The waning light of the evening sun, nearly completely set by now, cast the buildings of Canterlot in an eerie glow as Lute, dressed like a member of the Wonderbolts, trotted with grim determination from the most recent house on his list, saddlebags already quarter-full. The next house was fully decorated for the holiday, carved pumpkins glowing, fake webs strung across its windows, and most importantly, a pony sitting outside with a bowl full of candy, dressed like a kelpie, complete with a jet-black suit with random bits of detritus stuck to it, and long black wig.
Lute walked up determinedly, holding out a hoof as he closed his eyes and recited the familiar appeal. “Nightmare Night – such a fright – give me something good to bite.”
The pony who owned the home – with her costume and wig, it was impossible to tell her tribe – frowned. “That didn’t seem very enthusiastic,” she noted as she hoofed a small amount of candy into Lute’s saddlebags.
“Sorry.”
“Is it just you?”
Lute nodded. “Me and my friends divided Canterlot up between us. I’m getting the lower two tiers; they’re getting the upper four. Last year we spent too much time playing around and we didn’t get anything worthwhile. This year, it’ll be different.”
The pony’s frown deepened. “I think you’re sort of missing out on the spirit of Nightmare Night, kid.”
Lute shrugged. “Time is candy,” he said, turning and trotting, heading for the next house. He narrowly avoided a gaggle of foals even younger than him and their chaperone as they rushed by him, looking for free candy of their own. They were all already eating some of their own candy, though, and from the looks of things had skipped a few houses.
Lute tsked. “They’ll learn,” he said to himself as he proceeded to the next home.
---
My little pony, My little pony
Ahh ahh ahh ahhh...
My little pony –
Friendship never meant that much to me
My little pony –
But you're all here and now I can see
Stormy weather; Lots to share
A musical bond; With love and care
Teaching laughter; It’s an easy feat,
And magic makes it all complete!
You have my little ponies –
How’d I ever make so many true friends?
---
Saddlebags of candy now half-full, Lute had completed his trek through Canterlot’s third-lowest tier, or at least the residential area thereof. The city, built into the side of a cliff, didn’t have a whole lot of room to expand horizontally, and so it had instead expanded vertically. Where other cities had city blocks, Canterlot had its six tiers – well, seven, but no one counted the lowest-lowest tier, used mostly for warehouses – as well as some of the tallest buildings in all of Equestria.
Lute wasn’t sure what his parents would think of him wandering through Canterlot basically alone, but as he didn’t plan on telling them, he didn’t suppose it mattered much. Besides, he was only alone in that there was no one actually accompanying him; the city streets were, of course, full of foals and their chaperones moving from house to house, getting all the free candy they could get their hooves on.
Lute fluttered his wings a few times, wondering if he should try flying to give his hooves a break. He wasn’t yet old enough to do much in the way of sustained flight, however, and he doubted he could even get much in the way of lift with saddlebags full of candy. Sighing a little and reminding himself that aching hooves were worth it where free candy was involved, Lute continued on his trek, heading down one of the sloping roads that connected this tier to the one below it.
At length, however, he found his way blocked. A large herd of foals and chaperones were all standing in the middle of the street, in front of a large wagon of some kind. It was painted black and orange, decorated with spiders and bats and other Nightmare Night paraphernalia, and it was just sitting there, taking up space. As large as it was, though, it wasn’t large enough to block the entire street, Lute thought; there was no reason why all these foals couldn’t have moved past it. So why were they…?
“Hark, and listen well, to the story I am about to tell!” A voice rang from the cart, as mist began to pour from it and over the crowd that had gathered before the cart. The mist travelled uphill with no issue, but it otherwise stayed only a few inches over the ground. Lute blinked at the sight, as with great groans and creaks the cart began to somehow unfold, creating a large stage with cobwebs for curtains and eerie, green-glowing flames for lighting. The cobwebs flowed apart after a moment, and out onto the stage stepped a blue mare with violet eyes, dressed in a jet-black, ragged cloak and crooked witch's hat.
The crowd of foals all gasped at her appearance. The witch only smiled, holding up a hoof and revealing a small pumpkin. Tossing it at the stage floor, it exploded into orange smoke; a moment later, with another poof of orange smoke, she appeared on the ground, amidst the foals. They all let out terrified squeals.
“You’re frightened; that’s good!” The unicorn said, using the handle of her broom to point to the foals in a sweeping motion. “Life’s no fun without a good scare! But stick around, my pretties. What I have to tell you, might just save you this night!” The witch cackled as she threw another pumpkin-bomb at her hooves, and reappeared on the stage. “Who here knows the story of Nightmare Night? The true story?”
None of the foals raised their hooves – clearly, they wanted to be told, even if they knew the story already. The witch cackled again, waving a hoof behind her at the stage. Mist passed over it, and when it faded, it looked like a giant pop-up-book rendition of a dark and twisted forest. Suddenly, a pair of violet eyes lit up the gloom of the forest. From the gloom, appeared a deep blue unicorn with a purple mane, running as fast as her hooves could carry her and grinning like a madpony. Slung over her back was a sack laden with jewels.
The witch reappeared then, floating over her stage as she sat on her broom, looking down and tsking at the sight below her. “Ah, Moon Beam,” she said. “She lived a long, long time ago, traveling across Equestria and beyond, performing all manner of misdeeds. She would play the most vicious of tricks. Leading rats into farm fields! Startling cows into stampedes! Con honest mares and stallions out of their hard-earned money! She took what she liked, a beaming smile on her face all the while!
“But eventually, Moon Beam stretched her hoof too far!” The scene changed, pulling back. Moon Beam was still running through the forest, up a hill now. She was being chased by angry ponies armed with pitchforks and torches. “The ponies of the land gathered and chased her. They chased her into the forest, they chased her over logs and underbrush, they chased her up a cliff. Moon Beam looked back on them the whole time, laughing as they couldn’t catch her, calling them names, proclaiming herself to be the greatest pony in the whole world – when suddenly…”
The image showed Moon Beam running towards the edge of a cliff, still looking back at the ponies, still laughing and not seeing where she was running. She stepped forward, found her hoof on empty air. Her momentum carried her forward anyway, and she fell, and fell, and fell…passing out of sight as the stage went dark. The foals all gasped.
The witch cackled again. “Look before you leap, foals!” she warned, holding up a pumpkin bomb and letting it fall to the stage below. Once its orange smoke cleared, a scene of startling contrast was revealed – on the one side, a pristine field of tall, healthy grass; in the other, a dark and desolate wasteland. Standing between the two of them was Moon Beam.
“Moon Beam had been far, far too wicked in life to go on to the Elysian Fields…” the witch said, and the pristine fields faded to gray, then disappeared entirely. Moon Beam turned to the wasteland instead, but with a clang, the way suddenly became barred, and they, too, disappeared. “…but,” the witch said, “she had played too many tricks on the denizens of Tartaros to be let in, either.”
The image of Moon Beam began walking forward, and the witch cackled again. “And so, foals, the mare had to wander the night forever, looking for a place to rest – she became…the Nightmare.”
Moon Beam’s features changed. She retained her unicorn horn, but a great pair of batlike wings stretched from her body, and her teeth became sharp and pointed. Her mane seemed to blow in a wind that wasn’t there as she reached the edge of the stage, looking around at the foals.
“She hates the light!” the witch proclaimed, holding out a hoof, upon which orange flame danced brightly. The Nightmare shied away from it. “The light reminds her of the Elysian Fields that she can never enter. That is why we carve our lanterns, to keep her away from our homes! Don’t want her resting there, do we?”
The foals all vehemently shook their heads and shouted no. The witch sighed and shook her head as she turned back to the Nightmare. “But it is a long and lonely journey she is on, looking for a place to rest,” she said, as she held up a piece of candy from nowhere. “And a hungry one. If you see the Nightmare tonight, children, have a little pity, and give her some of your candy.” the witch tossed the candy to the Nightmare, who caught it eagerly in her mouth, crunching down on it and swallowing it.
The witch looked out to the foals, as did the Nightmare. “Because if you don’t give her candy…” she said, as the Nightmare looked hungrily out at the foals, smiling as brightly as she had when she was Moon Beam, only now with the fangs of a predator. She started trotting forward, head dipping, ears folding back, wings spreading wide. “She might – just – eat – you!”
The Nightmare leaped at the foals, who screamed in fright. Before she could reach them, however, the witch appeared in front of them, the tip of her broom glowing with a bright orange flame. The Nightmare let out a whinny of surprise, before puffing apart into deep blue, starry smoke that disappeared into the night. The witch disappeared in her own puff of orange smoke, then reappeared on the stage, bowing deeply.
The foals, once they recovered their wits, applauded – except for Lute, who was busy shuffling from one hoof to the next impatiently, eager to get back to his quest for candy. The witch on stage drank in the applause eagerly, before taking off her hat, revealing a silvery mane and a unicorn’s horn. “Now…who wants some candy, to ward off the Nightmare should she cross your path?” she asked, showing the inside of her hat – which seemed to be overflowing with candy.
Lute’s ears perked up. Apparently this hadn’t been a waste of time after all. The foals in front of him certainly didn’t think so, as they surged towards the stage. The witch handed out a few pieces of candy to each foal that came up to her, and even had short conversations with a few, dropping her ‘wicked’ act. When Lute reached her, her head tilted to the side. “And you didn’t look like you were enjoying yourself nearly enough,” she said.
Lute shrugged as he was hoofed some candy. “Time is candy,” he said, repeating his mantra for the night.
The witch tsked. “I used to be like you,” she said. “What happens if you meet the Nightmare?”
Lute frowned. “Seems to me that if I met the Nightmare, the best thing I could do is have lots of candy to give her,” he said. “Besides, she’s just an old mare’s tale. The Nightmare wasn’t ever real.”
The witch’s frown deepened. “My little pony…the Nightmare is definitely real. I know. I met her.”
“Probably just somepony dressed up like her.”
“We’ll see…” the witch said. Lute opened his mouth to ask about her phrasing, but the witch turned from him, shooing him away in order to give out candy to the next foal in line. Lute considered waiting a moment until she was free again, but then decided against it. Time was candy, after all.
---
The second-lowest tier of Canterlot was also the largest. Lute wasn’t certain why he’d agreed to divide Canterlot into the tiers that he had with his friends – each of them taking two – when the tiers were so uneven in size. Still, it meant that he was probably going to be bringing in the biggest load of candy out of all of them.
For the first time, though, he wished he had his friends with him. The penultimate tier was practically devoid of foals at this time of night, with the Moon arching high into the sky. More than a few foals had already cleared the place out of all the best candy. Also – though this was not as big a concern to Lute as it should have been – the penultimate tier was also Canterlot’s roughest neighborhood. Of course, with the Princess and the main offices for most of Equestria’s law enforcement agencies only a few tiers away, it had nothing on the rough neighborhoods of Fillydelphia or Manehattan; the worst thing that happened to most ponies here was dirty looks and the occasional unkind words. Nevertheless, it occurred to Lute that he probably shouldn’t have been wandering around by himself.
He didn’t turn back, though. Time was candy. His saddlebags were almost full. He couldn’t turn back now.
Naturally, just as he thought of that, he heard a sound that was a little too familiar – mocking laughter. Turning a street corner, he saw a small gaggle of ponies in front of a house that, from the sounds of it, was too busy with a Nightmare Night party to hear what was going on outside of it.
Two of the ponies were about Lute’s age. He recognized them both from school – Peach Charm, a unicorn with a red mane and yellow coat; and Brawny Breeze, an earth pony with a blond mane and green coat. Both had already earned their cutie marks; a peach with a flower, in Peach’s case, and a pair of kites, in Brawny’s. Both were dressed up, Peach as a vampire, complete with fake fangs and a cape; and Brawny as some kind of ghoul, with makeup on his face to make his eyes look sunken and wearing torn clothes.
The two were in the process of trotting around a group of four foals, all fillies – three unicorns and a pegasus. One of the unicorns was white, and dressed as Daring Do; the second was pinkish-lavender and dressed like a princess; and the third blue one was dressed up like a professional baker. The pegasus, meanwhile, was yellow-coated and dressed like a manticore tamer, complete with a toy whip. The four foals looked much younger than Peach or Brawny, and were sticking close to each other.
“…so are you enjoyin’ Nightmare Night?” Peach asked the four foals, her voice high with mockery.
“Got lots of candy?” Brawny asked.
“Anythin’ you want to share with us?”
“N-no…” one of the foals, the pinkish-lavender one, said. “W-we were j-j-j – ”
“J-j-just goin’ where?” Peach asked. “You shouldn’t be out here without somepony to watch you, you know!”
“Might run into vampires! Or ghouls! Or the Nightmare!” Brawny said, leaning in close at the last. The foals flinched away, but Peach was behind them. When they turned to look at her, she held out a hoof. “C’mon, kids, I’m a little hungry here. Hoof it all over.”
“B-but we’re almost home!” One of the foals said, looking to a house across the street – probably hers. “We were out all night…”
“Well, that’s why you’re stupid,” Brawny said, jabbing a hoof at the foal, pushing her slightly. “You did all the collecting for us. Right, Peachy?”
“Don’t call me Peachy, Brawny. But you’re right.”
The pegasus of the group grit her teeth, then leaped forward, whip in mouth as she swung it at Brawny. It being a toy whip, however, all it did was lightly brush the bully’s muzzle. He sniffed a few times. “Okay, you made your brave stand, it didn’t work,” he said, his voice dropping a few octaves and his mocking smile disappearing; he looked serious, now, no longer in a mood for games. “Now give us your candy.”
The four foals stared at the two much larger bullies, tears in their eyes.
Lute, meanwhile, had just finished hiding his own saddlebags of candy in a nearby bush. He put the goggles for his Wonderbolt costume down over his eyes, and stepped into full view. “Hey! Morons!” Peach and Brawny both turned to look at the exclamation. Lute struck the best Wonderbolt pose he could – chest forward, head thrown back, wings spread wide. “Get away from them!”
Peach and Brawny glanced at each other, then back to the pegasus. “Lute?” Peach asked. Lute cursed himself internally; he had kind of hoped that the costume might disguise him. Evidently not; the fact that he had worn it into school today, though, probably hadn’t helped.
“Sure ain’t a real Wonderbolt,” Brawny said. “The hay you doing here, Lute?”
Lute scuffed a hoof on the ground. “Right now?” he asked. “Wasting my time stopping a couple of bullies from tormenting foals. I could be getting candy right now, you know.”
Peach and Brawny again glanced at each other, then both smiled. “Hey, right,” Peach said, stepping forward. “You were braggin’ at school about a fool-proof plan to get all the candy you could want tonight, weren’t you? How’s that workin’ out?”
“Pretty good, actually – um.” Lute said, when he realized that Brawny and Peach’s eyes lit up when he confirmed that. “Um. Look, just go and get your own candy.”
“I think that’s exactly what we’re gonna do,” Peach said, as she started trotting forward, Brawny not a step behind her. “Where’s yours?”
Lute backed away a few steps, thankful that his goggles prevented the two of them from seeing him nervously glance at the bush where he’d hidden his saddlebags. “I, um…ate it all. Yeah.”
Lute turned to run, but Peach reacted first, green magic whipping out from her horn and wrapping around his tail, holding him in place as she came up close to him, Brawny flanking her. “Look, you’re the one who wanted to play hero, so now you have to deal with the consequences,” Peach said, stamping a hoof. “Hoof over your candy. You’re not a little foal. I don’t feel bad about having Brawny here beat you up.”
“Hey, I’m not your thug,” Brawny objected.
“I’ll join in, then. It will be a team – ow!”
Lute had reached up and flicked Peach’s horn, disrupting her telekinesis. She clutched at it with both hooves as Lute scampered back a few steps. He paused long enough to see Brawny glaring at him, though the look was far, far surpassed by the sheer hate that Peach was directing his way. “You are so dead,” she said, horn glowing brightly.
Lute turned and ran. His ears had no trouble picking up on the sound of the two other ponies chasing after him, keeping pace if not catching up. Glancing behind him, he saw Brawny was gaining, while Peach, even if she wasn’t, still had her telekinesis. Her aura would reach out every few moments, trying to snare his legs or tail.
“You can’t keep running forever, Lute!” Brawny called as the three ran through a few streets, down an ally, out another street, and through a yard. “We’ll get you!”
“Yeah, except for one thing!” Lute called back. He turned down an ally, saw it was a dead-end, and smiled as he didn’t slow down, but instead extended his wings and started flapping. His takeoff was far from perfect, but he easily managed to gain several feet of altitude in time to stop with hooves planted against the wall. Wings flapping as fast as they could, he hopped from one side of the ally to the other, using the walls to brace himself until he at last reached the top of one of the buildings that framed the alley. Looking down, he saw Brawny and Peach glaring at him. He was well out of the reach of Peach’s telekinesis.
Lute stuck his tongue out at them. “I’m a pegasus, dimwits!” he called.
“You go to our school, moron!” Brawny returned. Lute opened his mouth, then closed it. Right. He may have escaped them tonight, and maybe even for the whole weekend, but come school on Monday…
Lute, however, just shrugged. He’d deal with that later. Spreading his wings again, he ran along the roof and then lifted off. He couldn’t yet fly very well, but gliding was no problem, and within just a few minutes he managed to make his way back to where he’d stashed his saddlebags. Dashing up to the bush, he found the saddlebags and, more importantly, their contents, untouched. He slipped them on as quickly as he could, then set about looking to see if he could remember the quickest way out of this tier, just in case Brawny and Peach came around looking for round two.
“Hey!”
Lute turned to look, pulling up his Wonderbolt goggles, and saw one of the foals from earlier – the pegasus manticore tamer. She was running from her home, while meanwhile the other three foals were looking out her front door. “Thanks!” she said.
Lute offered a smile at the younger foal, spreading his wings wide and striking a Wonderbolt pose again. “I couldn’t just stand by!” he proclaimed, then looked down at her. “You probably shouldn’t be out without a chaperone, though.”
“We weren’t,” the filly said, pointing back at the house. “We did a little trick-or-treating but then went in for a slumber party. But then we wanted to see if we could get anything else first. Just this street! Honest!”
Lute shrugged. “Well, I got to get back home before those bullies return…” he said, making to leave.
The filly stopped him, however, leaping in front of him, then holding out a hoof. There were a few wrapped-up gumdrops in it. “As a thanks,” she said.
Lute smiled. Well, at least he hadn’t totally wasted his time. He took the gumdrops and added them to his nearly-full saddlebags. “Thanks,” he said. “What’s your name?”
“Lute!”
The filly hadn’t exclaimed that. Lute looked in the direction of the voices, and saw Peach and Brawny, each panting as they glared hate at him. The pegasus filly let out a yelp of surprise and quickly dashed back to the house she’d come out of. Lute, meanwhile, just shrugged, spread his wings, beat them a few times to take off…
…and got absolutely no lift whatsoever, thanks to the weight of his candy-laden saddlebags.
Lute blinked a few times, looking first to the candy, then to Peach and Brawny, who were both grinning widely. “Looks like we won’t have to wait until Monday,” Brawny observed as the two started forward.
Lute picked a direction, and started running.
---
The one advantage Lute had over Brawny and Peach was that he had enjoyed a relatively leisurely flight back to his candy, rather than the gallop that the two of them had done. That advantage was a dwindling one, however, as he swiftly felt aches beginning to build in his legs as he ran from the two ponies chasing him through the penultimate tier.
He had no plan for where he was going beyond his immediate future. Through a garden. Over a pumpkin cart somepony had carelessly left in the road. Down an alley. It didn’t matter, though – Peach and Brawny were keeping pace without much effort. Some part of Lute’s mind registered that the three seemed to be going gradually downhill, that the sight of homes was becoming much less common, replaced with instead large, foreboding buildings with not a whole lot of windows.
He glanced at his saddlebags, and considered just ditching them and flying off. But no – no way. He’d worked too hard tonight for the candy, there was no way he’d just give them up to a pair of bullies. On the other hoof…
“Wh-what if I just give you half?” Lute called back to Peach and Brawny.
“Ain’t about the candy, Lute!” Peach shouted back. “You hit my horn!”
“You don’t hit a unicorn’s horn, Lute!” Brawny added. “It isn’t polite!”
“And beating up little foals is?”
The two didn’t have an answer for that. Lute supposed it didn’t really matter at the moment, anyway. He turned down an alley, wings flickering rapidly to try and give him extra boosts of speed. A glance behind him told him that it wasn’t working, though; Brawny was barely a body-length behind him, and Peach keeping good pace despite being a unicorn.
And then Lute tripped. He didn’t see over what – it was too dark out, the light of the moon and stars providing the only illumination. He only knew that one of his legs caught on something for a moment, and he stumbled, couldn’t get his legs under him, and fell. He beat his wings rapidly to arrest his fall and avoid taking too much hurt, but before he could even think about standing, a telekinetic aura wrapped around his tail and held him in place as Brawny put a hoof down on his side. More than a few pieces of candy had fallen from Lute’s saddlebags, from the sound of things.
“You are so dead,” Peach declared once more, trotting towards Lute, eyes narrow. The green glow of her horn emphatically did not add to the area’s ambiance.
“W-wait,” Lute said, trying to back away, glancing around. Candy was officially not worth it anymore. “Take all my candy!”
“Oh, we will,” Brawny assured Lute as Peach raised a hoof, grinning wickedly before bringing it down towards his face. She started and missed, though, when a loud whinny suddenly cut through the night air, her hoof instead landing on the ground inches from Lute’s head.
Peach and Brawny both looked around. It was one thing to beat up Lute when they had a little privacy; having witnesses around would change things. Looking left and right, though, neither saw any sign of whoever had whinnied.
Lute, from his vantage point, did – standing on top of one of the tall buildings, looking down on them, was a black-cloaked figure with glowing violet eyes, framed against the light of the crescent moon. Some dim part of Lute’s brain registered that, with buildings this tall, they were probably in the lowest tier, the warehouses of Canterlot. Most of his brain just registered that there was another pony around. “Help!” he shouted.
Peach and Brawny looked up and saw the pony. “Who the hay is that?” Brawny asked.
Peach squinted a little, trying to see if she recognized the pony. “This doesn’t concern you!” she shouted up.
The pony was still for another moment, before something else appeared underneath her hood, something white and sparkling. Teeth. Whoever the pony was, she was smiling, with a mouth full of sharp, predator teeth. Brawny and Peach both backed away at the sight, and the pony whinnied again, before breaking apart into violet, glittering mist that fell from the building and collected itself on the ground a few feet away, before reforming into the pony.
“Who the hay do you think you are?” Peach demanded, though there was a notable tinge of fear to her voice. “I’m not impressed!”
The pony’s smile didn’t drop as she started trotting forward. Her cape suddenly became animate, billowing in a wind that wasn’t there before it began to break apart, the pieces flying away as they somehow transformed into bats. A mist came up from nowhere at the same time, flowing rapidly from behind the pony and past Lute, Brawny, and Peach.
When the cape disappeared, however, is when the three foals suddenly forgot that they were enemies. Beneath the cape, the pony had a deep blue coat, a long, spiraling unicorn horn – and a pair of batlike wings, which she spread even as her smile widened to impossible size. Then the pony licked her lips with a long, snake-like tongue.
“N…no way…” Brawny stuttered in a small voice as Lute struggled to pick himself up.
“She’s not real!” Peach declared, stepping forward, horn glowing as she loosed a bolt of green magic at the advancing pony. She probably intended to knock her away. What happened instead was the pony seemed to disappear for a second, and then reappeared, her muzzle mere inches from Peach’s. The unicorn screamed, turned, and started running, Brawny not far behind. But the pony once more broke apart into a nebulous mass, shot ahead of them, and re-formed in front of them. Both tried to stop their run, but instead crashed into the pony. She didn’t budge, but both ponies fell over, picked themselves up desperately, and tried to run the other way. The mare moved again, blocking their retreat and whickering in delight at the look of fright on their faces.
The Nightmare, Lute realized. It was impossible. She was just an old pony’s tale. And yet…here she was. Real enough to stop foals from running away. Mouth full of sharp, predator-looking teeth, teeth meant to rip and tear at living creatures, not plants. And past the smile on her face that would not drop…
She looked hungry.