Out of the Darkness

by SergeantShenanigans

Ch 13: Nightmare Night

He read the book all night, or at least what he could read, not all of it was translated. What was translated was a passage explaining a multiple teleportation spell and in extensive detail explaining how many times that his apprentice had messed up.

I have developed a new teleportation spell that will allow you to teleport more than one creature at a time. To do so you must focus your magical aura as if you were to teleport, but instead spread the magic onto another pony, as if you were going to levitate them. Let your magic cover the other pony and then teleport. Your magic should also carry them.

Test 1: I am using my apprentice to try out my spells. In his first attempt he tried to teleport himself and an apple at the same time. He managed to teleport more than just himself; he also transported the leaf on top of the apple. The apple is nowhere to be found.

Test 2: He successfully transported what I can only guess is a chunk of the apple that has been dried up, and spit out of somepony's stomach.

Test 3: He teleported the apple, but we couldn't find it. Again. When he reappeared, a small rabbit transported to the side of him. I theorize that he might have transfigured the apple into a rabbit, but I also think that is nigh impossible.

Test 4: He teleported it successfully but this time what reappeared was the apple and a very confused Princess of the Night I plan on searching for my apprentice once I stop laughing.

Test 5: The test was finally successful, it is easier to use live creatures than fruit, and I learned that the hard way. He transported himself, the rabbit, and a watermelon. He and the rabbit transported perfectly, but the watermelon is currently stuck on my horn

He read this passage over and over again until he was tired enough to sleep "Princess of the Night?" surprisingly that is the question that came to mind, not anything else in the whole passage had jumped out at him as much as that one statement, he would ask Twilight who the Princess of the Night was tomorrow he decided plopping down on his bed and falling asleep.

He woke the next morning once again finding himself in an inexplicably happy mood. He walked from his house to town planning on stopping at Sugarcube Corner to get breakfast. When he walked into town it was done being decorated and it was now filled with all kinds of decorations and dark coloring. When he got to Sugarcube Corner it was decorated just the same as the rest of town.

He walked inside and the inside was just as decorated if not more in preparation of Nightmare night. He walked up to the counter to see Mrs. Cake "Can I get three blueberry muffins?" Star asked her

"Sure" she said walking into the kitchen then coming back out a few seconds later with three blueberry muffins on a plate "that will be 6 bits please"

"Here you go" he pulled out 6 bits and placed them on the counter "thank you" he said then taking the muffins and walking over to a table to sit down. He was enjoying his muffins when suddenly a giant pink chicken jumped out of nowhere, knocked over his plate and started to peck at his last muffin on the floor "Wait, chickens aren't pink" he thought in confusion

Looking back at the chicken he saw that it was actually Pinkie Pie in a chicken costume "What is with the strange costume?" Star asked

"I am dressing up to go around on Nightmare night for free candy!" Pinkie exclaimed "you should come with!"

"Spike tried to convince me to also, but I will tell you what I told him. I dress up every day so that ponies don't think I am a monster, I am not going to stop just for candy" he explained

"You seem like you don't enjoy ponies dressing up as monsters and ghouls and chickens" Pinkie pointed out

"I just don't like the idea of me having to dress up as something else" Star explained "what I actually look like is already monster like I don't want to go around and encourage ponies to think that"

"I doubt you look like a monster silly" Pinkie said "I mean, I don't know what you look like but I doubt it is like a monster"

"Alright, well I am going to go and work on my house, I will probably see you later tonight" Star said walking towards the door

"WAIT!" Pinkie exclaimed "Don't forget to pick up some candy because I am going to be stopping by your house!"

With that in mind Star went back to his house on the edge of the Everfree forest and started to finally work on the walls of his main room. It took him 4 hours but he finally finished the walls on the final room in his house "Now I just have to decorate it" Star thought out loud as somepony knocked at the door.

He answered it to find Derpy "I have a package for you" she said handing him a pouch with a letter attached to it "I will see you later Star, I have a lot of Nightmare night mail to attend to" said before flying off

Star opened the letter to find another note from Davenport

Hey Star I got the money from the delivery and I am pleased that everything went alright. In the bag is 500 bits, 400 from the 10% of the delivery and another 100 from Filthy Rich, he says that if you are ever looking for another job talk to him. Don't worry about selling the sofa to the pony I mentioned in my other letter, she came by when I went there to pick up the money for the order so I just sold one to her, enjoy the rest of the week off

Davenport

Star smiled at the bag "Five hundred bits! I am rich!" then he thought back to the bag full of platinum "Well, richer. Now I get to go and buy stuff to paint the walls and the outside of the house" he smiled at the thought before realizing that he knew nothing about painting or design or what color he wanted or anything like that, but he knew a pony that did.

He made his way to Carousel Boutique through the crowds of ponies out getting candy. When he finally arrived at Carousel Boutique he knocked at the door and he was responded with "Come right in!"

He walked into Carousel Boutique and saw Rarity working on some kind of dress, he couldn't tell it just looked like cloth on a pony mannequin "Hey Rarity, I need your help with something" Star asked

"Oh, hello Star, what is it you need my help with?" she asked while measuring something on the mannequin

"I am going to start painting my house now, but I don't know what colors to do for the outside and inside of the house, I don't even know what my favorite color is" he admitted

"I would love to help you, but I am busy tonight, I have to finish this dress for a customer by tomorrow" she said in disappointment "I really wish I could have spent time with the girls this Nightmare night, but oh well. I will help you tomorrow if that works for you?" she continued adding another piece of cloth to it shaking her head and removing it

"That works for me, and when you left the other day you said you needed to discuss something with me?" he asked

"That is right!" she said stopping her work on her dress "I was elected to talk to you about your past" Rarity explained "We all think that it is admirable that you want to know what happened to you, but do you really want to know? It made you really depressed thinking about it, it makes you distant from all of us, and do you really want to know what caused you to be afraid of yourself so much that you would wear a cloak to hide it?" she questioned

"Yes" he said simply "I think that if I gave up now I would regret it for the rest of my life, I would be filled with questions of what if or what could have been so I am going to see this through and find out what happened to me"

"Alright, just know that we will help you see this through until the end" Rarity said relieved "besides, if you gave up this would drive me crazy! I love mysteries and if I didn't know the answer to this one I would just die!"

"It was nice talking to you Rarity, I guess I will leave you to work on your dress now" he said walking out the door

He thought to the night before and remembered that he hadn't asked Twilight about the "Princess of the Night" so he decided to go to the library

When he got there he knocked on the door and heard "Go away Pinkie! You already got candy!"

Star walked in the door and said "I know I look exactly like Pinkie, especially in a chicken costume, but please stop confusing us"

"Oh, hello Star, sorry Pinkie keeps coming by and asking for more candy” Twilight replied with a sheepish grin

"And that surprises you?" Star asked with a raised eyebrow

"No not really" Twilight answered honestly

Twilight was wearing a large hat with bells and stars on it and a cape with stars on it, but the most distinguishing characteristic of the costume was the beard "Let me guess…. You are a homeless old hobo!" Star asked jokingly

"You know who I am supposed to be!" Twilight said annoyed

"Yes I do, master" Star answered

"haha very funny, you are the only person who could actually say that" Twilight pointed out

"yep, so I was wondering, who is the Princess of the Night?" he asked

"Princess Luna, the one who used to be Nightmare moon, and the reason we celebrate today, why?" she questioned

"Because I was able to translate one of the passages in the book, it was about me and my master trying to perfect multiple teleportation, trying to teleport one or more creatures or items at a time" he explained

"That would be amazing!" Twilight exclaimed "did it explain how to do it?" she asked curiously

"Yes, but during the tests it mentions the Princess of the Night and that is why I wanted to know. I will bring the book by sometime tomorrow and I will show you" Star said

"Twilight, are you ready to head into town and catch Zecora’s Nightmare moon story?" Spike asked walking down the stairs

Star noted that Spike was dressed as a dragon, regardless of the fact that he actually WAS a dragon "Sure, Star why don't you come with? It might be fun" she tempted

"I am not going to dress up for some holiday, I dress up every day to NOT look like a monster" Star said repeating his earlier statement "so, no thank you"

"You don't have to dress up" Twilight pointed out "you could just come along, ponies would think that you were dressed up as something, maybe even Nightmare Moon"

"That would explain why ponies kept looking at me smiling and waving yesterday….." Star thought back to the day before

"Exactly! They thought that you were dressing up as Nightmare Moon!" Twilight said "so why don't you just come with instead of being some shut-in who stays at home every day" she said mockingly

"I am almost never home besides when I work on it and sleep" Star said defiantly before sighing "alright I will come with"

"Alright, let's go!" Spike said running to the door "If we get there soon, there will still be some candy left!"

"Get where?" Star asked

"Town square! There is usually a pony or two that leave a basket of candy in front of their doors because they aren't home" Spike explained "If we don't hurry all of it will be gone!" he said once again standing at the door jumping up and down impatiently

"Alright, let's get going then" Twilight said following Spike

They soon arrived in town square and saw a very creepy looking Mayor Mare wearing a rainbow afro and a red nose, and Big Macintosh wearing a top hat and a cape with an apple that looked like a skull, he was pulling a cart filled with hay giving ponies rides around the square. The whole square was filled with all kinds of stalls selling all kinds of sweets and treats.

As soon as they passed by a house Spike ran off to find candy "Wow, he stayed with us for 4 minutes, which is better than when we lived in Canterlot" Twilight said laughing

"That is because I am so awesome he had trouble leaving" Star joked

"I think that you have spent too much time with Rainbow Dash" Twilight commented

They were approached by a giant pink chicken that looked very familiar and three young fillies and a colt following her "Twilight, Twilight! Look at our haul!" she exclaimed showing Twilight her bag full of candy

While this was happening he saw a rainbow maned pony wearing a black outfit with yellow lightning bolts on it approaching from above on a dark cloud. The pony flew above Pinkie with the cloud and hit the cloud causing lightning. The lightning caused Pinkie to jump into the air in surprise and shoot away at the speed of pinkie and the other small ponies following in her wake.

"Rainbow, that wasn't very nice" Twilight said scolding Rainbow who was laughing hysterically

"Oh come on Twilight that was hilarious!" Rainbow said

"It was pretty funny" Star agreed

"Alright, just be careful who you do that to" Twilight warned to the pegasus as she flew away to find her next victim

They walked a little while more before they came upon an apple bobbing game that was being run by Applejack who was dressed as a scarecrow "Hey there Twilight, Star" she greeted "Nice costume Twilight"

"Thank you Applejack, your scarecrow costume is nice also" Twilight complimented

"So, are ya supposed to be a country music singer?" Applejack asked

"No, I am Starswirl the bearded" Twilight said in an offended tone

"Sorry" Applejack added with a sheepish grin "why don't ya try some apple bobbin?" she asked them both

"That sounds fun. But the water will either make the hood stick to my head or pull it off and I don't want that happening. But Twilight would be more than glad to ruin her beard and hat" Star joked and pushed her towards the container of water, luckily for her Mayer Mare chose that time to interrupt by speaking to everypony present.

"Welcome everypony, I hope you are all having fun!" she exclaimed into a microphone "I would like to suggest that all the young ponies out there that have been collecting candy to follow Zecora and hear the story of Nightmare Moon!"

Everypony cheered "I want to hear this story, do you want to come with Star?" Twilight asked

"No thank you, I think I am going to go and try out some of the snacks at the stands. Tell me how it was when you get back!" Star said walking away

He wandered aimlessly until he came upon a stand selling cupcakes decorated with frosting to make it look like a spider. He saw that Mrs. Cake was selling these sweets "I would like to purchase some of these spider cupcakes" Star asked taking out his pouch full of bits

"Oh put that away! Everything is free tonight, it is a celebration after all!" Mrs. Cake said giving him a bag with 2 of the cupcakes in it "Thank you Mrs. Cake!" Star said happily walking away

He found a place to relax and enjoyed his cupcakes until suddenly Pinkie and a bunch of other ponies ran into the square screaming "RUN IT'S NIGHTMARE MOON!"

Star looked up to see a midnight black carriage being pulled by some scary looking ponies "Whoever that is, they have a good costume" Star commented to no one in particular as he was the only pony still standing.

The pony jumped down from her carriage and he got a closer look of her appearance. Firstly he assumed that it was a she because it was Nightmare moon, which was a mare, she was wearing a cloak similar Stars except hers wasn't as long and you could see her legs as she walked towards the other ponies. She took off her hood and he saw that she was Princess Luna, the pony who was originally Nightmare moon. She looked around and began to talk "CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE, WE HAVE GRACED YOUR TINY VILLAGE WITH OUR PRESENCE SO THAT YOU MIGHT BEHOLD THE REAL PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT!" she yelled with a voice that almost carried a few ponies away "A CREATURE OF NIGHTMARES NO LONGER, BUT INSTEAD A PONY WHO DESIRES YOUR LOVE AND ADMIRATION, TOGETHER WE SHALL CHANGE THIS DREADFUL CELEBRATION INTO A BRIGHT AND GLORIOUS FEAST!" she yelled and lightning flashed in the background.

"Did you hear that everypony? Nightmare moon says she's gonna fest on us all!" Pinkie said in terror as she and her group of ponies ran and screamed in terror.

"What? No children no, you no longer have reason to fear us, screams of delight are what your princess desires, not screams of terror" she said in a lighter tone while stomping her hoof on the ground "Madam mayor, thy princess of the night hast arrived" she said pointing her hoof at Mayor Mare who shook in fear "What is the matter with you?" she said pointing her hoof at another pony who also shook in fear, then another and another "Very well then, be that way. We won't even bother with the traditional royal farewell" she huffed and walked away

Star approached Twilight as she got up "I am going to go and talk to her" Twilight decided

"You can't Twilight! Star talk some sense into her!" Spike pleaded

"Why not Spike? She is probably just having trouble adjusting to her new life, remember she has been gone for a thousand years" Star said sensibly

"I think so too, come on Star, let's go talk to her" she said walking towards the direction that the princess had gone

"I will Twilight, but don't be offended when I don't approach her, I don't want her talking and blowing the hood off of my head" Star said honestly

"I understand" Twilight answered

They found Luna lying in front of a large statue of Nightmare Moon "Princess Luna? Hi my name is-"

"Starswirl the bearded" Luna interrupted "Commendable costume, thou even got the bells right"

"Thank you finally! Somepony besides Star who gets my costume!" Twilight exclaimed

Luna just stared at her sadly "I just came to ask what you thought of the celebration, my name actual name is-"

"Twilight Sparkle" Luna interrupted again "IT WAS THOU WHO USED THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY TO CLEANSE ME OF NIGHTMARE MOON AND MY DARK POWERS!" she said again in a shout

"Isn't that a good thing?" Twilight asked nervously

"But of course, we could not be happier, is that not clear?" Luna asked in a not happy sounding tone

"Well, you kind of sound like you are yelling at me" Twilight said

"That is the traditional Royal Canterlot Voice, it is tradition to speak in this tone" she answered

"That might be why the ponies didn't exactly welcome you with open hooves" Twilight pointed out "Maybe you should change your approach"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?" Luna asked

"Lower the volume" Twilight answered

"Sorry, I am not used to talking with my actual voice very much" Luna said looking at the ground bashfully

"It is okay, we will just have to work on it. I might know somepony who will be able to help" Twilight said walking away "Star, you can come out now, I don't think she will blow the hood off of your head. Keep her company while I go get Fluttershy"

"If you say so" Star said walking into the clearing with Twilight and Luna

"Who is this pony? I have not met him before but his voice seems familiar" Luna narrowed her eyes in concentration

"I am Midnight Star" he said introducing himself "I do believe that we have not had the pleasure of meeting before Princess Luna"

"Why do you wear that cloak? What do you have to hide?" Luna asked suspiciously

"I would prefer not to say, but if you want I will tell you" Star answered

"I would like to know" Luna said simply

"I am horribly disfigured under this cloak and would rather ponies not think of me as a monster everywhere I go" Star answered honestly

"What happened to “horribly disfigure” you?" Luna asked her curiosity growing

"I actually do not know, that is why I am in town. I am trying to find out who I am and what happened to me, Twilight and her friends are trying to help me" Star explained

"That sounds like a terrible plight, if there is anything we can do, please let us know" Luna said apologetically

"Thank you princess, I appreciate it" Star said gratefully

"We are still curious, it seems as though we have crossed paths before…" Luna wondered but was interrupted

Just then Twilight came into the clearing with her horn shining "Twilight? Why are you carrying me here, I could have walked with you…." A very shy voice said floating behind Twilight "Nightmare moon!" Fluttershy squeaked trying to get out of the magical grip

"No Fluttershy, this is Princess Luna" Twilight said patiently "I was wondering if you could help her with her speaking problem"

"What speaking problem? She hasn't used the Royal Canterlot Voice the entire time we were talking" Star pointed out

"That is because we were trying out hardest not to blow down your hood, we know that you would not appreciate it" Luna pointed out her voice starting to get louder

Star backed away to the trees again and Luna looked horrified "It is fine, I just want you to be able to speak normally and get used to speaking with out the Royal Canterlot Voice without feeling obligated to" Star said

"WILL YOU HELP US WITH OUR VOLUME PROBLEM?" Luna asked Fluttershy who shrank back in the magic bubble she was in

"a…t" she mumbled

"WHAT WAS THAT?" Luna asked

"al….t" she said her voice starting to quake in fear

"WE DID NOT UNDERSTAND, WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Luna said impatiently

"alright" her voice was barely more than a whisper

"ONE MORE TIME, WE STILL DIDN'T HEAR YOU!" Luna asked again

"alright" Fluttershy said just barely audibly

"THANK YOU, WE ARE OVERJOYED BY YOUR ANSWER" Luna said smiling

"First, try lowering your volume, just a little, if you don't mind" Fluttershy said still with an afraid tone

"HOW Is this?" Luna asked

"Just a little quieter" Fluttershy said

"and this?" she asked again

"Perfect, now try to put a little less air in your voice when you speak" Fluttershy asked

"How is this" she asked normal volume compared to other ponies

"That is perfect, now if you would let me go Twilight, I really need to get home" Fluttershy said nervously

Twilight rolled her eyes "Fine" she said letting go of Fluttershy

"We would like to thank you Fluttershy, your help is appreciated" Luna said gratefully

"No problem, goodbye everyone" she said shooting out of the clearing and back into the direction of her home

"Did I do something wrong?" Luna asked in concern

"No, that is just Fluttershy, she is very shy around new ponies" Twilight explained

"Now, we go and try out our new voice on the ponies" Luna said walking towards town

When they arrived in town everypony once again ducked in fear and once again Pinkie and her group of ponies ran screaming something or other about Nightmare Moon "What did we do wrong?" Luna asked concerned

"Nothing, they just still fear you and see you as Nightmare Moon, we will fix that" Twilight said looking over to the apple bobbing stand to see Applejack also cowering in fear "Applejack!" she said in surprise "you are the last pony I would expect to act like this!" Twilight said in surprise

"Sorry Twilight, she scared me is all" Applejack admitted

"I need your help to warm everypony up to Princess Luna so that she doesn't feel like everypony is afraid of her" Twilight explained

"Alright" Applejack agreed

They approached Luna "If ya want ponies to warm up to ya, ya need to get more comfortable, try relaxin, playin some of the games, eat some snacks, just have fun" Applejack explained

"Fun? What is this Fun?" Luna asked

"Fun is, well it is, um…." Applejack said completely speechless as to how to explain it "how's bout I show ya instead?" Applejack said walking over to the spider toss "come try this" she gestured towards Luna

"And how do we "try" this?" Luna asked

"Ya have ta throw this spider like so" Applejack said grabbing a spider and tossing it at the webs "and try ta land it on one of the webs"

"Like this?" Luna asked walking over and grabbing a spider. Applejack, Twilight and Star all nodded their heads in encouragement and Luna tried to get the spider on the web and succeeding "we feel strange, not bad strange, but a good strange" she stated

"That is fun, go ahead, try again" Star said encouragingly

She took another spider and threw it onto the web again "We forgot this "fun" and how much we enjoyed it!" Luna exclaimed

Everypony decided that it was safe and started to warm up to the princess when she was approached by Pinkie who exclaimed "She is just trying to gain our trust so she can eat us!"

She started to run away again until she was stopped by Twilight "What is wrong with you Pinkie? This is Princess Luna not Nightmare moon! Stop saying stuff like that you are upsetting her!"

"I know that she is Princess Luna Twilight! We are just running from her and being scared because it is fun!" Pinkie explained

Twilights eyes widened in realization "Oh! You were just doing that to be scared for the fun of it!"

"Yep" Pinkie said after being let go, she proceeded to dash of in the same manner that she had been doing all night.

Twilight walked towards a very sad looking Princess Luna "I found out why those ponies were running scared from you. It was because they were enjoying being scared by you" she explained

"Enjoying being scared" Luna asked with a tilt of her head

"Yeah!" a small pony dressed as a pirate interrupted "This was the best Nightmare Night ever! Will you be doing it again next year?" he asked Luna

"You enjoyed being scared by me?" she asked

"Yes! That is the whole point of Nightmare night, being scared and eating candy!" he said happily

"Well then, we will just have to do it again next year won't we?" she asked

"Yes!" he said excitedly "You are my favorite princess, Princess Luna!" he said happily walking back to his group of friends

"Favorite?" Luna repeated as if tasting how the word felt on her tongue "we enjoy being favorite!" she said happily "Now, let us have all kinds of fun!"

"Yay!" all the ponies in the square agreed

They all spent the next few hours enjoying the wackiness and silliness that a celebration in Ponyville brought. The only thing Star didn't like about the celebration was while he was talking he could see Princess Luna squinting at him as if trying to recognize something

As the night drew to an end all that was left was Luna, Star and their six friends. They all enjoyed some conversation before the moon was starting to set and they all decided to call it a night. Luna went back to her guards and her cart "We enjoyed this celebration very much, we hope to see you all another time"

As she left Star was approached by Twilight "Princess Luna asked me to give you this letter, I think that you left a good impression on her"

Star took the letter and put it in his saddlebag "I will read this letter later, I am going to go home and get some sleep"

Star went home, set his saddlebag on the ground by his bed, plopped down on his bed and fell asleep.

Comments

[-Brutus]

Plot is moving pretty well, keep up the good work!