Picture this, if you will. Night has fallen. Celestia’s sun is set, and Luna’s moon rises up in response. All across Ponyville, the day is ending, the time for work and play to be put aside for rest and slumber. A time to relax, and put the day’s duties aside.
But for some, this is their time. Their chance to come out, and mingle. Not all of Ponyville’s population is so easily removed from the streets by the dark.
Of course, this is the town where Equestria’s greatest heroes live, it’s not like any of these beings are evil monsters scheming to conquer Equestria or anything like that. Barring that one time Discord took over Equestria in a game of Ogres and Oubliettes.
That doesn’t count though.
No, these are simply the townsfolk who have business to conduct at night, places to be, ponies to mingle with, and sales to make. The night has its own life, after all. So when the majority of ponies go to their homes in the evening, some stay around in the softer shades of the night sky, and some come onto the scene to begin their activities.
And here’s how such activities in the night sometimes go down.
One of these ponies, if you can fully call her that, is first to make a move as the shadows spread. During the day, she is known to be kind, gentle, sweet to all she knows, cares for animals, and is a bearer of one of the Elements of Harmony.
But at night, she is different. She…
Actually, she’s pretty much the same. She just grows some fangs, her wings become bat wings, her mane and tail get a bit messy, and her apple cravings get pretty strong. Other than that, she’s still pretty nice to everypony after she got control of her mind.
During the day, all know her as Fluttershy. But at night, she is the Flutterbat.
Everypony still calls her Fluttershy, though.
Fluttershy exits her cottage at approximately 8:02 (P.M., of course.) and begins heading for the town. Her face bears a smile of pleasure, and she drools at the thought of eating delicious apples.
Actually she stopped drooling when she got control of her mind as well. But just go with it.
She stalks through town, looking for her prey, so that she might devour it. The time has come. The time to feast! Only one thing stands in her way, the foolish pony who dared get in the way of her meal, her nighttime snack! You can be certain, Fluttershy will not be deterred from her prey. The bat opens her mouth…
“Good evening, Trixie,” she says.
“Welcome to Trixie’s Nighttime Emporium, Fluttershy. Now with official legal permits signed by Twilight Sparkle! I’m assuming you want apples?” Trixie responds.
Trixie had set up a nighttime shopping stand in town some time ago, all the nighttime ponies love it. Nopony knows how she convinced Twilight to sign all the required permits and forms. She also buys apples off of Applejack in bulk and re-sells them at night, a business plan that somehow works.
“Yes please, I just can’t help but crave them at night, after all. And Angel Bunny wanted one with his salad, so I’m running a bit low,” Fluttershy explains. Amongst the night ponies, Angel Bunny is feared for his horrible behavior.
“Trixie cannot say she is surprised, Fluttershy. But the good news is, I got more apples off of the market today. Where were you this afternoon?” Trixie asks.
“I was busy at the reserve for most of the day. I had to brush Harry, and that can take a while sometimes,” Fluttershy explains in return.
“That makes sense,” Trixie says as she collects a dozen apples and sets them on the stand. “That will be 10 bits,” she says.
Fluttershy sets her bits down, and Trixie tallies them up. “Are you going to be at tonight’s game?” Fluttershy asks.
“Trixie plans on it. Thank you again for coming to Trixie’s Great and Powerful Night Emporium of Power, come again soon!” Trixie says. The shop’s name changed rather often, the regulars are used to it by now.
From there, Fluttershy actually sticks around for a bit to munch on some apples. Despite being a bat, the Flutterbat still isn’t much of a fan of the dark and likes lighter areas if she can find one. It also helps that Trixie provides pretty good conversation when she’s in the right mood. Every so often she might even set off some fireworks to drum up business. Some of the ponies don’t like that though.
Soon enough, some of the other night crawlers come out of the shadows, looking for their targets. They are not one pony, they are many. Strength comes in numbers, after all. And all the ponies of the night fear this group, and the devastation they can bring about when one of their ludicrous schemes goes awry.
Actually they’re pretty nice fillies. Just have a weird habit of doing some crazy stuff. Those who know them well enough have come to accept that, and it can be fun to see what shenanigans they’re up to at any given time.
Anyway, they stalk through the shadows, towards Trixie’s shop. Who knows what sort of schemes they have come up with?
“Howdy, Trixie,” the leader says.
“Ah, there you are. Trixie was beginning to wonder when you would arrive,” Trixie answers. “Did you bring the bits?”
“Yep, we’ve got ‘em right here for ya,” the leader answers. The trio places 30 bits on the counter.
Fluttershy smirks as Trixie reveals an absolutely massive firework, fittingly labeled in capital bold letters, “THE BIG ONE.”
“Here you go, Apple Bloom. I believe this is the firework you wanted?” Trixie asks.
“Yep!” Apple Bloom chirps. Trixie wheels the rocket over to them. She’s actually established a pretty solid bond with them ever since they discovered a shared love for building dangerous and complex things. The Crusaders come very often to discuss or buy fireworks, and she’s happy to oblige. So far they haven’t blown anything up either, since Trixie made them a manual.
Come to think of it, maybe that’s why Twilight gave her the permits.
The Crusaders also stick around, wheeling their overgrown rocket over next to Fluttershy and resting next to her. She is their de-facto babysitter, and they have a strong bond. By now, the 5 ponies (Well, 4 ponies and a bat pony.) are enjoying some solid conversation. But soon, another night crawler enters the scene.
With this one comes a storm. Which would be weird, there was no rain in the forecast for tonight if what Rainbow Dash says is true. Especially not one made out of chocolate milk. But nopony is very surprised. With this one, it’s perfectly chaotic, and that’s how everypony likes him.
“How perfectly unexpected for me to show up tonight!” Discord shouts.
“Actually, we knew you were coming,” Trixie responds with a smirk. “You come every night we have a game going.”
“Well, that doesn’t mean it’s not unexpected,” Discord rebuts. “You didn’t expect me to come in with chocolate rain, did you?”
“Yes,” Trixie answers.
With this Discord flops onto the ground limp with a guttural groan. He then just sits there looking like a kicked puppy.
Don’t worry, this is actually perfectly normal.
Actually nothing should be normal for Discord. Maybe you should worry after all.
Whatever the case, Fluttershy walks over and gives him a fond nuzzle, and he soon perks back up. The Crusaders also tackle him with a warm embrace, and then everyone’s having fun again.
Fluttershy begins gnawing on an apple while she and the Crusaders listen to Discord tell a story.
“And then I said, you can’t tell me to turn gravity back to normal! And then I dropped her!” The Crusaders laugh at this development, requesting Discord continue his tale. “And then she got really mad, and said, ‘Discord, you turn gravity back to normal right now!’ And I said, ‘what’s that? I can’t hear you over all the BANANAS!’” With this, a horde of bananas begin raining from the sky as the Crusaders laugh again.
Trixie catches them all with her magic and puts them up for sale. This is also pretty normal, Trixie has secured several good sales through pilfering from Discord’s random tendencies.
“How do you not hear over bananas?” Trixie asks.
“Oh, well they were singing bananas,” Discord explains like it’s the most obvious thing in Equestria. Trixie just rolls her eyes.
“Isn’t somepony missing?” Scootaloo asks.
“Yes, he is running irregularly late,” Discord says, pulling a watch out of nowhere. Instead of ticking, it begins singing in a very noisy opera pitch.
Truth be told, somepony is running late. While there are other night prowlers, for this particular event one more figure remains. And he is very late.
In his defense, Twilight Sparkle had some reshelving that had to be done. Hopefully the others are understanding. It’ll probably be fine. But still, he dashes through the town of Ponyville as fast as his stubby little legs can carry him. They only have an hour and a half to play, and he is running behind significantly.
However, he soon makes it to Trixie’s shop, where everypony is waiting for him.
“You’re late, Spike,” Trixie says, as she begins packing up her shop. The stand is only open for a short time every night.
“I know, I know. I had to help Twilight with some emergency reshelving,” Spike says.
“Did somepony place a ‘D’ in the ‘B’ section again?” Discord asks.
“Yeah, she panicked and we had to redo the entire shelf. Again,” Spike mumbles.
Everypony murmurs a bit in understanding. Twilight Sparkle’s library panic attacks are the stuff of legend after all, so it’s reasonable if Spike gets delayed some because of one.
Regardless, now everypony has arrived. The time has come for their ultimate plan to come to fruition, the night of reckoning. For battles would be fought, foes would fall, and treasures found. The greatest of all plans in the night!
“Where are we playing O&O tonight?” Trixie asks. “I need to tidy my wagon a bit before we use it again, so I’m out.”
“I’d rather not wake up the critters at my cottage, if that’s alright,” Fluttershy says. Nopony minds, having to play in a 100 meter radius of Angel Bunny is not a very enjoyable experience at all.
“The Smooze took the couch again,” Discord says.
Everypony then looks towards Spike.
“Alright, we’re playing at the castle,” Discord said as he got up.
“Agreed,” Trixie says. “Spike has the best table, and he was the one who was late. Do you have any snacks?”
Spike sighs. “I made chocolate chip muffins,” he admits.
“Well, we’ll just help ourselves to those delicious muffins,” Discord says as everypony prepares to go. “And I think Fluttershy still has enough apples.”
Fluttershy is on her seventh apple by now.
“Can I have Rarity’s throne?” Sweetie Belle asks.
“And I get Rainbow Dash’s!” Scootaloo says.
“And I think I’ll take Pinkie Pie’s,” Apple Bloom says.
Everypony stops and gives her a look of complete and utter shock.
“It was a joke, ya’ll,” Apple Bloom says. After a few seconds to process this new information, the entire party breaks out into laughter, as everypony heads towards the castle. With a massive firework in tow.
“Well, Lord Dreadmaw of the Zarkonian Isles isn’t going to stop himself,” Fluttershy says. “I do enjoy our little game nights together.”
Everypony nodded in agreement. It might be a little strange, but given the ones involved, perhaps that is to be expected. But regardless, they might do their activities in the night, but they do it as friends. And before the Crusaders need to go to bed for the night. Rarity is quite particular about bedtimes.
So if you ever step foot into the town square of Ponyville on just about any night and hear a laugh, there honestly isn’t much need to worry. It’s just a nomad magician, a bat and pony hybrid, a trio of fillies, a dragon, and a nearly all-powerful draconequus heading off to play Ogres and Oubliettes. But if you are Lord Dreadmaw of the Zarkonian Isles, you better beware.
Apple Bloom has all of her stats maxed out and a level 85 Platinum Mace, and the entire crew is coming to get you. Just give up. You’re going to lose horribly.