Costume Changes pt 1

Magenta Changes
A MLP FiM Fanfic by BrokenHero0409

Every year, in the month leading up to Nightmare Night, Ponyville slowly transformed from its normal, happy-go-lucky state to an autumnal wonderland of drifting leaves, and as the month went on, the town became studded with Nightmare Night decorations. Jack o'Lanterns grinned off of ponies' front stoops, fake spider webs crawled across shop windows, and dangling ghosts and goblins hung from the trees, dancing in the chilly wind.

Most of the shops in Ponyville had seasonal wares that they trotted out, and a couple, like Sugarcube Corner and its "Nightmare Menu" of pumpkin products and pastries "enhanced" by plastic bugs, went all out, and with good reason. It was the last "fun" event before the temperature dropped and the snow started to fall. Nightmare Night was the last chance for foals, fillies, colts and the young at heart to run around outside without the risk of frostbite.

Each year a travelling salespony would take over an empty storefront and sell costumes, accessories and decorations to everypony. The shop always opened on the first day of October, and was nearly always gone come sunrise on November first.

Today, a week before Nightmare Night, six mares trotted in to the already crowded shop. When the other ponies saw it was the Ponyville Six, living heroes of Equestria, they broke out in applause, clomping their hooves on the store's wooden floor.

Twilight Sparkle, a lavender unicorn and the group's nominal leader, blushed – as always, hating being at the center of attention. To her left stood Applejack, an orange earth pony farmer, who was trying (and failing) to stay modest in the face of the sudden adulation. Rarity, the fastidious white unicorn, fanned her face demurely while sucking all the attention in. Crazy pink Pinkie Pie cheered along with the crowd, just for the fun of being really loud. Fluttershy, the reclusive yellow pegasus, hid behind her long pink mane, pawing at the ground nervously. She hated being in the spotlight more than Twilight did, and, above all else, hated Nightmare Night.

"Thank you, thank you!" Rainbow Dash said, floating overhead. She gestured to her immediate airspace. "The line for autographs starts right here! Signed pictures are available while supplies last!" Applejack jumped up and dragged the showboating pegasus back down to earth by the tail.

"Settle down there, RD," she said through a mouthful of multicolor hair. "Why don't we bring it down a notch 'n do some shopping." Dash pouted at the farm pony. The adorable nose wrinkle she got doing this would've worked on any other pony, but AJ stood firm.

Twilight gave the crowd a royalty-inspired smile. She'd seen the Princess do this dozens of times. "Thank you all for your kind greeting," she said. The words were well-rehearsed, but still natural-sounding. She'd had lots of practice because this kind of thing kept happening wherever the mares went since the defeat of Discord. Twilight's second greatest wish at the moment would be to have all the star struck ponies in town go back to normal.

She spoke about how good it was to see the town getting back on its feet after its short reign as Chaos capital of the world, and about how togetherness and friendship would always see ponies through the toughest times. Her words successfully dispersed the crowd. Ponies went back to limiting their interactions with Twilight and her friends to peeking at them around shop displays.

"Aw, we were almost getting to the part where they offer to throw us a party!" Pinkie Pie said.

"Sorry Pinkie, but three victory parties really is enough," Twilight said, patting the pink pony on the shoulder.

"Hardly…"

"Now then," Twilight said, rubbing her hooves together. "I've done some research and made a map, and I think I've found the most efficient route to finding the perfect costumes for this year!" Twilight grinned and clapped her hooves happily.

Dash nudged Applejack, getting her attention. "This is gonna be like her first slumber party all over again, isn't it."

"Yup," the farm pony replied, putting on a fair imitation of her taciturn big brother.

"I hope nothing ruins it, like what almost happened last year," the little blue pegasus said. Pinkie Pie gasped.

"Rainbow Dash!!! Why'd you have to say that?!" Pinkie shrieked.

"What?"

"Everypony knows nothing bad happens unless somepony says they hope nothing bad will happen!" Pinkie grabbed the pegasus by the shoulders and stared into her eyes. "Now it'll all be your fault!" Pinkie dropped her and raced deeper into the store, shouting about finding some lucky charms for protection.

"Jeez, Pinkie Pie. Overreact much?" Dash grumbled, sheepishly running a hoof through her mane.

"Ahem…" Twilight cleared her throat and magically held up her store maps. "Shall we girls?"

***

An hour later, just about everypony had picked out a costume. Twilight had grabbed a jester costume she wanted to use as a base for her actual costume, similar to her modification of a stock wizard cape the previous year. Pinkie bought an entire cartful of charms, hexes, fetishes and "magical" doodads that purported to offer protection, as well as a boulder costume.

"You want to be a rock for Nightmare Night?" Twilight asked, incredulously. Pinkie nodded, grinning.

"Well duh! If last year taught me anything, it's that you gotta dress up as something scary!"

"Rocks are scary?" Twilight asked.

"I'm scared of rocks," Pinkie said, matter of factly. Twilight shook her head, and turned her attention to the immensely less confusing argument of why Pinkie had wasted money on all her 'charms.'

Rainbow Dash flitted between the two options she'd narrowed her search to. Applejack sat back and watched her fret. "Augh, I've dressed as a Wonderbolt every year since I was a foal. This other one is so expensive! But it looks SO AWESOME." Dash was approaching Rarity-level theatrics.  "What do I dooooo?!?" she moaned.

Applejack chuckled. "You should go for the variety, Rainbow. That guard's costume would look pretty good on ya." The costume in question was an accurate replica of the Royal Pegasus Guard armor. All the gear was actual surplus material, just with the gilt edging removed, and the costume even came with coat-dye to make the pony wearing it look more like a real guard. The store was selling it at half price because nopony wanted to spend the full 150 bits on it.

"How much cooler?" Dash asked, landing in front of her friend.

"Mmm, probably at least 50% cooler," Applejack said. "Don't quote me on it. Ah'm powerful bad at mathematics."

The pegasus gave no sign that she'd heard. "Alright! Awesome! Royal Guard Rainbow Dash is comin' atcha!"

Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy could hear Dash's excited whoops from the check-out counter. "Ooh, that ruffian. Can't she ever keep her voice at respectable levels?" Rarity complained.

Her unicorn companion shrugged. "Some ponies are just wired for the outdoors," Twilight said. She watched as Rarity shoveled mountains of cosmetics out of her shopping basket and onto the counter. "Wow, Rarity. I can't imagine what your costume is going to be if you need all that."

The fashionista giggled. "I make my own costumes every year, Twilight. I wouldn't be caught dead in these tawdry rags," she said. The shop owner gave her a dirty look over his smudged glasses, which the white unicorn ignored completely. "This is all for Applejack and Fluttershy. They both agreed to let me do them over this year."

Twilight glanced over to the ponies in question. AJ had followed Dash up and was flipping through a stack of old horror movies while she waited. Fluttershy was making the mistake of poking at a table full of boxes. Predictably, one of them opened with a ghostly shriek; before the sound effect ended, the meek pegasus was flat on her back, scared stiff. Twilight turned back. "Really?" she said, a snarky deadpan tone in her voice.

"Well, I may have twisted their manes a little to get them to agree, but if I have to put up with one more year of Applejack's cow costume or that scarecrow thing she wore last year, why I'll simply scream!" Rarity paused for a breath. "And Fluttershy needs to come out of her shell. It breaks my heart seeing her hide away in her cottage while the rest of the town has fun."

"Ah'll have you know, that cow is a priceless family antique," Applejack called over.

"We can tell," Rarity shot back. She paid for her cosmetics and Twilight waited for Rainbow Dash to pay for hers, and everypony headed for a late lunch at Horte Cuisine's. Fluttershy snuck up when her friends weren't looking and bought a brand new bedsheet ghost costume. Just in case.

***

Nightmare Night was finally here! All the school-colts and –fillies wore their costumes to school and played spooky games, and got nice and sugared up for the rest of the night. Older ponies napped, gathering up their energy for the Nightmare Night Festival being held all night in the town square. As the sun crept towards night, the ponies came alive and started to get ready.

Rarity collected Fluttershy and Applejack just after five and took them back to her shop, Carousel Boutique.  Sweetie Belle was already gone, out trick-or-treating with the other Cutie Mark Crusaders, their crusade set aside for one night for the prospect of free candy.

The white unicorn worked on Fluttershy first. She spent nearly an hour teasing the pegasus' long pink mane into a spectacular new look, which reminded them both of her modeling days. Forty-five minutes went into talking the terrified pegasus into putting the dress Rarity made for her on.

"This isn't a dress!" Her voice squeaked as Rarity magically tied the line of vinyl strings up her back and around her wings. "It's… it's indecent! It's…"

"It's going to be fine, Fluttershy," Rarity said, trying to soothe her friend. "Besides, to lift a line from the ever-patiently-waiting Applejack, it isn't like we normally wear clothes."

"Yes, but… but…" she couldn't spit it out – wearing that much dark satin and vinyl and lace felt worse, naughtier, than wearing nothing at all. It… accentuated… things.

"Please, Fluttershy? Please, please, please!" Rarity begged. "You're going to look so cute when the outfit's done. Ponies will barely be able to recognize you!"

"But Rarity, these clothes just aren't …me."

"That's the point, dear. Tonight is come as you aren't night. And you promised me after last year that you would let me help you have a good time. This costume will be perfect. Everypony's eyes will be on you, Fluttershy." She noticed the panic in the pegasus' eyes. "They'll be so happy to see you joining the fun," she added quickly.

"Ooh… I suppose it can't hurt… And it is only clothes…" Fluttershy mumbled. Satisfied, Rarity finished the last little details on Fluttershy's makeup and costume. The unicorn released her and told her to send Applejack in right away.

"What did you do to her, Rarity," the irate farmer asked, as she stormed into the room. "She looks like a danged Manehattan streetwalker!"

"I think she looks lovely, Applejack. And besides, she'll probably just hide under that silly ghost costume she tried to hide from us on the way over. Now then, come and sit down. We're running a teensy bit behind and I don't want to miss the festival. Again."

Since Applejack was a much more docile subject, her makeup and costuming took a fraction of the time Fluttershy's had. Rarity turned the prettified farmer into the Boutique's main sales floor to wait while the unicorn applied her own makeup.

Finally, dolled up to her satisfaction, Rarity strode out to meet her friends, neither of whom looked particularly happy. AJ scowled at her, a face that looked out of place above the frilly pink and cyan dress and below the golden tiara she wore. "Duchess Applejack" fumbled about, trying to scratch the spot on her back where the fanciful outfit was chafing. And Rarity could tell Fluttershy was still blushing about the alluring clothes she had on underneath her trusty bed sheet ghost costume.

"Ah still can't believe Ah let you talk me int'a this, Rarity," AJ grumbled. "And poor Fluttershy's about t' catch fire under there."

"Eep?"

"Girls, trust me. I assure you, you'll be entirely satisfied with your costumes by the end of the night," Rarity told them. "I'm loving mine." She struck a pose and asked, "How do I look?" She was wearing a quad of stylish, yet functional hiking boots below a pair of skintight black shorts and a black vest. A colt's top hat rested on her curly purple mane. A single empty saddlebag hung on one flank, and one crammed with tools evened things out on the other side. "Ladies, meet Rarity the Elusive, gentlemare thief," the unicorn proclaimed.

"Why couldn't my costume be like that?" the duchess muttered.

"It looks lovely, Rarity," Fluttershy said. Rarity preened. The three mares opened the door to leave, but the sight outside stopped them in their tracks, jaws falling open. The sun had set quite a while ago, but the sky roiled with eldritch light. A slow-moving magenta aura was drifting northwards over town. Fluttershy could just barely tell it was circular by a barely-noticeable arc to the colorful wave. Clouds dissolved as the arc hit them.

"What in tarnation?" Applejack said slowly. Fluttershy was too terrified to say anything.

"Oh my stars!" Rarity gasped. "What is that?"

"Tw-Tw-Tw—" Fluttershy couldn't force the name out.

"Ah agree. We need t' get Twilight," Applejack said dreamily. But their legs refused to move. All they could do was watch the arc clear the Ponyville town limits and move out over Sweet Apple Acres and points north. Other ponies in the street were transfixed as well.

Suddenly, everypony cringed as a high-pitched keening noise pierced their ears. Hooves clapped over ears, but the sound was as loud as ever. A blinding white pulse of energy flashed through the magenta field and every pony on the street collapsed.


Twilight Sparkle drifted gently back into consciousness and found herself staring at wood. Judging by the shape and texture, it appeared to be the baseboard under the window inside the library. As awareness seeped back into her, one keenly focused mind began picking at questions. Some of the easy ones (Who am I, what's my favorite color) she could handle, but the more complex ones (what happened, why am I on the floor) proved to be unsolvable at present.

Twilight tried to rise to her hooves, but couldn't. 'Fine then,' she thought. 'Blinking is a good trick.' This attempt failed as well. Or move her eyes. Or make the slightest twitch. Panic briefly overran rationality, and Twilight mentally flailed around, trying to force her body to respond. When the panic tired itself out, Twilight took refuge in memory.

She remembered putting the finishing touches on this year's costume – face paint that gave her purple and green dots at the edge of her lips – and stepping back from the mirror to look over the entire ensemble. It consisted of a jumpsuit with similarly-colored patches that made her the spitting image of Count Piebald the Deranged's infamous life-sized doll. She remembered hoping that more ponies would recognize the reference this year, since the Count had only been dead for three hundred and fifty years, rather than millennia-dead Starswirl the Bearded.

Spike had called her downstairs, his voice choked with confusion and fear. She paused at the bottom of the stairs to scold him for waiting so long to put his Supercolt costume on, since the other girls would be arriving soon. Wordlessly, he pointed out the window. Twilight recalled magenta light, then an earsplitting sound, and finally an all-encompassing whiteness.

'That white light must have been some kind of vision-based paralysis spell,' Twilight reasoned. Solving this problem (well, guessing at the solution, really) put a shaky fence up around the wild, panicky parts of her mind. 'I wonder…' Twilight concentrated and tried to let magic flow through her horn, if she even still had it. It was tougher to do without the crutch of squeezing her eyes shut, but eventually her efforts were rewarded with a reddish glow emanating from just above her field of vision.

"Yesyesyesyesyes!" She cried, surprising herself. Apparently she could talk and use magic, but not move. Curious. She let her magic die down. Maintaining it without casting anything was tiring, and she wanted to conserve her strength until she thought of a plan. Right now she would settle for calling for help.

"Spike? Spike!" Her voice sounded muffled, as if she were yelling through a mouthful of cotton. Her cries produced no result that she could see. There was a green something at the very edge of the right side of her vision, but she couldn't tell if it was him or not.

Twilight's attention was dragged away from the potential dragon by an odd sensation. Something was causing her body to bounce up and down in short, rhythmic bursts. They almost felt like hooffalls, but it was physically impossible for a pony to shake a building made out of a tree this hard. Twilight's anxiety bloomed into fear, which lunged towards panic's paddock. The something was getting closer, and the shockwaves from its hooves hitting the ground knocked books off their shelves.

The thing crashed through the library's front door, spraying the room with splinters. It stomped over to Twilight, leaving hoof-sized divots in the wooden floor, and stood off to her side, just within the immobile unicorn's sightline. The thing was pony-shaped, and Twilight thought it looked like a mare, but its body was rough-textured like rocks. She could just see the front of the thing's mane: bouncy curls frozen in stone. 'It can't be…'

"P-pinkie?"

***

Fluttershy awoke to the sounds of an argument.

"Ah say, you ruffian. Cease what you're doing at once before Ah summon the constabulary!" One voice drawled. The tone sounded like Applejack, but the words she was using sounded nothing like her.

"Fat chance of that, my pretty little pony. There ain't nopony guarding this shack, which means whatever I find is free salvage." That sounded like Rarity's voice, but she'd never use such course, slangy language.

Fluttershy wanted to roll over and go back to sleep so her next dream would be something more pleasant. Her whole body felt light, tingly. She groaned quietly and opened her eyes. It took a moment to focus, but she soon saw she was lying in the doorway to Carousel Boutique, half in and half out of the building. She rose on shaking legs, an action complicated by her tangled-up ghost costume. Whimpering, she kicked it over her head and threw it to the ground.

Free from her ghostly bonds, the yellow pegasus could take better stock of her surroundings. The sky outside was dark, not magenta, and she couldn't see any of the other ponies who'd witnessed the scary phenomenon in the street. 'They must have gone home. I wonder how long I was asleep?' she thought. The inside of Rarity's shop was in shambles. All the dresses had been ripped off their mannequins, torn up and thrown to the floor, and the mannequins themselves looked like they'd been slashed open. Their stuffing had mostly been emptied, and they looked wasted and scary without it. All the storage cabinets had been ransacked, with needles, thread, bolts of fabric, and design sketches littered the floor, mingling with the stuffing.

Applejack and Rarity stood nose to nose on opposite sides of the Boutique's check out counter. Rarity had smashed open the cash register and was using her magic to riffle through the bits inside. Applejack looked flushed and upset, her duchess' dress showed signs of a tussle, as did Rarity's costume. 'W-were they fighting?' Fluttershy wondered.

"I'm not sure what you want from me, your royalness," Rarity said with a sneer on her lips. "This isn't your place. You don't got any stake in it. Why don't you take a hike? Turn the other flank. Make like an apple tree and get bucked."

"Why, it is my solemn duty t' ensure th' laws are being upheld. Curs an' rapscallions an' folks like you who dare to use that sort of language to ponies like me deserve nothing less than a severe imprisonment followed by a swift execution," Applejack said, sounding snooty and aristocratic.

Fluttershy couldn't believe her ears. "Um, girls? Girls?" Each time she spoke, her pleas were bowled over by the rising argument between the two ponies. The timid pegasus took an enormous breath and bellowed at her two friends. "GIRLS!"

Both ponies gaped at her, shocked out of their intense argument. Fluttershy winced back a little, hoping to hide behind her mane. She'd forgotten the amount of hairspray Rarity had used to keep her pink locks in the shape the unicorn wanted would keep that shield from her.

Applejack glared down her nose at her haughtily. "Oh, Ah'm so terribly sorry. Are we imposing on your street corner?" She asked. Her normally warm tone had turned icy cold, and she sounded disgusted by Fluttershy's existence. "No, this doesn't look like a street corner at all. This is a shop, where a pony of your status has no right being in. Or her status, now that Ah think on it. Now, unless you're a constable in disguise (which Ah highly doubt is the case) you can just toddle off and give some colt a good time."

Rarity cackled. It was a rough, gravelly sound far removed from her light and ladylike normal laugh. "Hey, leave her alone duchess. At least she's trying to be upwardly mobile, tryin'a get out of the brothel and into the looting business. I can respect that. Unlike you, who looks like you sit around on your great big behind all day coming up with new ways to keep fillies like this from becoming upwardly mobile."

"Are you— You… you dare call me fat? Have you no idea to whom you speak?!"

The argument restarted. Fluttershy's eyes welled up with bitter tears. She wanted to run back to her cottage and hide under a pile of friendly animals and cry and hope this was all a terrible dream, but her legs were still locked in place. 'Why didn't they recognize me?' she wondered. 'Is my costume really that bad? I knew I should've stayed home…'

She finally wrenched her legs into action, whirling away from her two bickering "friends" and galloping towards the door. Her legs froze up again when she saw what was lying crumpled in the doorway, blocking her path. It was something white and yellow and pony-shaped. 'What? But that's where I…'

Fluttershy walked towards the thing in the doorway, shaking like a leaf. Every step seemed to take hours to complete and only carried her an inch or so closer. Her friends, locked in a vicious verbal catfight, ignored her, and their voices kept getting louder and louder until all she could hear was a dull roar. Eventually she stood before the downed pony. It was a yellow pegasus, just like her. It was wearing a silly-looking ghost costume with eyeholes through which Fluttershy could see glazed, staring blue eyes just like hers.

Helpless to resist herself, she raised a trembling hoof to touch the body. She reached out slowly, gently, and pressed her hoof to the mare's chest, trying to feel if she was still breathing. Her trembling hoof passed through like the body wasn't there. Or she wasn't. Fluttershy screamed.

To Be Continued...