Proto Dream- The First Few Scenes of To Love The Night

A.K.A- The first time I tried writing fanfiction between Everymare!AJ and ReturnedFromMoon!Luna

And it is much more light hearted and cute than Dream. And yes in a way I will make this canon- mainly because I have set both Dream and Night around the same time period (Dream is Season 2- Night is Season 3ish-4?) and I really like the costumes I came up for the Mane 6 (at least the ones I actually got to before abandoning the project for Dream) And this is where I sometimes get my cute ideas.

So without further ado- here's the first 912 words of a mostly abandoned project that I worked on for a week or two in late November- therefore the Halloween imagery would make sense.

Luna stared at her reflection in the mirror and frowned. How could she have forgotten what day it was? Ever since her first Nightmare Night since she returned from the moon, she loved the holiday. She had been looking forward to the holiday for months by marking down in her calendar the days that passed. She loved her subjects. Luna still remembered the day after Nightmare Night had ended- the fillies and colts had given her all their candy.

Of course she gave them the candy back. (Minus a few bags of candy that Celestia had jokingly termed “Peaceful Taxation.”) The alicorn did not judge her sister for loving candy. Candy was an experience that Luna loved to eat. The rich and decadent candy filled her palate with different flavors of chocolate, fruits, and glazed sweets that made her heart flutter in joy.

But candy did not cover her fear with what stared back in the mirror. There was one thing that she couldn’t control. Every new moon caused the change. Some ponies called it Nightmare Moon. Luna just knew it was just a perk of raising the moon.

The face of Nightmare Moon stared glumly at her fate. Luna knew that the denizens of Ponyville were going to run away in fear since the last time she was there they ran away. Even if the Night alicorn attempted to explain her natural predicament, her ponies would ball up in fear. She was getting tired of the bowing. Luna grumbled to herself. “I have been back for two years and have tried to converse with the masses. Some still see me as Nightmare Moon.”

Luna heard the clock strike seven and was ready for the worst. Luna heard her sister happily bounce around the castle giving orders to her solar retinue about the running of the royal palace after they had left for the night. “Huzzah. . .”

***

Applejack happily got on her costume. She whistled a unknown tune as she straightened her hat on her head. She slowly rubbed her chin as she wondered if she should let her blonde tresses be free and fall gently down her back in a controlled way. Then she decided not to- not because she didn’t want to- it was because her hat and her hair band were family heirlooms. She had worn them ever since-

Well, for a very long time.

Applejack was pulled out of her thoughts by a tug on her costume. She was absolutely terrified by the cutest looking vampire costume her sister had hoof-made.

“Are ya ready yet? I mean all ya been doing up here for a while is just looking in this mirror looking sad.” Applebloom, to her sister, looked confuzzled. “I don’t wanna be the only one of my friends to not get the good candy.”

Applejack laughed and forgot her sadness for a time. “Now hold your haunches Bloom. I was just thinking how fun I’d have with my favorite little sister.”

“But I’m your only sister!” The filly poked her sister lovingly.

“But you know it’s true.” The orange pony gently ruffled her sister’s mane and shooed her out of her room. She quickly glanced at the mirror and frowned. “This month is going to be over soon.”

The sounds of merriment and joy came through her open window and gave the room a small degree of warmth. Or somepony could say that it was just the mad laughter of a mob. Applejack tried to put that day of sadness out of her mind. The last Reaping festival was years ago.

***

Ponyville had been preparing for the dual Canterlot Princess celebration. Twilight Sparkle, the town bookworm, librarian, and most powerful unicorn had been attempting to conquer her task with a healthy dose of magic and Cadance’s breathing exercises. It had been going swimmingly with the help of Ponyville’s party planner. Then the rumors had started to spread. Whispered speech told of late night slumber parties in the Corner and supposed tail entwined walks of the two ponies.

The rumors weren’t all wrong.

The Speech Grounds

Twilight was a ball of manic energy. She quickly teleported throughout the party grounds in her costume. She had painstakingly created her costume with a month long meditation session. She had studied how to dye her coat the right color of alabaster white. Her mane had been enchanted with a shifting mass of colors and she flapped her fake wings carefully. She had asked Rarity to attempt to create regalia for her costume and she wore the crown and four smaller-than normal horseshoes adorned her feet. Only her cutie mark remained the same.

Her costume was going to win the annual costume contest.

“Hi there Celestia Two!” Twilight almost fell over in fear. The purple unicorn stared up at the pony that had almost given her a panic attack. “Want a cupcake?”

“No. And what are you supposed to be?”

“Sharknado.”

Twilight ran through all the scientific inaccuracies of that statement. “But the chances for something as silly as whatever you just said is-” Pinkie clamped Twilight’s mouth shut and grinned her silly grin.

“You just don’t get it.” And Pinkie used the cupcake to punctuate her point by tossing it into Twilight’s face. Twilight wanted to react but Pinkie just couldn’t resist helping clean up the mess she just created.

***

“Fluttershy, I really want to move.” Dash squirmed as the final touches of her Daring Do outfit was put in place

List of Costumes- Luna- not a costume- Nightmare Moon comes out every full moon
AJ- Never actually stated- I believe I went with her scarecrow outfit from Luna Eclipsed- always liked that outfit.
Applebloom- Vampire
Twilight- A well-made Celestia costume
Pinkie Pie- Sharknado- god I loved that terrible movie
Dash- Daring Do
Fluttershy- this was before Bats! so I planned on giving her a Discord cosplay- though if I wanted to rewrite this in terms of costumes I might give her a Flutterbat costume or stick with the Discord/ Dragonequus costume
Rarity never even showed up- might have done a Crystal Pony or butterfly, maybe a white Ursa or something never got around to her and I don't believe she was in Luna Eclipsed so I have no reference for her taste.
Sweetie Bell would have been a pink princess dress
Scootaloo would have been a chicken

LOL JK on that last one maybe a Wonderbolt costume.

Do I randomly throw out ideas for fun? Yeah. But sometimes I work on them for a long, long time. And this was going to be romantic fluff cuteness and was in no way a crossover. That came months later when I wrote Dream and realized I could mix worldbuilding of Lovecraft with an old idea that I never got around to completing the first chapter. I have so many ideas that I keep all of them and use them when necessary,