One of the reasons that Twilight eventually grew to love Nightmare Night, especially in Ponyville, was seeing the costumes that everypony chose. Unlike in Canterlot, everypony in Ponyville usually made their own costumes by hoof, and although Rarity had been forbidden from entering any from of costume contest on the night, even the fashion designer got into the spirit of the night.
Twilight’s first Nightmare Night after her coronation and the whole affair with Tirek had yeiled some very interesting costumes from her friends, and Twilight had reprised her Starswirl the Bearded costume. This year, Rarity had graciously offered to help run the pumpkin catapults, and was dressed in what was quite unmistakeably a scarecrow costume. If Twilight looked closely, she could see the straw poking out of the costume’s edges, and had to wonder if Rarity had stolen one of Applejack’s actual scarecrows for the night. It certainly looked less professional than Rarity’s usual costumes. Unfortunately, at this point in the night, Twilight didn’t quite have the time to stop and chat with Rarity-she was running late as it was for a meeting with Pinkie Pie. And of course, the pink party pony was nowhere to be found, and so Twilight was stuck walking around Ponyville until she was either ambushed by Pinkie, or she stumbled upon the party pony.
Rainbow Dash’s costumes were always surprisingly well done, especially given the pegasus’s emphatic dislike of anything remotely ‘girly’ or ‘frilly’. Yet, this year Rainbow had not elected for a costume, but had instead painted her entire body black, save for her mane, and then drawn her skeleton, with what Twilight could confirm was actual anatomical accuracy. Twilight again would have stopped to talk for a while, but Rainbow was in the middle of pranking a few unsuspecting ponies. Twilight could only shake her head as the two grown stallions shrieked like fillies-they really should be seeing it coming by this point.
Looking around for Pinkie, Twilight noticed that most of the costumes this year were much better than the last year-she supposed the annual visits by Princess Luna had caused the ponies to put their best hoof forwards, in an attempt to impress the Princess of the Night.
It was at this point that something pink and oddly slimy tackled her into Sugarcube corner.
“Pinkie!” cried Twilight, extracting herself from her friend’s grip, and taking stock of her. “That’s an...interesting costume, Pinkie. What are you supposed to be?” Pinkie’s mane and tail had been seemingly fashioned into a whole bunch of nearly prehensile tentacles, and Pinkie’s hooves had been replaced with the tentacles as well. It wasn’t quite the craziest costume that Twilight had seen Pinkie don, but it was certainly near the top.
“Well, that’s kind of what I need to talk to you about, Twilight,” said Pinkie. Twilight shook her head. For a moment, while Pinkie spoke, it had seemed like there was a second voice, just out of her hearing range. “See, I found this really creepy book, and it told me all about these really cool things that I was going to dress up for Nightmare Night, but then I read a bit of it out loud, and so now I’m an eldritch abomination. I kinda need your help to reverse it.”
Twilight blinked. “Don’t be ridiculous, Pinkie. There’s no such things as eldritch abominations, and Discord doesn’t count-he’s the literal embodiment of an abstract concept.
“No really, Twilight, watch this!” cried Pinkie, and she unhinged her mouth impossibly, and inside Twilight saw eternity, and her mind overloaded with information.
Twilight Sparkle collapsed on the floor, her mouth moving slightly as she attempted to process what she had seen before she went completely mad.
“I told you I was an eldritch abomination,” said Pinkie, as she hugged Twilight, praying to Libman that Twilight would recover soon. Pinkie Pie sighed, and glared at a leather-bound book sitting on a nearby table.
“This is all your fault,” she grumbled, “you just had to show up now, not on a day where I could have dealt with you alone.” The book seemed to smirk back, as if it was gloating over some small victory.
“Savour it, book,” said Pinkie Pie, “I’m gonna get Twilight to send you to space. Deep, deep space, so I don’t have to worry about you ever again.”