Come Dawn or Darkness

With Nightmare Night still a week away, the citizens of Ponyville where busy preparing for a new tradition that had been suggested to precede that most wonderfully terrifying of occasions. The Lunar Festival was intended to be a grand feast, held in the town square the night before their youngest Princess' traditional holiday, but after much debate about just how they would organize the entire event into one night the single feast developed into a five night festival. The focal point of it would be the gradual increase in the fullness of the moon, leading to the massive full moon that would be present on Nightmare Night.

All of Ponyville would be in attendance, many hoping to get a chance to meet Princess Luna in person before her inevitable return at the end of the festival as Nightmare Moon. As such, the whole town was in a frenzy, trying to ensure that everything was perfect for the first night. Catering for the event was being provided by many sources from every corner of the town, but the Cakes and the Apple family were by far under the most pressure. Given the nature of the festival, sweets were a must have; as such, Sugarcube Corner was a veritable hive of activity as pastries, cakes, and all manner of delicious edibles were constantly being cooked up and shipped out of its doors. The orchards that provided the apples for the pies, tarts, and other treats had been worked tirelessly by the entirety Apple family over the past few weeks. Now that the trees had been stripped bare of their fruit, it fell to those same earth ponies to help turn those apples into food for the masses, as well as drag it all down to the town themselves. All together, both families were being pushed to their limits in preparation for the festival, but as the sun began to set they all completed their work and began to make their way to the festival's staging grounds in the center of town.

Applejack left the rest of her family as they headed toward the town square, setting off toward the library instead. Her friends would all be gathering there before the festivities got underway and she didn't intend to miss a minute of it. With the work they had had to put into the preparations she had barely gotten a chance to see any of them all week. As she thought about that it occurred to her that Pinkie Pie had most likely been in the exact same situation, having to spend all week helping the Cakes in any way she could. As such, it was sure to be a fairly lively little reunion they would be having Twilight's.

The library was little more than a silhouette as she neared it, the sun was just beginning to set behind it, encasing the tree-building in a bright orange aura. She heard voiced coming from inside as she neared the door. "Whew! I must be a little later than I thought; sounds like the party started without me!" She knocked at the door, waited a moment, then let her self in, figuring there was no point in making anyone else leave what they were doing just to answer the door.

As she entered the main room of the library she was greater by a volley of warm welcomes. Spike, Twilight, and Rainbow Dash were were all sitting by a small table in the center of the room, they had clearly been laughing about something before she came in. They asked her about the past week, how the preparations had been going, and what sort of things they could expect to see on the menu at the festival that night.

Twilight was curious about the state of Sweet Apple Acres, given the massive harvest that had to be brought in for the feast. "I mean, I know you and Big Macintosh are some of the best apple-buckers around, but that must have really taken a toll on you two."

"Well actually, we had a little help. We sent out some letters earlier in the month and, as it would happen, most of the family turned up to lend a hoof or two with the harvest, not to mention the food preparation. Yessir, we had our own little assembly line going back there; harvesting apples, pounding it dough, cooking up some 'a the most delicious pies and pastries you'll ever taste!"

"Well that's great, I'm sure everypony will love them at tonight's party... Speaking of which, you didn't happen to pass Pinkie Pie on your way here, did you? She still hasn't shown up."

" 'Fraid not, I had kinda thought she'd be one 'a the first ones here. Maybe she met up with Rarity and Fluttershy, they might all be on their way here together."

"Well you might be right about Rarity, but Fluttershy's actually already here."

"I, um, I was just making everyone some tea." Fluttershy stepped slowly out of a door to the right of the table, carefully balancing a tray on her head. She set it down in front of the others, letting them take whichever cup they wanted. "Would you like some too, Applejack? ...oh, uh, also, hi Applejack! It's so very nice to see you." She said it softly, but the joy was clear enough in her expression. An entire week without the whole group getting together even once was a rare event for them; this little return to normalcy was clearly a relief for Fluttershy.

"Well hey there, sugarcube, good to see you too. And yes, actually, I'd love a cup if you don't mind making another."

Fluttershy smiled again, "No trouble at all, it's just going to take a few moments." She turned to toward the door. "Um, Torrent, would you mind starting the fire back up, we need to make a little more tea after all."

Applejack's heart sank at the sound of that request. He... He's still here? No, no, no, no, no! I was sure Twilight would have come to her senses about this by now, what would she let that thing stick around here for? As if drawn by her thoughts, the robed creature appeared in the doorway, taking the now-empty tray back from Fluttershy.

Cloaked and hooded he stood there, a full foot or do taller than any of them. Bipedal and clothed in foreign garb, he appeared very out of place in what was such a familiar environment for her. He reminded her of some monster out of one of Granny Smith's old stories; some kind of ghoul or demon that would snatch away misbehaving fillies who didn't listen to their parents. Yet even that was not right since all of those monsters were scaly monstrosities that hid in the daytime. Yet this one had no fear of the sun, she had seen him outside before. And he had no scales so far as she could tell, nor fur or hair of any kind apart from that on his head; just brown, hairless skin, a thin, pointy grey beard, and whatever hair was hidden beneath that hood of his. Spike had sworn he had had horns and wings when he had emerged from the mirror, carrying Twilight out of whatever horrible plane he had dragged her into, but those were nowhere to be seen now. All in all, she simply could not bring herself to trust him, regardless of what the others said.

"Of course, my dear. Just one more cup, or should we put the whole kettle on again?" His voice did nothing to ease her mistrust. Though his words were kind and gentle, there was a gravelly quality to the way he spoke, as if something were constantly scratching his throat with each breath. It was not always like that, however. In fact, a few times she had heard him speak using a completely different voice, one which matched his face better than this strained, world-weary one, but was far too cold and unfeeling for her taste. He could have, and very well may have, said sometime completely innocent in that voice and it still would have sounded threatening to her.

She had not been expecting this, and the suddenness of the fear in her was more than she could take all at once. She had to leave, if only for a few minutes; just enough to get some fresh air and set put her mind at ease once more. She started backing toward the door. "Uh, I'll be right back, y'all. I, uh... I just remembered something I gotta tell Applebloom to do 'fore it gets too late. Won't be more than a few minutes!" She darted outside before anyone could object.

She only made it a few steps outside the door before she ran into Pinkie Pie and Rarity, walking side by side up to the library. "HEY APPLEJACK!" Pinkie came running up to her, Rarity following behind her at a much more natural pace.

"Hey there Pinkie, how ya doing Rarity?" She tried her best to seem ass calm and collected as they were surely expecting her to be. "Uh, I, uh, I gotta run down to the festival for a second. Everyone else is inside already, I'll catch up with y'all in a few minutes." She hesitated for a moment, trying to find the right way to approach what she was going to say. "Did, um... Did y'all know Torrent was still here?"

Pinkie's eyes widened. "Torrent's still here? As in, HERE here"

"Right inside. Glad I'm not the only one who didn't know, gave me a little bit of a fright when I saw him just now. Creeps you out a little too, don't he?"

Pinkie tilted her head to the side silly, giving Applejack a puzzled look. "Creeps me out? Are you kidding? I've been waiting to see him all week! He promised to bring me back something from his trip into Everfree Forest... You know, he be he found something out there for you too! You should ask him after your done with whatever it is your doing!" And with that she darted inside, eager to get her gift and see all her friends. Rarity, however, was not so eager.

"Don't pay any attention to her, you have it right on the mark. That... thing that followed Twilight home is not to be trusted." She stomped the ground to emphasize her point. "Twilight and the others may not see it yet, but that thing is evil. Why if even half of the things Spike has told me about him are true, I shudder to even think why it is he's staying here. And have you seen the way he's dressed? He's certainly not doing himself any favors as far as making us trust him by keeping his hood on all the time and lurking about in the shadows."

"But that's just it! Th' others do trust him! You saw how excited Pinkie got just now, and Twilight's letting him stay in her home. Her HOME, Rarity!" She paced back and forth as she spoke, trying to make sure she got all the facts right. "Spike still doesn't trust him worth a lick, but I'm almost positive we've lost Rainbow Dash, assuming she's still as obsessed with his stories back when he first showed up. And he's got poor Fluttershy wrapped around his finger; if anyone trusts him as much as Twilight, it's her. So that just leaves the three of us who can see through this little game of his... What do ya think we should do?" She tried not to let her disappointment at that realization show too much in her voice.

"For now, nothing. I know for a fact that Twilight sent Princess Celestia a few letters detailing the situation and that the both Princesses will be present for the festival, at least the final night of it. With any luck, they'll take one look at this monster and send him back to wherever it is he came from. Now, I must get inside before they all start to wonder what happened to me. Just try not to worry too much, there's no way he'll be able to fool the Princesses." And with that, Rarity slowly made her way inside.

Rarity's last few words hung heavily on Applejack's mind as she paced about outside, waiting for enough time to pass to make her story of running to the festival grounds believable. There's no way he'll be able to fool the Princesses. A retort had come to her mind the moment Rarity had said that, yet she could not bring herself to say it at first. Her friend had seemed so sure of her plan, the flaw in it being to obvious for her to see. She couldn't say it while Rarity was still the, but now that she was alone, she couldn't keep the thought contained. There's no way he'll be able to fool the Princesses. "...Chrysalis managed to..."