Angel of Justice: Blood Moon

Stirring awake after a restful night, Twilight squinted as she discovered a beam of sunlight shining right in her face.

Looking around her, she half expected to be in her library again. It was an admittedly odd sight to be back in her room at the palace that she had left so long ago when she first moved to Ponyville. It was an even odder sight for there to be a young dragon and a human sleeping quietly nearby, but she had grown accustomed to such things by now.

As the unicorn was getting up and making her bed, she heard the sound of her young assistant stretching and waking up himself.

“Morning, sleepyhead.” Twilight greeted the dragon with a ruffle of his scaly hair, eliciting a begrudgingly accepting groan.

“Morning…” Spike mumbled.

Hearing another yawn, the pair looked over to see their human friend starting to stir. He sluggishly stretched and groaned, similar to the dragon, before he sat up and managed to open his eyes halfway.

“Ugh… morning, guys.” Tom greeted, though he still sounded drowsy.

Twilight seemed a bit surprised by the human’s half-asleep appearance. “Wow… I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look that tired. You ok?”

“Huh?” Tom strained his eyes for a moment before blinking hard and shaking himself awake. “Uh, yeah… I uh, I just stayed up real late last night.” He explained, waving off any concerns the pair might have had.

While Twilight seemed at least partially accepting of Tom’s answer, Spike looked at the boy a bit longer with a glint of unease in his eyes.

“Well, I hope you don’t get too tired by tonight,” Twilight said, already getting her things together to head out.

While the unicorn was busy putting things into her saddlebag, Spike turned to the human and frowned slightly before silently pointing to his own arm.

Tom looked at the dragon flatly for a moment before exhaling through his nose. He nodded and gave a quick thumbs-up, though Spike didn’t seem convinced. However, Twilight came walking back between them, forcing them to drop whatever silent conversation they were having.

“How do you guys feel about helping out Cadence and Shining Armor with setting up the castle for the costume ball?” Twilight asked curiously.

“I would have thought that would be something some servants would do?” Tom asked.

“Cadence likes helping out, so they left some work for her. It would be a good chance for you two to get to know each other better.” Twilight suggested.

Tom thought about the matter briefly before shrugging. “Sounds good. I hope she can tell me some juicy stories from when you were a kid.” He smirked.

“Trust me, there are some good ones.” Spike chimed in.

“Uh…” Twilight shifted her eyes between the pair hesitantly, the corners of her mouth twitching awkwardly. She cleared her throat and averted her eyes to the door. “Right… I guess that counts as getting to know… each other.”

Spike and Tom shared a quiet snicker at the unicorn’s expense as she led them out of her room. With that, the trio moved through the castle looking for the regal Princess of Love and her loving husband.

Soon after, they exited out into the entry hall and found the couple already hard at work transforming the room to better fit the Nightmare Night festivities.

There were black, orange, and dark blue balloons tied to some of the railings to the stairs. Colorful streamers spread across the air above them with fake bats hanging down from transparent strings.

Down on the first floor, Cadence was gently floating near the top of an archway, anchoring one of the streamers to it while Shining Armor watched from below.

As she finished tying off the streamer, Cadence looked over and smiled as she saw her friends coming down. She hovered down and landed near Shining Armor before the both of them started walking up to meet the trio.

“Morning, everyone.” Cadence greeted warmly.

“Morning,” Twilight smiled at the pair before shifting her attention to the various decorations in the room and the bags of unused props, balloons, and streamers that were still waiting nearby. “How are things going?”

“It’s going.” Shining Armor replied with an optimistic nod. “It would probably go faster if we had help, though.” He said, perhaps clueing in to what his sibling was planning.

“Lucky for you, we’re in a helpful kind of mood,” Tom stated. “Time for team opposable thumbs to shine.” He looked down to Spike and smirked.

Spike glanced down to his open palm and smiled a bit. “Yes… Finally, someone who understands.” He muttered cheerfully.

Hearing this, Cadence beamed happily. “Perfect! I was hoping you’d like to spend some time with us before tonight.”

Twilight padded over to one of the boxes full of decorations and pulled up a few plastic silhouettes of Nightmare Moon in her corona. “Well, it looks like we’ve got a lot of time ahead of us before we’re done.” She reasoned cheerfully, looking up at all of the blank spaces still scattered around the room before settling eyes on her friends. “Where do we start?”

Elsewhere, still tucked away in her room, Glitterball tensed her eyes as a muffled commotion came from outside. She lifted her head and trained her dazed stare on the door to her room. Some eager voices could faintly be heard, along with many different hoofbeats.

Judging from the light trailing in through her window, it must have been morning. Even though part of her wanted to entertain the thought of sleeping in, she knew she would be getting up naturally in a few minutes or so anyway, so she sat up and stretched before heading out.

As the unicorn opened her door and poked her head out, she found many of her friends already gathered out in the hallway.

Immediately to her left a few feet away, an excited trio of fillies were chatting with each other while Applejack and Pinkie Pie watched. Behind them, a door was open into a room where Rarity and Sunspot could be seen inside, the former doing some last-minute touches on what seemed to be the latter’s Nightmare Night costume on a compact sewing machine.

Further down the hall, Fluttershy stood in front of another open door, peering within as scarfs, boots, and other articles of clothing flew out and nearly struck her. Blue Bolt was nearby keeping well out of the danger zone.

Hearing another door opening, Glitterball stepped out and looked to her right, only to see Glimmer Shine walking out and staring at the chaos ahead of them as she had been doing. The stallion turned to the white mare and smirked.

“They wake you up too?” Glimmer asked.

Glitter snorted softly. “With friends like these, who needs alarm clocks?” She said before the two of them walked over to join the loose gathering of ponies.

Applejack looked up as she noticed the pair approaching. “Mornin’, y’all. Sorry if we woke you up. I’ve been tryin’ to get them to settle down, but I’d have more luck catchin’ a jackrabbit with my hooves tied.” She said, casting a slight flat look to the three fillies.

Apple Bloom and her two friends trailed their eyes down sheepishly at this. “Sorry.”

“Don’t feel bad on our account,” Glitterball said. “We’re used to being woken up without any warning.”

“Yeah. At this point, I’d feel weird if I got up on my own.” Glimmer Shine added before looking around. “Speaking of which, where’s Sparkplug?”

As if on cue to answer the stallion, a muffled series of sharp thumps came from a room behind them, accompanied by a familiar squeak of panic. Soon after, something seemed to roll into the door from within before some frantic hoofsteps came closer.

Applejack cringed as she and the others turned toward the door with mild concern. Glitterball inched forward until the orange mare put a hoof out to stop her. “I wouldn’t if I were you. She’s workin’ on her costume, and it is a mess in there. Paint cans and plastic wrap everywhere.”

“And I thought I was the messiest one of the group.” Pinkie noted.

Glimmer Shine chuckled. “You should see the equipment room when she’s working on a project.” He said, walking up to the door and listening for a moment before cringing again as more crashes and a pitiful whine came from inside. He reached a hoof up and gave a slight knock. “You ok in there, Sparkplug?”

After a moment, the gray mare’s voice responded, a bit higher-pitched than usual. “Uh… y-yeah! Just putting some finishing touches on this… stupid thing!”

“You uh… you want some help?” Glimmer raised a brow.

“No thanks… I’m good. I’ll catch up with you guys later.” Sparkplug explained.

Shrugging a bit, Glimmer turned and walked back over to the others. Both he and Glitter started mingling and sharing their plans for the morning with their friends as they all collectively shook the lingering drowsiness from their forms, though the excitement they felt for the nightly festivities ahead of them helped a great deal.

Meanwhile, inside of Rarity and Applejack’s shared room, Sunspot watched with passive intrigue as the snow-white seamstress of Ponyville worked her magic on the pegasus’ chosen outfit.

“You know, I could have made something like this for you if you just asked, Sunspot.” Rarity said without looking up from her work. She was always willing to practice her craft and help out a friend at the same time, even if they sometimes had to beat her with a stick to get her to stop ‘beautifying’ anything they requested.

Sunspot waved a hoof cooly. “Eh, it’s fine. I didn’t want to put you out like that. Besides, it’s more fun to shop for your costume in my opinion…” She grew a bit sheepish as she fiddled her hooves together and looked down. “Also, I’m not exactly… ‘good’ at making my own outfits.”

Rarity paused and looked up at this. “But what about your Wonderbolt uniform? I thought you were the one that made all those additions to it?”

“Yeah… no. That was all Princess Luna, or whoever she handed it off to.” Sunspot admitted, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly.

Rarity flashed a reassuring smile and returned to her work with gusto. “That’s nothing to worry about. I’m happy to help a friend in need.”

Then, a few moments later, the constant sound of the sewing machine stopped as the white mare finished. She held the outfit in her aura, stretching it out to better see how it looked. If she was being honest, it still needed a lot of work before she could give it her stamp of approval overall, but the pegasus only asked for a slight addition.

“There we are. Magnifique!” Rarity beamed proudly.

“Wow…” Sunspot said as she saw the difference. It was only a bit of translucent pink fabric along the borders of the pant legs, but to the unicorn’s credit, it looked like the best craftsmanship in the whole outfit. “Thanks, Rarity. You really are the best.”

“Think nothing of it, darling.” Rarity said as she handed the costume off to the pegasus and started to put away her sewing supplies. “Oh, and do think about those changes I talked about for your flight suit. I really think they would be an improvement!”

Sunspot smiled nervously and waved a hoof as she headed out of the door. “Yeah, sure.” She said politely before hurrying her pace a bit.

As she was entering the hallway again, she noticed Glimmer Shine and Glitterball hanging around off to the side with Applejack, Pinkie, and the kids. And as she turned the other way, she caught sight of Fluttershy and Blue Bolt standing outside of a room just before a very exasperated looking Rainbow Dash came out with slumped shoulders and wrinkled brows.

“Dangit… I can’t find them anywhere!” Rainbow huffed.

Blue Bolt offered his friend a sympathetic look. “Uh… maybe you just didn’t pack them?” He said in a poor attempt at making her feel better. The resulting dramatic whine made him realize the obvious result it had.

The cyan mare put her sulking on pause as she and her friends looked over to see Sunspot walking up to them, a surprisingly colorful outfit over her back.

“Hey, Sunspot.” Rainbow greeted flatly, still not fully over her frustration.

“Is that your costume for tonight?” Fluttershy asked.

Sunspot turned to look at the ensemble draped over her form. “Yeah. I was just having Rarity give it some finishing touches.” She said before shifting her focus to the cyan mare. “So, what’s all the melodrama for?”

Rainbow Dash sighed, “I can’t find the goggles or the mask for my Wonderbolt costume.”

“You know, you could just wear it without them.” Blue Bolt offered.

“Seriously? I can’t do that! Everyone will think I look dumb if I don’t have the finishing touches!” Rainbow fretted.

“Sunspot’s suit doesn’t have a mask, and she looks fine without it,” Fluttershy added softly, eliciting a bit of a flattered smile from the orange mare.

“Forget it…” Rainbow deflated and let her ears droop. “I’ll just go see if I can find something that’s not totally lame in one of the shops.”

Sunspot frowned sympathetically at the sheer disappointment in the cyan mare’s face. She thought for a moment before revelation dawned on her. “You know, Rainbow Dash… I might not be able to get you a mask, but I can let you borrow my goggles.”

Rainbow Dash perked up slightly at this. “Really?”

“Sure.” Sunspot nodded. “If I’m being honest, I think the goggles look cooler without the mask anyway.”

Like the flipping of a switch, all of the sullen gloom and dejectedness left the cyan pegasus’ face, replaced in an instant with eager glee at the prospect of wearing an actual set of Wonderbolt goggles for her costume. The others could almost swear they could see her eyes sparkling.

Suddenly, Rainbow Dash shot forward and gave Sunspot an unexpected hug that nearly sent her off her hooves. “You’re the best, Sunspot! Ooh, I can’t wait to see how they look on me! I’m gonna go get my costume ready!” She said before zipping back into her room, leaving a shockwave of air to pass over a stunned trio of pegasi.

Sunspot blinked once, and then twice, her mane still falling back into place after being blown back. “I’m surprised it’s only occurring to her now that she could have asked me to wear them.”

“It was probably for the best that it didn’t,” Fluttershy said.

Blue Bolt nodded, looking to the orange mare with a hint of sympathy in his eyes. “Yeah. I’m afraid that you just let the genie out of the bottle.”

“Oh…” Sunspot grew distant suddenly as a look of horror washed over her face. “Awesome… I always did love my adoring fans back on the team.” She chuckled nervously.

Hours passed in a blur as everyone got ready for the coming celebrations later that night. Some helped out around the castle, some spent time with their friends inside or out in the city, and some were ready to burst with excitement as they anticipated everything to come out of this year’s Nightmare Night.

For Princess Cadence, most of that time had been spent fixing up the castle with spooky decor and hanging out with her new family and their even newer human friend.

The boy was lighthearted and easy-going enough to fit right into their little bunch. However, something didn’t feel right to her. Behind the smiles and the good times, she could sense something off about the human that she just couldn’t put her hoof on.

While Twilight, Shining, Tom, and Spike continued putting up decorations and chatting, Cadence noticed a certain blue alicorn walking into the ballroom before heading out onto the garden patio outside. She let her stare linger for a moment before glancing over to Tom, and then to Twilight and the others.

Excusing herself for a quick break, Cadence walked out of the room and into the crisp evening air. She found Luna sluggishly resting against a marble rail and staring out into the garden.

Luna stifled a yawn and shook herself alert before turning as she noticed the younger alicorn sidling up beside her.

“Sleep well?” Cadence asked, noting the slight haze in her aunt’s eyes.

“Yes,” Luna said, “I merely lost track of time last night. There were some… important matters I had to tend to.” She made an effort to appear more awake than she felt. However, her expression fell as she noticed Cadence staring back toward the castle absentmindedly. “Is something bothering you?”

Cadence turned toward the older mare, remaining silent for a moment in seeming contemplation. She opened her mouth to speak, but decided against it once or twice before finally committing. “Has Tom been ok lately?”

Luna paused at that, but didn’t allow herself to react outwardly. “What makes you ask that?”

“I’m not sure.” Cadence frowned. “He seems fine, but… I get the sense that something’s wrong with him. You’ve known him longer than I have… Am I just being paranoid?”

After a moment, Luna lifted a hoof and set it on the younger alicorn’s foreleg. “Being concerned about someone does not make you paranoid, Cadence.” She smiled softly. “I too worry about him at times… but he has proven himself capable beyond his age.”

Cadence sighed, “I know that. I just… Twilight has told me that he hides his feelings so his friends won’t worry about him. What if he’s struggling with something and he just isn’t telling anyone?”

Luna wrinkled her mouth imperceptibly. The pink mare’s sense of empathy was more accurate than she knew. It was an admirable quality, and it created a bizarre predicament for Luna to be in. She considered her next words for a moment before putting on a reassuring expression.

“Worry not. I understand the hardships that Tom and the others are under, and their wellbeing, both physical and emotional, is one of my greatest concerns. If something were wrong with him, I would know, and I would make sure that he is taken care of.” Luna explained. “If you like, I can have a conversation with him and ask him if anything is troubling him. I might not have your sense for others’ emotions, but I should be able to tell if a teenager is hiding something from me.”

“No, it’s fine. Just…” Cadence glanced back inside before letting her ears droop a bit. “Just keep a close eye on him, ok? I don’t care if he does have powers. The life he has now would be stressful for anyone… and I don’t just mean the monster-hunting part. He’s literally a stranger in a strange land… and he’s only a kid.”

“I will… Trust me, I will.” Luna trailed her eyes off into the near distance. She thought for a moment before flashing a half-smile. Then, her expression shifted as she turned her attention to the fading light of the evening sky. “Come then, let us get back inside. There is much yet to be done before tonight.”

Cadence followed after the blue alicorn as she walked back into the castle. She was still a bit concerned, but she decided to push these feelings aside for the moment.

After all, it was Nightmare Night. It was time for her to have fun and enjoy the company of her friends and family. The only monsters the human had to worry about were plastic and latex, and had a penchant for sugary treats. She could talk to him about it another time.