Follow the Melody

by Astrocity

The Princess and the Foal

Morning light stirred me from from sleep. I sat up, letting out a yawn and a smack of my lips. Realizing what day it was, I couldn’t help but smile. On most mornings, I'm usually reluctant to get out of the comfort of my bed, but today was special. I had a lot on my plate today, and if this was going to be my first Nightmare Night, I wanted it to be the best.

I flung the covers off me and leapt out of bed. As I was about to leave the room, I stopped in my tracks. I turned towards my bed, revealing a mess of my recent awakening, the covers hanging off the bed and onto the floor.

There’s no need to be a slob while I'm a house guest. They are kind enough to let me stay here after all, I reminded myself. Once the bed was neatly tidied, I headed out to do my morning routine and get some breakfast.

A heavenly smell assaulted my nose as I walked into the kitchen. Lyra was making some eggs and toast. She levitated two plates to the table, each carrying an omelet, as well as two glasses of orange juice. I hopped onto one of the chairs, my mouth watering at the spread in front of me. "Wow, Lyra! This looks great!"

She gave a quick "Thank you" at my compliment and began to dig in. I followed her example and started on my own omelet. As we ate, Lyra and I struck up a conversation. "So Lyle, have anything planned for today?"

Using my hooves to hold utensils this time, I cut my food into smaller pieces before eating it. "Yep, I’ve got a lot planned for today," I said between bites. "I need to go pick up my costume from Rarity later, and then I'm going to read a few books. What about you and Bon Bon?"

"Well, Bon Bon is pretty busy at the moment making tons of candy for Nightmare Night. I'm going to be helping out with decorating Ponyville for the celebration."

"Cool."

I shoveled the rest of my food into my mouth and washed it down with orange juice. I may not have good table manners, but when I'm hungry, I eat like no tomorrow. With my breakfast finished, I hopped onto a stool by the kitchen sink and washed my plate. I found it a lot easier to hold things if I didn't think about it.

When I looked at the clock, it was still rather early. Rarity wouldn't be finished with my costume until hours from now, so I made the best use of my time and went up to my room to learn magic. I took out the first book from my saddlebag and dove into my study. Two minutes in and I was already engrossed in my reading. Levitation, transmogrification, and even growing moustaches – the spells I read about ranged from simple to complex, some of them being ridiculous. I was like a little kid reading a comic book, only replace the comic book with a textbook of sorts on magic.

When I felt I had read enough of the basics, I chose to learn levitation first. I wanted to have something equivalent to the feeling of having hands once again. How hard can this be?

I started with something easy – a pencil. I stared at it, trying to feel something. The books didn't go into much detail about what magic was supposed to feel like. Five minutes of staring intensely at the pencil in front of me produced zero results; the damn thing didn't even budge! I moved my face closer. Come on! Move, dammit! Closing the distance had no effect on it. It sat in front of me, almost mockingly.

I tried all sorts of things to lift the pencil with magic -- meditating, random chanting, and at one point, complimenting it. Hey, it didn't hurt to try. Even after making myself look like an idiot, I still couldn't make levitate the stupid pencil. I let out an angry snort, which was much stranger now that I was an equine. I just want something equivalent to having hands. Is that too much to ask for?

My frustration at my unsuccessful attempts came out as a heavy sigh. I read the books, and they made sense to an extent. It would have helped if I knew what I was supposed to feel when using magic. But no, I was born as a normal human with no unicorn magic. I looked at the pencil once more; it hadn't moved anywhere since I took it out. If I was human again, I could easily pick it up. I imagined myself holding it, as if I had hands again, but a tugging sensation on my horn broke my thoughts.

I reached up at my horn, but nothing was out of the ordinary, or at least what was considered "ordinary" in this world. What the hell was that? I looked at the pencil again. I wonder...

I imagined a hand holding a pencil again. The tugging feeling returned, and the pencil was encased in a shimmering yellow glow. Holy shit! I'm doing it! Now to gently lift it...

The moment I thought about lifting the pencil, it shot up faster than I anticipated, impaling itself into the ceiling. I stared at the ceiling with the pencil lodged in it. I’m going to have to fix that later, but at least I can finally start somewhere with magic.

I got out another pencil and tried to do the same thing again, remembering the feeling in my horn from before. Unlike the first time, I decided to take things slowly. The pencil was wrapped in golden glow and wobbled a bit before leaving the ground. It hovered an inch above the ground shakily. My focus was all on the pencil in front of me, trying to keep it afloat. But when I tried to move it to the side, it flew out the open window, followed by a yelp.

I hastily ran to the window and dared a peek outside. I let out a sigh of relief, glad to see that the mare, who I almost impaled, was unharmed. I couldn’t say much about the banner she was holding though. There was a hole on Nightmare Moon’s face on the banner, and I found the pencil stuck into a tree. I closed the window and innocently whistled as I backed away from it like it never happened.

The next few tries ended just as well as the first, though on the bright side I was improving. At one point, I tried to lift a bunch of pencils, only to nearly kill myself when they all came towards my location with the sharp end pointed towards me. Luckily, they all missed me, creating a nearly perfect outline of my body in the wall. I added plaster and maybe a Wonderbolts poster to the list of things I needed to buy to cover up the damage. I had no idea why I used sharpened pencils.

Once I was satisfied that I wasn’t going to kill someone with my levitation spell, I tried to lift myself up like how I saw Pumpkin Cake fly in the show. Thankfully, I didn’t send myself into the ceiling. I had to give Pumpkin Cake a lot of credit. It was really difficult to lift myself one inch off the ground. I guess that was a good thing. There was less of a chance of hurting myself or anyone. Though, the fact that a baby unicorn was able to pull it off made me feel a little jealous.

After a while, I began to feel weary from practicing magic, so I decided to take a small break and look out the window to see what the town was up to. Ponies all around were decorating the buildings with ornaments that matched the Nightmare Moon theme. Some of the colts and fillies were already showing off their costumes and running around excitedly. It was like Halloween back at home – the costumes, the candy, and the decorations. The only thing missing was the tricks. Seeing how the sun wasn't at its highest peak yet, I started my next magic lesson: illusions.

From the first few pages, I could tell it was going to be a long morning. The illusion spells were far more complex than the levitation spells I had learned earlier, though I think I got the gist of it. It was like... like making a costume. I change how I look on the outside, but I would still be the same human-turned-colt on the inside. However, with my small body, casting an illusion spell to make me look like pony version of Slenderman was difficult. I had to change everything with my appearance. I couldn’t keep my concentration constantly focused on how I looked. It was just taxing on my mind.

Instead, I opted for a simpler solution. I read somewhere in one of the books that enchanting an item was a lot easier than casting the spell every time, since the enchanted item would do most of the work. I couldn’t work on the illusion until I got the costume from Rarity, so I moved on to teleportation, and wow, was it difficult. I had to read up on the theories behind the teleportation spell and object displacement. Most of what I read went against everything I knew about physics, but then again, it was magic.

After checking the book once more, I set it down and got ready for the spell. Okay, I just have to remember that feeling again. I felt the familiar tingling of magic building up and intensifying in my horn before I let it out in a flash of light. There was a pulling sensation and then nothing, and by nothing, I meant I couldn’t feel the floor under me. In fact, once I took notice of where I was, I found myself in the air just outside my window with nothing to hold me up. By the time I noticed, it was too late. Gravity took over, and soon my face became acquainted with the ground.

Hello, ground. Something tells me you and I are going to get to know each other really well in the next few hours.

My next attempts at teleporting resulted in painful landings and a few apologies here and there to some ponies. No surprise there. In the span of a few hours, I managed to teleport myself onto someone’s rose garden, the roof, and much to my embarrassment, someone’s bathroom while a mare was taking a bath. In my defense, ponies were naked most of the time, so I didn’t see why it would be any different. But still, I got called a pervert and chased out of the house as I spewed apologies and dodged various household objects. But after the twentieth or so time and some newly acquired sores, I think I got it down so that I could teleport within a general area.

Checking the time, it was now midafternoon, showing that quite some time had passed while I was learning magic. I figured that now was probably a good time to pick up my costume from Rarity and headed out the door towards her shop. The time of the event was nearing as more ponies got stands and games ready. Foals were already in costume, talking about exciting plans for the night and all the sweet treats that were to come. I hastened my pace. I couldn’t wait for my first Nightmare Night in Equestria.

When I got to the boutique, I saw it was decorated like the rest of Ponyville with the dark color scheme of Nightmare Night. The pony mannequins displayed in the window were also dressed up for the event. I walked into the boutique, ringing the bell on top of the door and signaling my arrival. Rarity came downstairs saying in a singsong voice, "Coming!" She was dressed like a vampire pony with false fangs and a dark cloak. The look really suited her. She smiled when she saw me.

"Oh Lyle, you’ve arrived just in time! I just finished making your costume."

She levitated a bag of clothes towards me which I took with my hooves. Inside, everything was accounted for: the white mask, the black suit, and the red tie. A grin crept its way onto my face. I now had everything I needed for my plan. "Thanks Rarity! I'll be sure to show you how I look in it tonight. I think you did a really great job with the costume."

She just gave a chuckle at my compliments. "Oh Lyle, you really do know how to flatter a mare. You’ll make quite the gentlecolt someday."

With everything I needed acquired, I could now put my plan into motion. "Sorry to cut out meeting short Rarity, but I got a lot to do before Nightmare Night. Bye!"

I ran out the door with the bag in my mouth, eager to get started on enchanting my costume. However, in all my excitement, I accidentally collided with a familiar light yellow pegasus. She was a little dazed after I crashed into her, but her face immediately changed into fear when she saw me and gave a quiet "Eep!" She hid behind her long pink mane, trying to make herself as small as possible.

These ponies are just way too cute, I thought. I realized I made her drop all the animal feed she was carrying when I bumped into her. "Oh! I'm so sorry, Fluttershy. I wasn't really watching where I was going," I apologized.

Fluttershy was still trying to avoid eye contact while shuffling her hooves as she gave an inaudible squeak. I had to make it up to her, and what better way to get her to come out of her shell than by helping her? "Are these your bags? Let me help you with those. It's the least I can do."

The bags of feed were encased in a golden glow. As I focused on the bags, they began to inch their way of the ground. This would be great practice before I got ready for tonight. I was glad I got some practice from before; otherwise, the bags of feed I was carrying might have rocketed to the moon.

Fluttershy looked up from the ground with a surprise look on her face, though she still retained her shy approach. "O-oh, you don't have to do that, Lyle. It's fine. I can carry these by myself," she said, barely above a whisper.

"Sorry, Fluttershy, but I can't take no for an answer. It was my fault for bumping into you, and besides, I can't just let a pretty mare like you carry these heavy bags by yourself."

There was a hint of red on her cheeks, probably because of my comment. Then again, I wasn't a full grown stallion, so her blush wasn't that deep. "T-thank you, Lyle."

"No problem. Just tell me where you want these dropped off."

She led the way to her cottage as I levitated my bag and her bags of animal feed. It was quite a long walk since her cottage was at the edge of the Everfree Forest. Why a shy mare like her was living near such a dangerous place, I would never know. We reached the cottage, and I was starting to feel light headed from using magic the entire time we walked.

Animals of all kinds were everywhere around her cottage. Some of these animals were really random considering the type of environment they usually live in. I saw a seal and an otter in the yard around her house. I can understand the small woodland creatures, but where the did these other animals come from? Seriously, I haven't seen any large body of water, and that stream near Fluttershy's cottage seems pretty shallow.

We reached her door with her bags in tow. "You can set those down anywhere, and thank you for doing this." She wasn't talking in a whisper anymore, but it wasn't that much louder. At least it was a step up in our friendship. It was a baby step, but a step nonetheless.

"No problem, Fluttershy." I dropped the bag by the animals’ food bowls. I checked the clock in her house, reminding me that I still had some work to do. “It was nice bumping into you, but I gotta get going. Happy Nightmare Night!” I saw her wince for a brief moment at the mention of Nightmare Night. Hope she gets over her fear soon. She’s going to miss tonight’s fun.

I hurried back to Lyra's house. Though this time, I didn't carry my bag with magic and instead held it in my mouth. Nightmare Night would begin in a few hours. Lyra and Bon Bon weren't home yet, so I went upstairs to try on my new costume.

After I slipping into my Slendermane costume, I took a look at myself in the bathroom. In the mirror, I saw a small colt. His head was white with no facial features and a horn jutting out from his head. I was glad that Rarity accounted for the horn on my head. It would have probably ripped a hole in the costume. The mask was perfect; it hid my features and was easy to see and breathe through. Although the face in front of me was void of emotions, I knew I was smiling underneath. The black suit was very well made with the sleeves stopping at the fetlocks of my front hooves and the coattails hanging over my rear. The red tie completed the suit as it stood out from the monotonous colors of my costume.

There was just one thing left to do to complete the transformation. I went back into my room, took the mask off, and laid it on my bed. I spent the next hour or two rereading one of the books again on magical illusions and enchantments. Although I would be able to activate the illusion with the mask on, the illusion spell cast on the object would only last depending on the unicorn's magical strength. I tried visualizing a pony version of Slenderman. A gold stream flowed from my horn onto the mask. The glow around the mask shimmered and shook like water.

Taking the manifestation of magic in its raw form and putting it into an object was difficult. The closest thing I could use to explain what magic felt like was trying to carry a gallon of water in my bare hands, if I still had them anyway. It was intangible, according to the book, with no definite shape. As I tried to enchant the mask, magic would spill out, causing me to redo the process all over again. It was a tedious process. So after multiple tries weaving an enchantment and illusion spell on the white mask, I was left exhausted and drained of magic, but I think the spell was set. With the amount of work I put into learning magic, it had better been worth it. The mask looked the same as it was before, except it had a spell attached to it. Being a novice at using magic, I knew that the illusion spell would wear off after an hour or so. With the spell’s short duration, I decided I would hold off on wearing the mask until the event started, since the spell only activated when the object was worn.

I took off my costume and set it aside until the night came. Until then, I took a nap on my bed after a tiring day.

~~~~~~~

I woke up groggily, and judging by how dark the room was, it was about time I got ready for Nightmare Night. I put on the black suit and red tie and pulled the plain white mask over my face. The effect of the illusion spell was immediate. There was a tingling sensation all over me. My legs turned pale white as they elongated. My tail vanished as it faded into nothingness. My small body became larger and slimmer. The illusion spell also affected my clothes as they grew along with my body. The horn that was once on top of my head also vanished, leaving my head bare. In a few seconds, the spell was complete. I was probably as tall as Celestia herself now. Black tentacles, misty in appearance, sprouted from my back. The tentacles moved on their own, lazily waving about. I made it so that I could control a few of the tentacles with my mind, but they couldn't really grab anything, which was why I learned the levitation spell. Glancing back at my flank, I saw a cutie mark of a drawn circle crossed out.

This is gonna be the best Nightmare Night ever, I thought to myself. I levitated my saddlebag onto my back. Although it was a little small, I was able to still carry it without feeling any discomfort. I stuffed some pieces of paper, a roll of tape, and a pencil into the saddlebag.

I could hear Bon Bon downstairs handing out candy to the little colts and fillies. I didn't want to spoil the surprise just yet, so I decided to try my hoof at teleporting again. While teleportation normally enveloped the user in a bright light, my illusion spell made it so that I was swallowed by the darkness of my shadow. I had some fun playing around with the spell. It was pretty sweet if you ask me. I then reappeared behind a tree in some bushes, rematerializing from a dark abyss.

Now I just need to make it to the Nightmare Moon's statue without being seen, and I could put my plan into action. Making multiple teleportations behind trees and bushes, I was able to make it to the edge of the forest without being seen. After a bit of walking, I made it to the statue of Nightmare Moon. No one was around, making it perfect to set my plan into motion. I took out some paper and hastily wrote messages on them.

I stuck a piece of paper on the statue of Nightmare Moon and the other pieces of paper on the trees following the path back to town. I hid behind some trees some distance away from the statue but close enough to see what was going on. And now I wait...

I didn't have to wait long. A group of small colts and fillies had just arrived, led by the rhyming zebra. I also noticed some of the ponies within the group. Twilight, Spike, and Pinkie were there. Twilight was dressed as Star Swirl the Bearded and Spike was, ironically, dressed as a dragon. Pinkie was dressed as a giant chicken. Huh, so either ponies aren’t original in costume ideas or I'm in the episode with Princess Luna. While Zecora was telling the story about Nightmare Moon and the ponies were screaming around, Pipsqueak smacked into the statue where my note was.

He picked up the note that fell on his face. "Did anypony leave this note behind?" Most of the ponies have stopped screaming by now to hear what Pipsqueak had to say. They all shook their heads. "It says ‘Don’t look or he takes you…’ What do you think it means?"

The group of ponies had confused looks on their faces. Twilight had gotten a hold of the note and was scrutinizing it. "I'm not sure who wrote this, but it must just be a prank by somepony to scare us." Just as she said this, one of the fillies screamed out loud.

Everyone turned towards the startled filly. "What's wrong?" asked Twilight.

The filly dressed as a ladybug was pointing towards a thick section of the forest. "I t-thought I s-saw something over there."

The next pony to scream was Scootaloo, who was dressed as a werewolf. "Twilight, I think I saw somepony over there!" She pointed towards another side of the clearing. There was nothing there, of course, since I had teleported.

I was having a little too much fun scaring the daylights out of the ponies. While everyone was focused on the spot I was previously at before teleporting, I teleported behind one of fillies, left behind another note, and teleported into another spot in the forest.

When the filly dressed as an astronaut noticed the note, she hesitantly picked it up and read it out loud. "’Always watches no eyes’? Hey this looks like a picture of a pony's head." The picture revealed a drawing of a pony's head. However, it was lacking eyes and void of any emotions.

This time I ran around the clearing before teleporting to the other side. The movements in the bushes made them stick closer together. "I say we drop our candy for Nightmare Moon and get out of her as soon as possible. What do you say?" Pinkie asked. Everyone agreed, anxious to leave already. So as they hastily made their way out of the forest, I made sure to leave some more notes on the floor in the path in front of them.

Twilight picked up each note as they passed by them. One read "CAN'T RUN" and another read "FOLLOWS" with a picture of tall, faceless pony dressed in black.

Before they could exit the forest, I decided to make my appearance. I teleported in front of the path with all the cool special effects. I towered all the colts, fillies, mares, and the baby dragon. Their faces were shocked with fear, their screams caught in their throats. I made my way to Twilight, who was gaping at me, and using one of my tentacle and my levitation spell, I lifted her head to face mine. "Happy Nightmare Night... Twilight Sparkle." I let out a maniacal laughter and faded into the darkness that came with my teleportation. I was a little out of character, but the reaction I got out of it was totally worth it.

Everypony in the group shrieked and galloped towards town as if they were chased by demons. I, on the other hoof, was laughing behind some trees back in the forest. "Oh god! That was hilarious! Oh, that was just too funny. I should probably check back on them later and clear the whole thing up.” I wasn’t completely heartless. In my fit of laughter, I didn't notice the patch of blue flowers underneath my hooves.

As I looked back at the sky, I saw a dark chariot fly overhead towards Ponyville with lightning flashing in the sky. So, the Princess of the Night arrives. I guess I'm in that episode after all. It was at the statue of Nightmare Moon that I noticed a dark blue alicorn, sitting glumly with a piece of candy in front of her and her back facing toward me. I went up to comfort her. I didn't want to stick with the Slendermane approach since this princess could probably pulverize me to smithereens. Instead, I took slow steps, making sure not to make any sudden movements.

As I closed the distance, one of her ears swiveled in my direction. I froze in my tracks. She turned her head towards me, her eyes widening as soon as they fell on me before narrowing. "WHO ART THOU? AND WHY HAVE THOU COME TO US?" she shouted in her Royal Canterlot Voice. My ears flattened at the deafening volume. Oh noble Dragonborn. Teach me the shouts of your dragon language.

I straightened my tie after being subjected to the force of the shout. I figured now was okay to break out of character. "You look a little sad, Princess. What’s wrong?" I said in a calm and deeper voice, doing my best to mask my young voice. I’d rather have a calm princess than an angry one.

"THOU ART NOT SCARED OF US? THE OTHER PONIES HAVE SHOWN NOTHING BUT FEAR TOWARDS US!" Again with the shouting.

"No, I'm not scared. Why should I? You seem nice. But, I must ask that you talk in a quieter volume.” My ears couldn’t take much more of the Royal Canterlot Voice.

"We apologize, strange one,” she said at a more tolerable volume, “but we have to ask, who art thou?"

"I want to keep my identity secret for tonight, but you may call me Slendermane."

"Slendermane... that is an unusual name, no offense. How does thou have tentacles if thou art an earth pony?" Driven by curiosity, she tried to poke one of the tentacles, only to have her hoof go through it like smoke. “An illusion?”

"It’s just a little something I put together,” I said. “But back to you, Princess, why are you here all alone?"

She looked down and sighed. "The other ponies fear us, keeping us from making peace, though it’s understandable. We really were once a mean and despicable creature. It's really difficult… to make new friends."

A sad princess? Well, looks like I’m going to have to change that. "Difficult? Ha ha. Why look here, making new friends is as easy as taking your first step."

“Put one hoof in front of the other
And soon you'll be walking cross the floor .
Put one hoof in front of the other
And soon you'll be walking out the door.”

I was really getting into the song as I sung. I pranced around the clearing, trying to cheer Princess Luna up. It sure must have looked weird to see Slendermane dancing around and singing. All the while I was dancing, Princess Luna gave me a puzzled expression at my actions as she watched me with a tilted head.

“Put one hoof in front of the other
And soon you'll be walking cross the floor.
Put one hoof in front of the other
And soon you'll be walking out the door.

If you want to change your direction,
If your time of life is in reach,
Well don't be the rule be the exception.
A good way to start is your speech.

Put one hoof in front of the other
And soon you'll be walking cross the floor.
Put one hoof in front of the other
And soon you'll be walking out the door.”

Luna finally got into the song and was singing along with me.

“If we want to change the reflection
We see in the mirror each morn,
Thou mean that it's just our election
To vote for a chance to be reborn.”

At this point, Luna was dancing with me as we sung along to the song.

“You put one hoof in front of the other
And soon you are walking cross the floor.
You put one hoof in front of the other
And soon you are walking out the door!”

Our song came to an end, and we started laughing together as if we had been good friends for a long time. Luna wrapped her hooves around me in a hug, and I was once again blushing under my mask. It was a good thing my mask hid my crimson face from the Princess. When she broke the hug, she was smiling at me. “Thou have been so kind us. We would like to get to know the stallion under the mask better,” she said with a mischievous smile.

I gulped under my mask. Remember Lyle. They’re ponies. Even if this is immortal alicorn. You know in this moonlight, she looks kind of— No! Stop it! As I was fighting with myself, the blue alicorn got closer to me and brought her hooves around my neck where my mask ended. I tried to get away but her magic held me in place. I thought my secret was going to be blown, but a confused look crept onto her face. Her hooves kept fiddling with my mask, but it didn’t come off.

“Why can’t we take off thy mask? Is it stuck onto thy head? Do you not wish for anypony to see thy face?”

Now it was my turn to be confused. I didn’t make it so that my mask couldn’t come off. I reached my hooves around my mask and gave it a little tug, but it didn’t budge from my head, as if there was super glue attaching the mask to my face. I started to freak out a little.

“Why won’t my mask come off?!” I shouted as I pulled at the fabric. I clawed the fabric, trying to tear it off, but it was useless. It was fixed onto my head. Come off, dammit!

“Art thou well?” asked Princess Luna.

I stopped pulling my mask, realizing how useless it was. I had to find help. “Sorry, Princess, but I gotta go. Maybe we’ll meet each other next time you come to visit Ponyville.” I teleported out of the forest like a shadow fading out, startling the alicorn princess. The last look I saw on Princess Luna’s face was of disappointment as I left. I would have stayed and comforted her when she was lonely, but having a mask stuck onto my face for reasons unknown took some priority.

I made my way back to Ponyville, causing many ponies to flee in terror at my appearance. I guess word got out quicker than I thought. Ponies were panicking at the sight of me. Little colts and fillies were screaming. The older ponies were wrecking everything as they tried to get away from me. I know I look scary, but isn’t this a bit of an overreaction?

I noticed Applejack in a scarecrow costume and went up to her, hoping she would help me. However, as I got closer, she backed further away from me, fear stricken on her face. Before I could say anything, a bolt of magic whizzed by my face. Turning around, I saw Twilight staring angrily at me. This is not good. She fired off some more magic shots at me, which I luckily dodged. I guess dodging pencils finally paid off.

Twilight glared daggers at me as she aimed her horn. “Don’t you dare hurt my friends!” she yelled.

I tried to resolve this situation quickly. “Twilight, it’s me, Ly—“ One of the shots hit me, momentarily dazing me. But that was enough time for the cowpony to buck me in the head like a sledgehammer. Before I blacked out, one thought came to my mind. Shit…

~~~~~~~

When I came to, I was tied up in Twilight’s library. Ropes bounded my legs, keeping me from moving. Before I could get up, a voice spoke up in a threatening tone.

“Don’t move.”

I turned towards the source of the voice and found the mares in front of me, who I recognized were Pinkie, Applejack, and Twilight. None of them looked too happy, well except Pinkie. She seemed chipper, as usual, and knowing her, she probably wanted to throw a party for me.

“Who are you? No, what are you?” Twilight asked in a tone not at all friendly.

I can still fix this, I just gotta explain. “It’s me, Lyle.” They didn’t look too convinced.

“Lyle? He’s a lil’ colt, not whatever you are!” replied Applejack.

“I’m not lying! It’s really me, Lyle!” I pleaded, wiggling in my binding.

“Don’t be silly! Of course, you’re not Lyle. Lyle is an itty bitty colt, and you’re a super tall, spooky, faceless pony thing,” said Pinkie, smiling.

“Aw, come on! It was just a prank. I didn’t actually hurt anypony.”

“We still can’t really trust you after what you did,” Twilight said while pointing at me.

These mares were having a hard time believing me. Dammit, I shouldn’t have gone too far with that prank. They’ll probably have me locked up or something for being the terror of Ponyville. I can see the headlines: ‘Slendermane finally caught! Sentenced to life in prison.’ Yeah, that’ll be great...

As I was losing hope in the mares who saw me as a monster, which technically I was since I was dressed as Slendermane, a certain blue alicorn appeared at the door of the library.

“Princess Luna!” all three mares shouted. I could only stare at my one hope of clearing everything up.

When she saw me tied up on the floor, she frowned. “RELEASE HIM!” The Royal Canterlot Voice shook Twilight’s tree, causing all of us , except me, to cover our ears.

The ropes around my legs loosened, and I was finally able to stand up. The three mares backed up away from me, a little nervous at what I would do.

Princess Luna walked up to me before turning to everyone in the room. “He is no threat. He is actually a nice pony with a kind heart. Although he would not say who he really is, he calls himself, Slendermane.” Everyone relaxed a little at hearing their Princess assure them that I wasn’t going to hurt them, but that didn’t stop them from being a little pissed at me.

“Listen to her. It’s really me, Lyle! I used some magic to make myself look like this and to pull off that prank, except now I can’t take off my mask!”

Twilight trotted up to me and began poking and prodding me as she scrutinized my costume. “Lyle, how do you even know how to do this kind of magic? Illusions and teleportation are really advanced and complex spells.”

“I read the books I checked out, Twilight. All it took was a lot of practice and figuring out how it works. But back to more important matters at hoof, I can’t take off the mask I enchanted!”

She put a hoof to her chin. “Hmm, did anything happen since the time you wore your mask?”

Let’s see... I put the mask on and then scared everyone. What else happened? I met Princess Luna then created panic in Ponyville. But what could have caused this? Ugh, I guess this is what I deserve for pranking everyone. It almost feels like a bad... joke. Oh...

My face met my hoof as the realization sunk in. “Hey Twilight... Know where I can get a cure for poison joke?”

From there, she knew what to do. Twilight explained that I could be cured by getting a bath with some herbs from Zecora. Applejack went to Mayor Mare to tell her about the situation. Pinkie began eating all her candy and being… well, Pinkie. The town settled down soon after. Twilight came back with Zecora and a bag of herbs. I soaked in Twilight’s bathtub filled with warm water and herbs with my clothes still on, although I think Rarity wouldn’t mind with the situation I had to go through. Thankfully, I was able to slide the mask off my face, bringing my illusion to an end.

Upon seeing my face, Princess Luna gasped. “Thou art a colt?! We thought thou were a stallion!”

I awkwardly scratched my head. “Heh, funny story… Would you believe that I’m really an adult?” Luna didn’t look like she was going to believe me anytime soon. But before she headed out the door, I had to say one last thing. “Princess Luna, it was really nice meeting you. I really think you can make friends if you just try, and if you’ll let me, can I be your friend?”

She smiled warmly. “Thou art already a dear friend, young Lyle. Our time here was rather enjoyable.”

“You know, the night is still young. Maybe you should try making new friends now?”

“We would be glad to.”

~~~~~~~

The rest of Nightmare Night continued, ponies taking part in the festivities of the night again. They no longer feared Princess Luna as Nightmare Moon after seeing Slendermane for the first time. They even took a liking to her now that she was trying to be friendly. Though, the little colts and fillies still asked Luna to scare them as Nightmare Moon for the enjoyment of being scared. After I apologized for the umpteenth time to the girls, they eventually forgave me and all was right again, sort of. I was a little sore that my costume was ruined, and I didn’t get a single piece of candy, but I guess I deserved that too.

I went back to Lyra’s house with my soaked costume in my saddlebag. When I got inside, I noticed that Lyra dressed as a mummy and talking to Bon Bon about her night while eating candy.

“Hey Lyle, how was your night?” asked Lyra.

“It was… interesting,” I plainly said.

“Oh? Like what?”

I gave a heavy sigh. “I’ll tell you later, maybe. I’m pretty tired.”

“Well, okay. Goodnight, Lyle.”

I went up to my room. I tossed my saddlebag on the ground and crawled into bed. With every that happened today, it was no surprise I would be tired – learning magic, scaring the living daylights out of every pony, being shot at with magic, and being bucked in the head. Wow, what a day. But hey, at least Princess Luna got a happy ending to this night. I turned off the lights and shut my eyes, giving in to the comfort of sleep.

Comments

[Ivellios]

That was awesome. Can't wait to see what's next.

[Shirohige]

Pretty good

[Darkheretic]

I wish we had something like halloween in australia it sounds like oodles of fun.

[Astrocity]

1544076 you should start a Nightmare Night in australia

[Darkheretic]

1544096 your right *gets out of computer chair, strikes a heroic pose complete with wind swept look* I haven't a moment to spare its only 364 more days untill oct. 31 I must prepare the people.*whips out his replica gasgun with grapple hook, then pretends to fire it out the third story window before jumping through it*

[The Scrap]

nice pony with a kind hard....What.
I hope you meant heart otherwise...ew.
On the plus side, if Luna waits about, oh, 20 years or and Lyle is still there, dating can commence.

[Astrocity]

1544423 Ha ha. Whoops. When you write for 6 hours straight, it's kinda hard to notice grammatical/spelling errors.

[FlutterFan93]

Ok, one problem:
How can he be so good at magic if he's been a pony only for a few days

[Rainbow_Dashtruction]

1544076 Australia does celebrate halloween, but its not as popular as it can be quite a lot of hassle.

[Spirit Shift]

1903053
So? "new body new rules" guess where that from

[VcSaJen]

Great chapter

[Pencil Lead]

Was there a Magic The Traveling reference. In the video Twilight accidentally teleported to a persons bath.

[GoodwinGamerJack]

1903053
He's probably smart enough to figure out dome stuff, after learning the feel of magic that is.

[KvAT]

4007286
That's like, a really old cliché that predates the show. Good as a gag though