Lightmare Night
"Light Flow! Are y'all there?!"
His ear twitched responsively as the unmistakably annoying call of somepony orange floated up through his window. His closed window.
Dumb apple pony sure could yell...
The monotone black color of his room brought him a needed cool head as he looked up from one of his few Necromancy novels. Familiar anger was already beginning to boil over at the merest of interruptions to his valuable reading time, and he had half a mind to let it.
Orange Hooves might not be so keen on bothering him so much if he were to lift open his black-tinted window to throw the book down into her big dumb mouth.
Of course, he would settle for yelling at her. He would never throw a book, the very thought was just... disgusting.
His deep and attractively contemplative frown took on a more normal purpose as he stood from where he was seated at his low desk. He bet he knew what the raving rant of the apple pony would be about; it wasn't hard to guess given the day.
He swore: if he went to the window to address his lesser, and she simply wanted to prattle on about something that he couldn't care less about, he was going to...!
His angrily dramatic hoofshake stopped in the middle of the air as his growing sneer lost some edge.
He... didn't know what he'd do. He would probably just tell her to go away.
His hoof fell to the carpeted floor with a soft 'whump', and he glared at the less-than-satisfying material with a new, growing petulance as his pointedly squared shoulders sagged.
Ever since he had gotten his cutie mark, he had been trying to act a little more grown-up, and in a different way than he usually did. Sullen, introspective ponies were cool and all; but they weren't exactly world leaders.
If that was even something he wanted to do.
He blinked, then shook his head to dislodge the annoying claws of doubt. Now wasn't the time to revisit the ever-shifting question of his morality, now was the time to dance a familiar dance of aggravation.
He trotted frustratingly noiselessly across his carpet to the side of his window, and lit his horn with as much flourish as he could put into the action.
Sparkling, overwhelming red power surged from his fount: gushing and seething to be loosed upon his enemies! His eyes glowed with power, and electricity leapt in wild arcs from the fur on his hooves! The shining corona of light that loosed from his magnificent and incredibly long horn was almost too much to bear, even for his own eyes!
It was too much to control...! He couldn't hold it in any longer...! He swept his horn to the target of his task, leaving a screaming void of pure strength glimmering in its wake. The unfiltered, raw magical power flowed along his magical pathways in intricate lines, forming the basis of the most powerful spell he knew...!
A sputtering red light glowed into existence around the window's handle, and haltingly opened it to its edge after pausing jutteringly in the middle for a moment.
Faint exhaustion crept in on the edges of his chest as the dim, red light around his horn went out, and he took a breath that definitely wasn't even that deep.
The window got stuck sometimes, that was all. It was kind of heavy, too. He had sort of.. worn himself out.. earlier...
He wasn't blushing, there wasn't anypony to see and there wasn't any proof.
Leaving the incredibly difficult task behind him, he took a step forward and let his head poke out of the open portal. His eyes were instantly accosted by everything he'd been hoping to avoid today, and disappointment with the world at large grew within him.
The entire neighborhood looked as if it had been attacked by a giant spider; but instead of doing something unobjectively cool like eating somepony or destroying buildings, it had just left cheap, fake cobwebs hanging everywhere.
Similarly, Ponyville had geared up its largest pumpkin patch to supply at least one disgustingly orange gourd to everypony in town. Under each streetlight, by each door, even in odd places along the roadside.
Safety hazards, if anypony cared to ask him. Those mockingly carved expressions were an eye-sore, too; especially with the dumb orange glow behind the smiles and frowns.
Dusk was falling, and as cool as the time of day was, he couldn't get too excited about it as his eyes fell to the worst sight in the world. There, standing on his blissfully normal lawn, was Applejack.
Of course, she was wearing the most terrible costume he had ever seen, too. A brown, patchy, full-body suit that stopped at her neck and hooves, and seemed to be full of what he guessed was straw from her family's farm. A similarly ragged and torn hat sat perched on her head, and he was going to go for the rudest thing to say and guess that the material sticking out unevenly from under it was also straw.
'Cause it looked unwashed, or something. Actually, maybe that was an insult he would keep it himself; it wasn't so good.
Even through the dirt smeared over her face, he could see the revolting excitement written plainly on her face. The orb in her chest shone with light behind her costume, and it twirled and spun as her tail actually wagged. Her little white dimples crinkled and faded as she smiled gleamingly up at him, and he had to choke back a cough as what must've been disgust welled up in his throat.
She was... she was just so ugly, all the time. He could barely stand it. She was lucky he could tolerate being around her whenever she bugged him.
A recently practiced sneer rose on his face as he glared down at the eyesore. "What're you dressed as, Orange Hooves? You look like something that crawled out of a trash can!"
He managed a good snide tone, but the actual insult could use some work. It had really sounded way better in his head and on paper, since he had already known what she was going to dress up as beforehoof.
The question was redundant, but the mocking would always be fresh.
His weakly targeted shot seemed to have no effect, as Applejack simply rolled her eyes in an insultingly practiced fashion and stared up at him with a smirk that made him reconsider his recent vow to books. "Aw, come on now. Don't you give me none a' that talk; y'all know darn well ah'm a scarecrow."
Her eyebrow quirked as her sentence trailed away, and an expression that was more exasperation than real puzzlement replaced her smirk. "Why'd y'all even say somethin' like that anyhow? You were there when ah was helpin' Granny put it together."
Her eyes narrowed, and he instinctively shied away from the window a little as the expression wore into his face. "Ah thought y'all were gonna try to start bein' nicer, Light Flow. Do ah need to get Granny to have another chat wit' yer mom?"
Sweet heavens above, her accent was particularly thick today. Did she have to try to slur her words so much, or was it a conscious effort to be more true to her costume? Couldn't she just... not?
And for that matter, how dare she threaten him?! He had half a mind to find the heaviest thing in his room and chuck it straight onto her dumb straw head. If she was a real scarecrow, then she'd be totally fine, right?
Whatever the opposite of righteous fury was filled his body, and his face froze in a grimace of concentrated violence. With full intent on harm, either with hooves or words, he leaned his head out of the window. He sucked in a large breath in preparation for a string of curses or some other such vile sayings, and opened his mouth for-
"Sorry, Orange Hooves..." He muttered meekly as his eyes drifted slowly away from the sight of the widening smile on Applejack's face.
Tartarus damn her, he would find a way to get her back.
What must've been a belly laugh rumbled across the mostly empty street as warmth gathered in his cheeks, and he focused his sights on a particularly interesting shrub across the street as his face lowered into his hooves. "Ah knew you'd see it mah way!"
"Yeah... yeah.." He muttered again in response. He didn't even care if she heard, he just wanted her to go away. Why was she even here, again?
Unluckily, the thought must've crossed her mind at the same time as it crossed his, as her voice continued humorously into her next topic. "So, yer comin' with me on the hunt, right? Ah know yer mom got you a costume!"
The intense flush that flew to his head with dizzying speed was completely ignored as he stood straight up on his windowsill, and his gaze flew from where it was counting branches to focus on a dumb, smiling, orange face. "How did you know that?!"
The words flew from his mouth faster than his head could tell him to not, and a gasp rose in his throat as his hooves flew to his mouth and he tumbled backwards into his room. The pain of landing on his back was miniscule compared to the sheer mortification that curled his hooves and tail to his body as another round of laughing floated up through the window.
"Ah knew it!"
He silently moaned in embarrassment as he smacked himself in the face with both hooves, and kicked his back legs out into the air. What was wrong with him? Couldn't he ever do anything even remotely intelligent?!
He had to hide. Forever, if necessary.
He slid his hooves off his face and rolled over from his back. He turned to the window and lit his horn with far less imagination than before, before shutting it in a burst of red light as quickly as he could.
Faster and easier than he'd ever done before, actually. Something to note for later, after he dug a hole to the center of Equus where nopony could find him and force him to go on the Nightmare Night Hunt.
He turned again and catapulted himself into his neatly made bed. He would curse the extra effort to remake it some other time. He wiggled to the head of the bed, and lifted the black sheets over himself. He curled himself and the sheets around him into the tightest ball he could manage, before firmly shutting his eyes.
Complete darkness consumed him, and he couldn't even think about how cool that was. He just had to wait, and hope beyond hope that nothing bad would happen. He would be fine, surely. There was no way that Applejack would-
A firm knock at his closed door. "Light Flow!"
Her normal soft call of his voice, but laced with the edge of something very dangerous. It was the kind of tone his mother got when he said something too villainous, or broke something, or hung around inside too much.
It was the tone that preceded bad things.
He was going with Applejack, wasn't he?
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He normally liked it when he was right.
"Nightmare Night, what a fright, give us something sweet to bite!"
The annoyingly high-pitched tones of a nearby group of foals curled his lip in his favorite mixture of anger and bitter disgust. He swept his furious gaze to the nearby porch the noise had come from, and glared with as much vitriol as he could muster at the three fillies standing there.
A mermare, a firefighter, and an especially insulting princess. Terrible costumes overlaid on terrible children with puke-green and eyesore-pink orbs in their chests.
They all clutched cloth sacks in their hooves, and they were looking down into them with unfortunate glee written clearly on their faces. Collective jollity and giggles rang out amidst the cacophony of similar activity already in the air as they looked up at each other, before stowing their packs away and running across the dressed up lawn.
Right across the side of it, like hooligans. Children were the worst.
"Light, aren't y'all gonna hunt fer at least a house?"
And at his side, the worst child of all.
He fixed his eyes on the scarecrow looking questioningly at him, and scoffed as throatily as he could. He swept his head away from the sight of her, and closed his eyes in a perfect pout. "You may have gone behind my back to force me to come along, but I will not be participating!"
Even though he was also in costume. A costume that his mother had forced on him, and that he hated very much.
A black and red cape with a high collar sat tied around his neck, coming down to just above his back hooves. There was supposed to be more to the costume, but he had ditched the fake teeth and mask in a bush as soon as his mother wasn't watching him. The cape was all he could tolerate; because, at the very least, most capes were cool.
Stupid Nightmare Night. Stupid costumes. Stupid Applejack. Stupid him for letting her nag him along!
A push at his side sent him unexpectedly reeling, and he let out a very dignified yelp as he stumbled sideways. The attack on his person was met with a betrayed, open-mouthed glare back at its perpetrator: a frowning Applejack.
"What was that for?!" He yelled as he took a steadier step back toward where he had been standing. Applejack resorted to physical abuse far too often, and he was sick of it. One of these days, he was going to tell!
Instead of apologizing or at least looking sorry, Applejack just rolled her eyes before resting one of her hooves on top of the other in that stupid way she did. "Yer too high strung, It's just Nightmare Night!" She quirked her eyebrow at him. "What's yer problem, anyway? I've known you fer over a year, now; and y'all've never told me why you hate Nightmare Night so much."
Her question fell on deaf ears as he pointedly turned away from her. Staring instead at the darkened, crowded, disgustingly dressed up Residential District of Ponyville wasn't much better than staring at Applejack, but ignoring her did make him feel better.
Though, he couldn't help but peek at her from the corner of his eye as she groaned in frustration and stomped her hoof, shaking the cloth sack on her back.
"What's there to even hate?" Her hoof lifted, and she swept it in the air in front of her, likely beseeching him to gaze upon all the things that wouldn't help her point. "We get to dress up in fun costumes, we get to eat a lotta candy, we get to tell scary stories;" She let out a scoff of her own as she executed a patented eye-roll. "heck, I reckon this should be the kinda night you love!"
"And look!" Her point turned to him, and he hurriedly swept his eyes back to something random. "You say y'all can't stand it, but yer standing here in a costume the same as the rest of us!" Yet another scoff made his way to his ears as his mouth began to open in shock and rage. "Ah think yer just doin' that denial thing."
Denial..? She was saying he was in denial?!
Oh, she was in for it now... Half-completed vampire costume or no, he was about to do a very good impression of some kind of raving lunatic.
In as quick of a motion as he could manage, he spun on a dime to face Applejack's mildly startled expression. He had been hoping she would jump back or something, but he supposed slightly widened eyes was acceptable.
He swung his hoof in a semi circle around him, hopefully sending his cape fluttering into the air behind him. "Look around you, Orange Hooves!" He began in a grand tone. "Look at everything around you; really look at it all!"
He paused for a moment as Applejack continued to stare at him with an unamused stare, until she eventually rolled her eyes and turned her head in a circle. After a hopefully thorough examination of the sights, she turned back to him and shrugged her shoulders. "What? It's just regular Nightmare Nigh-"
"Exactly!" He shouted, cutting off the last redundant part of her sentence. He turned around, away from Applejack's bemused face, and towards Ponyville proper. He pointed his hoof towards the first offensive thing he saw: a window that was covered in a large piece of carboard cut into the shape of a bat. "Cheaply made, badly designed, monotone 'frights', everywhere you look!"
"How much terror do you think that bat shadow strikes into the average foal? How many times do you think a filly will walk by tonight, see that window, and fear for her life?!"
His question hung in the air for a second before Applejack's halting and confused response followed. "Well... Ah'm not really... Ah think yer missin' the-"
"Look!" He cut her off before she could finish second-guessing him, as he pointed to the next offensive thing: a stallion dressed in what looked to be a wizard costume, walking with a foal dressed in a cardboard knight costume. "Look at these ponies! Tell me, what could possibly be scary about a mage and a templar?!"
Other than the historical tragedies, of course; but Applejack wasn't as smart as he was, so she probably wouldn't get that angle.
"Well... Ah think I remember from history class about some kinda ruckus-"
"And there!" He pointed away from the badly chosen example as quickly as he could, to the sight of a large wooden bucket on the side of the road. A few foals were lined up beside it, and one had their head submerged in the water. "Bobbing for apples! What's scary about bobbing for apples?!"
The presence of a hoof on his shoulder was only felt for a second before it was pushing him around to face its owner. Applejack's face was a collage of mixed apathy and irritation, and he could feel his rant wane in the absence of captivation. "Alright, first of all;" Her voice was much like her face, only less ugly and more focused on the irritation. "If'n you wanna say somethin' about apples, we can turn this to a different kind a' discussion."
Her eyebrows narrowed, her head tilted, and her pupils somehow managed to shrink as her voice became unmistakably dangerous. "Don't'cha reckon?"
He hated when she lorded her physical superiority over him. She could destroy him, and they both knew it; which was what drove his heavy swallow and shaky nod.
He should have known better than to use anything that involved apples as an example.
Applejack nodded once, and stepped back from where she had been standing uncomfortably close to his face. She took a deep breath as her eyes closed, before opening them and continuing in a more even tone. "Now, second of all, Y'all's point's gettin' lost, so why don't ya just skip the drama and say what y'all really wanna say."
His expression soured as the words registered. She wanted him to skip the drama? That was far and above the best part, why did she want to skip it?
The protest rising in his throat died instantly as Applejack frowned again, and his mouth was left hanging half open as his next thought halted.
Fine, he would skip the drama.
He shut his mouth with a 'clack', and cleared his throat as he drew himself up. Applejack had taken a heavy hammer to his wall of pomp, but he could manage a bit of posturing with some effort. It would be hard to find the same eviler-than-thou tone that he had before, but he would manage.
He swung his hoof into the air again, though this time just for the added flair. "My point, as you so thoughtfully asked, is that Nightmare Night is a sham!"
He ignored the immediate and expected eye-roll from Applejack's direction, and continued with a half turn to a nearby house. "Nothing in Nightmare Night is scary! Bats, spiders, pumpkins and costumes; none of it inspires terror! There's no soul in any of it! It's just all the same, lame stuff!"
He pointed at the terrible decorations on the house, and turned his face to Applejack's. "Where's the darkness? Where's the death, and the destruction? Where's the gore?!"
He stomped his hoof as he turned away from the insulting home. "It's nowhere on Nightmare Night! Nopony thinks kids can handle real terror, so they dumb it all down and ruin it for everypony everywhere!"
Fire danced in his eyes as he grit his teeth, and glared upwards at the nighttime sky. The moon hung up in the middle of the sky, with that dumb silhouette on it that was supposed to be some kind of god or something. "If Nightmare Moon were real, then she'd probably burn the whole holiday altogether! I know I would!"
That'd show all the dumb ponies everywhere ruining the concept of fear. It'd serve them right.
Ugh, he was just so mad, now. He just wanted to go home and plot terrible things he'd probably never do. His chest was tight with rage, his jaw was tight with rage, his eyes were tight with...
He was going home.
"I'm sick of this!" He announced as loudly as he could as he swept himself around. "I'm done with this, Orange Hooves; find yourself somepony else to hunt with!"
His evil and brooding march away from the nagging scarecrow was interrupted before it could even begin, as a sudden, insistent tug at his cape drew the string tight around his neck. The sudden force elicited a strangled choke from him as his hooves continued walking past the obstruction, sending him falling onto his butt.
The pressure cut out, and he breathed a blissful breath of free air for a moment before he swiftly and accusatorily turned to see his aggressor with a large frown on his face.
Applejack, of course; who else? She was standing there with a dumb standoffish expression; his cape bunched at her hooves. He hurriedly swept it towards him, and let the somewhat stretched fabric gather together in his hooves. "W-What was that for?!" He yelled as menacingly as he could manage while hugging the bundle of his cape to himself.
Capes deserved respect, and Applejack didn't seem to know how to show it.
Applejack simply scoffed in response before taking a menacing hoofstep towards him, which he scooted an equal distance away from. Which one of them was supposed to be the violent sociopath, again?
Applejack narrowed her eyes before lowering her head and speaking nearly as loudly as he had been earlier. "Y'all ain't bailin' on me, now! Ah ain't got nopony else to hunt with, mister; so yer comin' whether y'all like it or not!"
His eyes widened in... not fear, as Applejack lowered her head to grab at something. But his cape was still wrapped around himself and bunched in his hooves... so...
A surprised and slightly pained yelp tore from his lips as his butt received a painful yank. He fell onto his back, letting the cape fall out of his hooves, as Applejack took one firm step away from him with his tail firmly clenched between her teeth.
"Are you insane?!" He screamed at the clearly insane pony as he struggled to right himself, before promptly falling sideways onto his face as another quick jerk swept his hooves out from under him.
Applejack paused for a moment as she took hold of his tail in the crook of her hoof, freeing her mouth. "Big Mac's at home takin' care of Apple Bloom, Granny's runnin' the Apple's Nightmare Night attraction, and ah think you'll recall that ah ain't exactly swimmin' in other friends."
Her hot glare was darkly shaded and silhouetted against the orange-shaded night sky, and he could feel a real shiver run down his spine as even the lesser lighting seemed to suck itself out of existence around her as she uttered one last sentence.
"Y'all's it."
He didn't know what was scarier: the mangled country grammar, or the fact that she was putting his tail back in her mouth- ow!
His fur itched painfully as another tug towards some unknowable goal left him literally dragging behind his tormentor. Another, and another; was Applejack really just going to drag him to wherever she wanted to go?!
He wouldn't stand for this indignity, he was a vampire! Well, he was a Necromancer; but right now he was a vampire.
As another unsurprisingly strong pull forward left Applejack hopefully momentarily winded, he took his opportunity, and struck! He braced himself against him back, lifted his back hooves into the air, and kicked out as hard as he could!
His stubby leg barely cleared any distance at all, and fell far short of ever reaching the pony with a firm grip on his behind. His entire back half crashed painfully to the ground, before another tug added insult to injury.
He sucked in his lip as he tried not to have what would definitely be a murderous breakdown, and internally conferred with himself on the possibility of a physical escape. Tug. Yeah, he was pretty sure he couldn't get Applejack to put him down even if he did hit her.
That left one option.
He smacked his hoof against the ground, and ignored the immediate pain as he raised his voice to its highest and most authoritative volume. "Orange Hooves, I'm telling you right now to put me down!"
No response, she just kept walking firmly ahead with her face forward. New tactic. "If you don't let me go, I'm gonna tell your grandmare!"
Nope, still probably not listening to him. Time to try whatever popped into his head.
"I swear, you'll pay for this! In blood! And Guts!"
"I know where you sleep at night!"
"You're the worst friend I've ever had!"
"Your face is... um... dumb!"
"Ponies are staring!"
"I don't even like candy!"
"Come on, my mom bought me this cape, and you're getting it all dirty!"
Everything he said fell on completely deaf ears, and Applejack simply continued as if he hadn't said anything at all. He crossed his hooves over his chest and pouted in anger as something unmentionable welled in his eyes.
He didn't want to go hunting...
Dumb apple pony...
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There was a knock at the door.
Putting your box down and answering it brought what was likely one of the most interesting sights to be seen on that particular Nightmare Night.
One brown little colt in a cape that was almost too long for him, with his lip wobbling and his eyebrows furrowed, struggling to get his words out through his tightly clenched jaw.
"Give... me... candy..."
Just behind him: a very stern looking scarecrow burning a death glare into the back of his head.
A very odd sight to see, even in this town. You've just moved, and you're not used to something so weird, so it's obviously a little startling.
That's Ponyville, though. Odd things happen all the time, especially around that little brown colt with no bag to put candy in.
Maybe that's why you were reassigned.
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Lol, been so long that I forgot how much of a little bitch Light Flow was as a foal...
Glad to see at least that Applejack was willing to literally drag him around to celebrate Nightmare Night, though it's a bit surprising that at such an early point that Light Flow is already considered on of her better, if not only, friend. Or at least the only friend available at the moment.
Personal theory on why Light Flow actually dislikes Nightmare Night so much is that usually there's a guardian around to watch the foals as the go hunting. Since his Mom is always so busy the night would just be another reminder of him that his Father isn't around so he came with other dumb excuses on why he hates the holiday. (Since, y'know, he always just avoids all his problems/trauma rather than actually confronting it).
Maybe he'll like the holiday more in the future when he can actually wear something more spook than a cheap vampire outfit to scare foals, though I feel that AJ would just kick his ass again anyway since he would be a teen/adult scaring little children.
Glad to read the side chapter, and excited to see more in the future.
Holy shit my sides!
Vampire costume. Nice. Also possibly racist?
Hide yer valuables and livestock the adventurers are in town!
This was fun, and a tad funny.
It makes me hope we get to see Light Flow put his money where his mouth is on his own Nightmare Night, and give people a real scare.
It is one of the things necromancy is best at.
And hes got a spooky house on the edge of the everfree! Who wouldnt try to get candy from there???
11039349
Daring your friends to go get candy from the spooky abandoned house would absolutely be the kid thing to do; and contemplating sudden child murder would be very Light Flow.
Not that he would ever actually do something like that. He'd think about it, sure; but he'd probably just yell and tell them all to get off his lawn.
The latest chapter of the main story really adds some new meaning to him saying what he thinks nightmare moon would do.
She probably saw Nightmare Night for the first time through his eyes and acted out on his mind out of petty anger.