//------------------------------//
// Nightmare Night, Aka Halloween 
// Story: Fighting Never Ends 
// by Tx Avenger 218 
//------------------------------//

“Twilight, Twilight! Look at our haul! Ah! Can you believe it?” Pinkie Pie the chicken shouts happily to Twilight the Bearded about her haul of candy and proceeds to peck at her load rapidly like a real chicken. It’s Nightmare Night here in Ponyville and everything is going about how it should be; the scary decorations are out, it’s night, and everypony is happily dressed up in whatever costume they could come up with for the holiday.
 
Pinkie, although too old to be trick-or-treating but none the less happy about getting free candy, pecks at her candy ferociously, oblivious to the dark storm cloud slowly creeping up behind her.
 
“And then, we went to Cheerilee's house, and got a bunch more goodies. Didn't we, Pip?” Pinkie asks the little pirate colt to her left.
 
“Sure did!” he replies just as the cloud pauses overhead. The Pegasus controlling the cloud bringing her forehooves back and ready to strike the cloud until…
 
“And then, we had to stop and wait for Granny Smith, and–“
 
*Shing*
 
Two long knives slide into an X formation just 3-inches from the pink chicken pony’s neck, cutting her off from her sentence. “Bam… you’re dead Pinkie.” The wielder of the knives whispers in her ear in a low, evil voice while having a hood cover his face with the shadow.
 
“Bwaak!” She shrieks before managing to slide out from under the knives before disappearing from view.
 
“Aahhh!” The other four fillies and colts scamper off in fear as well.
 

<<<>>> 

 
“Ahhahahahahaaaa!”
 
“Swift! Are you crazy?! You could have killed her!” Twilight yells at me. I calm down a bit and wipe a tear from my eye.
 
“Relax Twilight! They’re not even sharp.” I demonstrate by slicing at my hands, fingers and arms. “Apparently poor maintenance is a thing for whoever owned these.”
 
“Aww, Swift! I was gonna scare them.” I look back up to the whining pegasus known as Shadow Dash on the black cloud above me.
 
“Sorry! You gotta be quicker than that Shadow Dash.” I emphasize the fast part of her name. She grumble something before zooming off to who knows where. Probably to scare some more innocent fillies and colts.
 
“So Twilight, how’s it going?” I casually ask her.
 
“Alright?! I’m alright but look what you did to Spike!” My eyes glide over to the dragon dressed as a… dragon? I don’t know. I just don’t know. He’s choking on some pieces of candy before he coughs them up.
 
“He looks fine to me.”
 
“Ugh.” She groans before lifting the twitching, slightly candy engorged dragon onto her back with her magic. “What are you anyway?”
 
I look down at myself and spread arms so she can get a full good look at me. “Like it? Rarity does good work in helping me replicate an assassin from one of the video games from my world.” My almost completely white costume featuring the hood over my face that ends in the form of an eagle’s beak, an open collar with red on the outer layer of clothing with a closed collar shirt underneath, the sashes of red going around my waist with the Assassin’s symbol thickly stitched into the middle, and the long lower part of my costume ending in points that reach almost to my ankles with it splitting down the middle on both the front and back while also bearing a wide red line through them. I was also able to sport the leather spaulder on my left shoulder with the white cape attached. My boots are close enough to go with the entire outfit so I didn’t need to do too much work in that area. I’m not completely defenseless however. From my best memory of the games I was able to allow my throwing knives to be fitted on me as well.
 
I wasn’t able to get into every single tiny detail of the robes but I was perfectly fine with the main bulk of it.
 
“Um, what are you?” Twilight asks confused. I smile.
 
“You are looking at the robes replicated of the famous assassin known as Ezio Auditore Da Firenze.” I say proudly while keeping my arms stretched out. She still looks confused. I drop my arms. “What?”
 
“You’re an assassin?”
 
“That’s right.”
 
“Don’t they usually wear black?”
 
I give her a deadpan look with my eyes half-lidded.
 
Stereotype.
 
“Yes, they usually wear black, but not all wear black.” I give her a short answer.
 
“But it just seems-“
 
“Wait! Let me see if I can remember what you are from the history books.” I quickly say to her in order to change the subject. I close my eyes and place my right hand against my forehead. “Father of some type of morphic spell, made more spells than any other unicorn ever… hold on it’s on the tip of my tongue… Star pearl the feared?”
 
Her expression falls as she looks to the ground. “Star Swirl the Bearded.” She says flatly. Judging from the tone of her voice, she’s corrected plenty of ponies before.
 
“Dang it, I was close.” I say while snapping my fingers. She sighs before walking away. I shrug and follow close by.
 
“Happy Nightmare Night, Applejack.” Twilight greets the scarecrow pony as pony’s right next to her bob for apples.
 
“Hey AJ.” I greet her as well.
 
“Howdy, Spike! Hey, Twilight, Swift! Nice costumes.” She returns the gestures to us.
 
“Thanks! I’m a dragon.” Spike interrupts us before we can say anything. Still don’t understand why you dressed like that.
 
“She means me, Spike.” Twilight says a little annoyed.
 
“Nooooo, she means us.” Now I say annoyed.
 
“With that beard, I reckon you're some sorta country music singer.” Applejack the scarecrow says while fumbling a bit with Twilight’s beard. Me and Spike quietly snicker while Twilight gets a little annoyed... again.
 
“And who are you Swift?” I regain my composure.
 
“I am a famous assassin from my world by the name of Ezio Auditore Da Firenze.” I proudly say before grabbing my knives and going into a fighting stance with my blades in the reverse grip. “After losing his family to greed and betrayal, he swore he would get revenge on the ones who wronged him.” I give the short info on Ezio’s life.
 
Applejack looks at me confused a little. “Ah’ don’t get your fancy talk.” Fancy talk?!
 
“Fancy talk? That wasn’t fancy talk. I’ll give you fancy talk.” I quickly challenge her. “Mio nome è Swift Wind e io sono il guardiano di Ponyville e le vostre vite.”
 
Twilight, Applejack and Spike look at me in the most confusing ways they can muster from my other language I just spoke. “When you have nothing better to do... you play as many video games as you can possibly get your hands on.” I say with a grin and sheathe my knives.
 
“How did yooouu...?” she tries to form a sentence.
 
“Last time when you were helping me take inventory back at my place, in the miscellaneous section I had some video games. Assassin’s Creed to be exact. That is where this guy is from.” I gesture to myself with my hands, more specifically the robes. “He’s Italian.”
 
“Oh! Well, here Bitalian is the word your looking for Swift.” Bitalian eh?
 
“Bitalian, Italian you get the idea. Point is, I played that game a lot and in different languages too, so you can say I picked up a few things as well.” From the times I played Assassin’s Creed, particularly from 2, Brotherhood and Revelations, I thought it would be interesting to actually play the game in the characters’ actual tongue, mostly that of Italian, or Bitalian here.
 
“Enough fancy speak!” Applejack shouts when she shakes her head of my sudden new vocabulary. “Ya' feel like bobbin' for an apple?” She gestures to the water filled bucket to her side. One pony goes to grab an apple but suddenly a certain wall-eyed Pegasus pops out from under water… covered in paper bags for some reason, with a chain in her mouth. She pulls and unfortunately the water and apples go down the cleared drain, leaving the sad Pegasus in the empty bucket.
 
I close my eyes and quietly chuckle to myself. Oh Derpy. You’re so funny.
 
There is some loud cheering behind us. As all four of us turn to a stage with a bunch of ponies gathered around it. “What’s going on over there?” I ask to no pony in particular.
 
“Looks like the mayor is going to say something. Let’s go see.” Twilight answers. We all move to the middle of the crowd so we can get a better look at the mayor who is dressed as a clown. I kneel down so I don’t obscure anypony’s vision.
 
“Thank you, everypony, and welcome to the Nightmare Night festival!” The crowd cheers and applauds. “Now, all the little ponies who have been out collecting sweets should follow our friend Zecora to hear the legend of... Nightmare Moon! Hahahahaha!” Mayor mare says loudly in a spooky voice to make her seem scary and adding a devilish laughter. Although it would work better if she wasn’t a dang clown.
 
“Spooky voice might work better if she wasn't dressed like that.” Spike says.
 
“Agreed.” I agree with him. Twilight slightly giggles.
 
The mayor gestures to her side but there is nothing. Suddenly a bright green cloud appears out of nowhere and Zecora walks out, her mohawk manestyle now gone and dangling down the sides of her head with spiders in it. I shudder at the sight of the spiders.
 
Spider. I hate spiders.
 
“You alright, Swift?” Twilight notices my shudder.
 
I look at her and smile, “Yeah. I’m good.”
 
“Hmmm.” She lowly mumbles to try and hide her concern from me. I see through it though.
 
“Follow me and very soon you'll hear the tale of Nightmare Moon.” Zecora eerily tells us before moving off stage.
 
“Wanna go see this?” I ask my friends. Spike is alright with it, Twilight thinks for a second and I have no idea where Applejack is. Must have gone back to her bobbin’ apples game.
 
“It could be interesting.” Twilight says. Me and Spike nod before all three of us follow the group of fillies and colts, and one chicken pony towards the forest. We soon come across a giant stone statue of a fierce looking alicorn on its hind hooves.
 
“Listen close, my little dears, I'll tell you where you got your fears of Nightmare Night, so dark and scary.” Zecora begins her eerie tale of Nightmare Moon. She then grabs a hoof full of a green powder substance and blows on it, sending a massive cloud of the stuff swirling into the air before it takes the shape of Nightmare Moon, only in a sparkling green color. “Of Nightmare Moon, who makes you wary.” Zecora continues as the fake Nightmare Moon comes hurtling right at us. The figure crashes into the ground and creates a type of smoke cloud, diming everypony’s field of vision.
 
“Every year, we put on a disguise, to save ourselves from her searching eyes.” A few ponies freak out and run from Zecora impersonating Nightmare Moon through the cloud. “But Nightmare Moon wants just one thing: to gobble up ponies in one quick swing!” The colt, Pipsqueak I think his name was, crashes into the statue and slowly backs up from its stare before hitting Pinkie who has her head buried in the ground.
 
Which I’m pretty sure a chicken doesn’t do that.
 
The two freak out and dash off. “Hungrily, she soars the sky. If she sees nopony, she passes by.” The green alicorn moves to each group of scared ponies, oblivious to them to go with what the storyteller zebra is saying. She moves to both me and Twilight, looking at us for a second before disappearing. “So if she comes and all is clear, Equestria is safe another year!” Zecora finishes up with a loud resonance in her voice as the fake alicorn disappears into sparkles.
 
“Uh, Miss Zecora,” Pipsqueak begins to ask Zecora. “If we wear costumes to hide from Nightmare Moon, so she won't gobble us up, how come we still need to give her some of our candy?” he finishes asking.
 
“A perfect question, my little friend. For Nightmare Moon you must not offend.” She says before blowing some more dust into the air. “Fill up her belly with a treat or two, so she won't return to come eat you!” she finishes saying just as the green alicorn jumps at us. Everypony screams while I bring my leg up into the air as I jump up and slam down onto the fake representation of Nightmare Moon, making the figure burst into a wide area of sparkles all around. I smile and stand up straight. “But as it shows, some deflect what she throws.” Zecora gestures to me.
 
I smirk and cross my arms on my chest. “Hmph, she’s nothing compared to Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees.”
 
“Who?” Twilight asks me.
 
“Very popular fictional killers and tormentors from my world.” I quickly explain.
 
“Oh.” She says.
 
Everypony around looks grateful at my action and is happy that such a powerful figure is protecting them. Better not spoil tradition.
 
“Just remember everypony, I won’t be here all the time to protect you.” I say.
 
Suddenly a pair of green hooves wrap around my chest. The others gasp as the green Nightmare Moon bears its teeth right next to my head before biting into my neck. The figure doesn’t really bite me but only makes it look like it did. As soon as it does, I groan and tense up just as I did from when I remember getting bitten near my neck.
 
I reach out to the others with my right hand while having a pained look on my face. “Save yourselves!” I groan out and jump back, making the fake Nightmare Moon look like it just pulled me into the tree line to my imminent doom. As soon as I land I move behind a tree and hear the shrieks of the fillies and colts, and still Pinkie Pie, of my death.
 
“Aahhhhhh!” they yell, making me snicker and chuckle to myself.
 
“Quick! Everypony! Just dump some candy and get out of here before she takes us too!” Pinkie yells. I chuckle a bit more and peak out to see them all dumping their candy under the statue. Wow, never thought I would ever see Pinkie Pie give up free candy.
 
“You’re so bad you know that right?” Twilight says behind me once she teleports.
 
“It’s all in good fun, Twi. C’mon, you gotta admit that it was executed perfectly back there.” I say while looking at her.
 
She rolls her eyes and sighs, “Alright. I’ll give you that. It was pretty good.”
 
I smirk, “Thanks.” I go to turn back but I notice the increase of wind speed around us. “What’s going on?”
 
“I don’t know. Look!” She points out the tree line to spot a chariot heading towards Ponyville. It’s too dark out for us to be able to see who exactly it is, and from the sudden changing wind speed, swirling clouds in the moonlit sky, something interesting is about to happen.
 
“I don’t know who or what that is but it’s heading to town square. Let’s go.” She nods and we grab Spike, who was a little freaked out by my acting, before we immediately make our way back to town.
 
Pinkie and the others run through the area screaming as me, Twilight and Spike follow. Soon, the chariot stops just above everypony. The pony’s pulling the chariot are unlike anything I have ever seen before. The black, gray and dark purple armor clad Pegasi with bat-like wings and slit eyes bring a level to intimidation I have never seen before by pony’s standards. The dark robed and tall pony sitting in the chariot jumps out and slowly descends to the ground with ease as thunderstorms continue to blast throughout the night sky.
 
The robed figure’s hood falls back as they tilt their head back, revealing the Princess Luna, the former and once dreaded Nightmare Moon now no more. Me and Twilight smile at her appearance, considering she appears only in the night since she has to sleep during the day.
 
Hopefully the festivities surrounding her evil alter ego hasn’t made her mad.
 
“Princess Luna!” Twilight says in a slight happy tone once everyone else bows to the Princess in respect, or fear. Some of them are quivering under their hooves.
 
“Let’s go see what brings her here.” I propose. Twilight nods and before we can make two steps, she’s pulled to the ground by a purple claw and I’m kicked in the shin. “Ow! Charley horse!” I shout as I fall to my side. “Spike! What are you- Mmph!” Before I can quietly yell at the dragon, why the hell did you kick me in the shin?!, he covers my mouth with his other claw and gestures to both me and Twilight to be quiet. I grumble in pain and annoyance before looking back at the Princess who has her wings outstretched, removed her robe and standing in front of Cloud Kicker who’s wearing a type of witches’ costume.
 
Seriously, she can’t be that intimidating.
 
“Citizens of Ponyville!” she yells in the loudest voice possible I have heard, making me clutch my ears as tight as I can. She can rival bullhorns back in my world.
 
I was wrong! I was wrong! I was wrong! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I yell in my mind.
 
“We have graced your tiny village with our presence, so that you might behold the real Princess of the Night!” she continues in a slightly less booming and eardrum shattering voice. “A creature of nightmares no longer, but instead a pony who desires your love and admiration! Together we shall change this dreadful celebration into a bright and glorious feast!” she holds the last word a little bit as a sudden flash of thunder and lightning lights up her form. Love and admiration my ass with this type of atmosphere.
 
“Did you hear that, everypony? Nightmare Moon says she's gonna feast on us all!” Pinkie yells, making that same group of colts and fillies she’s been traveling with scream in fear as they all gallop away, leaving a very confused and stunned Princess of the night in her stance.
 
“What? No, children, no! You no longer have reason to fear us! Screams of delight is what your princess desires, not screams of terror!” she finally talks in a more standard and regular tone. She finishes up with stomping her hoof onto the ground right next to a light yellow coated unicorn pony with a mane and tail of light blue and is dressed as a mouse, Lemon Heart was her name. The Princess also cracks the earth under her hoof stomp.
 
She looks over at the mayor, her bright rainbow wig being a dead giveaway. “Madame Mayor, thy Princess of the Night hath arrived.” The princess says as she walks up to the mayor and presents her hoof. The mayor’s only reply is a sharp gasp and even more quivering. Luna looks slightly stunned and looks at the devil dressed pony to the mayor’s right. She thrusts her hoof at the pony and receives the same as the mayor. From how she moved her hoof, it almost looked like she was going to punch her. “What is the matter with you?” Luna says and moves her hoof from side to side at each pony surrounding her, still receiving the same scared expressions. “Very well then. Be that way. We won't even bother with the traditional royal farewell.” She shouts before sauntering away from us all. Some pony’s relax themselves now that the princess is gone.
 
Me and Twilight stand up, a look of worry on her face from the whole scene that just transitioned right now. “She’s been gone for a thousand years right?”
 
“Yes, she has.”
 
“I guess she’s taking a while to adjust.” I say and sigh. Must suck having been gone for 1,000 years to see everything change. In 2,000 years, my kind went from horse drawn carriages, bows and arrows, and limbs being removed for a slight infection, to rifles having to take around a minute to reload, steam powered trains and cars, swords, and cannons, to finally ranged weapons that can put over 500 to 5,000 rounds of bullets to down range, saving a severed limb, vehicles going supersonic speed and so on. It all goes to show that in my world, even 100 years can be major change.
 
“It has. I better go talk to her.” Twilight says before starting to walk off. I sigh.
 
“I better come along as well. Maybe she’d feel a little more inclined to speak to someone who has somewhat a similar experience to her.” I propose. She may belong to this world but pretty much the only pony who knows Luna personally and is still alive is her sister, Princess Celestia. I can closely relate.
 
“You can't talk to her! She's Nightmare Moon!” Spike jumps in front of us to stop us. I groan loudly in annoyance and pinch the bridge of my nose with my right hand. This is seriously getting annoying.
 
“No, she's not. I saw the Elements of Harmony change her back to good. But it seems like she's having some trouble adjusting after being gone for a thousand years.” Twilight explains what happened.
 
“Plus the lack of dagger-like teeth, death stare and large menacing armored body leads me to believe that that’s not Nightmare Moon anymore.” I add. We start walking to try and find the lonely princess but I turn back to the dragon dressed as a dragon and kneel down to his eye-level. “Also, the next time you decide to kick me in the shin and make me drop to the ground like a rock… better think about it real carefully next time… alright?” I give my best smile but in a way that somewhat scares the dragon, especially with the dark shadow over my face from my hood.
 
*Gulp* “S-sure.” He nervously says.
 
I smile and pat his head, “Good. Wait for me Twilight!” I yell and take off after the purple unicorn.
 
It takes awhile but our search leads us back to the statue of Nightmare Moon with the Princess lying down in front of it.
 
“Princess Luna?” Her sad demeanor perks up at the sounds of Twilight’s voice. “Hi, my name is–“
 
“Star Swirl the Bearded.” The Princess interrupts Twilight in a bearable tone of voice. “Commendable costume! Thou even got the bells right.”
 
“Thank you! Finally! Somepony who gets my costume!” she says happily. Then her gaze looms over to me by her side. “Unlike some people.”
 
“Hey, I was close wasn’t I?!” I yell. “Besides, she has unfair advantage. She must have met the guy when he was still alive.” She rolls her eyes and I sigh before I look at Luna who is looking at me with an intriguing stare. “Can I help you?”
 
“Yes, you may by clarifying what it is you are.”
 
“Oh. Alright then. From my world we have this fictional universe that is centered between two opposing factions. I am dressed like the grandmaster of the Assassin’s Creed, Ezio Auditore Da Firenze. His family killed by betrayal, he swore vengeance on the culprits, the Templars.” I explain as best I can as quick as I can. She looks at me a bit more and looks at me from all sides to see the detail of my costume. “The reason it is white is on account he is an assassin is because-“
 
“He fights mostly in the day and rarely uses the cover of dark. The white along with the added red allow him to have some form of blending in with the masses while the hood allows him to hide his face in case thou needs to make a swift getaway.” She makes a pretty good explanation.
 
“I… was gonna say that it was to be unique but… that actually makes more sense.”
 
“Anyways,” Twilight shouts to break both me and princess of our conversation. “We just came to welcome you to our celebration! My actual name is–“
 
“Twilight Sparkle.” The princess interrupts the purple unicorn again nonchalantly. The clear night changes instantly as clouds begin rolling in. “It was thou who unleashed the powers of harmony upon us and took away our dark powers!” she shouts in her royal Canterlot voice as she hovers just above the ground. “And you are Swift Wind, defender of Ponyville.” she motions to me.
 
The wind picks up as well, forcing me to instinctively put my hands in front of my face and sending me and Twilight sliding back a foot or two. “And that was a good thing, right?” Twilight asks a little nervously once the wind is gone. I hope it is.
 
“But of course. We could not be happier. Is that not clear?” she continues with that tone and staring at us like she hates our guts. Dang. She’s really out of place when it comes to being social.
 
“Well, you kinda sound like you're yelling at us.”
 
“Yeah I feel like you wanna throw us in the dungeon or somethin’.”
 
“But this is the traditional royal Canterlot voice! It is tradition to speak using the royal we, and to use this much volume when addressing our subjects!” The princess explains and shouts the last part even more loudly. Twilight’s beard and hat are pushed to the side while my hood is pushed off my head with the openings in my costume blown open a little and my hair pushed back, like I drove at 100 miles per hours in a Ferrari with the hood down. We both fix ourselves up as calmly as we can so we don’t accidentally antagonize her.
 
“You know, that might be the reason why you were ousted not 3 minutes ago as a demonic creature that feeds on the souls of others.” She looks at me sternly, making me smile nervously. “Maybe if you were to change some things about yourself, you might get a warmer reception than just screams of terror and fright.” I try to explain to her. In a last ditch effort I move closer so maybe she won’t scream in my face.
 
“Change our approach!?”
 
I was wrong.
 
“Lowering the volume will be major step in the right direction, right Twilight?!” I quickly say and ask the bearded unicorn while fixing up my hair.
 
“It definitely would.”
 
“Ohhh.” She realizes in that regular tone of voice again. Ahhh now that’s a voice you can fall in love with. I smile. “We have been locked away for a thousand years. We are... not sure we can.”
 
I snicker a little, making both ponies look at me. “Oh Princess, Princess, Princess.” I repeat while shaking my head. I drape my left arm around her neck to bring her close. “I am a species that has been at war with itself since pretty much the dawn of time. Never, did I think I would ever be transported into a world filled with talking rainbow colored ponies. If I can at least find some sort of peace and tranquility in this world, I think we can figure out a way on making somepony that was once this!” I gesture to the statue, “To something a bit more socially acceptable. And like the name of a song from my world sung by someone that so many people hate for some reason I can’t understand: Never Say Never.”
 
The Princess slightly smiles and moves away from my grasp. “Alright then. What does thou propose?”
 
“Hmmm, I have an idea.” Twilight speaks up.
 

<<<>>> 

 
And that’s how we are making our way to Fluttershy’s door.
 
“Great idea, Twilight. If anypony can teach the Princess Luna about being subtle it’s Fluttershy.” I look over at said princess, “No offense.”
 
“None taken.”
 
“It is a sound plan. Fluttershy is definitely the pony who can give you some great pointers, princess. She's delicate and demure with the sweetest little voice.” Twilight finishes up just as we stop at the shy pegasus’s door. Twilight gently knocks on the door.
 
“Go away! No candy here! Visitors not welcome on Nightmare Night!” Instead of the usual quiet voice, a very loud and scared tone yells from behind the door. The princess shifts her eyes to us.
 
Wow. It’s practically once in a blue moon that she- I turn to the princess… of the night. Nevermind.
 
“Eh-hem.” I clear my throat and step forward, “Let me try.” I knock a couple times, “Fluttershy? It’s me, Swift. Twilight’s here as well.”
 
A couple hoof steps from inside and the door gently cracks open, a pink mane followed by a yellow muzzle and turquoise eyes. “Oh, it is you.” Fluttershy gently says before opening the door wider, “Oh, and Nightmare Moon.”
 
Huh, she took that better than I-
 
“Nightmare Moon?! Aahhh!” The shy pegasus gasps and gives a slight yelp before slamming the door closed.
 
Nevermind.
 
“Eh he he he. Wait right here.” Twilight goes in, leaving me and the princess alone on the doorstep. A few minutes pass and still nothing is heard, meaning Fluttershy probably found a pretty good hiding place.
 
“You did good today in raising the moon.” I try to make small talk.
 
“It is what we do best is it not?” she replies in a regular tone. I shrug my shoulders.
 
“Can’t argue with that.”
 
Again more minutes pass in uncomfortable silence and my way breaking the ice being a bust.
 
“Does thou have a festival similar to Nightmare Night?” she decides to break the silence. I look at her for a second a bit confused before I finally realize it.
 
Ohhh, she must mean from my world.
 
“Actually, yes we do. Although in my world it’s not called Nightmare Night.”
 
“Pray tell, what dost thou call it?”
 
“Halloween, or All Hallows Eve to some. The way how it goes is a lot similar to Nightmare Night. Going door-to-door to get candy, scary decorations and dressing up are pretty the same.” I look back over to her who has a weird look on her face. “What?”
 
“The name sounds a bit… weird.”
 
“Well, your saying is centered around the creature known as Nightmare Moon, while in my world it revolves around the Christian religion and festivals of the dead.”
 
“Christian religion?”
 
Oh right, they don’t have a dozen different forms of god or creator. “In my world we don’t have actual physical evidence of something to have created us. So people have gone around and made other representations of our almighty creator. Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism are some of the main religions that have sprung up long before I was born. Some follow blindly, some with reason, and others not at all.” I take a second to collect my thoughts. ”For me I could go either way. We don’t have the proof necessary to properly back up the claim of a creator, but then again something had to have made us.” With how my kind’s history has been heavily placed with the different beliefs and religions that sprung up, it can get confusing and frustrating at times.
 
I look at the princess, “The ponies here should count themselves lucky. It’s to my understanding that you and your sister are the daughters of the creator, right?”
 
She nods, “Yes, ‘twas our mother, Faust, who breathed life into we and our sister, along with this world and all you see around us.” She gestures around us with her hoof.
 
I snap my fingers, “And that’s the proof. You’re the living embodiment of the kin of the creator in this universe. Because of the fact that you and your sister have lived for thousands of years, no one or pony can question you because you lived through it all. For my kind, it seems we are destined to forever question it.” I say the last part a little sadly. It sucks though. Forever wondering if he or she truly exists… it’s truly something to think about.
 
“We… had no idea that’s…”
 
“It’s alright. We’ve lived for hundreds of thousands of years as it is, I’m sure we can stand to wonder a bit more.” I say.
 
“On that we are sure thou are correct. From what thou has brought to our attention from thy world… we are sure.” She probably means all the innovative devices and literature I’ve shown her. Since most of the ponies do business in the day, Celestia is usually swamped with work while Luna occasionally has some free time. And learning about an entirely new species is something that has interested her as of late.
 
“Thank you Prin-“
 
The door suddenly slams opens, “Fluttershy... you remember Princess Luna?” Twilight strains as the shy pegasus tries to fight the unicorns pushing.
 
“We’ll talk later.” I whisper to the Princess. She nods and takes a step to the pegasus.
 
“Charmed.” She says in her usual booming voice. Still needs work.
 
The Princess started to talk to Fluttershy in her usual booming and intimidating voice. The shy pegasus too… well, shy to properly speak up. When the Princess finally asked if she did alright, ‘Shy decided to end the lesson and retreat inside. However, a certain unicorn and a closed door stopped her in her tracks. Once the Princess had finally reached her goal, right back to the royal Canterlot voice she went while hugging Fluttershy. It then didn’t help that the usual pink chicken pony decided to make an appearance just in time to see the dazed and knocked out Fluttershy in the formerly evil princess’s grasp, prompting her to run in fear, yet again.
 
Now as we walk through the square where the concert stage is at and where the majority of the night is taking place, ponies are still gasping and diving to the ground in fear.
 
“It is of no use. They have never liked us and they never shall.” The princess grumbles as more ponies cower.
 
“C’mon Princess, they warmed up to me didn’t they?” I try to comfort her. Considering that Princess Celestia is just slightly taller than me on four hooves and Luna just below that, they should be able to warm up to Luna a lot quicker than they would me.
 
“It is different. Thou made a good first impression while we were remembered most as a creature of great evil.” I stop in my tracks at the sentence, leaving Twilight and Luna to walk a bit more before turning back to me.
 
“First impression? You were a benevolent ruler first, then a spawn of evil,” I say, “If I remember correctly, my first impression was of me standing in the middle of town square, a few feet over there to be exact, surrounded by a pack of Timberwolves, and killing them all without remorse while wielding some of the most dangerous weapons that you’ve all never seen before.” I walk up to the Princess and place a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sure, if they can overcome that, they can overcome you.” I finish up sincerely. She smiles a bit at the details of my first impression to my friends.
 
“But you saved me, Spike and Rainbow Dash in the process.” I let my head fall at Twilight’s words. If I had said that, it wouldn’t have been as sincere.
 
I breathe in and take a couple steps past the princess, “Way to kill the mode, Twilight.” She rubs the ground a little embarrassed with her hoof. I let out the air and look around, “C’mon, let’s find Applejack. If anypony can give pointers on acting a bit more friendly and likable in public, it’d be her.”
 
“You're right, sorry. Oh! There she is.” Twilight breaks out of her embarrassed state and points ahead of us. Applejack is still next to the bobbin’ for apples game and just grabbed Pipsqueak from falling in.
 
“Perfect, let’s go.” Just as soon as Applejack turns around and sees the Princess of the Night, she ducks under hooves like all the others. Still getting old.
 
“Applejack,” I kneel down and place my right hand behind her neck, her ponytail brushing my hand and still feeling the shivering sensation she is exerting on herself. “The Princess is having a little trouble with fitting in around here. Maybe you can help her out?” I ask nicely.
 
“Fit in? Really? Egh!” She sarcastically says before I pull her ponytail back hard.
 
“Now Applejack,” I give her my best fake smile, “You helped me fit in around here. You sure you can’t extend the same courtesy?” I say in a tone that basically reads, ‘you don’t have a choice in the matter.’
 
Having to try and take care of a shouting thousands of years old god while constantly having ponies jump to conclusions no matter how hard you try can really tick you off just right.
 
“I mean... that's easy! All you gotta do is have the right attitude. Loosen up a bit, be positive, play a few games, have some fun.” AJ quickly forgets about her fear just a little while ago and is already doing her best to make the princess seems likable to the masses now.
 
“Fun? What is this ‘fun’ thou speakest of?”
 
“Oh my god.” I quickly say a little under my breath. I know she is bad at being normal in public… but she has never heard of the phrase fun? Wow.
 
Twilight and Applejack gesture to a table that has two bowls, one filled with candy the other I’m not sure. “Pray tell, what purpose do these serve?” Luna asks to no pony in particular.
 
“Try to land the sp-sp-spiders on the web.” It just so happens that the scared pony right next to her hooves known as Cherry Berry explains the game that involves… spiders?!
 
I gulp and shake a little at the mention of spiders. “Swift? Are you alright?” Twilight asks me.
 
“I’m fine! I’m good! I’m alright!” I shout with louder tone than I wanted.
 
“You sure? Because you're shaking in your-“
 
“I said I’m fine!” I snap at her. She recoils as I regain my posture.
 
“Oooookay.”
 
The Princess then throws her… ammo the second time and it lands in the middle. “Ha! Your princess enjoys this ‘fun’! In what other ways may we experience it?” she asks us. Sounds like she’s finally come out of her shell and is now ready to properly socialize. As long as it doesn’t involve… *Shivers* you know.
 

<<<>>> 

 
“Fire away, princess!” Applejack shouts. The princess does just that and flings the pumpkin, hurtling straight towards her target and scoring a direct hit.
 
“Ha ha! The fun has been doubled!” Princess Luna shouts happily. Other ponies cheer as well with her performance. By now the town has warmed up to her by a fair amount and isn’t cowering in fear of her.
 
I smirk and step forward, “Not bad, but let me try somethin’.” A pumpkin is placed on the catapult and brought down so I can place my foot on it to keep it in place. Looking at the trajectory of how the princess shot hers, and the force I’m going to exert on the pumpkin in mid-air, I take in those accounts and ready my weapon.
 
I let go and once the pumpkin hits open air, I pull back the arrow on my compound bow and fire. I land a direct hit on it and shoot two more times, landing more hits. The pumpkin finally goes low to the ground and slams into the target, my three arrows embedding into the target as well. “Bull’s-eye!” I shout and thrust my fist into the air. The crowd around us cheers even louder at my impressive skill. Normally skeet shooting is for guns but this will have to do.
 
“That was perfect!” Twilight compliments me. I smile and sling my bow over me. To spice things up I had decided to pick up my bow back at my house while the princess was having fun with the games. I remember that it was optional for Ezio to get a crossbow, so I thought it would be fun to bring a bit of Connor to the mix, along with new age 20th century technology.
 
“Hm, we are impressed. But let us see if thou can best us in another game.”
 
“Let’s just see if I-“ I stop as I turn around and something lands on my chest and I look down. My eyes widen as I stare into the red eyes of the black eight legged spider still on my chest. Suddenly my breath begins to quicken in short breaths.
 
“How many points is-“
 
“AHHHHHHHHH!! Get-it-off-get-it-off-get-it-off-get-it-off-get-it-oooooffff!!” I quickly scream my head off as I try to scratch the bug off to no avail while running around.
 
Once it’s finally off, I take both my knives in my hands. “Die you bastard! I wish you never existed! Die! Die! Diiiiiiiiiiee!!” I continue to yell while at the same time stabbing like crazy until there is nothing left.
 
“Swift! Swift! Calm down!” Twilight and Applejack grab hold of my arms from behind to keep me from stabbing a hole through the ground to their version of china. “It’s just a toy!”
 
“A-A-A t-toy?” I hesitantly ask, my mind still racing.
 
“Yes, a toy. See.” Twilight picks up a bit of the stuffing and shows it to me. I blink a few times before reality finally hits me. I went full blown blood raged crazy on a toy.
 
“A toy… hehe. It was just a toy… he he.” I chuckle nervously.
 
“Yes, Swift. A toy.” Twilight replies what I said in a much calmer tone.
 
“Wow, that was… I don’t know.” I fully stand up, noticing more than a few standing up as well, which leads me to believe that I must have pushed more than a few down while in my tantrum, and others back up away from me. “I think… I think I’m gonna… goooo… huddle in that… that alleyway looks nice.” I bolt off towards the alleyway I was talking about and huddle behind some trash cans.
 

<<<>>> 

 
Twilight stares as her friend takes off running towards a nearby alleyway.
 
One thing going through her mind as of this point from what just transpired of her usual hardened for battle friend: What just happened?
 
She looks down at her hooves and notices his knives are still there in the destroyed remains of the toy spider. “I better go return these.” She picks up the kinda dangerous objects with her magic, “And make sure he is alright.” She turns to the princess, “Will you be alright here?”
 
“Do not worry, fair Twilight. We are having too much fun!” Princess Luna happily proclaims with a raised hoof and a smile.
 
“Don’t worry, Twi. Things seem to be looking up. Go on and see how he’s doin’.”
 
“Good, hope you continue to enjoy the night princess.” Twilight finishes up before trotting away.
 
“Why don't you try bobbin' for apples?” is the last thing Twilight hears before entering the alleyway.
 
“Swift? Are you here?”
 
“Spiders… spiders… spiders…” the repeating words come from behind a few trash cans.
 

<<<>>> 

 
“Swift?”
 
“Aah!” I yelp.
 
“Here, you dropped these.” Twilight comes to view and floats over my knives from behind her. I smile and take them each into my hand. “Thanks.” I thank her and sheathe them.
 
“You alright?” she asks me. I calm down a little to get my bearings.
 
“Yeah, yeah I’m good.”
 
“Swift…” she trails off, expecting me to finish what it is she’s thinking.
 
“There is pretty much no way I can convince you that everything will be alright after this right?” I give a nervous smile.
 
She looks at me and the stare she gives me says otherwise.
 
I sigh, “Didn’t think so.”
 
She sits down next to me and places a hoof on my shoulder, “C’mon, tell me what’s wrong.”
 
“Well, it’s stupid.” She prods at my side. “Alright alright, I suffer from… arachnophobia.” I quietly tell her.
 
She blinks a few times.
 
“I know! I know! It’s stupid! The big bad human scared of some teensy little bugs! I can take on a Manticore no problem but…!” I stop.
 
“Actually spiders aren’t technically classified as bugs because they have eight legs and the common bug has six-“
 
“That’s not the point!” I interrupt her info lesson.
 
“When I was way younger I woke up with a tarantula crawling on my chest just as I opened my eyes. I screamed bloody murder in the girliest scream I had in me and ran straight out of my room and fell down the stairs we had in my house.” I pause to try and remember something else. “I only suffered a few bruises and a twisted ankle but I had nightmares for about half a week.”
 
“Swift! You remember your childhood?!” Twilight shouts in happiness. Since my apparent amnesia screwed me out of remembering why I left my house, or anything of my childhood for that matter, I’m still mystery to the girls as much as myself.
 
I shake my head no, “I only remember bits and pieces every so often, and even then they don’t stick around. Apparently I may not remember who I truly was but my fear of… spiders is still there.” I slightly look up to see Twilight making a cutting motion along her neck and looking above, it also helps to know that I hear just the faintest flap of wings.
 
“Rainbow Dash! I swear in the name of all the religions and gods back in my world I will tear off your wings, rip off your cutie mark and permanently ground you to the earth with no hopes of ever getting back into the air if you so much as drop the tiniest spider on me!!” I yell loudly. Twilight is shocked at taking the full force of my threat into her face even though it wasn’t meant for her. The flapping stops for a second before zooming off. “Hm.” I groan and slam my face back into my hands.
 
“Oh Swift.” She calmly says and hugs me. “You don’t need to feel ashamed. Not everyone or everypony is perfect. You just have to do better at accepting it.” Her words don’t do much to make me feel better but it’s the thought that counts. I pat her hoof that’s around my front to reassure her.
 
“Thanks Twilight. I think-“
 
“Forever!” The loud booming tone of the Royal Canterlot voice interrupts me. We look up to see that the storm clouds have rolled in again and lightning strikes are appearing. Just as quickly as the lightning strikes happen, the princess is gone.
 
“Sounds like something more important happened while you were here trying to comfort me.”
 
“It sounds like it.” She says.
 
“Whelp,” I grunt as I take to my feet, “We better go see what happened.”
 
“Let’s.”
 
We make our way out of the alleyway to see a sad sight. Plenty of foals are moving about with their heads hung low while others are crying that they wanted to be so and so next year. I spot Applejack who looks sad as well. “Applejack.” I shout as we jog up to her.
 
“Oh, hey you two.” She replys sadly.
 
“What happened? Where’d Princess Luna go?” Twilight asks our friend.
 
“Firstly, Pinkie immediately points her out as foul gobbling monster… again,” she rolls her eyes, “And then she declared that Nightmare Night is canceled forever. As ya’ll can see, plenty of folks are downright disappointed.”
 
“But I wanted to be a zombie next year!” one little pony cry’s out.
 
“Crap, and this was my first Nightmare Night too.” I voice my displeasure. My first Nightmare Night reminds me of back home and it turns out to be the very last… this sucks.
 
“Second, Ah’ have no idea where she went. One minute she was having fun, the next she’s disappeared.”
 
“Great.” I sadly say. This whole thing was going smoothly, now it’s gone downhill even quicker.
 
“Don’t worry, it’s not over yet.” Twilight yells in a happy tone.
 
“Look pretty over to me.”
 
“What are you plannin’ to do, Sugarcube?” Me and Applejack look at the bearded unicorn in question.
 
“I’m going to do what I do best. Lecture her!” With that she gallops off to the general direction she thinks the princess took off in.
 
I sigh, “Well, better go see if I can lend a hand. You’ll be alright here?” I ask the farm pony. She nods and I go to try and catch up to Twi. Not really sure if lecturing is something to be proud of, Twilight. I chuckle.
 

<<<>>> 

 
Pinkie Pie moves around, not really fazed at the fact that there is going to no more Nightmare Night as one would expect, and pecks at different pieces of stray candy littering the ground with her fake beak. Soon, she spots a stray line of candy leading to a deep dark alley. Without a second thought, she goes forth, focused more on the fact that there’s free candy in front of her over the distinct shadow looming over her in the darkness of the alley.
 
“Bawk!” she squawks loudly as two arms wrap around her form and pulls her behind some trash cans. A stallion in the street notices the squawk but shrugs it off as the wind when he sees nothing.
 
“No.” Pinkie looks up at her captor to see the darkened face of her only human friend. “No running, no shrieking, no yelling ‘she’s-gonna-eat-us-all’, just listen… alright?” he sternly says to her.
 
“Okay.” She says through a muffled response on the account he’s covering her mouth with his hand. He slowly lowers her to the ground. Twilight walks out into her view, followed by Princess Luna.
 
“Ba-ba-bwa-!” Pinkies incessant squawking cuts off the second she see’s Swift again, who mouth’s the word no slowly.
 
“Pinkie Pie, you remember Princess Luna, right?” Twilight introduces her.
 
“Ah. The ringleader of the frightened children. Hast thou come to make peace?” Luna says in a sincere quiet and hopeful manner. Pinkie Pie slowly moves forward and inches her hoof towards the princesses wanting to do what it is that the princess just asked for.
 
Swift can’t help but smile at the fact that this will all be ov-
 
*BOOM*
 
A lightning strike appears out nowhere, illuminating the princess in a scary way, freaking out the scared chicken.
 
“Nightmare Moon! Bawk! Bawk! Baaawwk!” Pinkie clucks loudly and takes off running, somehow dropping an egg in her place.
 
“Oh no you don’t!” Swift yells and takes off after the fleeing pony. He manages to tackle the chicken pony to the ground just before they make into the open streets. He immediately wraps his arms around her front hooves and holds them in place behind her back while wrapping his legs around her hind hooves. He turns over onto his back so as not to hurt the pony under his weight.
 
Twilight gallops up and looks sternly at Swift’s prisoner, “She's changed, Pinkie! She's not evil or scary anymore!” she shouts at the struggling pony in his grasp. “And she definitely doesn't want to gobble you up!”
 
Pinkie’s struggling stops and instead looks at Twilight weirdly. “Well, duh.”
 
“What?!”
 
“Huh?”
 
“I know that. Sheesh, Twilight. I'm almost as big as her, how's she gonna gobble me up?” Pinkie asks.
 
“Guess she never heard of the concept of vore.” Swift mutters under his breath.
 
“What was that Swift?” Unfortunately, Twilight was sharp enough to her him.
 
“Nothing!” he quickly replies. She looks at him warily before returning to the matter at hand.
 
“Then why do you keep running away and screaming?”
 
“Sometimes it's just really fun to be scared!” The usually scared chicken pony explains.
 
In any other situation that would be alright, but when you’re trying to make somepony who was once an evil creature of the night to look… not as frightful and scary… that’s not one of these situations. Swift thinks.
 
“Fun?” Twilight asks herself confused. She thinks for a second before realization hits her. “Pinkie Pie, you're a genius!” Twilight shouts triumphantly.
 
“No, I'm not. I'm a chicken.” She happily says before squawking loudly.
 
“Ugh.” Swift groans at Pinkie’s silliness. Yes, I know it’s Pinkie Pie but you can only get so much before it starts to rub you the wrong way. And considering we are trying to help a god in becoming a bit more sociable… yeah.
 
The dressed up unicorn trots over to the princess, leaving a confused human still wrapped around a bubbly Pinkie.
 
“Princess Luna! I've finally figured out why you're having so much trouble being liked!”
 
“Forgive me if I withhold my enthusiasm.” The princess replies in a deadpan tone.
 
“Come with me. I'll explain everything on the way.” Twilight says before trotting out of the other end of the alleyway. “You too, Swift! We need your… acting skills again.” Swift complies so he turns to the side and lets the pink mare go. She rolls onto her stomach and turns to her captor just a second ago.
 
“Be good now. Wait up!” he orders the dressed up pink pony while crouched before taking off after the two.
 
Pinkie Pie sits on her flanks and stares a bit in the direction that her friends just took off in. They look like they could use some help. I made the princess look like such a scary monster since she came here. Maybe I can-
 
“Ooooh! Candy!”
 
All reasonable thought on wanting to try and help her friends leaves Pinkie’s mind as she spots the trail of candy she was following before and promptly starts to peck at the wrappers again to get at the sugary delights within.
 

<<<>>> 

 
Twilight, Spike, Mayor Mare, Zecora and the rest of the fillies and colts of Nightmare Night slowly walk up to the statue of Nightmare Moon, continuing the tradition of offering candy to the all-powerful alicorn so as not to anger her. The pirate dressed colt Pipsqueak slowly moves towards the statue and leaves his bag of candy with all the rest at the foot of the stone statue.
 
“Goodbye, Nightmare Night. Forever.” He says in a very sad tone with his head hung low. He moves to the side and begins walking away slowly.
 
*Thunder*
 
Suddenly, lightning strikes and massive gusts of wind pick up all around.
 
“Citizens of Ponyville! You were wise to bring this candy to me.” Nightmare Moon’s loud booming voice of terror can be heard over the lightning strikes and gusts of wind. “I am pleased with your offering.” She continues as the wind blows Applejack’s hat off, “So pleased that I may just eat it... instead of eating yooouuu!” The statue of Nightmare Moon eerily says as it comes to life, the alicorn baring her fang like teeth to all the ponies around. Twilight keeps a smile upon her face as her plan begins to take effect while Spike is cowering behind her.
 
Now just one more thing to seal the deal. She thinks.
 
All the ponies scream loudly in terror and fear and begin to run away.
 
A shadowy figure jumps in front of the fleeing group of ponies, stopping them in their tracks. The figure slowly stands up tall with its head aimed to the ground. “But beware… fail to please Nightmare Moon,” he starts talking in a low eerie voice. He looks up, revealing his still darkened face but white sharp teeth and glowing blue eyes easily noticeable and scary.
 
“And I will bring you to heeeeeerrrr! Hahahahaaaa!” He laughs loudly, now fully standing on two legs with his arms stretched out to the side as lightning strikes boom behind him, outlining his figure in a way that is completely new to all who see.
 
“AAhhhhhhh!” the scared fillies and colts scream and begin galloping back to the safety of their homes and loved ones.
 
Swift watches as they run away from him and Nightmare Moon.
 
“He he, phew… that was kinda fun.” He says and walks back to the others and proceeds to take the contact lenses out of his eyes. “Nice job Twilight in enchanting these contacts with that afterglow effect, really brought out the scary, mind-controlled look on me.” He thanks the purple unicorn. She gives a triumphant smile to her human friend.
 
“Thank you.”
 
“I thank you Swift Wind for your help but, I am not certain that did what you meant for it to do, Twilight Sparkle.” She thanks him and tells Twilight of the failure.
 
“Just wait.”
 
“For what? For... for them to scream some more?” Luna asks in disbelief.
 
“You’d be surprised.” He replies with a sly smile.
 
“Of… what?”
 
“Um... Princess Luna.” The princess feels somepony tugging her mane. She looks down and stares at Pipsqueak the pirate. “I know there's not gonna be any more Nightmare Night, but do you suppose maybe you could come back next year and scare us again anyway?” he asks her with a bit of hope in his voice.
 
Princess Luna stares the colt with shock before looking towards a bush and seeing the ponies from before that fled in terror having the same hopeful look as the pirate at her feet. “Child. Art thou saying that thou... likest me to scare you?” she asks in disbelief at the colt’s request.
 
“It's really fun! Scary, but fun!”
 
“It... is?”
 
Huh… I guess the only thing she’s accustomed to when it comes to scaring is the sole purpose of fear, not fun and games. Swift thinks.
 
“Yeah! Nightmare Night is my favorite night of the year.”
 
“I thought this was your first Nightmare Night?” Swift asks Pip. He remembers the little pony saying to Twilight while he was hiding in the shadows.
 
Pip looks at the tall human with a smile, “It is! But now it’s my favoritest night of the year.” He says again with more happiness.
 
“Oh… well alright.”
 
“Well, we shall have to bring Nightmare Night back!” she proclaims the last part in the royal Canterlot voice again, making the colt slide back a couple feet from the force of it.
 
“Whoa! You're my favorite princess ever!” he happily shouts. He hugs the princesses’ hoof. “She said yes, guys!” He says to his friends, leading them all to cheer out at the news. He then tugs on the ends of Swift’s robes. “You’ll still be here too, right?” he asks.
 
“Maybe… maybe not.” He taunts the little colt. One look at the sad little colts look completely breaks his act. “Relax, don’t worry. I’ll still be here.”
 
“Wow, cool!” He hugs his leg and trots off to his friends.
 
“I guess that makes two of us.” Swift says once he walks up next to Luna. She turns to him with a confused look.
 
“Two what?”
 
“Two, that one colt and one human clearly prefer you over that of your sister.” He clarifies.
 
“You do?”
 
He turns to her with a smile while crossing his arms in front of his chest. “Well, considering that you weren’t the one that blasted a hole into my chest… yeah, I think I can safely say I prefer you over the other.” He smirks, “Besides, I kinda prefer the night.”
 
She gives a meek smile knowing that she now clearly knows that there are two that prefer her over there sister, despite her… history.
 
“Well, Twilight, it looks like your plan actually worked.” He replies to unicorn.
 
“What’s that supposed to mean? My plans work!” she states rather loudly and annoyed.
 
He chuckles and walks over to her. He kneels and motions with his finger for her to come closer so as not to tip off the princess just a few feet from them. “Eh-hem, do I need to remind you…. Want-it, need-it?” he slowly asks her, forcing the mare to widen her eyes in terror of that faithful day. Just a simple little problem she wanted to create and fix led to the entire town wanting to almost kill each other for her smarty pants doll, and led her human friend right in front of her to temporarily become crippled for the next couple days.
 
“Oooh… right.” She nervously says while looking in a different direction, a nearby flower becoming interesting all of a sudden.
 
“Yeah.” Swift stands up and walk over to the princess, “Well, you’re no longer a demonic creature that wants to eat everything in sight, and Nightmare Night is still on. Shall we?” he asks her.
 
“Can it be true?” she asks herself. The thought and realization that ‘finally’ her reputation of being known as only Nightmare Moon is gone.
 
“Yes, princess. It-“
 
“OH, MOST WONDERFUL OF-!”
 
“Voice!”
 
“Oh, I mean... Oh, most wonderful of nights.” She says in a normal voice now. Twilight and Swift smile before going to both sides the princess with Spike on Twilight’s back, who was hiding in the bushes the whole time.
 
“Better, now let’s go keep your holiday alive.” Swift says. The other three smile and nod and proceed back to town.
 

<<<>>> 

 
It didn’t go as planned but everything worked out in the end. Right now the princess is still in town and happily enjoying the festivities focused around her former alter ego. We watched as she enjoyed herself but right now me, Twilight and Spike are back at Nightmare Moon's statue so we can have a bit of quiet tranquility to ourselves, plus Twilight is finishing up her letter to her teacher.
 
“Finished!”
 
“Thanks you, Spike.” Twilight thanks her assistant. He wraps the scroll in its usual seal and sends it off with a wisp of his fire.
 
“Wrote a proper letter to the princess I see.” I emphasize.
 
“Yes, yes I did, Swift. I learned my lesson that day.” She says.
 
“That’s good.” I say to her while lying back against the statue. I can still hear all the fun going on back in town but I’ve sort of had enough excitement for today.
 
“By the way, how did you fake those fangs of yours when we scared that group of ponies?” After a few minutes of silence Twilight breaks it.
 
“Fangs?” I never used fangs as my get up, only the contacts. The only thing close is my- “Oooohh. Right. Fangs.” I try to make up something to say. “No, I didn’t use fangs.”
 
“Then how did you-“
 
“You must be referring to my canines. See, unlike you ponies in which your diet mainly consists of fruit, vegetables and plants, one of my kind’s basic food groups comes from that of meat.” Twilight cringes at the thought. “Yeah, I figured you might. Anyways, in order for us to properly eat said meat, each of us is born with a set of teeth known as incisors and canines. The incisors are used to help shear meat, while the canines are used to hold onto it and tear.” I explain. Throughout our time together I never really did explain to her much about my kind’s teeth anatomy. Granted, she never asked, but still.
 
She stares at me, “Wow, I… don’t…”
 
“A little hard to take in the information that the one who saved your life months ago is actually part meat eater right?” I ask her. She slowly nods her head.
 
I sigh and shuffle a little in my position, “Yeah, a little weird considering that most of the other friends you’ve known for so long aren’t.”
 
“Yeah… a little.” She nervously says. I sigh. Could it get any more awkward?
 
*BOOM*
 
“AAHHHHHH!” I jerk to the side from the sudden lightning strike and scream. I look up to spot two dark clouds and a fleeing Rainbow Dash. One of the clouds slowly lowers to reveal a smiling Luna.
 
She winks at us before beginning to laugh happily. The rest of us join in on her laughter. Finally she got back at Rainbow.
 
It doesn’t take long till the laughing dies down and we all share a moment to collect ourselves. “Oh! Princess! I just remembered. You never did get a proper welcoming to Ponyville.” I mention to her. “Allow me to be the first.” I say and crouch down on one knee in front of her.
 
“It is quite alright. I do not need-“ she gets off her cloud and tries to dissuade me from my action by waving me off with her hoof. I firmly grasp it with my right hand.
 
“I insist, your majesty.” I interrupt her with a sly smile.
 
“Oh, well… if you wish.”
 
“Thank you.” I clear my throat, “Princess Luna, Lunar guardian of the night, it is with pristine honor and delight that I welcome you to our fair village known as Ponyville. May your nights from here on out be just as beautiful and wondrous as the nights you create…” I lean in and kiss her hoof. “And you as well.”
 
“O-Oh…” she stammers and pulls her hoof away. She looks away with noticeable blush on her cheeks. “No pony’s… ever greeted me… like that.” She manages to say.
 
I stand and look up at the moon in the sky, “Well, I’m no pony now am I.” I say while sincerely smiling. “Besides, as I said before, I always did prefer the night over the day. It’s just how the dark blackness of the night that spreads over the land brings a sort of ambience that I like and can take advantage of.” I sincerely say. It’s true that plenty of times I would have been caught by the police if wasn’t able to slip into the shadows every now and then.
 
“Thank you.” I hear the Princess shyly say.
 
I walk over to her. I place my hand on her shoulder and give her a warm smile, “Anytime princess.” I say and walk past her.
 
“Where are you going?” Twilight asks me.
 
I turn around, “I’m heading home. The night is already taking its toll on me and I don’t want to wake up too late in the day tomorrow.” I turn back around and continue walking. The role of being a guardian is to be ready when danger strikes, not sleepy and inhibited.
 
“Are you sure you’re alright to sleep?” I stop at Twilight’s words and turn back to her.
 
“Twilight, I’m fine. That night was just a rare occasion. They don’t pop out every night okay? I’m fine.” I try to suppress her worries for me but she continues to look at me with that same look until she finally breaks down and sighs.
 
“Alright, Swift. Just promise me if something bad happens, you’ll tell me, okay?” she worriedly asks me.
 
I return with a smile, “Okay, Twi.” I turn back to walk away towards home, “Happy Nightmare Night!” I yell back and go.
 
“Happy Nightmare Night!” they reply in unison.
 

<<<>>> 

 
“Twilight, were you just talking about that night when Swift slept over and he woke up screaming?”
 
*Sigh* “Yes, Spike.” I reply sadly. “Ever since that day, I tried to get him to open up a little more so I can help but all he’s done is stop me.”
 
“Oh.” He says before popping a claw full of candy into his mouth.
 
“Princess, is there any way you can go into his dreams and try to find out what’s troubling him?” I decide to ask Princess Luna. Being the Princess of the Night and all, she has the ability to delve into the minds of those that sleep in order to help them at times when they are deeply troubled and need that help more than ever.
 
She shakes her head no, “I am sorry, Twilight Sparkle. I have tried to on many occasions but he is still so… alien to our kind that I can’t get a single glimpse into him. Whether that’s the case or he is able to block me out, I do not know.”
 
I look back to my friend and see as he leaves my field of view.
 
Be safe Swift.
 

<<<>>> 

 
Ever since Discord’s attack on me I have been having continuous nightmares, the usual mauling, ripping, tearing, destroying, and crashing type of dreams. Some of them were even centered around my own kind and especially the ponies. Sometimes I just wake up covered in sweat and tired, other times I wake up calmed due to the fact I was used to that specific dream, lastly I wake up screaming. The latter of course happened the night I slept at the library. It was a hell of a thing to explain but I was able to in the end.
 
Still Twilight tries to help out whenever she can but I don’t want to worry her even more. I’ve gotten used to them so fewer and fewer times at night so I don’t freak out over them as much.
 
Either way, don’t push yourself Swift.
 
I stop at my front door and look at the moon. In the middle of it I notice the dark outline of a unicorn in it.
 
You’ve come too far to lose your mind to that of yours and others demons.
 

-------------------------------

 
And another chapter finished. Looks like Swift is now getting into the grove of holidays in Equestria. We’ll see how the rest go.
 
Well, I already know because I’m the one making them… ah well.
 
 Probably would have been done a little earlier except I’ve been busy trying to plan my trip to for the Brony Fan Fair in Austin in September. It’s kinda hard especially since I’ll be in college by then. Thank Celestia it’s on a weekend.
 
Anyway, rate, comment, you know.