//------------------------------// // The Amiable Masquerade // Story: Softening the Stone // by TheMyth //------------------------------// “Absolutely not.” Celestia stood resolutely before the three fillies in the library. Despite her generally kind demeanor, she was currently very serious. She was usually more than willing to listen to different request, but they had come to Celestia asking something that she simply could not entertain. They wanted to take Luna out on Nightmare Night. “Awww!” All three fillies of the Cutie Mark Crusaders sighed, sticking out their lower lips and making them quiver. “Why not?!” Celestia exhaled, closing her eyes. The thought of her sister seeing a holiday dedicated to the banishment of Nightmare Moon would surely traumatized her even more than she was, at least that’s what Celestia thought as she winced when it came to mind. “I just don’t want Luna to be at risk tonight.” Scootaloo’s brow furrowed a little, though she did not scowl as she did not want to be disrespectful in their request. “But she will be fine with us around!” She motioned to her friends and to Spike behind them. Celestia couldn’t help but smile a bit from their enthusiasm. Still, she shook her head. “I’m sorry girls, but despite how much you girls have helped Luna in the past, I don’t think that you’ll be able to help out if something bad were to happen.” “Oh come on,” Sweetie Belle whined. “What bad could possibly happen?” “Well for starters, do you remember what happened the last time Luna was outside when the moon came out? Most of the Nightmare Night activities take place after sundown. How do you think she’d react when she saw it again?” Sweetie Belle’s ears drooped as she realized that the princess raised a good point. However, she was cut off by Scootaloo before she could agree. “Oh, the moon won’t be a problem!” the young pegasus exclaimed. “I was talking to Rainbow Dash and she told me that she’s planning to make the entire town covered in clouds all day! Something about making it even more spooky and good for pranks.” “Yeah,” Sweetie Belle brightened, quickly joining in. “If there’s a lot of clouds, then Luna won’t be able to see the moon and it won’t be a problem anymore.” Celestia’s brow furrowed at the persistence of the fillies before her. “If only that were the only issue to address,” she sighed as she closed her eyes. Apple Bloom scrunched her lips before answering. “What ya mean the ‘only issue’?” She asked curiously. “While Luna is speaking more often and opening up to others, I can’t help but fear that with so many ponies around her at the same time it would overwhelmed her greatly.” Celestia explained to Apple Bloom, hoping that her point would suffice. The fillies looked to each other shaking their heads. “But Princess, we’re going out Trick or Treatin’.” Apple Bloom explained. “There ain’t tha’ many ponies around when we do tha’.” “Yes, but—” “And when we done, we can just take Luna back to the library or even to where ma sis’ at.” Apple Bloom interrupted Celestia before she could finish. “Ma big sis’ runnin’ the games at the town center. She and the others can look out fer Luna when we done.” Celestia regarded Apple Bloom’s words, biting her lower lip and tapping her chin with her hoof. If Luna was looked after by the Elements of Harmony, maybe… maybe it might just work… but— Her thoughts were cut off when she felt a nudge at her side and she saw Luna standing next to her. “I want to go sister.” Luna said to Celestia, showing determination in her eyes to her elder sister. Celestia was silenced by Luna’s words, though more so by the expression Luna addressed herself in. How long has it been since I saw those eyes of yours Lulu? She asked herself, before closing her eyes and sighing. “Alright.” The fillies cheered and started jumping around the princesses in joy chanting “Yes!” multiple times. Celestia couldn’t help but smile a bit from their enthusiasm. “However,” she said, causing the three to freeze, “only as long as I or somepony else older goes with her as well.” The three quickly nodded and let out another cheer, jumping around again. They continued that for a bit before coming to a halt before Luna and inspecting her thoroughly. “We need to get you a costume for tonight!” “C-costume?” Luna repeated the word, looking down on herself and cocking her brow. “Am I not already in costume?” “Pfft!” Spike rolled his eyes and came before Luna. “Nah, for tonight, we need to get you a cool costume. Something that will look awesome on you.” Sweetie Belle nodded her head vigorously as she was beaming. “Right, we already got our costumes sorted—” “Which I think is not awesome material,” Scootaloo grumbled, but was ignored as Sweetie continued speaking. “Maybe you could get a costume like one of ours? I’m sure that Rarity wouldn’t mind helping us with another one.” “I wouldn’t mind helping you with another one of what?” The library door opened, as Rarity came walking in with a curious expression. Behind her trotted in Twilight and Fluttershy, both with equally as curious looks on their faces. Sweetie Belle quickly ran over to her older sister and shot her a bright smile. “We were hoping that you could help us to make Luna a costume just like ours!” Rarity froze in place. “You… I mean…” Her eyes narrowed as they jumped back and forth between the fillies and visions of ‘Cutie Mark Crusader Costume Makers’ floated through her mind. “Oh dear me,” she said suddenly looking up at the clock with a nervous chuckle. “Is that the time? I dreadfully late for… something very important. Excuse me.” Without another word, she turned and ran out of the library as quickly as her legs would carry her. Sweetie Belle just sat and blinked at the space where her sister had been standing only a second earlier. Turning around, she shrugged. “Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to ask her again later.” Twilight just chuckled to herself lightly at the young unicorn’s response. “I’m sure she’d appreciate that,” she said as she gave the crusaders a curious look. “Though to be honest, I don’t think that Luna needs a costume if she’s just going to be staying at the library for night.” “Oh she’s not staying at the library,” Apple Bloom quickly interrupted. “She’s coming trick or treating with us!” The expression on Twilight’s face quickly turned from confusion to horror as she looked up to Princess Celestia. “Um… Princess?” “Relax Twilight,” the alicorn answered dismissing her with a wave of her hoof. “They’ve already managed to convince me that it’ll be alright.” Twilight looked back and forth around the room. “Are you sure? I mean, we’re talking about Nightmare Night after all.” Her gaze paused for a moment as she looked at Luna’s look of curiosity. “Do you really think that would be wise?” Celestia sighed and turned back to her younger sister. “Are you really sure that you want to go Luna? It’s going to be late and there’s going to be a lot of ponies out and about. I think it might be better if we wait a while until you—” “No,” Luna said firmly, cutting off Celestia mid-sentence. “I… I want to go. I want to see what this ‘Nightmare Night’ is all about.” That’s what worries me, Celestia thought to herself. With another sigh she shrugged before turning back to Twilight. “Then I suppose that settles the matter. If Luna wishes to attend the festivities, then she should be allowed to.” The crusaders let out another collective cheer, while Twilight scratched the back of her head. “Well… If you say it’s alright… Though, I guess we will have to get Rarity to make you a costume then.” “Actually,” a timid voice suddenly spoke up. The others all turned and looked at Fluttershy, who had remained silent in to the back up until now. She shot them all a bright smile. “I think I might have a better idea.” “Trick or Treat!” Three fillies, four mares and one baby dragon in disguise stood before the doorway of one Ponyville resident’s house. The pony who answered the door was a cream coloured mare with a mane in different shades of red, accompanied with a single rose on her flank. “Happy Nightmare Night to you all.” She greeted each of her Trick or Treaters and reached out for a bag, depositing an assortment of sweets into each of their carrying bags. She looked to each pony and dragon before her, admiring their costumes. The tallest one was dressed with an eerie black tuxedo, with featherless wings and no mane on her head. From the cutie mark, that was a circle with an ‘X’ in it, Roseluck could tell that this was Slendermane. Scary The fillies were each dressed as princess with each one with an identical tiara on their heads, though the colours varied from each other. Blue for the little pegasus, red for the unicorn and yellow for the earth pony. Each one of them smiled and thanked Roseluck, though the little pegasus seemed to be grumbling something under her breath. How cute. The dragon in the group wore a piece of armor and was carrying a sword with him. From the looks of things, he was the princesses’ knight in shining armour. Charming. There were two additional ponies hiding near the back, behind Slendermane. Roseluck started to walk around to get a better look at them, but was suddenly stopped as a large green something hopped out in front of her. “Trick or -ribbit- Treat!” The bright pony in the large green frog costume said loudly. Quick as a flash, she stuck out her hoof reaching for the candy bowl. The bright pink color of her fur made it almost appear as though it was a tongue shooting out and grabbing several pieces of candy. However, before it could retract with the goods, Roseluck quickly slapped the hoof, making it freeze and drop the sweets. “Pinkie Pie,” Roseluck said sternly, “What have I told you before? This candy is for all the children, and not just for you.” Pinkie pulled back her hoof, shaking it lightly with a pout on her face. “But Rosey,” she whined, “this is the first house that we’ve come Trick or Treating at. That makes it an extra special house tonight. And since this is candy we’re talking about, that makes it super duper special!” Roseluck rolled her eyes before reaching into the bowl and pulling out a single piece. “You can have one Pinkie, just like everypony else. Now don’t complain or I won’t let you have even that alright.” Pinkie nodded quickly, watching with great interest as Roseluck carefully dropped it into her bag. No sooner had it disappeared, Pinkie jumped up and pointed over towards the next house. “Alright team, there’s no time to waste. To the next house!” she exclaimed, before turning and (rather appropriately) hopping off down the path. As the three fillies and dragon ran off after her, Roseluck waved them goodbye with a laugh. She expected the other three mares to turn and follow them out as well, but surprisingly, they didn’t. Instead, the two still hiding in the back seemed to be talking about something in hushed tones. Roseluck thought about speaking up, but was unable to as the pair finally made their ways forward. “Hello Roseluck,” Fluttershy said sheepishly as she stepped forward. She was dressed in a sparkling outfit, which looked like a pale light dress. On either side of her were two large faux wings, that seemed to glow a light pink. On top of her head was what looked like a tiara, with two large antenna like objects coming off it. “Fluttershy!” Roseluck exclaimed. “I’m a little bit surprised to see you out and about tonight, and in costume nonetheless. That butterfly is absolutely beautiful.” “Oh thank you,” the pegasus said with a light blush. “I made it myself.” “I can tell, it’s absolutely stunning,” she responded taking another quick look at the costume. Then, with a shake of her head, she added, “Now dear, what can I do for you tonight?” Fluttershy smiled before stepping aside. “I’d like you to meet a couple of good friends of mine. This is Cherry Blossom,” she said pointing towards Slendermane who nodded in response. “Pleased to meet you,” the disguised mare said, her voice slightly distorted from the costume. Roseluck returned the greeting before turning towards the mare still hiding in the background. “And, who might you be?” However, the mare in the background didn’t have a chance to answer before Cherry spoke up instead. “This is my younger sister, Starry Sky.” Turning back, she gently nudged her, pushing her forward. “Now don’t be shy Starry. Say hello.” The other mare stepped out of the shadows. She was a dark blue unicorn that Roseluck had never met before. Like Fluttershy, she was dressed in almost the exact same elegant costume, though her own wings were a light blue instead. She looked at Roseluck sheepishly. “Hello,” she muttered softly before lifting up her a bag of her own. “Um… Trick or Treat.” Roseluck gave her an odd look. Outside of Pinkie Pie, it wasn’t exactly common to see a full-grown mare out trick or treating on her own. She turned to Fluttershy inquisitively, who simply gave her a warm smile. “This is Starry’s first time seeing a Nightmare Night celebration,” she explained. “She wanted to see what everything was about for herself.” Satisfied, Roseluck dismissed her reservations with a shrug. She lifted another piece of candy before carefully placing it in the mare’s sack. “So, first time out Trick or Treating huh? That’s a bit surprising if you don’t mind my saying so.” Once again, it was Cherry who spoke up instead. “We’ve been away from Equestria for a very long time now. Because of that, she hasn’t really had the chance to celebrate Nightmare Night before.” Roseluck gave Cherry an odd look before turning back to the nearly silent mare. “Well, I’m really glad to hear that you decided to come and visit us during that time. It’s a pleasure to meet you Starry. My name is Roseluck and I help run the local flower shop in town. I haven’t seen you around before now. Did you just get into town?” Again, it was Cherry who tried to respond. “We’ve been here for a little bit already. We’re here visiting Twilight Sparkle and—” “Excuse me,” Roseluck finally spoke up, the annoyance evident in her voice silencing the disguised Slendermane. “I asked your sister the question. Not you.” Turning back to Starry, her expression loosened back to it’s previous friendliness. “So you’re staying with Twilight, the new librarian? Are you related to her?” Starry shuffled her hooves in silence for a moment. She turned back to look at Cherry, who simply shrugged and (thankfully) didn’t respond. Not finding any help there, she turned to Fluttershy who gave her an encouraging smile. Without any assistance, she turned back before nervously nodding. “Yes…” she said softly. “We’re her… um… cousins.” “Oh that’s nice,” Roseluck responded cheerfully. “And how long are you going to be in town then?” “Oh, well… I’m not really sure to be honest. We’re just visiting for a little while. I don’t know when we’re planning on heading back.” “Well, if you’re going to be around for awhile, you should stop by my shop sometime. I’d love to give you a tour of Ponyville and show you around if you’d like.” “Oh,” Starry said a bit surprised. “I couldn’t impose on you like that.” “It wouldn’t be any trouble at all,” Roseluck said waving off her concerns. “One thing that we pride ourselves on around here is trying to make sure that every pony feels as welcome as can be. In fact, I’m a little surprised that Pinkie Pie hasn’t thrown you a party yet, seeing as how you seem to already have met her.” “I would have, but they won’t let me!” the pony in question called out from beyond the fence. “Now hurry up you three! There’s still a lot of candy left to collect!” Roseluck chuckled slightly. “I take it that the rest of your party is starting to get impatient. There’s still a lot of other activities you should look into tonight. But please, if you’re going to stick around a couple of days, don’t be a stranger alright? At the very least stop by and I’ll treat you to lunch sometime.” “Um… are you sure about that? I don’t want to cause you any trouble and—” “I’m certain,” Roseluck said cutting her off. “After all that’s what friends do.” Starry paused for a second, before nodded graciously. She said a quick ‘thank you’ again, before the group said their goodbyes and headed off in their separate directions. As she, walked off into the darkness, the disguised Luna turned back towards the shut door and gave a small smile. As the group finally reached the town center, Luna was in awe at how many ponies there were gathered. All ponies were disguised in either scary outfits or in the most ludicrous disguises they could think of. What pleased her immensely was the fact that so many ponies were enjoying an event during the night, something that she thought was not allowed in any lifetime. When the group reached their destination, the foals took their candy and departed from the adults. “Guess this is where we leave you be?” Celestia said, shivering slightly from the cold. The bald spell she had cast made her costume especially frightening, but it certainly left a lot to be desired for comfort. “Yeah,” Spike shrugged, looking over his shoulder to see his friends already heading off to the other foals. “We’ll catch you later.” As Spike and the fillies went on to where the other foals were, Luna gazed at the wide variety of events taking place all around her. “What do we do now?” she asked eager to continue this evening that was already proving to be fun and exciting for her. “Um… I’m not really sure,” Fluttershy said hesitantly. Normally she would be too frightened to actually come out on Nightmare Night, but since this was for Luna she simply couldn’t refuse. Almost immediately, she spotted a familiar looking cart with a variety of apple related treats. “Maybe we could grab a quick bite and say hello to Applejack,” she offered softly. Celestia smiled, though it was impossible to tell from her costume. “Yes, I am feeling a little bit peckish. That sounds like a wonderful idea Fluttershy.” With a smile of her own, Fluttershy led the group across the town square to the small apple cart. All along the front were basics full of bright, delicious looking apples. On top were several golden brown pies, still steaming as though they had just come from the oven and leaving Celestia’s mouth watering. To the side were some large barrels containing some of the year’s last remaining, world famous, Apple Family Cider. Behind the stand was another Bearer of the Elements, Applejack. What she had on was also a tuxedo but her face was painted white and her the area around her eyes were covered in black to give it a skeletal look. “Welcome folks! I’m Applejack! Queen of the Pumpkin Patch!” She smiled broadly, revealing rotten teeth in place of her clean white ones and a cackling laughter coming from her mouth. When she took notice of how was standing before her, she shook her head lightly chuckling. “Hey gals, nice to see you all out here.” “Ooooh!” Pinkie inspected Applejack costume carefully, emitting a ‘ribbit’ as she jumped around the orange mare. “Neat! How’d you get your teeth so dirty?” She asked as she opened Applejack’s mouth wide, before being swatted away by the farmer. “It’s a trick Ah learned from Granny Smith.” She said proudly, remembering how Granny Smith would always scare the jeepers out of foals who came trick or treating at the acres every year. “By the way, good costumes you have on.” She looked at each of their costumes, spotting Luna’s butterfly one. Before Applejack said another word, she shut her mouth sharply before reforming the words in her mind. “Ye a butterfly tonight Starry?” Luna nodded with a broad smile, lifting her wings up to flap slightly. Thankfully, the butterfly wings were a unicorn trick employed by Twilight. “Why yes thanks, Fluttershy and I are a pair.” When she said the latter’s name, she looked around to find that her friend was missing. “Where is she?” An ‘eep’ escaped from behind Celestia and they turned around to see Fluttershy hiding away from Applejack. The latter merely rolled her eyes before giggling. “It’s alright Fluttershy, Ah ain’t gonna bite.” Fluttershy regain her composure but didn’t look Applejack in the eye. “It’s just… your costume is so… scary.” She muttered softly as she as ever. Celestia cocked her brow in confusion to Fluttershy’s confession. “And what of mine, Fluttershy? Isn’t mine the scariest one of all? “Ah admit Blossom, that is one good costume.” Applejack complimented the princess by her disguised name. With a chuckle, she turned her attention to the treats in front of her. “Now, what can I do y’all for? Perhaps you’d like a slice of pie? Or maybe one of Granny’s amazing Apple Fritters?” “I’ll take the pie please!” Celestia quickly answered. She blushed only slightly after realizing just how loud she had been as well. Applejack laughed. “That’s one slice of pie coming right up for Slendermane. And what about you Starry? What would you like tonight?” “Oh, um… I don’t know. What would you recommend?” “Well, shoot. Wha' wouldn’t Ah recommend? Everything here is guaranteed delicious and to put a smile on yer face. Still, if yer looking for something simple, ye can’t go wrong with a plain old, red ripe apple. Best apples in all of Equestria, if Ah do say so myself.” Luna grinned. “Alright, I’ll take an apple then.” “One perfectly ripe apple coming right up for the blue butterfly,” Applejack responded grabbing one and tossing it over. “Perfect for a cool night or even for bobbin’ if it suits yer fancy.” Luna caught the apple with her magic, but gave Applejack a confused look in return. “‘Bobbing’? What is this ‘Bobbing’ you speak of?” Applejack looked as though she’d just been hit by a train. “Land sakes, you mean to tell me y’all haven’t been bobbin’ for apples yet?” Shaking her head with a tsk she said, “Well we’re just going to have to take care of that right now I think.” Turning to the side, she yelled out to a stallion standing nearby. “Hey, Caramel! Get over here, will ya?” Caramel came up to Applejack, wearing a scarecrow outfit for tonight. “What do you need Applejack?” “Watch over the stall fer me. Ah gotta show a friend how to bob them apples.” Applejack instructed him, adjusting her suit and walking off with the group before Caramel could respond. With a sigh, Caramel stood behind the stall putting on the biggest smile he could muster. When one stallion came up to the stall, he nodded to the stallion with his eyes closed. “Happy Nightmare Night! How can I help you?” The stallion, another earth pony who had brown hair and a red coat, merely leaned into Caramel’s ear. “Everything is set.” Caramel’s smile slowly dissolved, and he smirked as his eyes squinted in the direction Applejack and the others had left. “Good…”