-<>~--*--~<>-<

Aurelic's costume is that of a timberwolf, minus his face, instead using Forge's face within the maw of the timberwolf to keep up appearances.

Forge walks right on up to Twilight's door, knocking. He's promptly greeted by Twilight wearing a Starswirl costume, not that many would recognize it, or appreciate how accurate it is.

"Oh, hey Forge. I was just about to head out with Spike." Twilight says with a grin.

Spike pokes his head out the door, wearing a costume of a purple dragon. "Woah, dude! That timberwolf costume is so cool!" He compliments.

"Thanks, your is pretty cool too Spike." Forge says, observing the dragon costume. "A dragon in a dragon suit. Dragon-ception." He comments.

"Dragon... what?" Spike asks.

Forge shakes his head. "Nevermind, guess that particular thing isn't well known."

Twilight clears her throat, using a hoof to flip her fake beard.

Forge squints his eyes at her costume. "OH, that's totally Gandalf, right? Or is it Dumbledore?"

Twilight groans, pouting. "It's neither, I'm-"

"Starswirl, I know. But I had you for a second there." Forge chuckles.

"I didn't know you read Lady of the Rings and Marey Trotter." Twilight remarks.

"Oh my fucking god this is too much, WHY IS IT ALL HORSE PUNS!?" Forge screams internally, before shaking his head.

"Wait, you don't?" Twilight asks, head tilting.

"I have, somewhat. Only really read the first one of Trotter, and partially through the first of Lady." Forge says.

"In actuality, I've read neither. I watched all of Harry Potter's movies, but never had too much of an interest in the Lord of the Rings films. I tried to watch them, but... eh, I wasn't impressed. Only saying I read the first so far will help me gauge how far along it is here, in case it's not done yet." Forge thinks.

"Oh, you could always come by and borrow the rest if you want. All you'll need is a library card, then you can borrow any book you'd want! Aren't library cards great?" Twilight bounces in place, not unlike a certain pink on pink pony.

A group of foals with Granny Smith in tow approaches. Naturally, Twilight passes out a single piece of candy to each foal. Shortly after, Pipsqueak reveals himself.

"Right, British ponies come from Trottingham. Because more horse puns. I'm never going to get used to these." Forge thinks, stepping aside to let the group get their candy.

Soon enough, in pops Pinkie wearing a ~~scoo~~- chicken costume. Pinkie, of course, pecks at the candy in her basket using her costume's beak. The fact that it can pierce and shred the wrapping of the candy so she can eat it raising some suspicion in Forge about what it's even made of. Is it just the usual flimsy plastic, or is it a stronger variety? Is there a different material in the tip? The world will never know...

Once Pinkie and the others leave, Forge follows along with Twilight and Spike.

"Twilight, there's something you need to know about this year's Nightmare Night." Forge says, walking at her side.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Twilight asks.

"There's someone else coming to visit Ponyville for the holiday. Namely..." Forge begins, looking around for any would-be listeners before leaning close to whisper. "Princess Luna."

Twilight seems startled at hearing this for a brief moment. "Wait, she's coming here? Why?"

"I convinced her to, I thought it might be good for her to get out of the castle now, since she seemed ready to try and make some friends of her own. Plus, it'll help her with adjusting to the way society is now, compared to how it was a thousand years ago." Forge elaborates.

Twilight nods. "That makes sense." Then, she halts. "Wait, so you thought it would be a good idea for her to visit on Nightmare Night? The holiday that's all about Nightmare Moon and how scary she is?"

Forge stops too, almost tripping in the process before turning around. "You'd think that, but it's actually the perfect time for this."

"How so?" A perplexed Twilight asks.

"For one, this holiday itself shouldn't really be particularly offensive if Celestia allows it to exist at all, right? Wouldn't she have considered Luna's return as an eventual problem if the holiday was going to anger Luna?" Forge asks.

Twilight thinks about this for a moment. "Well... okay. What else?"

"Two, this provides the opportunity for others to really distinguish between Luna and Nightmare. You and I may already know, since we were there when she was struck with the elements. However, the general populace of the town may not have that same distinction that we do, and could cause things to erupt into another Zecora incident. By dissolving any preconceived notion, we can overcome that hurdle as well." Forge explains.

Twilight nods. "You've really thought this through so well. You really do care about her a lot."

"Trying to justify an idiotic plan like this seems to be working. As long as I can get the end result from what should have happened, things should go a lot smoother in the future. Doctoring the truth to make myself look more competent than I really am is my specialty." Forge thinks. "Er- well, yeah. Truth be told, I'd have done it anyway, regardless of my feelings. There are plenty of additional factors in this, you know." Forge says.

Twilight rolls her eyes with a smirk. "Suuure, that's it."

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning shoots down right behind the trio with a loud boom of thunder. Forge immediately puts a shield spell up over himself, Twilight, and Spike. Unfortunately, Spike had been thoroughly freaked out by the sudden noise, choking on a piece of candy. Twilight begins to tell off Rainbow as Forge uses magic to dislodge the candy from Spike's throat. Once it's out, Spike proceeds to re-eat the piece, chewing it better this time.

Rainbow simply goes off to scare another unsuspecting group, one cry from it sounding exactly like a frightened chicken.

"You okay Spike?" Twilight asks, concerned for her ~~slave~~ adopted brother.

Spike nods. "Yeah, fine now."

"Wait a minute, Rainbow was supposed to do that when Pinkie's group met back up with Twilight and Spike. But now that they were separate, she's still scared both, but not at the same time... Come on, little changes like that don't matter, it's not a major event like Luna's reintegration, or the..." Forge blankly stares at the sky. "The wedding... Canterlot's already been compromised with changelings practically everywhere in the city. God I hope Chrysalis waits to strike until the wedding, hopefully my lack of actions against the other changelings has kept her from viewing me as an immediate threat. Though... I haven't heard back from Suture since that night... Perhaps she was meant to evaluate how dangerous I was? Was that it? Maybe her lack of appearance really does mean I'm seen as insignificant. Good, let them think that."

"FORGE!" Twilight screams in his face, startling him out of his thoughts.

"HOLY SHI-OOT!" Forge catches himself. No need to swear needlessly on a night where there are foals literally everywhere in town.

"Finally, you were staring up at the sky, and completely unresponsive!" Twilight yells, a noticable smell of concern coming from her.

"Ecgh, stupid emotion scent." Forge thinks briefly. "Oh, sorry, I do that sometimes when I'm deep in thought. I honestly don't know how I've survived as long as I have." He says, making it seem like it's a joke, despite the reality of it.

"Don't joke like that, it's not funny." Twilight says.

"Yeah, you're one of the most... uh, obsee... obsa..." Spike struggles to find the word.

"Observant." Twilight assists.

"Yeah, that!" Spike half finishes.

"I definitely have my off days. But thanks for thinking that." Forge says.

Twilight rolls her eyes, pointing over at the stage where it looks like a clown dressed as a clown and a... "Hold the fuck up, a devil? Does that mean... is, is there pony Christianity? IS THERE A PONY POPE!? This has several implications I'm not willing to dive into, fuck that noise." Forge thinks as he walks over with Twilight and Spike.

"All of the little ponies who've been out collecting sweets should follow our friend Zecora to hear the legend of... NIGHTMARE MOOOOOOON." Mayor mare says in a very, very ridiculous voice.

"Her spooky voice might work better is she wasn't dressed like that." Spike whispers.

"This is the one night of the year she can be herself in public Spike, let her have this." Forge smirks.

"That, was kind of mean Forge." Twilight says.

"What, me calling her a clown? I mean, if the boot fits." Forge grins wider.

Twilight gets more flustered, a victim of the totally masterfully created trap Forge laid out, who smiles even wider. "Flustered ponies are too damn cute."

-<>~--*--~<>-<

Forge walks along with Twilight and Spike, only really half-paying attention to Zecora's recount of the Nightmare Night legends. "Honestly, this really does make Nightmare Moon seem like a monster. Is Celestia really okay with that aspect? Demonizing of her own sister like this? With such a horrific statue? Twilight really raised a good point back there..."

Just as soon as Pinkie and the foals dump their candy in front of the statue, the clouds in the sky begin to swirl menacingly, a dark chariot pulled by bat-like ponies coming down from seemingly the moon itself.

"It's Nightmare Moon! RUUUUUUN!" Pinkie screams, encouraging everyone except Twilight and Forge to run off in terror.

The sensation of said terror striking Forge to his core, causing his chest to shiver despite his lack of fear.

The dark chariot floats in place mid-air for a brief period, before following the group back to town, Twilight and Forge not far behind. Once back in town, the cloaked Luna descends from the chariot, landing on the ground with a thud, a flick of her head removing her hood.

"I've got a bad feeling about this..." Forge dreads.

Author's Note

Aurelic stares at the planet Equestria is part of from the moon

"Wait, it's all horse puns?"

Discord points a glock at the back of Aurelic's head, racking it

"Always has been."

So basically, I'm splitting this into two chapters. Mostly to get a readable segment out sooner while I work on the second half.