Whilst Applejack and Butter had begun enjoying their married lives together, Princess Luna had been making good on her original promise to Applejack at long last. Since their meeting nearly a year ago, Luna had been keeping tabs on Butter’s dreams to see if she could uncover anything that he could be hiding in everyday life. He had unknowingly been watched by Luna on several occasions, across a variety of insightful and sometimes disturbing dreams. While she had never met Butter before personally, based on his dreams alone she was certainly interested to meet him. After learning of their marriage, she decided it was past time to deliver her news to Applejack. She chose to do so on the two days she loved most to go out and visitthe public. Those being the eve and day of Nightmare Night; a celebration of all things that go bump in the night and originally, Luna herself. Well, Luna’s alter ego, Nightmare Moon.

Despite the negative origin, Luna still enjoyed the celebrations of Nightmare Night. She had always cared for children, and joining in on the festivities made them delighted to see her. Ponyville especially was a favorite location to enjoy the holiday, as the locals knew her well, and one colt especially was dear to her heart. Young Pipsqueak was becoming a constant companion for whenever she ventured out among the public of the quaint town. That these days coincided so well with her plan to speak with the giant farmer merely made her schedule that much easier and enjoyable.

Meanwhile in Ponyville, Applejack and Butter were helping the town get ready for the big night’s celebrations. Or rather, Applejack was helping to decorate the town with a variety of spooky and creepy things like cobwebs and skeletons. Butter was instead the self-appointed foreman of the work area; he instructed Applejack and the others where they were they needed to be and what they were supposed to be using. Seemingly he didn’t get the memo about the whole effort being one for the community with everyone pitching in, and the only real overseer being Twilight Sparkle. So chosen for her excellent abilities in the field of list making and organisation during their Winter Wrap-Up operations. Thankfully for Butter, Twilight was off ensuring that the Everfree was completely off limits, so he was able to conduct his business without repercussions. Upon their arrival into the town for their decorating duty, they had immediately been assigned to the rebuilt library. Or rather the recently regrown library, aided by magic from its previous owner. Nopony had wanted it to remain lost, especially since it’s downfall had come from the most wicked, evil villain to terrorize Equestria in recent years. So although Twilight and her friends now had a castle bequeathed to them by the Tree of Harmony, her old abode had been ‘resurrected’ and made once more into a local landmark.

As far as decorating it went, Applejack was the one who was taking on the brunt of that responsibility. Her advanced size mean that she stood just under halfway of the total height of the library, which was fifty feet. With her arms above her head she managed to make it an extra six feet higher and standing on the tips of her toes made up for roughly another foot of height. All in all, she could place decorations around thirty feet up the fifty foot tall tree, which considering the remaining twenty feet was mostly leaves and tree canopy, did the job splendidly. Smaller helpers worked on the lower half of the tree to prevent Applejack from bending down all the time and doing her back in.The rest of the town was coming along nicely as well; Town Hall in particular had been decorated with blackened stickers to make the windows look smashed up and the doors and walls full of cracks and splits.

Down at Sugar Cube Corner, Applejack’s good friend Pinkie Pie had been hard at work creating a range of confectionary that were appropriate for the holiday. Cakes decorated with blood red icing and edible bats sticking out the top, as though they were feasting upon the confection. Other designs included the ever popular pumpkin design; a cake dyed orange during the mixing stage, combined with a multitude of sugary icings on top. Orange to blend with the dye and a deep black variety to make the facial features that were commonly carved into the vegetables themselves. Really though Pinkie was just happy for another little holiday that she could get involved in. It certainly saved her on the effort of creating her own holiday and the extra effort of going about educating and inviting everyone to it. Though it was no secret that Nightmare Night was one of her favourites; all those people in costumes, more sweets than one should ever eat in an entire lifetime and as much fun and games that you could fit into the wee hours of the night and next morning.

Butter, happy with the progress his little group had made so far, decided to take a break. A little snack was in order in fact, to refuel him after all the hard work he had done so far in the day. One of Pinkie’s holiday cupcakes would suffice, so off he went, ducking out from the group without drawing too much attention and waltzed off to see what Pinkie had for him. Perhaps if she had treats to spare he’d bring them back with him for the others as well. Upon arriving at the bakery, Butter was surprised to find the shop floor was empty. There were trays upon trays of baked goods littered across the counter, each one surrounded by a wavy air denoting the freshness of their appearance. Clearly they hadn’t been out of the oven long, but still, where was the one behind the creations? Assuming it was Pinkie, then it was very rare for her to be so careless with her foods, especially treats as delicious as cupcakes. He could just snag them for a box of treats, if so inclined that is, without even paying. Approaching the counter, his hand still dug into his pocket fiddling for his wallet. He was sure he had enough to pay for an easy baker’s dozen, especially as Pinkie sold them usually at a bulk discount.

By the time he placed the money down, he found it odd that still nobody had appeared. Even the bell at the door hadn’t alerted anyone and his heavy footsteps weren’t doing the trick either. Well, there was no sense hanging about, after all he had a team to manage and the longer he spent in here, the less time he was out there bossing them about. He cast down some bits onto the counter, counting them again out loud so he could make sure he had the right amount, not including what he hoped would be the bulk discount. He took a dozen from a tray and carefully put them inside a box he retrieved from under the counter. Chomping happily on a spare in his mouth, he paused before closing the box when he spied a different cupcake nearby. Decorated with an apple slice on top, it was the only one with such a topping and instantly reminded him of a certain special mare. It too went into the box, replacing a bat-themed one with white and red icing that he put in its former place. Now happy with his order, he turned to leave when he heard a noise, like the dropping of a spoon against the floor. He turned back to see-

“Boo!” Pinkie yelled, leaping up from her hiding place behind the counter, practically leaping into Butter’s face. She had not been there a second ago!

Butter squealed like a little girl, his box flying up into the air as he flailed and fell back onto his rump. The cupcake he had been chewing on fell out of his mouth, getting smacked by one of his hands on the way down and flying up into the waiting hand of Pinkie Pie. She giggled and snorted as she watched Butter clutch at his heart, panting heavily as he tried to steady his nerves. To Pinkie, her scare tactics had been harmless fun; Butter felt as though his heart was about to stop. He could feel it pounding in his chest, threatening to tear it open and launch its way out into the open air. His face switched between emotions like he had some kind of disorder. Going from rage to calm to anxious to anger again before coming to a rest around calm and confused. It was far from his normal expression, but in light of the shock he had received, it seemed somewhat fair. Butter couldn’t fathom where Pinkie Pie had been hiding all this time, sure she popped up from behind the counter, but unless she could conjure up her own pocket dimensions and hide in them, then her hair was going to give her away. But that was the trick with Pinkie Pie: Nonsense made perfect sense for her.

Butter and Pinkie had a relatively close relationship, as far as friendships went. They shared similar loves, such as baking and a certain farmer, and the close proximity with Applejack they had allowed them to get to know one another during many parties and social outings. Pinkie also helped Butter at times with gathering much needed supplies for his growing wife’s stomach, having always more than enough from wherever she retrieved it all. But what was really special in some ways was how eager Pinkie Pie had been to get to know him, at least once she realized he was a pony she’d failed to befriend years ago. When he returned to Ponyville from his schooling in Manehatten, she quickly became a constant buddy while in town, and her perky, energetic and wild personality often left Butter smiling happily by the end of the day. But if he was honest with himself, it had also left him feeling a bit tense when close to her, at least when alone.

Pinkie had a body much like his own, providing a different dynamic than what he enjoyed in Applejack. Whilst Applejack was rippling with muscles and had a noticeably beefy appearance because of it, Pinkie Pie had a thickness of a different kind. Her body was bouncy, bubbly and delightfully chubby on account of her insatiable sweet tooth. She was like a petite, chubby, stick of bubble-gum, with a tail and hair that didn’t know the meaning of the word ‘control’. They both curled and frizzed and poofed in all directions to make her bubble-gum body look like it was coated with candy floss. In a way, her sweet tooth was somewhat reasonable, given how sweet-like one could liken her appearance. Most of all though, despite her thick, curvaceous fame, Butter really enjoyed her eyes. Those glistening, sky blue pupils, shimmering with a sense of childlike wonder. It was amazing that she could keep it up, even in the darkest of times. Though, there was only one thing that could top those eyes, and that was those breasts of Pinkie’s. They were far larger than Applejack’s, the excess in size governed by the excessive amount of fat contained within her pink frame. He honestly thought for a moment that she was going to give herself two black eyes as she sprung up to surprise him. As her body was coming down, her chest was still rising, those lumps of flesh hidden behind her apron. If Butter hadn’t been preoccupied with squealing like a little girl, he might of told her to watch out instead.

“Jeez, Pinkie! What were you trying to do? Put me in the hospital?” Butter wheezed.

“Hehe, no, of course not! Just a little holiday spook for you to get you into the spirit of the season, silly!”

“Well I’m certainly feeling my spirit…anyway, how long were you down there? Have you been hiding down there all day?”

“Pffft, don’t be silly! How would I make these delicious little treats…” She held up the cupcake that Butter had been chewing on, and took a bite out of an undisturbed part. “If I was sitting down here all day?”

“Well, the Cakes could be doing the cooking and you’d just be hiding, waiting to spook customers.”

“Nope! Though speaking of little treats, how’s the town looking? I haven’t been out to check due to alllllll this baking, but I bet it’s looking super-duper scary!”

“It looks great – better then last year I suspect. We’ll have things up in no time, even with the occasional problem I have to deal with.”

Pinkie tilted her head and her mouth narrowed into a confused expression. “Problems? Is Twilight having trouble keeping everyone focused? Because I know this song all about focusing, I used it all the time when I was little, it’s really easy to remember to! Did you want to hear it? Because it goes just -”

Butter shoved a hand against Pinkie’s mouth in an effort to shut her up. Whilst it did take off some of the more audible noise from her speech, she didn’t stop talking. She just talked to his hand instead, blowing warm, moist air against his palm, which made him pull his hand away a few seconds later to wring his hand of spit. Pinkie continued to talk away though, no longer on the topic of focusing and instead recounting the one time she had accidentally brought zombies to life during a Nightmare Night celebration. Butter wasn’t sure whether or not to believe that the story was true, seeing as how it was Pinkie Pie and she was renowned for having moments of apparent delusion in terms of her stories. Still, they were entertaining if nothing else. Eventually, her story concluded and although it had ended along the lines of the creation of a so-called Zombie Nation somewhere that Butter didn’t believe to exist, she was for all intents and purposes, finished talking.

“Uh...well. To answer your question, if you even still remember it, is that Twilight isn’t the one that’s having the problems. In fact, I daresay it’s due to my intervention that we aren’t having a problem at all.” He puffed up in pride.

Pinkie Pie laughed and snorted again. “Hahaha! Oh that’s a good one! You know Applejack tells me all about you when we see each other right? Last I heard, you weren’t organising, so much as you were trying to skive off from the work. Howzat?”

Butter blushed. “W-Well, maybe it’s a little bit of truth, j-just a little though!” Looking around, he tried to take his cupcakes and go, but found that the box had fallen to the floor and the cupcakes had spilled out. “Er, can I get another box of cupcakes Pinkie? I should be getting back, but you scared me out of my purchase it seems.”

Pinkie simply giggled again and took a bite out of the cupcake she was holding, chewing it slowly whilst staring at Butter. Thanks to the icing, her lips looked to be smeared with blood, and her unblinking stare merely aided the illusion. “Sure! For a price~”

Whilst Butter waited for Pinkie to stop with the creepy shenanigans, Princess Luna was preparing herself to venture into Ponyville by way of teleportation. Not wanting to announce her presence in the town to the masses just yet, she instead opted to try a little more refined teleportation method. Not commonly known by even the arcane adept, the most basic part of the spell required the user to be able to astral locate everybody in the land. No matter how far away they may be, or how much they were trying not to be found. Finding them in the astral plain allowed the spell-weaver to accurately teleport to within three feet of the target. Some of the more powerful casters could refine this method down a little further, allowing them to be aware of obstacles that surrounded the target. As far as magical refinement, it certainly didn’t come much higher than that of the Princesses; Luna was able to see that Applejack was helping out at the library, the obstacle itself highlighted to her. She was also able to see some of the other people helping out with the decorations. Thinking up a workaround, Luna quickly came to a solution and cast the spell to bring her to Applejack.

The moment she cast the spell, the white walls of the castle fell apart, melting along with everything else around her. The thrones, the carpets, doors, chandeliers and sconces, all of which melted away before her. She was left standing on a darkened abyss, with the colours from the room she was just in, swirling around her feet. Swatches of colour fell away and were replaced with other varieties that were relevant to her location of arrival. Unsurprisingly, a lot of it was orange, some was brown, and others were green, with small swatches of the rainbow thrown in to represent the townsfolk. In a reverse of what happened when she left, the colours began to slide back up before her, moulding themselves to the location. The green swelled into a wall before, finer details such as depth and outlines giving it that distinctly leafy look. Her feet hung over the ground, her upper body bending against her will as the orange under her rear began to solidify into a part of Applejack’s right shoulder. A back length ponytail obscures her from the eyes of the public, and the leaves and branches covering her hanging legs provided extra all around cover. Applejack was a little shocked to find that her shoulder was now occupied by one of the Princesses, but did not let out a sound. Mostly due to the surprise of realization; Even at her own towering height, Luna was indeed small enough to rest upon her shoulder much like a cat!

Placing an arm around the back of her seat’s head, Luna bent forward to smile at the giant farmer. “Fair morning to you Applejack. I hope I am not interrupting anything important, but I believe my assessment of your new spouse has waited long enough. Do you have a moment?”

Applejack paused and turned to look around; the crowd that had been there working on the lower levels were now departing. They’d done a good job of the work, though someone had cheekily painted a smiling face onto Applejack’s bare heel. Still, the takeaway point was that the crowd had pretty much left, including Butter who was nowhere to be seen. No doubt going off to find someone else to bother and boss about for a while. So she was free to talk with Luna without the need for worry of being a public spectacle. That is, more of one than being a giantess caused. A princess perched atop her shoulder would draw even more stares. She continued to work on her decorations whilst speaking quietly, still loud enough for Luna to hear given her close proximity.

“Ah’d completely forgotten about all that, if I’m honest princess. Ah mean, ah’ve jus’ been so busy lately an’ things have been crazy.” Blushing faintly, she added, “Plus, we kinda…tied th’ knot, already.”

“You have my congratulations for that as well. We – that is my sister and I – both wish we could have attended the ceremony, but alas. Still, late news is perhaps better than no news in this instance. Do you still wish to know?”

“Ah guess. Is it good news? Or should ah prepare mahself fer a sit-down with mah little man?”

“Fear not dear Applejack – I come with nothing but good news.” The giant mare sighs as Luna pauses in thought. “Perhaps the only ‘bad’ news – and I state this with question – is that perhaps he cares for you too much at times. He enjoys you on all levels, but seems especially delighted to have you as such a gargantuan mare in his life. Of course, whether or not that’s bad news is up to your interpretation.”

“He’s not worried about anythin’? At all?”

“If he is, then he’s an expert at suppressing his feelings, even in his dreams. All I saw in his mind was you. You sitting on a pedestal. You being large and in charge. You letting him massage your every inch. There was even a rather strange moment where he was being smothered between two nude versions of yourself.”Applejack blushed. “Though, it did become somewhat odder when one of them seemed to change.”

“Whatcha mean ‘change’? Did they show up anywhere else?”

“The dream was vague even to my sight, but it was only once that it occurred. It was certainly interesting to see such a small Butter being sandwiched between two fleshy walls of orange and pink. Very…healthy figures they both were too. My compliments.”

“Pink? Huh, ah’m gonna have t’ have a word o’ two with him an’ someone else about that…” Applejack mumbled.

“Of course, but are you happy with these results? Do you feel a little more at ease now that you know Butter has an undying love for you?”

Pushing aside the small question in her mind, Applejack smiled and nodded her head at her guest. “Ah think so, yeah! Ah’m still gonna need t’ have a little chat w’ him, just t’ be sure, but thank you Princess Luna. Ah’m glad ya did this for me.”

“But of course, Applejack. What kind of Princess would I be if I didn’t care for my subjects?”

“Uh, a bad one?”

Luna laughed grandly. “Very good, Applejack. Now, I really must return to Canterlot. I have a few things to get finished before Nightmare Night begins. I trust you’ll be joining in the festivities as well?”

“Mhm! Ah’ll be here w’ Butter, an’ thanks again, Princess.”

“Like I said before, you’re welcome Applejack, and it’s simply Luna among friends.” Then with a snap of her fingers, she was gone, disappearing in a flash of magic and sparkles.

That left Applejack on her own for a few minutes; enough time for her to process what she’d been told. In reality, it couldn’t have come at a better time for Applejack, what with the marriage still being fresh in her mind. Now that they were, for all intents and purposes, a happily married couple, she needed to know that he was as happy as she was. It also helped to ease her mind as she continued to grow upwards, knowing that he held her in such high regard no matter how big she got. She had no reason to doubt that Luna was anything but truthful, so it seemed Butter was what some would consider the perfect lover. A lover who was on his way over to pick her up from the library and take her home to change for the night ahead. When she spotted the package of cupcakes he had to offer her, her smile grew even wider.

Later that day, once their snack was consumed and the last hours of daylight enjoyed, Applejack and Butter retreated back to their homestead to get ready. Butter had the perfect costume picked out already for himself, which would be twinned as a couples costume with Applejack’s. He had opted for a giant gorilla suit from a classic film picture, one he had enjoyed as a child. There were downsides to his choice of costume though, one being a lack of communicative ability. The mask was designed to make it so that regular speech was muffled into an animalistic grunt of sorts, enough to replicate the famous grunts by the onscreen character. But he thought it worthwhile to suffer through, as the piece de resistance would be Applejack’s costume. Her suit was something crafted by the master seamstress that was Rarity in as little as three days, and all without Applejack growing suspicious. Before they had left for town that morning Butter had left Applejack’s costume out for her to find when they returned. He even put a little note out for her, one that was at a size she could read. The nearly dozen or so quills spent to do so was worth it, as the look on her face had made him giggle. So he’d left her to go upstairs and change while he worked on swapping into his own costume. As a final tease he left the final piece of her outfit downstairs so that she was going to have to come downstairs and show it off to him before she could complete her outfit.

Almost on cue, Applejack made her way downstairs, giving Gorilla Butter a look at his monstrous wife. Rarity had outdone herself on the outfit, turning the apple bucking beauty into a gargantuan lizard. Thick, green scales glistened with a waterless moist appearance, courtesy of the material it was made from. Two rows of jagged fabric teeth stuck out from the snout of the outfit, the snout itself obscuring Applejack’s face from view. Like Butter’s outfit it was meant to allow her to see, but it wasn’t designed to let her speak well to those outside the suit. Also like Butter she could manage nothing more than a couple of angry sounding grunts per sentence. A lengthy tail trailed behind her as she stood at the base of the stairs, with purple spines running up its length and up her back. The only part that was missing were the shoes, which Butter had made sure were down by the door. He at least wanted to get a good look at Applejack’s chunky digits before they left that night. Though he wasn’t going to be spending the night running after her whilst they were walking around the town, oh no. There was one thing he had left for preparations and it was the other part of the reason why he had made her shoes the last part of her outfit

As she bent down and took her seat on the stairs to put her giant lizard feet on, Butter scampered up the stairs. When he was level with her shoulders, he then launched himself off the step and at Applejack, his arms outstretched in true primate fashion. He climbed his way up to her shoulder, sitting on the opposite shoulder to where Luna had been earlier on. He pointed towards the door and gave Applejack a playful slap on the side of the head. Applejack tried to turn her head to look at him and see just what he was doing, but the costume prevented her from doing so. Butter gave another slap and Applejack strode towards the door, assuming that this was Butter’s rather crude way of telling her to get a move on. She spoke something to him as they made their way outside, but as it only came in grunts Butter had no idea what she said. He gave her a final slap, this time on the shoulder and shouted something akin to “yeehaw!” Miraculously that did make it through his mask, and Applejack snorted so loud it actually shook Butter through the fabric. Then they were off into town, looking like the strangest couple around, though probably not the strangest thing they’d see tonight.

Once they were on the edge of town, a few eagle-eyed and slightly giddy residents saw the pair approaching. Someone of sound mind and body might have looked upon the pair and thought for a moment about whether or not there was a giantess and her lover in the area surrounding the town. Had they thought that far then they would have known the answer was yes and that this was likely them. However this was not one such creature; they had been at the special brew that was common at these festivities and right now, the first thing that came to their mind was that screening of ‘Monster Mayhem’ they had seen just the other day. Their reactions to the grunts of the pair, combined with their first-hand knowledge of giant beasties, were dramatic to say the least. A loud, shrill shriek and movement deeper into town yelling about whatever they could think of to make their message sound scary and dramatic. Though rather than cause chaos, the people in town were rather interested to see the beasts in question. Applejack and Butter were only too happy to show themselves, hoping that the folks there would be more reasonable.

They weren’t.

Applejack’s stomping feet caused the biggest stress as she came into town with speed, the extra width of the outfit feet making her brush against things. Foliage bent out of the way and trees rustled as she passed on by. Even the odd resident was knocked over by the sheer amount of air that she displaced with each step. At first it seemed like she was still going to be able to make it into town without much problem, but that was simply a fallacy. It didn’t take into account just how populated the centre of town actually was, with it being the hub for the majority of the action. Applejack stumbled into town and within seconds she was creating a mess. Her oversized stompers were knocking over tubs of water used in some of the games. The vibrations of her weight against the floor shook down some of the more flimsy stalls and even some of the building decoration. Streamers wrapped themselves around her shins and tail, causing her to stumble and pull down the support beams that they were attached to. On one occasion, she even managed to pull the entire front of a house down from getting herself caught up in the streamers. Her pleas for help and calm amongst the townsfolk only served up further disarray as she was nothing but grunts and roars to their ears. The townsfolk couldn’t take her wild behaviour and turned tail on her, struggling to think of a place that might be safe from someone as big as Applejack. She could cover so much ground with her feet alone, that if she eventually fell over, she was going to take a great deal of land with her as well. Possibly a fair chunk of the populace as well.

Applejack was getting panicked now; the townsfolk were racing around all over and she didn’t know where she was supposed to be stepping. Every time she went to put her feet down there was someone directly under it. This meant she jerked it up into the air and went to place it down somewhere else, only to find the same again. The constant turning and swinging over her leg as she struggled to find a place to set it down did her more bad than good. She was beginning to get dizzy, so much so that Butter was struggling to hold onto her shoulder. Her tail swung out from behind her, crashing into buildings and demolishing them from the sturdy material of her outfit. Pieces of wood and shards of glass soared through the air, over the heads of the townsfolk who ducked and dove out of the way to avoid it. Some of those that had a little more sense chose to run outwards and away from Applejack, even if it meant they had to run towards the outskirts of town. For those that were closer and lacked some common sense, they figured that hiding directly underneath Applejack was the best idea. Their thinking being that she was more likely to step outwards than she was to step inside, but given her increasing state of dizziness, she wasn’t likely to play by those rules.

When she did manage to get herself some steady footing, she roared out a sigh and kept her gaze steadily on the ground below. Butter placed hand against her masked cheek as she muttered some things to herself, which attracted the attention of the crowd still around her. A wave of realisation spread over the masses, one by one coming together to talk amongst themselves.They saw her momentary lapse in destruction as their chance to see off the beast once and for all. Time and time again they had suffered as someone bigger and better than them had demonstrated such power over them. Well now they had gone too far; to intrude on a day of celebration like this was just wrong. The crowds formed around Applejack’s feet, keeping a couple of feet away in case she suddenly lurched in any direction. It was time for Ponyville to fight back!

Butter, seeing the hostile motions of the crowd, felt a protective surge of energy within himself. He knew that Applejack could not see them doing this; she feared every day that someone would eventually try to treat her like a monster. If she was chased out of town, even from an honest series of mistakes, it could break every bit of confidence they had worked for. What’s more, he felt guilt because perhaps her costume, chosen and commissioned by him, was the root cause of all the fumbles of the night so far. With shocking suddenness Butter leapt! So brazen was his action, from so high up, that both Applejack and the crowd let out twin cries of shock. Yet the thick material of his gorilla suit absorbed the worst of the landing, and rolled the rest off before standing up between his wife and the masses. Grimacing under the mask, Butter pounded his chest similar to his likeness, showing his willingness to defend.

Just when it seemed like either the town was going to band together and fight off the monster, or Butter was to fight them, Princess Luna made a surprise appearance. Teleporting into the midst of the standoff, she looked around with a smile before looking again in confusion at the ruined decorations and buildings. Applejack and Butter stopped in their tracks, Applejack in particular grunting furiously as she tried to inform Luna that she wasn’t doing this on purpose and how everything was happening because of a misunderstanding. Butter chipped in too, but for the most part it didn’t seem like anything was getting through to the Princess, or the townsfolk. For their part, the townsfolk began to clamor about all that had occurred by the pair. Glancing between the two parties, Luna burst out laughing at the whole scenario, for reasons that Butter and Applejack weren’t totally sure about. The townsfolk were equally as confused as Butter and Applejack, pausing in their calls for the giantess and her gorilla grunt to leave in favour of listening to the booming laugh. The Princess did eventually calm down, her laugh dying down to a chuckle before she calmed completely. With a wave of her wrist, the faces of the townsfolk fell into a dull stupor, their feelings relaxed to brainless levels as the crowd dissipated. They returned to their homes, leaving Applejack, Butter and Luna as the only people still in the town square. After that, Luna snapped her fingers again and worked a little spell on Butter and Applejack, particularly the hoods of their outfits. She changed it so that when they spoke, then their speech would no longer be so muffled and easy to mistake for animal grunts.

“There, isn’t that better than such brutish grunts?” Luna asked.

“Much better, thank ya, Princess.” Applejack breathed out in relief.

“Well, I think it was going well there really,” Butter lied. He ignored the throb of his legs from his jump. “Though what was so funny?”

Luna smiled and chuckled a little to herself. “Twas this prank of yours. As a fair lover of pranks – to which my dear sister can attest to – I must admit this is one of the better I have seen.Coming down on Nightmare Night, dressed as two well-known beasts of fantasy horror?” She chuckled again. “Could I ask you two to come back with me to the castle, at least at the end of the night?”

“Uh, ah think we’re gonna have t’ head home actually. Th’ townsfolk don’ really seem t’ want t’ have us around here, or at least they seemed that way before ya showed up…”

“Oh you needn’t worry about that Applejack - I shall take care of that. Now what do you say? Want to give my sister a little scare on this night of frights?”

“Ah’m n-”

“Sure.” Butter lifted a thick gorilla thumb in agreement, a loud groan ignored by him and the princess from overhead.

“Excellent! Now, I’ll fix this little problem you’ve got yourselves into and then I’ll come find you once it’s done. I can’t wait to see Celestia’s face!”

There was just enough time for Applejack to frown at Butter from behind her big, green, snout before Luna disappeared and the world began to reverse around the pair. The buildings that had suffered damage during Applejack’s escapades were rebuilt. Splintered wood was fixed back into full beams again, which in turn were turned back into the supports of the homes and shops. Glass twinkled in minuscule pieces before it was reassembled into a sturdy window once more. The footsteps that Applejack had made whilst she was stomping around in a panic were inflated with earth once more. Like an imprint on a balloon, it filled out and erased the tracks that Applejack had made. Even the townsfolk returned from their homes in reverse, re-enacting the panic that they had showed when Applejack was messing things up, reverting all the way back to the state of calm they had been in before Applejack and Butter arrived. The two marveled at this fantastic display of alicorn power, knowing that few got to see it in such widespread use. When the first resident noticed them this time though, Luna’s magic worked its charm and the pair were able to explain that they weren’t monsters. There was no panic this time, no sense of danger; Applejack and Butter had a good time with the townsfolk, right up until Luna showed up again and took them over to Canterlot.

Bidding them to wait after explaining the plan, Luna went inside the castle and brought her sister into the throne room, pointing out the window at something. Celestia wasn’t impressed at being woken up so early before she had to raise the sun, but she humoured her sister on the grounds that she seemed genuinely terrified. Upon being brought the window Luna distracted Celestia by getting her to focus out in the distance, further away than her surprise actually was. Then, she gestured to the couple to begin, making sure that their speech was replaced by loud and terrifying roars. She even cast a hallucinatory field around Butter so that he appeared to be the same size as Applejack, so they could duke it out believably. As Luna expected, Celestia was terrified to see a giant lizard and a giant gorilla fighting each other outside their castle. It was a side that few people had ever witnessed; panic and confusion gripped the solar monarch as she tried to process two imaginary monsters fighting in reality in front of her home. Words began to babble from her lips over what to do, until the panic began to climb too high for it to be safe. Once she reached this point, Luna promptly spelled her sister asleep and levitated her back to her room. Another spell upon her dreamscape tied the bow on her wondrous Nightmare Night prank, leaving Celestia to fear a giant cake monster joining the trio and leaving a viable culprit for the hallucinations. Laughing, Luna rejoined the couple outside, who had stopped once they saw the sisters leave the window to wait. She thanked them both, undid the illusion on Butter, and transported them all back to Ponyville to continue with the festivities. As they split off to enjoy a more peaceful time, Luna smiled as she heard the bright and youthful voice of her dear companion Pipsqueak approach. Vowing to invite the couple next year to yet another prank on her sister, she bent low and hugged the young lad before venturing with him to plunder the town for candy and tribute. All in all, Applejack and Butter had quite the eventful night, and they looked forward to the next one. Butter was already scheming his wife’s next costume, which would no doubt prove even more eventful than the last.