//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: It's Much More Fun When Lives Are On The Line 
// Story: Everypony Hail to the Pumpkin King 
// by Harmony Charmer 
//------------------------------//

	"One, two, a ghost says boo!" Pinkie chanted, "three, four, vampires at the door!"

Another night, another chant into the woods of the Everfree. Pinkie was absolutely incapable of holding in her excitement for the night ahead of her, her bounces growing higher and higher with every bound.

"Five, six, there's a wicked witch! Seven, eight, monsters at the gate!"

It took nearly all of her self control to get to the threshold of the forest without practically exploding with glee. The citizens of Ponyville didn't spare her another glance as she exuberantly hopped through town, considering it wasn't strange of her. Still, none of them could know why she was so happy or just where she was going.

Not yet.

"Nine, ten, it's Nightmare Night again!" Pinkie finished, sticking her landing over the warped graveyard fence. She expertly maneuvered around the tombstones and towards the crypt, lightly humming a random song that accumulated in her head.

The moonlight creeped through the trees and illuminated the cemetery with an eerie light, casting long, dark shadows across the tombstones. Yet, Pinkie wasn't frightened by the spookiness, but rather enthralled by it. She counted the shadows to pass the time and then the tombstones, then counted which tombstones held shadows. She almost began to count which tombstones had names, but then stopped when she realized that none of them did.

The crypt door creaked open, and Pinkie turned excitedly. "Hiya there!"

Sally stepped out of the crypt, disoriented. "Ugh... remind me to bring something to soften the trip down here..."

"Where's Jack?" Pinkie asked, stepping over to Sally. 

Sally shook her head. "He sends an apology for not being able to make it, but something's happened in Halloweentown that requires his attention."

Pinkie gasped. "Oh, no, is everything OK?"

"I'm afraid not," Sally replied, shaking her head again, "someone destroyed all the pumpkins in town sometime last night."

"WHAT?!" The trees shook from the resonance of Pinkie's voice and several birds flew from their perches to scurry away from the sound. When the wilderness settled after a moment, Pinkie put her hooves to her face in horror. "How can you celebrate Nightma-- I mean, Halloween without pumpkins?!"

"That's exactly what Jack's trying to figure out." Sally sat down on the steps of the crypt. "I don't know who could have done such a thing. No one in town has a mean bone in their body." 

"Well, since your town has ghosts, maybe that's why!" Pinkie frowned when Sally didn't laugh. "Sorry, just trying to lighten the mood."

Sally sighed. "It's alright, it's just... today's been a little hard, is all."

"Wanna talk about it?" Pinkie smiled at her earnestly. "It's OK if you don't want to."

"Thanks for the offer, but I came here to help you with your costume, not to talk about my troubles." Sally put her satchel on her lap and opened it up. She tugged out different patches of fabric and placed them down in front of Pinkie. "I didn't know what you would prefer, so I grabbed a bit of everything."

"Wow, these are really pretty!" 

"Pretty?"

Pinkie giggled. "Pretty in the spooky sense!"

Sally smiled. "Thanks, but these are just a couple of my samples. I have dozens more back home."

"You and Rarity!" Pinkie exclaimed, laughing endearingly. "She's Ponyville's local designer and one of my best friends!" She gasped suddenly. "Speaking of, I went by earlier today and grabbed these for you!"

Pinkie whipped a file out of her a mane, startling Sally a little bit. Sally took the file from her gingerly and opened it up to see full sketches and measurements for Pinkie written in expert cursive. Her eyes widened at the different designs for different attire, the complexity of the designs impressing upon her.

"These are extremely well done," Sally complimented, still going over the notes. Her hand traced over one of the designs lightly. "Are these dresses she's made for you in the past?"

Pinkie nodded. "Yep! She's only made a couple for me, though, since I don't really like to wear dresses to parties all that much." She smiled. "But, it makes her happy, so I let her make me one when she can. And they're really pretty, too, so I love 'em anyway!"

Sally flipped onto a different page and found series of personal notes that were nearly illegible. She pulled the file up closer to attempt to read it better, her eyes squinting to try to make out words.

Likes pink and frilly attire... A little indecisive and tends to be a little uncoordinated when it comes to colors... A big fan of props and food related items...

"Hmm..." Sally hummed out, tapping her chin. 

Pinkie leaned over to look at the file. "Whatcha thinkin'?" 

Sally closed the file with a smile. "I think I have an idea of what to do for your costume, Pinkie."

"Really?" Pinkie said excitedly.

"Really." Sally glanced down at the patches of fabric. "But, maybe I should take a look at my samples back home before deciding on what to do for colors."

Pinkie cocked her head to the side in confusion. "Why?"

"Er... Well, I think I have a couple more that you might like a lot more."

Pinkie furrowed her brows for a brief moment, but she eased up. "Okie dokie lokie!"

Sally smiled, but it faded quickly. "Pinkie?"

"Yeah?"

"You said you'd listen if I wanted to talk to you about something, right?" Sally asked lightly, her hands clenching together.

"Of course!" Pinkie proclaimed. "What do you wanna talk about?"

"Well... It's about Jack."

Pinkie's eyes widened. "Is everything OK between you two?"

Sally sighed and put a hand to her forehead. "I don't know. I mean, I care about him and I want to stay with him, but... I feel so..."

"Wonky?" Pinkie suggested.

Sally raised a brow quizzically, but nodded nonetheless. "Yes, wonky. I mean, I never think about it, but yesterday, when we got back home, everyone was talking about us disappearing and I couldn't go anywhere without anyone talking about me... I felt so exposed and criticized."

Pinkie nodded, signalling her to go on.

"I just feel like... no one takes me seriously." Sally twiddled with the ends of her hair. "I'm not scary like Jack or bold like the other monsters in town..."

"Whaaaaaaaaaat?" Pinkie drawled. She threw her hooves into the air. "Sally, you're one of the most scary monsters I've ever seen! I nearly had a heart attack when I first saw you!"

Sally's cheeks tinged red. "That's very kind of you, but you don't know what the other monsters back home are like. I'm just an experiment by the local mad scientist, not a bloodsucker or a screeching ghoul."

Pinkie puffed her cheeks out. "I may not know what the monsters in Halloweentown are like, but I've seen more than enough monsters in Ponyville alone to know a scary one when I see one."

"Pinkie--"

"And then there's the monsters we fought outside Ponyville," Pinkie continued, "like Nightmare Moon! Back before we freed Luna, Nightmare was scar-ee!"

"Pinkie."

"And don't even get me started on the Changelings!" Pinkie turned towards her suddenly. "They invaded Canterlot during Twilight's brother's wedding and nearly deposed Princess Celestia, y'know."

"I don't know, actually, but now I kind of want to," Sally interjected. She sighed. "I appreciate what you're saying, I really do. But, it's hard to believe it when you can't feel it."

Pinkie frowned. "OK, I understand." Her smile returned. "I still think you're scary, though!"

"Thank you." Sally put a hand on Pinkie's head. "I really appreciate it."

"Hey, Sally? If you're feeling bad, then you should talk to Jack about it. I know I feel better when I talk about my feelings with someone I care about."

Sally let out a heavy breath. "I don't want to burden him when he's dealing with so much back home. With the pumpkin supply gone, then Halloween is sure to be a disaster... and not the fun kind."

Pinkie let out a long hum of thought. "I miiiight be able to help you with that, actually... Be back in sec!"

Before Sally could say a word, Pinkie disappeared from sight, leaving a pink streak and a trail of dust behind her. 





The marketplace in Ponyville was nearing its closing time, the stalls gathering their goods to store until the next morning. The evening air was brisk and smelled of decaying autumn leaves. Long since fallen leaves from the Running of the Leaves crunched beneath the departing stall owners who carted their belongings back home to restock.

However, Golden Harvest, one of Ponyville's local farmers, heaved a heavy sigh when she took a look at her stockpile of pumpkins that cluttered her stall and shook her head. While her family was particularly known for growing and selling carrots in the market, it was a tradition of theirs to grow pumpkins for the fall season. Unfortunately, their harvest left them in a great abundance of pumpkins that remained still in her stalls. A few passing ponies spared a glance their way, but only a fraction of them bought even a single one.

"Not a good business day, huh?" Applejack asked as she passed by with her cart. Golden enviously noticed that her cart was near barren.

Golden shook her head. "Nope." 

Applejack smiled sympathetically. "Sorry to hear that, Goldie. How'd you do on carrot sales?"

"Alright," Golden replied despondently, "it just sucks that I couldn't sell a lot of pumpkins. You'd think they'd be in high demand at this time of year."

Applejack shrugged. "Ah'm guessin' they're waitin' until it's closer to Nightmare Night to actually get them so they don't rot when they carve 'em up."

"Still." Golden blew out the lanterns that hung over her head. "Hopefully we get some business sooner than later... I'm real worried we're gonna end up eating pumpkin pie for the next couple months like last year."

At that exact moment, a pink blur came barreling into the marketplace and zoomed right towards Golden's stall. Her heap of pumpkins disappeared in front of her and was replaced by a heaping bag of bits.

"KEEP THE CHANGE!" screeched the pink blur, carting a ton of pumpkins behind it. The blur and the pumpkins faded off into the distance.

Golden stared at the bag of bits, then at where the blur was, then at the bag of bits. "What."

"...I stand corrected," Applejack breathed out finally, her eyes wide, "looks like somepony really needed some pumpkins."

Golden turned towards her. "Was that... Was that Pinkie Pie?"

Applejack gazed at the bag of bits, then at where the mysterious pony-- or whatever it was-- had been. After a moment of long silence, she narrowed her eyes. "What in tarnation could she be doin' with all those pumpkins...?"





Pinkie returned to the graveyard, a stockpile of pumpkins stacked precariously onto her back. Sally stared at her in wonder as she stood on shaking legs and managed to balance the overwhelming amount of crop on top of her.

"Sweet screaming pumpkins," Sally said out loud, "where'd you get all those?"

Pinkie shook her head and let out a heavy pant. "Don't... worry... about... it..." 

"How am I supposed to get all of those over to the other side? I can barely carry one of those things by myself!

Pinkie's legs gave one final tremble before giving out beneath her. The pumpkins remained in a terrifying balance and Sally stepped back to avoid the potential fall. Pinkie lifted her head off the ground and she stared at the crypt. "You're gonna need a really big cart..."

Sally sighed. "Pinkie, you didn't have to do all of this. We could have figured something else out."

"But Nightmare Ni-- I mean, Halloween isn't the same without pumpkins!" Pinkie cried out in protest. She stood up again, the pumpkins dipping forward before settling back into a disorganized stack. "Open up the crypt."

"Pinkie Pie--"

"It'll be OK, I promise!" Pinkie took a couple ginger steps forward. "Head inside and wait on the other side. If you can, get Jack. You're gonna need his help for this."

Sally looked between the crypt and Pinkie in quick succession. She finally sighed and opened the crypt door, turning back slightly to get another look at Pinkie. Pinkie smiled at her reassuringly and nodded.

Sally stepped inside, praying that everything would turn out alright.