Holiday's in Equestria

by Fizzyberries302

Nightmare Night

The chilly winds were blowing and golden leaves from the trees were falling everywhere. Violet was humming to herself as she trotted down to the road, a saddlebag of limited edition ‘Pumpkin Spice’ perfume. It was in the late fall and the town of Ponyville was getting ready for the season. Nightmare Night was approaching; however, Violet was clueless as to what the celebrations were about. She had already learned of the names of the Equestrian holidays: Summer Sun, Hearts and Hooves Day, Hearth’s Warming and Nightmare Night. She had absolutely no idea of their origins, but they were similar to the holiday’s she celebrated as a human, so they weren’t alien to her. It was a good thing it was chilly out, because that gave Violet an excuse to wear her striped scarf. It wasn’t anything special, just a simple woollen scarf striped green and purple. It was however, Violet’s most prized possession. It had belonged to her mother, who sadly passed away protecting Violet from a colony of vicious Changelings.

Violet trotted down to the Ponyville Spa. She opened the door and was greeted by a pink earth pony with a blue mane held back by a white headband. “Hey Violet, got the next supply?” she asked.

Violet reached into her bag and pulled out several bottles of perfume and set them on the reception desk. “Here’s this week’s supply, only two more weeks and then it stops. I can believe how popular my perfumes have become, they’re selling like hotcakes.”

Aloe let out a small giggle before reaching behind the counter to the safe. She pulled out three small bags of gold coins and handed them to Violet.

“300 bits.” she said with a smile.

Violet put her payment into her saddle bag, said her goodbyes and left the spa. Violet trotted down to the boutique to pick up her costume and took in on all the Nightmare Night decorations that were set up for the festival. She stopped at the Carousel Boutique for a costume. A small unicorn filly with curly pink and purple hair was lying on the floor colouring in some black paper spiders. “Hi Sweetie, is your sister here?” Violet asked.

“Yeah, she’s in the back room.” Sweetie Belle pointed to the back room and Violet could hear someone humming.

The pegasus trotted over and saw Rarity at her sewing machine, working on a vampire costume. “Hey Rarity, is my costume ready?”

“Just finished it this morning, it’s on the table over there.” Rarity chimed.

Violet walked over to the table and stared at her costume. She had decided to go as a banshee. The dress was a ripped and dirty white 18th century gown. The shoulders were puffed and the sleeves were long and lacy. The skirt was torn and covered in dust. If it wasn’t close to Nightmare Night, it would have been the ugliest dress Violet had ever seen.

“It’s great Rarity,” she picked it up and dropped five bits in its place. Violet tucked the costume into her bag and left, saying goodbye to her friends. She skipped happily back home, where her family was waiting for. Violet lived with her cousin, Fluttershy and her best friend Discord, who happened to be Fluttershy’s boyfriend. She trotted down the path and saw Discord decorating the house with Nightmare Night decorations, things like pumpkins and spiders. Discord spotted her coming up the pathway. “Hey Violet! Like what we’ve done to the house.”

“It’s great,” she looked around for her cousin. “Where’s Fluttershy?”

“Inside, decorating the rest of the house.” he said, making a large black spider crawl into place. It wasn’t a real spider, it was plastic. But Discord was known for making inanimate objects move around.

“Okay then, I got my costume today,” she asked.

“Gotta put it somewhere safe for tomorrow night.” As she approached the door, she turned to Discord.

“About that, when are you going to explain the origins of Nightmare Night?”

Discord chuckled. “You’ll find out tomorrow.”

The next night, Violet was getting dressed into her costume for the Nightmare Night festival. Her banshee costume looked great on her. She had made her hair fall into straight bangs that fell over her face. Her face was caked in white face paint, except for around her eyes. That was covered in black, making her green orbs stand out. For some more effect, she had ruffled her feathers out into weird angles, making her look tired and frail. “Awesome,” she said, picking up her pillow sack for the candy and made her way down stairs. Fluttershy was dressed in a simple blue opera gown and had curled her hair. Discord was wearing a black suit, white ruffled shirt, red vest, black leather gloves and a black cape with a blood red underside. Covering half his face was a pale mask.

They gasped when they saw Violet. “Geez Violet, you really went over the top with your costume.” Discord whistled.

“Yeah, I’m the biggest Halloween freak.” she then saw the confused looks on her friends faces.

“Oh right, in the Human World, Nightmare Night is called Halloween. But it’s pretty much the same as Nightmare Night.” she explained.

“Oh, well you’ll have to tell the other girls when we get to the festival.” Fluttershy said, making her way to the door.

The town centre was decorated with spooky decorations and foals of all ages were going around in costumes chanting, ‘Nightmare Night! What a Fright! Give us something Sweet to Bite!’ There were also a bunch of different stalls, for both food and games. There was a bobbing for apples barrel and a pumpkin kicking station. Violet caught sight of a certain pink pony, wearing a scary clown costume.

“Hey Violet!” cried Pinkie, running over. Following behind her, were the other ponies and Spike. Applejack was dressed as a Timberwolf, Rarity was a vampire, Rainbow Dash was a guard, Twilight was a mad scientist and Spike was a tabby cat.

“Whoa, you guys look great,” Twilight said, admiring her friend’s costumes. “What do you think of the festival Violet?” she asked the teenage pegasus.

“It’s great. Reminds me of Halloween.” Violet then saw the confused looks on the ponies faces.

“What’s that?” Rainbow asked.

“A Human version of Nightmare Night.” Discord explained.

“Oh, do you offer candy to Nightmare Moon?” Twilight asked.

Violet raised an eyebrow. “Who’s Nightmare Moon?”

The Mane Six all gave each other looks of concern, until Twilight faced her. “Remember Princess Luna?”

“Yeah, but what’s she got to do with Nightmare Moon?”

“Well, there really is no way of telling you, so I’ll just go ahead and say it,” The purple alicorn inhaled deeply. “Nightmare Moon is Princess Luna.”

“Come again?”

“A thousand years ago, Luna rebelled against Celestia, because the ponies of that time enjoyed the day and ignored her night. She became an evil mare of darkness, Nightmare Moon. She vowed to bring eternal night to Equestria. Celestia tried to reason with her, but it was too late for her sister and she was forced to banish her to the moon, for a thousand years,” Twilight explained.

Violet’s eyes were as wide as lollipops.

“Since then, parents have been telling the story of Nightmare Moon, the mare of darkness, who would take them away and eat them. The only way for them to be safe is to offer some of their candy to the statue so she will leave them alone,”

Seeing the shocked look on Violet’s face, Twilight chuckled. “Of course it’s all just poppy-cock. That’s just a legend to get everyone into the mood. Nowadays, the offering is just a game, none of the foals are in any danger.”

This made Violet feel better. “So the Trick of Treating is a sort of game?”

“Yep! The idea is to get as much candy as possible, before Nightmare Moon arrives at midnight. It’s the highlight of the festival.” Pinkie exclaimed.

Violet grinned and decided to play along. “Well I better hurry before all the candy is gone, wouldn’t want Nightmare Moon to gobble me up.” she said, running off. Her friends chuckled to themselves, before exploring the festival.

Violet trotted up to the door of a house with a large spider web covering the door. She missed doing this as a child. When she was living on the streets, she used Halloween as a way to get food. Since everyone was dressed up, none of the houses thought twice about her attire. She knocked on the door and a green unicorn and yellow earth pony with a purple and red mane answered. The earth pony was dressed as a classic zombie, but the unicorn was dressed as…actually she wasn’t sure. The unicorn was trying to stand on her back legs and was wearing a T-shirt and shirt, on her front hooves were hands. Violet raised an eyebrow, but said the chant. “Nightmare Night, what a fright, give me something Sweet to Bite!”

The earth pony giggled and held out a bowl of candy. Violet held out her pillow sack as the mare poured a generous amount of candy into it. She turned to the unicorn. “What are you supposed to be?” Violet asked.

“A Human,” the unicorn said in a spooky voice.

Violet jumped at this, before giggling. “No offense, but that’s not what Humans look like.”

The unicorn stared at her. “How would you know?”

“Because I used to be a Human.” Violet said grinning.

The unicorn stared at her in pure shock. “W-what?”

“You heard me and I can prove it,” She turned her head and saw Discord standing 50 feet away.

“Hey Discord, think you could show these ladies what a human really looks like?!” she hollered.

Luckily, Discord heard and snapped his fingers. Violet was enveloped in a bright light, she felt her body change and when the light died down, she was a human again, still wearing her costume.

The unicorn’s mouth grew into a big goofy grin, while the earth pony stared in pure shock. “I KNEW YOU GUYS WERE REAL! OMG, ARE THOSE ACTUAL HANDS?” she asked, staring at Violet’s hands.

“Yep,” she held out her palm and the unicorn exaimed it.

“This is so cool! My names Lyra, that’s my girlfriend Bon Bon.” she said, pointing to the earth pony.

“Hi, y’know I didn’t believe Lyra’s stories about humans, but now I see that I was wrong.” said Bon Bon, looking a tad sheepish.

“That’s fine, my names Violet-Rose and stories about humans were covered up for reasons I’m not allowed to tell. Now I gotta go, don’t want Nightmare Moon to gobble me up.” Violet grinned.

Lyra and Bon Bon waved her goodbye and Discord snapped Violet back into her pony form.

The rest of the night went well and Violet’s pillow sack was full to the brim with candies. She was about the head back to the festival, when a bolt of lightning struck out of nowhere. All around, colts and fillies were running and screaming. “She’s coming! It’s Nightmare Moon!” said a filly, pointing up to the sky.

Violet looked up and saw a black gothic chariot in the distance, being pulled by two grey pegasus stallions with bat wings. Riding the chariot was a cloaked figure, but a long black horn was clearly visible from under the hood. Violet felt a twinge of fear and followed the group of foals to the statue. There was a line to the statue and the foals were empting some of their candy at the foot of the statue. She then spotted three fillies in pig costumes.

“Hey CMC!” she called out. The fillies turned and saw Violet standing there. They each had a large bag of candy.

“Violet! Isn’t this the best? Nightmare Moon is going to here soon!” Scootaloo asked.

They all yelped as another bolt of lightning struck. Violet shrieked, but started laughing at the adrenaline rush she was getting. The foals were rushing to get the offering done before the chariot landed. Finally, Violet emptied a fraction of her candy onto the already large pile, when a loud feminine voice echoed around.

“CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE! IT WAS WISE FOR YOU TO BRING THIS CANDY TO ME!” The chariot landed and the hooded figure stepped off. The voice was from her. “I AM PLEASED WITH YOUR OFFERING, IN EXCHANGE I WILL LET YOU LIVE ANOTHER YEAR!” The cloak turned into a colony of bats and a black alicorn wearing dark armour was standing there.

The foals screamed and ran away. Violet started to cower under the Princess’s gaze. She took a peak and saw that the mare was standing over her.

“Hello Violet-Rose, how are you enjoying your first Nightmare Night?” she said in a softer tone. Violet stood up, shaking. She then got a better look at the mare standing in front of her. She was taller and her coat was jet black, her mane was longer and she wore a blue helmet.

“It’s going great, though I think you can lose the scariness now. You got us.”

The mare chuckled and transformed back into Princess Luna. “Sorry, did I go over the top?”

“Not at all, I’m just not used to it yet.” Luna giggled and walked with Violet back to the rest of the festival.

“You know, your cousin had the same reaction.”

“She did?”

“Yeah, Twilight thought that she could teach me to not use my Equestrian Voice all the time.”

“What that was that was? Also, how did you know that Fluttershy is my cousin?”

“Celestia told me and I’m quite surprised at how Fluttershy has changed since Discord came into her life.”

Violet looked at her. “What do you mean?”

“Well before my sister brought him out of stone so he could be reformed, Fluttershy was scared of everything, now she’s become more confident,” Luna explained.

Violet stared at her. “Guess spending all that time with Discord helped her.”

The princess chuckled. “I think so too.”

---

Finally, they were back at the festival for the dance. Scary music started playing and ponies all around her dancing to the beat. Violet watched as her friends and Princess Luna went off to dance with other ponies, when she felt someone tap her shoulder. She squeaked and saw the familiar blue eyes of her coltfriend, Comet Blitz. He was wearing a doctor’s coat, covered in fake blood. “Nice costume babe.”

“Yours isn’t that bad either?”

“Hey, why don’t we stop talking and go dance?” Comet offered.

Violet grinned and took his hoof. “You know me so well.”

---

A little into the dance, Violet spotted a karaoke machine up on the stage. That gave her an idea. "Hey babe, you up for a bit of Nightmare Night karaoke?" She flashed him the cheeky grin she knew drove him mad. Comet returned the grin and nodded. They walked up to the stage and motioned for Vinyl Scratch to turn the beat box to the machine. Vinyl understood and switched programs, causing the current song to stop playing with a scratch, followed by a herd of complaining ponies.

"My apologies every pony, but we've just had a request from a young couple from the crowd to do some karaoke." she spoke through the mic.

The Mane Six turned their heads up to the stage and gasped when they saw Violet and Comet walking up onto the stage. Discord took out his eyes and wiped him them on his jacket, before setting them back in. "Are my eyes deceiving me or is that Violet and that boyfriend of hers up there?"

"That's Violet alright," Rainbow said.

---

Violet nervously tapped the mic in her hooves. "Is this thing on? Okay, hey everypony! Is everyone having a good time?!" she asked. The crowd stomped there hooves in reply. She smiled. "Well then, as a tribute to my first Nightmare Night, me and my gorgeous boyfriend are going to spice up the night with a bit of karaoke!" The crowd cheered for the young couple.

"Hit it Vinyl!" Comet shouted. The unicorn pressed a button and a song started played. The ponies cheered as the couple started bobbing to the music. Then Comet started to sing.

Comet: It's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark
Under the moonlight you see a sight that almost stops your heart

Then Violet joined in.

Violet: You try to scream, but terror takes the sound before you make it
You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes
You're paralyzed

Both: 'Cause this is thriller, thriller at night
And no one's gonna save you from the beast about to strike

Comet: You know it's thriller, thriller night
You're fighting for your life inside a killer thriller, tonight

Violet: You hear the door slam and realize there's nowhere left to run
You feel the cold hand and wonder if you'll ever see the sun

Comet: You close your eyes and hope that this is just imagination
But all the while you hear a creature creepin' up behind
You're out of time

Both: 'Cause this is thriller, thriller at night
There ain't no second chance against the thing with forty eyes girl,
You know it's thriller, thriller night

Violet: You're fighting for your life inside a killer thriller tonight

Violet: Night creatures call
And the dead start to walk in their masquerade

Comet: There's no escapin' the jaws of the alien this time
(They're open wide)
This is the end of your life

Comet: They're out to get you;

Violet: There's demons closing in on every side
They will possess you,

Comet: Unless you change that number on your dial

Both: Now is the time for you and I to cuddle close together, yeah
All through the night I'll save you from the terror on the screen
I'll make you see

The Mane Six and Discord were just staring at the two ponies on stage. They were amazing! Soon, none of them could help but dance to the beat, even Rarity started dancing.

Violet: That it's a thriller, thriller night
'Cause I can thrill you more than any ghoul
Would ever dare try
This is thriller, thriller night

Comet: So let me hold you tight and share a killer, diller chiller
Thriller here tonight

Violet: That it's a thriller, thriller night

Comet: 'Cause I can thrill you more than any ghoul
Could ever dare try

Violet: This is thriller, thriller night

Comet: Girl so let me hold you tight and share a killer, thriller
I'm gonna thrill ya tonight

The ponies in the crowd were dancing wildly at the sound of the teens voices.

Both: 'Cause this is thriller, thriller at night
And no one's gonna save you from the beast about to strike
You know it's thriller, thriller night
You're fighting for your life inside a killer thriller, tonight

Once the song ended, they finished their performance with a star jump. Below, the crowd of ponies were stomping there hooves in applause. Violet turned to her boyfriend and concluded that she was going to like this holiday even more with him by her side.

Author's Note:

I know it's a tad rushed, but i really want to get started on the Hearths Warming chapter. Also Lyra got to finally meet a real Human!

Happy Day

Comments

[Featherclaw]

Listening to the song with it makes it perfect, but the last part kinda threw me off a bit. Maybe you were just rushing, like you said.

[Fizzyberries302]

7755970
Spot on, but how do you like that Lyra got to meet a real human?

[Featherclaw]

Oh, That was perfect with Lyra! I was actually expecting that from her at the party. *smirks* Well I remember the audio drama Anthropology.