In the town of Ponyville, it seemed like it would be a normal day. Everypony was going about their business in the town square. Some were talking about current events, the new outfits that Rarity was coming out with, and other various topics. Others were just taking a walk and enjoying the beautiful day. However, the peaceful, but somewhat boring air went away when a mare with a blonde mane and cluster of bubbles for a cutie mark got everypony’s attention.

“Hey, isn’t that Rainbow Dash?”

The crowd looked up to see a familiar cyan blur with a rainbow trail coming towards them. A brown maned stallion with an hour glass cutie mark looked in the same direction that she was and confirmed what the mare was seeing, but also noticed something else.

“You’re right Derpy, that is Rainbow Dash, but what’s that trailing her?”

The crowd looked to the right a bit and saw a whitish blue blur trailing her. Whatever it was, they all knew that the two blurs where coming right for them. The crowd then spread out into a large circle for the two figures to land. Rainbow Dash was first, slamming her hooves into the ground as she slid and kicked up a small dust cloud. She then started to pant while smiling at what was coming up behind her.

What happened next would most likely be remembered for generations. The second figure landed with a loud bang and caused a medium sized dust cloud. After it cleared, the figure was revealed to be a winged bipedal being with a thin, glowing, white aura, blue skin, and whitish blue hair. It was crouched on one knee with its fist partially in the ground and its huge wings unfolded. It then got up to its full height, looking to be about as tall as the princesses. Unlike Rainbow Dash, this one didn’t seem winded. It then stepped out of a shallow crater that the crowd just then noticed.

The creature then stretched its wings for a bit and walked over to Rainbow Dash afterwards. The crowd was too stunned. Nopony knew how to react. This creature looked amazing with its sapphire skin and white glow, but it also radiated so much power that it unnerved them to no end. The creature finally got to Rainbow and knelt down.

“Hey, you ok there Sage Wannabe?” Light said in jest.

Rainbow glared back at him as she panted, “I’m…’GASP’…fine, just a bit tired is all. I still beat you though.” she said, giving him a weak smile at the last part.

Light shrugged as he got back up, “True, but then again, I really just wanted a work out. I barely used my new set of wings before now and I really needed to get used to them. Thanks for the test run.” he said, giving her a thumbs up.

Rainbow turned around to get a better look at him and was shocked that he wasn’t as tired as her “Wait a second! How come you aren’t as winded as me!? Horse apples! You look like you didn’t even break a sweat!”

Light shrugged, “What can I say? My wings are clearly bigger and more powerful, making it easier for me to fly, but I guess that really didn’t matter since you still beat me anyway. So, I don’t think you should worry too much about that, Eco Addict.” He said with a grin.

Rainbow growled again in response, but then looked up and noticed the carriage that her friends and his brother were riding in, “Hey, let’s go flag down the carriage. It’ll be easier than looking for them once they’ve already landed.”

“Good idea. This place is as good as any, since it looks like no one’s around anymore.” said Light.

Rainbow was confused until she looked around. Apparently, the crowd had decided to act fearfully since the only evidence of others being there were hundreds of hoof prints.

“Uh…yeah, sounds like a plan. Let’s go” with that, they were off to meet the carriage in the air. After flagging them down to the square, the guards pulling it waited for everyone to get off. After that was done, the guards went back to Canterlot.

“So, did you two have a nice flight?” asked Twilight.

Light smiled, “It was good. Best use of my wings that I’ve gotten in a long time.” he said while stretching his wings again. He then decided to get right down to business of living arrangements, “So…where are me and Dark going to stay?”

“Oh, that’s right. Well, since Dark seems like he listens to Fluttershy, he can stay with her. You on the other hoof, need to be as far away from him as possible. I don’t think you would be living up to your promise too well if you started another fight.”

Light nodded, “Makes sense. So where does that leave me?” he said while pointing to himself.

“I’d like you to stay with me. Not only is my place a good distance away, but I’d like to study this eco that you and your brother both have. Actually, just yours. I’d rather not risk poisoning myself with your brother’s type of energy.”

Light folded his arms and grinned, “Is it really just for research? Or have you taken a liking to getting hit with eco bolts? Twilight, I didn’t know you were into that sort of thing.” by the end of his teasing, Light had bent down to look Twilight in the eyes with his half-lidded and his hands on his hips.

“Uuuuuuh…” Twilight reared her head back with wide eyes. She didn’t like where this was going. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Who said anything about being into something!? I’m pretty sure I don’t have any fetishes and he’s being way too forward!” thought Twilight nervously.

“HAHAHAHA!!!”

Suddenly, Light stood up straight and laughed to the sky with a hand on his forehead. Looking back down, he noticed that Twilight was looking at him with wide eyes and a dropped jaw, obviously confused about what just happened.

“Come now, Twilight. Didn’t Celestia teach you how to have a sense of humor?” Twilight’s bewildered look turned into one of annoyance, “I guess not.”

After Twilight was done with her annoyed glare, she looked up at the sun and saw that it was well past noon. Deciding not to dwell on Light’s joke, she decided to part ways with her friends for the day, “Ugh, whatever, let’s just get you two settled into your new homes.

Light nodded his agreement to her and then turned to his brother, “See ya later you five…and Dark.” With that, they left the square. Light walking with Twilight and Spike, and Dark walking with Fluttershy to her cottage.

After a few minutes, Light looked at Spike, who was riding on Twilight’s back, and decided to start a conversation, “So, what’s your name little guy?”

Spike looked up to Light and put on a proud face, “My name is Spike and I’m Twilight’s number one assistant!” he said while pointing his thumb to himself.

“I didn’t know that students got their own personal secretaries.” he said to Twilight with a raised eye brow. He then looked back to Spike and made an observation, “You remind me of the leaper lizards back on my home world.”

Spike looked confused. “What the hay is a leaper lizard?” he said while scratching his head.

Light decided to give a brief description, “They’re basically bipedal reptiles that are used as transportation. You can pretty much guess by the name that they can jump really high.”

“Hmph, well I’m a dragon, and nopony’s ever riding me.” said Spike with a scoff.

At this point Twilight decided to cut in, “Uh, guys. I don’t mean to be rude, but ponies are staring at us. I think we should hurry along.” Both the dragon and human looked around and saw that she was right. Some of the ponies were, in fact, staring at them. Light had an idea, but he needed some info from Twilight.

“Quick. Give me a description of where we’re going. I have an idea.”

“It’s the big tree in the center of the town with a sign that says ‘Golden Oaks Library’, but why would you…” Twilight never got to finish as Light clapped his hands. From Twilight’s point of view, everything transformed into a blur of color as she and Spike were carried by an almost unseen force. In Light’s point of view, he grabbed Twilight and Spike in each arm after the blue tint settled over everything. He then flew into the air to try and spot the library. It wasn’t that hard, as the tree stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the smaller houses. Soaring through the air, Light landed in front of the library, put down his two passengers, and with another clap of his hands, the flash freeze ended.

Twilight and Spike stumbled around trying to get their bearings. After a few more seconds, they both stopped wobbling and Spike was staring at Light with widened eyes and a huge smile, “That was amazing! You got us here in less than a second! How did you do it!?”

Light scratched his head sheepishly, “Eh…actually I slowed down time.” Both Twilight and Spike’s jaws dropped as he stopped scratching his head, “While channeling light eco through my hands, I can slow down time for everything around me by clapping them together.”

Twilight shook her head to get rid of her awe struck expression. She then came to a surprising conclusion, “Wait. Do you mean to tell me that’s how you made those images of yourself?”

Spike was confused by the term and turned a questioning gaze to her, “What are you talking about, Twilight?”

“Turn around and you’ll find out.”

At Light’s request, Spike turned and was surprised to see not one, but five Lights with their arms folded.

“This is one of the many benefits of being able to slow down time. To you and everyone else, time is flowing normally, but in actuality, I’ve slowed down time for everything else besides myself. So much so that I can make afterimages of myself since even sunlight is slowed down. The effects don’t last forever though and it takes a significant amount of eco to do so, so I have to make the most of my time, so to speak. I call it my Flash Freeze technique.”

After he canceled the Flash Freeze, Twilight galloped up to him, “This is incredible! I had no idea that such an ability could exist! Then again, I don’t exactly know how eco works. I can’t wait to start studying the effects of light eco!”

Light started towards the library, “That’s great and all, but how about we all go inside. It wouldn’t do to freak out even more of the citizens, right Twilight?”

“Right, let’s go.”

After they got in, Spike decided to ask a question, “Is ‘Light’ really your name? If that’s the case, it must be really hard for people to tell the difference between your name and actual light.”

Twilight turned to face her assistant with an incredulous look, “Spike! How can you be so rude?” she then turned to Light, “I’m so sorry! He sometimes forgets his manners.”
Light waved the apology off, “It’s fine. Actually, I never had a name of my own since I was originally part of another human named Jak. That’s why he called us by the eco we use. Doesn’t make much sense to give a piece of yourself an actual name, right?”

Twilight frowned a bit, “I guess not. Though, it still sounds kind of sad that you’ve never been given an actual name. I couldn’t imagine life without one.”

“Eh…it’s not so bad. Although, now that I have my own body, I suppose I should have my own name too.” said Light.

“Sounds like a good idea. Would you like us to help in naming you? I have just the book for it.” Twilight said with a smile. She then levitated a book from the ‘N’ section of the library and showed it to Light and Spike.

“Names From Across Equestria and Beyond? That’s convenient.” said Spike.

“Yep, it’s amazing what you can find in a library. So let’s get to work on finding a new name for you.”

“I hope it won’t take too long.”

10 minutes later

Looking through the book and throwing ideas back and forth between herself and Light, Twilight pointed out another name, “What do you think of, ‘Azure Shine’?” she said with a hopeful look.

Light returned her hopeful look with a deadpan, “Really? No offence, but sounds like it just describes my skin.”

Spike spoke his agreement as it was kind of an obvious name, “Yeah, Twilight, think outside the box. Besides, I have a better idea, ‘Isamu’!”

Twilight arched a brow, “Wait, Isamu? Doesn’t that mean ‘Bravery’ in Neighponese?”

“Yep, and I also came up with a name for his brother, ‘Ikari’!” said Spike.

“Rage? Spike where did you learn these words?"

Spike smiled as he was about to explain, “Well Twilight, you know how I like comic books, right?”

“Yes?”

“Well, I also like the Neighponese equivalent known as manga and one of my favorites is ‘One Bit’. Right now, they’ve only translated up to volume 35 of the series to Equestrian. Since I didn’t want to wait for them to translate the rest, I decided to start learning how to read Neighponese. I’m not fluent, but I’m getting there.

“Wait, so you’ve taken the initiative to learn something new by yourself?”

“Uh…yeah?” questioned Spike.

A huge smile formed on her face, “Oooh, Spike!” Galloping over, Twilight gave Spike a bear hug, “I’m so proud of you! You’re showing a desire to learn!”

Spike was thankful for the compliment, but the overwhelming hug was a bit much from what Light observed, “Uh…Twilight? I don’t think Spike can breathe with you smothering him like that.”

“Huh?” Twilight stopped hugging her number one assistant long enough to see that he was right, “Oops, sorry.” she said with a sheepish grin. After releasing Spike, Twilight turned back to the angelic human, “So, what do you think of Spike’s suggestion, Light?”

“I think you should stop calling me that. It isn’t my real name anymore after all.” said Light while grinning.

Spike returned the being’s grin, “So does that mean..?”

“That’s right! For now and forever, you two and everyone else will refer to me as ‘Isamu’!” he said with an even bigger grin and striking a heroic pose.

“That’s great! So, should we go over to Fluttershy’s and ask Dark if he wants to be known as Ikari?” asked Twilight.

Isamu nodded, “Yeah, let’s go. Hopefully Fluttershy is keeping that moron under control.” With another clap of his hands, they were off.

Meanwhile

Fluttershy was walking with Dark through town and it wasn’t going as well as she hoped. Most of the ponies fled in terror at the sight of him. The ones who stayed were too petrified with fear to move. Dark all the while, had a scowl on his face during the whole trek and Fluttershy was worried about what would happen if they didn’t get to her cottage soon.

“Ummm…Mr. Dark?” said Fluttershy timidly.

“Huh?” he grunted as he turned to her.

Fluttershy steeled herself as she asked her next question, “Well, I was wondering if maybe we should find a quicker way to my house. The ponies around here seem a little scared and I’m afraid that they might start to panic if we don’t get there soon.”

Dark rolled his eyes and knelt down while indicating his back, “Grrr.”

“You want to give me a piggy-back ride? I’m not sure how that would…”

“Rrrrrr.” interrupted Dark.

“W…well if you insist.” She got onto his back and held on to his shoulders with her forelegs while he held onto her hind legs to give her extra support. Dark then started to charge up his legs, making purple energy arc off of them.

“Eeep!” Fluttershy knew what was coming next and held on tighter. “I…it’s the cottage by the Everfree Forest with a bunch of animals playing near. You can’t miss it.” She then hid her face in Dark’s hair in preparation for what was about to happen.

With a chuckle, Dark took off with Fluttershy in tow at high speeds. Everypony’s manes were blown back by the wind that Dark’s take off made as he seemed to almost disappear with Fluttershy, leaving an electrified trail of eco.

After five seconds, Dark finally put on the breaks and accidently dug up a significantly long trench in front of their destination. “SHURAH.” he grunted.

Fluttershy lifted her head slowly and looked around, “Oh, good. We’re here.” she said while smiling. Her eyes suddenly turned upward as she fainted. This would’ve resulted in her falling off and hitting her head if Dark hadn’t leaned forward and gotten onto all fours. He then leaned his back to the left to let her gently slide off. After that was done, Dark started poking her with one of his claws, but no matter how many times he did this, Fluttershy would not wake up. Seeing how useless this activity was, he picked Fluttershy up and carried her over his shoulder to the nearby cottage.

As Dark drew near, hundreds of scents assaulted his nose at once and caused him to stagger a bit, but not drop Fluttershy. It wasn’t that they were bad smells, it was just that there were so many that they overloaded his senses for a second. After getting his footing, Dark continued his trek to the house, wondering how anyone could stand to live with so many smells wafting about.
Pushing open the door, Dark came upon a very strange scene; a small white creature on a couch was conducting an orchestra of birds on various perches with an audience of rodents on the floor behind him. Just before the birds got to the chorus of their song, Dark interrupted with a grunt, “Frrrrnng.” The animals, including the white thing, turned around and were horrified to see their caretaker being carried by a monster. All of them, except for the white creature, started panicking.

“RRRRRRAAAAAH”

That shut them all up. After seeing that none of them were going to make another sound, Dark started gesturing for them to move away from the couch. He first pointed at them with his left index finger and then whipped it to his left. However, the second he did so, his claw did something unexpected.

‘SHING’

‘THUNK’

Looking to his left to find out where that sound came from, Dark stared with a confused expression at his hyper extended claw stuck in the wall. Focusing on it, the claw quickly retracted to its original length. He looked at his claws for a few seconds in wonder over the new ability. After that was done, it was back to business. Dark gestured once again for the animals to move and was careful not to accidentally extend his claw again. All the animals complied accept one. The white thing instead hopped up to one of the arm rests. Dark ignored the creature since he was unhindered by it. After sitting her down and carefully putting her head on the right armrest, he sat himself down next to her. Looking to his left, he spotted the creature glaring at him with its arms folded. It then made an “I’m watching you” gesture and continued to glare.

Dark glared right back. This thing was really getting on his nerves. A minute of staring later, Fluttershy began to stir. Neither staring contestant noticed until she spoke.

“Oh! I see you’ve met Angel Bunny.” she said with a smile. However, the smile quickly became strained as she noticed that they both glared at each other a few seconds longer before turning to her.

“Well…I guess I should formally introduce you two. Angel, this is Dark. He will be staying with us for a while so try to get along with him, ok?” she then looked to Dark, “Dark, this is Angel Bunny, my pet rabbit. The same goes for you too. Do not cause any trouble with Angel and everything will be ok. Understand?”

Dark started to growl until she narrowed her eyes. Realizing that she was serious and not wanting to blow his one and only chance at freedom, he reluctantly nodded his head, but still kept his scowl.

Getting Fluttershy’s attention, Angel made a bunch of gestures that said, “This guy is bad news, get rid of him!”

“Well Angel, if you don’t trust Dark, then maybe you can help me keep an eye on him.” Angel didn’t like where this was going; his widened eyes and huge frown expressing such. “If I’m busy with something in another part of the house, I’m trusting you, Angel, to stay with him and tell me if he’s causing trouble, understand?”

Hearing this, Angel furiously shook his head and made an X with both paws, expressing how bad of an idea he thought this was. Dark, meanwhile, was bearing his teeth and giving a thumbs down. The rabbit was really annoying to him and he really didn’t want to spend the rest of his time there with a pest.

“Great! I’m counting on you Angel, and remember Dark, behave yourself.” She then turned and went into the kitchen, ignoring Dark and Angel’s various sounds and gestures of protest. She knew that they wouldn’t like the idea, but she figured that this would be a great way for them to bond and maybe become friends.

Both of them let their heads hang in defeat as they realized that she wouldn’t change her mind no matter what they did. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Dark got up to see who it was while Angel hopped onto his shoulder guard.

“GRRRR!”

This reminded him too much of another aggravating rodent. However, he relented, as killing the little nuisance would probably make Fluttershy mad and put him right back into his stony prison. As he opened the door, he saw Twilight talking to Isamu.

“You know, you wouldn’t have had to use so much eco if you had asked me where her cottage was in the first place.”

“Well excuse me for not wanting to waste time.”

“How is a short description of the location of her house wasting time?”

Isamu raised a finger and opened his mouth to make a comeback, but stopped, “You have a point.” They then looked to Dark who was tapping his foot and had his arms crossed and Angel who was doing the same. Both of them had annoyed looks on their faces.

“Well, well, well…look who’s found their very own sidekick.” said Isamu with a chuckle. Dark rolled his eyes and pointed at him and Twilight, then at the ground with a questioning look. “I’m guessing you’re wondering why we’re here?” Dark nodded. “Well…” It was at this point that Fluttershy came to the door.

“Oh! Hello Twilight, Spike, and Light. What brings you to my house?”

“I’m sorry Fluttershy, but who is this ‘Light’ of which you speak? My name is Isamu.” he said, pretending not to know who she was talking about.

“What? I don’t understand.”

Twilight rolled her eyes at his joke, “How about we all go inside and I’ll explain everything. Ok?”

“That would be great, thank you.” Both Fluttershy and Dark moved aside to let the new guests in. Dark sat down on the couch with Angel still on his shoulder and Isamu, Twilight and Spike sat on some nearby chairs. Fluttershy, meanwhile, had gone into the kitchen again. A few minutes later, she returned with a plate of cucumber sandwiches and tea on a tray and set it on the coffee table in the middle of the group. “I figured everyone could use a snack.” she said with a smile.

“Thank you, Fluttershy. That was very gracious of you.” Twilight thanked. After the first bite of her sandwich, Twilight explained what had happened after they had left the square. She was just about to tell her how Spike came up with both Light and Dark’s new names, until Spike himself cut in to do it for her.

“So then I tell both of them my idea. It was easy to come up with one that is not only appropriate, but also sounds cool. I thought of the name after remembering all the new words I’ve been learning while studying Neighponese. Isamu means bravery or warrior. I figured that Ikari would be best since it means rage and Dark looks like he’s always mad.” At this everyone turned to Dark who had a scowl on his face.

“Grrrrrrr!”

“See what I mean?”

As soon as Spike was finished, Isamu turned to Dark, “So, what do you think?”

Dark folded his arms and somehow managed a combination of a scowl and thinking face while looking off to the side. After a minute he turned back to the group and gave a nod with the scowl still on his face.

Twilight smiled despite the angry look he was giving everyone in the room, “Wonderful!” she then turned back to Isamu, “Now that both you and your brother have names to go with your own bodies, the two of you can forge your own identities among Equestrian society! Isn’t that great!?”

Isamu shrugged, “Sounds good to me.”

The six of them, except for Ikari and Angel, talked until Isamu noticed how close to sunset it was. He was surprised, at first, until he remembered that it was already a good few hours past noon when they had arrived in Ponyville. Turning to Twilight, Isamu informed her of the time “Well, I think it’s about time we left, right Twilight?”

Twilight looked to the window and saw how late it was getting, “You’re right, Isamu.” She then turned to their timid host, “It was great talking to you, Fluttershy; also, it’s good that you accepted your new name, Ikari, but we really should be going since it’s almost sunset. We’ll see you tomorrow during Nightmare Night.” At this point, Twilight, Spike, and Isamu were walking towards the door. At the mention of Nightmare Night, Isamu wondered what it was.

“What’s Nightmare Night?”

Twilight and her group continued to walk out the door, “I’ll ‘yawn’ tell you about it tomorrow. Right now I just want to get home and sleep.”

“Would you like me to fly both of you back?”

“That would be great, thanks.” said Twilight with a tired smile.

After arriving at their destination, they began to settle in for the night. Isamu slept on top of a sleeping bag that Twilight had pulled out from her closet while she and Spike slept in their own beds across the room from him.

The Next Day: in the main part of the Library

Twilight started to explain Nightmare Night, but had to stop when Isamu questioned who Nightmare Moon was. After an in depth explanation from her, he then summed everything up to make sure that he got it right.

“So let me get this straight. Luna transformed into a completely different mare as a result of jealousy and wanted to cause the sun to never rise over this country and the moon to stay in one spot. Is that about right?” asked Isamu

“Yes.”

“That is so stupid.”

“Excuse me?” said Twilight.

“She wanted to rule over a kingdom in eternal night. That might have been a good plan if it didn’t result in there being no one to appreciate her night. Seriously, the sun would’ve stayed on one side of the planet and fried it and would’ve left the other side to freeze. Everyone would’ve died.” Isamu was astonished that someone who has lived a lot longer than him would miss something like that. What was she thinking?

Twilight’s ears drooped as she frowned, “True, and then there’s the fact that there were all sorts of things that she could’ve done to get the citizens to appreciate her nights in a less aggressive way.” Her expression brightened a bit as she reminded Isamu of another part of her story. “At least the Elements of Harmony were able to turn her back to normal and she has been doing everything she can to make amends for what she tried to do. Plus, ponies are starting to appreciate nighttime with activities such as star gazing, watching meteor showers, and even using it to participate in astronomy.”

“Good point, but enough about that, you were explaining what Nightmare Night is?”

“Oh, right. Well Nightmare Night is basically a celebration in which everypony dresses up in a usually scary costume and fillies and colts go from door to door to get candy. There’s also a party held in the square where nightmare themed games are played and a costume contest is held. Also there is a lot of food to eat.”

“This sounds like an interesting holiday.” Suddenly, a sense of déjà vu came over him, “It just occurred to me, is this around harvest time for Equestria?”

“Yes, why do you ask?” Twilight asked. Wondering where Isamu was going with this.

“It’s just that when I think about it, this holiday reminds me a lot of the harvest festival that was held in Sandover Village, Jak’s home town.” he said while scratching the back of his head.

The mention of this Jak person brought a thought to the forefront of Twilight’s mind. Neither she nor the girls knew much about Isamu’s past other than being a part of somepony else. He hadn’t said much about what his host was like or how his host used him and his brother.

“That reminds me, what was it like being a part of somepony else? What was Jak like? You haven’t said anything about him.” Twilight was very interested to hear about this since such a phenomenon was never heard of before.

Isamu shrugged, “I haven’t really seen a reason to bring it up, but if you really want to hear it, ask me again later when we’re together with all of your friends. I’d rather not have to repeat myself.”

Twilight nodded, understanding where he was coming from, “Alright then.”

“Also, you said that everyone is usually dressed up in something scary right?” questioned Isamu.

“Yes, but not all of them are scary. Some of them are just meant to look impressive. That’s why the costumes in the contest aren’t judged solely on how scary they are.”

“In that case, I’m going to stay here until the festivities are underway. If I’m going to officially reveal myself, I’m going to do it with style!” he said while posing in various ways.

“Tee hee, well alright then.” she said, giggling at his antics. She then turned and started walking towards the door, “I need to do some errands. Don’t cause Spike too much trouble while I’m out.” she said jokingly.

Isamu waved her off, “Don’t worry about it. You just have fun doing what you’re doing. If it helps, I think I’ll just read a book.”

“Ok, I’ll see you when I get back.” she said while going out the door.

“Bye.”

After seeing her off, Isamu went around the library, looking for something to read. Finally, he found one in the fiction section called Dracolta. Pulling it from the shelf, he then sat in a nearby chair and began reading.

With Ikari and Fluttershy

At Fluttershy's house

Last night wasn’t too bad. He slept on the couch and was fed eggs and toast with a glass of orange juice in the morning. Things got awkward when he used his fork to take the first bite.

‘CRUNCH’

The sound made Angel and Fluttershy jump and look at Ikari. He had a perplexed look on his face, as he didn’t remember eggs being that crunchy. He was about to stick his fork into the eggs again, until Fluttershy pointed out something wrong with the fork.

“My goodness! You beheaded it!”

“Hrnnng?” Looking to the utensil, Ikari realized what she was talking about. The entire business end of the fork was gone and he knew where it went if the texture of his eggs was any indication.

“Ummm…let me get you another one.”

“Een-eh” Ikari shook his head. Extending his index and middle claws, he stabbed the rest of his eggs and continued eating.

“Good thinking Ikari.” Fluttershy said with a smile. After finishing breakfast, Fluttershy told Ikari what they were going to do next, “Ok, today I need to run some errands and I need you to come with me, Ikari. I know that you haven’t done anything wrong, but I’m not entirely convinced that I can leave you to your own devices without you causing trouble.”

Ikari simply nodded, “Mm-hm.” Though he didn’t show it, he was very glad to get away from Angel. The little brat was starting to put him in an even worse mood than usual.

So they set out to do these errands. The first thing on the list was buying groceries. After walking for about 10 minutes, they arrived at the market area which was eerily quiet. Ponies were still at their stands, ready to sell their wares, but something about them was really off.

The first stand that they came to was being run by a green maned mare with three carrots as a cutie mark who was selling, predictably, carrots. She had widened eyes and appeared to be frozen to the spot at the sight of Fluttershy walking towards her stand with a light purple demon next to her that looked like it could tear anypony to shreds.

“Good morning Carrot Top. How are you today?”

Though she waved at her, Carrot Top was not able to direct her eyes to Fluttershy and instead kept her watch on the horned terror next to the pegasus. Said terror was looking at her with narrowed eyes and a frown.

“He…hello Fluttershy. I-I’m guessing that you came here to buy some carrots?”

“Yes, I would like ten please.” she said with a smile, trying to release some of the tension in the air. Carrot Top quickly set the carrots on the counter and sank below it out of fear, but only enough so that just her eyes were peaking over.

“That will be one bit each.”

“Ikari, while I’m getting the correct amount of bits out, could you please put the carrots into one of my bags?” Ikari nodded, but instead of grabbing them like Carrot Top thought, he did something that was a lot more terrifying.

‘SHING’

‘THUNK’

Right before her eyes, Carrot Top witnessed all ten of the carrots impaled on the demon’s claws. As he retracted them, the impaled carrots followed. Once they were retracted an appropriate length, Ikari held his claws over Fluttershy’s other bag and shook until all the carrots slid off.

Fluttershy, meanwhile, had finally fished out the sack of bits and placed the correct amount on the counter. With a shaky hoof, the scared produce vendor collected the bits into a nearby box and disappeared under the counter.

Ikari rolled his eyes at the display of cowardice while Fluttershy sadly looked to the ground. She then looked up to Ikari who had his arms folded while looking at the stand. She smiled at him when he finally looked down to her, “Let’s go get the rest of the shopping done, ok Ikari?” Ikari nodded and they walked to each stand, gathering food and receiving similar reactions.

It was then that Twilight came walking by, “Good morning Fluttershy, Ikari; how are both of you doing today?”

“Oh…well, it could be better.”

“What do you mean?”

“The townsponies around here are too scared to make any sudden moves because of Ikari.”

“Oh, you have to be kidding me.” Twilight face hoofed and turned to the ponies who were running the stands and noticed that there were some extras who might’ve been customers, hiding with them. They were all shivering in fear and all of them had the collective feeling that either the mares who were standing near the demon, or they themselves were going to die.

Twilight was not going to stand for this, “I can’t believe you ponies! Are you honestly judging somepony by looks like you all did with Zecora!?”

Roseluck poked her head from around a corner, “But…she only looked mysterious, that thing looks dangerous!”

Twilight rolled her eyes, “Roseluck, Spike can be dangerous. He has claws that can leave grooves in stone, teeth that can cut through diamond, and can breathe fire. How is that not dangerous?”

Some of the townsponies started to come out of hiding, but still held timid looks as they went about their business. Either slowly walking by or running from stand to stand to get their shopping done and high tail it out of their before the monster got them.

Twilight and Fluttershy shook their heads in disappointment while Ikari couldn’t care less. If these ponies wanted to fear him, then good; it shows that they know not to mess with him

Twilight looked back to her friend and Ikari and decided to change the subject, “So, what are you going to be dressed as for Nightmare Night, Fluttershy?” she said with a smile.

“Hnnnn?” grunted Ikari.

Twilight looked directly at him, “Well, it’s basically a nighttime event for playing games, eating food, and just generally having a good time. There’s also the costumes that everypony wears and the contest to see who has the best one.”

None of that really interested him. It just sounded like a gathering of individuals who would annoy him. The only thing that was making him want to go was that it was another chance to get away from Angel. Unlike them, that rodent actively gets on his nerves. At least the ponies would try to be friendly to him even though they would most likely fail.

“So, Fluttershy, will you be participating in the celebration? It would mean a lot to me and the girls if you did.” Twilight asked again. Ikari looked down to Fluttershy to listen to her answer.

“I’m sorry, Twilight, but I’d rather not go. The costumes usually scare me a bit.” she said, turning away. Her mane hid her face as she did so. Ikari and Twilight looked at each other, then gave Fluttershy a deadpan as she looked back at them.

“What?”

“Fluttershy, you have a horned bipedal creature with razor sharp claws and teeth living with you.”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened as something Twilight said reminded her of something, “Oh, that reminds me. Earlier, Ikari bit the whole head of a fork off and ate it. Do you think we should get him to the hospital, or at least a dentist?”

“What!?” Twilight said incredulously. She turned to see the mentioned eco being picking at his teeth. After a few seconds, he extracted a prong that was apparently stuck there for a while. He flicked it to the ground and gave both mares a shrug. Twilight turned back to Fluttershy and gestured a hoof to Ikari, “That just proves my point. His teeth can cut through metal like it was butter. Fluttershy, as far as I can tell, Ikari is the scariest thing in Ponyville.”

Fluttershy looked down in thought. Twilight was right, Ikari did have some pretty scary traits. Certainly a lot scarier than anything she had seen in previous Nightmare Nights. Another thing to remember was that Ikari would be with her the whole time and most likely scare off anything that tried to scare her. With all of this in mind, Fluttershy changed her mind.

“You know Twilight, you’re right. I think I will come to the festival tonight. Maybe I’ll dress as a cat.” she said with a smile, thinking about how she’ll look in it.

“Great! I’ll see you and Ikari then. Hopefully, the rest of your day goes well.”

“Hopefully.” They then parted to do the rest of their errands, Fluttershy and Ikari going one way and Twilight going the other. Tonight was going to be one that they would most likely never forget.

8:00 pm, Golden Oaks Library

“So, Spike, what do you think Twilight will be dressing up as? It can’t be any more redundant than your costume.” When Spike had first told him that he was going as a dragon, Isamu gave an ‘Are you kidding me’ look.

“Yeah, well…what are you going as, huh?” Spike said in a challenging tone.

“No way am I dressing up. This is going to be my reveal to the public and I’m going to show them the real me. Can’t do that while I’m behind a mask now can I?”

“You do know that not all costumes require masks right?” Spike asked with a deadpan look.

“Semantics, point is, I’m not wearing a costume and that’s final.” Isamu said while pretending to pout with his arms folded and head turned. He then turned back to the dragon with a smile, “Besides, I have a better plan. You do remember your cue for introducing me, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, when you shoot a few sparks of eco into the air, but why are you doing this?”

“Like I told Twilight, If I’m going to officially reveal myself, I’m going to do it with style.” He said with a smile.

“Well, whatever. Let’s wait for Twilight to get ready.”

20 minutes later

It was taking so long that both Spike and Isamu were getting really impatient. Spike was pacing back and forth with his arms crossed and Isamu was sitting on the ground with his legs crossed and his head resting on one hand.

“Uuugh come on, Twilight! We’re going to be late for the Nightmare Night festival!” said Spike

“Yeah, not gonna lie, Spike’s right on this one.”

“See, even Isamu agrees with me. So, come on and…let’s…go?” Spike’s sentence ended questioningly as he got a load of Twilight’s costume. She had on a wizard’s cloak with bells and a big bushy fake beard tied around her neck. It left Spike in confusion and Isamu wondering who she reminded him of.

Spike tried to guess who she was supposed to be, but failed miserably, “Are you, that creepy grandpa from that old pony retirement home?”

Twilight turned back to Spike, looking a tad annoyed, “I’m Starswirl the Bearded.” Spike blinked in confusion, “Father of the Amniomorphic Spell?” Spike blinked in confusion, “Did you even read that book on obscure unicorn history that I gave you!?”

Something in Isamu’s mind finally clicked, “Wait a sec, was this pony known for creating 300 spells and regarded as a genius?”

“Well actually, it was 200 spells and yes, he was regarded as a genius among his peers…hold on, how do you know about him?”

Isamu got up from his seated position. “I heard about some of the great magical feats that he did and even saw him during the few times he visited the statue garden. It was a real shame when he died, especially considering that he tried his best to keep himself alive with magic, but it looks like one simply can’t learn immortality. Clover was the most heartbroken over it, being his student and all. It made me feel bad that I couldn’t do anything to comfort her.”

He looked over at Twilight and saw her sad look over his tear jerking story, “Oh...uh…but enough about that. This is a time to have fun, so you two go out the front door and I’m going to take off of the balcony and hide my flight using Flash Freeze. I’ll meet you two at the stage in front of town hall. See ya then, and remember your cue, Spike.” he said while running upstairs.

“I had it the first couple of times.” Spike grumbled.

Twilight looked down to her assistant “What is Isamu’s plan anyway? I know that he wants his official reveal to be with style, but how exactly is he going to do it?” she figured it was going to be very grandiose and flashy with how he was posing earlier that day.

“He wants it to be a surprise so he told me not to tell anypony.” Spike said, rolling his eyes.

“Well then, let’s go to the festival and see what he has planned.” Twilight said while walking towards the door.”

“Right behind you!”

Right when she opened the door, Twilight was greeted by three children in costumes and Granny Smith. The kids gave the Nightmare Night greeting while she handed them one treat each, “Great costumes, happy Night…” Something about Granny Smith was off. She was looking this way and that; as though there was something stalking her group and she was trying to spot it.

“Uh…Granny Smith, are you alright? You look like you’re waiting for something to jump out.”

“I’m just lookin for that no good demon that I heard was in the market today. If I’m staying up way past my bedtime to look after these kids, I’m at least going to get these kids out of here in case he shows up. That’s why I’m keeping a look out.”

Twilight was just about to explain why the elderly mare didn’t need to worry, when a small colt in a pirate costume pushed his way through, “Don’t worry, Mrs. Smith! With me trusty sword and quick wits, I’ll send that scallywag runnin with his tail between his legs!”

Giggling at the cute colt’s naïve bravery, Twilight patted him on the head, “Don’t worry Pipsqueak. Even if he does show up, I’m sure he won’t do anything bad.”

“How do you know?” he asked with narrowed eyes. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Twilight knew something they didn’t.

“Call it a hunch.” she answered while sweating a bit.

Pipsqueak and the other children seemed to accept this as they smiled and held out their candy bags. However, Pinkie Pie, who was dressed in a chicken suit, came out of nowhere, “Finally! That talk about Dark was getting stale! Less talk, more candy!”

“Pinkie aren’t you too old for this?”

“Too old for free candy!? ‘BCKAW!’ Never!”

Twilight rolled her eyes as she gave Pinkie and the rest of the kids a piece of candy each. Pinkie then noticed what Twilight was wearing, “Ooooo…nice old clown costume Twilight!” she then pecked at a few more of the treats in the candy bowl and ran off with the kids and Granny Smith following.

“Seriously, a clown?”

“Come on, Twilight. We’re going to be late.” Spike said as he passed by.

‘Sigh.’ she growled while following him.

10 minutes later

Twilight and Spike arrived at where the festival was taking place. Everypony was dressed as something and having a good time. There were knights, ninjas, ghosts and all sorts of interesting and unique costumes. Twilight was just getting done talking about Starswirl saving a village from a group of manticores when she stopped abruptly to take notice of the fact that they had arrived. This caused Spike to bump into her and drop his candy.

“Twilight, could you warn me next time you stop like that?”

“Sorry Spike. I was just wondering what we should do first.”

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie and the kids of her group came running up to them, “Twilight, Twilight! Look at our hold! Ah! Can you believe it!? ” Pinkie said while showing Twilight her candy. She then proceeded to eat it like what she was dressed as. She then went on to tell her friend about how her group got so much candy.

Overhead, Rainbow Dash, who was clothed in a Shadowbolts costume, pushed a dark cloud into position and was just about to give her friends a big scare when suddenly, Ikari’s upper half popped up from the bottom, claws and all.

“SHZAAAAAAAAAAA!”

“AAAAAAAAA!!!” Rainbow screamed. Once again, she jumped a few feet off of her perch from the shock and fell, except this time, Fluttershy, who was in a pink cat costume, caught her.

Ikari came down a second later and landed in a crouch. Getting up from the position, he then crossed his arms and chuckled while giving a wicked grin.

“Heh, heh, heh”

Rainbow got out of Fluttershy’s grasp and flew straight up to the purple demon’s face, “What’s the big idea, jerk!?”

Ikari, not liking the invasion of his personal space, shoved the pegasus to the ground and walked over to Fluttershy.

“Hey, get back here!” she got back up and hovered after him.

Ikari finally got fed up with her and extended his claws while turning around. This stopped Rainbow Dash in her ‘tracks’ so to speak, and caused her to hover backwards for a bit in fear. Suddenly, Fluttershy pulled on Ikari’s arms to make him turn around.

“Ikari, calm down; you don’t want to ruin your one and only chance, now do you?” she said with a serious look.

Ikari looked at his cat suited, pegasus parole officer for a bit before calming down and re-sheathing his claws. He had to admit that she was right. He remembered what the ruler said, if any of the citizens were harmed because of him, he would be imprisoned again.

At this point, Twilight, Spike, Pinkie, and the kids had been watching since they heard Rainbow Dash’s scream and walked closer after Ikari had calmed down. Twilight and Pinkie were impressed with how well Fluttershy handled that while the kids stared at Ikari with fear, or in Pipsqueak’s case, fascination. Pipsqueak shook his head to get his focus back and walked up to the supposed evil monster.

“Avast ye scurvy bilge rat! Ye won’t be takin the lives of me friends. Taste the sting of me cutlass!” he then began swinging around his very dull toy sword. Ikari just looked down at the colt; then at the three mares while cocking his head to the side, wondering what to do.

Twilight was about to say something until Fluttershy used one of her wings to shush her up. Twilight looked to her friend with incredulity. To which Fluttershy responded with a shake of the head, “Let’s watch what happens. If it looks like it’ll get out of hand, then we can act.”

Ikari turned back to the colt who continued to swing wildly. The kid obviously didn’t know what he was doing and was just expressing naïve bravado. No truly malicious intent or ridicule, just childish ignorance. The only negative emotion that the little guy was causing him was annoyance and decided to end it there before the emotion grew into anger. Crouching down, he blocked one of Pipsqueak’s swings with the flat side of his index claw. This had the desired effect of getting the child to open his eyes and stare Ikari in the face. He then shook his head and pointed back to the colt’s friends with his other hand. Pipsqueak, now looking at the demon and seeing how much bigger he was and the razor sharp claws he had, decided to put his toy sword away.

“Eh, heh, heh…sorry. Um, happy Nightmare Night.” he said while backing away. He then turned and quickly walked back to his friends.

“What the hay was I thinking? There’s no way something like that would be scared of me.” thought a slightly embarrassed Pipsqueak.

Twilight and Pinkie had their mouths opened slightly at what had just taken place. Twilight turned her head to Fluttershy, “How did you know that Ikari wouldn’t tear Pipsqueak apart!?” she asked incredulously.

“Yeah! Last time somepony made him mad, we saw Light get his faced carved up like a birthday cake!” said Pinkie.

“Well, girls, I think I’ve figured Ikari out.”

“Details, Fluttershy, details.” Twilight demanded.

“Oh…um, well Ikari, from what I’ve seen, is not a mindless mass of anger. He may be irritable, but he isn’t absolutely heartless. He can tell when something isn’t meaning him any harm or is actively trying to get on his nerves, like in the case of Pipsqueak. He might’ve been very annoyed, but I think he can tell the difference between an actual enemy and a kid just being silly. He also isn’t stupid. He knows that if he does anything like what he used to do, he will be punished by Princess Celestia; so he’s holding himself back to avoid that circumstance. I can tell he was doing that with Angel by the look in his eyes.”

“I think that maybe, just maybe; spending time around me and others while keeping his anger under control will help him out in the long run.”

Twilight and Pinkie were surprised by how Fluttershy was able to deduce all of that; as could be seen by their dropped jaws. Fluttershy noticed their expressions.

“What? I’m good with animals and Ikari acts a bit like an animal, so it’s not really that hard to figure him out.”

Twilight shook her head to clear it of the shock, “Well, still, it’s good to hear that you’re figuring out your new houseguest.” she said with a smile. The costumed unicorn then noticed that most of the attendees of the festival were gathering near the stage, “Looks like the first event is starting. Come on, let’s hurry and get some good seats.” Pinkie, Fluttershy, Ikari, and Spike followed her and got there just in time for the mayor’s announcement.

“Attention everypony. It is time for the costume contest. Each pony who has submitted an entry form will be called on stage and be seen by you all and the selected judges.” She gestured to the table that was set up which had seated at it, Mrs. Cake, Time Turner, Thunderlane, and Cheerilee. “Whoever has the best costume wins!”

After the announcement, contestants were called to the stage one by one. First was Roseluck who had a costume that looked to be made of vines and leaves. She also had a rose in her hair. She did a few poses while the judges held up cards. Roseluck got two 9’s and two 7’s. After she got off, an earth pony wearing a metal skeleton suit with glowing, obviously enchanted, red contacts came on stage and got into various poses that looked like they should be in action movies. He got two 7’s, an 8 and a 9.5. This continued for a while until the last costumed pony was called. Mayor Mare, in her clown costume, came back on stage with an envelope, “And the winner is…” Suddenly, a white ball of energy exploded with color overhead.

Taking his cue, Spike got up on stage and took the microphone from its stand, “Fillies and gentlecolts! For the first time anywhere. I present to you, the amazing Isamu!!!”

Out from behind the roof of town hall, an angelic being flew high into the sky until he reached a position where the full moon would be behind him. He flared all of his limbs, including his wings, and released a ring of energy that had a slightly blue tint to it. He then folded his wings half way and took a nose dive while leaving more of the exploding orbs behind, which detonated in several masses of color for all to see. As he dived, an aura formed around his main body that glowed so brightly that he looked like a comet with wings.

At only a few meters from hitting the stage, the majestic creature flared his wings once again to slow his descent and made the aura explode in thousands of white sparks, revealing what the citizens could now see was a bipedal creature about as tall as Princess Celestia. Touching down, he bowed for a few seconds and then stood up straight while putting his hands on his hips in a heroic pose.

The audience of ponies were astonished by this display. They were all struck speechless and were only able to show there awe through their widened eyes and dropped jaws. The mayor was the first to shake off the feeling enough for her to speak, “Just who are you and why are you here?”

“Guh!” said Isamu while face faulting. He got up and shook his head to clear it then looked back to the politician, “Are you serious? The baby dragon over there just introduced me. The name is Isamu. To answer your second question…” he clapped his hands, disappeared, and reappeared giving Twilight a friendly noogie, “I’m staying with this sweet little thing and my brother is staying with Fluttershy as per Celestia’s orders.” he said with a grin. “Don’t worry about the purple horned dork. As long as you don’t get him angry, he won’t hurt anyone. Right, Ikari?” he finally stopped giving Twilight a noogie.

Everypony looked at the now identified Ikari who had his arms crossed. In response to his brother, Ikari made a one fingered gesture that nobody accept Isamu knew what it meant. Even so, the ponies could clearly see that the creature next to the shy pegasus proved Isamu’s statement true by not doing anything more than the rude gesture.

“Told ya! Now come on, Twilight! It’s time to play games, eat candy, and make a general ruckus!”

“Ok, just let me get off the staaAAAAAAGE!!!”

“WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!” shouted Isamu as he took off with Twilight in his grasp. As he flew over the crowd and out of sight, he left behind a blue sparkling trail. At this point, the crowd got their senses back and was giving the winged human applause.

In an area of the festival where there was barely anypony around, Isamu landed and placed Twilight on the ground. After she was done looking around to get a bead on where she was, the unicorn turned around to glare at the rambunctious human, “Why the hay did you pick me up and drag me out so far!?”

“Well excuuuse me for wanting to make a spectacular exit.”

“But why drag me into it!?”

“Come on, Sparky. Where’s your sense of humor. It was all in good fun. Besides, I figured that making you part of the performance would be a nice thank you gift for vouching for me in front of Celestia.”

“Well that was very nice of you, but now our friends are wondering where we are.”

“Don’t worry about it. Get on my back and I’ll fly us there.” he said while kneeling down.

Twilight got on and they were off. A few minutes later, they arrived back at the main area of the festival and touched down near where Spike was at the stage. The crowd had thinned out by the time they got back.

“So, Twilight, what did you think of Isamu’s surprise?” asked Spike.

“It was certainly flashy.” Looking to her left, she saw Isamu was right in her face.

“But was it stylish?” he said with a grin.

Suddenly, Pinkie’s voice cut in, “I’ll say! The whole crowd gave an applause!” All three turned to see the pink mare bouncing up to them. Isamu turned with the grin still on his face.

“Heh, heh, awesome; I was hoping they would enjoy it.”

“So, Isamu, besides wanting to be stylish, what other reason did you have to make such a huge performance out of your introduction? Was it to make a good first impression?” asked Twilight. Truthfully, she couldn’t think of anything else for why he did what he did. She figured that it probably wasn’t to inflate his own ego since he didn’t seem like the kind of guy that would put himself above others like a certain other unicorn she knew.

“Partly for that, but mostly just to add some fun into the mix. Honestly, at a time of the year where ponies are supposed to make themselves stand out, Just simply introducing myself to ponies as they walked by would’ve been too boring. My reveal to the public had to be dazzling, amazing, and most importantly, fun for the crowd to watch.”

Spike rolled his eyes, “Isamu, you have glowing blue skin, wings that are bigger than the princess’, and walk on two legs. I think you already stand out.”

“Semantics!” he yelled while giving Spike ‘the hand’, “The point is, the performance was a thrilling experience for me and the crowd enjoyed it which means mission accomplished!” he said while smiling and giving a thumbs up.

Twilight smiled while rolling her eyes. She had to admit, Isamu really knew how to make an entrance. He also seemed to care about the citizens’ enjoyment of his performance almost as much as Pinkie cares about making others smile at her parties. She then decided to move things along.

“Hey, how about we go and do what you said we would.”

“You mean make a general ruckus?” Isamu replied, giving a cheeky grin.

“No. I mean play games and eat candy.” this time she rolled her eyes in annoyance.

“Well, alright then. Let’s go!” said Isamu. He took only a few steps away from the stage before Twilight stopped him for a bit.

“Wait! I think another event is going to be starting at 9:00, so let’s get back here around that time, ok?”

“You got it.” with that said Isamu ran off to enjoy the party while Twilight and Spike followed. Isamu won against Twilight at a game in which one pops the balloon on top of a clowns head with a water gun, Twilight tried her luck at throwing darts, and Spike gorged himself on more candy. Coming back from the pumpkin toss game, Twilight and her group came across Ikari and Fluttershy who was holding a huge stuffed bat.

“Look what Ikari won for me in the spider toss.” she said while showing off the black plush toy. It had big red eyes and a small fanged smile.

“That was very nice of you Ikari.” said a smiling Twilight.

Ikari turned his head and ‘hmphed’. Who cared if it was a nice gesture to win it for her? He certainly didn’t. She may have some of his respect for standing up to him, but he wasn’t about to get sentimental around her or anyone else. Nor would he ever learn to be friends with these annoying ponies. It couldn’t possibly happen, could it?

“Um…Twilight? Would you like to join us for some caramel apples?”

“That would be great. What do you think, Isamu?” she said, expecting an answer, but didn’t get one immediately. When she looked at him, she saw Isamu and Ikari glaring at each other. “Well, guys? How about it?” Instead of responding to her directly, they turned their backs to each other with their arms folded.

“Hmph, I’ll let him join us; as long as he doesn’t force me to hurt him.” said Isamu.

“SuuRA.” Ikari replied while nodding. It probably meant something like “Ditto”.

Even though they still hated each other, at least they were able to bear each other’s presence for the time being; something that Twilight, Fluttershy, and Spike were grateful for. After going to the caramel apple stand, the group found a table and sat down. Twilight and Fluttershy talked about how much fun they were having, Spike listened, and the eco brothers continued to glare at each other with narrowed eyes. The scene would’ve looked serious if both humans weren’t holding apple treats in their hands. They occasionally took a bite out of the candy coated apples while still glaring, further making the tense situation look silly.

Everyone finished up their snack and conversations just as the other participants were gathering around the stage once again. The mayor stepped up to the podium to announce the next event, “I hope everyone has been having a fantastic Nightmare Night!” the crowd cheered, “Great! Now, for all the little ponies that have been out collecting sweets, should follow our friend Zecora to hear the legend of Nightmare Moooooooon! Muhahahaha!”

“The spooky voice would work better without the clown suit.” whispered Spike to Twilight.

Twilight giggled, then looked up to Isamu who had on a confused look and his arms folded, “What’s wrong, Isamu?”

Isamu looked down to her, “Nothing, I just don’t understand. What sort of legend could she be talking about? I was there when Luna turned into Nightmare Moon and she barely stayed long enough to do anything more than get defeated by her sister.”

Suddenly, a plume of green smoke began to spread over the stage and what looked to Isamu to be a black and white striped pony walked into view. She had a lot of gold jewelry on and a black dress with a gold spider attached to the collar. She also had fake spiders in her hair.

“Follow me, and very soon, you shall hear the tale of Nightmare Moon.” All the kids, Twilight’s group, and Pinkie followed her to a clearing in the Everfree Forrest where a statue of Nightmare Moon was waiting. “Listen close my little dears, I’ll tell you where you got your fears.” she said while gesturing to the statue. The statue was rearing up on its hind legs with its wings flared and a look of anger on its face. After all these years, Isamu was still not impressed by how Luna looked in that form. Looking back down to the zebra, he decided to listen to what this so called legend said about the night princess.

“Of Nightmare Night, so dark and scary…” taking out some green powder, Zecora blew it into the air. The sparkling cloud formed into a green version of Nightmare Moon a split second later and dove at the children. Zecora meanwhile continued the story, “of Nightmare Moon who makes you wary.” When it hit the ground near the children, it burst into smoke.

Even though the mare of darkness’ form wasn’t impressive to him, Isamu did like Zecora’s way of telling a story, “Now that’s how you tell a story with style. Bravo Zecora.” he thought.

As some of the green smoke thinned, two menacingly narrowed eyes could be seen, “Every year, we put on a disguise, to save ourselves from her searching eyes.” As she said this, a mouth with sharp looking teeth appeared in the cloud and grinned at Pipsqueak and a pink filly in a lady bug costume. When they both noticed the scary face, they screamed and ran in opposite directions with Pip going towards the statue. Suddenly, Zecora jumped through and dispelled the cloud.

“But Nightmare Moon wants just one thing…” Pipsqueak reached the statue and smacked face first into it, then looked up into the now viciously ginning statue. He backed away from it as Zecora continued.

Isamu, meanwhile, was growing concerned about the direction that this story was going. The more he listened to this story, the more it made Luna sound like…

“to gobble up ponies in one…quick…swing!”

A cannibalistic monster. “Whaaaaaaat!? Are you kidding me!?” Isamu yelled in his mind. On the outside his eyes widened and his mouth dropped so low, it was a miracle that it didn’t get unhinged.

More of the magic powder was flung into the air and turned into another green Nightmare Moon, “Hungry, she soars the sky, if she sees no pony, she passes by.” during this, the illusion looked as though it was searching for ponies even though they were right in front of it, “So if she comes and all is clear, Equestria is safe for another year!” Right as Zecora finished the Nightmare clone flew up and burst into green sparks in front of the moon.

Isamu was greatly disturbed by this, “She can’t be serious. I saw when Luna had become Nightmare Moon and this sort of thing never happened. This is slander of the highest caliber.”

Pipsqueak tugged on Zecora’s dress, “Umm…Ms. Zecora? If we wear costumes to hide from Nightmare Moon so that she doesn’t gobble us up, how come we still need to give her some of our candy?” everyone else walked up behind him, wanting to hear the reason.

“A perfect question, my little friend.” She leaned in closer and narrowed her eyes while putting on a smile, “For Nightmare Moon, you must not offend.” She blew more of the stuff into the air and another Nightmare clone stalked towards Pip and his friends while he backed up. “Fill up her belly with a treat or two, so she won’t return to come eat you!!!” the clone pounced on the kids and Pinkie and dissolved into another green cloud.

Isamu was downright furious at this whole thing, “I can’t believe that someone made up this sort of story about her. I’m glad that pony isn’t here or else I would be put back in stone for the things I would do to him or her.”

The kids and Pinkie were now very scared and rushed to the statue to dump all of their candy at the base. Suddenly, the wind picked up and clouds started to gather near the moon. In a flash, a chariot, pulled by ponies with bat wings came rocketing towards the ground and flew over everyone’s heads. As it came to a stop in mid-air, the rider of the chariot was revealed to be Luna, but her face was concealed by a hooded cloak.

At the sight of the dark alicorn, Pinkie’s fear got the best of her, “AAAA, it’s Nightmare Moon! RUN!!!” this got everyone, except Twilight and Isamu, panicking and running back to Ponyville. The chariot rose back into the air and followed them back.

Isamu was first in voicing both of their thoughts, “This can’t end well.”

Twilight started running back to town, “No kidding! Let’s go, Isamu!”

“Right behind you, Twilight” he said as he followed her in the sky.

Meanwhile with Fluttershy and Ikari

Both the demon and the shy pegasus were sitting at a table and listening to the music. Well…Fluttershy was at least. Ikari was covering his ears with an annoyed expression. Fluttershy finally noticed his discomfort, “Do you really dislike music that much?” Ikari sighed and shook his head. He then pointed to the band that was playing on stage. “Oooh, you just dislike their music?” Ikari nodded. “Well maybe we could talk to get your mind off of it?” Ikari gave Fluttershy a deadpan stare. He then pointed at himself, made a talking gesture, and pointed his thumb down all with his left hand.

“Oh, that’s right, you can’t talk…wait a second. I heard you say something when you were fighting your brother yesterday. Why were you able to say something then, but not now?” Ikari shrugged. Even though it was his mind and body, he was unable to figure out the cause for his ability to speak in that one moment. It was baffling, to say the least.

“Well, anyway…don’t worry about any complex conversations. I just wanted to know you better. Even though you can’t talk, I can sort of understand you. In fact, part of my special talent is understanding animals and other creatures that can’t speak. So, if I ask you some simple questions, you just do your best to answer them…i-if that’s alright with you.” she hid her face behind her mane at the last part. The fact that she was wearing a cat costume made it look extremely cute to most, but to Ikari, he couldn’t care less. He was more focused on the fact that she was looking away from him and wouldn’t see him nod.

‘SNAP, SNAP, SNAP’

“Huh?” Fluttershy turned her head towards the sound and saw Ikari’s right hand near her face, in a position to make the sound again if need be. Seeing that he got her to face him, the purple human retracted his hand from across the table and nodded.

“Oh, that’s good. So…what do you think of Ponyville?” she said with a hopeful look. Ikari made a so-so gesture. “Good. Ummm…what do you think of the ponies he…” suddenly, screaming was heard coming from the direction of the Everfree Forest. Ikari and Fluttershy got up from their seats and turned towards the noise to see Pinkie leading a panicking group of children into the main festival area. Behind and above them trailed Luna’s chariot which stopped in the air right over the middle of the crowd. At the same time, Twilight and Isamu arrived on the scene just in time to see the dark alicorn jump from her ride, cloak billowing in the wind. After landing, she through off the hood and revealed her smiling face with furrowed brows.

“It’s a nice entrance and all, but I think the ponies are scared of her.” he whispered to Twilight. Everypony in the area was bowing to Luna with fearful faces.

Seeing what he was talking about, Twilight grew concerned, “Maybe I can talk to her before she does something to make it worse.”

“CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE!” bellowed Luna, “WE HAVE GRACED YOUR TINY VILLAGE WITH OUR PRESENCE SO THAT YOU MAY BEHOLD THE REAL PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT!”

Twilight shouldn’t have tempted fate. Now the townsponies were downright terrified and both she and Isamu couldn’t think of anything to calm the citizens down.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy was cowering behind Ikari with her eyes closed. “I-i-it’s Nightmare Moon! Oh no! This is absolutely dreadful! What do we do, Ikari?...Ikari?” Fluttershy opened her eyes to see the horned beast stomping towards the princess with shaking fists.

During Luna’s very loud proclamation, Ikari had gotten angrier and angrier with each passing second. The volume and tone of her voice was grating on his sensitive ears and her face looked so damn smug to him that he felt like tearing it off. He knew that violence would only get him turned to stone, but he needed to stop that incessant noise. Two words kept repeating in his head as he drew closer to Luna, two words that would hopefully end this annoying racket. Energy started to build around his throat as he prepared to unleash them.

“THE NIGHTMARE MOON OF OLD HAUNTS YOU NO LONGER FOR…” she stopped as she noticed Ikari stomping over with purple electricity arcing around his throat. “SO, FOUL BEAST, YOU TOO ARE ATTENDING THIS GATHERING! WE MUST WARN YOU, CREATURE, IF YOU TRY ANYTHING WITH US, WE WILL…” The energy around Ikari’s throat grew more violent as he finally let loose the two words that were repeating in his mind.

“SHUUUUUUUUUUUT UUUUUUUUUUUUUP!!!!” Because of the eco charging up his voice, the rage induced yell had enough force behind it to not only blow everyone’s mane back, but also push Luna a few feet away as she struggled to keep her footing.

Recovering from the sonic assault, the princess of the night retaliated, “HOW DARE YOU? YOU DISPICABLE, LOWLY Mmph!” Looking down from the demon, Luna saw a blue hand covering her mouth and followed the arm’s length to see Isamu looking at her.

“Whoooa now, Luna. I feel for ya, If you need to, I’ll let you finish, but I think my violent and angry brother has a point for once in his life.”

Luna swatted his hand away and turned to give a death glare, “EXPLAIN THIS INSTANT, YOU INSOLENT CUR!!!” she yelled, though not as loudly.

“Sorry to say, Luna, but you’ve scared everypony here. They’re cowering in fear of you.” he gestured towards the crowd. They were all indeed cowering in fear of her. Some of them hid their faces under their hooves, others were able to look up, but still had fear plastered on their faces.

“Nonsense!” Luna scoffed, “These humble citizens are just bowing to us in respect! Observe as I greet the mayor of this town who will no doubt show her admiration!” She walked over to the mayor and tried to greet her, “Madam Mayor! Your princess of the night has arrived!” she stuck her hoof out presumably for the mayor to shake, but instead the mayor herself shook in fear. She tried again with a random costumed citizen and was met with the same reaction. A few more times lead to the same results and Isamu was face palming at how long it was taking for her to get it. After the fourth time, Luna came to the saddening conclusion that the angelic human was right. “This can’t be!” she said in horrified realization. “F-fine, if that’s how it is then we are leaving!” She turned around and started walking, “You all won’t even have the pleasure of us giving you a royal farewell!”

Isamu and Twilight walked up to each other with Isamu shaking his head in disappointment, “Well that could’ve gone better.”

“I’m going to go talk to her.” said Twilight in concern. She turned to follow the princess, but was stopped when Spike tugged on her wizard cloak.

“You can’t talk to her! She’s Nightmare Moon!”

“No she’s not. I saw the elements of harmony change her back to good. It seems that she’s having trouble adjusting after being banished to the moon for a thousand years.”

“She’s right. I remember what Luna was like before she turned into Nightmare Moon. She may be harsh at times, but she cares about the citizens almost as much as her sister.” Isamu interjected. He then looked up as he reminisced about his time in stone.

1,225 years ago

Luna was in the statue garden, feeling down and having one of the servants there to talk to. “We can’t believe what the scouts found there, Dusty; hundreds of emaciated ponies in chains with scars most likely caused by whips.”

“My gosh!” said the servant.

“It gets worse.” she said with growing ire, “there were children there, Dusty, children! Some of them looked like they were beaten!”

“ ‘GASP’ W-What are we going to do?” said a shocked Dusty.

“We and Celestia are sending troops with evidence to the Griffin Republic. Hopefully their grand council will see that the evidence was not forged and will give Equestria the go ahead for a raid on that despicable Diamond Dog camp; We have asked our dear sister if we could lead it.”

“What did she say?”

“We are allowed to lead the raid. We are thankful for this as we will teach them to fear the princess of the night for their transgressions. They will pay!”

The Present

Isamu looked back down to Twilight and Spike, “Scratch that, even more than Celestia; the point is, she’s not a horrible monster like you were lead to believe; trust me.” He then looked to Twilight, “Alright, Twilight, let’s go.”

“Wait, why are you coming with me?” she asked.

“Well, besides the fact that you are pretty much one of my parole officers; I figured Luna could use two sources of emotional support instead of just one. She probably needs it after what just happened.” he said while looking at the citizens. They still looked a little spooked even after the princess left.

Twilight smiled as Isamu continued to prove that he wasn’t as selfish as he was all those years ago. “Thank you for offering your help, Isamu. That’s very kind of you.”

He waved her off, “No problem. Now, let’s hurry and catch up to Luna.” he said while running towards the Everfree Forest.

“Do you even know where she is?” she said as she caught up with him.

“I have a hunch.” and with that, they were off to comfort a very sad princess.

10 minutes later

Twilight and Isamu arrived at the site of the Nightmare Moon statue to see Luna moping in front of the effigy of her former self. Isamu bent over to whisper to Twilight before they got too close.

“Alright, Twilight; since you’re one of her subjects, I say you go in first and talk to her. I’ll come in later when you give me the signal.

“Wait, what’s the signal?” she whispered back.

“It can be anything. Trust me; I’ll know when to come out. Now go!” said Isamu while pushing the unicorn out into the open.

After getting over the fact that she was just pushed, Twilight decided to get closer to the Princess of the Night, jingling the bells on her costume. Normally, this would’ve caught anyone’s attention in an area where there was little sound, but Luna was so depressed that she didn’t notice until Twilight spoke up.

“Princess Luna?” said princess turned to her, “Hi, my name is…”

“Starswirl the Bearded. Commendable costume; you even got the bells right.” interrupted Luna.

“Yes, finally; somepony else who gets my costume!” noticing that Luna was frowning with impatience Twilight quickly composed herself, “Uh, anyway, I’ve come to welcome you to our celebration. My actual name is…”

“Twilight Sparkle.” interrupted Luna once again. The Princess then began hovering in the air as the wind started to pick up, “IT WAS YOU WHO UNLEASHED THE POWER OF HARMONY AND TOOK AWAY OUR DARK POWERS!” By the end of her very loud statement, dark clouds had rolled in and obscured most of the sky and the wind had gotten powerful enough to cause Twilight to take a few steps back to keep her footing.

“And that was a good thing, right?” she asked once the wind died down.

“But of course! We could not be happier! Is that not clear!?” Luna yelled.

“Well, it kinda sounds like you’re shouting at me. To me, it makes it sound like you’re less than thrilled.”

“But this is the traditional Canterlot voice, it is tradition to use the royal ‘We’, AND TO USE THIS MUCH VOLUME WHEN ADDRESSING OUR SUBJECTS!” the force of her voice blew Twilight’s hat and fake beard askew.

After fixing both costume pieces, Twilight voiced her thoughts, “You know, thaaat might be why your appearance was met with less than favorable reactions; especially from Ikari.”

“Who is this Ikari of which you speak!? I’ve never heard of any…wait…ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT THE DEMON THAT WAS ENTRUSTED TO YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS!!?? RRRRR, HE IS LUCKY THAT HE BROKE OUT IN THIS ERA!!! ONE THOUSAND YEARS AGO, SUCH A TRANSGRESSION WOULD’VE BEEN MET WITH INCARCERATION IN THE DUNGEON FOR 5 YEARS!!! IT IS ONLY BECAUSE OF OUR SISTER THAT SUCH A PENALTY FOR THAT ACTION IS NO LONGER PART OF THE LAW! ALSO, WE THOUGHT HIS NAME WAS DARK!” By the end of her rant, she was gritting her teeth and snorting like a bull.

Once again, Twilight was blown back a few feet and once again, had to fix the two costume pieces on her head. After doing this a second time, she explained the name change, “It was actually Isamu’s idea, Light’s new name by the way, to change their names. He told me that he wanted a new name to go with his new body. Spike came up with his name and also a name for his brother”

After the explanation, Luna calmed herself down a bit, but not much, “Both names are appropriate, we suppose! Bravery and Rage for Light and Dark respectively! Even though we do not like Isamu, we must commend him for his brave act of protecting you and the bearers!”

“Yes, it was very brave of him, but I think what we should be focusing on is how the ponies view you; and I think with our help, you will be met with a warmer reception.”

Luna was puzzled for a second by the use of the word ‘our’, “Wait, ‘our’ as in…” suddenly a blue, lightly glowing arm draped itself over her neck. Looking to her right, she was met with Isamu’s smiling face.

“Hey there beautiful; miss me?”

Luna decided to keep her cool so as not to give the angelic human the possible amusement of seeing her flustered, “So, you have decided to help us. Tell us, what do you have to gain from this!?”

Isamu took his arm off of her, “You mean besides possibly making a new friend?” he took a big gasp of air as if he was going to yell his answer, but did something totally unexpected.

“Nothing at all.” he said in a normal voice.

“WHAT?” said Luna in the Royal Canterlot Voice.

“It’s true, princess. He really isn’t doing this for anything other than for your benefit.” said Twilight helpfully.

“So what do you say, Luna?” he extended his hand, “Ready to bury the hatchet and let me help you?” he said with a smile.

Luna wasn’t sure she could trust him. She barely knew him and their first meeting wasn’t exactly pleasant. However, she really didn’t have much of a choice in this case. Almost everypony believed her to still be Nightmare Moon and her entrance only served to increase their fear of her. With not one, but two helpers, her chances of getting the citizens to not be afraid of her and accept her as a benevolent ruler would be a lot higher. After a few more seconds, she gave her answer.

“VERY WELL, HUMAN. WE WILL PUT OUR TRUST IN YOU. DO NOT MAKE US REGRET DOING SO. ARE WE CLEAR!?”

Isamu had one hand over an ear and gave the ok gesture with the other, “Crystal.” After getting over the battering of his eardrums, he clapped his hands and pointed to her with his hands still clasped together, “Alright, so…I have an idea of how to start things off, but I need to know if you can create illusions with your magic”

Realizing what he was getting at, Twilight spoke up, “Isamu, you can’t solve everything with a stylish entrance. We should focus more on her social interactions with the citizens.”

“Party pooper.” said Isamu.

Rolling her eyes and smiling at his response, she decided to throw him a bone, “If we have time afterwards, then maybe you could choreograph a stylish entrance for her.”

“Heh, heh, I was hoping for that. You can almost never go wrong when you throw style into the mix.” he said with a cheeky grin.

Looking back to Luna, Twilight started things off by addressing the first social faux pa that came to mind, “Anyway, I think the first thing we should work on is your voice.”

“WHAT IS WRONG WITH OUR VOICE?” she said while facing the purple unicorn.

“It’s way too loud.” said Isamu, “Seriously, do you talk to your sister in that voice?” he said as he walked into Luna’s view.

“Well no, but…!”

“THEN DON”T TALK LIKE THAT TO OTHER PONIES!!!” he yelled while cupping his hands near his mouth.

“Grrrrr!!!” she growled. How dare this human yell at her, this was the second time it happened and she was getting sick of such disrespect.

“Enough, Isamu; she gets it!” Twilight reprimanded.

“What? I’m just showing her how it sounds.” he responded; the cheeky grin back in place.

“It was unnecessary.” she retorted, with an unamused look, “Please apologize to her.”

“Alright, alright.” he said as he waved her off. He then looked back to Luna, “Sorry for yelling at you, but you have to admit that my method of showing you how inappropriate your volume is was very effective.”

“I suppose so, but it was still rude!” she said with narrowed eyes. She then focused her attention back to Twilight. “We are not sure if we can learn to talk at an appropriate volume to our subjects; we have been locked away for a thousand years after all!”

Suddenly, Twilight got an idea. She looked at Isamu with a smile and he looked back at her, returning it, “Isamu, are you thinking what I’m thinking.”

“Is it yellow with a pink mane?”

“Uh-huh.”

“What are you two talking about!?” said Luna. She did not like being kept in the dark.

They turned to her. “Fluttershy!” both of them responded.

At that very moment in Ponyville

“ACHOO!” for some unexplainable reason, Fluttershy sneezed. Ikari raised an eye brow. “Oh, don’t worry. I’m not coming down with anything.” she assured. They had been walking for a while, looking at all the decorations, playing games at Fluttershy’s request, and periodically getting a snack or drink. Currently, Ikari had a handful of various Nightmare themed chocolates and Fluttershy had a soda clasped in a wing.

However, not all was well. Almost every citizen that Fluttershy tried to talk to were either too timid to do so, or kept their conversations with her short. She suspected that the citizens were not used to Ikari yet. This was understandable as he was a very scary thing to behold. It was unfortunate that they didn’t realize that they wouldn’t be hurt as long as they didn’t make him angry. Ikari, on the other claw, wasn’t bothered by this in the slightest. The only pony he could really stand to be around was Fluttershy anyway. Although, he still found it strange that she wasn’t afraid of him. She never showed any aggressive or bossy behavior towards him, but she certainly wasn’t timid around him. It was a very puzzling conundrum.

“Footcherrrrsih?” he tried and failed miserably at saying Fluttershy’s name, but it got her attention as shown when she stopped and turned to face him.

“Yes, Ikari? What is it?” she said with her head tilted and a questioning look.

He then started to mime his question. He first pointed to himself and then put both hands up in a clawing motion. Next, he pointed to her, then the surrounding area, and hunched over while putting on a scared face. Finally he pointed to her, then himself, and gave a thumbs up.

“Crrrrrih?” he grunted, returning her questioning look.

“You’re wondering why I’m not scared of a monster like you when I’m terrified of a lot of other things?” Ikari nodded in response. “Well, that’s because I don’t see you as a monster.”

“Hrmmm?” Ikari questioned.

“I see you as someone who feels angry most of the time, but is not unable to feel something else. Earlier you laughed when you pranked Rainbow Dash and yesterday you laughed alongside Pinkie Pie when Isamu pranked her.” Ikari turned his head away and scratched at it in what Fluttershy assumed was sheepishness. “Even right now, you aren’t angry, are you?” Ikari shook his head “See? It’s moments like these that give me hope that you can learn to control your anger and maybe make friends.” At the mention of friends, Ikari folded his arms and narrowed his eyes in disgust. “Oh, please don’t be like that.” she said with a frown, “Friends are wonderful to have.” Ikari gave her a thumbs down.

“Sigh”

They walked for a little while longer before they ran into Twilight, Isamu, and Luna. At the sight of Luna, Fluttershy hid behind Ikari, shaking like a leaf.

“Hi Fluttershy. Listen we need help with something and we think you are the best mare for the job.” said Twilight.

Poking her head out from behind the demonic shield, Fluttershy looked to the three with a very scared look, “W-what would you l-like m-me to do?” she said in a terrified voice.

Twilight knew her friend would be scared of Luna, but she also knew that Fluttershy was the best pony for this task, “We need you to help Princess Luna with finding an appropriate speaking voice. Will you help us?”

At the thought of helping the alicorn that she feared, Fluttershy ducked her head back behind Ikari with an “EEP!” she then began giving excuses to not help, “O-oh, no I can’t because…I just remembered that I forgot to feed Angel! Oh, and Ikari is feeling very tired so I think we’ll just be going home now. Come along, Ikari.” she said in a hurried tone. She then galloped away while looking over her shoulder. Ikari rolled his eyes and ran after her. A few seconds later, Fluttershy was seen being carried over his shoulder and banging her hooves on his back.

“Noooo! I want to live! I want to live!” she screamed. She gave up when she realized that trying to get out of the human’s hold was useless. When Ikari put her down, Fluttershy was revealed to be keeping her eyes shut tight. When she finally opened them, she was looking at a black moon necklace. Looking up she stared into the eyes of what the pegasus perceived to be a horrible monster.

After staring at the quivering pegasus for a few seconds, Luna looked back to Twilight, “ARE YOU SURE SHE WILL BE ABLE TO HELP US? SHE LOOKS TOO SCARED TO DO ANYTHING!” her confidence in her subject’s plan was starting to wane.

“Trust me, Princess. Fluttershy has one of the sweetest voices around, she can help you.”

Luna turned to face Fluttershy once again, “SO, YOUNG PEGASUS. DO YOU TRULY KNOW WHAT WAY WE SHOULD SPEAK TO OUR CITIZENS? IF SO, ENLIGHTEN US.”
“

Oh…well…um…”

“IS THIS A GOOD LEVEL OF VOLUME?”

“Uh…” Fluttershy said in a quiet voice.

“SHOULD WE MIMIC YOUR VOICE?”

“Ok.” she said, while becoming even more scared.

“HOW IS THIS?”

“Great, lesson over!” she said with a fake smile. She then tried to run away again, but this time she didn’t even get more than five feet away. Looking back, Fluttershy saw that Ikari had her by the tail. Twilight and Isamu looked at each other.

“Should you tell her, or should I?” asked Isamu.

“I’ll do it. She would most likely listen to me more than you. I am one of her subjects after all.”

“Sounds good. May I help as I see fit?”

“Sure.”

Twilight walked over to Luna and tapped her on the shoulder; gaining the night princess’ attention, “I think it should be a bit quieter, princess.”

“HOW IS this!?” she said, sounding unsure of herself.

Isamu took this moment to chime in, “Ok, but you need to make it just a little bit quieter. You still sound a little bit like you’re yelling.” he said, gaining her attention.

Luna thought about what Isamu said and tried again, “How…about…now!?” she said in a slightly quieter voice.

“Better.” complimented Twilight.

“And how about now?” she finally said in a normal voice.

“Perfect.” said Isamu while giving her a thumbs up. He then gave her a pat on the back, “Congratulations, Luna, you’ve completed step number one.”

Feeling overjoyed towards this new development, Luna expressed her appreciation of Fluttershy’s help. She used her telekinesis to grab the pegasus, whom was trying to sneak away at the time, and proceeded to give her a bear hug with her forelegs, “OH, THANK YOU DEAR FLUTTERSHY! OUR NORMAL SPEAKING VOICE WILL SURELY…HUH!?” Suddenly, Isamu got between them, holding Fluttershy under his left arm and pushing the princess back a couple of feet with his right hand, he then used the same hand to put up a half sphere shield, it would be needed considering the stunt he just pulled.

“YOU DARE SEPARATE US FROM OUR SUBJECT WHILE WE ARE SHOWING OUR APRECIATION!?” The now irate princess of the night slammed her fore-hooves on the shield with enough force to crack solid stone. However, Isamu’s shield was so strong that her assault only caused ripples to spread over it.

Isamu was a bit annoyed for a different reason, “Luna. You just got done learning the correct volume of which to speak to your citizens and now, not only did you painfully squeeze one of them, but you also yelled in her face; in front of more of your citizens no less.” They were in an area where there weren’t as many ponies, but it didn’t matter, as they were scared of the princess’ display all the same.

“Twilight! Isamu! You gotta hide us Nightmare Moon is here and…BKCAW!” It was at this moment, that Isamu thought that he had the worst luck. Pinkie, along with the colts and fillies that were with her before, came upon the scene and saw Luna’s forehooves still resting on his shield.

“Oh my gosh! Nightmare Moon is attacking Isamu! If she beats him, she’ll come after us next! RUN!” and with that she lead the children away screaming.

This worried the princess as she tried to call them back. “NO, CHILDREN! WAIT! I mean; no, children! Wait!” but it was no use as Pinkie and the children were too far away and too scared to hear her. To make matters worse, the townsponies that were still in the area continued to act frightened of her as a result of what happened. She couldn’t believe how quickly the situation went downhill, but she had an idea of who was really to blame; at least, that was how she saw it.

“Now look at what you’ve done!” Luna said as she turned to Isamu.

“Well excuuuuuuuse me, princess, but I wasn’t the one who was invading another pony’s personal space and yelling at them in their face.” he said with his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed in a glare. It was unknown when he had put Fluttershy down.

“Please! Everything would’ve been fine if you hadn’t interfered!”

“Are you kidding!? You were squeezing the life out of Fluttershy and yelling! What sort of pony would find that pleasant to watch!?”

“They would’ve seen that I was just showing how thankful I was; idiot!”

“Retard!”

“Ass!”

“Old mare!”

“Quiet!” yelled Twilight from a few feet behind Isamu. Both the human and the alicorn looked at the costumed unicorn, “Fighting won’t solve the issue of Princess Luna being liked by the citizens of Ponyville.”

“Alright, Twilight Sparkle, what will solve it?” asked Luna.

“Plan B.”

A few minutes later found Twilight, Isamu, and Luna coming back to the main area of the festival with Isamu on the right, Luna on the left, and Twilight in between them. Fluttershy had decided to go home for the night and took Ikari with her. As the three of them walked by some of the citizens, they noticed that all of the ponies were either cowering in fear of Luna or turning around and running the other way at the sight of her. This hurt the princess greatly, but surprisingly, it made Isamu quite angry, however, Luna didn’t notice this.

“It is no use, Twilight Sparkle. They have never liked us, and they never will.”

“Oh, come on, Luna.” said Isamu while throwing up his hands in frustration, “You’re already giving up before even trying plan B?” He then realized that he was missing an important piece of information, “By the way, Twilight. What exactly is plan B?” he said when he looked at the purple unicorn.

“Plan B is Applejack. A lot of ponies like her; so maybe she has some ideas on how to get the other ponies to like Princess Luna.” she said with a smile.

“That’s better than my plan.”

“Let me guess; a dazzling entrance for the princess?” Twilight said with a deadpan.

“How did you know!?” said Isamu in mock surprise. He then put his hands to his cheeks and dropped his jaw, furthering the charade of fake shock.

Twilight rolled her eyes as they continued to walk, “Lucky guess.” Isamu wiped off the fake surprised look on his face and replaced it with a grin.

Applejack, who was in a scarecrow costume, was over by the bobbing for apples game saving Pipsqueak from falling in. The second she turned around, what greeted her was the sight of Princess Luna only a few feet in front of her. The shock of suddenly seeing the feared princess caused her to jump a couple feet into the air and then bow down in fright.

Isamu decided to do something different to move things along. He pushed Luna back a bit, stood in her place, and put his hands on his hips, “APPLEJACK!” he yelled. The orange farm mare jumped to her hooves and looked up at the angelic human’s face. “DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF A DEPENDABLE PONY!?” he yelled again, this time sounding like a drill sergeant.

The mentioning of being dependable combined with how he sounded caused Applejack to snap to attention; complete with a salute. “YES SIR!”

“ARE YOU GOING TO LET FEAR KEEP YOU FROM HELPING SOMEPONY IN NEED!?”

“NO SIR!”

“AND ARE YOU…GOING TO HELP PRINCESS LUNA FIT IN AROUND HERE!?” he said, leaning down and getting right up in Applejack’s face; having a stern expression on his own.

“YES SI…Wait, what?” Applejack did a mental double take as her stoic, soldier like expression turned into confusion.

Isamu’s angry drill sergeant face disappeared and was replaced by a smile that was so goofy that it would make Pinkie Pie proud. Getting out of the mare’s face and standing up straight, he then drew attention to the night princess with a grand sweeping gesture, “That’s right, my southern friend.” Walking over to the ruler, Isamu once again draped an arm over her, “Poor ol’ Luna here needs help in socializing with her citizens. So we thought that the most likeable pony in Ponyville would be able to give her that help.” He then walked back over to Applejack, “So what do you say?” he said with a smile.

“Well shoot, I’d be happy to help. Why didn’t ya just say that in the first place, sugarcube?” She really did want to know what was up with the over the top way of asking her for a favor.

“Where’s the fun in just saying it in the first place?”

The orange mare shrugged slightly, “I guess.” She then looked at Luna and walked over to her, “Don’t worry, Princess; it’s easy. All you have to do is have the right attitude. Loosen up a bit, be positive, play some games, and have some fun.” she said as she zipped towards her from different directions. Isamu, meanwhile, was wondering how she was doing that.

“Alright then, what sort of games does one play at a celebration such as this in the modern era?”

Applejack looked around and spotted a nearby game, “Well, Princess, we have right here the spider toss. All ya have to do is use your hooves to throw the spiders at the net. The closer ya are to the middle, the more points ya get.” she explained with a smile. “Why don’t ya give it a try?”

Luna walked up to the bowl of fake plastic spiders and scooped one up in her hoof. She threw it, but the toy fell way too short of the net. She looked back at the group behind her.

“Come on, Princess! You can do it!” cheered Twilight.

The Night Princess tried one more time and succeeded in getting one of the spiders to stick. “Ah! Your Princess enjoys this game!” she said with glee.

Isamu walked up to her with a big grin, “Alright, Luna! Fist bump!” he said while raising one up. The princess wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do in response, so she guessed. Luna raised one of her fore-hooves and clashed it with the human’s fist with an extreme amount of force. A deafening bang came from the meeting of their respective appendages. It’s a good thing that Isamu was using the same amount of force, or else his hand would’ve been crushed.

Isamu looked at the fist and hoof that were still touching with wide eyes, then at Luna with a growing smile that showed his pure white teeth. “Now that’s what I call an epic fist bump!” he complimented while nodding in approval.

Luna returned the smile with a smaller one and put her hoof down, “Thank you.” She then turned to Twilight and Applejack, “Tell us, what other games are there to play?”

And so, Luna, Isamu, and Twilight tried out a few games. The pumpkin catapult, the water balloon clown game, and the ring toss were just a few of them. While they were enjoying these games, some of the adults started to warm up to the princess that they had feared, though most of them kept their distance. The ones who did warm up to her even joined in on the games and also made small talk with her.

They were walking by the bobbing for apples game when Pipsqueak fell in. Luna rushed over to rescue him with her teeth while Isamu looked around as he was sure this would look bad to those who would come upon this scene. Right as he had this thought, Pinkie walked into the area with the group of children, but had not noticed the sort of awkward scene.

“Un, uh, not this time, Pinkie.” The glowing blue human ran towards and a little off to the side of them so that when he got her attention, Pinkie and the children would be looking away from Luna. “Hey Pinkie!” said mare and children looked to him, “Watch this!” He then unfurled his wings as he shot a large eco bolt straight up into the air. It went high before he closed his hand and caused it to explode into hundreds of shining white sparks that rained down on the group before him. Since it was light eco that was raining down, the mare and kids weren’t harmed by it.

The whole group was greatly entertained by this, but none more so than Pinkie, “Wow, Isamu! You’re really on a roll tonight when it comes to performing!”

“Why thank you, my enthusiastic friend.” he said with a bow. Looking up, he saw that Luna had put Pip down and he was now running to join up with the rest of the kids, “If you would excuse me, I need to be getting back to my other friends.” He stood back up, “Farewell for now!” Isamu said as he flew back to his original spot next to Twilight.

Twilight looked up to him as he landed, “Where were you just now?”

“I was preventing Pinkie from starting another panic. I don’t think it would’ve been good for the most easily excitable pony in Equestria to see the princess holding a colt between her teeth.”

Luna walked back up to them with her head hanging down and a sad look on her face, “It would not matter, human.”

“What?” he said to her with a surprised face.

“Most of the citizens are still afraid of me. I tried playing games with them and making small talk, but a majority of the ponies I try to talk to end up being to scared to look directly at me. It’s nice that some of them are willing to give me a chance, but the feeling is ruined when I see a good number of them running away.” she said with a very saddened voice.

“I see that you’re not referring to yourself as we and us anymore.” said Isamu.

She looked up at him with a frown, “Yes, I figured out that since the tradition of talking loudly to my subjects was inappropriate, using the royal “we” when referring to myself might also be socially incorrect; but that isn’t the point. The point is that most of my citizens are still scared of me and I don’t see how I don’t know what more I can do to get more of them to give me a chance.” she said with in a sad tone. Isamu got a little worried and looked to Twilight for a possible solution.

“Sorry Isamu, but if I had known one of the princesses was coming, I would’ve been a lot more prepared for this. I’m just as stumped as you are.” she said with a sad look and flattened ears.

“Dang it, there must be something we can do. Luna is leaving and it’s looking like all of our hard work is going to be for nothing.” he said as he watched said princess walk away. The idea of Luna going home in misery did not sit well with him. Suddenly, a very ominous sound came from seemingly nowhere.

“AWWOOOOOOOOOOO!”

“What was that?” said Twilight with widened eyes, though she did have an idea of what it was.

“I don’t know, but I have a bad feeling about this.”

Right as he said that, a black pegasus with a blue mane came flying up to them, “Twilight, uuuh…”

“Isamu.” he said with a roll of his eyes.

“Right.” the pegasus then turned back to Twilight, “We’ve got biiiiig trouble!”

“What’s wrong, Thunderlane?”

“We have a huge pack of Timberwolves heading this way from the outskirts of town!”

“Wait, what are timberwolves?” asked Isamu.

Twilight turned to explain her now confirmed fears, “Timberwolves are wolves made out of mostly wood and can reform if you shatter them. They live mostly in the Everfree Forest. The only way to get rid of them is by incineration or scaring them off by proving that you’re too big of a threat or loud noises.”

That answered one question, but there was still one thing that was missing, “Do you know why they would come here?”

“Well, they’re usually attracted by the smell of prey, somepony entering their territory, or…” Twilight then looked at the human with widened eyes as she came to a very unfortunate conclusion, “…bright lights.”

Isamu’s eyes widened as he knew exactly what she was getting at, “You have got to be kidding me.”

“I really wish I was.”

Isamu then put on a thinking face, “You said that they can be driven off if I beat them up a bit?”

“Yes.”

He then looked towards Luna, who was now quite a distance away, and smiled, “I think I have an idea of how to kill two birds with one stone.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at this, “What do you mean?” instead of answering her, Isamu flew over to Luna.

Luna, meanwhile, was still feeling down about the night. Nothing that she, Twilight, or Isamu did was having much of an effect on the citizens’ opinion of her. Though she did have to give Isamu some credit, despite first impressions saying otherwise, the human was showing a genuine interest in helping others. Just as she was about to turn a corner, said human landed right in front of her.

“Luna, Ponyville is in danger!”

“What is this danger?” she said, sounding worried.

“A huge pack of timberwolves is coming this way and we’re probably the only ones with good enough combat experience to hold them off.”

Luna’s eyes widened at this sudden news, but then narrowed and her brows furrowed. She knew how dangerous timberwolves could be and she would not let a single one get near her subjects, regardless of how they viewed her.

Isamu grinned maniacally at the face Luna was making. It told him exactly what he wanted to hear, “Alright! Let’s go make some firewood!”

They flew off towards the Everfree Forest since that was the direction the timberwolves were coming from and intercepted them right as the pack entered the park. Isamu was not impressed; he expected animals that looked like they were carved from wood and only had gaps near the joints so that they could move, not random pieces of foliage put together to resemble an animal. To him they looked positively flimsy.

“These rickety things pose a threat to you guys?”

“Don’t underestimate them. They can be very formidable foes.” said Luna, never taking her eyes off the pack of ravenous pack of wolves. Said pack was a sizeable one, one that was large enough to completely block the duo’s view of the forest beyond.

Taking a page from Jak’s book, Isamu started things off in a similar way that said human would, “HA, HA, HA! Take this!” he cackled. He then thrust a hand out at the part of the pack that was directly in front of him and shot out a medium size eco beam that blew apart all that it touched into millions of pieces. “Ha! Told you they were rickety!” he said while looking at Luna. She then pointed a hoof back at where he shot the eco and Isamu saw that the wolves that he blew apart were coming back together, “Riiiight…I forgot they could do that.” he said sheepishly.

“Enough talk, let’s fight!” Luna bellowed.

“You got it!” with that, they rushed into the horde of wooden wolves, delivering countless blows to each of the vicious animals. Bark breaking punches and cedar shattering kicks flew from both powerhouses as they made their way through the pack. Meeting back up in the middle, they saw that a lot of the wolves had reformed their bodies and were advancing from all angles. Not liking the idea of being surrounded Isamu quickly thought of an idea to clear some of them out.

“Luna, give me your hooves!” said Isamu.

“Why!?”

“Just do it!”

Deciding not to question it further, the princess did as requested and found herself swung around in a full circle just as eight of the timberwolves lunged at them. As her hind hooves met each of their faces, the wolves either found their heads smacked clean off or their whole bodies being kicked into the tree line. After two more times of being swung around like a bat, Isamu let Luna’s hind hooves touch the ground. Not missing a beat, she planted said hooves firmly on the ground and started swinging the human around as he did her. They kept alternating until Isamu spoke up.

“On the count of three, I’m going to let go so that I can be flung off! Keep swinging me in a circle when I start counting!” he said as they continued to alternate every three or four swings.

Luna wondered why he wanted to do this, but didn’t question it as she was also curious to see what would happen.

“One!”

Luna started swinging Isamu.

“Two!”

She got ready to stop herself from spinning once he let go.

“THREE!”

Isamu let go and Luna caught herself before she could fall from the excessive spinning. Looking in the direction that he was thrown, she saw that the human was flying at the beasts like a shuriken. Right before he reached their foes, Isamu formed a shield around himself and plowed through them like a train through paper. After he stopped, Isamu flew back to the princess of the night and surveyed the amount of damage his and Luna’s joint attack did.

“Heh, wimps.” he said as he watched a sizeable chunk of them retreat after reforming.

“Fool! There are still the rest of them to deal with!” Luna yelled. Indeed, even though a lot of them left, most of them were still there and looked angrier than before.

Isamu noticed the situation they were in, but still grinned at the princess, “Well then…” he held up a hand that had a ball of light eco in it, “…let’s kick it up a notch!” he said as he threw it at the approaching wolves. It exploded when it came in contact and took out ten of them. There was only enough foliage left to make five of them this time.

Seeing that the two unusual beings were upping their ante, the timberwolf pack decided to up theirs as well by charging at them from all sides at once. This forced the human and alicorn to fly into the air and begin firing at them with eco bolts and magic shots respectively.

Luna had not fought in over a millennium, but her ability to use her magic had not decreased in the slightest as more and more timberwolves were either broken apart or incinerated by her magical might. After firing a few more magic shots at the grounded wolves, Luna charged up her horn and unleashed a continuous beam that destroyed a large portion of the pack as it swept across her field of vision.

Meanwhile, Isamu was having some fun blasting away at the timberwolves below him as he made several passes over the horde. He then created a shield in midair that caused him to drop as he was going forward. The momentum carried him towards a group of timberwolves that were in a strangely triangular pattern and ran them all over, shattering each one. “Strike!” he said as his shield dissipated. Facing his right palm towards the remains, he incinerated most of it with a charged up eco bolt. Both continued with the obliteration of the pack until most of them were either destroyed or ran away. By the time they let up, only a sixth of the timberwolves were left.

Isamu smirked, “So it’s just down to you guys? This should be…”

“AWOOOOOO” howled the one in the lead.

Suddenly, they began to disassemble themselves and the parts floated and converged at the center of the group; starting to form carriage sized feet.

“Uh, Luna, what are they doing?” asked Isamu.

“They’re forming an Oak Wolf!” yelled Luna as she flew up.

Isamu looked up at her as she hovered high in the air, “What’s an Oak Wolf!?” he yelled up to her. He then sniffed the air as the scent of pine wafted to his nose. Looking down to the source, Isamu got a load of the giant head of what he presumed to be what Luna was talking about.

“Oooooooh, so that’s an Oak Wolf.” he said in realization.

“RRRAAAAAAAAAAAARRRR!!!” the giant wolf roared. It then tried to chomp down on him, but the glowing human clapped his hands and vanished from sight just as its humongous jaws bit into his original spot, receiving nothing but a mouthful of dirt for his trouble.

Isamu reappeared next to Luna and smiled, “Ready to take this thing down?”

“Do you even need to ask?” Luna quipped.

They flew down towards the monster wolf and dodged the claws coming their way as it tried to swat them out of the air. Luna fired magic shots at its face while Isamu landed near one of its front paws. He then punched with enough force to shatter two of its tows. “RRRRAAAAAAH!!!” the oak wolf roared in pain. It backed up and tried to reassemble its injured foot, but Luna flew up and bucked it in the cheek. The power in her kick caused the monster to fall over. Seeing a chance to get on top of it to do some damage, Isamu sprinted at it.

(epic music skip to 0:50 and open in new tab by right clicking)
However, the giant wooden wolf spotted the human and tried to crush him with his uninjured paw. It looked like the tactic had worked for all of one second before the paw was lifted up. The oak wolf put more pressure on his paw and Isamu started to struggle to keep the paw from crushing him.

‘CRUNCH’

Suddenly, Luna came down and chopped the paw off by forcefully landing on it. “Thanks for the weapon.” said Isamu as he held the giant severed limb. He then flew up to its face and used the paw to slap it a few times. Luna helped by ramming into its side after Isamu was done. The oak wolf once again fell down. Only this time, more of its body was severely damaged. Its front midsection was shattered, it was missing a paw, and huge pieces of its face were gone. However, the wolf wasn’t done yet. The pieces that lay scattered around the park glowed and floated towards the main body. As it repaired itself, the wolf started to limp over to the two hovering individuals in an effort to continue the fight.

“Damn. This thing just won’t quit.” said Isamu incredulously.

“Indeed.” Luna replied. She had an idea, but needed to be sure of something. Looking beyond where the wolf was she saw that the Everfree Forest was behind it; meaning that they were facing away from Ponyville.

Looking to Isamu she told him her plan, “Human.”

“It’s Isamu.”

“Whatever. Listen, I have a very destructive spell that will obliterate the Oak Wolf, but it needs a few seconds to be properly cast.”

“Ooooh I get it. Don’t say another word. I’m on it.”

“Just be sure to keep it in front of me. I don’t want to risk the citizens’ lives.”

“Got it!” Isamu said as he flew off. With that, Luna began manipulating her magic into the correct form for casting the spell. Meanwhile, Isamu distracted the wolf, but was careful to keep it in that particular area of the park.

‘BOOM’

“Whoops!”

‘BAM’

“Missed me!”

‘BANG’

“You probably suck at whack-a-metal head!”

Isamu was using a weaker version of his flash freeze to have just enough speed to keep ahead of the Oak Wolf’s now repaired paws which were trying to smash the glowing human like a firefly. Each failed attempt got the wolf angrier and angrier. This also resulted in it getting sloppier with its stomping.

After a few more moments of dodging, Isamu spotted something that put a smile on his face, “Oh, this is just too perfect.” he then looked at Luna and guessed that the princess was close to completing the spell as evidenced by the star-like glow that was emanating from her horn. He sprinted over to her and started making the same light he used for his regeneration power, shine down on Luna.

“What are you doing!? I thought I told you to distract it!?” she yelled.

“I’m just giving you some extra energy in case this takes a lot out of you. Besides, aren’t you almost done with charging up your spell?”

“Yes, but now the wolf is coming right at us. You’re lucky that I’m ready now. Stand back!” Isamu did as requested, but still kept the ray of light on her. The moment she cast the spell, multiple large portals opened up and what could be seen from the oak wolf’s side were hundreds of white pinpoints of light. The beast only had a second to wonder what was going to come out of the portals before it was pelted with an almost immeasurable amount of shooting stars. Each one punched a baseball sized hole in its body and burned the area around it. In seconds, the Oak Wolf and two miles of the Everfree Forest were reduced to ash.

Letting go of her magic, Luna took a deep breath and surveyed the destruction she caused. She smiled when she saw that the oak wolf was too damaged to reform itself and looked to her left when she saw Isamu walking up to her with a huge smile on his face while clapping, “Now that is what I call stylish.” he said after he stopped. “A+” he then gave a thumbs up.

Luna raised an eyebrow and gave a smirk, “I didn’t know I was being graded on my performance. Also, thank you for giving me some of your energy with that light.”

“Oh, you mean that glorified spotlight? That didn’t do anything besides illuminate you and the area around you.” he said with a cheeky grin.

Now Luna was confused, “But then, what was it for?” she said while lowering the raised brow.

“So that THEY could focus mostly on you!” he said while pointing behind her. She looked and beheld most of the citizens of Ponyville were standing at the edge of the park with mouths once again agape at the display they had just witnessed and once again they stomped the ground in applause. A large portion of them ran up to them and gave her various compliments.

“We saw the whole fight with the oak wolf!” a pony said.

“You and Isamu were amazing!” another said.

“Our hero!” still another said.

Every adult was there giving her praise and the princess was feeling more and more joy over this change in their view. After a minute or so of seeing and talking to their new hero, the ponies elected to go back to the area in front of town hall to continue the festival. As Luna, Isamu, and Twilight followed the crowd back, Luna felt that she needed to ask something.

“Hu…I mean, Isamu?” she asked.

“Yeah?”

“Why did you make sure that the ponies of Ponyville knew that it was I that vanquished the oak wolf?”

“Because my whole reason for even getting you to help me was so that I could make you look like a hero.”

“What?” she wasn’t sure if she heard him right.

“Yep, see I really didn’t want to fail at helping to get the ponies to like you. So, when I heard that the town was going to be attacked, I used it as a way of making you look like a hero so that your citizens would at least give you a chance. Now all you have to do is use your new social skills to build a relationship with them.”

“Thank you, very much, Isamu. I greatly appreciate your effort.” she said with a smile. They then walked in silence for a bit until Luna had another question, “One last thing, Isamu. Why did you put so much effort into getting my subjects to like me?”

Isamu stopped and so did Luna and Twilight after a few paces. They then turned around and looked to see that he was thinking about his response. He thought about it for a moment before looking back at Luna, “Well…I guess it’s because your situation reminds me a little bit of the one that Jak was in.”

“Really, what happened?” Luna said, feeling sorry for this person that Isamu used to be a part of.

“Like I told Twilight, I’d rather not have to repeat myself. The next time Twilight and her friends are together, I’ll tell them and Twilight can tell you and Celestia about it. Unless you want to come to the next get together they have.”

Luna shook her head, “No, that’s ok. I’ll most likely be too busy for that. This is probably one of the few times I can take some time off.” She then remembered what they were talking about, “But back to the matter at hoof, you put so much effort in to this because you didn’t want something similar to happen to me as it did with Jak?”

“Exactly; I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if one of my friends went through the same rejection that Jak did.” he said with a smile.

“You consider me your friend!?” Luna said in surprise.

“Luna, you care deeply for your citizens, are willing to protect them no matter what cost, despite what some of them think of you, made an effort to learn how to act around them; and you’re pretty fun to hang out with if the time spent playing games with you is any indication. Bottom line, you’re a good mare, Luna. There isn’t any reason why I wouldn’t want to be your friend.

Luna teared up at this. She didn’t know what to say. She wasn’t expecting anypony tonight, besides maybe Twilight Sparkle, to want to be her friend, much less point out reasons why they would want to. What made this situation even more surprising, but also heartwarming, was that he wanted to be friends with her despite her showing of disdain for his him and initial unwillingness to let him help. He still wanted to be her friend; and now the idea of him being one didn’t seem that farfetched.

“And you have me as a friend too, princess. I already knew you were a changed mare who just wanted her citizens to like her. Well, now you have that and two knew personal friends.” said Twilight as she walked up next to Isamu.

Luna looked at the human and unicorn that stayed by her side from the beginning and was unable to hold her emotions in any longer. She rushed up and nearly knocked Isamu and Twilight down when she hugged them the tightest she’d ever hugged anypony before. They were stunned for a second, but smiled and returned the hug with just as much pressure.

After a moment, Isamu spoke up, “Come now, Luna. If you don’t stop hugging us, ponies will start to talk.” He said with an amused grin.

Luna continued to hug him, despite what he said, “You two are my first friends in this new era, be quiet and let me hug you.”

Twilight’s smile grew as they continued the embrace. It looked like their plan to get the citizens of Ponyville to like the princess was a huge success. Better still, Luna had gained a new friend. It seemed like nothing could possibly go wrong.

Once again, somepony had tempted fate as a particularly pink mare came on the scene right when Luna was still hugging Isamu. Seeing this, Pinkie once again caused a panic. Except this time, it was just among the kids that she was with.

“Oh no! Nightmare Moon is attacking Isamu again and this time she’s attacking Twilight as well! Run away before we’re caught in the crossfire!” she yelled.

Both she and the children once again ran away. At this point, the three had ended their hug and Isamu was getting sick of Pinkie stirring up a panic over nothing. He turned to Luna to see that she was confused over Pinkie and the children’s reaction to her. He then turned to Twilight who nodded, telling him that she was thinking the exact same thing.

“Luna, as your new friends, let us deal with this matter.”

“Thank you. Come find me when you’re finished.”

Both Isamu and Twilight nodded to her and ran in the direction that Pinkie Pie went. After some time passed, Twilight looked up to Isamu while he was looking around for the pink mare, “Why don’t we split up and signal each other when one of us has found her?”

“Sounds good to me. I’ll go this way…” he said while pointing in one direction, “…and you go that way.” He said when he pointed in the opposite one.

With their actions planned out, they proceeded to do just that. Isamu flew around so that he could have a bird’s eye view, and Twilight used her horn to light up the darker areas. However, all this effort was not needed as a mare in a chicken suit wasn’t that hard to spot. Both of them saw her walking near one of the more open areas of the residential part of town and signaled each other at the same time. Twilight shot a large column of purple light into the air and Isamu fired an exploding eco shot in the same direction.

Pinkie, meanwhile, was enjoying herself. She just got another huge load of candy from several houses and was making her way back to the festival area to play some more games. Suddenly, from a nearby alley, Twilight walked out with a stern expression on her face, but Pinkie didn’t seem to notice.

“Hi, Twilight! How goes Nightmare Night?” Pinkie said with her usual humongous smile.

Twilight wasn’t as chipper in her response, “Pinkie Pie, we need to talk.”

“What about?” Pinkie asked jubilantly, still oblivious to Twilight’s current mood. She then heard a soft thud behind her and turned to see Isamu standing there with his arms folded and the same stern expression on his face.

Before she could say anything, Isamu answered the question that was directed at Twilight, “We want to talk to you about what just happened back there when Luna was hugging me.”

Pinkie finally understood that there was something wrong as her smile turned into a small frown of worry. However, she didn’t know exactly what was wrong. “I don’t get it.” she said.

Twilight walked up to the party pony’s side, “Why are you still acting scared around Princess Luna even after she risked her wellbeing to save the town?”

“And why are you causing the kids to be scared of her just as much as you are?” asked Isamu with narrowed eyes and a frown. To any lesser pony, narrowed pure white, glowing eyes would be intimidating, but Pinkie being the element of laughter meant she could shrug stuff like that off. So the glare didn’t faze her. However, it did let her know that the blue biped was not in a happy mood.

Looking between them, Pinkie told them straight out what was up, “That’s part of the fun of Nightmare Night!” she said with her smile back on.

Twilight took a few steps to be next to Isamu. Both of them then asked rather eloquently, “What?”

To their further confusion, Pinkie Pie began giggling before elaborating, “Oh, you two! Don’t you see? Part of the fun of Nightmare Night is to be scared.”

“What? That doesn’t make any sense. Why would it be fun to be scared?” asked Twilight. To most, it probably wouldn’t make much sense. Fear is usually thought of as an emotion that is used for knowing when something is dangerous and is unpleasant to feel and usually avoided when possible. What her friend just said went against that entirely and threw Twilight for a loop.

After some thought, however, Isamu was the one to figure it out first, “It’s for thrills, isn’t it?” he said while unfolding his arms.

“Wait, what?” Twilight was confused by what he said.

Isamu turned to her to explain, “Twilight, do some pegasi like to do death defying stunts? Stuff that could get them hurt or killed if they mess up?”

“Well the Wonderbolts are a team of stunt fliers and I suppose they like their job of performing said stunts.” she replied.

“Why do you think they like doing what they do?”

After a second of thought, Twilight finally understood, “Oooooh, I get it! Yes. A racing heart, the high of adrenaline, and endorphins pumping through the brain; all of those things combined can result in a very fun experience.”

Pinkie’s huge smile returned when she saw that Twilight had figured it out. Though it was a bit more scientific sounding than what she was thinking, “Yep, you got it! That’s exactly why it’s fun to be scared sometimes!”

“Well, I don’t like it.” said Isamu, gaining the attention of the two mares, “I don’t like that your thrill seeking was at someone else’s expense. It would’ve been better if Luna was in on it, but the fact still stands; you and everypony else were doing something that would’ve gotten one arrested for treason on my world i.e. slandering a ruler and intentionally causing a panic because of it.”

“Come on, Isamu. Don’t you think you’re being a little harsh?” said Twilight.

“No, I’m not. I’m going to tell Luna about this and see if she’ll stop this nonsense.” He turned to walk back to where Luna was, but stopped when Pinkie popped up in front of him with big puppy dog eyes and a quivering lower lip.

“Please don’t do it, Isamu! Think of all the children’s fun you’ll be ruining! Please don’t get Nightmare Night cancelled!” Pinkie said with the saddest voice she could muster.

Isamu looked at that sad face and tried to retort, “Yeah but…you…d’oooh fine; you win!” he relented, “I won’t convince her to get rid of Nightmare Night, but I am going to mention the reason why you and the kids are acting scared. Whatever she decides will be final. I’m not going to go against my new friend’s wishes. Got it?”

Pinkie’s extremely sad face returned to its original super-sized smile in half a second. She then hopped away happily, “Thanks, Isamu!”

The winged human was not amused, ‘Sigh’ “You ponies and your cuteness.” he said while shaking his head and face palming.

His exasperation was amusing to one certain unicorn, however, “Tee-he-he-he, come on let’s go clear things up with the princess.” she said while walking past him.

“Right behind you.” he replied as he followed.

A few minutes of walking found the two of them back in the main festival area where they saw Luna sitting at a table while eating some cotton candy and listening to the band on stage. She seemed to be enjoying herself despite the fact that she was sitting by herself. However, she might have been happy by the fact that occasionally, citizens would greet her with a friendly wave instead of running away or bowing out of fear for their lives. Turning her head in their direction, she spotted and waved them over. Isamu sat down towards Luna’s left and Twilight sat more towards Luna’s right.

“So, tell me why they were acting that way.” she asked as they sat down with her..

“It turns out that it’s part of the fun of Nightmare Night.” answered Twilight.

“Excuse me?”

“Let me explain.” said Isamu. He then explained how they found it fun to get scared because of the thrill and rush of adrenaline they got with it.

After he was done explaining, Luna was not entirely surprised since she remembered that the adventurers in days of old would sometimes do dangerous things for a similar rush. She did find it strange that ponies got that rush from things such as jump scares or running away from something that was scary. However, after some further thought, she then attributed this to another change that came with living in a new period of time.

“Well, if they don’t truly fear me, as one would a ferocious lion that escaped its cage, then I suppose me “scaring” them is okay. It is all in good fun, correct?” said Luna.

“Exactly, princess! Thank you for understanding.” said Twilight, happy that the princess wasn’t mad at this news.

Isamu, on the other hand, was genuinely surprised. He thought for sure that Luna would want nothing more than to cancel Nightmare Night forever; or at the very least, find someone else that was willing to be the new symbol of fear for this holiday. He looked to his right while crossing his arms and furrowing his brows in thought. He contemplated reevaluating his personality profile of Luna. He was sure that he had figured her out, but apparently Luna was capable of lightening up when it came to matters such as these.

Luna noticed his look and felt that maybe she could do something that would help him get into the spirit of things. Remembering what Twilight said to him before, Luna turned to the purple unicorn, “You know, Twilight, if I’m going to scare ponies during this holiday, I’m going to need a very scary and stylish entrance for whenever I visit. Oh, and I’ll need to be extra scary and stylish for when I see your pink friend and the children again.” she said with a wink.

Twilight realized exactly what the princess was doing and played along, “Oh, yes, Princess; I agree. Do you know anypony who could help Princess Luna with that, Isamu?”

They both looked to where he was sitting to find that the hammy human was gone. A few feet away from their table, a spotlight from seemingly the sky itself appeared and from above, said human floated down with his arms folded. When he landed, he gave a grand flourish and spin and stopped with an over the top pose.

“Did somepony say ‘stylish’!?” he said with his own rendition of the Royal Canterlot Voice. The major difference was that instead of it sounding harsh, it had a more larger than life tone to it.

Some time later

Pinkie and the kids were walking along, enjoying their time collecting more candy, when suddenly, Twilight came running up to them.

“Pinkie, come quick! Isamu and Princess Luna are fighting in the Everfree Forrest!” she pleaded.

Pinkie raised an eyebrow to this, “Ummm…Twilight? We ran away last time the Princess attacked our friend. Why would we want to go anywhere near another one? We could get hurt.” The kids with her all nodded in agreement, some of them voicing such. Even though she knew that the princess wasn’t evil, she still wanted to pretend to be scared in the spirit of this holiday.

“Because, I have reason to believe that if he has a group of ponies cheering him on, he’ll win!” Twilight said with urgency in her voice.

“Oh my gosh, really!? Why didn’t you say so!?” Pinkie, being the mare she was, jumped at the idea of helping someone by cheering them on. Even if to most it would seem a little fishy that a group of ponies cheering someone on guarantees a victory. Regardless, Pinkie was too hyped up at the prospect of assisting someone through raising their spirits to notice how fallible this logic was. She then turned to the children behind her.

“Come on, kids! Let’s go cheer for Isamu!” she yelled excitedly. Pinkie then took off running in the direction of the forest.

“YEEAAAAAH!” cheered the kids as they followed; all except for Pipsqueak who had some suspicions. Little did Twilight or anypony else know, the young colt could be smart for his age at times. However, he decided to follow anyway since his suspicion lead to curiosity on how things would play out.

Minutes later, near the Nightmare Moon statue, Pinkie, Twilight, and the kids came upon a scene that was both amazing and scary. Princess Luna, looking like how she did as Nightmare Moon, was firing magic shots at Isamu while he returned a volley of his eco bolts. Seeming to not notice the ponies’ arrival, both continued to shoot at each other until the supposed Nightmare Moon sent Isamu to the ground with a lucky shot.

Getting up from the ground, Isamu turned just as the evil mare landed and pointed at her while flaring his wings out. “You shall not win, Nightmare Moon! I will save the citizens of Ponyville by defeating you!” he said overdramatically.

“HA, HA, HA, HA, HA!!!” cackled Nightmare Moon, “You really think so!? Try this spell on for size blue colt!” she took aim and fired a greenish blue beam from her horn. Isamu put up a shield just in time as the dangerous looking laser hit.

Meanwhile, from the sidelines, Pinkie, Twilight and the kids were watching the fight with anticipation, until Pinkie got there attention. “Come on, kids! Let’s cheer him on!”

“YOU CAN DO IT, ISAMU!” they cheered together, all except for Twilight. Pipsqueak found this strange, but continued to watch the fight after a second of pondering.

Their cheering, unfortunately, had no effect. Five seconds after they cheered, their winged hero’s shield collapsed and the spell hit him square in the chest, sending him back to the ground on his back.

‘GASP’

The group was shocked by this turn of events. They hoped that the one that could take on nearly a whole pack of timberwolves and an oakwolf would be able to handle the terror of the night.

“Splendid!!!” Nightmare Moon said with a maniacal smile.

“W-w-what did you do to him!?” said a fearful filly in an alien costume.

Turning to the now terrified children and Pinkie, Nightmare’s grin showed her razor sharp teeth and eyes which appeared to be glowing for some inexplicable reason. Said eyes widened and a slight amount of drool began leaking from between her teeth at the sight of the children and one pink mare. Twilight was nowhere to be seen.

“Oh, how wonderful! The snacks have arrived! Well, my tasty little morsel, I’ve taken control of your weak friend. So, he is now my mindless slave!” she said with a wicked grin. “To my side, minion!” she ordered in a sort of cheesy evil voice.

Isamu raised himself up using only his feet. When he was completely standing up, he hunched over and looked over to the ponies with unfocused and half-lidded eyes and a jaw that gapped as thought it had become unhinged. His eyes, instead of the usual white, shined the same shade of green as the spell, further proving that it was the spell that was making him look this way.

“Uuuuuuuuuuuh” he moaned as he slowly walked over to them, the sway in his step showing that he was clearly out of it.

Pinkie and the kids took a few steps back in fear. Noticing this, Nightmare continued her monologue.

“He will be gathering you all up for my feast in case you run as I’m sure you will no doubt do.” She said while licking her lips, “Since there are more of you than there are of him, I think he will need a little help!” She then stomped a fore hoof. Suddenly, a few dozen hooves broke the surface of the ground behind her and the children became even more scared when a large group of zombie ponies climbed out; each moaning in the same way Isamu was.

“Get them!” she yelled. The zombies began running at the group who screamed and ran away, except for Pip, who was already hiding in a bush after Isamu’s mind control was revealed. He ducked his head back in and shook with fright as the moaning grew louder and the children’s screams grew softer as they got further and further away. Then, for no seemingly explainable reason, the zombies’ moaning stopped except for Isamu’s which stopped only after Twilight’s voice cut in.

“They’re gone, Isamu. You can stop with the undead act.”

This confused the young colt, so he decided to poke his head out to see what was happening and discovered that the so called, ‘mindless slave’ was no longer acting mindless at all and his eyes were back to the same white that they were supposed to be. Princess Luna had also changed back to her regular form; looking more regal than evil. She also had a slightly worried look on her face. Pipsqueak was wondering to himself why this was until Isamu started talking again.

“Aawwwww, but I wanted to practice some more for my big break on…what was that street in Manehattan called; the one where all the famous theaters are located?” he said.

“Broadmare.” the unicorn answered in a deadpan voice.

“Yeah, Broadmare. Don’t crush my dream of making it big on Broadmare, Twilight! My poor, eco powered heart wouldn’t be able to take it!” he said overdramatically while putting a hand up to his head as though he were about to faint. He was obviously joking as the human had never shown any interest in becoming a famous stage performer and the way he was acting would’ve made even Rarity call him a drama queen.

“I’m sure it will heal with time.” Twilight said with a roll of her eyes at his silly behavior.

“More importantly,” Luna cut in, “I hope you were right when you said that they enjoyed being scared. I can’t help feeling that we may have over done it.” she said with worry. Luna then looked in the direction the kids had run off with concern on her face.

“Oh, I’m sure they will be alright. Once they realize that it was all just an act, the kids will thank you for making this the best Nightmare Night ever.” Isamu assured.

“I’ll say!” Pipsqueak spoke up. Up until now he had gone unnoticed, but now that he knew it was all pretend, he decided to show himself. Running over to the three adults, the pirate costumed colt bowed to the princess in respect for a few seconds before speaking to her, “That was a truly scary performance, Princess! You really had me going there for a minute. Thank you for making this a great first Nightmare Night for me, Princess Luna! I hope you come back to scare us next year too!” he turned to run back to his friends and tell them about the whole thing, but not before giving her a hug and saying “Bye!” he then ran back to town.

Princess Luna’s heart warmed at the young colt’s reaction to hers and Isamu’s performance. She was also thankful that what she was told earlier had proved to be true. Looking over to Isamu, she saw a smug grin plastered on his face.

“I told you something good would come from this.” his arms folded, “Somepony has a fan~” he said in a sing-song voice.

The princess smiled at him, but then turned to Twilight Sparkle when she remembered something her sister told her earlier that day, “Twilight, wouldn’t this night make for a great friendship report to my sister?”

“Friendship report?” questioned Isamu.

“You’re right, Princess. Thank you for reminding me.” Twilight said, seemingly not hearing her glowing friend.

“Wait a second, why would Celestia want you to send her a report on friendship?” asked Isamu.

“Well, that is the reason why I’m currently living in Ponyville. I am to give a weekly report on anything that I learn about friendship while living here.” Twilight explained.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa…you didn’t know anything about making and maintaining friendships before coming to Ponyville!?” he asked in shock.

“Y-yes.” Twilight said embarrassedly.

Isamu face palmed, “Oh, Celestia.” he said in exasperation. He was astounded that for all the knowledge that she was taught, his new friend hadn’t learned a thing about basic social interaction over the years that she was the princess’ student. How could Celestia neglect something so necessary for a young filly to learn? One thing was for sure, his respect for the solar ruler took a slight hit.

Shaking his head, he then looked back at his two friends, “Well, anyway, let’s go back and enjoy the rest of the festival.”

“Yes, let’s.” replied Luna.

After walking back into Ponyville, they did just that. They had pleasant conversations with various ponies, replayed some of the games, and Luna jumped out at a few of the citizens who, after the initial shock, realized that it was a harmless prank and laughed along with her. It was a very fantastic end to a very scary night. As things began winding down, Luna got into her chariot and bid her new friends farewell. They waved to her as she left, then turned to go back to the library. However, they first had to find Spike. What they saw made Twilight sigh in exasperation and Isamu chuckle and shake his head in amusement. Spike was passed out on top of a pile of candy wrappers with a distended belly.

“Heh, heh, kids and their sweet tooth, right?” he said.

Twilight rolled her eyes at him, “Yes, well…” she looked back to the baby dragon, “He’s definitely eating something healthy tomorrow. All of that candy can’t be good for him.” She said as Spike was lifted onto her back in her telekinetic grip. They then began walking back to their home.

“What are you, his mom?” Isamu joked. Twilight gave him a glare, to which Isamu responded with a cheshire grin. After a moment of grinning, he changed the subject as they continued their walk, “Soooo…what are you going to write to the princess?”

“Hmmmm…” Twilight said while thinking about what had happened that night.

Later, back at the Library

Dear, Princess Celestia

When you first sent me to Ponyville, I didn’t learn anything about friendship. Tonight, I met somepony who was having the same problem; your sister, Princess Luna. She taught me that one of the best things that you can do with friendship is to give it to someone else, the ponies of Ponyville learned that even if a someone seems intimidating or scary, when offering your friendship you can find a whole new pony underneath. Light, or Isamu as he wants to be called for now on, can attest to this.

He helped the princess gain Ponyville’s approval and didn’t ask for anything like money or a favor in return. The only thing he was hoping for was for her to consider him a friend. Later, after being questioned why he put so much effort into helping her, Isamu explained to the Princess that he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself if he let one of his friends go through the same rejection that his original host, Jak, did. I had about as much surprise as the princess did. He already considered her a friend regardless of how she treated him before. He then told her all of the traits that he observed from her that made him want to be her friend. Princess Luna became so overjoyed that she gave him a hug to signify her returning of his friendship. By offering his friendship, Isamu discovered a mare that was easy to be friends with.

It was easily the best part of the night.

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle

After she finished writing her letter, Twilight looked over to the couch that Isamu was currently sleeping on. He was lying on his stomach so that he wouldn’t sleep on his huge wings at an odd angle and half of his legs were dangling over the side because of his height. Twilight went to get a spare blanket. She then draped it over him with her magic.

“Good night, Isamu. Thank you for all you’ve done tonight.” she said with a smile. Going up to her room, Twilight passed by spike, who was sleeping in his basket and picked a random book off the shelf to read before going to bed. When she read the title, she paused for a moment, the title and picture of a wolf’s head reminded her of something, “Memories of Cane L?” As she continued to look at the picture, it finally hit her.

“I hope none of those timberwolves went near Fluttershy’s cottage when they retreated into the Everfree Forest. She does live close to there after all.”

Meanwhile, at the edge of the Everfree Forest

Three of the timberwolves that managed to get away had happened upon a small cottage with many animals’ homes around it. The one in front lead them into the home, thinking that they could find an easy meal inside. Displaying surprising dexterity with his mouth, the lead wolf opened the door and let his two comrades in first. After nosing the door shut, the living room they were in turned from slightly darkened to almost pitch black with very little moon light coming from the windows.

“Heh, heh, heh!”

They were still able to see pretty well in the dark, being wolves and all, but did not see were the sudden scary chuckling came from. That was until a white smile with razor sharp teeth revealed itself from the shadows. The leader and his fellow wolves didn’t like the looks of this.

Outside, at that very moment, a sea-foam green unicorn with a harp cutie mark on her flank was walking by when she heard the sounds of pained yowls and the crunching of wood coming from inside the house. A second later, the front door flew open and a timberwolf with half of its body burned away tried to drag itself away. Suddenly, from the darkness within, five sword-like claws shot as fast as lightning into the victim’s torso, skewering it and pulling it back in. The last thing the unicorn heard before it was engulfed by the darkness was the wolf howling out what sounded like “Help me!”

After it was engulfed, more of the crunching sound was heard and wood chips started flying out of the opening. It wasn’t until the wind blew the door shut that the stream of wooden shrapnel stopped. The unicorn stared wide eyed at what she had just seen for a while until she decided to turn and continue walking back home, wanting to forget the horrific sight she had just witnessed.

Author's Note

I am soooooooooooooooooooo sorry for taking so long. There was college stuff to deal with, I'm looking for a job, and most distracting of all...SKYRIM. Definitely the Skyrim.

A challenge to all of you. Catch the references.

Also, remember to leave a comment.