PROLOGUE
Nightmare night, Ponyville
Twilight Sparkle stood expectantly for the Princess to arrive. They'd made all the preparations to prepare Nightmare Night. Luna was going to be there any minute, but Twilight kept worrying that she'd be late. Not that the Princess was tardy, it was just that she tended to be a bit... unpredictable.
As she stood there thing two figures had swooped down from the darkness of above. Twilight didn't notice them until one cleared their throat. She jumped, and blushed deeply.
"Oh, sorry," She apologised. The two figures looked at her expectantly. Brightening her horn, Twilight could see that they were part of the infamous night-guard. With dragon-like yellow eyes, bat-like wings, and suspicious sharp teeth, the Guard looked very intimidating.
"Miss. Sparkle," One of them stated. "The Princess shall be arriving in a few minutes."
"Wasn't she with you?" Twilight asked. It was rare to see the Princess' without their guards, and anyway, it was Nightmare Night! You never know what could happen on the spookiest night of the year!
"No, Miss. Sparkle," The same one said. "She wanted to travel alone, for her costume."
The lavender mare sighed with relief. At least she was safe. Looking down at her own costume (Of Starswirl the fourth, creator of the teleportation theory), she realised that only Princess Luna would probably get it. She had wanted to wear her Starswirl the Bearded one, but had decided not to when she found out that Starswirl put bells on his suit to tell him if there were any horse flies flying around him. Apparently he had been quite paranoid about it, so he had put no less than 137 bells altogether on his clothes.
"Well thank you sirs," Twilight replied happily to the Guard. The one whom had spoken flinched slightly, but held their ground.
"If I may ask," Twilight inquired, "What are your names?"
The two bat ponies looked at one another, then at Twilight. Finally the second one asked hesitantly, "Is that an order, Miss. Sparkle?"
Twilight looked surprised. "Well if you don't want to tell me, that's fine. I was just wondering."
"I am Frolicsome Meadowlark," The second one answered. "And this is my colleague, Sunny Days."
The amaranthine mare did a double take. "Frolicsome Meadowlark and- and Sunny Days?"
The two Guard nodded their heads. Just then, a deep laughter could be heard. It seemed to come from all around, and had three tones to it. Twilight arced her head around to see a black mare with a billowing dark blue mane and blue slit-like eyes laughing murderously at her.
She did the only thing she could.
She screamed.
Nightmare moon stood behind Twilight, now giggling like a little filly. "Oh Twilight Sparkle!" She screamed with laughter. "Your face- it was hilarious!"
Twilight just stood there confused until Sunny Days called out, "Your Highness? I think you are frightening Miss. Sparkle."
The nightmare laughed one more time, before shrinking in size to be Princess Luna. She giggled, a hoof over her mouth. "Oh Twilight, you are so gullible!" The unicorn mare in front of her blushed and straightened her hat, which had fallen lopsided when she saw her.
"Pr- Luna!" She cried delightfully, slightly stumbling as she nearly said the word "Princess". Luna, embraced Twilight, and smiled warmly.
"Twilight! We- I mean, I am glad to see you!" The princess happily yelled. She then broke her glomp and stood up awkwardly. "I mean, I am pleased that my costume has manage to scare you!"
"Yes, Luna. That was quite terrifying!" Twilight stammered, still wiping sweat off her brow. She got off her flank and proclaimed loudly, "Let us ago to Nightmare Night!"
"So, we've been to Applejack's, Rarity's, The School, where else do we need to go to?" Pinkie Pie asked the group of little children following her. Newt Pippington British-hooves- I mean, Pip, wearing his ninja costume waved his legs in the air frantically.
"Ooh, ooh! I know!" He cried. "We need to go to Twilight's!" All the kids went "Ohhh" in synchronisation. Then they all galloped off, leaving Pinkie yelling, "Hay! Wait for me!" Dressing as a turkey isn't very good if you want to run fast.
They arrived at Twilight's to see two bat-ponies standing outside it. "Nice costume!" Pinkie happily chirped. "But isn't that the same one you wore last year?" The Guard just stared ahead indifferently. "Huh. Sorry 'bout insulting you," The fuchsia pony apologised. "I just like things being different."
Suddenly, there was a great wind behind them, and somepony laughed murderously. Pinkie and the kids turned round to see Nightmare Moon standing there. The waited a few seconds, just staring at eachover. Then the children started screaming and Pinkie Pie laughed hysterically.
"Oh Loony!" She giggled. "That's the best one yet!" The children stopped shrieking, confused, until Nightmare Moon transformed into Luna, also in a laughing fit. Pip was quiet for a moment then said, "Wow Princess! That was amazing!" All of the foals cheered as they crowded round Luna. She smiled warmly and hugged them all.
"What a lovely time to be in Ponyville, Nightmare Night!" She proclaimed. Twilight came round the side of her tree-house and walked up to Pinkie. "Loony?" She asked, with an eyebrow raised. "Really?"
The pink earth pony stopped laughing and explained, "What? It makes sense." Twilight sighed at the mare's antics and trotted over to Princess Luna, whom had been surrounded by little filly's and colts.
"Luna?" She asked hesitantly. The lunar mare pulled herself away from the giggling foals.
"Yes, Twilight?"
"I was wondering... about your Guards..."
Luna's ears pricked up at this. "Yes?"
"Were they enchanted to look like that?"
Luna shook her head. "No, they were not. They come from a colony of bat-ponies. I found out about them whilst I was on the moon. When I recovered from the Nightmare, I asked some of them if they wished to be my guards. I met the colony, their leader, and her sons, Frolicsome Meadowlark and Sunshine Smiles."
Twilight cocked her head. "Apparently the Guard right now are Frolicsome, and a Guard called Sunny Days. What's with the names? I mean, they're part of the Night Guard!"
"Frolicsome Meadowlark is a name passed down from generations, and so is Sunny Days. Many of their names were their grandpony's or something."
Twilight shrugged, and they proceeded to the town square. Luna repeated the process with many ponies, startling one stallion to gallop rather clumsily into a Policepony box, which quickly disappeared. The night slowly wore on, as they put bags of candy at the statue, and finally, all the little fillies and colts went to bed.
"Aw..." Pip moaned. "I wanted to stay up later!"
"Now, Pip!" Luna exclaimed. I can understand you wanting to stay awake during my night, but sleep is important! You really should be getting to bed!"
Pip grumbled and went off. Luna escorted him back to his house, the Night Guard slowly following behind. Twilight sighed with relief. It'd been a long night. Just as she was about to enter her house, a black figure flew towards her, colliding with a crunch.
"Miss. Sparkle!" The figure cried. As they stepped back into the light, Twilight could see it was Sunny Days. "Miss. Sparkle!" She cried again. "The Princess has vanished!"
