Northern Lights

Nothern Lights grumbles as she hasn't gotten a single candy yet. Tail swishing, she decides to give the house of mirrors a try... after all, Celestia is running it, and she would be sure to appear to give candies, right? She wanders aimlessly through the halls, finally ending up at a dead end.

"I'm not really sure how getting lost all the time is fun," she mutters to herself. This seems to be happening a lot to her.

Is team Faust an option? Because Faust is best pony.

Northern Light grumbles as she misses the earlier events, wishing her time in Fillydelphia hadn't taken so long. But now she's back home in the Everfree forest. Seeing people coming to the monument, she swishes her tail and smiles, watching the annual ritual. She giggles to herself, thinking she should dye herself next year, and go as Nightmare Moon! Besides, maybe she'll get more candy that way

With a plethora of little squeaks and grunts, the wayward hedgie finishes his treat, burping rather loudly. Northern gives him a sharp look as he clamber back into her saddlebag, peeking out like nothing at all has happened.

"You're going to be in SO much trouble when we get home.. and you're going to have such a tummy ache!" She smiles at Jessy and says "Thank you ever so much! How can I repay you? I'd give you candies, but someone ate them all..."

Flicking her tail, the unicorn peers around, seeing a couple of foals stairing at them, before rolling their eyes and going another way.

"I don't know," she mutters, but as she does so, Jessy can feel a small wet nose poking her on the hock. Ipsum places his paws on the pegasus' leg, sitting up and trying to reach the candy, which is quite unlikely given he's a fraction of her height.

Covering her snout, the mare giggles as she leans down, trying to help the pegasus up off her back.

"Oh, it's okay.. really.. I'm sure he'll show up soon. He's not easily scared off, and when he does he rolls into a ball, being a hedgehog.." she notes, tidying the witch robes with a couple of brushes of her hooves. She lifts up the hat and shakes it, saying in a rather loud voice. "Oh, gosh, we have soooo much candy. I really wish Ipsum was around to share it with but I guess we have to eat it all outselves." If the gods were just, she'd automatically win an award for terribly bad acting.

*comes in topic.*

*sees it's about RPing*

* Immediately leaves.*

It has nothing to do with RPing.. it's a card game

On second thought, lets not go to Canterlot, it is a silly place.

Northern giggles and is nodding along to Jessy's description of herself, though the complements from the other cute mare are a little much for the gal. She thinks about how she should stay in town a little longer and catch one of these shows. After all, it's always nice to have a friend in the audience.

At BlindJester's exclaimation, the dark-pelted unicorn turns her head, peering into the dusky stalks, which were growing darker by the minute. Narrowing her eyes, she sees a pair of mice peeking back up for a moment, before running off. She's about to groan in annoyance before catching the sight of a tiny gold crown lying among the plants. She scoops down to pick it up. "It looks like you're right, can you hear him any better? I can't see him in all this thick corn, and I don't think he's coming to his name right now. Oh!"

Pausing, the mare gives Jessy an artful look and whispers "Do you have any candy wrappers or bits of paper? I bet if he thinks we're eating candy he'll come out. We just need to rustle them."

Northern blushes at the complement, and her tail swishes, brushing Jessy's. "Ah, no, that's my sister, she's the pretty one in the family. Though you look very nice.. well, what I can see under that cloak and hat!" She's always admired pegasi, due to her affinity with weather you either liked the weather ponies or you didn't get very far in your studies.

Cocking her ear at the question, she giggles, noting "Only if you do the same!" She takes a pause a a crossroads, as a few ponies stumble past, laughing and shouting. They don't even turn around to see the pair.

"Ah, well, I don't live near Fillydelphia. I actually spend most of my time in the wilds at the edge of Equestria, outside of Ponyville. I'm a unicorn, but I love to study weather, especially natural weather." She lowers her voice, and murmurs in Jester's ear "Don't let it get around, but actually can create it myself. It's a really unusual unicorn talent that runs in my family. My mother, sister and I all can make auroras appear in the sky, and I can cause snowfalls as well. But I wanted to know how that can even work! I mean, that stuff is usually manufactured, at least in Equestria."

She grins and gives the other mare a shoulderbump in a friendly way as the enter a winding section of the maze. "How about you? Are you a Cloudsdalian? I guess from your mark you're really a jester!"

Northern gives a sheepish smile, then nods. "I'm Northern Lights... and it's kinda funny you say your name is that, I'm dressed as a jester today!" she notes, demonstrating her bells once more. She peers around in the dark, and nods. "That sounds like a good idea.. and I really appreciate your help! Believe me, this maze is confusing, I don't think you're gonna have any more trouble with it than I already did." She presses her shoulder to Jessy's in a supportive way, to show she's keeping track of where she is.

Peeking along the yellow stalks, she grumbles to herself, "He's not normally like this, but I think all the candy has given him a bit of a buzz.. and we never travel away from home usually." Her tail swishes as she tries to catch sight of any quivering quills.

I guess I could try either of those things. I still have a few more days to pull this together.

I would so support this. I'd love to roleplay one of these batwinged pegasi. What would you call them anyway? Nightmares?

I discovered where the bat winged horses came from..

JAPAN!

In all practicality I found a brief mention of bat-winged hellhorses called Pyrippus, who pulled Pluto's chariot, which depending on the depiction or more or less reptilian, but I think the name works as a standin given Nightmare is female sounding. Pyrippi in plural.

We are just straight up showing Bettlejuice at my party (And the Worst Witch)

Has anybody seen Tim Curry's Tambourine?

Oh mah LORD, Worst WIIIITCH! So baaad and good

I was going to go as Rainbow Dash this year for Halloween, and I've gotten all my other supplies for it, super thick felt for the wings, some rainbow stuff, even a rainbow lightning bolt patch for my jeans, but what I've been waiting on is a cutiemark teeshirt. I contacted a custom cutie-mark shirt maker on dA in the end of September to ask if they could get it done quick in time for Hallowe'en, and they said sure. So I've been waiting for the shirt to show up. I just got an email telling me they sent it yesterday. 5 days to get here?!

Apparently they didn't notice I'm an international shipment but even for the US, I wouldn't want to risk mailing something for Hallowe'en a week before. Especially since all the parties are this weekend. I am so frustrated... I ordered from a person rather than a company partially because I thought I could assure I'd get my shipment sent quickly since I could talk to them in person.

I made sure to get all my things for this costume ages ago so I could be sure to do it only to fall on the last hurdle. Without my cutiemark I might as well be a weirdo in wings

Blushing wish embarrassment, the clumsy unicorn quickly helps the pegasus up, brushing her off with much jingling of her outfit.

"Oh gosh oh gosh I'm so sorry, are you okay?" she asks with concern, peering over the wings to make sure she hasn't bent the feathers, before giving Jessy a smile she of course can't see. It takes the other mare a few seconds longer to realise that's the case when she notices the pale eyes sort of not looking at her, but she bites back the automatic statement of , oh you're blind, instead nodding, causing her bells to tinkle melodically. Then remembering herself, she says "Y-yes.. I came in with my pet, but I got lost then he wandered off. He's a little hedgehog.. have you seen-- oh, I mean.. um..."

Her blue coat is practically purple for a moment and she squirms. "S-sorry, that was a stupid thing to say. I mean, I guess, have you heard him?"

bother, I had a halloween playlist on my old machine. let's see if I can remember any:

Dead man's party - Oingo boingo

Devil went down to georgia - Primus

O Fortuna - Carl Orff

The Munsters Theme

Tubular Bells" - Mike Oldfield

Bela Lugosi's Dead - Bauhaus

Don't Fear the Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult

Highway to Hell - AC/DC

Everyday is Halloween - Ministry

Vampire Empire - Two Witches (oh so over the top)

Fall Children - AFI

Halloween - Siouxsie and the Banshees

Dead Girls - Voltaire

More if I think of them

So, Twilight Sparkle evolves into Rapidash and Luna has three evolution levels. Ponýmon?

Yaaay now we're two !!!

Yes 'cept Parisian pastry is 20 times more prestigious than what I do

The sun was starting to set as Northern Lights approached the Corn Maze. Her saddle bags were already full of goodies and treats. She almost never left the Everfree Forest, except to go back home to Canterlot, but the festival in Fillydelphia was a family tradition when she was a little foal. Her sister informed her she was too big for that little filly stuff anymore, but Northern is nothing if not a foal at heart, and couldn't resist.

The dark blue unicorn mare's horn glows as she pulls out her fair map. "So, I wanna do the haunted house after dark, and I don't want to carry a pumpkin around, so I guess next is the maze, eh, little guy?" She tosses her shaggy, unkempt mane out of her eyes and grins as a small brown nose peeks from her bags. Her hedgehog friend, Ipsum, was happily eating some toffee, a small golden crown perched on his head.

Cap bells jingling, the pony giggles. "Oh, greedy King Ipsum, if you eat too much of those, you'll get a tummy ache!" Her costume is a court jester, with a two pointed cap and a red and black harlequin outfit, all bedecked in bells. She never had much time for spooky outfits, preferring fun and playful. And what is a court jester without a king? Ipsum wrinkles his nose at her, then peeks around.The little quilled ruler rarely got to eat candies and he was taking full advantage of every minute.

Heading to the maze entrance, she pays her entry fee and starts to wander. After a few turns, she's already well lost, the tall corn cutting off her path in front of her.

"Rats... stuck already.. any ideas, your majesty?" she asks, turning to peek at Ipsum in her bags. But all she finds are empty candy wrappers. She checks her other saddlebag, but no hedgehog. Oh no! Did he climb out to try and find more treats? Biting her lip, she looks around frantically. The little fat hedgehog would never be able to find his way out of this maze on his own.. he's certainly lost.

"Ipsum... IPSUM!" she cries, dashing off through the stalks.

Well, sticking to Faust's explanation of why Luna was small and powerless after her defeat as Nightmare Moon, she probably just didn't have enough intrinsic magical energy flowing from her body to make her mane cool=looking.

As for the bat-winged pegasi, I sez they're a new species.

I agree. A rare night time one, since most ponies seem to be intrinsically diurnal.

I'm a PASTRY CHEF

Yes, all Mrs. Cake in the house here.

Long and storied career

Went to art school, then went to a tech college to learn web design, then the dot-com crash, then unemployed doing freelance illustration and art, then went to culinary school, then cooked in different jobs. Oh, even as a pastry specialist, I make pretty lousy money right now. Screw you, economy!

Tendrils of clouds stroke over a moon so large and orange it seems to rival the pumpkins littering the path out of Ponyville. The air is still, almost oppressively so, with traces of mist clinging to the woods on either side. But above the trees, a persistent wind, just out of reach, rattles the dead leaves, corpses of a past season, unable to escape. Countering this grim scene, peals of laughter fill the darkness as three friends push and chatter their way along the empty road leading from town.

“And then Pinkie ran at me with a cleaver! It was soo goofy!”

Another riot of laughter bounces off the trees, and the trio of fillies are left grinning.

“Applebloom, is it much farther?” asks Sweetie Belle, sighing as she realizes she's already reached the bottom of her bag of candy.

The sunny-yellow filly peers over her shoulder. The glowing lights of the town are a reassuring backdrop down the road. Hard packed dirt crunches under her hooves and she suppresses a shiver. Strange, she thinks, the large moon hardly seems to light anything at all down under the tree-lined path. Instead, the darkness of the night fills every corner, the pumpkin lanterns her friends are carrying barely penetrating the gloom.

“C'mon you guys. You both have been t'the farm before. We're halfway there, just through the woods, past the fields and we're home. Y'all aren't spooked are you?” she says with a grin, giving Scootaloo a wink, she adds, “Or...chiicken?”

The young pegasus rolls her eyes. “Oh, give it a rest.” she mutters, pushing past the other two ponies to show she's not. “Being scared on nightmare night is for FOALS.” Dancing around the other two, her lantern casts weird and long shadows. They both grin in return, as Applebloom declares “I'm not spooked either!”

The party at the town square had been a blast, with candies and masks and a haunted house that was really Mr and Mrs Cake's bakery turned into a really fake looking “Bakery of DOOM!”, complete with Pinkie Pie pretending to be a crazed baker, baking ponies into cakes and cookies. She chased the trio out going “OOOGABOOGA” in the wackiest way, wielding a huge, fake cleaver covered in ketchup. They ate candies until they felt like they'd burst, each carved their own pumpkin lantern, and laughed and shrieked at the spooky stories. And having a sleepover at the clubhouse seemed like the perfect end to the night.

Applejack offered to walk them home, but in the bright lights of the town square, surrounded by other fillies and colts, they insisted they were perfectly capable of getting home on their own. Her sister insisted, so they finally snuck away when she was busy. But now, with the town just visible in the distance, far from the farm, Applebloom wondered if they should have just taken up that offer.

“I've got a bad feeling about this” whispers the pale unicorn beside her, her wide eyes starring into the dark before them, down the empty, winding road. Without thinking, the three crusaders pull closer, flank to flank, shoulder to shoulder.

“N-nightmare night is just for foals, Sweetie Belle” the yellow pony stutters out, though her eyes keep darting to the woods beside them. But that was silly, there was nothing in them that there wasn't any other day. They've gone into the Everfree Forest, which was way more dangerous, so this should be a piece of cake. She repeated that aloud, “A piece of cake!”

Suddenly, Scootaloo hisses “Shhhh!”, freezing. The others stop dead, staring. “What's the matter?” asks Sweetie Belle, in a voice that betrays more nervousness than before. Silently, the pegasus points ahead, where they can just make out another foal ahead of them, lit in the glow of her own lantern and the moon. Applebloom hoofs Scoot in the shoulder in relief.

“Quit it! That's just one of the other kids.” There were more than a few homes past hers, and as they grew closer they could now make out the pale yellow mane and body of a filly about their age. Applebloom wracked her mind for a name, but honestly a few foals looked rather similar to each other, so she wasn't sure. What she was sure of, though, was she'd feel a little better with four, rather than three friends walking to her place. “Let's catch up to her. I think she's Bonnie.. or Noi..”The others nodded. The filly definitely had a familiar feeling to her. As they caught up she turned in the path to watch them curiously, tail swishing.

“Hey!” says Scootaloo with a grin, “we just thought we'd walk with you!”

“Not that, you know, we're scaredy foals, but we were worried you might be lonely walking home alone” Sweetie Belle quickly explains. The other girl smiles shyly and nods.

“Where are you going?” she asks in almost a whisper, making Applebloom have to lean close to hear her.

“Well, we're doing a sleepover in my tree house. It's on the Apple Ranch, you know, the big farm up the road? We'd invite you but I guess you gotta go home.”

The other filly says nothing, walking with them silently, head down and ears back. The trio give each other looks over her shoulders, wondering if they should have mentioned the sleepover, since their new companion seemed unhappy she wouldn't be allowed to join them.

“Do you live nearby?” asks Sweetie Belle jovially, swinging her lantern back and forth. The girl nods silently.

“Um, do you like Nightmare Night?”

Another nod.

Scoot rolls her eyes and mutters. “Really friendly sort, aren't you?” before Sweetie rump-bumps her, glaring. The darkness of the night and it's eerie feeling slowly seems to melt away though, and the group went back to good natured joking, Sweetie Belle relaying what she would have done differently for the scary song sing along, if she'd been allowed to write the music, and Scootaloo suggesting they try being Cutie Mark Haunted House Builders next year. Applebloom starts to say something when she feels a cool shiver down her spine. Something was wrong, she could feel it. She'd walked along this road a thousand times but something was different this time. Heart thumping in her chest like a drum, she peers through the darkness, where the moon painted deeper shadows on the land, the trees black on one side, the fields a dark blue on the other. And in the fields, a deeper black. A shape. Watching.

Her tongue seemed to stick to the top of her mouth. Finally, she breathes out, terror in every letter, “LOOK!”

The pale yellow filly is already starring off beyond her, eyes wide. The other two take a moment to pause before the jokes trail off and they catch what Applebloom is looking at. The dark shape is moving slowly, purposefully closer,massive and imposing. Frozen to the spot, the fillies watch as in the silvery pale moonlight, it slowly becomes clearer, seeming like a great dark stallion, but maneless, tailless, just a ink-black void in the night, a living silhouette. Already the town's lights are barely a sparkle in the night behind them, and the thing seems to be moving to cut them off from town.

“Run” says a soft voice in Applebloom's ear, and she turns to see the pale-yellow filly already by the trees. Without pausing to speak, the other girls dash after her, dropping their lanterns, tearing through the bushes that now seem much less friendly than before, their new friend, obviously more familiar with the woodland then they, a pale shape of golden flank just ahead, somehow avoiding th roots that kept threatening to trip them up.

Stopping for only an instant, Applebloom peers over her shoulder, only to see the telltale shape of the black stallion peering between the treetrunks at the edge of the road. He was following them. Her scream cuts through the night, and the others begin to as well, but their saviour turns on them and hisses, voice soft “Hush now! He'll hear us.. he'll find us..” Choking back her terror, the red-haired foal nods, eyes wide, and they silently move deeper into the forest, Sweetie Belle keening softly when she hears the crashes behind them. They slowly seem to edge further away. Panting, Applebloom joins Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and the pale yellow filly under a bush. In the golden glow, she sees the fearful faces of her friends, eyes wide. They huddle together, hearing the shivering leaves, the fluttering of bats, ears perked for the sounds of the monster following them.

“Hush”whispers the filly softly, “Quiet.. we have to hide..”

The tense moments seem to stretch forever, until Sweetie Belle gasps, squeaking out, her eyes luminous in the low light, and peers around angrily.

“You dummies!” she whispers fiercely, “It'll see the light from our lanterns. Who's got one glowing? Snuff it out now!”

Applebloom shakes her head, turning to Scootaloo, who grumbles “I dropped mine back there.”

Frowning, Applebloom turns to the other filly and feels her mane stand on end. The pale yellow coat from the strange foal glows softly in the dark, casting its golden light across the party. “Hush!” whispers the voice, strangely breathless and far away now. The face blank as she turns in the darkness. Her eyes are mere empty black pools in the night.

The scream seems to go on forever, cutting through the darkness, hurting Applebloom's ears, shaking the world, until she realises it's her own. The ghost-filly moves closer, menacing in her silence, her penetrating gaze.

“APPLEBLOOM! GIRLS! WHERE ARE YAH?”

Turning and bolting, stumbling in the dark, screaming in pure horror, a frenzy of terror released as the sound of Applejack's voice seems to free them from the spell, the Cruisaders hoof through the woods towards the familiar voice, bursting through the trees and slamming into the friendly palamino pony, nearly knocking her over in their panic

“Oh APPLEJACK!” sobs her sister, clinging, “It was AWFUL...”she starts to explain, but her eyes go wide as a huge, dark shape of a black stallion peers over her sister's shoulder. As everything goes black as she faints away in shock, she makes out Applejack's angry voice snapping “Big Mac, ya dang fool, you fergot to take yer mask off!”

An hour later, with plenty of hot cocoa in them, the Cruisaders felt much better. Snuggled into a thick quilt by the farmhouse fireplace and finally calm, with Applebloom roused and feeling a bit of chagrin, they listened to Applejack's explanation. Like seeing the fake knives with ketchup at the haunted house or the unicorns magicing the bubbling cauldrons, the story behind the fright of the night took away all their fear.

“Y'see, it's a tradition in the Apple family to give foals who're ol'enough a bit of a scare on Nightmare Night. I didn't think you girls were old enough,” notes Applejack, as the trio give her an embarassed look, “but Big Mac thought you'd be fine.. IF I was walkin' with yah. He didn't know you left without me, an'he never counted on you girls going inta the woods n' him loosing yah.” The big red stallion hung his head in shame and scuffed his hooves together.

“When we were kids, Granny Smith even got some glow in the dark paint to make everyone in the family look like ghosts. Scared the heck out of us,”he notes, “But it didn' do no harm, sis.” Applebloom lets out a sigh of relief as she exchanges looks with her friends at that. So the filly WAS one of the foals from town... in glowing paint! And Applejack and Big Mac, well, Big Mac more likely, he was sensitive to these things, had to pick someone they didn't go to school with, otherwise she'd blab about them being scared. As if he could read her mind, her big brother gives them a wink.

The palomino mare sighs and pets her little sister on the mane. “Alright. Maybe next year we c'n all try to make a good scare together.”

“Cutie Mark Haunted House Makers?” says Scootaloo with a wide smile. Sweetie Belle's eyes sparkle at all the haunted organ music she could orcastrate, and even Applebloom found herself thinking about the great ways to build neat haunted house effects.

“Can I try some of that glowing paint?”she asks eagerly, imagining some good pranks she could try in the mean time. Her sister shakes her head and laughs.

“Naw, we weren't able to get that sorta thing in time fer this year. But I bet next year we could.” She chuckles again at Applebloom's eager smile and listens for a few minutes to their plans before yawning.

“Time for bed, girls. So, I guess y'all wanna sleep in the house now?” notes the mare with a concerned tone to her voice. The trio shake their heads rapidly. The fears from before were seeming silly now, and they looked forward to some alone time in the club house. They quickly packed away the extra candy apples Applejack had thoughtfully brought back home and shuffled off to their sleeping bags in the tree house.

Though they had been told to go to bed, the girls spent the next hour drawing out ideas for spooky haunted houses. The School of TERROR was the group favorite, and Sweetie Belle wondered if she could get her sister to make their teacher a good evil mad scientist outfit. Scootaloo noted that miss Cherrilee wouldn't be likely to wear it. Curling against her pillow in the flickering candlelight of the clubhouse, listening to her friends argue in a good natueed way, Applebloom yawns. She couldn't wait to try the glowing paint trick on some foals at school next year. Blinking, she sits bolt upright in her sleeping bag as understanding strikes her in a flash. The other

Cruisaders stare and Sweetie Belle asks, sleepily, rubbing her eyes “What's wrong?”

As the candle puffs out, a voice by her ear whispers “Hush...”

You mean how many clopfics

I'd never mean that _{out loud on a pg13 board}