Ghost Hooves

As the moon began to fill the sky the air began to chill as a mist rolled over the hills that surround 7th Heaven Stables, Cloud and Tifa were spending the night at the stables with their three year old daughter Nymph as Honey had showing signs that she was about to foal out of the several board mares. The night sadly was a cold one and Tifa had insisted that Nymph wear her mittens but she was refusing to she didn't see why she should wear them after all her parents weren't so why should she?

They were sat in the office with a webcam link set up and the little girl currently was sat playing with some toy horses on the rug as her mother was sorting out some paper work for some upcoming stable management lesson as her father keep his eyes darting between the camera and the girl.
"Nymph?" Cloud suddenly asked when he noticed that she was throwing the horses around rather than play with them nicely.

"Sworrry daddy" Nymph said lowering her head in shame, tears almost beginning to shine in her eyes

"Oh Nymph come here" Cloud said reaching his arms out to her, she lifted her head and smiled before running to her father's outstretched arms and jumping into his lap. She giggled as Cloud started to tickle her.
"Daddy that tickles" she cried and with her girlish giggles, Tifa had turned around and a bright smile light up her still young face. She placed the paper work down on the desk not caring that it became mixed up, she crossed the short distance and placed herself on the edge of the chair and rested her head against Cloud's shoulder as he continue to 'torture' her, Tifa glanced at Cloud and saw the questioned she had silently asked answered in his returned gaze and with that she joined Cloud in the tickle torture that Nymph had found herself victim to.

When Nymph was finally freed of the tickle torture, it was time that she went to bed which she began to protest.

"But I won't see Honey foal" she pouted

"Yes you will we'll wake you when it's time but if you don't sleep a certain little girl won't be getting her pressies or be able to stay awake to ride tomorrow" Tifa teased.

"Alright Mommy" she sighed as she ran to her dad to give him a hug goodnight, Cloud was already sat on the couch that had been turned into Nymph's bed for the night with Arrow the stuffed pony that was named after Ivy's son.

"Night Daddy" she yawned as she took Arrow into her arms and climbed into the waiting sleeping bag.

"Daddy read me a story" Nymph started as she got she settled down into her sleeping bag.

"Alright how about the ghost horse?" Cloud asked

"Yeah!" Nymph cried

"Are you sure?" Tifa mouthed

"She'll be fine" Cloud mouthed back beckoning Tifa with his eyes and she quickly joined Cloud at the couch, but not before turning the laptop towards them so they could still keep an eye on Honey even though it looked like she was a little while away from foaling.

Tifa sat in Cloud's lap as Nymph reached out her hand and Tifa clasped her hand in hers as Cloud began the story.

"It was a dark cold night and on the wind horses hooves could be heard running on the wind, and as the horse passed our stables it called out to the horses of the yard but none returned it as they couldn't hear him but we could, the horse whinny from the hills above us and then hooves were thundering on the winds again and each night the horse could be heard whinnying before galloping off again."

"So what did you do?" Nymph cut in

"Well we went to stake out this horse as we were sure it wasn't one of our horses so your uncle Zack, Aunt Aerith, your mother and I decided to camp out on the hills to see if a ghost horse did exist but we had been stupid, we decided to go on a night that it was cold, a frost had settled on the ground and a cold wind blew and the rain began to pour and all we had brought with us were a couple of sleeping bags, some soup, a tent, flash lights and a few other things. So that night we waited until we could hear the hooves on the wind and when we did we looked out of the tent into the cold air and on the wind we could see a ghost like horse galloping towards us, it's hooves barely touched the ground and it looked like it was riding the wind, your aunt shirked and dived under the sleeping bag, uncle Zack began to suck his thumb" Cloud had to stop then as Nymph began laughing at the thought of her uncle sucking his thumb when he was scared. "And as for your mother she grabbed my arm so hard I thought it would drop off, the horse did look ghost like when it first appeared but when it came closer it looked real and wild, the horse again reared and whinny before disappearing again but it looked as if the horse was running just into the fog, so the following night your mother and I returned to the site where we had seen it the night before, I believed it was a wild horse you see not a ghost horse so I had convinced your mother to come along with me as I tried to capture the so called ghost horse.

That night as we waited for the horse in the cold I stood with a head collar and a small amount of apple chaff in my hand ready to temp the horse and as it appeared through the mist we could feel our breaths catch in the night air. The horse wasn't overly scared as it did indeed approach us"

"And then what happened" Nymph cried eagerly

"Well it had caught the scent of the apple chaff and by the looks of it, the horse was rather underweight so it came easily and even grazed out of my hand after it stared us down for several seconds before it trusted us enough to try eating out of my hand and as it did I very carefully wrapped the lead rope around the horse's neck and fixed the head collar into position, gingerly we lead the horse towards the stables and when we got inside it was clear why the horse looked so ghostly it was a stark white bu..." Cloud was cut off when Nymph interrupted

"But Daddy you said there is no such thing as a white horse their grey"

"That's right Nymph I did say that silly daddy right? Mummy?" Cloud teased slightly playfully slapping his head with his hand.

"Yes Daddy is silly" Tifa agreed mockingly

"Okay enough with teasing daddy let's get on with the story okay" Cloud paused then just to make sure neither of his two favourite girls where going to say anything else on the matter and they remained silent so Cloud continued the story.

"So the horse was a stark white colour but it did have a slight dapple effect and it's legs were caked in mud but it was clear as crystal how underweight the horse was, it's ribs were almost sticking out so there was no way that horse was going back in the wild, do you know which horse that is Nymph?" Cloud asked

"Um is it Smokey?" Nymph grinned positive she knew.

"It is indeed now go to sleep we'll wake you when it's time alright" Cloud whispered, Nymph settled down and immediately she was pulled into the land of nod.

"Sleeping like an angel" Tifa sighed resting her head on Cloud's lap as he ran his fingers mindlessly through her hair as his eyes kept watch on the screen for any signs of Honey foaling but he glanced at Nymph with Tifa's words and she was indeed sleeping like an angel, her little arms wrapped tightly around her cuddly horse that rested on her chest as the sound of her soft breathing filled the room.

An hour later and Honey was showing.

"Nymph honey it's time wake up" Tifa softly said trying to wake her with a gentle shake, Nymph woke almost immediately and as she sat up she rubbed her eyes of sleep.

"Mummy?" she questioned still sleepily

"It's time sweetheart Honey's about to foal" Tifa smiled and Nymph removed the sheets and slowly got up. Cloud shook his head he knew Nymph was still too young to really be up and witnessing it but she had begged her parents to see one after Marlene had witnessed Pretty's foaling last year and had told the two and half year old everything she wanted to see one too. So Cloud scooped his half asleep daughter into his arms and carried her down to the stables with Tifa following close behind.

Nymph watched in awe as the foal emerged and hit the soft bedding of the stall, the foal still looked a bit gruesome but Nymph was fixed she couldn't take her eyes of it, the foal was beginning to be cleaned by Honey when Nymph suddenly called out what it's name should be.

"Ghost, Mummy, Daddy can we can cal it Ghost?" she begged, her parents gave her an odd look and then glanced at the foal and suddenly they could see why she picked the name, the horse was born almost black but on its hind quarters there was a large light grey almost white patch that had a resemblance to a ghost.

"Alright Ghost it is but you madam off to bed now okay you can probably meet Ghost in the morning alright and just think how jealous the children at Nursery will be to hear that you saw Ghost being born" Cloud smiled

"Okay Daddy" she yawned

Cloud and Tifa tucked their daughter back into the couch made bed and then as Cloud went to check with Yuffie that everything was alright, Tifa prepared their sleeping arrangements for that night and when Cloud returned Tifa pulled him towards her and encased his lips in his.

"You know I wish you didn't make me look so cowardly in front of our daughter while you told that story" Tifa scolded struggling to keep her smirk of her face

"And what are you going to do about it" Cloud shrugged acting all big and uncaring but also struggling to hide his grin.

"Well I'm going to have to think of a suitable punishment for you then" Tifa teased

"Oh I quiver with fear" Cloud practically laughed but managed to hold back

"Oh you will" Tifa retorted also having to hold back her laughter. Cloud tried to make up for it then and there with pulling Tifa into his arms and kissing her softly but Tifa shifted in his arms so her back was turned on him and she rested her head on his chest and allowed sleep to pull her in as did Cloud when he could see Tifa's breathing slowing to a gentle rhythm.

This is just a one shot for the Hooves Thunder the Heart/Skies that I'm working on, this one is all about Cloud and Tifa's daughter wanting a bed time story as she has to go to sleep whilst her parents are on foaling duty. it's set around a year - year and half before the events of Hooves Thunder the Skies. Also I totally realised I hadn't actaually well not that I can recall wrote the bet sence that happened back in Chapter 11, I don't think I wrote a winner as such (can't mind its almost 1am so I can be forgiven for not knowing) so I may just write a chapter about the bet

Adding this chapter to both stories so everyone may get a chance to read it but if you already have just skip I don't mind