Coarse Root shoveled one last time and then fell on his side, coughing and fighting for air to fill his lungs. His son let his own shovel drop to the ground and tried to come to his side, but Coarse Root waved him off. He just needed a small break. The years had not been kind to him and the foul disease did not help at all.

He had to struggle to get back up. He was on his last legs, he knew it, but he would be damned if he let Spring Mountain know that. The colt was nowhere near a better condition than he was. Coarse Root however was determined to outlast him. He wouldn’t let his boy’s body rest out in the elements. He would bury him in a proper grave. Only then he would allow death to take him.

“Are you alright dad?” his son asked him. “Maybe you should rest a little.”

“I’m fine,” Coarse answered back, gruffly. “I’m digging, ain’t I? Come on, we need to finish this. We also have to drag the bodies over later. We ain’t done by half.”

Spring stuck his shovel in the ground and wiped his face from the sweat he had built up. Coarse was certain he was using the excuse to hide his tears too.

The colt did not deserve this, not right in the prime of his life. Coarse cursed and damned everything in sight behind his teeth. The plague had sprung up too suddenly, too strong. His son was too far gone to risk the others. He had to be left behind, to die alongside his father.

Spring did not deserve this. The anger behind that thought gave Coarse new strength. The shovel dug deep, breaking apart the soil and cutting through the small roots. Pebbles and dirt spilled as he threw his load outside the large hole he was in; the damned mass grave they were digging.

He kept shovelling, ignoring the pain in his muscles, his labored breath, the wet gurgle that came from his insides. He didn’t glance at the sores below his shedding coat. He only stopped when he heard hooves approach. At first he thought his son was coming over his way, but it was the wrong direction. He dropped the dirty shovel and quickly turned around to warn the pony that was too close already to back off before he caught the sickness too.

Coarse Root came face to face with the face that had haunted his dreams for so many years.

“You!” he said, stating in not recognition, but accusation. “What are you doing here?”

“My duty. What has occurred here?” The dark blue Alicorn asked. Coarse watched her as her gaze travelled apathetically over the village that was now emptied of all living ponies. She looked over the corpses they had piled nearby and the grave they were digging.

She was as creepy and terrifying as she had been the first time. The day was coming to a swift end and the shadows had lengthened. When she had appeared however… it all went wrong. It seemed as if every shadow now spiraled around her, trying to reach her and caress her. She was wrong, completely and utterly wrong.

“What does it look like?” he spat. “The plague.”

“You are being overly hostile,” the dreaded figure said. His son heard them and came to stand behind Coarse. “I would advise you to show me a modicum of respect. I see you have too few breaths left. You would not want to shorten their number even more.” She walked around the dig site, measuring it.

Coarse Root made a horrible realization. Every night, every nightmare, every time he glanced up to the moon and he saw her sombre face... She had become one of the greatest of axis upon which his life rotated. And she…

“You don’t remember me, do you? Do you even know where you are?”

The dark mare had reached the bodies, inspecting them closely, unminding of their… ripe smell, or the fear of infection. He scoffed. What was the plague when compared to her anyway?

“Should I? This is just a village from what I see. I’m sorry, a dead village.”

“You bucking bitch!” he yelled. “You forced me and my friends to help you and you do not even remember? My friends, my brother, got eaten by those worm monsters! You told us to make noise to attract them back and then you left. You left us alone to become their meal! Where were you?”

“Oh, that was here?” The moon mare looked around with a semblance of curiosity. “I needed to get inside the cave with as little fuss as possible. If I had told you my plan you’d have ran earlier that I required.” She was barely paying attention to him. She was looking at the village.

“I was the only one left! Everypony died!”

“In that case you did better than I expected. Well done. I honestly thought you all had died.” She looked towards the setting sun and quickly turned away, eyes tearing. She huffed with disdain and took a single step to the side to become shrouded in a shadow that Coarse was absolutely certain was not there a second ago.

“You never even cared to find out, did you?” He was grasping the shovel and tried to step towards her, but his son held him back.

“I had other things on my mind. I spent weeks in there and the matriarch had broken my legs. By the time I was out,” she shrugged, “I had already lost too much time to waste more on you. You were either alive or you were dead. I was not curious enough to find out. I needed to return to my work.” She yawned. “And now I need to wrap this up quickly. I am tired and wish to sleep. Where are the rest?”

Coarse wanted to kill her. He wanted this more than he wanted anything in life. He wished he could dig another hole and then he could shovel dirt on that cold, featureless face. Not much though. As far as graves go she deserved only a shallow one. Markless.

“Uh, what do you mean… uh, your… Highness?” Spring Mountain asked from behind him.

“Oh, manners? I’m surprised. The rest. The grave you are digging is too small, there are not enough corpses here, and this village can house more ponies than that. Where are the rest?” She yawned once more.

“They are on their way to Baltimare,” Spring Mountain said. “Those who were not yet sick or still in the early stages. There are rumors that the plague can be cured. If so, it would be in Baltimare.”

“I see.” Princess Luna’s gaze turned to the distant horizon, towards Baltimare. “When did they leave?”

“A few hours ago,” Coarse Root growled.

“I believe I can still catch up to them.” She spread her dark wings. “Keep digging. You will need to make it even deeper than that. I will be back to help with the burial.” She flew off, following the road, her form casting a long, dark shadow in the light of the setting sun.

They watched her disappear. Coarse grabbed his shovel again. “Put your back into it son. We still have work to do.”

“Alright dad. It didn’t turn out half bad, did it? Mom and the girls will make it safely there now. That’s something, isn’t it?” his son tried to cheer him up with a shaky smile. That Alicorn had shaken him. She did the same to everypony.

“It is. I guess it is.” He couldn’t help but think that if she had made her appearance sooner then maybe there could be hope for his colt too. Still, if she made sure his daughters survived… he would have to reconsider cursing her with his last breath.

He remembered the last time he saw his brother. His face, full of fear and doubt as it was cast in light and shadow. Too many shadows and too little light. Not enough fires. She assured them that everything would work out. Only now he understood what she had meant.

He remembered his brother screaming. One of those things had erupted out of the ground and took half of him in his mouth. His brother begged for help, for somepony to save him. The… thing was half crawling, half seizuring on the forest floor as it slowly gulped him down its gullet. Coarse tried to pull him out but he couldn’t overpower the hold of those serrated teeth. His brother was painfully aware all the time. The worm had swallowed him whole and… the screaming still hadn’t stopped.

Only quietened in volume as it came from the depths of the worm’s stomach where his brother was being digested, still alive.

She did not trust them to be able to fight off those things long enough. So she left them underprepared and made due with them taking long enough to be eaten instead.

The sun set and the night mare’s moon rose. They did not stop digging. They lit torches and kept up their work. She said they needed a deeper hole. They would do so.

If somepony knew about graves it would be her.

They were finally done. They lied on one of the fresh, soft piles of dug out earth. His colt’s breath was now sounding worse than his own. He was younger, but he was not as hardy as his old father was. When the Princess returned he would leave him in her care and move aside to dig a lone grave. Maybe two if he had the time. She owed him a few minutes to cover him with earth too.

There was a wooden creaking sound from the road. Father and son lifted their necks, trying to see in the darkness. Perhaps she had sent for help. Somepony to aid his son or carry him to Baltimare to be treated. His heart swelled with hope.

The Alicorn’s form slowly took shape as she neared the torches. She was pulling a large wagon on her own with ease. She kept yawning as she did so. Then he saw the wagon. He recognized it.

He felt his chest being ripped apart. His son screamed, a howl filled with grief and anger when he saw how she betrayed them.

It was one of the wagons his family and neighbors had taken to travel to Baltimare. Their corpses were piled in careless rows on it. He spotted the blonde mane of his wife. Usually as vibrant as the summer sun, now it was as dull as rotting straw. Silent tears ran down his cheeks. He should have known. He should have expected this.

They should have kept their damned mouths shut.

The murderess unhitched herself from the wagon and stood at the edge of the grave. “It seems you can follow simple orders after all.” Her horn lit and the bodies of his loved ones started hovering over the hole and left to fall with an ugly thud. There was no respect in what she did. Only a chore that she wanted to be done with as quick as possible.

Just like the last time.

“What… what did you do?” Spring Mountain asked, openly sobbing. “You were supposed to protect them!”

“No, I’m supposed to protect Equestria. I am not letting the plague spread to Baltimare because of some rumors. Are there any bodies left in the houses or did you take them all out?” she asked, her attention focused on emptying the wagon.

Spring Mountain roared in rage. He grabbed the shovel’s handle in his mouth and charged the dark Alicorn. Coarse was too stunned to even try and stop him. He could only watch as his son was lifted in the air, surrounded by the glow of magic.

She did not even afford him the courtesy of looking at him while she snapped his neck. She threw the corpse of his firstborn into the mass grave.

All that Coarse Root could think of was that this wasn’t how it was supposed to go. His son was supposed to be buried in a grave of his own. Coarse was supposed to dig it himself and mark it properly. He was supposed to stand over it and say goodbye to his poor child when he died, peacefully, taken by the disease.

His wife and daughters were supposed to survive. None of them were meant to be thrown in a hole in the ground like trash.

The torches hovered in the air and their fire bloomed, burning brighter and wider. The flames spread like petals and flew, each of them aimed at a house of his village. His home, the place he grew, the place where his children grew, everything he had known, burned around them.

“You… you…” He couldn’t think of a curse strong enough, potent enough for her. She was beyond anything he had ever thought possible before. “You… nightmare! You monster!”

“You will show me proper respect!” the madmare said, demanding something so ludicrous even as he felt her magic at the sides of his head.

“You don’t deserve it. You don’t care. You let us die, you killed everyone, and what matters to you is… is respect? Everypony in Equestria has figured you out. Nightmare!”

The pressure around his head painfully increased. He felt unable to move a single muscle of his body. “I do what must be done! I am not a monster!”

“You killed my son and threw him away like garbage!”

“I.. I gave him a quick end!”

Coarse Root’s skull was aching like nothing else, save his heart, ever had.

“You know exactly what you are, don’t you?”

“Shut up…” she growled.

“You know what you have turned int-”

“I have no other choice if I want to stay sane! Can you even imagine my life you despicable little worm? The centuries crawling by while I spend every waking second that I have to the service of ponies like you? The pain, exhaustion, and misery I go through each day? This is my life! This is what I do so she doesn’t have to! It will be worth it,” she whispered, “one day I’ll make it safe, all safe, every shadow, every night…”

“Sometimes you have to admit you are fighting a losing battle and all that is left to do is dig your own grav-”

“No! NO! I’m not giving up! I’m not a monster. It’s not my fault. I’ll make everything right, I can still fight, I can still protect my sister, I WON’T GIVE UP, I AM NOT A MONSTER!”

There was a sound of breaking and Coarse barely had time to wonder one last time who the Alicorn was talking to. His vision suddenly turned to the sight of his son’s corpse, eyes still open, before darkness took him. He briefly saw his brother’s face, still screaming, before everything collaps-

“Luna! You are back! Oh sister, please tell me you will stay for a few days at least.”

“I’m thinking about it. I am exhausted. Do I still have a room here or has it been turned to a storeroom during my absence once more?”

“Those were my gifts to you Luna. They just piled up while you were gone. Your bed awaits you. Go, get your rest. Dinner will be ready for you when you wake up and you can tell me what you have been up to all those months.”

“My stomach can barely await but I need sleep even more at the moment. Sister… before I take my leave… I heard rumors about a cure to the plague?”

“Oh? I’m sorry Luna, we do not have a cure yet, but we can treat it now. We have set up special hospitals where we house the victims. If we can help them survive the symptoms then the disease weakens enough to be overtaken by the body’s immune system along with some help if the pony in question is strong enough. It gives them a solid chance at least.”

“I see. So… so the plague…”

“It is not the threat it once was. We can deal with it now, at least partly. We will have a cure very soon and then it will be wiped from Equestria forever. Is everything alright Luna? Has there been another outbreak?”

“...Everything is fine sister. Yes, there was one, but there’s nothing to be done now. The dead are buried and the village was put to the torch to safeguard any curious travellers. I have taken care of everything. I’m just glad there will be one less thing to deal with in the future. I… I really need to rest now. I’m… I’m going to have to leave again after dinner. There is some unfinished business I have to attend to. I owe someponies a proper… anyway, any chance you could dine with me before I go, please?”