I’m going to be honest. I was rather nervous as I walked into Sugarcube Corner with Rarity. It was a mixture of my introverted nature acting up and the fact I was dressed just this side of being allowed out in public.

“Well, Ranma, don’t just stand there,” Rarity favored me with a wicked grin. She knew she was tormenting me and enjoying it, the sadist. It was almost fitting that Starlight had chosen to make her dress up as the Equestrian version of Freddie Kruger.

“I hope you realize, this means war,” I said dourly, to which Rarity just giggled.

“Darling, you’d have to be a player first,” Rarity’s smirk as she said that utterly destroyed me. I was so far out of my depth it wasn’t even funny. Well, he who lives to run away lives to fight another day. With that in mind, I opened the door to the party.

As the door opened and everyone turned to look at the new arrival, I suddenly had an intense bout of empathy for Fluttershy’s plight during the Hurricane Fluttershy incident. I felt exposed. I felt judged. Worst of all, I knew it was all in my head. Yet, there was some part of me that found it thrilling. Conflicting desires to flee and bask in the attention rose within me.

Perhaps fortunately, the choice was taken from me as Rarity shoved me through the doorway.

“Daaamn Ranma!” Rainbow whistled appreciatively before getting dope slapped by AJ. I was pleased to see Dash wearing the Seaman uniform I had picked for her costume. I thought it was appropriate to dress her up like a Navy recruit when she was a member of what amounted to an Air Force unit.

“Rainbow, behave yerself,” AJ chastised while dressed up as a rodeo clown, courtesy of Pinkie. Rainbow opened her mouth and AJ raised her hand preemptively. Rainbow swatted it away.

“What did you do to tick off Rarity?” Rainbow asked.

“A lady does not get ‘ticked off’ Rainbow…she gets even,” Rarity brandished the false blades on her fingers that were part of her costume with a terrifying smile.

“And you all thought I was crazy when I made her dress up like a slasher killer,” Starlight drawled.

“Wow Rarity, you made Ranma into a total knockout!” Pinkie giggled. Twilight had selected to have the party planner dress as a train conductor.

“It was a simple matter with such an exquisite base to work with,” Rarity demurred, causing me to flush with embarrassment.

“You do look really good, Ranma,” Twilight said with a slight blush, looking extra cute in her sailor fuku Starlight had picked for her, “I don’t know if I could dress like that, especially given, you know…”

“I surrendered myself to this possibility when I had Rarity make my costume for my girl form. Maybe not being able to remember my name has given me some kind of disassociation, I’m not a psychologist,” I shrugged and suddenly noticed most of the eyes in the room were on me, “What?”

“You don’t remember your name?” Starlight, dressed as a nutcracker thanks to Spike, asked with a slight tone of horror.

“I could’ve sworn…” I furrowed my brow as I tried to think, “Oh…I only ever told Flutters and Twi…oops.”

I really didn’t like the way some of them were looking at me. AJ was looking at me with mild pity, Rarity looking aghast, and Starlight had an odd look of creeping terror? That was strange, but then again, Starlight was often a strange lass. I didn’t pay it too much thought at the time. I would come to rue that decision.

“Come on guys, I’ve been here for almost four months now. If this were a major issue, someone would’ve noticed something by now, right?” I said and that seemed to dispel most of the heavy atmosphere that had accumulated. The irony this statement would invoke in the future was also something I would come to rue.

But regardless of future ruing, the rest of the night was spent having fun and Luna even showed up as the party was winding down. All in all, I enjoyed myself, even if I didn’t know what was about to be set in motion.

Twilight’s Castle, after the party

Twilight was getting ready for bed when there was a knock on her door.

“Come in,” Twilight said around a yawn. To her mild surprise, instead of Spike, it was Starlight, “Starlight? What’s the matter?”

“Well…remember that magic you sorta told me to stop studying?” Starlight started bashfully, nervously rubbing her hands together.

“Starlight…” Twilight sighed.

“Wait, no! I’m not studying it anymore but…Ranma said she doesn’t remember her original name. But she clearly remembers almost everything else about her former life or she wouldn’t be able to have those in-depth interviews with you. Doesn’t that strike you as odd?” Starlight prompted.

“Well, yes, but why are you bringing it up?” Twilight suddenly had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Starlight had opened the conversation with talk about her research into Soul Magic, something that was heavily regulated to say the least.

“In my research…well…names have power Twilight. Someone getting thrown through the Void Between and emerging from the other side without their name? Hopefully it’s nothing but I can’t help but be worried,” Starlight said as she looked away.

“Can you tell me the worst and best case?” Twilight asked cautiously.

“Best case it’s just something that wanted to take over Ranma’s old life back on her world. Worst case…there are a lot of bad things even a regular unicorn can do to you after they take your name. I hate to think what some horror from the Void could do with her name,” Starlight said with a shiver.

“Starlight, tomorrow we’re going to the restricted section of the Canterlot Archives,” Twilight announced.

“Huh?” Starlight was caught off guard by this sudden statement.

“We don’t know enough about what might be going on here. Until we know more, there’s no sense worrying the others. So starting tomorrow we’re both going to be researching Soul Magic,” Twilight decided firmly.

“Are you sure?” Starlight asked quietly as she looked down. Twilight placed a hand on her shoulder.

“I’m sure. You’re not who you once were, Starlight. The old you wouldn’t have been concerned for Ranma’s sake. I trust you,” Twilight said sincerely. Starlight sniffled and smiled.

“Thanks Twilight,” She said softly.

“Don’t thank me just yet. I’m told my study sessions can get pretty extreme,” Twilight joked, evoking a giggle from Starlight.

“I’ll keep that in mind. But if we’re going to be hitting the books tomorrow, we should probably get some sleep. Night Twilight,” Starlight bid.

“Goodnight Starlight,” Twilight returned and Starlight left. Soon thereafter, Twilight slipped between the covers of her bed and tried to sleep while her mind swirled with worry for her friends.

Ah ha! You thought I was a rom-com Halloween party, but it was I, Plot, the whole time in disguise! Muwahahaha!

So yeah, this fic hasn't been without plot, it's just been very, very in the background. It's still going to be mostly in the background, but it's now rumbling slowly to the foreground.

In other news, this month has been pretty good to me with one major sucky day. As everyone who's followed me for awhile knows, I have pretty bad insomnia. As it turns out, I probably have sleep apnea and it's been getting worse. So my doctor set up an appointment at a sleep lab to hopefully get me one of those cpap machines. Unfortunately they gave me the wrong address, so I missed my appointment and what was supposed to happen on October 12th is now happening on November 9th.

Hopefully it helps. I don't know how many dreams about drowning followed by abruptly waking up after 1 1/2 of sleep I can tolerate.