Discord was super excited about Nightmare's Night as it was a holiday he kept hearing about. A holiday where you get to dress up in a costume, collect candy, and play games all night. So it was that he’d gotten all dressed up for the night in a cute little royal guard costume: It had gold plated armor and he had a blue coat and tail. He’d admired the royal guards since living with them, so he asked Rarity to make a costume of their armor, and she’d happily made him a cute version fitted for his stature.
Discord was so thrilled about his costume that he wanted to show it off to Fluttershy. He ran downstairs to find Fluttershy in her kitchen, making a stew for herself. He wiggled his padded flank like a cat, then pounced onto her back and shouted! "Happy Nightmawe Night!"
Fluttershy laughed as she tossed the baby draconequus onto the kitchen counter and blew raspberries. Then she apologized. "Sorry for being unable to be with you tonight. I..I must admit I'm way too scared to go out tonight."
"Yeah, tat's fine!” Discord replied. “Auntie Wuwu said she was gonna be with me to hewp with getting candy."
"Yes, I know,” Fluttershy nodded. “That sounds wonderful, and I hope you have a great time!"
Discord was then lowered onto the ground as he looked disappointed. "I stiww wish you wouwd come with me."
The pegasus sighed as she brushed Discord's head, "I know…but I'm sure you and Princess Luna will have more fun together on a night like this."
Then they both heard a knock at the door, and someone shouted! "Fluttershy! Discord! It is I, the princess of the night, wishing to enter!"
Discord squealed and bounced up and down in excitement as Fluttershy came over and opened it, revealing Princess Luna wearing a vampire costume with fake bat ears and plastic teeth to look like fangs. "Good evening! It is I, the princess of the night, wishing you a Happy Nightmare's Night! Muwahahaha!"
Fluttershy squeaked in fright and ran off! But Discord burst into laughter as he ran over, and she picked him up.
Luna then blushed and asked. "Uh, Fluttershy, are you ok?"
The yellow-coated pegasus slowly crawled out from behind her couch and with an embarrassed look replied. "Yes, I… I'm fine," She slowly got up, crossed over the room and started apologizing. "S...sorry I won't go out tonight…I am way too scared to leave my cottage."
"I apologize. I forgot about how scared you get," Luna replied, then adjusted the plastic teeth in her mouth. "Ugh, these things hurt."
"Can I make tem weaw fow ya?" Discord excitedly asked.
"That won't be necessary,” Luna shook her head. “Now come, your princess has come to escort you to gather candy!"
"Yeah, I can't wait! Tis gonna be so much fun!" Discord hopped onto the princess’ back, and then he turned around and waved a claw at Fluttershy, who waved back and then quickly closed the door behind them.
Discord then whispered. "Huh. Wonderw why she doesn’t wike Nightmawe Night."
"I cannot say for certain, but from what I've gathered, she's the most shy and fearful of Twilight's friends,” The princess explained. “But that's alright, we shall make sure to bring her many sweets from tonight's festivities!"
"Awwight, I'ww make suwe to get hew wots of candy!" Discord boasted!
And so, with that goal in mind, Princess Luna flew off from Fluttershy's cottage and headed towards Ponyville.
Hours passed by and things seemed to be going well: Foals were gathering candy, led by Pinkie Pie wearing a chicken costume. But Discord noticed that Luna looked somewhat downtrodden as the foals passed by, waving their hooves and giggling. He was somewhat confused as to why she was looking so depressed, and so he asked. "Hey, uh, Auntie Wuwu?"
"Yes?" Princess Luna somewhat hesitantly replied.
"You don't seem vewy happy. Is someting wong?" Discord questioned the princess.
Luna blushed as she admitted. "Well, this might sound silly, but in the past two years, I aome down here to scare the foals…But my act, as some ponies would put it, has grown rather stale."
"Huh, ya want to be scawy?!" Discord blinked in confusion.
"Well, I used to think that was a bad thing, until I learned it could be fun,” Luna confessed. “…But yes, Discord, doing the same thing repeatedly hasn't helped, and moist ponies are now comfortable being around me… I miss being able to legitimately scare the foals, most of all Pipsqueak. He looks forward to me scaring him every year." As she spoke, she turned to see the colt, and smiled and waved as she looked at his costume that was made to resemble a pirate (complete with an eye-patch and a wooden sword).
Discord tapped a hoof to his chin, contemplating how he might help Luna achieve her goal. "I tink I gots an idea!" He said at last. He then snapped a claw, and suddenly magical tendrils wrapped around Princess Luna. The fake ears became infused into the sides of her head, making them look long and fluffy, the plastic teeth grew into real fangs long and pointed, her wings turned batlike, and her eyes became silted like a bat's with her cape growing around her.
This got the foals to scream and run away, which made the princess laugh! "This is perfect and goes great with my costume. Thank you, Discord!"
"No pwobwem." The baby lord of chaos chirped.
The two then went to Sugarcube Corner and, as the door opened, all gwaked at Luna's new costume as she strutted in front of them. "What do you think of my costume?"
"It…it looks so real!" Mrs. Cake said with a gasp.
"I am technically a batpony now, thanks to Discord here.” Luna explained.
The two Cakes then turned their attention to baby Discord in his cute royal guard costume and dawwed. Mrs Cake giggled and asked, "Do you want to be a royal guard when you grow up?"
The little lord of chaos nodded and said. "Yeah, I want to be wike Shiny Armor! He ta best daddy evew!"
Mr. Cake blushed. "Better than me?"
"Uh, not what I meant." Discord whimpered.
Mr. Cake just smiled. "It's ok, he's lucky to have adopted you. Hopefully, you'll still be able to visit us, even though I hear you'll be living in the Crystal Empire."
"I’ww twy!" Discord promised.
Meanwhile, the adorable Cake Twins came bouncing over, bouncing up and down in excitement while wearing two jack-lantern like costumes. This prompted Discord to ask. "Awe tey gonna go candy gathewing too?"
"They're still too young, we think we'll wait for next year," Mrs Cake replied. "Maybe when they're out of diapers."
"Otay, I'ww twy to be potty twained by next yeaw too!" Discord chirped.
"Seeing as you already know how to use your chaos magic, I doubt potty training will be too difficult for you." Mrs. Cake commented as she took out a bowl of candy.
Discord happily grabbed a few clawfuls of candies. But as the chaos maker was distracted, he didn't notice a storm cloud approaching, until suddenly lightning shot out from it! This made Discord cry out in fright, and that sent some magic from his claw which zapped somepony! He turned around to see Rainbow Dash suddenly regressing into a school filly, making him squeak! "Oh no! Sowwy! I got scawed and used age wegwession!"
"No, this is awesome!" Rainbow Dash replied as she started flying about the place, looking thrilled at her new, younger body. She also saw that her Shadowbolt costume had shrunk with her. "Oh my gosh, now I can go candy gathering like when I was a foal!"
Princess Luna was taken aback by the enthusiasm. "Well, I’m glad to see that. But we should try to get you back to normal."
Rainbow immediately protested and pleaded. "Can I stay like this for one night? Please?!"
Discord shrugged. "Tat’s up to Auntie Wuwu."
Luna, looking down at Rainbow Dash's puppy dog eyes, relented with a sigh. "All right, fine, just for tonight. But I expect you to come to Fluttershy's cottage at around midnight so we can turn you back into an adult."
"That's awesome! Thanks!" Rainbow Dash squealed in delight as she hugged Luna and flew off to gather candy.
Discord saw that Rainbow Dash was heading to Sweet Apple Acres, where a lot of other ponies were gathering, and asked. "Hey, Auntie Wuwu, can we go to Sweet Appwe Acwes? Tewe's a bunch of coow stuff going on tewe."
"Sounds like a brilliant idea, Discord. Let's go have some more fun!" Luna laughed, taking Discord onto her back as he waved goodbye to the Cakes as Luna trotted towards the orchard.
At Sweet Apple Acres, the first thing the two went to was a spider tossing game, where ponies attempted to throw plush spiders onto a sticky spiderweb. Discord kept missing.
Luna chuckled as she reminisced. "I remember when I first played this game."
"Wha happened?" The chaos maker asked.
The princess of the night got a little embarrassed as she admitted. "Oh, uh, I may have turned the toy spiders into actual spiders."
Discord rolled his eyes and scoffed. "And ya teww me to be cawefuw with my magic."
"Well,” Luna coughed into a hoof and tried to recover. “As I said before, my first time trying to participate in Nightmare Night wasn't the best experience. I was still learning how to be around ponies. I… had a lot of trouble."
Discord waddled over to her and hugged her leg. "Sowie ta hear tat. Hopefuwwy, tis yeaw is much bettew fow ya."
Luna placed a hoof over her chest and replied. "Yes, this Nightmare Night is much more fun. And it's all thanks to you, little one."
"Oh yeah?” The baby draconequus replied. “I tink ya just gave me an idea tat can make tis game a bit mowe fun!" He then tossed one more spider. But this time, it turned into a giant pink plush spider, as did the others in the bowl. And then, like before, they started chasing other ponies, but they just caught and hugged them.
Luna watched the chaos unfold and burst out laughing. "That was a great use of your chaos magic!"
"Yeah, tanks." Discord replied.
But Applejack walked over at that moment and grumbled. "That was cute and all. But I do need those spiders to continue runnin’ the game, ya know."
"Sowwie." Discord apologized. He quickly turned the spiders back to normal and then went about collecting them.
Meanwhile, Luna turned towards the farm mare, threw her mane back, and asked. "Good evening, Applejack. Do you like my new costume!"
Applejack was stunned at Luna's appearance and exclaimed! "You do look amazin’! And quite scary, too! That's from Discord's magic, right?"
"Yes it is!” Luna eagerly admitted. “He helped me make my vampire batpony costume come to life!" Just then, her nose twitched. She immediately flew over to the apple bobbing setup and hissed at ponies, making them shriek in freight as they ran off! Once they’d left, she plunged her muzzle into the water. She grabbed an apple, and began sucking the juice out of it until it was a shriveled up husk!
As Discord returned from collecting the toy spiders, she saw Luna sucking down all of the apples from the apple bobbing station and whispered. "Uh oh, maybe coming hewe wasn't the best idea."
Luna, meanwhile, continued to plunge her face into the water. She took out another apple and another until every apple was just a shriveled up husk around her. Afterwards, she burped and then looked around, embarrassed at her behavior. "Oh my!.. I apologize. That was most uncalled for. I don’t know what came over me just then."
"Well, if you're all finished, maybe it's best you two move along." Applejack grumbled in annoyance as she went to grab more apples for the basin.
Luna quickly nodded. "I think we should go do the corn maze now."
Discord bounced up and down in excitement and squealed. "Oh, tat sounds wike a gweat idea!"
"Yeah, Granny Smith and Big Mac are runnin' it." Applejack replied as she pointed to the corn maze near the farm house.
"Thank you, Applejack. We’ll go do that." Luna replied as she placed Discord back onto her back and headed towards the corn maze. As they went through the rather tacky maze filled with eyeballs. Luna was quite unafraid, and even Discord looked a bit bored. But as they were walking over some twigs painted white to look like bones, they heard a loud "Ooooh!". Then they both turned to see Big Mac coming out, dressed as a mummy!
Discord squeaked out in freight and accidentally shot out a beam of magic, turning the stallion into a school colt! The baby chaos maker groaned, "Oh no, not again!"
But instead of getting mad, Big Mac got super excited. "Oh heck yeah! I'm a kid again!" He then ran off through the maze, his costume having shrunk down with him.
"Wait!" Discord cried, but Big Mac was long gone.
Luna looked to Discord. "Don't worry, we'll find him! He won’t get far!" She then ran through the maze looking for the little colt, and they eventually found him at the end of the maze, giggling as he waved a hoof and chirped. "Hey, y’all found me!"
"There you are! Quick, Discord, turn him back to normal!" Luna wheezed, a bit winded from all that running.
Discord was about to do just that, but then Big Mac held up a hoof and pleaded, "Wait, uh…c-can I stay like this? I uh… wouldn't mind gathering candy for a bit."
The little lord of chaos gave Luna a sheepish look, and she rolled her eyes, "All right. At midnight, come by Fluttershy's cottage, and we'll turn you back to normal, okay?"
"OK!" The colt squealed in delight as he ran off.
Discord then whispered. "Sowwie. I’ww twy not to do tat again."
"It's alright, little Discord,” The princess reassured her charge. “We should tell Applejack and her grandmother what happened so they don't worry about him. And after that, why don't we give these foals one last scare before you settle in for the night?"
"Sounds wike a gweat idea!" Discord exclaimed as Luna unfurled her leathery bat wings and flew into the night sky.
At the statue of Nightmare Moon, a group of school foals gathered and were looking around, wondering when Luna was going to show up. Suddenly, a mysterious fog started to form around them, making it hard to see anything. Then they all hear somepony laughing maniacally. The foals all looked around, wondering who it was. It sounded like Luna but also not like her. Then they heard the flapping of leathery bat wings as a tall, powerful batpony descended on them and laughed. "Thank you for gathering my candy for me! But that is not what I crave tonight!"
Rainbow Dash flew over and shouted. "Wait, aren't you Nightmare Moon?"
"Oh no, I am Count Appleblood! And I came to suck your blood!” The batpony hissed! She flashed her fangs, and the foals shrieked as they started running. She then flapped above them as she chased them about, targeted Pip, and landed on top of him.
The little colt looked terrified as her muzzle bent near him, then she went to his belly and started blowing in it, making the colt giggle. He then hugged her muzzle and shouted. "That was so cool! Is this a new costume, Princess Luna?"
"Yes, it is. And thank you, little Pip,” Luna confessed. “I feared my old act was getting stale, and so I changed it up a bit."
"Well, you scared me a lot! Please do this next year, too!" Pipsqueak replied. He then waved goodbye as he hopped off, looking much happier.
Discord then popped out from Luna's mane and smirked as he said. "Tat was good! They nevew gonna fowget tis!"
"Yes, I thank you for the much-needed shake-up to my routine, and thank you for adding the fog." Luna smiled at her charge.
"It's no pwobwem," Discord replied as he let out a tired yawn and stretched his tiny limbs. "I getting tiwed now, we should head to Fwuttewshy's."
"Yeah, let's get moving." Luna nodded, then unfurled her wings. She was going to soar back into the sky when she heard Discord say. "Wait! Maybe we shouwd tuwn ya back to nowmaw fiwst. Dun wanna scawe hew."
The princess blushed. "Oh, that's right. Thank you for reminding me, Discord."
Discord flicked a claw as Luna reverted back to her pony form with her fake plastic teeth, fake bat ears, and her pupils widened.
Luna then spat out the fake teeth and sighed. "They seriously need to design better fake vampire teeth. Those things really hurt your gums."
"Yeah, I tink I heawd Wawity awso compwaining bout tem, and how she gonna twy making ones tat fowm bettew in ya mouth." The little chaos maker commented.
"I guess I’ll have to talk to her about making custom ones for next time." Luna added as she then soared into the night.
It didn't take long to arrive at Fluttershy's cottage. Once there, Luna knocked on the door, and she and Discord heard. "Go away, please! I have no candy!"
"Fluttershy, it is I, Princess Luna, returning from my revelries with Discord." Luna called out.
"Oh, right," The pegasus then opened the door and greeted Princess Luna as she levitated the baby lord of chaos over. "So, how was tonight?" Fluttershy asked.
"We had a wonderful time,” The princess confirmed. “Discord behaved so well and helped me shake up my routine, "Luna's cheeks flushed pink, and they added. "However, we came across a slight problem where, everytime some pony tried to scare him, he would accidentally turn them into foals."
Fluttershy gasped! "Oh dear, are they ok?! Maybe I can take care of them!"
"Wait, howd on!” Discord protested as he lifted up a claw. “I onwy tuwned Big Mac and Wainbow Dash into schoow foaws. Tey not babies."
The pegasus mare blinked, then sighed. "Oh, that's a relief."
"Yes, thankfully, there were only two of them, and I told both of them to come here by midnight so we can turn them back into adults," Luna explained. Just then, the clock struck midnight, and they heard knocking at the door. "Ah, that's them now, I believe." Luna picked up her charge and trotted to the door. As she opened it, the Princess looked around, only to find that nopony was in sight.
Then there came a loud crack of thunder, heard "boo!", and Discord squeaked as he sent out another wave of chaos magic, as then a cloud above disappeared.
Two baby foals fell out and landed on Luna's back. She levitated the two over towards her face and groaned. She saw a pudgy baby pegasus with a rainbow mane, and a red coated earth pony foal with a brown mane. "Discord!"
"Sowwie! It just happens!" The chaos maker squeaked and whimpered as he and Luna brought the foals inside.
As they entered the cottage, Fluttershy flew down and, upon seeing the babies, dawwed,."Oh, they look so adorable!" She flew over and grabbed them, and within a few moments, they were wearing thick diapers around their waists as she cooed, "Oh, this is the best Nightmare Night ever!"
Luna sighed, "They are cute, but we should have them turned back to adults."
Discord, looking even more tired than before, let out a yawn. "I too twied to do mowe magic. I can do it fwist ting in the mowning."
Fluttershy flew up with the babies and clutched them near her chest. "That's perfect! I'll make sure they have a full foal breakfast and have them play with Discord for a bit too! And I'm totally taking pictures!" She then gave Luna puppy dog eyes, as did Discord.
Luna reluctantly relented once again, "Fine, but they better be turned back into adults first thing tomorrow morning. And Fluttershy, you are in charge until they change back."
"Oh, of course! Thank you!" Fluttershy then flew to her couch and plopped bottles of milk into the foals mouths as she held the two.
Luna just sighed, "I'll inform the Apples of what happened and reassure them Big Mac is alright. In the meantime," She looked down at Discord. "Behave yourself. No more turning ponies into babies."
"Otay, sowwie, didn't mean to." Discord sincerely apologized, looking quite guilty.
"Well, I think I’ll tell Twilight about this issue,” The princess declared. “Maybe she'll be able to include some lessons to keep you from doing this again," But she then bent down and nuzzled him, and whispered. "But thank you for the help with my costume. Tonight was wonderful."
"It's no pwobwem, Auntie Luwu." The draconequus replied as he hugged her, and then she kissed him on the nose.
Luna then flew off, heading towards Sweet Apple Acres.
As for Discord, he waddled over to Fluttershy, who took the three babies and snuggled them together on the couch. Discord giggled as he hugged her close to her chest, as she wrapped her wings around them tightly. The little lord of chaos then closed his eyes. He slowly drifted off to sleep, hoping he could do this every year. And hopefully, next year, he'd be potty trained and wouldn’t regress ponies whenever he got scared.