Happy Nightmare Night · 2:59pm Oct 31st, 2022
Let's have some classics. Chime in with your own old favorites:
Introducing our band ready to hand out candy this evening: Luna and the Lunas!
Last year and this year I've gotten more pony posters for my collection. Earlier this month I finally got them properly arranged, framed and hung up for display. I finally hung up the big con-signed season 1 poster, and all the Equestria Girls prints by EqG series director Katrina Hadley herself.
There are too many signatures for me to try to identify all of them, but notable ones I know about include Lauren Faust, Tara Strong, Tabitha St.Germain, Cathy Weseluck, Nicole Oliver, Michelle Creber, Claire Corlett, Madeleine Peters (all three Crusaders), Peter New, Big Jim, Jesse Nowack. And also a trifecta of the comics creators: Katie Cook, Heather Breckel, and Andy Price, who doodled Chrysalis up there while he was at it.
I only noticed that after I got it framed. I own an original Andy Price doodle, and that's pretty amazing to me.
Also there's Hadley's official shipping art. Sciset is canon, and that's amazing.
The last couple of years on Halloween I've posted choice bits of old horror from this book, The Penguin Book of the Undead, collecting historical texts about ghosts and ghouls from ancient and medieval times. The first two times were grisly and horrifying, but not all the texts are like that and this year I wanted to do something a little different.
The medieval section is horrifying in different ways, as it revolves around the monastic politics of Catholic Europe. Monasteries were centers of culture, wealth, and power, and all of that comes with a lot of politics. Many of these ghost stories are a sort of medieval op-ed, where the greatness of a monastery is shown by the fact that ghosts come there to plead with the holy men to please intercede on their behalf with the Almighty.
A recurring trope of these stories is that there is a prophecy which verifies the truth of the tale: the ghost always foretells the death of the one being supplicated, and when that person then dies exactly as predicted, that's how you know the story is true 
I wanted to share one of those stories I liked, although the one I had in mind is unusual in that the ghost isn't saved by the prayers of monks but by more direct intervention. So for your erudition this Halloween I present the tale of the Virgin Mary, Redeemer of Lesbians:
On the feast of the Assumption of Mary, the blessed mother of god, the Roman people according to their custom devote themselves to prayers and litanies throughout the night and with lanterns lit visit churches in many parts of the city. In the basilica on the Capitoline Hill dedicated to the honor of the same blessed Virgin, a certain woman caught sight of her godmother, who had died almost a year before.
As her godmother walked past, the woman spoke to her in haste, "Are you not my godmother Marozia, who recently died?"
The old woman responded, "Yes, I am."
"So how are you doing now?" the young woman asked.
Her godmother said, "Until today a heavy punishment oppressed me because I had disgraced myself in my youth by succumbing to the enticement of wanton lust with girls my own age. And I am sad to say that for some reason I forgot about this and even though I went to the priest for confession, I did not receive his judgment on this sin. But today the queen of the world answered our prayers and freed me with many others from those places of punishment, and such a great multitude of souls has on this day been rescued from torment by her intervention that their number exceeds the entire population of the city of Rome. For this reason, we are visiting the holy places dedicated to our glorious lady all over the city to show our thanks most joyfully for the great benefits of her mercy."
Since the godmother could not tell if the young woman believed her story she added, "So that you believe without a doubt that my story is true, know that a year from today, on this very same feast day, you will most certainly die. But if you live any longer, which is not possible, you will prove that I was clearly a liar." And once she spoke these words, the godmother vanished before the young woman's eyes.
Soon thereafter the young woman donned sackcloth and mindful of what she had heard concerning her impending death, she began to live her life more prudently. After nearly a year had passed, on the vigil of the Assumption she became sick and on the day of the feast itself she died, just as her godmother had told her.
And in the distant future we can all marvel at the day when by the grace of the Virgin Mary all the holy places of Rome were filled with ghost lesbians who outnumbered the city's living inhabitants. That is how I choose to read it and no-one can persuade me otherwise.
One last photo. In addition to the pony posters I also got the gorgeous and seasonally appropriate poster for the Welcome to Night Vale live show from their recent world tour: The Haunting of Night Vale. It has now joined the posters from the previous two times they performed in Oslo above my desk.
Happy Nightmare Night, everyone.
Also, internet funnyman Brian David Gilbert recently released a cover of Stayin' Alive as sung by a vampire, and as with most things by BDG it just has no right to be so good.
I feel like he must have thought, "Haha, wouldn't it be funny to dress up as a disco vampire" only to look in the mirror and realize "wait, this look fucking rules actually".
I put together a Nightmare Night soundtrack that I played on a loop for the entire month of October. Fortunately for my coworkers, I only work three days a week and the music only played in one small building in what is a patchwork of work areas sprawled over at least 10 acres.
The soundtrack:
Sproket -- Happy Flowers.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5A-OgUqLpM
Download: (name your price) https://sdoggingsworth.bandcamp.com/track/happy-flowers
Silva Hound -- Rainbow Factory.
Original source: http://www.youtube.com/v/g90oigRJ-0c
BMA re-upload: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL-iRyJbBoc
Download: http://silvahound.bandcamp.com/track/rainbow-factory-silva-hound-remix
Free download: https://www.mediafire.com/file/7lbjrtmopcxoj9c/WoodenToaster_-_Rainbow_Factory_%2528Silva_Hound_Remix%2529.mp3/file
SayonaraMaxwell -- Cupcakes Remix.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlV_Zsy9rzs
Download: (Yandex Disk) https://yadi.sk/d/cd_NVzd1exZMT
(Bandcamp) http://sayonaramaxwell.com/album/cupcakes-remix
(Soundcloud) https://soundcloud.com/sayonara-maxwell/cupcakes-remix
Daniel Ingram -- Under Our Spell.
This would be from the Rainbow Rocks soundtrack, available from where ever you can get it.
Hay Tea -- Musicbox.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cIiRphl6MA
Download mp3 (9 MB): http://www.mediafire.com/file/sj62djdfj5z87me/Hay_Tea_-_Musicbox.mp3/file
Download wav (41 MB): https://www.mediafire.com/file/pd1x8dcsuucw05m/Hay_Tea_-_Musicbox.wav/file
Lianella Stilson -- Fireworks.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bytMYLKszX4
Download (name your price): https://linstilson.bandcamp.com/album/fireworks
Windigo -- Filly in the Box.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ez1B5LCN1Y
Download (€1): https://fillyinthebox.bandcamp.com/track/windigo
Album, 18 tracks ( $1): https://horsemusiccentral.bandcamp.com/releases
Wav (free): https://mega.nz/#!NtRjlZiQ!LWcG6577Sy0YO8P6peG47KcUgRrP94R70pDv1u9h7ZA
General Mumble -- Winter Forever.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdum1Qp0IaQ
Download: (free) http://www.mediafire.com/file/ghrjxfi4whja991/General+Mumble+-+Winter+Forever.mp3
(on Bandcamp for £1) http://mumbleetc.com/track/winter-forever or just Name Your Price and buy the 5 track album here: http://mumbleetc.com/album/mourning-in-ponyville
Silver Note -- Imbalance.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w04EIwuAYLo
Bandcamp ($1): https://silvernote.bandcamp.com/track/imbalance
Nicolas Dominique -- Closer to Nuke.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPaApMl2Er4
Bandcamp (name-your-price): https://nicolasdominique.bandcamp.com/album/legends (or buy as a CD for $10)
Outside the Day -- Tirek.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFjcAA0DedM
Download (Soundcloud requires that you create an account. How annoying.): https://soundcloud.com/outsidetheday/tirek
Replacer -- The Last One Left.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luCYqeG_KwU
Bandcamp (name your price): https://poniesatdawn.bandcamp.com/album/starlit-flames
Unfortunately, the 7th track, Windigo's Filly in the Box, failed to transcribe into a music CD playable format and did not make it in to my Nightmare Night mix.
Happy Nightmare Night! Sacrifice some candy to Nightmare Moon tonight and perhaps she will wax indulgent and grant you daylight on the morrow.
Lovely Luna display, there!
My favorite medieval ghost story, and one which feels very much resonant in tone with MLP:FIM, is from Froissart's chronicles.
I can't locate the text offhand, but in summary:
A cleric, who had been turned out of his benefice for corruption by the local knight and lord, raised a spirit and sent it to torment the the man. When awakened by the groans and clamoring of the ghost, the knight didn't seem much afraid, but demanded to know who had sent the spirit. The spirit kept trying to scare the knight but without success, so finally he gave it up and just talked to the man, explaining about the evil priest.
The knight immediately told the ghost that he was a fool to serve such a dull and base fellow, and that it would be much more fun to come and work for him. The spirit thought it over and decided it was an excellent idea, and so the knight acquired a ghostly friend who enjoyed the merriment and music that was common in the knight's great hall, and who brought him news from all over the world and helped him to play pranks on less-than-honest people in the vicinity.
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That's awesome, thanks.
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That sounded vaguely familiar and I wondered if I'd read something like that in the book too, but if so I can't immediately find it again. But yeah, there's a lot of weird stuff.
Happy belated Nightmare Night!