home, but she was hit again by the unrelenting wind. It sent her reeling away with the other clouds towards the frightening overcast Everfree forest. Giving a final shout out to Rainbow’s shrinking home, she was whisked away from the safe haven on Ponyville.

It was an average night in the Everfree forest, clouds forever overhead, always blocking out his Mistress’s beautiful moon. God how he hated those clouds.

The Headless Horse as he was obviously now known, walked through the Everfree forest, ignoring the trees baring his way as he passed through them. He figured he was called the Headless Horse because of all the ponies that he came across. They always shouted at him the Exact. Same. Name. No it’s not like they couldn’t have just asked him what his name was, and he wouldn’t even mind the new name if it weren’t for the fact that every time a pony used it they had to yell it at the top of their lungs or stutter it under their breath like an idiot with their eyes as wide as baseballs. He’d like to hit them with one if he could. Sadly this ghost business didn’t allow him to actually touch anything, it didn’t even let him float around for damned reasons which he didn’t understand. Some bloody rule in the made up ghost handbook, he’d like to have a look at one of those cause if there was one, maybe it’d tell him why he was still haunting an empty castle ground for the past thousand years, rather than doing whatever it was when ponies died and moved on. But seriously, getting back to the matter, was it really that hard to contain themselves from screaming and blatantly pointing out his lack of a head right in front of him? Repeatedly. Apparently not.

Finally making it through the line of trees that had invaded the once Castle Gardens, he was greeted by the very familiar sight of what currently was left, of the Castle Gardens.

All around shrubbery and thorn bushes were the prominent rulers here. Each statue which once stood tall, now laid covered in vines or broken on the ground. One certain statue however always managed to bring a smile to his absent face. It was a statue of Celestia, when she was a thousand years younger and stood in a regal pose with one leg raised up. Sure the statue had once looked regal, but not anymore. Thorn bush vines had quickly taken over residence of this statue and as the years had worn on, so had the stone used to make the statue. The tail had fallen off and the leg that was raised had fallen, bits and pieces here and there fell as well, but what really made him smile, was the head. The neck had weakened some centuries ago and the head too had broken off, only the thorn bushes covering the statue had been adamant in holding onto her head. So now the statue stood with the head hanging off, almost touching the ground, but being held in the air from the neck by thorn bush vines. Always an amusing sight to him.

He went over to another part of the castle, where a statue of his Mistress was; Princess Luna. Her statue hadn’t fared the years any better than any of the rest, but that didn’t mind the Headless Horse, he liked it anyway. The Princess held a simple pose, all four hooves planted firmly on the ground, her wings outstretched wide, although they had become chipped and broken through the years. And her head stared off to the distance surveying her land. He wished he could’ve done something to help the statue, but sadly, the ghost thing stopped him. He was just glad that her head hadn’t fallen off like Celestia’s, it was probably her fat head that caused it to fall off in the first place he thought with a smirk. But that smirk was quickly replaced with a frown when he saw the big black birds all sitting atop her statue. Running over to the blasted birds, he tried waving at them and telling them to leave.

‘Hey you birds! Shoo! Shoo!’ When that clearly didn’t work he ran up to the statue and started waving his hooves through the birds. They passed through the beasts harmlessly but it was only enough to get a couple of them to leave. He was getting annoyed with these defiant birds but he had one last idea left. Stepping back and puffing out his chest, he gave one huge whinny at them. It was an unearthly, ghostly whinny which sounded like multiply voices were yelling at once, but only came from one creature. This spooked the birds and made all of them fly off of Princess Luna’s statue, many left but some just moved to another statue. But he was riled up now, he didn’t want to see these birds back here again. Giving it all he had, he shouted that same ghostly whinny again and with satisfaction, watched as they all flew off above the tree line. Which brought his gaze back to the clouds, and his annoyance at not being able to fly. If he could, he would fly high above that dreaded cloud line and watch his Mistress’s moon pass through the sky all night. He could care less about the sun. It wasn’t too long ago actually that his Mistress, the Princess Luna had returned to this world. He didn’t know how long exactly, it was hard trying to tell the time in a forest where you never saw the sun or moon and especially after a thousand years of being here, everything sort of just merged into one long, unending day. But that day when Princess Luna had finally returned to this Earth, that was the greatest of all the days! Sadly he had not been able to speak to his Princess, the pain of not having been able to speak to her had been practically torture to him. It was those blasted ponies, the ones who had stopped her plans to make the whole world covered in an eternal night. Sure they turned her back into her sweet old Luna self, but if they hadn’t been there then he could’ve spoken to her! But something about those ponies just told him to stay away, every fibre of his sectoral being screamed to him they were bad news. So he stayed away, and watched them. Unfortunately his Princess did not stay around to reminisces and hasn’t come back since, so he’s been stuck in this desolate, wearing away city for another however long. Just brilliant.

His thought ranting was interrupted quite rudely by the distant shouts of something, he didn’t much care what, but since there was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do, he thought that it would amount to at least a few moments of not complete and utter boredom to go and check it out.

Watching overhead where the noise was coming from, he saw a random small cloud travel close to the top of the trees, and soon when it flew out of sight, he heard what sounded like something crashing into said treetops. Casually walking over to the crash site he found the tree he was looking for and watched as an orange blob fell out of the tree, hitting every branch it could possibly hit on its way down. Finally the line of branches ended and the orange blob landed heavily before him on the ground and gave out a small wheezing sound. This close up, the Headless Horse could now see that the orange blob was really an orange foal. It had a purple mane and tail and lied there like it was unconscious. But sure enough, it twitched and groaned some more. For some reason the Headless Horse found its noises annoying, but not as annoying as that blasted yell every single pony gives him.

‘AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THE HEADLESS HORSE!!!!!!!!!!!’ If he could’ve face-hoofed at that moment, he would’ve. The filly looked like it was trying to run off, but clearly that massive fall from the tree had injured her somehow, still didn’t stop the pathetic thing from trying. It took about two steps before it collapsed from the pain from one of its legs. Instead it opted to staring at him with those baseball size eyes and cowering against the tree.

‘Please don’t get me Headless Horse! Or uh.. Mr Horse if.. that’s what you prefer?... I don’t want to be taken! I want to be heard from again!’

The Headless Horse stood there for a moment, had this filly just asked him what he preferred? He was starting to like her already! Never had anypony ever asked him what he preferred to be called! Alright yes the filly was in a state of shock, and her survival instincts were trying anything to stop him getting her as the stories went, but even if it was just her shock talking, this was just about the greatest thing for him since Princess Luna’s return! If he had one, there would have been a giddy smile plastered across his face.

‘Oh, uh…’ Now that he had the choice, he couldn’t figure what he wanted the filly to call him. Mr Horse just didn’t work for him and although he could say his real name, he wasn’t really sure if her wanted a filly or just about anyone knowing his name. The filly had her arms over her head in a pathetic attempt to shield herself but was growing curious as time went by as to why nothing was happening. Quickly he stammered out a reply.

‘Just... Just call me Headless.’ He said sternly. Opening her eyes the filly looked up to him with a confused expression on her face. Headless shifted from hoof to hoof occasionally unsure what to do, he could practically feel the awkward passing between them. Finally he asked,

‘Got a name kid?’

‘…’

‘What were you doing in that tree anyway?’

‘…’ Still she didn’t do anything, she didn’t even move, and he doubted he’d seen her blink yet. She was making him more creeped out as every second passed. Finally with nothing left to do, he started leaving.

‘Wait!’ That small voice called out to him and he turned to it. ‘Aren’t… Aren’t you… Why haven’t you done anything?’

‘I asked for your name, I thought that was something.’

‘… It’s Scootaloo… But don’t you take the heads of anypony you come across?’

‘A common misconception my dear Scootaloo.’ She looked at him quizzically. Sighing he replied again, ‘No I do not take pony’s heads. That’s just a tale.’

‘But you are the Headless Horse?’

‘No I’m the Bodyfull Horse, completely different thing.’ Again that same confused look was directed at him. ‘Yes I’m the Headless Horse.’ He groaned at the incompetence.

‘You’re the Headless Horse, but you don’t take pony’s heads.’

‘Urggggg, listen Scootaloo, as much as I love playing “repeat thy sentence” over and over with you, I don’t think my non-existent brain cells can take much more of this torture.’ He started to leave but that annoyingly pleading voice shouted at him again.

‘Wait! Can you help me please?’ Groans appeared to be escaping his lips frequently tonight.

‘With what exactly?’

‘Well… I think I hurt myself and I can’t walk, I need help.’

‘Sorry to disappoint kid but I don’t think I’ll be much help.’ Walking over to Scootaloo he moved a hoof toward her and it passed right through her. ‘I’m a ghost remember? Can’t touch anything.’

‘Well, could you get help? Ponyville’s not far from here.’

‘Can’t help there either I’m afraid kid. Being a ghost as I mentioned before, I am bound to only traverse a select amount of land, that being the old City of Canterlot, up to where my body was buried. Which means I can’t leave the Everfree forest.’

‘Oh.’ Her face fell. Headless, while he looked at those watery eyes, seemed to feel something, he couldn’t tell, but it might’ve been… pity? Damn it, he was caring for the foal. Sighing again he said something he’d probably regret.

‘I can watch over you though if you want, I tend to frighten off just about anything around here, and anything that doesn’t leave at the sight of me usually does when I yell at them.’ In Scootaloo’s thoughts she thought that was kind of sad and must be depressing for him.

‘I… I guess.’ Sitting down next to her, both Scootaloo and Headless sat in more awkward silence than before, he hadn’t believed that possible. Trying to get over her fears, she attempted not to think of the ghostly being next to her as the stories had depicted him and wanted to try and get to know the real Headless Horse. Cause if even Discord could be given a second chance, then surely a ghost could too.

‘So, how long you been here?’ She asked. Headless didn’t even bother to move.

‘Last time I checked, a thousand years.’ Her eyes bludged at that. A thousand years wandering the Everfree forest, she could hardly even imagine it.

‘That’s a long time…’

‘I guess, I can hardly tell, there’s no real distinguish between day and night here aside from everything becoming slightly darker or lighter.’

‘Then how do you know it’s been a thousand years?’

‘Well when I died, it was just after Princess Luna was banished, and a while ago, she reappeared. Hence the prophesy that she would return in a thousand years must’ve come true.’

‘You were there a thousand years ago when Princess Luna was banished!?!’ Her face lit up with curiosity as she stared at him.

‘Yes.’ Was his only reply, clear that he did not want to talk about it.

‘Oh…’ They both sat in silence again and Headless was getting annoyed at doing nothing and having to sit with his foal.

‘Are you sure you can’t walk?’ He asked impatiently.

‘Pretty sure. Let me try.’ Moving her feet carefully and wincing when she did so, it was clear she wasn’t going to go anywhere soon. Headless huffed his annoyance and sat there with his arms crossed. Scootaloo was still trying to comprehend the fact that she was sitting next to THE Headless Horse.

Where's Scootaloo?

Dawn was breaking over the horizon, not that it did any use in the Everfree forest, Headless couldn’t tell at all if it was day or night. So he didn’t let it bother him, next to him though was probably one of the biggest annoyances he had recently had the absolute pleasure of knowing. She’d had fallen asleep not long after he said he’d watch over her. But not before she’d made him do some ridiculous “Pinkie Promise”, to make him promise that he wouldn’t leave through the night. What had this world come to when “getting a cupcake to the eye” was the punishment for breaking a promise? It seemed a bit redundant to him, he didn’t even have eyes. But she’d made it sound so foreboding the way she’d said that you could never EVER break a Pinkie Promise. Some filly thing probably.

So he sat there, the whole time with the young filly next to him on the ground sleeping. He got bored and wanted to just leave quite a few times, but he didn’t. To him promises were an important thing, it proved if you could put your trust in someone or not, and although he cared nothing for if this foal trusted him, it was just something he honoured from his days alive.

The area around them seemed to be lighter than it was before so he guessed that day had probably begun, if anything it was a few hours after dawn. Looking down at the foal he said,

‘Hey Scootaloo, get up.’ His voice was loud and she moaned as she tried to hold onto her sleepliness. ‘Get up already.’ He said louder and this made her flicker her eyes open a touch and look wearily to where the voice had come from. Suddenly her eyes widened and she attempted to run off, only to cry out in pain and fall flat on the ground.

‘I was going to ask you could walk yet but that’s clearly a no.’ Looking back at the Headless Horse, realisation crossed her face and she calmed down, sitting back up carefully she said.

‘Heh, I forgot about you.’ She said rubbing her neck sheepishly.

‘I scare you or something?’

‘What?! No! I’m not scared of anything, I’m brave like Rainbow Dash!’ Scootaloo puffed out her chest at that and gave Headless a brave face.

‘Pfft, that’s not what it looked like from here, last night’s a great example.’ Her chest fell and her ears went back as she stared at the ground sadly.

‘You won’t tell anyone will you? Especially not Rainbow Dash!’

‘Who’s Rainbow Dash?’ He asked confused.

‘You don’t know Rainbow Dash?! She’s the most coolest, most awesome Pegasus to ever fly! She even made a Sonic Rainboom!’

‘Huh, a Sonic Rainboom you say… I’m pretty sure I’ve seen a couple of those a while back, cleared all the clouds above Everfree for a little while.’

‘That was Rainbow! She’s the only one around these parts to ever have done a Sonic Rainboom. So you promise you won’t tell anyone I was scared?’

‘You’re not going to make me do another of those ‘Pinkie Promises’ are you?’

‘But you have to! It’s a Pinkie Promise!’ Sighing heavily he said,

‘Fine, I’ll do it, but only if you Pinkie Promise never to make me do another one again, just the normal promises from now on.’

‘Okay, cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.’ Scootaloo went through the movements then looked over at Headless expectantly.

‘Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my non-existent eye. There happy?’ She nodded her head a few times but then there was silence after that, Headless didn’t really know what to contribute to the conversation and the foal wasn’t much of a conversationalist herself. During that silence was when Scootaloo started listening to the surrounding forest. A cricket chirruped near her and made her jump back. More and more odd noises sounded and Scootaloo found herself edging closer and closer to the ghostly horse. Something in the darkness cawed and she was shivering with fear as she said,

‘What… What was that?’

‘Not scared are you Scootaloo, I thought you said you were brave.’

‘I am brave!’ She said angrily, before returning to her crouched state. ‘I was just asking what that noise was.’

‘It was a bird.’ Another noise in the darkness made her jump.

‘What about that?!’

‘That was a squirrel.’

‘And that?’

‘Just the stream. Seriously, are you going to ask me to tell you the name of every noise that freaks you out?’

‘I am not freaked out!’

‘Sure you aren’t.’ Sarcasm thick in his voice. Scootaloo looked at him annoyed and was about to say something when she heard another noise, only this one wasn’t a squirrel.

‘What’s… That…’ She said cowering behind him.

‘That’s just a…’ He trailed off as he realised what it was, looking into the darkness he saw two large red eyes glow back at him through the darkness. A deep rumbling growl echoed through its chest and it stepped out into the clearing with them. Before the two of them, towering above them; was a massive manticore. It looked at the young filly with drool dripping out its lips, Headless saw that look and suddenly he stepped up in front of the manticore between it and the young filly. He didn’t know what he was doing, it’s not like he could actually physically stop this thing, but like he promised the filly, he said he’d watch over her. Which meant protecting her from manticores. The manticore stood before him, towering above him by a full metre at least. It looked curiously at the lack of a head on the pony but ignored it, the idea of a meal too appetizing. Suddenly, its chest rumbled and it opened its mouth to shout a loud roar right in Headless’s non-existent face. The force of the roar was so severe that Scootaloo felt it vibrate the ground where she sat behind the Headless Horse. But he was unfazed. Going to show this manticore all he had, he stood his ground, puffed out his chest, then shouted a whinny with the voice of a thousand. Scootaloo thought her ears might pop from how loud it was and she wasn’t even getting the full force of it. The manticore’s mane blew back like a rough wind was beating it and he even started sliding back from the force. But that manticore wasn’t giving up, he dug his claws into the ground and tried to advance on Headless. Seeing that his whinny wasn’t going to be enough to stop this creature’s advance, he tried the only other thing he had. Still keeping this whinny up he felt a burning sensation within him, it got hotter and hotter and burned his insides, except it didn’t hurt. When the burning feeling was within his entire body, and every limb, he let it out. In a burst he was covered in flames from neck to hoof. Even his spectral tail billowed like red hot flames. Rearing up he kicked against the manticore’s front with his hooves as they passed through its body and it shrieked in pain as fire burned its chest. It tried to lash out at the fiery pony but its paw only passed through the body of the headless pony and was granted a burning paw in return. It didn’t know what to do, it stood unsure what to do and that’s when Headless gave it another whinny. It fell back from the force and ran off into the forest like the overgrown kitten it was. The fire disappeared and Headless stood defiantly and proud that he had managed to keep the filly safe, turning to look at her, her eyes were lit up with something he hadn’t expected to see. Sure fear or surprise or something, just not that weird look of admiration she gave with her eyes wide and that smile plastered on her face. Finally she said,

‘That. Was. AWESOME!!! You beat that monster! You were on fire! How did you do that?! It was sooooo cool.’ Before he could answer through, a strange rainbow blur from above was suddenly coming towards him, before it passed right through him and crashed into a tree behind him.

It was morning, Celestia’s sun was rising, and Rainbow Dash was getting breakfast ready in the kitchen.
‘Hey Scoots you up yet?’ She yelled up the stairs to the bedrooms. ‘Breakfast is ready, its oatmeal!’ Still no answer, probably fast asleep still. Flying up to Scootaloo’s room she knocked on the door and cracked it open a bit.

‘Scootaloo, breakfast is ready, are you up…’ She stopped because she was standing in the doorway to Scootaloo’s bedroom, and there was no Scootaloo.

‘Scootaloo? Scootaloo? You in here?! Come on out, stop messing with me and come out now.’ Still nothing. ‘SCOOTALOO!’ From every room of her house you could’ve heard her voice but still no Scootaloo. Then she saw something, half of Scootaloo’s blanket was hanging out of her window. Rainbow Dash flew over and looked out hopelessly. Flying down like a bullet she found herself at the ground below her home and was frantically searching for any sign of Scootaloo. Just when she thought that maybe she hadn’t fallen out the window and was just messing with her, something caught her eye. Flying over to it, she plucked a single orange feather from atop a bush. At least this meant that Scootaloo hadn’t crashed, she would have to do something about her home so that Scoots didn’t fall from it again. But to that later, she had to figure out where Scootaloo was. If Scootaloo had made it safely to the ground as she hoped, she probably would’ve gone to the closest home of one of her friends. And from here, that would be Sweet Apple Acres. Blasting away she rocketed to the farm pony’s home.

Applejack was bucking apples near the barn when a rainbow streak rushed pass her and blew the leaves from many trees around her.

‘Con’sarnit Rainbow! Ain’t ya got better things to do than blow leaves everywhere.’ Her angry look dropped when she saw RD’s face. ‘What’s tha matter sugarcube?’

‘Scootaloo, did she come here last night?! I can’t find her.’

‘Now calm down sugacube, no she wasn’t ‘ere last night, but I’ll help ya look.’

‘Thanks Applejack. You go check Fluttershy’s, I’m going to Rarity’s, we’ll meet up at Sugarcube Corner. Hopefully she’s at one of those places.’ Speeding off Rainbow made her way to town while Applejack raced to Fluttershy’s.

Barging through Carousel Boutique Rainbow Dash crashed into Rarity’s mannequins not for the first time and quickly pushed them off of herself.

‘Rainbow Darling! What do you think you’re doing! Those were a part of my new line of summer designs.’

‘Oh sorry Rarity, is Scootaloo here?!’ She blurted out.

‘I’m sorry dear, I haven’t seen her.’

‘I have to go ask Pinkie. Sorry Rarity!’

‘Wait Rainbow Dash! What’s the matter? Is something wrong?’

‘I can’t find Scootaloo! I’ve looked everywhere! But I can’t find her. I just hope she’s okay.’

‘Oh Rainbow Dash! If there’s anything I can do to help I will!’

‘Thank Rarity.’ She said with a smile forming. ‘Can you ask Sweetie Belle if she may have seen her.’

‘Of course dear.’ Running off Rarity went to find her sister while she shot over to Sugarcube Corner. Flying through the door and locating Pinkie in the kitchen she said desperately.

‘PinkiehaveyouseenScootaloo?!Ican’tfindherandIthinksomethingmighthavehappened!’

‘Sorry Dashie,’ said Pinkie, somehow understanding Rainbow after that speedy question, ‘Scootaloo hasn’t been here, but you can have one of the cookies I just baked! They’re scrumptiddlilyumptious!’ She said popping a couple into her mouth, ‘Choc chip and everything!’

‘I can’t Pinkie, I have to find Scootaloo.’

‘I can help! And maybe she’ll want one of my choc-chip cookies!’ Flying out of the bakery shop with a bouncing pink pony following happily behind, they made their way to the centre of town where Rarity, Applejack Fluttershy and the other two members of the cutie mark crusaders were standing.

‘Anything?’ Rainbow asked.

‘Sorry sugarcube, she wasn’t at Fluttershy’s or at their club house.’

‘And I’m afraid Sweetie hasn’t seen her either.’

‘What could’ve happened to her.’ Asked Sweetie

‘Yeah, she wasn’t miss’n yesterday. Where’d she’d go?’ asked Applebloom. Rainbow’s face was downcast and it looked like her insides were having a fight. Suddenly with a yell she stomped the ground and paced in frustration. Without another word she flew off to the library close by.

Twilight was peacefully reading a book when the door to the library was practically broken down and a rainbow maned pony sped through.

‘TWILIGHT!’

‘Rainbow Dash! You can knock!’

‘Sorry Twilight, but I need your help. I can’t find Scootaloo!’

‘Are you sure you aren’t overreacting?’

‘I’ve looked everywhere Twilight and I can’t find her. Something must’ve happened.’ At that moment all of her other friends with Sweetie and Applebloom came into the library, Spike had also come down from upstairs after hearing the commotion.

‘Alright Rainbow, just tell me what happened? When did you find her gone?’

‘This morning I was getting breakfast ready and when I went to get her, she wasn’t in her room. Her window was open and it sort of looked like she may have fallen out…’

‘Pardon Rainbow, can you repeat that last part?’

‘I think she fell out the window alright.’ All of her friends gasped, it even made Pinkie’s grin fall from her face. The Cutie Mark Crusaders looked especially shocked. ‘But I looked all over the ground and couldn’t find her! All I found was one of her feathers. So I think she’s alright but I just don’t know where she is!’ Pulling herself together Twilight could see that Rainbow was very concerned for her little friend. Standing tall and putting a determined look on her face, she said,

‘Don’t worry Rainbow, we’ll find her. Take us to where you found the feather and we’ll look for anything that can tell us where she is. Spike, I’m leaving you in charge of the library while we’re out.’

‘Okay Twilight.’ Running out of the library, everyone followed, even Sweetie and Applebloom followed Rainbow to where she found the feather.

‘I found it right…. Here.’ She said pointing at a short bush.

‘Alright girls, spread out and look for anything that might lead us to Scootaloo.’ Said Twilight. That morning was filled with everyone frantically searching for their beloved orange Pegasus. At one point Fluttershy found another feather in a bird nest and they all spread out again heading in the direction the feather was found, towards the Everfree forest.

None of them had found anything for around an hour now and everyone was starving because they had been interrupted by Dash before they could have breakfast. That is except Pinkie and the fillies. She’d had some extra cookies that she and the fillies ate. Nopony really mined at the time because they were fillies, they needed the food. But as soon as their stomach growls got louder, they very much wished Pinkie had more food.

Just when most where ready to give up and search somewhere else, a sound unlike any other reached their ears, and made their legs go rigid. It was a horse’s whinny, a noise they all knew very well, but this one was different, threatening. It echoed around them from the Everfree forest louder than it should have if it were any other pony’s whinny. It was like all these different ponies, with the same voice, yelling at once. It chilled their bones and shivers ran down their spines. Suddenly Rainbow Dash shot off, flying towards the source of the whinny.

‘Wait Rainbow Dash! STOP!’ But she didn’t listen. Turning to Fluttershy Twilight said over the yelling of that whinny.

‘Fluttershy! You have to follow her!’

‘Me?!’ she said probably as loud as her voice could go over this whinning, Twilight strained to hear her. ‘I.. I can’t…’

‘Come on sugarcube, you’re the only one who can follow her!’ Rainbow was already disappearing from sight.

‘But.. I…’ Applejack was pushing her already and said,

‘Ya don’t want anythin’ happenin’ t’ Rainbow do ya? Don’t worry we’ll be right behind ya!’ Pushing her off, Fluttershy slowly followed after Rainbow, but when she feared she might lose her, she sped up and attempted to at least keep an eye on her so she knew where Rainbow was going. Her friends galloped behind her through the forest. As they galloped, Pinkie looked around and noticed a few odd trees around them, she seemed to almost recognize them.

‘Hey girls? Does this place look familiar to any of you?’

‘Pinkie this place all looks the same!’ Twilight yelled back.

‘I know but it seems familiar.’ They reached a wooden bridge and ran over it, ‘Very familiar.’ She added.

‘Wait… Ain’t this the way t’ that there castle?’ said Applejack. Coming to a stop the four of them came face to face with the old castle they’d travelled to when they’d stopped Nightmare Moon. They had little time to stare though, because Fluttershy was already travelling off through the gardens to where she’d seen Rainbow go.

Flying high over the trees of the Everfree forest, Rainbow searched the place for the source of that ear wrenching whinny. As she got closer her ears were straining not to go deaf from the piercing sound of it all. Suddenly as she looked down searching for the source, her eyes caught a flash of light and she skidded to a halt in the air. Spinning around, the whinny has stopped and whatever that light was had disappeared now. The only thing her eyes focused on, was a shadowy shape of something heading towards a certain orange filly. Without thinking she dived at the being at full speed. Instead of crashing into it and pushing it over like she’d thought, she passed harmlessly through the thing and suddenly came face to face with a large oak tree. Slamming hard into it she was dazed for a moment. What caught her off guard was the manner this monster treated her.

‘Do you mind?!’ Headless was not amused, a shiver had ricocheted through his body when she’d passed through him, caught him a bit off guard. ‘It’s incredibly rude to pass through somepony without so much as a word.’

‘How.. Whaaa!?!’ She couldn’t understand how she missed him, she was sure she’d hit him, but it was like he wasn’t even there. Rainbow turned and was shocked to see a headless pony, she could see the opening on his neck where his spine cut off and his windpipe opened. But her protective instincts overrode her fear and all she could think was protecting Scootaloo.

‘By that stupid look on your face and that obvious mane of yours, I’m guessing you’re Rainbow Dash.’ It spoke to her in an echoy voice, it had no direction, sounding all around. ‘Scootaloo has told me about you. Didn’t mention you being brash and rude.’

‘Scootaloo! Get away from it!’ Rainbow said speeding around him to in front of the little orange filly.

‘Oh please,’ He said waving a hoof at her, ‘You really think you could do anything to me? You wouldn’t have a chance against me.’

‘Oh yeah?! I’ll show you!’ Leaping forward she went to push him again but found herself passing through him again, she scraped against the ground and came to a halt. Another shiver jolted through his body and he turned on her.

‘Would you mind not doing that?! If it didn’t work the first time then it’s not going to work the second time! Do you understand nothing about ghosts?!’

‘A ghost?’ She looked at him dazed, stars floated around her face.

‘Yes I’m a ghost, which means I can’t touch anything, see.’ He waved a hoof through Scootaloo emphasizing that he couldn’t do anything to her. ‘But I can deal a lot of damage when I want to.’

‘You just get away from her.’ Rainbow said spreading out her wings and bringing her head down.

‘Oh yes yes, there’s no need to get huffy about it.’ Turning to leave he said, ‘See ya kid, looks like you don’t need me to watch you anymore. Just try not to fall out of anymore trees again.’

‘No wait-’ Scootaloo tried to go after him but yelped in pain as she fell over. Rainbow was instantly at her side checking her over like an overly obsessed parent. Headless didn’t even looked back, he just disappeared into the forest. After a moment the rest of the gang appeared. Her friends all ran up to Scootaloo and were shooting questions at her.

‘What happened?’ said Sweetie Belle. ‘Did you get hurt?’

‘Are ya okay?!’ Asked Applebloom. ‘How did you get out here?’

Scootaloo couldn’t register all the questions and sat there unsure what to do.

‘Hey easy up there girls, give her some time ta breathe. How are ya sugarcube?’ said Applejack

‘Uh, I’m okay, but my legs hurt.’

‘Come up here Scoots, I’ll carry you.’ Said Rainbow Dash as she plucked up the orange filly and planted her on her back. ‘You won’t believe girls, but THE Headless Horse was here!’ exclaimed Rainbow Dash.

‘The Headless Horse? But Dash, he’s just an old filly’s tale dear.’ Rarity said not believing her.

‘No he’s real!’ exclaimed Scootaloo, ‘I met him last night and he stayed with me all night! He even chased off a manticore! It was soooooo cool!’

‘Are you sure you didn’t bump your head last night? You look pretty done up.’ Said Twilight.

‘No it’s true you guys, he was here!’ said Rainbow.

‘You must’ve just been seeing things sugar, you’ve been stressing all morning so it was probably ya mind playing tricks.’ Said Applejack

‘But he was here!’ Scootaloo and Rainbow said in unison.

‘Can’t… can’t we continue this… somewhere safer? If that’s okay?’ the meek yellow Pegasus said barely audible.

‘Fluttershy’s right, I’d rather not spend any longer in this disgusting forest than I have to.’ Rarity said staring at a puddle of mud near her.

They all started heading off back the way they had come through the dark Everfree forest.

Headless was glad he’d left those two, that damn feeling he got when she’d passed through him had finally gone away and he could finally be left in peace. It was the same sort of feeling he’d gotten when he was near those ponies who’d freed his Princess, he guessed she was one of them. He seemed to remember an odd multi-coloured pony. Although he didn’t care much about that rainbow mare, he couldn’t help feel a tad bit of disappointment in leaving the little filly. The first contact he’d had with anyone in years and someone who didn’t run away soon as she’d seen him. Alright she had tried but it amazed him that she would also try to follow him when he left. He missed that sleeping little filly, the one who’d looked at him with admiration as he chased off the manticore and not with fear. If he had one, he would be grinning at that moment.

He passed through a bush and suddenly stood stock still at what he saw. There before him was a pack of manticores. The one he’d burned was growling at the group and they all started heading off towards where Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash were. It was clear what they were going to do and Headless wanted nothing more than to leave that blue Pegasus alone, but he felt something odd within him. He felt fear for what might happen to that little filly. Spinning around he bolted off to where they last were. Looking around where he’d left them, they weren’t there and he hoped that they had flown off. He was relieved but that feeling died suddenly when he heard hoofsteps not far away. Sprinting off to them he saw a collection of ponies, and that weird feeling rushed over him again. Ignoring those feeling when he saw the little orange filly he sprinted towards her, passing through half the ponies at the same time and came to a stop in front of the blue Pegasus. Blurting out he said,

‘You have to get out of here, NOW!’ All the ponies looked towards the new voice and Rarity shrieked in shock at what she saw. The others all gasped and Fluttershy leaped behind an orange farm mare whimpering.

‘A… a… a headless horse?! How is this possible?!’ said Twilight not comprehending.

‘I’m a ghost alright, but talk about that later. You lot really have to get going now! There’s a pack of manticore heading this way!’ Scootaloo shrunk at the mention of the beasts but Rainbow Dash defiantly said.

‘Why are they coming!’

‘You’re asking that now?!! A group of angry manticore are coming! There are more important things to be doing! Quickly follow me!’ He sprinted ahead of them but when he turned and saw they weren’t following he trotted on the spot impatiently and said,

‘We really don’t have the time to be doing this now!’

‘Follow him Rainbow!’ said Scootaloo.

‘I’m not following him! He’s probably going to lead us right to the manticores.’

‘Come on just follow him! They could come at any moment.’ Rainbow looked back at her about to tell her she wasn’t going to, but the look on Scootaloo’s face stopped her. She was clearly scared and was looking at the Headless Horse like he was the safest thing in this forest. Giving an annoyed sigh, Dash ran after the Headless Horse. The others followed and Applejack dragged the stunned Fluttershy behind her.

He lead them towards the castle and the top of it could just barely be seen over the trees in the forest, when a certain yellow Pegasus flew above them dragging a very confused farm pony behind her. Looking over their backs they saw about 4 or 5 manticores heading towards them. That gave them what they needed to burst forward and make it faster to the castle. Headless lead them to the front of the castle where they headed through the broken doors and tried their best to close them again. Twilight pushed rocks in front of the door when a sudden pounding could be heard on them.

‘Hurry this way!’ Headless yelled. Leading them to the back of the room, they headed down a hallway on the left and ran to the end of it. There before them was a large statue of an undiscernible alicorn. Skidding before it, Headless looked over it and finally found what he was looking for when a loud crash coming from the room they’d left indicated that the manticores had pushed through.

‘Somepony pull this lever.’ It was disguised as a four cornered star that the alicorn had her hoof resting on. One point on the floor, another she rested her hoof on and the other two stuck out the sides so that if you pulled on them the star would turn in place. Twilight and Pinkie were pushing it but it wasn’t budging, Applejack joined in and they could hear the growls of the manticores coming closer.

‘Use your powers on them Headless!’ said Scootaloo quickly.

‘I can’t use those in here, I’d bring the whole castle down!’ Scootaloo looked downcast but that was quickly replaced with fear when the growls could be heard just outside the hallway.

‘Arrr! Con sarnit!’ said Applejack before she turned and bucked the star. It finally turned and the statue moved to reveal a secret passage. All of them rushed in, and the statue closed right before the manticores turned into the hallway, having no idea where they’d gone.

Too many questions

It was pitch black where ever they were and nopony could see anything. Twilight and Rarity lit up their horns and a dim glow spread around them in the dark tunnel they had entered. Rarity shrieked as she saw a spider web in front of her.

‘Be quiet! These walls aren’t sound proof, those manticores will tear down that statue if they hear us. Come on follow me.’ As he walked away, he kept hearing the quiet mumbles of ponies who were stumbling on unforseen objects on the ground. Sighing he said,

‘Can you lot be quiet?!’

‘Well it’s hard to see in here, it’s not our fault we keep hitting things.’ Said Rarity.

‘I’m not surprised, those horns of yours are doing a pitiful job of lighting up this area.’

‘Hey! These aren’t meant to be used as a light source you know!’ said Twilight feeling insulted.

‘Well that’s obvious. Looks like I’m going to have to help.’ Huffing he suddenly lit up his entire body in flames, but died the flames down a bit so his body was slightly smouldering and his tail and hooves were on fire, it was enough for the small space they were in, but it still bought him gasps from the group around him. None of them moved except Applebloom and Sweetie Belle who hid behind their sisters, peeking out to get a better view. Headless tried to ignore them and then one little voice spoke up.

‘Isn’t it cool Rainbow Dash?!’ It was Scootaloo. She seemed to care a lot about what that Pegasus thought. Rainbow just snorted in annoyance and stared at the walls. The pink pony jumped in front of his face and said,

‘WOW! You’re on fire! Does it hurt? Oh it must be really warm with all that fire on you. Is it hot? I’m not sure if I would like to be on fire, I couldn’t give anypony a hug then.’ Waiting for her to finish he said,

‘No it doesn’t hurt, I don’t actually feel anything aside from a slight tingling sensation.’ She was standing eerily close to him, ‘You might want to back up, you could burn yourself.’

‘So this is real fire?!’

‘Pretty much, there are a few differences but minor ones.’ He could hear a noise and turned to see that the purple unicorn was babbling like a baby.

‘How.. What? You’re a… This makes no sense!’ Rolling his non-existent eyes he said.

‘What are you talking about?’

‘You’re a ghost! I can’t even understand how you can even exist let alone set yourself on fire!’

‘Join the club.’

‘Wait, don’t cha know? How can ya not even know?!’ said Applejack.

‘I don’t question everything. I don’t find the need to. I accept it. Once I wanted to know why all this was happening, but I accepted that I wouldn’t find out. It’s easier this way. Otherwise I’d probably have gone mad long ago trying to find out the answers to unsolvable questions.’ He turned to move off but stopped when he saw a certain pink pony with a stick in her mouth with marshmallows on the end.

‘Are… Are you cooking marshmallows on me?’ She nodded and held the stick in her hoof to say,

‘Yep! I love marshmallows and couldn’t resist, if that’s okay? I always keep a bag on me encase of emergencies.’

‘Pinkie! We’ve been starving all morning and you didn’t tell us you had food!’ whined Twilight.

‘I’m sorry girls, but this was my emergency pack.’

‘Hmm, Pinkie…’ pondered Headless, ‘That wouldn’t have any relation to a “Pinkie Promise” would it?’ Pinkie gasped at him suddenly.

‘You didn’t break a Pinkie Promise did you?! You can Never. Break. A. Pinkie. Promise.’ She said it as ominous as Scootaloo had and was standing a little too close to Headless than he liked, he feared that her fur would start burning at any moment. Stepping back he said.

‘No I didn’t break one, I was just asking because Scootaloo made me participate in one.’

‘Oooo! What did you Pinkie Promise?!’ Laughing sneakily he said,

‘Sorry can’t tell you, I did Pinkie Promise after all.’

‘Aww, stopped by my own Pinkie Promise. She began munching on the marshmallows on her stick which were blackened but gooey underneath. Rarity came up to her and said,

‘Dear, where ever were you keeping those?’ Headless cut in and said,

‘My guess is her tail, you could fit a cannon in there.’ Without another word he turned and started heading off again. They all hurried off to stay within his light and were on their way again. After a moment of silence, Pinkie continued to cook marshmallows on him giving them to her friends. Headless tried to ignore the fact that he was their personal portable fireplace and focused on where he was going. This tunnel was an old one. He hadn’t been in here in years and it had gone downhill since the days he was alive. It was an old passageway which led to the outskirts of the city. It had been magically enchanted so you could only enter it from the secret entrance they had just entered. But that was years ago, when this tunnel was actually well maintained. If anything, the tunnel might be collapsed up ahead and they would just have to wait until the manticores had left before heading back to leave. Suddenly a small voice behind him caught his attention.

‘Hey sis, why were those beasts after us?’ It was Sweetie Belle who’d spoken. Rainbow heard her too and turned on Headless angrily,

‘Yeah! Why were those things after us?! They didn’t show up until you appeared!’ Headless was annoyed with her tone, he’d helped them hadn’t he? He got them away, he’d shown them this tunnel and now he was leading them out of here. There was no reason for her to be angry with him, but when he looked and saw the small shape of Scootaloo on top of her, he guessed she was just being protective and stressed that someone close to her was hurt. He still hadn’t answered and tried to pretend he didn’t hear.

‘Answer me!’ She yelled.

‘I wouldn’t yell so loud if I were you, you’ll bring the walls down.’ He said slyly.

‘You still haven’t answered me!’ Rainbow Dash said again but quieter, ‘Why were those manticores chasing us? And where are you even leading us?!’

‘My guess is that they were hungry, and I’m getting you out of this tunnel so you can leave without being attacked.’

‘But why were they chasing us?! Manticores rarely hunt in packs.’ After a pause and groaning, he finally answered them.

‘I guess… That is slightly my fault.’

‘I knew it! You sent them after us and you’re probably leading us into a trap!’ She said not taking another step after him. Turning on her, Headless said.

‘I did not send them after you! I angered one of them while I was trying to defend that little pathetic thing on your back, and it was just coming back to have payback and the meal I didn’t let it have. I don’t have to stand here and be accused of anything so good bye!’ His flames went out leaving them in darkness and his voice was heard once more, ‘When you finally get out of here, just push the rock with a carving of an alicorn in it at the end, that’s the exit. Of course that’s if you can reach it. Otherwise, you can face the manticores for all I care.’ Without another word he left them in their darkness and wasn’t heard again. Snorting Rainbow said,

‘Good riddance.’

Twilight lit her horn and the group continued through the tunnel. Occasionally squeezing pass fallen rock mounds, they finally found the rock he’d spoken of. Pushing it, it took a moment, but the wall in front of them shuddered, and then scraped against the floor as it slid out of the way blinding them with the sudden light. They walked outside and the wall moved back again, Headless was still nowhere to be seen.

They were near the edge of the forest and had now finally left the dark recesses of the Everfree forest. Scootaloo looked back though and wondered where the Headless Horse had gone. Looking over to the other ponies, they were all still trying to comprehend what had just happened.

‘This is unbelievable!’ exclaimed Twilight, ‘No book ever said ghosts were real, I always thought they just stories! We have to inform the Princess.’ Scootaloo wasn’t sure why, but for some reason, she felt it wasn’t a good idea to tell the Princess. But she was too tired to say anything and before she knew, had fallen asleep on Rainbow Dash’s back, enjoying the warmth of her body.

Within the forest, a certain Headless Horse was walking, not really looking where he was going, through the forest. He was getting frustrated with that talk he had with the blue Pegasus and kept mumbling to himself.

‘Where does she get off blaming me?! I don’t care if she was being protective, probably would’ve been better if I had never found that little runt. If I had never helped them, I wouldn’t have had to deal with them.’ Stomping his hoof he says, ‘And what is it with them?! They just give me a bad feeling all over. Well, at least they’re gone, I won’t have to deal with them anymore.’ He finally looked where he was and realised he’d made it to a certain clearing he knew very well. Up near a tree, was a rusted sword stuck in the ground, a pile of dirt covered in grass and weeds. Walking over to it, he looked it over. His grave was a reminder of his past life and his death. He recently hadn’t been coming here because it was just a marker for how far he could go. Forced to be trapped within the Everfree forest, never seeing anything outside his border. Lying down atop his grave, he noticed how quiet it was. Practically midday and no animals were about, at least here anyway. Nothing ever came to his grave. Going into a dozing state; not quite sleeping because he couldn’t, but not aware of his surroundings either, Headless waited for time to pass, hoping that maybe tonight, his Princess’s moon will shine through and make him forget this annoying day that has been.

The doctors fussed over Scootaloo, bandaging her limbs and putting cream on them to help the pain. She wasn’t seriously hurt, few bruises, swollen legs, she did have one sprained ankle but Scootaloo didn’t care. Her mind was filled with the Headless Horse. And she wasn’t the only one, Twilight had been in her library for the past few hours looking in ever book possible about the Headless Horse or ghosts. She’d sent a letter to the Princess, saying what they found, Spike was sceptical while he’d been writing it whether she was telling the truth but her friends backed her up. The Princess had said that she would make her way to Ponyville as soon as possible to hear more of this curious tale. Twilight busied herself by cramming as much information as she could about the ghost into her mind, it kept her from stressing out too much. Twilight’s friends were in just as much hysterics except Rainbow Dash who said nothing on the matter and stayed by Scootaloo the whole time. Fluttershy on the other hand had barely moved from the corner of the hospital she sat at, shivering all over, Applejack was by her trying to calm her down. Pinkie’s efforts of trying to make her happy with her party cannon had been less than successful. Scootaloo’s friends came up to her after the doctors had left and talked to her about what happened.

‘So Scootaloo, what did happen? How did you meet that Headless Horse anyway?’ asked Sweetie Belle.

‘It was so cool!’ she said getting excited and jumped straight into her story, ‘First while I was sleeping, I heard his noise. It was unlike any I had ever heard; a pony’s whinny, but like really loud, and weird. I was leaning out my window trying to see where it was coming from, but… uh well, I sort of fell out the window. But’s okay, I’m Scootaloo! I took charge of the situation and looked for the closest cloud to land on.’

‘Weren’t ya scared? I know I would be.’ Said Applebloom.

‘Nah, I ain’t scared of nothing. But when I landed on the cloud, a huge gust of wind pushed me over to the Everfree Forest.’ The two fillies gasped. ‘I was flying high above that forest, but soon my cloud started descending, soon we were scraping the tops of trees. Suddenly! ‘she paused, enjoying the excited and awed faces of her friends, ‘The cloud hit a tree and flipped over, causing me, to go tumbling down the branches of the tree. I think I hit just about every single one of them before finally reaching the ground. That’s how I hurt myself.’ She held up her bandaged legs.

‘But what about the Headless Horse?!’ said Sweetie impatiently.

‘I’m getting there… I’d reached the ground, but I wasn’t safe yet, this is the Everfree forest after all. And then, when I looked up, there he was, the Headless Horse was standing, Right. In. front. Of. me!’ She emphasised every word, her friends gasped. A small smile broke on Scootaloo’s face at the look of their wonder. ‘But not much happened after that... I couldn’t move so I had to sit there, and he was sort of odd. He kept asking for my name and said I could call him Headless. He asked how I got in the tree and he even asked if I was okay! He said he’d stay with me during the night and actually did. Then in the morning I heard a noise and it was a manticore. I still couldn’t move and the manticore was looking at me hungrily. Then Headless just stood in front of the manticore, and shouted at it. It was sooo cool! It was louder than anything! It almost blew that manticore off the ground. Then he lit his whole body in fire and burned the fur on the manticore. Needless to say, it ran off with its tail between its legs.’ They all laughed that this, with an image of a frighted manticore in their minds. ‘Then Raindow Dash showed up and you guys.’

‘Wow Scootaloo, that is soo cool! You must’ve been frightened.’

‘Me frightened? Nah. Nothing scared me!’ She puffed out her chest and smiled at her friends. Her eyes drifted over the room to Rainbow Dash, she wasn’t looking at them but she guessed she’d heard the story too. She still looked grumpy and looked out the window. Just then a nurse came in and ushered everyone out saying the patient needed her sleep. Scootaloo waved goodbye to her friends and was left alone in the hospital room. But how could she sleep?! Her mind was running wild with thoughts of the Headless Horse; had the tales been false? Was he really just a nice guy? Why can’t he leave the old city of Canterlot and how did he die anyway? She really wanted to know more. But her body protested and soon she was in a peaceful sleep.

Confrontations

Midday, it was a wonderful time of day for ponies to be out and enjoying the day thought Celestia as her royal guards carried her down to Ponyville in her chariot. She walked through the small town as her subjects bowed as she passed. Yes today was a lovely day, except there were a few differences today. Applejack wasn’t at the market selling apples, Rarity’s boutique wasn’t open and Pinkie Pie wasn’t greeting ponies as they entered Sugarcube Corner. Fluttershy wasn’t in the park tending to the animals and Rainbow Dash’s rainbow streak couldn’t be seen above the sky. This all brought concern to the Princess, especially as she made her way to the library and saw it was closed with all the curtains drawn. Not many ponies gave it second thought as the Princess entered the library, her student lived there after all.

Celestia looked around the darkened library, all of her closest subjects were there; the elements of harmony. Each one had some upsetting look on them, most were scared, especially Fluttershy, but Rainbow was keeping a straight, if slightly annoyed, face on. And Pinkie Pie was being her usual. Nothing seemed to faze that girl. But looking around the room, Celestia could not see her trusted student.

‘Hello girls,’ best to start with the simple questions, ‘Is everything alright? Where’s Twilight?’

‘We’re fine Princess, nothing we can’t handle, just some jitters is all.’ Said Applejack. ‘Twilight is… well, she’s this way Princess.’ Applejack lead Celestia over to a door which led under the library, faint voices could be heard behind the thick wooden door. Opening it revealed piles upon piles of books littered all through the corridor and down the stairs. Each cover held some sort of ghostly picture on it. Reaching the bottom, they saw Twilight sitting in the corner, reading numerous books at a time, throwing some away and picking up others. Spike was there trying to tidy the book piles and saying to Twilight that she was blowing this all out of proportion.

‘But I’m not Spike! There is a real ghost in the Everfree forest! A real one! But nothing says that ghosts are real, these are just stories!’ Suddenly she turned and stopped when she saw Princess Celestia standing there. Running up to her she said,

‘Princess Celestia! I’m so glad you’re here, I don’t understand anything that’s happening.’

‘Calm down Twilight, just tell me what you saw.’

‘It was a headless horse!’ She said with her hair messy and her eyes like dots.

‘You must not excite yourself.’ Celestia said laying a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder.

‘But it was a headless horse!’

‘Of course it was. That's why I’m here.’

‘No, you must believe me. It was a horse, a dead one. Headless!’

‘I know, I know.’

‘You don't know because you were not there. It's all true.’ She said tearing away from the Princess.

‘What’s true Twilight?’

‘The stories, the tales of the Headless Horse! They’re all true! And I... saw him.’ At that she couldn’t take it anymore and fainted.

She wasn’t out for long, just long enough for Applejack and the Princess to carry her back upstairs into the main part of the library. Spike followed along as well, concern on his face for Twilight. When she awoke the Princess told her to calm down and tell her what happened. Taking a deep breath she stood up to tell her what happened.

She told her all about Scootaloo missing, and the strange noise they heard. Then with the Headless Horse coming out of nowhere and the manticores chasing them. When she mentioned the passage in the castle, Celestia looked to be deep in thought over this, Twilight wasn’t sure what it could be. Finally they had made it out of the forest and back to Ponyville. When she finished, the Princess said nothing, it didn’t even look like she’d been listening anymore. Finally Twilight asked,

‘Uh… Princess? Is something wrong?’ Looking up at them all she saw they were all staring at her, coming out of her thoughts she said,

‘Oh, yes Twilight, something is bothering me. That passage you spoke of, it is a secret that only I and my sister now know of. Only the most trusted ponies knew of it back when we lived in the old castle, and even then, the number reached the single digits. So I’m curious to how this ghost came to know of it, especially how to open it.’

‘Do you think he’s a ghost of somepony who worked at the castle? From a thousand years ago?!!’ said Twilight in awe.

‘Maybe… In any case, I have to speak to him. Can you girls bring me to where you found him?’

‘We can try Princess, he could’ve left.’ Said Twilight.

‘Let’s just try first.’ They all headed off toward the Everfree forest again. Fluttershy didn’t look as scared anymore with the Princess there, Rainbow Dash looked even more grumpier than before.

Headless was still lying on his grave, ignoring the world around him, when he heard something. It sounded like something was moving this way. It was the first noise he’d heard in a few hours around this place, nothing ever came here. But he didn’t care, he didn’t even move. Then he heard the voices.

‘Are we sure we’re going the right way?’

‘I don’t know dear. We’re just looking near where that passage ended.’

‘Do you think the other girls are having better luck?’

‘If they were, they would have sent the signal.’ Finally they came out of the trees into a small clearing, and there in front of them, was the Headless Horse.

Twilight and Pinkie Pie had been searching in the area of the forest they had found Scootaloo while Dash, Applejack and the Princess had gone towards the old castle where some manticores were still hanging around when they saw a bolt of light shoot upwards into the sky over the forest. Following it, they all entered a clearing with Rarity and Fluttershy standing near the still lying form of the Headless Horse.

‘You found him!’ said Pinkie Pie excitedly.

‘Yes but, he hasn’t moved, he’s just been lying there. I think it’s a grave by the looks of that sword.’ Said Rarity standing away from the grave as best she could. Fluttershy was hiding behind her staring at the Headless Horse cautiously. Celestia saw the sword and her eyes narrowed.

‘I’ve seen that sword before…’ Celestia pondered over this but couldn’t quite remember, it was so long ago, and she had tried to forget most of her past. Suddenly, the Headless Horse got up and looked at Celestia.

‘Celestia, long time no see. How have you been?’ He said obviously faking sincerity.

‘Who are you?!’ she said flaring out her wings defiantly.

‘You don’t remember me? Oh Celestia, you wound me. How could you not remember me? You did have me killed after all.’ There were shocked gasps all around, with all of the ponies locking their eyes on the Princess. She had tensed up but kept her eyes on the Headless Horse, vague memories played on her mind. There was silence between them before Headless said,

‘Looks like I’m going to have to make it obvious for you. Your slow mind is probably still on the matter that I’m a ghost. Walking towards her he says, ‘You remember the fire don’t you dear Celestia? ‘His entire body ignited in flames for a second before the flames disappeared. ‘I’m sure you do. It blazed all through the city. Many died that day, and most were not because of the fire. A fire that need I remind you, you caused.’ Then it all came flooding back to her, a memory she had tried to forget, of a city in blazes, and the limp, headless body of a defiant soldier.

‘You!’

‘Ah and so she does remembers. Took you long enough. I was beginning to think you'd suffered from memory loss. Wouldn’t surprise me, I did put up quite a fight.’ Even though you couldn’t see it, you could tell he was smiling, taunting Celestia with his words. Furious, Celestia shot a bolt of magic at him. He didn’t even bother to move, just watched lazily as it passed right through him.

‘Going to burn down the forest instead this time are we?’ Celestia was furious, but something on her leg made her stop. Looking down she saw her trusted student looking up to her with concerned and scared eyes, a hoof resting on her leg trying to calm her down.

‘Princess,’ Twilight said, the girl’s concern and questions were conveyed to the Princess all through those large eyes of hers. Calming down, Celestia took a deep breath and returned to her calm self.

‘Thank you Twilight.’

‘That display made me want to gag. And I’m a ghost.’ The annoying Headless Horse had spoken again and Celestia had to fight back to ignore it. Finally, she turned to him and asked.

‘Why are you here?’

‘I could ask you the same thing.’ Smugness thick in his voice. He was going to enjoy every moment of this and make it as difficult as he could for her, she could tell. Gritting her teeth, she though humouring him would be the only way to get any answers out of him.

‘My subjects, Twilight and her friends here, told me that there was a headless ghost living in the Everfree forest. Ghosts have never existed for as long as I have been alive so this is something as Ruler of Equestria; that requires me to check in on.’

‘Oh if it’s required of you, then ask away. I will try to answer your questions, Missy.’ He said that on purpose and she hated it. Headless could tell by the way her body tensed, oh he was going to love this. He was getting odd looks from the other ponies with how he addressed the Princess, but she was not Princess or Ruler of Equestria to him. Suddenly the annoying blue Pegasus flew up to him and said,

‘Hey! You can’t call Celestia that! She’s the Princess!’

‘Pfft, not my Princess, I only serve Princess Luna. Missy here, hasn’t earned my respect, and I don’t think she ever will. She lost any chance to gain my respect when she sent her sister to the moon and killed me.’ At that Rainbow went to buck him but her legs just passed right through him. He managed to stay still as that weird feeling came over him again, lazily standing there he said,

‘Wait, you did something? I wasn’t paying attention.’ Furious she tried again, still nothing, ‘I think I felt something that time.’ He taunted, and again she tried to hit him, ‘That one almost hurt.’ He said before Applejack was able to pull the angry Pegasus away. Turning back to Celestia he said,

‘So, you gonna ask me something or what? It’s quite busy being a ghost and all. In 10 minutes I’m going to the east side of the forest to haunt a tree where a family of squirrels live. It’s all very tiring work and I just can’t be late.’ He wasn’t paying attention to them; instead he was inspecting his hoof thoroughly, waving it poshly in the air.

‘Fine... Why are you here?’

‘Don’t know.’ He said flatly.

‘Answer it.’

‘And I did, I don’t know why I’m here. I’ve been stuck in this forest for years with no idea what I’m supposed to do. Now if you don’t mind, next question.’ He said waving his hoof at her impatiently to continue. Celestia huffed in annoyance.

‘How long have you been here?’

‘About a thousand years I guess. I did die after you sent your sister to the moon after all. So that was a pointless question, you already knew the answer.’ He was really trying her patience.

‘What is your name then?’

‘Still trying to figure that one out are you? Your sister knows. I was commander of her guards after all. But I guess you wouldn’t know, you don’t pay attention to her much do you? She’s not worth your time.’

‘How dare you! I love my sister!’ Her anger showing

‘Oh yes sure you do, which is exactly why you sent her to the Moon.’

‘I had to, she wanted to plunge the world into night!’

‘To the Moooooooooon!’ He laughed, he wasn’t even listening to her.

‘I didn’t want to! I didn’t want to do it!’ Her eyes watered with sadness and anger.

‘But you did.’ He said suddenly serious and condescending. ‘It must’ve been lonely for her, all those years with no one to talk to’ He was circling around her, ‘One could go mad... At least I had the occasional traveller screaming in my face. But, tell me Celestia, how was everyone after they left the city. The last time I saw you was when you and those Celestial Guards of yours were moving some statues out of the castle gardens. I missed you all these years, why didn’t you ever visit? You could’ve brought you precious saviour Spell Bound, I would’ve loved to have shown him a thing or two.’ he said vengefully, his hooves alighting with fire.

‘You knew him?’

‘Of course I knew him,’ His anger flaring with the fire which coated his body, ‘that blasted unicorn who saved your life and ruined my plans to return Princess Luna to the throne, who killed me with my own sword and damned me to this for a thousand years,’ he gestured to his ghostly self, ‘was somepony I once called my “friend”.’ Celestia stared at him in disbelief, each of the ponies around them stood in shock at his words, they each glanced at each other, thinking of their own friendships and wondering what could’ve brought one of them to kill the other. ‘But not anymore, he hadn’t been my friend for years. Not after what he did.’

Celestia had watched as this tortured soul in front of her, ranted his thoughts. Thoughts which had been bottled up for millennia. Her caring heart reached out to him and felt pity for what she saw and what had happened to him. She thought of what she had done to her sister, Discord and King Sombra. There were more she had punished, but these few she thought of had each had to live in isolation from anyone for longer than they should have, just like this ghost. But they had one difference; they knew why. Although they might not accept the reason, they at least knew why they had been trapped like they were. But this ghost in front of her, had lived all those years with no idea as to why. She pitied him, and forgot her anger, he had good reason to be angry with her anyway. Without realising, she asked sincerely,

‘What did he do?...’ Headless was surprised with the question. Especially with how Celestia had said it; no anger was in her voice and it wasn’t meant meanly. But he was in no mood to tell her or anypony else his life. Stomping his foot he said,

‘What do you care miss high and almighty?! I’m not telling you anything. I already lived that life once, I don’t want to go through it a second time.’ Flaring up he covered himself in fire and brought his hooves together. Forming enough fire there, he pulled back his hoof and hurled the ball of fire towards Celestia. Quickly she beat her wings and flew above where he’d thrown it. But rather than the fire continuing its flight, it stopped mid-flight; into an invisible barrier and dispersed. Celestia went over to where the fire stopped and looked at the smoulders on the ground confused. Suddenly Headless threw another and Celestia wasn’t able to move in time, she shielded herself with her wing but nothing happened. There was no burning sensation. Looking again she saw the fire was gone. Headless was in a blind fury and continued to throw more and more fire at Celestia, and this time she saw it all disperse right in front of her face against an invisible barrier. Suddenly Headless charged her, but just before he reached her, he hit the barrier. Leaning his front hooves on it, he stared up at Celestia. He burned with revenge but could do nothing. Turning, he took one large kick at the barrier, amounting to nothing, and ran off. His flames dying and disappearing into the forest.

‘What was that all about?!’ exclaimed Applejack.

‘Why couldn’t he go any further?’ asked Pinkie Pie. ‘Even his fire wouldn’t go past.’

‘Princess?’ asked Twilight, ‘What was he talking about? Who’s Spell Bound? Why was he so angry at you? ... Did you really kill him?’ Sighing Celestia looked down to her and said,

‘I'll tell you later my dear student. Just, right now I need some time to think. So many things I’d tried to forget are all coming back, and I just need to think.’ Turning, Celestia went to leave, her subjects followed behind her in silence. All of them deep in thought.

Headless didn’t know how long he’d been running, but soon he found himself running into another invisible barrier. He fell over this time though. Rolling onto his shoulder and landing in a mud puddle. It didn’t cover his coat though, nothing did. Turns out he’d ran all the way to the other side of the barrier. It was near the back of the castle, where the castle’s limits ended. He couldn’t figure out why it ended here. Why he could only go as far as here and his grave. Why here? Why not a few metres more or less? He never knew. These questions burned inside him like his fire. He pulled himself up and looked back the way he had come. Why had those lot come again? And why had they brought her. It’d been years since he’d seen her, for years the only image he could bring into his mind of her was when he’d stabbed her wing, or the statue of her with its head fallen off. Now he couldn’t get the image of her out of his head. There was no crippled wing, no fallen off head, just a pure white Alicorn with long multi-coloured hair. He hated it, he had always felt better with the thought that she had something wrong with her, something that brought her to his level, away from this godly image she had. But that was now ruined. Angry he ran again, next to the barrier which was his cell wall. Continuously he ran, trying to get all the thoughts out of his head. He didn’t want to think about anything. He wished he was alive right then, because then he could distract himself with the pain of a stitch in his side, or feel his throat hoarse with trying to breath air rapidly. But nothing, he felt nothing. There was no sweat, no feeling of numb legs. Nothing. Stopping he sat down and did nothing, just sat there, and repeated his conversation with Celestia over in his mind again. And again. And again.

The Gravestone Sword

Reaching the edge of the forest, Princess Celestia’s carriage was waiting for her. Celestia climbed on her carriage and turned to Twilight and her friends.

“My dear subjects. Meet me in Canterlot as soon as you can, I have something I need to show you, will explain as much as I can then. Farewell.”

“We’ll be there Princess.” They said and she was off. Flying high into the sky and back to Canterlot.

Making their way back to town, they each questioned what had just happened between the Princess and the Headless Horse.

“What do you think all that was about? Do you really think Celestia could’ve ordered somepony to kill him? And his best friend no less...” voiced Rarity. All the others were thinking the same thing, just what had happened for his best friend to kill him? These were questions they all really wanted to know.

“I don’t know, it just doesn’t seem possible.” Twilight wasn’t sure what to think.

“Ummm… well, maybe she was stressed…” They all turned to Fluttershy, timidly hiding behind her hair. “She, she had just lost her sister after all… She was probably sad that she was gone, and then maybe he just… set her off?”

“That still doesn’t seem like an acceptable reason to kill somepony!” said Applejack,

“Yes but… how do you think you would feel losing Applebloom? If you had the power, there’s a small chance that in your state of mind, you might just do something you’d regret.” Applejack looked away and towards her farm in the distance, she wasn’t sure how she would feel losing her sister like that. But Fluttershy had a point.

“Hey! We don’t even know if that Headless Horse was telling the truth! The Princess would never do something like that!” said Rainbow Dash, she still didn’t trust Headless.

“We’ll have to ask the Princess when we get to Canterlot.” Said Twilight. “I want to check out the Canterlot library to see if I missed anything on this Spell Bound. I’m sure I should’ve read about him if he saved the Princess.”

“We’re behind you the whole way Twilight!” Beamed Pinkie Pie.

“Thanks girls. I just know something’s up, especially with that Headless Horse, and it’s great to know that you’ll all be there with me.”

“Oh course Twilight, we’re your friends, we’ll always help you.” They each went off to their homes to grab a few essentials and to tell their families where they were going before meeting Twilight out front of her library.

“Hey Twilight, we’re all here and ready to go.”

“Thanks girls, we’d better hurry if we want to catch our train.”

“Wait!” Suddenly from out of the library came a young dragon. He ran up to Twilight and said, “Why can’t I come Twilight?”

“Oh Spike, because I need you to stay here and watch the library.”

“The library? Twilight, they’re just a bunch of books, they aren’t going to go anywhere.”

“I know Spike, but it’s not just the library, with us gone, we need you to watch over the girls, they’re going to need someone to look after them and Scootaloo will need someone to visit her.” She said sincerely.

“I still think I should stay with her.” Said Rainbow Dash annoyed.

“You know what the Princess said, she wanted all of us there. This is important Dash.”

“Fine.” Rainbow said looking over to the hospital. Sighing Spike said,

“Alright I’ll watch them. Geeze.” He was still annoyed but farewelled his friends all the same. They all headed off to the train station while he went grumpily back inside the library. Unknown to them, but Scootaloo had overheard them talking from the hospital and was now curious as to what happened with the Headless Horse for them all to suddenly head to Canterlot. So while the group were waiting impatiently on the train during the long and starry night. Scootaloo was sneaking out of the hospital with her scooter. She used it to reach the forest seeing how she was still injured. She had to know what had happened. Spike had been cleaning up the library after Twilight’s crazed studying and saw Scooatloo leave the hospital. Quickly he followed after her, he started to get very scared the closer she went to the Everfree Forest. But Twilight had trusted him to look after her so he ran in after her, no matter how much his entire being protested.

Scootaloo was finding her way into the forest hoping to find the Headless Horse. She travelled to the castle, but stayed hidden and silent as she passed it in fear of the manticores. She saw hoof prints in the ground, and followed them. Finally she found the clearing with a sword sticking out of the ground and Headless lying pitifully on his grave. He had his arms over his neck trying to pretend that he wasn’t in the forest. It was so quiet in this part of the forest and Scootaloo’s whispered greeting broke the silence like a brick impacting a wall. Turning around Headless looked over to his visitor and instantly sighed rolling over again.

“What do you want kid? Shouldn’t you be in bed or something?”

“I wanted to come see you. What happened? I saw the Princess in town today and now Rainbow Dash and her friends are going to Canterlot.”

“Oh miss high and mighty? Let me guess, she didn’t even pay you a visit? You were hurt, and she was more concerned with returning home than to pay a visit to an injured foal who was practically right next to her. Typical Celestia.” Scootaloo was taken aback by this, he was insulting the Princess? No one ever insulted her, unless they were trying to overthrow her but it didn’t look like he was so it confused her. (Oh Scootaloo…)

“Don’t you like the Princess?”

“Like her?! I hate that so-called ruler. She sent her own sister to the moon, just because she was feeling neglected. Well guess what Celestia, I’m sure she wasn’t feeling neglected on the moon for a thousand years.” He grumbled something under his breath and continued to mull on his grave. Scootaloo sat on her scooter unsure what to do.

“Hey Headless, to change the subject…”

“What?” He was about as uninterested as they came.

“Why can’t you leave the forest?”

“Kid, I’ve been asking that question for a thousand years.”

“No I mean, why only up to the castle and your grave? Why not the edge of the forest.”

“A thousand years ago, this was the edge of the forest.”

“It still doesn’t make sense.”

“And it never will, stop worrying about it kid, it’ll just give you a migraine.” Slowly scooting up to him, Scootaloo was right next to him and said,

“Why don’t you like the Princess?”

“Because she killed me. I think that’s reason enough to dislike somepony.” Scootaloo was shocked.

“But… But Princess Celestia would never kill anypony?! She, she loves everypony and cares for them.”

“Oh I’m sorry, you misinterpret my meaning: Celestia didn’t directly kill me,” Scootaloo sighed in relief as he got up and started to walk around her into the clearing, “she gave the order to kill me.” Scootaloo gasped in shock at that. “And by my own bloody best friend, chopped my head clean off without a second thought.” Scootaloo was choking on her air now, taking in too much at once and getting caught in her throat. His own friend?!!! She could never imagine one of her own friends doing that.

“Your… Your FRIEND?!! But… Bu.. how… why? How could your friend just do that?! Just like that?!”

“Well, technically we weren’t friends anymore. We actually hated each other at the time. Past events and such.” Gulping she asked,

“What happened?” Turning on her suddenly Headless shouted,

“Is that really any of your concern?!” She fell off her scooter and was crawling backwards as he yelled at her. “What is it with everypony today asking me questions?! Did they ever think I didn’t want to tell them what my past was like?! Did they ever think that just maybe, I wanted to forget it all? No! They just expect me to answer their questions because they are so much more important than me and can tell me what to do.” Scootaloo was leaning against the sword on his grave and looked scared up to him as he ranted before her. She cowered against the sword and pushed against it trying to get away from him. Suddenly, a voice hollered out between them,

“HEY!” A purple dragon ran between them and said, “Leave her alone!” He stood defiantly in front of the Headless Horse but his trembling body gave away the terror he was feeling.

“Oh? What’s this? A dragon? And a baby one. Pha! What you gonna do? Knaw me to death? I’m already dead!” Spike was trembling and it took all his strength not to collapse on the ground, all the feeling in his legs was leaving him.

“Just… Just leave her alone.” Headless looked at the little dragon, he was defending this little… foal. How odd. Calming down, Headless chuckled to himself and lied down in front of them. Crossing his hooves over and stared at them, he said to the dragon,

“Tell me dragon, just why are you defending this pony?” Spike looked at him confused,

“Ummm, she’s my friend.” He said it like it was already obvious, “And Twilight asked me to watch over her while she was gone.”

“Hmm, Twilight, that’s that annoying purple unicorn right?”

“Twilight’s not annoying! … not a lot anyway…”

“Mmhm… Anyway, how did a little dragon like you come to know these ponies? Last I checked; dragons didn’t associate with ponies.”

“Well… they don’t, but Celestia found my egg when I was young and Twilight hatched it, so I’ve just always lived with ponies.”

“How interesting.” Scootaloo was getting annoyed now.

“Come on Spike, let’s go.” She said pulling on his arm.

“Huh? Why?” Spike was confused, this Headless Horse didn’t seem nearly as scary as he had a moment ago.

“Because he’s being unfair.” Headless perked himself up a bit at that,

“Just how am I being unfair?”

“Because, you keep asking Spike about who he is, but you won’t tell anypony else who you are!” She started towards her scooter and pulled Spike along with her. Headless stood there in silence, unsure what he should say, finally he said,

“I’m not ready to tell anyone my past. I’ve lived so long trying to forget it, that I’m just not sure whether I’m ready to remember it. Trust me kid, it’s not a good story.” Scootaloo thought this over, but she still got on her scooter and buzzed her wings to leave. Spike on the other hand, was staring at the sword which marked his grave. Living with Twilight had made him a very observant dragon, and there was something about this sword that seemed familiar.

“You know, I think I’ve seen this sword before…” Scootaloo’s ears pricked up at that, where could’ve Spike had seen the sword before?!?! Her foolish curiosity getting the better of her, she backed up suddenly in excitement. Scootaloo accidentally drove her scooter into Spike without realising and caused him to fall over into the sword. It wobbled and fell down, loosened from the ground by Spike’s impact. Headless stopped and stared in silence at what had happened. This was his sword, the marker to his grave, and they pushed it over! He was furious, you don’t just push over somepony’s gravestone. It’s their gravestone! Standing stock still, he said;

“Move.” The both of them stayed frozen.

“MOVE!” He shouted. Scootaloo jumped from where she was and buzzed her wings scooting backwards away from him. Spike was still frozen in place, Headless took a step forward and yelled, “MOVE!!!!” Spike crawled away from the sword as he came closer. Just then, Headless felt like something was… off. Something was different. He paused and looked around, it was still silent all around, and then he looked at the ground. The sword laid on the ground before him, but he realised he was standing on ground he had never stood on before, it was further than he had ever been as a ghost. Shock came across his face as he tapped at the barrier which was now further than previously. After living in this forest for a thousand years, he had come to unconsciously know where the barrier always was, and he was certain it had moved.

“Kid,” he said suddenly quiet, “can you pull my sword towards you?” Confused Scootaloo slowly did as he said, she couldn’t move too well, so Spike helped and managed to drag it towards them. Headless had his hoof resting on the barrier and as the sword moved, so did the barrier. He laughed in realisation.

“It was the sword! The sword was the barrier! How could I have never seen this before? Quick kid, take the sword and put it on your… thing you’re on.” He said excitedly pointing at her scooter. Dragging the sword once more, she pulled it over to her scooter and placed it on it. Then standing on her scooter with Spike on as well, she buzzed her wings and headed off back the way she had come. Headless was ecstatic as he followed in a rush. He was travelling on ground he has never seen before in thousand years. His excitement was rubbing off on Scootaloo because her wings were buzzing faster as he sped up and they raced through the forest. The edge of the forest was near, he could see the line of trees ending. Suddenly they burst through and were out of the Everfree forest. Headless stopped in his tracks. Scootaloo skidded to a stop too and they looked back to see him looking up to the sky. He was staring at the night sky, in all its beauty. With its full moon high in the sky and stars spotting the vast blackness. He hadn’t seen it in over a thousand years, his favourite sight, and he was finally able to see it in all its glory. How he had dreamed of this day. Meanwhile, Spike was nibbling his claws in anxiety.

“What are we going to do? He’s a Headless Horse! If anypony sees him they’ll go crazy.” His words fell on deaf ears because Headless was ignoring them, staring to the sky, and Scootaloo had fallen asleep on her scooter. Spike was ready to fall asleep but he was too worried.He got off the scooter and started to push it back to town. He had hoped that the Headless Horse would stay away from town but a quick look over his shoulder proved him wrong. Headless was silently following them. Headless looked down at the small dragon and was trotting behind them, gazing occasionally up at the sky. It took a while with Scootaloo unconscious, but finally Spike made it to the hospital and managed to put her back inside without anypony finding out. Leaving her scooter with her, Spike headed back outside to find Headless wandering around, looking inside buildings and walking through them. Spike clutched his head with worry in his eyes and ran towards the Headless Horse.

“What are you doing?! You can’t just go into somepony’s house, they might see you!”

“So?”

“So?! They. Might. See. You.” He repeated, “These ponies live a very peaceful life, and you’re going to give them all a heart attack!”

“Pfft, they’re all asleep, I’m not going to wake them up. If anyone is it’d be you, not being very quiet. Yelling at ghosts and all.” Headless wandered off again and Spike was struggling to follow him while lugging his sword behind him.

“Wait up will you?! I have to get… to the library!”

“Why would you need to go to the library?”

“It’s where I live… And I need.. to send a letter… to Twilight.” Spike stopped, this sword was heavy and he was straining to pull it after Headless, now he wished he’d brought Scootaloo’s scooter. Finally Headless stopped and turned back to the small dragon. He really didn’t want to go to some library but this dragon was helping him so he thought it was the least he could do, plus, he was the one with his sword. If he didn’t want the dragon to dump it in the river or something, he’d have to follow him. Signing he said,

“Alright, where’s this library then.” The dragon perked up and continued pulling the sword. It was a tedious walk, Headless would take one step every once in a while but spent most of it standing still, because if he went any faster, he’d leave the dragon behind. Besides, he needed the dragon to show him the way to the library. Bored, he thought maybe some conversation would quicken this trip.

“So…. What’s your name?”

“Spike.” He stated flatly trying to breath air quickly.

“Spike…” He tested out the name bored. “I remember Scootaloo saying that. Did that Twilight come up with it?”

“Yep.”

“Where is this library?”

“It’s that tree… over there.” Looking forward, Headless saw a huge tree with windows and a door on it. It appeared to be carved out from the inside. Unamused he said,

“Oh goody, a tree. Just when I get out of a forest filled with them, I get to go inside one. Fun.” Spike ignored him and finally they were at the front door to the library. Opening the bottom half of the door, Spike dropped the sword against the wall next to the door. Headless just waltzed inside through the door. Looking around it was dark until Spike lit a few candle and he saw all the books lining the sides of this huge hollowed out tree. He continued to walk around the inside while Spike ran off and grabbed a quill and paper. Quickly he wrote a message on it;

Dear Princess Celestia,

When Twilight reaches you, can tell her that the Headless Horse is in the library. I’m sorry to be so blunt but there’s no other way to explain the situation. Something to do with his sword; somehow he’s able to leave the forest if the sword is taken out of the forest.

-Regards Spike.

Spike was about to roll it up and send it away but a voice behind him stopped him.
“Get rid of that last part.”

“Ah! Don’t sneak up on me like that!’ Calming down he said, ‘Why? What’s wrong with it?”

“I’d rather if the pony who hates didn’t know how to keep me stuck in the forest forever. Not really something I want to make public.”

“Twilight doesn’t hate you.”

“Not Twilight; Celestia. There’s a bit of a feud between us, and I just know she would love to trap me in the forest for eternity.” Spike could see why he’d want to keep it a secret. So he scrunched up the piece of paper and wrote it again, but without the part with his sword, and blew fire on it, sending it away to Celestia.

“What was burning the paper supposed to do?” Headless asked.

“Oh, I didn’t burn it, sort of, it’s like teleportation magic. My fire sends it to Celestia, and she can send messages back to me.”

“Weird. Have you always been able to do that?”

“Um, well, since I can remember.”

“Can you send letters to anypony?”

“No, just Celestia.”

“Weird.” After a moment of awkward silence and Spike yawning loudly. Headless said,

“Well I’m going to take a look around town.”

“What? Wait!’ Spike ran in front of Headless trying to bar the doorway and said, ‘You can’t go out there! What if somepony sees you?!”

“They’re not going to see me. Everypony is asleep anyway.” Headless ignored the little dragon and easily passed through him and the door. Opening the door in a hurry, Spike went to follow him but wound up collapsing on the ground. He curled up into a small ball on the grass and fell asleep. He’d been up so late already, his body just shut down on him. Headless was surprised at his sudden collapse. He went back to check on Spike, but seeing that he was just sleeping, Headless continued on his way around the town. The library was side on to the Everfree forest, so Headless could only explore half of the town but he didn’t care. He barely even looked over most of the houses or buildings in Ponyville. Instead he just went over to a nearby field between Ponyville and the forest, and spent the entire night, staring up to the sky. He knew Celestia would find out sooner or later about his sword, so he was going to lap up this view as much as he could.

Celestia had finally arrived back at the castle and she wanted nothing more than to fall instantly to sleep in her nice comfy bed. But she had to see to something first. From outside the castle, she flew up to the top of the castle, to a balcony where her sister Princess Luna was looking over the land.

“Hello Celestia, was what Twilight and her friends said true? Is there a Headless Horse in the Everfree?”

“Sadly yes Luna. And apparently both you and I know him.” Luna looked at her confused and tried to form a question, but Celestia stopped her. “He says that he’s the ghost of the Commander of the Lunar Guards, from a thousand years ago.’ Luna’s eyes went wide at this.

“How could the commander be a ghost in the Everfree sister?!’

“I fear I may have something to do with that. You see, after… after I sent you to the moon…” Celestia paused, “There was a revolt. All of the Lunar Guards stormed the castle and demanded that I return you to Equestria. But I refused. I’m sorry sister. I’ve regretted that day for years.”

“I forgive you Celestia.” Luna said draping a wing around her sister.

“Thank you, but it’s not just that I regret, when they revolted, I fought back, I sent my guards at them. And when it was all over, I found the pony who had started it, he was the Commander of your guards and I killed him. I had him beheaded! And now I find out he’s been in the forest for a thousand years!”

“It’s okay sister, I’ll help you sort this out.”

“Thank you Luna, Twilight and her friends will be here soon. But I must ask you… Just who was your Commander of the Lunar Guards. He won’t tell me his name and you are the only one who knows.” Celestia turned to her sister and looked desperately at her. This was clearly something that had been bothing her for years. Smiling, Luna saw no reason not to tell her.

“His name is Ember, sister. Ember Sword.” Smiling Celestia hugged her sister and thanked her. She got up to leave and hopefull to get at least some sleep before the sun had to come up, but a rolled up scroll suddenly landed on her nose instead. Lifting it up Celestia wondered what Spike could be writing to her about, had Twilight and her friends not left Ponyville yet? Opening it, it read;

Dear Princess Celestia,

When Twilight reaches you, can tell her that the Headless Horse is in the library. I’m sorry to be so blunt but there’s no other way to explain the situation.

-Regards Spike.

Celestia dropped the scroll as her mind tried to process what she had just read, finally she found her voice and said perhaps a little too loud;

“WHAT?!!!”

Less than useful notes

First light was rising over the land and the train to Canterlot was coming to a rest in the station. Twilight and her friends got off and headed towards the castle. Making their way to the throne room, where they were greeted by a frazzled mane, sleepy eyed Princess. Celestia was sitting at her throne waiting for them but it appeared that she did not get much sleep last night. They could only assume this was because of a certain Headless Horse, for it was the same for all of them.

“Princess.” Twilight said as she and her friends bowed to Celestia. Climbing off her throne, Celestia walked up to them with the best smile she could muster.

“My loyal subjects, I am glad you made it. Please, follow me.” They all left the throne room and headed to the castle gardens where the statues of ponies were kept. They passed many great statues, victorious pony statues. Others with ponies holding instruments, one pedestal had nothing on top of it and only a few of the ponies turned to glance at it. The Princess ignored it completely. Finally reaching the section of the garden with statues of the more magical ponies; they came before one in particular. Situated near Starswirl the Bearded’s statue, this unicorn was wearing Celestial armour, but it was more suited for a mage than a warrior. Offering not much protection in open combat, but accented with cloth embedded with magical amplification abilities. But it was the unicorn which stood out the most. His hard set eyes stared forward and his long mane flowed down his neck with expert craftsmanship. His tail curled jaggedly at the end and his cutiemark was barely see able under his armour; three, five pointed stars on his side. Twilight found herself looking at this statue and almost recognising it.

“He looks almost like your brother Twilight.” Said Rarity, she had a keen eye for these things and as soon as she’s said the connection, the others began to see it too. Celestia smiled as they turned back to her.

“That is because Spell Bound, is Twilight’s ancestor.” Celestia’s magic made a scroll appear and when she unrolled it, a picture of Spell Bound with a dark purple coat and blue mane like Shining’s was there.

“He does look like my brother, and his coat is purple like my Grandmother’s. Like mine.” Pinkie Pie was back at the statue and had noticed the plaque that lied at the statue’s feet. Without realising, she voiced it out loud.

“Spell Bound, For service above any other.” Pinkie didn’t understand exactly what he had done and her face screwed up into many different faces as she tried to figure out what it could be that he had done. The others had heard and turned to Celestia expectantly.

“It means that he saved my life.” All of their eyes went wider than she had thought possible and she knew that they wanted to hear more. “I guess I’d better tell you from the beginning. A thousand years ago, I banished Luna to the moon. Now I’d thought that would be the end of it, I didn’t want to think about it and I had hoped that my subjects wouldn’t either. But I knew this wouldn’t happen. It was her royal guards; the Lunar Guards which rose up and turned against me. They demanded that I bring Luna back, but I could not. Eternal night isn’t a part of the natural order. So they attacked. They broke into the castle and destroyed the place. Their leader; an Earth Pony, challenged me. I’d underestimated him. I had thought that since he had no magic and couldn’t fly; he wouldn’t be able to attack me if I went for him in the air. I was a foolish and young ruler, and he was better than I thought. I was never able to hit him with my magic because he was too fast, my magic hit the floor and walls igniting the carpets on fire. All of the other guards were running out of the castle because it would collapse soon but our battle waged on. All of a sudden, his sword came at me out of nowhere. He’d thrown it and it hit my wing, I crashed and he got ready to kill me. But then Spell Bound came out of nowhere and stopped him. He’d returned to find me and saved me from death. But the Earth Pony which had attacked me was stuck under a beam which had fallen from the ceiling. I asked Spell Bound to help me bring him with us. And we made it out of the castle. Heading into the forest as my home burned behind me, I brought Spell Bound and the Earth Pony to a secluded part. The Earth Pony was coughing up smoke and looked at me with hatred. And then… then I ordered him to be killed.” The 6 ponies stared at Celestia in shock. None of them knew what to think, most were keeping quiet, Twilight was mumbling to herself trying to figure this out, and Rainbow Dash was taking this the hardest. She stomped and huffed annoyed. She had been the last to think Celestia could do such a thing. She was the element of Loyalty after all and had believed Headless to be lying when he’d said this.

“NO!” She shouted, “No this can’t be true! You’re the Princess!” She flew right up to the Princess’s face and looked her in the eyes, “You’d never do this to…” Celestia was avoiding her gaze and Rainbow now saw that what Celestia was saying was true. Her ruler was a killer. Her whole being ripped in half inside, everything she held in the highest regard was no more greater than an animal within the Everfree Forest killing for the hunt. With tears fighting in her eyes to break out, Rainbow suddenly flew straight up and away from everyone. Even her rainbow streak disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. Celestia watched as she disappeared and then looked back to her remaining subjects, they all stared at her with confusion. They weren’t quite sure what to think, Rainbow Dash was just the same she guessed. But their faces tore her a part inside, she could never undo what she had done. Turning away from them she went to leave, but one of her legs was fighting with her to move and when she looked down as to why, she saw Twilight holding onto her, asking her not to go with just a look. Celestia didn’t remember doing it, but suddenly Twilight was whisked up into an embrace by Celestia. She held the little mare close and said through teary eyes.

“Please forgive me.” After a moment of nothing from Twilight, she felt her small hooves wrap around the Princess’s neck and reply,

“I forgive you Celestia.” Looking down at her other subject, their smiles warmed her and they too said that they forgave her. But as she placed Twilight back down, she said

“But Princess, it’s not us you should be asking for forgiveness.”

“I know.” There was a silence between them until Fluttershy asked,

“So.. Um Princess. Did you find out… who the Headless Horse is? If it’s okay to ask…”

“Oh, yes. Yes I did.” She rubbed her damp eyes and cheered up slightly from their smiles. “My sister said his name was Ember Sword, commander of her Lunar Guards. I’d forgotten his name after all these years, but I do remember him. He was a great guard in his day; helped out when any danger came to the city, be it day or night. And even stopped a few conspiracies against the crown.”

“I wonder why I’ve never heard of either of these two ponies?” Voiced Twilight.

“I thought you would’ve, I think there are a couple books on them in the Canterlot library.”

“I have to go find them! I need to know more about their histories.” And then silently to herself as she ran off, she whispered under her breath, “And why a friend would willingly kill another.” With that Twilight was gone as Celestia said,

“But wait Twilight! I have.. something for you…” She had made another scroll appear but Twilight was already gone.

“Don’t worry Princess, we’ll give it to her. What’s it about anyway?” Applejack asked.

“It’s from Spike, I would have liked to have spoken to her in person but I’m already late for my duties as it is. You are free to read it, sadly I know no more than that scroll there. I tried to reply to him but he’s yet to answer. Farewell my loyal subjects.” She was silent for a moment as she looked above her, “And please, if you see Rainbow Dash, tell her I am sorry. I know this must be hard for her, having your loyalty tried isn’t easy.” Celestia left and the ponies turned to leave. Rarity magically rolled out the scroll for the remaining four of them and their faces all turned to shock. Rarity wound up fainting, the thought of her Spikey-Wikey with that Headless Horse was too much to bare. With Applejack carrying Rarity they all quickly followed each other to the Canterlot Library.

Celestia made her way back to the throne room where her sister Luna was waiting. A cheeky smile played on her lips.

“Well, you seem to have calmed down since last night.” She was remembering how her sister had torn the room a part looking for a parchment and quill to write back to Spike. But after getting her to calm down and sit for a moment, Luna easily went over to a draw and lifted one out. But as Celestia sat there, Luna could see that she didn’t have any idea what to write to the little dragon. What did one write after finding out the Headless Horse was suddenly in Ponyville. Taking the parchment from her statuette sister, Luna wrote a quick note and sent it away with a smile. Celestia was annoyed that Luna hadn’t shown her what she had wrote and was prepared to fly all the way back to Ponyville to make sure that Spike and the residents of Ponyville were okay. Luna however managed to pull her back into the room from the window and told her that the letter was merely a thank you letter. Then she had ushered her sister out and into her room, Celestia needed some sleep. But it seemed she hadn’t gotten much anyway and Luna couldn’t help smiling at this. The Ember she remembered was always a loyal and an honourable stallion, he would never harm Spike. But Celestia just seemed to be frightened by him. Her response wasn’t any better.

“I am calm!”

“I never said you weren’t.” Celestia rested her hooves on her temples and rubbed them, she was just so stressed right now. Luna came up to her and said, “How about you go and get a few more hours of sleep and I’ll stay here.”

“But then you’ll be tired tonight.”

“It’s not like the night is as long as the day, I can stand a few more hours being up.” Resting a hoof on Luna’s shoulder she said,

“Thank you sister.” And walked off back to her room. The Headless Horse still plagued her but she was at least finally able to get some sleep in the end.

It was the middle of the night verging on morning and Spike had fallen asleep in the middle of the library’s front lawn. Dew was already forming on top of him and made his scales shine like rain on a spider’s web. He was peaceful, until a sudden belch made him wake up as a scroll formed from his fire. Rubbing his eyes he stared at the parchment in front of him and yawned loudly as he picked it up. Unrolling it, it read;

Dear Spike,
Thank you for contacting us. We would be most obliged if you could watch over him for the time being until something can be done.
Regards, Princess Luna
P.S. Tell him I said hello, thank you.

Spike was confused, him? Who was it that Luna wanted him to say hello to for her. Blinking his eyes again he looked around and found that he was outside. He turned and saw the library with its door open and questioned why. Then it hit him. Headless! He’d forgotten about him, but how did he wind up here? Enough time to contemplate that later, right now he had to find the Headless Horse. Grabbing the scroll he ran all through town but couldn’t find him. While looking behind the home of a pony’s quietly, he saw a shadow of sorts in the fields beyond Ponyville. Heading up to it he was finally able to make out the Headless form of the Headless Horse and ran up to him. Puffing he said,

“I was looking everywhere for you! It’s almost morning! Did anypony see you?”

“Nope.” Headless didn’t even make an effort to make it look like he’d turned to acknowledge the little dragon. Spike just stared at him.

“Have you been out here the entire time?”

“Pretty much.” Having nothing more to say to that, Spike sat down next to him on the grass and rubbed his eyes. Just as he was about to fall asleep again, he remembered something.

“Oh! I got a note back from the Princesses.”

“Oh?” Headless said elongating the word playfully. He thought something from Missy might amuse him for the moment.

“Yes, but Princess Luna wrote it instead. Not sure why, she says Hello by the way.” Headless was shocked, his Princess had written to him! Jumping up he stood before Spike leaning over him and said,

“What did the note say?! Did My Princess say anything else?” Spike fell over from his sudden excitement and stared up at the beheaded horse. He could see his neck a lot easier now and his eyes went wide in horror at it. Torn dark red muscle, dried blood on his fur at the neck’s edges, and a gaping hole where his throat was. He could also see the bone of his spine; broken and a pale grey. He shut his eyes suddenly and tried to get the image out of his mind. What had he asked again? Focus on the question and answer it. Focus… Finally Spike replied with,

“Uh.. No. No there wasn’t anymore. She just asked me to watch you and to tell you she said hello.”

“Oh.” Headless sat back down and looked depressed, Spike didn’t know what to do. This Headless Horse, this ghost story come true, something from myth and legend, just for a moment, had seemed… happy? He’d been happy before, but they hadn’t been genuine happiness. He had really just been amused from annoying someone. But from the mention of Princess Luna something within this ghost had just seem to light up. He’d also seen this when he’d noticed Headless staring up at the sky like just now. But it was the moon which he’d been staring at most. Spike doesn’t want Headless to be unhappy, he realises that Headless has been stuck in that forest for years and wants to make his time out of the forest a happy one. Maybe he could give him a gift, but he’s a ghost, he couldn’t use it. A party? He still couldn’t enjoy it. Huffing in annoyance Spike leant on his knuckles and rubbed his eyes once more. Headless could see his annoyance was because of him, he wasn’t sure why though. Why would this small dragon be worrying about him. Maybe it was because of his dear Princess, she had told him to watch him. Oh how he wanted to see her again, even if it meant facing Missy again, he would do it… Why couldn’t he? Why couldn’t he go see his Princess again? He was out of the forest finally, and there was nothing stopping him… Except the small dragon in control of his sword. Contemplating what to do, he deciding asking was the best option.

“Hey Spike…”

“Yeah?” He said yawning.

“Can you do something for me?”

“What is it?”

“I want to go to Canterlot.”

“What?!” Spike yelled suddenly staring at him.

“Yes. But I need you to bring my sword there.”

“You can’t go to Canterlot! You’re a ghost!”

“I don’t care, I just want to meet the Princesses.”

“Well, I..I can’t go to Canterlot. I have to look after Scootaloo and her friends.”

“Bring them along then.” Headless said care-freely.

“I can’t bring them along! One of them is in the hospital.”

“Oh she’s fine, she’s got that weird mini carriage… thing…”

“Her scooter.”

“Scooter then. And besides, I’m sure they’d love to come to the big city. Meet the Princesses and everything.” Spike didn’t know what to do. Finally he sighed in annoyance and said they’d talk about it in the morning. With that Spike headed off but Headless stayed where he was. Spike didn’t want Headless to stay out here if one of the ponies saw him so he told Headless that he definitely wouldn’t go to Canterlot if he didn’t come back to the library with him now. Reluctantly he headed back. Spike climbed tiredly into his bed and Headless sat at the back of the library staring out the window, looking up at the beautiful night sky.

Author's Note

It's been too long, sorry for not updating sooner. I've had real life to deal with for the moment, but here is the next part. Hopefully I can be quicker in future. Thanks for reading this by the way, I hope you're enjoying this as much as I am!