Obsidian, Feldspar, and Kind Face were by the creek again, dumping their saddlebags onto the ground. There were a lot of groups entering the contest, so in order to win, they would have to do something beyond realistic costumes. They would have to go for pizzazz.
First on the list was a bucket of water and a cooler full of dry ice. Feldspar had brought those along for fog making.
She extracted a single piece from the cooler using tongs and dropped it into the bucket. Instantly, the water bubbled up into a thick cloud above it.
Gingerly, she poked the cloud with her hoof, then flapped up on top of it. She managed to balance, but slipped through a few times.
"We're gonna need to make it thicker if we're gonna walk on it."
With that she dropped in another piece of dry ice and tried again. Obsidian stepped up onto the cloud as well. It had spread out enough for Kind Face to try it too, so Obsidian lit up his horn and encompassed her in a green glow. She stepped up and balanced between them.
Feldspar snickered.
Kind Face gave her a confused look. "What's so funny."
"Your dressed as a changeling, and you're glowing green right now, just like whenever they're about to change into somepony else."
Obsidian noticed and started laughing as well, while Kind Face looked at her hoof and chuckled.
They all stepped off the cloud of fog and looked through the other things they had on hoof.
They considered using electric fans to make their manes blow around, but had to scrap the idea when they couldn't figure out a way to do that without dissipating the fog cloud.
Feldspar had borrowed a couple laser pointers from Twilight in hopes that they could get some cool effects by shooting them through the dry ice.
Obsidian had brought along a cassette recorder that he and Feldspar had bought shortly after their time being grounded for the Canterlot incident ended.
"How about this? I recorded some background tracks to play while we make our entrance."
Kind Face picked it up. "What's on here?"
"Mostly stuff about normal ponies turning into monsters or revealing themselves as monsters. Let's see, I've got 'The Demon' by Setting Star, 'Dark Secret' by Crimson... oh, here we go, 'Monstrous' by the Panheads. I think this one's our best bet."
Kind Face plugged in a set of earbuds and fast-forwarded to the time written on the cassette. "You know, I'm still surprised this is the kind of stuff you two listen to."
"Why?" Obsidian tilted his head slightly.
"I don't know, it just doesn't seem like... you."
Obsidian and Feldspar looked at each other, then back at her.
Feldspar finally asked, "so, what does?"
"I don't know. I just thought you were more upbeat than that." She shook her head. "Anyway, let's see, we've got the cloudwalking trick, a couple lasers, and an bad-guy-sounding rock song. Anything else for making our grand entrance?"
Obsidian and Feldspar shrugged. "Nothing I can think of. You?"
Feldspar shook her head.
"In that case, what do we do while we wait? It's barely getting dark."
They all thought a moment. Finally, Kind Face looked up with a gleam in her eye.
"I've got an idea."
"I thought the forest out here was supposed to be dangerous."
"Not if we stick to the path. All we have to do is follow it as far as we can. The one who makes it the farthest without getting scared wins."
"Wins what?"
Kind Face turned to Feldspar. "The two losers carry the winner wherever she..."
"Ahem..."
"Fine. Wherever he or she wants for the rest of the night."
Obsidian raised an eyebrow. "Let me guess, no turning back and no screaming, or you're out?"
Kind Face nodded. "Yup."
"Alright. Let's do it."
Together, they marched down the path to Zecora's hut.
They maintained their professional march for precisely two seconds.
"oooOOOOooooo..."
"Quit that, I think I heard something."
"I heard it too. I think that's Nightmare Moon coming to eat you."
snap
"What was that?"
"Something touched my tail!"
"That's me. You backed up into my nose."
"Oops. Sorry."
Thus went most of their journey through the forest.
They had made it almost all the way there when they heard voices.
"Is somepony else out here?"
"It's probably just some other kids who got the same idea as us." Kind Face got a gleam in her eye. "Hey, what do you say we go scare 'em, then all three of us win."
"Yeah."
"Oh, this will be fun."
They crept closer to the voices and peeked out from around a tree.
"Ah man, it's just a bunch of adults."
"A bunch of adults making a grocery list."
"Well, that's a shame. Should we head back to... What did he just say?"
Obsidian swiveled his ears. "Something about a sacrifice... and a... host body? What's that supposed to mean?"
They all looked around the tree again. This time, they noticed a unicorn tied up next to a tree nearby. They also noticed one of the other ponies carrying an ornate knife.
Obsidian fell back onto his haunches. "Oh man, oh man... what are we gonna do? Call the police?"
Kind Face shook her head. "It'll be too late by the time they get here. We have to get rid of these guys ourselves."
"How?"
"It's the creepiest night of the year, and we look like some of the most dangerous bad guys around. We could at least try to intimidate them."
"But we're still foals. They'll know we're fake."
"Not if you fly. Both of you stay high enough that they can only see the stars behind you and keep your distance from 'em. It'll make it harder to tell how big you really are.
"And don't talk. Your voices are a dead giveaway. Just hover and look mean."
"But you can't fly."
Kind Face was already taking off the dress and the flowers. "I'll improvise. Come on, let's go."
Kind Face took off to the tree where the unicorn was tied up while Feldspar ran the other direction. Obsidian watched the strange ponies approach the unicorn.
Oh no. Not good, not good...
He reached out and shook the bush in front of him. All the ponies looked up and away from the tree that Kind Face was climbing. Then they started approaching. Fortunately, before they could get to him, Feldspar got the same idea and shook her bush.
Alright. It's now or never.
Obsidian leapt into the air and put on his best evil-looking glare.
It was showtime.