A very young brassy Gearing flutters through the air as he holds a small satchel to himself. He’s grown only a little since his last major outing -to Pine Garland's Hearth’s Warming party last year- so his small body still has trouble holding him aloft as he’s flying. He’s grown enough that he can manage short trips and such, but he’s not going to be traveling across the continent under his own power anytime soon. So his mother brought him to the correct neighborhood and let him loose.

This is another experiment for the both of them. Since his time at the Hearth’s Warming party, he’s had more interactions with the other foals he’d met there. Their ongoing contact, without anything seriously going wrong, has helped Gearing build up confidence in traveling on the outside world. Away from the safety of his bedroom.

So his mother agreed to let him go out with the other foals he’d made friends with for Nightmare Night this year. He’s not exactly happy about the holiday in general. And, in general, he stays home during it. Outside of the times when she’s taken him to places directly, he’s not wanted any part of the holiday for a few reasons.

Namely for the name of the holiday for one and who it’s connected to.

He heads inside the house that he was told to meet up at once he finds it, as the front door is already open and various adults have been standing around chatting and talking as they have their own party. And it could be successfully argued that his ability to simply walk past all of them, on the way to his preassigned meeting place, is a massively positive sign for how far he’s come over the course of the last year. He’s not actively hiding from each and every other pony he sees. He does, by nature, keep notice of them as he’s passing. But he’s no longer going out of his way to keep some piece of furniture of other object in between him and them.

In the enclosed back porch, there are squeals of delight as both fillies and colts chatter about what they have planned for the night. Gearing comes in through the hall from the front, peeks into the area, and, after noticing the variety of already costumed up foals, turns and hops into a bathroom that was in the adjoining hallway without anyone noticing. A few minutes later, Gearing steps out wearing his own costume, and walks in to join the others. Though the sparkling gems give him away. Instantly the others look over, and the volume of foalish excitement increase as they notice Gearing, and his costume.

“It’s Radiance!” a filly squeals as they are gobsmacked by the intricacy of the costume Gearing’s wearing.

Especially since his mother, a professional seamstress, went to town on making him the costume and spent far more than any normal mare would on a one off use of clothing. She worked on it in minute detail. And Gearing helped her immensely. He provided a lot of reference images for her to work from. From a variety of sources. And went so far as to provided a detailed list of each of the individual things she needs to include in the costume to make it look as authentic as possible.

Now, most mares would love to see their children enthused about such things, but they would have to reign in the expectations of their foals. Into something far more manageable. More affordable. But, those mares didn't have the problems to deal with that Heartly did. Her young colt had been through far more than someone his age should have to live through. And because of that fact had become quite agoraphobic. And, if she was being honest with herself, ponyphobic as well. So the fact that he not only wants to go outside of home, but had found a reason to actively interact with other ponies in a positive way, was a chance that she couldn’t pass up. She feels obligated to encourage it. So, if her little comic loving treasure wants to go out dressed as one of his favorite heroes, she’s going to make it happen. And she’d planned on doing such a good on it that he would feel the need to show it off, which he did.

The base of the costume is a dark blue jumpsuit that covers the majority of his body -wings included- with only his head and tail poking out of it. A prominent light blue over sized collar trims along the head hole of the jump suit. Although his tail is obviously inside of some kind of decorative sack to make it look more like the grayish blue color of Radiance’s own tail. And upon his head is some sort of wig of the same color as the faux tail. On his face is Radiance’s trademark pointy masquerade style mask. The rest of his head is left in the open, as his natural golden brassy hide does a pretty good emulation of Radiance’s yellow pelt color.

And then there were the accessories. So many accessories. Which is no surprise to those that know about Radiance, since that is what she is known for. That is where her powers come from, after all. Both forehooves have a set of pinkish gemy bracelets predominately adoring his legs right above his fetlocks. Around his neck is a thick golden necklace with another large pink gem at it’s apex. And then all over the blue jumpsuit, and attached to both the faux mane and tail, are a smattering of other gems. The suit as a whole seems to be encrusted with the stones.

And then there’s the horn that he had obviously wonder-glued to his head. Of everything, that was the thing that took the longest to get on as he had to make sure it didn’t go on crooked and would stay on.

Gearing walks into the room a few paces, then turns strikes one of his favorite heroic poses of the heroine for the others to see and enjoy. He’d been practicing that pose relentlessly since his mother started working on the costume, and it shows.

The other foals run over and start looking his costume over from various angles as they squeal with glee.

“You look just like her!” the small filly giggles as she starts walking around and looking at his costuem from various angles.

A colt slides in front of Gearing and looks at the bracelets up close and asks, “Are those the real power bracelets?!”

“Where’d you get all those gems for the costume?!” an older filly asks as her jaw drops and she’s obviously counting the gems covering Gearing.

“They’re not real,” Gearing comments flatly. “My mom has a friend that makes hoof blown beads from glass, so she asked her to make what she needed for the costume.”

A younger filly steps on the colt laying on the ground, who doesn’t seem to mind actually as he’s lost looking at the bracelets, and comments, “The necklace is soooo pretty! It even has the small carvings in it that was only shown in the special edition that had the close ups when they were studying the necklace in the comic!”

Gearing stands there with his chin up, smiling with pride at what him and his mother made. Mostly his mother, he knows this. “Yup! My mom spent a lot of time getting the details right! The necklace was a pain to carve correctly, too. This was the fourth attempt. I messed up on the first three and had to redo them.”

But, as they all look at his costume, he looks theirs over as well. The young colt at his hooves is wearing a common store bought costume of of of Nightmare Moon’s bat pony soldiers. Complete with fake webbed wings that flop around at his sides, hard plastic breastplate, and fangs. Though the breast plate already has a crack in it from when he jumped on the ground to look at Gearing’s bracelets. And when Gearing compliments him on his scary costume, the foalish colt strikes up his own pose, complete with an extra fangy smile

Proving that not all costume have to be complicated to look good, is the youngest filly of the group. She’s wearing a Fili-second costume composed of a light pink jump suit that’s had purple arrows painted onto it. And Gearing judges it as fit for the squad and a bit jealous of not having to worry about messing it up as much as he’s worried about what he’s wearing.

The oldest colt of the group, Gearing instantly recognizes as well. Sir Cumference from Chivalrie Tails. A fantasy series of old time Equestria when ponies had to use their wits and strength to survive in the world, and those fighting the bad monsters wore shiny suits of metal armor and shields. This colt, however, had managed to get a long sleeve shirt that’s printed to look like chainmaille, and the sword in the scabbard is painted wood, with his shield being made from a metal trash can lid that had been beaten into shape. And the over all look gives Gearing ideas for his next costume attempt.

The costume with the absolute minimum effort put into it, and shamelessly at that, is the filly in the Grog the Barbarian ‘costume’. It’s quite obvious she’s just there for the candy. Especially with the plastic double headed axe on her back, and faux fur bracelets instead of the fur trimmed leather bracers the character would normally wear. Not to mention everything else that’s missing that helps define the character. The only other thing she’s wearing is a pair of saddle bags that are currently completely empty and she's obviously planning on stowing as much candy in them as possible. She’s a mini mare on a mission. And that mission is candy. As much candy as she can plunder before the night is over. And Gearing can’t help debating on what to do with whatever candy he gets that night.

The last member of the group is also the oldest, and is apparently the chaperon for all of the foals tonight. The eldest filly here and older sister of the young Fili-Second. She’s dressed as Fluttershy wearing the traditional Ministry of Peace nurse outfit. Complete with a pink wig, yellow wings, and saddlebags that are actually metal medical boxes with the three butterflies emblazoned on a cross. And as Gearing is looking at her, he can’t help having a bit of anxiety as he’s spent too much time around ponies in those outfits as far as he’s concerned. And really hopes they don’t need the contents of those metal boxes.

The eldest filly looks around at the others and asks, “Since we’re all here, are we ready to go?”

Gearing looks over at her and asks, “Sooo what’s the plan?”

The small colt dressed as the batpony soldier hops around and starts prancing in a circle as he says, “We trot around house to house, and ponies give us candy for our costumes!”

“Ohhh, that sounds… fun…” Gearing says as he looks around and gives an unconvincing smile.

The eldest filly gives him a side bump before she says, “Don’t worry. I know it can seem scary, but its all in good fun. Just remember, nopony’s trying to hurt you. That’s what I had to keep in mind. They just wanna scare you and have a bit of fun for everyone along the way.”

“Uh… right…” Gearing comments.

The youngest filly runs around waving a cloth bag around as she giggles. She sees Gearing and asks, “Hey, where’s your candy bag?”

Gearing looks at her and tilts his head. “Candy bag?”

She nods and waves hers around. “You gotta have a candy bag! Where else are you gonna put your candy?!”

Gearing looks around at his outfit, and then gives a light shrug as he gives her yet another unconvincing smile.

The little filly scowls as she drops her bag. “Oh, no, this wont do! You gotta have a candy bag before we can go!” She looks at the others and demands, “Right?!”

The others nod and hold their chosen containers up high in agreement.

Gearing looks around as his ears fall a bit. “Well, I guess I could use the satchel I brought my costume here with…”

He starts to turn toward the bathroom, and the little filly jumps in front of him and shoos him away with her forehooves. “Oh no, that’s not good enough!” She puts a hoof to his nose as she says, “You” and she points at the floor “Wait here!” She starts running away from the back porch area as she yells, “Mooooooom! I have an emergency! Candy emergency! Moooooooom!”

He stares after her in utter battlement before the eldest filly giggles. “She’ll have this ‘emergency’ solved in a few moments. Don’t worry. Then we can all go.”

Gearing glances at her, then shrugs, and goes back to looking down the hall where the little filly had run off to.

Sure enough, a few moments later, she comes running back with a cloth bag in her mouth. She skids to a halt in front of him and holds it up triumphantly. “Got one!”

Gearing accepts it from her and looks it over as he says, “Isn’t this just… a pillow case?”

She nods and points at it. “Yup! They make the best candy bags!” She holds up her own one as she grins. “It can hold sooooo much candy!”

Gearing looks around at the others, and catches eye contact with the one colt that has a plastic bucket. The two shares eye contact for a few moments before he pointedly looks a different direction and cradles the bucket closer to himself. To Gearing it’s quite clear that not everyone agrees with what is the best candy container, and that colt in particular doesn’t want his treasured bucket to be any more offended by the silly filly.

The eldest filly rears up as she giggles. “Well, emergency solved, so now we can head off!”

The colt in the batpony suit jumps in the air and strikes a pose when he comes back down, hitting the ground with three legs and his fourth holding his plastic bucket out in front of him as he points off down the hallway. “To the candy! Chaaarrrrgggeee!!!”

And on cue they all run down the hallway in a small pony stampede. But, hearing this, the adults look down the hall, and quickly jump and skitter out of the way as none of them wants to be trampled by the sugar fiend foals. Most of them actually laugh at the display and a few even start recounting similar escapades they themselves had done on Nightmare Night.

Once outside they stop at the curb, looking in both directions of the street, and take in the surroundings. Everywhere the houses are all decorated up with various novelties and gimmicks for Nightmare Night. But, this year sees even more of the electronic variety. It’s no longer simply pumpkins and sheets thrown over bushes to make ‘ghosts’. Now there’s electric lights hanging from windows. Animatronic fake spiders that go up and down on the sides of houses following its track rope. And then there are also many other ponies out and about, the vast majority of which all have their own costumes on as well.

Even the adults.

Gearing looks around before looking at the eldest filly. “Sooo… What do we do?”

The older filly bumps him sideways as she points to the right. “Just follow us, and do what we do, and you’ll be swimming in candy by the end of the night!”

“Uh… okay.” Gearing replies and gives yet another unconvincing smile.

The older filly turns and the foalish crowd starts following her, with Gearing bringing up the rear. But, the smaller filly walks over to him and starts walking next to him as they are walking down the street. “Hey, Gearing…?”

Gearing looks over at her and tilts his head. “Yeah?”

She leans closer to him, causing him to do the same. “Soooooo… you’re mom asked me to remind you of something.”

Gearing frowns before he asks, “What?”

She looks at him and scrunches up her mouth as she seems confused about what she's about to say, but is going to repeat it anyway because of how important it seemed to be. “She said to tell you that noponies going to hurt you. So to keep that in mind. She said some stuff about it being scary, but not to worry about anyone trying to hurt you.” She shrugs as she says, “I don’t know why. I mean, yeah, it’s scary sometimes with ponies jumping out or yelling or dressed up in scary costumes… But even if someone yells at you that they are going to gobble you up, it’s just a joke…”

Gearing stares at her for a few moments and asks, “A joke?”

“Yeah, your mom wanted me to keep reminding you not to be scared. That noponies going to hurt you. That it’s all a big joke tonight. That that’s what Nightmare Night is all about. Having fun. And no ones going to be mean to you.”

Gearing frowns as he looks around at some other ponies. But then stares at a group of traveling adults that none of them are in costume. “I hope not…”

She leans over and gives him a sideways hug with a foreleg. “Don’t worry! We’ll be fine, I promise!”

Gearing smirks and isn’t sure, but still leans into the affection anyway. And, a moment later the two scurry to catch up with the rest of their little herd.

The older filly leads the way, to the first house she’s targeting and starts motion for the others to go on ahead. “Mrs. Butterscotch always has some of the best candy around. She used to make it herself, but now she just buys the prepackaged stuff… But, because of that, she gives out extra.” The group huddle up by the door as the eldest filly brings up the rear. And once they are all up there the unicorn’s horn glows and makes the door knock. Then, in unison, all of the foals, except Gearing, call out. “Nightmare night! What a fright! Give us something sweet to bite!” As sweetly as they can.

A moment later the wooden door of the old house opens up and an elderly mare steps onto the front door stoop. She looks them over through her thick glasses and grins. “My, look at you children! So creative costumes this year!” Her horn glows and a parade of little baggies comes out, a clear plastic wrapped around a bundle of various candies and tied closed with a colorful ribbon. And, one by one she drops them into the bags and containers at the door. The others, following strict Nightmare Night unspoken protocol, give her a few smiles and words of thanks, before quickly getting out of the way and moving on off the stoop so others in line can get theirs. When Gearing gets his turn, after the small filly, he looks up at the mare. He gives her a crooked smile and says softly, “Nightmare night... What a fright... Give us something sweet to bite…?”

She looks him over and her eyes sparkle as she leans in closer. “My! What a costume! It looks like you walked out of the television!”

Gearing looks at her, then gives a more warm smiles as he says, “Thank you, my momma made it for me.”

She floats a plastic pouch of candy to him, and he stares at it for a moment before sheepishly opening his bag, and she puts it inside. As he’s leaning in to look at the contents of his bag, She reaches out a shaky hoof, and gently starts rustling his mane through his costume. He flinches at first, but then slowly looks up at her. Seeing his reaction, her own eyes go wide in recognition before she quickly pulls her hoof back. “I’m sorry, you’re the skittish sort aren’t you? Well it’s very brave of you to be out and about tonight. Make sure to tell your momma I said she did a great job on the costume! Looks like a professional did it!”

Gearing stares at her for a few moments as he recomposes himself. “Thank you. But. My momma is a professional seamstress.” He lifts a foreleg and shows the leg covering before he says, “She normally makes dresses and such. But this year she made me a costume so I could go out.”

The older mare works her mouth a bit before she asks, “Is that so?” Gearing nods. She leans a bit closer before she asks, “Does she make wedding dresses?”

Gearing looks up at her for a moment before smiling and nodding. “Yes. She makes all kinds of clothes. Suits. Dresses. Wedding dresses. These wrappy thingies that look like bed sheets but get wrapped around a pony to make clothes… I dunno it’s name though.”

The unicorn mare turns, grabs a piece of mail off the counter near by, and floats a pen out of her pocket. “Can I get your mother’s information? My daughter’s planning on getting married but she can’t find a dress to fit her right that looks good.” Gearing looks at her, grabs the pen out of her magical field, then quickly starts scribbling with the pen in his mouth onto the piece of mail as the older mare holds it with her magical field. “Here you go. That’s our mailing address. She normally takes orders through a couple consignment shops, but she does direct orders too.” He gives her back the pen as he smiles. “Her name’s Heartly.”

The older mare thanks him and stows the envelope after looking at it. “Thank you! I’ll send out a letter first thing in the morning. I know it’ll take a while to make so hopefully she can get it done by the wedding in little over a year.”

Gearing waves a hoof as he says, “Once every thing’s decided, and she starts working, it normally doesn’t take long for her to finish a piece. The longest I’ve seen her take on something was two weeks, and that was because the bride started panic eating and gained so much weight my mom had to let it out a bit.”

The older mare starts laughing loudly. “Well, that’s certainly something.” She waves at him and is about to close the door, but sees more children coming up the walkway. “Thank you again. I’ll stop talking your ear off so you can get back to trying to fill that bag of yours.”

Gearing smiles and waves at her as he quickly trots off to join the others from his candy foraging herd.

As he’s walking up to the group that had been standing there watching him, the older filly asks, “What was that all about?”

Gearing shrugs and waves back towards the door stoop where other foals are currently in the process of getting their allotment of candy. “She liked my costume and asked for my mom’s information so she can have my mom make something for her daughter.”

The colt giggles and waves his bucket around. “Your mom should have given you some business cards or something… With a costume that good you’re going to have that happen a looooot.”

They all giggle, with Gearing starting to feel a bit selfconcious about it, but then the oldest filly turns and leads them on to houses further down the street.

After a couple houses following the same kind of Nightmare Night ritual for candy, they come to a house that’s heavily decorated with various ominous things. Signs saying ‘Beware’ and ‘dragon’s den ahead’. And there’s even an over-sized grill off to the side of the door with a sign next to it that looks like it came from a restaurant that says “Roast Rogers Pony Pit”. The kids carefully walk up to the door, bunch up, then knock on the door as the chant their chorus, “Nightmare night! What a fright! Give us something sweet to bite!”

Instantly the door gets thrown open and a booming voice yells, “More ponies for the barbecue! Yes! They’re young too! Tender and delicious!”

The large reptilian head that pokes out has thick scales all over it, with a slimy substance dripping from its teeth. The orange eyes seem to glow even compared to the bright red scales that encompass the whole head. Multiple horns stick out at various angles on the top and sides of the head threatening to skewer anyone that gets too close.

The kids jump in the air as they scream, with the colt in the Sir Cumfrence costume fowling the air with a large questionable fart, before they all stampede off and away from the door. Even the oldest filly went running and screaming in terror.

All except Gearing

He stands there, locked in position, staring up at the over-sized reptilian head.

The head looks out, at the ponies hiding behind the large tree out front, and starts laughing. It slowly gets lifted and a middle aged looking stallion looks out at them with a more than please expression on his face. “Hehehehe, Got’em! Works every time!” But, then he slowly lowers his head, and sees Gearing standing there, not moving an inch.

The two stare at each other for a few moments before the stallion asks, “You not scared?”

“Nope.”

“Not even a little bit?”

“Nope.”

“But… it’s a dragon… Aren’t you afraid of dragons?”

Gearing tilts his head. “Why would I be? Dragons have never done anything to me?”

The stallion stares at him for a few moments before his jaw drops. “Kid… you’re something else…”

Gearing stares at him a bit longer, before lifting the bag. As he’s maintaining hard eye contact he asks, “Uhhh… Nightmare night? What a fright. Give us something sweet to bite?”

The stallion laughs, “Well, you already called bluff on my trick, so have some treats!” He waves to the others hiding behind the tree. “You kids too. Come on. As thanks for the laugh!”

The others look over, and after a moments hesitation they scamper over to get their treats. Lead by the Grog filly who’s desperate to put some more weight into her saddlebags. Which he dutifully doles out a good portion for each of them as he has obviously have been enjoying the night.

As Gearing is walking away, he ends up in the center of the crowd of the foals as they chatter about how brave and fearless he seems. And how he really did look like a hero standing there, staring down a big dragon, and not even flinching.

Gearing feels a bit uncomfortable about the attention, but can’t help but smile. He shrugs as he says, “Well, it was just a mask. But even if not it’s just a big ole dragon. Nothing to worry too much about.”

To this the other’s giggle at how silly he’s being. And their excitement just keeps increasing as the older filly leads them up to the next house.

They line up, as usual, and perform the same ritual of knocking and calling out, “Nightmare night! What a fright! Give us something sweet to bite!”

A sweet mare’s voice calls back from the inside. “Coooomiiiiinngg. I’m coming, don’t leave!” And a few moments later the door opens and a dark pelted mare with a dark purple mane opens the door and smiles warmly at them as she hovers a basket of candy in front of herself with her levitation magic.

Before she can say anything, at all, Gearing jumps in the air, flapping his wings, right out of his suit, and all of his limbs, as he screams out, “It’s Nightmare Moon! Run aaawaaaayyyyyy!!!” He turns around, hits the ground and is already running before he actually touches down. He’s flapping his wings as he runs, trying to make himself run faster as he screams, “She’s back to finish the job and eat our souls! Run awwaayyyyy!” And he runs down the sidewalk, up the street, and slides under a wagon parked on the side of the rode.

All of the other foals startle at the sudden screaming, but then turn and watch him run away at an impressive pace. They stare. In unison. Saying nothing for a while.

The young mare at the doorway gives a sheepish smile as she says, “Oh dear… I seem to have frightened him off…” She puts a hoof to her cheek as she says, “I don’t know if I should take it as an insult or a compliment that he thinks I look like the princess…”

The colt in the Sir Cumfrence costume stares down the rode, at the wagon he saw Gearing dive under, and rolls his eyes. “So much for being a fearless hero… He’s scared of the princess…”

“That’s kinda weird, isn’t it?” asks the young colt in the batpony costume.

The little Fili-Second looks up at the mare and gives a sheepish smile as she says, “Please forgive him… This is his first year out and he’s kinda… not good… around others…”

The mare looks down at her and lets out a sigh. “Oh, I see… Well, would you do me a favor?” She floats out little cloth bags stuffed with candy and drops them into their respective bags. She holds out an extra one and motions towards where Gearing had run. “Could you give him this for me? I feel bad I scared him and he shouldn’t miss out because of that.”

The little filly nods and takes it, balancing it on her head as she grins at her. Then they all thank her and make their way back down the street. With the rest of them staying at the end of the next house while the older filly and youngest filly goes and to fetch Gearing. On the way back the younger filly smiles as she says, “See… Scary… but not mean.” She flicks her snout and the bag of candy pops over for Gearing to catch.

But instead of grabbing it he opens his bag and lets it land in there instead.”I guess… Sorry to run off like that…”

The little filly shakes her head. “It’s okay. Just don’t run off too far even if you get scared. Don’t want anyone to get hurt.” Gearing simply nods and continues on with the group as they continue down the road, going house to house, and even stopping at a few corners where some ponies have set up candy distribution points themselves.

About half an hour after Gearing’s run in with ‘Nightmare Moon’ Gearing keeps looking at an old tree that’s further up the road. A large, thick, walnut tree that is growing not far from the walkway. And he can’t help looking around as he notices the cloud movements. And all of it is making the spot between his shoulders bothered.

After one of the houses that’s only a couple away from the one with the big tree in front of it, Gearing stands at the sidewalk and looks at the others, “Hey ummm… I think a storm’s coming in.”

They look at him, and look up. And the older filly holds a hoof out to the side as she asks, “Why? Did you feel a drop or something?”

Gearing shakes his head and looks up. “No. But the clouds…”

The youngest filly looks at the older one and narrows her eyes at her. “Didja forget, sis?” She rolls her eyes and waves a hoof at Gearing. “He’s a pegasus… They are like super duper sensitive about that stuff.”

The older filly nods and looks at Gearing as she asks, “You think we’re going to have a big storm come through? Lotta rain or something?”

Gearing shrugs. “I don’t know about a lot of rain, but there’s definitely going to be some. And the wind’s going to be picking up… and soon too.”

She nods as she looks around. “Okay, well, we’ll go down to the end of the block, then turn around and start going back the other way on the other side of the road. I don’t want to be out in a rain storm. And if we come back soaked and get sick from it, our mom’s will have my hide…”

Gearing nods and starts looking up more often as they are traveling down the road and going down the rest of the houses. They keep the same enthusiasm as they are traveling down the road despite the warnings and potentially having their night cut short by an incoming rainstorm. Even when the wind starts picking up and a slight chill starts cutting through their fabric and fur every now and then. Gearing’s pace has gotten slower, being a couple paces behind the rest of the group, as they have spread out a bit more as they are going. The youngest filly is in the back of the herd, just a few paces in front of Gearing and a couple paces behind the next couple. As she’s busy looking in her bulging bag, and talking to herself about what she wants to eat first, Gearing keeps looking up more. His ears twitch and he looks at the large walnut tree as they are starting to pass it, but his pace slows down further. He fells the wind kicking up again, and the more wind there is, the more there is something coming from the tree that Gearing just doesn’t like. But he can’t put a pinion on it.

And then a loud crack echos out of the tree, like a small explosion, as bark on the far side of the tree flies away from the wood at high speed. And as scary as that would be, that’s nothing for what makes Gearing’s eyes go to their widest. The large tree starts falling over, and it’s moving a lot quicker than what he’d think given the holotapes he’s seen of lumberjacks. And that’s when he realizes that the tree has already been falling, or trying to, the wind just managed to give it enough of a nudge to break loose the last bits that were holding it up. And thus the equilibrium was shattered, along with the bark, and the tree starts falling out into the road. The noise of the bark shattering drew some attention, but not nearly as much as Gearing’s panicked scream.

Everyone within ear shot looks over, and the horrific realization dawns on everyone who has line of sight to what is happening.

Anyone even remotely close to the tree starts running away as quickly as they can to avoid the wide canopy coming down. Many others even duck down behind random things to try and get some kind of cover from any debris that is going to get thrown up after the collision. And more than a few squeeze their eyes, and pointedly avoid looking, because there’s nothing they can do, and they don’t want to witness what’s about to happen.

Because the youngest filly of the group had just stepped in line with the tree, when it finally gave up it’s fight with gravity, and was looking in her bag. So as the tree’s falling on her, she’s barely had enough time to even look up to see what’s going on, let alone time enough to process the danger and take action.

But Gearing had seen enough, and is rather jumpy by nature, so he runs towards the massive shadow under the tree as quickly as he can, flapping his wings to give him that extra boost as he bounds the few feet to reach her. But, as he’s running towards her, he realizes he’s not going to be able to simply push her out of the way. His mind races through the mechanics of the tree, it’s angle of fall, and the additional limbs creating the canopy. And every thing he thinks of tells him he’s not going to be able to even throw her away from the falling tree far enough that she won’t get hurt. He already knows he’s not fast enough to grab her and run with her. But with even his strength not being an option to chuck her clear, he can’t think of anything he can do to get her clear of the impact.

So he goes with plan ‘C’: Prevent the tree from falling on her.

He jumps next to her, stands up on his hind legs, and screams out, “Get down!” as he raises his forelegs up above himself and stands as upright as he possibly can with his hooves outstretched.

As the tree is about to fall on them, and the second he stands up, this is the image everyone sees before they lose sight of the pair under the tree and its massive canopy.

Screams of horror go out into the night so loud that they even drown out the thunderous crashing sound of the tree as the canopy makes contact in the road and actually crushes a wagon that had been parked on the side of the street on the far side.

The rest of Gearing’s Nightmare Night group had run away from the tree at high speed, screaming the whole way, but they quickly come back as the older filly screams, “Sis!”

A large group of ponies crowd around the tree, with many adults running over around to where the sidewalk is. A couple of the adults go around checking on each of the kids they can find, and try to make a headcount for who’s around verses how many they thought they saw just a few moments ago.

A mare across the street, standing on the stoop of her porch, screams into her phone calling for rescue personnel because a huge tree just fell on a group of kids.

A large stallion bounds down the street and jumps over the fence as he comes to a skidding halt. He starts checking around the canopy as he’s calling out. “Hello?! Is anyone there? Call out if you need help!” All the while hacking at tree branches and hewing them from the tree with his big axe as he looks around on the road for anyone caught in the fall.

But then one of the adults that had made it around the huge canopy of leaves gets to the sidewalk and has a grimace on his face as he walks up to where the tree trunk is and hopes that he’s not going to find something that’s going to put him in therapy for the rest of his life.

Instead he finds an even more incomprehensible image.

Gearing, standing there, on his hind legs and completely upright, with his forehooves raised above himself. Like a pillar. Completely unyielding. And supporting the entire tree trunk with just his own strength and body. Various places on him have become visible as he has ripped out of his costume. The costume wast’ meant to be worn in this particular position. But, beyond that, several of his cogs, plates, and other pieces have ripped clean through the fabric and their brassy shine is in full view, poking out of his costume. More than a couple of which show signs of cracks or bends. Gearing stands there, still looking up at the tree, as he ticks and clicks and his lip quivers.

The stallion recoils for a moment, before he looks down and sees the little filly Fily-Second, curled up in as tight of a ball as she can at Gearing hooves. He quickly reaches in, grabs the filly and yanks here out from under the trunk as he yells out with a scream that is both joyous but sad and on the verge of choking as he can’t believe their luck. “I got her! She’s okay!” He hops away from the tree, holding her up like a prized holy relic for everyone else to see.

The others run over, and another stallion looks under the trunk, sees Gearing standing there in his position, and smiles. The stallion looks over, and sees the car wagon, and then back at Gearing. As the other stallion is reuniting the youngest filly with the rest of the group, and a few others that want to check her to make sure she’s actually okay, the stallion next to the trunk calls out to Gearing. “Hey, sport. You did good. That was very brave of you. But you can come out from under there now.”

Gearing ticks and clicks a few times before he groans, “I- I can’t”

The stallion waves over to the side towards the wagon in the road. “The wagon’s supporting the weight. You’re lucky. So go ahead and come out.”

“N- No. I can’t,” Gearing replies.

“Why not?” the stallion asks as he looks Gearing over. “Stuck?”

“Y- yeah… it’s … it’s so heavy. I can’t move. It’s too heavy.”

The stallion frowns as he narrows his eyes. “Kid… I know your dressed like a super hero or whatever. But you are not holding that tree up. Trust me, the wagon over there has enough of the weight. You can come out now.”

The little filly comes over next to the stallion and looks at Gearing. She jumps up and down a few times as she says, “It’s okay, Gearing. Come on out. I’m okay. I’m over here! You can drop it now.”

He looks over at her, then looks around. “I’m stuck.”

She tilts her head as she asks, “Stuck? How?”

“It’s heavy… My hooves are stuck in the wood…” Gearing moans.

She looks around, then stands up and starts making a motion with both of her forehooves. “Then throw it… like hiya! Just throw it to the side. That should work, right?”

Gearing looks at her and starts thinking things through. Then he looks up at the stallion and says, “Move please.”

The stallion raises an eyebrow as he asks, “Move? What?”

“Move please, it’s heavy, and I’d like to put it down now.”

“What are you-”

Quickly the little filly bucks the stallion in the foreleg as she scowls back at him over her shoulder. “He said ‘move’! So move it, mister!”

The stallion yelps, and jumps back and away shaking his foreleg from where the little filly had kicked him. And she had kicked him hard. But before he can even say anything to her, a true sight to behold takes place next to them.

Gearing stretching and folding over forwards. He tilts with the trunk, and makes the motion like he is trying to throw it, but instead he ends up dropping it right in front of him. And, in the process, his hooves come out of the deep impressions they had made into the hard wood. Gearing gets smacked by a few of the lower branches, but he’s not much worse for wear. If you don’t think about his costume. Which he’s really trying not to.

And, to the stallion’s great horror, the trunk does in fact fall all the way to the ground. Almost flat to the concrete. And the wagon that he had thought had been supporting the tree’s entire weight gets crushed more as all of the remaining weight is offloaded onto it.

Gearing sits down, wobbling, as he stares at the tree. After a few moments of trying to process everything, he turns his head and looks up at the stallion. He gives him a beaming smile as he says, “I- I did it… It worked…”

The little filly jumps around and waves her forehooves as she yells, “Sis! Come quick! We need your boxy things!”

The older filly runs over and looks Gearing over, with his costume in absolute tatters, and she starts to pale. She leans back, opens up the metal box on one side, and shows the inside to her little sister. The completely empty insides. “I don’t have any medical supplies, the boxes are just for show. They’re empty! I wasn’t allowed to have the contents. They only let me have the boxes because they were already empty! It doesn’t matter if I wanna be a nurse when I grow up, they ‘don’t want to waste supplies’!” She kicks the ground and scowls. “I could really use them here too! Wait till I get home, they’re getting such a letter!”

A mare in a Ministry of Peace uniform pushes her way through the crowd, being directed by one pony or another until she comes over and finds the young filly and Gearing. She checks the young filly over, and doesn’t find anything too serious. But she gives her a potion, just in case, and when the little filly points over to Gearing, she jumps over and starts checking him over next. But, she’s more than a little confused by him.

She gently leans down as she asks, “Are you okay, little one? Do you hurt anywhere?” The shredded costume doesn’t escape her notice for a millisecond.

Gearing looks up at her and frowns as he says, “I hurt everywhere. The tree fell on me and my friend. My legs and hooves really really hurt… especially my shoulders…”

She smiles at him and rubs his head before she nods. “Here. Drink this. This’ll have you feeling better in no time.” She doesn’t see any blood anywhere. And he’s obviously conscious. So she’s pretty sure it’s more shock than any physical trauma. But, if it’ll help his mental state from his near death experience, she figures it’s more than justified in using a potion. She pops the top on the potion, and holds it to his mouth.

He carefully drinks it as its offered. But stops and licks his lips as he smiles. “Mmmm! Minty!” He grabs the bottle and sits there slowly drink it with small steady sips.

Which the nurse finds to be a bit peculiar. Then something even more strange happens. As she’s watching, she sees several points of the shiny metal poking out of his costume actually pull back inside. Her eyes slowly open wide in horror as a thought crosses her mind. She gently reaches out, and starts trying to feel his shoulders with a hoof. But, she’s left even more confused as all she feels is his hard metal. But she’s certain that she saw his body react to the potion, which means he did have an injury of some kind. She gently starts running a hoof over his sides and shoulders before she asks him to stand up. Which he does. She starts moving her own body, striking poses, and asking him to do the same, as she tests his mobility. Which seems to be okay. But, her gut still bothers her. She pulls out another potion and hands it to him, and he readily accepts it and sits down as he starts drinking it again. And this time, as she’s watching, she sees his shoulder suddenly, and unnaturally, move on its own.

And that’s the last straw for her.

She reaches out with a hoof and gently rubs his cheek. “Sweetie. I think you need to go to the hospital. Where’s your momma?”

Gearing frowns and lowers the bottle as he sighs. “The hospital? Again? Last time I went there I was stuck there forevveerrrr…”

The older filly walks up and waves at the nurse. “I know his mom. I’ll take him back. I’m pretty sure were done for the night anyway… right, guys?” She looks back at the others and they are huddled tightly together as they stare with eyes wide and full of fright. And they quickly nod in agreement as despite the promise of candy, the threat of trees trying to kill them is all too apparent.

The nurse looks at Gearing and asks, “Can you make it? Or do you need an ambulance? Should I call an ambulance for you? . . . I think I should call an ambulance…”

Gearing shakes his head as he gets up. “No. No thank you. I can make it back on my own. Thank you though!” He gives her the empty bottles back and walks over to the group of children. As they all turn and walk away back towards where their parents’ party is, Gearing mutters, “Stupid tree…” He looks at the little filly and comments, “You were right. It wasn’t the ponies I had to watch out for. It was the stupid trees!”

The nurse looks over, and sees the flabbergasted stallion still staring at the flattened wagon, and walks a bit closer. “Sir? Are you okay?”

The stallion slowly rotates his neck to look at her, a bit unnaturally at that, before he says, “I think I just met the real Radiance, and they’re a fucking foal!”

On the way back to the party, the others slowly start warming up and chatting. And after only a block they’re back to their energetic attitudes as they talk about what had happens. Along the way the batpony costumed colt tells Gearing that he should have dressed up as the Saddle Rager since he’s basically a real life version of them anyway with how strong and tough he must be. This starts a long debate that lasts all the way back to the party.

Although, once taken back, and the word spreads about what had happened, Gearing is instantly spirited off to the nearest clinic by Heartly. Who grabs him, holds him close, and flies off far faster than anyone at the party thought she was even capable of flying. And though the trip is annoying, and long by Gearing’s account, it’s a necessary one. But, unlike what he had feared, his stay is limited to a few hours of outpatient treatment. A fact that his very worried, but very proud, mother is just as happy about as he is. Though, as he’s being treated, he gives the candy he’d collected to the nurses so they can share it with the other kids that are having their nights ruined. He’d been wondering what to do with it as he’d gathered it, and as he’d seen a few other foals in bad ways here, he figures it’s as good of a use of it as any. Which earns him rounds of admiration from the staff, and even more so when they find out the whole story about how he ended up that way.

And despite everything he’d been worried about, he never once was chided for damaging his costume. And in fact, when he brings it up, she lightens the mood by reminding him that heroes go through a lot of costumes because of damage. It’s a hazard of being a hero and saving lives. And then she almost nuzzles her little hero into oblivion.

Footnote: This story was written for Halloween 2023, but things transpired to push it back even further. [It was original planned as far back as 2019, but *waves vaguely at the world around us*]

Author's Note

Timeline wise this takes place less than a year after the party at Pine Garland’s, so roughly 2 years after ‘the incident’. The series of events in this story is one of the ones that helped spur our clockwork repair pony on to other bigger and better things. And these ponies in particular helped pull him out of his agoraphobic shell. I know it’s a weird story to be told during Nightmare Night, but, it’s done intentionally. Because even the most relaxed of days can present an opportunity for great change. And this was one of them for him.

For those that still don't understand: This is the catalyst that made Gearing realize he wasn’t nearly as weak, defenseless, and helpless as he’d thought he was after “the incident”.

Currently [as of this writing] there are 88 chapters released. And ‘the incident’ will be covered in future chapters. The revelation for what’d happened to him as a foal is coming, but, I don’t know the exact chapter number it takes place in. I already have the path laid out. So, we’re getting there.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.