//------------------------------//
// TMP Prompt #155: Spirited Sweets [Humor/Nightmare Night] 
// Story: Tales of Little Consequence and Other Such Nonsense 
// by littlerobotbird 
//------------------------------//

The prompt: Don’t eat the cupcakes.

I'm late! I'm late! Twilight chanted over and over in her mind as she galloped through the streets, costume jangling as it bounced up and down on her flanks.

It seemed as though it had been noon just a few hours ago, but there she was, running as the moon rose higher and higher in the sky.

Starswirl, why did you have to be so brilliant?! she swore silently. She could apologize later to her hero-antecedent. For now, it was nearing midnight and the party would be half over.

As she turned the corner onto market, the music reached her and her eyes filled with the sight of Sugarcube Corner fully lit. Had she not taken several course in architecture and structural engineering, she would have sworn the shop was literally bouncing off its foundations.

With her chest heaving, she slowed to a trot a few yards from the building, the intricate rings of her costume settling. She could feel the music vibrate up her hooves as she approached the door.

As she moved to open it, the door swung suddenly out to reveal a swaying, singing pair of ponies.

"Oh, Twilight, darling!" Rarity yelled out, slurring as she made to hug the purple unicorn, instead sending herself, Twilight and a blushing, yellow ghost tumbling into the dirt. "Oopsie! Terribly sorry, dear."

"It's um..." Twilight began, shaking her head to rid herself of the ringing in her ears before realizing it was in the song, coming in and out of focus as the door swung lethargically before finally shutting.

"Oh, you look grand, Twilight!" Rarity said, helping Twilight to her hooves before making a show of cleaning up her costume. "I daresay, it accentuates your curves rather nicely!"

"Rarity!"

"Oh, come now! It's a compliment," Rarity reproached her friend with a girlish giggle. "I'm sure you'll have quite the line of suitors, should you choose so."

"That's just," Twilight verbally seethed even as her face flushed with embarrassment. "Culturally insensitive!"

"Oh, Twilight, dear. You can't tell me that you've dressed in such an outfit without any ulterior motives," Rarity said, pressing herself closer and closer to Twilight, hoof jangling the intricate 

"I…I..."

"And surely you did not think me unaware that Zebrican shamans only wear such outfits for...oh how shall I put it…fertility rituals," the white unicorn stated with a wide smirk before losing her balance as the ghost slipped beneath her.

"I…um..."

"Oh, no shame in it, darling! I daresay I wish I had thought of it first!" Rarity laughed aloud, giving Twilight a friendly jab with a hoof. "Enjoy the party, darling! For now, I must fly!" Rarity pressed out her hooves, giggling madly as the ghost walked slowly, carefully away.

As Twilight watched, the ghost turned and lifted its sheets a moment to say something.

"Take it easy on the cupcakes," Fluttershy warned, before letting the sheet fall back into place, walking slowly away.

Twilight stared, slack-jawed, at the pair before turning her attention to the bouncing Sugarcube Corner. Inside, she could hear the sound of hooves, music and minor acts of vandalism. She glanced down at her outfit, a mix of metal and cloth meant to evoke the gods of a foreign nation.

Well…she had chosen the outfit for a reason.

She made a mental note to watch out for Pinkie's patented Nightmare Night Noshings cupcakes and went inside.

[Original]