“So, do they celebrate Nightmare Night on the other side of the portal, Twilight?” Rainbow Dash asked as they headed out for Town Hall at dusk, which was already decorated and readied for the occasion, with game and vendor stalls set up as well as a statue of Nightmare Moon erected for foals to leave candy offerings at.

“They do, but… they call it ‘Halloween’,” Twilight remembered, having reluctantly turned down an invitation from Sunset Shimmer to cross over and experience it from their side, explaining that she’d already made plans here and had to act as master of ceremonies for the Ponyville Nightmare Night festival as the town’s resident princess.

“Howl-o-ween?” Trixie made a face as she trailed behind, walking alongside Starlight as they passed a booth where the Cutie Mark Crusaders were offering foals a chance to earn their cutie marks carving pumpkins, Scootaloo dressed as a Wonderbolt, Apple Bloom as a scarecrow and Sweetie Belle having done herself up with painted cardboard and other makeup to look like a robot pony, the three returning a quick wave and unseen wink from Spike. “What a strange name. So what customs do those hairless apes have for it?”

“Trixie!” Starlight scolded, having already visited that side of the portal for the first time but a few weeks earlier, coming to appreciate its benefits and the human counterparts of Twilight and her friends quite readily. Their own ‘magic’ is pretty amazing… she conceded as she remembered what human ‘technology’ could do, having experienced everything from an exhilarating ride on the back of Sunset Shimmer’s ‘motorcycle’ to eating meat and playing video games.

Admittedly, the meat wasn’t bad. Though you know, I really WOULD like to have more of that ‘gelato’… and preferably not lose two scoops of it this time! she decided, as one of the benefits of a human palate, she had happily discovered, was a greater sensitivity to sweet things.

But Twilight was unperturbed. “Apparently, the same ones we do, except the origins of it are markedly different than here…” she then launched into a lecture detailing the holiday’s history in the human world, which Trixie immediately tuned out as they approached the center of the festival grounds.

“So when do I get to cross over and visit this human ‘Canterlot’ with you?” Trixie asked Starlight, who chuckled and shook her head.

“We’ve been through this already, Trixie. It’s dangerous for you to cross over because unlike me, you have a human counterpart there!” Starlight reminded her, magically shifting the arrow and quiver on her back to make them more comfortable.

“But so does she!” the showmare pouted,motioning towards Twilight.

“Yeah, well, she’s... different…” was all Starlight could immediately manage. “She brought the human element bearers together, she helped saved their world twice from magical threats…”

“And she’s got a human coltfriend!” Pinkie Pie piped up from ahead of them, causing Twilight to immediately blush and the others to giggle. “His name’s Flash Sentry, and she sneaks over to see him several times a month!”

“A human coltfriend? Ooooo…” Trixie leered at Twilight, who blushed again, now enduring the good-natured ribbing of her friends over him. “So how well does he rut, Sparkle?”

She meant it as a joke, but was surprised when Rarity repeated the question eagerly. “Yes! Do tell! How well?”

“Girls, please…” Twilight was now quite red in the cheeks but never lost her smile. “We’ve fooled around a bit, but we’ve only outright rutted once so far, and…”

“And you said you did it dolphin-style!” Rainbow Dash did a loop in the air, calling Twilight to give a very Fluttershy-type eep! “Now that’s kinky!”

“Belly-to-belly, Sparkle? Really?” Trixie stuck out her tongue and wasn’t entirely teasing about it. “Trixie didn’t think you were that kind of mare!”

“Mare, no. But woman? Yes!” Twilight finally managed as beside her, Spike plugged his ears and began singing “la-la-la-la-la!” to himself. “Believe me, I was surprised too, but… turns out it’s what they do when they mate! Along with a whole bunch of other things…” she finished in a rather quiet voice, her eyes growing distant, lost in memories of the act until she walked right into a lightpost, to the laughter of her friends.

“So have you met this ‘other’ Twilight? What’s she like?” Trixie asked Starlight, deciding that the news of her rival’s otherworldly love life would provide ample opportunities for teasing later.

“Very different… yet in some ways, much the same,” Starlight shrugged. “They’re both bookworms and both great friends, but the other Twilight is much more buttoned-up and wears glasses. She even wears her mane differently.”

“And I would so like to try that style out on you, darling!” Rarity removed Twilight’s detective hat and experimentally put her hair in her counterpart’s configuration.

“That’s okay, Rarity, really,” Twilight told her, not at all comfortable with thoughts of her human doppelganger. “In all honesty, I’d prefer that we be different…” Especially after what Sunset told me my counterpart DID! she shivered, amazed and appalled at the story her pony-turned-human friend had related about how the human world’s Twilight had been overwhelmed by magic absorbed from Equestria and transformed into a creature called Midnight Sparkle.

Drunk on her new godlike power, she had then turned the Friendship Games between Canterlot High and a rival school into her sexual playpen, taking out years of frustration and loneliness on her human classmates and even ripping open portals into Equestria. Worse, she’d nearly collapsed the already-frayed boundaries between the worlds in the process, weakened as they were by all the time travel Twilight had been doing as she tried to stop Starlight. I really don’t know what happened to turn ‘Sci-Twi’ into that… thing... but I’m sure glad I don’t have anything like THAT in me!

Trixie broke into her thoughts. “Well, then, now I really want to go! For even if another me is there, what could be better than two Trixies?” the showmare asked, giving Starlight’s flank a bump and causing her friend to nearly choke on her cupcake.

“I’m not sure I could take two Trixies!” she exclaimed, but returned the gesture all the same. For despite all her flaws, she truly did like her showmare friend, and was happy to help her realize her considerable, but woefully undeveloped, magical potential.

“Well. Trixie has to go to her wagon and get her stage ready for her Nightmare Night show. So can I trust you to keep out of trouble, Starlight?” Trixie asked with a wry grin.

Trust ME to keep out of trouble? She gave her friend an incredulous look before she realized Trixie was teasing. “Promise. And I’ll be there for your show, too!”

“You’d better!” Trixie told her, stealing a quick kiss from her before teleporting away. It was a feat she’d only mastered recently under Starlight’s tutelage but was now only too happy to show off. And in return, Trixie had been teaching Starlight some things of her own; things Starlight had, to her surprise, been only too happy to learn. Come to think of it, might even be fun to spend some time together in costume after the show and do a little role-playing… she smiled as her mind immediately went in various kinky directions of its own.

“So, ya comin’, Starlight?” Applejack called back to her, snapping her out of her suddenly heady thoughts and making her realize they’d reached the town square, which was already filled with ponies, both adults and foals. “Looks like the entire town’s out here now!”

All but one… Starlight reminded herself, her mind casting back to the story she’d been told about the previous year’s Nightmare Night. “Actually… go on ahead, girls,” she invited. “I’ll catch up later. I won’t be gone long, but there’s somepony I’d like to go visit first…” she told them, and teleported away before they could ask who.

An instant later, Starlight rematerialized outside of a familiar but darkened cottage, which had a series of muzzle-written signs up discouraging Nightmare Night visitors and even several nailed-on wood planks barring the doors and windows. Guess they weren’t kidding when they said she didn’t like the holiday… she sighed as she went up to the door and knocked, only to receive no reply. After waiting a minute, she knocked a second time. “Fluttershy? It’s Starlight!” she called into the eerie silence of the house, which was normally well-lit in evening. “May I come in?”

“Starlight…?” she heard a very muffled voice from inside, followed by it calling to her again slightly closer this time. “Um… is anypony with you?”

“No, I’m all alone… and I just want to talk,” she promised, and reluctantly, Fluttershy came and opened the door... only to instantly EEP! and close it immediately when presented with the picture of an armed and cloaked soldier pony.

“Oh… sorry,” Starlight grimaced, mentally kicking herself as she realized her mistake, quickly throwing back her hood to prove it was her. “It’s my costume for Nightmare Night. I didn’t mean for it to startle you. I think it’s pretty silly, actually…” she motioned down at herself.

“No! No. I think it looks quite… real…” Fluttershy gulped, seeing her chain mail and the bow-and-arrows on her friend’s back, looking eerily similar to pictures she’d seen in books. “You can come in if you like…” she invited, and Starlight bypassed the wood planks by simply teleporting inside.

“Thanks…” she said, following Fluttershy back to her bedroom, where she was holed up with her various animal friends behind locked doors and drawn blinds, and even looked like she’d set up camp under her bed, from which came the light of a single lamp.

“So what did you want to talk about?” Fluttershy asked, still having trouble looking at her friend’s costume. “I may not like it, but that doesn’t mean I’d want to keep you from the Nightmare Night festival…”

‘Well, actually…” Starlight was now wondering if this might not end up being harder than she thought. “I was hoping you might join us, Fluttershy. Twilight and everypony else told me all about how you gave them the best Nightmare Night ever last year,” she smiled at her friend, who blushed. “I’m still learning how to really enjoy all this stuff myself, and since it’s so new to me, I kind of prefer it when I have all my friends backing me. And that includes you, Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy shifted uncomfortably while beside her, Angel Bunny got an evil grin. “Oh! Um… well, what happened last year was more Angel’s idea than mine, but… if they told you that, I’m sure they also told you that I decided I just don’t enjoy being scared or being scary?” she told her friend, retreating behind her bangs. “It’s not that I don’t want to be with them or help them have a good time; I really do! But I’m not like Pinkie or the others, Starlight. Being scary is just not my idea of fun, but at the same time, I don’t want to stop anypony else from having theirs. So the best way for me to spend Nightmare Night is at home, right here with my animal friends,” she told them, all of said friends taking a cue to press close to her, protective of her.

“I get that, Fluttershy. I really do,” Starlight told her friend in perfect honesty, putting a hoof on her chest. “And that’s why I’d like to make you an offer. I can magically remove your fears, if just for a single night,” she told Fluttershy, whose eyes went wide. “That would enable you join us and have fun with us!”

“Um…” Fluttershy glanced at Angel Bunny, who frowned, crossed his forelegs, and very sharply shook his head. “You do remember what happened last time you cast spells on us, right?” she reminded her unicorn friend, not mentioning how it had taken her hours to get all the insects out of her mane and convince the fleas to leave her fur.

Starlight grimaced at that. Definitely NOT one of my more shining moments, and that’s saying a lot… “That was an untested incantation, and Twilight already gave me the third, fourth, and fifth degrees over it. It was a violation of all sorts of magical ethics to cast it on you girls without permission; I get that now, and I’m really sorry for it.” She bowed her head briefly, then raised her eyes back to meet Fluttershy’s.

“But that’s why I’m asking your permission this time, and I also wouldn’t be using an unknown spell. I’d be casting nullam anxietatem, a common incantation used by shrinks to temporarily relieve anxiety in their patients. It’s perfectly safe. I’ve even used it on myself a couple times,” she promised, and seeing Fluttershy waver slightly, she pressed her case. “Look, it’s your choice, and I’m not trying to pressure you. If you say no, I’ll leave. Or, if I cast it and you decide you don’t like it, I’ll dispel it. I’d just really like to see you out there enjoying yourself with us, Fluttershy, and I know the others would too!” she said with a smile.

“Well…” Fluttershy wavered further as even Angel seemed to turn thoughtful at that. “I would like to see everypony. I hate disappointing them, and it’s true that they did say they really liked what we did last year…” she granted, exchanging another look with her rabbit friend, who this time, gave her a cautious nod. “Okay then. If you can promise this spell will work and you can remove it if I want, I’ll do it!”

Starlight broke out in a broad grin. “There’s my filly! You have nothing to worry about. This will just take a minute, then..” she said as she ignited her horn and closed her eyes to concentrate on the incantation, casting it just seconds later. A pinkish glow washed over Fluttershy, and by the time it faded… “Better?” her unicorn friend asked knowingly.

Fluttershy blinked and suddenly stood up straighter, realizing… “I’m not afraid!” she announced in some wonder. “Not at all!”

“As promised,” Starlight said, not quite keeping the smug note out of her voice. Twilight might not approve, but I did everything right this time! And seriously, she’s such a wet blanket about these things. I mean, why SHOULDN’T I use my magic to help my friends have fun? “So, do you want to keep it?”

“Yes!” Fluttershy exclaimed with far more force and passion than Starlight had ever known. “To go to something like this and be able to enjoy it like everypony else? To have fun with my friends and not worry about everything that might happen? I’m keeping the spell!” she put her hoof down hard, startling all the creatures present in the room and making Angel and the other animals look at her somewhat leerily.

“Be sure you tell Twilight that! So, shall we get going then?” Starlight asked, immensely satisfied.

“Yes! But first, I need a costume! And I know I still have last year’s around somewhere…” she announced as she began to rummage around her closet, throwing clothes and towels and even old modeling outfits out left and right. “And as soon as I get it, we’ll be off… found it!” she exclaimed excitedly as she pulled it free and showed it to Starlight, who blinked but grinned, helping her into it.

Author's Note

So what was that spell Starlight actually cast? Exactly what she said. She didn’t lie or do otherwise do anything she thought was wrong, and it’s worth emphasizing again that in her mind, she’s helping Fluttershy. So is it a safe spell as she claims? Well, let me put it this way: anti-anxiety medications have plenty of potential side effects, and there’s also a laundry list of things you shouldn’t take or do while under their influence. As it turns out, it’s the same for mood-altering spells...

Those of you familiar with the original Unleash the Magic - Midnight Rising may recall I was rather hard on poor Flash in it, so I decided that to make it up to him, it was only fair that he finally get the girl. And besides, they also really kind of dumped on him in the last couple movies enough that even I felt sorry for him...

The clop begins next chapter. Onward!