A Pony Displaced: Homeward

by NoLongerSober

Chapter 50 - Nightmare Night (Part 1)

Barrier held firm as the Nightmare stepped ever closer to him with a smooth and confident stride. However, as she drew nearer and wakefulness started to return to him, he noticed several things wrong with the dark alicorn.

First and most notably, she was now much shorter. Where the nightmare had once towered over him, this mare only reached his chin with her horn. The second was that her mane wasn’t the ever flowing form of the night sky with shimmering stars, but what looked like long blue hair with silver glitter scattered throughout it.

Blinking his eyes rapidly, Barrier recalled what day it was and who Verdant said would be visiting. Straightening his stance and cutting the magic to his horn, he addressed the shadowy mare. “Hello, Color Splash. Happy Nightmare Night.”

“You too, Barrier,” the recolored unicorn said as she ran a hoof through her mane, sending some flecks of glitter onto the floor. “Guessin’ I made this costume pretty good if it startled you.”

“It’s certainly… thorough.” Barrier’s eyes wandered over Splash’s form. Her colors seemed almost exactly like the Mare in the Moon. It was only upon closer inspection that he could see that while her armor was well colored and very impressive, it was still plastic. Her mane and tail looked to be wigs, with her natural hair hidden by both her coloring magic and her helm. Looking closely at her sides, he saw a band that matched her obsidian coat that connected the wings to her sides.

“Hey, careful.” Splash’s magic lightly pushed Barrier once he drew closer to the wings. “I had to borrow these from Nanaimo and I don’t want anything to happen to them.”

“They’re very convincing,” Barrier replied as he pulled back.

“Thanks. I tried really hard to make them blend in.” Splash turned her side towards the charcoal unicorn. “How about the cutie mark? Does it look like Nightmare Moon’s to you?”

“I wouldn’t know for certain,” Barrier stated as he turned towards the kitchen. “When I faced off against her, I was more focused on trying to stay alive or beat her rather than staring at her flank.”

“Okay then.” Splash shrugged as she followed Barrier along. “At any rate, I’m all set to paint up your Cyborganizer costume.

“First, give me a minute or two to get some coffee in me,” Barrier said with a yawn. “This isn’t exactly my best day.”

***

After a hot cup of coffee with ice cubes in it, Barrier had placed the gray plastic set before the costumed unicorn. “So, how long will this take?”

“Just a sec,” Splash replied as her horn began to glow white, a matching light quickly sweeping over the costume pieces, making the flat gray plastic suddenly appear to be a metallic silver. Even spots that had a touch of rust in the film had suddenly gained them in reality.

“And done.” Color Splash beamed as she pulled away from the suit. “How’s it look, Barrier?”

“Hmm…” Barrier’s horn lit as he levitated the costume pieces onto himself, snapping the pieces of plastic for his legs into place. The last piece to attach itself to him was the left eye plate, held in place with tiny velcro hooks that clung to his thin coat.

The stallion trotted over to the living room, seeing his reflection in a mirror that hung above the couch. A grin crossed his features as Color Splash trotted up beside him.

“Very nice work, Miss Splash.” Barrier nodded as he faced her. “You did exceptionally well.”

“Sweet!” Splash clapped her plastic covered hooves together. “I try to make everything I work on look as good as possible.”

“Is there anything I can do to pay you back for this?”

“Nah.” Splash waved and turned towards the door. “Your friends have done more than enough business with me for a freebie. At any rate, I’d better get back to my kiosk. See you later.”

“Have a good day, Color Splash.” Barrier waved as the unicorn mare headed out the door. With the sound of the door clicking shut, the charcoal stallion quickly shed the costume and trotted back to his room, where he cracked open another thick book.

***

Afternoon quickly rolled around for Barrier as his housemates returned and quickly got into their costumes, with himself following suit. The privates were now clad in their spandex uniforms, along with a collection of painted weapons.

“I didn’t know you had props for your costumes.” Barrier’s eyes roamed over the metallic weapons as the five slipped them either into hip or back holsters.

“We did not, sir,” Swiftsword replied from behind her red helmet. “I had Forge create a set of functional replicas of the weapons from the Pony Rangers comics. This way, should a threat to either us or Princess Luna appear, we will be armed to act without the sight of our weapons causing a panic.”

“Are you sure that’s wise, Swift?” Barrier’s eyebrow rose, though his tone indicated that he didn’t really mind.

“After what you told us of Nightmare Moon, I believe it would be wise to be prepared, just in case somepony wishes to bring Princess Luna harm,” Swift firmly answered as she trotted closer to her comrades.

“Very well then.” Barrier looked about and noticed someone missing from the collection of costumed ponies. “Where’s Wind Whistler?”

“Just a second!” the filly called out from the half-bathroom by the front door. “Just applying the finishing touches!”

The faint sound of tape ripping came from within as Barrier and Fleetfeather crept closer until the door was finally pushed open and the pegasus filly trotted out.

Wind Whistler’s mane and tail had been dyed from a light pink to a dark blue. On her hooves was a set of black painted cardboard shoes that matched the cardboard peytral around her neck with a crescent moon in its center. Atop her head was an ice cream cone that had been painted to match her coat and held in place with strips of clear tape near her cardboard crown. Lastly, her cutie marks had been covered up with pieces of paper that had a drawing of a cloudy black splotch with a crescent moon within while even more tape held it firm to her flanks.

“How do I look, Mother?” The little filly smiled as she looked up to Fleetfeather, her tail wagging like a puppy with a bone made of coffee.

“You look adorable, my dear,” the older pegasus replied as she patted her head, careful to avoid knocking her “horn” loose. “I’m rather surprised you dyed your mane by yourself.”

“Yep!” The filly dashed around her mother and hopped onto her back. “And I made the rest of my costume all by myself! Do you think Princess Luna will like it?”

“Almost assuredly,” Barrier said, trotting up to the pair’s side. “But remember, as far as she’s supposed to know, we’re just there to visit Twilight and learn more about Nightmare Night.”

“Yes, sir!” The pegasus foal tossed out a salute before returning to a childish grin. “If she asks why I’m dressed like her, I’ll say it’s because she’s my favorite princess and totally not because I thought dying my mane and tail was easier than dying my whole coat.”

“In that case, everypony, move out!” Barrier barked, making Wind Whistler and the cadets fall in line behind him as he headed out the door. The assemblage quickly made their way to the train station, with the only delay being Verdant waving to Erica, who seemed to have a rubber axe buried in her head.

***

The train zipped along and the sky grew dark as the eight rode on to Ponyville, all stuffed into a single cabin.

“Alright everypony, before we arrive, I want to know if you’ve learned anything about Nightmare Moon since I last asked you,” Barrier said, leading to Wind Whistler hopping in her mother’s lap.

“I know, I know!” she exclaimed excitedly as she bounced, nearly dislodging her cardboard crown. “Nightmare Moon almost caused eternal night and if you’re not wearing a costume, she’ll gobble you up, just like Verdant!”

“The first part’s true, but the latter part’s just a legend,” Barrier replied, giving the filly a pat and adjusting her crown so it would stay on her head.

“‘Cept for the eating Verdant thing, that’s totally true,” Hatty giggled. Even from behind his black helmet, Barrier could tell that the pegasus was grinning like a lunatic while Verdant was glaring daggers at him.

“Sure, tell everypony,” Verdant huffed and crossed his forelegs. “That will really help Princess Luna repair her reputation.”

“Anypony else want to chip in?” Barrier asked, making Verdant look up to him.

“Well, ever since she appeared, Nightmare Moon has been depicted as a villain in many things over the years,” the shamrock stallion said as he leaned forward. “Some more contemporary examples I know of include her being one of the first Pony Rangers villains, being the boss of Dee Forester and Radio’s Flank on Moony Science Theater Three-Thousand, and in Ryu Tama Ekkusu, a villain called Nanaba, the Legendary Super Neighyan claimed to be Nightmare Moon.”

“Depictions of her tend to show her with very sharp fangs and height comparable to Princess Celestia,” Swift interjected, the lights of the approaching town in the window shining off of her crimson helmet. “Until a few years ago, a number of depictions portrayed her as having thestral-like wings, but protests from thestrals and historians has led to that being phased out.”

“Snow’s shown me a few horror movies about Nightmare Moon.” Forge shifted in his seat. “Some show her using magic to either shrink her victims down to bite size or using it to turn them into candy. At any rate, her appetite for ponies rivaled even the most voracious griffins of our time.”

“The only thing I know is that she’s appeared on some cereal boxes that have a creepy theme to them that shows up around this time of year.” Winter Gem looked away and rubbed the back of her goldenrod helmet, her tone showing clear embarrassment.

“Well, at least you found something,” Barrier said comfortingly before looking over to the pegasus who was dressed as a pirate. “How about you, Fleet?”

“Other than what the cadets said, the only thing I could gather was that most ponies thought that Nightmare Moon was a myth, despite what history books said.” The one-eyed mare’s grip on Wind Whistler tightened ever so slightly . “Because of her return, quite a few ponies in the weather works were nervous about tonight.”

“Understandable,” Barrier replied as he looked out the window. “At any rate, we’ll be in Ponyville shortly and we’d best be ready for whatever this night will throw at us.”

“Right!” The seven replied together as the spandex clad quintet piled their hooves together.

“Go Go Pony Rangers!” They shouted together as they threw their hooves into the air, making Barrier roll his eyes.

“Kids…” he huffed as the train started to grind to a halt.

***

“So this is Ponyville.” Fleetfeather observed, her eye roaming over the town as she took in the sight of thatched roofs and the decorative banners and balloons that were scattered about. “It certainly has a rustic charm to it.”

“It’ll wear off once you meet up with the pink devil again,” Barrier chuckled as he and the faux-princess came up to the pegasus pirate’s side.

“Hey, speaking of pink…” Wind Whistler’s eyes darted about as they trotted away from the nearly empty station. “Where’d Verdant and the others go?”

Barrier’s ear flicked as he heard a sound coming from above. Quickly spinning on his hooves, he looked to the station’s roof where he saw five spandex clad forms take a spinning leap before they landed in front of them and struck an odd assortment of over dramatic poses.

“Mighty Morphin’ Pony Rangers!” The five shouted together, making some of the ponies in the crowd and Wind Whistler stomp their hooves at their stunt.

“Was that really necessary, privates?” Barrier asked flatly as he trotted over to them.

“I thought it would be a good way to ensure our skills were still sharp, sir,” Swift casually said as she wiped some dust off her boots. “At any rate, shall we head for Twilight’s?”

“Yeah, but don’t pull a stunt like again without permission. We already stand out enough as-is.” Barrier walked by, making the rangers salute before they fell in line behind him. “Now fall in, I want to get to Twilight’s ASAP.”

“How long will this take, sir?” Forge asked as they passed by a collection of ponies in colorful garbs.

“Shouldn’t be too long. You’ll be able to spot her place soon,” Barrier stated as he glanced over his shoulder. “She lives in a great big tree.”

“She lives in a tree?” Swift was aghast as she ran to Barrier’s side. “I never thought your family’s housing situation would be so terrible, sir. Is there anything we can do to help her?”

Barrier was forced to bite his lip to keep from laughing aloud at Swift’s question.

“You’ll see, Swift. You’ll see.”

Author's Note:

Alticron: Hey there, folks. I hope you're doing well and enjoyed the latest chapter of this story.

For those that don't know, Nanaimo is a character from the old tumblr comic, Ask Cookie & Brann by Stranger Danger/GreenNPC. I actually asked for permission for this bit years ago. I'm so glad I finally got to reference that comic. You may occasionally see his characters in the Milky Way comics.

At any rate, onto this chapter's picture.

Fun fact: The original images I made of the privates in their Pony Rangers costumes were done in 830x650 with their original hair styles, but since I decided to give everyone haircuts after that, I had to go back and redo the images since I didn't keep the project files... Fun. Well, at least I now have project files in 3320x2600.

Another bit of trivia, Barrier's Cyborganizer look was actually something made for a scrapped Fallout: Equestria story, but I'm not bitter that all the work went to waste.

Death glares at REDACTED

Also, I've decided to open up a Discord server for our readers. You can find the link here, but remember that we may occasionally dip into some more NSFW topics, so I am making this a NSFW server.

At any rate, catch you next time when we continue the Nightmare Night. See ya then!

Comments

[redmar]

I'm looking forward to how this Nightmare Night will go. I certainly expect Barrier and the cadets to be extremely confused by Pinkie's antics.

[A.P.O.N.I.]

“So this is Ponyville.”

What I heard was "The city of Townsville."

[Da Fennec]

Twilight will be annoyed if you do something to her home regardless of what you think about it

[Xanderfox]

10255470
Let's hope Dash doesn't try to prank them, it could end badly.

[Amos Anon]

“Go Go Pony Rangers!” They shouted together as they threw their hooves into the air, making Barrier roll his eyes.

NNNEEEEERRRRRDDDDSSSS!!!