Chapter 51 - Nightmare Night (Part 2)
“Ah, so that’s what you meant when you said she lives in a tree,” Swift said as the troupe approached the Golden Oaks library. “It’s certainly… unique.”
“Trust me when I tell you it’s one of the saner parts of this town,” Barrier replied as he reached the door. Giving the door a series of swift knocks, he was soon greeted by the sight of a little purple dragon in a purple dragon costume.
“Hey guys, I didn’t expect to see you here,” Spike excitedly said before looking back into the building. “Twilight, Barrier and his friends are here!” He called out and ushered the eight inside. “C’mon in. Twilight’s still getting her costume on.”
“I’ll be just a second!” The unicorn mare’s lavender hoof briefly poked out from the upstairs. A moment or two followed before Twilight Sparkle descended the stairs. She had a blue cape draped upon her back that was covered with stars, moons and bells, held in place with a golden jeweled clasp. Upon her head was a matching hat and a long white beard. “So, how do I look?”
Spike tilted his head at Twilight’s appearance. “Are you that one kooky grandpa from the Ponyville Retirement Village?”
Twilight gave a slight huff before Swiftsword spoke up, a hint of confusion in her tone. “No, you’re… Star Swirl the Bearded...”
“Yes! Exactly!” The violet mare was absolutely giddy that someone got her costume. “I’m glad somepony appreciates their history well enough to know it. I even tried to get the right number of bells. Do you like it?”
“Well…” Swift was grateful that her helmet hid her face so Twilight couldn’t see her biting her lip.
“You’ve never known the touch of a stallion, have you?” Winter Gem asked as she examined her costume, making Twilight blush and Swift smack the yellow clad mare in the back of the head.
“What are you talking about? Of course stallions have touched Twilight,” Spike said in confusion. “I could have sworn you guys saw Shining hug her after all that stuff in the empire and I know her dad’s hugged her too.”
“Ahem.” Twilight coughed into her hoof before trotting up to Barrier, disregarding Spike’s statements. “So, what brings you all to Ponyville? It’s quite the trip here from Vanhoover.”
Barrier gave a shrug before pulling his flask from his saddlebags. “We figured since you’re pretty much the smartest mare there is, that you’d know more about Nightmare Night and the traditions and such than we could glean ourselves, so we decided to see what you’d think.”
“Plus, we thought we’d be less overwhelmed by spending our first Nightmare Night in a small town instead of a big city,” Fleet interjected as she moved to Barrier’s side.
“Well your costumes are pretty nice,” the young mare said as she examined the adults in the party. “Did you make your costumes too?”
“Oh yeah,” Hat Trick said, suppressing a light chuckle. “We made them from our own trip to the store.”
“Except me!” Wind Whistler hopped out of the crowd. “I made it myself! I even did the dye work!”
“Oh, you look adorable, Wind Whistler.” Twilight gave the pegasus filly a pat on the head, carefully avoiding her cardboard crown. “I’m sure Princess Luna would love it if she could see it.”
“And I also made the weapons my fellow Pony Rangers are all carrying,” Forge said, his tone dripping with pride.
“Wow, they certainly look…” Twilight paused and drew closer, carefully examining the weapons on the ponies’ hips and backs. “Wait a second, are those real weapons?!” she shouted in shock.
“We strove for accuracy with our costumes,” Swift said proudly. “To that end, we had Forge create functional replicas of the Pony Ranger armaments.”
“Barrier, do you really think that’s a good idea?” Twilight backed towards the charcoal stallion, her voice somewhat shaky.
“I’m sure they’ll be fine, they know the importance of restraint,” Barrier dismissively said. “What’s the worst they could encounter?”
“How about ponies that decided to dress up like zombies?!” Twilight’s words drew the attention of the five cadets.
“I… I see your point, Twilight.” Swift slowly trotted closer to the bearded mare. “Still, I have taken some precautions as of late, visiting the shops and whatnot to see what sort of undead costumes we may encounter. Rest assured, we will be able to control ourselves and easily tell that these are merely ponies in costumes and make-up.”
“I sure hope so,” the lavender mare replied as her horn glowed a bright magenta, picking up a bowl of candy with a small sign that read, “take one” and heading out the door. “Well, let’s get things started.”
“You’re not going to stay behind and give out the treats yourself?” Barrier’s eyebrow rose as he followed her. “I thought that was one of the traditions of this holiday.”
“It is.” Twilight sighed as she set the bowl by the door. “Sadly, I don’t think many ponies will want to see me this year.”
“Why would that be, Miss Sparkle?” Forge asked as he and the others poured back into Ponyville’s streets.
“Last week, I messed up really badly.” Twilight made the slightest sniffling sound as she walked. “Every week since Princess Celestia assigned me to be here to learn about Friendship, I would send her a letter about a friendship problem or lesson I learned. But last week…”
“Twilight got really high strung because there were no friendship issues that came up,” Spike spoke up as he ran to the unicorn’s side, giving her shoulder a gentle pat. “She was worried she would be sent back to magic kindergarten in Canterlot if she couldn’t send Princess Celestia a friendship lesson.”
“I was so desperate that I thought that if I couldn’t find a friendship problem,” Twilight gave a hard swallow before she continued. “I could make one.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Hat Trick worryingly stated as Barrier trotted closer to Twilight’s side.
“I tried to make some children fight over some old doll of mine, and when it didn’t work, I enchanted it with a “Want it, Need it” spell.” Every word of Twilight’s was dripping with shame. “Before I knew it, almost everypony in town was fighting over the doll. I wanted to break the spell, but couldn’t before Princess Celestia arrived to dispel it.”
“I wrote her a letter, telling her about how worried Twilight was about everything,” Spike interjected. “I was hoping she could tell Twilight to calm down about the whole thing, but then she cast that spell and it spread like wildfire.”
“And in the end, it was all for nothing. Princess Celestia said that I never needed to send her a letter every week.” Twilight sadly laughed and looked Barrier in the eye. “It’s just that I thought I needed to since things just sort of fell into a schedule.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, kiddo,” Barrier gently spoke. “How’ve things been since then?”
“Not good, I’m afraid,” Twilight muttered. “My friends are still sticking by me, but most of the town doesn’t want anything to do with me now. Some businesses have turned me away while others just give me the stink-eye. We’ve had to deal with the library being egged twice already, and who knows what Nightmare Night pranksters may try tonight.” The bearded mare gave a tired and troubled sigh while the baby dragon hugged her leg. “In just one day, I turned into a pariah.”
“You turned into one of those little fish that could eat a cow down to the bones in a few minutes?” Wind Whistler gasped. “Wow! I didn’t know your magic was that powerful, Miss Twilight!”
“What? I—” Twilight spun to face the excited filly. “No, a pariah. Not a piranha, Wind Whistler. A pariah is a person who is an outcast or has been rejected from a society.”
“Oh.” Windy frowned. “Sorry about that, Miss Twilight.”
“It’s okay,” Twilight offered her an unsure smile. “I’m sure it’ll blow over eventually.”
“Here’s hoping that’s sooner rather than later,” Barrier chipped in.
Looking about, he saw the wrinkly form he recalled was Applejack’s grandmother with a gathering of foals in costume. Barrier started to feel the need to trot back at the sight of the being of his nightmares amongst the group now garbed in a chicken costume with a purple bag of treats secured around her neck. The pink devil dramatically gasped as she saw Barrier’s party and bolted over faster than he could blink.
“Hiya, Barrier! It’s been too long!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed before quickly pulling Barrier and all his housemates into a bone crushing hug.
“Could’ve been longer,” Barrier wheezed just before Pinkie let the eight ponies go.
“Nice costumes you guys have,” she giddily said as she looked them over. “I knew you’d look good in something pink again, Verdant.” The pink pony poultry pretender giggled before giving the ranger a wink.
“Thank you, Pinkie,” the shamrock stallion happily said, seemingly oblivious to any additional entendres the pink mare had given. “I’m glad I called dibs on it.”
“Sweet,” Pinkie replied before turning to her violet friend and lifting the bag towards her. “Hey Twilight, check out this haul! Cheerilee’s giving out bunches of goodies if you want some.”
“Pinkie, aren’t you a little old for this?” Twilight asked as Pinkie pecked some candy.
“Too old for free candy?” Pinkie gave Twilight a look as if she had grown a second and third head before squawking loudly in horror. “Never.” The glare she gave Twilight was the third creepiest look Barrier had ever seen her give.
“Well, Miss Pie, do you think you could help Wind Whistler and the privates with a little tour around Ponyville? Mayhaps show them where they could get the most candy?” Fleet asked, trotting up to the mare. “After all, it’s the first time any of them have ever experienced Nightmare Night.”
“Oh! Just like Pipsqueak!” Pinkie excitedly said before grabbing Fleet’s hoof and shaking her so hard that Barrier could swear she shook her whole body up and down. “Easy-peasy, Fleety. Once Granny Smith’s caught up, we’ll—”
Pinkie was cut off by a thunderous boom from above, making a number of children scream and the chicken mare to squawk once more before bolting away, taking Wind Whistler and the privates along with her. Looking up, Barrier spotted a dark cloud above them and Rainbow Dash clad in a tight costume of purple, black and yellow, laughing her head off.
“That wasn’t funny, Rainbow.” Twilight gave the pegasus a look of flat disappointment.
“Lighten up, old timer,” Rainbow said as she reigned in her laughter. “Tonight’s the best night of the year for pranks!”
“You mean besides April Fool’s Day?” Barrier’s eyebrow rose, to which Rainbow dismissively waved.
“It’s all in good fun,” Rainbow casually replied, ignoring Barrier before spotting a group of ponies trotting nearby. “Oh! Oh! There’s another!” She swiftly flew off. As Barrier rolled his eyes, he could hear the rumble of thunder, the screams of frightened ponies, followed by Rainbow’s maniacal laughter.
***
A few minutes had passed until Barrier, Twilight, Spike and Fleetfeather came upon a stand where Applejack, dressed up like a scarecrow, was watching some ponies bobbing for apples in a wooden tub.
“Happy Nightmare Night, Applejack!” Twilight called out, drawing the farm mare’s eye and earning her smile.
“Howdy, Spike! Hey, Twilight! Nice costume,” the farmer said as she trotted up to the group.
Twilight was barely able to open her mouth when Spike interjected. “Thanks! I’m a dragon.”
“She means me, Spike.” Twilight gave the diminutive drake a grumpy glare.
“With a beard like that,” Applejack said, seeming to have not heard Twilight, “Ah reckon yer some kinda country music singer.”
Twilight grunted in annoyance while Spike howled with laughter. Barrier and Fleet just managed to keep from giggling.
“No such luck, I’m afraid, Applejack.” Barrier tried, unable to keep the amusement from his voice. “She’s dressed as a historical figure that very few ponies seem to know about these days.”
“Well at any rate, y’all have some pretty good lookin’ costumes,” Applejack said before trotting back towards the tub of bobbing ponies. “While y’all are here, ya’ feel like bobbin’ for an apple?”
“Excuse me, miss. How much does this cost?” A mare’s voice came from behind the assembly. While the voice seemed kind with her question, it made the hair on the back of Barrier’s neck bristle as he turned to face her.
“Starshine,” Barrier grumbled as he looked the golden coated mare in the eye. “It’s been a while.”
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This is a nice chapter and I hope that Barrier and the cadets can help Luna and possibly keep Pinkie Pie from causing too much trouble. Also I'm surprised that Starshine is in Ponyville. The last part of the chapter starting with Twilight's response to Spike after they meet Applejack is suddenly in italics.
10289161
Fixed.
DON'T. SAY. THAT.