Author's Note

Let me know if you spot any mistakes or have suggestions :)

"Hello." = English
"Hello." = Equestrian

Trick-or-Treat!

Day 284

Log #44

October 31, 2029 (SPOOKY DAY!!!!)

Ah, it feels so good to finally be able to put a date on this thing again. I don’t know if “Day 284” is exactly the time I’ve been alive after it happened, but I do know it happened sometime in March, so it’s somewhat accurate.

I’ve been getting along somewhat well with the local populace lately. They don’t actively cower at the sight of me now, and they only give me second glances as I pass by. Some of them even say hello and wave at me! And I believe it’s mostly because I’ve won the hearts of the baby horses ponies.

(Saying tiny horses just feels stupid and redundant at this point.)

Ever since I met the babies during recess that one time, they’ve been practically glued to my legs. Anytime one of them spots me in public, they come running with those adorably excited faces and begin babbling to me in their language.

Naturally, their parents were, understandably, pretty horrified seeing their kids running up to and bothering the “big monster.” The first couple of times it happened, some parents actually charged me with the intent to do severe bodily harm. Luckily, the babies managed to stop them before I could get too hurt, but there were some bruises left behind from the attacks.

Eventually, it happened enough times that the parents just kept a keen eye on me whenever I interacted with the kiddos. However, Violet and Ms. Teacher communicated that I was now refrained from visiting the school. For now. The parents just wanted to make sure that their kids were safe from me at some point in the day, and I was completely alright with that!

Speaking of Violet, I don’t know if Ms. Teacher or one of the kids told her about my phone, but I woke up in the middle of the night one time to find her stepping away from my rucksack with it in her mouth.

The rest of that night was spent satiating Violet’s curiosity and poorly explaining to her just how exactly my phone worked. It was kind of hard to communicate how a satellite worked to a creature who had no previous conception of it, you know? Eh, I suppose it comes with the package of interacting with a slightly primitive society. Not that I mean anything bad by it.

What was easy to communicate though was math.

Once I managed to explain the numbers 0 through 9 and the meaning behind some of the simpler mathematical symbols on the scientific calculator app on my phone, Violet spent a solid 30 minutes experimenting with a plethora of equations with an ear-to-ear grin on her face that only grew wider with each equation. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if she figured out how square roots, f(x), sin, cos, and tan worked.

Then again, she’s, like, Einstein-level smart, so maybe she already knows how they work, and we humans just happen to use different symbols.

Heh, I can almost imagine Violet frothing at the mouth once she gets her hooves on a book about quantum physics, language barrier be damned.

“Come on, Twilight! We’re gonna be late for the Nightmare Night festival!” Barney said, making you look up from your journal.

You couldn’t help but find Barney’s costume pretty amusing. He was a purple dragon dressed as... well, a slightly darker shade of purple dragon. It was the equivalent of putting two baseball caps on your head facing in opposite directions and saying you were a cowboy. That’s peak comedy right there.

The sound of jingling bells drew your attention to the stairs leading up to Violet’s room. Standing on the steps, Violet was dressed in a sophisticated wizard costume—beard and all. She paused dramatically, striking an elegant pose before descending the rest of the stairs. You started clapping at the masterful display, noticing how it made her smile a bit wider.

“Uh, are you that one cooky grandpa from Ponyville Retirement Village?”

You frowned at Barney, “No, not grandpa,” you said, shaking your head. Setting your journal and pencil down, you stretched your arms out toward Violet and started doing jazz hands. “Wuzard!”

Violet giggled into her hoof. “Goggles is right, Spike—I’m a wizard! But not just any wizard, I’m Starswirl the Bearded!”

Barney blinked twice, a severe lack of understanding present in his facial expression. You snorted, finding his face rather funny.

“Father of the amniomorphic spell?”

Barney blinked twice again, his face not changing at all.

“Did you even read that book I gave you about obscure unicorn history?” Violet said with a frustrated point of her hoof.

Luckily, before Barney was forced to answer, there were some knocks on the front door.

“Uh, that sounds important!” Barney said before dashing past Violet and toward the front door.

You chuckled before getting up from the couch, grabbing the bowl of candy sitting on the coffee table, and heading to the front door as well.

Hunching over, you peered through the door to see who was waiting outside. To your surprise, it was three ponies covered head-to-hoof in dark clothing with goggles perched over their eyes.

Holy shit, they were a bunch of mini you’s!

Unlike your goggles, theirs weren’t tinted, allowing you to see just how excited they became when you appeared at the door. A wide smile spread across your face as the kids started hopping in place, their excited shouts filling the air. You gestured for them to calm down, and once they did, you reached into the bowl you were carrying and gave them one candy each.

“Thank you!” they all said.

Suddenly, a fourth pony dressed up as a pirate squeezed through the other three, a toy dagger in his mouth. After a closer look, you realize it was Spot.

“Pipsqueak the Pirate at your service! It’s my very first Nightmare Night!” Spot said with a salute.

“Happy Halloween,” you said as you saluted him back.

Spot tilted his head at the unfamiliar word, about to ask what it meant when Kirby suddenly appeared wearing a chicken costume.

“Becawk! Enough chitchat! Time is candy!”

Violet furrowed a brow at Kirby, “Pinkie Pie, aren’t you a little old for this?”

You frowned at Violet before wagging a finger in front of her face, “Never old for candy,” you said.

Kirby nodded fervently, “See! Goggles gets it!”

Twilight groaned with a roll of her eyes before gesturing for you to give Kirby a candy. Reaching into the bowl again, you dropped a lollipop into Kirby's bag.

You then watched with mild amusement as Violet once again tried to show off her costume.

“Do you like it?” she said.

Kirby nodded, “Yeah, great costume, Twilight! Oh, you make a fantastic weirdo clown!” Kirby said before quite literally pecking every single piece of candy in the bowl you were carrying.

Looking down at the bowl with wide eyes, you saw that not a single piece of candy remained. Looking back up, you saw that Kirby was nowhere to be seen.

“Rude…” you mumbled.

Violet sputtered as she glanced at herself, “A clown!? How does she get a clown from this!?” Violet then grabbed her costumed robes and waved them around at you, “Look at the borders of these robes. These are hoof-stitched!”

You nodded at her slowly, “Yes..?“ you reply, not knowing what else she might have wanted you to say.

Barney shrugged his head and walked ahead of Violet with a mischievous smirk, “Sure, it's a great costume, heh, grandpa,“ he said with a chuckle.

Violet snorted in frustration before rolling her eyes and following Barney. You closed the library’s door behind you, and you were about to follow Violet before you felt a tug on your pant leg.

With an uncomfortable shiver, you glanced down to see the four baby ponies looking up at you with joyful eyes.

“Mr. Goggles, do you think you can come collect candy with us?” one of them asked.

You crouched down and took a moment to process the words you understood, “Candy… collect?” you asked as you pinched the bag around the pony’s neck.

The pony nodded, “Uh-huh! Can you?”

You spared a glance back at Violet who was quickly disappearing into the crowd of ponies walking around. You shrugged, might as well.

“Yes,” you said with a thumbs up.

Immediately, your response was met with excited shouts as the baby ponies tried to drag you away from the library by your pants. You chuckled nervously as you gently pried them off with your quivering hands, their incessant tugging bringing you back to the storage room.

“No pulling, please. Me no like,” you say gently.

Thankfully, your request was respected, and the ponies apologized before leading you away from the library.

As you trick-or-treated with the ponies, you took in the many decorations around the town. There were things you were familiar with like skulls, candle-lit pumpkins, ghosts, and some pony skeletons rising from the ground. But there was also an unfamiliar penchant for eyes, stars, moons with a unicorn imprinted on them, and a helmeted unicorn staring down at ponies who passed by.

You hummed in thought and wondered what the cultural origin was for that.

“Thank you, Ms. Cheerilee!” a chorus of voices said.

Looking down from the helmeted unicorn decoration hanging from Ms. Teacher’s house, you couldn’t help but marvel at how much your party had grown. It seemed like nearly every kid in the village had joined your group by now, and to your surprise, a majority of them were dressed up as you. Heh, talk about popular, you might as well be considered a celebrity to these kids.

“You’re welcome, everypony! Make sure you don’t eat everything tonight so you can have some in the morning,” Ms. Teacher said with a sweet smile.

Waving bye to Ms. Teacher, you and your gaggle of ponies continued your quest for candy. You felt a sense of happiness envelope you as gazed down at the joyful ponies surrounding you. It brought you back to when you were a kid trick-or-treating with the only thing on your mind being how much candy you could get and how much you were going to eat when you got home. You smiled, finding solace in this wonderful moment.

BANG!

You flinched and let out a scream as a deafening thunderclap exploded mere feet away. The sheer force of the sound sent a painful ringing through your ears, leaving you disoriented and helpless. Instinctively, you clamped your hands over your ears, desperate to muffle the relentless, high-pitched whine.

As the ringing in your ears subsided enough to allow you to hear faintly, the first sound that reached you was an obnoxious, raucous laughter echoing from above. Squinting upward, you spotted Skittles perched smugly on a dark cloud. She was dressed in a sleek, dark, skin-tight costume that clung to her frame as she rolled across the cloud, clutching her sides, and cackling uncontrollably as she pointed a hoof at you.

Grumbling under your breath, you made a point of ignoring Skittles' relentless cackling and turned your gaze downward to check on your entourage. However, to your dismay, they had vanished—every last one of them. You were alone, left to endure Skittles’ mocking laughter echoing throughout the street.

With your mood thoroughly soured, you jammed your hands into your pockets and began skulking away from her, your shoulders hunched in frustration. Unfortunately for you, Skittles wasn’t about to let you leave in peace. Catching sight of your retreat, she grinned and followed you on top of her cloud.

“Ahahaa! I got you good! Admit it, nobody could’ve scared you as bad as I just- woah!”

Skittles’ cackling was cut short as you, without a shred of hesitation, reached out and gave her a light tap on her shoulder. The touch sent her unceremoniously falling through her cloud and crashing to the ground below. It was a bit tempted to laugh at her in her stunned face, but you held yourself back, you were better than that.

And so, with your hands shoved deep into your pockets, you let out a frustrated sigh, hoping that maybe, just maybe, you'd run into Violet and salvage what was left of the night.

You grinned under your mask as you found yourself the winner of yet another game of Spider Toss. You were currently 14-0 in terms of win/loss and stood as the undefeatable champion of the game. You have your undeniably great skill to thank for that.

But, it’s pretty lonely at the top, and being really good at a game means that nobody wants to play against you after a while. So you were once again left with nothing to do as you strolled the streets of Ponytown.

Suddenly, screams filled the air and the ground began to rumble slightly. Looking around, you saw the baby ponies—which were now being chaperoned by Kirby—running away from something while screaming their heads off.

One of the ponies dressed as you noticed you and began running toward you.

“Mr. Goggles! Help! Protect us from Nightmare Moon!” they shouted as they hid behind your legs and shook fearfully.

Before you knew it, you were surrounded on all sides by baby ponies looking to you for protection instead of, you know, their parents? You feel flattered by the absolute faith they have in you to protect them from whatever they were running from, but how were you supposed to fight something when you couldn't even take a step forward without fear of accidentally stepping on one of them?

Your thoughts were interrupted by a sudden darkness enveloping the area as thick clouds rolled in above you. Glancing up, you caught sight of a flying chariot being pulled by two ponies with bat-like wings (bat-ponies?)

From the chariot, a figure dressed in a black cloak jumped out and landed gracefully on the street. Raising their head, they allowed the hoodie of their cloak to fall back and expose who was under it.

Your gaze landed on a dark blue unicorn mare with beautiful cyan eyes. Perched atop her head was an onyx black tiara, complementing her regal appearance. Her flowing blue mane and tail shimmered as they danced in the breeze, dotted with countless pinpricks of light that reminded you of the stars scattered across the night sky.

All the ponies around you began to bow deeply, and you mean deeply. They were practically trying to bury their heads in the stone path while also laying on the floor.

Eventually, you were the only one left that was standing. And you watched as the unicorn took several steps forward, her cloak dissolving into… bats? What? Oh, she has wings t-

“CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE!”

“GAH! WHAT THE FUCK!?” you shout as you clutch your ears in pain again. While it wasn’t enough to make them ring, it still hurt a lot.

“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!”

“Did you hear that everypony!? Nightmare Moon said she’s gonna feast on us all!” you heard Kirby shout before screaming and running away.

Some of the baby ponies went to run with her, but most had decided to stick with you. Looking back at the pegacorn, she was frozen in surprise with her hoof suspended in mid-air as she watched the fleeing group.

“What?No, children, no! You no longer have reason to fear us! Screams of delight is what your princess desires, not screams of terror!” she said, punctuating her words with a powerful stomp of her hoof that cracked the ground beneath her.

While you couldn’t understand most of what she was saying, you understood that she was pretty upset about the children running away from her. But how could she be? She didn’t give the most friendly entrance into town with the whole lightning and dark clouds stuff she had going on.

Either not noticing you or just ignoring you, the pegacorn turned towards the only politician in the town who was dressed as a clown. You snorted, the jokes just write themselves, don’t they?

“Madam Mayor, thy Princess of the Night hath arrived,” she said while sticking her hoof out to the mayor.

Did she want the mayor to kiss her hoof? If she did, she wasn’t getting it anytime soon.

“What is the matter with you?” the pegacorn said before sticking her hoof out in the other pony’s faces.

Completely unsuccessful in being shown the respect she so desperately wanted, the pegacorn stuck her head up to the sky, “Very well, then. Be that way. We won’t even bother with the traditional royal farewell,” she said before trotting away.

“Hm, that was something,” you muttered before glancing down at the shaking babies around you. “All okay?” you asked.

Gathering the courage, some of the kids peeked past their hooves and looked around before standing up. Crouching down, you gently pet the still-shaking kids in an effort to calm their nerves.

“All okay?” you asked one more time.

You got multiple nods and hums of agreement which made you a bit happy.

“Mr. Goggles?”

Turning your head to the voice who called your name, your eyes landed on Spot, “Yes?”

“Aren’t you afraid that Nightmare Moon was going to eat you?”

You tilted your head, “Eat me? No, me too big.”

Some of the kids giggled at your response, their fear slowly fading away as they pulled themselves together. Standing back up, you glanced around to see the other townsponies getting back up to their hooves and shaking off their terror.

From the corner of your vision, a dash of purple caught your eye, and you turned your head to see Violet walking in the direction the pegacorn had gone in. With the intent of following her, you carefully detached yourself from the clingy kids and assured them that you’d be back before following Violet.

Walking through the dirt path, you cast wary glances into the dark forest around you. While this area wasn’t the entire brunt of the forest you woke up in, it was still a part of it. You were silently glad that you had managed to come across Ponytown before it turned to night, being a mythological animal’s dinner was not on your bucket list.

You were sure you were getting close to wherever Violet and the pegacorn were talking because you were beginning to hear Violet’s voice. It wasn’t hard to follow considering the-

“Change our approach?”

Shouting you heard… Well, it was extremely loud this time, so you must be only a couple of steps away.

Stepping into a clearing, you saw both Violet and the pegacorn talking to each other in front of a menacing pegacorn statue. Giving it a once over, you noticed that it was the same pony whose head was being used as a decoration around the town. Maybe the pony was an important figure in the holiday?

You shrugged to yourself before approaching the two ponies, your footsteps grabbing their attention and turning their heads toward you.

“Oh, Goggles! Great timing,” Violet said, “Princess Luna, this is Goggles. Goggles this is Princess Luna. Say hello.”

You obliged and waved your hand, “Hello. Nice to meet,” you said with a nod.

The pegacorn looked at you with interest, “So this is the creature our dearest sister told us about? We must ask, what is thou called?”

While she wasn’t yelling at you per se, she was still screaming at you in your face. So, it threw you off a bit as you tried to piece together what she said. Thankfully, Violet came in for a save.

“Oh, uh, I’m sorry, Princess Luna, but Goggles is still learning Equestrian so he might not fully understand what you’re trying to ask him.”

The pegacorn nodded, “We see… But why does thou cover themselves up in an enormous amount of clothing?”

“Uh, Goggles hasn’t told me anything about why, but I hypothesize that it may play a strong role in his culture because of how uncomfortable he is whenever he takes some off.”

“A strange set of customs, but we shall respect them. Now, does thou have any questions for us?”

At the tilt of your head, Violet clarified, “Goggles, want to ask anything?”

With a sense of understanding, you nodded before pointing at the statue, “Is mom?”

“Pardon me!?” the pegacorn shouted in horror, her wings unfurling as her head flinched back.

You winced at the unexpected response, “Uh, no?”

The pegacorn’s horror quickly turned to anger and she opened her mouth to let out many choice sets of words. But before she could, Violent once again came to your rescue.

“Wait, Princess Luna! Goggles didn’t mean anything by it! He only appeared shortly after Discord was petrified again, so he probably doesn’t even know about Nightmare Moon or the legend!”

Violet’s words served you well, and the pegacorn’s anger swiftly shifted to realization and then regret. Looking at you with sincere eyes, she spoke, “We apologize for our undignified outburst! Would thou be so kind as to forgive us!?” she said while holding a hoof out.

Even though you somewhat understood that she was asking for forgiveness, her yelling at you was really beginning to throw you off. Does she speak like this all the time?

“Is okay,” you said, reaching your hand out and gently grabbing her hoof to shake it.

Like Skittles before her, the pegacorn’s wings drooped unceremoniously at her sides, as if she had lost all muscle control of them. And once-flowing mane and tail also stopped their ethereal motion and hung limply, completing the look of utter dejection.

Oh, you had completely forgotten about that. “Sorry,” you said before quickly retracting your hand, her wings perking back up and her mane and tail regaining their ethereal flow.

“Well, that answers one of my questions,” Violet suddenly said.

“Yes, our sister did warn us about thy’s concerning ability, but she trusts your word that Goggles shall do us no harm! If our sister trusts you then we shall also place our faith in you, Twilight Sparkle!”

Violet beamed at the pegacorn before chuckling, “Thank you for putting your faith in me, Princess. But, let’s go visit my friend about learning how to lower your volume, you still want to win the hearts of Ponyville, right?”

“But of course! Lead the way, Twilight Sparkle!”

And so, you followed Violet and the pegacorn—who you’d decided to nickname Lunala—over to Butter’s house. You weren’t entirely sure why they were headed there, but you were more than happy to tag along anyway.

“Don’t worry, Princess. Fluttershy can give you some great pointers. She’s delicate and demure with the sweetest little voice,” Violet said before knocking on the door.

“GO AWAY! NO CANDY HERE! VISITORS NOT WELCOME ON NIGHTMARE NIGHT!” came a booming voice from inside.

You blinked in surprise, not thinking that Butter was even able to shout that loudly due to how quiet she was.

Violet chuckled nervously and glanced at an unimpressed Lunala before leaning into the door, “Fluttershy, it’s me. Twilight.”

The door slowly opened, and Butter peeked out, “It is you.” Opening the door a little more, she spotted you and Lunala, “Ah, and Goggles and Nightmare Moon.”

Butter gasped fearfully, “Nightmare Moon!? Ahhh!” she screamed before slamming the door.

You frowned and furrowed your brows, taken aback by Butter’s apparent lack of respect in the presence of royalty. Violet let out another nervous chuckle before gesturing for both you and Lunala to wait outside. Moments later, a cacophony of crashing pots, pans, and all sorts of chaotic noises erupted from within the cottage. You jumped at the sudden commotion, your eyes widening as you stared at the door, wondering what in the hell was happening inside.

Eventually, the door opened, and out stepped Violet who was forcing an unwilling Butter outside, “Fluttershy, you remember Princess Luna?”

“Charmed!” Lunala replied while holding a hoof out.

Butter dashed inside the house once more, but she was quickly dragged back out and held in front of Lunala with the use of Violet’s magic.

“Likewise…” Butter murmured with a fearful smile.

“Twilight Sparkle hath spoken of the sweetness of thy voice! We ask thou teachest to us to speak as thou speakest!”

You grumble, all this screaming is really starting to get old. Butter, meanwhile, was utterly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of Lunala’s voice. With every booming word, her form shrunk further and further until she made a desperate dash for the safety of her house.

Unfortunately for her, Violet was quicker. She swiftly shut the door before Butter could slip through, and the poor mare collided face-first into the solid wood with a loud thud.

“A little quieter, Princess,” Violet said with a supportive smile.

“How is… this..?!”

“Better, right guys?” Violet said as she glanced at you and Butter.

You nodded, and Butter replied with a meek “Yes.”

“How… about… now..?!”

You nodded once more, “Uh-huh, good.”

“And… how about now?”

“Yes! Well done,” Violet said as you gave Lunala a thumbs up.

Butter’s form was suddenly enveloped in a blue aura, and you watched as she was dragged over to Lunala’s hooves, her horn also glowing blue.

“I thank thee, dear Fluttershy! Our normal speaking voice shall surely win us the hearts of thy fellow villagers!” Lunala said as she hugged Butter tightly.

You heard the sound of galloping hooves coming behind you, turning around, you were surprised to see Kirby and the group of children that ran off with her approaching the cottage.

“Fluttershy, you’ve got to hide us! Nightmare Moon is here and…” Kirby cut herself off with a dramatic gasp as she took in Butter’s “lifeless” form in Lunala’s hooves.

‘Oh, dear…’ you thought as you watched Kirby scream in fright before running away, the children also screaming as they followed close behind.

“Nay, children, wait! I-I mean… Nay, children, wait,” Lunala said dejectedly.

You sigh. One step forward, but two steps back.

Violet was determined, however, “Come on, Princess. Time for plan B.”

‘This is hopeless,’ you thought as you watched yet another failed attempt to get Lunala to be liked by the townsponies.

It was going great at first, and she showed her expertise at playing Spider Toss and Pumpkin Catapult. She even managed to beat you a couple of times. The townsponies had steadily lost their fear of her, and it was set up to be a great night.

Until Kirby showed up and ruined it again.

Now everyone was running around like headless chickens as plushies turned real spiders crawled along the floor. Funnily enough, they turned back into plushies the moment they touched any part of you.

“BE STILL!”

You flinched as Lunala’s booming voice rang out once again, freezing everyone around you in place. All eyes turned toward her, their fear palpable as she raised a commanding hoof into the air.

“Princess, remember! Watch the screaming!” Violet said.

“No, Twilight Sparkle! We must use the traditional royal Canterlot voice for what we are about to say.”

Turning to address the rest of the townsponies, Lunala spoke in an angered tone while rising into the air, “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!”

15 minutes later, you were still trying to console the distraught children as they cried to you and their parents about what happened. You couldn’t fully understand them because of their sobbing, but you put together that the holiday was cut short by Lunala, unfortunately.

Honestly, you couldn’t help but feel like you were just a spectator during the whole debacle. You wanted to help Lunala in some way, but your less-than-great understanding of the language and her rather temperamental nature prevented you from coming up with a solution. Not to mention that the townsponies were genuinely afraid of her.

“Come now, everypony. Now don’t you all fret. Nightmare Night's not over yet. We still have candy left to give, so Nightmare Moon might let us live,” a zebra dressed as a witch said as she approached.

You had seen her around town a few times before and even spoken to her on occasion. She was always kind and patient with your struggles to communicate. However, her weird way of speaking often made conversations challenging. It seemed like she was rhyming, but the subtleties of her tone were lost on you, leaving you puzzled more often than not.

“Yes, little ponies. What's Nightmare Night without the annual candy offering? You don't want Nightmare Moon to gobble you up, do you?” the mayor said spookily. The clown costume wasn’t helping her though.

And so, you found yourself following the kids back to the statue in the forest where they proceeded to dump a portion of their candy to it. An offering you realized. You wonder what the reason behind it was. Maybe its for good luck?

You watched as the final pony, Spot, sadley dumped a portion of his candy before muttering something you couldn’t hear and turning away. You didn’t blame him, kid-you would be distraught at having Halloween be cut short and having to sacrifice some candy for a superstitious tradition.

As you all were about to walk away, the wind around you suddenly began to blow fiercely and a familiar voice boomed around you.

“Citizens of Ponyville! You were wise to bring this candy to me. I am pleased with your offering. So pleased that I may just eat it... instead of eating you!”

Without warning, the statue sprang to life, unleashing a deafening roar that echoed through the air. The unexpected jumpscare sent a jolt of adrenaline through you, and you yelped loudly, stumbling backward and landing hard on your ass. You clutched your chest, feeling your heart pounding against your ribcage.

The stature then flashed a bright white and faded to reveal Lunala wearing fake vampire teeth and an uncertain expression on her face.

You chuckled, “Got me good, hehe,” you say as you sit up.

Lunala gave you a perplexed expression and opened her mouth to say something before Spot approached her with a hopeful face.

“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 said.

Lunala brought a hoof up to her mouth in surprise, “Child. Art thou saying that thou... likest me to scare you?”

Spot smiled with a nod, “It’s really fun. Scary, but fun!”

“It… is?” Lunala asked in disbelief.

Smiling, you decided to throw in your two coins, “Is fun to be scared sometime. Scary day is scary fun.”

Lunala grinned, “Well then. We shall have to bring Nightmare Night back!”

Spot giddily hopped in place, “Really!? You’re my favorite Princess ever!” he said before quickly hugging Lunala’s leg and running off into the woods. “She said yes, guys!”

“Yay!” you heard a bunch of kids say in reply.

Shifting your gaze to Lunala, you gave her a thumbs up, “Happy Halloween,” you said before rejoining the kids in festivities.

The rest of the night was filled with laughter, and cheerful faces as Lunala joined in on the fun after un-canceling Halloween. The joy was infectious, and you couldn’t help but smile as you watched the kids run around with gleeful energy. You got to say, this may be one of the nights of your life so far, and you are definitely looking forward to more days or nights like it.

Unbeknownst to you, a mint-green unicorn dressed in a mummy costume was closely monitoring you. She had been ever since you showed up here. You had pretty consistent interactions with her due to how obsessed she seemed with your anatomy, but you didn’t think anything else of it.

Slowly slipping out of the festivities, she headed back to her home and grabbed a scroll and quill. She had a letter to write.

S.M.I.L.E. Observations

Letter # 4

Entity Classification: Dangerous Critical

Containment Procedures: Non-applicable. For now.

To her Royal Highness, Princess Celestia,

This letter carries urgent and significant information regarding a recent discovery about the entity known as "Goggles." I trust you will take this matter into consideration, as it could have far-reaching implications.

As you may have noticed at the beginning of this letter, I have updated the classification for “Goggles.” While your student, Twilight Sparkle, may send a more detailed report later this week, I felt it necessary to alert you immediately to a troubling development I observed.

As documented, "Goggles" possesses the ability to nullify various forms of known magic, which Twilight has been diligently experimenting with. However, at approximately 1:03 AM today, I witnessed "Goggles" physically make contact with your sister, Princess Luna. During this contact, I observed what appeared to be a disruption in her innate magic. Specifically, her mane and tail—normally in constant motion as a visible effect of her immense magical power—ceased to "flow in the wind" for the duration of the contact.

While I cannot definitively conclude that "Goggles" fully nullified Princess Luna’s magical abilities, the visual evidence of the disruption is concerning. I am aware that the flowing nature of both your and Princess Luna's manes and tails is a direct byproduct of your vast magical reserves. This incident suggests that "Goggles" might pose a potential threat to the intrinsic magic of alicorns.

I recommend verifying this matter with Princess Luna directly to assess the extent of the interference caused by "Goggles." Additionally, I will strongly encourage Twilight Sparkle to experiment with more advanced and powerful spells in her ongoing research on this subject. I also intend to participate in some experiments to compile a more detailed and comprehensive report.

I thank you for taking the time to read this letter, and I urge you to consider potential long-term containment protocols for "Goggles" as a precautionary measure.

Yours in service,

Agent Lyra Heartstrings.