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Description
"Come on Rarity, we're going to be late!"

"I'll be down in just one minute mon amour!"

It was Nightmare Night, not my favorite holiday of the year, and one that I wouldn't usually get all dressed up for, but tonight was a little different. We had all been invited to attend the Nightmare Night Costume Party, to be held in the Canterlot Castle. And, as Rarity would say, it would be most unbecoming to show up not in costume, that's exactly what I did.

So there I stood in the boutique, dressed as Frankenpony, all made up. Rarity had painted on stitching around my mouth, neck, and limbs, dyed my coat green, and used the bottoms of two used cans as bolts on my neck. I had donned a simple, tattered brown shirt to go with the ensemble. Nothing I could do now but patiently wait for my bride, so to speak.

"I'm ready, darling."

I turned around to see how Rarity had turned out. She looked great, as always, having done up her mane into the classic high hairstyle of the character, with similar stitching make-up and fake bolts. In leiu of dying her coat, which she would never do, she wore a black and purple dress which was almost demure compared to her usual creations.

"Well what are you standing there gawking at? Didn't you say we were late?"

We were all going to meet at the library before setting off. It was almost dusk already, though of course the party would go on until the morning hours. When we arrived, I took a good look at all the other pony's costumes. Applejack was wearing a giant Zap Apple of such size I wondered how she even walked, topped with her usual hat. Pinkie Pie was dressed like an alligator, a particularly toothless alligator, obviously inspired by Gummy. Fluttershy, who I knew was dead-afraid of nights like this, wore a simple bunny costume consisting only of large white ears and a black nose. Guess there was no way of hiding her tail. Rainbow Dash had gone all-out, allowing Rarity and the Spa Ponies to dye her coat tan, and to bleach her mane, making her look exactly like her hero, Daring Do. Add one hat, and one fake Cutie Mark, and voila.

Pinkie knocked on the library door, which was quickly opened by Spike, who was dressed as a phoenix with his arms directly attached to the 'wings' of the costume. Twilight soon popped up behind him.

"Hi, everypony, let's get going."

"Uh, Twi," Applejack began, "you sure you wanna go out dressed like that?"

"What's wrong," Twilight replied.

Twilight's costume featured a long flowing robe, and a large pointy hat, both of which were adorned with bells of various sizes. She was also wearing a fake white beard.

"I agree," I said, "I think she pulls off Starswirl the Bearded quite well."

"Thank you," the princess responded, "see, someponies get my costume."

"But we've seen this before," Rainbow whined, "where's your originality?"

"I figured since we were going to the castle, Princess Celestia would appreciate it."

"Well let's go before we are late," Rarity exclaimed.

She was right, we were running a bit late, fortunately it wasn't that far of a trip. Before we knew it, we were once again at the castle. We quickly made our way inside, much faster than usual since nopony could recognize Twilight in her costume and thus avoiding all the incessent bowing that would usually take place.

Once inside, we all made a beeline for Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, who were easily recognizeable, as they weren't in any sort of costume whatsoever. We all bowed to them, though I had to take a second to peek at AJ trying to bow in that ridiculous costume of hers.

"Princess Twilight, an impressive Starswirl the Bearded costume," Celestia began.

"Ha, I told you she would appreciate it."

We all rolled our eyes, at least a little.

"We're so glad you all could make it," Luna said, "please partake in the fesitivites. But I should have you know that there is something extra special in store this year."

We looked at each other, wondering what the princess could mean, before having our thoughts interrupted.

"Are we just going to stand here," Pinkie Pie said, "or are we going to have fun?"

And when Pinkie Pie asks if you're going to have fun, you know you're going to have fun. All of us went down to the main hall to mingle with the other guests, eat unnecessary sweets, and play simple games. This went on for awhile before a familiar voice rang out across the hall.

"Can we have your attention please," it was Shining Armor. He and Cadance were standing on the main stage. They weren't in costume, so to speak, but certainly dressed up for the occassion, and wearing matching black masks.

"Welcome to the annual Nightmare Night Masquerade Party," Cadance announced, "as you know, Nightmare Night was began by ponies long ago to appease the spirit of Nightmare Moon. Of course, Nightmare Moon doesn't exist anymore, but we still enjoy the tradition, and the spectacle, and the ability to sometimes scare or be scared by everypony."

The guests all cheered and laughed. Then the lights blinked. Once, twice, three times. Everypony looked around in confusion. I saw Fluttershy dive behind Applejack in fear. Spike similarly dove behind Twilight.

"What the hay is going on here," AJ asked to nopony in particular.

"Good evening, everypony," a spooky voice said, "I'm glad to see you all enjoying yourselves. However, it not appears to be the time for my appearance."

"That voice sounds familiar," Twilight pondered aloud, turning to where Celestia and Luna were standing, "Luna, are you doing this to scare us?"

"I promise I am doing no such thing," the princess protested.

"If Luna isn't doing the voice," Rainbow said, "then who is doing that?"

The pegasus pointed at a glowing green form which seemed to be materializing out of thin air. After a few moments, the form took shape: Nightmare Moon.

"Did you think I would miss the party," Nightmare Moon exclaimed. We were all quite confused, as it was obvious that Luna was still standing in the same spot, and not using magic.

"We're not scared of you," Rainbow said, flying into her face, "we know you're not real."

"Oh really," the embodiment of darkness replied, "well if I weren't real, could I do this?"

In a flash, she reached out one of her arms and knocked Rainbow clear out of the air. The partygoers gasped as Nightmare Moon moved toward the two princesses, slowly surrounding them.

"Bye," and in a blink of an eye, they both disappeared.

Panic hit the party like hurricane.

"Everypony run," some mare screamed.

And most of the partygoers did just that. As they did so, a few more got swept up by Nightmare Moon, disappearing to Celestia-knows-where. In the mass confusion, Rarity and I somehow made it up the stage next to Cadance and Shining Armor.

Nightmare Moon targeted where Twilight was next. Twilight of course tried to ward her off with magic, but it was no use. She, along with Spike, got swept up. Applejack tried to fight back her own style, but in her costume, it was near impossible. She also disappeared. Nightmare Moon then turned to the stage.

"Oh no you don't," Shining said, quick to get in front of Cadance. I did similarly with Rarity.

"Isn't this sweet," Nightmare said, "the two gentlecolts protecting their loves. Well, that'll be enough of that."

She proceeded to pick both Shining and I up with almost no effort, and tossed us across the length of the stage. With Shining being a trained soldier and I being in my share of fights, we were both quickly back on our hoofs, quickly running back to where we started as Nightmare began her disappearing trick.

"No," we both yelled, diving for our respective escorts, but we were one second too late. We landed on the hardwood stage right infront of Nightmare, who gave us an evil little smile before disappearing herself.

"Darn it," Shining yelled, slamming his hoof on the stage.

I looked around at the damage done. Everypony had vacated the main hall except for Shining, myself, and Rainbow. Or so I thought.

"Aww, is the party over," Pinkie Pie asked, coming out from underneath a table.

"I, I hope so," Fluttershy said, coming out behind her, "that was really scary."

"The party is not over," Rainbow exclaimed, "we have a ponynapper to find. Nightmare Moon made off with Celestia and Luna."

"And Twilight," Shining continued, "and Cadance."

"And Applejack," I finished, "and Rarity."

"We have to go find where Nightmare Moon took them," Rainbow declared, ready to go.

"You go do that," Fluttershy said, "I'll just stay here and hide."

"Nothing doing," I said, magically pulling Fluttershy back out from under the table, "we'll all need to work together on this one."

At that moment, Philomena, Celestia's pet phoenix bird, lighted on Fluttershy's head. I had heard before that the two of them had some prior history.

"You're worried about the princess too, aren't you," Fluttershy asked the bird, who nodded in agreement, "I suppose you would. OK, I'll come along."

"But where do we even start," Pinkie Pie exclaimed, "this castle is huge, and they could literally be anywhere."

As if to answer her question, a magical green wisp came into the room and landed infront of Shining. It was a scroll.

"To whomever gets this message," Shining began reading, "we are all safe for the moment. Not sure how you would get to us, but Twilight and Cadance say they've been in this part of the castle before. Please hurry. Signed, Spike the Dragon."

"Ha, so they are in the castle," Rainbow exclaimed, "so where is this place they mean?"

"I remember Cadance telling me about some sort of cave system underneath the castle," Shining explained, "where Chrysalis kept her before our wedding."

"Well then, let's get going," I said.

Although we knew about the cave system, we still didn't know exactly how to get there. I figured if we just wandered around long enough, we would find some sort of entrance. Unfortunately, we didn't know exactly how Cadance and Twilight got out of there way back then, or even if that route still existed.

As we walked around, we found ourselves in an area of the castle which none of us had ever been in before. Something about it just didn't feel right. For one thing, it seemed that we were walking on the ceiling and the floor was where the ceiling should have been.

"Anypony else a little confused right now," I asked.

"It's like a funhouse," Pinkie said with glee, jumping up and somehow sitting on a chair that was on the ceiling.

After she had done this, another figure materalized in another chair across from hers at the same table. It didn't take long for us to figure out who it was and why the room was like this.

"Discord," I said, "so this is where they keep you."

"Oh good to see my pony friends," the being of chaos happily responded, "might you stay for a spot of tea?"

"We really don't have time right now," I declined. Then I explained the situation with Nightmare Moon.

"You know that she isn't real, right?"

"Well, it sure looked real," Fluttershy nervously said.

"Irregardless," I said, "would you happen to know where these caves are?"

"Of course I do," Discord answered, "I've taken it upon myself to learn every nook and cranny of this castle, quite literally, might I add."

"I know I'm going to regret this, but could you perhaps take us there?"

"And what would you do for me in return?"

"Can't we just call this one even?"

"'Fraid not."

"Discord," Fluttershy flew up to him, "I'm sure if you helped us, Princess Celestia would consider it a very good indication of how well you've been behaving."

"You make a good point, Fluttershy," Discord said, magically flipping the room rightside-up, "I'll lead you to the caves, and you put in the good word with Celestia. We have a deal."

And so we traveled into the belly of the castle, with Discord leading the way.

"So what's the plan when we find them," Rainbow asked, "Nightmare Moon, or whatever it is, will certainly be there waiting for us."

"Simple," Shining replied, "whatever it is, there are six of us right here, not to mention the princesses and your other friends. We will certainly be more than a match."

"I still say it's nothing but Luna playing tricks," I said without hesitation, "all done to scare us."

We all kept going back and forth on this point for the rest of the journey, which took even longer than I expected. Eventually, we made it to the cave system we were searching for. As usual, Rainbow made a move to dash on ahead of us, but Fluttershy convinced her not to. Safety in numbers, as I have always said.

"I hope they're really down here," Fluttershy whispered as we made our way through the caves, "it's cre--"

"Wahahahaha, wahahaha, wahaha..."

The echoed noise stopped us all in our tracks.

"Ooh," Pinkie Pie reacted, "that's pretty scary."

"That doesn't sound scared," I deduced, "it sounds more like laughter. This way."

As we drew closer to where the laughter was coming from, we started to make out voices.

"You're up, Twi," it was Applejack.

"Ok, ok," Twilight responded, "ummm, Ok, I got one."

"Five words," a group of ponies said, "second word."

"What in Equestria," Rainbow interrupted as the six of us charged up on the scene. There were all the nabbed ponies, including the princesses, all just sitting around and playing charades. They all looked a little embarrassed.

"I really didn't expect them to bring the whole cavalry," Cadance said as she got up and went over to Shining.

"What did you expect us to do," Shining replied, "Just sit on our hoofs and do nothing?"

"Ok, ok," I semi-interrupted, "what in the name of harmony is going on here?"

"It was only supposed to be a harmless little scare," Cadance said sheepishly.

"You mean you were in on it," Shining asked.

"All four of us were," Cadance admitted, pointing to Celestia, Luna, and Twilight.

"When I got the invite to the party," Twilight explained, "it came with a message from Celestia that she and Luna were going to make Nightmare Moon appear to scare the guests, and to keep quiet about it."

"Yes," Celestia said, "but we perhaps did it a little too well."

"I'll say," I replied, "we're the only ones left in the whole castle."

"Well," Rarity said as she made her way over to me, "I do hope being in these dank caves was worth giving you a little fright."

"Don't you ever scare me like that again," Shining and I said to Cadance and Rarity at the same time. This caused us to laugh, which led to everypony else laughing.

Thanks to the princesses, our trip back to the surface was much shorter and more pleasant. Myself and the ponies of Ponyville said good-bye to our royal hosts for the time being, with an invite to return for next year's party.

"Not to be rude," I replied, "but come next Nightmare Night, I may just stay home."

Description
"Come on Rarity, we're going to be late!"

"I'll be down in just one minute mon amour!"

It was Nightmare Night, not my favorite holiday of the year, and one that I wouldn't usually get all dressed up for, but tonight was a little different. We had all been invited to attend the Nightmare Night Costume Party, to be held in the Canterlot Castle. And, as Rarity would say, it would be most unbecoming to show up not in costume, that's exactly what I did.

So there I stood in the boutique, dressed as Frankenpony, all made up. Rarity had painted on stitching around my mouth, neck, and limbs, dyed my coat green, and used the bottoms of two used cans as bolts on my neck. I had donned a simple, tattered brown shirt to go with the ensemble. Nothing I could do now but patiently wait for my bride, so to speak.

"I'm ready, darling."

I turned around to see how Rarity had turned out. She looked great, as always, having done up her mane into the classic high hairstyle of the character, with similar stitching make-up and fake bolts. In leiu of dying her coat, which she would never do, she wore a black and purple dress which was almost demure compared to her usual creations.

"Well what are you standing there gawking at? Didn't you say we were late?"

We were all going to meet at the library before setting off. It was almost dusk already, though of course the party would go on until the morning hours. When we arrived, I took a good look at all the other pony's costumes. Applejack was wearing a giant Zap Apple of such size I wondered how she even walked, topped with her usual hat. Pinkie Pie was dressed like an alligator, a particularly toothless alligator, obviously inspired by Gummy. Fluttershy, who I knew was dead-afraid of nights like this, wore a simple bunny costume consisting only of large white ears and a black nose. Guess there was no way of hiding her tail. Rainbow Dash had gone all-out, allowing Rarity and the Spa Ponies to dye her coat tan, and to bleach her mane, making her look exactly like her hero, Daring Do. Add one hat, and one fake Cutie Mark, and voila.

Pinkie knocked on the library door, which was quickly opened by Spike, who was dressed as a phoenix with his arms directly attached to the 'wings' of the costume. Twilight soon popped up behind him.

"Hi, everypony, let's get going."

"Uh, Twi," Applejack began, "you sure you wanna go out dressed like that?"

"What's wrong," Twilight replied.

Twilight's costume featured a long flowing robe, and a large pointy hat, both of which were adorned with bells of various sizes. She was also wearing a fake white beard.

"I agree," I said, "I think she pulls off Starswirl the Bearded quite well."

"Thank you," the princess responded, "see, someponies get my costume."

"But we've seen this before," Rainbow whined, "where's your originality?"

"I figured since we were going to the castle, Princess Celestia would appreciate it."

"Well let's go before we are late," Rarity exclaimed.

She was right, we were running a bit late, fortunately it wasn't that far of a trip. Before we knew it, we were once again at the castle. We quickly made our way inside, much faster than usual since nopony could recognize Twilight in her costume and thus avoiding all the incessent bowing that would usually take place.

Once inside, we all made a beeline for Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, who were easily recognizeable, as they weren't in any sort of costume whatsoever. We all bowed to them, though I had to take a second to peek at AJ trying to bow in that ridiculous costume of hers.

"Princess Twilight, an impressive Starswirl the Bearded costume," Celestia began.

"Ha, I told you she would appreciate it."

We all rolled our eyes, at least a little.

"We're so glad you all could make it," Luna said, "please partake in the fesitivites. But I should have you know that there is something extra special in store this year."

We looked at each other, wondering what the princess could mean, before having our thoughts interrupted.

"Are we just going to stand here," Pinkie Pie said, "or are we going to have fun?"

And when Pinkie Pie asks if you're going to have fun, you know you're going to have fun. All of us went down to the main hall to mingle with the other guests, eat unnecessary sweets, and play simple games. This went on for awhile before a familiar voice rang out across the hall.

"Can we have your attention please," it was Shining Armor. He and Cadance were standing on the main stage. They weren't in costume, so to speak, but certainly dressed up for the occassion, and wearing matching black masks.

"Welcome to the annual Nightmare Night Masquerade Party," Cadance announced, "as you know, Nightmare Night was began by ponies long ago to appease the spirit of Nightmare Moon. Of course, Nightmare Moon doesn't exist anymore, but we still enjoy the tradition, and the spectacle, and the ability to sometimes scare or be scared by everypony."

The guests all cheered and laughed. Then the lights blinked. Once, twice, three times. Everypony looked around in confusion. I saw Fluttershy dive behind Applejack in fear. Spike similarly dove behind Twilight.

"What the hay is going on here," AJ asked to nopony in particular.

"Good evening, everypony," a spooky voice said, "I'm glad to see you all enjoying yourselves. However, it not appears to be the time for my appearance."

"That voice sounds familiar," Twilight pondered aloud, turning to where Celestia and Luna were standing, "Luna, are you doing this to scare us?"

"I promise I am doing no such thing," the princess protested.

"If Luna isn't doing the voice," Rainbow said, "then who is doing that?"

The pegasus pointed at a glowing green form which seemed to be materializing out of thin air. After a few moments, the form took shape: Nightmare Moon.

"Did you think I would miss the party," Nightmare Moon exclaimed. We were all quite confused, as it was obvious that Luna was still standing in the same spot, and not using magic.

"We're not scared of you," Rainbow said, flying into her face, "we know you're not real."

"Oh really," the embodiment of darkness replied, "well if I weren't real, could I do this?"

In a flash, she reached out one of her arms and knocked Rainbow clear out of the air. The partygoers gasped as Nightmare Moon moved toward the two princesses, slowly surrounding them.

"Bye," and in a blink of an eye, they both disappeared.

Panic hit the party like hurricane.

"Everypony run," some mare screamed.

And most of the partygoers did just that. As they did so, a few more got swept up by Nightmare Moon, disappearing to Celestia-knows-where. In the mass confusion, Rarity and I somehow made it up the stage next to Cadance and Shining Armor.

Nightmare Moon targeted where Twilight was next. Twilight of course tried to ward her off with magic, but it was no use. She, along with Spike, got swept up. Applejack tried to fight back her own style, but in her costume, it was near impossible. She also disappeared. Nightmare Moon then turned to the stage.

"Oh no you don't," Shining said, quick to get in front of Cadance. I did similarly with Rarity.

"Isn't this sweet," Nightmare said, "the two gentlecolts protecting their loves. Well, that'll be enough of that."

She proceeded to pick both Shining and I up with almost no effort, and tossed us across the length of the stage. With Shining being a trained soldier and I being in my share of fights, we were both quickly back on our hoofs, quickly running back to where we started as Nightmare began her disappearing trick.

"No," we both yelled, diving for our respective escorts, but we were one second too late. We landed on the hardwood stage right infront of Nightmare, who gave us an evil little smile before disappearing herself.

"Darn it," Shining yelled, slamming his hoof on the stage.

I looked around at the damage done. Everypony had vacated the main hall except for Shining, myself, and Rainbow. Or so I thought.

"Aww, is the party over," Pinkie Pie asked, coming out from underneath a table.

"I, I hope so," Fluttershy said, coming out behind her, "that was really scary."

"The party is not over," Rainbow exclaimed, "we have a ponynapper to find. Nightmare Moon made off with Celestia and Luna."

"And Twilight," Shining continued, "and Cadance."

"And Applejack," I finished, "and Rarity."

"We have to go find where Nightmare Moon took them," Rainbow declared, ready to go.

"You go do that," Fluttershy said, "I'll just stay here and hide."

"Nothing doing," I said, magically pulling Fluttershy back out from under the table, "we'll all need to work together on this one."

At that moment, Philomena, Celestia's pet phoenix bird, lighted on Fluttershy's head. I had heard before that the two of them had some prior history.

"You're worried about the princess too, aren't you," Fluttershy asked the bird, who nodded in agreement, "I suppose you would. OK, I'll come along."

"But where do we even start," Pinkie Pie exclaimed, "this castle is huge, and they could literally be anywhere."

As if to answer her question, a magical green wisp came into the room and landed infront of Shining. It was a scroll.

"To whomever gets this message," Shining began reading, "we are all safe for the moment. Not sure how you would get to us, but Twilight and Cadance say they've been in this part of the castle before. Please hurry. Signed, Spike the Dragon."

"Ha, so they are in the castle," Rainbow exclaimed, "so where is this place they mean?"

"I remember Cadance telling me about some sort of cave system underneath the castle," Shining explained, "where Chrysalis kept her before our wedding."

"Well then, let's get going," I said.

Although we knew about the cave system, we still didn't know exactly how to get there. I figured if we just wandered around long enough, we would find some sort of entrance. Unfortunately, we didn't know exactly how Cadance and Twilight got out of there way back then, or even if that route still existed.

As we walked around, we found ourselves in an area of the castle which none of us had ever been in before. Something about it just didn't feel right. For one thing, it seemed that we were walking on the ceiling and the floor was where the ceiling should have been.

"Anypony else a little confused right now," I asked.

"It's like a funhouse," Pinkie said with glee, jumping up and somehow sitting on a chair that was on the ceiling.

After she had done this, another figure materalized in another chair across from hers at the same table. It didn't take long for us to figure out who it was and why the room was like this.

"Discord," I said, "so this is where they keep you."

"Oh good to see my pony friends," the being of chaos happily responded, "might you stay for a spot of tea?"

"We really don't have time right now," I declined. Then I explained the situation with Nightmare Moon.

"You know that she isn't real, right?"

"Well, it sure looked real," Fluttershy nervously said.

"Irregardless," I said, "would you happen to know where these caves are?"

"Of course I do," Discord answered, "I've taken it upon myself to learn every nook and cranny of this castle, quite literally, might I add."

"I know I'm going to regret this, but could you perhaps take us there?"

"And what would you do for me in return?"

"Can't we just call this one even?"

"'Fraid not."

"Discord," Fluttershy flew up to him, "I'm sure if you helped us, Princess Celestia would consider it a very good indication of how well you've been behaving."

"You make a good point, Fluttershy," Discord said, magically flipping the room rightside-up, "I'll lead you to the caves, and you put in the good word with Celestia. We have a deal."

And so we traveled into the belly of the castle, with Discord leading the way.

"So what's the plan when we find them," Rainbow asked, "Nightmare Moon, or whatever it is, will certainly be there waiting for us."

"Simple," Shining replied, "whatever it is, there are six of us right here, not to mention the princesses and your other friends. We will certainly be more than a match."

"I still say it's nothing but Luna playing tricks," I said without hesitation, "all done to scare us."

We all kept going back and forth on this point for the rest of the journey, which took even longer than I expected. Eventually, we made it to the cave system we were searching for. As usual, Rainbow made a move to dash on ahead of us, but Fluttershy convinced her not to. Safety in numbers, as I have always said.

"I hope they're really down here," Fluttershy whispered as we made our way through the caves, "it's cre--"

"Wahahahaha, wahahaha, wahaha..."

The echoed noise stopped us all in our tracks.

"Ooh," Pinkie Pie reacted, "that's pretty scary."

"That doesn't sound scared," I deduced, "it sounds more like laughter. This way."

As we drew closer to where the laughter was coming from, we started to make out voices.

"You're up, Twi," it was Applejack.

"Ok, ok," Twilight responded, "ummm, Ok, I got one."

"Five words," a group of ponies said, "second word."

"What in Equestria," Rainbow interrupted as the six of us charged up on the scene. There were all the nabbed ponies, including the princesses, all just sitting around and playing charades. They all looked a little embarrassed.

"I really didn't expect them to bring the whole cavalry," Cadance said as she got up and went over to Shining.

"What did you expect us to do," Shining replied, "Just sit on our hoofs and do nothing?"

"Ok, ok," I semi-interrupted, "what in the name of harmony is going on here?"

"It was only supposed to be a harmless little scare," Cadance said sheepishly.

"You mean you were in on it," Shining asked.

"All four of us were," Cadance admitted, pointing to Celestia, Luna, and Twilight.

"When I got the invite to the party," Twilight explained, "it came with a message from Celestia that she and Luna were going to make Nightmare Moon appear to scare the guests, and to keep quiet about it."

"Yes," Celestia said, "but we perhaps did it a little too well."

"I'll say," I replied, "we're the only ones left in the whole castle."

"Well," Rarity said as she made her way over to me, "I do hope being in these dank caves was worth giving you a little fright."

"Don't you ever scare me like that again," Shining and I said to Cadance and Rarity at the same time. This caused us to laugh, which led to everypony else laughing.

Thanks to the princesses, our trip back to the surface was much shorter and more pleasant. Myself and the ponies of Ponyville said good-bye to our royal hosts for the time being, with an invite to return for next year's party.

"Not to be rude," I replied, "but come next Nightmare Night, I may just stay home."