//------------------------------// // Chapter 14 // Story: Twilight's Twinlight // by Autum Breeze //------------------------------// Chapter 14 ___________________________________________________________ “Twilight… this just feels weird,” I deadpan. We’re walking towards Rarity’s to join the rest of the girls. It’s been three weeks since the CMC got their Cutie Marks and now we’re celebrating Nightmare Night… which is pretty much just Halloween with a different name and origin. Unlike Halloween, which celebrates everything spooky, Nightmare Night is about celebrating… the being Luna was transformed into that resulted in her imprisonment on the moon for a thousand years. … Yeah, it took a long time to wrap my head around the idea that ponies celebrate this day by enjoying the idea of something that very likely scarred their rulers for a millennia. I dunno if ponies are weird, oblivious or heartless. Anyway, Twilight is dressed as a Royal Guard and I’m, against my wishes, dressed like Princess Celestia. I’ve a sticker of Celestia’s Cutie Mark tapped over my own, am wearing fake golden vestiges similar to hers and have a wig held by a spell over both my head and tail. I did suggest that, since we’re sisters, we could dress as both princesses, but Twilight insisted on my being Celestia and her my Royal Guard. I am so getting her back for this humiliation. “I dunno. I think you look alright as Celestia, Ken,” Spike shrugs. He’s dressed as a two-headed purple dragon. As the Carousel Boutique comes into view, so do the rest of the girls and I find myself both impressed and a little confused by their costumes. Pinkie is dressed in a tank top, sports shorts, a sweatband on her head and some purple face paint in the shape of a lightning bolt over one eye, her mane tied back in two ponytails and has roller-skates on her hooves. Rainbow is dressed like an astronaut… despite space travel very much not being a thing here in Equestria and Applejack… is dressed like a lion? I shake my head and shrug and we all go inside. Rarity is waiting for us, dressed it what it takes me a moment to figure out is a mermaid costume. Or… would that be mermare? Seapony? Gah! Whatever. “Oh, my! Look at all of you!” said unicorn cheers, looking us all over. “My costumes fit you to a T!” I deadpan. She blushes, looking away. “Hoo-wee, we’re gonna have the best time!” Applejack cheers, before a door opening calls our attention to Fluttershy as she walks out of said door, wearing a black dress. She came by when the girls and I were hanging at the castle earlier this evening and decided to join us all… which apparently is suprising. Twilight and Spike explained to me that Fluttershy normally hates Nightmare Night, staying home and not coming out til the next day, so her wanting to join in is not normal. Rainbow cocks an eyebrow at the yellow Pegasus. “Hey, Fluttershy, where’s your costume?” Fluttershy indicates to her dress. “I’m wearing it.” There’s a pause. That’s her costume? Is she meant to be Morticia from The Addams Family? Wait. Is there even a pony version of The Addams Family? Pinkie gasps, skating over to and past Fluttershy. “I get it! You’re a robber escaping into the night!” Fluttershy shakes her head. “You’re a ninja escaping into the night!” Pinkie skates past again, this time on one leg. She’s met with another shake of the head. Pinkie stops, face to face with Fluttershy. “You’re black licorice escaping into the night!” I just blink, before looking to the others, who shake their heads. I… that last one doesn’t even begin to make any sense as a guess— and NO, “It’s Pinkie Pie, don’t question it” is NOT a viable excuse this time, dammit! Fluttershy shakes her head. “Close. I’m going to a masquerade ball. Without the mask.” There’s a pause as we all just stare. How, in any way, is that even close to black licorice escaping into the night? “Oh, that’s great!” Twilight says, her forced enthusiasm way too obvious for me to not notice. She looks around at the rest of us. “Isn’t it great?” Everypony gives their agreements, though it seems Fluttershy is oblivious to how forced they are. “Why not just say you’re Morticia from The Addams Family?” I ask bluntly. Everypony looks to me with confusion. “It was a TV show back on Earth,” I say, before facehoofing. “There’s no Equestrian version of it, is there?” “First I’ve ever heard of it,” Pinkie shrugs, though looks away, her eyes darting back and forth. I narrow mine slightly. Maybe there is a version, but it’s in the world behind the mirror. We eventually move passed it, heading over to Sugar Cube Corner, Spike departing to join the CMC for some trick or treating and start the group activities. We begin with a pretty simple game, Pin the Horn on the Pony, with the pony in question being Nightmare Moon drawn sticking her tongue out and we need to put the horn as close to her forehead as we can. Twilight and I are so far the closest, pinning a feather on the edge of either side of her neck. Pinkie smiles around at us. “I figured I’d save the really scary games for next year when Fluttershy’s more used to it.” Fluttershy blushes slightly, looking away. Dash’s turn comes up and she manages to get the horn on Nightmare Moon’s mouth, beating Twilight and myself. “Good luck beating that, Fluttershy!” Fluttershy looks uncertain, before digging a hoof at the floor. “Well, um, it’s just that if I’m blindfolded and somepony were to leap out in front of me, I’d never have the chance to defend myself.” “But, there’s nopony here but us. Why would you think you’d need to defend yourself around us?” I cock my head to the side. “If anything, we’d defend you before anypony could get to you and they’d have to get in first.” “That’s fine, darling,” Rarity says, pushing Pinkie, sending her rolling away and crashing into a pile of ponequins “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.” Twilight nods. “We’re just glad you’re here.” I look around at everypony. True, it’s nice have Fluttershy here, but her reasoning is still very bizarre and nopony else’s going to address it? Or even acknowledge I addressed it? Pinkie skates back and forth in front of us. “We don’t have to finish that game. I have another one I know you’ll love!” On her third pass she comes by, holding a barrel of apples in water and plunks into another far larger barrel. “Bobbing for apples!” Fluttershy gulps. Twilight looks to her. “Fluttershy, what’s wrong?” Fluttershy moves over to the barrel, looking deeply at the water. “It’s just that, um... What happens if, when my head is deep down in the water, some kind of scary monster appears? How would I even hear to know I was under attack?” There’s silence. I feel like saying something, but I’d literally just be repeating myself from her problem with the blindfold thing. “Time for candy!” Pinkie calls, zipping behind the counter. Fluttershy looks surprised. “It is?” “I made candy bags,” Pinkie says as she dumps six different bags with each of our faces on one onto the counter. “Each bag has been made with each of you in mind, complete with each of your favourite candies!” Um… how exactly does Pinkie Pie know my favourite candy? I still haven’t been around that long. Certainly not long enough, I think, for my favourite candy of this world to be decided. “Take it! What are you waiting for?” I’m pulled from my train of thought and look to see Fluttershy is hesitating to take her own bag. “Well, it’s just...” She looks into the bag. “What if when I’m eating one of these chewy taffies, my mouth becomes glued shut and I can’t scream for help?” This time, I know everypony is staring at her like I am. I… how…? Fluttershy ears fall back. “Oh, goodness. We’ve only just started to celebrate Nightmare Night together, and I’m already taking all the fun out of it, aren’t I?” “You’re not taking out all of the fun,” Pinkie tries as Fluttershy starts walking towards the door. “Just, like, ninety per—” Dash’s voice is cut off by a clanging sound and I glance to see Twilight giving her the stink eye. “...Some of it.” ___________________________________________________________ Twilight ends up coming up with the idea of Fluttershy hosting our Nightmare Night festivities. I admire her willingness to help our shy friend join in the fun of the night in a way that works for her… but it doesn’t turn out so well. The main problem is that, Fluttershy’s ideas of the most terrifying things… aren’t all that terffiying unless you’re someone with serious anxiety issues and severe lack of confidence in themselves. Her plan was a tea party where there’s no sugar, so it makes whomever is asked for it a terrible host, nopony complimenting somepony on their costume, somepony not caring to show up for the tea party, unplanned guests showing up (who were all drawings of ponfications of at least several anime characters I recognize from Earth), and a far too obvious toy mechanical kitten that needs a home, but we’re appreantly over-scheduled right now and don’t have time to help it. I mean, since she’s never been involved in Nightmare Night before, I find myself agreeing with Rarity that it was a really good try. We offer to let her try again, maybe with a few pointers, this time, but Fluttershy just tells as to go and enjoy Nightmare Night without her, saying we’ll have more fun if she’s not with us. So, even though it makes me feel like a real jerk, we all leave her cottage and head out to enjoy the town’s festivies, meeting back up with Spike before eventually heading towards Applejack’s farm for her family’s corn maze. “Oh, yeah! I can’t believe we’re finally doin’ this!” Spike says as we reach the entrance. We’re stopped by a pony in a hood, who lowers it to reveal… a real world horse mask? The others all scream from the shock, before laughing… but I’m just staring with a raised eyebrow in utter confusion. We make our way into the maze, the sounds of ponies distant screaming in fright occasionally breaking the silence. Suddenly, as we round a corner, a loud thumping sound causes the girls to gasps as we to whirl around… too see Applejack’s big brother, Big McIntosh dressed I’m guessing like a mummy. “Boooo... Eeyup,” he says, the latter part coming out almost unintentionally and the others all laugh. Seeing his dejected expression, I give him a reassuring smile. Sorry, big guy. Guess they just know you too well for you to make yourself seem scary to them. We move on, myself wondering what could happen that actually would be scary for me. I mean, I was once human. I lived in the human world. Compared to the horrors that world could hold, I’m not really sure what could give me a proper scare in this one. I mean, it’s not like we’re gonna find the bones of a dead pony in this maze. I’m suddenly pulled from my thoughts as a cracking sound starts up. I turn my head this way and that, trying to find the source. “What. Is. That. Sound?” the fashion mare asks. Pinkie pauses and I look to her as she turns her head down to the ground… where we’re surrounded by many long white objects. “It looks like... bones!” The others all scream, while I’m taken a bit aback. Okay. Those can’t be real, but that isn’t something I was expecting. Rainbow just scoffs. “Looks like a bunch of dried sticks painted white to me.” “Hey, try to keep up the illusion, would ya?” Applejack hisses. “Gah!” Rarity and Spike’s cries come from around the corner and we hurry to find what look like tones of eyeballs hanging from strings. Now, that in itself is a creepy idea, though I notice a fruity scent in the air and, getting a bit closer to them, can tell it’s coming from the eyeballs. They’re just grapes, peeled and made to look like eyes. Well, points for effort. It’s still a creepy image. “Agh! What was that?” Spike and I look back to see Applejack looking behind us with… actual concern? “Don’t you know?” the drake asks. “Uh, o-of course Ah do,” Applejack says, though I can definitely hear worry in her tone and as we all gather closer to her, it’s clear the others do as well. Being the Element of Honesty, she is clearly not a good liar. “It was, uh...” Suddenly, what sound like ghostly moans start and we turn to see three stereotypical white sheet ghosts blocking our path… but there’s clearly no pony under the sheets and they’re floating. There’s a glowing yellow aura around them, so one could think they were being levitated by a unicorn… but I don’t sense or hear any magic aura and they can’t be pegasi pretending to ghosts because we’d notice the flapping motions of their wings under the sheets as they moved them to stay airborne. We all hightail it, the others screaming as we run down one path, only to turn the other way when we run into even more of the ghosts. A grunting sound from behind makes me look back to see Rarity laying face first on the ground. I make an about face and hurry back, Spike right beside me and we help her up. “Fluttershy had a point with the layers on the dress,” she says as we move to catch up with the others. “What do you mean?” I ask, trying to keep my mind distracted so it doesn’t go down the path of what this all could actually mean. I watched a lot of horror movies and ghost adventure videos back home. Applying anything from them to our possible scenario is not a comforting idea, so better to keep my thoughts away from that. “She mentioned how many layers in a costume could slow you down or make you trip when you have to run for your life!” she answers. “I can’t believe such a paranoid idea is actually applicable right now!” Spike cries, glancing over my shoulder to see the ghosts are still after us as we catch up with the others. As we round a corner, we start heading towards a tree design to look like it has glowing green eyes and mouth, but suddenly Applejack vanishes, us all realizing too late she fell through a hole, which we all fall down in turn. We all groan, lying in a pile in a surprisingly deep hole with what look like tunnels around us. “What is this? Is it a tunnel?” Rarity looks to Applejack. “Where does it lead?” Before the farm mare can answer, a grinding sound draws our attention upwards, where we can see something is being moved over the hole we fell down. Somepony or something is trying to seal us down here. “Nice try, whoever you are!” I cry, lighting my horn, grabbing the rock in my magic and pushing back… only for my eyes to widen at the force pushing back. Whoever, or whatever is trying to seal us in here must be really physically strong to… wait a second. I release my grip, to which Twilight and the other look at me with shock, but keep my horn lit as I turn to look with a stern expression to Applejack. Twilight catches on to what I’m thinking and looks to Applejack too. “Which way are we supposed to go now?!” Applejack, despite being really bad at lying earlier, seems to be putting on a pretty good act as she looks around in worry. “Uh, Ah don’t know! Ah don’t know what’s goin’ on!” Dash grunts as she tries to push the boulder blocking the hole out of the way, but pauses and looks at the orange mare in worry. “What do you mean? Didn’t you help plan this?” Suddenly, something that sounds like the creaking of a wooden chair causes us all to look down the nearest tunnel, where we see a pony with a familiar mane style seems to be sitting there, as if waiting for us. “Whew. There’s Granny Smith,” Applejack says, sounding genuinely relieved as she walks over to the elderly mare. “Not that Ah was ever scared, ‘cause Ah wasn’t. Ah’m a pretty good actress when Ah wanna be.” No kidding. “Granny?” She taps her grandmother… only for my heart to leap into my throat when her head drops over and rolls towards us, revealing a skull with her mane atop it! The others, especially Applejack, all scream, while I’m just frozen in horror. What the fuck?! Somepony murdered Granny Smith, stripped her flesh right off her bones and then left them in a rocking chair down here, with her mane still attached?! That… Oh, Celestia. I think I’m gonna be sick. “Applejack, didn’t you know about any of this?!” Spike asks. I stare at him in shock, barely registering that apparently we’re now somewhere else. Somepony or dragon must have dragged me along while they all ran. Anyway, how in the world was she supposed to know somepony murdered her grandmother and…? My eyes widen in horror. Fuck! There’s an actual murderer out there and they must be nearby. They must’ve had something to do with those ghosts that were chasing us. We’re their next targets! But, without even thinking of that, the CMC and countless other ponies are wandering around in the maze above. They’re all in danger from this sick fuck and are all completely unaware! “Alright, Ah got to admit Ah didn’t know about any of this,” Applejack says, before trying to remain calm, “but maybe they’re just tryin’ to make it interestin’ fer me, too! Ah’m sure Granny Smith or Big Mac is behind this.” I stare at her with pity. I guess the idea her grandmother was murdered and stripe clean of her flesh, only her hair and skeleton remaining is too much and she’s denying… Wait a minute. Dark tunnel? A living creature who’s entire flesh and blood are gone, leaving only a clean skeleton behind? “No!” I shudder, backing up in fear, making my horn flare so the entire tunnel is so bright our shadows are the only ones aside from beyond where the light stops. “No! No-no-no-no, NO! I know this world is so vastly different from Earth and has creatures of myth there that are real life here, but Vashta Nerada cannot be real! They can’t be!” The others all look to me in confused fear, but my obvious horror is clearly telling them how serious this is. “Vashta what now?!” Dash asks, though it’s clear she’d rather not get an answer. “Wh-what’re Vasta Nerada?” Spike quivers, holding onto Twilight’s leg. I dart my eyes to each of our shadows, scanning them with the attention of a master painter, looking for any sign of something not right. The smallest flicker could be our only warning! “Ken?!” Twilight yells, causing me to look straight at her and making her back up from the absolute panic in my eyes. “Wh...” She gulps. “What are Vashta Nerada?” “The piranhas of the air,” I whisper, my eyes returning to scanning each of our shadows, praying against all hope I won’t see anything I should not. “The shadows that melt the flesh.” All their eyes widen, fear entering them that says they understand just how bad this could be. They start moving to gather together. “NO!” I scream in panic, causing them all to freeze. “They could be hiding in any one of our own shadows! And if that’s the case, if any of us that could be infected touch our shadow to anypony else’s, we’ll be dooming the others!” “H-how come we’ve never heard of this Vashta whatever before now?!” Dash asks anxiously, looking to Twilight. “I don’t know!” she replies, her voice filled with fear. “There’s no records of such a being ever recorded in history.” “There wouldn’t be!” I shake my head. “Vashta Nerada live in swarms, hiding in the darkest places of forests. Ever wondered what happened to those who went missing in dark tunnels, never to be heard from again! They’re why! Those lost souls didn’t go missing; they were eaten clean in the darkness, where none will ever find them!” “You… you mean they got to…?” Applejack looking with horror down the tunnel I’m guessing we came down. “If… if it is them,” I shudder, looking to the farm mare. “I’m… I’m sorry, Applejack. I’m so so—” “Are those peeled grapes,” a muffled voice from above cuts me off and we all slowly raise our eyes to the ceiling, ”or eyeballs starin’ at ya from beyond the grave?” The voice cackles, before we hear Big Mac’s voice saying, “Eeyup,”, followed by the playful screams of the CMC. Applejack clearly wants to be relieved, as do we all, but her teeth are chattering. “That’s what we were supposed to do! Ah don’t know why we’re down here! This is really scarin’ me now!” “But… but if those bones aren’t Granny Smith’s…” I look down the tunnel, “who’s are they?!” “And just because she wasn’t eaten, does that mean those Vas things are here or not and got that pony instead?!” Dash is trembling with terror. Suddenly, loud stomping footsteps come from around the corner and we watch as some kind of fish-like creature that reminds me of the old horror movies comes around the corner and growls at us. “How did that get down here?!” Pinkie cries. The monster roars. “RUUUUUUUUUN!” Dash screams and we don’t need telling twice. We sprint down the corner, Spike hurrying back and grabbing Pinkie, who was stuck in place because her skates weren’t giving her hooves any traction. “What about keeping our shadows from touching?!” Twilight yells as we barrel down the tunnel, the monster hot on our hooves. “If it’s either risking one of us being infected and passing it onto the others for a quick and painless death or being painfully ripped to pieces and eaten alive by whatever that thing is, I’d say we’re better off taking our chances with the Vashta Nerada!” I yell back, surprised how at ease you can become about being eaten by darkness when a ferocious beast is chasing you. Suddenly, we’re all halted by something large and sticky. “I can’t see!” Pinkie cries. “I can barely move!” Dash yells. Moving my head as best I can, I realize we’re all caught in what looks like a giant spider web. I feel a vein on my forehead twitch. Seriously? First Vashta Nerada, then a monster from The Black Lagoon and now Shelob from Lord of the Rings?! Are you fucking kidding me?! I flare my horn, teleporting us all out of the webbing, my eyes narrowed. “First I’m at risk of getting my flesh melted off, then a bog monster that wants to rip me to pieces and now a giant fucking spider wants to suck my blood?! I’ve had it!” I whirl around, horn shining brightly, ready to attack both the monster chasing us and the one that was waiting for us… but find myself quickly being dragged along the ground by Twilight’s magic. About a minute later, we get outside, finding ourselves on a small cliff looking out over the corn maze. A deep cackling from behind causes us all to turn around and scan the area, before my eyes fix on a silhouette hanging upside down from a tree, the moon behind it. What look like batwings unfurl from their side and they fly up and launching down at us, flying overhead. They turn around, revealing… “Fluttershy?!” I cry, my eyes wide. But, it’s not her, either. Her ears are pointed, she has fangs and her eyes are bright red. Not to mention the bat wings. What…? What the flying fuck?! Since when did she turn into a bat…? “Vampires, now?!” I snarl. “Vashta Nerada, a monster from The Black Lagoon, Shelob and now vampires?! And they dared turn Fluttershy into one of them?! I’m gonna kill them!” Flutter… bat, I guess, snarls, launches down at us again. We all try and avoid her, her narrowly missing Spike, tearing off the fake head of his costume instead. She rights in the air, spitting out the fake head and looms over us. The others all huddle together, whimpering, while I stand before them all, my horn blazing. This may be Fluttershy, but if I have to subdo her in order for us to figure this all out so we can save her from whoever did this to her, I will. Flutterbat looks over us, her expression suddenly changing as she looks from myself to my friends and family huddled behind me in fear. “Oh, my!” she says… sounding far more like Fluttershy than a snarling vampire as she lowers herself to the ground... revealing her wings and ears are fake? “I’m so, so sorry. Can you ever forgive me?” I relax a little, more out of confusion than relief, if anything else as my brain struggles to put everything together. “Fluttershy?” Applejack asks, sounding just as stunned as I feel. “It was you the whole time?!” Twilight just stares. “I can’t believe it!” “That... was...” Rarity murmurs. “THE BEST THING EVER!” Pinkie cheers. “It was way more terrifying than the most terrifying thing I could have thought of!” Dash says as she flies over to the other Pegasus. “You out-nightmared the scariest part of the corn maze!” Applejack says, sounding proud. “How did you do all this?!” Twilight asks, amazed. Fluttershy paws at the ground. “After you left, I realized that I wasn’t ready to give up on Nightmare Night. So I asked Granny Smith if I could try to make the maze even scarier for my friends.” “You came up with all of this?” “But what about that skeleton in the tunnel?!” my yell causes them all to jump and look to me. I’m breathing heavily. The others all become worried again. “Yeah, Ken thought that pony got eaten by these things called Vashta Nerada!” Dash cries. “Shadows that melt the flesh!” Fluttershy goes pale for a second, before seeming to calm down. “Oh, that was just a prop from the school’s drama closest. And I had some help with the rest. Angel was the scary figure that kept scurrying after you in the maze.” Said bunny hops atop her head, wearing a vampire cape, which he flourishes, before bowing. “Fuzzy Legs made the sticky wall that made it difficult for you to see and move.” A small spider crawls from behind her neck and sit against her mane. “And, of course, Harry was the especially scary monster.” The monster that was chasing us comes out and takes off it’s head, revealing a bear, which growls happily. “Wow!” Twilight smiles. “That was inspired!” “You have to do this every year!” Pinkie cheers. “Uh-huh!” Applejack agrees. Rarity nods. “Absolutely!” Twilight nods too. “Every year!” Rainbow Dash holds a hoof high in the air. “Yeah!” Fluttershy looks down, smiling sadly. “We could celebrate Nightmare Night together every year. But,” she takes off the fake ears and takes out her fake fangs, “the truth is I really don’t want to.” “You don’t?!” Pinkie asks in surprise as she bounces on her tail. “But you’ve done it,” Rarity steps forward. “You found a way that we can all have a fabulous time together.” Fluttershy nods, taking off her fake bat wings. “Yes, but I’ve also realized something. You all may love Nightmare Night and I may be good at being a part of it, but it’s no fun for me to see my friends feel like they’re in danger, even if I know they’re not. I really don’t like it. It’s just not my cup of tea.” Pinkie Pie zips in front of her, holding a flashlight under her face. “Spoooooooooky tea?” Fluttershy shakes her head, pushing the flashlight down, the motion sending Pinkie rolling back into the group. “No. Just regular tea. We do lots of fun things together, but I’m afraid this just isn’t gonna be one of them. Actually, I’m not afraid. I’m perfectly fine with it.” “Then we are, too,” Twilight says as she and the others gather around Fluttershy for a group hug, which her animals join in too. “Wait!” They all look to me, their expression turning from happiness to concern as they look at me. “So… just to be clear, we were never in any danger at all and the Vashta Nerada don’t exist in this world?” Fluttershy looks to me and shakes her head. “Not that I’m aware off.” “Okay,” I say exhaustedly, feeling my body shutting down as the fear that was coursing through me stops, taking all my energy with it. “I’ll just take a rest then…” The world goes dark as I hear everyponies’ voices calling out my name in alarm.