Ponyville Gala

by Lunarus Solaris Nexus

Castle of Everfree

It was about seven in the evening when festivities kicked off officially. All the lights went up as the sun went down and the all kinds of music filtered through the whole town. Nexus of course wore his uniform. Medals, ribbons and all. He liked the dress uniform for a reason that he wasn't sure Dust really picked up on. He may not like getting attention because of it, no he loathed it. But he felt proud to wear it. It's something he'd worked for his whole life and he wasn't about to stop wearing it, come rain, sleet, snow or new suit, he'd wear it. He'd say it was like getting Dust to get a new favorite dress but he was hoping he'd eat those words he didn't say.

Everypony dropped off their kids with Pinkie Pie, who looked like a walking barber shop sign, and started across the main square where a jazz band was set up. He knew where it was going. Ephialtes was dragged over to the business district of market street to be lavished in electronic music. He wasn't sure why Ephi liked that music or his wife for that matter but he wasn't going to argue with him, not while Hestaria kept her knife on her left thigh…. He'll never understand how he figured that out to begin with.

The music wasn't too bad, Nexus kind of liked jazz. Somehow Dust talked him into going where Ephi went and his head was still angry at him for subjecting him to the pounding bass. After another couple of hours at dinner near the Caracole Boutique, and slipping Rarity Dust's dress size, they headed to the north of the town where, so he'd heard, was a much easier side of town. A place called Sweet Apple Acres had some kind of cider tasting and country music. Country music was more his speed and he could use a little cider. Nothing hard, he wasn't really in the mood.

While the adults went on their way to enjoy themselves, their children didn't need to go anywhere for enjoyment. Candy, rides, bouncy things where you wouldn't expect them, all of that was in the small section of town they were in. Not too far away from anything sweet or fun! At least for the first two and a half hours. Astral was first to get bored of it. He liked the rides but it wasn't anything he hadn't done before, or better in Baltimare. Gale, less than a year younger, got bored after their eighth time on the super jungle gym that was the tip of iceberg.

It wasn't that they didn't enjoy it, it was one of the only things Astral hadn't seen anywhere else. Three whole stories of slides, monkey bars, and poles. It was an incredible, but due to their extreme curiosity, they'd always find every way to make it old quickly. They sat on a bench swinging their hoofs on the edge.

"What'd you wanna do now?" Gale asked the pegasus.

"What is there left to do? We've seen everything!" Astral said throwing his hoofs up into the air and falling back onto the seat.

Gale twirled at the end of her ponytail not sure what to say. They had done everything.

"Not yet!" their pink host was quick to remind them, popping out of nowhere again. "You two haven't seen the castle yet!"

"We're staying in the castle Ms. Pie." Astral said fidgeting with his clip-on tie.

"Not that castle silly! I mean the Everfree Castle!"

"You mean the one from Mare in the Moon?" Gale asked sitting up.

"Yup! I know somepony who'll tell you everything about it. Go to the statue if you wanna go!"

"When's that?" Astral asked sitting up.

"Right now! You'd better hurry, Zecora's going to be leaving soon!"

Astral and Gale looked at one another and before they could ask who Zecora was when they realized she was already hopping away to do… whatever she did exactly, the kids weren't too sure. But they were sure that something new would be better than sitting there and being board. The two leapt from the bench and Gale flew behind her friend just to show off that she's gotten better than he has.

"What statue was Ms. Pie talking about?" Gale asked.

"Duh! What other statues are there around? It was outside the Hall of Upside Down Mirrors."

"What made them upside down anyways?" Gale asked.

"I don't know. They just were, now come on!"

Astral flew up behind her and began shoving her in the direction of the Hall of Mirrors. She might have been better keeping aloft than Astral but she was nowhere near as fast yet. He got her moving at what could've been considered a heavy jog for most ponies towards the east side of town. As they closed in on it, they saw a gathering of foals in their best dress surrounding a strange looking pony. She was covered in black and white stripes across her whole body. She was like a white version of Gale's father just without a horn.

Her thick mane reached own to her chest, though everything from the top of her head down didn't match so they thought she was wearing a wig. She wore a plain, navy blue dress with a white zigzag pattern decorating the edge of her skirt. She stood at the base of Princess Celestia's statue and was in the middle of a speech of some kind.

"What you will see tonight, will give all of you quite a fright." she spoke in rhyming rhythm. "The Castle Everfree, is a place most fear to be. The time of Luna's night, make for an eerie sight. The monsters within its hall can devour you all!"

Most of the kids around them exchanged unsettling looks whereas Astral and Gale smiled. Finally, something exciting!

"Those among you brave enough to wander the dark passage, follow me to the carriage." she motioned to a hay filled cart large enough to hold most of them.

A big red stallion sat in the harness and three younger mares sat in the back. They weren't nearly as young as they were but were certainly big kids with very similar cutie marks. The orange and purple pegasus had a striped shield with a purple lightning bolt/wing in the center. She sat opposite the white and pink unicorn with a pink song note in a purple star on her cutie mark's shield on the back of the cart waiting to help the children up while a yellowish earth pony with a purple apple on hers was holding the reins.

"I don't know if I wanna go anymore…" A little girl said taking a half step back.

"Your loss!" Astral said flying over the kids with Gale close behind.

The pegasus flew up and grabbed Astral as he started doing a few circles of the cart in excitement and the unicorn caught Gale with her magic to sit her down next to her.

"Slow down there kid." the pegasus said lowering him down onto the hay bale next to her.

They start helping the other kids that couldn't fly into the cart and explaining to stay in the cart the whole ride. Astral moved across the cart as it filled up and looked over the seat of the hay cart. He saw the entrance to the Everfree Forest. The entrance was lit by a glowing veil of pale green light in an arch over the path. Gale was quick to come up next to him and look as the two mares at the back shut the doors. The pony they assumed was Zecora got up on the front of the carriage, blocking the kids view.

"Alright everypony." the earth pony said turning around. "Keep in the car on the way there. The Everfree Forest ain't a place for young'uns."

"Yes Ms. Applebloom." the children said in unison. They must've been introduced before they got there.

"Nice to have ponies that listen for once." the unicorn said leaning back on the side.

The stallion started forward, bringing the cart with them. The cart bounced lightly on the dirt road as they went. The mares talked about all the creatures they'd seen in the Everfree Forest and even outside of it. Astral and Gale didn't really pay any attention. The two of them just kept looking up at the field around the path. It shone brilliantly and twinkled. The unicorn, Sweetie Belle, said it was to make sure that no creatures got in the way. It didn't matter to them though, it was pretty.

When the field passed behind them and the Astral and Gale were back at the front to see the Everfree Castle. It wasn't as impressive as Twilight's Castle but it was an eerie stone monolith against the forest and sky. Ahead a large, misty chasm stood between them and their night of fright. The cart slowed down slightly as they came to the rope bridge. Looking off to the right, the skeleton of a much safer stone bridge was in the works. The bridge sagged at the weight but held strong as they crossed the chasm.

Astral's father had told him about the Everfree Castle. It'd been broken when Princess Celestia and Auntie Luna fought a long time ago. Even when it was in shambles it was still a sight to behold. And from what he'd heard from the storybook Auntie Luna was reading to him yesterday, it was haunted by something terrifying! He couldn't've been more excited. He'd spent a lot of the train ride down, when she wasn't trying to bite his ear off, telling her about the Pony of Shadows. Gale was just as excited to see him as much as he was.

The earth pony stopped the puller, whom Astral noticed had half a green apple for a cutie mark, and the two mares on the back jumped out to help the foals. Zecora jumped down from the driver seat and began talking in rhyme again. Astral and Gale didn't pay any real attention. She said something about staying close together and keeping an eye out for anything unusual. Astral and Gale bounced in anticipation as they started to cross the bridge to the big castle.

---

Bored would be the optimal word Astral would've used for the "Haunted Castle". Most of what went on was smoke and mirrors. Couldn't really figure out why he knew it was, but he knew for a fact it was. He and Gale were the only two to flip out at all. They jumped at a few things but there wasn't much that really scared them. They, like most kids at ten o'clock, were exhausted. Their parents happily carried them to the castle as they started sleeping on their backs. The adults put their children to bed and silently shut the door behind them. After parting ways, the Nexus family decided to let out some baggage from the evening.

"Okay, what is your problem!?" Dust asked annoyed.

"I'm sorry! I happen like country music!" Nexus said back.

"It's not that you moron. I'm talking about you getting all flirty!"

"Okay, first off; when was talking to somepony flirting? And Second, when were you the jealous type!?"

"When were you into posh ponies?"

"What, Rarity? She wanted to know what I thought of the suit design."

"And that meant going to talk 'alone'?"

"You could see us. Nothing went down. I looked at the design and told her what I wanted."

"And all that giggling she was doing?"

"I know nothing of fashion. I don't know what any of what she was talking about and when I was trying to repeat what she said."

"Whatever…" She said getting out of her dress and tossing it aside. "I'm going to bed."

Nexus groaned and went to the bathroom. He shook his mane messy again and started to make his way out of his suit. He looked back at Dust making her way into bed and sighed. He hated lying to her. Though he wasn't cheating, he was lying to her about what he was doing. When he said he wanted the dress to be a secret, he meant it. Even still, this was a bit over the top for her. She knew he had no skills in the art of flirting and that he was secretly an idiot about anything that wasn't politics and computers.

Nexus hung his suit up and tossed his now dirty shirt into what would soon be a pile. Now more comfortable, he flicks off the lights and moves into the bedroom where Dust had made claim to the right side of the bed, where Nexus preferred to be. He let out a silent sigh and climbed into bed behind his wife. She didn't acknowledge his presence. Nexus, knowing it was a bad idea to go to bed angry, scooted closer to his wife and put his right foreleg around her midsection. Ever since they became living metal, making them as warm as a real foreleg, she became much more tolerant of his cuddling her.

She shrugged him off with a grunt and shoved him back a few inches. "Lunar, I'm not in the mood."

"I just wanna hold my wife." He replied calmly. He may not have been good with flirting, he was certainly good at getting her to forgive him.

"Well maybe I'm not in the mood for that either Lunar. Now go to bed." she said wrapping the sheets around her. That didn't quite stop Nexus however. He tried one more time and wrapped his foreleg around her over the sheets. And again she shrugged him off. "Lunar, I said no!" She said turning around. "I don't feel like being held tonight. Just go to bed!" she violently rolled over and flung open her wings.

Nexus was sure now he couldn't get around this tonight. He might get lucky tomorrow night but he knew he wasn't getting anywhere with her as mad as she was right now. Nexus rolled over onto his back and put his right hoof behind his pillow. He looked back to his wife one more time before settling in for the night.

Author's Note:

Me: Sorry for taking so long with this. I've been having a hard time writing the kids so I'll be shortening the whole story to lessen the pain on my head.
Nexus: Or just keep torturing yourself. That's fine too.
Me: Dude! We're the same person. My pain's yours.
Nexus: No it ain't. I'm my own man.
Lolk: Will you two just kiss already?
Vince: Yeah.
Me: Why are you even here Vince? You're ACTUALLY me.
Vince: Cause I can?
Lolk: And it's fun.
Me & Nexus: -_-