This is Nightmare Night

[sailorlaughter]

Who: Everypony!
What: Welcome to Nightmare Night Extravaganza!
Where: Ponyville. All of it.
When: Forward-dated to Nightmare Night
Warnings: None

It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter where you lay your hat. You got an invitation.

You're Invited to PINKIE PIE'S WELCOME TO PONYVILLE NIGHTMARE NIGHT EXPLOSION OF AWESOME PARTYRIFFICNESS!!!

Sometime when no one was paying attention, all of Ponyville became absolutely draped in holiday decorations. The empty town was practically begging to be filled with something, Pinkie thought, so it only made sense that she should be the pony to do it. She's stuck to the traditional Nightmare Night color scheme, though native ponies might notice that the usual Nightmare Moon silhouettes are absent. She had, after all, agreed to keep that a secret.

Town Square is where all the refreshments are, as well as the usual Nightmare Night games: spider toss, pumpkin chunkin', apple bobbing, and even a little stage with a sign reading Costume Contest 7:00. There's also a particular bowl of spiders set aside, labeled Princess Luna's Spiders. Huh.

Pinkie herself can be found wandering about in what appears to be a paper-mache elephant's head, a costume which makes much more sense when she's perched atop her similarly-painted Meowjesty. Toothy, meanwhile, is painted to look like a meerkat. Hopefully everyone else knew to get costumes as well - humans have Nightmare Night, right?

Comments

[brodakota]

As far as he could tell, Nightmare Night was the pony equivalent of Halloween.

Between the decorations, costumes, and candy, it was hard to make any sort of distinction between the two holidays. Aside from the ponies of course. He wasn't really complaining. Although, did that mean it was October now? He'd lost track of the dates.

Still, he was there, sans a costume. He couldn't really think of one that would work for him. However, Theta had been intrigued by the holiday, and was riding on North's back covered with a sheet that had two hasty eye holes cut out of it. It was the best North could improvise.

"Where do you want to go first, Theta?"

[ooc: please note that my hiatus still stands. I'll try and get to tags but they might not come till Friday depending on how things go. Sorry.]

[4letters4ninja]

"Fluffy! Stop that!" Ziva shouted at the bat, who had learned the easiest way to get his person's attention in this form was by grabbing at her tail. So, he was doing that now, trying to drag her towards one of the games he wanted to play. Ducky, on the other hand, was trying to give his fellow spirit a lecture as he dove to grab at the tail once more.

"I told you, stop!" She said, again, this time backing it up with a swat by said tail, catching his wing and sending him rolling along the ground. "See what happens?" She flicked her tail in irritation, before hearing a voice in the distance. It sounded familiar, and she turned towards it. She probably wouldn't have recognized it if he hadn't mentioned Theta.

"North? Is that you?"

[brodakota]

"Huh? Yeah, it's me," North replied, automatically, turning to see who had spoken. He was a little impressed with himself for improving on motor control. Earlier he undoubtedly would have knocked something over.

He probably looked a little silly, standing there with a sheet-ghost on his back. He stared at Ziva, trying to figure out who it was.

[4letters4ninja]

Fluffy flew back up, this time grabbing at part of the ninja costume Ziva was wearing, and pulling on it. COME ON PERSON. I WANT TO GO SEE! Ziva sighed, looking at Ducky, who understood, sending a shot of magic at Fluffy to knock him off balance.

"Thank you Ducky." She said, before walking over to where North was standing. "Nice ghost. Theta?" She hadn't realized he didn't know who she was yet.

[too_high]

He'd meant to come to Ponyville on Carolina's advice, but honestly he hadn't taken the world seriously and it took an invitation mentioning explosions to get his attention.

Then he got there and realized its little quirk.

He's standing just within the main square, standing stock still because it's the best way to avert attention to the fact that he doesn't quite know how to work all his legs yet.

[unrecovered]

Wash had, at least, gotten the hang of walking on four legs. If all else failed, a party was a party, even if this one required being a pony as the price of admission. He trotted into the town square with Fang and Melody riding on his back, taking in the decorations and stopping short at the pony seemingly frozen right in the middle. The size, the color scheme - Maine had no mane. Of course. "Let me guess - it's your first time here."

Melody was absolutely fascinated with the new pony. Look, he had no hair! She had to check it out, of course. Getting to her paws, her butt wiggled high in the air, cat sign language for Imminent Pouncing. Wash didn't realize what she was planning until it was too late. "Melody, don't-"

The Necho Cat leapt off his back, staggering him slightly, and landed on Maine, immediately pawing at his head. Look, he's bald! That's so weird!

[too_high]

Maine watches the blue and yellow pony approach, and if it weren't for Melody he probably wouldn't have recognized who it was. As what he loosely guessed whas Wash approach, he gave him a agreeing grunt of yes, this absolutel was his firs time and most likely last time here, but then Melody leaps at him.

He doesn't budge an inch initially, his eyes growing wide as the cat lands on his face. It's at this point he lifts a hoof and attempts to bat her off, only successfully tipping himself, stumbling trying to compensate, and landing with a THUD on his side.

And then growling.

[unrecovered]

Well.

That could've gone worse.

Melody abandoned ship the instant Maine started to tip over, leaping off the large pony and yowling an alarm. Timberrrrrr!

"Melody, stop it," Wash admonished her, trotting closer to Maine and offering him a hoof. "Sorry, she's...well, she's a cat." Because sometimes there was no better way to explain it.

[brodakota]

If he's watching the square, Maine might see a small sheet ghost running his way, with a purple unicorn trotting in pursuit.

"Theta, stay close, alright? Don't run off like that!"

"But North, I want to bob for apples!" Someone has definitely learned how to use their legs, even if it means running into Maine's.

[too_high]

Maine staggers ever so slightly, wavering unsteadily on the legs he hasn't attempted trying to use yet. He looks down at the sheet and growls, an odd sound for a pony to make.

[sailorlaughter]

"Hey!" Pinkie bounded up to the unfamiliar pony. Well, he was probably SOMEONE she knew, but it was kinda weird telling who was who when they were a different species! So she just said, "I'm so glad you could make it to my party! You want me to show you how to walk?"

Yeah. She caught that look.

Costume booth!

[sailorgenerous]

Pinkie had been kind enough to give Rarity a bit of notice - she knew it would be a Nightmare Night party, at least, and that gave her time to work on costumes, both for herself and for anypony who hadn't quite had the chance to dress up. She'd set up a booth with a variety of hats, capes, costumes, and masks - nothing too spooky, mind you. She herself wore a finely-detailed dress; Spike, in an accompanying costume, wore a tiny black cape and a white mask that only covered half his face. She'd long since given up on attempting to teach him to squeak in tune, but he was adorable, and that was what counted.

Feel free to persuade her to dress up, Rarity. :3

[skysmirror]

Xion could guess the connection between Nightmare Night and Halloween, but that didn't help when she didn't have any experience with Halloween itself. Any knowledge she had of it was thanks to glimpses of Sora's memories and time in Halloweentown. As such, the idea that she might need a costume hadn't even crossed her mind.

That said, they looked interesting. Xion might not be much of one to get excited over clothing, but this was something different. So she trotted over to take a look at the offerings, Flare and Speedy following closely behind. "Hi Rarity."

[shadearchivist]

Ienzo supposed a party would be a good way to get to know some of the newer people; hopefully Rydia and that gentleman who had caused such a stir with North's people would be present. Ienzo wasn't much for Halloween - he assumed that Nightmare Night was some Equestrian version of the holiday - but perhaps the holiday would be better in a world without Braig.

Yuffie and Lea trotted after him; at least they seemed to be excited.

[colorbymemory]

Parties could be a good way to know people, if you weren't shy. Namine herself wouldn't mind running into any new acquaintances, but she was just as happy to see old friends, too. It was too bad she'd forgotten to ask Ienzo if he was planning to come; they could have walked over together. At least she could greet him now. "Hello, Ienzo."

Lambert trotted happily after her, Shadow riding on him as usual.

[shadearchivist]

"Hello, Namine. We seem to be missing each other recently; how have you been?" It was nice to see Namine out and about; they hadn't seen each other nearly enough lately and hopefully they could catch up.

[whoseesbynight]

Humans might have something like Nightmare Night. Trolls, on the other hand, generally do not. After all, why celebrate something that was pretty much life as normal? All the same, the idea of a party wasn't one that Nepeta was about to turn down.

Getting used to suddenly being on four legs on the other hand, was a little different. She might have been raised by a cat, but that doesn't negate the fact that she's been bipedal for a very long time. Besides, grubs aren't really the same as ponies no matter how you sliced it. Still, by the time she manages to arrive at the party, she's gotten the hang of, for the most part. She also doesn't know that costumes are suggested, but perhaps she can be forgiven for this under the circumstances.

[spaceracist]

Maybe humans in general had Halloween, but it was something Emile hadn't even given a thought to since he was about six - well over two decades ago. In order to meet the bare minimum of Rarity's costume standard, the rather buff-looking Earth pony is wearing the Ponyville equivalent of his space armor. Totally counts.

He's currently trying to coach his Kab Kannon in Spider Toss. The beetle-like Spirit spends all day doing target practice, so he ought to be good at this. Right? Maybe not, since spiders aren't aerodynamic. One of the little fake spiders seems to bounce off the target and lands over by Nepeta as she passes by.

"Sorry 'bout that. Still gotta work on aim."

[whoseesbynight]

Spiders are about the exact opposite of aerodynamic. Not that Nepeta takes any sort offense at being bombarded by by fake spiders. She's had worse things coming at her, and even if she hadn't, she's not the sort to be terribly bothered by most things.

"It's alright. It hasn't hurt anybody. They're only spiders, after all."

That said, she bends down to pick up the spider, and if she's using her mouth to do it well, that probably has a lot to do with the fact that she was raised by a cat, even if hooves being awkward to hold things with doesn't hurt either.

[dork_of_keys]

'Nightmare Night' sounded like it was supposed to be scary. It also sounded like it was supposed to be a holiday. The only scary holiday Sora could think of to compare was Halloween. So it stood to reason that this was basically the ponies' version of Halloween.

And the only idea Sora had for a costume was his Halloween Town form. Or rather a pony version of it. Or something. All he had for it was a funky little pumpkin mask, the bitty black cape and a set of little silver bat wings affixed to his crown pendant. He wasn't really concerned. A fuller version of the outfit probably wouldn't have been very comfortable anyway (fake fangs were rarely ever comfortable) and it wasn't like he was looking to win any contests.

It seemed logical to head straight for the refreshments. Logically, if one wanted to talk to people at a party, congregating by the food was a good way to go about it. He noticed the games too as he passed by them. Why there was a bowl of spiders specifically labeled 'Princess Luna's Spiders' was beyond him, but he supposed that would be answered sooner or later.

So late, I'm sorry.

[colorbymemory]

Sora's costume was better than Namine's simply by virtue of the fact that he had a costume while she didn't. If she hadn't seen his pony form before, though, it would have been a good hint as to his identity. Fortunately, she'd seen him at the lessons and recognized him quickly when she saw him at the refreshment table.

A snack sounded like a good idea, and she hadn't spoken to him in a while. So she trotted over. "Hello, Sora. Or is it Happy Halloween?"

No problem

[dork_of_keys]

Snacks were always a good idea at parties. Although now that he was here looking at them, it occurred to Sora that he hadn't yet spent enough time in Ponyville to worry about food and therefore had no idea how exactly to go about partaking of the snacks without looking really stupid or seeming rude.

His attention was partly distracted from this dilemma when he heard Namine. He smiled. "Hey. Happy Halloween. How's it going?"

[raisethemoon]

"HA! WE HATH OBTAINED OUR SPIDERS!" Luna lifted the bowl over her head triumphantly, offering absolutely no explanation to anyone at the party.

[dork_of_keys]

If Sora had been a bit closer, he might have jumped about two feet higher at the outburst. As it was, he found himself flailing his wings a little bit to maintain his balance. It seemed like he was about to find out just what was up with the spiders. He had seen the spider toss game, but he hadn't tried it yet and besides which, why did Luna have her own special bunch of them?

Well, couldn't hurt to ask, right? "Your spiders?"

[raisethemoon]

"Indeed!" Luna responded, having lowered the bowl to look through it. "Didst thou not see the label? I did not ask Pinkie Pie for them, but 'tis quite kind of her to provide! Unless, of course, they are not meant for the game..."

Was it some kind of prank set-up? She WAS supposed to scare ponies on Nightmare Night. The spider incident last year had clearly been a bit overboard, but the people here were made of tougher stuff. It might take a little more than hiding in the apple bobbing tub.