Night at the Canterlot Castle
The night sky shone brightly over Equestria, clear skies, the copious legions of bright stars out in the galaxy and beyond, Luna has truly put on a magnificent sight to behold on this particular night; Nightmare Night.
It was only a matter of time before all of the little ponies of Ponyville- including your friend, Twilight, will start trotting around to collect delicious candy. Only a matter of time. You thought to yourself.
Every year, Twilight would offer to take you somewhere spooky, but she wouldn't impose. At least, not too much. Why, just a few years ago, she even tricked you into meeting at the so-called haunted house! She didn't make you go in, but she did make you follow her through the front gate to find some ectoplasm, only to find the remains of mice and other dead animal carcasses. Disgusting.
Currently in your room, you gaze out into the night and spot a few equine-o-lanterns, emitting a faint glow on Ponyville's graveled roads. Some were simple carvings of ponies with no specific identity, while others held a more chilling, ominous look. A few pumpkins didn't own a special carving, they had a generic face with the same glow as all the others. Those were usually propped on a rod to help the foals find their way around the dark nerve wrecking night.
Twilight should be coming soon, you think to yourself, evading view of the pumpkins. She's usually never late, but really early. You look up at the clock, eight fifty-nine. "Well then, I guess she will be late in about thirty seconds." You say, removing yourself from your thoughts. Promptly waiting for a knock on the door, anxious to find Twilight be late; in a joking manner of course. It isn't a set time, but ever since the first year you met, she seemed to always arrive at your house at eight-o-clock. Guess you could call it a- you were interrupted from your thoughts as you hear knocking on your door.
As if by instinct, you swiftly move your head in direction of the clock. Still eight fifty-nine, and only five seconds to spare. You walk up to greet; whom you know is Twilight, at the door.
You swing the door open; a cool breeze and a few leaves flew in the room. The night breeze gave you a pleasurable feeling, and you smiled at the purple unicorn on your doorstep. "Hello Twilight, you're early!" How can you be early for something that isn't even a set time, or really... Scheduled? The thought left as easily as it arrived.
You moved aside to let the exhausted looking Twilight in your home. She wasn't wearing any particular costume, nor a beard and hat. Neither were you, so it was a bit less awkward; still, you wondered why she was panting.
Before she gave you a chance to answer, she put her hoof up and began to speak. "You don't want to know. Spike just had a bit too much ice cream..."
You stare at her in confusion, but just chuckled to yourself. "Ha, enough said." There was a slight pause, and you could hear the wind whistling outside. The moonlight crept through your circular window, but was integrated with the candle lights in your house. You weren't one for Nightmare Night as you are quite the shy one. You don't dress up, or really celebrate the season, you prefer the comfort of your home.
"So, any wild ideas planned?" You ask shakily, the words fumbled out of your mouth as you weren't much of the conversation starter.
Twilight nodded. "Oh yes, this one is much different compared to the others!"
"No ectoplasm?" You ask sarcastically. Sarcasm played a large part in your relationship, as both of you enjoyed it.
Twilight chuckled, "yes, lot's of ectoplasm this time! We're also going to be gathering some poison joke for the princess."
You stare at her with a blank expression, ambiguous of her intentions. Sarcasm... Right. You laugh it off with her. "So, what is this plan you've got in mind?"
"We're going to Canterlot Castle, and spending the night! Well, you are." Twilight stated bluntly with no change in her expression.
Alone? Canterlot Castle, a place you've always dreamed of visiting, you now finally have a chance. Just, you have to go on Nightmare Night, and spend the night there. However, a question lingered in your mind, "why am I going alone?"
Twilight went through her saddlebag that you didn't even realized she had, and brought out this crazy contraption and levitated it in front of your face for your eyes to behold. "Behold, the Ghost Buster 9000!" It was really future looking. It was made purely out of some metal, probably steel and titanium, with multicolored buttons in the shapes of squares. The contraption that Twilight previewed was rectangular shaped for the most part; it had a small antennae with a dark green shaded light bulb on its tip, and a few coiling towards the bottom where it connected back to the box. There were a few other lights on here too, but it was next to an on and off switch, so you assumed it was to let you know if it was on, or off.
You stared at this thing for a little while longer, and you noticed Twilight searching through her saddlebags again. This time, she brought out a pair of what looked like green sunglasses made for one eye. What do you know, this thing also has a switch!
Twilight puts the one-lens glasses on you, and promptly flips the Ghost Buster 9000 switch to 'on.' You take the decency to flip the glasses switch on.
The Ghost Buster machine made a burring noise, and you weren't sure what to expect, or see. You were just going with the flow.
The advanced machinery began to vibrate slightly, and the light bulb began making an ominous, but soft glow. Your eyeglass started taking shapes of objects, nothing in particular, but you could see things in a higher detail. You moved back towards your window to look outside, just to test your view distance with Twilight's new accessory. Without any surprise, you could see far, clear, and green. You could see through the night; even if only through one eye!
A smile broke across your face. Soft spoken, you didn't say anything, but a smile says a lot.
"Have you figured what the Ghost Buster 9000 does?" Twilight asked with a large smile that could have raised the sun, and give a smile to anyone who wasn't smiling. That smile, was known to you as the nerd smile. You've grown very fond of it, at least, to Twilight's nerd smile.
You look at the eyeglass, not that you had a choice, and back at the rectangular box. "Uh, see things night vision at long distances with clear view, but only with one eye?"
Twilight's bright smile disappeared, and became annoyed. "No, and yes." She said in a more professional manner, "it does allow you to see through the night at long distances, but it also allows you to see what your other eye can't!"
"Ectoplasm?" You added.
"No, not quite, but you can see something even better; ghosts!" She smiled once again which lifted your heart. You just love that smile. "I think." And it was gone again. "I haven't been able to test it myself, Ponyville just isn't much of the haunted area. That is why I was almost late! That, and Spike eating too much ice cream- anyway, I've been doing some research on Canterlot's history, and there has been some pretty creepy stuff going on in that city; the heart of it all, the castle!"
Oh I see where this is going. You rolled your eyes, but kept the smile. I guess I'll do it. I don't really want to ruin her experiment because I was a chicken. Besides, ghosts are fake! Right?