The woods were dark and scary. Sitting near the campfire, Scootaloo shivered, feeling a whole lot more than the cold. She looked around, trying to see shadows in the dark, and her eyes lingered over the domes made out of ice and snow that dotted the campsite. The largest dome was made for Lugus. She blinked and tried to think about what Rainbow Dash might do in this situation. She tore off a bite of her rations, a compressed bar of oatmeal, barley, buckwheat, nuts, and dried fruit. A light dusting of snow fell through the trees.

Somewhere, an owl hooted.

Thinking of headless horses, The Olden Pony, and rusty iron shoes, Scootaloo gulped.

“There is something in the woods,” Boadicea said in a low voice, her beak not moving.

Scootaloo nodded. “This is the Everfree, the spookiest place in Equestria.”

“If it comes for us, try to guard Peekaboo. I will tear out its eyes.” Boadicea’s black eyes narrowed into slits. “The shadows move and I think it is more than the campfire causing them to flicker.”

Across the fire, Shaquah snickered as she sharpened her hook sword. “Fresh Meat and Table Scraps look jumpy.”

“I think Callum and I are going to crawl inside of our shelter. We have the last watch together and we need some sleep,” Freyja said as she gave a tug on Callum.

“There will be no sleeping.” Flench turned his head around backwards to look at Freyja.

“Shut up Flench!” Freyja opened up her beak and hissed.

Seeing this, Peekaboo opened up her mouth, made a gagging sound, and then hissed herself, making a sound deep within her throat.

Lugus, looking proud, snatched up Peekaboo and squeezed her. “My foal can hiss!”

Held in her father’s foreleg, Peekaboo hissed again, her eyes narrowing as she pulled her lips back from her teeth and tried to look fierce.

“The lunar pegasi have a magical hiss,” Yew said. “The book I read said that to hear it is to know fear. Sentinel, do you know how to do this?”

Looking up from his compressed brick of dried fish, Sentinel nodded. “Luna has been coaching me. I’d give you a demonstration, but I fear that everyone present would soil themselves.”

“Is it really that bad?” Scootaloo asked.

“It is magically induced fear that travels through the ears and directly into the brain. It floods the body with terror. Strong minds might resist some of it, but weaker minds will suffer paralysis or even death… at least Luna says there have been documented cases of ponies and other creatures dying of fright from hearing it,” Sentinel replied.

“I wonder if our king can do it.” Branwen lifted her head and looked around when she heard an owl hooting.

“Father can do it. Luna says he is quite good at it, but he doesn’t need to do it. The shadows do his bidding. Try walking into a dark room with him at some point when he is in a bad mood. The darkness comes to life. You can feel things… crawling all around you. You can feel the darkness on your skin. When father broods in the dark, the dark takes on his mood and does his bidding.” Sentinel looked around and met each eye looking at him in turn.

“Well, creepy stories are great. Time for bed,” Freyja said as she dragged Callum away from the campfire. “Say goodnight Callum.”

“Goodnight Callum,” Callum said as he waved goodbye.

“Is… is Bucky really the Bogeypony?” Scootaloo asked.

Sentinel took a deep breath, looked into the fire, and then raised his head to look at Scootaloo. “A long time ago, there was a pony named Sombra. He was a good pony at one point. He was one of the few ponies that truly understood the work that Princess Luna does. Sombra took it upon himself to help Princess Luna scare ponies back into the light… but that was not enough. The world was a very troubled place at that time. Windigos, Discord, demons roaming the earth, and enemies on all sides. Invading griffons, savage diamond dogs, and hostile minotaurs.” Sentinel drew in a deep breath and his eyes narrowed.

Nearby, an owl hooted.

“Sombra realised it wasn’t enough to scare ponies into the light… he started to scare the things that brought harm to ponies, hoping to scare them away from their evil ways. Sombra took it upon himself to become the sum of all fears. He embraced the dark, the shadow, he allowed the very darkest parts of himself to surface and he showed the world why you should be afraid of the dark.”

All around the campfire, the darkness writhed. Everybirdy and everypony huddled closer together. Ripple grabbed Scootaloo and pulled her closer. Boadicea clung to both Ripple and Scootaloo. The shadows from the fire grew long and distorted.

Sentinel’s lips parted, showing his fangs, and the colt looked thoughtful for a moment. “The world had stopped being afraid of the dark for a while. Magic and might had pushed back the darkness. Civilisation brought light and security. Sombra began a campaign of terror that made the entire known world keep their lights on at night. He released plagues of rats upon cities. He seized control of shadowy creatures and set them loose upon the enemies of Equestria. He became the King of Shadows… the Bogeypony. He and Luna worked together and used fear to subdue their many enemies. The fear of the Bogeypony made Equestria’s enemies weak…”

“The griffons still tell stories of the Bogeypony,” Brigid said in a low whisper. “We still tell our cubs that there are things in the dark that will eat them if they are bad.” Trembling, Brigid reached out, grabbed Shaquah, who squawked in terror, and pulled the griffoness to her.

“Believing in something gives power to it,” Sentinel said in a low voice. “When ponies give prayers to certain beings, they are made stronger because of it. Because so many are so afraid of the dark, the Bogeypony has stopped being a story and has become something… else. All of those fears are manifested and made real… equinification of an abstract concept. When Sombra was struck down, the world didn’t stop believing in the Bogeypony. Mothers told stories to their young, fathers scared their offspring into good behaviour… the words, the stories, they lived on, and the spirit of the Bogeypony had power.”

“So we need to make everybirdy stop believing in it,” Grunion said through a clattering beak. “If we stop believing in it, it will go away.”

“Too late for that… when my father inherited Sombra’s mantle, all of that belief in the Bogeypony began to be channeled through him. Now, every time a mother sings to her foal to keep the Bogeypony away, my father draws power… every time a father tells their foal that if they are bad, the Bogeypony will come and devour them, my father gains power. Like Sombra, my father has become the sum of all fears, he is the thing that lurks in the dark. He is the black shape that looms under the bed. He is the horrible dread that lurks in the closet. He is the horrible shadow that creeps along the wall when you are lying in bed and you can feel the darkness moving. He is the source of all nightmares for the things that would dare attack Equestria or our allies. My father is the thrice damned Bogeypony!”

As the last word left Sentinel’s mouth, the campfire died and primordial darkness settled over the camp. No light shone. It was impossible to see anything. The camp erupted into screams of terror.

After several moments of panicked screaming, Loki snapped his talons. A small flame sprang to life from his talon fingers. He made a flicking motion with his talons and the flame arced into the smoking remains of the campfire. After few long terrifying moments, the campfire flickered back to life.

“Will you look at all that yellow snow,” Loki said as he looked all around him, gloating over his complete lack of fear. “You’d think the Bogeypony just showed up.”

“I can’t believe I wet myself,” Scootaloo said in a low whisper as she snuggled against Boadicea and Peekaboo for warmth.

The trio had a woollen blanket wrapped around them and the small space inside of the dome was warm enough to be surprising. The snow had melted just a little bit and then froze over, forming a glazed layer of ice inside of the snow dome shelter. A second woollen blanket was folded up and laid out beneath them to prevent them from laying on the snow and to prevent their body heat from being leached away.

“Look, most of us wet ourselves. Full grown adults pissed themselves and left puddles in the snow. I won’t tell no one at school if you promise not to tell anyone at school.” Boadicea felt warmth returning to her body as she cuddled with the pair of pegasi. “Stupid Loki… he can’t even feel fear anymore.”

“I wonder what made the campfire go out.” Scootaloo felt Peekaboo wiggling against her.

“I don’t know.” Boadicea pulled the blanket around them a little tighter.

“Do you really think believing in something makes something stronger?” Scootaloo asked in a low whisper.

“I dunno… I know that Diamond Tiara prays to Princess Luna. Quite a number of griffons pray to Odin and Scorch. They all seem plenty powerful. I suppose it might be true,” Boadicea replied.

“So… is the Bogeypony good or bad? If foals behave and obey their parents… if ponies are scared back into the light… and Luna too… is it right to scare somepony into being good?” Scootaloo asked.

“I dunno,” Boadicea replied.

“Go sleepy,” Peekaboo said in a low whine. “Sleepy time. Shut you face now.”

“I think Peekaboo has the right idea.” Boadicea felt the smaller pegasus clinging to her. The griffoness cub yawned and then touched Scootaloo with her talons. “Good night Scoots.”

“I wonder how Bucky is doing,” Derpy said, thinking out loud. The grey mare looked at her bedmates in the dim light. “The Everfree is a dark and scary place.”

“Bucky is the scariest damn thing in the Everfree tonight.” Lyra began to giggle and she rolled over while wrapping her forelegs around Bon Bon’s neck. “I feel bad for anything that messes with his griffons.”

“When the Raptors come back, the mead hall will be opened. You excited about that Belisama? Because I know I am.” Berry Punch wrapped a foreleg around Belisama and gave the griffoness an affectionate nuzzle.

“I’m dying to know how the statue turned out.” Belisama reached out her talons and rubbed Berry Punch’s ears, mindful of her sharp claws. “Tapper said the first one suffered from crackling and falling apart, but he swears this one captures my beauty.”

“Clean sheets,” Loch Skimmer said as she rubbed her cheek against them. “So is this what all of you do in the bed? Just lay around and talk?”

The mares and the griffoness giggled together from Loch Skimmer’s words.

“What, you don’t talk?” Berry asked in reply as she became serious.

“We used to.” Loch Skimmer closed her eyes and made ready to pour out her heart. “Now if we’re in the bed, we’re either making out, making love, or sleeping. We’re hardly ever all in the bed together. Sparkler usually works all night, so she’s away. I like going to bed early. Rising Star is usually up late. Rising Star doesn’t need to sleep much. He’s learned he doesn’t need to sleep at all if he doesn’t want to… if he stands in a fire, he becomes rested and refreshed. But Rising Star spends his nights studying stuff from school and the things he needs to know as a stable representative. At some point, he’ll come to bed all lonesome and in the mood and start grinding up against me until I wake up and then we do things and I like those things because I am really glad to have him with me and holding me because I’m really lonely and then he and I fall asleep after we shag for a good long time. Ripple and Bittersweet sleep in their own bed because they’re tired of being woke up at odd hours. At some point in the early morning, we get woke up by Sparkler, who gets into bed. She and Rising Star usually shag… sometimes I’m part of it, and sometimes, I watch, and sometimes, I roll over and go back to sleep. If she comes in late, like around dawn, I’m usually already out of bed at that point and trying take care of my homework for school. It’s hard to do your schoolwork when you can hear two ponies screwing one another senseless.”

“Well no wonder everything is falling apart… you’ve stopped talking.” Berry Punch, still holding Belisama, twisted her head around to look at Loch Skimmer. “You can’t live that way. You’ve become screw-buddies who make themselves available to scratch each others’ physical itch. The emotional stuff is being ignored.”

“I don’t know how to fix it.” Loch Skimmer opened her eyes and looked at Berry Punch. “Help me.”

Author's Notes:

Mead? Did somebody say mead?

That's on a mead to know basis.

I suppose this is the part where I mention ty-POW!- ouch! Sorry about the pun, I won't do it again, I swear.