As I resume the game this time, I find my character waking up to strangely muffled knocking on his door, accompanied by the sound of Lyra moaning, not unlike the zombies from the original Resident Evil game.

As my character sits up in his bed, I call out, “Are you alright, Lyra?”

The only response I get is another moan, followed by heavier knocking.

My character rises from his bed and walks toward his door; and I decide to allow him.  And, when he opens his bedroom door and looks down, I see, through his eyes, a unicorn, fitting Lyra’s appearance, wrapped from her hooves to her horn, and from her tail to her nose, in bandages.

There’s something about the cleanness of her bandages that I just can’t take seriously.

Hearing my laughter, Lyra, who’s been looking up at my character since he opened his door, asks, “How do you like my costume, Mormon?”

Through my laughter, I find I can only answer, “Whoa, mummy!”

At my answer Lyra starts to giggle as well.

Then, from in the kitchen, I hear what I can only describe as a child trying to growl or roar menacingly, before I see Weed Whacker march from her hiding spot in the kitchen, on her hind legs, dressed as some kind of predatory dinosaur.

The two fingers indicate a tyrannosaurid, but it seems too skinny to be one that I’m familiar with.  And, while I’ve heard that there at least were dinosaurs that did have feathers, the ones covering Weed Whacker’s arms, legs, torso and head are clearly made of paper, and are pointing in different directions, in a way that has no natural flow to it.  Whatever carnivorous dinosaur Weed Whacker is specifically trying to be, I’m not getting it.  Maybe for Weed Whacker’s species, all that matters is the teeth; and details like the shape and size of the creature just blend together.

For a moment, Weed Whacker lowers her forelimbs and asks, “So, Mormon, what do you think?”  She then raises them again as she snarls, “I’m a hunter.”  And, she emits another juvenile roar.

I have my character kneel on one knee, and I say, “Well, it’s certainly a hunter I’ve never seen before.  What kind are you?”

At first, Weed Whacker lowers her forelimbs again and asks, “What does it matter?”  Then, again she raises her forelimbs before marching toward my character and growling, “I eat meat.”  And, again she roars.

Smiling, I say, “Well, sweet.”

Immediately Weed Whacker stops and grunts in curious confusion.

I continue, “Humans have made friends with a lot of meat-eaters.  And, humans also eat meat, though not strictly.”  I then have my character stand up again as I conclude, “You know, maybe we could go fishing together some time.”

As she watches my character stand up again, I see Weed Whacker start to vibrate; and her mixed expression of confusion and curiosity melds together into fear.  She asks, “R-really?”

I answer, “Well, you don’t have to go if you don’t want to.  But, if you want to come with me when I go fishing, you’re welcome to it.  I realize my fishing methods are going to be different from those of a meat-eating dinosaur, so I suppose I could let you go first.”

It takes a second or two for Weed Whacker to respond.  And, when she does, she emits a high-pitched scream before running into the front room through the kitchen door.

I then hear Lyra ask, “Mormon, why did you have to do that to Weed Whacker?”

My character focuses on the pale-green unicorn, showing me the glare on her face.  I answer, “Well, she did say she ate meat.  And, I believe I have mentioned before that humans also eat meat on occasion.”

Lyra points with a hind leg to the kitchen door and says, “But, you scared Weed Whacker.”

I ask, “Well, isn’t this Nightmare Day?”

Lyra puts the hind leg down again and answers, “Well, yeah.  But, that doesn’t mean you have to give somepony nightmares.”

I smile and say, “Yeah, I guess you’re right.  Sorry about that.  But, I’m sure she’ll get over it.  Anyway, where’s Pinkie Pie?”

Before Lyra has a chance to answer, I hear clucking from the other side of my character’s bedroom door.  As my character comes out of his room, closes his door, and looks into the hallway toward Pinkie’s room, and as Lyra backs up a step to keep from being stepped on, I see the pink angel pony, wings painted white, with a small yellow cone on her nose, and dressed in a chicken costume. She’s even wearing yellow socks, or something like that, on her hind legs to make them look like the legs of a chicken.  And, considering the relatively small, red comb on her head, I’m guessing she’s trying to be a hen, which makes sense to me.

Pinkie emits a couple clucks before asking, “So, Mormon, what do you think of my costume?”  And, she punctuates her question with a squawk.

I slowly answer, “Well, considering how brave I’ve seen you act, I must say, I’m not finding this costume convincing.”

I’m not sure how she pulls it off, but Pinkie Pie manages to laugh in such a way that she sounds like living poultry before saying, “Ah, Mormon.”

I then add, “I guess that just leaves Ataahua and Topsy Turvy.”

And, that’s when I hear the sound of paper rattling in the front room.

Evidently the two mares with my character hear it too, as the party of three head to the kitchen, then go through the door and into the front room.

There, I, at least, as soon as my character moves to where I can see her past the closest couch, see the gray pegasa wearing one paper bag on her head, and four more, one on each hoof.  I say, “Hi, Ataahua.  Interesting costume.”

Ataahua smiles at me and says, “Thanks, Mormon.”  Then, as she hovers into the air, she continues, “I’m a bag mare.”

At this statement from the gray pegasa, I can’t help but laugh.

Hearing my laughter, Ataahua descends to the ground and folds her wings, then looks down and says, “I guess my costume wasn’t so good after all.”  And, she turns and ambles toward her room.

I stop laughing immediately as I have my character start walking toward her.  But, evidently I forget about the couch between my character and her; as he trips over the closest arm and falls into the sofa.

In the mean time, I say, “Now, wait, Ataahua.  I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.”  Then, when she turns and looks at my character again, I continue, “I just wasn’t expecting you to have that label for your costume.  Could you explain it to me?”

I watch as Ataahua’s ears, which had been drooping before, perk up again, and she smiles as she turns to and approaches my character and answers, “Well, if you’ll remember at the grocery store, and the ponies that set up paper bags and put groceries in them, well, those are the ponies I was trying to dress as.”

I hum with interest, then have my character turn to Lyra as I ask, “Is that how those ponies dress when they’re putting the groceries in the bags?”

The pale-green unicorn turns to Ataahua, then back to my character, and answers, “Well, maybe they dress like that in Cloudsdale.  I’ve just never seen bag mares dress like that in Canterlot, Fillydelphia, or Ponyville.”

I have my character focus on the gray pegasa again, and I state, “Well, it’s an interesting costume anyway.”

I then hear Pinkie Pie ask, “So, Mormon, what are you gonna dress up as, huh?”

As my character turns to the pink angel pony, I answer, “You know, I’ve considered going dressed as I am right now.  Maybe I could just go around town and say, ‘Fi, fie, fo, fum’ all the time.”

Pinkie Pie giggles for a second or two before waving a front hoof at my character and saying, “Oh, Mormon, I don’t think anypony you meet is familiar with the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.”

I can’t help but laugh in response.  If none of the other ponies are, it seems that at least Pinkie is familiar with that story.

Before anyone can say anything further on the matter, Topsy Turvy comes out of her room, not dressed at all, and says, “Yeah, me and Mormon are different enough that we won’t need a costume.”

I add, “And, anyway, shouldn’t we be getting breakfast ready so we can go to Ponyville as soon as possible?”

Pinkie Pie asks in response, “Why?”  She continues, “Since it’s a holiday, there won’t be any businesses open anyway.  We can wait here until late in the afternoon if we want.”

Then, I hear Lyra say, “Well, on the other hoof, there is the matter of the change of clothes Mormon left at Carousel Boutique.”

At this statement from the pale-green unicorn, Pinkie Pie inhales dramatically before saying, “You know, Lyra’s right.  We need to get there so Mormon can get his clothes back.”  She then gallops to the front door before turning to my character, clucking once or twice more, and saying, “Well, Mormon, let’s get going to the orchard.  We need to get breakfast ready.”  And, with that, she turns, pushes the door open, then gallops outside.

As my character follows her, just walking, Topsy Turvy joins him just outside and says, “Oh, that reminds me.  It seems that Derpy and I can work together after all.”

As my character focuses on the pink earth mare, I ask, “What do you mean?”

Topsy Turvy answers, “I had a talk with her about it, as well as Weed Whacker, and Derpy agreed to work with me in the grain field!”

I smile as I say, “Well, as long as Ataahua’s alright with that arrangement, I have no problem with it.  Go right ahead.”

Topsy Turvy smiles and squees, then says, “Thank you, Mormon.”  Then, she looks behind her and calls out, “Let’s go, Derpy!” and gallops off toward the grain field, with the gray pegasa flying to catch up to her.

I can only assume that Weed Whacker heads to the vegetable garden and Lyra heads to the vineyard while I continue to follow Pinkie to the orchard.

By the time my character reaches the peach tree and starts harvesting fruit from it, Pinkamena has already chosen a tree to harvest from, and handed control of Pinkie over to Diane.

As my character grabs and plucks a few peaches from the tree, I hear Diane say, “Pinkamena is really looking forward to this Nightmare Night.”

I reply, “Not that difficult to tell.”

After my character picks six peaches from the tree, he turns to Pinkie “Diane” Pie, who is surrounded by half a dozen apples.

The straight-haired angel pony grabs apples and hangs them in her mane as she continues, “This will be the first time she gets to spend the Nightmare Night celebration with a larger group of her friends, which, this time, will include a human.”

As I watch, through my character’s eyes, Diane pick up the last of the two apples and hang them in her mane, I respond, “Well, to tell you the truth, this will be my first Nightmare Night.”

Immediately Pinkamena takes control of Pinkie and, looking and tilting her head curiously at my character, at me, asks, “What do you mean?”

I have my character kneel in front of the pink angel pony, and I answer, “While it’s true that Halloween in my world is similar to Nightmare Night here, there are a few differences.  And, I look forward to seeing what those differences are.  It’s already evident that ponies dress up in costumes for the celebration, and there’s also the tradition of gathering treats that the two holidays have in common. And, from what I’ve seen, Nightmare Night is as much fun for ponies, at least for foals, as Halloween is for human children.  But, I also understand that the reasoning is a little different.

“From what I understand, Nightmare Night is the celebration of Nightmare Moon being banished to the moon.  On the other hand, I also understand that Halloween is something of a celebration involving keeping free of scary things by resembling them.  And, there may be other differences that I’m not aware of; and probably other similarities.  I’m just curious to find out more about this Nightmare Night celebration.”

Pinkie’s voice builds to a scream as she replies, “And, that’s what makes this celebration so exciting!”  And, she leaps into the air as she screams “exciting”.

Just then, I hear Zecora’s voice say, “I have been doing research on this party as well, for I have been given the tale to tell.”

I think my character and Pinkie Pie turn around at the same time as my character rises to his feet.

Pinkie gallops a couple steps toward the zebra and says, “Zecora, you’re going too?”

Looking at the zebra, I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s wearing extensions in her mane.  And, considering the spiders in those braids aren’t moving, I’d say they’re either fake or just the shed exoskeletons of spiders.  And, somehow, they seem to work with the earrings and the neck rings she’s wearing.  At any rate, she nods and, focused on the pink angel pony, says, “Pinkie Pie, in a chicken dress.”  She then looks at my character and adds, “And Mormon, in normal human attire, I guess?”

Pinkie answers, “Yeah, Mormon’s probably just gonna go in his regular clothes.  Topsy Turvy thinks she and Mormon are different enough that they’ll stand out anyway, and Mormon’s curious to see what Nightmare Night’s all about.  He wants to compare it to Halloween.”

Zecora tilts her head and grunts in curiosity.

I respond, “From what I’ve heard about Nightmare Night, there are some similarities between it and a holiday I’m familiar with, as PInkie said Halloween, which is more about warding off unfriendly spirits by trying to look as much like them as possible.”

Zecora straightens her head again and nods before saying, “Well, I hope, when the party’s begun, that you will find Nightmare Night just as much fun.”  And, with that, she trots past the orchard, and the front yard, and on into the Everfree forest.

After watching the zebra disappear into the forest, Pinkie Pie giggles, then says, “Well, Mormy, let’s get back to the house with our harvest.”  And, she hops over the fence and trots toward the house.

My character follows close behind her, carrying the peaches in his arms.

And, it seems that Pinkie Pie and my character are the last to gather on the front porch.

Lyra, as soon as she sees Pinkie and my character on the porch, uses her magic to open the front door and allow the rest of the group to enter.

Then, as soon as she’s inside, Pinkie Pie gallops to the kitchen door and opens it, making way for the rest of the group to enter the kitchen.

Lyra lingers behind long enough to close the door after the last in line, my character, enters.  And, she follows my character into the kitchen, and is thus the last to enter, after which Pinkie Pie closes the kitchen door.

Topsy Turvy, Ataahua, and Weed Whacker join forces to make muffins, combining the oats that Ataahua and Topsy Turvy harvested from the grain field with some of the fruit that Lyra harvested from the vineyard, while the rest of the group joins forces to clean up the fruits and the vegetables and otherwise prepare what isn’t used for muffins.

The full preparation takes maybe half an hour, after which the prepared meal is moved into the front room for the group to eat.  And, after the remnants are cleaned up, the group of six heads out the front door, across the front yard, and on into the Everfree forest.

An uneventful thirty or forty minutes later, the group, lead by Pinkie Pie, is making their way through Ponyville to Carousel Boutique.

I must admit, I find it entertaining to see Pinkie Pie pound on the door with the cone on her nose.

Maybe a minute or two later Rarity answers the door, then, recognizing her angel pony friend, says, “Well, Pinkie Pie, what brings you here?”

Pinkie answers, “Mormon left his change of clothes here, and wants to pick ‘em up again.”

Smiling, the white unicorn answers, “Why yes, of course.”  She then steps to one side and, motioning, invites, “Please, come on in.”

As each member of the group enters, they thank Rarity for inviting them in.

When the last has entered, which happens to be Ataahua, Rarity continues, “Mormon, your clothes are still in the dressing room.”

As my character proceeds in that direction, I reply, “Yes, ma’am.”  And, it isn’t very long, after entering, that I find the clothes where my character had left them, approximately half a week ago.  I have him put the clothes in his inventory, then back out of the dressing room.

Pinkie Pie then suggests, “Mormon, you can go on home and do what you want with that old change of clothes.  We’ll wait here with Rarity.”

My character demonstrates no disagreement with that, as he proceeds out the front door of the boutique, back through Ponyville, and to and through the Everfree forest, and back to his house.

Following my orders, my character takes his change of clothes and puts them in a basket to be washed, before heading out again.  But, before he can get to the front gate again, I hear flapping sounds; and my character looks up to show me the green dragon preparing to land in the pathway between my character’s house and the trail to Zecora’s house.

As soon as I see the dragon land, I say, “It’s been some time since your last visit.  Is there something I can help you with?”

The green dragon, who landed facing away from my character, turns to him and answers, “No.  I just came to tell you that I’ll be leaving here soon.”

I ask, “Why?  Did something happen?”

The dragon answers, “Two days ago, Discord came; and I saw what he did to the pony town.  It was a good thing that you and your pony friends were able to stop him before he could do more damage than that.  But, I fear that if he should escape again, he won’t stop with the pony town.  And, I want to be as far from his influence as possible.”  He sighs before continuing, “I would have been honored to come here again, to have more friendly visits with you.  But, the possibility that Discord will escape again is too much of a threat to me.  I cannot stay here.  I lament that I must leave like this, but leave I must.”

I take a moment to inhale and exhale before I respond, “If I could promise you that Discord will never come back, then I would.  And, as much as Weed Whacker and ponies that have come here might disagree with me, I have been honored by your visits.  I am sorry that you feel you need to leave.  But, I won’t stop you if you feel that leaving now is best.”

The dragon asks, “Is there a way that I could convince you to leave with me?”

I answer, “No.  I have many friends here, and here I can be of greatest service.”

The dragon nods and sighs, then states, “Very well, then.  I have sealed the entrance of my cave here so that no other dragon will get to my gems.  Now, I go in search of a cave elsewhere.  And, when I have found or made one suitable for me, I will return and reopen my cave here just long enough so I can gather up my gems and take them to my new cave.  It is … unlikely that we will meet again.  Farewell, human.”  And, with that, he flies off again.

I watch, through my character’s eyes, as the dragon flies over his house.  And, when I can no longer see him, I say, “Well, I hope you have success in your search.”  Then, I have my character turn and head into and through the Everfree forest, on his way back to Ponyville.

When my character arrives at Carousel Boutique, I have him knock on the door.  And, it seems that it’s as soon as he stops that the door opens; and Pinkie Pie is there saying, “Hi, Mormon!  Come on in.”  Then, as my character enters the clothing store, I hear the change in tone in Pinkie’s voice as she asks, “The green dragon visited, didn’t he?”

I answer, “Yes, he did.”

Pinkie continues, “And, he’s leaving, isn’t he?”

I’m not at all surprised at the pink angel pony’s intuitive nature.  I answer, “Yes, he is.”

I think I see Pinkie’s ears droop as she says, “You know, as scary as he was, I think I’m going to miss him.”

I state, “He said he’d seen what Discord did to Ponyville, and that he didn’t want him doing things like that to his home.  I guess I couldn’t blame him for not wanting to be around here after that.”

Then, I hear Rarity ask, “Who doesn’t want to be around, and after what?”

I open my mouth to answer; but Pinkie Pie is one step ahead of me, as she says, “If you’ll remember that green dragon that visited Mormon’s house about a week ago, the one he calmed down, well, today he paid Mormon one more visit to tell him he’s leaving.  According to what Mormon said, he was scared off by what he saw Discord doing to Ponyville a couple days ago.”

The white unicorn closes her eyes and nods while she says, “Well, good riddance.  Such an uncouth creature shouldn’t live so close to Ponyville in the first place.”

Then, I hear Spike ask, “And, what about his gems?”

I wait for my character to find and focus on the little purple dragon before I say, “He sealed them in his cave in the Everfree while he searches for a new cave.  When he finds his new cave, he’ll reopen his Everfree cave, then gather up those gems to take to his new one.”

At my answer, Spike glares at the floor in front of him and, snapping his fingers on one hand, growls, “Ah, shoot.”

Evidently, as far as his gems were concerned, the green dragon’s fears were well founded.  Spike was hoping for one more shot at them.

At any rate, from the upper edge of my character’s periphery, I see Weed Whacker approach.

When she’s within touching distance of Spike’s tail, she stops and says, “Well, I agree with Rarity.  I don’t ever want to see that green dragon again.”

Then, from inside the dressing room, I hear Ataahua ask, “What green dragon?”

My character automatically looks up and sees the gray pegasa in the doorway.  I answer, “A week or two ago, a dragon moved into the Everfree forest, apparently wanting to meet the human that had convinced his friend, the red dragon that was going to make a mountain cave near here his hibernation cave, to leave.  He visited me a week or so ago after Spike invaded his cave and ate some of his gems.”

Ataahua nods and concludes, “And, today, he decided to leave because of what Discord did to Ponyville a couple days ago, right?”

I answer, “That’s right.”

The gray pegasa nods to Spike and says, “The only dragons I’ve ever met were Spike here and Weed Whacker.  Do you think I could meet with your green dragon friend some time?”

I answer, “That’s unlikely.  He’s gone off to search for another cave.  He said that when he finds a new cave, he’ll come back to the one in the Everfree, open it up again, gather his gems, and take them to that new cave.  He’ll most likely be too busy with that to want to visit me anymore.  And, after that, well, the chances of seeing him again are really unlikely.”

As I finish speaking, Ataahua looks down for a moment.  Then she looks up at my character again and says, “Well, at least I still have Spike and Weed Whacker to talk to.”

Pinkie Pie responds, “Yeah, but he was a friend of yours, wasn’t he, Mormon?”

I wait for my character to focus on the pink angel pony before I slowly answer, “Well, as close of a friend as he could’ve been after two or three brief visits.  I got to see him once when he was happy at meeting me for the first time, once when he was angry at having his home invaded, and this last time when he was sad at having to leave.”

Presently, the pink angel pony jumps up onto my character, forcing him to catch her in his arms, and says, “Aw, come here, Mormon.”  And, with that, she wraps her forelimbs around my character's neck.

Seeing no other option, I allow my character to receive the hug from the pink angel mare.  And, in that position, I wonder aloud, “Do you suppose the green dragon is going to be part of the migration?”

I then hear Weed Whacker answer, “He probably will be.  I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

Next, I hear Rarity say, “In the mean time, it’s getting late; and the Nightmare Night festival will be starting soon.  Shall we head out, then?”

After hearing what Rarity has to say, I have my character kneel on one knee and carefully put Pinkie Pie on the floor on her hooves, then stand up again; and I say, “Sure, let’s do that.”

I can’t help noticing that Pinkie licks tears away from her eyes, which leads me to wonder if she needed the hug more than I did.

In the mean time, I have my character turn to the purple dragon; and I ask, “Shouldn’t you be heading back to the library?”

Spike simply looks at my character confused.

I add, “It’s Nightmare Night.  Don’t you have a costume you should be putting on?”

Now Spike closes his eyes and slaps himself in the forehead with one hand as he says, “Oh, that’s right!  I’m dressing up as a dragon this year.”  And, with that, he opens his eyes again, runs to the front door, opens it, and runs out.

I then hear Rarity say, “That reminds me.  I have this fabulous costume I’ve been preparing just for this event.”  As my character focuses on the white unicorn, she seems to be dividing her attention among all her guests as she continues, “If the rest of you will leave for the festival, I shall go to the dressing room and get ready.  I shall meet you there.”

As those in the dressing room leave, and the group, save for my character, gathers at the front door, I ask, “So, should we wait for you just outside?”

Smiling, Rarity shakes her head as she answers, “Oh, no, you go on ahead.  When I’m ready, I shall find you.”

As my character starts to turn to his other friends, I start to say, “Well, in that case,”.  Then, when he unites with the four ponies and one dinosaur, I conclude, “I guess we’ll go on ahead.”  And, my character proceeds to open the door to allow the ponies and dinosaur to leave ahead of him.

Before my character exits, I hear the white unicorn say, “Thank you, Mormon.”

Then, when the group of six are outside, Pinkie Pie squawks before saying, “Let’s go to the library first.”  And, before pony, dinosaur, or human can respond, she runs off in that direction.

Now, I have seen the video, “Retarded Running Horse,” on YouTube.  But, that video always showed the horse from the side.  Seeing Pinkie Pie running toward the library, I’m left to wonder, had that strange, two-legged horse been shown from behind, would it have looked the way Pinkie does to me right now?  But, that doesn’t matter too much to me at this point.  What does matter is that the rest of the group has to run to catch up to the angel pony in the chicken costume.

The group arrives behind Granny Smith and the group of four foals she’s evidently escorting around the town.  And, en route, I noticed that it was Granny Smith that knocked on the library door.  My party of four ponies, one dinosaur, and one human don’t arrive in time to hear the Nightmare Night greeting, except, it seems, for Pinkie Pie.  But, the rest of the group does arrive in time for Pinkie Pie to burst through the group ahead of her to call out, “Enough chit-chat, time is candy!”

Then, before the purple unicorn can acknowledge her friend, Ataahua and Topsy Turvy sing, in unison, “Nightmare Night, what a fright.  Give us something sweet to bite.”

And, of course, it reminds me of the familiar Halloween chant, “Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat.”  I don’t doubt that the Nightmare Night chant is based on that.

At any rate, when the pegasa and the earth mare are finished with their song, Twilight Sparkle, still focused on her pink angel friend, asks, “Aren’t you too old for this?”

Pinkie Pie squawks in surprise before asking, “Too old for great candy?” then, in a low growl, answering, “Never.”

The purple unicorn groans as she distributes a piece of candy to each member of her audience.  Then, as Granny Smith moves on with her group, Twilight nods toward Pinkie Pie, shaking the bell on her hat.  She then poses for her audience, swinging the bell, which manages to barely miss Pinkie Pie’s forehead, behind the top of her hat.  Striking another pose, she asks, “Do you like it?”

Now, I recognize her costume, from the episode “Luna Eclipsed,” as that of Starswirl the Bearded; but I see no reason to let Twilight know that.  Instead, I opt to reply with, “A historical figure of some sort, I’m guessing.”

Twilight smiles and nods to my character, answering, “Starswirl the Bearded.  So, what do you think?”

Pinkie makes a thorough front-to-back investigation of Twilight and her costume, then taps her chin when she’s back in front of Twilight again, then shrugs and says, “Yeah, I guess it’ll do.”

Afterwards, Twilight, evidently unnerved by Pinkie’s intrusion into her personal space, turns to my character and, after clearing her throat, asks, “Uh, and Mormon, what about you?”  And, she chuckles nervously.

I answer, “Well, I am familiar with a lot of bearded humans.  But, bearded ponies?  Not so much.  Still, if your costume accurately represents Starswirl the Bearded, then I say well done.  Personally, though, it reminds me more of a historical human character, known as Merlin the Magician.  I wouldn’t be surprised to find out he and Starswirl had more in common than just magic and facial hair.”

Twilight taps her chin with a front hoof for a moment before saying, “I’ve never heard of this Merlin the Magician.”

I reply, “I’m not surprised.  You probably know as much about Merlin the Magician as I know about Starswirl the Bearded.”

At my reply, the purple unicorn giggles.  She then puts the hoof down and says, “Maybe we should get together sometime so you can tell me about Merlin the Magician, and I can talk about Starswirl the Bearded.”

It seems that Pinkie takes this moment of distraction to peck away at the bowl of candy Spike’s holding until most, if not all, the candy is gone.  Then, she runs off again, in the direction of Vinyl and Octavia’s house from what I can tell.

Seeing this, I have my character focus on Twilight; and I say, “Well, in the mean time, it looks like I’m going to have my hands full keeping up with Pinkie Pie, and keeping her out of trouble.”  Then, as my character starts to follow the pink angel pony, I conclude by saying, “See you later, Twilight.”

I think I hear Twilight say something about going to the festival as my character runs to catch up to Pinkie Pie.  But, as I figured, indeed the pink angel pony’s next stop is the home of the white, blue-haired unicorn and the gray earth mare.

My character and the rest of the group catch up to the pink angel pony just in time for Octavia to answer the door.

The gray earth mare barely has time to greet her visitors before Ataahua and Topsy Turvy, and this time Lyra, sing the Nightmare Night chant, which is only familiar to me because of the episodes “Luna Eclipsed,” on which this day is based, and “Scare Master.”

In the mean time, Octavia, who was evidently startled by the sudden chorus, quickly recomposes herself, chuckles, then says, “Well, alright then.”  She then produces a bowl of candy from next to the door as she says, “Here you go.”

This time, it’s Lyra who uses her magic to take six pieces of candy from the bowl and give one to each of the ponies, as well as one to the dinosaur and one to the human.

In the mean time, I decide to take the moment and ask, “So, how’s Vinyl doing?”

Octavia looks down and sighs sadly at the bowl, then looks up at my character and answers, “She’s still not talking.  I think she’s really serious about maintaining her silence until her friends return, however long that will be.”  She then sets the bowl of candy back next to the doorway, exits her house, then moves to the side yard, gesturing for my character, at least, to follow her.  Then, when the group is there in the yard, Octavia takes a seat on the beach chair before continuing, “I’m thinking of redecorating the house.  Maybe if I have half the house in the style Vinyl likes and half the way I like, that could get Vinyl to break her silence.”

For once, Pinkie Pie is distracted from the candy just inside the house.  Coming around to the side of her friend opposite my character, she says, “I don’t know about that.  You remember yesterday, when we threw that picnic party for Vinyl, and how much good that did?”

I must say, I approve of Pinkie Pie making use of past experiences as examples this way.  And, I also enjoy seeing her caring for a friend.

In the mean time, Octavia says, “Well, I don’t know what else to do.  I hate to admit it, but I miss hearing Vinyl talk, and I don’t see any way of getting her friends to come back here.  I’m hoping that, if I can make a big enough change, then maybe I can get her to say something again.”

I wonder aloud, “Well, if you succeed, are you going to want to hear what Vinyl will have to say?”

The gray earth mare waves a hoof in front of her as she says, “Well, at this point, I’d rather hear her say something negative than to keep hearing nothing from her at all.”

I state, “Well, the decision’s up to you.  If you think redesigning your house is going to work, then you’re welcome to try it.  Just be open to the possibility that it won’t succeed; or, if it does work, like I said before, you might not want to hear what Vinyl will have to say.”

I can only guess that Octavia has heard enough of my advice, as she rises to all fours from her beach chair, jumps down, then proceeds back to the front door of her house and enters.

It’s only after the gray earth mare closes the door behind her that I have my character divide his attention among the four ponies and the dinosaur; and I say, “Well, wherever we go next, we better get going now.”

Pinkie Pie takes a moment to shake herself out, then looks up at my character and says, “Well, I say we go over to Carrot Top and Berry Punch’s house next.  They usually have good candy over there.”

Then, Lyra asks, “And, can we visit Bon-Bon after that?  She always makes the best candy.”

Then, Ataahua asks, “Oh, oh, and then can we go to Sugar Cube Corner?”

I answer, “I suppose that’d work out just fine.  We’ll visit Carrot Top and Berry Punch, then Bon-Bon, then go to Sugar Cube Corner.”

In response, the four ponies and one dinosaur leap and cheer.  Then, after that, Pinkie Pie leads the way to the house of the two gardening earth ponies.  And, when the group arrives, again it’s Pinkie Pie who uses the cone on her nose to knock on the door.

When the door opens, revealing Carrot Top, this time all four ponies, as well as Weed Whacker, sing the Nightmare Night chant.

Carrot Top stumbles back a step, but manages to catch herself before the chant ends.  She then chuckles before retrieving a bowl of candy from behind the doorway.

As soon as the bowl is revealed, once again Lyra possesses six pieces of candy with her magic and gives one piece to each of the other ponies, as well as one to the human and one to the dinosaur, and keeps the last piece for herself.

In the mean time, I have my character focus on the yellow-orange earth mare; and I ask, “So, how is Berry Punch?”

Carrot Top frowns as she answers, “She’s in her room.”  She then sets the bowl back where she took it from, then looks down and adds, “I think she may be worried that Discord might come back and torture her some more.”

I state, “I don’t think there’s anything to worry about.  If Discord does come back, I doubt it’ll be to torture her again.”

Carrot Top looks at my character and, frowning with her eyes but smiling with her mouth, says, “I hope you’re right about that.  I like living here with Berry Punch, but I didn’t like hearing about anypony torturing anypony else, especially the way Discord was torturing Berry.”

Just then, I see, from the upper half of my character’s periphery, the reddish-purple earth mare ambling through the front room.

She turns to and sees the visitors at the front door, then waves to them and says, “Oh, hi, Mormon, Pinkie Pie, Lyra.  How are you this evening?”

I answer, “We’re just fine.  We’ve been out trick-or-treating, and we thought we’d come and visit.”

Carrot Top, turning to see her friend, perks up and says, “You know what, Berry, it might be a good idea for you to go out and join Mormon and his friends.  Some fresh air might do you some good.”

I add, “We would welcome one or two more members to our group.”

Berry Punch sighs, then ambles to the doorway until she’s right next to Carrot Top, who takes a step to the side.  She then says, “I know that Discord’s back in his statue.  I saw it for myself when we were in Canterlot.”  She then points to Topsy Turvy as she asks, “But, what about his offspring?  Is there any guarantee that I’ll be safe from her?”

As my character focuses on the pink earth mare, I notice she backs away one step, then looks down and starts slowly drawing circles with a front hoof on the pavement.

I have my character focus on the reddish-purple earth pony again, and I answer, “Topsy Turvy, here, is in my care, and she takes care of her father.  You know what it’s like to be in my care, and you should know that as long as Topsy Turvy behaves herself, there’s nothing to fear from either of us.  And, besides, it’s not right to hold her responsible for the things her father did.”

Again Berry Punch sighs, then says, “I, I guess you’re right about that.  I’m sorry.”

I respond, “That’s alright.  And, at any rate, the invitation is still open.”

I notice Carrot Top smiles as she says, “You know, I could dress up in that lion suit I borrowed from Applejack.”

Berry Punch begins to smile as she says, “And, I have a pith hat and a khaki jacket I could wear.  I could go dressed as Daring Do.”

Presently, I hear Pinkie Pie say, “That’d work for us.”

At Pinkie Pie’s statement, the two gardening earth ponies back away from the front door; and Carrot Top says, “Well, then, if you can wait for us to get dressed, then we’ll join you as soon as we can.  In fact, you can wait for us inside.”

Lyra, the first to accept the invitation and enter, says, “We’ll just wait for you here in your front room.”

I keep my character outside to allow the ponies and the dinosaur to enter first, then have him follow Weed Whacker, the last before him, to enter.

In the mean time, Carrot Top says, “That’s perfect.”  Then, after my character enters, and while Berry Punch closes the door, Carrot Top adds, “You just wait here, and we’ll be back in a few minutes, dressed in our costumes.”  And, with that, she nudges Berry Punch ahead of her, pushing her from underneath and behind, until they disappear into a nearby room.

When the door to that room is closed, I hear Topsy Turvy say, “Thanks, Mormon, for standing up for me.  You really didn’t have to do that.”

As my character focuses on the pink earth mare, I reply, “Well, you are in my care.  And, besides, what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t defend you?”

Topsy Turvy rubs at one of her spiral eyes as she says, “Wow.  The only friend I ever had before was Derpy Hooves.”

I state, “Well, now you have more than just one friend.”

Before the pink earth mare can respond, I hear Pinkie Pie sigh and say, “You know, this Nightmare Night isn’t as much fun as I thought it was going to be.”

As my character focuses on the pink angel pony, I state, “Well, Pinkie, you don’t have to stay with us.  If you want, you can join Granny Smith and the foals she’s guiding around town.”

Pinkie perks up and asks, “Really?”

I answer, “If that’s what you want, then go ahead.”

It’s about this time that the door that Berry Punch and Carrot Top entered opens, and the two earth ponies come out, Berry Punch in the pith hat and khaki jacket, and Carrot Top in the lion suit.

For some reason, the song, “You Can’t Hide Your Lyin’ Eyes” starts playing through my mind, or at least the chorus, as I look at Carrot Top.

At the same time, I hear Pinkie Pie shout, “Woohoo!”

Carrot Top approaches my character and, smiling, says, “Wow.  I didn’t expect to see Pinkie Pie so excited to see us in our costumes.”

I reply, “Yeah, Pinkie Pie can get really excitable.”

The rest of the group of now eight laugh, after which Berry Punch opens the door, then holds it open for the rest of the group to exit.

Lyra leads the way to the house she and Bon-Bon used to share.  But, when the group arrives, there is a note on the door.

Lyra takes the note with her magic and reads, “I am at the festival tonight.  I’m one of the ponies in charge of refreshments.  You will find a bowl full of candy next to the door.  Please take one each, so there will be enough for other trick-or-treating ponies.  Signed, Bon-Bon.”

And, while the pale-green unicorn reads, I notice a bowl full of candy in front of the door.

Lyra seems disappointed as she uses her magic to take eight pieces of candy from the bowl and gives one piece to each member of the group, keeping one piece for herself.

I have my character place a hand on Lyra’s back, and I say, “You were hoping to visit with her, I’m guessing?”

The pale-green unicorn turns to my character and answers, “I was hoping she’d be home, yes.”

My character automatically starts stroking Lyra’s back as I state, “Well, the letter said she’d be at the festival.  After we visit the Cakes at Sugar Cube Corner, then we’ll head over to the festival; and you can visit with Bon-Bon there.”

Lyra inhales deeply, then exhales slowly, then says, “Well, alright then.  Let’s get going.”

The group of eight is led by Topsy Turvy and Ataahua to Sugar Cube Corner, which seems to be occupied, in spite of the late hour.

Pinkie Pie pushes the front door open; and, on seeing the two earth ponies at the table, the group, save for Berry Punch, Carrot Top, and me, sing the Nightmare Night chant.

The earth pony couple smile as they listen to the chant, after which Mr. Cake rises, grabs the bowl in the middle of the table, and approaches the group with it.  And, in the mean time, Mrs. Cake says, “Well, welcome, dearies.  Please, accept some of these treats from us.”

Again Lyra uses her magic to take treats from the bowl, this time eight, and distribute them to each of the ponies, as well as one for the dinosaur, and one for the human.

And, while Lyra is doing that, I ask, “So, I’m guessing everything is accounted for?”

Seeing that the distribution of treats is being taken care of by unicorn magic, Mr. Cake returns to the table and puts the bowl back, then turns to my character and answers, “Yes.  As it turns out, we didn’t lose anything in Discord’s attack a couple days ago.”

Berry Punch snorts and says, “You were lucky Discord didn’t torture you.”  She then sighs as she adds, “Unfortunately, I wasn’t so lucky.”

The two earth ponies at the table look at each other, then Mrs. Cake rises and trots over to the reddish-purple one and nuzzles her, asking, “Oh, are you alright?”

Berry Punch accepts the attention, but nods as she answers, “Yes, I’m fine, thanks to Mormon.”

I respond, “I’m glad I could be of service.  Although, it was Lyra who came to your rescue, not me.”

Then, I hear Pinkie Pie ask, “Are these the only places we’re gonna visit?”  Then, as my character turns to her, she continues, “’Cause, I really don’t have enough candy here.”

I answer, “Well, if you want you could …”

Before I can finish my answer, Pinkie looks outside.  Then, she turns to my character excitedly and says, “Oh, never mind.  I see Granny Smith out there, and she’s still trick-or-treating with those foals.”  In maybe one or two frames she’s at the front door waving to my character and saying, “Thanks, Mormon.  I’ll get back to you.”  And, with that, she’s disappeared out the front door, leaving a cloud of dust behind her.

I admit, I can’t help but chuckle at Pinkie Pie’s enthusiasm.

Then, I hear Mr. Cake say, “Well, the festival should be in the park, not too far from Carousel Boutique, if you wanna head over there.”

My character focuses on the orange earth stallion, and I say, “Thanks.  We may just take you up on that offer.”  And, taking that as instructions, my character proceeds toward the back door.

Evidently the remaining ponies and the dinosaur follow my character, each turning to bid farewell to the Cakes before they leave.

A few minutes later, the group is approaching Rarity’s clothing store; and, across the bridge, in the park, I can see, through my character’s eyes, the first of what I can figure must be many tents prepared for the Nightmare Night festival.  And, as the group crosses the bridge and makes their way past the first tent, I notice a circle of tents, in the middle of which I see Spike and Twilight, and Pinkie Pie displaying her bag full of candy to the purple unicorn.  And, while the two ponies seem to be distracted, I notice Rainbow Dash, in a Shadowbolts costume, sneaking up behind Pinkie Pie with a black cloud.

I hear Pipsqueak, a cream-colored colt with brown spots, say, “Sure did,” evidently in answer to Pinkie’s question about them going to Cheerilee’s house and getting more treats.

I have my character focus on and wave to the rainbow-haired pegasa, and I call out, “Hi, Rainbow Dash!”

And this, just as she’s preparing to jump on the cloud, right behind Pinkie Pie.

The pink angel pony turns to my character, tilts her head, and grunts in confusion and curiosity; then looks behind her and sees the Shadowbolt-dressed Rainbow Dash peering behind the black cloud.  She then waves to her pegasa friend and calls out, “Oh, hi, Dashy!”

Instead of jumping on the cloud, seeing that her plan’s been foiled, Rainbow Dash groans, “Aw, Mormon, you ruined my prank for me!”

I respond, “Oh, you wanted to ruin it yourself then.  Well, better luck next time.”

Pinkie Pie starts giggling, and the foals follow suit, followed by Spike; and Twilight chuckles a little as well.

Then, after the laughter quiets down, Pinkie Pie and the foals say goodbye to me and those with my character and trot off to somewhere else.

After the pink angel pony and the foals following her disappear, I hear Rainbow Dash sigh. Then, as my character turns to her, she says, “Well, maybe I can get her later.  Besides, there are others I can prank.”  And, with that, she takes her cloud and flies off to another area of the festival.

Twilight turns to my character and, smiling, says, “Thanks, Mormon.  If it hadn’t been for you, …”

Before she can say more, Spike, who had been laughing up to that point, starts coughing.

Twilight immediately turns to her senior assistant and, worriedly, asks, “Spike, are you alright?”

My character acts immediately.  Noticing that the purple dragon is lying down, my character helps him up to a sitting position, then strokes and pats his back until a piece of candy flies out of the little dragon’s mouth and onto the ground.

For a few seconds, Spike gasps for air.  Then, once his breathing calms down, he looks up at my character and says, “Thanks.  I guess I was laughing so much, that piece of candy went down the wrong pipe.”

Twilight then proceeds to nuzzle the purple dragon as she says, “Oh, Spike, I’m glad you’re alright.”  Then, when Spike pushes her away, she looks at my character and, smiling again, sniffles and says, “Thanks again, Mormon.  I don’t know what I would’ve done if something had happened to Spike.”

I smile as I say, “I’m glad I could help.”

Ataahua approaches the purple unicorn and says, “Yeah, Mormon seems to be doing a lot of that lately.”

Lyra chuckles and says, “He always does.”

I have my character focus on the ponies in his group, and I say, “Well, you can go ahead and do whatever you want.”

Ataahua rears up on her hind legs, kicks a few times with her front ones, and calls out, “Sweet!”  Then, as she lands on them again, she adds, “I’m gonna go bob for apples,” then gallops off in a direction not quite toward where the group entered, no doubt toward where I guess she thinks Applejack has a large tub of apples waiting for ponies to bob for them.

As the other ponies and Weed Whacker disperse in different directions, Weed Whacker following Lyra, Twilight says, “Well, Mormon, since you’re new to Nightmare Night, maybe I can show you around.”

I respond, “I must admit, this is a little different from the Halloween celebrations I’ve seen.  I wouldn’t mind being shown around.”

Twilight smiles again as she says, “Let’s go over here.  I helped Applejack set up some tubs of apples.”  And, she leads the way, in a direction different from where Ataahua was headed.

Either the gray pegasa remembered wrong, or she was looking for a different tub of apples to bob from.

Maybe half a minute later, the unicorn, the human, and the dragon arrive at a tub filled with glowing green liquid and apples that are green or red, with the orange earth mare standing nearby.

I watch, through my character’s eyes, as a stallion with a black, short-shaved beard plunges his head into the glowing green liquid, then pulls it out again smiling, with an apple in his mouth.

As the stallion trots off, evidently happy with his catch, I hear Twilight say, “Happy Nightmare Night, Applejack.”

My character automatically turns to the purple unicorn; and I can see, through his eyes, that she’s talking to the orange earth mare, who answers, “Howdy, Spike, hey, Twilight.”  And, noticing my character, she adds, “And, hi, Mormon.”

I greet her in return, after which she turns back to Twilight and says, “Nice costume.”

Spike, evidently not understanding, replies, “Thanks!  I’m a dragon.”

Twilight glares at him and snarls, “She meant me, Spike.”

Her attention then returns to Applejack, who pulls at the fake facial hair and says, “That beard. Ah reckon you’re a country music singer.”

I find myself chuckling as much as Spike.  I have to wonder if this isn’t a reference to ZZ Top, or some other musical group.

As the purple unicorn growls, Applejack turns and points to the tub of glowing green liquid and apples and asks, “While you’re here, ya feel like bobbin’ fer an apple?”

As my character’s attention is directed to the wooden tub, I notice that Ataahua seems to have found her way there by now.  I watch as she reaches her head into the tub, then falls in.  When she rises again, smiling, I can see she has a small chain in her mouth, with a plug hanging from the end of it.

And, the glowing green liquid immediately starts to drain out of the tub.

I have my character walk over to the gray pegasa, who’s now frowning in surprise, and grab her and pull her out; and I say, “Wrong apple.”

As my character puts the gray pegasa on the ground, she drops the plug and says, “My bad.”  She then drops to a canine-style sitting position, turns to my character, and says, “It happens every year.  I bob for apples, but the first thing I come out with …”, then she sighs before concluding, “isn’t an apple.”  Then, she rises to all fours again and ambles off.

I then hear applause from nearby, followed by Mayor Mare saying, “Thank you, everypony, and welcome to the Nightmare Night festival!”

I direct my character’s attention to the solemn gray pegasa, and I say, “Let’s go see what’s going on at the stage over there.  Maybe that’ll cheer you up.”

Again Ataahua sighs before she halfheartedly says, “Yeah, let’s go.”

I allow her to take one or two steps before I have my character pick her up and carry her to the stage.  And, while I already know about this, it’s not until my character and the gray pegasa get there that I see Mayor Mare dressed in a clown costume, with one rainbow wig on her head and one on her behind, reminding me of what a mare with Rainbow Dash’s mane, in Pinkie Pie’s style, with Doctor Whooves’ coloring, and a little of Rarity’s sense of style thrown in for good measure, might look like.

Once the cheering of the crowd dies down, the mayor continues, “Now, all the little ponies who’ve been out collecting sweets follow our friend Zecora to hear the legend of … Nightmare Moon!” She holds the last word out in something of a ghostly moan, after which she cackles for a second.

Even if I can’t hear him, I know that, somewhere else in the crowd, under his breath, Spike is saying to Twilight, “She wouldn’t be usin’ her voice like that if she weren’t dressed like that.”

At any rate, I decide to have my character put Ataahua back down on the ground on her hooves, and kneel on one knee on the ground next to her.

The gray pegasa then looks up at my character and asks, “Uh, Mormon, could you pick me up again?  I’d like to be able to see what’s going on.”

Although I figure she could use her wings if she wanted to; I decide to agree to Ataahua’s request, and have my character pick her up again, thinking she has her reasons besides what she said.

As my character stands up again, I see the mayor blow some glowing green dust from the base of her upside-down hoof to her right.

The dust settles in a cloud for a second or two, after which Zecora rises from it, eyes closed at first.  After a few steps, she stops, opens her eyes, and says, “Follow me, and very soon, you’ll hear the tale of Nightmare Moon.”  She then swings a dark gray cape around in front of her so that it comes to rest on her back, then proceeds to march off of the stage in a direction that seems to follow a course toward the Everfree forest, in fact, seemingly in the direction of my character’s house.

As the crowd starts to follow the zebra, I hear flapping next to my character’s head.  As my character looks in the direction of the flapping, I notice that Ataahua’s supporting herself in the air just above him with her wings.

The gray pegasa looks at him, smiling, and says, “I do feel a little better now.  Let’s go follow Zecora.”  And, with that, she starts flying in the direction of the zebra and the crowd.

Well, it’s good to hear that she’s feeling better.

As the crowd, led by Zecora, makes its way along the course toward the Everfree forest, I notice a few other ponies, namely the ones living with my character, as well as Weed Whacker, who’s still following Lyra, join the parade.  And, there are other ponies that join the group, including Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack, along with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo.

Just outside of town, the group turns away from the trail that would lead to my character’s house and eventually to that of Zecora, circles around the hill where my friends and I had observed the last meteor shower a week ago in the game, on the side facing Ponyville, and approaches a statue on the edge of the forest, again facing Ponyville.

The thing about the statue I find the most interesting is the detail.  If I didn’t know better, I’d think that Nightmare Moon had met up with a cockatrice, or had otherwise been trapped in stone, and then been placed on the stone platform.

As soon as she’s within touching distance of the statue, Zecora turns around and faces her audience.  Then as the crowd comes to a stop, she says, “Listen friends, I’ll tell you where you got your fears, of Nightmare Night, so dark and scary.”  She then reaches into her cloak with a front hoof and pulls it out again, then blows into it, releasing more of the glowing green dust.  Then, as the dust coalesces into a living, although glowing green, version of the statue, Zecora continues, “Of Nightmare Moon, who makes you wary.”

The glowing green dust specter of Nightmare Moon then proceeds to dive at the foals in the front of the crowd, crashing into them and bursting into a cloud of fluorescent green.

I have to admit, the display looked really impressive, if artificial, in the episode “Luna Eclipsed,” on which this day is based.  And, in this video game setting, it looks no less impressive; and, having been the one that modeled the specter, I know it isn’t real, outside of this video game.

At any rate, in the cloud of fluorescent green, which seems to have hidden Zecora as well as the foals, I hear the zebra’s voice continue, “Every year, we put on a disguise to save ourselves from her searching eyes.”

At this point, I’d like to mention that my character is not in a position so he can see what’s going on in the cloud, or at least not what the foals can see.  But, from what I’ve seen in the episode, which I’ve tried the best I could to duplicate in this video game, while Zecora speaks, two eyes appear; and a mouth opens above the group of foals.  Also, in the episode itself, it’s just the foals in the group.  But, in this video game, I have a group of stallions and mares following Zecora and the foals.  And, that group of adult ponies is blocking my character’s view of the glowing green cloud and what’s happening in it.  But, the crowd isn’t blocking my character from hearing what Zecora says, nor of the screams of the foals as they react to the face that appears to them out of the dust cloud.

Now, back to the story, Zecora continues, “For, Nightmare Moon wants just one thing, to gobble up ponies in one quick swing!”

I hear two more screams, which I know must be coming from Pipsqueak and Pinkie Pie, and a second later I hear the angel pony on my right say, “Oh, Mormon, you’re here.”

My character automatically turns to her, and I say, “I thought it’d be interesting to see and hear the story Zecora’s going to tell.”

Before the pink angel pony can say anymore, I hear Zecora continue, “Hungering, she soars the skies.  If she sees nopony, she passes by.  For if she comes and all is clear, Equestria is safe another year!”

In the mean time, one more cloud of fluorescent dust rises above the crowd, morphs into the specter of Nightmare Moon, roars, then flies upward and disappears.

My character’s attention is then attracted toward Zecora again when I hear a timid but curious Pipsqueak ask, “Um, Miss Zecora, if we need our costumes to hide from Nightmare Moon, so she won’t gobble us up, how come we still need to give her some of our candy?”

Again, because of the crowd, I can’t see, through my character’s eyes, the little colt who starts the conversation with the zebra.

But, I still see her answer, “A perfect question, my little friend; for, Nightmare Moon you must not offend.”  She then raises the front hoof she raised before and blows on it again, releasing another cloud of fluorescent green dust.  And, as it forms into the specter again, Zecora continues, “Fill up her belly with a treat or two, and she won’t return to come eat you!”

And, at that moment, the specter leaps again at the foals, mouth open wide, but bursts into the dust cloud again when it makes contact.

But, the message has been received loud and clear.

Pinkie Pie, the first to run to the sculpture, dumps her bag of candy at its base and cries, “Everypony, let’s dump the candy and get outta here!”  And, the foals join the pink angel pony in emptying their bags of candy in front of the statue.

But, before the group can run off, a wind starts to blow.

I know that my character’s attention isn’t the only one that’s attracted skyward.  And, when my character looks in that direction, I see, through his eyes, clouds starting to gather around the moon and spin somewhat, as though a tornado might be forming.  Then, in a flash of light from the sky, a chariot, ridden by a cloaked form and driven by ponies with large bat wings, approaches, descending rapidly.

Another thing I know is that the cloaked figure is Princess Luna, but most of the crowd doesn’t know that.  I don’t doubt that, based on the story Zecora was telling, the crowd must be thinking that Nightmare Moon must be coming to devour either them or the candy.

In the mean time, the chariot swoops over the heads of the group, but comes to rest in the air just behind my character.

Then, perhaps more than anything to confirm my suspicions, I hear Pinkie Pie scream, “It’s Nightmare Moon!  Run!”  And, my character turns just in time to see the pink angel pony follow her own advice and run past him back toward Ponyville, screaming, followed by the foals.

And, it seems that even Zecora joins the stampede.

The Ponyvillian adults, in the game anyway, are there at the statue; but most of them are evidently frozen in fear, stuck between the statue and the incarnation of their deepest fears.

Then, the nighttime alicorn jumps out of the chariot and lands on my character’s other side, putting him between Princess Luna and her chariot.  Her cloak then dissolves into bats that fly off, and I can see the worried look on her face as she reaches out a front hoof and says, “Please, fear me not.  We meant not to frighten you.”  And, I can see that she’s clearly reaching for the stampede of foals.

But, the nighttime princess’ plea is evidently enough to snap the remaining adults out of their trance; and they join Pinkie Pie, Zecora, and the foals in the stampede back to the village.  All that remain, aside from Princess Luna, are my character, Twilight Sparkle, and Spike.

I have my character take a step toward the nighttime alicorn, and I ask, “Princess Luna, are you alright?”

The princess lowers her front hoof, looks down, and answers, “We are fine.  But, for sooth, we meant not to frighten everypony.”

As my character reaches out to stroke Princess Luna’s neck, I say, “I wouldn’t blame you for what happened.  After the story that Zecora told, when you came down from the sky in a chariot guided by bat ponies, just about everyone was expecting an attack from Nightmare Moon.”

I see the nighttime princess’ eyes vibrate as she says, “But, Nightmare Moon is no more.”  Then, she raises her voice to a regal roar as she continues, “Thanks to the element bearers and their bond of friendship, we are free from Nightmare Moon!  Nopony should have reason to fear us!”

From Princess Luna’s side opposite my character, I hear Twilight say, “Uh, Mormon may be right about the timing of your visit, but you’re not going to make a lot of friends by shouting at everypony.”

Princess Luna turns and listens to Twilight as she speaks, then answers, “But, this is the traditional Canterlot voice.  It is tradition to use the royal ‘we,’ and to use as much volume as we have.”

I state, “As traditional as it might be, like Twilight said, it probably won’t help you make a lot of friends.”

At my statement, the nighttime princess turns back to my character and roars, “We used not this voice when we first approached, and they still ran off!”

I respond, “Well, I don’t think roaring at them is going to make things any better.  And, maybe you should send your chariot and bat ponies back to Canterlot.”

For a moment Princess Luna stammers, “B-b-but,” then she sighs before saying, “But, my sister said that we should take our chariot here so we could celebrate with the ponies of Ponyville.  We thought they would welcome us.”

I have my character rest his outstretched hand on the nighttime alicorn’s neck, and I say, “Well, you’re here now.  And, maybe Twilight and I can help you fit in better.  The ponies of Ponyville trust and respect Twilight and me; so, maybe, if the Ponyvillians see the three of us walking into town together, they’ll understand that you’re not the threat that Nightmare Moon had been.”

From the opposite side of the nighttime princess, I hear Twilight’s voice say, “Mormon may be right about that.  So, what do you say, princess?”

Again Princess Luna turns and listens to Twilight while she speaks.  Then, she sighs one more time before saying, “Very well, then.”  She then turns to her bat ponies and says, “Ye are dismissed to return to Canterlot.  We shall remain here, but we shall return when the festival is over.”  Then, after the bat ponies fly off again, heading for the castle city, the nighttime alicorn turns to my character, then to Twilight on her other side, and says, “Let us go to Ponyville.”

In evident agreement, my character starts walking along with Princess Luna; and I can only assume Twilight, on Luna’s other side, is also joining in the march back to Ponyville.

On the way there, I say to the nighttime princess, “Oh, by the way, I liked the way you had your cape turn into a flock of bats.  Was your cape made of bats that flew off, or did you actually turn your cape into bats?”

That gets a smile from the lunar princess as she says, “It was a cape that I turned into bats.”  She then turns to my character and asks, “For sooth thou didst like it?”

I answer, “I did like the effect.”

Twilight takes over the conversation from there, but I don’t pay attention to it until the group of four are in the park where the festival is taking place.

And, from there, as ponies see the nighttime alicorn, they scream or yelp before groveling and whimpering.

Once the group of four comes to a stop in the middle of the circle of tents, Princess Luna turns to my character first, then to Twilight Sparkle on her other side, then looks around at the ponies huddling on the ground around her.  I see her close an eye, and I assume she’s also closing the other one; then I see her inhale deeply, then open her eyes again and roar out, “Citizens of Ponyville!  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!”  Princess Luna doesn’t seem to notice the ponies around her backing away as she shouts, “Together, we shall turn this dreadful celebration into a bright and glorious feast!”

At this point, under my breath, I say, “Princess Luna, I don’t know if you’re forgetting or just ignoring my advice.  I just don’t see this going well for you.”

In the mean time, I hear Pinkie Pie say, “You hear that, everypony?  Nightmare Moon says she’s gonna feast on us all!”

Evidently she’s still with the group of foals who’d started the stampede back to Ponyville.  At any rate, she starts screaming; and the foals follow her example.  And, they continue to follow her as she runs out of the park and into the residential area.

In an attempt to clarify herself, Princess Luna reaches a front hoof to them and says, “What?  No, children, no.”  Pointing the hoof at her chest, she continues, “You have no more reason to fear us.  Screams of delight is what your princess desires, not screams of terror.”  And, she punctuates her last statement by stamping the hoof she’d been holding up hard on the ground, causing cracks in the pavement and further fear in the pony closest to that hoof, a yellow-colored unicorn with light-blue mane and dressed to look like a mouse.

As the nighttime princess looks at my character again, I find that I really don’t need to say anything.  I can see, in her expression, that she knows she’s failed to get what she wanted.

Turning a hundred eighty degrees, the lunar alicorn lowers her head and says, “Forgive me, citizens of Ponyville.  I still have much to learn.”  And, she proceeds to amble out of the park.

As Princess Luna passes between my character and Twilight, and the two can see each other again, the purple unicorn looks up at my character and says, “Let’s go.  I have an idea how we can help her.”  And, by example, she leads my character by following after the lunar princess.  Then, when Twilight and my character catch up to her, Twilight asks, “Princess Luna, are you alright?”

The nighttime alicorn turns to my character and says, “Joining in this celebration is more difficult than we thought.  Everypony remembers us as Nightmare Moon, and they seem unwilling to accept us as Princess Luna.”  And, she sighs before continuing, “We spoke without the royal Canterlot voice, and caused a stampede.  We spoke with the royal Canterlot voice, and they still fear us.  We know not what we shall do now.”

I hear Twilight hum or groan in thought for a moment, then say, “Well, I may know a friend who can help you.”

I think I see a smile on Princess Luna’s face as she turns to the purple unicorn and says, “We would be grateful for any advice you could give us.”

I see the purple unicorn again when she moves ahead of Princess Luna, then turns to her and says, “Then follow me.  I know where to find her.”

The nighttime alicorn nods to her and says, “Please, proceed.”  And, as the trio continues, to Fluttershy’s house, led by the purple unicorn, I hear Princess Luna say, “Oh, and might I say that your Starswirl the Bearded costume is commendable.  Thou hast even gotten the bells right.”

At this point, I must admit, I’m surprised that Princess Luna didn’t bring up the costume earlier.

In the mean time, I hear Twilight say, “Thank you, Princess.  It’s about time someone got my costume.”

Again I lose track of the conversation until the trio arrives at the bridge over the river separating Fluttershy’s cottage and property from the path deeper into the Everfree forest.

After the three cross the bridge, Twilight says, still leading the group, “Don’t worry, Princess.  Fluttershy can give you some pointers.  She’s delicate and demure, with the sweetest little voice.”

The nighttime princess and my character stop behind Twilight as she stops at Fluttershy’s cottage door, then reaches out a front hoof and knocks on it.

Then, from inside the cottage, I hear the yellow pegasa uncharacteristically roar out, “Go away! You can’t be here!  Visitors aren’t welcome here on Nightmare Night!”

Once Fluttershy’s tirade is over, Twilight turns to Princess Luna, chuckles nervously, then approaches the door again and calls out, “Uh, Fluttershy, it’s me, Twilight!”

Presently, the top part of the front door opens just enough for the yellow pegasa to peer out.  Seeing her purple unicorn friend, she relaxes a bit and says, “Oh, Twilight, it is you.”  Then, seeing my character, she adds, “And, Mormon, you’re here too.”  I see her smile as she opens the lower half of her front door and takes a step or two out of her house, until she sees Princess Luna, at which point she yelps, then races back into her house, closing the door behind her.

Again Twilight turns to Princess Luna and chuckles nervously.  But, this time, she says, “Wait right here.”  And, again she approaches the door.  But this time, she enters and closes both halves of the door behind her.

As we hear crashing sounds coming from inside the yellow pegasa’s cottage, Princess Luna turns to my character and asks, under her breath, “Have we come at a bad time?”

I answer, “Let’s just say that Nightmare Night isn’t exactly one of Fluttershy’s favorite holidays.”

And, before the conversation between the human and the nighttime alicorn can continue, the door, clearly possessed by Twilight’s magic, opens again; and Fluttershy, who I can see is being pushed outside by Twilight, emerges.

Then, I hear the purple unicorn say, “Fluttershy, you remember Princess Luna?”

The nighttime princess reaches out a welcoming front hoof to the yellow pegasa and says, no roars, “Charmed.”

Fluttershy’s first response is to fly back into her house.  That is, until Twilight uses her magic to retrieve her.  Then, clearly with no choice but to confront the lunar princess, she timidly responds, “L-likewise.”

Presently, Princess Luna continues, “Twilight Sparkle has spoken of the sweetness of thy voice!  We ask that thou teachest us to speak as thou speakest!”

In the mean time, Twilight sets the yellow pegasa on the ground on her back and releases her from her magic.

In such a prone position, Fluttershy says, “O-okay.”

Princess Luna roars, “Shall our lessons begin?”

Again, Fluttershy says, “O-okay.”

The nighttime alicorn roars, “Shall we mimic thy voice!?”

Again the timid pegasa answers, “O-okay.”

Princess Luna, not changing her tone, roars, “How’s this!?”

Presently, Fluttershy, smiling fearfully, quickly says, “Perfect.  Lesson over,” then flies off toward the entrance to her house.

But, Twilight is one step ahead of her, closing the door so that she collides with it.  Then, with the yellow pegasa still stuck on the door, she turns to the lunar alicorn and says, “A little quieter, Princess.”

At first she roars, then stops the roar; but continues, still very loud, as she asks, “And, how’s this?”

Twilight turns to her yellow pegasa friend and asks, “Better, right, Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy’s only response, once she can pull her face free from the door, is to giggle nervously, before finally sliding and falling completely off.

Then, Princess Luna asks, more quietly, “How … about … now?”

I see Twilight smile as she answers, “Now you’re getting it.”

Then, in a tone normal for one-on-one conversation, the nighttime alicorn asks, “And, … how about now?”

Twilight continues to smile as she says, “Yes.  Well done.”

In the mean time, Fluttershy, still overcome with fear, weakly proceeds to raise a front hoof to reach the door knob.

But, before she can, again she’s seized by magic, this time Luna’s, which whisks her to the nighttime princess.

Princess Luna, as soon as Fluttershy is close enough, grabs her in a forelimb and hugs her, roaring, “Ah, thank you, dear Fluttershy.  Our normal speaking voice shall surely win us the hearts of thy fellow villagers.”

I should’ve expected this, considering how I’ve based this day on the episode, “Luna Eclipsed.”  But, I hear Pinkie Pie, from behind the group, call out, “Fluttershy, you better hide out!”  As my character turns to her, she continues, “Nightmare Moon is here and—”  I then hear her cluck like a scared chicken as she calls out, “She’s stolen Fluttershy’s voice, and she can’t scream when she gobbles her up!”  And, she runs off again, followed by the foals, who scream first.

This time, I groan as I say, under my breath, “Pinkie Pie, you’re not helping things.”

In the mean time, Princess Luna takes a step toward them and roars out, “Nay, children, wait!”  Then, remembering what she learned from Twilight and Fluttershy, she tones her voice down and says, “I mean, nay, children, no, wait.”  And, when she turns back to Twilight and my character, well, I can’t blame her for being upset.

I have my character approach the fallen yellow pegasa, and I say, “Princess Luna, Twilight, you two go on ahead.  I’ll make sure Fluttershy gets back into her cottage.”

Twilight nods to my character and says, “Agreed.”  She then turns to the lunar alicorn and says, “Come with me, Princess.  It’s time for Plan B.”

I listen as the hoof-falls lead away from the cottage, then I have my character stroke the back of the clearly traumatized pegasa as I say, “I can see how frightening this experience must’ve been for you.”

Fluttershy turns away from my character, so I can only hear her whimper, “Y-you have no idea.”

I continue, “And, on a holiday like this, when every pony is dressed up as a monster, even though you know that Princess Luna is no longer Nightmare Moon, well, it is reasonable to consider the possibility that there’s still some of Nightmare Moon left in Princess Luna.”

I hear a loud sniffle from the yellow pegasa, followed by her sobbing, “I just want Nightmare Night to be over!”

At this point, I have my character pick up the weeping pegasa; and I say, “And, I just want you to know that you did help Princess Luna.  She’s going back into Ponyville to get a lesson from Applejack.”  I then have my character stand up again, and I conclude, “Now, I’ll take you back into your house.  Once you’re inside, you can go back to hiding under your bed, or whatever you want to do, until it’s time for the reading.”

It seems that Fluttershy, while hanging on to my character’s closest arm, can only squeak, “Oh, thank you, Mormon.”

Then, as my character opens the door, I see Fluttershy’s bear friend there to meet him.  I say, “Well, it looks like your bear friend is here to take over for me.”

For a moment the yellow pegasa seems unwilling to move away from my character.  Then, when she turns and sees the grizzly waiting for her, she flies out of my character’s arms, and into those of her bear friend.

The bear smiles and waves to my character, then carries the trembling, weeping pegasa further into her house.

Seeing that my character’s duties there seem to be finished, I have him leave Fluttershy’s house, closing the door behind him, then return to Ponyville, to the park where the Nightmare Night festival is still going on.

By the time my character gets back to the festival, he seems to have arrived at just the right time to see Princess Luna try her hoof at tossing fake spiders onto a web.  In fact, he reaches her and Twilight just in time to see the nighttime princess make her first attempt at tossing one of the fake spiders.

I decide not to say anything as I watch, through my character’s eyes, the lunar alicorn toss the spider towards the web, only for it to bounce to a stop just in front of it.

Seeing her first attempt as unsuccessful, Princess Luna looks down and sighs.  Then she notices my character next to her and turns to him.

I nod and say, “Go ahead and try again.  I may want to try it after you.”

From behind the human and the alicorn, I hear Applejack call out, “You can do it, Princess!”

Encouraged by both earth pony and human, the nighttime alicorn takes another spider, then a moment to focus on the web.  After that, she closes her eyes and crouches, preparing to toss the fake spider.  Straightening her legs, she tosses the spider into the air.

And, this time, the spider lands in the middle of the web.

At first, as the nighttime alicorn opens her eyes and sees the result of her last throw, she seems surprised.  Maybe she is.  Then, she says, “Your princess enjoys this—fun.  In what other ways might we experience it?”

I state, “If you wanna go on ahead, I’d like to have a shot at this game.”

Princess Luna steps aside and says, “Please, fair Mormon, try this for thyself.”

As my character chooses a fake spider from the bowl, the pink earth mare with yellow hair and a bee costume rises from her cowering position and trots toward the web saying, “First, let me retrieve the princess’ spiders.”  She then grabs the two fake arachnids in her mouth, then trots back to the bowl and places them on top of the pile.

Once the way is clear, I have my character take aim, above where I expect the spider to land, then program him to toss the spider with as much force as I expect it’ll need.

As it turns out, on release, the fake spider is seized by a breeze which carries it a little higher than I’d anticipated.  Instead of landing in the center of the web, the fake spider lands on top of it; where it proceeds to roll off behind the web.  Then, due to the stickiness of the threads, or so I assume, the rolling of the spider slows down until it stops at the center.

I hear a closed-mouth laugh from Princess Luna.  Evidently, she decided to stick around to see how I’d do.  As my character turns to her to show me, through his eyes, that indeed she’s covering her mouth with a front hoof in a failed attempt to contain her laughter, she turns to me as well.

I point to the web and say, “I’m guessing there aren’t many ponies that could pull that off.”

Evidently the nighttime princess has decided to give up on restraining her laughter, as she just drops the hoof she’d been using.  A second later, through her laughter, she says, “Nay, not without magic.”  And, she keeps laughing.

And, ponies gather around her and, after getting a look at my unusual achievement, join in her laughter.

I wasn’t expecting my first attempt to play out the way it did, so I have to laugh about it as well.

After a few more seconds, I hear Applejack say, “Let’s head over to the catapults.”  And, as Princess Luna and I turn to the orange earth mare, she continues, “You can try yer hoof at chunkin’ pumpkins at some targets.”

Princess Luna smiles at my character as she says, “Let us go, Mormon.”

I smile back and say, “Sure, let’s go.”  And, my character and Princess Luna, as well as a crowd of ponies who’ve come to watch the display, follow Applejack to the catapults.

I’m not surprised, when the group arrives, to see only catapults.  First of all, that’s how I saw it in the episode, “Luna Eclipsed.”  Second of all, it’s how I programmed it.  And, finally, I suppose trebuchets would likely be too complicated for ponies, other than unicorns and alicorns.

At any rate, Princess Luna chooses a catapult, then adjusts its position and angle to aim for the target she wants to hit.  She then uses her magic to select a pumpkin and place it in the bowl of the catapult.

As the nighttime alicorn steps away to make sure the catapult and the target are aligned, I hear Twilight call out, “Fire away, Princess!”

The lunar alicorn turns and nods to the purple unicorn, then turns back to the catapult and puts a hoof on the trigger, applying enough of her weight to release the firing mechanism.

As a result, on release, the pumpkin arcs over the ground and lands in the middle of the target, splattering pumpkin seeds and meat in all directions.

Seeing her first attempt is a success, the nighttime alicorn rears up on her hind legs, raises her front legs into the air, and says, “Ha-ha!  The fun has been doubled!”

Around her, ponies cheer; and I also applaud and say, “Well done, Princess Luna.”

The nighttime princess comes down to all-fours position again and, looking at my character, says, “Thank you, Mormon.”

Then, I hear Applejack suggest, “Why don’t you go bobbin fer apples?  We got the best apples in Equestria, Princess.”

The lunar alicorn pauses for a moment and brings a front hoof up to her mouth.  Then, she says, “I ask that thou callest us, me, Luna, dear Applejack.”  She then turns to the other ponies around her and calls out, “Hear me, villagers!  All of you, call me Luna!”

The proposal is clearly received well among the ponies surrounding the lunar princess, as they repeat the name as though approving a name for a new infant, a new foal.

Following close behind Applejack, Luna says, “Shall we move on to bobbing for apples.”  Then she pauses and gasps.

I already know what’s happening, but my character turns automatically anyway in the direction the nighttime princess is looking.

Pipsqueak is teetering on the edge of one of the tubs of apples, and my character has focused on him just in time to show me, through his eyes, the colt falling into the tub of glowing green liquid, knocking the remaining apples, those that are visible anyway, out of it.

At about this time, I hear Pinkie Pie ask, “Hey, girls!  Have you seen Pipsqueak around?  We lost him the last time we had to run—”

Luna reacts immediately, galloping to where the little colt fell in, and reaching in to grab him and pull him out by his trousers.

Amid gasps and sighs of relief, I hear Pinkie Pie squawk and shout, “Nightmare Moon is gobbling Pipsqueak!  Everypony run!”

At this point, not wanting to see all of the lunar princess’ friendshipping progress go to waste, I have my character turn in the direction of the pink, chicken-dressed angel pony, and I shout, “Pinkie Pie, that’s enough!”

I’m not sure, but I think Pinkie Pie trips and falls.  When she rises again, she turns to my character, head lowered, and slowly ambles toward him.

When the now-humbled angel pony is close enough, I ask, “Did you see what happened?”

Pinkie slowly looks up at my character, then stammers, “W-w-well, n-n-no.”

I have my character kneel on one knee in front of the pink angel pony, just as she stops in front of him, and I say, “I’m guessing Pipsqueak was trying to bob for apples, in spite of how small he is and how deep the tub is.”

From my character’s right, I hear the little earth colt ask, “Uh, Princess Luna, will you put me down, please?”

After a second, I hear, from about the same direction, Princess Luna say, “Please, just call me Luna.”

Then, I hear Pipsqueak say, “Thank you, Luna,” then light hoof-falls approaching, then Pipsqueak say, “Mormon here was right.  It was my fault.”  As my character focuses on the little colt, he continues, “I fell in, and Nightmare Moon, er, Luna, was just rescuin’ me.”  I then see him turn to the lunar alicorn and conclude, “Thank you again, Luna.”

Luna focuses on Pipsqueak and says, “Thou art welcome, dear colt.”

I can hear the colt smile up at the nighttime alicorn as he says, “Please, call me Pipsqueak.”

Luna smiles back as she says, “Yes, Pipsqueak.”

A moment later, I hear Pinkie Pie whimper, and my character looks down and watches her as she ambles up to Luna.  At the lunar princess’ closest hoof, the pink angel pony stops and, looking up at her, whimpers, “I’m so-o-o-o sorry, Princess.  I didn’t mean to hurt anypony.  It’s just that, well, sometimes it’s just really fun to be scared.”

I think I hear a grunt or hum of interest from Twilight.

At any rate, the nighttime alicorn asks, “Fun?”  She then repeats the question, this time in the Canterlot roar, before continuing, “You accuse me of gobbling up your friends, and call it fun?”

At this point, I have my character rise to a standing position; and I say, “Now, Princess, calm down.  Pinkie Pie has apologized, so, it’s up to you to forgive her.”

I don’t doubt it’s because of my words that Princess Luna stops and looks around.  And, my character joins in looking around, showing me the fear in the faces of ponies all around the nighttime princess.

In the voice she learned from Fluttershy and Twilight, Princess Luna says, pointing a hoof toward Pinkie Pie, “Very well.  I forgive thee.”

The pink angel pony’s first response is to howl with relief, after which she repeats, several times, the words, “Thank you,” while hugging the front leg that Luna hadn’t pointed at her.

At this point, the nighttime alicorn looks at my character, evidently uncertain of what to do next.

A thought occurs to me, and I say, “You have a choice of what you can do now.  You can keep this festival as a reminder of what you were, what ponies fear about you; or, you can make it a celebration of what you are, what you’re becoming.”

I then hear Twilight Sparkle say, “Or, perhaps there’s a way that you can make it both.”

Luna looks down at the purple unicorn and asks, “Please explain, what doest thou mean?”

Twilight turns to the path out of town, then looks behind her to the nighttime alicorn and says, “If you’ll follow me to the Nightmare Moon statue, princess, I’ll explain everything there.”  She then turns to my character and asks, “Mormon, will you join us, too?”

I answer, “Sure, I’d be honored.”  I then have my character turn to the pink angel pony, and I ask, “Will you come with us, Pinkie?”

Pinkie Pie doesn’t say anything at first, she just looks at Twilight.

In return, the purple unicorn pauses for a moment, then says, “Sure, Pinkie.  If you want to come with us, you’re quite welcome.  You could help me explain my plan to Princess Luna.”

At the same time, Pinkie Pie says, “Thank you, Twily,” and Luna says, “Please, just call me Luna.”

Then, again at the same time, Pinkie Pie says, “And, thank you, Mormy,” and Twilight says, “Alright then, Luna.”

I have my character stroke Pinkie’s mane as a way of welcoming her thanks, and I ask, “So, shall we get going then?”

Twilight nods and says, “Sure.  Just follow me.”  And, with that, she proceeds on ahead along the course out of Ponyville, followed by Luna, then Pinkie Pie and my character.

When the group arrives at the statue, Twilight turns to Princess Luna and says, “Now, the foals are going to come with their candy to drop some of it at the base of the statue here.  Luna, can you use a transformation spell to turn into Nightmare Moon?”

Luna recoils a little in worry, and her eyes dart left and right a couple times, before she says, “We could, but we do not see how that will help the citizens of Ponyville to like us.”

Then Pinkie Pie perks up and says, “Oh, I think I understand.”  She then focuses on the nighttime princess as she continues, “It’s kind of like a spook alley.”

Luna looks at each of the two ponies and the human as she asks, “What is a … spook … alley?”

At this point, I decide to answer, “If a spook alley for ponies is anything like one for humans, it’s kind of a pathway that’s filled with objects more or less intended to be scary.  If I understand Twilight’s plan correctly, she wants you to pretend to be Nightmare Moon, and scare the coming foals just enough so that they run away, but not so much that they get hurt.”  I then have my character focus on the purple unicorn, and I ask, “Is that right, Twilight?”

The purple unicorn nods vigorously before continuing, “Like Pinkie Pie said, sometimes it’s just really fun to be scared.”

Luna relaxes a bit, but rubs the bottom of her chin with the joint of a front hoof as she says, “So, thou wantest us to pretend to be Nightmare Moon so we can scare foals so they’ll like us?”

Twilight pauses for a moment before saying, “Just trust me on this.  But first, could you use that transformation spell?”

Luna turns to my character, and I have him nod.  She then turns to Pinkie Pie, who also nods.  Finally, she inhales deeply, then exhales, then says, “Very well, then.”  She then closes her eyes, and her horn starts to glow and sparkle.  Then, starting with her horn, she darkens to a black color, armor or jewelry forms on her head, neck and hooves, her teeth become pointed like those of a carnivore, and her mane and tail sparkle in the moonlight and become a more translucent color.  When she opens her eyes again, even her irises and pupils glow white, and she smiles and asks, “How’s this?”

Presently, Pinkie Pie cackles like a scared chicken and runs and hides behind my character’s legs.

Seeing the trembling pink angel pony hiding behind my character, Luna starts to frown as she asks, “Too much?”

On the other hand, I can hear Twilight smile as she answers, “No, it’s perfect!”  She then circles around the back of the statue as she says, “Now, follow me.  When the foals come and deposit their candy in front of the statue, you switch places with it and tell them they made the right move, and that you’ll gobble up the candy instead of them.  When the foals look up, they’ll think the statue came to life.  Trust me, they’ll love it.”

Luna follows the purple unicorn behind the statue, but says, “We’re not sure about this.  But, we shall trust thee.”

I then have my character turn to the pink angel pony, and I say, “I guess we’d better get behind the statue, too.”

My character then leads Pinkie Pie behind the statue, to join Twilight, and Luna transformed into Nightmare Moon.

It’s only a minute or so later that I hear the voices of Zecora, Mayor Mare, and the foals approaching.  Then, I hear them emptying their bags of candy in front of the statue.

I have trouble believing that such light objects would make as much noise in reality as I have the pieces of candy making as they fall to the ground.  But, that much sound is necessary to let anyone hiding behind the statue know when the foals are dumping their candy at the base of the Nightmare Moon statue.

At any rate, I hear Pipsqueak, the last to leave an offering, say, “Here, Nightmare Moon.  I hope you like it.”

At this point, Twilight signals Luna with a nod and a motion of the front hoof Luna can see.

A moment later, Luna is replaced by the Nightmare Moon statue; and I hear her above my character, roaring out, “Citizens of Ponyville, you were wise to bring this candy to me!”  My character then automatically looks up to see the black alicorn mare from behind as she continues, “We are pleased with your offering!  So pleased, in fact, that we just might eat it instead of you!”  She then rears up on her hind legs and neighs for all to hear.

I then hear gasps, then screams, of foals, and then their light hoof-falls as they gallop away.  I’m sure I also hear leaves rustling.

Then, I hear closer and somewhat heavier hoof-falls; and my character turns downward to show me Twilight coming out from in front of the Nightmare Moon statue, then saying, “You see?  They loved it!”

Luna, still in her Nightmare Moon form, drops to all fours and jumps down from the base of the statue, then sarcastically says, “Yes, I could tell by their shrieks as they ran away.”  She then transforms back into Princess Luna as she asks, “Art thou sure about this?”

I allow my character to come out from behind the Nightmare Moon statue.  But, Luna is between my character and Twilight Sparkle; so I can only hear the purple unicorn answer, “Just wait.”

Then, before anyone can say anything more, and while my character is coming around the lunar alicorn, I hear Pipsqueak ask, “Uh, Princess Luna, if I might ask, do you think you could come back next yer, and scare us again?”  Apparently, he sees my character at about the same time that I see him, as he focuses on my character and says, “Oh, hi, uh, …”

Until she speaks, I’m not aware that Pinkie Pie has followed me.  She says, “Oh, this is Mormon.”

The little spotted colt nods to my character, at that point, and says, “Hi, Mormon.”

It apparently takes this amount of time for the nighttime princess to snap out of her state of befuddlement, as it’s now that she asks, “Art thou saying that thou likest us to scare thee?”

Pipsqueak turns back to Luna and answers, “It’s really fun.  Scary, but fun.”

Surprised, Luna asks, “It … is?”

Pipsqueak continues, “Yeah.  Nightmare Night is my favorite night of the year.”

Luna’s surprise starts to turn to happiness as she says, “Well, we had considered canceling Nightmare Night because it was becoming offensive to us.  But, if you foals like it so much, then so be it.”  Then, happily she roars, “Let Nightmare Night continue, forever!”  She then turns to the statue of Nightmare Moon, and her horn glows and sparkles.

I hear a wheezing puff sound, and my character turns to the pillar to show me that the Nightmare Moon statue is back in its place.

I then hear Pipsqueak proclaim, “You are my favorite princess ever!”  Then, as my character focuses on the little foal, I see him gallop to Princess Luna and hug her closest front leg.  Then, he gallops off to the other foals and says, “You hear that, guys?  She’s gonna come back and scare us again next year!”

This time, as the foals evacuate the bush they were hiding behind and gallop back to Ponyville, they cheer instead of scream.

As my character turns back to the nighttime alicorn, I hear her laugh as she says, “You were right, Twilight, it was … fun.  As much for us as for those foals.  Perhaps we shall come back next Nightmare Night to play the role of Nightmare Moon for them.”

Twilight Sparkle encouragingly asks, “But, for now?”

Luna answers, “But, for now, let’s go back to Mormon’s house for the scripture reading.  Then after that, we shall teleport Mormon, Topsy Turvy, and anypony that wants to go with, to the Canterlot garden so Topsy Turvy can take care of her father, and Mormon can give his report in person to my sister.  Then, we shall take them home, and they can do what they want.”

The purple unicorn nods and says, “Sounds like a plan to me.  First, let’s go back to Ponyville so we can gather everypony up.  Then we’ll go to Mormon’s house.”

Smiling, Luna says, “Yes, let us do that.”

When the group returns to Ponyville, Luna and Twilight gather up Rarity, Applejack, Spike and Rainbow Dash; while Pinkie Pie and my character gather up Lyra, Ataahua, Topsy Turvy, and Weed Whacker.  Then, when the group reunites just outside of the park, they head out of town to Fluttershy’s cottage where Twilight gets the timid pegasa to join the group.  And, from there, the group heads through the Everfree forest, lit by the horns of Luna, Twilight, and Lyra.

When the group arrives at my character’s house, I must admit, I’m surprised to see Princess Celestia there to meet them.

It's quickly decided that the group gather in a circle on the front lawn and begin the reading as soon as possible.  The treats that were gathered by way of the trick-or-treating expeditions, shared among the readers, become the refreshments.

While members of the group are producing their books and turning to the right page, I have my character turn to the gray pegasa next to him; and I ask, "Ataahua, will you start the reading with the first verse of chapter twenty-one of Mosiah?"

The gray pegasa smiles at me and says, "I'll need to get my book from inside, but then I can read."

Encouragingly, I say, "Well, go right ahead.  We'll wait for you."

Ataahua just nods before galloping to and into the house.  And, by the time she comes back out, everyone else is at the right place in their books.  She settles down, opens her book, turns to the right page, then reads, "And it came to pass that Limhi and his people returned to the city of Nephi, and began to dwell in the land again in peace."

I then read, "And it came to pass that after many days the Lamanites began again to be stirred up in anger against the Nephites, and they began to come into the borders of the land round about."

Topsy Turvy reads, "Now they durst not slay them, because of the oath which their king had made unto Limhi; but they would smite them on their cheeks, and exercise authority over them; and began to put heavy burdens upon their backs, and drive them as they would a dumb ass—"  She then looks up and says, "In other words, instead of killing them, they bullied them."

Weed Whacker reads, "Yea, all this was done that the word of the Lord might be fulfilled."

Princess Luna reads, "And now the afflictions of the Nephites were great, and there was no way that they could deliver themselves out of their hands, for the Lamanites had surrounded them on every side."  She then looks up and says, "Not surprising, all things considered."

Princess Celestia reads, "And it came to pass that the people began to murmur with the king because of their afflictions; and they began to be desirous to go against them to battle.  And they did afflict the king sorely with their complaints; therefore he granted unto them that they should do according to their desires."

Rainbow Dash reads, "And they gathered themselves together again, and put on their armor, and went forth against the Lamanites to drive them out of their land."

Pinkie Pie reads, "And it came to pass that the Lamanites did beat them, and drove them back, and slew many of them."

At this point, Ataahua says, "Yeah, there are those times that standing up to a bully isn't enough.  Maybe they'll leave you alone for a while; but, more likely than not, they'll be back.  Especially if they live nearby."

Twilight Sparkle reads, "And now there was a great mourning and lamentation among the people of Limhi, the widow mourning for her husband, the son and the daughter mourning for their father, and the brothers for their brethren."

Spike reads, "Now there were a great many widows in the land, and they did cry mightily from day to day, for a great fear of the Lamanites had come upon them."

Rarity reads, "And it came to pass that their continual cries did stir up the remainder of the people of Limhi to anger against the Lamanites; and they went again to battle, but they were driven back again, suffering much loss."

Applejack reads, "Yea, they went again even the third time, and suffered in the like manner; and those that were not slain returned again to the city of Nephi."

Fluttershy reads, "And they did humble themselves even to the dust, subjecting themselves to the yoke of bondage, submitting themselves to be smitten, and to be driven to and fro, and burdened, according to the desires of their enemies."

Once again, Ataahua speaks up and says, "Sometimes, that's all you can do, is just give up and hope that either the bullies will leave you alone or go away one day, or that you'll be rescued."

Lyra reads, "And they did humble themselves even in the depths of humility; and they did cry mightily to God; yea, even all the day long did they cry unto their God that he would deliver them out of their afflictions."

Ataahua reads, "And now the Lord was slow to hear their cry because of their iniquities; nevertheless the Lord did hear their cries, and began to soften the hearts of the Lamanites that they began to ease their burdens; yet the Lord did not see fit to deliver them out of bondage."

I read, "And it came to pass that they began to prosper by degrees in the land, and began to raise grain more abundantly, and flocks, and herds, that they did not suffer with hunger."

Topsy Turvy reads, "Now there was a great number of women, more than there was of men; therefore king Limhi commanded that every man should impart to the support of the widows and their children, that they might not perish with hunger; and this they did because of the greatness of their number that had been slain."

Weed Whacker reads, "Now the people of Limhi kept together in a body as much as it was possible, and secured their grain and their flocks;"

Princess Luna reads, "And the king himself did not trust his person without the walls of the city, unless he took his guards with him, fearing that he might by some means fall into the hands of the Lamanites."

Princess Celestia reads, "And he caused that his people should watch the land round about, that by some means they might take those priests that fled into the wilderness, who had stolen the daughters of the Lamanites, and that had caused such a great destruction to come upon them."

Rainbow Dash reads, "For they were desirous to take them that they might punish them; for they had come into the land of Nephi by night, and carried off their grain and many of their precious things; therefore they laid wait for them."

Pinkie Pie reads, "And it came to pass that there was no more disturbance between the Lamanites and the people of Limhi, even until the time that Ammon and his brethren came into the land."

Twilight Sparkle reads, "And the king having been without the gates of the city with his guard, discovered Ammon and his brethren; and supposing them to be priests of Noah therefore he caused that they should be taken, and bound, and cast into prison.  And had they been the priests of Noah he would have caused that they should be put to death."

Spike reads, "But when he found that they were not, but that they were his brethren, and had come from the land of Zarahemla, he was filled with exceedingly great joy."

Rarity reads, "Now king Limhi had sent, previous to the coming of Ammon, a small number of men to search for the land of Zarahemla; but they could not find it, and they were lost in the wilderness."

Applejack reads, "Nevertheless, they did find a land which had been peopled; yea, a land which was covered with dry bones; yea, a land which had been peopled and which had been destroyed; and they, having supposed it to be the land of Zarahemla, returned to the land of Nephi, having arrived in the borders of the land not many days before the coming of Ammon."

Fluttershy reads, "And they brought a record with them, even a record of the people whose bones they had found; and it was engraven on plates of ore."

Lyra reads, "And now Limhi was again filled with joy on learning from the mouth of Ammon that king Mosiah had a gift from God, whereby he could interpret such engravings; yea, and Ammon also did rejoice."

Ataahua reads, "Yet Ammon and his brethren were filled with sorrow because so many of their brethren had been slain;"

I read, "And also that king Noah and his priests had caused the people to commit so many sins and iniquities against God; and they also did mourn for the death of Abinadi; and also for the departure of Alma and the people that went with him, who had formed a church of God through the strength and power of God, and faith on the words which had been spoken by Abinadi."

Topsy Turvy reads, "Yea, they did mourn for their departure, for they knew not whither they had fled.  Now they would have gladly joined with them, for they themselves had entered into a covenant with God to serve him and keep his commandments."

Weed Whacker reads, "And now since the coming of Ammon, king Limhi had also entered into a covenant with God, and also many of his people, to serve him and keep his commandments."

Princess Luna reads, "And it came to pass that king Limhi and many of his people were desirous to be baptized; but there was none in the land that had authority from God.  And Ammon declined doing this thing, considering himself an unworthy servant."

Princess Celestia reads, "Therefore they did not at that time form themselves into a church, waiting upon the Spirit of the Lord.  Now they were desirous to become even as Alma and his brethren, who had fled into the wilderness."

Rainbow Dash reads, "They were desirous to be baptized as a witness and a testimony that they were willing to serve God with all their hearts; nevertheless they did prolong the time; and an account of their baptism shall be given hereafter."

Pinkie Pie reads, "And now all the study of Ammon and his people, and king Limhi and his people, was to deliver themselves out of the hands of the Lamanites and from bondage."

At this point, I have my character stand up; and I say, "Let's let that be the end of the reading for tonight.  Next time, we'll start reading in chapter twenty-two."

Luna then rises to all-fours position and says, “Excellent.”  Turning to Twilight and the rest of the element bearers, she says, “You are dismissed to return to Ponyville.”

Pinkie Pie opens the gate for her friends, then says her goodbyes to each of them as they exit.

When those six, including Spike, are on their way back through the forest, Luna turns to my character and those living with him and asks, “Now, for those that remain, how many want to join Topsy Turvy, Mormon, our sister and us in Canterlot when Topsy Turvy takes care of her father?”

Pinkie Pie, Lyra, Weed Whacker, and Ataahua look at each other, then back at the nighttime alicorn; and Ataahua steps forward and says, “Actually, we’d all like to come.”

It’s Princess Celestia who then says, “Well, in that case, let’s all go to Canterlot Castle.”

With that word from the daytime princess, the nighttime one closes her eyes; and her horn starts to glow and sparkle.  Then, in the next frame, the six ponies, the dinosaur, and the human are in the garden of the castle, in front of Discord’s statue.

Luna goes to the castle, presumably to get Grounds Keeper and the cleaning supplies; and Princess Celestia focuses on my character and says, “Mormon, if you’ll come with me, you can give me your report while we walk through the garden.”

I can’t think of anything to say immediately, so I nod and allow my character to follow the daytime princess into the maze.

As the human and the alicorn move far enough into the maze that the hedges start to hide them from the rest of the group, Princess Celestia asks, “So, how did you like the Nightmare Night celebration?”

I answer, “It was very much like another holiday I’m familiar with, from where I live.”

If I didn’t see her smile, I could still hear it in her voice as she asks, “Oh, really?  And, what holiday is that?”

I answer, “It’s called All Hallow’s Eve, or Halloween.  Much like the ponies I’ve seen do for Nightmare Night, humans for Halloween dress up in monster costumes.  Halloween comes on the last day of October, and, along with the costumes, is celebrated by children going from house to house, chanting a familiar rhyme in order to get candy.  And, there are all sorts of games to play, as well as a traditional spook alley.  I remember, when I was a child, the whole celebration being really fun.  Then, as time went by, there were apparently people that took advantage of the traditions to play some really harmful tricks on the children that went trick-or-treating.  Now, in recent years, trick-or-treating takes place earlier in the month, in a parking lot, where it’s called trunk-or-treating.”

I think I hear Princess Celestia shiver a bit before she says, “Well, nopony plays tricks of a harmful nature on Nightmare Night.  I’m sure you’ve heard the story of Nightmare Moon, told by Zecora?”

I answer, “I have.”

The daytime princess continues, “The tradition of gathering candy from other ponies, then donating some to Nightmare Moon, serves a symbolic purpose.”

It takes my character running into Princess Celestia’s backside for me to realize that she’s stopped.

She turns to my character, surprised, and asks, “Mormon, are you alright?”

I answer, “I’m fine.  I just didn’t realize you’d stopped.”

The daytime princess continues looking at me as she says, “Well, as long as you’re alright, I’ll continue.  You see, gathering candy from other ponies is meant to remind us of a time when humans lived among us, and would trade amongst themselves.  And, some of those humans would donate what they’d gained through trade to their God.

“The foals’ donating some of their candy to Nightmare Moon isn’t intended to mean that they should worship her.  Rather, the intent is to symbolize the hope that the good remaining in my sister would some day be reawakened, and that Luna would be purified from being Nightmare Moon.  Part of that hope was fulfilled when Twilight and the other element bearers used the Elements of Harmony to purify my sister.  And, thanks to you, I do see the good in her coming back.”

I grunt with interest before saying, “I had suggested to Luna that she could use the Nightmare Night celebration to help her gauge the progress she makes towards the princess she should be and away from being Nightmare Moon.”

Princess Celestia states, “I’d sent her to Ponyville so she could see how much the ponies there care about her.  Do you think that was a good idea?”

I take a moment before I answer, “I’m not entirely sure she understood all the symbolism of all that was going on.  You might want to have a talk with her about that.  It might help her to better understand why the foals were leaving candy in front of her statue.”

Princess Celestia sighs, then says, “Maybe you’re right.”  She then asks, “So, what about Lyra? Have you made any progress with her?”

I slowly answer, “Well, actually, I haven’t had time for that today.  We’ve been occupied with the Nightmare Night celebration, and I wasn’t able to get to Lyra specifically, especially while I was trying to help Luna and Twilight.”

At this point, I hear Princess Celestia smile as she says, “Well, like you said, you may have made more progress with her than you might think.  So far, she has been part of your experiments on Pinkie Pie; and that could’ve left as much of an impression on Lyra as it has on Pinkie.  If you don’t perform any of your experiments directly on Lyra, then at least keep an eye on her and see what progress she’s making.”

I respond, “Thanks.  I’ll do that.”

Then, Princess Celestia asks, “So, what about Topsy Turvy and Derpy Hooves?”

I answer, “Pretty much the same as Lyra.”  I continue, “I did have to rein in Pinkie, though.”

The daytime alicorn asks, “Oh?  What happened?”

I answer, “Well, I was assisting Twilight in helping Luna fit in more among the Ponyvillians.  But, Pinkie, on the other hand, hoof, whatever, wasn’t making it easy.  The first two times, I let it pass.  But, the last time, Luna was rescuing a foal after he’d fallen into a tub of glowing green water and apples.

“I figured there’d been enough about Nightmare Moon eating ponies, and I called Pinkie out on it.  And, fortunately, that was enough to stop her from interfering anymore.  I could see that, as much fun as it might be for Pinkie to be scared, the way she was going about it wasn’t helping Luna any.”

Princess Celestia concludes, “So you told her to stop, and she did.”

I reply, “That’s right.”

The daytime alicorn then asks, “And, what happened after that?”

I answer, “Well, what Pinkie said gave Twilight an idea, and she ran a little experiment, with the help of me and Pinkie Pie, to give Luna the chance to have a little fun with her image as Nightmare Moon.  Basically, when it came time for the foals to bring their candy offerings to the statue, well, after they did so, Twilight had Luna appear in the place of the statue as Nightmare Moon and scare the foals.  And, as it turns out, the foals did enjoy it.  One of them even asked Luna to come back and scare them again next year.”

At my last statement, Princess Celestia laughs before saying, “Yeah, that sounds like foals.  And, I’m glad to hear that my sister’s fitting in with the ponies of Ponyville.”

After a pause, I ask, “So, is there anything else I should report on?”

The daytime princess turns around in her spot until she’s facing my character, then says, “No, that’ll be all.  Thank you.”  And, with that, she walks past him and back toward the entrance of the hedge maze, with my character following her.

By the time we get back to the group supervising Topsy Turvy caring for her father, the pink earth mare is finishing cleaning the statue, as well as singing the song Pinkie taught her.

A few seconds later, after Topsy Turvy has finished and voiced her desire that her father not be a statue for another thousand years, Princess Celestia guides Grounds Keeper back to the castle, cleaning equipment and all; and Luna teleports the four ponies, one dinosaur, and one human back to my character’s house.

Then, after the nighttime alicorn teleports away again, the ponies, dinosaur, and human get to work harvesting food for dinner, then go back into the house and prepare the food in the kitchen, then eat it in the front room.  Then, after that and the cleanup, the six disperse to their rooms.

I really have nothing more to add to my notes than what I’ve written.  So, until the game’s tomorrow, I save and close the game. Next Chapter: Chapter 4: Generosity's Sibling Estimated time remaining: 6 Hours, 16 Minutes