Crystals of the Night (public)

Diamond watched Kami stutter and listened to his voice crack. "It's Nightmare Night, everypony wears a mask, I chose to wear one."  As Kami broke eye contact and started coughing, she smiled and pulled him into an embrace. Diamond's coat was extremely soft and comfortably warm to the touch, and she started tenderly stroking his mane.

"Shush. It will be fine, it will be fine." Diamond then pulled Kami into a kiss before he could protest.

Like a moth to the flame, Zen's eyes were drawn to the abundance of noise coming closer to him at a decent speed. The figure was there, armor worn, cannon's going off with their little plumes of confetti and smoke, and then it was past him and continuing down the street. "Well, that's bound to hold some interest," he remarked to himself before turning about and moving to follow the figure at his own pace. After all, he still had hot chocolate to enjoy before getting to rowdy.

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Not too far off, the two disguised filly's expression shifted to some confusion, before looking to each other with a shrug. After a few expectant looks from each to the other, Mythic finally nodded. "Very well, we'll pick out the next target, she said while rising up on the disguised tentacles. Scarlet followed suit as she flapped her eye filled wings and took to the air along side the red and black alicorn and her only semi-earth bound sister.

Soon they were moving about the roofs of the city, rather quietly and unnoticed with the abundance of noise happening below. Arriving at a somewhat larger building with a flatter room, the two peered down about the street looking for anypony that would make for a good scare. Soon enough, their eyes fell on a certain cream colored unicorn in an elaborate white dress with plenty of red lace. There were some brief mumbling from the two, that the alicorn would have been able to hear parts of. The gist going, "..n't yet, we.....ed mo....then.....can....care dad.........", before they looked back at him. Let's scare her next and see if she'll join us in this grandest of missions, Scarlet said while Mythic was already beginning to move into position to drop down suddenly to scare her. Scarlet was following suit from a different spot, but they waited on the alicorn to lead them.

"Gyah!" Vision stumbled forward, immediately shocked by Scythe's moving in, though he didn't spin around in time to see the portal closing behind him. The effect around him was very prompt, however; the aura of darkness intensified very greatly, cloaking a hemisphere of two metre radius around him in almost pitch darkness, with only his figure in the centre of it being clear to any outside observers. His eyes began to glow with black fire, and his irises turned green, as his head jerked back and forth, looking for the source of the disturbance. He soon identified it as, predictably, the scythe-wielding pony standing right behind him. The fire from his eyes intensified, and a ring of dark flames sprang up a few centimetres off the ground, between him and Scythe.

He opened his mouth, about to shout in a very deep and booming voice, but thought better of it as the adrenaline began to wear off. Don't want to shock everypony, after all. His eyes turned back to the mare he'd walked past earlier. Any more than they already are.

He sighed, returning his voice to normal for just a brief moment but keeping his other illusions up. He tapped a hoof to the flat side of the blade, gently pushing it away. He returned the deepness to his voice when he spoke up. "Let's just put that away, shall we?" He asked quietly.

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Euforia continued her steady march forward, firing her confetti cannons every little while or so, but then drew suddenly to a halt. "Hooooooooold on..."

Yeah?

I don't suppose this has anything to do with the pony behind us?

What?! Who?!

"No, I just smell hot chocolate!"

Precisely. A pause. Turn around. That's where the hot chocolate is.

Euforia spun around on her armoured hind hooves, her eyes settling on Zen. She waved a hoof at him. "Hi!" She said cheerfully, albeit in a somewhat muffled voice. "How are you?What's your name? Are ya having fun?" Her eyes sparkled behind her helmet. "Ooh, ooh, wanna go trick-or-treating with me?"

We barely know him.

Don't be such a wet blanket. What could possibly go wrong?

Scythe Spin allowed his scythe to slightly move as Vision attempted to push it away. He didn't even flinch at Vision's illusions, he calmly looked at them and grinned. "Perhaps." he said before pulling the glowing scythe back to him and leaning it on his shoulder. "Nice illusions, but you're gonna have to try harder to scare me." He added as he looked around them, before turning his masked head back at Vision. "I'm Scythe Spin, but you can just call me Scythe. Pleased to meet you.". Scythe said that second sentence in his hallowed voice again. "So, what are you doing lonely on such a... not-as-magical-as-I-thought night?" Scythe asked and extended his hoof.

The cream mare soon was at center of the square. Her ears twitched lightly. What is there to do on this lovely night? She could go bobbing for apples, but it'll get wet her mane. She doesn't want that to happen. Maybe she should talk to somepony? She's pretty sure nopony would throw a birthday party for her...just yet. She trotted with decadence as her soul pricing hues look around. "Hmm..."

All though, she couldn't help but feel like she's being watched. It wasn't the normal kind of watch...when the timberwolfs would be prowling at her until she lit them ablaze. It was sort of as if something was happening. She blinked as she felt a magical presence before her. She began to grow suspicious...very suspicious. Her horn glowed it's scarlet aura. It was a detection spell. Used to detect magic...nothing turned up. She sighed softly, then turned around the opposite direction. Her head lowered a bit. What kind of birthday was this? She couldn't even get a decent party around here without getting her costume ruined!

Red was getting closer and closer to where she was walking from. Vision was able to see her coming over.

The alicorn, whom the narrative shall refer to as Ruby Nigredo for the time being because the 4th wall was being derpy and forgot to add that in earlier, wasn't exactly having an easy time moving about subtly at first, but all it took was to lower the spread of the special effects, and that task became easier as he followed Scarlet and Mythic atop the homes as swiftly as he could.

As he set his sights on Red, the target, he hid himself from sight briefly as she used a spell that was familiar to him. "Oh... Scan, eh? She might be tough to sneak up on... Maybe we shouldn't try too hard to scare her..." Fortunately, it seemed there were enough magical creatures all over to not be spotted easily. He looked to the fillies, and quickly tried to devise a game plan in a low voice... his real voice for that matter. A bit on the deep sounding side and soft, though hardly a singer's voice. "Okay, strategy time... She looks like she might not be too fond of getting snuck up on. Way too alert by the looks of it. Could hurt herself running... Wanna move ahead and dazzle her with magic instead? Get her to come with us after a quick performance? I'll follow you if you go for it either way." He liked the holiday for fun more than mischief, but his own experiences made it easier to tell who was less likely to throw a kick after mischief by bodylanguage, and he certainly did not want the fillies to be caught up in that if he could avoid it.

Vision sighed, dismissing the darkness and the ring of fire but leaving his eyes with the dark fire effect. "If I were more focused on the here and now, my illusions would be... more encompassing." he extended a hoof. "My name's Dream Vision. Greetings, Scythe." He then rolled his eyes. "Funny thing about being kidnapped and dragged onto a train; you're never where you actually want to be. But I suppose I'm just... I don't really know." He shrugged. "I'm just walking around, I suppose."

He then turned to notice that the mare was getting closer to them. He coughed and averted his eyes, still a little shy, as he was with all strangers. All strangers who didn't suddenly appear behind him and give him a heart attack, that is.

The two fillies looked between each other again, then towards the pony, and then once more at each other before settling their eyes on Ruby again. "How do we dazzle her with magic?" Scarlet asked while looking curiously at Ruby. Mythic however has one of the 'hair' strands rubbing her chin in thought about what they could do.

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Zen chuckled at the series of questions from the armored costumed mare. "Well, in reverse, sure, yes, Zen, and I'm enjoying myself," he said before taking another sip from his cup of hot chocolate. "And you are?" he asked after his sip and moving to walk next to the armor costumed pony.

Kami certainly reacted to being kissed.
First, his face turned completely red.
This was quickly followed by even more flustering as he flustered at the fact that he was, in fact, flustered.
And that left him, for a moment, squirming in her grasp. That nice, soft, pliable grasp...
The kiss didn't last long, as he pulled his head away swiftly, panic in his eyes and his entire body tensed, as if to run.
No! No no no! This is not how it's supposed to work! I am the apex predator. I hunt you. I take what I need and then I go on my merry way. You do not make me question anything about my sexuality. You do not make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. I make you into my servile little love-trough, and you feed me all of your delicious little emotions and I repay you with pleasure like none other.
That thought running through his brain in an instant, Kami took the offensive. He pressed his lips furiously against Diamond's, a bit of his own rage and self-loathing thrown into the broiling mix of emotions directed at the pony wrapped around him.
Well, maybe I feel just a little warm and fuzzy on the inside.

Diamond felt Kami squirm in her forelegs. Wait a minute, isn't this what he wanted? I was just trying to please him! Then he pulled away from her. "Is something wrong Kam-" And then Kami kissed her back, suddenly, violently, passionately, with a hint of something else thrown in. This caused Diamond to recoil why trying to hold the kiss, causing her to fall back, with Kami now on top of her. She melted into the kiss, now as if Kami was the only thing that mattered to her. For some reason, this situation felt right to her. This...Feels amazing. Just let him have his way with me. That sounds good. Yes...To be his, and his only. That's what I want...

Ruby only gave a short time to really think on his scheme. He was just trying to do things for fun than any heavy elaborate plans. So he decided to wing it and get the fillies to just go for it. "Easy, follow my lead. Just do something that looks fun. Meet me after I get in front of her..."

With a bit of concentration, the aura and effects flared up again, and he began to hover about in a way that he would be easy enough to spot as he flew in a big circle, with no harm to the fillies as he wasn't relying on wind to take off nor was the aura going to repell them. As he got closer to the mare in the lacy dress, he made another alteration as to appear as though he was seemingly engulfed in black fire, while his eyes flared red, and would try to touch down near the mare, smiling, and bringing out more of the candy in an intricate spiral motion and setting them down in much the same manner as before, fading lights and hovering to be sure for any others interested in the treats. He, of course, used the distorted voice again to introduce himself to her, though not loudly. "Greetings, miss. Would you care to join me and my MINIONS to spread the spirit of this night of nights?" He hoped the fillies would take the cue by purposely putting enphasis on a the word minion to get them to perform magic freely. "Do not resist us..."

"My name is Euforia!" Euforia said cheerfully, but as usual her voice was muffled by her suit of armour. "I cam out here to try the ol' trick or treating again! It's been ages since I've done that, and never back in the North. Good times." She cocked her head to the side. "Though actually I haven't done very much of that yet. Huh. Got a little sidetracked I guess." She slung a hoof around Zen's shoulder. "So, what do ya feel like doing? Wanna go trick or treating with me?"

Managing to take the hint, the fillies sprung into action. Mythic first, launched herself off the roof with her mane. Landing hard and near both Ruby and Red with the disguised tentacles stabbing into the snow. She grinned psychotically (or at least what she thought looked like a creepy psycho smile would look like....maybe a little over the top and forced if we're being honest) "Yes, join us this night," she said around stifled giggles.

Then it was Scarlet's turn, and with her having a bit more of a passion for theatrics, decided to go with a different approach. Scarlet opted to slip over the side of the building, out of sight from Ruby and Red while her sister just jumped off. In her element, Scarlet shifted some of the shadows in the alleyway to make a bit of a black mist like fog appear behind Ruby and her Maneiac disguised sister. Shrinking her disguise so that her visage inside the fog would look rather tiny until she was right behind Ruby and Maneiac, once there Scarlet would return her disguise to its original size and flare her wings to make herself look even larger while stepping out of the fog. The dozens of eyes all along her wings opened at once looking around wildly before settling on Ruby. "Won't you please join us?

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"Hehehe sure, why not, we'll walk and talk while you collect candies," Zen repeated with a grin while beginning to walk with the armor clad mare. "Heh, can't say I've really gone trick or treating in a while myself. Not that good of a neighborhood where I was from," he understated while thinking back to his own home and as they stopped next to the first house. "So what inspired the suit?" he asked next.

Gently pulling off of the mare's lips, Kami smiled gently, sniffing the love in the air. Sweet, delicious love.
This was his opportunity. The mare was pinned beneath him and seemed quite lost in the throes of love. Or lust. They were quite similar things, after all. And either one would do for tonight's meal. His eyes gained a light, green glow around the edges as he looked down at her, and he inhaled once more, taking in her scent alongside that tangy smell of love. "Relax my dear, I'm going to savor your love. And trust me, you will love this." he spoke, letting that gentle, green gaze burn its image in her mind as he fed.
Mmm...yes...yesssss...delicious, like taking affection from a larva...

Diamond felt Kami withdraw his lips from hers. She made a protesting moan at the kiss stopping, but didn't feel the strength to sit up and continue it, she felt like putty, putty to be shaped. She slowly opened her eyes and lazily made eye contact with Kami. Her vision was blurry, but she saw Kami's eye color change to green. She shivered with pleasure as Kami inhaled, causing air currents to move along her coat, stimulating her skin. She couldn't quite place the green glow, but then Kami spoke. "Relax my dear, I'm going to savor your love. And trust me, you will love this."

A queen. Kami was a queen. This was an interesting development. The moment Kami established the link to begin draining her love, her pony disguise was the first thing to go, she stuck it straight in the link and fed it to Kami, revealing her true form to be an amalgamation of pony and changeling at least twice Kami's size. "Surprise motherbucker." Diamond leaped up with new found strength and tried to pin Kami to the ground.

Kami was not expecting the sudden drop of the changeling's, no, halfling's, disguise.
Nor was he expecting it to be twice as big as he was, or for it to force the energy from its disguise down his metaphorical throat. It left him a bit wibbly-wobbly, overall, and the wibbly-wobbly-ness was not helped by the gigantic monster pinning him against the ground like a rhinoceros that had discovered the wonder of trampling smaller creatures underfoot.
He was so shocked, and so wibbly-wobbly, that his own disguise broke apart in a blast of cool, magical fire, leaving behind a kimono-wearing, yellow-eyed and maned, changeling princess, still half of his foe's size, and still pinned to the ground.
There was only one fitting response to what Kami saw, there on the ground, his eyes rolling around just a little bit:
"Take me on one at a time ya trichotomy of trifecta triplets. It's bad enough ya don't even pick on somepony your own size...but a real gentlepony doesn't team up on a guy...so stahp it."

Diamond looked down to see, not a changeling queen his size, but a changeling princess. Which means she didn't want a slave, she wanted a meal. That changed everything. She had hurt a changeling who just wanted a meal. She was carrying enough love to feed three hives, he had plenty to spare. This made her fell absolutely small. He unpinned Kami, then channeled love through her entire body into a healing type, then pulled Kami into a tender embrace. She may or may not be have been crying. "I'm sorry.......I thought you were a queen.....or trying to enslave me for your hive....I'll feed you, just don't be angry with me..."

Kami blinked a few times, a bit in shock at the mare's reaction. Also helped a bit by the fact that she'd decided to go back to being just one mare, which assisted his sense of who he was supposed to talk to significantly. "It's alright...I didn't even notice you were a..." he looks at her up and down, "Whatever you are."
He gave her a gentle smile, "Look, why don't we just relax a bit, okay? No need for that feeding business between emotivores, after all. We should be secluded enough that nobody ought to pay us much mind, so why don't you explain why queens are such a bad thing around here?"

"I'm a halfling. Half pony, half changeling. Generally rare, and heavily desired by Queens. Simply because they're weak to the hive mind and can reproduce with Queens. Don't want to consume enough love to feed your hive for a year and waste it on an heir? Grab a halfling. Doesn't matter if it consents or not, just get close enough or kiss it, and it's yours for its unending life. Sure it's a life of pleasure, but it's a life without a real mind or will of its own. It's also rape. Many of the changelings here don't care though. Most of the queens take and take and take. I know one queen who isn't like that, but her hive lives in a cemetery, and she smells like one too, doesn't stop her from being nice though." She looked Kami in the eye. Diamond's eyes were sky blue, with a yellow, pupil-like center. There were still some tears dripping from those vastly out of place tear ducts. "I.....I usually carry enough love that I make sure to feed changelings who need a meal. I've been.....taken advantage of by a few, most of them have the same ideas as their queen. It just.....it....." She was at a loss for words, lowered her head and continued crying a bit, pulling Kami a bit closer.

"Pleased to meet you, Dream Vision." Scythe said in now a rather cheerful voice and released a small chuckle. "Yeah, sorry for scaring you like that. This kind of night only comes once a year, and I really wanted to just get into correct spirits and all.. even though this may be one of the uncommon occasions that I am that cheerful." he added before thinking for a moment. "Allow me to walk with you. This night might be better if there's two of us, after all." he said and released another slight chuckle, but never taking off his mask and hood.

"There there...it's okay to let it out, little one." Kami said gently, letting the giant hold him closely. Gonna run out of oxygen soon...hopefully she'll let go before then. Don't want to panic her though. Might make her squeeee"eeeeeeek! Leggo! You're crushing my carapace!" he gasped out, suddenly squirming in her grasp, for a reason far different than the one that had him squirming between her forelegs earlier.
But she was too big to push away, and he couldn't get any momentum going with her denying him the ability to breathe properly. He could already see the little black spots crossing his vision, the soothing green light at the end of the tunnel. A fuzzy feeling all over...oh, such a lovely fuzzy feeling...nap time...would be so nice to take a nap right about now...

Diamond realized she was suffocating the changeling, and loosened her embrace so that Kami could breath. "I......I'm sorry...... I di-..." Diamond was bawling her eyes out now and couldn't control it. She let go of Kami, but set her head Kami's shoulder.

Taking a moment to breath in, Kami weighed his options carefully. She was clearly quite hurt at causing him harm, which was a little surprising to him given that his caste has cased the poor mare so much trouble and left her in such an emotional state to begin with.
Having recovered from his ordeal, he began to speak yet again, "It's not surprising that any hive would desire one of your strength amongst their stock, but I think I'm going to have to pay a few of the Equestrian queens a visit, then. They seem to have forgotten that their kin in Neighpon still revere the honorable and punish those who lack scruples. I've been looking for a new breed of monster to fight; it's quite a shock to find out that it will be my own kind."
He offers the mare another quiet smile, bringing up a hoof to wipe away her tears, "Ah, but those are worries for a later day. I have a mare right in front of me and she's crying her poor little heart out. It'd be cruel of me not to ask how I might quell your sorrows. I hate to see such a pretty face harrowed with tears."

Diamond felt Kami brush away her tears. She shivered, Kami's comforting touch reassuring her. She calmly thought of what she wanted to do. She had hurt him because she mistook his meal gathering for attempted enslavement, she wanted to make it up to him, but Kami also wanted to make it up to her. She disguised herself again, returning back to only a little bit over Kami's height. She kissed the changeling lightly, and smiled. "I think there's a hungry changeling in front of me who needs something proper. An actual feeding, not some quick stuffing in a back alley. If you would please disguise and follow me, I can find us a room, just for that."

"Oh, don't worry about it." Vision said dismissively. "I'll tell you that it was nothing like waking up from being knocked unconscious in a dark train. That almost gave me a heart attack. Yours was tame in comparison." He chuckled, but stopped shortly after and stared at Scythe. "That had better not give you any ideas. I do not want to go through that again." After that, Vision waved a noncommittal hood in a random direction. "I... don't really know where I was walking, though. I haven't an aim tonight."

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"Inspired?" Euforia asked cheerfully. "Oh, just a little story I was reading in my spare time. A pretty good one, too. Remind me to collect bottle caps if I see any!" She started trotting a little slower. "So, anywhere you wanna go trick or treating first? I was just going around the city for now because I'm so happy these things work!" She gestured to her cannons. "I mean, they would either work or blow up, and blowing up's not too fun, you know? At least the burns stop hurting when they get to third degree."