A Worthy Haul (Apple Bloom, Open)

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Pipsqueak had changed his mind over and over again, and then rethought those decisions on the one very important issue of his costume for Nightmare Night. The little colt did not forget how very lucky he and everypony was that they were even having another Nightmare Night. Especially every-filly and colt-pony with trick-or-treating bags!

A-And Princess Luna herself might even come scare them again. Pip hoped so. She'd said she would and was so very good at it!

So all of this meant that he had to pick very wisely and perfectly about his costume this Nightmare Night. But it was so hard to chose! Pirate like last year? Not Pirate? Pirate? Not Pirate?

If Not Pirate, then what?! Pip had looked through catalogues designed to help parents help their fillies and colts with this very question, but still up until the time his mother needed to know for planning and helping him make his costume, the little colt didn't know!

Pipsqueak the Pirate just worked so well.

He had all but settled on not ruining a good thing, when the little pinto had spotted it. P-Pipsqeak the Pioneer...maybe. The little hat was neat looking and all. Pip decided to try it, and so his mother fashioned a tiny brown vest and holster with a water pistol, and they ordered the cute hat.

His mother had said he made a very cute Cow-Pony when it was all done and Pip was changed into his costume come Nightmare Night.

"Pioneer", Pip had politely, but eagerly reminded her, Pip the Pioneer working so much better than Pip the Cow-Pony. "I'm a pioneer, remember mum, exploring the wide open, unclaimed plains!".

"Oh of course", his mother had smiled quietly, then handed him his treat bag.

"'f'anks!" the colt thanked his mother with the bag between his teeth, then set off to meet up with the other little fillies and colts who had agreed to all go together. It was on the way that it hit him, Apple Bloom had mentioned just last week how she would likely be joining up to go with Pip, the spot he was meeting at being nearest Sweet Apple Acres.

Oh...Pipsqueak hoped she wouldn't be offended or anything, or judge his pioneer costume too harshly. Not that she was the type of filly to do that, just...she knew about hats and vests and real farm work and...well Pip couldn't change his costume now and just hoped for the best. He also just glanced about as he waited and sized up which house to try first!

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Apple Bloom had been excited for weeks, but Nightmare Night was finally here. The one day of the year where anypony could dress up as anything they wanted. Last year, she had chosen to be the bride of Frankenstein and she had wanted to keep the tradition of scariness alive. It was supposed to be Nightmare Night, after all. It only made sense to be something spooky rather than just something cool. Not that she'd blame anypony who felt otherwise. But she was in charge of her own costume and that was how she had chosen.

The eventual winner of this contest was a manticore costume. It had been tough to actually piece together everything that was needed to make a pony look like a manticore, but with a bit of help from her family and her own natural know how within the world of building things, she did believe that she had a convincing look. She had never actually met a manticore before, but she had seen plenty of pictures. Not having first hand experience with the subject of a costume was pretty common, so her confidence wasn't shaken.

Given that she was often attached at the hip to the other Cutie Mark Crusaders, it might have been strange that she would invite Pipsqueek to hang out with her on such an important day. But the reasoning wasn't very mysterious. As a member of the Apple Family, Apple Bloom liked to think it was partially her job to make sure that ponies felt welcome in Ponyville. Pipsqueek wasn't knew to town anymore, but he was still only experiencing his second Nightmare Night, which meant that he was still a rookie.

She trotted over to join him, a bit surprised that she had arrived second to their meeting spot. It didn't take her long to realize what he had chosen to dress up as. Now that she thought about it, it was pretty cool to be related to ponies that did something costume-worthy.

“Heya, Pipsqueek,” she greeted happily, “All dressed up like that, you could pass for my cousin in Appleloosa!” That was, if one didn't take into account Braeburn's much larger size, different colorings and everything other than sense of style and gender. But that had to be a pretty good compliment. Unlike manticores, Apple Bloom had very personal knowledge of the type of look that Pipsqueek was going for.

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Pipsqueak checked and double checked that his hat was still straight and then turned his head to check on his vest too. He watched as a mother escorted another little colt along on Trick or Treating, that little colt being dressed as a mummy. Hmm...a pioneer, while sounding cool when Pip had decided it, was decidedly less scary than even a pirate that he had gone as last year, on his first ever Nightmare Night.

The little colt knew it was ok to be not scary or scary with your costume, but wondered yet again if he had made the right choice. He...thought he had, though. He wouldn't have wanted to go as a pirate again and copy last year, and a pioneer was a neat thing all in all. Yeah, it still worked, Pip told himself, lifting a hoof to fix his hat again.

He heard the tell-tale sound of hooves approaching and turned to spot Apple Bloom walking up. Wow! Pip was instantly impressed with her own costume, and yet she was complimenting his first off. Pip smiled, snuffling one hoof and looking shyly unsure for the smallest of moments before he grinned again at the reassurance, "Thanks! I didn't think about it until later, how you and your family would know on looking like a pioneer, that's what I went for! Exploring Pioneer! I know it's not scary but well...".

"I like yours too", the colt went on both politely and sincerely, "It's a great Manticore! In fact if you hadn't said something I might have thought you were a real one and run away" he smiled again. An exaggeration maybe, she'd have still been a small Manticore at that.