Flash and Sunset aimlessly wandered the hallways of the school, in search of finding something that could help them defeat their new enemy and get their friends back. The lights above them were constantly flickering and the short sounds of every footstep were all that could be heard. Apart from an occasional question about directions, the two of them barley talked as Sunset wanted to be fully prepared in case Kitharium or one of their zombified classmates show'd up. The school felt truly haunting in the quiet darkness, but Flash had luckily managed to find a torch in someone’s locker earlier and had been shining it brightly ahead of them every step of the way.
“Some Halloween this is, huh?” He joked, attempting to break the uneasy tension that plagued their environment.
“Yeah, it's not one for the yearbook!” Sunset jested back at him as the two awkwardly chuckled and tried to have an conversation to help calm their nerves.
“We’ll be able to stop this, right?”
“Yeah, of course we will. So, you and Gloriosa got to talking?"
“Yeah, she’s a nice girl.”
“Why don’t you ask her out?”
“I don’t know, I haven’t really dated anyone since we used to go out. I mean there was Princess Twilight, but that never really went anywhere and I think it’s safe to say it can’t. How is she doing by the way?”
“Princess Twilight? She’s fine. Probably having a much less chaotic Nightmare Night, at least I hope she is.”
“Nightmare Night?”
“Yeah, it's pretty much Equestrian Halloween, it’s quite different but also very similar. Then again, that seems to be the theme with our world and theirs.”
“Shh..did you hear that?” Flash paused their conversation as he and Sunset stopped walking and looked around, when a mysterious swarm of moths began to appear behind them. The air around them became more chilling, with the sound of a faint inaudible whisper coming from somewhere around them that interrupted the deafening silence before being followed by a slightly louder sinister cackle.
“Run!” Sunset cried, as her and Flash sprinted through the corridors as fast as their legs could take them. Soon, they found themselves hiding in Vice-Principal Luna’s office. They slammed the door shut, locked it and leaned against the walls to catch their breath. After adjusting herself, Sunset slowly reached up to look out of the miniature window that was on the door, but she couldn’t see anything out of it other than empty lockers. “Whatever that was, I think we've lost it for now!” Sunset sighed tiredly, turning around to view Flash panting like a dog over by the desk.
"That's a relief!" he exhaled, "so how long are we supposed to stay here?”
“As long as I want you to!” a slimy warped voice spoke as Kitharium suddenly appeared behind them, with villainous grin upon his face. Sunset screamed as she quickly struggled to open the door with Flash running up behind her and attempting to kick it down.
As the two of them tried to escape, Kitharium just stood there and smiled cunningly at their efforts. “You know what? I think I’m gonna have a little fun with you two lovebirds!” He grinned, as he formed a circular green puff of smoke in his hand and threw at them like a baseball. Flash and Sunset were directly hit, just as they finally manged to open the door. The two of them tumbled over and began coughing, as Kitharium laughed menacingly and faded away behind them.
“Are you okay?” Sunset coughed.
“I don’t know, what did he mean by wanting to have some fun with us?” Flash trembled.
“I guess we’ll find out soon enough, we should probably tell the others!"
“Did he call us lovebirds?”
Twilight and Gloriosa had made their way to the school library, the room was completely dim and it was incredibly difficult to see anything. Since she knew this part of the school like the back of her hand, Twilight activated her geode and used her telekinesis to locate and turn on a nearby light switch. “Okay, that’s progress.” she smiled, as Gloriosa stood silently beside her. The two of them made their way over a nearby table and rested. Twilight could see Gloriosa was incredibly scared as she decided to break the ice with a conversation to help comfort her.
"So, how are things at Camp Everfree?" She asked kindly.
"Oh, they're okay." Gloriosa replied, "We've managed to repair the dock finally with the help of some of the newer campers"
"That's good, do you get new campers often?"
"Most of them come in the summertime, we had a few school trips earlier this year that were a lot of us. The campers are usually much younger than us though, and often very energetic, but they seem to love it there and it helps gets the place some good press!"
"That's fantastic, I'm really happy that it's doing well."
"Thanks, but we honestly couldn't have done it without you and your friends."
"Well, It's still great for you and Timber. It's nice to see you guys getting along so well."
“Yeah it is. I do hope Timber's gonna be okay tonight, I'm really worried about him.”
“I’m sure he’ll be fine, your brother's a pretty tough guy.”
The two of them continued to talk casually about Timber, the camp, each-other and many other topics before Twilight stopped to look at a text message she had received. It was from Pinkie & Rarity, who had decided to remain in the gym to keep an eye on Trixie, but the news they delivered was not good. They had lost their magician classmate and were now in pursuit, but were unsure of her current whereabouts.
"Who's texting?" Gloriosa asked. Twilight was about to inform her, before she began to hear familiar groans coming from the back of the room.
“Quickly, Get behind me!” Twilight demanded, as Gloriosa clearly rushed to her side. The two of them slowly backed away as the spine-tingling moans grew louder and closer. The tension quickly built even higher when Gloriosa felt something grab her ankle, she yelped as Trixie suddenly appeared and began dragging her away into the shadows.
"Gloriosa!" Twilight yelled frightfully, as she quickly pursued them. Gloriosa wanted to scream, but was unable to open her mouth out of pure terror. The cold lifeless stare of Trixie's possessed eyes felt like they would haunt her dreams forever, when random books began to fly towards them and hitting the illusionist girl on the head. Gloriosa looked up confused and saw that Twilight was using her geode powers to throw the printed works, in an attempt to hopefully loosen Trixie's grip.
“Get away from her you witch!” Twilight yelled bravely, as she telekinetically grabbed a huge stack of books off the shelf and buried Trixie underneath them. This caused her to finally let go of Gloriosa, who then ran towards Twilight and began to cry over her shoulder. Twilight gave her a comforting hug, assuring her that everything would be okay before texting Pinkie and Rarity to say 'They found her'.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash had made their way into the band room, as they closed the door behind them and began to rummage the area. They weren’t sure what they would find there that could help, but they agreed that something would be better than nothing. During their search, Rainbow quickly ran up to the rather-large windows at the end of the room, in order to make sure they hadn’t attracted any unwanted attention. Once she knew the coast was clear, she instinctively kicked over the drum kit in anger. This caused it to land with a loud crash, as Applejack dragged her hands down her face in frustration and disbelief.
“What are you doing? Do you want them to find us?” She lashed out.
Rainbow just moaned in retaliation, as she sat down besides the collapsed drum-set with her heads in her hands.
“Look Dash.” Applejack sighed, sitting down next to her, “I hate this as much as you do, but we need to stay focused if we’re gonna be able to save anybody. Alright?”
“Yeah, okay.” Rainbow apologized, playfully punching Applejack's arm. They kept searching until Applejack came across a spare bass guitar in a cupboard and picked it up to have a closer look, just as an unexpected thick fog began to fill the room around them.
Rainbow was quick to notice as she tried to yell out Applejack’s name. The suspicious mist continued to increase as Kitharium unexpectedly appeared, right in front of Dash's eyes. Before she could say anything else, Kitharium detached one of his corpse-like hands from his ghoulish body and threw it at her. It landed directly on Rainbow's mouth and covered almost her entire face, making her unable to speak a single word and barley able to breathe. She tried her hardest to remove the ice-cold palm, but it wouldn’t budge at all. If anything, it felt like it became tighter and tighter with each tug. “I’ll deal with you later!” Kitharium grinned diabolically, as he vanished into the fog and turned his attention to the farm girl instead. Rainbow tried to warn her friend when all of a sudden, several dry human-like bones began growing out the detached hand and wrapping around Dash's body like a rope, making her unable to move a muscle.
Kitharium remained in the mist and began to work his magic, as Applejack slowly crept towards the fog after she saw two mysterious figures begin to emerge from within. She continued to examine the sight as the unidentifiable shadows drew nearer, until she could see what looked like her deceased parents Bright Mac and Pear Butter walking calmly towards her.
“M....Mo...Mom? D...Dad?” Applejack whimpered, unable to process what she was seeing.
“Hey there sweetie, are you okay?” Bright Mac spoke, with an innocent smile upon his face.
“Stay back, I'm warnin' ya!” Applejack shouted, lifting the instrument in defense. She desperately wanted to believe they were really there, but remained resilient.
“Applejack dear, please put the bass down.” Pear Butter smiled warmly, exactly as Applejack remembered her doing so when she was a little girl.
“Thought you’d be happy to see us?” Bright Mac agreed.
“It can't be! Y...You’re dead” Applejack bellowed, tears slowly beginning to swell in her eyes.
“Yes, but we can come back. Don’t you want that?" Pear Butter offered kindly.
"C..Come..b...back?" Applejack stuttered, the offer sounding to good to be true.
"Yes Applejack, Just hand over that gem stone around your neck and we’ll be with you again. I promise! Think about Big Mac & Apple Bloom, how happy they'll be! Come on AJ, do what’s best for the family!” Bright Mac begged. Applejack gradually felt herself being won over as she discarded the bass. Rainbow could see everything that was happening as she continuously tried to warn her friend, but was now tied up entirely in almost an entire skeletons worth of bones and unable to do anything about it. Kitharium’s crooked smile grew wider as he felt Applejack draw closer into his trap. She walked within hugging distance of her parents as they reached out their hands.
“Ya'll know what? I will do what’s best for my family!” Applejack spoke boldly, as she pulled out her sword and became ready to swing like a real swashbuckler. “No, Applejack! Please don’t do this!” her parents wept, as their once-lively bodies began to quickly decompose before her. Applejack shut her eyes and called out a heroic battle cry as she charged right through their decaying forms and began heading directly towards Kitharium, who's confident smile had now left his face. She was almost about to impale him, when he quickly evaporated away which lead to Applejack to almost hitting Rainbow. Luckily, she managed to stop herself in time and put the sword away. The fog soon began to lift as Pinkie, Rarity and Flash burst through the door.
“Is everybody okay?” Rarity asked before gasping at Rainbow’s condition, who muffled angrily in reply.
“Hold on Rainbow Dash! I’ll get you out!” Applejack proclaimed, as she redrew her weapon and started to cut through the rock-hard bones. Once they were loose, Rainbow wriggled her way out of the carcass and manged to finally remove Kitharium’s hand from her face. The body part mysteriously vanished after Dash tossed it aside, as she began to hyperventilate, almost like she had been suffocating.
“Are you two okay? Did Kitharium find you?” Flash questioned.
“Yeah, but I didn’t see him though.” Applejack answered.
“I did” Rainbow cringed, “wait Flash, aren’t you supposed to be with Sunset?”
“You see, we ran into him ourselves and something happened but we don't know what!” Flash explained, "so we’ve split up and haves been looking for you guys!”
“So, where do you think Sunset is now?” Pinkie inquired
Fluttershy & Timber carefully snuck around the school’s soccer pitch. The field almost had an abandoned feel to it, especially in the glowing moonlight of the night sky. Fluttershy was constantly shaking with fear as she walked along the area, jumping at every sound she heard which more often than not were just her own footsteps or the snapping of a twig. Timber was better at hiding his nerves behind a confident demeanor, as he repeatedly tried calming her down but would unfortunately only end up startling her more. They soon made their way over to the bleachers, which were covered almost entirely in fallen leaves in multiple shades of orange, when Fluttershy swore that she could something or someone squeaking quietly.
“Timber, can you hear that?” she asked curiously, “it sounds like squeaking.”
“It’s probably just the rust on the stairs.” Timber insisted, but Fluttershy doubted him as the squeaks continued to get louder as she eventually recognized them as the cries of an animal in distress.
“Hello?” she called softly, as she stepped down the stairs and checked underneath the bleachers, where she found the source was a small ginger kitten. The cat was trembling from head to toe and barley able to muster anything but a minor squeal. Fluttershy eyes began to water up as she tried approaching the feline, who she could tell was as absolutely terrified. “It’s okay little kitty, I won’t hurt you!” she comforted, reaching out her hand to stroke the animal. The kitten let out a light delicate meow in return, as Fluttershy reached into a miniature pocket hidden in her costume and grabbed a bag of cat treats. “I didn’t know if I’d see any animal friends tonight, but I packed some stuff just in case” she smiled, gaining the cat’s trust as it slowly approached her. After feeding it, Fluttershy comforted the feline and recommended that it went back into hiding until things had cleared up, assuring that she would protect it. The cat nuzzled it’s head against Fluttershy’s hand as thanks and took her advise, going back under the bleachers with a much calmer attitude.
“Wow. You’re really good with animals, aren’t you?” Timber praised, after witnessing the whole thing.
“Thanks. They're all probably as frightened as us, if not more.” She sighed, now in a slightly happier mood. They both decided to begin heading back inside, before they heard unknown footsteps coming from behind them. They quickly looked back to notice Sunset was approaching them.
“Hey Sunset, what are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be with Flash?” Fluttershy greeted.
“We split up to find you guys, it's kinda a long story.” she informed them, “I just got a text from Twilight saying her and Gloriosa are in the library, wanna come with me to meet them there?”
Timber eagerly accepted the chance to see his sister and girlfriend again whilst Fluttershy just followed through, as they all went back inside the school building. They were all walking through the hallways when Sunset suddenly stopped moving, grabbing onto her stomach and letting out a small grunt of pain. Her vision began to blur and she found herself barely able to stand up right, holding onto one of the nearby lockers to support herself.
“Sunset! Are you okay?” Fluttershy freaked, rushing over to her friend.
“I don’t know!” Sunset coughed and stuttered, unsure what was happening to her as she became dizzier and felt like she was about to faint. “Kitharium did something to me and Flash! Whatever that was could be...AHHHH!” Before she could finish, Sunset let out a bloodcurdling scream of agony and collapsed to the ground.
“Oh no!” Fluttershy gasped. Her and Timber quickly grabbed hold of her unconscious friend and lifted her body up off the floor. Luckily, they were near the school's science lab, as they opened the unlocked door and carefully placed Sunset down on an empty table.
“What do we do?” Fluttershy worried, making a glass of water for her friend.
“She could come back as one of them!” Timber warned.
“No, don’t say that, it’s not true!” Fluttershy began to snivel, when Sunset thankfully regained her consciousness. To their relief, she hadn’t become one of Kitharium’s zombies, but they could tell that something was different. Her eyes were more sunken in and she seemed to be randomly looking around the room at nothing.
“Fluttershy?” Sunset yawned, letting out a huge stretch as if she’d just casually napped.
“Sunset, thank goodness you’re okay!” Fluttershy beamed, who would’ve hugged her out of joy if not for being held back by a still cautious Timber.
“What happened?” Sunset asked casually.
“You passed out, we were worried that something might of…” Fluttershy paused confusedly in the middle of her explanation, as Sunset had unexpectedly began licking the palm of her hands and rubbing it against her head.
“I think it’s safe to assume that something happened to her!” Timber whispered.
Fluttershy ignored him and began repeatedly calling Sunset's name, but she didn’t respond and simply continued on with what she was doing. After Fluttershy was forced to yell, Sunset finally listened as her eyes widened and her hands dropped in a panic.
“What was I just doing?” Sunset questioned worridly, having almost no knowledge of the event.
“You were just washing yourself like a cat, don’t you remember?” Fluttershy answered, as Sunset began to feel even stranger.
“What is happening to Meow?” Sunset spoke, before she covering her mouth in a state of shock, realization and confusion. Did she just meow? She attempted to continue talking, but would always end up randomly meowing in the middle of a sentence. She would also start scratching her non-existent feline ears and doing other cat-like things without wanting too, to the point where she felt she wasn't even in control of her own body. It suddenly hit Fluttershy what was happening as she decided to investigate. She reached into one of the draws, where she acquired a small blue ball of wool. Fluttershy dangled in front of Sunset’s face, who’s pupils suddenly dilated as she began uncontrollably batting at it with her hands. Fluttershy threw the ball across the room as Sunset got on all fours, pounced after it and was soon laying on the classroom floor, playing around with it just like a real cat would do.
“Well, this isn’t good” Timber gulped, watching over her bizarre feline behavior.
“I know, but it’s kinda cute though.” Fluttershy quietly snickered, "So, I guess that thing Kitharium did to her is making her act like her costume!"
“But wait a minute. she said this happened to her and Flash, right?
“Yes but, Flash is dressed as a….Oh No!”
At that very moment, Flash was awakening after also passing out in the band room. He slowly sat up against the windows as he tried to adjust himself, though he also felt quite strange. His head was rushing and his vision slightly blurred. Nobody in that room knew what had just happened to him, but they were all a little on edge. Rainbow and Applejack decided to try confronting him, while Pinkie was held back near the doors by Rarity fearfully embracing her.
“Hey Flash!” Rainbow called, “are you okay?
“Get Away!” Flash bellowed in response as he felt himself begin to change. They began backing away as Rarity created a shield around them. Applejack drew her pirate sword and Pinkie crafted one out of her balloons. Flash began exhibiting fearsome growls, before finding himself on hunched over on all fours and breathing aggressively as the full moon shined it’s glistening light directly onto him. His pupils sharpened, along with his gritted teeth as he turned towards his friends and began to viciously growl at them. As the girls slowly started backing away, Flash was quickly distracted by the sight of the moon as he howled at the top of his lungs, just like a real werewolf would do.
“What do we do?” Rarity whispered.
“Run for your lives!” Pinkie screeched, accidentally drawing Flash’s attention as he began to lunge towards them before he crashed into Rarity’s protective shield. The girls utilized this as a distraction and began running, with their animalistic friend pursuing them closely behind.