Night 6 Nightmare Moon's Monument

[Manestream]

Nightmare Moon's Monument

As you near the edge of the festival grounds, you see a long shadow seeming to seep out of the Everfree Forest. However, upon closer inspection, you see that it is just a statue of Nightmare Moon. You approach, and notice an inscription:

You dare to seek out Nightmare Moon? Then prepare to meet your doom!

For foals she finds a special treat- unless you leave her something sweet!

The evening is wearing ever onward, and the weird atmosphere of this spot is starting to get to everypony, even yourself...so much so that you could almost swear that the Nightmare Moon statue is ready to spring to life any moment and steal all of the delicious candy hoard you've ammassed.

the weather out here is getting a little chillier as the hours wear on - perhaps being in this section of the forest isn't such a good idea afterall...but the promise of sweet treats is way too strong to ignore, even despite the fact that you're in the piercing gaze of an eerily accurate statue of Nightmare Moon herself...

Still, you're with a group of other ponies, right? So What could possibly go wrong now?

[Pennwick]

Argh, it was impossible to walk like this. Aloe kept stumbling with her 4 left hooves. It was a gift from Celestia she had managed to get this far. At least her blue jester costume was holding up pretty well, it was becoming a little soiled on her right side from falling over so often but so far no rips or tears were appearing. Maybe she would just lean against this tree for a while and catch her breath. She could make her offering then. Hopefully all her candy wasn't smashed by her tumbles. To her, candy was candy, but she would like to leave something nice for Princess Luna.

She idly stared at the statue and the sizable heap of candy that was forming in front of it. "What does she do with it all?" she wondered aloud. 'Lets see, if every pony gives up 1/5th of their candy. If each pony gathered 50 pieces that makes about 10 candies from each pony. Thats easily over a 1000 pieces of Candy from Ponyville alone. Manehattan, Trottingham, and Catnerlot would only add more to that. And if I assume 20 calories per treat thats 20,000 from ponyville alone.' "I wonder how many calories you burn when you raise the moon."

[Boss_Hoss1]

Snails trotted into the clearing, hoping Zecora was back. He had also helped Aloe as best he could, as his Mom had taught him to do for others in trouble.

"Has anypony seen Zecora? That darn Discord got us again!"

He looked around to be sure his best bud Snips had made it too, and saw the Pegasus from earlier had left.

Snails hoped she had been cured too when Princess Celestia had showed up earlier and cured them.

Then again, being the kind of crazy night it has been, he had better ask... "Hay, has anypony seen what happened ta' that pegasus in the bee costume that was under that tree?"

[RarityDash]

Contended by her subsequent encounters with the nice, dark colored alicorn Spirit Flame left the haunted house and began to wander. At one point she thought she saw the alicorn again, but as she got closer, it was revealed to just be a statue, only of the first alicorn Spirit had seen that night. it was a pretty realistic statue too.

Spirit, her body still appearing like some kind of specter (for her "costume" magic has been cast on Spirit, making her translucent and her mane glow while her entire body appears to be covered in white flames), trotted around the statue, wondering what she might find. Maybe she'd meet another alicorn, or perhaps she'd see that strange draconequus again. Either way, she was ready.

[Pennwick]

Aloe froze as she saw the ghostly pony again. Though the more she watched her the less intimidating she seemed. Maybe she wasn't an actual spirit and her imagination had just been getting to her back in the forest. Perhaps she was wearing one of those new enchanted costumes that were popular in Canterlot. Of course you'd spend at least 100 bits on something like that. She stumbled over to the filly and nerviously tried to introduce herself.

"Ah. Hello. Are you new in Ponyville?"

[Boss_Hoss1]

Snips went wide eyed as he scampered over to look at the ghostly unicorn pony since Aloe seemed to accept her as a real pony and not a ghost wreathed i white flame.

"Awesome! Even scarier than a Parasprite! How didja get a costume like that, eh?"

The Pip sized unicorn shivered at a thought "Um, t-that is a costume...right?"

He looked around for Snips for reassurance that this was a magical costume...

[RarityDash]

Spirit watched as she was approached by a mare and a young colt. They both seemed intimidated by her and both asked her questions. She decided to answer the colt first.

"Yes, my caretaker did call it a 'costume'," said Spirit nodding at the young pony. "Really it's just a combination of unicorn magic that he cast on me..." Spirit then turned off her flames momentarily, though her translucence and glowing mane remained. "Except for the flames. I make those myself."

Spirit then looked over at the mare and nodded toward her. "I currently live in Fillydelphia with my caretaker, Mister Gray. We're just visiting this area for the day."

[Corsair]

Snips stumbled into the clearing. He was managing to walk a little better this time. Unfortunately, while walking out of the forest, he'd collected numerous twigs and branches and leaves that were all now tangled into his over-long mane and tail. "Maybe I should get a job as a rake." he mumbled to himself as he approached the big Nightmare Moon statue.

The colt quickly up-ended his candy bucket in front of the statue, only holding back the two candies he had gotten from the Princess. "There, Nightmare Moon!" he shouted up at the statue. "You can have the candy, just keep Discord away from us!"

Snips flopped back on the ground, exhausted. He barely noticed the ghostly pony that Snails was talking too, and he normally would have loved to see such a detailed costume.

[Pennwick]

"He must be quite the enchanter." she said with a smile. When she had been a filly she had been a bit subject to 'horn' envy. She had since come to terms with it. True her talent wasn't as flashy or spectacular but no Unicorn could fix aches and rejuvenate coats like she and her sister could. Still on nights like tonight she sometimes felt a twinge of jealousy she couldn't have a spectacular costume like hers. "We have a client, Rarity, who made these for my sister and I." she ran one of her hooves over her costume flipping out the cloak. "They're quite comfortable but really... I thought you were the real thing back in the forest with the fire and everything." She neglected to mention even without the magic she still might have looked rather spooky. The way the moon would catch her long white mane and gleam off her deep purple body was positively eerie.

She turned and looked at Snips who was having trouble seeing and walking and turned to Snails. "He seems to be having a lot of trouble. Doesn't he." her concern slightly masked by her facial paint which made her frown look like a slightly twisted grin. She wobbled over and gave him a nudge. "I'm going to stop by home to see if we have any of the remedy left in stock. You're welcome to come with me if you two like." She actually had to meet her sister there anyways. The plan was to see if they could conquer Pinkies Haunted Mansion as a team before the night was over.

[Boss_Hoss1]

Snips listened wide eyed "I gotta learn ta do costumes like that with my magic someday. that would be totally awesome!"

He turned as Snips suddenly reminded him about one of the reasons they were here. "Um, just a second there..."

Snails trotted over on his tiny foal legs and emptied his treat carrying plastic pumpkin at the base of the monument, keeping back the 3 candies given by the princesses that night.

"Yeah, Please keep Discord away from us, eh. Twice is too much!"

he looked up to Aloe as she came over "You have some cure at home?! Oh yeah! that would be swell Miz. Aloe!! Hear that Snips?"

[RarityDash]

Spirit looked at the mare. "I think your costume is nice," she softly said, while admiring the costume the other was wearing. Nice clothing that had been made by hoof was more impressive to her than some weak flames she could produce with almost no effort with her magic.

Spirit nodded and then young colt. "I'm sure you'll learn to do wonderful magic if you practice," she said. This was really just repeated words she had heard from Mister Gray. Spirit was only good at fire magic, which she had learned as a fill living in the Everfree Forest as a means to protect herself. She still struggled with other kinds of magic. Still, it always felt good when Mr. Gray encouraged her.

Spirit watched as the mare went to go attend to another colt who seemed impaired in some way, and seemed close with the other colt. She smiled a little. These were nice ponies.

[Corsair]

Snips perked up. Wait, that was right! Miss Aloe ran the spa in town, she knew the cure for poison joke! He jumped to his hooves, fell, then got up again. "Oh my gosh, that would be great Miss Aloe!" he told the mare.

The colt finally took notice of the other unicorn that Snails and Aloe had been speaking to. She actually had flames floating around her! He moved some of his hair to one side to get a better view. "Whoa, that's really cool!" he said, his eyes going wide. "How'd you make the fire white? How d'you keep it from burning you?" Snips loved showy magic like this. Even though The Great and Powerful Trixie had turned out to be not-so-great and powerful, he still loved flashy, eyecatching magic after watching her show.

[RarityDash]

The other colt now approached Spirit with questions. She smiled at him.

"All the fire I make is white. I don't really know why," said Spirit in a quiet voice. "It just always has been."

She gave a steady nod and then added, "And I can control the temperature with my magic. The fire I'm using now isn't hot. It's mostly just a light effect. It won't burn anything unless I want it to. I can make it really hot though if I'm attacked."

[SunsetSombra]

"

" Well, Well, well, if it isn't a little lost herd of Preposterously Pragmatic Pondersome Ponies! "

The group of ponies would immediately find themselves confronted with the unusual sight of Discord, chaos and insanity made incarnate, doing...well, nothing apart from leaning against the wall of the maze - his devious grin turned all the way up to 11...oddly enough, his shadow is nowhere to be found.

He pulls out a banana from out of nowhere - notably, double the size of a normal Banana fruit...he peels it, revealing another banana beneath.

" I suppose I'm here to ensure that you all get a good ol' taste of Scares, DISCORD style... " the serpantine lord of crazy speaks, as a group of candyfloss clouds move in and immediately storms directly over the group of ponies with a huge amount of chocolate rain. Discord then finishes unpeeling the banana, placing the previous skin on the ground where it starts walking around, blindly bumping into one of the ponies legs as it does.

" Celestia, 'KIND' soul that she is..." He rolls his eyes at the thought before continuing. " has let me out for the night on the condition that I 'don't ruin things for everypony else' - So....without further ado! " he says, unpeeling the second banana and revealing an unusually dark egg - which he cracks open with his tooth, revealing a small-sized Bat which flies through the air towards the pony group...before his 'lost' shadow immediately pops up from the ground in the shape of a black sheet-ghost with red eyes and OOOGABOOOGAS the group from behind, without warning!

Suddenly the large black blob disappears, and in it's place a patch of Poison Joke appears suddenly - Yep, looks like he gotcha good this time!

[RarityDash]

Spirit was surprised to see the Draconequus appear before her again. Even more so when he brought with him Poison Joke.

Spirit hated the blue flowers. She always had from her time in the Everfree forest as a foal. It made her stand out too much. While under its effects, every time Spirit tried to use magic for anything, no matter how inconsequential, a loud cry would sound out. This was a horrible thing for a pony who had spent the first part of her life on the run from beasts who wanted to eat her and the latter part trying to blend into a society she didn't understand.

Spirit looked around as she considered what to do now.

[Pennwick]

((OoC: I was thinking, perhaps since Aloe, Snips, and Snails were all already under the effects of Joke they would just get shuffled around. Aloe:Long Hair, Snips:Foal, Snails:Left Hooves or Aloe:Foal, Snips:Left Hooves, Snails:Long Hair. If you're okay with that idea try and pick which of the two options you want. Aloe can deal with either option. Corsair seems to be undecided between this or just having the current ailments get worse. I just can't see it really getting worse for Aloe or Snails without totally incapacitating them. I'll try to be in the IRC about 4 hours from this post. If we can't work things out by that point though we probably better off just deciding for ourselves what happens. Aloe's still probably going to try and drag the four of the off to the forest for revenge though. Up to you if you think she'll be able to sway them.))

Aloe threw he hat onto the ground knocking up a cloud of magical pollen. To meet Discord twice in such a short span and never getting the chance to pull a single prank. It wasn't fair when your target could appear and disappear with such haste. She felt a jolt of magic go through her hooves and suddenly her legs were normal but the flowers we coming up to her neck. She tried to peer around at the others, what was going on, had she shrunk? "Snails? Snips?" her voice was slightly squeaky like a foals but still with a heavy Trottingham accent. It appeared that re-exposure caused the magic to jump between them. The ghost filly seemed to be unaffected.

She tried to recover her hat before realizing since she threw it before she transformed it hadn't adjusted like the rest of her costume. If she tightly curled into a ball she would probably fit inside of it. She could always retrieve it tomorrow she supposed. "I can't believe we ran into him again! And he acts like he doesn't even realize its the same group." she stomped her hooves on the ground. "I don't know about you two but I'm going back to the forest. Maybe if we set a trap we can prank him instead. Show him what ponies can do!"

[Boss_Hoss1]

Snips squeaked in horror as Discord appeared yet again! Suddenly Poison Joke appeared under him, coming up to his neck "Oh nooo00OO!"

His voice came back to normal as his body grew back to his lanky foal frame. "What? Did two doses make a cure?"

He looked around to see Snips lose hi extra hair but something didnt look right about two of his legs, and Aloe had shrunk into a Pip sized filly.

"Oh... No.." Realization of what was coming seemed to cue the explosive growth of his mane and tail, dragging to the ground and tearing the back off his costume.

Snails grumbled as he followed Snips back to the monument and took back his offering. "All right, now I'm mad..."

He listened to Aloe as she was determined to go back out into the forest. She was an adult ad she would be qute free to do it without them but... but, well now she looked even younger than Snips and Snails.

Snails was scared of going back there, but there was no way he would let a tiny foal go alone, even if she was one temporarily...

He looked gloomily at Snips "Looks like we're gong back after all, with Miz Aloe the foal."

he blew at the hair over his eyes "If I can find it, that is..."

[Corsair]

The unicorn filly talked strangely, almost like she wasn't used to talking to ponies. With the tactlessness of a foal, Snips started to ask her "Why do you talk so fun..." but then Discord appeared. AGAIN. Snips just dropped to the ground, and put his hooves over his head. "Aww come ON!" he said to himself. "How could this get any worse?!"

This time it was strange though. The long hair suddenly vanished from his mane and tail. Wait, did Discord actually HELP them? Well, he was the embodiment of Chaos, who knew what he would do? Snips jumped to his hooves, and immediately fell over onto his right side. He brought his from hooves back up to his face, and saw the problem. He now had 4 left hooves, just like Miss Aloe had earlier. Looking around, Aloe had shrunk dramatically, and Snails had grown a super-long mane and tail. "Now this is just weird..." he complained.

The colt struggled back to his hooves, and hobbled strangely over to the statue of Nightmare Moon. He started scooping the candy back into his bucket with his right-left hoof, and fell over again. He glared up at the statue. "Thanks for nothing Nightmare Moon!" he growled up at the stone alicorn.

That's when he noticed a strange sound coming from the unicorn filly. He wasn't sure what joke the poison joke had played on her, but that noise was really annoying.

Over the sound, he heard Aloe's plans. "You want to go BACK in the forest??" he said in shock, but the foal-sized mare had already run off. He looked up at Snails. "Yeah, we better go after her," he said, "Somepony could step on her.... or worse." He didn't want to think about the 'worse.'