The Hay Burger was the town’s main hangout spot. Friends, family, lovers, all kinds of ponies flocked there, celebrating all sorts of things. But tonight, it was all about Nightmare Night. Ponies of all ages, covered in a variety of of costumes, were gathered together in small clusters throughout the Burger joint. Some were dropping in for a short time, a brief meetup before heading out to the towns festivities, while others planned to spend the entire night at the party they hosted every year.
One group stood out among the others a bit more noticeably. It was the town’s resident heroes, plus three little fillies huddled up at a nearby table. Anypony who looked at them could tell right away they were not normal ponies. But the fact they had an alicorn among them just made it harder not to notice their presence.
The group was seated in one of the booths, with one pony standing before them like a teacher giving a lecture. From right to left was the town's resident apple producer, Applejack. Next came the shy animal caretaker, Fluttershy, who looked to be shaking in her outfit at just being around so many costumed ponies.
The couple who had become the talk-of-the-town was next, with Rainbow Dash sitting happily enough, while her marefriend Trixie sat on her lap. Trixie looked equally happy, holding the hooves of her marefriend and cuddling against her. Then came a rather elegant white sheet with two eye holes cut into it. Said eyes was obviously belonging to the towns local seamstress, Rarity. Spike came next, and it was no surprise to everypony that he kept so close to the nearby ghostly apparition.And finally, next to him, sat the Princess of Friendship herself, Twilight Sparkle.
Next to this booth, a small table has been pulled up, holding the three smaller members of this Nightmare Night gathering, the Cutie mark Crusaders. Each was looking quite bored, despite the intense situation unfolding at the large booth next to them.
They were all staring at one pony, Pinkie Pie, who stood before them all. A huge chalk board towered behind her. On the board seemed to be a map of Ponyville, with big X’s over several locations, along with a long list tacked to the side of it.
Pinkie stood in front of the board inside the Hay Burger with a stern look on her face. Her friends knew Pinkie well enough to know Nightmare Night wasn’t a joking matter. Free candy, plus fun, plus tricks, plus making ponies happy? It was Pinkie’s ideal holiday.
“So, as you all know, I, Pinkie Pie, will be your fearless leader on this magnificent night. I can’t guarantee all of you will live, but I can guarantee you this, I will be the first to step on the field, and I will be the last to step off, and all of us, dead or alive, will come home.” Pinkie said, eyeing everypony there with a glare.
“Pinkie!” Rainbow Dash groaned out, pulling the now pale Fluttershy into her grip. Trixie gently began to pet her, trying to keep Fluttershy from entering the comatose state her body was clearly demanding her to do.
“What?” Pinkie asked back, shrugging in confusion.
“Why do you have to be so serious? You’re gonna make Fluttershy die of like, a heart attack or something! Besides, why’d you quote the heck out of We Were Soldiers? It’s Nightmare Night, not war.”
“Not war?! We are about to enter battle against everypony else in town. We will win the most candy, and we will succeed at getting the prize of best costume. I will NOT fail this ti-” She never got to finish her sentence, as a loud thud sounded around the table, followed by a quick “Trixie didn’t do this!”
They all looked towards Trixie to see a look of pure shock on her face as she nursed a now unconscious Fluttershy.
“Oops… Sorry!” Pinkie said with a sheepish smile, swinging her right fore hoof back and forth.
Twilight sighed, “I’ll go get us some coffee.” And with that, she stood up and walked away.
As everypony moved to put Fluttershy on the table, Trixie stretched out and pulled Rainbow Dash into a hug.
“T-Trixie doesn’t wanna die though! She’s too beautiful for war, don’t make her go!” she said this with obvious sarcasm, though she used a rather convincing face. “Or perhaps, since Trixie is about to go to battle, she could receive a… good luck kiss?” Trixie batted her eyelashes at Rainbow Dash, who was blushing, but making no effort to extract herself from Trixie’s embrace.
“Ya’ll need to get a room, you’re gonna make me puke my guts out.” Applejack said, rolling her eyes.
“I agree, this googoo stuff is really gross,” Spike said, gagging playfully.
“You’re just jealous cause I have a super sexy marefriend, and you can’t make out with her like me!” Rainbow Dash said confidently, although her blush had clearly deepened on her face. Trixie cooed at Rainbow’s declaration, hugging her harder.
“Can someone please tell me when this entire story became rated Mature?” Pinkie asked, causing everyone to raise an eyebrow at her. “What? I’m serious. There are tags on these for a reason!”
“Sure…” Spike said with a shake of his head, walking away from the weirdness that was his friends.
“Ya know, now that ah think about it, ya’ve really softened up Rainbow,” Applejack teased, poking Rainbow Dash with her hoof.
“What do you mean?” Rainbow asked, shifting uncomfortably in her seat, conveying her obvious embarrassment to the group. A giggling Trixie was standing behind her, having let Rainbow finally have some breathing room.
“Well, before ya got with Trixie on Hearts and Hooves Day months back, you used to be so against all that ‘mushy’ stuff, what happened eh?” Applejack asked with a wink.
“She fell in love with The Great and Powerful Trixie!” came the squeaky reply from Trixie.
“Trixie!”
Everypony burst out laughing, she was definitely a different mare than she was several months ago.
“Well, here comes Twilight with that coffee.” Rainbow said quickly, changing the topic at hand.
Twilight was holding a nice large tray of coffee cups with her magic, trotting towards them quickly. “Here guys, put a cup near Fluttershy’s nose, it’ll help wake her up.”
And that it did, with a few quick exchanges between Fluttershy and Pinkie, they returned to their seats.
“So, Trixie is currently wondering, what exactly do you have that board for?” Trixie asked, as she made herself comfortable in Rainbow Dash’s lap again. “It looks like you tried to plan this whole night out?”
Pinkie nodded, pointing to the board. “Our first plan of action is trick-or-treating! We need to hit every house before 11:00, then we head for the town square till Midnight for a little scare factor, after that, we head for the statue of Nightmare Moon to make our offerings. Finally, we end our night at the Halloween Party back here. Sound like a plan?” She stood before everyone with a look that clearly said “I know what I’m doing.”
“Wow, Pinkie, I’m very impressed with how well you’ve planned for this!” Twilight said, patting Pinkie on the head.
“You know it! But I did learn from the best!” Pinkie said, throwing Twilight a quick hug, causing her to blush in reply.
“Now that we got a game plan, what are we doing just sitting around here? Let’s get out there and have some fun!” Rainbow Dash stated, shoving Trixie out of her lap, and jumping on the table. This prompted quite the glare from said showmare, a glare promising heavy retribution to come.
“Candy!!!” Pinkie screamed running straight out the doors.
“She’s so impatient!” Rarity fussed from under her sheet.
“And you’re so judgemental, Sugarcube,” Applejack said, rolling her eyes.
Rarity “Hmph’d” and trotted out the door. Applejack followed behind quickly, looking ready to start a nice little argument with Rarity. The three fillies filed out after them, Scootaloo grumbling under her breath.
“Can’t believe this was the only lousy line I got…”
Rainbow left next, flying out while whistling out a quick little holiday tune.
This left Twilight in the perfect position to see Trixie’s sinister grin as her horn lit up and a small, black nimbus cloud appeared next to her. Trixie caught Twilight’s eye as she made for the door, and most likely after the rainbow maned pegasus. The cloud followed after Trixie, letting out a small, ominous rumble.
“Tonight’s gonna be a hay of a time!” Trixie said, laughing loudly as she exited the Hay Burger, cloud in tow.
Twilight groaned to herself, getting an idea of just what kind of a holiday was in story for her. “Hay of a time indeed …” Slowly, Twilight followed behind, hoping she could avoid getting caught in the crossfire.