19- What a Fright!
In the first couple of days after Celestia’s unexpected visit to my home, we had a lot going on in our minds that desperately needed to be sorted out. Not just with Gizmo, Brisk and I, but also with Swift and Azure. While everything that the alicorn told us seemed like a good idea, there were still a couple of concerns some of us had. For me, I wasn’t quite sure if my family and I would be ready for such unexpected publicity, especially with how the whole situation with Luna at the museum caught me by surprise. That and I wasn’t quite enthusiastic with how some of the stories turned out afterwards.
Gizmo and her friends were in agreement with that, but none more so than Swift. His concern with the princess’ offer was that since he and his friends were not exactly for being ‘friendly’ with certain groups, the pegasus was concerned that if their story went public, it would cause trouble on Earth and Equestria. Given that in their old life, they were basically the Equestria equivalent of the Sly Cooper Gang, I can see why he would be concerned with having their names go public after a life of thieving and secrecy.
Eventually, we got back to Celestia to voice Swift’s concerns and arrange an agreement. In exchange for letting her share our story with the rest of Equestria, she agreed to two things that we asked of her. First, to leave any mention of Swift out of it, and second, it would be postponed for a bit and published two weeks from now. Both of them were things that the former diarch was actually okay with, and after our meeting, she immediately started to make preparations.
Ironically enough, there was something that we, and by proxy the rest of the neighborhood, also had to prepare for. For it was now the month of October and with it came candy, costumes, jack-o-lanterns and random props in the front yard of every couple of houses you would happen to pass by.
For most of us on earth, we called this holiday Halloween. For Gizmo and her friends, they called it Nightmare Night. And if I have to be honest with you, despite both holidays sounding exactly the same, what the Equestrians called it sounded a lot more accurate. Because with how fast things sold out in stores and how quickly the end of the month was approaching, it was becoming an actual nightmare to make sure we had everything ready.
So, mom had the idea that instead of having our house and Gizmo’s house do trick or treating separately, we instead combined everything that we had and set up shop at Gizmo’s place. Not just to help with handing out candy and such, but also help celebrate her first ever halloween in the neighborhood among friends and those she’s comfortable with. That and if she needed any help, any one of us could take over for her and show her the ropes.
A good idea, in theory at least. However, in preparation for the festivities of the night, there were a few things that we didn’t prepare for… and absolutely did not anticipate when the night finally arrived.
“Sam, are you sure you don’t need any help with your costume at all?”
“No, mom. I think everything’s good,” I insisted for what felt like the third time as I was looking at the bathroom mirror. I had already changed into my costume for the night and was not only doing the final touches with the makeup, but also with my hair as well. To say that there were a few different parts to make it work was a bit of an understatement, but at least I didn’t have to wear a wig. That and I had a proper excuse to have my hair be a complete mess today.
As I picked up the prop sword that went along with the rest of my outfit and went downstairs, that was when I saw Mom and dad waiting for me. Dad was going to stay at the house because he needed to take care of a few things tonight, so it was just mom and I going over to help out Gizmo. Though, he did give me a smile as I reached the bottom of the steps. “Well, what can I say? That looks rather impressive.”
“Yeah, but, who exactly is it?” I heard mom ask, who was wearing what looked like a standard witch costume, minus the typical broom you would see with it, “Are you sure you’re not going to be cold in that outfit?”
“Mom, I’ll be fine,” I reassured her, “Besides, this was something I wanted to try for a while. It’s one of the characters on that D&D show Dad and I watch on thursdays. I know people aren’t probably going to get it, but if tonight’s supposed to be a night where we can pretend to be someone else, then I want to do this.”
I watched mom glance over at dad, who just gave off a shrug, before she looked back at me. “Well, can you at least tell me that character's name?”
“Yasha Nydoorin,” I said, before placing the sword on my back, “Let’s just say that explaining her story is not exactly easy and we don’t have the time for it right now. So, let’s not keep Gizmo and Brisk waiting too long.”
At that, Mom couldn’t help but shrug her shoulders as she followed me out of the house and towards our driveway. Compared to all the other houses around the neighborhood, ours didn’t quite have a lot to stand out in terms of decorations this year. In fact, considering the plans for this year, the only decoration we did have was just a plastic tombstone on the front gate with a piece of paper taped to it to tell anyone that walks over to come over next door instead. Because it was more than likely that somebody was going to try and come by anyways.
By the time that we just made it to our neighbor’s driveway, the garage door had opened up as Brisk stepped on out. Much to my surprise, the earth pony was wearing… well, normal looking clothes. Business casual suit with jacket, collared shirt and tie. “Well, well. Your costumes are different from what I picked, that’s for sure,” the earth pony greeted us, “Happy Nightmare Night.”
“Happy Halloween,” Mom smiled and tipped her hat, “I must ask though, what exactly are you dressed as? It doesn’t exactly look… well-”
“Scary?” Brisk asked, “That’s odd. Because when I asked Ryan about it, he told me this was the scariest thing he could think of.”
I let out a deep sigh as he looked back at him. If my friend Ryan was known for anything, it was his… well, ‘unique’ sense of humor. Something that I think was on full display here if Brisk came to him for costume advice. “And what would that happen to be?”
“A debt collector from that one human agency… I think he called it the ‘IRS’?”
… Okay, in hindsight, that is terrifying. Yet, something tells me anyone that’s coming by to trick-or-treat here tonight are just going to end up getting more confused than scared.
“Well, that certainly is an interesting choice,” I told him as I looked around the garage. There was a giant plastic tub that looked like a witch’s cauldron in the center, along with a portion of all the candy that we had for the evening and a few folding chairs for us to sit in while we waited for trick-or-treaters to come to us. However, despite everything that we did have, there was something that was… missing. “So, where’s Gizmo? Is she getting her costume together?”
“She is,” the earth pony replied as mom began to open up the bags of candy and put them in the fake cauldron, “However, word of warning, Gizmo might be a bit… panicky. Last night didn’t really help with that.”
Both mom and I looked at each other with a puzzled expression. “What do you mean?”
“Well…”
“Are you sure about this, Gizmo? I mean, we could just as easily ask Sam and the others about what we’re going to expect when they come by tomorrow.”
“Come on, Brisk! It’ll be fun. Mr. Axle gave us all these ‘DVD’s’ for a reason. Perhaps watching some of them could help. I mean, this one is literally called ‘Halloween’. It should be safe for us to learn a few things.”
I… found myself twitching a bit at that, contemplating what the earth pony just told us. “You’re telling me that you two saw a horror movie and she thought it would be educational?”
“We did not even know it was a horror movie until part of the way through,” Brisk told us as he let out a deep sigh. “It didn’t help that we had most of the lights out at the time. I know that the whole thing was fictional, but I’m warning you ahead of time just in case someone in the neighborhood happens to dress up as that Myers guy. The last thing we probably need is for her to start panicking.”
And just when I thought her attempts at trying to create Rick’s portal gun were a bit extreme. If Gizmo was trying to come up with last minute home defense, then that might spill bad for all of us.
“Yeah, I can see why,” I grumbled, before looking over at mom, “I’m going to go have a talk with her. Try and see if I can calm her down a bit so we can enjoy our evening tonight. Can you help Brisk with… um…”
“Final preparations?”
“Yeah, that.”
Mom could only chuckle as she looked back at me. “Funny, since your dad did the same exact thing when you were little. Go ahead, we’ll get things ready over here and keep people busy if we happen to have any early arrivals.”
Aside from reminding me of something I rather not remember right now, that gave all the incentive I needed as I left my sword on one of the chairs and walked on inside. As I walked in, most of the place looked the same, but I could see some of Gizmo’s inventions nearby every one of the windows as well as the front door. I wasn’t sure if they were supposed to be deterrents or an actual security measure that was made by a frightened unicorn, but I didn’t want to take any chances.
Of course, it was around the time that I made it to the living room that I felt something fly past my head and a panicked squeak of sorts from behind me. “W-wait a second… Sam?”
Right behind me, halfway down the stairs was Gizmo herself in a costume that I can only describe as one part steampunk, one part D&D artificer. She wore a simple dress, yet there looked to be metal or something similar around her forelegs and shoulders. Not in a ‘Hey, I’m royalty! Look at me,’ kind of way, but something that was a mix between elegance and lethality.
“H-hi, uh… sorry if I startled you,” I told her, scratching the back of my head where I felt that thing fly past me a few seconds ago, “You look rather nice.”
“T-thanks,” the unicorn blushed at the compliment, “You look… uh…”
“Rough?”
“I was going to say something different, but I think you said it better,” she admitted, nervously glancing left and right as she came down the stairs. “Where’s-?”
“Brisk and mom are in the garage, but I wanted to find you first,” I said before walking over to her, “He told me that you two tried something last night to prepare and… how it didn’t go so well.”
Her pupils shrank a bit at what I said as the blush on her face was now replaced with a look of embarrassment, “Yeah, I… really wanted to know more about this ‘Halloween’. I mean, it sounded similar to Nightmare Night, but I didn’t want to assume anything if there happened to be something different.”
At first glance, that almost sounded reasonable. Yet, there still seemed to be a few pieces missing. “So you thought that the movies that dad gave you guys were the best bet?”
“Well, telling us about some of these things doesn’t entirely help,” she said, before trotting over to the entertainment center and pulling out the dvd that started this whole mess, “The best way I learn things for myself is to see it with my own eyes. That and trial & error, but the latter one is more than likely to burn off your fur. That and it literally said ‘Halloween’ on the box.”
“Yeah, but the box art also had a hand holding a knife,” I pointed out to her, “Gizmo, if you’re just nervous about something, you don’t need to be afraid about it.”
“That’s not what I’m trying to say,” the unicorn sighed, putting the dvd away and taking a seat on a couch, “It’s… very difficult to try and understand what others are thinking. It’s… like you’re looking through a telescope, but you’re only seeing what they see and perceiving things from their point of view. They’re not the same as me and what they might like and dislike are different from what I like and dislike. So-”
Before she could continue, I just went up and placed a hand on her shoulder, “Hey, relax. There’s no need to overthink anything. There’s no other things to worry about or ‘what ifs’ to consider. The only thing to focus on is making sure we have a good time tonight and not let yourself get intimidated. The only ones coming by would just be people from around the neighborhood, alright? Nothing too serious.”
At first, Gizmo felt rather stiff to the touch. But after thinking things over, she began to loosen up and feel like putty in my hands as she let out a breath and smiled, “Are you sure?”
“Everything’s going to be fine,” I reassured her, before removing my hand from her shoulder and walking over towards the garage door with the unicorn slowly following behind me, “Besides, mom and I wanted to make sure that you and Brisk have a great first Halloween. Even Ryan and a few other friends we know are going to be coming by as well. I’m pretty sure everything’s going to be fine. Just enjoy yourself and we’re going to have some fun tonight.”
I did not know it at the time, but when I assured Gizmo that everything was going to be fine, I think I unknowingly jinxed us.
When the night started, things were going fine. Our neighbors from around the block, including some Equestrians that had moved in a couple of months ago, came by to visit us one by one. Some were there with their kids to do trick-or-treating, while others just wanted to talk a bit and see how we were doing. Some even inquired about our choice of costume since they either didn’t know what we were or had seen the outfit before, but didn’t know the character. Other people that came by like Ryan decided to give us a helping hand by providing some snacks and also some halloween themed music.
Just as we were about to finish up for the night, that was when we got an unexpected visitor. “Sam? Were we… expecting anyone else to show up?”
“Not that I can think of,” I shook my head as I helped Brisk move the last of the props we had out front back into Gizmo’s garage. I looked back to Mom, who originally asked the question, before turning my gaze over to Ryan. “Are we expecting anyone else?”
“I don’t think so. I mean, I think everybody and everypony in the neighborhood has already come by at least once,” he added, still wearing his improvised costume of Doc Brown from Back to the Future as he was putting away some of the other stuff he brought along. “Plus, it’s still going to be a while before midnight and we already gave out most of the candy we had in the witch’s cauldron. Seeing that everyone else has closed up shop, I think it is a bit late for unexpected guests.”
“Well, Misty said she was going to come by and see us, just to make sure that things went smoothly,” Gizmo said as she shrugged her shoulders and came to join us, “Maybe it’s her?”
“Unfortunately, Mistral had prior obligations and could not be able to make it this evening.” Oh no… I knew that voice. That could only come from one particular pony we met. “So, instead, I chose to come by for her.”
As I slowly turned around, I found myself looking at a tall midnight colored pony with a mane that looked like the night sky. They were dressed up as Ranni the Witch, and not just the outfit, but also the magical effect to match the same appearance. Even though their costume mostly concealed their appearance, I knew who it was just from their voice alone.
“Luna? Is that you?”
“Indeed, it is,” she said, “A pleasure to see you again, Sam. And among friends no less.”
“Wait,” I heard mom speak, “Isn’t that the name of the pony you met at the Museum some time back? That’s her?”
I didn't even have the chance to say anything, for Luna's eyes shifted away from me and to her instead. “I don’t believe we’ve met. Are you another one of Sam and Gizmo’s friends?”
“Princess, I… hate to be rude,” the unicorn next to me, who looked just as shocked as I was about everything that had happened so far, spoke up, “But that is Sam’s mom.”
It took Luna a moment or so for that to sink in, but once it did, her tone sort of changed. “Oh… My apologies, I-”
“T-there’s no need,” Mom interrupted her, “Sometimes, not everything is what it appears to be. But if I may ask, what… exactly brings you here?”
“Well, when I heard that this was to be Gizmo’s first… well…”
“Halloween?”
“Yes, that,” the princess nodded, “When I heard that it would be Gizmo’s first Halloween, I thought I would take it upon myself to help with the celebrations. Back when I was in a town similar to what you call home, a dear friend chose to help me when I celebrated my first Nightmare Night. Though, it seems that you have just finished.”
It was at that point that I… couldn’t help but feel bad. Luna’s intentions were good, but she just came at the wrong time. But maybe… things did not have to end so soon.
“Actually, we don’t have to end things just yet. Perhaps, there’s more that we can do to celebrate.”
That had Gizmo, as well as practically everyone else, look back at me, “Really? But what can we do?”
I could only just give Gizmo a smile as I looked back at her, while also glancing at Luna, “I’m sure we can all figure something out. Besides, the night’s still young and we still got a bit of candy to go through. I’m sure Luna wouldn’t mind.”
“Why of course not! Nightmare Night is meant to be celebrated among friends,” the lunar alicorn smiled, “And I’m happy to be a part of it and celebrate with you. After all, the night is still young.”
When I felt my eyes opening again, I felt the mother of all headaches come to greet me personally. Last night was… still a bit of a blur, but it was rather enjoyable. I mean, with Luna around, we found a way to keep things going all the way to midnight.
Though, I don’t remember my room looking like this… or my pillow feeling this… fluffy… wait-.
“Oh, hello Sam,” I heard, before looking up to stare directly into the face of the lunar alicorn that came to visit last night… and now I realize two things. One, I was still in Gizmo's house. And two, what I was sleeping on was actually one of Luna's wings. “You’re finally awake.”
… How the fu-!?!
Despite the somewhat serious tone in the beginning, this is meant as a chapter to celebrate Halloween. With a little bit of extra silliness.
Anyways, have a Ranni pony.
(Credits to assasinmonkey on Deviantart)
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I'm a little surprised the Unicorn isn't Twilight. She's usually what most people think when they think "smart Unicorn."
Great way to celebrate Halloween. It's been a while since this was updated and it's great to see it's still going.
A very good Halloween chapter, I loved the usual crazy hi-jinks that Gizmo seems to get herself and others into say unknowingly watching a "horror" movie.
11403538
Yeah, Gizmo has a bad habit of judging things based on the title alone
11403545
Indeed she does and that's what I like about her.
"You were trying to cross the border, right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush-"
11403872
... Only now do I realize that xD
Seriously, that went over my head until you brought it up
I can't help but imagine her as a Ranni doll. And a certain meme video about a jar plus that doll
Don’t worry, Sam! I’m sure nobody’s going to look down on a drunken, interspecies one-night stand!
11404005
The only thoughts I have of Ranni are some of the snippets of Ranni in Max0r's videos on Elden Ring.
It's rather heartwarming to see Gizmo get things alright in the end. Honestly, I don't have much else to say, but it's still nice that she hasn't given up yet, despite getting highly strung by the horror movie.
And now you've got me very intrigued on what happened before the morning after. Alcohol?
11406262
Do you remember a few chapters back when Brisk told Gizmo that they were saving the Cider for special occasions? Well...
Just needs a proper song
11406274
Tsk, she forgot to hydrate -before- getting hammered by pony Cider... Would've prevented or dulled that hangover a lot since that is the body's way of saying you're really thirsty.