Corkscrew approached me. He didn’t say a word, nor make a sound. It was as if his entire demeanor had been mangled and transformed into that of a helpless shape.
“...Cork? Son? Brother? Hello? What are you doing this far out here? I’ve got this area covered.”
Yet again, he said nothing, did nothing. Odd, and it was starting to creep me out. Was this a prank? Why was he acting so much like Flyers all the sudden?
Wait.
He was acting like Michael Flyers! Was it possible that he had become his costume? Oh dear...and I had begun to realize. By process of elimination, the magical anomaly in question could be what I just described! But how could I know for sure if I didn’t test it for myself? Gah. This would be very risky, but I needed to know just what was going on. The messed up part is that it was going to be extremely difficult to tell whether or not any strange magical situations were really emergencies or pranks. Just like this one…
Okay. So I had to deal with him somehow to make sure this wasn’t a prank while also simultaneously avoiding the possibility of being cut with a sharp feather. Hrm…
Still in complete silence, the pegasus’ hooves left the ground as he flew towards me. Now that he had gained speed, my options started to become limited. Out of nowhere, he charged me, and tackled me to the ground.
“Oof!” I struggled against his force. Since when was he this strong? Cork was always a skilled flyer, but he never was able to match me in raw strength. “...Cork? What’s happened to you? This isn’t a prank is it?”
No response. As expected.
This was not Corkscrew. Er, it was, but he was surely not himself. All of the sudden, he adopted the characteristics of the character he dressed up as, it was unnerving. From what I knew of the Michael Flyers movie, he could not be easily subdued. All I could do was shake him off my tail for now.
“Your sister is that way, Mike!” I kicked him off of me, and ran back towards the town as fast as I could. Though, I didn’t run in a perfectly straight line. I zigged, and zagged to throw him off of my trail so I wouldn’t be followed.
I stopped, and leaned against a tree. This was bad. Was this really an elaborate prank? Was Cork currently laughing his flank off since he knew that he had gotten me well, or was he still deranged, and acting as if he was the character he dressed up as?
Gah. This was ridiculous. I needed more evidence in order to back up any and all possible claims. But just how would I go about finding any? Did this anomaly have a blanketing effect and harmed absolutely everyone? Or was it selective in its approach? Questions upon questions but no damn answers.
I exhaled.
Alright. Focus. My next move would have to be…
Shift...shift…
The ‘tree’ that I had been resting against started to move. Could that mean somepony was turned into a tree?!
No, thankfully. They were not.
Instead, I heard the rapid thumps of soft, furry feet as they jumped from branch to branch. Moments later, I heard a small bundle of fluff land, and I could see the result of the noise right in front of me. A rabbit. But this was no normal rabbit. This one had yellow fur, pink ears, and a pink tail with soft blue eyes. No way!
The rabbit turned to face me as it munched upon some lettuce. “Oh...hello.”
“Fluttershy?! You’re a bunny!”
She swallowed the lettuce, and giggled. The mare was strangely calm about having been turned into another animal. “Oh yes. Well, I was dressed up as a cute little bunny-rabbit, but then I found myself turned into one!” she squealed with a wiggle of her nose, “It must be one of Nightmare Moon’s spooky cuuurses! Hee-hee! I’m sure it’ll wear off soon.”
Okay, so she was still sane. Good. I guess it would be difficult for a rabbit to go bonkers so long as they were fed. So this somewhat confirmed my suspicions, but I still needed to head into town to be absolutely sure about everything.
“I see,” I responded with an awkward laugh. “Hah...you almost scared me.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Mr. Detective!” she replied while her left foot thumped against the ground rapidly, “But I can make it up to you with a little fun fact. The main diet of a rabbit actually consists of lettuce and grass. Carrots--and other root vegetables--are full of sugar and hard for their soft little throats to digest. So they shouldn’t eat it often.” The little rabbit made a small chittering noise and smiled with glee to display how proud she was of her knowledge.
I got up from where I sat, and started to look around. Ponyville was only about a minute’s prance away. “Really? Interesting. What popularized the stereotype of them constantly eating carrots then?”
Fluttershy rolled her little rabbit eyes and folded her paws out of disgust. “Ugh, some old, overly violent cartoon about a rabbit bullying a poor, innocent black duck. Whenever he was on the screen, he always ate carrots. So inaccurate.”
Well now, that was something you didn’t hear every day. I didn’t grow up with those sorts of entertainment, so I’d have to research it later. Fluttershy really was from a completely different era. “I see. Well, enjoy Nightmare Night. I need to regroup with my...friends,” I bid her goodbye, and walked back towards the town.
She waved as I left. “Oh, okay. Good luck!”
I didn’t want to alarm her about what may really be happening since it would’ve thrown her into a panic. Fluttershy seemed very content with being a rabbit for the time being, so I chose to avoid telling her for the moment. That aside, I needed to figure out just who else was changed into their costumes, and fast.
So I raced into Ponyville, and to my surprise, nopony was there. I checked around every little stand and apple-bobbing bucket, nothing. Okay, okay. Calm down. It was entirely possible that Zecora had taken everypony out to offer up goodies to the Nightmare Moon statue in a part of the forest. Even so, I still wanted to make sure that nopony was left behind in a sad state.
“Hmm…” I stopped to think for a second. I slowed down, and tried to focus my aura so that I could hone in on living things through the earth. Hm….just a moment...ah! Eureka! Somepony was nearby! An actual pony from the size of that aura. I looked around, and spotted the source of the magical signature: Sugarcube Corner. Let’s go.
Against the silent dead of night, I pranced towards the sweet shop. Even I had to admit, it was pretty eerie, being alone in the seemingly silent town with no one else around. I just hoped to Luna that whoever this was had been unaffected by the situation.
The sweet shop was still open, so that was good. I pushed the door open, and walked into the dimly lit store which fit the atmosphere of Nightmare Night very well. That’s when I saw a pony. A pegasus mare to be exact with a familiar shade of gray and a blonde mane and tail. Derpy! Her costume was that of a Wonderbolt--a very old one, though judging by the brown aviator’s jacket and goggles. She was facing away from me, so I had to get her attention.
“Derpy. Is everything alright? You don’t feel...strange, do you?” I stopped, and raised my hoof out of concern, but still ready to escape if need be.
When she turned around, I witnessed what was possibly one of the most horrific things in my life.
“What’s up, soldier?” Derpy faced me...with perfectly straight eyes! And an oddly gruff, confident voice that did not fit her character whatsoever, “You need somethin’?”
“...oh my absolute Luna,” I felt all feeling escape my body, and I fell over onto my back. Once I recovered, I got up, and shook my head. “Brrr...Derpy?”
“Yeah that’s my name, but right now, I’m Captain Amelia Marehart! First pegasus mare to fly across Equestria and into Zebra territory!” she stood on her hind legs, and flexed her wings.
Amelia Marehart. What a lively costume. The legendary Wonderbolt that disappeared without a trace when she and her wing-pony, Flank Noonmane, disappeared over the Luna Bay in their attempt to fly around the entire world together. Ah, such a sad, yet foreboding tale of bravery. But wait--that wasn’t the focus!
The fact that Derpy’s eyes were perfectly straight felt...weird to me. We were all so used to seeing her with cross-eyes that it just came across as disturbing to see her eyes in the correct position. Call it the uncanny valley. Anyhow, my suspicion was on the ball once more. Derpy had also been changed into her costume.
“Um...sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb you. How are you enjoying Nightmare Night?” I passed off my panic for nervous curiosity as I shot her the question.
She scoffed, and shook her head with an annoyed glare. “I’ve been waiting for a spooky pumpkin muffin for ten minutes, but the baker stallion back there isn’t moving!”
Oh? Somepony else was--oh yes! Of course! Whoever was running Sugarcube Corner! “Oh? Let me have a look…” I went around behind the counter, and stepped into the bakery’s kitchen.
That’s when I came across another relatively horrific sight.
Pound Cake was standing on his hind legs, leaned against the wall. His costume was a simplistic uniform with a steel shoulder pad, and strapped to his back was a comically large sword with one sharp edge made of clouds. But that’s not all, his mane was not in its usual curly form. It was spiky, and pointed with lots of triangular tips as if he had used too much hair spray.
“...Pound, aren’t you supposed to be doing your job?” I asked as I tilted my head to inspect him. The costume was familiar--on the tip of my tongue even…
“Not interested,” was the young stallion’s only response.
I stomped my hoof when it came to me. “Ah! Storm Conflict. The character from that video game, Pony Fantasy VII.”
“That’s my name,” he responded with a yawn, “don’t bother me unless there’s a monster to fight.”
Okay, this really only made things worse as my hunch grew more and more likely. But I was very curious about something else now. “Hey, where’s your sister? Pumpkin Cake?” I asked.
He lazily pointed a hoof to the other end of the kitchen.
I had to squint, but I could see a bat--a literal fruit bat--hang from the ceiling. “Hisssss….hiya, Pale! Sorry...can’t make anything with these flimsy bat wings, hehe. But I love how it feels to be my costume! Whoever’s pulling this prank has figured out the best one yet!” she chittered with joy.
Okay, this was bad. But maybe not everypony had been affected, right? I needed to find someone who was themselves so we could work to undo this spell or hex or whatever the heck this was.
Without another word, I left the bakery/sweet shop, and ran back outside to the empty town where the festivities were held. My ear flicked. I heard a small crowd approach the town from the forest. Could that be Zecora’s group? I raced over to see what the possibility could be.
And it turned out that it was her group. But not in the state that I expected.
Zecora was a floating ghost, and all of the various fillies and colts were different objects and animals! One had become a steam train with eyes and another was a walking mass of bone. I also saw a shadowbolt foal that was overly arrgoant, a cowboy foal that spoke in an exaggerated Appleloosan accent, a foal that had turned into a miniature tornado, and a foal-sized spider?! WHAT?!
Granted, they were all laughing and played it off as a joke. But a joke, this was not.
I was officially torn. Should I have even bothered to attempt to locate Sunburst or Starlight when they could be Luna-knows-what objects or ponies? It was my only option at that point. I needed to figure out just what caused this and how to put a stop to it.
Until….I heard screams in the distance.
WOOSH!
ZAP!
“MWAHAHAHA! Dear sister! You should know that you’re no match for me! The sun will consume all!”
“No...no...I will not...THIS IS MY NIGHTMARE! AGHHHHHH!”
I saw a pillar of flames erupt from the sky, followed by the agonized, echoing screams of a mare. This...this couldn’t be…no. I didn’t care whether or not this was a prank anymore. This had officially changed from a very spooky scenario, to a Class-5 Epsilon Emergency.
I would not allow history to repeat itself.