Twas a Cool Autumn Night
Nightmare Night, a time for candy, costumes, parties, and not in the least, fright. Many haunted houses had been set up throughout Ponyville, each one with lines of ponies aching to test their mettle against whatever shocks and chills the owners had thought up. All except one. The simple two story house didn’t have any decorations. No tombstones festooned the lawn, no cobwebs hung from the trees. There were no skeletons or zombies positioned along the simple stone path that lead to the door nor even a simple jack-o-lantern to signify that anyone was celebrating the holiday. In fact the only reason anyone knew that it even was a haunted house was because of a sign that floated in the air in front of the house and a rigorous advertisement campaign the owner had embarked on in the week leading up to tonight.
Several ponies had scoffed at the house, passing it in search of more entertaining haunts. Then the first victim had entered. Jet Stream was a cocky red pegasus, self-assured and ready to face the world. He had walked up the simple stone path and pulled on the door only to find that it refused to yield. His exasperation at having been stalled in showing off in front of Whistler was somewhat mollified when black letters began to form on the door. “Place your hoof upon this door and claim full responsibility for what is to occur,” he read aloud, a self-assured smiled spreading across his muzzle. With a roll of his eyes he placed a hoof on the door. “Whatever happens to me is my fault so let me in already,” he said in a carrying voice, making sure that anypony nearby could hear him. His arrogant grin only grew as the door under his hoof sung noiselessly open. “Could have at least tried to make the door sound creaky,” he muttered under his breath. Throwing a winning smile over his shoulder he swaggered into the house. The moment he had fully crossed the threshold the door slammed shut behind him with an ominous finality and the small crowd outside was left to wait.
They didn’t have to wait long for a reaction. Not five minutes after the pegasus had entered the building an ear-splitting shriek could be heard emanating from the house. As one the crowd jumped in surprise at the sudden sound. As soon as the shock at hearing the first scream faded many ponies started looking at every window they could find in hopes of gleaning some knowledge of what had managed to scare the brash stallion. The tension built as they terrified yells continued to come from the house and finally snapped as the door was flung open and Jet Stream came rushing out, his coat several shades paler than it had been ten minutes ago. His eyes shot back and forth as he gasped for air, taking in the crowd of anxious onlookers and the clear night sky. His head snapped back towards the door he had come running out of in time to see six yellow eyes arranged in a circle with a seventh at the center twinkle mischievously before the door closed with the same silence it had opened.
The crowd around him slowly edged forward as they realized he was whispering something as he tried to catch his breath. They waited with piano string tension as he attempted to bring his voice up to an audible level.
“That… That…” he panted out his sides heaving with fear and exertion. “That… WAS AWESOME!” he cried as he leapt into the air and grinned like a maniac.
The crowd rocked backwards at his sudden exuberance and in speechless wonder switched their gaze from the stallion in their midst to the simple house before them. As one they surged forward, all eager to be the second victim of this haunted house.
<=[XXXXX]=>
Luna felt certain she could call the night a success. Perhaps not a complete success as of yet but it had been very… what was the word again? Fun, it had been very fun. That small colt, Pipsqueak was it? Had been a boon. As had Twilight Sparkle and many of the other Element Bearers. It was a pity that Rarity had been unable to grace them with her presence but being able to meet with five of the six and part with them amicably at the very least was good enough. Rainbow Dash and Gilda had seemed somewhat annoyed that she had brought their pranking spree to an end with a couple well timed lightning bolts but even the irascible griffon seemed to agree that they had it coming. Between her, the elements, and Pipsqueak this Nightmare Night seemed to be winding its way to success but some things still felt amiss.
Truth be told she already knew what was off but it was also something that she was hesitant about confronting. Especially after being told that her use of the Canterlot Royal Voice and usage of the Royal We had long since been discontinued even in the most formal of situations. Nothing saps your desire to meet with someone more than being told that your entire method of interacting with others is now considered slightly rude. Of course shouting at people had always been considered rude but as princesses she and her sister had been held to somewhat different standards.
Of course the fact that no one had bothered to tell her either of those two vital pieces of information was rather infuriating. She could hardly blame her courtiers, servants, and the various nobles she dealt with regularly. They were often too terrified to even manage to relate to her what little they were required to in the course of their jobs, let alone tell her anything that they thought might anger or displease her. She snorted derisively. No wonder she was having such a hard time starting conversations with the ponies at the castle. Her real annoyance was with her sister though. Why hadn’t Celly told her about all the changes that had occurred over the past millennia? Sure she had been less than receptive to the advances of anypony for the first several months of her freedom. Then there had been the fact that she had spent most of the first year trying to catch up to all the changes that had occurred during her time on the moon. What little she had read and seen about how the nobility conducted themselves had implied that nothing had changed during her absence so she had woefully neglected studies in that area. She sighed resignedly as she realized that her deficit in knowing how to conduct herself had been as much her fault as it had been Celestia’s. She shook her head to clear her thoughts as Twilight returned from a nearby buffet table.
“Is something wrong?” the costumed unicorn asked as she saw Luna’s melancholy smile.
“We- I was merely thinking about everything that has happened tonight. It has been a very… interesting evening.”
“Oh! I’m so sorry about how everypony was so scared of you at first I -”
“It is fine. It all worked out in the end and We- I had fun this evening.” She looked out at the crowd, many of which were casting glances towards her of apprehension, curiosity and everything in between. “I am merely wondering where Damien has been this night. W- I had been expecting to see him.”
Twilight shivered and looked away. “He’s been running his haunted house all night. I asked him why he needed to be there all night and he said it was to make sure that nopony who visited ended up losing their soul.”
Luna was silent for a moment as she processed this information. Part of her wanted to ask whether or not Damien had been serious but considering the sorts of things she had seen in his memories it wasn’t too far from the realm of possibility. “So he remains in his house? He did extend an invitation to his haunted house some time ago,” she mused. A small smile spread its way across her muzzle as she turned to Twilight. “Shall we go and see what he has managed to set up?”
Twilight raised an eyebrow in surprise. “R-really?” she asked hesitantly.
“But of course. I am sure that it will be scary but you have defeated both myself as Nightmare Moon and Discord.”
“And you?” Twilight deadpanned.
“I AM LUNA! ONCE NIGHTMARE MOON! INSPIRATION FOR THIS VERY HOLIDAY! NOT EVEN DAMIEN IS CAPABLE OF FRIGHTENING ME!” Luna cried, utilizing the Canterlot Royal Voice for extra effect.
Twilight couldn’t help but laugh at Luna’s sudden theatrics. “Alright, we might as well try this out.”
<=[XXXXX]=>
As could be expected given the reactions to his haunted house the line in front of Damien’s home was both long and winding, with not a single pony willing to give up their spot to another. At least that’s what they had been telling themselves until Nightmare Moon herself showed up.
“GREETINGS CITIZENS! WE DESIRE ENTRANCE TO THIS ‘HAUNTED HOUSE’ SO THAT WE MAY JUDGE WHETHER OR NOT IT IS A FITTING HOMAGE TO OUR MIGHT!” Luna shouted, wrapped once more in the old visage of Nightmare Moon.
As one the entire line moved to the side respectfully to let the Alicorn and her companion pass. A low buzz of excited whispers moved up and down the line as they got closer and closer to the house. Although the specifics of each whisper varied the consensus was that if Nightmare Moon herself was going to patronize a haunted house it must be good.
“You have been spending far too much time with Damien,” Twilight hissed.
Luna smiled. “I did receive a personal invite to see his haunted house,” she reminded the unicorn.
Twilight merely rolled her eyes and looked at the door they had reached during their conversation. “Place your hoof upon this door and claim full responsibility for what is to occur,” she read aloud. “Yes this is definitely a good sign,” she muttered.
“You seem rather untrusting of Damien tonight,” Luna observed.
“Trust someone who enjoys messing with pony’s minds on a night dedicated to scaring ponies?” she deadpanned. “What a brilliant idea.”
“He will make sure no true harm comes to us,” Luna assured her with a laugh as she placed her hoof on the door. “Damien, let me in. I won’t hold you responsible for what goes on in your haunted house. Within reason anyway.”
The door pulsed once and a presence seemed to focus on Twilight. She rolled her eyes and offered her own assurances that she wouldn’t blame him for what she was about to go through. The door seemed to radiate an air of happiness as it swung open to reveal the darkness within. Luna crossed the threshold without even the slightest hint of hesitation and Twilight soon followed, though she couldn’t ignore the fact that the door felt like it was grinning at them as it swung shut.
<=[XXXXX]=>
Twilight lost track of Luna the moment she entered the house. Without hesitation her horn flared and purple light spread out around her to reveal… nothing. Her eyes twitched back and forth as she tried to see something, anything. She had only been inside Damien’s house during his and Gilda’s welcome parties and she had been slightly less interested in memorizing the layout of the house at those times but she knew there was no way she should be surrounded by nothing only a few feet into the house.
“Okay Twilight, this is an Illusion of some sort,” she said to herself, determined to root herself in reality. “Damien’s magic isn’t anywhere near as strong as mine.” Her horn pulsed hopefully but the black nothingness remained. “but he did mention something about being stronger when he was I his home so I can’t just brute force my way through the illusion.”
She closed her eyes and began to hum tunelessly as she tried to examine the magic around her. Several minutes passed before she suddenly grinned. Damien may always be bragging about how subtle his magic was but even he made mistakes with his spells. With gleeful ease she reached out with her magic and struck at the weak spot she had identified… Only to have nothing happen. She blinked as confusion and doubt crept into her expression. She was sure that she had read the spell properly. Maybe if she-
Her eyes widened in surprise as a slate grey unicorn with similarly colored eyes peering at her over thick spectacles appeared out of nowhere. “I’m afraid your time is up, you’ve failed,” he said in a creepily monotone voice. “You will be allowed to retake this test in three years provided you managed to meet all the prerequistes.”
“But I-” Twilight started to say before being interrupted.
“Interrupting the test proctor while he is giving your grade, that’s another ten points off your score.” He pulled out a small pocket abacus and the small beads clacked against each other in the shocked silence that followed his statement. “After your abysmal performance and your rebellious nature, not to mention the fact that you seem to have not studied for this test at all-”
“I-I studied! I’m sure of it! I always study!” Twilight interjected, not realizing that she was getting caught up in the illusion.
“And that’s another ten points from your score,” the proctor said as another bead clicked ominously on his abacus. “This brings you to 76 out of 200. We really expected better of the prized student of Princess Celestia,” he droned as he levitated a piece of paper with a large spiky red F emblazoned on it over to Twilight.
“But- But- I-” Twilight stuttered as she stared in horror at the page before her. She had never failed a test before! Ever!
“But we do have a position open for you that will fit with the talents we’ve seen you display up until now. All we need is the Princess’s approval and-” he paused as a scroll flashed into being beside him and he unrolled it to slowly scan its contents. “Congratulations. Princess Celestia has approved our recommendation for you to take some remedial classes.”
“Remedial classes?” Twilight asked, her voice a high pitched whine. But she didn’t belong in remedial classes! She belonged in the advanced classes! The ones where you really learned things!
“Don’t worry I’m sure your teacher will take things slowly if it’s too difficult for you,” he assured her as he led her towards a door that she hadn’t noticed before and opened it for her. “Welcome to magic kindergarten.”
Twilight screamed and ran faster than she ever had in her life.
<=[XXXXX]=>
Luna’s heart caught in her throat as she had stepped across the threshold. Her eyes twitched back and forth as she took in the massive, empty expanse before her. She knew this place. She probably knew it better than anything else; she had spent a thousand years here after all.
The moon was as barren as ever. The grey rocks and dust stretching off into the horizon. She steeled herself as she felt memories long held back by sheer willpower come rushing back, memories of her first angry days on the moon, memories of her later years when she had begged and pleaded with the empty air for her release, memories of her deepest depression and her deepest rage. She drew in a shuddering breath and closed her eyes. She wasn’t on the moon. She was in Damien’s house and this was just some sort of trick.
Without warning a golden flame burst into existence in front of her, quickly coalescing into a slightly rolled scroll. She quickly seized it with her magic and unrolled it, hoping it contained a hint on how to leave. As her eyes quickly scanned the scroll in front of her a look of fear, shock, and despair clawed its way across her features. The note dropped from her faltering spell and her eyes shrank in terror. Several words from the note echoed in her head. ‘Nightmare Moon’, ‘eternal night’, ‘banished forever’, and ‘rehabilitation failed’ tore through her mind as she began to shake and quiver. It couldn’t be possible. She couldn’t have snapped again. Celestia could stop her; she wasn’t back to full strength after all right? And the Elements! They had managed to free her from her madness on her return! Surely they could have done something! And why couldn’t she remember it happening? Maybe she really had snapped again. She moaned as she stared shakily at the note on the ground. She had finally managed to go out in public! She had met almost all of the Element Bearers! She was even going to finally manage to force Damien to meet with her face to face!
Her eyes widened in shock as Damien’s name ripped through the fog of despair that had enveloped her mind. She had entered Damien’s haunted house. A haunted house run by a griffon with prodigious magical might on his home ground and a knack for manipulating others. Her eyes narrowed in anger. She was going to kill him when she got out of here. “I know you’re out there Damien! Get over here and stop this illusion!” she shouted into the empty expanse.
“You have done well young one,” a deep voice echoed from all around.
Luna blinked in surprise. That wasn’t Damien’s voice. “Who are you?” she asked tentatively.
The voice chuckled and soon resolved itself to the form of a strange six armed creature; its grey carapace gleamed dully in the faint starlight, the grey expanse only broken by seven golden eyes set in the middle of its chest. “I am Eck!al, The Aspect of Terror. And you have passed the test.” It bowed deeply as it said this, its large mandibles clicking audibly. “Any who pass the test are awarded a boon.” It reached towards her with a seven clawed hand and placed something on the ground in front of her. “You may pass on to the one that has summoned me if you desire,” it said as both it and the moonscape faded from view.
“Interesting experience huh?” Damien asked from right behind her.
She jumped at his sudden question and quickly resolved her surprised expression into one of anger. “YOU!” she screeched. “You knew that would happen didn’t you?”
Damien chuckled. “Those ponies outside didn’t have any problems with it once they ran from the illusions. Though I suppose your deepest fears are a touch more… scaring than those of some colts and fillies looking for kicks,” he admitted. “Oh don’t look so mad. You came out of that alright, confronted your fears and won yourself a little trinket,” he said good naturedly. “Good chance for a little personal growth after all, everyone could stand a little of that now and then.”
“Then why don’t you let yourself be trapped in that creature’s illusion?” she asked acidly.
“Because you can only pass the test once,” he responded with a sigh as he pulled out a small grey stone that mirrored the one on the ground at Luna’s hoof.
She glanced at the stone is his talon and slowly levitated her own to eye level. “What is it?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted as he replaced it in his satchel. “No one but Eck!al does and it doesn’t give up secrets easily. I’ve held on to mine as a sort of trophy and a reminder of the past. You can do whatever you want with yours, no fur off my back.”
“You’re insufferable,” Luna muttered before smiling slightly. “I had hoped our first official meeting would be a little less terrifying.”
“You chose to enter my house and disavowed any and all attempts at revenge, lawsuits, pettiness, and general blame at the door. No going back on your word and complaining about what you chose to do,” he admonished her. “But enough about that. I’ve got some pie from Sweet Apple Acres and some of Berry Punch’s Framboise, damn good stuff there, sitting in the kitchen. We can have that and talk about how your night on the town went. I need to know whether or not I’ll be ditched for new friends or if I have to try again after all,” he chuckled as he ambled towards the kitchen.
Luna laughed and shook her head before following the griffon into the kitchen. If all Nightmare Nights were going to be like this one she would definitely have to come to Ponyville next year.
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Oh, and its already in the featured.
This chapter has left me with one burning question.
How in Tartarus do you pronounce Eck!al?
690281
The Ek is like in neck, the exclamation point is a clicking noise made with the roof of your mouth and your tongue, and the al is like in all.
hehehe, magic kindergarten
wtf happend there....
Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism. Confronting your fears and allowing yourself the right to be human can, paradoxically, make you a far happier and more productive person.
690281
!xobile
Great chapter! I found a few syntax/spelling/grammatical errors in my read through, however.
1 - "...GREETINGS CITIZENS! WE DESIRE ENTRACNE TO THIS ‘HAUNTED HOUSE’ SO THAT..."
Incorrect spelling, should be entrance. If you use Word to write your stories, it most likely didn't pick up on it since it seems to assume that phrases in all caps are acronyms rather than just words.
2 - "...and she had been slightly less interesting in memorizing the layout..."
Wrong verb tense, should be interested.
3 - "The moon was a barren as ever..."
Should be as.
4 - "As he eyes quickly scanned the scroll in..."
Should be her.
Other than those isolated errors, the chapter was great! Looking forward to more.
Very enjoyable chapter.
What? You mean you haven't written more in the last 7 hours I spent reading this?
THIS IS THE WORST! POSSIBLE! THING!
Also, I have no idea why it is such an epic story.
started reading this entire story since 2:00 in the afternoon till now (7:00).
i can safely saw that this was 5 hours well spent, not wasted.
amazing chapter, I love the after events of nightmare night. Keep goin and stay golden^^
well. i love the new featured set up, helps me find gems like this. keep writing!
>No tombstones festooned the lawn
Any living tombstones? dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Vinyl_Scratch_lolface.png
>Okay Twilight, this is an Illusion of some sort
dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_YouDontSay2.png (why does illusion have a capital I?)
>he did mention something about being stronger when he was I his home
>I am Eck!al, The Aspect of Terror.
>No one but Ek!al does
Consistency is dead dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Lyra_cry.png
>I’ve got some pie from sweet apple acres
Applejack is disappoint
691095 Good work, young grasshopper dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Octavia.png
691540 a.deviantart.net/avatars/i/k/ikrplz.png
692728
Only two other stories at the moment, most of the stuff is just filed away in my brain. First one was for my creative writing class that was about a hero being chosen to fight Damien while he ruled a small town from a castle he took from a king some time back. My professor has no love for the fantasy genre and apparently my story managed to be an exception to her 'I don't like fantasy' stance. Second was my NaNoWriMo entry last year and is about the beginning of his first attempt at retirement. Neither one is on the internet at the moment but if you really want to read them I suppose I could throw them onto google docs for ya.
A warning on the NaNo one though, I wrote that sucker in true NaNo fashion. No editing things I had written, no planning beforehand, and all 50k words in one month. To make it worse I have not edited the sucker in any way since I finished it so it is full of probably thousands of errors. Grammar, spelling, formatting, probably even some thematic ones, its got 'em all. Although it is interesting how you can see my writing skill progress throughout the story, crap at the beginning and almost tolerable at the end so don't expect any real levels of consistency with it.
Great.
MOAR
693693
Illusion is capitalized because it is the Name of the Spell. When you are using a spell that is named, then you will usually Name it while casting.
699433 a.deviantart.net/avatars/o/k/okayfaceplz.png
706804 Sorry, I'm a nerd.
706871 a.deviantart.net/avatars/u/d/udontsayplz.gif
708770 Oh, but I do! Oh, I do, I do, I do!
710309 a.deviantart.net/avatars/u/s/usayplz.gif
713829 U say University!
714317 dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Octavia_O_O.png
690647 Where in the name of every diety known to all kinds did you come up with that?
]
690700 ..they are ponies not hummans...
Wow, I really enjoyed this chapter. I've always loved the different versions of oeoples nightmare nights. This ones in my top 3