Lazlo woke up with a start. A nightmare again. And he remembered this one too. He hated it. Most of his dreams leave him in the moment of awakening, leaving him to question whether he even had a dream that night at all. Sometimes only a feeling remains as proof that something did happen in his mind during his sleep. But that nightmare about how he could've ended up when getting here if not for some mystical force or something that somehow saved him. No one had any idea behind it and he tried to avoid thinking about it but people do think about darker stuff when they're alone and have nothing else to do, which in his case was not a rarity. This time, however, a different nightmare made his sleep uncomfortable. It was about what he considers his greatest fear.

That wasn't the only problem. What the nightmare was about, he had similar daydreams as well. Never intentionally sometimes his mind just stirred that way. He had to find a way to distract himself from those thoughts. He couldn't let them deepen their roots in his mind.

As luck would have it, interruption knocked on his door this time. Opening it revealed three mares. Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie.

"Hello, darling!" Rarity greeted him first. The others said their greetings as well and Lacy returned it too. "I hope you are not busy right now." she continued to speak and it was clear that they wanted to talk with him about something and since he wasn't busy and actually wanted some distraction from his thoughts, he let them in. They all sat in the living room and he brought some drinks that he originally bought for the picnic a few days ago.

"So... what do you want from me?" he asked them.

"This morning, while I've been baking the first batch of goodies, I've remembered something." Pinkie started. "It will be Nightmare Night soon. As I planned for the special treats I wanted to make for that night I checked that recipe collection, I got from you and then it hit me that you might not know about the holiday and I must go to visit you so I can tell you about it and you can prepare. But on the way, I realized that Twilight is better at explaining things like this so I went to her at first and asked her to come with me but then I also remembered that you will need a costume so we went to Rarity and asked her to come too and now we are here." the pink mare summarized.

"Nightmare Night..." Lacy muttered. "I think I've heard of it before. Right, that holiday, that's similar to Halloween."

"Yes, you mentioned it when we were comparing holidays before but there weren't many details exchanged," Twilight spoke.

"Well, I don't know much about it as it's not something we have in my country but it's well-known worldwide, at least the basics. People dressed up as monsters, ghosts, and other scary things. Kids go around gathering candy and other sweets. Oh, and everyone has a weird thing for torturing pumpkins." he told them what he knew.

"That's really very similar!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Well except the offering to Nightmare Moon. And a fair too and anything else, the ponies coming up."

"But didn't you defeat her and turned her back to Princess Luna?" Lazlo asked. "Nightmare Moon is no more."

"Well, yes but Nightmare Night has been there for hundreds of years. I feel bad for Princess Luna but Nightmare Night is a great and fun holiday." Twilight explained. "I believe that she will see it that way too if she gives it a chance."

"And what do you want from me?" Lazlo asked again.

"You already asked that, silly." Pinkie noticed it.

"And you didn't give an answer."

"I think, she wants you to take part in the Nightmare Night events, darling." Rarity spoke. "We are worried. You rarely leave your home, basically just for shopping."

"We are still your friends." Twilight took the word from her. "Maybe these last few weeks were full of chaos and I'm not only talking about Discord but that shouldn't leave a wall between us. We all did things that tested our friendship. Like when we didn't appreciate the dresses Rarity made for us. Or when Applejack refused to accept help and poisoned several ponies. Or what happened a few days ago. We forgave you already, Lacy."

"Really?" he asked, Twilight and Rarity nodded.

"Of course, we did!" Pinkie decided to be more vocal at the confirmation. "Though I didn't forget the letter about you winning back our trust so that means that you owe one to each of us."

Lazlo put on his 'Are you for real?' face and looked at the ponies. Besides the pink mare, the other two exchanged some awkward glances and their smile was awkward too but none of them proved Pinkie wrong or disagreed with her. Lazlo could only shake his head in disbelief.

Fucking hell... I should be angry or at least offended. I would be in normal cases but ever since getting here there were none for me. Fuck... I can't believe it... Well, this is supposed to be a punishment and it will distract me at least.

"It's not what Pinkie meant." Twilight came up with an explanation. "You are still our friend, but those letters to Princess Celestia need to be honest and we can't send an empty paper."

"How about instead of dancing around this topic, you come with me to my boutique and we can think of a great costume for you." Rarity tried to take the focus elsewhere. Lazlo sighed and nodded.

Soon they were all in the Carousel Boutique. Rarity was measuring Lazlo, while Pinkie and Twilight were throwing in ideas of what he could dress up as. Pinkie mostly came up with silly things, like animals or even sweets from Sugarcube Corner. Twilight mostly listed famous ponies from the history of Equestria but the problem with that was it would've looked stupid on someone who walks on two legs. Rarity only had a few things in mind, like a dragon costume. In the end, Twilight's idea won, she suggested a minotaur costume.

After Rarity took the needed measurements and worked out the necessary details, they left her and went to the local candy shop to buy the candy that he will give to the little fillies and colts. Sweety Drops expressed her disappointment that he missed several weeks in the chess club but also understood his reason. She showed him several packages that she always prepared for Nightmare Night. It contained more than enough candy for the kids. Lazlo chose one and soon he was on his way back home.

Soon it was the night of the holiday. Rarity brought him the costume yesterday. Lazlo was currently putting it up. This whole day, he was thinking about whether he really wanted to do more with Nightmare Night other than giving candy to the kids who knock on the door but one of the mares would surely try to get him out, also the distraction was welcoming to him, and he wished to experience Halloween as a kid but never had the chance for obvious reasons and now it was the closest he could get to it, even though it was in a different world and he was an adult.

He put up his costume. Rarity, while having never seen a real minotaur in her life, Twilight showed a picture of the creature to her so she had an idea of how it should look like. At first, he took off his clothes, except his underwear and socks. The upper body part of the costume could be best defined as a light gray fursuit, it was simple but Rarity didn't have much time to make the costume, since she had many other orders too, she apologized to Lazlo when she brought it to him and he didn't mind the simplicity. After putting on the top part, the pants came next. Its color was darker gray and at the top middle of the backside, a tail was attached to it, which wasn't very long, it reached down a little beyond his knee. Lastly a pair of horns attached to a hair band, which he put onto his head in a way that the horns were placed, as a minotaur would have. There was also a pink nose in the bundle, but he skipped that one because breathing was very hard for him when he tried it.

Just as he finished, he heard multiple knocks on his door. So this was it. The first foal came to his house for candy. He went to grab his bowl, full of sweets and went to open the door.

"Nightmare Night! What a fright! Give us something sweet to bite!" three fillies yelled together. One was dressed, what Lacy thought was a damsel in distress, a princess, who is locked up in the highest tower from the fairy tales, another was probably an astronaut, and the third was a ladybug. Behind them stood Granny Smith and it seemed like the fillies got her enthusiasm as well, since she didn't appear to have any.

Lazlo took out three candies from his package and placed one into each filly's sack.

"Hey! I'm here too!" a colt's voice was heard behind the fillies and the speaker pushed his way through the others. He was wearing a pirate costume, a really good one with a sword and eye patch and everything. Only the gun was missing. "Pipsqueak the pirate at your service." he saluted, which Lazlo found absolutely adorable. With a smile, he took one candy and put it into his sack. "This is my first Nightmare Night. I love it!" he spoke as Lacy's candy disappeared into his haul.

"Really? This is the first time for me as well," he informed the colt, who looked surprised at it. "Where I'm from we don't have this holiday, though there is a similar one in other places," he answered before he got the question.

Lazlo then turned his attention to the old mare.

"Good evening Ms. Smith." he greeted her.

"Didn't I tell you to call me Granny, when you were our guest?" she asked.

"Maybe, I guess your memory is better than mine," he answered, now remembering it.

"Eh, I'm cheating." Granny laughed. "I tell it to every guest so I'm just gotta remember those, whoever came to the farm. But you are easy to remember."

"Yeah, it's probably because of my charming personality," Lazlo said sarcastically.

"Nah, it's because you're the weirdest-looking thing, we ever had in our home."

After her bluntness kicked his sarcasm in the ass with two legs, the kids became restless and started to pull Granny to go to the next house.

"I'm coming, younglings, don't be impatient!" she scolded them, then turned back to the human. "I should've been asleep hours ago. Pinkie Pie promised to take over watching the kids but I haven't seen her. I'm starting to get really tired."

"I haven't seen her either," Lazlo told her, then finally to the kids' delight they said their farewell and they went on their way to gather more candy.

After this, other children came to his house for candy as well. The last pony knocking on his door was Pinkie Pie, dressed up as a chicken, and even acting like one. Lazlo sighed and was about to give her candy while telling her about what Granny Smith told him but she just took the package from him and added the remaining few sweets into her collection.

"Thanks for the candy, now I gotta go find Granny Smith, I promised to take over looking after a few kids. You should come as well, there are many fun things there. I love Nightmare Night!" she spoke while pulling the man for a short time, before letting him go and running to the center of the town. Lazlo just walked slowly after she shook his head.

He wasn't sure how much time he spent in the middle of the town, where most ponies were chatting or having fun with these games, like the pumpkin catapult, or apple bobbing. Lazlo thought about trying those but he didn't feel the urge to do so, so he was just observing the others.

Just as he was starting to get bored and thinking about going home, he noticed a dragon. Well, a dragon costume that was worn by a... dragon...

You fucking serious? Maybe I should've come out as myself too... Or dressed as an SS officer, though I would've needed Chris' coat for it, plus they wouldn't understand it so no fun...

Spike seemed happy with a big sack of candy in his claws, while Twilight, who was wearing some cliché wizard outfit seemed angry for some reason.

They noticed him and quickly changed their direction toward the human.

"Hey, Lacy!" they both greeted him, and the man did the same. "How do you like Nightmare night so far?" Twilight asked.

"Didn't do much, except giving out candy, until Pinkie came and took everything that was left. But it didn't seem bad as I looked around. Though I could've done it without the lightning strikes from Rainbow. Mini heart attack every time, even if none were targeting to scare me." he explained.

"Glad, you enjoying yourself then." Twilight smiled, then looked at him expectingly. "So what do you think of my costume?" she turned her side to him to let him examine her better, showing him more details.

"Looks good..." Lazlo said after a few seconds, unsure of what did she expect him to say. She just continued to look at him in the same way, waiting for him to say more. "...and well detailed... umm... who or what are you?"

"Oh, come on! Not even you?!" she yelled in frustration. Her reaction did surprise Lacy but he wasn't the only one. Applejack, who was close by, dropped the bucket from her mouth, which she was carrying water in to refill the tub for the apple bobbing. It seemed it will take many rounds with that bucket. "I was hoping that at least you will recognize him! I told you about him! It's Startswirl the Bearded!"

"Hey! Calm down!" Lazlo raised his hands. "I remember you telling me about him, one of the biggest names in the history of magic, and it was clear to me that he's an idol for you," he told her, remembering those times she talked about him during their sessions. "But you never told me how did he look like, or what did he wear, so how was I supposed to know?" he asked.

"Oh, right." she looked sheepishly at him, admitting that he had a point. She knew his looks because of the big portrait of him in Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns and some illustrations in some books and another portrait in the Starswirl the Bearded section in the Library of Magic in Canterlot, but Lazlo didn't see any of those. "Sorry." she apologized. It seemed that she wanted to tell more but the cheering of many ponies close by grabbed their attention.

There was a stage close to them. It had dark curtains with silver dots on them, On the top of it was a banner, the same width as the stage on it was some images of Nightmare Moon. A big group of ponies was already there, listening to the mayor, who stood on the stage. She was dressed as a clown.

The three of them joined the crowd.

"Thank you, everypony, and welcome to the Nightmare Night festival!" the mayor began her speech. "Now, all the little ponies who have been out collecting sweets should follow our friend Zecora to hear the legend of... Nightmare Moon!" she tried to sound scary at the end with an evil laugh after finished speaking.

"Spooky voice might work better if she wasn't dressed like that," Spike whispered to them, Twilight giggled, and Lazlo just nodded.

Suddenly green fog appeared on the stage and a zebra walked out from it. Lazlo looked at her. She was wearing big golden earrings and several golden rings around her neck. There were several fake spiders in her mane and she was wearing a dark cloak. Her eyes opened, looking at the crowd, then she spoke.

"Follow me, and very soon, you'll hear the tale of Nightmare Moon," she spoke with an African accent, or at least Lazlo guessed that because he had a college, who was African and sounded similar to her. Zecora then started to walk away and ponies, mostly the fillies and colts followed her. Twilight and Spike did the same, and Lazlo was also curious as well so he joined.

As they walked towards the edge of the town, Lazlo replayed in his mind when Twilight talked about her first encounter with the zebra. The whole town was terrified of her without even knowing anything about her. Made him think, about what would've happened to him if he arrived before Twilight met Zecora and then the whole town got over their ridiculous prejudice. Lacy sighed mentally. He had his own prejudices towards others but those were based on experience and that is something that no amount of openness can override, no matter how much he wants to be otherwise. But it seemed that Zecore forgave them and everyone moved on it, she didn't start to act like a bitch and use their earlier behavior as a get-out card, like many would do in his world.

"It's a pleasure to meet you at last. Would you mind if I had a few things asked?" Lazlo didn't notice that during his thinking session, the zebra made her way next to him and began speaking. Twilight mentioned to him that she spoke in rhyme but it was still weird to hear it. "But an introduction at first occurs. Zecora is my name, what's yours?"

"I'm Lazlo Kis. Pleased to meet you." he introduced himself formally, though he guessed that she already knew a few things about him, Twilight told him that she spoke about him to her when she was visiting her once.

"Believe me when I say, the pleasure is mine, since I'm meeting one so unique in kind. From what I heard about your home, it's even further than my own."

"Well, yeah... though it wouldn't be a problem if there would be a possibility for me to do that travel." Lacy's mood started to go down. He was beginning to enjoy this night and it seemed that it will end sooner than he hoped.

"Forgive my words that into your heart tore, I didn't realize the subject was so sore." it seemed that she noticed his discomfort. "Leaving you alone now I should, but I'd really like if chatting at some point we could. While I have curiosity on my own, I think I could give you some advice on getting used to your new home." with that she trotted forward.

Lazlo calmed as she left him. Her last words made her think though. Will he ever be getting accustomed to living in this world? Or will he be like this forever? People say that time heals every wound but this was a completely new kind of damage. Will this be the exception that strengthens the rule? Deep down, he hoped not. Even if it was only the start, he knew that those distractions won't last forever. He will be just deceiving himself, just like he did with his mother back then and that too was something he started knowing how will it eventually turn up and it still hit him way harder than he expected. He couldn't afford that hit a second time, he can't let this go too long but right now, there was nothing else he could do.

They were in the forest now. It was the edge of the Everfree Forest or more like a peninsula, surrounded by the woods, except for the part that was at the edge of the town. They all stopped at a statue that Lazlo guessed was Nightmare Moon.

"Listen close, my little dears, I'll tell you where you got your fears of Nightmare Night, so dark and scary." Zecora started her telling the children about the legend of this holiday. She pulled out some green dust from her robe, which glowed like it would be radioactive and blow at it. The dust was probably magical because it took the form of the creature this holiday is about. "Of Nightmare Moon, who makes you wary." she continued, while the glowing Nightmare flew towards the audience and upon hitting the ground, it filled the air around them with green mist. Everyone gasped, as they got scared by the performance. Lazlo stiffened too. "Every year, we put on a disguise, to save ourselves from her searching eyes." Lazlo noticed a pair of eyes behind a few foals who were close to him and even though he jumped a little back, the little ones screamed and ran away, while the zebra came forward, looking with an evil smile. "But Nightmare Moon wants just one thing: to gobble up ponies in one quick swing!" she continued her tale. More screaming followed as the air cleared from the green fog.

"Hungrily, she soars the sky." Zecora pulled out more glowing dust for a second round. "If she sees nopony, she passes by." the glowing Nightmare Moon now looked like she was looking for something in front of a few fillies, who Lazlo just now noticed that two of them were Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, the former dressed as a wolf, the other is as a vampire. Soon the Nightmare mist left them and went to other fillies and colts. "So if she comes and all is clear, Equestria is safe another year!" finally it too disappeared, but this one made some green sparkles fall as the zebra finished her tale.

"Uh, Miss Zecora, if we wear costumes to hide from Nightmare Moon, so she won't gobble us up, how come we still need to give her some of our candy?" Pipsqueak pulled on the robe of Zecora asking a question that gave the impression to Lacy that the little colt was quite clever.

"A perfect question, my little friend. For Nightmare Moon you must not offend." it seemed that Zecora had a neverending supply of those dust on herself as she pulled out yet another portion of it. "Fill up her belly with a treat or two..." this time the glowing Nightmare Moon walked towards them menacingly. "...so she won't return to come eat you!" then suddenly it jumped on them, exploding into another glowing, green fog. It was a really good jumpscare, Lazlo did jump out of its way and got scared enough to forget his thought about how it wasn't really an answer to the little colt's question.

Pinkie screamed loudly and then she and the kids all run to the statue.

"Everypony! Just dump some candy and get out of here!" Pinkie shouted while they all dumped a generous amount of sweets before the base of the statue.

Suddenly the wind got strong, clouds seemed to cover the sky except around the moon. It seemed it wasn't part of the show, as Lazlo noticed that even Zecora looked afraid. Then a light flashed and a chariot was seen descending, pulled by two pegasus ponies, who looked rather different. They had gray coats, their wings were leathery with no feathers, and they wore dark purple armor. That's what he could see in this distance but by the speed, they close to the ground, soon he will see more. From there, they looked like some kind of dark version of the Royal Guard.

The chariot, they pulled was occupied by a single pony. This pony seemed taller, than a normal one and wore a hooded cloak. A long horn was visible on the top of the head, so this pony must have been a unicorn. But with the guardlike ponies, the chariot, the dark colors. Lazlo wondered if this pony was her.

The ponies backed as the chariot approached, then went over above them and stopped mid-air.

"It's Nightmare Moon! Run!" Pinkie yelled and everyone, except for Twilight and Lacy ran toward the village.

The strange ponies continued to pull the chariot towards Ponyville and the two who were still there decided to head back as well. As they arrived back at the main square, where most ponies were, clouds formed above the town, and the chariot was already there, still in the air. The pony jumped down from the chariot and threw the hood back, revealing, who Lacy thought it was. All of the ponies, save for Twilight all lay down on the ground, shaking in fear.

"Princess Luna!" she said while smiling to see the princess. She was about to walk toward her but Spike grabbed her and pulled her down, it seemed that he was afraid too.

As the princess walked forward, pieces from her cloak flew away from her in the form of bats. Lazlo didn't know if the bats were real or some kind of magic. As the cloak completely disappeared from her body, she raised her big wings and stopped in the center of the shaking ponies.

"Citizens of Ponyville!" her voice boomed as if she was speaking through an overpowered megaphone. "We have graced your tiny village with our presence so that you might behold the real Princess of the Night! A creature of nightmares no longer, but instead a pony who desires your love and admiration! Together we shall change this dreadful celebration into a bright and glorious feast!" lightning struck and thunder roared at her last word.

"Did you hear that, everypony? Nightmare Moon says she's gonna feast on us all!" Pinkie spoke and then she and the kids ran away, yelling. Luna looked at them, confused for a second.

"What? No, children, no! You no longer have reason to fear us! Screams of delight are what your princess desires, not screams of terror!" the princess tried to stop them but it was a futile attempt. She then walked to the mayor. "Madame Mayor, thy Princess of the Night hath arrived." she offered her hoof and waited for a few moments but the only thing that happened was that the mayor was shaking more and hid her face behind her hooves. Luna started to get frustrated, she tried the same thing with other ponies but all reacted the same way. Finally, she had enough. "Very well, then. Be that way. We won't even bother with the traditional royal farewell." she said, clearly offended by the behavior of the ponies, and walked away.

"I'm gonna go talk to her." Twilight got up and then turned to Lazlo. "Can you come too? It seems, she needs some help and she already knows you, so together we have a better chance." She didn't wait for Lazlo to answer, she immediately started following where the night princess went. He followed her.

"So, you know what's with the yelling?" he asked when he caught up to her.

"I don't know. Maybe she wanted to be sure that everypony will hear her. Though it seems that it just scared them even more after her arrival." she tried to guess.

Soon they arrived back at the statue of Nightmare Moon. Before the stone copy of her evil form laid the princess on the ground.

"Princess Luna!" Twilight got her attention and galloped to her, stopping merely centimeters away from the alicorn. "Welcome to our celebration. My name is-" she tried to introduce herself but the princess cut in.

"Starswirl the Bearded. Commendable costume, thou even got the bells right," she said to her, while Lazlo was thinking about who the hell would wear bells on his clothes, except if he lost some big bet or just wanted to annoy everyone around him.

"Finally somepony recognizes the costume!" Twilight voiced her suddenly very happy mood. Though the princess just seemed confused at her reaction. "Sorry, my actual name is-" she was again interrupted.

"Twilight Sparkle, my sister's pupil." Lazlo was about to ask the question in his head, why she wasn't yelling now, or even when she spoke to him in Canterlot and why in the town when she pushed the volume up again. "It was thou who unleashed the power of Harmony on me and cleansed me of my darker self!"

"And that was a good thing, right?" Twilight asked after recovering from the princess' yelling.

"But of course. We could not be happier. Is that not clear?" she answered, her volume a little bit lower but still in the shouting category.

"Well, you kinda sound like you're yelling at me." Twilight shared her opinion.

"But this is the traditional Royal Canterlot Voice! It is tradition to speak using the royal 'we', and to use this much volume when addressing our subjects!" she explained and again demonstrated how the Royal Canterlot Voice. She then noticed that they weren't alone in there. The human, in a minotaur costume, was standing there, a little further away, being a passive viewer of their interaction. "Ah, Lazlo Kis. Please forgive us for not addressing thou sooner." The man nodded her way, returning her greeting and accepting her apology. "One of the reasons for our visit is that we wish to have a discussion with thou about some recent events," she informed him and Lazlo had a good idea of what she was talking about.

"Princess Luna!" Twilight took back the word. "I think, I know why your appearance met with... um... mixed results." she tried to sugarcoat what she wanted to say. "I wish to help you to enjoy this wonderful festival and I believe that all you need to do is change your approach a little bit."

"Change our approach?" the princess asked her, her voice booming again.

"Lower the volume." Twilight explained.

"Ohhh. We have been locked away for a thousand years. We are... not sure we can." Luna spoke, this time at a normal volume.

"Just speak like you did right now, or when you spoke with me." Lazlo gave her some tips.

"But this is a different situation. We art having a discussion currently and when thou were in the castle, thou were a guest. That required different behavior on our part." Luna argued. "This is a royal visit though and the Royal Canterlot Voice is tradition."

"Tradition is important," Lazlo began. "It usually carries important values, be it personal, or cultural. But sometimes a tradition needs to be abandoned or changed to keep the spirit of it."

"Lazlo is right, Princess. I've never heard Princess Celestia use it. Maybe she does when addressing a really big crowd so everypony could hear what she has to say but other than that, I don't think so."

"So we just have to speak like this all the time?" the princess asked and the other two nodded. "Very well, we will try it."

"I still don't understand the ponies' reaction, though. Even before you said a word, they were shivering in fear, but I've been told that you got a pretty warm welcome, when you first came to Ponyville after you've been... cleansed?" Lazlo pointed out a thing, that confused him while hoping that he used the right term at the end.

"That is true. We even got a necklace made of flowers. It is kept in our chambers." Luna said, then turned to Twilight.

"It's a valid point, but I don't know why is this happening," Twilight admitted.

"It doesn't matter anyway. With our normal voice, we will win the admiration of the townsponies again!" Luna then sat down and pulled Twilight into a bone-crushing hug. "Thank thee, Twilight Sparkle for thy help!" Twilight could barely mutter 'help' as a reaction and Lazlo got the feeling that she'd have turned to purple if she wouldn't be already. After a few seconds, the princess let go of the unicorn and turned to the human.

"Oh, shi-" Lazlo was cut off as he also got the same treatment from the alicorn. It was more painful that his grandma's strong hugs.

Before his spine could have changed shape permanently, they heard someone approaching.

"Come on, kids. Maybe if we offer more candy, then we will be safe." Pinkie Pie was the one speaking and a group of fillies and colts were with her. When they got close enough, she noticed them and screamed. "Oh, no! Nightmare Moon got Lazlo and now she's tenderizing him so she can gobble him up more easily! Run!" and with that, they all ran away screaming.

"Nay children, wait!" Luna yelled in her Royal Canterlot Voice as she let Lacy go, who was happy that his lungs could be filled with air once again. Luna realized that she shouldn't be so loud so she repeated, what she said in a normal voice but it was too late, they were already far away. The princess looked defeated.

"Time for plan B!" Twilight exclaimed after a few seconds, when an idea came to her, then motioned to the other two to follow her.

"Why did Pinkie act like that?" Lazlo asked the unicorn as they were walking back to town. "I mean she took part in defeating Nightmare Moon, so why?"

"I have no idea," Twilight admitted. "Pinkie could be unpredictable and strange sometimes but this is not like her."

"It is of no use, Twilight Sparkle. They have never liked us and they never shall." Luna spoke in a sad tone as she looked around, only seeing terrified ponies as they walked back to the main square. What happened so far really hurt her.

"My friend Applejack is one of the most likable ponies around. I'm sure she'll have some ideas." Twilight was leading them to the apple bobbin, where the farmer mare just prevented a little colt to fall into the tub. Upon noticing the princess approaching, she also dropped to the ground, shaking.

Lazlo had to bite his tongue so he won't comment on Applejack's behavior or anything, that would cause a scene.

"Uh... Applejack, the princess is looking for a little advice on how to fit in around here." Twilight bent down to her.

"Fit in? Really?" Applejack looked up. Twilight growled at her and she suddenly turned all friendly. "I mean... that's easy! All you gotta do is have the right attitude. Loosen up a bit, be positive, play a few games, and have some fun." she explained.

"Okay... what the fuck? It can't be that she was really afraid moments ago. But then why? Fucking hell... I shouldn't think about it too hard, but I feel bad about Luna."

"Fun? What is this 'fun' thou speakest of?" Luna asked and she was led to one of the games that were set up in the main square. It was the spider throwing. The pony with a pink coat and yellow mane, dressed up as a bee, who set up this game, was, like the others, shaking on the ground. Luna stood next to the bowl full of fake spiders. "Pray tell, what purpose do these serve?" she asked.

"Try to land the sp-sp-spiders on the web." the pony explained, not even looking up from her current, terrified state, only pointing towards the net that was a few meters away.

The princess took one spider and threw it. It landed a few centimeters before the web. Luna looked back to her three companions, who were acting normal.

"You can do it, princess!" Applejack encouraged her, and the other two nodded in agreement. The princess took another spider and threw it. This time, it hit the center of the web perfectly.

"Ha! Your princess enjoys this 'fun'!" Luna exclaimed and it seemed that other ponies started to approach her but she seemed to ignore them for now and turned to the trio. "How about you? Can you throw this toy spider as good as we?" she challenged them.

Twilight smiled and walked to the spider bowl. Before she took one of the fake, she put one bit into another bowl next to it, after all, five throw cost one bit. She then threw her spider and it landed on the left side, around the middle between the center and the edge, but closer to the center. Next was Applejack, whose spider almost fell off because it landed a little right to Luna's and only the right side stuck barely to the web. The last one was Lacy, and his was the furthest from the center, like Twilight, it was around the middle between the center and the top edge but it was a little bit closer to the edge.

All three ponies looked at him with victorious smiles.

"If it would've been darts that would be the triple twenty which is the most points." he tried to get back at them but they just laughed at him.

"Sore loser." Twilight teased.

"In what other ways may we experience fun?" Luna asked after this little competition was over.

The next game was a pumpkin catapult. This was a surprise for the human, as he never would've thought, they would set up anything like this, and also wondered, how did he not notice it earlier.

While the princess loaded the catapult with a pumpkin, Lazlo noticed that more and more ponies stopped shaking in fear and approached them, but kept their distance, though this time in respect so they won't bother Luna, while launching the pumpkin.

"Fire away, princess!" Twilight spoke and Luna sent it to fly. Lazlo was impressed that she hit the target on the first try.

"Ha ha! The fun has been doubled!" Luna exclaimed, clearly excited. The ponies cheered and it seemed that things were going in the right direction. No pony screamed and ran away at the sight of the Princess of the Night. Luna's expression also changed from her previously unamused, or even sad face to a more friendly and kind one. It was a heartwarming sight. And what came next, only added more fuel to it.

"Why don't you try bobbin' for apples? We got the best apples in Equestria here, princess." Applejack offered the next idea for fun.

"I ask that thou call us... me... Luna, fair Applejack." she then turned to the group of ponies that were also around them. "Hear me, villagers! All of you! Call me Luna!" and all ponies were chatting happily among themselves.

Lazlo was enjoying himself. Not only was this a great distraction for him but the mood of the ponies and Luna's joy that she found infected him. After all, if someone can have fun and be happy during a holiday that is basically about her dark past, her mistakes, reminding her of times that she probably just wants to forget, he has no right to be even a little bit more negative during that time. He didn't even notice that he stopped following the princess and just stood and was looking around.

This state ended when Pinkie screamed something about Nightmare Moon gobbling up someone, then after mere seconds, the pink pony in a chicken costume slammed into him, sending both of them on the ground.

Lazlo grunted as he felt his legs throbbing in pain since Pinkie mostly hit that part of his body but his back also let him know that it didn't like making such sudden contact with the ground. Still, he felt lucky that he didn't hit his head but it was quickly pushed aside as anger filled him.

"What the fuck, Pinkie?!" he yelled at the mare, who seemed completely unaffected by the crash but looked shocked at the human. "Why do you run around screaming in this goddamned town?!" he then took notice that the ponies around them were in a complete state of panic and doing the same thing, he just questioned Pinkie.

"I've been doing it because that's part of this holiday," she stated. "Princess Luna was so kind to come here and play Nightmare Moon. I should throw her a party," she said the last part mostly to herself.

"She didn't come here for that, you fucking moron!" Lazlo continued to shout at her. Part of the reason behind his frustration turned anger was the recent collision, but there was also that annoyance from her earlier acts piled up in him, and the last reason was that now thanks to Pinkie, a whole village of screaming ponies made his head hurt if the leg and back pain weren't enough.

Both of them looked at the destruction that was currently happening during the surge of panic every pony seemingly got. The decorations were torn. The stands were overturned and the food that was on them lay around. The curtains and the Nightmare Night strip were also ripped in pieces.

"Did I cause this?" he could barely hear Pinkie talking as town-wide panic attacks tended to be quite loud. He looked at the mare, who had her ears dropped, eyes watering, and even her mane started to look less poofy. "But it wasn't my-" she tried to say but a booming voice interrupted her.

"BE STILL!" and suddenly everything froze. The ponies returned to their previous state, covering the ground around Luna. Lazlo was relatively far from the alicorn and yet, his ears rang for a few seconds and he was afraid for a moment when he felt liquid tickling down under his right ear but as he put his right hand there and then checked, he sighed in relief that it was only sweat that was the result of being in the minotaur costume for hours. Sweating caught him pretty easily anyway.

He noticed Twilight getting up and saying something to Luna, probably about her voice.

"No, Twilight Sparkle! We must use the traditional royal Canterlot voice for what we are about to say!" while her shouting wasn't as loud as her command earlier but it was still well within the Royal Canterlot Voice. She then jumped into the air and began floating a few meters above the ground. "Since you choose to fear your princess rather than love her, and dishonor her with this insulting celebration, we decree that Nightmare Night shall be canceled! Forever!" after the declaration, she landed and walked away.

After almost a minute, the ponies seemed to snap out of the shock, they were in during the princess' decree. Children ran to their parents, crying about the end of a holiday, they loved very much. The parents tried to calm them but were unsuccessful. Other ponies started to clean up the mess they caused. And then there were those, who just stood there with guilty looks on their face, or talked with each other about how they messed up.

"What have I done?" Pinkie teared up. "It can't be the end! Lacy, please help me fix it!" she reached and grabbed the human, who was about to go home. While he enjoyed most of his time during this holiday, he respected Luna's decision and understood her pain. Who would want to be reminded of their worst times?

"What? How would you want to do that? And why should I help?" he asked, surprised.

"Please, Lacy! I want to apologize, but what if she's too angry at me? If you're there with me and tell her, that I'm really sorry, then maybe she will forgive me and bring back Nightmare Night." she sobbed while trying to convince the human.

"I don't think, I have that much influence on her, besides, it sounds like you only want to apologize to bring Nightmare Night back." he pointed out.

"What? No! No! I'm really sorry for hurting her feelings! It wasn't my intention!" she defended herself and despite not sounding like that, she really appeared to be genuinely sorry.

Before Lazlo could respond to Pinkie, the voice of Twilight Sparkle interrupted their interaction.

"Pinkie! I need to talk with you!" she yelled at her while running toward them with an angry expression. However, upon getting close and noticing the state the pink earth pony was in, she slowed down and looked a little confused. She looked at Lazlo questioningly but the man just shrugged and shook his head. "Pinkie? Why are you afraid of Luna? You know that she's not Nightmare Moon." she asked.

"I know, I just thought that she came to act as Nightmare Moon, that booming voice is really effective and then we would scream and run from her. I thought it would be great fun and I didn't realize that it wasn't her goal and I messed up everything and now because of me, one of the best holidays is canceled." Pinkie talked while trying her hardest to contain her tears, but it was leaking down on her face regardless. She was clearly depressed by where her actions brought her and everyone else and felt nothing but regret over them.

"Act? Great fun? I thought you were doing this because you were afraid of her gobbling you up."

"Why would you think that? It's Nightmare Night! The night when you get scared for fun."

Twilight seemed to think about that for a moment while murmuring about 'fun' and 'scared' and then her eyes widened. An idea came to her.

"I know what to do. Follow me!" Twilight said then began running, Pinkie soon followed her and while Lazlo thought about just going home to finally get rid of the now sweaty costume, he was curious about what had the unicorn come up with so he went after them, though he just walked.

Later, he found himself hiding in a bush with Twilight, close to the Nightmare Moon statue, waiting. Soon a group of fillies and colts approached the statue. As they got closed Lazlo could hear them talking.

"Why are we offering candy again? We already did." one colt asked Pinkie, who led them there. She wasn't the only adult with them, several others, including the mayor and Zecora were accompanying them.

"Yeah. Besides, Nightmare Night is canceled now." a filly added in a sad tone.

"Well, the princess was really upset at us so we should offer more candy as an apology." Pinkie came up with this to make the kids come to the statue again.

The children approached the statue one by one and dropped some candy at its base while asking for forgiveness. At some point, the wind picked up and clouds appeared, giving the place a creepy atmosphere.

"Citizens of Ponyville! You were wise to bring this candy to me. I am pleased with your offering." a familiar booming voice was heard. "So pleased that I may just eat it... instead of eating YOU!" suddenly in the place of the statue stood the real Nightmare Moon. The black coat, mane and tail looked like it wasn't even hair but some kind of ethereal projection, the blue helmet, leg, and chest guards. And while the cutie mark was the same crescent moon, the blot was purple instead of black, which was kind of obvious that it would be a different color, because otherwise, it wouldn't be visible at all. And of course the bigger size, Nightmare Moon was about the same height as Princess Celestia.

The foals all screamed and ran away and even the adults backed a few steps. Princess Luna then removed the illusion spell, she was doing to look like her evil counterpart and spit out the fake fangs, she had in her mouth, then jumped down from the stone base, while Twilight and Lazlo came out from their hiding spot.

"I am not certain that did what you meant for it to do, Twilight Sparkle." Luna still wasn't convinced about this plan.

"Just wait." Twilight was confident.

"For what? For... for them to scream some more?" Luna asked, but the moment she finished her question something tugged on her mane. Looking down at what was that she noticed a little colt, Pipsqueak was the one who did it.

"Um... Princess Luna. I know there's not gonna be any more Nightmare Night, but do you suppose maybe you could come back next year and scare us again anyway?" he asked the princess.

"Child. Art thou saying that thou... likest me to scare you?" Luna looked surprised.

"It's really fun! Scary, but fun!" the colt nodded.

"It is?"

"Yeah! Nightmare Night is my favorite night of the year."

"'Well then. We shall have to bring Nightmare Night back!" Luna was using the Royal Canterlot Voice by the end while backing from her previous decree.

The kids all cheered hearing this then ran back to the town followed by the adults to tell the good news to everyone, while the four remained there, the princess, Twilight, Lazlo, and Spike, who came with the kids but didn't follow them back to town.

"Thou were right, after all, Twilight Sparkle." Luna praised the unicorn, who blushed a little under the compliment. "Thank you for helping us."

"It was my pleasure, Princess. And I think today's events are perfect for a lesson in friendship. Spike, take a note please."

"I don't have anything else with me just the candy." the dragon showed his bag, which still had a good amount of sweets in it.

"Oh, then back to the library. Princess Luna, Lacy? Will you join me and hear my report?" she asked the other two.

"As much as we would like to hear it, soon we have to go back to Canterlot and we want to speak with Lazlo Kis in private." she declined her offer politely, then turned to the human. "Lazlo Kis, may we impose for a short time in thy home for some discussion?"

Lazlo stiffened a bit but kept his composure. He knew hours ago that the princess wanted to speak with him.

"Of course, princess. Have a good night, you two," he said to Twilight and Spike before leading Luna to his house. On halfway he noticed that the two guards, that brought Luna were coming after them, pulling the chariot to the ground. Soon they arrived, Luna and Lazlo went inside while the guards parked the chariot and took positions at the entrance.

Inside Lacy offered a seat and some drinks to the princess who accepted it, then Lazlo took a seat as well but before that he finally took off the minotaur costume.

"At first, we would like to have a short talk about the incident with Discord." she began. "While we do not agree with thy actions we still support the full pardon. Just as we got a second chance, thou deserve it as well. We understand thy desires as we had similar feelings in the past, as we wanted to be loved like our sister was and we would have taken the sun away from our subject for it, thou just wanted to go back to your world and thou were ready to accept anything for it." Lazlo didn't say anything, just nodded.

"Now, that we addressed it, let's talk about the main reason for our visit." the princess' words surprised the man, he thought that all she wanted to talk about was Discord. Apparently, he was wrong. "We hath seen thy nightmares." this drained some color off his face. "We apologize for not interrupting it, we admit that we were too shocked seeing them act, and by the time we realized we should stop it, thou woke up." she moved closer and put a wing on the man's shoulder. "The gruesome images of what magic could've done to thy body were bad enough but then we saw that last dream..." by then Lazlo was shaking a little but this time not in a rage. "Lazlo... We will honor thy privacy and will not tell anypony about thy dreams but thou need help. If thou not wish to discuss it with anypony else, then please speak to us about it, we will keep everything thou say to ourselves." she offered.

"It almost happened to me a few years ago," he spoke after a few seconds of inner debate about whether he speaks to her or not but in the end, he felt like he should let at least some of it out, after all, he did the same back then and it was better after that. "I didn't think about it often but sometimes it comes to me."

"What prevented it from happening back then?" the princess asked after he didn't continue.

"Luck maybe? It was really just by a chance." his answer wasn't informative at all because despite deciding to talk about it a little, he didn't want to re-live every moment of that time. Fortunately, Luna noticed it.

"We believe we have an idea for a solution to thy problem with thy nightmare." she could come up with something instead of continuing her questioning on a clearly uncomfortable topic. "If thou are afraid of it will come to that then this time thou must take the initiation. We believe that talking to somepony who is close to thee is a good start. While we never come close to that situation, after we came back we had long discussions with our sister and it helped a lot. We know that it is not the same as with thou but we believe it will help thee regardless. So tell us, who is the closest to thee?"

"Probably Twilight. But I'm already trying to distract myself from those thoughts."

"We do not think simple distraction will be enough for it to go away."

"Distraction is the only way for that, just it's usually fairly easy."

"Regardless, please consider what we said. Talk with Twilight Sparkle or anypony else. It will become better over time, believe us." Luna squeezed him with her wing a little, then let go. "We apologize but we need to depart. We can see now that during this night scary is funny but we are certain that there will be many nightmares that we need to help with. Fear not, Lazlo Kis. We will do better to help thee during thy sleep as well. Farewell." she then let herself out, leaving the man alone with his thoughts.

Author's Note

Alright... Damn... Crazy months these last few and it's not over. A lot of things happened. Got some more responsibility at my job and of course more work and also I had to spend two weeks in a different country, which was basically training, and have to prepare because I will spend another two yet again somewhere else over the borders (which is hilarious, because the job I need to do can be easily done, and actually was done during the lockdown in remote, but hey... I get to see the world and that was the first time I flew so I shouldn't be mad about it). Plus had to do some renovation in my home so yeah... I've been busy and probably still be for some time.
But fear not, I do not plan to abandon this story, I just need some time to adjust and keep some mental capacity.
Regardless, I hope you enjoyed it, next time an original chapter, hopefully with less waiting time (though I'm afraid to make promises at this point...)