Twilight huffed as she made her way to the center of Town Square. She was more than happy when she finally ran out of candy for the evening, no longer having to deal with trick or treaters for one evening. “Homeless bum,” she muttered to nopony in particular. “What do they teach foals in school these days?”
She continued grumbling as she looked around the square. She scanned the edges, the quietest areas in particular, but was a bit surprised to not find the party she was looking for. Eventually, she turned her gaze inward, progressing to the more crowded areas. It was here, that she finally caught a glimpse of the tall, pale Slendermane costume that she was looking for.
Carefully, she made her way across the square. Easier said then done. All around the area where Celestia and the others were, a large crowd had seemed to have gathered. Her thoughts immediately turned dark, dreading what sort of horror had happened to Luna that would draw the attention of almost the entire town. She quickly started squeezing her way towards the front, bracing herself for the absolute worst.
As she broke through the sea of ponies, she got her first good glimpse of what was so interesting. There, in the very center of everyone was Luna, still in her unicorn disguise and butterfly costume, with her head submerged in a large tub of water. Twilight started to panic and rush forward to help her, but stopped as Luna’s head suddenly shot up, flinging water up and into the crowd in front of her. In her mouth, she carried a large, bright red apple. The entire group cheered as she spat it to the side with a large grin before promptly throwing her head back into the bucket and splashing water up once again.
Twilight couldn’t quite wrap her head around what exactly was happening at the moment. So, instead of reacting to the first couple of pokes to her side, she sat completely stunned. It wasn’t until the fourth and hardest poke, that she finally managed to break out of it and look up to the empty face of Slendermane looking back at her.
“There you are Twilight, I was starting to wonder when you’d show up. Are you alright?”
It took another couple of seconds to process who was talking to her, but once it did, it was more than enough to pull her out of her stupor. “Princ— I mean, Cherry Blossom. Sorry, I didn’t see you there.”
Celestia smiled softly at Twilight, giggling a little as she placed a hoof to her mouth. “It’s alright Twilight, I see you have a costume too. Clover the Clever I presume?”
“Thank you!” Twilight replied in joy, beaming at the Slendermane mare. “Finally! Somepony who finally gets my costume.”
“Oh?” Celestia tilted her head in confusion. “What did they take you for?”
“A homeless bum.”
Celestia snorted before laughing out loud, stomping her hooves to the ground. She calmed down when she saw Twilight’s furrowed brow and cleared her throat again before speaking. “My apologies…” she trailed off, but chuckled a little more.
Twilight simply rolled her eyes before her gaze fell upon Luna. “I take it everything is going well with ‘Starry’?” She asked Celestia, seeing Luna bobbin more apples out of the bucket.
“Oh yes,” Celestia nodded her head and looked back at her sister. “To be fair, she was nervous with the crowd gathering. But with them cheering instead of jeering, she become a bit more…” she trailed off again, hearing Luna’s mane splashing more water at the ponies. “Enthusiastic.”
Luna, not hearing her sister or Twilight speaking, continued her activity in merriment as she dunked her head back into the water to grab more apples. When she finally resurfaced, she had about three apples in her mouth that she soon spat out. The crowd keep cheering for her even louder. She felt a tingling in her stomach and heart that she thought was long since dead, and she started laughing in joy. She continued laughing so much, that tears started flowing out of her eyes. Luckily, they were disguised with the water droplets stuck on her head so nopony could see her releasing the tears.
“Huzzah! The fun has been doubled!”
When Celestia heard that, she started laughing for her sister. She too was now overjoyed, seeing her sister finally having the fun she so rightfully deserved.
“She sure seems to be enjoying herself,” Twilight commented. “Did the rest of the evening go this well?”
Celestia nodded. “She was really nervous for the first couple of houses, but she seemed to get into the spirit of things really quickly.” She smiled as she thought back on the night, as Luna eventually started racing the other children to be the first one to reach the door. “The ponies of this town really are quite kind I must admit. I will have to remember to commemorate them once I return to Canterlot for this.”
“Oh…” Twilight sad with just a hint of disappointment in her voice. After all this time, she had all but forgotten that Celestia and Luna were only staying here temporarily. “I guess that with Luna on the mend, we’ll probably be heading back soon, won’t we?”
“Well, not too soon I’m afraid. I think that there’s still a bit more time before she’s ready to regain her previous life again,” the princess said with a sigh. “Still, I must admit that I am starting to miss Canterlot.”
“Yeah, I can understand that,” Twilight mumbled to herself. Although a part of her still did miss her library that she had left behind, she was surprised how much she dreaded the thought of going back. “Well, I suppose that it’s for the best if we just—”
“BOO!!!”
Twilight’s eyes narrowed as her vision was suddenly filled with dozens of slimy, slithering snakes. Each was a different color, and twisted together in a large knot. Right in the center a massive pale blue one looked hungrily at her with slitted eyes and sharp fangs. She screamed out, trying desperately to escape as the swarm moved in for the kill.
Then, she stopped suddenly as the snakes pulled away from her and began laughing hysterically. “Haha! You should have seen the look on your face Twilight! Priceless!”
Calming down, though still not dropping her guard, Twilight looked over as Rainbow Dash couldn’t contain herself and fell to the floor laughing. The snakes, which under closer examination were made of rubber and attached to her mane wiggled back and forth as the pegasus rolled across the floor. The particularly terrifying snake in the middle? That was nothing more than a clever disguise spell Rainbow had gotten somepony to perform on her eyes and a set of fake fangs.
Twilight groaned as she picked herself back up with a bit of help from Celestia who was trying her best not to giggle as well. Carefully, she brushed herself off, making sure that her costume hadn’t been damaged before turning to the still chuckling mare.
“That wasn’t very nice Rainbow Dash,” she grumbled. “You know that I don’t like snakes!”
“Oh lighten up Twilight,” the pegasus said pulling herself back up as well. “It’s Nightmare Night! The best night of all for pranks.”
“I thought that you promised Fluttershy you were going to take it easy this year and not do any pranks in case Starry thought something bad was going on.”
“Yeah, I did,” Rainbow said with a roll of her eyes. “But c’mon. You were just standing there not paying attention, and I was dressed up as Medusa. It was the perfect setup! What did you expect me to do?”
Twilight sighed. “Well, it still wasn’t very nice. You’re costume is just a bit too believable.” She shuddered looking at the plastic snakes in her mane once again.
“Thanks,” Rainbow said with a large grin. “And your hobo costume isn’t half-bad either.”
“It’s Clover the Clever, dang it!” Twilight respond a bit too loudly. She glanced around sheepishly at the number of looks everypony was shooting at her and the awkward silence that filled the area. She sighed and shook her head. “You know what, just forget it. I’m a hobo. Are you happy now?”
Rainbow chuckled nervously. “Right. If you say so. If you don’t mind I’m just gonna head over that way for a bit.”
Without waiting for a response, she turned and quickly made her way into the air and over the crowd of ponies. Things had gotten better between her and her friends in the past couple of weeks, but she still wasn’t willing to see what might have happened had she pressed the issue.
Besides that, she’d heard a rumor going around that there was an entire barrel of Apple Family Cider just waiting for her. She had to hurry to make sure to get some, before Pinkie Pie found out and somehow managed to claim all of it. Again.
It only took her a moment to reach the apple stand, and unfortunately it seemed that a few others had heard about the cider as well. There was a small line that had formed in the front, though hopefully not long enough to prevent her from getting a cup. Still, that meant that she would have regardless. She hated waiting.
With a huff, she folded her wings in and gently took her place at the back. With nothing better to do, she started looking around at the variety of costumes ponies had managed to come up with. There were the basic ones of course, ghosts, skeletons, and other ghouls. There were a couple of ponies dressed as zombies, a couple which were pretty terrifying. Lyra had once again dressed as one of those weird mythical bipedal creatures she was always talking about. And Derpy was flying overhead, either dressed as a mummy or having lost a fight with a roll of toilet paper.
Rainbow’s eyes stopped on a particular pair of unicorns walking past. There were always a couple of ponies who didn’t dress up for the holiday, and these two were no exception. Beyond that though, she wasn’t sure that she recognized them from anywhere. That also wasn’t really a big deal since ponies always came to visit during holidays, but something was off about them. Their heads were close together and they seemed to be whispering about something.
Her curiosity got the better of her. Leaving her spot in line, she snuck over to get a quick listen into what they were talking about. Weaving her way towards them while doing her best to not get noticed, she finally managed to get close enough.
“—the feathers? Are you sure they are ready?”
“I’m sure. Got them set up just—”
That was all she managed to catch. Too soon, the pair wandered into the middle of the largest part of the celebration and their voices were cut out by the sound of the crowd. Still it was more than enough to peak Rainbow’s interest.
“Sounds like somepony is planning a prank,” she muttered to herself, “and a big one at that.” She rubbed her hooves together and chuckled. Pranking was her thing. Oh, how she wanted to be able to help them out. From the brief sound of it, she could already imagine how epic it was going to be.
Then, she paused, a twinge of guilt running through her. She had promised that she wouldn’t cause any pranks tonight, and that included helping out others with there’s. With a sigh, she turned back and started to float away. They would have to enjoy their fun without her she supposed. Still, as she took her place back near the end of the line, she couldn’t help but wonder just how awesome it was going to be.
Luna was now busy with another game that she was beginning to enjoy just as much as Apple Bobbin’: Doughnuts on Strings. She along with others were all busy trying to consume the most doughnuts in the time limit they had.
“And time’s up!” Mrs Cake shouted out, she herself being disguised as the Muffin Mare. Luna stopped when she was on her tenth doughnut, which she knew wasn’t a grand number in the competition. When the winner was announced, it was a mare named Derpy Hooves who had aced the competition with a whopping fifty five doughnuts eaten.
Luna only chuckled as she was both confused and boggled by how the mare was able to eat so many doughnuts in roughly two minutes. When the short term celebration ended, Luna walked back to Celestia wearing a happy smile.
“I see you are having the time of your life, Starry.” Celestia told her sister, using the disguise name.
“Indeed.” She suddenly heard numerous hoofsteps coming from behind and she saw foals and a baby dragon coming towards them.
“Hey guys,” Spike brightly as he and the three fillies of his group walked up to where Luna and Celestia were. “What did we miss?”
“Not much,” Twilight responded as she trotted over and ruffled a hoof through Spike’s spines. “And how has your evening gone?”
“Not too bad,” he said, holding up his bag full of loot that he’d gathered during the night. “Got lots of candy. It’s gonna take a month for us to be able to eat all of this.”
“Yeah, and everypony really liked our costumes as well,” Sweetie Belle added twirling around in her princess dress.
Only Scootaloo didn’t share that enthusiasm. “I still think we should have done something cooler. Even if we’d been homeless ponies like Twilight, that would have been more cool.”
Twilight could feel her frustration building up again, but managed to bite her tongue. “Yes well, maybe next year.” Turning back to Spike, she asked, “So, tell me. What do the four of you have planned for the rest of the evening?”
“Oh, well we were just on our way to go and give our candy offering.”
“Yeah! And also listen to Zecora tell us the legend of Nightmare Moon!”
Celestia silently gasped as she quickly turned to Luna. Her sister had frozen in place, her eyes growing narrow. Slowly she turned to face the three fillies. “...What did you say?”
Both Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle seemed to recognize the sudden change of attitude and didn’t answer. However, Scootaloo was seemingly oblivious to the situation. “We’re going to hear the legend of Nightmare Moon. They do this every year. They tell us the story and then we offer some of our candy to keep her from coming and gobbling us up.”
“...Gobbling you up?”
“Yeah. If you don’t give her some of your candy, then she comes after you in the middle of the night, waits for just the right moment, and then—”
“That’s quite enough of that,” Celestia suddenly spoke up moving in between Luna and Scootaloo. As the young filly looked up at the disguised alicorn, her head slouched from the stern gaze she was being given.
“Oh well…” the pegasus stuttered. “I didn’t mean anything. We just wanted to know if Starry wanted to—”
“Starry is staying right here,” Celestia insisted, stomping her hoof for extra emphasis. “She is in no condition to listen to childish stories to try and scare—”
“I’d love to.”
Celestia paused. Slowly she turned back to her younger sister. Luna was facing the crusaders, though there was no readable expression on her face. “I’d love to go with you,” she repeated again stepping forward.
“Luna,” Celestia said in a hushed voice. “I don’t think that this is a good idea. You don’t need to hear these—”
“I said that I’m going Celestia.” Luna looked into her older sister’s eyes with determination. “I want to do this. I… I have to do this.”
Under Luna’s firm glare, Celestia could feel her resolve melt. With a sigh of defeat she nodded. “Alright.”
Luna turned back to the crusaders, all still very confused about what was taking place. “You said that you were going to hear the Legend of Nightmare Moon? Can you please guide me there?”
After hesitating a moment, the three nodded. “It’s just over by the edge of the forest. There’s a statue they put up for the holiday.”
Luna nodded once. “Lead on.”
The walk up to the statue was nerve-racking to someponies, whilst others were oblivious to the tension in the air. One of these ponies in particular was Luna. All logic in her mind begged her not to venture further, yet in her heart she knew that she had to face what lay in store for her.
Luna was surprised by the amount of ponies that were all gathered in the group. In the very front, all the foals were gathered, eagerly discussing their hauls for the evening and each others costumes. Behind them, were the older ponies talking with one another. Nearly all the town was there it seemed. She squinted her eyes, seeing if Roseluck was in the group too.
“Hey Starry.”
Hearing her false name being called out to from behind, Luna turned and sighed in relief when she saw her new friend Roseluck greeting her. What she was wearing was a simply red hood and a basket filled with apples.
“Hi,” Luna said with a nervous smile. “What are you disguised as?”
“Little Red Riding Hood.” Roseluck pointed out as though it were obvious. She then giggled at Starry’s confused face. “It’s an old foal’s tale. I’m surprised you don’t know that.”
Starry simply shrugged, feeling a little better. “Well to be honest I—”
“She hasn’t really been into those kind of stories.” Celestia, in the guise of Blossom, chimed in for Starry with a cheery smile of her own. The smile faded when Roseluck looked at her like a trespasser.
“With all due respect Blossom, can you please let your sister speak on her own?” Roseluck insisted, albeit a bit harshly on the disguised Princess.
Twilight had to bite down on her leg to not immediately jump in and diffuse the situation. She was starting to sweat profoundly with her teeth gnawing at her at her leg as she stood frozen in place.
Surprisingly though, Luna smiled more and felt even more relieved with Roseluck’s spoken words. “Well, what I was saying is that I prefer stories such as the Little Seapony to be honest.”
“Oh!” Roseluck perked up and beamed. “For a foal story, that is quite a romantic one. Anyway, how are you enjoying tonight though Starry?”
As Roseluck and Luna continued talking and walking onwards, Celestia was frozen in place with a myriad of thoughts running through her brain at the same time. Nopony had ever spoken like that to her before, nopony at all. She remembered then, she wasn’t Princess of Equestria right there now. She was just another pony, a pony with her little sister who she was helping out.
Helping out how exactly?
“So,” Roseluck said pulling Luna aside. “You said that this is your very first Nightmare Night, right?” Luna nodded. “Well, in that case, I think that you should have the best seat in the house.”
Grabbing Luna’s hoof, Roseluck began pulling Luna through the crowd of ponies and towards the front of the crowd. For a moment, Luna tried to pull back, to stay with Celestia and the others she was more comfortable with. However, she found herself unable to do so, as she got caught up in Roseluck’s enthusiasm.
That enthusiasm quickly faded however as they broke through the crowd and she came face to face with her worst nightmare. There, in front of everypony was a massive statue of Nightmare Moon. It stood tall and menacing, glaring down at those below with cold, stone eyes. Her large fangs were bared as she prepared to feast on the souls of those down below.
Luna immediately began shaking, her eyes frozen on the horrific sight as her hooves began slipping as she desperately tried to back up. She didn’t get far however, before she felt a comforting hoof across her shoulder.
“Are you alright?” Roseluck asked worryingly.
“I… I…” Luna stuttered,unable to form her words and still not able to pull her eyes from the statue.
“Hey, listen to me. You’re alright. It’s just a statue, it’s not going to hurt you.”
Luna finally managed to pull her eyes away from the statue and look at Roseluck. Her new friend was looking at her with a mix of concern and support. Slowly, she stopped shaking.
“Th… thank you,” she said through heavy breaths and shaking her head to try and get rid of the images floating through there. “I’m alright now.”
Though, Roseluck wasn’t quite convinced. “Are you sure? We can go back to the back of the crowd if it’d make you feel better. I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable.”
“No, it’s alright,” Luna said looking up at the statue again. Once again, it sent a cold shiver through her spine, though she managed to keep from panicking. “Just a bad memory is all.”
Just as Luna said those words, smoke started crawling at the ponies’ hooves with Zecora at the front of them all. She gave of a smirk, her hair filled with spiders and she was wearing a robe as she began to speak.
“Follow me and very soon you’ll hear the tale of Nightmare Moon.” Zecora began speaking in a calm yet eerie voice. The mere name of the monster made Luna’s hair stand on end.
“Listen close, my little dears, I’ll tell you where you got your fears of Nightmare Night, so dark and scary.” She then raised a hoof that held some dust in it. She blew the dust in the air, where it started forming. The final product was that of a pony, the very same Nightmare moon that hovered threatenly over all the spectators. “Of Nightmare Moon, who makes you wary.”
Every pony gasped, yet Luna was speechless. Her legs started to buckle and her jaw was agape as though she were about to scream.
“Starry?” Roseluck whispered, becoming very worried over her friend’s condition.
“Every year, we put on a disguise, to save ourselves from her searching eyes.” Zecora continued to tell the tale, with foals starting to scream as the image of Nightmare Moon started to fly towards them. Zecora was oblivious to Luna’s growing eyes and her jaw being clenched as her mouth quivered.
Celestia, being all the way in the back, tried to make her way through the crowd of ponies to find Luna. This is bad!
“But Nightmare Moon wants just one thing: to gobble up ponies in one quick swing!”
Pinkie screamed, jumping high in the air before lowered forcefully by Twilight and silenced with a withering glare. “What?”
“Pinkie!”
Luna was speechless as the image continued to taunt others. Cannibalism… did my sister write her like that? Write me like that?
Zecora was at the peak of the tale, as the Nightmare Moon she controlled with her magic began to soar. “Hungrily, she soars the sky. If she sees nopony, she passes by. So if she comes and all is clear, Equestria is safe for another year!”
The ghostly form of Nightmare Moon turned stopped it’s flight, before turning to the audience with a sneer. “But alas, this is not enough you see, Nightmare Moon requires more from you and me.” The glowing figure began descending on the crowd, it’s fanged mouth open wide. “Fill up her belly with a treat or two, so she won’t return to come eat you!”
The smoky vestige descended on the crowd, hitting them and disintegrating as it did so. Several ponies cried out in fear. Luna however, save for her shaking couldn’t bring herself to run.
What happened next, nopony saw coming. A large vat suddenly appeared in the air. It hovered for just a second, before turning over and dumping its contents. A massive amount of dark brown syrup poured out falling to the crowd below.
However, it only hit one single target. Luna didn’t even have the chance to look up before the sticky substance poured all over her, completely covering her from head to tail. Despite it’s warmth, she still felt the shudder as thousands of plain white feathers followed afterwards, sticking to her pre-soaked fur as well.
“It’s Nightmare Moon!” Somepony in the crowd called out. “She’s put her mark on that unicorn there! She’s going to come and gobble her up! Everypony run for your lives!”
Panic ensued as ponies all over began running around screaming as though the world was ending. Luna sat stunned looking back and forth between them, unable to find herself able to say anything. Celestia did her best to push her way through the crowd, but was unable to with so many ponies running around. She tried calling out for her sister, but her voice could make it over the crowds screams. For one brief moment, she caught a glimpse of her sister, covered in feathers and shaking.
Their eyes met. Luna’s eyes were wide and tears were starting to form.
“...Luna?”
Without a word, Luna turned and began to run. The crowd dispersed around her as with lowered head, she ran headlong into the depths of the Everfree Forest.