Nightmare Night in Ponyville (Closed)

[Nexar]

As every year, the traditional Nightmare Night festival was held in Ponyville. Everypony weared costumes and the younger ones collected candys. But in addition to the usual, two special places were set up just outside of Ponyville.

On the one hand was the Dragons Lair. The reason for it's name is pretty clear, as the entrance was the wide opened mouth of a red scaled dragon with small flames coming out of its nostrils, enlightening the place like two torches. Inside of the dragons head a bar has been built up. The floor was plated with stones, between them a fiery red glowing was visible, illuminating the entire place. From time to time a fireburst errupted from the ground, magically controlled to never errupt somewhere, where someone already stood. Naturally, on the bar everypony could get drinks. For the younger guests there was even a scale to weigh the collected candys.

The second location, beeing set close to the Everfree Forest, has been named "100 haunted mirrors". Beeing set up in a big tent, inside roughly 100 Mirrors have been set up to create a house of mirrors. But something additional has been added to make it scarier. Ghost ponies are floating around inside the tent and tend to play tricks on those inside, moving the mirrors around and creating dead-ends, new pathways and such.

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Even thought Nexar kept his daily rythm, sleeping till midday and working till after midnight, even he noticed the upcoming Nightmare Night. In fact, when he woke up that day, he felt kinda nervous about it, since it would be his very first Nightmare Night. But before he was allowed to enjoy this festival, the disguised Changeling had to fulfil his chores. It was night already when he finished them all and walked back to his house, but as the festival was already fully going, pretty much everyone except for him was dressed up in a disguise. Nexar didn't even knew, that all the ponies would be in disguise, and so he hadn't think of anything he might somehow dress up as.

Lucky for him was, that on his way back to his house, he ran into Asteria, one of the very few he knew. Interestingly she was also the only pony in Equestria to know that he was a changeling. And after he had told her, that he didn't knew something about dressing up and that he had no idea what to dress up as, she walked with him to his house. Inside Nexar quickly got the idea, that he could simply Shapechange into something scary and make it all look, like if it was a normal disguise. So he changed into a black alicorn with bat-like wings and a fiery mane and tail, as well as big, red eyes without a pupil, filling out his entire eye. Afterwards Asteria and he painted over his coat in black again, so that it really looked like if the coat was painted on, as well as they glued dark paper to his leather wings to make it look handmade. As they finished with the preperations for Nexar, both walked outside again, standing in Ponyville. [colour=#008080]"So... what do you want to do, Asteria?"[/colour] Nexar asked the mare, as she was basically the only one around that he knew.

[Gerrard]

Asteria was doing a late night delivery for Nightmare Night, the unicorn delivering a set of costumes for a few of the last minute requests in Ponyville. The other couriers were busy celebrating the holiday with their friends and families, the black mare one of the lone exceptions as she made her way towards town. She would eventually be whisked away by her changeling friend on her way out of the town, the unicorn being asked for assistance in the development of a costume and proper protocols in the retrieval and distribution of candy. She watched closely as the changeling decided on making his own costume, changing into a vile looking alicorn with a frightening visage. The dark mare showed no fear as he changed, granted she never showed much of a reaction to anything.

"You seem ready to spook up some candy to pay tribute to nightmare moon. The lore of this event states that failure to offer food to the mare will result in her devouring you so. It seems highly unlikely that such a thing could happen, but that is the custom of the event. It would be respectful for me to change into a costume as well, will this suffice Sir Nexar?" she commented in a controlled manner as her horn glowed red before masking her in magic. In just a matter of seconds, Asteria appeared to change into a regular looking changeling, her body full of holes, her visage vaguely sinister as she peered over to Nexar.

"Is this an acceptable costume?" she asked in her usual tone, the unicorn seeming unable or unwilling to change how she spoke. "The custom is to carry bags around town and ask for candy. I would suggest going to the portion of town with the highest population density. That would be the south side of town. Do you have any disagreements or requests for the event?" she asked patiently, the 'changeling' taking charge of the situation as they exited his home. Asteria had only celebrated the event a few times in her life, but she always received compliments or screams for her costumes. It was the one night she could test her magic in public without being outed by prying eyes.

[IcyHooves]

[colour=#000033]Nightmare Night. A night that Spectral had yet to celebrate since he was a very young colt. Why was he even bothering with this year anyway, since many years prior he stopped completely? Well to be honest, a stallion, such as himself, stuck out like a sore thumb. Especially at night simply because of his mane, tail and fetlocks. It was very, very uncommon for a pony to have spiritual energy in place of actual hair, and though that was not really a reason he stopped going to Nightmare Night, it was a huge preventive for him to go and socialize. [/colour]

[colour=#000033]No, Spectral Frost stopped doing Nightmare Night because he was made fun of for a costume he made, a simple make shift suite of a dragon, equip with duct tape and cardboard. That night he was so upset, he never wanted to do it again. Though tonight... tonight held special meaning, least to him. Going into town meant he had high chances of running into Willow Wisp, his old friend, and then maybe they could spend the evening together playing games or such. So, with hopes high and spirits in full, Spec dawned his best costume for the night. The blue stallion had gone out several days earlier and purchased the finest silk shirt and cape and paid a craftpony to make a mask for him, so without a doubt, this year was his best costume ever.[/colour]

[colour=#000033]Spectral looked at himself in the mirror as his fellow wisp floated about his head, a white ceramic mask covered only half his face, while he wore a long sleeved, off white shirt, a blood red vest, topped with ruffles at his neck, and a long black, flowing cape. leaving only his mane to be seen in the pale moonlight of the event. Phantom of the Opera, a classic play, but so fitting for him. Nerves struck his stomach like a heavy weight, causing him to frown slightly as he looked to his blue friend. [/colour][colour=#40e0d0]"Well, I'm off. I suppose it would be good for you to stay here at the graveyard, away from other ponies. I'll be back after midnight, if everything goes right." [/colour][colour=#000033]He said with a nod before he turned to the door and headed out to the gloomy yard he lived on.[/colour]

[colour=#000033]The tombstones were perfect backdrops to his costume, though Spectral new this was not where the event was taking place, and so, he opened his wings, bunching up his cape upon his back, and took flight into the night sky. It wasn't cold, but the thing with Spectral was that when the moon was high, he felt cold, and mist flowed from his nostrils as if it was mid winter. A spell gone wrong, by the mare he was hoping to run into. It didn't take long at all for Spectral Frost to arrive into Ponyville, landing softly just feet away from the town center, and boy was it crowded. Panic seemed to run through him, and while he was a friendly stallion, he was not real socialized with much of the town. His ears dropped as he trotted along and looked at those that hurried by, most of the costumes were actually really fun, and one thing he noticed, was that not a single mare or stallion had taken notice to his mane. Meaning tonight he was fitting in.[/colour]

[colour=#000033]Spec relaxed a bit, folding his wings in and taking a much slower pace, and was soon enjoying the night. Ears propped back up his pink eyes scanned all the little games quickly, almost as if it was all too much for him to take in. Oh this was exciting, he hadn't felt like this in years! Once he came to a small clearing, he paused, took a moment to look around and get his barrings, seeing what all he was interested in, and that was when he saw an apple stand for candied apples, and a smile grew upon his muzzle. [/colour][colour=#40e0d0]"That looks delicious..."[/colour][colour=#000033] He said to himself, though losing that smile quickly as his ears once again fell. [/colour][colour=#40e0d0]"Though I wish.... I knew where Willow was... tsk. We should have planned this ahead of time..."[/colour]

[colour=#000033]Should have, ahh... but Spectral, gatherings like these are meant for new friendships to bud....[/colour]

[Starbuster]

Starbuster eyed herself in the mirror and ran her eyes over herself as she inspected her costume.[colour=#4b0082] "I think this is quite possibly the best costume I've had."[/colour] She said to herself, turning around. Her costume was that of a vampony. Her wings were covered in silky cloth that was coloured the same as her own coat, and had been molded to look like bat wings that she could fully fold up at her side. She wore a set of contacts that changed the shape of her pupils, making them snakelike in appearance and red in colour. Her hooves had fake claws on them, and a black cape draped across her shoulders. Sharp, pointed teeth flashed when she smiled, giving her a slight malicious look. She smiled at how she looked, turned around, grabbed her candy bucket, and stepped outside.

Looking around, she saw various groups of ponies walking around to different cloud houses.[colour=#4b0082] Seems like the fun's already begun here. [/colour]She thought to herself as she looked at various pegasi darting to and fro with their costumes, good and bad. She decided that this year she would hit up Ponyville, seeing as how she'd visited most of the cities and towns during Nightmare Night, but she'd had yet to visit Ponyville. Plus, they supposedly had some awesome Nightmare Night attractions this year too. Lifting off with her muscled wings, she flew away from the Observatory that she lived in towards Ponyville. Lucky for her that it wasn't far away, and she'd been there hundreds of times directing lost ponies back home and to taverns. Soaring through the sky, she looked down on Ponyville, seeing its various games and stalls set up. She descended rapidly, tucking her wings in as she dove towards the town. At the last second, she shot her wings out, catching the wind and turning her descent into a graceful landing. Looking around, she saw many things to do, and many groups of ponies trotting about. She thought to herself: [colour=#4b0082]I should have come with a group, it's more fun that way.[/colour] [colour=#4b0082]"Hm... Well, may as well get started!" [/colour]She said to herself, Trotting towards a nearby candied apple stand.

[Conor Colton]

Despite his well traveled nature, Colton was never really one for Nightmare Night. Both he and Sparks would of course participate in the holiday, sporting outfits and having as grand a time as they could but could never really wrap their heads around what was so compelling about dressing up like somepony you weren't and going around asking for sugary sweets and pranking ponies...though whenever he brings those points up he may as well have answered his own question.

Regardless, the stallion and sparrow had found themselves in Ponyville for this darkest of nights, dressed in a rather simple yet still functional getup. Colton sported a dark cloak, and with it some matching dark claw shaped boots, and in his jaw there were some teeth with fake fangs, given the impression of Colton being a creature of the night, or, more colloquially, a vampire. Sparks didn't have much to work with, given that he was just a sparrow, but he found a few things and Colton had helped fashion said things into some makeshift wing extensions and some pointed ears. In these outfits the pair looked like a vampire lord and his trusty pet bat, "[colour=#40e0d0]Not bad for like a night of preparation.[/colour]" The pegasus stated confidently.

They made their way through the quote, 'spooky' streets of Ponyville, taking in all the sights, sounds and on one or two occasions, smells; looking for anything that would tickle their fancy in terms of entertainment. They came across an assortment of stalls; from apple dunking to candied apples to spider throwing to even balloon animals, "[colour=#40e0d0]Balloon animals?[/colour]" Colton inquired absentmindedly as he read a sign on said stall saying 'Sorry. Ran out of ideas.', "[colour=#40e0d0]Ah.[/colour]" He stated.

All around all he could spot was ponies and monsters, ponies and monsters, ponies and monsters as far as the eye could see. He flew into the sky to get a better look and he saw, what else, ponies and monsters. He lowered himself back down to the ground, and nodded to the oddly dressed sparrow on his shoulder, "[colour=#40e0d0]So, what now?[/colour]" He asked as Sparks proceeded to make several squeaking noises, "[colour=#40e0d0]What?[/colour]" Colton inquired as the bird squeaked again, "[colour=#40e0d0]Sparks, you don't have to be in character...Well you can be, but please don't.[/colour]" He replied with a glare as Sparks sighed and went back to chirping his response, "[colour=#40e0d0]Ring toss?[/colour]" The vampire pegasus questioned, "[colour=#40e0d0]Well...better than nothing, right?[/colour]" He replied as the two made their way to the ring toss, spotting a nearby candied apple vendor.

[Nexar]

With the help of Asteria, the disguised Changeling really thought of his apperance to be rather frightening. It was a shame, that he knew that he could never really be in-character, as he just didn't want to be evil at all. But his thoughts were driven back from that, as the mare talked. Of course he didn't believe, that there was a monster who was going to devour him, but the plain thought of the slightest possibility for that to happen gave him a chill. When she ended, Nexar was just about to remind her to not call him sir, as she changed her apperance. He gulped as his red eyes took a closer look on the mare. Of course it shouldn't be something special for him to see a changeling, but after time he accostumed to see normal ponies. But after another moment and a quick headshaking, Nexar focused again and smiled a bit. [colour=teal]"For not being one, you really are able to get it quite close to the original!"[/colour] And even thought Nexar didn't knew, how the other ponies here would react, with her being a changeling surely noone would think that he could possibly be a real one, and with that in thought, he feeled safe.

Out of his small house, Nexar let his eyes look around the whole place. All the ponies were dressed up, some frightening costumes, others in really funny ones. But despite of what he feared to happen, noone really took notice of them. To the whole village, they were just two other ponies in costumes for this event. The real changeling sighed in relief, and almost he lowered his wings, but he quickly reminded himself on what he was and that he shouldn't move his wings at all. After all, he normally disguised himself as a unicorn, and not a pegasus. And moving wings on a costume would be quite hard to explain to anyone, if he ever should get asked. And even thought this was very unlikely to happen, he didn't want to risk anything to get banned from Equestria.

Asterias idea, to go where most of the others would be, sounded like a good plan and so Nexar agreed. Shortly after they were in the town center, filled with all kind of little games as well as dressed monsters, young and old. [colour=teal]"I don't have any requests Asteria... It's my first Nightmare Night after all! I don't even know what to expect!"[/colour] He sounded happy, not only because it was night and he loved the night. For the maybe first time since he moved here, he didn't feel like a monster who had to hide himself from anypony at all. And so he wanted to live this night, hoping that it would never end and try out all those special things avaible for this night. And as he looked around to see such a speciality, his bright red eyes catched a stand for candied apples, as well as a stallion with a really cool looking mane. Probably it was some kind of magic, that made it look like this, which made it even cooler. [colour=teal]"Let's take a look at that stand and the ponies there!"[/colour] Nexar said before he walked into the direction he had pointed with his hoof. Up there he immediatly took a closer look at the masked pegasus. Sadly he didn't knew what exactly he performed, but it nevertheless looked pretty cool. [colour=teal]"Hello! You've got a really nice costume!"[/colour] With those words said, Nexar didn't knew anymore what he should say to come up with a conversation, and so he turned his head to Asteria, trying to find help from her.

[Gerrard]

Asteria patiently stood at the side of her friend, the disguised, mare clearly aware of the flaws in her costume, granted none were physical in appearance. Her body was in fact normal beneath the illusion, a simple physical interaction with her body would disregard her perceived appearance if it contradicted her actual body. Regardless, the mare was doing her best to fit in, perhaps too well as her costume made her look like a textbook copy of the infamous creatures.

"Thank you for the compliment Nexar, I practice my magic frequently. I always welcome opinions that are from differing perspectives," she explained patiently in her usual well meaning attitude. Her attempt was not to provide cover for the changeling, the unicorn actually changing into the creatures that ponies were most likely to universally fear. Their kind nearly took over Equestria and if nightmare night was about scaring up treats, Asteria figured this would be the most efficient manner. While Asteria was great at creating visual illusions, the mare clearly didn't have the disposition to outright lie and trick others, her voice and posture in particular giving her away to the most trained of observers. If she didn't talk though, a normal pony would easily be able to mistake her for one.

Her soulless blue eyes scanned over Nexar as he seemed torn over some thought that he couldn't get past. Asteria wasn't the type to idly speculate though and she decided against asking what was wrong. They slowly marched over to the center of towns, many frightening costumes of all manner of creature filling the streets, the slight imperfections in them being the only solace one would be able to find when confronted by them. She listened to the changeling explain in a cheerful manner that he hadn't done such an event before, the odd mare deciding that it was upon her to make the decisions for their night as they wandered over towards a candy apple stand.

The pair soon came upon a small group of ponies, two dressed up as vampires, and one dressed as masked figure. The Canterlot schooled mare quickly recognized the mask, her lifeless eyes examining them as she listened to the black alicorn compliment the masked pony. Asteria took a step towards the masked stallion, her sharp fangs and soulless eyes ready to meet his expression as she spoke to him. "Hello Sir, I appreciate your costume.The mask is over ninety percent accurate. May I ask you for tips in improvising disguises," she commented in her usual voice, Asteria not the type to change her voice as she stood uncomfortably close to the pegasus. The unicorn who was disguised as a changeling either was unfamiliar with personal space or simply chose to ignore it as her frightening visage decided to disagree with her calm controlled voice.

[IcyHooves]

[colour=#000033]It was starting to get exciting! Spectral was now growing more and more into the mood and spirit of things. Spirit... The pun even made him chuckle. Either way, as he stood in line to take his turn to get an apple, Spec's pink eyes wandered about from pony to pony, admiring others costumes. There were a lot of vamponies, mummies, Frankenponies, there were even some pumpkins, which he giggled at as well. His hooves tapped upon the ground in a little dance, an impatient and happy dance that is, but one so small it looked like he was just shifting. Finally, his attention was called upon, and the dark stallion gleefully requested a candied apple, before pulling out his sack of bits and paying the Earth pony for her goods. With his apple now in hoof, his wings spread and he lifted a few inches off the ground, turning away from the stand and intent on enjoying his fruit snack.[/colour]

[colour=#000033]Course, what the pegasus did not count on, was a little pegacorn calling him out. Quickly, Spectral stopped and looked to the black pressed pony and blinked. A.... a complement? That... that was... new. With apple now held between his teeth he landed and smiled at the pony, a nod in his direction, before he raised a hoof to remove the food. [/colour][colour=#40e0d0]"Why, thank you! Yours is just as impressive! I really like the eyes.... How did you do that...?"[/colour][colour=#000033] He asked politely, widening his smile upon his light blue muzzle. [/colour][colour=#40e0d0]"Is it magic of some sor----!" [/colour]

[colour=#000033]Though Spectral was cut off suddenly, and his reaction was subtle, yet showed just how alarmed he was. Instantly, as the mare disguised as a Changeling grew far too close for his personal bubble, he pulled his head back from her, taking a moment to let his eyes adjust to her... sudden appearance. The stallions ears fell back into his wispy mane of blue mist and his wings lashed out and fluttered just a bit from shock. His expression was a bit stand-off-ish, but he knew that she meant no harm, despite what she was costuming as. [/colour][colour=#40e0d0]"Ahhh.... ha... I.... Ninety percent accurate? That.... precise...?"[/colour][colour=#000033] Spectral Frost asked, relaxing a bit as his wings slowly pressed back to his side, though he still leaned away from the mare, almost to tell her she was very much in his personal space. [/colour][colour=#40e0d0]"Well... I thank you for the complement. I must say... your costume had my heart skip. Magic as well?"[/colour]

[colour=#000033]He only asked cause well... he had seen and been a part of some strange magic before, so what was usually remarkable was done by a unicorn and their abilities, least to him. And that thought did make his stern pink gaze look to the side and search a bit... Perhaps it was time to give up looking for her then? As Spectral watched the "Changeling" and the "Alicorn" once more, he took it upon himself to take a few steps back and away from the everlasting intrusion to his bubble, that was till he bumped his flank against another body.[/colour]

[colour=#000033]Instantly his ears perked and he looked back to the purple mare dressed as a vampire. [/colour][colour=#40e0d0]"Ah... Sorry..."[/colour][colour=#000033] He whispered politely. [/colour]