“Now what´s all this ruckus?”

Annie Smith had seen her fair share of disasters from caterpillars invasion to packs of roaring timberwolves, but nothing send a shiver down her spine like her two excited grandchildren jumping up and down their beds with no intention of falling asleep.

“We´re making rain!” Applejack said on her high pitched voice. “Don´t fall down the clouds, big bro!”

“Eeenope!” Big MacIntosh said, bouncing on his bed that was too small for him.

“Now now, calm down or y´all gonna wake up yer little sister!” Annie said, checking the baby was deep asleep on her crib.

She sighed, tired of an entire day of work and keeping an eye on the children, and then noticed a hoof on her shoulder. Big Mac had stopped bouncing and was trying to comfort her. “Bless Celestia,” Annie thought, “He´s becoming more and more like his old father.”

Annie kissed the colt and send him off to bed. “Now, time to sleep, little apples.”

“Tell us a story, Granny!” Applejack pleaded, refusing to get tucked.

“It´s a little late fer stories, AJ,” Annie said but the pleading eyes of the filly were too much to fight back. “Okay, settle down.”

Applejack giggled and crawled to her brother's bed.

“Ya both know about the old, spooky castle deep inside the forest, right?”

Both children nodded.

“And ya both know the story when Princess Celestia vanished Her to the Moon?”

Again, they nodded.

“But did ya know that not every part of the Mare of Nightmares is gone? When the Princess hit Her, a tiny feather fell off, just one and from that tiny, tiny feather came out a terrible creature, born of dark magic...the Pony of Shadows!”

Applejack clinged to her brother's arm and asked, “What´s the pony of shadows?”

“Nopony knows…”

Applejack was shaking by now, or maybe it was Big Mac making her shake.

“Nopony knows what it looks like. Some say that it can change shapes, just like a shadow. It can be a pegasus, an unicorn, an earth pony or all of the above. There´s no net that can capture it or door that can keep it away. Only the light of an unicorn horn can scare it away…”

“And what´s gonna do an earth pony then? Or a pegasus?” asked Applejack, who always wanted to find problems with ghost stories.

“Carry a strong torch or make friends with an unicorn, like that nice filly from school,” Annie said.

“Rarity? Ah´ll never be friends with that no-good manticore´s tail!”, Applejack said.

“Language, young lady! And never said never, ya never know who´s going to become yer friend,” Annie scolded her and Applejack blushed. “Now, ya got your scary story. Off to bed ya go!”

Annie moved Applejack to her bed and gave all three a goodnight kiss. But Applejack didn´t stay put long and moved next to the window to take a look at the face in the moon.

“Ya think it´s true, big bro? That she´s still out there?”

Big Mac didn´t say a word but moved next to his sister, taking a look at the sky.

“She´s not, right? it´s just a silly ghost story, right?”

Big Mac nuzzled her to calm her down.

“Ya´re right. We´re all okay, we have Granny with us.”

Applejack leaned next to Big Mac and they both looked as two shooting star passed over the farm.