As they caught sight of Bonnie, poking her head through the door of her family crypt, the three began to back slowly away. Sweetie Belle whispering to the other two, “Now? Now you listen to me? I told you that coming here was a bad idea.”
Scootaloo replied, “It is not like we are even breaking any sort of rule. It is still daytime. The cemetery gate isn’t locked yet or anything.”
Bonnie, her cloudy white fur and black mane contrasting well with the aged oak of the crypt door actually agreed. “You don’t need to act frightened. The orange filly is right. You have not broken any sort of rules by being here in the daytime, even on the eve of Nightmare Night. I’m afraid that we don’t have any sort of treats for you, though.”
Cautiously, Apple Bloom pointed out, “We might not be quite so cautious if you weren’t about half out of that door while it’s still closed. Are you some kind of ghost?”
Bonnie looked back in confusion while she stepped free of the crypt. “No, I’m not a ghost or anything like that. The ones that are here are my friends but I’m not one of them. I am as alive as you are. Why would anypony need to open a door? What does that have to do with going through it?”
The CMC looked at each other blankly. Apple Bloom pointed, “Are you SURE that you are alive? See those hinges and lock? Normal ponies need to unfasten the lock and push the door open. Then they can use the door to go in or out.”
Comprehension dawning on her face, Bonnie observed, “So that’s what those things are for! I always wondered. Before I learned to use a door properly, Zom or Junea always let me out. I was little then and did not really pay attention.”
The CMC looked at each other in mild consternation. “Who did you say taught you about using doors?”
Bonnie shrugged, “You know, just the ghosts and my other playmates. Who else would?”
Pausing, she gave the CMC the old steely eye. “Exactly what are you doing here?”
Scootaloo looked down and scuffed the grass before she replied, “We heard that Morgripe and his buddies were planning to mess up some graves. That’s wrong. We kinda planned to set them up a sort of haunted graveyard. We got springs and sheets to do fake ghosts that could jump out from behind gravestones. You know, stuff like that. Don’t want to hurt them, just scare them off so that they don’t damage anything.”
Bonnie perked right up! “Oh, that will be so much fun! I would love to help you! I have some friends that would like to help too! The Nightmare Moon is already up, so they can come out to join us!”
Sweetie Bell looked up at the gibbous moon lurking high in the sky and at the nearly set sun. “Doesn’t the sun have to be down before, um, your buddies can come out?”
“No, silly! They all follow the Night Mare. As long as she is up, we can play! They just usually wait until her sister goes down, that’s all.”
Bonnie bounced happily over to a big mausoleum, and stuck her head through the door! The CMC could not hear anything through the heavy stone and solidly closed door.
Bonnie cheerfully came back and told them, “Wait here! I am going to see if Flowering Ash or any of the other Ancient Ones want to help!”
She galloped off towards the back of the cemetery, where it faced the Everfree forest.
Apple Bloom watched her go. She wondered in a soft voice, “Are Ma and Pa here? Will they be helping us?”
Sweetie Belle was watching critically and replied, “I don’t know, Apple Bloom, but Bonnie just jumped past the wall and it is sort of tumbldown and moss grown. I have been here before and the back wall was not like that.”
In only a few moments Bonnie came floating serenely back, her legs folded neatly under her as if she were resting on something invisible. She alighted in front of them and exulted, “We are getting two unicorn litches and Flowering Ash to come help! We are getting some ghosts too!
“When Flowering Ash gets here, show us how to help and where to set your “haunts!” The whole graveyard thinks that this is hilarious!”
It was only a few moments before they saw the head of a beautiful gray mare across the moss grown wall. She reared up, forelegs folded, and crossed the wall, her forelegs remaining folded as her huge snakelike body slithered across the stones and undulated swiftly to them.
While the CMC were watching the lamia, their eyes bugged out, two mostly skeletal unicorn litches leaped gracefully over the wall as well.
With all gathered, Flowering Ash wrapped her long body abut the CMC, providing them with a comfortable resting place. Bonnie, with absolute confidence, joined them in her coils.
Flowering Ash, smiled and suggested, “Please tell us what we need to know to help you set up this trap of frights for those vile vandals.”
Eagerly, Scootaloo dug into a big saddlebag and pulled out parts! As she set a spring mounted to a cross stick, Apple Bloom pulled out a sheet, bound around soft straw with big googly eyes stuck on! Sweetie Belle attached trigger strings and set stakes to hold them where hooves would trip them!
Giggling, Bonnie stomped one of the demonstration “ghost's” trigger strings! The false haunt leaped up, driven by the spring! It fluttered down flat, except for the bulbous head. Suddenly it lifted up and floated about, flapping a little.
The CMC clapped hooves in delight! “A real ghost in our fake one! That is so perfect!”
They guided the whole group to the area where they had overheard Morgripe and his buddies plotting to cross the cemetery wall. Choosing tombstones and other grave markers with care, the whole group planted the phony ghosts to provide the best scares.
Thoughtfully, they planted some near the graveyard gate, too. While they were doing that, Sweetie Belle noticed, “I guess that we are stuck here for the night. They have locked the gate already.”
Apple Bloom felt the softest of hugs and a gentle neck kiss. Almost like a breeze, her mane got ruffled. Her eyes misted up. “That you, Mom? Dad? Thanks.”
Flowering Ash pointed out, “If you are here when things happen, it will spoil the effect. Here, let me help.”
One by one, she held the CMC and lifted them over the wall, setting them gently on their hooves and pulling back to her massive coils for the next.
The next morning, all of Ponyville was abuzz with the story! Morgripe and his friends had done it again! They came running over their ladder screaming about ghosts and monsters in the graveyard! Constables opening the gate had got a bit of a fright too, as spring trap “ghosts” jumped out at them!
Morgripe and Co. were in trouble again! And the CMC, giggling behind their hooves, could not say anything about their Nightmare Night adventure that actually worked like it was supposed to!
~THE END~