"So, it's almost Nightmare Night?" I asked excitedly as I wagged my tail like a dog ready for a walk.

Ebony Flower; who was busying herself fixing my bedding in my castle room, spoke up. "Yes, young Princess, Nightmare Night is in four days. Are you so excited?"

"How can I not be excited? I have never celebrated Nightmare Night; not even in my old place," I say jumping up and down in place and doing a little dance. "What you haven't celebrated it?" she asks with disbelief.

I stopped doing my dance, I shook my head a few times and said. "We did know what it was, but we didn't celebrate it, it was more a way to say goodbye to those who have passed."

Looking up at Ebony Flower I can see the sadness on her face almost like she was fighting her loss. "It's a bit sad living in the past, but it was a time for family, a time for closeness," I say sighing as I look down to the floor feeling a bit sad, sitting there I could feel my old memory coming to the surface. The moment I feel myself being hugged those memories fade into obscurity.

"It's okay Your Highness, you have a family now, don't you." Ebony Flower says with a warm motherly tone.

"Yeah, you're right," I say weakly, then I perk up. "Candy Warp and Night Wind are coming home the day before Nightmare Night, I bet Candy is going to drag me around to all sorts of events and games."

Ebony is giggling. "Yes; I believe Blue Blood is going to ask you to join her, this is going to be your first Nightmare Night." She released me from her hug, giving me a smile that smelled of positivity and happiness.

I jump up all excited again. "I need to fix a costume; I have the perfect idea." Running out of my room I scream back. "Thanks, Ebony."

Carefully dodging and and evading castle guards, maids, and the few noble ponies that still coming into the castle. Running down some stairs, I slam open a door.

"Gear Track! I need your help." I scream as I enter the workshop that's been founded to help me in my endeavors. This is the very place where Pin Scroll and Gear Track design, prototype, and test numerous inventions.

The room is littered with a multitude of machines for various purposes such as to make stuff and a lot of tools, there's even a prototype of the new air-ship engine that we have been testing for some time.

In the middle of the room is a round table with scrolls, drawings, books, and even a wooden plate with various colors. Gear Track; who was standing at the head of the table, jumped in surprise with a whelp.

Papers, scrolls, blueprints, and other various bits and bobs scattered around from her sudden jarring movement and shout of alarm. She stumbles around after her jump of shock, hitting her head on the table and collapsing on the floor, groaning in pain.

Walking over to Gear Track, I helped her back up to her hooves, blushing in embarrassment.

"I'm so sorry Gear, are you okay? Shall I take you to the medical wing?"

Standing up she groans. "I'm going to be okay, I think." She says rubbing her head.

"No, Gear. Head injuries are serious, they have the potential to cause internal bleeding; concussions; disorientation; and more. We need to have a doctor check you over for anything serious." In a flash of crisp, crimson-colored magic, I teleport us to the medical wing.

After about ten minutes of waiting and an hour of checkups Gear Track is released, walking back she asks. "Why did you barge into the workshop?" Gear Track asked as I looked up at her.

“Yeah; I needed help to make a costume for Nightmare Night," I said, shuffling my hooves. She looked at me with a confused expression on her face.

"Why would you come to me for that?" She asked, tilting her head towards me, as her eyes turned in my direction, and her ears rotated to better pick up what I wanted to say.

I give her a smirk I reply. "Oh, that's because I need you to make a few things for me with your machines." As we walked I explained what I wanted to be made.

Returning to the workshop I help to clean up the mess, after I do a quick drawing of what I wanted made after explaining its purpose, I leave her to do her work.

I, on the other hoof, make my way down the hive. Wanting to check on my clutch of grubs. On my way, I stop and tell one of the maids to check if there's a tailor available to make some clothes for me and leave them with Ebony Flower for me to retrieve later.

With a quick bow from the maid, I get a response of: "Yes, Your Highness."

Coming down to the hive I meet with the grubs, I give them food both love and some solid fruit I cut into slices. I do some training and play with them for a few hours to make sure they're nice and tired before I take my leave.

The grubs are impressively quick on the upkeep when I teach them new things. I'm always kept on my toes (hooves) with them, so much so, that I’ve collected some foal toys for them to play with, but they get bored with them faster than I expected. It resulted in other tactics like engaging them in finding hobbies and other similar matters of interest. Such as painting, reading books, and plenty of other things of that nature.

At first, I was worried they were learning things faster than I could keep up with, but I guess it has something to do with the hive mind or with how much love I gave them. I don't know if they get information from me directly; learn things individually and share it amongst themselves; or it might be a mix of both. Now, I'm excited to give them new items and knowledge. To test just how fast they can pick up and learn new concepts.

Sturdy Alfa is the one that's the quickest when it comes to learning things. After that we had Lucy Libris, (a bookworm of the highest caliber), at first, I only gave her the name Lucy but after I learned she likes books I gave her a second name Libris.

Almost all grubs have gotten their second names and they all have weird personalities. Some are weirder than others so I keep an extra eye on them.

I think it’s an after-effect of my former life, to be more precise my role-playing when I play so many characters, so my theory is that they get their personalities from my characters from the many games I played.

"I do so hope I don't get any of my crazy characters. I'm happy they're healthy but I don't want them to make things out of this world." I think for myself as I look over to Kilightus and Grim the two grubs are building with building blocks, and as they're done they tear it down with happy laughter. Then they start over, it gives me a smile to see them having fun.

After doing all I can do for my grubs, I return to the surface to speak with Ebony Flower. On my way back I meet with BB (Blue Blood).

"Heya Tec; Where're you going?" She asked with a smile on her face raising her hoof. "Oh, nothing special I'm just returning from my hive to talk with Ebony Flower to see if there's a tailor who can take some of my orders," I reply bumping her hoof with a greeting.

"What are you ordering? A new dress?" She asks, joining me as I walk back to my room.

"Maybe, I will order some hoodies and put in an order for my costume for Nightmare Night," I say thinking about if I can get all the material I need.

"So what're you going to dress yourself as?" She probes, giving her a wicked smile as I reply.

"Oh, you will have to wait until the day off, to see what I'm going as." She responds to my smile with one of her own.

"So is this how you want to play it? So shall we see who has the best costume and have Auntie and the others as judges?"

Stopping I look over to her dropping my smile. "Hmm that could be fun, as you wish Princess, shall we make it a bit sweeter and put a small bet into this little game?"

Stopping herself she turns towards me with a face of worry. "What do you have planned?" I was about to respond but another voice cuts in.

"I have an idea, the loser loses her sweets and has to do extra homework from our studies." Celestia is walking towards us with a wide smile on her face with Red Ink by her side.

"Hi auntie/mother, Hello Red Ink." We both are quick to reply.

Celestia hugs both of us. "My little foals do you like the little bet?" Me and BB look at each other I can see BB's mind gears working over time until she looks up at Celestia.

"But this is Tec's first Nightmare Night, if she doesn't get a chance to experience it fully, I will feel bad."

I put my hoof on her shoulder and give a small shake of my head. "No worries BB I will run around and have fun with you and hopefully with Candy Warp. And as you know I don't have much of a sweet tooth well except some things. So I'm okay with the bet if you're alright with you."

A smile returns to BB's muzzle. "Yeah, if you say so then it's okay for me. So let the games begin."

With our bets made and some ground rules put down we split up to do our own things. I get going to speak with Ebony Flower as I walk down the hall I see a pony I haven't seen in some time.

"Ice Pike," I call out to her only to see her flinch and start running not even looking at me.

"Well that's an odd reaction, is she avoiding me? Buck no." I think for myself looking as she vanishes out of my sight.

Sighing I light up my horn and teleport, in a flash of light I appear before her only to collide with her because I didn't account for her running.

With a tumble we fall onto the floor we lay there groaning in pain tangled in each other's limbs. "Why did you do that?" Ice asked me.

"Groan' "Why did you run?" I ask while trying to untangle us. After getting free we stood there until I asked again. "Why did you run?"

Ice Pike stands there scuffing one of her hooves. "Well, I don't know. I didn't think, as soon I heard your voice I just thought of getting away from you."

Looking at her emotions I can feel guilt, uncertainty, and a little bit of fear. "Is she afraid of me? or afraid of how I will react toward her?" I try looking her in her eyes but she avoids my gaze.

I let out a sigh. "Ice come with me, you seem to have a lot on you're mind right now. And I guess that I'm a big part of it, so let's sit down and talk like adults." I don't hear an answer from her but I can hear her following me.

As we enter a meeting room I tell the maid to bring some chamomile tea and some brandy. The maid was about to protest but I raised my hoof to stop her and say. "It's not for me." Then I point at Ice. "It's for her." The maid walks out to fulfill my order, Ice who has heard what I just ordered gives me a look of disbelief. "But I can't drink, I'm not old enough." sitting down I shake my head a few times.

"You will need it and it's not like I'm going to make you drunk or something. We're only going to add it to the tea, it will help you relax." Ice sits down across from me.

"But why Brandy?" She asked.

I sigh giving her a sad smile. "I found out that they work well together the herbal taste of the chamomile and the burning and sharp feel from the brandy gives a calming sensation." Looking at Ice I can say she wants to ask how I know that, looking down at the table I say. "Let's just say that we all have secrets."

An uncomfortable silence until the maid reenters and places down tea and brandy, I give her a quick wave for her to leave. After the door is shut I use my magic I take the teapot and brandy and mix them (about 10% of the bottle of brandy into the tea). Ice looks at me in horror as I pour the mix for both of us. Putting down the pot I take the cup in my forehooves and take a sip, giving a hum of agreement I speak.

"So what's going on with you, I haven't seen you since I was foalnapped and you didn't visit me at the medical wing, lastly you and your friends seem to avoid each other." I stop as I take another sip of my cup.

Ice swift in her seat taking a small experimental sip of the tea, she gives me an expression on her face that says 'How can this be so good'.

We sit there in silence avoiding speaking, I'm waiting for her to get the courage to speak. The silence is so deafening only becoming broken by a sip occasionally.

"Well, you see~" Ice begins locking her eyes on the teacup. "I found out about Light Spark and Thundering Splash dating." I nod without answering, and she continues. "I'm happy for them but....." She looks up at me. "They didn't tell me anything, they hid it from me. I can understand that they hide it from others but from me their friend."

"And now you don't know if they think of you as a friend or not."

I cut her off.

"So now you don't know what to think or do, have you tried talking to them?" Shaking her head in response she looks down at the cup again as I continue.

"You do know if you don't speak with them you might never have the chance again as they're leaving soon." She only gives me a weak nod.

Sighing I rub the back of my neck "Buck I'm so bad at this, I'm the worst Changeling for this. But I know the right pony for this." Jumping off the seat I walk over the the door.

Opening it, I look out for a pony that can help me, seeing the maid that was in the room before I call out to her. "Can you do something for me?"

She gives me a quick bow and replies swiftly."Yes Your Highness, what can I do for you?"

"Can you call Dr. Easy Speak, say it's an emergency, and apologize about it? I need her help. Also, call Spark Light and Thundering Splash to come here and join us as well. Oh, and please bring more tea, teacups, and maybe some sweets. I'm sorry to put this on you. Thank you for your hard work."

Giving me a nod. "Of course Your Highness." She leaves and to begin her tasks as I return to the seat I was in.

Waiting there patiently with Ice, who hasn't reacted to my movement. She was so deep in thought that she doesn't know I had done something.

The silence is hard but I needed to do this for her.

After twenty minutes, a knock on the door grabs Ice's and I’s attention.

"You can enter," I say with a bit of worry in my voice.

The door opens with Light and Splash entering.

"You called for us. Your...." Light stops as she sees Ice sitting at the table. All their emotions fill the room giving me a headache.

"Please sit down," I commanded with a stern voice, a bit harsher than I intended, but the pain from everypony’s intense emotions was a lot for me to deal with.

They obey without a word and place themself between me and Ice. Looking over them all I can feel the tension in the room.

I was about to speak when there was another knock at the door and before I could reply the doors opened and a unicorn mare with a brown coat entered the room with a suitcase.

"You called for me, your Highness?" She says in a neutral but calming manner, I nod towards her and ask her to sit down with us.

Doing so she looks at me waiting for an answer. Her green eyes piercing me, she drags her hoof through her light yellow mane using her magic to place a pair of rectangle glasses on.

"Well..." I begin only to get all eyes on me. "I call you all hear because you all need to speak with each other and," I point at Dr. Easy Speak. "She's here to help you all with this. I'm so sorry doctor that I have to do this to you, but they all need your help."

Easy Speak looks over the ponies in the room and sighs. "I am happy that you rely on me, but this is not something you should force on some pony." She explains.

"Who is this?" Thunder's meek voice asks. Not looking at her I responded. "This is Dr. Easy Speak, she has been my therapist after my egg-laying incident. She has helped me to look at my eggs not as an end." I pause. "Let's just say she's been helping me. And I know you three need help as well, you have all been hurt by what happened in various ways."

"I can't help you myself but I can help you to come in contact with those who can help you." I point at Easy Speak. "And she can help you to let the wounds fade. So you won't regret leaving things as they're now." I huff slamming my hoof down on the table making them all jump.

Using my magic I grab the brandy and take a few big gulps, slamming the bottle it down I stare at Ice, Light, and Thunder. "And I will not let you all regret not trying to fix this." I point between them anger rising to the surface.

"You all are pussies for not mareing up and speaking to each other," I yell out tears running down my face, they all look shocked at my outburst I can feel some pony hugging me then the neutral voice of Easy Speak try to soothe me.

"It's okay Tec, it's okay. I will speak with them and see if I can help. But you have done your part, the emotions you must feel are too much for you, You should go and rest, I will take it from here.”

With a nod I push myself out of the hug and head towards the door. Opening it wide, I look back at the four ponies and three of them have looks of shock or worry on their faces, and the fourth gives me a nod, as I exit the room.

After this, everything became a haze as I woke up the next morning, feeling hungry, and with an uneasy feeling of emptiness in my heart, not knowing how the rest of the day went. I decided to turn over and sleep some more.

4 Days later.

I can feel joy, happiness, and excitement in the air because today is Nightmare Night. A day of fun and fright.

I can barely stand still "When I do things like this, do I act like a foal?" I think to myself. I stand in a small room with a red drape covering me from the judges, this is so me and BB don't disturb each other when the judges look at us.

Looking out through a gap I see BB wearing a long black trenchcoat with a red inside on her hooves she has silver shoes, she's wearing a pair of white bat wings, and a set of fangs.

"I guess magic has been used to turn her appearance into that of a Theastral." I think for myself. She's colored her mane and tail black as the night sky. She looks so cute, but also more mature. It's so wonderful to see.

Closing the gap as I look over my costume, I have transformed myself into a transparent skeleton with red glowing eyes.

I'm wearing a black tattered robe with a hood that's up. In a silver chain around my neck, I have an old small lantern that I have infused runes to make glow green to produce a heavy mist similar to a fog machine. Beside it hangs an hourglass (old and made out of wood and glass), leaning on my right shoulder.

I hold a long dark scythe with an aged cloth tied around the blade and handle on it to give it the appearance of being well-worn. (the blade is a piece of wood painted to look like it was crafted out of iron.) All In all, I looked like the pony form of the Grim Reaper.

"I know they won't get the reference, I only did it to have fun. I don't care about the bet extra homework and no sweets is nothing to me." I think for myself as I wait until I'm called out.

"Tec, you can come out." I hear Candy Warp's voice.

Nodding to myself I activate my lantern and wait for it to produce enough mist. Then I enter, walking slowly I walk out with a clonk every time the stick hits the ground it echoes through the room.

As I am met with silence, I stop I do an arch with my scythe dispersing the mist making it so I can see their faces.

Red Ink and Candy Warp are trying to hide behind Celestia as they all look at me with fear and trepidation. Even Celestia herself looks like she has seen a ghost.

"How can her fur be whiter than it already is?" I can see BB's standing a bit from the other her mouth hanging open in awe.

"So what do you all think?" I ask with worry in my voice making me feel more meek than before as I break eye contact with them and look at the floor.

"It's so awesome." I hear BB's voice before she tackles me with a hug, I'm shocked at the hug at first but I reciprocate the hug.

We release from the hug and I hear a cough I can see Celestia and the other join us. "That was quite the show you put up," Celestia says in her motherly tone. How did you get the idea to dress as the Lone Soul?" She asks me.

I look up at her baffled. "What do you mean Lone Soul?" I ask, she nods and summons an old book and opens it to show me a page with the pony clad in a black robe, holding a scythe in one hoof, and around its neck hangs a lantern and an hourglass.

"It's an old pony tale, older than me." Celestia starts to explain.

"Lone soul or Grim as he was called was an old unicorn who lost his family in a plague that ravaged the lands a long time ago. In his grief of losing his family, he looked into the dark art of Necromancy to bring them back from the dead and he succeeded, but as in all things it came with a cost.”

As she continued to explain, I nodded along as she caught my rapt attention with the tale.

“He warred against the very nature of the world itself. Making his family come back from the dead. This had angered the world so much that the world took them back with force.”

I bounced from hoof to hoof, feeling a bit anxious as the tale continued.

“They also punished Grim to wander the world for all eternity to guide the souls of the dead, yet is forever denied to ever feel the relief of death, themself. Even now on a misty night when the moon shines brightly, you can see Grim wandering around where his family has long since been buried. If you see him, you will have somepony you care for die; some say that we will all meet him at the end of our lives.”

I shivered uncomfortably.

“He carries the lantern to guide the souls and the hourglass to know when it's time to collect the souls of the dead and it gave him the nickname Grim Reaper. The scythe is not always a scythe sometimes it's a shovel or a pickaxe based on the story, but it's always a tool for working the field."

Celestia ends the story, as we all look at her in awe. "Wow, I didn't know Equestria had its own version of the Grim Reaper.” I think for myself as I wonder what other things will have a cross-reference with my old world.

"So which one of us is the winner?" BB asks dragging me out of my thoughts, looking at her I see her being more excited than I am. I smiled as I looked at Celestia, Red Ink, and Candy Warp.

They look between us, then they huddle together speaking in a whisper after a few tense minutes they turn to us. "We have elaborated and you both win," Celestia tells us with an amused expression on her face.

BB with a question on her face, me with what I can guess disbelief.

"Now, let us explain, Blue Blood wins with cuteness and Tec wins with historical accuracy." I roll my eyes at this and tune out the rest as she continues to talk.

"Yeah, she just told us this only to make both of us happy." I think for myself as I tune in to the end of the conversation.

"....And so both of you win, now the both of you can go out and have some fun." Celestia stops talking giving us a wide smile.

Thirty minutes later both me and BB are down in the city together with some of the foals that I helped rescue all of them are wearing many cute costumes but to my surprise some are wearing what looks like Changeling outfits, looking similar to me.

"Damn these cute ponies, they're cuter as a Changeling than I am." The thought went through my thoughts as we got to the first set of doors to visit.

It seems that here in Canterlot there's not a lot of door-knocking at the noble district, I guess that they don't want to have foals visiting them as we get to the lower districts we get more and more doors. "So much candy, what are we going to do with all this?" I think for myself as we continue our raid.

After entering the market area we start to play games like bobbing for apples and many games you can find in the carnival. We started playing games winning some and losing some, as we played bobbing for apples; BB didn't get any.

"Ahh, I didn't get one." She says with a disappointed look, giving her a crooked smile I give her some tips.

"BB if you want to get an apple you will need to push an apple onto the wall of the basin, then you bite it. Do you want to try again?"

She gives me a look that read 'What are you talking about' Then she smiles.

"Prove it." She says.

Huffing I walk over to the basin. "Sir? Can I show my friend here how to catch an apple?" I ask the stand worker, the worker looks at me and smiles.

"Do you know how to do it?" He asks, I only nod in response.

"Give it a go kid." He says ruffling my mane.

Standing before the basin I lock my sight on an apple I dunk my head in pushing the apple down onto the bottom and into the wall giving a few test bites, I take action and bite down grabbing the apple and pulling out. Rising from the water holding the apple in my muzzle I stand tall and proud.

"Wow good job kid, you did a great job getting the apple." The worker said to me.

Taking the apple out of my mouth I thanked the worker and told him how I did it, the worker was impressed with my idea giving me another ruffle of my mane. Returning to BB I see she pouts her forelegs crossed giving me a stare.

"Ah, don't pout BB, you did challenge me, here take this. I give her half the apple from the game after splitting it.

"I heard they come from 'Sweet Apple acres' the best there is. Or so he says." BB looks at the apple and then takes a bit so do I, as I take the bite the crunch of the fresh apple fills my mouth its juices hit my tongue I stop.

"It's sweet, way too sweet. How can this be so sweet."

Taking it out of my mouth I look at BB who's eating the apple without problems.

"Erm, BB is the apple really sweet for you too?" Pausing she looks at the apple and eats the last bit.

"Yeah, it's good." She replies.

"Okay, you can have the rest of mine." I hoof her the rest of mine, She looks pleased about it for some reason.

We do some more games as we are about to leave to pure the candy in front of the statue of Nightmare Moon, I can see BB looking at a stuffed sheep that looks super fluffy.

"You want one?" I ask.

Looking over she nods.

"Yeah, I have tried winning it a few times already, but I can't get the rings to land on the stick." She explains.

I look over at the game to see a basic ring-tossing game. "I'm really bad with these games, but maybe I can be lucky."

"Miss, how much for a game?" I asked the worker. "It's 4 bits for 5 rings." She replies, I give her the bits and get 5 rings.

"How many do I need to land to win the sheep?" I ask.

"At least three." The worker says, focusing I try tossing the first ring and miss.
Throwing the next ring I land it then the next too.

"At least one more ring.” Think for myself to prepare to throw the fourth.
With another toss, I miss the ring. Readying the last I throw it, landing it with a satisfying clang that echoes ever so slightly.

"Okay, that looks good," I say to myself. Looking over to the worker I ask, “Can I have the stuffed animal?"

Giving me a nod she hoofs it over. "Thanks for playing, now you made you're marefriend happy," she says giving me a wink.

I give her a deadpan stare. "Why did you have to make it weird, but thanks," I say turning to face BB who has a face of pure joy, giving her the prize I won.

"Here let's get going we don't have a lot of time until Tia wants us back at the castle."

BB stops me by giving me a hug saying. "Thank you, thank you."

Rolling my eyes, I respond. "Calm down BB, it's not the end of the world, it's just a stuffed animal. And you could probably get one from Tia if you asked."

"Yeah, you’re right but this means more to me, then to just getting a gift from Auntie." She releases me and we start walking towards the statue of Nightmare Moon. After leaving most of our candy we return to the castle to see Celestia waiting for us.

"Did you both have fun?" Celestia asked. BB rushes forward excitedly and tells Celestia what we have been doing. Talking and walking we're taken to our rooms, put to bed so we can meet the next day.

Author's Note

Special thanks to Dat_random_fur for doing the editing.

It's a bit of a long one, but we got some more daily stuff and we're going through some things. Tec get her first taste of sweet apple acres.

Next chapter is "Mothers concern, truth and consequences."

Thanks for reading.