Chapter 32 - Nightmare Night
*Nyx’s P.O.V.*
It has now been more than a month since Joshua came to Equestria, and a few weeks after his pony transformation incident. He and I have been practicing our magic together with Twilight, and we have gotten better over the past few days. Now, we’re coming up on one of the most celebrated holidays of Equestria: Nightmare Night.
When I first learned of Nightmare Night, it didn’t go over for me too well, mostly because of the story about Nightmare Moon seeking to gobble up ponies on that one night. I never ate other ponies in my entire time when Luna and I were one and the same, or when we were separate beings. But when I stuck around and saw the whole prank after the story and when the candy was offered up, I was told that the offered candy was given to sick foals who couldn’t attend Nightmare Night, and that it was just a story. True, I did still find it a little insulting, but it made me feel a little bit better afterwards.
This Nightmare Night was going to be special, because it was going to be Joshua’s first. We gave our costume ideas to Rarity the day before so she could get them done for us in time for tonight. She got them delivered to our tree house in time from before we had to go out for candy collecting. I was going to be going as a Martian pony. Rarity made a full, skin-tight green suit with two ballpoint antennae on top for me. It was perfect.
Twilight was dressed up as lab scientist, with a white lab coat and eye-safety goggles. Spike had a red suit that covered up his purple and green scales and he had horns at the top. He also had a short red trident.
Joshua’s costume was interesting looking. When he came downstairs out of the bathroom, he had on a red long-sleeve shirt, blue overalls attached with big yellow buttons, brown shoes, white gloves on his hands, a red hat with a big, red letter M on it, and to top it all off, Twilight used spell #25 on him, giving him a mustache under his nose.
“Whoa little brother,” I said surprised, “Who are you supposed to be?”
“I’m a video game character from back home,” Joshua said, “His name is Mario. He’s a plumber and a hero from a place called the Mushroom Kingdom. He protects the kingdom’s princess named Peach from an evil fire-breathing turtle monster named Bowser, who always kidnaps her. But Mario always beats him.”
“Twilight,” Spike groaned, “You give him a mustache, but not me?”
“Sorry Spike,” Twilight said, “But Joshua’s costume wouldn’t be complete without it. Besides, it’s just for tonight.”
“Fine,” Spike grumbled, “Honestly though bro, it looks good on you.”
“Thanks Spike,” Joshua said smiling. The door suddenly knocked. Spike went over to answer it, and when it opened up...
“Nightmare Night! What a fright! Give us something sweet to bite!” sang a group of voices. There were the other Crusaders and Sparkler dressed up. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo were dressed up as the three trouble-makers from the movie Night Mare before Hearth’s Warming. Twist was dressed up as a gumball machine. Dinky was dressed up in a pink dress with a yellow crown on top of her head. Sparkler was dressed up as a court judge.
“Wow girls, you all look great!” I said as Twilight placed a piece of candy in each of the Crusaders’ bags. Joshua had his eyes fixed on Dinky.
“Dinky,” he said surprised, “You costume looks like Princess Peach’s dress.”
“Who’s Princess Peach?” Dinky asked. Joshua then explained Mario, Peach, and Bowser to her as he did before the Crusaders arrived. “So, who you’re dressed as saves Peach all the time from an evil fire breathing turtle?”
“Yeah,” he said.
“How heroic,” Dinky said smiling, “So are you and Nyx ready to join us in some candy gathering?”
“Sure!” Joshua and I said in unison. But before we exited the library, Pinkie ran up dressed as a road runner.
“Beep beep!!” she said nearly barreling into us. “Comin’ through!!” She then snatched up our candy bowl and dumped the contents into her bag, which was overly stuffed. Then with another “Beep beep!!” she whizzed off again.
“What was that?” Joshua asked.
“That was just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie,” Sparkler said.
“Hey Sparkler, where’s your mom?” Joshua asked her.
“She’ll be around in a little bit,” she replied, “She’s just visiting a friend of hers.”
We started walking through town, going from house to house collecting candy. All over town, ponies were dressed up as ponies from stories or ponies from other places. But one pony surprised us out of all the others.
“Hey Joshua!”
Lyra came trotting up to us. She was dressed in a blue shirt, khaki shorts, and socks on her hind legs.
“What do you think?” she asked Joshua. Joshua was looking at Lyra in awe at her costume.
“Are you dressed as me?” he asked surprised.
“You got it!” Lyra said, “I’ve been wanting to do a human for Nightmare Night for years, and now that you’ve shown up, I can finally do it. Thanks!”
“You’re welcome Lyra,” Joshua said smiling. Suddenly there was a roar behind Lyra. She shrieked and ran off. Joshua yelped in surprise and ran behind me, panting. There was suddenly loud laughing in front of us. It could only belong to...
“Again with the pranks Rainbow?” Twilight asked the laughing pegasus. She was dressed up as a manticore, with her face poking out of the lion mouth.
“Rainbow Dash?” Joshua asked peeking out behind me, “What are you?” Rainbow stood up after finishing her laughing fit.
“Never seen a manticore eh?” she asked.
“No, I don’t even know what a manticore is,” Joshua replied, “We didn’t have any on my old world.”
“Well, as long as you steer clear of the Everfree Forest, you won’t have to worry about them too much. I’ll see you guys around,” she said flying off.
“Alright kids, let’s go and play some games,” Twilight said. We went over to where all the games and activities were set up and saw Applejack at the apple bobbing game as usual. Applejack was dressed up as an Indian pony.
“Howdy y’all!” she said when spotting us, “Happy Nightmare Night!” She then looked down at Joshua. “Enjoyin’ your first Nightmare Night, sugarcube?”
“I sure am!” Joshua said.
“That’s good to hear. So y’all want to bob for some apples?”
“Yeah!” we all said in unison, except Twilight and Sparkler. We all leaned up so we could dunk our heads in. Joshua had a bit of difficulty however, but Applejack fixed that by wrapping her forelegs under his arms and lifting him up.
“There ya go partner,” she said.
“Thank you Applejack,” Joshua said before dunking his head in. We all dunked in and each one of us came up with an apple in our mouths. I pulled the apple out of my mouth and looked over at Joshua. He was still in Applejack’s forelegs, but had a big smile on his face with the apple in his mouth. He then took it in his hand and looked back at AJ. “Thanks for the help Applejack. This was fun!”
“You’re welcome sugarcube,” Applejack said hugging him. She then put him down and handed him a towel. “Why don’t y’all dry your faces off.” After we did that, we said goodbye to Applejack and went to the next game: the Spider Toss.
“How do you play this?” Joshua asked.
“You toss the spider toward the web and try and aim for the center,” Dinky explained, “Bullseye is an automatic win.” Joshua picked one out of the bowl and threw it toward the web. It landed on the ground a few inches away from the web. “Try again,” Dinky said. Joshua did, and got the spider just below the bullseye. The rest of us took our turns, but we were all short of the bullseye. The next game we came up to was the Pumpkin-pult. Twilight levitated a pumpkin into one of the catapults for Joshua. He had couldn’t reach up to pull it down, but Dinky gave him a boost. Together the two of them held down the pumpkin-pult and when they released it, the pumpkin splattered over the target.
“Bullseye!” Dinky said.
“Attention everypony!” came Mayor Mare’s voice, “Your attention please!” We all turned over to look at her. She was dressed up as a vampony. “All who have been out collecting sweets should follow our friend Zecora to hear the legend of... Nightmare Moon!” she concluded in a spooky voice and an evil laugh.
“Is this what you were telling me about yesterday Nyx?” Joshua whispered into my ear. Yesterday, I explained to him the story about Nightmare Moon looking for little lost ponies on Nightmare Night. This Nightmare Moon was completely different from me, and I knew it. I nodded my head to answer his question.
A green mist appeared on the stage and Zecora the zebra stepped out. This was Joshua’s first time seeing her.
“Follow close little foals, to hear of a mare with sinister goals,” Zecora said in her rhyming talk. We all followed her to the place where the Nightmare Moon statue inside the Everfree Forest was located. Joshua was a little shaky taking a look at me in my adult form, but I placed a comforting hoof on his shoulder to remind him I was there. He calmed down a bit. Afterwards, all the fillies and colts dumped portions of their candy hauls out. Joshua was the last to go, but before he did, he turned back around and looked at me.
“Nyx, you said there was supposed to be a surprise after everypony offered some of their candy right?” he asked.
“That’s right,” I said.
“I’m kinda nervous about it,” he said looking back up at the statue.
“Don’t worry little brother,” I said reassuring him, “It’s nothing dangerous.”
“Okay,” he replied. He dumped out some of his candy and looked back up. He looked back at me with a confused look on his face. “Something’s supposed to happen now right?”
*CRASH*
A thunderclap sounded throughout the sky, and a dark voice came about.
“Fillies and colts of Ponyville, once again, you have wisely chosen to offer up your delicious sweets to me. I’ll just feast on them, rather than you!” Joshua looked up to see the statue, now filled with color and life with white glowing eyes. Everypony around screamed and ran away. Joshua screamed too and ran behind me.
“I thought you said it wouldn’t be dangerous!” he exclaimed.
“Just watch,” I said calmly. Suddenly there was a flash, and Princess Luna stood where the statue once was with fake vampony teeth in her mouth. She spit them out and set them off to the side.
“Princess Luna?” Joshua asked surprised.
“Indeed it is Joshua,” she said walking up to us, “I hope I didn’t scare you too badly.”
“A little bit,” he said calming down, “But I feel a lot better now that I know it’s just you.”
“Well, shall we head back to the festivities?” Luna asked us all
“Sure!” I said.
For the rest of the night, we spent it playing more games, talking, and hanging out. I could tell Joshua was having fun on his first Nightmare Night.
*Third Person P.O.V.*
Up in Canterlot, Princess Celestia was taking care of the first few petitioners of the Night Court for her sister while Luna enjoyed the festivities of Nightmare Night in Ponyville. Just then, she heard somepony calling to her. After finishing up with the first group of ponies, she called for a break and went toward a secret area of the castle that only she and Luna could enter, unless they brought others with them.
Soon, she came to a large set of doors and opened them up. Inside was a large room with a red carpet running up a large staircase, larger than Celestia herself.
“Hello again my child,” said a female voice.
“Hello,” Celestia said looking up at the figure at the very top of the staircase, “It has been a while.”
“Only a month or so,” said the voice again, “You’re probably wondering why I called for you.”
“Yes,” Celestia replied.
“I am most curious about the recent member of our Equestrian family.”
“The young human child who resides with my faithful student?” Celestia asked, “Joshua is his name. Sadly, he is the last of his kind.”
“I am well aware of that,” the voice said sadly, “And I wish to offer my sympathies to him when I meet him.”
Celestia looked up surprised. “You wish to speak with him?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Hearth’s Warming Day this December.”
“Should I notify Twilight Sparkle about this?”
“No. You know how your student worries over things like this, and I would say this qualifies.”
“Of course,” Celestia nodded before looking up, smiling, and continuing, “Mother.”