Martin was walking toward Twilights place dressed in a hooded black robe and his face painted up like a skull, already the festivities of Nightmare Night were in full swing. Wherever he looked he spotted ponies of all ages dressed as ghost, goblins or other frightening creatures of myth, the human just chuckled at the fact that even though both his and their worlds were so far apart they all had similar holidays. He soon arrived at the door to the library and knocked twice before waiting patiently for the door to open, soon it was opened by none other than…..Princess Celestia? Martin did a double take, but soon realized that the princess was much shorter than normal and had darker eyes. He just smiled as he looked at Twilight, he then nodded in approval of her costume, she had painted her entire body to match the princesses and she even got the clothing done perfectly, strapped to her sides were a pair of very convincing wings, she also seemed to wear a wig on her mane and tail that mimicked the same waving effect that Celestia naturally had.

Martin walked past her, he then noticed she even had the sun cutie mark before smiling once more, “I got to say, you make a very convincing princess you almost look like her twin”

Twilight smiled at the compliment, “thanks Martin, you have no idea how hard making the wings and wigs were”. Martin just tilted his head, “I can probably guess”

Twilight then pointed a hoof at Martin, “What are you supposed to be?”

Martin then took on a confused expression, “I’m the Grim Reaper”, and Twilight wore a confused expression in response. Martin then gestured dramatically, “You know, the personification of death?” Twilight just continued to stare in utter confusion at him.

Martin just gave an annoyed sigh as he removed his hood and wiped off the face paint, “never mind it’s a human thing”, Martin looked around, “is everypony here yet or did I get here late?”

Twilight shook her head with a grin and led him into another room where everypony else was waiting for them all in costume. Pinkie pie was dressed up as a cream puff, Rarity was dressed like an egyptian queen complete with adornments and make up, Rainbow Dash was dressed in her shadow bolts costume which had some visible work done to it making it look more convincing, Applejack was dressed as an old western sheriff complete with a pony duster coat. They all bid him welcome as he entered, Spike soon followed dressed as a roman gladiator carrying drinks to all of them, after a while of exchanging pleasantries they got down to business. Since it was Martins first Nightmare Night, they had thought it would be nice to meet at Twilights for a short get together before they parted ways at the festival to enjoy the various attractions.

Martin soon noticed Fluttershy’s absence, “Hey, isn’t Fluttershy coming?”

Rarity shook her head, “Unfortunately she is feeling under the weather at the moment”

Rainbow snickered slightly, “Yeah, she came down with a severe case of the heebie jeebie’s’’

Twilight fixed Dash with a look then looked at Martin, “Fluttershy doesn’t really like Nightmare Night all that much, she tends to stay indoors and only give out candy to young ponies”

Martin nodded with an “ahhh” of understanding and finished his drink and stood up raising his hood and rubbing his hands together, “come my friends, let us join in the merriment of pranks and eat candy until we are profoundly unwell!!”, both Pinkie and Rainbow rushed to his side and joined him in pumping his fist in the air with a “WOOT!”

Everypony else just laughed as they all headed to the door and into the dark streets, soon they all parted way’s at the center of Ponyville. For the next two hours Martin went all around town sampling the various activities, he even found Luna at the spider toss to which he had victory stolen from him. After a long while he came upon a class of young ponies at play away from the festival, most likely from the amount of sugar coursing through their veins. He noticed a familiar face trying to get them under control dressed as a ragdoll.

Martin approached, “hey Cheerilie, looks like you got your hoofs full with the young ones”

Cheerilie quickly turned and smiled, “yes, I told them not to eat all the candy they got right away, but we were all young once after all”

Martin nodded, “true that-“ before he could finish he was tackled by three familiar fillies with smiles on their faces.
They got off of him to allow him to stand when he tried to move, Applebloom smiled up at him, “Heya Martin how are ya enjoin Nightmare Night?”

Martin dusted himself off, “it’s pretty cool, sort of similar to a holiday back where I come from called Halloween, but this is way better”, he then took on a mock serious expression, “Cheerilie says you ate all your candy already, students you got some splanin to do”

The CMC laughed slightly as Scootaloo stepped forward, “We wanted to keep ourselves awake so we could listen to a scary story and not fall asleep”

Two young ponies known as Snips and Snails nodded in unison, Snips spoke immediately after the nods, “Yeah, we tried looking for Zecora but she wasn’t around”

Martin nodded thoughtfully, “well on a night like tonight a good scare is always good, well I got to go to the pumpkin catapult event because Luna owes me a match”

As he turned to leave he was halted by a tugging on his robe, he looked down into the eyes of Sweetie Belle who spoke immediately upon acknowledgement, “Martin don’t go yet, maybe you can tell us a scary story from where you’re from”

Martin just shook his head, “Sorry Sweetie, the stuff from my world is too intense for all of you”

Sweetie and the rest of the CMC gave him the puppy dog eyes which caused him to sigh in defeat, “Alright, alright, you win I’ll tell all of you a story-“, Martin was cut off by a scoff coming from a familiar young pink unicorn with a tiara atop her head.

Diamond Tiara just smiled mockingly at Martin, “Like, you said you weren’t going to tell a story from your lame world, I bet you were going to make one up out of the blue”

Martin just stared at the young filly with a look of annoyance which soon vanished and was replaced with a calm smile; he sat down on a nearby bench as the class all gathered in front of him their teacher standing at the back of them, “well if you don’t want a made up one I guess I’ll have to tell you a true story then that took place here”

Diamond just snickered, “like, what could have possibly happened here that we didn’t already know about, we already heard all about the stories that “happened here”, she then turned to her friend Silver Spoon, “he was probably going to, like, tell us about a monster he defeated with his super powers or something”

Martin shook his head, “not exactly, tell me have any of you heard about vampires?”

Every young pony nodded as Martin continued, “Well I fought one”

Scootaloo gasped, “No way!”

Martin nodded, “Yes as a matter of fact way, well I wouldn’t say just one more like one and his army of undead and I also had some backup”

Diamond Tiara laughed immediately, “Like, yeah right everypony knows vampires don’t exist”

Martin then spoke in an ominous tone, “famous last words”

Sweetie spoke up, “what do you mean?”

Martin then elaborated on the matter, “The non-believers always say that just before the vamps drag them away to be eaten, they are always the first to go”

Diamond instinctively turned around and saw a colt dressed as a zombie then quickly looked back at Martin who just smiled, Applebloom broke the silence, “Whatta ya mean you fought an army of vampire’s?, when did this happen?, who was-“

Martin raised his hand to stop her, “if I told all of you straight out it would spoil the fun, now let me explain this tale”, Martin paused as he noticed Cheerilie saying if anypony got scared she was there to help, soon everypony leaned forward in interest as they all sat down.

Martin then exhaled, “Ok, this happened four weeks ago-“, Scootaloo groaned as she whined to her friends, “Ah man we missed it because of our class trip to Trottingham”

Martin grinned as he continued, “four weeks before this night and before you all came back frightening events transpired which could have resulted in Ponyvilles destruction, and Equestria’s fall” he then gestured to both Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, “both of your sister’s, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, myself and even Fluttershy banded together to combat this army of darkness and he who lead them to prevent everypony and all of Equestria from falling under the oncoming tide, but during this fight, I had been cursed by their leader to join them and I almost did”

Diamond Tiara shook her head, “Like, you expect us to believe not only that vampires are real and you fought an army of them with the blank flanks loser sisters and friends, but you became, like, a vampire?”

Cheerilie gave Diamond a scolding look, before Applebloom asked Martin with awe, “but yer normal now, what happened?”

Martin smiled at her question, “all of these will be answered in due time, now be warned this story is only for the brave of heart so anypony who doesn’t think they can handle it, leave now”, no pony moved, “alright then, let this yarn be spun with these lines, a red moon rise's across a black sky, the land trembles in fear, and a hero is cursed, so begins the Blood Night”.

Next Chapter: Act I Estimated time remaining: 14 Minutes