//------------------------------//
// Chapter 14 
// Story: The Blueblood Chronicles 
// by No One and Nobody 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 14: Nightmare Night and Royal Lunacy.


Blueblood examined himself in the mirror.

He adjusted a crooked wing on his costume and smiled. He and Auntie were going to have so much fun handing out candy tonight.

A knock on the door turned his head and he saw his aunt entering his room, dressed as a banana.

"My my," she said smiling, "Aren't you a fearsome looking dragon?"

"Why auntie," he said smirking, "I'm not a dragon. I'm dressed as you when you come to breakfast early in the morning!"

"Oh come on you rascal," said Celestia, giggling.

Blueblood followed Celestia out on his room and down to the castle entrance.

"Your highness," said a guard, "Are you quite sure about this? You aren't very safe here."

Celestia laughed.

"Oh your always worrying Shield. We'll be fine."

"Very well your highness," said the guard, giving a stiff salute.

Blueblood and Celestia sat on two small chairs holding bowls of candy while small troops of foals and fillies patrolled Canterlot for sweets.

Luna approached her sister with a dark cape around her shoulders.

"Sister," she said, forgetting her sister hated the Royal Canterlot Voice, "We are off to the small town of Ponyville to change ponies perceptions of their princess of the night. We shall most likely return late with their many gifts of adoration."

"Are you quite sure about this Lulu?" asked Celestia, "After a thousand years I doubt ponies feelings about you are too-"

"Thy princess of the night shall be fine!" said Luna, "And how many times must we remind thou sister that we despise that abominable name thou hast bestowed upon us?"

"And how many times must I say that you're destroying my hearing with that voice of yours? Nopony talks like that now Lulu."

"Apologies," said Luna, "But we are off to Ponyville."

"You sure you don't want to stay here and hand out candy with us?" asked Blueblood, holding a bowl in front of Luna's face, "I've got marshmallows... your favorite!"

"Tis below our dignity to be seen in such plebeian pastimes," said Luna, holding her muzzle in the air, "Personally, we are astonished with thou, sister. We thought you had more dignity than that."

"Aww come on Lulu," said Celestia, prodding her younger sister in the gut, "It's been a thousand years. You need to come out of the past and accept microwave ovens."

Luna's eyes bugged out as Celestia mentioned her secret phobia of modern technology, especially microwaves. Luna had tried to use one when she had returned from the moon to cook a potato. Not knowing to poke holes in it, it exploded, ruining the microwave and Luna's thoughts on them. She had since sworn them off and would simply cook food magically.

"The enchanted cookware hath nothing to do with this sister. The fact is that we are the royal sisters who must conduct themselves in special ways. Not dressing as bananas."

Celestia laughed.

"Fine sister, go to Ponyville and see for yourself."

Luna pulled the hood over her head to protect her mane from the windy journey ahead and flew to her waiting chariot. The chariot took to the air and flew towards the town of Ponyville.

"Boy is she in for a surprise," said Celestia, giggling, "She'll scare the costumes right off the ponies in Ponyville!"

A small troop of fillies and mares walked past the castle and Celestia perked her head up eagerly. They turned the corner and headed to another house which caused Celestia to slump back into her chair.

"I swear ten groups have passed by and nopony has stopped to say hello."

A golden filly wrapped in toilet paper to resemble a mummy trotted back around the corner and up to the supreme ruler of all Equestria.

"Hewwo Youw Highneth," said the filly, "May I have thome candy pweathe."

"Yes of course you may," said Celestia, reaching into the bowl to hand the filly a huge chocolate bar.

But before Celestia could pass the filly the candy, the filly's mother came tearing around the corner and grabbed her daughter.

"Your Highness, I apologize for my daughter," she said, bowing low. She turned her daughter back to the group and started lecturing her, "What did I tell you about wandering off? And for pities sake, you don't just walk up to the princess and ask for candy!"

"But mom-"

"No buts about it. This is the last time you are allowed to wander off. You're going to hold my hoof for the rest of the night!"

"But mom-"

"My my, it's a wonder Nightmare Moon herself hasn't gotten you."

The filly looked back and Celestia and Blueblood with doe eyes.

Celestia blew the filly a kiss and levitated the biggest chocolate bar she had into the filly's bag. Celestia was thanked by the filly's adorable smile.

"I wondered why nopony wanted to come over to us." she said. Then, rising from her chair, she continued, "Well we'll just have to fix that now won't we."

Blueblood rolled his eyes. What his aunt wouldn't do to hand out candy on Nightmare Night.





Celestia and Blueblood looked out from their new costumes at the festivities in Canterlot Square. Celestia had on her back a bowl of candy for young fillies and colts.

Celestia and Blueblood now wore more elaborate costumes to hide their identities from all the ponies who were intimidated by royalty. Celestia had applied a lot of makeup to make herself look like Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Blueblood was dressed as her well-known coltfriend and rumored fiancee, Shining Armor.

"Hello there little fillies," Celestia said, walking up to a group of foals who were inspecting their candy haul, "Would you like some candy?"

The foals looked at her with wide eyes and screamed. They then booked it over to their respective mothers.

"What are they so afraid of?" asked Celestia, eyebrows raised in astonishment.

Blueblood laughed.

"No offense, but you did come of as a creepy stalker pony there. Would you take candy from a stranger?"

"But I'm not a stranger!" exclaimed Celestia, still confused, "I'm their princess."

"How are they supposed to know that?" asked Blueblood, flipping his aunt's wig, "Princess Cadence?"

"Drat," said Celestia, grumbling, "No matter what we do, nopony will accept candy from us."

"Hewwo," said the same filly from before, "That's a vewy nithe cothtume."

"Thank you," said Celestia, "Would YOU like some candy?"

"Thure," said the filly, reaching into the bowl and grabbing a piece of candy, "But I think you wooked nither ath the printheth."
'
"How did you know it was me?" asked Celestia.

"Nopony elthe ith ath tall ath you," said the filly, happily skipping away.

"I wonder how she got away from her mother," asked Blueblood, mind wandering.

"WHO CARES!?!?!" screamed Celestia, "SHE TOOK CANDY FROM ME!!!! HUZZAH!"

"Well I bet her mother does," said Blueblood, hooves clamped over his ears.

"WAHOO!!!" yelled Celestia, jumping up and down so hard her costume started to come apart at the seams.

Everypony stared in shock as the pony they had thought to be disguised as Princess Cadence, suddenly became Princess Celestia.

"My gosh," said a pony in the crowd, "It's Princess Celestia!"

All the ponies bowed low in respect.

"What? No, please don't bow," said Celestia, trying to address her subjects.

It was to no avail though, as they were all bowed low and exclaiming the princess's praise.

"Umm, do you all want to play a game?" asked Blueblood, trying to change the subject.

"Oh but we are mere commonfolk," said a pony at the front of the crowd, "We are not nearly worthy enough to play a game with the princess."

"I'm not a princess!" yelled Celestia, "No wait... I'm not royal, no... Your not worthy, no, you ARE worthy to play games with me!

But the crowd just bowed lower.

"This happens every Nightmare Night," said Celestia, pouting.

"Well I'd rather have ponies praising your name wherever you go then screaming it in terror," said Blueblood, rubbing his aunt's shoulders, "Why don't we go back to the castle now? I think our cover is officially blown."

Celestia nodded and they walked home.





Blueblood and Celestia sat around the dining table sipping tea and being bored.

"Why do they have to adore me so?" asked Celestia, still severely down heartened.

"I don't know."

Their heads turned as a navy blue alicorn with streamers in her mane and chocolate on her muzzle came bounding through the door.

"Ah sister," she said, bubbly, "Thou should have been at Ponyville this night! We had a delightful time scaring foals! Didst thou scare any foals?"

"Oh yes," said Celestia, nodding apathetically, "We scared foals."

"This holiday doth be our new favorite!" exclaimed Luna, so excited she began slipping in and out of her Royal Canterlot Voice, "We indulged in much candy and many games. We are the new Champions of Ponyville in the pumpkin chunkin' event! We also dominated at the game where one bobs for apples! The festivities in Ponyville are most pleasing!"

"Glad to see you enjoyed yourselves," said Celestia, pouting.

Luna cocked her head to the side and stared at her sister.

"We see that thou art in distress. What happened? Was it not the greatest night ever for thou?"

"No it wasn't," said Celestia, "Nopony would accept our candy and when they found out who we were in the square they all bowed down and wouldn't let us join the festivites because we were 'royalty'."

Celestia made little quotation marks with her hooves.

"Hmmmm," said Luna, sitting down and grabbing a bag of marshmallows, stuffing them into her mouth, "We had the exact opposite problem when we arrived. The ponies thought we were still Nighmare Moon and still evil."

"So how does that equal a good time?" asked Celestia, disappointingly licking a lollipop.

"Twasn't," said Luna, "We were most distressed over this and even declared Nightmare Night cancelled for all of eternity!"

"Don't you have to discuss such rules and bans with ME?" asked Celestia, eyebrow cocked.

"Verrily sister," said Luna, "But twas to no matter anyway as thine knowledgeable magenta unicorn student helped us to understand the true meaning of Nightmare Night."

"And what is that?" asked Celestia, pulling the lollipop from her mouth and staring at it.

"SCARING PONIES!" exclaimed Luna, startling Celestia to dropping the lollipop into her lap, "Tis quite enjoyable to see them screaming and running from you. Apparently tis fun for the scare-ees as well!"

Celestia glared at her.

"Oh, uh, apologies sister," said Luna, unwrapping another lollipop for her sticky sibling.

"That sounds like a ton of fun Auntie," said Blueblood, "Why don't we go scaring ponies next Nightmare Night?"

"Why wait?!" asked Luna, jumping from her chair, "Nightmare Night be not over yet!"

"I'm not really that good at scaring ponies though," said Celestia, pouting.

"That doth be from your cheery outlook, which you seem to have lost anyway," said Luna, chortling, "We shall simply dress you as a scary creature, like a manticore and we shall go as Nightmare Moon and you Blueblood can go as....."

"Myself several months ago?" asked Blueblood, smirking.

"Nay, nay," said Luna, "Thou shalt go as one of Nightmare Moon's batpony guards. Would that suit you?"

"Verrily my antiquated auntie," said Blueblood, laughing.

Luna rolled her eyes and led the pair off.

The threesome spent the rest of the evening jumping out from around corners and scaring ponies half to death. Luna was quite right that ponies liked to be scared. Everypony would always laugh and would often accept candy from them.

Three hours later, Nightmare Moon, a sunnily dis-positioned manticore and a batpony guard came staggering into the castle, laughing their sides off. That morning, Celestia slept so late that the sun didn't rise until noon. Some citizens complained but most of them laughed about it and understood that even royalty enjoyed Nightmare Night.