//------------------------------// // Chapter 52 - Nightmare Night (Part 3) // Story: A Pony Displaced: Homeward // by NoLongerSober //------------------------------// “Starshine,” Barrier grumbled as he looked the golden coated mare in the eye. “It’s been a  while.” “Barrier.” The smile that was on Starshine’s face quickly turned into a glare at the charcoal unicorn.  While the glare would normally make a lesser pony cower, it was deflated by the fact that the golden mare was wearing a bright white t-shirt with the letters ‘C.H.S.’ emblazoned on her chest, a blue pleated skirt that matched the shirt’s collar, and a pair of puffy pink pom-poms on her forehooves. “I’m rather surprised to see you here,” Starshine said as she drew closer. “Though I can’t say I’m surprised by your apparent taste in movies.” The faintest hint of a smile appeared on her face for an instant before vanishing. “Barrier, who’s this mare?” Twilight interjected, rather surprised by the clear antagonism between the two unicorns.  “Twilight, this is Starshine. For some reason, your brother decided she was an ideal second-in-command and named her his successor should anything happen.” Barrier’s eyes focused on the golden mare, who tried to look as intimidating as possible in her cheerleader outfit. “Starshine, this is my niece, Twilight Sparkle. I brought my household here to learn about the traditions of Nightmare Night. What brings you down to Ponyville?” Starshine gave a snort as she strolled past Barrier. “For your information, I’m performing security duties on behalf of the guard for tonight’s festivities,” she said in a somewhat smug tone. “We have been painstakingly examining every corner of the town for potential safety risks.” “If you’re performing guard duties, then why are you out of uniform?” Spike piped up from Twilight’s side. “I figured guards almost always wear their uniforms while on duty.” “Normally, yes,” Starshine politely answered the diminutive drake. “However, due to Princess Celestia’s desire to avoid potential unrest while we perform tonight’s duties, we are wearing costumes so as to not alert the general public.” “Who’s we? Do you have a mouse up your skirt?” Barrier smirked at the glare Starshine gave him. “Bonecrusher’s over by the games,” Starshine looked off to her right, where Barrier spotted a large pony in a yellow and purple robot costume loading a rubber spider into a catapult. “Indar’s checking the stage for potential threats,” she glanced to her left. Following her harlequin eyes, he spotted a unicorn stallion in a green, white and gold costume, similar to the privates’ Pony Ranger costumes, standing close to the stage and looking about. “And Tail’s been testing food for quality and potential poisons.” The golden mare looked past Barrier. Looking over his shoulder, he saw a freckled lavender pegasus mare in a tight blue bodysuit with black fishnet leggings, matching shoes on her hindlegs, a pair of cuffs above her dark hooves and a collar with a blue bow. Sitting atop her black mane was a hairband with a pair of satin rabbit ears. The pegasus was happily chewing on a candy apple. “At any rate, I think we’ll leave you to your business,” Barrier said as he and Fleet started to walk towards the stage. “Have a pleasant Nightmare Night.” As Barrier the others drew closer to the stage, they began to hear the chattering of the crowd that was gathered in front of the stage as a bespectacled mare came up to the podium.  She was wearing a frilly blue shirt and an orange bow with yellow polka dots. Her face was covered with red makeup that made her lips stand out from her pale amber coat while matching the round rubber nose and the overly large shoes on her forehooves. Above her eyes were a pair of white painted triangles, but what stood out the most to the charcoal stallion was a head and tail wig that looked like the end result of Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash getting into a messy teleportation accident.  “Thank you, everypony, and welcome to the Nightmare Night festival!” The crowd roared with cheers and applause for the clownish mare.  “Who’s the clown?” Barrier whispered to Twilight over the cheers.  “That’s Mayor Mare,” the lavender mare replied as the crowd’s cries started to die down.  “A politician dressed as a clown,” Barrier smirked, holding back a chuckle. “How fitting.” “Now, all the little ponies who have been out collecting sweets should follow our friend Zecora to hear the legend of... Nightmare Moon!” the Mayor wickedly said before laughing maniacally. A puff of sparkling green smoke erupted from the stage and a zebra mare emerged from it. She looked much different than when Barrier’d last seen her. In place of her brown cloak, she was now garbed in black dress with a bat-shaped clip with a golden band around her waist that matched her earrings and neckbands. Her mane, now uncovered, was long and flowing white and light gray with an assortment of rubber spiders decorating it. “Spooky voice would probably work better if she wasn’t dressed like that.” Spike said from Twilight’s side, drawing a chuckle from the unicorn.  “Follow me, and very soon, you’ll hear the tale of Nightmare Moon,” Zecora said as she stepped down from the stage, a gaggle of foals quickly moving to follow behind her. “It’s nice to see that your town’s relationship with Zecora has greatly improved since the last time I saw her,” Barrier commented as they fell in line. “Yeah,” Twilight lightly blushed as she started to follow the zebra and the children. “That wasn’t one of my proudest moments.” “May I ask what ha—” Fleetfeather was interrupted as Pinkie zipped by, dropping the privates and Wind Whistler in front of them. The six seemed to be somewhat disoriented and each carried pumpkin-shaped pails stuffed to the brim with candy around their necks. “Anypony else thinking Pinkie’s name is an alias for Marey Allen?” Hat Trick wheezed as they unsteadily rose to their hooves.  “Don’t be crazy, Hat Trick,” Swift replied and quickly tossed out a salute to Barrier and Fleet before she fell in line behind them with the others following suit. “All that matters is we got a lot of candy!” Wind Whistler said as she pulled a Mr. Nut-Nut bar from her pail and merrily munched on it as she trotted by her mother’s side. Fleetfeather coughed into her hoof. “As I was saying, what exactly happened with this town and Zecora?” “They thought she was an evil enchantress due to both her living in the Everfree Forest and never having seen a zebra before.” Barrier pulled out his flask and took a quick swig. “Pinkie Pie even made an entire slanderous song about it.” “And then we ended up blaming Zecora for what turned out to be a simple case of poison joke,” Twilight said as she stepped ahead. “Still, we were able to make amends. We get along with Zecora quite well now.” “I remember when I first saw a zebra,” Winter Gem said from the back. “At first I thought she was just a mare with a weird interest in body paint and a stallion~ish muzzle.” “Seriously?” Verdant disbelievingly asked. Even with his helm, Gem could tell his eyebrow was cocked in surprise. “Give me a break. I lived in a desert until I left for Canterlot to join the guard.” Gem gave the pink-clad pony a light push in the chest. “Like you’ve seen one before.” “I did!” the shamrock stallion said in annoyance. “Her name was Kuni. She ran a firewood business and she was really nice.” “As fun as it is to hear your life stories,” Spike spoke up with a roll of his eyes. “Could you guys pipe down? Zecora’s about to tell us the story of Nightmare Moon and I’d like to hear how she tells it.” “Why would you want to hear her tell you when Uncle Barrier was there?” Wind Whistler asked in between bites of her bar. “He’d know all about her.” “Yeah, but I’ll bet he can’t tell it in a cool rhyme like her,” the drake replied as they started to enter the woods.  “Probably not,” Barrier said with a shrug. “I’d probably just get it told as quickly as possible while maintaining the important details.” After a few minutes walk, the gathering soon came before a large stone statue in a clearing of Nightmare Moon, reared on her hindlegs as if ready to strike down any who’d dare oppose her. “Listen close, my little dears, I'll tell you where you got your fears of Nightmare Night, so dark and scary,” Zecora said as the group came to a halt before reaching into her garb, pulling out a hoofful of green, sparkling powder. Blowing on the powder, the dust soon coalesced into the shape of the dark alicorn, sporting a grin of sharp fangs. “Of Nightmare Moon, who makes you wary.” The gathered foals in the group gasped at the sight of the illusion while Hat Trick let out an impressed whistle. The dust soon engulfed the clearing, cutting off everyone’s sight. A terrified scream reached Barrier’s ears before he spotted the sight of a tiny foal in pirate regalia bolting away from Nightmare Moon’s wicked visage.  “Every year, we put on a disguise, to save ourselves from her searching eyes.” While she couldn’t be seen, Zecora’s voice still came loud and clear through the sparkling green miasma.  The running colt ran into the statue’s base. He gave a nervous swallow when he looked up and saw the visage from the smoke upon the statue’s face. Slowly, he started to back away, not seeing he was drawing closer to Pinkie Pie’s hind legs. “But Nightmare Moon wants just one thing,” Zecora said as creepily as she could as the smoke started to dissipate. “To gobble up ponies in one quick swing!” Just as the zebra mare finished speaking, the colt dressed as a pirate bumped into Pinkie, making both of them scream in abject terror. “Hungrily, she soars the sky. If she sees nopony, she passes by.” Zecora tossed another hoofful of the emerald powder into the air, creating another image of Nightmare Moon who seemed to scan the area as if in search of something. As it drew near some foals, they nervously started to back away. “So if she comes and all is clear, Equestria is safe another year!” The spectral image of the alicorn of the night took to the skies, soon disappearing in a puff of the smoke it was made from. “Uh, Miss Zecora,” a familiar little colt asked as he gave the zebra’s robes a tug. “If we wear costumes to hide from Nightmare Moon, so she won't gobble us up, how come we still need to give her some of our candy?” “A perfectly good question, my little friend.” Zecora said to the diminutive pirate. “For Nightmare Moon you must not offend.” She then reached into her robe once more and blew on another hoofful of the dust.  The dust once more took on the nightmare’s appearance and stood before the foals. It stalked closer to the group; Wind Whistler tried to nobly stand against the figment, though her attempt was slightly derailed by her notable shaking.  “Fill up her belly with a treat or two,” Zecora spoke up as the ghostly image started to charge for the group, “so she won't return to come eat you!” The emerald nightmare leapt towards the foals, it’s jaws opened wide as it flew forward. The foals and Pinkie all screamed as the nightmare came flying at them. The specter soon crashed into its target prey before vanishing into an explosion of green dust. “Everypony!” Pinkie screamed at the top of her lungs as she dumped some of her treats at the base of the statue. “Just dump some candy and get out of here!” As some of the foals started to drop off some pieces of candy beside Pinkie’s tribute, the wind began to howl and thunder boomed.  Looking towards the sky, the gathering saw the clouds begin to move and the moon shining brightly. In a flash of moonlight, a dark chariot being pulled by fearsome looking thestrals in dark armor streaked through the sky. A hooded figure stood proudly in the transport, giving a smirk that frightened the poultry pony as the chariot zoomed overhead. Pinkie gasped at the sight of the fearsome figure. “It’s Nightmare Moon! Run!” Her exclamation made the foals scream and run off towards Ponyville, Zecora following shortly behind. “Twilight,” Barrier started as the violet unicorn and his housemates kept their sights locked on the chariot. “Think we should see what this is about?” “Yes,” Twilight said firmly before charging towards the town. “Whatever’s going on, we definitely need to see what it is!”