You fiddle with your costumes floppy hat as you happily escort a young colt and his mother out of your candy shop, thanking them for their patronage as you flip the open sign to closed, and lock the door behind them with a sigh. October was always a busy time of year for you and your shop. Especially on Nightmare night itself. However, seeing the smiles on little colts and fillies muzzles when their parents bought them and their friends a boat load of candy for the holidays. Well, you couldn't help but feel at least a small sense of pride.
As you started to turn around to finish your closing routine, the tip of your hat once more flopped down in front of your face. Blocking a good portion of your vision, and with a sigh, you turn to use your reflection in the window to give your costume a more permanent fix. Using your right forehoof to flop the hat tip back into its original unstable position. Clearing your vision once more and allowing you to see your reflection more clearly. Your light yellow coat and blue eyes almost looked ethereal in the window's reflection. And the dark blue in your mane was practically invisible against the backdrop of the well lit Ponyville streets. Although the pink in your mane was easily able to stand out.
You then set your gaze upon the costume you were wearing for tonight's events. Which was a simple black witches costume, which included a big floppy witches hat that had a dark grey ribbon around its base, and a simple black coat like dress. Which admittedly drew attention directly toward your eyes. Which were once again covered by the tip of the floppy monstrosity you called a hat.
The thought that you should have probably listened to your marefriend about your costume choice briefly crossed your mind as you fixed your hats position once more. She wanted the two of you to dress up like stable dwellers from that popular novel the two of you read together last summer. But you had already bought your costume for the season and you really didn't want to spend the bits on another one.
Besides, your job made it perfect to dress up as an evil witch. Especially when you were stirring that bowl of ingredients this morning for your signature chocolate bonbons. However, Lyra did seem disappointed she'd have to figure something else to dress up as for the Apple families annual costume party. "I should probably bring her something to make it up to her." You thought to yourself as you made your way around the counter of your store and opened the register before you began emptying its contents into your coin bag for the night.
"But what would make Lyra happy?" You thought out loud to yourself as you started to go into autopilot with your nightly duties. Which included cleaning the front counter, closing all the candy containers, reorganizing the candy bags, and ensuring that there was nothing still in the oven in the kitchen before you cleaned that too.
After a few more seconds of deliberation, you finally decided a bag full of your freshly made chocolate bonbon's mixed with some chocolate bars and taffy cubes would cheer your mint colored unicorn right up. "You couldn't really go wrong with Lyra and chocolate." You thought to yourself as you grabbed a brown paper bag from the stores front and began to fill it with an assortment of chocolate goodies. Once filled you carefully rolled the bags entrance, safely securing the chocolate sweets inside. But before you picked it up to go meet up with Lyra as planned, a stray thought crossed your mind and halted you in your tracks.
"Should I write something on the bag?" Your brain asked as you stared at the brown bags blank siding. "It was sorta plain to give to Lyra... and this was meant to be an apology of sorts..." You said aloud to yourself, as you eyed a quill and ink jar on the shops counter with purpose before picking up the brown bag in your muzzle and bringing it over. What would you write though? Would it be some long statement of your affection for the mare you loved? Or perhaps you should draw something simple that showed you cared.
After thinking for a few minutes, and remembering you weren't great with words or artistically inclined. You decided to write a few simple words inside a crudely drawn heart. "Sweets for my sweet." It was, perfect. Simple, but it accurately portrayed your feelings for Lyra in the best way you could. However, it was missing something fairly important for this time of year... It needed something Nightmare night.
It only took a few seconds before you decided on what it was missing, and you instantly began to correct this minor error in judgment by drawing a couple of spiders near the bottom of the bag. Just below the heart. Satisfied with the gift Lyra would be receiving, you gently blew on the drying ink too hopefully help it dry just a little faster. You didn't really know if doing that actually helped. But you hoped the ink would dry before any anxiety could catch up with you and ruin your plans.
Once dry, you pick the bag up in your muzzle. Making sure it's message was pointed towards you to hide it from prying eyes until you were ready to show it, and you made your way out of your shop and into the cold Ponyville night. The night, however, wasn't dark nor was it empty like most others.
Mares, stallions, colts, and fillies were all out and about in the gas lamp-lit streets. Older ponies were participating in the annual town's fair activities like apple bobbing contests and pie eating contests. Those being the main ones you were able to see as you started making your way down the cobblestone street toward Lyra's house. Young foals, however, were all dressed up as an assortment of ghouls and creatures, running around, laughing and playing in their small groups while their parents kept watchful eyes from a distance as they talked to their friends.
The streets were lined with black and orange streamers, not doubt strung up there by the towns local party pony. Which added a nice touch to the local festivities. After a couple more blocks down Ponyvilles business district and through the town square, you noticed that even the Ponyville town hall is decorated in an assortment of fake webs, spiders and several candlelit pumpkins the city council made.
You don't know why, but the thought of Mayor mare cutting a scary image into a pumpkin made you chuckle to yourself as you turned right down another cobblestone street. Leading to the residential district, and subsequently, Lyra's house came into view. Lyra's house was a standard two-story plaster walled, and thatched roofed house. Nothing really special minus the Nightmare night decorations placed about the premises. Your heart started to sink as you noticed that every light in the house was seemingly off, like nopony was home. All light, except two small glowing green orbs peering right at you through the rightmost window on the first floor. It looked almost timberwolf in nature, making you briefly wonder where Lyra finds all these unnerving decorations.
Your heart started to beat faster and faster as you approached your marefriends residence. "What if she left to the party without me?" You thought to yourself as doubts started to fill your mind the more you approach her residence. "She wouldn't forget about our date would she?... No, she couldn't have Bonbon, Lyra's probably just letting that... unnerving decoration be unnerving." You think in an attempt to reassure yourself as you slowly make your way up to the door.
The old porch creaked as you approached Lyra's door, and before doing anything else, you carefully set the bag down on the porch, flip it around, and pick it back up. Allowing the message to be seen, before you take a deep breath, and knock on the door. You nervously fiddle with your hooves as you battle your nerves. A quick flash of green out of the corner of your right eye briefly put's your heart at ease, until you glanced in its direction. Only to freeze in fear as you notice the green eyes of the timberwolf decoration were now gone.
The sudden sound of rapid movement behind the door puts your heart into a frenzy. And before you can even think about doing anything, the door shoots open, and the wooden maw of a timberwolf springs out from the darkness behind the door, accompanied by a horrendous roar. A roar that shook the very air around you, and causing you to let out a horrified scream as you instinctually curl up into a ball, and cover your face with your forelegs in fear.
Trembling, and waiting for your demise to come swiftly at the monster's jaws... Only it never came. What did come, however, was... laughter? Slowly and shakily you slowly peak your head out from behind your hooves and take in the sight before you. There in the darkened doorway was a smiling mint green unicorn with beautiful golden eyes and a bluish green mane with a white streak near her right ear. The mare was fully cladded in wood, and her horn was glowing it's usural golden aura. The same golden aura that was suspending a wooden timberwolf mask above her head. "Gotchya Bonnie." The unicorn said with more than a hint of mirth in her voice.
"L-Lyra! You scared the Tartarus out of me!" You exclaim as you slowly make your way back onto your hooves, glaring at the mint green mare. Which only caused Lyra to chuckle to herself some more. "Sorta the point of the holiday dear, and careful. There are foals around." She teases and points a cautionary hoof at you. "Where did you even get a costume like that anyway?" You ask, unable to contain your frustration at the mare as you quickly scan your surroundings for your gift, only to find that it landed a hoof's reach away from you, no worse for ware.
"Oh, this whole get up?" Lyra asks with a chuckle as she show's her costume off a little. Allowing you to see the wooden costume literally covered just about every inch of the mare. "Well, I made it. I still wanted to go to the party as something similar, and since I knew you were going as a witch, I decided to go as your summoned monster. Didn't take that long to do either. I even cast two minor illumination spells on the eye holes of the mask so that the eyes would glow like a real timberwolf. I cast one I could see through since I planned on wearing it. And the voice was a little voice amplification spell Vinyl showed me. Pretty cool huh?" Lyra asks as she holds out the wooden mask to give you a better look at the two wisps of magical light in the masks eye holes.
You had to admit, the mask was pretty cool. But, she did scare you with it. So perhaps it's time to get a little revenge. "Oh... well, here I thought I caused you a great deal of trouble when I said no to your nightmare night costume idea. But, now I see I was wrong. Guess I DON'T have to give you my apology gift now." You tease the mare with a smile on your face as you carefully slide your bag of bonbon's behind your right hood, just out of her view.
"You got an apology gift... for me?" Lyra asks as she places her left forehoof on her chest for emphasis as she got an almost thankful look in her eyes. "Yep, but after scaring me like that, I see now that you weren't as inconvenienced by my actions as I thought... Oh, well." You say with an overdramatic sigh and continue. "I guess I'll just have to give this bag away to somepony who needs it." Lyra chuckles to herself before giving your left cheek a loving nuzzle.
"I'm sorry for scaring you, Bonnie. I just couldn't help myself when I saw you coming down the road. Will you ever forgive me?" She teases back, prompting you to give the tip of her nose a gentle kiss. Prompting a small blush to grace Lyra's mint green cheeks. "You're forgiven. Now, your gift." You say as you carefully pick the bag up in your mouth once again, making extra sure the message was facing the right way before revealing it to your marefriend. "Oh, Bonnie. That's really sweet. If you'll excuse the pun." Lyra says with a coy smile as her golden aura envelopes the bag full of sweets and gently takes it out of your muzzle, as your cheeks feel a little warmer from her response.
"Pun excused for a lovely mare... Now come on, we're going to be late for the festival." You say with a smile as Lyra peaks into the small gift bag and quickly pops a chocolate bonbon into her mouth before levitating the bag inside her house. "As you say, my mistress." Lyra teases as she flicks her tail at yours and shuts the door to her house. "Careful Lyra, there are foals around." You tease, prompting the two of you to chuckle as you give Lyra a loving nuzzle. And once the front door was locked, Lyra carefully places her mask on top of her horn and the two of you began to walk toward the Apple family orchard. Where a night of fun would most definitely ensue.
Author's Note
This was apart of my little five-day challenge for myself to see if I could write a cute little story in a small amount of time. I really wanted to add more to this story, as you can tell with how... abruptly it sorta ends. But, I felt it was able to hit it's cute little shipping high note before my deadline for it ended.
I also wasn't able to work on it as much as I wanted to due to college and a variety of... personal real life issues popping up. But now it just sounds like I'm making excuses. So, this Pegasus is going to shut up now, and I really hope you enjoyed the story.
If you had any thoughts or criticisms you want to share, I'd be happy to read them down below. Stay safe everypony.
~Sincearly
Skyward Sword.