//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Getting Ready for the Night // Story: Vermilion Midnight // by Horizon Spark //------------------------------// The air around Sunset Shimmer chilled her to the core. There was no snow, but the icy winds did well in making her teeth chatter as she walked down the streets of her neighborhood. Doing her best to ignore the cold and focus on her destination, her eyes wandered around, seeing the many shades of warm colored decorations that covered each and every house. Fitting for Halloween. From brightly lit jack-o-lanterns of many shapes and sizes, to the many mechanical monsters, and the “frightening” decorations that wouldn't even scare a five year-old, she could only laugh at how enthusiastic people are compared to the ponies in Equestria when it comes to their holidays. When she wasn’t wondering how convenient it was that both worlds happen to have the same holiday with a different name, she was fascinated by how people can get so excited for any of these holidays. She then finally reached Twilight’s rather large home, a place she’s been to numerous times, yet the decorations and change in scenery somehow unnerved her a bit. She still ignored the hanging skeletons, the giant spiders on cobwebs, and the creepy screams that blared out of a hidden speaker, and walked up the creaky steps towards the front door. She then immediately stopped, feeling a sudden presence watching her. Someone giving her a cold glare of death even harsher than the winds that kept blowing. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the would-be assailant as a masked figure branding a bloody knife at her, suddenly raising its hand and jumping at her, getting her immediate attention. Sunset then realized that the figure was nothing more than a harmless animatronic. “Nice try Mr. Stabby, but you’ll need to try harder if you want to scare someone like me,” she smugly stated as she started knocking on the door. After several seconds of no sound from the opposite side, she attempted to open the door, only to step back and yelp when the door suddenly pushed forward with a large THUMP! “Wh-what the...!” There was a loud growl as the door forcefully opened to reveal a black and purple figure ferociously leap at her and let out a vicious roar. After catching her breath and taking the moment to make sure she didn’t have a heart attack, she calmed down and recognized who opened the door. “...Oh, hey Spike!” “Rawr! I mean, hey Sunset. Happy Halloween!” Sunset knelt down and patted the cute dog on his head. “Happy Halloween to you too Spike, nice costume by the way.” Spike woofed and did a turn to show off his completely black costume that featured two small spheres on each side of his head, decorated with angry dog faces, obviously drawn on lined paper with marker. “Ya like it? Twilight made it for me and said it’d make me super scary. She said I was...Ser...bor…as?” Sunset giggled, “It’s called Cerberus, and it looks amazing on you. Speaking of Twilight...she’s upstairs right? I need to see if she’s ready to leave for Juniper’s Halloween Party.” “Halloween Party? Ain’t it a bit too early for that?” Sunset shrugged, “Don’t really know, but Juniper Montage invited us all to come to her uncle’s film studio again. She said that one of the film sets they used for a mystery movie is getting taken down, but she convinced them to keep it up for the weekend so she could host a murder mystery show.” “That sounds so cool!” He stated wagging his tail. He then immediately stopped wagging as he realized something, “Wait...you said murder mystery show? As in someone gets murdered?!” “Relax Spike, nobody really dies at these kinds of shows. It’s all just a fun fake play where we’re only pretending to solve a crime case. So no worries, alright?” “Ooh...I get it. They must be like those horror movies Twilight’s too afraid to watch. I remember how Shining Armor keeps telling her how fake all those monsters and blood are. Still a bit scary though.” “Yeah it is…” Sunset then looked at her watch to see that it was almost time, “the girls should be here pretty soon. Let’s go see how Twilight’s doing.” Nodding, Spike showed her the way upstairs where Twilight was supposed to be. Down the hall they went, and the two could faintly hear the sound of Twilight spouting, “Oh no,” over and over, followed by the sound of cardboard bouncing around the floor. Spike gave a weary look at his human friend who was confused by the noise. “Uh...yeah, she’s been like that for a while.” Curious, Sunset immediately opened the door which did proved to be a bit difficult as something soft blocked her from opening it wide open. With a little more force she tackled it with her shoulder, allowing her to see all clothes and cardboard boxes jumbled all across the floor, the room in total shambles. “Hey Twilight, everything all right in…” “I’M NOT DECENT!!!” “...here?” Sunset looked to see Twilight in her bra and panties frantically looking around, holding different pieces of cloth she immediately used to cover her body. She was visibly shaking and sweating profusely, eyes twitching at the sight of the intruder. “Hasn’t anyone taught you to knock before entering?! You can’t just open a door when someone’s still undressed, it’s unethical!” Sunset, calming down from the outburst, gave Twilight a small laugh, “You...know I’ve seen you naked before at Pinkie’s slumber party, right? Although, I think this is the first time I’ve seen that little mole on your…” “DON’T!” she immediately yelled, throwing one of her clothes at Sunset’s face to shut her up. “Just say what you want and let me put on a shirt!” Sunset rolled her eyes as she sat on the nearby bed, right after moving some clothes around. “Well then, I just came here to see if you were ready for the party since the girls are on their way here, but looking at you now, I can clearly see that you aren't ready. What exactly happened here?” After finally putting on a covering t-shirt and taking a moment to compose herself, she sat right next to her friend with a sigh, “Sorry for the mess, I’ve been trying for the last hour to find a replacement costume. My Starswirl the Bearded costume I was going to use has been ruined!” “Ruined?” Sunset asked curiously, “How’d it get ruined?” Twilight groaned loudly, “You can thank Cerberus here for using my hat like a chew toy!” The pet dog, while scratching his ear, gave his owner a wide-eyed apologetic stare, “Heh heh, sorry about that. I can’t resist when it comes to chewing stuff with bells.” Twilight glared at her dog as she pointed her finger at him. “Bad dog! No candy for you!” “Sorry Twilight…” Spike said lowering his head and sulking away to the other room. Sunset gave off a bit of a chuckle. “Gotta give him credit,” she said as she picked up the hat and played with the the hat’s bells, “these are pretty fun to mess with.” “That’s not the point!” Twilight said snatching the hat away. “My favorite costume of my favorite fictional figure is now ruined! I can’t just go out without the hat, it won’t be complete!” “I guess you’re right,” Sunset pondered, “Rarity can definitely fix it no problem, but with all this damage, there’s no way she’ll be able to do it quick enough in for the party.” “I know, and that’s why I’ve been trying to find a something I could use as a replacement. Unfortunately, finding something suitable for Halloween is much harder than I initially thought. I practically have nothing I could use as some sort of costume. Unless you consider my old Crystal Prep uniform a scary enough costume.” “I see...and you don’t have anything else to wear?” Twilight shook her head, “I wasn’t really into wearing anything else besides Starswirl. I have worn other stuff like this warrior princess costume when I was younger, but that’s about it really. I know...it’s kinda lame.” Sunset realized that this situation her friend was in was the perfect opportunity for her idea. She gave a sly smile and said, “You know Twilight, I have something that might alleviate your little issue right here in this bag.” Twilight looked back at her friend confused, “You do?” She nodded, “For a couple months now, I’ve been discussing things with Rarity about costume ideas I want us to do together for Halloween. We’ve had a bit of back and forth when it came to designs and how complicated the outfit would be...but we eventually came to an agreement and I brought yours right here!” She held up her large bag, patting it for emphasis. “That sounds great,” Twilight said with a wide smile, “if Rarity designed it, then it must be outright amazing, compared to something I’ve worn for years. Ooh, let me guess, am I dressing up as an amazingly smart yet mad and neglected scientist and you’re the monstrous creation made for destruction, but really has a soul of gold?” Sunset raised an eyebrow, “Um...no.” “Then I know the perfect one for us, elements! Particularly the ones that are highly reactive to others. If I were to guess, I’d be going as potassium, and you’ll be water and oxygen. That’ll make for an...explosive combination right?” “Nope, and you need to think of better costume ideas.” “Hey!” Sunset rolled her eyes, “Why don’t you just open this and find out?” Out of her bag, she pulled out a large orange and a purple box, labeled with their names to tell the difference. Handing Twilight’s her’s, she immediately opened her own to show a white robe with some orange accents. “Well...go ahead, open yours! Eagerly curious about the contents, Twilight ripped apart the protective tape and opened up the top. She saw a dark purple cloth, soft and silky to the touch, she couldn’t help herself but enjoy the feeling of Rarity’s clothing between her fingers. She started to pull out the purple garb, where underneath it lied similar-colored gloves, stockings, and blue mask with a fiery motif. She was rather confused by the overall design, not knowing what character this was supposed to be. Staring straight at the mask however, she felt a sense of familiarity that felt disturbing. It felt as if a killer just heard her breath a little too loudly, and their cold hands were inches away from her shoulder. Her eyes started to widen, as she suddenly heard a faint voice whisper in her mind, one she thought would never show up again. “Midnight Sparkle's is a part of you! I'll always be there waiting in the darkest shadows of your mind!” Twilight’s pupils dilated as she realized exactly who she was dressing as. She slowly looked at Sunset and whispered, “How could you…?” “So what you think?” the oblivious friend casually asked, “Because I feel she did a pretty awesome job recreating it!” “HOW COULD YOU BE ALRIGHT WITH THIS!?” she suddenly yelled out, definitely getting everyone in the room’s attention. “Are you insane!?” “Y’know,” Sunset groaned out, rubbing her ears, “you don’t have a very good inside voice. Just saying.” Twilight angrily stomped towards her friend, clutching the cloth in hand, “Sunset, don’t you know who this is?” “I…” “This is Midnight Sparkle! The monster that took over my body and tried to destroy the whole world! When I thought she came back when we were in Camp Everfree, I thought I was a goner; she was trying to take over my head and it nearly drove me insane! I can't believe you would suggest that I go out as this! What were you thinking!?” Sunset scratched her head, expecting her to be adamant about this idea, but not this vocal, “Relax Twilight it’s not going to hurt you, it’s just a costume.” Just a costume?” Twilight stared right at said costume, now being displayed on her bed. It was as if she actually kept the clothes even after she transformed back. “This looks exactly like the girl that tried to kill you and the others! You know...ME?!” “Yeah, pretty cool, huh? I mean, I didn’t get a good look when we were fighting, but between me and Rares, we remembered what she looked like and were able to recreate it. It’s pretty spot on, and dare I say, looks awesome on you!” The calm, but still on edge girl shook her head, “I don’t think looking like a magic-obsessed monster who attacked teenagers and gave me nightmares for months is awesome to me.” Sunset smiled and chuckled awkwardly as she placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder, “Okay, I guess it’s not that awesome, but once you get past the whole evil transformation and destroying the world to understand magic, I thought you looked pretty cool. and it’d be a neat look for you.” Twilight did remember loving the look all that dark magic gave her, thinking back to how it was one of the first time she wore a strapless dress that only slightly showed off her cleavage. It did feel liberating, even if the rather sultry movements she was subconsciously doing made her slightly uncomfortable. She gave a faint smile, “I guess it did feel nice to take charge like that.” She then shook her head, “But...I still felt horrible when was attacking everybody. It was only thanks to you guys that I was able to get over my fears and move on...but...to look like that monster again just feels wrong. Even if it’s just for Halloween.” Sunset could never forget how terrifying she was, looking into Midnight’s eyes as she attacked everyone at the Friendship Games. The way she haphazardly opened portals to Equestria, the way she mortally endangered everyone. She shook away all those thoughts and started thinking of the present. “I understand Twi, I know I wouldn’t want to have her show up again in a million years, but look at it this way. You’ve conquered Midnight Sparkle and became a much more confident girl thanks to that. This costume is now a representation of the strength you have, defeating your fears as you wear the very symbol of the one who will never hurt you again!" Twilight stayed silent for the entire time, then gave off a small laugh, “And how long did it take you to come up with a speech like that? Two minutes?” “Eh, give or take a few seconds...” After a moment of silence, the two shared a laugh as the levity of the situation eased off of each other. After another minute however, Sunset gave her friend a more serious look and tone, “Listen Twilight, I understand if you don’t really want to do this. If wearing this costume makes you that uncomfortable, then maybe we could try looking for something else...or maybe we could stop by a store and get you a quick costume, anything else if you’d rather not wear this costume.” Swallowing her nerves, she realized that there wasn’t really much else she could do if they want to make it in time. She gave Sunset a brave smile and nodded. “No, it’s fine. It’s like you said, it’s just a costume.” Sunset grinned as she hugged her friend, “Thanks Twi, we’re gonna have a great time tonight!” Twilight then thought about something else, “By the way, you never said anything about your costume. What are you going as?” Sunset gave a sly smile, “Well Twilight, I gotta go with the theming here, so I have this!” She opened her box to reveal a fiery patterned dress, along with a matching wig, and fake tail. “I’m sure I told you about turning into a raging she-demon before, right?” Twilight arched her eyebrows, her surprised stare making Sunset giggle, “Huh, you really want to go with this evil counterpart thing, huh?” “Well, Rainbow is dressing up as the scariest thing she could think of, and this right here is pretty scary, right?” She then remembered to look at her watch again, realizing that a lot of time has already passed. “Shoot, the girls should be here any minute now! We gotta get dressed fast! Oh, the wings and the rest of the costume are in the bag.” Before Twilight could say anything else, Sunset rushed out of her room and into the bathroom to change. Sighing, Twilight looked at her box, reached in, and grabbed the mask that accompanied it. Gazing into the plastic eyes that were once blazing with magic, she let out another sigh, as she picked up the dress and began taking off her t-shirt. “...Might as well go along with this. Let’s just hope nothing happens that’ll make me regret putting this on.”