The Crystal Empire shone brightly against the murky sky. Clouds circled its top, threatening to engulf the citizens down below with their endless flakes of snow. Many were huddled indoors, drinking hot cocoa next to a fireplace, whilst listening to the sounds of the whirling wind outside. The Empire itself were built by many of these ponies, but their hard work was always overshadowed by the castle.
It stood tall and proud, gleaming in excellence. It was almost impossible to imagine that this had grew out of the ground. Their leader King Jaggered Crystal ordered that all working stallions were to come to the castle an hour after their shift had finished, in order to cleanse it of the blood of the victims of King Crystal. Any who did not would perish. But alas, as long as they followed this one rule they were safe, they could live out peaceful lives.
If one were to come here, they would turn around straight away, but not Golden Belle.
Golden Belle was a tall unicorn stallion with a light gray coat and a black mane, his pale green eyes highly contrasted his colour scheme. Like most ponies, his given name was also his Cutie Mark, and the thing that decorated his flank was a golden bell hanging from a branch, waiting to be rung.
He was there as a part of his scholarship, he was tasked to learn how ponies of such a similar yet different culture lived. It was an interesting topic to say the least, not many would come to such a perilous place like this. But Golden did.
Why? He was not sure, but he certaintly didn't regret it.
"How art thou flowers so beautiful in their attire, if thou art only to be overwhelmed by harsh coldness of ones death?" He put a hoof to his chin in thought. Whilst the isolated city did not seem welcoming over the past few days of which he had been there, he knew he needed to find the source of this despondency.
"Whom would leave thou to whither in the darkness?" Gingerly rising to his hooves, Golden pulled his simple brown scarf around his neck closer to his neck.
"Never hath thy had a good leader, hath thou?" He sighed in sympathy and trotted to the castle, however, as he did so, the world got the slightest bit colder.
"CøMē tø mē, m¥ v€$$€l."
King Jaggered Crystal sat slumped in his throne. His mane was red and his coat black. He had his wings draped over the side of his throne and he was using his telekenises to observe his crown. His icy blue glare met that of those beneath him, cutting through their souls and leaving nothing but fear.
A young soldier came marching in, along with a orange and blue dragon with purple eyes.
The soldier bowed, "Your majesty, thou art shalth know that this hatchling was feasting on thine gems."
Crystal stayed silent. He extinguished any fire the monster before him had.
"Name." He rasped out. He had unfortunately almost had his throat torn out a few decades ago, transforming his smooth digilent voice, into a breathy, croaky growl.
"Char." The dragon growled. She had no reason to be where she was. She had been living in the Crystal Empire her whole life, and to say that she was treacherous was absurd.
Crystal slowly rose from his throne, grinning in delight that everypony had took a few steps back at his rising. The alicorn strode over slowly, and stopped right in front of the soldier.
"Kill her."
The soldier nodded, spreaded his wings and flew off, only to venture back with some chains.
"Thank thou, Windalane. Thy shalth be rewarded."
And so Char was chained, about to be dragged along to her death, until the doors burst open.
A flurry of guards rushed in and stood around the King and Char in a defensive circle.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Crystal hissed harshly. His eyes glanced to the open door, and everything seemed to be a little bit colder.
"We've called upon the princesses for assistance, my leige, they shallth be here soon." One them, a red unicorn replied.
"Assistance? Assistance of what?!"
All of a sudden, the wind subsided, and a shadowy figure walked in.
"Thou art shalth name themselves!" Crystal shouted at it.
It walked forward, eventually revealing it to be Golden Belle, but different to him in many ways. His eyes were glowing red and his mane was significantly darker. Fangs grew out of his bared teeth. He grinned.
"Thou shalth know myself of Sombra."
"Hurry, my sister, we haven't much time!" Luna shouted to the white alicorn behind her.
Celestia nodded accelerating forward, followed by hundreds of her Royal Guard, Luna's own guard having stayed behind.
Together they reached the castle.
"Thou shalth go in front. Myself shalth go on air." Celestia announced. She took the the air once again, and chose a smashed window to fly through whereas Luna galloped through the door, the guard trailing her.
"STAND DOWN, THOU BEAST OF DARKNESS!"
Golden turned and sneered at the princess of the night.
"You shalth never be rid of me. I have suceeded, you hath not.
Celestia tore through the window, "Our light shalth dispense you!"
"Fools, as long as there is light, the is always shadow. Milenias from now a new descendant shalth be born of my power! Thou think thou art won, but alas, you hath just lost."
"Sweetie Belle!" Luna yelled suddenly. No reaction came from the other ponies as she yelled again, in a voice so similar yet not to her own,
"SWEETIE BELLE, YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE FOR SCHOOL!"
A light grey filly with a two toned lilac and pink curly mane and red eyes flopped out of bed. This small pony was named Sweetie Belle, and she had just experienced a particularly weird dream.
Glancing around blearily, Sweetie Belle rose to her hooves and shot her alarm clock a glare, also reading the time.
8:30.
She groaned. She didn't really want to go to school today, she wanted to figure out that dream.
"I wonder what happened to that stallion..." Sweetie Belle pondered. She trotted to her mirror, she grinned, seeing as none of her curls had fell out of place. However, in doing so, she revealed her fangs.
Sweetie Belle wasn't that bothered by the fact that she had odd colored eyes and unatural teeth, she was born like that. But she was bothered about the annoying theories made up about her, mostly from Diamomd Tiara and Silver Spoon.
She was not a vampony or a robot.
She may have looked different but she was still as normal as eveeypony else. Last time she checked, her Divergence was her powers, not her looks.
Speaking of powers, Sweetie Belle grew a dull crystal underneath her hooves, it rose, until she reached her top shelf of her bookcase. She ignored a bracelet which brushed against her hoof and pulled out her school books, made the crystal disappear and morph into a shadow and made her way downstairs.
Rarity was currently making some toast, using her magic to speak to Twilight while doing so.
Dear reader, accept this intrusion as an explanation. In this world, everypony had something weird about them that made them normal, these strange quirks were made Divergences.
Take the Elements of Harmony for example; Twilight could phase through walls, as if she were a ghost, although not quite transparent. Fluttershy could heal ponies using her tears. Rainbow Dash could summon and create lightning between her hooves, she found it cool at first, until she started to become a lightning rod. Rarity could change things just by looking at them if she wanted to. Spike had given her a book once, which enhanced her creativity and corrupted her, giving her no control over her powers, thank Celestia that was over. Applejack could grow plants at a supprisingly fast rate. The Elements could be cornered by a dangerous villian, and it would only take Applejack five seconds to grow some vines and grab them. Pinkie Pie was given mind powers, figure out the rest yourself.
But it wasn't just powers that ponies would have, take one of our lovely crusaders as an example; Apple Bloom had no power, but all of her teeth were razor sharp and could probably slit somepony's throat with no effort at all. If she wanted to that is.
So, if you couldn't tell by now, this world is not normal. Forgive my intrusion and on with the story.
Rarity looked over the toast, "Hmm. Burnt." Her eyes glowed a eerie green colour, before the toast changed appearance to be light brown. She smiled, and her eyes returned to normal.
"Much better."
"Īt wøüld bë bëttër īf ¥øür bløød wërë $prëåd üpøñ īt."
Rarity let out an unlady like shriek and whipped around. There, was a tall menacing shadow with two red blocks representing eyes. It opened it's mouth in a menacing grin and said,
"Happy Nightmare Night!" Sweetie Belle morphed back into her normal pony form and sat down at the table.
"Or would it be Nightmare day? Or Daymare Light?" She pondered.
Rarity narrowed her eyes at her little sister, "Sweetie Belle! That was uncalled for."
Despite her words, this was not the first time Sweetie Belle had done something like this. Infact, she was quite the little prankster. Only last night did Rarity walk into her room to find scratched all over her decor and Opal sitting on the fashionista's bed. The cat's cage door had been opened and a little not attached to it, reading " Animals deserve to be free! -Sweetie "
However, Rarity knew the filly had not let the cat free of its cage out of the kindness of her heart.
Sweetie Belle voiced Rarity's thoughts, "It's not like I haven't done any thing like it before."
The older unicorn matched the younger's wry grin. "Oh, really? That reminds me, I still have yet to ground you for last night."
Sweetie's pupils shrunk. She morphed into a shadow and reappeared at the front door, saddlebags on and all. A peice of toast was floating in front of her in her red telekinesis.
"I think I'll just take this to school with me, bye!"
Rarity chuckled and followed her sister to the door. "Okay, Sweetie, just remember, you and your friends should try and avoiding causing trouble tonight, but knowing you, you're probably going out for more tricking than treating."
Sweetie blinked her eyes innocently at her sister a grin tugging at her mouth, her fangs showing, "Oh, sis, you know me so well."
The young pony trotted out the door and the elder one started to close it.
Sweetie Belle walked about ten steps out the door, before turning back, "Oh, and Rarity?"
Rarity opened the door again and saw Sweetie Belle standing there. Suddenly, the filly turned into a shadow with red eyes and a red slit as a mouth. It lunged forward so its face was almost touching Rarity's.
In a distorted voice it said, "Hā¶¶¥ Ñ|9htmā®€ Ñ|9ht!"
It morphed back to Sweetie Belle who smiled kindly, then cantered off.
Rarity stood there. Terrified.
Sweetie Belle was a good student. Well, not necessarily good in a sense, but she got to school on time, so, that was good. Normally, she would imediatly run off and prank everypony, but not today. Today, she needed to do something important.
She ran past a colt whose full body seemed to be made of code. He let out a sigh of relief as Sweetie ran past without bothering him.
"I'll get you tommorrow, Button!" Sweetie yelled at him as she passed.
"But it's the w€€K€πd tommorrow!" Button Mash yelled back, his voice momentarily glitching.
"Deal with it!" Sweetie Belle ran past all the other foals, deciding not to acknowledge their relief.
"Ah said ah don' wan' anythin' tah do with tha'." Sweetie Belle stopped and scanned her surroundings as she heard the familiar grouchy, accented voice.
"I-It was j-just a suggestion. Y-you don't h-have t-to." And there was the stuttering one.
She finally found the source of the voices and saw a pale yellow earth pony with a red mane and a orange pegasus with a purple mane.
The earth pony had orange, bloodshot eyes and under said eyes were dark circles. In her mane she wore a simple black bow and over her left eye were two neat - and quite large- scars. She was growling slightly, revealing her knife sharp teeth.
The pegasus had purple eyes and seemed very simple compared to her friend as the only thing weird about her was that she wore a bandage on her hoof all the time. She was sweating and looked as if she were about to crumble into a panic attack.
There they are!
She morphed into a shadow and waited patiently for the pegasus to calm down. When she did, Sweetie Belle morphed back into a pony, giving the pegasus the shock of her life.
"Hey, Scoots!" She greeted her friemd with a sly grin. However it soon faded when she realized that Scootaloo was in the middle of a panic attack.
The earth pony walked up to Sweetie Belle and nonchalantly sat down next to her, all while wearing a deadpan expression.
"Well done." The sad thing was that she wasn't being sarcastic.
"Hey, Apple Bloom." Sweetie Belle greeted with a small smile. She wasn't sure how it happened, but Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom had been best friends ever since they went to kindergarten. They had met Scootaloo in the first year of elementary and the three had been friends ever since. Sure, Sweetie Belle wasn't as innocent as her name suggested, Scootaloo wasn't all that brave and Apple Bloom all that happy, but they made it work.
"Howdy." Came the usual growled reply.
Scootaloo was still hyperventilating.
Sweetie Belle sighed.
Nightmare Night was off to a great start.
"Good morning, class." A magenta earth pony said as she walked in.
"Good morning, Miss Cheerilee." The class chorused.
Cheerilee smiled and pulled out some chalk.
"Today, we are going to be doing something very fun!" She exclaimed, hoping to get her class excited.
"What? The sum o' 6 × 6? Spoiler fer y'all, it's 36." Apple Bloom stated from the back of the class.
Cheerilee frowed slightly, "No, Apple Bloom. Today, we are going to do something we don't normally do! And it's based around today! Now, who can tell me what day it is today?"
"Friday."
"No, Twist."
"O-october 31st."
"That's correct, Scootaloo, and what's on October 31st?"
"Death."
"No, Apple Bloom."
"Candy!"
"Yes, Dinky."
"Darkness."
"In a way, yes, Apple Bloom."
"Outfits!"
"Yes, Silver Spoon."
"Destruction."
"No, Apple Bloom."
"Pranks!"
"Yes, Sweetie Belle."
"Lonliness."
"Are you okay, Apple Bloom?"
"Games!"
"Yes, Rumble."
"Murder."
"I'm really concerned for your mental health, Apple Bloom."
A pink hoof shot up at the back of the class, "It's Nightmare Night, you dummies." Connected to the hoof was a pink earth pony filly with a two toned lilac and white mane and vibrant blue eyes. Atop her head sat a tiara. Coming from her hooves were sharp knives, connected to them like claws. She took pride in her Divergence, well, she didn't until she got in a fight with Apple Bloom, who only had one scar across her eye at the time, after the fight the farm filly had two. But Diamond Tiara wasn't unscathed from the fight, in fact, a rather large bite mark on her neck signified just who won. Still, Diamond held pride at her claw-like knives.
Apple Bloom scoffed, "Act like yer so smart, yet yer were such a dumbass to get in a fight like me." One of her scars tingled.
"W-we knew th-that. We w-were j-just j-justifying wh-what it w-was." Scootaloo stuttered.
"Oh, shut it chicken." Diamond Tiara snapped.
Scootaloo whimpered and tried to hide under her desk. Sometimes she wished that being invisible was her kink, and not bleeding acid.
Cheerilee's voice faltered slightly, "Yes, Diamond Tiara, it is indeed Nightmare Night."
Diamond grinned in satisfaction, and Apple Bloom let out a growl at the fact that her rival was right and she was not.
"Are we going to be pranking ponies, Miss Cheerilee?" Sweetie Belle asked as innocently as possible.
Cheerilee frowned, "No, Sweetie Bell--"
"Of course that's your train of thought, vampony" Silver Spoon interupted.
Now it was Sweetie Belle's turn to whimper. Apple Bloom walked over to face Silver Spoon.
The grey earth pony had nothing special about her, she could just hypnotize ponies.
"Now, listen here, you poor excuse for 'n earth pony." Apple Bloom growled, tapping a hoof on Silver's chest, "Ain't nopony spoke tah mah either o' mah friends like tha' before, an' they ain't gonna do it now. So back off an' keep yer mouth to yerself."
Silver Spoon grabbed Apple Bloom's hoof and removed it from her chest. She grimaced at it and then stared straight into the other filly's eyes, her own eyes turning to spinning swirls.
"Say, Apple Bloom, why don't you go back to your desk and leave me alone? I also think you should not touch me again, and you allow me and Diamond Tiara to beat you up tonight."
"No." Apple Bloom deadpanned.
Silver Spoon's eyes went back to normal, "I forgot it doesn't work on you." She muttered.
Apple Bloom turned and went back to her desk (on her own accord) and Cheerilee decided it was time to continue the lesson.
"Right, so tonight, you will all be going trick or treating, correct?"
"Yes, Miss Cheerilee." The class replied, sans Apple Bloom, who responded with a simple,
"Eeyup."
"Great, so today we will be looking at the dangers of Nightmare Night!"
The class groaned. Except Scootaloo, she was more than happy to be learning about this.
Scootaloo tried to ignore all the weird looks she was getting. She should've expected it to be honest, because as of now, she was the weirdest pony in Ponyville. It was nine o'clock and everypony was dressed up in scary costumes. She walked past them all, half hoping she could turn invisible.
"Hey, squirt!" A voice from above shouted. When the acid-bleeding pegasus looked up, it was no other than her adoptive older sister.
"H-hey, Rainbow D-dash!" The rainbow-mane pegasus joined her younger sister on the ground. She was wearing an alteration of the royal guard armour. It was a dark silver with a sheild attatched to one hoof and a sword attatched to the other (plastic of course, she left the real one at home). Scootaloo couldn't help but make a note of every single detail on the costume, all while feeling slightly embarresed due to the fact that her sister was wearing a costume and she was not.
All her life Scootaloo had been a part of the Dash family, well, not all her life, but she was adopted by them when she was about three months old. Her biological parents had abandoned her, but she knew fine well who her real family was.
"Wanna go for a ride?" Rainbow gestered to her back. Scootaloo nodded excitedly. She hopped on and held on tight.
Rainbow Dash spread her wings and took off.
It was a beautiful night. The sky was clear, the full moon shone brightly. Ponies down below were taking part in Nightmare Night festivities, and if they were to look up, they would see a pegasus flying in the sky with a filly on her back.
"So," Rainbow started, she took a glance at the filly on her back, smiling slightly, "wanna tell me why you thought a Scootaloo was a scary thing to dress up as?"
Scootaloo giggled before she realized she had to reply, "I-it's stupid..."
Rainbow sat down on a lone cloud and placed Scootaloo in front of her, "Hey, if something's bothering you, it's not stupid. So, what's wrong, squirt?"
Scootaloo sighed and rubbed her hoof over her bandage, feeling it's soft fabric bristle against her, "I-I didn't w-wanna d-dress up this y-year."
Rainbow frowned slightly, "I, uh, sorta guessed that much."
Scootaloo whimpered, "S-sorry."
Rainbow sucked in a breath. She wasn't annoyed at the filly, she was concerned. She always was concerned for her, after all, the filly was, biological or not, her little sister.
"Nononono, don't apologize!" Rainbow almost screeched in her frantic state. She sighed, and spoke softer, "What's wrong?"
"I-I d-didn't like t-the i-idea o-of it b-because I-I didn't l-like t-the idea o-of e-everypony s-staring at me." Scootaloo stuttered.
Rainbow wrapped a wing around Scootaloo, "That's all? That's perfectly, a-okay, squirt! Hey, I bet some other ponies haven't dressed up as well! Wanna go check?"
Scootaloo nodded, and Rainbow picked her up.
"Great let's go!"
"Now, are y'all sure yer wanna--"
"Eeyup."
"We coul' always git somethin' from Rar--"
"Eenope."
Applejack scratched her head, "Okay?"
She was wearing a grey, fluffy outfit with matching pointy eyes. On her face was a black dog nose and small drawn on whiskers. She was wearing dog paw slippers she borrowed from Big MacIntosh, they fit somehow.
Apple Bloom was currently, quote "ready to go out for Nightmare Night", and Applejack wasn't entirely convinced she was.
"Yer don't even have a--" Big Mac was cut off by Apple Bloom.
"I do. C'mon, AJ." Apple Bloom growled and stalked out the door.
Applejack squinted then turned to the left, "What did she no' have?"
Big Mac snorted, "Git an eye test, AJ, Ah'm over here."
"Okay, so, Ah think we shoul' go talk tah Rarity an'--"
"No." Apple Bloom replied. Her and Applejack were walking through Ponyville. The plan was for them each to find at least one of their friends, then go their seperate ways, but with Applejack's bad eyesight and Apple Bloom's glowering at nearly everypony, things were most likely not going to go their way. It was just pure luck when Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo landed in front of them.
However, Applejack didn't realize who it was until the older pegasus spoke.
"Hey, AJ! Hey, AB!" Rainbow Dash bent down so Scootaloo could safely jump off.
"Howdy, Rainbow!"
"Scootaloo's here as well, AJ." Rainbow reminded her extremely short sighted friend.
"Well, uh, howdy tah yer as well, Scoots. Ah'm mighty sorry I didn't see y'all before."
"It's a-alright." Scootaloo said. It was common knowledge in Ponyville that Applejack had bad eyesight, and everypony sort of just brushed it off.
Scootaloo took a look at Apple Bloom, before sighing in relief, "Th-thank C-celestia! I-i thought I-i w-would be the only o-one!"
Rainbow Dash also took a look at the earth pony filly, "Wait, you aren't wearing a costume either?"
"She ain't?" Questioned Applejack.
"Ah am wearin' a costume." Apple Bloom argued. She wasn't.
"Are you dressed up as Apple Bloom, then?" Rainbow asked. It was only plausible answer.
"Eeyup. Ah asked Big Mac to send a survey around town, askin' what the scariest thing 'n Ponyville is, and Ah woul' dress up as what the majority answered."
"Oof." Commented Rainbow.
"But, lil' Bloomie don' even look scary." Applejack stated and slung a hoof around Apple Bloom, who growled in response, baring her razor sharp teeth.
"Uh huh, sure." Rarity remarked as she and Sweetie Belle walked onto the scene. Rarity was wearing a black dress with grey lacing. It had a black cape with red lining coming from the back of it. A pair of fake fangs stuck out of her mouth.
Sweetie Belle had used temporary coat and mane dye to change her coat grey and her mane black. She had painted her horn grey, fading into red. Her eyes were red with some sort of illusion magic turning the normal whites of her eyes green. When Rarity asked where she got the idea she said, a dream.
"When are you going to get that eye test, Jackie?" Pinkie Pie asked, popping up.
Applejack jumped at both Rarity's and Pinkie's appearance, obviously not seeing either of them show up.
"You're both going to give her a heart attack if you keep on coming out of nowhere like that." Fluttershy softly chided, coming out of nowhere.
Applejack screeched.
"You're one to talk." Twiight said, telporting in.
Spike, sitting on her back, spoke up, "Em, so are you."
Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rainbow and Twilight followed his gaze to Applejack, who was lying on the floor, as if she was just given the shock of her life. Apple Bloom poked her as if it was going to do something.
"I think we can agree you're all at fault here." Sweetie Belle piped.