Dear Diary,

It's been a few days since Starsong came back to town and has been staying in my room with me at Vinyl's. When we got back to the room, she was going to sleep on the floor; it took a little doing, but I finally managed to convince her that it was okay to share the bed with me. It was so nice, just like Los Pegasus... I do wonder a bit at her reluctance to sleep with me though; it's not as though there's anything weird about two mares sharing a bed or anything...

The next day we properly introduced her to the rest of our friends (also Rarity...), and in almost no time she was one of the mares just like me. I'm amazed at how friendly everypony in this town is, it's almost stifling... Anyway, she and Rarity actually hit it off which, while the idea of her spending time with my sister sickens me, I suppose I can live with it so long as that marshmallow bitch stays clear of my Big Mac. Pinkie, naturally, practically assaulted her with her general hyper-activeness, but we were finally able to distract her away from Starsong by reminding her of the celebration coming up in the next couple of days. You see, Ponyville throws quite a festival in celebration of Nightmare Night I've discovered. I've been out on Nightmare Night a few times before, but it was usually just an excuse to have a wild party with Vinyl or some other music ponies... This was the first traditional celebration I've ever been to. It's quite the experience, to say the least.

The preparations were a bit unpleasant though... I had to have a costume made, as it's apparently traditional. I'm not really fond of wearing clothes, as they remind me of the upper class ponies and everything I hate about them... Also, as a filly, the only times I wore any clothes was when Mistre ... never mind that, I don't really want to think about that right now. Anyway, I needed a costume in a hurry which meant turning to the resident rich bitch... Thankfully, with Starsong here, I didn't have to deal with Rarity personally and, though I'm loathe to admit it, the harlot did manage to produce mine and Starsong's costumes in very short order...

Anyway, this morning AJ started feeling feverish and developed a bad cough and sneeze. Granny Smith said it wasn't anything too serious and that AJ would be okay in a day or two, but that she should stay in to take care of her granddaughter (personally it didn't seem all that serious to me; if I didn't know better, I might think those two just didn't want the headache of chasing the Crusaders around all night). So, it was left to me, Starsong, and Big Mac to chaperone the fillies.

I suppose it wouldn't be right to not talk about one of the most important parts of the festival... As I mentioned, I'm not really into clothes, but I remembered a book I read about Saddle Arabia a while back, and the sheer outfits the flank-dancers wear were really cool. Starsong was dressed as her personal idol, Beethoofen; despite the stuffy, old fashioned clothes, she still managed to look cute in it somehow... Anyway, Big Mac was a zombie, and I'll admit, the big stallion makes an imposing monster. Scootaloo was dressed as Daring Do; apparently she was a personal hero of hers ever since Dash introduced the filly to the books... Sweetie Belle was the monster from some horror movie or other; I don't know, I'm not really into horror films. Finally Apple Bloom was a mummy, which when paired with Big Mac, was hilariously cute.

After a little while of trick-or-treating, we ran into Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie. Dashie was, big surprise, also Daring Do (she and Scoots together were so adorable...). Pinkie, in typical Pinkie fashion, had dressed up as a lizard... that "ribbited" for some reason... Fluttershy had foregone a costume and seemed more than a little nervous about being out tonight; apparently Dash and Pinkie had dragged her out. Dash and the others offered to take the fillies with them for some more trick-or-treating and to the haunted house, literally dragging poor Fluttershy along with them. Starsong decided to go along with them so she and Sweetie Belle could continue their talk about singing. I was a little reluctant to see her go, but it did mean a little more alone time with Big Mac so...

The two of us went into the town proper to see the festivities in earnest. There were game stalls and food carts (which was a nice change of pace from the overwhelming amounts of candy flowing everywhere else). The Cakes had their own special treats they were giving out from Sugarcube Corner. Eventually we made our way to the offering statue; a statue of Nightmare Moon that everypony offers a portion of their treats to so that Nightmare Moon would eat it instead of them. Big Mac told me about how Princess Luna actually came to Ponyville's Nightmare Night festival a few years ago and was a big hit with the town's foals (while they ran from her in abject terror, apparently...).

Finally, we made our way to the haunted house Pinkie had mentioned. The place was perfect, like to a fault. It just screamed "Twilight designed and oversaw construction of this"... That said, I'll admit the work they put in really paid off and the effects and overall ambiance would normally be really scary; of course compared to some of the things I've lived through, nothing in the place really seemed scary to me... It did, however, give me a really bad idea, one that I found I couldn't resist.

My stallion's zombie costume was pretty convincing, and as it turned out he blended in perfectly with the decorations, which became clear when a couple of foals rounded the corner and started at the sight of the zombie staring back at them... Unfortunately, the big stallion's acting was less convincing than his appearance, so it fell to me to "help" liven up his performance. The area where he was positioned had his lower body and rear legs shielded from view, so I snuck in behind him and started to coax that monstrous stallionhood out of hiding. He certainly responded quickly enough; I guess with everything that's happened recently, he's been a little pent-up himself. Anyway, when we heard the next group approaching, I took that incredible cock to the root in one fluid motion.

As I predicted, his groan of pleasure was exactly the perfect touch to push his performance over the edge, which was complimented by the terrified shrieks of the poor foals that happened into the room right at that moment. Ha! How I wish I could have seen their faces... but oh well, it's not as though I didn't get anything out of it myself...

... Yeah, I know it was mean, but it was also funny so that makes it okay...

Don't you judge me!

Anyway, after that we decided it would be best to move on before the guard or somepony showed up, so we quickly exited the house. Outside we ran into Princess Twilight and her bodyguard Nightshade. Neither mare was in costume; the princess was apparently too busy micromanaging the haunted house's construction and operation, and Nightshade is incapable of smiling, much less having fun... Actually, the bodyguard was acting particularly wound up tonight; it seemed like she was looking for somepony in particular, and she was actually running off anypony that tried to approach Twilight or us. I don't know what's got her so worked up this time, but it did lead to an awkward little encounter with a certain pegasus friend of mine.

My old friend Derpy was in town again for the festival (though at the time none of us had any idea who she was as she was dyed black from head to hoof and was wearing a thick black cloak to boot). When she spotted me and Twilight she ran over, I presume to greet us; Nightshade, being on high alert as she was, saw her actions as hostile and ran to intercept. I'm actually not really sure what exactly happened after that, but the next thing I knew, Nightshade had tackled the "attacker" out of the sky and was most likely about to strike her down. Thankfully Twilight stopped her long enough for us to pull back the cloak, revealing a very confused but otherwise unharmed Derpy...

Speaking of confused, none of us were quite sure what to make of the mare's costume. She said she was a "Darkguard"... whatever that is... When Big Mac asked, she said something about them being some kind of secret assassin force under Princess Luna and some nonsense about an epic pony war in the distant past... It's insane, of course; no history books mention anything about a civil war between the princesses. Most books didn't even make the corolation between Luna and Nightmare Moon. Derpy was absolutely convinced the information she'd received (from a camel, apparently) was perfectly accurate though so there wasn't much point in arguing it. Anyway, Nightshade forced out the most begrudging apology in the history of pony (I know she's supposed to be a bodyguard, but that mare really needs to learn how to loosen up...) and she and Twilight took their leave.

Big Mac and I are on our way back to the farm now. Big Mac was really quiet earlier after the haunted house incident... I hope he's not mad at me about that. Well, when we get back to his room, I'll see about making it up to him... somehow...

All in all, tonight was the most fun I've had in quite some time. And more importantly, I got to spend most of it alone with my special somepony (I have to admit, that still feels a little funny saying that...). But that's not even the best part... Mine and Storsong's birthdays are coming up in a few days! This will be the first time we've been able to celebrate together since Starsong left the Star Family estate for Los Pegasus. I know it's not usually a big deal for me, but this year I have my beloved sister and all of my friends and my special somepony...! Now if only mom could be here too, it would be absolutely perfect...

Hmm... I wonder if Starsong remembers our little joke from when we were fillies? I'll have to remind myself to say it sometime that day...

~ Starshadow