Twilights Mane Passion

by Darkonshadows


76

It was midday; things were going quite well with the setup for Nightmare Night. Fluttershy was wearing her turtle costume now and it was about as fully functional as a real turtle shell was as she spent her time with Scootaloo who was excited about all the free candy she was getting tonight looking like a variation of Rainbow Dash wearing a small Wonder Bolts outfit. Things were going perfectly well for these ponies.

Inversely Twilight and Tress had just been seen by Rainbow helping set up the decorations.

“Hey guys, nice Radiance costume Twilight. Who are you supposed to be Tress?” Rainbow was receiving a flat look from Tress who had transformed her mane and eyes for the costume and Twilight helped her with her coat coloring.

“I’m supposed to be The Mane-iac. You know that villain from the same comic series?” There was a slight tic in Tress’s eyes as she said this.

“Funny, you don’t look a thing like her, except you're a mare.” Rainbow was oblivious to the sudden scene of Twilight moving closer to the real Mane-iac as she flew off to continue setting up decorations.

“Don’t Tress, just don’t. It’s not worth the mental agony.” Twilight ran a hoof up and down Tress’s back in an attempt to calm her down, it actually worked pretty well.

“But I am Mane-iac.” Tress said solemnly in a quiet voice as her mane wilted. All the while Fluttershy and Scootaloo waited patiently for them to be finish their private conversation; the little filly was more interested in watching Rainbow help with the decorations.

“My family knows, Fluttershy knows and we know, but does Rainbow Dash really need to know? We have no idea how every pony would even react to you being a comic book character, do you truly want the entire town to bother you about it?” Twilight just watched as Tress brightened up at the fact that she was being silly.

“Yeah I guess it would be kind of silly to get depressed because my costume isn’t exactly a costume.” Why should Tress Ravel get all bent out of shape because of Rainbow Dash anyway? Well aside from the fact that she was something of an attention seeker until she met Twilight and was in fact the real Mane-iac using the appearance of herself as a costume for Nightmare Night.

“Tonight is the night of pretend Tress, just be you and not in a literal sense of the costume you’re supposedly wearing. Fluttershy let’s go, we still need to help Rarity out if she’s to enjoy the holiday with the rest of us.” Twilight quickly got Fluttershy’s attention and the shy pony scooped up Scootaloo and followed them towards the Carousel Boutique. They could tell it was crowded even at a distance.

“Wow, Rarity’s business looks really busy maybe we should come back…” Fluttershy couldn’t retreat too far and stuffed her entire body into the shell when she felt a head impact with her butt. She immediately took notice that it was Tress that started to shove her towards the boutique from inside the shell.

“She’s really not into crowds is she?” Scootaloo asked of Twilight, she thought the older unicorn mare was cool for making her look like Rainbow Dash and the Wonder Bolts costume was a nice touch.

“You don’t know the half of it; she really doesn’t like Nightmare Night either and she’s only willing to chaperone because she doesn’t want to upset all the other children she’ll be taking around tonight. Move over Tress, I got her.” Twilight levitated the shell costume into the air and a pair of eyes looked pleadingly at her from within the shell where Fluttershy’s head was supposed to poke out of.

“Guess I wasn’t kidding about the shell thing. It looks like Rarity really needs our help and we’re not going to let her tire herself out are we? Think about all the fun she’ll miss and how she needs to get out more as those romance novels are wrecking her brain, forcing her to pine away for the life she wishes she could be leading. Can you imagine the devastated look on her face if she misses spending time with others like you Fluttershy? She needs us to stay sane Fluttershy; do you want her insanity on your conscience?” Tress thought being dramatic would get Fluttershy out of her shell, with a pop Fluttershy did in fact return to walking status immediately under the weight of a guilt trip.

“O-okay… let’s go.” Fluttershy moved as quickly as she could in the turtle costume while trying not to think about the crowd as they came closer.

“So what’s Zecora doing? I already understand that you three are going to be helping Rarity, while me and Scootaloo play with Sweetie.” It was just a curiosity to Barb as to why Zecora had wandered off.

“She’s going to be learning her lines for the story of Nightmare Night; she has to talk it over with the mayor for a bit. Of course we all know she’s going to find some way to tell the story in rhyme. When we’re done here you are going to stay here with Fluttershy. I and Tress have some business with Trixie for the story Zecora has to tell. We know where a statue that looks like Nightmare Moon is and we need to fill in the colors for the imagery so the performance can be the best that it can be.” Twilight took in the line of ponies waiting at the door as they walked towards the boutique; they met with Octavia and Vinyl exiting the store in their costumes. Octavia looked cute as a vampire; here Twilight thought Vinyl would be the vampire pony and realized that it made more sense for her to be the wolf pony. They acknowledged each other as they passed going in opposite directions.

“Why hello there darlings, do please come in. Sorry about the crowd, why I’m positively swamped today finishing off all these wonderful costumes. Sweetie Belle some of your friends are here for you to play with! I swear I’m the one raising my sister at times with how often my parents keep running off all over the place.” It was apparent that Rarity needed help and she wasn’t about to ask for it or deny it if she were asked if she needed any.

“We’ll make sure you you’re not overloaded Rarity, come on girls let’s lend a helping hoof. What do you need us to do Rarity?” Watching the fashion pony sigh in contentment at not needing to ask for help, Twilight waited patiently for her to start giving orders and she wasn’t disappointed.

Rarity soon started barking orders to each of them. She was pleasantly surprised to find out that Fluttershy had made her own turtle costume. It was a perfectly tough and lightweight costume, despite looking heavier than it actually is and the wing holes were the only thing that made it looked different from a normal turtle shell. She had Fluttershy work on some sewing she needed done, Tress was given the job of hoofing out finished costumes and giving them to ponies from a list and Twilight was soon assisting Rarity by levitating materials to her as she rapidly worked to give every single pony the costumes they wanted.

It had taken a few hours and they were finished, it was still daylight out and the night had yet begun to fall. It was about time Twilight and Tress set out to assist Trixie in getting Nightmare Moon’s appearance down. They found Trixie assisting Pinkie Pie into a frog costume and Trixie was actually wearing something other than her purple hat and cape for once.

“Why a frog costume?” Tress earned both the mares attention at the question.

“I’ve always liked amphibious and reptilian things you know; besides it’ll help me get through world three much easier. Trixie is going as a witch and I wanted to be her faithful frog companion, maybe I should have been a toady. Other than that why not? My parents would never get me a pet cragadile though I said I could handle one.” After saying this and seeing that the costume wouldn’t be put on any other way, Pinkie got her two legs out of the thing and simply slapped the costume into her face. In a cloud of blinding smoke she was wearing the costume perfectly and bouncing around happily and jumping much higher then she should be capable of normally.

“Trixie does not know how she did that when we were having so much trouble getting it on her in the first place. Trixie assumes you’re finally here to help Trixie with the imagery of the illusions for the telling of that tale?” Not waiting for an answer the witch dressed Trixie just turned her nose into the air in a proud manner. “Then let us depart with my faithful frog suited pink one to see this statue.”

A little later in the woods they found a statue of Nightmare Moon, no pony knew who had put it there or why it was even there in the first place. It was just sitting around Whitetail Woods and it was a perfectly apt appearance of Luna as Nightmare Moon. One would even question that if Luna was only Nightmare Moon for about thirty to forty minutes then how did someone get enough time to sculpt a perfect likeness of her? Especially if not many ponies were around for her fight with Celestia.

“Trixie wonders who made such fine statue, it looks much like the face in the moon and yes you two have warned Trixie that Nightmare Moon is coming in the next or so Summer Sun Celebration. Trixie will be ready to assist you in battle and is training for it. Trixie will defend Trixie’s home and all of Trixie’s friends, but that is only should your plans fall through Twilight.” Trixie believed in Twilight’s capabilities well enough as a jack of all kinds of weird and wonderful magic spells. It was to be noted by her that Twilight was hard pressed to master any spell unless she worked at it as hard as she could, otherwise Twilight’s talent would be quite powerful if it were focused to just one school of magic as shown with her prowess in the complex field of enchantments. As an example Trixie imagined she could master thirteen different illusions and have them all going at once doing completely different things, whereas in the same time it would take Twilight to even do one with equal levels of complexity.

“That’s rather brave of you Trixie. If Twilight’s first three plans don’t work we’ll count on your aid to help bring her down without killing her.” Because Tress knew it was much safer to create a battle herd against an all powerful goddess like being than it was to face her alone. A pony that could keep Nightmare Moon distracted enough that she couldn’t use her more devastating spells would help a lot, especially if she’s misaiming them at illusions as strong as the ones this show off of a mare could make.

“Thank you, Trixie will try Trixie’s best to help when the time comes. Now will you help Trixie, making a grey illusionary image is boring and it needs some color.” Trixie’s horn sprang to life and in front of them was an illusion made from the appearance of the statue, but it was standing up and looking at them in a creepy manner.

“Wow, look at black snooty! You're making her look really nice and stoned Trixie.” Pinkie hopped up to the illusion and made silly faces at it only for it to snort angrily at her spooking her away from it. She heard Trixie giggling a bit into a hoof at her actions.

“Well let’s see…” Twilight started rattling off descriptions and color about Nightmare Moon’s appearance. She had a black coat, flowing blue white speckled starry mane reminiscent of the night sky, dark purple and blue cutie mark, slightly draconic wings, blue green draconic eyes with slits and finally the regalia colors. After looking up from her notes Twilight blinked in awe at a perfect representation of what looked like a real pony standing before her.

“One last thing Trixie needs… how is Trixie to give voice to this apparition?” Now that was a good question as Trixie didn’t know how to do an evil voice or laugh, she noticed that both Pinkie and Twilight were staring at Tress.

“What?” Asked Tress innocently as she noticed three ponies were now staring at her, a moment later she realized why they were staring. “Let me guess, the use of my evil cackling and the voice I sometimes use in the laboratory me and Twilight share?”

“Trixie didn’t want to say anything, but…” The party magician known as Trixie was looking anywhere but at Tress at this moment.

“Well if you didn’t want to say something, then why did you say that?” Now Pinkie was confused, this would lead to some trouble if it wasn’t put a stop to and soon. “I mean if we all go around saying things we didn’t want to then we would…”

“Fine, I assume you need some examples of my evil voice to get it just right?” The pink pony was cut off from continuing by Tress who cleared her throat and then burst out with her evil cackle. Twilight, Pinkie and Trixie shivered at the remarkably eerie deranged laughter. “Fools, I hope you know who you are dealing with! I will make the night last forever for I am Nightmare Moon!”

“G-great d-d-delivery, Trixie thinks that w-will be enough of a sample for the illusion.” Trixie was shivering and now fearing for her life should Tress ever become Nightmare Moon.