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Nightmare Night and Nyx

by RealityCheck

Chapter 20

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Chapter 20

Rainbow Dash was getting a little annoyed. Oh, not by her date.... he was pretty cool actually.... and not by the party, particularly.

She was actually getting annoyed by some of the guests.

She and Thunderlane had done a few loop-de-loops around the party, going wherever their boredom led them. (Among pegasi, impatience and, if you'll pardon the pun, flightiness weren't exclusive to Rainbow Dash.)  Whether out in the gardens, trying (and failing) to dance in the ballroom, or snagging a bite at the buffet, there were hoity-toity ponies everywhere snobbing the place up and loudly complaining about everything. They called the food "commoner fare," they complained that the music was "ghastly" and that it was so loud it was audible in the throne room. Of course you could hear it in the throne room! The throne room was part of the party! People were supposed to be dancing, how could they dance if they couldn't hear the music?

The snobs snubbed the Ponyville ponies and called them "rubes" under their breath when they didn't think they could hear, and sometimes when they knew they could. If any of the Ponyville residents tried to cross the invisible line separating the two rooms, they got the cold shoulder and colder stares till they finally slunk back over to the "commoner" side of the party. Only Pinkie and Pokey seemed immune to the glares. And the subtle hints. And the loud suggestions. They were too busy wreaking Pinkie Pie style havoc on the buffet to care. But still, man, were these nobleponies being RUDE.

The final straw was when she and Thunderlane made their way out to the front gates and saw that several of the fancy schmancy ponies were trotting out to their carriages and leaving in a huff. They were even stopping some of the ones going in and urging them not to bother. Rainbow Dash may not have liked frilly frou frou stuff, and she didn't give two toots about upper class and royal whatsis. She didn't understand what was going on, but she didn't have to understand it to know she didn't like it.

Rainbow Dash watched from a parapet over the front courtyard and ground her teeth. Thunderlane was starting to get alarmed. His date's mood had gone downhill rapidly, and seemed to be going downhill faster the longer they were around any of the upperclass toffs. "What is it, Dash?" He asked tentatively. "You seem awful wound up. what is it?" He looked down at the fussy upper crust ponies and chuckled a little. "Don't tell me this bunch is getting under your skin..."

"They are!" she said angrily. "I just can't put my hoof down on why. Hey, you know me, normally I'm all like "If you don't like the party, don't let the door hit ya where the Maker split ya." I can't explain why a bunch of snobs ditching a party would...." She was trying to put it into words when she saw Fluttershy and Caramel heading for one of the rental carriages sitting in the roundabout. "What? Fluttershy's leaving? C'mon, something's up." She launched off the parapet, Thunderlane right behind her.

She came to a light touchdown, right in front of the shy pegasus and her date. "Hey, Flutters, what's goin' on? Why are you leaving the party early?"

Fluttershy meeped. "Oh! um..... no--no reason," she mumbled. She refused to meet Rainbow Dash's eye. "I'm just, um, really tired...." and here she gave an enormous and obviously fake yawn. "And I just.... wanted to go home and turn in."

Rainbow Dash looked skeptical. "Flutters, you are a terrible liar. Something's wrong. What is it...?"

Fluttershy curled up a little smaller. "N-nothing! Really. C-Caramel was just going to take me home...."

She glanced over at Caramel, who was looking kind of awkward. Dash's eyebrow went a little higher. She raised her hoof and pointed back and forth at the two of them.

It took a moment for the two bashful ponies to get the question. Fluttershy's eyes went round as did Caramel's. They both frantically waved their hooves in the negative. "Oh no---" Caramel stuttered.

"Oh no no no--" Fluttershy added. "Caramel was just taking me back to my place..." She slapped her hooves over her face, cheeks reddening. "No nonono, that doesn't sound right either! I mean... we're just---"

Caramel gulped and reddened. "Just walking her home---"

"To my door--"

"To her door--"

"And then he goes to his place--"

"--she stays there and I leave-- AT THE DOORSTEP!"

Rainbow Dash struggled not to laugh while the two dug themselves deeper with every sentence. Even Thunderlane was fighting not to snicker. Dash finally took pity on the two and bailed them out before they hit China. "I get it, I get it, just walking her home," she said. "Jeez, they shoulda named you FlusterShy." Fluttershy Eeped and Caramel grumbled something under his breath. "Seriously. Why are you leavin' so soon? The party's barely started!"

Fluttershy just looked away. Caramel finally got up a little nerve. "It's.... I'm sure the Princess means well, but--- but it hasn't been very pleasant this past little while."

"Why? What'd the Princess do wrong?"

"Oh no, it wasn't the Princess," Fluttershy protested. "It's.... some of the guests..."

"The nobleponies," Caramel clarified. "Whenever we bumped into one, it was---" he grimaced. "Some of them had very inconsiderate things to say to us," He said, scowling.

"About everyone from Ponyville, really. All our friends..."

"About us," Caramel snorted. "Nasty little cutting remarks...."

Thunderlane snorted. "Yeah, real buncha charmers, ain't they," he said. "heads stuck up their plots because they like the smell of their own-- Petunias," he finished lamely, at Rainbow Dash's glare.

"I'd really rather go home now, Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy said. " I... I don't want to be at a party with people who don't like me." She started to tear up.

"What? You're gonna let a few snotty ponies run you off?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "What about all the nice ponies who are here that like you?" She rolled her eyes in frustration. "I swear, Fluttershy, this is JUST like in High School---!"

Fluttershy suddenly turned and faced her. "Yes! It is just like in High School!" she said unhappily. "Don't you remember what it was like?"

Finally, Rainbow Dash got it.

She didn't get the whole thing, but she got the important parts. She flashed back to their high school years. The peer pressure, the cliques, the stupid petty games, the gossip and backstabbing, the cutting remarks in the hallways,  the way they'd shunned Fluttershy, and then shunned Dash for sticking with her friend.... She sat down, a thoughtful look on her face. "Huh. You're right. It is."

Fluttershy was wiping her eyes with Caramel's handkerchief. "Huh?"

Rainbow Dash looked at her. "I finally get it," She said. "All this--- all this junk--" she waved a hoof at the castle, the fancy carriages, the snobby, gossiping ponies milling about. "It's just like High School. Fluttershy, we can't leave, not now!"

"Why not?" Fluttershy pouted.

"Don't you get it?" Rainbow Dash stood up. "Okay, Princess Luna is like this girl who's really nice and cool and stuff, but she's never really been popular, and she's been away for years because of some screwup or something. And now she's back, and she just wants to be popular and have friends again, right? Like, all the 'cool kids' that she HAS to win over or her whole time in school is gonna be miserable.  So she's throwing this huge party for everypony....." she gave Fluttershy a gentle poke. "Starting to sound familiar?"

Fluttershy had a haunted look in her eyes. She was remembering how she and Rainbow Dash had made that one last ditch effort to win over her classmates and get in with the popular crowd. How they had planned, and schemed, and bought piles of party supplies and sent out invitations. And on the day of the party they had been utterly sabotaged by---

"Ginger Snaps," she all but hissed. The vicious little school libby had showed up. Fluttershy had had no choice but to invite her and her quartet of toadies. True to the evil laws that governed school politics, the nasty little quintet were the most popular fillies in school. Poor Fluttershy had never figured out how.(1) In less than thirty minutes, with just a few words of vicious gossip and snarky remarks, Ginger and her friends had turned Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash's party into a complete disaster. Then she'd left, dragging nearly every pony there with her, leaving Fluttershy and RD alone in the middle of the litter and mess that was all that was left....

It had been the lowest day of their lives. Thanks to that one disaster, they'd both been so far on the out of the "in crowd" they'd been practically outside the school building looking in through the windows. Fluttershy had spent the rest of her school career practically vanished into her own shadow. Rainbow Dash had coped a little better, copping a tough "don't care" attitude. But then again she'd dropped out, hadn't she?

It was almost scary, the feelings that memory brought back up in her.

"Exactly," Rainbow Dash said, bringing her back to the present. "Princess Luna is all alone in a party FULL of Ginger Snaps.  If we abandon her, they'll eat her alive-- and she'll be ruined with all the 'rich and cool' people for..." she threw her hooves up... "for forever!" Really, it all made so much more sense once she had a frame of reference.

Fluttershy put her hoof to her mouth. "Oh dear," she said. "What can we do?"

"I dunno yet," Rainbow Dash said uncertainly. "But I know we can at least be here for her. We gotta think of somethin'." She rubbed her chin. "Okay, so let's pretend it's Ginger Snaps trying to ruin the Princess' party. What would we do in that situation?"

"Um, make the mistake of inviting her, watch as she convinces our boyfriends that you're a lesbian and that I slept with the entire hoofball team, get in a huge catfight that destroys the house, start an electric fire by spilling a bowl of punch in the stereo system, then sit there and watch as everypony leaves with her and her friends while our lives fall apart around us?" Fluttershy said miserably.

Rainbow Dash stood there, deadpan, staring off into the middle distance. "No, Fluttershy," she said in a sarcastic monotone. "Probably not a good idea to repeat that...... I meant now, now that we're smart, sophisticated, grown mares."

"...We are?"

Thunderlane leaned over to Caramel. "Jeez, I had no idea that high school was so... cutthroat," he said.

"Why should you?" Caramel set, a tad bitterly. "You were a hoofball jock. The view from the top of the bird cage is a whole lot different from view at the bottom."

"Rough time at Earth Pony High School?"

"I'm small, weak, and I have a lookalike sister with the same cutie mark," Caramel said. "Thanks to high school gossip everyone thought I was either gay or a trannie."

Thunderlane winced. "Seriously?"

"My nickname was "Candybutt" clear through my Senior year."

"Ouch."

"I got so many swirlies I nearly grew gills."

"Look, I dunno," Rainbow Dash said. "We need somebody who knows this stuff."

"All what stuff?" Pinkie Pie said next to her, her mouth full of chocolate-caramel candy apple.

"Well all this fancy-- GYAHH!" Rainbow Dash yelped, leaping straight up. She spun around in midair and landed facing the pink pony with a glare. "....I hate it when you do that, Pinkie Pie."

"Do what?"

The two stallions started. "Where'd she come from?" Thunderlane demanded.

Pinkie Pie beamed at him, her face covered in peanuts and chocolate. "The buffet line, silly," she said.

Thunderlane frowned. "But---"

"Forget it, Thunderlane," Rainbow Dash sighed. "Actually, Pinkie, we could use your help."

"Why? What's up?"

"Well, first let me ask something," Rainbow Dash said. "You're Equestria's number-one premier party pony, right? Best parties in the world?"

"Eeeyuppers," Pinkie agreed, licking her own face clean.

"Okay... so how do you deal with someone who's trying to wreck a party?"

Pinkie looked outraged. "What?? Is someone trying to wreck Luna's Nightmare Night party?"

For an answer, Rainbow Dash waved a hoof at the high-society ponies in their lavish costumes pouring in-- and pouring right back out. "Most of these guys," she said. "From what I've seen, all these snooty types are just showing up to look around, say mean things about everything, and then make a big scene leaving...."

"Ohhhh,I know aaaaalll about that," Pinkie said with a knowing scowl.  "They're like those mean little fillies who showed up at Nyx's cuteacenera. They didn't wanna have fun, they just wanted to make sure Nyx didn't."  She scowled a bit more, rubbing her chin. "And these ponies are the same. They wanna come here and be all snooty tooty, and make Luna feel bad---then they wanna go home and tell everypony what a hoooorrrible party Princess Luna threw, and make her feel even worse.."

"You understand then?" Fluttershy said, blinking. Pinkie Pie spent so much of her time with her brain in outer space, it was always a surprise when she seemed to meet you eye-to-eye.

"There's one at almost every party, Fluttershy," Pinkie said dismissively. "I wouldn't be a premier party pony if I hadn't learned how to deal with that."

"So you got some ideas how to fix this?" Rainbow Dash asked hopefully.

"Already did," Pinkie said cheerfully.

"....Wait. what?"


APPROXIMATELY FIVE MINUTES PRIOR....

"Art thou certain about this, Pinkie Pie?"

"Abso-rootely-dootely! These last minute invitations are super primo important for fixing your big super duper party up. You got them all written up, Spikey?"

"Yyyyeah, okay. 'You are cordially invited to... yadda yadda, on Nightmare Night, please arrive no sooner than yadda yadda o'clock, signed, Princess Luna.'"

"And you got them all signed up, Princess?"

"Verily."

"Okay, now remember, when you arrive one week in the past, send those invitations off as quick as you can, Spikey. Okay, Twilight, let 'er rip!"

"Princess--- are you sure you're all right with me using Starswirl the Bearded's spell like this?"

The Princess chewed her lip. "I... am confident that this wilt cause no harm, Twilight Sparkle."

"All right, you're the princess. Brace yourself, Spike....and remember, you have thirty seconds...."


"You sent extra invitations back in time?"

Pinkie had dragged Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash back into the castle. They were now standing in the archway between the ballroom and the throne room. "Eeeyuppers," she said. "I couldn't send them NOW, Dashie. So I had to track down Spike and Twilight so I could send them back THEN."

"I thought that spell only worked once," Fluttershy said.

"Yeah, but it hadn't been cast on Spike yet," Pinkie said. "So it worked just fine. He went back in time, belch-o-grammed all the letters, and then came back."

"But why did you do it?" Rainbow Dash demanded.

"Isn't it obvious? I saw it right away!" Pinkie Pie threw an arm around Dash's neck and pulled her close. She pointed at both sides of the bifurcated party. From here they could see Luna's throne. The other Bearers and their dates were hovering around Luna's throne, a bevy of butterflies around a night-blooming rose.... they were chatting and fidgeting nervously, obviously stressing at the way the two groups were doing everything but clustering to the wall and glaring at each other. Luna seemed quietly distressed, as well.

.. And maybe Dash was imagining it, but she was casting an awful lot of longing looks at the more festive side of the room.

"You see this all the time at parties," Pinkie Pie said. "Ponies that just don't wanna mingle. Those fancy shmancy ponies over here--" she pointed-- "don't wanna mingle with the Ponyville ponies over there.  And the Ponyville Ponies over there"--- she pointed again "-- are scared of mingling with the fancy schmancy ponies over here." Pinkie rolled her eyes.  

"So how does sending out more invites fix that?" Rainbow Dash said, confused.

"Easy Peasy. You always invite a bunch of people that everypony wants to be seen with."

"Announcing Sir Fancy Pants and his wife, Fleur de Lys!" At the top of the grand staircase leading down into the throne room appeared the redoubtable couple. Fancy Pants was dressed as a harlequin, and still managed to look dapper; his lovely wife was in a pink and white mask and dress ensemble that merely hinted at the jester theme, but it could be excused as she was quite obviously very pregnant beneath her light gown, and her radiant glow more than made up for any deficiencies in costume.

"Announcing, Miss Sapphire Shores!" The flamboyant musician made her appearance. She was made up as either a jewel encrusted peacock or a Tiffany lamp crossed with a disco ball, it was hard to tell which. Either way it involved a lot of spangles. She dazzled anyone who looked at her, in every sense of the phrase.

"Announcing, Miss Photo Finish!" Fluttershy "meeped" and tried to hide behind Caramel and Thunderlane. The formidable camera pony appeared dressed as--- herself. Ah well, what else would suit her?

"Announcing, Mister Ziggy Stardust!" The rocker's famous zigzag mane was done up in a gleaming bouffant, a white lightning bolt in greasepaint down one side of his face. He was dressed in a silvery white bodysuit with an enormous peaked collar and bedecked in gold jewelry; the very picture of classic glam rock.

"Announcing, Mister Hoity Toity!" The fashion critic with the golden eye and the razor tongue had chosen to bedeck himself as a royal courtier of centuries past. The enormous powdered wig and endless mountains of ruffles, ribbons and lace made him look, Rainbow Dash thought, like an explosion in a crinoline factory.

"Announcing Mister Tech Jobs and Mister Logic Gates!"  Two skinny, bespectacled stallions that practically radiated "geek" walked in. One was dressed as (it took Rainbow Dash a minute to place it) Mr. Spork from the TV show "Space Journey," While the other was dressed as a Mystic Knight from "Star Battles." They were messing about with calculators and quibbling about something, well, nerd-y, judging by the egghead-words she could overhear.

One by one the new guests made their way down to the throne, paying their respects to the Princess and showering her and her entourage of butterfly-winged mares with praise for the party and thanks for the invitations. Dash cackled as she got a look at the expressions on the faces of the snobbier elites. The new arrivals were happily wandering all over the place and chatting with everyone; the snobs wanted to go schmooze with them so bad they looked like they needed the little filly's room-- but most of the new arrivals were surrounded with "peasant" pony admirers...

Rainbow Dash didn't know the word, but the schadenfreude was exquisite.

Pinkie, Fluttershy and Dash wandered over to Princess Luna's throne and joined the others. "Pinkie Pie, I don't say this often but you are a genius!" Dash said, giving her friend a noogie between her deely bobbers.

"She certainly is," Twilight agreed, joining them. "Back before Luna's exile, they didn't have things like celebrities and entrepreneurs and philanthropists."

"Strewth," Luna said, with surprisingly gentle amusement. "Twas a most grievous oversight 'pon my part. In my day, you were of royal blood, or you were a commoner. There were no people who achieved greatness by fame or fortune or virtue, and little chance that any would. None who bridged the gap between the great and the small." She paused, taking a deep breath of satisfaction. "This.... this way is better."

"Yeah, now the hoity toities who were making trouble for you would rather choke than admit they passed up your party," Applejack chuckled. Somewhere, a flashbulb popped. Photo Finish was at her nefarious work. "Double bonus: they'll be on the front cover with you whether they want to or not," the farmpony added.

Fluttershy suddenly stamped her hoof in agitation. "Ohh!" she squeaked in frustration.

Dash and the others looked at her. "What?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Oh, Dash, if only we'd thought of something like that to deal with Ginger Snaps for our after-prom party!"

The Night Princess laughed; a throaty, vivacious sound. "Ah, despite the best efforts of my trusted helpers, this Nightmare Night is going to go well after all!" Her smile faded a bit. She looked around. "All that seems to be missing is the children, alas. I have seen almost none of them of late. Tis a large castle, but where could they have all gotten to?"

"About that, Princess--" Twilight said, raising a hoof.

"Gangway!"

The doorpony yelped and dove to the side. Through the doors and down the wide stairway poured a small army of costumed foals, running hell bent for leather. They scattered across the room, hiding behind curtains, tapestries, plunging into the other half-room to hide amongst the DJ's speakers. A full row of them, in a maneuver that Rainbow Dash had to applaud for its timing and coordination, dove to their bellies and slid across the floor to vanish under the buffet tables.

A handful of them not so coordinated tripped over each other and landed in a pile at the foot of the throne.  A familiar red-haired earth filly poked her head up out of the tangle of limbs. "Oh, uh, hi Princess....heheheh..." Applebloom said, awkwardly pushing her "robot eye" mask back in place.

A moment later Pomp and Circumstance thundered in, snorting and fuming. They were dusty, dirty, disheveled and cobwebbed, and for some reason the pegasus had marble tiles stuck to all four of his hooves. They fumed and glared around the room, looking for their quarry.

Pomp and Circumstance were fit to be tied. They had just spent the last thirty minutes trying to round up the colts and fillies and march them back to the playroom. The colts and fillies, however, were no foals, and were as slippery as harbor seals coated in butter. They'd run the two majordomos a merry chase all around the castle, and by this point the two exasperated butlers were happily entertaining the notion of moving the children's "party" to the as-of-yet unused castle dungeon.

The DJ, sensing a storm brewing, cut off the music. The party grew suddenly quiet; every eye now turned on the frazzled brothers still standing at the top of the staircase. In the silence, Princess Luna got to her feet. "Welcome, children!" she said happily. "We have been eagerly awaiting your arrival."

"Really?" Truffle blurted out in surprise. It was quickly followed by a grunt as another pony elbowed him.

The majordomo brothers looked on aghast as their last futile efforts to save the Princess from crass commonality crumbled to dust. "B--b-- your majesty!"

"Pomp, Circumstance," Luna chided.  "I did tell you they were invited. Why were these guests not led here sooner? We have been expecting them for hours."

In the silence, Sweetie Belle's training under Rarity kicked in. "Oh no," she squeaked, clopping a hoof to her forehead. "We're Fashionably Late!"

Her delivery couldn't have been more unintentionally perfect. Her pronouncement was greeted with a rolling belly laugh that started among the older courtiers and rolled around the room, growing with every second till guard and servant, noblepony and shop clerk, celebrity and commoner alike were roaring with the best laugh of the night.

When she could finally be heard again, Luna spoke. "Better late than never," she said to the blushing little unicorn. "Welcome, all of you, to my party."

Heads popped out from under the buffet table. "So it's all good?" "cool!"

Pomp and Circumstance merely stood still, eyes twitching. With tremendous effort they smoothed their manes and straightened their suits. "Very good, Your Highness---"

"We shall be at your call, should you need us."

"If you will excuse us...." As one, with great reserve and dignity, they turned and left, the pegasus brother trailing behind, flapping his be-tiled feet with every step like a cat with tape stuck to its paws.

Luna sighed as she watched Pomp and Circumstance depart. It was almost heroic, in a tragic sort of way. "Well, thou canst not dance if thou canst not hear the music," she mused aloud. She waved her horn; a sparkling cloud of mist washed down the wall separating the throne room from the ballroom. When it passed, the wall was gone.

The two crowds gasped in surprise as the wall separating them vanished."There now," the princess said. "We should hear the music just fine now." With an afterthought the Princess cast a soundproofing spell on the glass behind her. Another flick of the horn and the chandeliers were extinguished-- and then relit, filled with strobing, multicolored lights.

Luna spread her wings and went aloft, hovering at the central point of her newly-enlarged ballroom. "CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE!" she boomed. Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane were blown back by the force of her voice; Dash ended up piling into Thunderlane's forelimbs.

"NOBLEPONIES OF CANTERLOT!" the skylights and chandeliers trembled, but held.

"LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!!"

There was a whoop from the DJ's stand and the music started back up--- full volume this time. "All RIGHT!" Rainbow Dash cheered; she grabbed Thunderlane by the forehooves and took off across the ceiling. All over, ponyville pegasi-- and one or two upper crust pegasi more reckless than the rest--- went airborne and joined the dance.

Somewhere in the darkness, a pair of majordomos moaned.


1)Rainbow Dash was worldly wise enough to have enlightened her.... but not without destroying a little bit more of Fluttershy's innocence. Or her opinion of half the stallions at school.

Next Chapter: Chapter 21 Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 4 Minutes
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