A/N: I'm doing my best to stay indoors as much as possible today due to the smoke, but here we go for the next part of the rewrite, which will include some stuff from chapter two, but I won't be including the Mayor's speech, instead, there will be stuff about Discord pranking a certain blue pegasus.
(Luna Eclipsed: The What You'd Normally Expect In A Timon and Pumbaa/MLP Crossover From Dede42 and RolePlayer48 Edition)
Chapter 3: Pranks and Is that Luna?
By the time that the group reached the area where the games were being held, Spike had recovered and they found Applejack, who was dressed as a scarecrow, supervising the ponies who were bobbing for apples.
"Happy Nightmare Night, Applejack!" said the twins, feeling more happy.
"Howdy, Spike!" said Applejack. "Timon, Pumbaa, nice to see you both again. "Hey, Twilight! Sunrise! Nice costumes."
The baby dragon beamed while the meerkat pretended to get into a sword fight with the warthog, both of them laughing. "Thanks! I'm a dragon."
"She means Sunrise and I, Spike," Twilight Sparkle reminded him.
"That's a neat gypsy costume, Sunny," Applejack complimented and then played with the beard that the purple unicorn was wearing. "With that beard, I reckon you're some sorta country music singer."
Twilight Sparkle let out an annoyed grunt while Sunrise Blossom giggled and Spike, Timon, and Pumbaa all laughed.
"While y'all are here, ya' feel like bobbin' for an apple?" Applejack offered, nodding to the tub, and then she sighed, annoyed when Derpy popped out of the water in her paper bag costume and accidentally pulled out the plug, letting out the water. "Derpy…"
"Sorry!"
Hearing cheering and applauding near the stage, the group went to see what was going on.
While all of that was going on, 'Tigger' was bouncing along, occasionally tackling random ponies to say hello, and then he heard a crash of thunder, followed by screams and the cackle of a certain blue pegasus. 'Gotcha!' he thought, bouncing behind a trash bin, and he peered over it to see the black thunder cloud with Rainbow Dash lying on top of it, laughing maniacally. 'A pony after my own chaotic heart, but she needs to learn how to pace herself.'
Cackling to himself, 'Tigger' teleported himself to the top of a nearby house and duck behind a large weather mane to keep from being seen by his target. 'Ooh, this is going to be fun!' And he reverted to his normal mixed up hands, snapping his fingers. Just above Rainbow Dash, who was laughing hard over her prank, a hole opened, and she shrieked when she was suddenly being covered with neon pink paint.
"Hey! What gives?!" the blue pegasus yelped, diving off the cloud to get away from the paint. "Where'd that come from?"
Snickering quietly, 'Tigger' snapped his fingers again, and the next thing Rainbow Dash knew, she was being attacked from all sides by purple pillows filled with white feathers that were sticking to the paint. "Hey! Stop that! Help!"
"And now for the final touch," 'Tigger' whispered, snapping his fingers again, and a large bucket appeared above the blue pegasus, and she saw it.
"Oh no!" Rainbow Dash yelped and tried to get away, but the bucket upended, and she found herself covered from head to hoof with rainbow-colored glitter. "Seriously?!"
"Ooh, such fun!" 'Tigger' cackled, going back into full tiger mode, and he bounced away to rejoin his friends.
After being unimpressed by Mayor Mare's speech, the group was now following Zecora to the statue of Nightmare Moon, and Timon was surprised to see a zebra in Equestria.
"I didn't know that you guys have zebras."
"That's Zecora, a good friend of ours," said Twilight Sparkle. "And as far as anypony knows, she's the only zebra in all of Equestria who lives in the Everfree Forest," she added, and she yelped when 'Tigger' pounced on her again. "Tigger!"
"Hoo, hoo!" said 'Tigger' jumping off her and looked around at the clearing that the statue was located in. "Sorry, just got caught up in the fun! What's going on here?"
"Zecora is about to tell a spooky story about why we celebrate Nightmare Night," Sunrise Blossom informed him while helping her twin up.
When the group reached the statue, Zecora turned to them and began the storytelling, creating moving images with her green powder that made the eerie green smoke. "Listen close, my little dears, I'll tell you where you got your fears of Nightmare Night, so dark and scary," she began, blowing the dust into the night air. "Of Nightmare Moon, who makes you wary." And the group gasped as an image of Nightmare Moon appeared before them, and began moving on its own.
"Every year, we put on a disguise, to save ourselves from her searching eyes," the zebra continued while the foals and older ponies ran around, screaming while avoiding the moving image that chased them. "But Nightmare Moon wants just one thing: to gobble up ponies in one quick swing!" Pipsqueak just happen to back into Pinkie Pie and they both screamed, but they were also having fun. "Hungrily, she soars the sky. If she sees nopony, she passes by. So if she comes and all is clear, Equestria is safe another year!" And the image of Nightmare Moon disappeared into the moon high above.
Although spooked by the story, Pipsqueak did have a question. "Uh, Miss Zecora, if we wear 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?" he asked.
"A perfect question, my little friend," Zecora replied. "For Nightmare Moon you must not offend." She blew more magic dust in the air, recreating the image of Nightmare Moon, who smiled evilly at the group. "Fill up her belly with a treat or two, so she won't return to come eat you!" And the image disappeared once again after scaring the fillies.
"Everypony!" Pinkie Pie screamed, running up to the statue and dumped a bunch of candy at the base. "Just dump some candy and get out of here!" And the fillies, scared but happy at the same time, joined her in dumping candy at the base of the statue, giggling.
Just then, there was a loud clap of thunder, which made them all jump and the wind started whistling as the clouds began making a tunnel that lead up to the moon. Sunrise Blossom, who was standing next to Zecora, called out to the zebra over the wind. "Um, don't you think you're overdoing the theatrics a little, Zecora?"
"Any other time I would agree, but right now, this isn't me," Zecora replied and the twins exchanged perplex expressions. If Zecora wasn't doing the changes in the weather, who was?
Just then, a black chariot being pulled by two dark-skinned pegasus, which were wearing the armor of the royal guard, but it was silver instead of gold, and they had bat wings, and in the chariot was a shadowy hooded figure. Spotting this, the ponies and fillies all began screaming and running away, scattering in every direction.
Pinkie Pie gasped in fear. "It's Nightmare Moon! Run!" And the ponies fled, screaming anew, except for Timon and Pumbaa, for they were hiding behind the twins instead. Twilight Sparkle and Sunrise Blossom stared up at the shadowy figure in the chariot that was smiling down at them evilly. Who was this evil figure? Was this Shadow Star, coming to steal the life force of the fillies once again?
Back in Ponyville, the ponies at the festival turned when they heard the screams and saw Pinkie Pie and the fillies running as fast as they could. Before anypony could ask what was wrong, the storm clouds filled the sky with thunder and lightning, and the chariot arrived, alarming the ponies when the shadowy figure stepped out of the chariot when it landed.
The twins arrived with the tiger, the meerkat, and the warthog when the hood was lowered to reveal that the figure was actually Princess Luna! Seeing the former Nightmare Moon, the ponies all immediately bowed themselves to the ground, including Spike.
Twilight Sparkle and Sunrise Blossom were both awestruck to see Princess Luna outside of Canterlot for a change. "Princess Luna!" And when they both stepped forward to greet her, the baby dragon stopped them and reminded them that they needed to bow before the Princess first, and they did so… reluctantly that is. Seeing the twins bowing, Timon, 'Tigger', and Pumbaa did the same, doing their best to hide the fact that they were terrified.
Princess Luna approached the gathered ponies, her cloak turning into bats as it disappeared, and she stopped before Cloud Kicker, who was dressed as a witch, and she whimpered.
"Citizens of Ponyville!" said the Princess in a booming voice that had the ponies cringing and covering their ears with their hooves, and even Sunrise Blossom was cringing due to her sensitive hearing. "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! Together we shall change this dreadful celebration into a bright and glorious feast!" And there was more lightning and thunder.
"Did you hear that, everypony?" Pinkie Pie asked, alarmed. "Nightmare Moon says she's gonna feast on us all!" And she fled, along with her group of fillies.
When Princess Luna heard this, she protested in a more normal voice. "What? No, children, no!" she called after them. "You no longer have reason to fear us! Screams of delight is what your princess desires, not screams of terror!" She stomped a hoof in frustration and she turned to the cowering mayor, using the booming voice once again. "Madame Mayor, thy Princess of the Night hath arrived," she announced and extended her hoof in greeting.
Seeing the hoof, Mayor Mare gasped fearfully and hid her face in her hooves.
Perplexed by this, Princess Luna gestured to Raven, who also gasped and hid as well. The Princess looked to the other ponies, but they all hid their faces in fear, and this upset her greatly. "What is the matter with you?" she demanded, but when nopony gave her a proper answer, she became fed up. "Very well then. Be that way. We won't even bother with the traditional farewell." She unfolded her wings and flew away.
Twilight Sparkle, concerned for the Princess, poked Sunrise a few times to get her attention. "Come on, Sunrise. We're gonna go talk to he-"
Timon quickly shoved his hand over Twilight's mouth to shut her up. "Oh no you're not!"
"Why not?" Twilight Sparkle asked, her voice muffled.
"Uhhh, yeah, Timon," Pumbaa agreed, wondering what his friend was up to. "Why not?"
"Becau-" the meerkat began
Spike interrupted and he was freaking out. "BECAUSE SHE'S NIGHTMARE MOON! YOU CAN'T TALK TO HER!"
Twilight Sparkle magically removed Timon's hand from her mouth. "No Spike, you're wrong," she protested. "I saw the Elements of Harmony change her back to good. But it seems like she's having some trouble adjusting after being gone for a thousand years. That's why Sunrise and I are going to go talk to her and there is nothing you or Timon can say that'll change my mi-"
"Uh, hello?" Timon interrupted. "Earth to stupid!"
"Hey!" the purple unicorn protested and Sunrise Blossom was trying her hardest not to giggle at that.
"I wasn't even gonna say anything remotely close to what Spike said!" the meerkat snapped. "That annoying brat interrupted me before I was gonna say why you shouldn't go!"
Spike looked at him, hurt. "You think I'm annoying?"
Timon fixed the baby dragon with look. "And WHY are you dressed up as a dragon IF YOU ALREADY ARE ONE?!" he yelled.
"Yeah," 'Tigger' agreed. "Seems a little ridickerous if you ask me."
(A/N: I haven't forgotten about how Tigger often changes regular words like ridiculous to ridickerous, exactly to exactically and so on and so forth.)
"B-b-but..." Spike stammered, tearing up.
The meerkat ignored him and turned to Twilight Sparkle. "Anyway, what I was gonna say was that maybe you should just stay here and look after everypony here at this festival while we handle everything with Luna instead."
Twilight Sparkle wasn't so sure about that. "Uh, are you sure about that?"
"Uhhh, yeah Timon," Pumbaa agreed. "Are you sure? Twilight could help out here."
"Oh put-lease!" Timon groaned. "What's she gonna do that will possibly help Luna in anyway? Lecture her in the most boring way possible? Brag about her Santa Claus outfit?"
"IT'S STARSWIRL THE BEARD-" the purple unicorn began hotly.
Timon shook his head, interrupting. "Nope," he said firmly. "I'm sorry Spilight Twarkle, but we're gonna deal with Luna ourselves because you'll probably ruin everything as always."
"Now just a minute there!" Twilight Sparkle protested. "I don't always ruin everything!"
"Actually Twilight, I agree with Timon," Sunrise Blossom agreed, somewhat reluctantly. "I think we'll manage just fine without you. Plus, aren't you at all worried that Spike might eat too much candy if he isn't being watched?"
Spike pouted, hating that he was being picked on. "But I thought eating candy was what Nightmare Night's all about..."
Twilight Sparkle thought about that for a moment and then nodded. "Okay. Good point," she agreed. "Well, okay then. I wish you four luck then." And she walked back to the festival with Spike.
"Aww, do I have to go help as well?" 'Tigger' asked, pouting. "I was busy pulling pranks!"
"Discord, how can you possibly think of pranks at a time like this?" Timon asked, after making sure that no one would overhear him.
'Tigger' shifted uneasily. "Well...you see...the thing is...uhhhhhh..." And he sighed unhappily.
Sunrise Blossom frowned, concerned. "Wait. Are you nervous about meeting Princess Luna?"
"What do YOU think?" Discord asked, frowning as he restored his normal voice while still looking like Tigger. "She was racist and hated me for no reason and turned me to stone alongside Celestia many years ago. Remember? Why else would I be nervous or would want to not go with you three right now?"
"Oh yeah," said the orange unicorn, looking sheepish. "I'd almost forgotten about what Luna and Celestia did to you." She turned to the meerkat and the warthog. "Well, you two. I guess it's just the three of us!"
"Well, what are we waiting for here?" Timon asked. "Let's go find Lulu already!" And they hurried off to find the Princess of the Night while 'Tigger' went off to pull more pranks.
A/N: Ok, that is much better. See you all tomorrow! R&R everyone!