A Light and the Dark Short: Nightmare Night
The Starry Neigh of Vampires No
“Hey, Edgy!”
A grey stallion leapt back as a familiar purple and blonde unicorn leapt in front of him. It had been a pleasant afternoon strolling around the Ponyville streets alone.
Not anymore.
“Hello, Star. What is it today?”
She bounced once more before coming to a complete stop in front of him. His tone was a bit cold under the sunshine she could see reflecting in his face.
“It’s getting really cold this weekend, so Bee made all of us cool sweaters and hats!”
She zapped up some as she said it and Edgy felt the sudden warmth of it. He looked around at his sweater and noticed a funny looking skull on it and felt like there was probably a matching one on his hat. He could see Starry wearing a bright purple with sunshine and pumpkins.
Starry had to chuckle at the sight of it. Bee had partially made Edgy’s grey with a skull for fun, but Starry thought it suited him.
She could imagine him saying something like him bringing death to his enemies or blah, blah, blah.
She didn’t like that her own was a bit kiddish, but she still thanked Bee and moved on.
“I didn’t know Bee could make these kinds of things,” Edgy said.
“Oh, none of us ever know what she’s doing,” Starry replied.
“I thought that’s what we said about Cass.”
“Her, too. Anyway,” Starry continued,” I also thought we’d go search the neighborhood for candy and maybe even dress up. It’s almost Nightmare Night, you know.”
“Well, I...I’ve never actually celebrated it before.”
“Oh. Well, now we’re going to. Especially now. I was worr…”
Starry cut herself short. She was worried Edgy wouldn’t want to do it because it was a little filly thing, but if he doesn’t know about it he’d probably be more likely to agree…
“I was worried you just weren’t as excited about it as I am! I love ghost stories and haunted spooky stuff. There’s going to be another haunted corn maze this year. I hear the last one was pretty good. Usually it’s run by Applejack, but somepony chipped in to help and everyone got really spooked.”
“Applejack is another one of those so called elements, right?”
Starry nodded.
“Well, we’re going to have to dress up as something. I want to be a cow.”
Edgy hmphed at that, so Starry added, “and you’re going to be a rabbit.”
Edgy knew beyond anything that this was not going to happen.
....
“Trick or treat!”
Roseluck opened the door to find an odd mare in a cow costume standing by. She rolled her eyes.
“Starry, you didn’t tell me you were going trick or treating this year, you could have invited me along. And where’s your other friends?”
Starry grabbed a rabbit out from behind the bushes.
“I brought Edgy. I wanted to show him a real Nightmare Night, plus you did tell me you wanted to stay home today and Cass and Bee were busy putting together an event in the main square. Postage Stamp is working on some decorations in honor of Princess Luna.”
“Well, good luck!” Roseluck said before they waved goodbye.
“This is the last time I’ll ever let you talk me into something,” Edgy flatly stated.
“You know I hardly ever get to convince you of anything. Plus, everyone loves rabbits.”
“I bet they don’t.”
“You don’t know that,” Starry said before turning toward the main square and running straight into Agatha.
The goose honked before flapping back toward home. Postage Stamp looked up from where he was working and waved at the newcomers.
“I guess she’s already done for the night. So how’s your first real Nightmare Night?” he added, turning toward Edgy.
“How bad this costume is is the scariest thing about it.”
Postage Stamp laughed.
Starry looked at his work. It was a statue of Princess Luna smiling over a young colt. It was an image of what happened during her first Nightmare Night back in Equestria. She had told Edgy about it the other day, and how now Princess Luna gets to enjoy Nightmare Night with her sister and all the ponies in Canterlot again.
Starry looked at Edgy. Sometimes it was hard to adjust to being with other ponies again. Starry knew how hard it was to adjust from the orphanage ponies to ponies in the outside world.
“Hey, Edgy, we can change costumes. I think you need something that really speaks to you. I thought the rabbit thing would be kind of funny though.”
They made their way to one shop a few streets off the main square. It was a little less crowded and therefore a bit cold and spooky, but there was still a cheerful light coming from the store.
“I thought it would be closed,” Edgy muttered.
“I guess some other ponies needed costumes last minute.”
Starry opened the door and saw an old shop pony at the register.
“Ah, guests! Help yourselves! I have loads of costumes. Tonight, you can be anything!”
Starry and Edgy trotted down the aisles to just look at what was there. Starry always had a cow costume, so she didn’t need to look before. And she had Bee and Cass help her with the rabbit one. Most of the costumes this year didn’t look that great. It felt like every year it was harder and harder to find a good costume.
Starry and Edgy tried on a few costumes together, like a police officer or a mad scientist, but finally Edgy found a vampire costume.
“I want you to wear it.”
“What?” Starry asked.
“Well, you see, the costume comes with instructions that say...put it on,” Edgy said the last few a bit forcefully.
When he noticed Starry hesitate, he realized he probably sounded harsher than he meant to.
“I just, like the thought of you in a vampire costume.”
The two looked at each other.
Starry turned away. She wanted Edgy to have a good first Nightmare Night, but she still wanted her cow costume as always.
“Edgy…”
“Star.”
“I, I can’t wear that costume,” she looked at where the only other pony in the store was before turning back to Edgy and looking him dead in the eye.
“My parents were killed by vampires.”
Edgy was shocked. Starry kept looking at him straightfaced.
“You’re joking.”
“No, I’m not. When I was a tiny infant, it was a Nightmare Night just like this one. They went to sleep for the night when suddenly one of the windows downstairs blew open. My father went to shut it, when all of a sudden he was dragged outside. My mother heard the commotion and ran to see what happened, when she too was taken. All that was left of them were my mother’s spectacles and my father’s pipe.”
“You’re still joking.”
“No, I’m still not. The village called a meeting and decided what to do with me. I was left in an orphanage nearby, but my caretaker told me later what had happened and how the village went on a hunt for vampire ponies and finally found a cave littered with the remains of ponies, including those of my parents. My caretaker wasn’t supposed to tell me, but one day she let part of the story slip and then had to tell the rest. The vampire ponies got away that night, but one day, they’ll come after me.”
Starry looked toward the windows dramatically, and Edgy thought he almost could see eyes outside looking back toward him.
“And guess what?” Starry said, as she watched Edgy look toward the window.
“I…”
“...was joking,” Edgy finished.
“YES, FINE,” Starry admitted.
“But! That’s one of the fun things about Nightmare Night, telling scary stories like that one!”
Edgy shook his head. Starry looked so cheerful. He wouldn’t have taken the time to listen to any other pony’s nonsense, but Starry’s he could handle.
She began to take off her cow costume and her magic reached for the bat ears and fangs and cape of the vampire costume.
Next thing Edgy knew, there was a really cute vampire pony in front of him.
“Happy?”
“I’m never happy, Star.”
“Now you’re the one that’s joking.”
They left the shop a few minutes later and joined the other ponies in the main square for treats before heading toward the corn maze.
...
Before they separated for the night, Starry and Edgy stopped in the middle of the street.
“Did you have a good time, Edgy?”
“It was noisy and uncomfortable. But yes, I will admit I’m...glad I joined you for Nightmare Night.”
“Good! See you tomorrow?”
“As long as nothing grabs you from your window.”
Starry shivered a bit before Edgy leaned over to her ear.
“Just kidding.”
The two chatted a bit more before both headed home. Starry lit up her horn and tried to see through the streets. They weren’t entirely empty. Ponyville was small enough that it wouldn’t have a single empty street during a big event like this. Still, Starry felt a bit uneasy.
Once she got home, she lit up all the lights in her house in turn as she walked past her empty living room and trotted up the stairs to her bedroom. She locked her bedroom door and looked out the window. She could see the form of an angry goose settled in for the night in Postage’s backyard. One of his lights was on downstairs, presumably so he could keep working.
She laid her head down on the pillow and tucked her blankets around her.
And she tried to sleep.
But unbeknownst to her, a vampire pony was waiting downstairs, a pony set on finally ending her entire family once and for all.
Just kidding…
Happy Nightmare Night!
Author's Note
I know this is nearly a month late. ^-^'
I was looking at the batpony OC contest last month and thought I would draw Starry as a batpony, but then I thought I would rather write it instead.
This was completed two days before Nightmare Night, but was going to be just a random brainstorming short story for fun...And then, the great El Doctore swooped in and found it and declared it fit to share!
So here it is, nearly a month later.
Side Note: Starry and Penny both do not like vampires. ^-^'