//------------------------------// // Nightmare fright night (Part Three) // Story: The Nightmare Reborn // by vintage brony //------------------------------// Hocus, Nuudo, Zecora “So they just carved out a tree and stuck books in there? As in made of paper? Kinda redundant don’t you think?” Hocus asked as they approached said library. “Sort of like how you made a big arcade machine and stuck more arcade machines in it, right?” Nuudo said. “Touché.” He said in return. “And so we arrive, yet in occupants it is deprived.” Zecora commented as she looked into the dark windows of the library. “Hmmm...” Hocus fumed as he flew up to the balcony window and put a hoof above his head as he pressed it to the glass, to get a better view of the inside. “No one on the second floor either.” He called back. “Maybe they went to look for us at the train station after all? - Nuudo suddenly gasped loudly – OR what if they've been captured by Nightmare?! Or what if she made more minions!?” He said in a panic. He then scanned the area around them for any visible threats. “Woah woah woah. Calm down there you crazy pony, - “Zebra.” The two zebras said simultaneously. - Whatever, I thought you said that she couldn’t make any more slaves cause she didn’t have the energy to do that?” “ I said she probably didn’t.” He corrected. “She needs a unicorn to get her power, Since in her state she cant make her own magic. She needs her own body for that, so for now she has to borrow somepony else's. She'll lose energy is she goes without a body at all, if she has a body she wont lose energy unless she uses some of her stored energy, and if she has a unicorn she can recover her energy. At least depending on the unicorns magical strength and aptitude. So the more skilled the better.” Nuudo explained. “And how do you know so much, about Nightmare's powers and such?” Zecora asked with a raised eyebrow in suspicion. If information is power, this one could crush towers. “Well I have a bad past, lets leave it at that for now.” Nuudo said firmly as he glared down an alleyway to make sure nopony was there. Before the zebra could put two and two together she was greeted by the sight of three mares quickly making their way towards the library. “Zecora! Long time no see! How ya' been?” Applejack called out as she neared her friend. “Quite well Applejack, although I could use a snack...” Zecora said in return as her stomach growled. “Well ah'll get ya' sich'iated in a bit, but we're lookin' for some new ponies, ya' see anypony new 'round here?” “The ones you seek, are having a quick peek.” Zecora said as she pointed to the the two stallions who were still looking through the windows, oblivious to the girls arrival. “Well finally we found 'em!” Rainbow said as she dashed (no pun intended) to the them. “Oh my! Is that another zebra? And what is he wearing on his head?” Rarity asked as she gestured in slight disgust to Nuudo's goggles. “The lenses do not go with that shade of black!” “Now, now Rarity, lets not go insultin' these new ponies.” Applejack warned. “Oh perish the thought! A lady would not stoop to such lows as to be petty.” She answered while placing a hoof to her chest, striking a proud pose. “Mmmmhmmm. Is that why you reacted like that when ah' said id wear ma' old work duds for the Gala?” Applejack reminded her. “Well that’s different! We were to be in the company of royalty! One must look their best when meeting somepony in such a position.” Rarity said defensively. “Anyways, I think we got some new ponies ta' meet.” Applejack said with a playful smirk as she made her way over to the stallions. Rarity huffed quietly in annoyance and followed to introduce herself. “Wait your a zebra too? Are you related to Zecora or something?” Rainbow asked in confusion. “Well no, were both just natively from the same place. Although I didn’t stay there for as long as she did.” Nuudo said in response. “Oh she can ask a racist question but I cant ask if they powder their noses?” Hocus grumbled quietly to himself. Earning a knee to his side by Nuudo. “Shut up!” He whisper-yelled to him. “Your face!” Hocus whisper-yelled back. “Well howdy there guys! Welcome to Ponyville! Ah'm Applejack, pleasure ta' meet cha'!” Applejack said enthusiasticly and shook each of their hooves just as enthusiastically. Once the involuntary movement stopped Nuudo greeted back. “Dumela mma.” “Uh Gesundheit...” Applejack said confused. Nuudo chuckled a little, “It means 'hello madam' in my native tongue.” He explained with a smile. He then turned to Rarity as she approached. “Dumela mma.” He repeated. “Oh my that’s rather exotic!” She said taken a back lightly. “Well I am from another land, even if I didn’t stay there long.” “Time well spent if you ask me, speaking two languages is rather impressive.” She complimented. “Well my name is Rarity, and its a pleasure to meet the two of you.” “My name is Nuudo and this is Hocus Legerdemain. The pleasure is all ours.” He said as he took a respective bow to the both of them. “Hey, I thought I didn’t want you to refer to me by my last name?” Hocus said angrily to Nuudo as he rose from his bow. “Its a formality when meeting new ponies to introduce yourself by your full name.” He said matter of factually. “Oh your part of the Legerdemains! Oh they are quite famous in the show business . They perform across the kingdom! But wait... aren’t the Legerdemains... well unicorns?” Rarity said confused by Hocus's wings. “Yes their greeeeeat! Unless your you know, not a unicorn. Then they spend their lives trying to fix you is all.” Hocus said statistically. “Oh, umm... I'm quite sorry about that dear. I meant no offense.” Rarity said as she took a step back. Well so much for a good first impression... “Its fine, I just don’t like that name.” Hocus said dismissing it with a hoof. “Anyways you girls are the ones we are supposed to meet right? Where are the others?” Nuudo asked, wanting to get to the topic at hoof. “Why yes we are arranged to meet you two at the station but we got a little tied up... But we split up in search of you. And where are the rest of you?” She asked in return. “Well we had the same idea.” Nuudo said with a chuckle. “We split up to find you girls. So where did they go?” “Twilight went after Pinkie and Fluttershy into town. We went here to see if you would just head over here and wait for us. So where did the other guys go?” Rainbow asked. “Eh we kinda ditched the group we were with and ran into Zecora, and she said she knew where to go so we followed her here.” Hocus said. “Well more like Zecora had you pinned to the ground in a few seconds.” Nuudo said holding back some laughter. “Ha ha mister funny zebra! You should replace your mohawk here with a rainbow colored afro! Anyways... now that all this is out of the way how about we go find everypony and sort all of this out.” “Sounds fine by me! Come on everyone!” Applejack said, making sure to say everyone so the zebras weren’t offended. Lunar, Kristoph (A few minutes ago) “So is that the tree!” Lunar asked in excitement. “I'm guessing Lunar. This is were the directions end anyways.” Kristoph said panting a bit from the heavy cart and its passenger. “Pitiful whelps!” growled Flim as he struggled with the chains that bound him. “Well it looks like we made it before anypony else. I'll go hide the cart somewhere while we wait for the others. It’ll look suspicious if we just leave him out with us in the open.” Kristoph said grunting as he hauled the cart around back finding the same spot that Evan used earlier. Perfect. Once he was done securing him he saw Lunar gazing at a sign posted on the front door of the library as if it was Santa Whooves bearing presents for all. “Hey what are you looking at Lunar?” “Kristoph look! We have to sign up!” He said as he pointed at a flier and bent his knees and extended them repeatedly in excitement. Kristoph read the flier out loud. “Musicians of Ponyville, please come and sign up for our Nightmare Night festival concert! All genres welcome (PG appropriate) just make sure you have a good time and have a spooky Nightmare Night!” He finished reading and looked at his friend who looked at him expectantly. “Well!?” He asked. “Well I don’t see why not. It wont take long to sign up and after this whole mess is straightened out we can surely make it to the show. And it’d be nice to finally play some music after so long... only neither of our bands are here, or our instruments for that matter.” “Don't worry about that! I have any idea! Come on I know where town hall is so we can sign up!” “Ok but how do you know where town hall is?” “Well my friend lives here in town and she hid maps of Ponyville everywhere in town. In case she has to show somepony around that’s new in town. You know map emergency.” Lunar said nonchalantly and bearing a wide smile. “Ok then... well then lead on.” “Sure thing!” Lunar said happily as he brought out a map from under a nearby bush. And at that the two made their way in towards the center of town, just missing the others by a few minutes. Pinkie, Fluttershy, Twilight “Pinkie! Ugh... come on we don’t have time to mess around!” Twilight called out as she summoned her daily planner with a magical pop. Once she noticed she was a few minutes behind her allotted time meant for finding the new ponies she grew a bit more frantic. “Ok Pinkie please come out! We have to hurry! Were getting behind schedule!” “Um Twilight... Pinkie went in there.” Fluttershy said quietly and pointing a hoof towards the doors of the Sugar Cube Corner. “Thanks Fluttershy.” She said hurriedly as she made her way through the front door of the bakery. “Pinkie I know your in here!” She heard some muffled snickering and perked her ears up to try to locate the noise. After a few moments of concentrating her ears focused on the stairs leading upwards. “Found you.” She said quietly with a smile. She balanced on the tips of her hooves as she ascended the stairs to find Pinkie and drag her back if necessary. Once she found the door leading into Pinkie's room she put a hoof on the door in preparation. Once she felt she was ready and focused enough to catch the hyperactive pony she burst in the room and yelled out “Aha!” She heard a giggling emanating from a closet and nonchalantly cantered over near it. “Well I guess Pinkie isn’t... Here!” She was confused to see the closet void of anything, let alone a hyper party pony. She heard a snicker from under a bed and simply levitated it up to see underneath, she was disappointed to see nothing, not even a dust bunny. She put the the bed down and continued to look around but didn’t notice Pinkie holding onto the corners of the bed to hold herself up. Once the bed was back on all fours she slid up onto the ceiling fan. She rummaged in her mane for a second and pulled out two cans with a string attached to them. She slowly let one down behind Twilight's head, who was currently looking under papers on a desk. You can never be too sure when Pinkie Pie is involved. Once the can was in position she whispered into the can she held in her hoof. “Twilight dearie is that you?” She said in an uncanny Mrs. Cake impression. Twilight turned and faced the door, “Yes im in here Mrs. Cake! You haven’t happened to have seen Pinkie Pie come inside have you?” She asked desperately. “No I haven’t heard of a Pinkie Pie dearie!” Pinkie said as she started to lose the impression due to her giggles. Twilight noticed the voice change and looked around until she saw the can in the air behind her head. “Pinkie get down from there!” “But your it Twilight! That's not how the game works silly!” She said as she peered at the unicorn from her perch. “If you don’t come down I'll get you down!” Twilight warned. How in Equestria did she even get all the way up there? “Now your getting it!” Pinkie said before giggling at her own joke. “Ugh...” Twilight groaned then she simply wrapped Pinkie up in her pink magic and brought her off the fan and in front of her floating just above the ground. She poked Pinkie with a hoof and said, “Tag.” “Yay! I’m it!” She exclaimed. This is gonna take longer then expected... Twilight thought as she thought back to her schedule. Kebert, Kidd, Evan, Spike “Well were back and no one is here...” Kidd said in an exasperated tone. That was a lot of walking for nothing... “Well maybe then went to look around town? We could try to look around some of their usual spots and go from there.” Spike suggested from Kidd's back. “Sounds good to me, what about you Kebert?” Evan said with a smile, happy he was basically getting a free tour around town. “I'm fine with that, we don’t really have much choice anyways.” Kebert answered with a shrug. “Eh, as long as we get this over with already. I want to enjoy myself while I'm here.” Kidd added. “Well if you want to enjoy yourself you could go over to Sugarcube Corner? Besides with Twilight so stressed about you guys showing up I didn’t get a chance to make breakfast...” Spike said as he held his rumbling green stomach. “Alright then just lead the way and we can get something there. We haven’t eaten anything yet anyways either. We can pick something up for everypony else while we're there too.” Evan suggested. “Aright! Its just down that street and then your gonna take a right.” Spike said as he pointed out the route with a claw. Lunar, Kristoph “Hey whats with the big crowd? Oh is the concert started already?!” Lunar said as he saw the group of ponies by town square. “Not exactly Lunar, I think they're already setting up for Nightmare Night. And I think we can sign up for the concert at town hall.” Kristoph said as he observed Lunar bounce excitedly. “I'll race you there!” Kristoph sighed as he saw Lunar dash off towards the line forming at the town hall doors. “What am I going to do with you?” He said as he smiled and followed his friend. “Hey is this the line to sign up for the concert?” Lunar asked two mares in line who were in a conversation. “Why yes it is, are you a musician? I haven’t seen you in town.” The grey earth pony mare said with a Canterlot accent, just not as pompous. “Yeah me and my friend Kristoph wanted to sign up so we could perform together for the first time!” Lunar said excitedly as he gestured to Kristoph who just now caught up. The white mare standing in line with the grey mare spoke next. “Wait, hold on. Kristoph? And are you Lunar Midknight?” The white unicorn asked as she waited anxiously for a reply. “Yeah, we just come into town on some business and thought after we finish we could join in the fun. Play a bit of music and just enjoy ourselves a bit.” Kristoph explained. “Oh that’s so cool! Octy to you know who these guys are?!” The unicorn asked her friend. “Vinyl I would appreciate it if you would use my proper name in public, especially with ponies we just met. But to answer your question no, I don't know these stallions. Do you know them from somewhere?” “How can you not know who these guys are? I thought you liked music?” Vinyl said with a smirk as she prodded her friend's side. “Just because I prefer the classics does not mean I don't appreciate music Vinyl.” She retorted, before turning her attention back to the pegasi musicians. “So my friend seems to know who you are so let me introduce us. My name is Octavia Melody, - she gestured with a hoof to her unicorn friend - and this is Vinyl Scratch. We are both musicians in Ponyville, I usually work in Canterlot or at prestigious events though I move around quite a lot. Vinyl is always performing at more local parties and concerts.” Octavia said. “Yeah, me and Octy here are going to rock it tonight at the concert! You ready for this!?” She asked Octavia. “Quite.” She said confidently. “So what do you girls plan to do at the concert? You both play instruments I’m guessing.” Kristoph asked. “Well Octy here plays the Cello and I rock the turntables! You might know me by my stage name.” Vinyl said with a confident grin. “While performing she prefers to be called DJ Pon-3, She feels it appropriate. Even when others don’t.” Octavia said hiding a quite laugh behind a hoof. “Hey I told them what my stage name is so he had no excuse!” She said defensively. “I'd say he did, he was just a colt. And it was his birthday.” She answered flatly. “I’m just sayin...” Vinyl huffed. “Well are you two performing together or separate?” Kristoph asked, he had heard a bit of modern music mixed with string instruments and he thought it was... well different. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. “A bit of both, Octy wants to do some classical song she knows and then ill go on for a set then bring her back on to join me. Right?” Vinyl asked. “What did I say about calling me 'Octy'? And yes that’s the plan we have for tonight. So what do you two play?” Octavia asked in return. “Well I play the bass guitar and Lunar plays the regular guitar and sings. But his band isn’t here so were gonna play ourselves. Come to think of it I don’t know what song we're gonna play, What are we playing Lunar?” “Well I wrote a song not to long ago for Nightmare Night! Its supposed to go on the next album I put out but I thought it would be cool to play it now! I can teach the song to you before we go on.” “Well that’s settled then, I hope the others have done what then need to while we do this. Id hate to have to miss this, but it is important so if we need to we'd have to go.” Kristoph said with a touch of uncertainty in his calm voice.