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// Chapter 6: The Nightmare Before Nightmare Night 
// Story: Two Worlds; One Family 
// by MrEnter 
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With only three workers, it took a long time to add an extra room to Fluttershy's cottage. They had finished just before the autumn leaves began to fall. It wasn't Harry's first autumn, but it was likely going to be the first that he would remember so Fluttershy made special care to make it a memorable one. While Pinkie, Rainbow, and Applejack were building that room the two of them would take walks through the yellowed forests.

Finally the room was done. Harry had a little place to call his own. There wasn't much to it: a rather small room with a couple of windows and a door, but Harry loved it all the same. It was pretty empty too. The only furniture within was a bed and a box for Harry's toys. At the moment it was all that Fluttershy could afford, but Harry didn't seem to mind.

It came time for Harry's first night sleeping on his own. Fluttershy led him to his bed and helped him climb up. Then she tucked him in, and grabbed a book that was left on top of Harry's toy box: Daring Do and the Cove of Candles. Harry was asleep shortly after a couple of chapters. Fluttershy nuzzled him and went off to bed herself.

She placed the book back on the box and wearily walked up the stairs, crashing onto her bed. She looked at the empty crib before drifting off to sleep. A blood-curdling shriek awoke her sometime later. Fluttershy was up instantly and racing down the stairs. She almost tripped over herself by the time she reached the bottom. A second later she was in Harry's room and by his side.

"Is something wrong sweetie?" Fluttershy asked.

"I had a bad dream Mama," he said. He was sweating and shaking. Fluttershy came in close.

"There, there, it's okay. It was just a dream."

"Can I sleep with you Mama?" Harry said, hugging Fluttershy in fear.

"Tell you what: try to go back to sleep, and if you have another nightmare then you can sleep with me tonight."

"But I'm scared," Harry said, letting go.

"It was only a dream, it can't hurt you. You're getting to be a big boy now, you have to try to be brave sometimes."

Harry reluctantly agreed to try and sleep on his own. He made it the rest of the night without another peep. He had nightmares for the next couple of nights, but they died down. Fluttershy figured that the strangeness of being on his own just got to him. He did get used to sleeping on his own, eventually.

By the time that Harry had learned to face his fears, Fluttershy needed to deal with some fears of her own. Nightmare Night was just around the corner, and all of the townsponies—Pinkie Pie especially—were estatic about the upcoming holiday. Pinkie couldn't keep her mouth shut about it around Harry and kept filling his head with the thoughts of candy and costumes.

Fluttershy didn't want to let Harry down. He didn't just want to go out trick-or-treating, he took it for granted. The last couple of years Harry was too young to go out on a night such as this, so it wasn't something she had to worry about. Fluttershy still didn't think she had to worry about going out on Nightmare Night, after all Pinkie loved to foalsit Harry, and doing it while trick-or-treating would just be a big bonus. Unfortunately Pinkie didn't foalsit on Nightmare Night. True, she did walk with children but her attention was elsewhere. And Rainbow Dash had other priorities that night. So, it was either Harry went with Fluttershy on Nightmare Night or he didn't go at all. It was a tough decision, and one that Fluttershy didn't make until Nightmare Night itself.

"Mama, when we going trick-or-treating?" Harry asked shortly before the sun set. 

"Um... we're... um... not going out tonight," Fluttershy said, looking out the window at the road to town.

"Wha—what!?" Harry sputtered. "Why not?"

Fluttershy looked to Harry. He looked crushed, to put it mildly. Fluttershy dug around for an excuse. It didn't take her long to find one.

"Because... um... you need to have a costume to go out on Nightmare Night, and we forgot to get one. Don't worry, there's always next year."

Harry moped into his room, tugging Fluttershy's heartstrings all the way there. She really, really wanted to make Harry happy, but this is one of the few things she wouldn't do. All of that stuff about ghosts and goblins just made her cringe. And then there was the pranking. She didn't even want to think about it. She could almost hear a—

"Boo!"

Fluttershy turned around to see a ghost. She let out a small scream before jumping up and diving underneath the couch. She cautiously looked around the room to see the ghost inching towards the couch. It got closer and closer until it was standing right in front of Fluttershy. The ghost ducked down under the couch and stared right into Fluttershy's eyes. A second later Harry pulled the bedsheet off of his head, happily going on about he had found a costume.

After Fluttershy realized what was going on, she couldn't help but chuckle. How could she think that that bedsheet-clad toddler was a ghost? She was sure jumpy tonight as she always was on Nightmare Night. Then she realized that her old excuse was worthless. She needed a new one.

"Um... Harry sweetie, you do know that it's really scary on Nightmare Night, right?"

"I know Mama," Harry said, back under his bedsheet. "But you told me to be brave. Should I be brave?"

That shut Fluttershy up.

"Yes," Fluttershy said. "Yes you should. Come on, let's go trick-or-treating."

Harry bolted out the door, only stopping to pick up a bucket on the way out. Fluttershy nervously tip-toed after him. She tucked her head out of the door, and looked both ways. Her teeth were chattering. She stopped and took a deep breath. No, she had to do this. She told Harry to be brave, and how could he be brave if his mother wasn't? Fluttershy stepped out of her house and the door slammed behind her, causing her to jump once again. This was not going to be easy.

"What took you so long Mama?" Harry asked after Fluttershy caught up to him, ten minutes later. Fluttershy looked around for an excuse.

"I needed to get my costume," Fluttershy said with a faux smile. She pulled a clump of grass and dirt from the ground and put it on her head. "I'm a plant."

"You're silly Mama. Come on let's go."

Fluttershy tried her best to keep up with Harry, but she was having trouble doing so and being cowardly. Harry was running like crazy, in a hurry to get to town to start trick-or-treating. They hadn't even gotten to Ponyville proper before the sun set, but there were still ponies in all kinds of costumes. There were scary monsters like zombies, vampires, and even... dragons, but there were also ponies dressed as other things like super heroes and animals. Fluttershy tried to focus on those. She was so busy staring at a filly in a cat costume that she accidently crashed into somepony.

"Oh, sorry I wasn't watching where I was—Fluttershy!?" the fallen pony, clad in a princess costume, asked.

"Rarity?" Fluttershy said, forgetting her fears. "I haven't seen you in ages. Where have you been?"

"It's Nightmare Night. What are you doing out here? And why do you have dirt on your head?"

"Harry wanted to go trick-or-treating tonight and I couldn't say no," Fluttershy said, pulling Harry close. "Say hi to Rarity"

"Hi Rarity," Harry said walking up to her. 

"So you're still doing that," Rarity said, eyeing Harry nervously.

"Doing what?"

"Taking care of that... nevermind. Look Fluttershy, I've got to go."

"Let's catch up. I could use somepony to talk to while Harry goes trick-or-treating," Fluttershy said, looking back to the more monstrous costumes that plagued the streets.

Rarity looked around for a way out of it. She tried to see how scuffed up her costume was from the fall, but the few tattered holes in it weren't enough excuse for her to get another one. It still looked magnificent, especially next to the weed on Fluttershy's head. Rarity looked to Fluttershy who was still staring at all of the costumes around her. Then she looked at Harry, safely concealed under his ghost costume. She stared at it his little eyes in silence for quite a long time. He didn't move and it began to creep her out. She wanted to do something, anything to just stop him from staring at her.

"Al-alright," Rarity said. "We'll talk and catch up."

"Oh good," Fluttershy said, noticeably more relieved.

Before anything else was said, Harry ran up ahead towards a house and Fluttershy followed after. She kept looking back to Rarity, and Rarity knew that she had to try and keep up. Rarity groaned to herself; she knew that she was going to regret this. Fluttershy didn't really say much up until they got to their first house beyond the standard "how are you doing" and "what have you been up to?"

"He's so precious," Fluttershy said with a smile as Harry returned from a house, excited to show off the couple of caramels he had gotten from it.

"Yeah, he's adorable," Rarity said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Is everything going okay? I thought you'd be more excited to catch up," Fluttershy said. "You seem really ancy for some reason."

"Yeah Fluttershy, I'm fine. It's just... it's—is Harry still—"

"I see," Fluttershy said, sadly. "You've been avoiding me, haven't you?"

"Well, when you put it like that it makes me feel... guilty. Fluttershy, to put it bluntly, I think that you have a few screws loose if you think that... Harry... is your son."

"Rarity, I don't think, I know. I was never asking you to think that he was my son. I was never even asking you to like him. I was just asking you to be nice to him. I knew what you thought of him, but I never expected you to overreact this much."

"Overreact?" Rarity spat. "I'm the one overreacting? You're the one who goes gaga over a wild animal the second he calls you mama! You need help Fluttershy, you've got problems! Until you get that help we are done. We are through!"

During Rarity's rant she had managed to create a circle of onlookers, just wondering what in Equestria was going on. The only one in that crowd who knew was going on was Twilight, and she did not look pleased. Neither did Fluttershy. Rarity could see her holding tears back, trying desperately not to cry in front of Harry.

"Fine Rarity," Fluttershy said, with a voice filled with ice. "If you're going to be like that I don't need you either. Come on Harry, let's go to the Nightmare Night festival."

She walked off with Harry in tow. Rarity looked onward with her mouth agape. Even though most viewers in the crowd had no idea what was going on, they didn't seem to have a very high opinion of Rarity at the moment. Twilight herself was sneering at Rarity.

"That was uncalled for," was all that Twilight managed to say.