So you attended your first Hoofkado ghost festival? Cool!
Yeah apple blossom, those oriental ponies sure know how to celebrate, I'll give em that! But the ponies of Hoofkaido weren't the only ones planning something spectacular that night...
The evening streets were alive with the sound of thundering drums, and the sounds of laughter and song the annual bon festival. As she trotted about the streets, Sugar Apple saw all of the mares, foals and stallion, clad in kimonos and yukatas of every color and design imaginable, dancing the Bon Odori to the traditional song Hokkai bon-uta in a large circle around the drum tower. Bright lights and color filled the air around her, and ponies played games and happily munched down of delicious festival food like watermelon and sweet dumplings.
"Wow, this place sure is pretty, I'll say that!" Sugar Apple told Floater, the mare who had agreed to be her guide for the festival. "I don't think I've ever seen a shindig quite as fancy as this one!"
"It is a festival to honor those who have long passed." Floater noted, brushing aside several of the beads that hung down from the multiple hair buns her own mane was done up in. "At the festival's conclusion, we shall light the lanterns that will send the on the souls of those who have departed to the friendship gardens."
As the other Pegasus spoke, Sugar kept getting the odd feeling that there was something... familiar about this mare before her. The Pink Kimono she was wearing, along with the balloons cutie mark, really seem very familiar somehow. But her serious and sarcastic demeanor really threw her off. Still, Sugar Apple couldn't shake the idea she knew this pony from somewhere before....
"There you are, sister! I've been looking everywhere for you!" A yellow Pegasus stallion with a blue mane called out, flying up to where the two stood, and coming in for a landing. "Honestly, Froater-chan, you can be very difficult to locate sometimes!"
"Excuse me, but who..." Sugar trailed off, staring at the winged stallion with the gold and black yukata and two giraffe cutie mark. Apple was used to Hoofkadian ponies being of a smaller and more diminutive stature, so this larger fellow seemed a little different that all of the other ponies around her right now...
"Oh, please forgive my manners!" Floater apologized, bowing politely. "Sugar Apple, this is my brother, Tall Tales. He runs the princess's royal menagerie. Tall, this is Sugar Apple, she helped save our princess from Tirac's stratadons."
"Well, it is quite an honor to be in the presence of such a brave and honorable heroine." The oriental stallion bowed, smiling at sugar Apple. "Would you find if I accompanied the two of you for the remainder of the festival?"
Sugar Apple kept staring at that smile of his, all through the events of that night. She barely noticed when Floater gave her a glass of some strong tasting stuff the Hoofkaidians called sake, and paid little attention as she drank one after another after another. She felt more alive and awake than ever, when the three of them were pulled into the dancing circle surrounding the drum tower Sugar merely copied the brother and sister's moves as she danced, trying not to trip over her own hooves.
Finally, all of the dancing concluded, and the other ponies led her down to the river just outside of the city.
"Here, sugar-chan, light this paper lantern, and put it on the water." Tall Tale told her, handing Sugar a paper lantern. "It'll let your dead loved ones know you still care about them."
Even in her drunken state, Sugar Apple had enough presence of mind to light the paper lantern, and place it gently on the water's surface. Many of the other ponies also lit their lanterns, and pushed them out onto the water. As the current swept them away, pushing the small boat-like lights out onto the nearby lake, Sugar Apple could've sworn they all looked like a thousand tiny fireflies, all dancing upon the lake's surface.
And as she watched her light float among the many many others, Sugar Apple thought of three other ponies with apple cutie marks, all smiling at her, and filling the old mare's heart with a warm and fuzzy feeling. Her head so fuzzy from so much sake and her own strong feelings, she pushed up against Tall Tales, noting how warm the stallion felt.
"Can you believe how disrespectful she's acting? At such a sacred festival, and with a stallion she has just met!"
"Now, now, what can you expect? She is only a gaijin, of course her manners are going to be somewhat off..."
As tall tale helped her away from the river bank, those were the last words Sugar Apple remembered hearing that night. What she could remember that Tall Tale was a strong and passionate stallion that night. And there, wrapped in the soft embrace of each others wings, Sugar Apple knew passionate lovemaking she had not experienced in centuries....
Momma, you trailed off again! Why do you always do that right when you get to a good part?!
Because those good parts are something you don't need to hear until your older, young lady! Besides, what happened next was far more interesting, anyway.
It was barely dawn when they came.. tearing out of the sky, and bearing down upon the sleeping city of Hoofkaido below. Their fire breath scorched the rooftops of the city, and ponies were fleeing in every direction in a panic on the streets below.
Sugar Apple awoke lying on top of Tall Tale, wrapped in a soft feathery cocoon of his wings, even as she had her wings wrapped around him. Ignoring the soreness in her flank, she ran to the door at the sound of all the commotion outside.
"W-what's going on out there?" Sugar asked, pushing a strand of her disheveled mane out of her face as she opened the door. The response came in the form of a hot and fiery blast into the nearby street, one that sent the surprised mare sprawling backwards onto the floor of tall Tale's house. "An attack! Tall-san, the city is under Stratadon attack!"
And looking outside, that's when the two ponies knew, that they were in some very serious trouble indeed...