Nightmare Night
"Now, I know it's the last period of the day, fillies and colts, and it is awfully hot out - this San Franciscolt weather is enough to drive a pony mad; raining one minute and sweltering the next - and you're all looking forward to Nightmare night later on but you simply must listen," Miss Red Apple pleaded with her class. The tired fillies and lay in various wilted positions across their desks, all will to live drawn from them as they absently doodled or passed notes, anything to pass the time.
Tambourine blew her damp bangs from her face, glancing at the clock for the millionth time. She faded in and out of consciousness of her teacher's lesson, drawing mindless circles on her paper, optimistically titled "notes", though no such thing was being written on it.
"The great Griffonian War of the thirty-second year of the rule of Celestia may not seem very important to you now, but I guarantee, it is. We have to learn history, or else we'll just repeat it over and over, and Ponykind will get nowhere." Apple sighed in defeat, glancing at the clock. The day was going as slowly for her as it was for her students, so it seemed. "Alright. I suppose I must let you go. It's too hot to learn, anyways," she amended.
Chairs scraped and the chattering of young voices filled the classroom as the Second School students made a break for the door.
In a metaphorical cloud of dust they were gone, leaving Tambourine, Half Note, and Rose Bud alone with their teacher. The three foals stood in awkward silence for Tambourine to finish packing her saddlebags. Note coughed quietly, shuffling his hooves impatiently and earning a glare from Rose Bud.
Tambourine blushed hotly, wishing she wasn't so slow. Why didn't her magic work as well as she wanted it to when she was stressed? It wasn't fair.
At last Tambourine fitted all her books into her bag, and the three friends hurried out into the sunny afternoon.
As they walked out of the schoolhouse, Rose Bud poked Tambourine, her face bright with pent-up laughter. "Oh, Celestia, was that awkward! I can't believe she just sat there and watched us. Teachers are so weird."
Tambourine nodded, feeling sheepish.
"Hey, um, do you guys wanna stop at the ice cream place? My dad'll give it to us free, I think," Note huffed slightly, trotting to keep up with the two girls. His chubby body wasn't meant for hurrying. Or heat.
Tambourine hugged him impulsively. "Thank Celestia for friends who run ice cream shops. Of course, Notesy. I never turn down your dad's butter-pecan."
Rose nodded in agreement. "Me neither. Come on, race ya!" The coral-coloured filly trotted off with seemingly bottomless energy, looking puzzled when her two friends didn't take the chase. "What's up, guys? I thought we were gonna race."
Tambourine draped herself across Half Note's back dramatically, holding a hoof to her forehead as she stared at Rose upside-down. "It's too hot, Rosie. I feel faint."
Note rolled his shoulders, shoving Tambourine off his back gently. "Lay off it, 'Rine, do you think I'm a carriage?"
"Uh-huh," Tambourine giggled, trying to climb onto Note's back again.
"So,Are we still meeting at Rina's house to go trick-or-treating? Or are you sun-sissies too weak from this dreadful heat?" Rose drew out the last phrase dramatically, pretending to swoon from exhaustion.
"Nah, we're cool." Tambourine slid back to her hooves. "You're gonna scare the costumes right off us, aren't ya?"
"Yup. You can count on that."
"What are you, anyways? I doubt it's gonna be that scary, you're Rosie."
"It's a se-ecret!" Rose said in a sing-song voice. "You'll see tonight. I'm gonna skip ice cream, I think. We've got some at home and Mom wants me to help in the garden today. I gotta scram."
"See ya, Rosie!" Tambourine called, waving as her pink friend trotted away. She swung a hoof around the shoulders of the grey-blue colt standing next to her. "Come on, Notesy, we got ice cream to eat!"
oOo
"So," Tambourine said to Rose Bud, running a comb through her hair again as she turned a bottle of Octavia's mascara in her magic. "You're being a vampire, right? I think Mommy has some kind of red makeup - maybe that will help. You know, make you look more bloody. And I know Mom has black - she wears it for concerts." She turned to her earth pony friend, who was in the middle of pulling the collar of her costume up. Tambourine giggled, straightening the edge of it with her magic. "You better be ready, Rosie, because I'm about to go fabulous on this costume!"
Rose Bud eyed her doubtfully, considering. The two fillies had locked themselves in the bathroom branching off the master bedroom, Tambourine being convinced they could improve their costumes with the help of her mothers' makeup.
It seemed like a good idea when they talked it over at recess, but now, Rose wasn't so sure. What if somepony caught them? Or Tambourine's moms said it wasn't okay? Celestia, that would be embarrassing.
She shook her head, scolding herself for being such a chicken. "Okay, bring it on, Rina. I'm ready to be a bee!"
"Yeah!" Tambourine cheered randomly, feeling her usual holiday excitement bubble inside of her. She rummaged through Vinyl's side of the medicine cabinet and several drawers before coming up with a pinkish red powder in a small jar, holding it in the light triumphantly. "Okay, um, I think I've seen Mom put some kind of white cream first. I'll start with that. Close your eyes, Rose."
Rose Bud closed her eyes obligingly, unconsciously squeezing them shut as she felt the tip of Tambourine's hoof and something cold touch her lid. Tambourine finished the first layer and blew lightly to dry it. She sat back, looking satisfied.
"There. You can open your eyes for a minute. I have to find a brush."
Rose bud winked at her reflection, surveying the pale colour of her eyelid critically. "It's not gonna stay this colour, right?"
Of course not, silly," Tambourine emerged from having her face in a drawer with a tiny paintbrush. "Close your eyes again, I'm putting the red now."
The grey filly frowned in concentration as she smudged the powder over her friend's eyes. It was difficult to get them even, and Rose kept moving, which didn't exactly help, either.
"Hey," the rusty voice of Half Note came through the door as he knocked lightly. "Are you guys almost finished? Luna's gonna be here in fifteen minutes - you don't want to miss her, do you?"
Tambourine smiled knowingly at Rose. "Boys, boys. They don't appreciate that we mares have to look nice before we can go out."
Rose Bud wriggled out from under Tambourine. "Actually, I don't want to miss seeing the Princess, either. This is the first year she's ever come to San Franciscolt, you know. Let me finish this, and then we can go."
"Fine," Tambourine huffed. She flapped her fabric wings experimentally with her magic, watching them in the mirror. Her own cheeks and eyelids glittered with silver and black sparkles, and her eyes were lined thickly in a greenish black, adding to the evil fairy look she was going for. "Just hurry up, will you? It's boring now that I don't have anything to do."
"I'm going faster then you were," Rose argued, swooping the soot-coloured brush over the second eye. She had to admit, having a prissy older sister did have its good side.
At last the were ready. Tambourine unhooked the latch and they stepped out to meet miniature pirate Note, who was watching the minutes tick by on his pocket watch.
He looked up. "Took you long enough. Do you girls have to take so long getting ready for everything?"
Tambourine scowled. "No. But we want to look pretty."
"You guys looked fine before. Now... well, you kinda give me the idea of clowns," Note looked apologetic.
"Hmph. Don't listen to him, Rina, he doesn't get it. We should go, though. Don't want to miss the Scaring."
The three foals tumbled toward the door, but Vinyl stopped them, throwing up a magical barricade before they could escape.
"Hold on there, kiddos. I have a couple warnings before we go."
"We?" Tambourine raised her eyebrows sulkily. "I'm nine years old, Mommy. Can't we go by ourselves?"
"No," Octavia walked into the room, a bat-shaped Grace Note gurgling on her back. "Listen to your mother, Tamby-cat."
"Anyways, here are the rules. Don't get foalnapped, stay by me - if you escape Octy will have a panic attack and we all know that wouldn't end well for anypony. Also, don't eat everything you get - we mommies deserve some, too. And, lastly - "
knock, knock, knock
"Oh, trick-or-treaters already! I'll get it," Octavia grabbed a bowl of candy and opened the door. "Good evening, chil - Mother? What are you doing?"
"I came to ask you something, Octavia. Listen, I know you don't trust me, but that hurts, and I would really, honestly, like to earn back your trust. I don't want my grandfoals to grow up hating me. I know, I deserve it, but... please, Octavia. You have to believe that this isn't the way I'd like it to be."
"And, your point is...?"
"I'd like to chaperone the foals tonight. It's my last week here before I go back to Canterlot, and I'd like to believe I've made some progress."
"Why should I believe you aren't trying to foalnap them? This isn't just my own filly we're talking about, it's also the foals of two of my close friends. How can I be certain you're sincere?"
Sonata took Octavia's hoof, looking pleadingly into her eyes. "Please, Octavia. If anything goes wrong I will admit it was my fault gladly and be toted off to jail, I promise. I just... want to say I've met my grandfilly more then in passing."
Octavia sighed, letting her cheeks puff out in an annoyed huff. "Very well. But if anything happens to them, I'll kill you."
"And I will take the blame fully, without complaint. I'll do anything, Octavia. I don't want to say that I've lived my life without grandfoals simply because I made a mistake."
"Go. Be back by nine," Octavia said rigidly, kissing her foal's hair. "Tambourine, have fun, and don't eat too much candy."
The grey mare watched with an iron look on her face as the three foals trotted off happily in front of their caretaker. Vinyl, standing next to her, drew her hoof in soothing little circles in Octavia's fur, looking concerned.
Follow them," Octavia said softly. "Make sure nothing happens to my baby."
"I'm sure she'll be fine, Octy."
"Please," Octavia said. "Just keep her safe. I don't... I can't trust that mare."
"But..."
"Follow them."
Vinyl Scratch left the house, mulling over the odd, panicky look in her wife's eyes as she walked down the crowded street. A brief glow of her horn, and Vinyl had the three foals and Sonata marked in her mind, as is the city were a little map, and their whereabouts were a glowing beacon on that map.
Meanwhile, at home, Octavia had wandered into the bathroom, where she was staring forlornly at her reflection. She didn't understand why she felt the way she did. But it seemed seeing Sonata threw her into a sort of unexplainable panic. Octavia found herself doing and saying things that she wouldn't dare otherwise, but most often she regretted them afterwards.
"I'm a wreck, Gracie-Bee, I can;t even face my own mother," she told the filly sitting on her back. "What am I going to do?"
Grace Note cooed some profound thought in foal-talk, thoughtfully chewing on a strand of Octavia's hair.
Octavia gently pulled the hair away from her daughter. "I can't even face my own mother. I shooed my wife out of the house to follow her because I thought she was going to kill my filly. She probably thinks I'm insane. Not exactly wrong, is she? Here I am, discussing this with my reflection and a foal not even a year old. I've gone mad, Grace." Octavia shook her head sadly. "Your old Mom's cracked at last."
"No, you haven't," a voice from the doorway made Octavia turn from the mirror.
"Oh, it's you. Vin', what are you doing here? I thought you were out on my crazy mission to stalk my potentially evil mother."
"Yeah, well, I came back to tell you that... I think she's being honest about this. I have a tracking spell on her just in case, but so far all she's done is take them from house to house like a normal pony on Nightmare Night."
"I'm glad I don't want to mistrust her like this. The trouble is, I just can't. I don't know..."
"I understand. But... I think she really just wants to know her grandfillies. Give her a chance." "Vinyl grinned, her glasses, tinted red, orange, and black for Nightmare Night, falling lopsided on her face, revealing one red eye comically.
"I'll try," Octavia looked contrite. "But it's just so hard..."
Vinyl paused, staring at their reflections for a moment. "She's dying, you know. That's why she came back."
"What?"
"A unicorn without her horn isn't an earth pony, surely you know that. She didn't say anything, and it doesn't show, but I know. All that magic that she can't use is pent up inside her now - it's eating her up from the inside out. Why do you think they cut off unicorns' horns as torture in the second and third centuries of the Lunar Banishment? It's a fairly painful process, or so I've heard. She's a brave mare to face it like this - but she's determined not to lose you. You have to help her."
"I... I had no idea." Octavia said softly. "I feel terrible now. What am I going to do?"
"You acted normally under the circumstances. You had no way of knowing all that - it takes going to an all unicorn school to learn of the Unicorn Hunts. They are kept secret for... reasons I'd rather not explain."
"You're very sweet to say so. But I still feel terrible. My own mother is dying... no wonder she didn't seem at all bothered when I threatened her... I threatened her! Vinyl, I'm a terrible pony! What am I going to do?"
Vinyl hugged Octavia tightly, feeling Grace Note climb onto her back. "You can apologize when they come home. Or, tomorrow. It's gonna be fine."
"Thank you," Octavia pulled away slightly to look at Vinyl. "Promise me you'll never lose your horn. If you do, I don't know what I'll do, now that I know what will happen."
"Don't worry," Vinyl kissed Octavia's cheek softly. "It's not something any unicorn plans."
"Good," Octavia said quietly. "Do you think we should go outside? I feel bad... I don't want Gracie's first Nightmare Night to be spent inside."
"Let's go, then. Just, try to cheer up, okay? This is a holiday. Try to have some fun, Octy."
Octavia smiled and nuzzled Vinyl's neck. "I'll try. Let's go, I want to be home when Mother brings Tamby."
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There. Sorry for the uneditedness, I was kind of forgot. And I want to get this published before Halloween, and my computer decided it would edit for me by losing half of it randomly, so I had to rewrite it.
Anyways, bronzewolf78, I sowwy
NO, OCTAVIA, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
DON'T YOU DARE APOLOGIZE! 
AND SHE WAS HOMOPHOBIC TOWARDS YOU AND VINYL! 
I totally LURVE this series you have, I just hope nothing bad happens!)
I'LL GIVE YOU ALL THE MUSTACHES IN THE WORLD IF YOU DO!
)
LET YOUR MOTHER DIE; SHE TRIED TO TAKE AWAY TAMBY-CAT!
NO ONE MESSES WITH OCTASCRATCH AND DOESN'T SUFFER; NOOOOOO ONEEEEEE
(You don't know how happy I was when I saw you updated!
OH, LUNA DAMN IT, JUST UPDATE AGAIN!
There ya go!
(All in all, great job...
(P.S. Congrats on getting in the featured box!)
>wake up
>something about this morning just seems off
>check phone
>"How to Rais a Filly" has Updated!"
>perhaps nothing's off after all :)
Good chapter. I really want to believe that Sonata has changed, but I am suspicious...
Why didn't you just ask me...
WHY DON'T YOU PEOPLE EVER ASK ME?!
I specifically say in the comments I'm willing to edit- Just PM me.
But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Hhhmmmmm..... What the hell is going on..... I expect a twist soon but a twist in what direction? Sonata just seems too intent on making amends....... Damn it, give me a hint!
And then we learn that Sonata's missing horn was an illusion all along because she knew all along that Vinyl knew about the Unicorn Hunts. She secretly had her horn all this time.and then uses her magic to disable Vinyl's tracking spell. She then whisks Tamby away, resulting in a large scale missing filly search. When discovered, Sonata threatens to jump both of them into the river because she believes that a foal would be better off dead than in a gay family.
Man...my theory got dark fast.
I'm probably the only one thinking this, but Sonata's predicament could be real. She just never told Octy and Vinyl because; a)She didn't want them to feel sorry for her(especially Octavia), and b) she feels she deserves to suffer like this for being such a complete monster to her daughter and her wife and grandfilly.
Or maybe I'm trying too hard to give her the benefit of the doubt
1538327
I got it covered, dude. Just don't worry about it. This story isn't one of the ones that needs multiple editors.
One of the best chapters you've dished out so far!
I'm so looking forward to what happens next!
1540003 Yep, like you covered this chapter
1540023
I already finished editing it. There's not much that I can do when the author doesn't send it to me before posting it.
1540049>>1540023 Okay you guys, stop fighting. Wolfmaster, I'm sorry, I didn't see your comment until after I saw Bronzewolf's. So, chill out and be happy. Because ponies.
1540671 I proof read your earlier chapters... several times...
and even said that I'd edit... multiple times :|
You know...i got on cause i felt a disturbance in the force...and i saw you updated...and i thought that couldn't be it....but then i saw disney is making a star wars episode 7....at least something good came out of me getting on here.
You evil person.......adding Luna in and then leaving us to die like that.........
DO NOT WANT!
Finally, I'm back on track. This chapter is a good read when you listen to "This is Halloween - Marilyn Manson" Luna Damn it I'm now obsessed with that song!
1539113 Doesn't matter if it got dark. It got GOOD, in my eyes.
1556244 I aim to please.
1539113 I like your theory though, and as long as Vinyl, Octy, Tamby-Cat or Gracie don't end up dead, I'm all good.
1539113 I am terrible at writing dark stuff, so I doubt it'll end up that way. Also, of course Vinyl knew about the unicorn hunts. Everypony does. I mean, you only sort of hear them in passing, unless you go to a unicorn school, where the subject is studied more intensely.
YES! I have finished binging on this fic!
Did you get the Sonata plot idea from Ask Twixie/The Greatest Gift? 'Cause Sonata is nearly identical to Hazel (well, sans the dark bits and psychosis). The "redemption" half of their stories is especially similar: Horn gets cut off (for one reason or another) leaving them the fate of death by magical buildup and they try to make amends for their sins before they die.
Regardless, loving the story. Just had to note the eerie level of similarity.
1706991 No, actually. I found out about Ask Twixie after I wrote this and was disappointed by the similarities.
But yes, they are stunningly similar.
1720648
Huh... weird. Oh well, I just thought the magical buildup thing was a unique idea, but there's only so many answers to "what if a unicorn looses their horn" and hey, great minds do think alike!
And really, those are the only real things they had in common. I mean, Hazel wasn't content with a foal made by two mares, went a much colder and more lethal route and she was genuinely psychotic (as in a suitable definition of the very word) at the time. So after thinking about it like that, they don't really have that many similarities at all.
1720723 Well, thanks for calling me a great mind. I beg to differ, but many people would beg to differ with me for begging to differ with you. (that totally wasn't self-centered at all.
)
*Grabs wineglass and monocle*
Do go on, chap.
Was not expecting that........