//------------------------------// // Chapter 44 // Story: 64 vs. The Underground // by Jman9877 //------------------------------// Chapter 44 Princess Luna POV I awaited in my chamber as my sister's sun rose over the horizon, disappating the darkness which my night possessed. I closed my eyes and sighed, remembering what day it was. A celebration regarding the monstrosity which possessed me 1000 years ago... condemning me to an imprisonment on the moon. When I had first heard of the celebration, I thought it was a terrible jest from my sister, who wished to antagonize me once more. When she assured me that it was in fact a reality, I nearly attacked her in rage, never wanting to remember a thing from my imprisonment. I opened my eyes and once again gazed up at My Moon, seeing it still in the sky although the time for it to go down was past. Every morning, I let My Moon remain in the sky for a few moments longer, a small part of me wishing that my night was equal, if not superior than the day. This is why the moon remains in the sky shortly after the sun rises. “Your Majesty Luna, your appearance in Ponyville has been scheduled for 10PM tonight.” Nightingale, one of my Lunar guards, informed me, walking into my chamber and bowing low. I scowled at the reminder, remembering the horrid celebration. “Thanketh thou sentry, we will surely remember. Now, please leave us at once.” I said commandingly, speaking with the ‘royal we’. It was customary to speak in the dialect when talking to subordinates or common ponies, which is why I often spoke to 64 in a manner more familiar with friends and family. “Of course your highness.” Nightingale said, backing out of my chambers still in his bowing form. Once he was gone, I glanced back out of the window and remembered the strange human I had the pleasure of being acquainted with. Since the unfortunate discovery I had made in 64’s mind, I had not entered his dreams or subconscious. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to help him of course, but I felt frightened to do so. Super Nova, the manifestation of Celestia’s hatred and malice with the power of the sun was invading his mind, slowly eating away at him. If he didn’t receive any kind of aid he will surely perish, but… I was still afraid… After once again being sent back to the moon by the evil being, the emotions of soul crushing solitary confinement once again came rushing back, rendering me nothing less of a frightened filly who was afraid of the dark… and the ironic thing was… I’m deathly afraid of the dark. “Sister?” Celestia voice said, causing me to gasp and my eyes to widen. I turned towards my elder sister, her eyes containing a look of concern. “Are you alright?” She asked, obviously already knowing the answer. “If you are asking do I feel well, then the answer is yes. If you are asking if I feel well in my state of mind… then the answer is no.” I responded, not breaking the gaze with my sister. “Luna… I already told you… this night was not in anyway to further antagonize you, it was a night created to-” “A night to what sister?! A night to further implement the association of the fear Nightmare Moon generated and myself!? A night to show that no matter how I try to integrate myself into this new way of equality between Civilian and Royal status, I will always be known as Nightmare?! Tell me sister! What was this most disgraceful of nights crated for!?” I screamed out in the Royal Canterlot voice, wings flaring up in anger and hooves stomping into the ground. My sister was obviously taken aback from my outburst, stepping back in shock. She regained her composure and returned my gaze, although it was much softer and apologetic than my own. “Sister… this night was created in remembrance to you…” Celestia said slowly, her eyes trying to convey that she was sorry. “But in no way did I contribute to the custom of fearing Nightmare! The original name was ‘The Night of Nightmare’, honoring the anniversary of the defeat of Nightmare Moon. Over time, ponies began to twist the meaning, thinking that on that day of the year Nightmare Moon returned to haunt young foals and eat them whole.” I listened on, still skeptical of Celestia’s explanation. “Disguises were donned to avoid the watchful eyes of ‘Nightmare Moon’, and offerings of sweets were laid out to appease her spirit. When I first heard of these developments, I thought nothing of them, thinking that they were simple actions to create a bit of fun, but… when the actions became tradition, it was already too late to change anything… Nightmare Night was born.” I slowly dropped my wings and eased my glare, but still held a stern look. I turned away from her a moment before sighing, my eyes nearly betraying me by creating a few tears that I refused to let fall. “I apologize for my words Tia…I spoke without thinking clearly…” I said, never really wanting to hurt her feelings. “Thank you for your words of ease…” I heard Celestia take a few steps closer until she was standing next to me, before she wrapped her wing around me and brought me closer to her in an affection hug. My barrier of unwillingness broke down as I began to slowly shed a few tears, nuzzling closer into my sister’s neck. “I missed you so much Luna…” Celestia wept, holding me close. “And I you sister…” I sobbed quietly, overwhelmed with emotion. Ghost POV “C’mon 64! It’s been like 3 hours! Can I just see what you are doing back there?” I cried out, finally putting the last of the dirt into the grave we had dug for the Manticore. He had completely skinned it from head to toe, taking it mane and all. Of course 64 had the common courtesy to at least bury the carcass, because he had said something about ‘Fluttershy coming down on his ass harder than Celestia when he had the last slice of cake’. “Be patient Ghost! I’m doing something amazing right now!” He yelled back, hidden behind a large wall of bushes and brush. I sighed in frustration, sitting down onto my stomach. It was my job to keep out a watch on any animals which might have been attracted to the smells the Manticore gave off, but so far, none had come close. I looking left and right before I did so, I dropped my disguise with a burst of green flames, fluttering my wings and stretching my neck a bit. It was a bit tiring to hold the disguise all night, but recently it’s like something… something had been feeding me… Today I was planning to reveal what I actually was to the rest of the Apple family. Applejack and Applebloom already knew from when we were in Canterlot, but Big Macintosh and Granny Smith Apple didn’t know yet. I had met the two shortly before the party started, introducing myself as the one who was going to be looking after Applebloom psychologically. Big Mac looked a bit skeptical, but when I showed him my Equestrian Knight Badge, he quickly accepted my words as truth. Granny Smith looked as if she didn’t understand half of the the things I said, but when I told her I would be staying at Sweet Apple Acres, she quickly took me in as if I was a part of the family. It seemed that Applebloom had a really loving and supporting family, meaning that she was probably going to recover faster if they all made sure that she felt safe at home. She seemed like a really tough filly, but having to kill somepony for the first time… that was innocence ripped away at the blink of an eye. Thanks to the little incident, it caused her to develop a case of Hemophobia, which meant that even at small amounts such as Scootaloo’s little cut, she was deathly afraid of blood. With Nightmare Night, there might be things such as fake blood all over the city, so i had to make sure that she doesn’t have another freakout. “Alright Ghost! Let’s see how this baby looks!” 64 called out from behind the brush, causing my train of thought to crash and burn in a fiery explosion, killing all passengers. Wow, that was pretty dark… “How what looks?” I asked, as 64 stepped out of hiding. Gave his entire body an inspecting glance, before my eyes widened in surprise. 64 was dressed as a Manticore! Although the Manticore was much bigger than him, he had managed to create a sort of Jumpsuit made out of the Manticore’s fur, with the paws at the ends of his arms and legs still attached. The stinger tail was still attached to his backside, but it looked like the actual point of the stinger was blunted to not hurt anypony walking by. The wings on his back were folded back so nopony would accidentally get smacked by just walking by. The mane of the Manticore was the best part though. It was shrunk to fit 64’s face, and flared out in all directions, making it look as if his head was way bigger than it actually was. “Well, what do you think? Not a bad last minute costume is it?” 64 gloated, put his arms out and turning a bit to let me see the entire thing. “Wow! That looks really cool! Can you move the paws and stuff?” I asked, flittering my wings to fly up to get a closer look. 64 moved his fingers a bit to show me he had motion, but it looked a bit strained. “A bit, but it’ll do. Nice and warm in here too! C’mon, lets head back to Ponyville, it’s about Noon so they’ll need help setting up the games and stuff.” 64 said, taking off the mane as if it was a mask. It might had sounded a bit mean, but I was was wondering why 64 was getting so excited about something so childish. But when I thought about it for a bit, I realized that he never had a childhood. He’s only had his memories since he was 10, and up until he was 20 he was running for his life. I guess he just wanted to be a child again. We walked back to Ponyville while 64 held his mane under his right arm still giddy about Nightmare Night. “Ok, I have no idea when Luna is going to show up tonight, so we don't have that much time to get this place ready. C’mon, Twilight probably knows what’s going on.” 64 said, his speed stepping up a bit. I grinned and followed, once again donning my disguise. 64 POV I got some strange stares in my costume, but I was too excited to notice. Nightmare Night was here, and I would finally get to do all of the things that I always wanted to do when I was younger. I went to help some street vendors set up their booths, using my magic to carry all of the food they were going to be selling. Ghost was over with Applejack setting up the apple bobbing tub, but every now and then when I watched him I could see him giving sideways glances towards Applebloom. Whenever she looked back at him his eyes would quickly divert to the nearest thing away from her while blushing, then turning back to his work. I stifled a chuckle every time I saw his actions, seeing young love starting to develop before my eyes. Once I was done setting up all of the food vendor booths, I went around town looking for Twilight so I could get my next task in setting up. After a few minutes of looking around for her, I went to Mayor Mare who was standing in front of Town Hall to ask where she was. “Ah, 64! I had just sent somepony looking for you. We have received word of... Princess Luna’s arrival in town… are you still going to be guarding- I mean escorting her around?” She asked me nervously, as if she was scared of something. “Uh, yeah I am. Neither of us have ever attended a Nightmare Night, and she’s still trying to adjust to being in public again. Celestia just thought I would be best due to us being familiar with each other.” I answered, disregarding the comment she had made about me being her ‘guard’. Someponies were terrified at the word that Luna was coming to Ponyville, due to the stigma that she was still Nightmare Moon waiting to strike. I swear this city had a really bad streak with social prejudices. When Zecora first came to the city, she of course was purposely avoid due to her strange appearance. When I first revealed myself to Ponyville when being pursuited by Rainbow Dash and Applejack, first thing ponies around here did was run and scream. Of course that was partially my fault. That was the reason I was so afraid for Ghost, one slip up and the town would discover that he was one of the most feared creatures in Equestria. “Well, we hope that we can make her visit enjoyable as possible.” Mayor Mare said with a forced smile, some sweat dripping down the side of her head. “I hope you can…” I said simply, not sparing her another glance and walking away. I could feel her eyes staring at the back of my head, but I didn’t look back. Looking down at my watch I saw that the sun would be going down and the festivities would start in about 4 hours, meaning there was a lot of time to kill. I decided to go and see if Twilight was at her library, not really knowing anywhere else that she might be. I had completely forgotten to ask Mayor Mare where she was, so I was going with my gut. When I arrived I saw that the Library was decorated in cobwebs and fake spiders, so deciding to test Twilight to see if she recognized my costume, I put my Manticore mane back on. I went up to the door and knocked a few times, but all I heard from the other side was the sound of jingling bells. “I’m coming don’t worry!” Twilight’s voice called out, getting closer to the door. She opened it to show me that she was wearing an incredibly large hat with bells all over it, obviously it being part of her Nightmare Night costume. “Oh! I was wondering where you went after the party 64. What… are you exactly?” “Manticore. My last costume was trashed after a mishap involving water, so I had to improvise last second. Let me guess yours…Star-something the hairy or something like that?” I said jokingly, making Twilight huff. “I know for a fact you know who I’m supposed to be.” She said with a deadpanned expression, making me chuckle a bit. “Starswirl. Pretty cool. I just wanted to know if there was anything else I could do around here. I’m feeling pretty excited for tonight.” Twilight giggled at my excited expression, shaking her head. “Oh 64, you make it seem like you’ve… never… been to Nightmare Night… oh. Sorry.” Twilight blushed, forgetting that I had been a fugitive from the law for over 6 years. “Well… there isn’t really anything else on my checklist, every job has either been completed or already has enough ponies on the task. The only thing I haven’t accounted for is Princess Luna’s visit is her time of arrival. Nopony was able to tell me anything about it.” “I’m pretty sure we don’t need to worry about that. We’ll see her Chariot arriving long before she lands, so we can play all that by ear later.” I said, taking off my mane and setting it aside as I walked into the library. “So where’s Spike? He getting ready too?” “I’m right here!” Spike’s voice called out, as he came running out of the kitchen area in… what I could only call one of the most stupid things I had ever seen. Spike, a fucking Dragon, was dressed as a Dragon. A much fatter Dragon. “Hey 64! What do you think?” Spike said, motioning to to his costume. “It’s… something… alright…” I droned, my eyes half lidded in disbelief. Maybe he would realize that his costume sucked before the real festivities began. 3rd Person POV Darkness fell across Ponyville as Celestia’s sun set, making way for Luna’s moon. 64 and Twilight were both fully dressed up in their costumes and waiting to leave for the Nightmare Night festival, and after a few comments from Spike about Twilight looking like the crazed Grandpa at Ponyville retirement village, 64 thought it would be best for them to leave now. A knocking on the door signaled the first trick or treaters. “Sounds important! I’ll get it!” Spike cried, not wanting to have to deal with Twilight who had just discovered he had been disregarding his reading assignments. He swung the door open to show a group of foals all dressed up. “Nightmare Night! What a fright! Give us something sweet to bite!” They all yelled, each of them holding small bags semi-filled with candy. Twilight walked up to them with and smiled. “Hi, everypony. Great costumes. Happy Nightmare Night, Granny Smith.” She said to the old mare, who look a bit worse for wear.” “I was supposed to be in bed 5 hours ago…” She complained. 64 took the opportunity to run to the balcony above the entrance and light the tips of his Mane on fire, giving his face an evil glow. Using magic to keep himself attached to the surface, 64 walked onto the underside of the group and growled, softly, causing all of the foals to look up curiously. “HELLO THERE!” 64 screamed, causing all of the foals to suddenly jump in fear. After their reaction passed, 64 laughed and dropped from the balcony, patting out the fire on his Mane. “Gotcha there didn’t I?” The foals all started laughing after 64’s scare tactic, but one colt was a bit vocal about it. He managed to pull himself out of the crowd swinging around a fake rubber Cutlass, tumbling onto the ground a bit. “Pipsqueak the pirate, at your service. It's my very first Nightmare Night!” The colt introduced himself to 64, who kneeled with a grin. “Nice Pirate costume! It’s also my first Nightmare Night too you know.” 64 said, causing the group of foals eyes to widen. “Really 64? But yer so big!” Applebloom called out from the crowd, seeing the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Ghost standing there. Sweetie Belle was a vampire, if her pointed teeth and cape meant anything, Scootaloo was a wolf, but the cutest had to be Ghost and Applebloom’s. Applebloom was the Bride of Frankenpony, and of course Ghost managed to use his morphing powers to become Frakenpony’s monster. “Well I’ve never been able to celebrate it, so I hope that everything goes well.” 64 answered, shrugging his shoulders a bit. All of a sudden, Pinkie Pie emerged from the small group of children with a loud squawk, sending 64 onto his back in fear. “Enough chit-chat! Time is candy!” Pinkie yelled, her chicken costumes feathers flaring out in anger. She then began to start pecking at the ground and swiveling her head around jerkily, much like an actual chicken would. 64 thought it was adorable. “Pinkie Pie, aren't you a little old for this?” Twilight asked but Pinkie Pie made it seemed like she had just said that cupcakes were evil. “Too old for free candy? Never!” Pinkie gasped, squawking in anger. 64 got up and dusted himself off, fluffing his Mane to keep it poofed up. “Wow 64! That’s a cool costume!” “Thanks Pinkie, it was last minute.” 64 thanked, before pointing towards Twilight. “We have a Weirdo Clown, so she can tame the angry lion! You guys are dressed as a circus!” “Uh… sure?” “I’m not a weirdo clown!” Twilight yelled in anger, turning back to the conversation after giving everypony in the group a piece of candy. “Whatever you say Grandpa…” Spike snorted, walking by Twilight to go with the group of traveling foals. To 64 it almost looked like Twilight’s mane was about to catch fire, causing him to laugh a bit. “C’mon Twilight, let’s just follow them to the Festival. There’s plenty of time to be mad at Spike later.” “Fine, but I just hope anypony in town recognizes my costume.” “Hehe… fat chance…” The pair followed the group of foals as they went from home to home asking for candy, chanting the traditional cheer for candy. “So, I never really found out from any of the books i’ve read in Canterlot, what’s the origin of Nightmare Night?” 64 asked, turning to Twilight. It looked like she was about to answer, but when she took in a breath to explain, she stopped and put a hoof to her chin. “I...I actually don’t have clue! How could I not know this?!” She cried, surprised at her own lack of knowledge. “Well like I said, no books I had found in Canterlot had any information about it, and you get most of your knowledge from books anyway. Maybe Princess Luna will know when she arrives.” 64 said, trying to calm Twilight. Continuing to follow the foals from house to house, 64 saw that Spike was racking up an enormous amount of candy, and was munching it up at an alarming rate. Once the group of foals arrived at the Town Square, Granny Smith went back to Sweet Apple Acres, and the foals went around to get some of the last house they had missed, leaving Twilight, Spike, and 64 to walk around. “Hey look, we're here already! Should we get something to eat?” Twilight asked, seeing Spike munch on his large pile of candy. “Sure, I’m feeling a bit peckish. Let’s go get some candy apples.” 64 offered, but was interrupted by Pinkie Pie and the group of foals returning from getting candy. “Twilight, 64! Look at our haul! Ah! Can you believe it? And then, we went to Cheerilee's house, and got a bunch more goodies. Didn't we, Pip?” Pinkie squee’d in delight, turning to the small Pirate Colt. “Sure did!” Pipsqueak yelled, showing his candy bag. “Then we went to go see if Granny Smith wanted to come back and-” As Pinkie was explaining, a lighting bolt came down from the sky despite it being a clear night, scaring the feathers off of Pinkie Pie and the rest of the foals, causing them all to shoot off in fear. When 64 saw the only one that didn’t run in fear was Ghost, he gave him a small grin. “Shouldn’t you go see how Applebloom is doing after that?” 64 said smugly, causing Ghost to blush a bit and run off to where the filly in question went. 64 then looked up to see Rainbow Dash on a stormcloud wearing a Shadowbolts costume, absolutely busting a gut. “Nice one Rainbow.” 64 congratulated, receiving a glare from Twilight. “Rainbow Dash, that wasn't very nice.” Twilight scolded. “Lighten up, old-timer.” Rainbow said uncaring, commenting on Twilight’s incredibly long beard. “This is the best night of the year for pranks!” “Look what you did to Spike!” 64 and Rainbow both looked down to see Spike lying on the ground grabbing at his chest as if he were having a heart attack, but he was just overreacting to being a bit frightened. “It's all in good fun. Oh! Oh! There's another group over there!” Rainbow Dash yelled before zooming off with her storm cloud, leaving 64 and Twilight with a convulsing Spike. “Come on, let’s go get those Candy Apples I was talking about earlier.”