“Pony Costumes” or “How Angel Became a Brony”
By Skye Silverwing
Twilight Sparkle was confused.
When she had awakened, she had found herself in an unfamiliar place, a place far from anything she knew. The road in which she lay was made of cold hard black stone, and the houses on either side seemed unusually rigid and they seemed to be decorated for Nightmare Night.
However, instead of Ponies dressed up as spooky creatures, Twilight found herself surrounded by real monsters, and a few strange creatures with only a little fur were screaming and running in terror on their hind legs.
She tried to stand up so that she could get her bearings and suddenly realized that there was something terribly wrong with her body. Her front hooves were split into five small appendages that she realized she could move independently, and her hind hooves were oddly bent flat, apparently to assist with standing upright like the strange creatures. Fortunately, she still seemed to have her tail and her horn, so she could use them to help her figure out how to balance and walk on those ponderous legs.
Unfortunately, by the time she began attempting to get to her feet, two of the beasts nearby suddenly noticed her and began shambling in her direction like something out of the Everfree Forest’s worst day. She summoned up her magic and used it to hurl one of the creatures into the nearby bushes. Unfortunately, the other one was almost on top of her.
She started to bring her magic to bear once more when a blue and rainbow blur shot into her field of vision.
“Look out, Twilight!” the flier shouted as it delivered a high speed flying kick into the chest of the shambling horror that was accosting her friend, sending the creature hurtling backward into the bushes alongside its counterpart.
“Rainbow Dash?” Twilight confirmed looking at the oddly pixyish little blue winged girl. “Is that you? You look…Different.”
Rainbow Dash glared at Twilight by hovering a short distance off the ground in order to look directly in her eyes. For some reason, the Pegasus Pony’s new form was nearly a full head shorter than Twilight’s own.
The Unicorn made a diplomatic decision, and chose not to mention the height difference in favor of a more pressing issue. “Rainbow Dash, have you seen the others?” she asked.
The hovering Pegasus nodded. “Yeah.” She said, “Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy are just a just on the other side of that row of houses. Applejack and pinkie Pie figured out how to move quickly enough, but Fluttershy and I are having trouble with our legs. They are big and cumbersome.”
Twilight nodded in agreement, using her magic to help herself to her own feet. “I don’t really have the hang of it yet myself.” She said, “In any case, we’re stronger when we’re together. Lead the way.”
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
Angel dashed along the streets of Sunnydale, heading for Buffy’s home, hoping to catch up with the slayer before something bad happened. Well… Something worse, anyway.
He had been watching the Halloween festivities from one of his favorite deep shadows and getting in a nice long round of brooding when he noticed a change in the energy of the night. He had watched as a child, wearing a demonic mask, suddenly transformed into a horrific demon whose form matched that of the mask the child wore.
He had to find Buffy, make sure she wasn’t in any danger, and warn her that these were not actually demons. Then together they could find a way to undo all this chaos.
“UNHAND ME, YOU BRUTE!”
He would find Buffy after he saved the… white unicorn girl from the… Dog monster?
Angel sighed. Halloween was supposed to be calm.
He flung himself at the Dog monster, tackling it and knocking it off balance, causing it to lose its grip on the violet haired girl.
No sooner did the girl find herself free of the beast’s grasp, than she dropped to all fours and delivered a rather impressive handstand double heel-kick like the buck of a horse to the creature’s jaw. “Take THAT, you brute!” she said. The creature’s head spun and it collapsed into a heap.
Angel bent down to pick up check the creature’s vitals. This was a kid after all. Fortunately, was still breathing steadily. He found a strange tag affixed to the creature’s back, and pulled it off. “Ethan’s Costume Shop”. It might be a clue. “Looks like it’s just unconscious.” He said, “Best to leave it be and get you somewhere safe.”
The girl stood, unsteadily, as though she was unused to walking on her feet, so Angel stepped over to help steady her. She looked up at him, her purple eyes thankful. “Oh, thank-you for saving me.” She said, “I am so confused and I don’t know what is going on. I was trying to find my friends. I’m not even sure if they are here, too.”
Angel looked into those eyes and a memory from the previous night popped into his head. He knew this girl. “Cordelia?” he asked.
This drew a confused look from the white furred pony-girl. “No, my name is Rarity.” She said, “And you are?”
Angel looked over the rich-girl-turned-white-Unicorn-girl, currently only clad in a single layer of fine, unbroken fur. “Angel.” He introduced himself, suddenly aware that she must not have any memories at all of being Cordelia Chase.
Rarity looked at the strange man and smiled. “Pleased to meet you.” She said, “I need to find my friends. If anyone can understand this situation, it is my friend Twilight.”
Angel nodded. “We will look for them on the way.” He said, “I’m going to get you someplace safe.”
The Unicorn-girl nodded, and leaned on Angel for support while they made their way off through the town.
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
Applejack had never been so happy to see Twilight in her life. Sure, being an Earth Pony meant that she had a solid grounding however her body was oriented, and this body seemed to be predisposed toward fighting, but there were just so many of these things. It was like fighting oversized parasprites with varied weapons and abilities. She bucked one, did an unusual spinning kick on another, and grabbed a third with the odd appendages where her fore-hooves should be and flung it into a fourth. Less than a moment later they were replaced by ten more.
Pinkie Pie was doing her best, using her improbable luck and natural dexterity to hold off four creatures from the porch where Fluttershy had fainted. Rainbow Dash had been in mid air, fighting some horrible winged monkey-beasts, until she suddenly dropped out of view behind some buildings.
It was nearly a full minute later when the Rainbow-Maned Pegasus had returned, crowing about help on the way. Sure enough, Twilight had come running between the buildings at a ponderous gate of someone not used to those hind legs, but able to compensate for it.
With the aid of Twilight’s magic, and Rainbow’s air support, the wielders of the Elements of Harmony began to push the horde of little beasts back, until Twilight erected a barrier to hold them at bay.
Applejack turned to regard her purple-furred friend. “What in tarnation is going on here, Twilight?” She asked, “How’d we end up here, and where is here, anyway?”
Twilight shrugged her shoulders. “I really don’t know.” She said, “I woke up and had no idea what was going on. I am as lost as you are.”
Twilight hurried over to Fluttershy, checking the tan Pegasus pony-turned-girl’s vitals. The faltering touch awoke the sleeping girl, who abruptly shifted back against the banister around the porch. As her eyes focused on her friend, looking strangely not like her friend, and she uttered a startled “eep” and tried to press herself back even further.
Twilight put on a soft, reassuring smile. “Fluttershy, it’s me, Twilight.” She said, in as reassuring a tone as she could manage, “We are all your friends. There is no reason to be frightened of us.”
Fluttershy stared at Twilight for a long moment and then suddenly threw her arms around her, beginning to sob. “Oh, Twilight!” she cried, “I was so scared! When I woke up all of those horrible little monsters were attacking some sort of Troll-thing!”
Rainbow Dash settled on the banister itself, looking down at the two of them. “Yeah, what is the deal with all those things walking on their rear hooves?” she asked, “The ones that are running from the monsters?”
Twilight pondered the question, and was about to answer when she was interrupted by a familiar voice.
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
Angel led Rarity through the streets of Sunnydale, avoiding most of the mini-demons which were too busy ransacking the buildings they could get into, and terrorizing the general population.
They rounded a corner into one of the areas in town that had clearly had the most Trick-or-Treaters and Angel stopped at the sight before him. Ahead, a fair number of the mini-demons were milling around a magical energy field that covered much of the street and all of one yard.
Inside the energy field stood none other than Buffy Summers, clad only in fine, unbroken orange fur and a cute cowboy hat. Upon her well-shaped rear was an image of three apples, and she had a long, flowing blond tail, tied by a ribbon.
Angel was about to call out to her when Rarity beat him to the punch. “Applejack!” She called, drawing the ponified slayer’s attention, as well as that of most of the mini-demons.
Buffy – apparently now called Applejack – turned and saw them, and her eyes widened. “Rarity!” she called, “Look out!”
Angel blinked, and realized that while he had been distracted by his girlfriend’s… Flank… he had allowed himself and Rarity to become surrounded. The demons began to advance on them, and Rarity seemed to pull in closer to him for protection. Acting on his instincts, the vampire began to fight his way through the crowd of mini-demons, leading Rarity closer and closer to the magical barrier.
Another Unicorn-girl, this one purple in both coat and mane and a Pink “normal” pony-girl hurried over to find out what was going on. Angel did not think he recognized either of them. Behind them were a blue-and-rainbow Pegasus-girl and a tan-and-pink Pegasus-girl that Angel recognized as Buffy’s eleven-year-old sister, Dawn, and Willow, Buffy’s best friend.
Applejack looked at the Purple Pony. “Twilight, open the barrier!” she said, “Pinkie, Rainbow and I can hold the buggers off ‘til Rarity and her friend get through!”
The purple one, apparently “Twilight”, nodded, and her horn glowed, opening a small portal in the barrier, and Applejack charged out, followed closely by the blue pegasus-girl and the pink pony-girl, Apparently “Rainbow” and “Pinkie” respectively.
The three of them engaged the creatures outside the barrier, driving them back from the opening while Angel and Rarity made to break through the milling masses of mini-demons from the outside.
Angel fought to protect Rarity, but was encumbered by the fact that the Unicorn girl was still relying on him to keep her on her feet. Because of this, when he managed to break through to where Buffy/Applejack and the others were holding the line, he was sporting a few bleeding injuries, though the Unicorn at his side made it through with her pristine white fur unstained.
As soon as Angel and Rarity were through, Applejack, Pinkie, and Rainbow withdrew behind the barrier as well, and Twilight closed it once more. Angel helped Rarity to have a seat on the front step of the house, and then sat down in the grass.
Twilight approached, him, looking over his injuries, though not really sure what she could do about them. “Hello there.” She said, “I am Twilight Sparkle. These are my friends, Applejack, Pinky Pie, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, and you have already met Rarity. We are confused and we are hoping you can tell us what is going on.”
Angel nodded. “I am Angel.” He said, “I am not sure exactly what is going on myself, but I will tell you what I know.”
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
Spike, the blond-haired vampire, smiled to himself. The Chaos of all these little demons around here was a beautiful sight. It was like watching the Boxer Revolution all over again. Maybe, if he was lucky, he could find and kill a slayer this time, too.
He strolled through the streets, watching the little buggers as they terrorized all of the innocents around. Of course, some of the attacks were just too novel not to laugh at. Like when a group of Wizard of Oz characters were suddenly attacked by flying monkeys, or when a single Barack Obama was being chased by an entire swarm of Dick Cheneys with hunting rifles. It was bloody hilarious.
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
The six pony-girls sat in a semicircle around Angel, trying to digest what he had just told them.
Twilight was the first to speak. “So the people were turned into their costumes?” she said, “Including us?”
Angel nodded.
Applejack looked the vampire over. “And I’m some sorta demon fightin’ Super gal?” she asked, “and your marefriend?”
Angel nodded again.
Rainbow Dash looked at Applejack. “So, I am Applejack’s – Buffy’s – Little sister?” she asked Angel.
The vampire simply nodded once more.
Twilight looked a bit concerned. “But why wouldn’t you recognize me or Pinkie Pie?” she asked, “I mean, what if we don’t belong in this group? I… I don’t want to lose my friends again.”
Fluttershy put a gentle hand on the violet Unicorn’s shoulder and kissed her gently on the cheek. “Don’t worry, Twilight, we all still love you, even if you weren’t part of the same group as our current bodies.” She said, then blushed deeply, hiding behind her hair as Twilight stared at her in surprise.
Suddenly, Twilight smiled at the tan Pegasus-girl and brushed the hair out of her face and looking deeply into her eyes. “Thank you, Fluttershy.” She said, and kissed the other girl directly on the lips.
The rest of the pony-girls stared wide-eyed at the pair and Angel cleared his throat, causing the two to separate, both with slightly silly smiles on their faces.
Pinkie Pie giggled. “Remind me to throw you two a party when we get back home.” She said.
Rainbow Dash suddenly grinned roguishly, and with a flap of her wings, launched herself at the pink pony-girl, who happily caught the rainbow haired Pegasus and kissed her back.
Rarity and Applejack looked at each other and shared a smirk, and then both of them stepped calmly up and kissed Angel on either cheek. The distressed look on the vampire’s face caused all six ponies to collapse in a giggling heap.
Twilight finally managed to recover herself and smiled at Angel. “So, we need to figure out what to do next.” She said, “Angel, where can we find somewhere to research what is happening?”
Angel snapped out of his stunned state and looked at the purple pony-girl for a moment. “The Library.” He said, “Buffy’s watcher, Rupert Giles, serves as librarian, and he keeps the bulk of his research material there.”
The ponies, now full of confidence, nodded and prepared to head out.
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
Spike did not know what this creature was, but for a freak that looked like a mish-mash of a six different varieties of creatures, it certainly knew how to throw a party. The chocolate rain and cotton candy clouds were a nice touch, if he did say so himself.
With a wave of his hand, the thing calling itself Discord turned an entire building upside down, spilling humans out of it into tasty, chocolate covered heaps. Spike liked this just fine.
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
Rupert Giles was getting a little worried as he sipped his tea. In the distance, even through the walls of the school, he could hear the sound of the sirens as the Sunnydale Police cruisers drove randomly around the city as they always did when a major disaster was happening. Even if he did not hear the cruisers, the cries of the people were beginning to reach him.
Fortunately, Buffy was out there, no doubt fighting to protect the innocent bystanders from whatever the danger was. Unfortunately, that meant Giles had to remain here, where the Slayer would be able to find him, should she need him. Such was the burden of being a Watcher.
As such, when Giles heard the sound of someone entering the school building, he rushed out of his office into the library, ready to provide assistance in any way necessary. Only to see Angel enter, followed by a series of nearly nude teenage girls dressed as Pony-girls in various hues. It took but an instant to spot his slayer among them. “Buffy, what is the meaning of this?” he demanded, “Why are you dressed in such a scandalous outfit?”
Buffy seemed confused at her name for a moment before Angel stepped in. “Giles, we have a situation.” He said, “Something has turned many of the costume wearing individuals into their costumes. Near as I can tell, Buffy, Dawn, Cordelia, and Willow dressed as characters from a kids show. I am not sure who the other two are, but they dressed as others form the same show, so they are all a team now.”
Giles nodded, mentally adding this to the list of things he was going to have to forget about as soon as possible. Preferably with application of a large quantity of alcohol.
Turning to the task at hand, Giles retrieved a book from the shelf. “Do you have any idea of why some civilians changed and others did not?” he asked.
Angel stepped forward, holding a small pile of tags he had liberated from several of the beasts he had battled that night. “I think it all comes back to this costume shop, Ethan’s.” he said.
Giles paused momentarily hearing the name. “We should hurry and investigate there.” He said, “But first, we need to get the girls dressed. There is a lost and found box in the corner.”
As the girls proceeded to determine how to negotiate how to put on the clothes without catching on horns or binding wings, Angel was busy trying to determine if he was more happy or disappointed about the girls covering up, not that anything was ever really uncovered, but still…
Once the girls were ready, they all headed out into the night.
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
They were nearly half way to the costume shop when the chocolate rain started. Giles stared at a pool of the sticky brown liquid forming in the palm of his hand. “What the devil?” he asked.
“Close enough.” Twilight said her eyes narrowing as she pointed up a nearby hill.
Atop the hill stood a horrible creature like a Mish-Mash of creature parts.
“Discord.” Applejack spat the name like a curse.
Behind Discord, there appeared an army of mini-demons and vampires, with the vampire Spike at the lead.
Angel glared up the hill. “Spike.” He said, with nearly as much venom.
Twilight looked at Giles. “Can you deal with the Costume shop on your own?” she asked.
The Watcher nodded and turned to hurry off as the battle lines were drawn. On one side, Discord, the embodiment of chaos; William the Bloody, AKA Spike; and an army of vampires and mini-demons. On the other side, Angel the Vampire with a soul and the “Mane Six” who summoned fourth the Elements of Harmony with their will for use in this battle.
Giles ran as hard as he could, his own battle ahead.
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
Discord looked down on the Pony-girls below and sneered. “So Celestia’s little rats were brought here too, huh?” he said, “Spike, you want to take the army down there and show those brats who is boss?”
Spike recognized Angel, as well as Buffy and a few of her friends down there. “With pleasure, Discord.” He said, smirking speculatively. “Come on, Lads; let’s go kill us some Ponies!”
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
The Ponies looked up the hill at Discord as Spike and his Demonic horde began to descend. They saw the demons, numbering in the hundreds, and the vampires at least fifteen strong. They knew there was no way the seven of them could hold out against that horde, especially with Discord backing them up. The other five Ponies looked at Twilight, knowing what to do.
Twilight did not turn her head, but spoke to Angel, who stood between Rarity and Applejack. “Angel, you are going to need to stay close and trust me, okay?”
Angel nodded, and the group of heroes began to charge up the hill.
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
Spike saw the ponies begin to charge up the hill, and he rolled his eyes. “They must be kidding.” He said to himself, urging his forces to move faster. In a matter of moments, the Demon horde was charging down the hill at maddening speeds, determined to run the foolish ponies over.
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
Giles kicked in the door of Ethan’s Costume shop, and charged into the store, knowing that every second between now and him finding a way to break the spell was another second that Buffy and the other ponies would have to hold out, fighting that huge horde of Demons.
He charged into the back room, and saw an old acquaintance of his step out of the shadows. “Hello Ripper.” Said Ethan Rayne.
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
The ponies charged at the horde, the horde charged at the ponies, and Discord sat in the back with a bag of popcorn watching the whole thing. He leaned forward, waiting for the clash between the two sides, wherein all of the ponies would try to avoid hurting the “innocent” Demons, who would not afford the ponies the same consideration. It was going to be glorious!
Suddenly, he noticed that Twilight’s horn was glowing. He got a weird sense like this had happened before. Then, just as the two sides were about to crash into each other, there was a bright flash, and the ponies were just gone. Discord got a horrible sinking feeling as he turned slowly around to see the assembled ponies, and their vampire friend standing behind him. And their Elements were already glowing. Damn.
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
Giles and Ethan battled, Giles securing and maintaining the upper hand.
“How do I break the curse?” Giles demanded, angrily, kicking Ethan back up against the wall. Ethan sank down to the floor and Giles kicked him in the stomach.
Ethan was fairly sure he had never seen Ripper so worked up. He sighed and relented. “Break the statue of Janos.” He said weakly.
Giles kicked him one more time for good measure, and then turned and grabbed the statue of Janus and threw it to the ground.
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
Spike realized that he had been duped the moment that the ponies vanished. He spun on his heels and watched as a rainbow – A Flippin’ Rainbow – sprang up and wrapped around his new friend several hundred yards back up the hill. As Discord was deposited back on the ground, now in the form of a statue, Spike called for his army to turn around and charge back up the hill. No sooner than the words had left his mouth, however, the bulk of his army collapsed, reverting to weak and useless human children in costumes.
Spike cursed, as, while the advantage of numbers was not completely diminished, he was not foolish enough to believe that fifteen vampires stood a chance against the Slayer and Angel, especially not backed by her friends.
He called his lackeys to retreat. “Another day, Slayer.” He said.
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
Giles returned to the library to find his students all in relatively good shape and had regained their memories. Buffy still sported a slight orangish tan, and professed to know how to lasso an apple out of a tree, and she demonstrated, a devastating new “Buck Kick” that destroyed one of the practice dummies in one shot.
Cordelia smiled like a cat that ate the canary as she sat with a softly glowing horn affixed in the center of her forehead. When asked, she admitted that she had gained the ability to detect precious gems and sense style and beauty, as well as predict the next several trends. Her complexion was slightly paler than before, and her hair had a slightly violet caste to it. She and Buffy seemed a lot closer and Angel seemed increasingly nervous around them both.
Dawn and Willow, alarmingly, had both maintained their wings, and while willows skin was normal her hair had shifted several shades lighter, and Dawn had a slight blue caste to her skin and her hair sported stripes of colors in her hair.
“Pinkie Pie” turned out to be none other than Xander. Apparently, the boy had agreed to dress as a pony out of desire to see Buffy and Willow in the skin tight outfits. For his trouble, he had been granted a permanent blush and a slight reddish tint to his hair, fortunately, he had Pinkie Pie’s sense of humor, so he kept giggling about the whole thing. Also, he twitched slightly and a book fell off the shelf a moment later. Giles thought it was something he might want to look into.
This left “Twilight”.
The girl in question was Tara Maclay. She was from a nearby school district and had truly only chosen the costume because she enjoyed the TV show, and was, before this night completely unaware of the supernatural in general. Now she sported a single horn, like Cordelia, and presumably a more purple over all color.
Tara seemed to wilt when she realized that she had truly had no connection to the others at all. Like Twilight, the thought of losing such good friends made her depressed. Willow put an end to that by strolling up to the mousey little horned girl and kissing her full on the lips.
This caused Dawn to look at Xander, who shook his head with a promise of, “Maybe when you are older.”
Buffy and Cordelia both looked for Angel, but at that point the vampire in question had suddenly vanished, presumably fleeing in terror.
All six of the “ponies” still sported tails. They promised to keep them wrapped around their waists in public but much of this was going to be difficult to hide.
As Giles went through his notes of the events of the night, he sighed. This was going to be a complicated year. He just hoped Principal Snyder did not try to complicate it even more.
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
Not far away, at the top of a hill, there stood a statue. That statue was one of one of the vilest beings any student of Sunnydale High would ever be exposed to. If a stone could think, that little troll of a Principal would forever regret picking up that damned mask.
.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.
AN. A little treat for Halloween. Happy Halloween and a Happy Nightmare Night to all the Bronies out there.