Morgaine's Castle, Location Unknown.
"Now Trixie, it has only been a few days. Are you certain that you wish to attempt something of this magnitude?" Morgaine asked her apprentice. The two of them had found an old and abandonded castle hidden in a forgot part of Equestria. It was here that they now made their home.
"Yes, I am ready." Trixie replied, preparing her magic.
Trixie had been practicing for two straight days under Morgaine's tutelage and her magical energies had already multiplied ten-fold. She had learned inferno spells, teleportation spells and her personal favorite, mind control. Morgaine was impressed at how fast Trixie could learn when she was determined. With her student already mastering high level spells, Morgaine couldn't tell her no when she asked for a chance to prove herself.
Morgaine had placed the dimensional stone on the ground in the center of the room. Trixie's test was to help her re-open the portal to her world. Once open, she would bring her army to Equestria.
"Alright, I will use my mystic powers to tap into the stones dimensional power while you use your power to try and tear open a rift. It will take immense concentration. Are you sure you're ready?"
"I said I am ready."
"Good." Morgaine unleashed a tendril of energy towards the stone, which floated in the center of the room. Struggling, Morgaine slowly began to activate the dimensional effect. The cracks in the stone began to glow bright blue as her power coursed through it. Trixie prepared her magic and fired it directly into the center of the stone. The room began to tremble as their combined magic slowly tore a portal through dimensions. Trixie got her first look at Morgaine's world. The cities were huge, buildings as tall as the clouds towered over the people. Carriages without horses pulling them raced through the street. The people are what fascinated Trixie most though. There were literally millions of them, even if they did look all the same.
Things then began to go wrong. The stone's structural integrity began to give way under the two sorceress' power. Morgaine struggled to keep it from breaking apart as Trixie tried to keep the portal open. It was in vain, as the portal slowly began to close. Realizing her efforts were futile, Trixie started to pull her magic out of the stone. What she didn't notice was that another presence had been grabbed by her magic and dragged through the now closed portal. A blinding flash of light filled the room, stunning Trixie and cutting off her magic.
"Ugh," Trixie moaned, feeling the after effects of the magic blast back. As the smoke began to clear, she saw Morgaine standing next to her. Ashamed at herself for failing, she tried to apologize.
"Master Morgaine, I...I'm sorry for failing you. Please give me a chance to redeem myself."
Much to her surprise, Morgaine began to laugh, a laugh that echoed throughout the entire castle, making Trixie feel uneasy.
"Failed? Why my dear apprentice, you have given me a most generous gift." As Morgaine began to laugh again, Trixie realized Morgaine wasn't looking at her. Following her masters gaze, she gasped at what she saw. A giant creature, at least eight feet tall was standing where the stone had been. The dimensional stone was fused into its skin, becoming a part of it. The creature seemed to be materializing, indicating the dimensional stone had brought it to this realm.
"Wha...What is that?" Trixie asked her teacher. Morgaine waked up to the creature and muttered a few incantations. The beast eyes turned green as she placed it under her power. Turning back to her student, she replied,
"Why it is just what we need to get rid of the bat. You know where he is, correct?"
"Yes, he is located just outside a town called "Ponyville."
"Good, let us send him...an old sparring partner."
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Ponyville Hospital.
"Twily!" Shining Armor yelled as he burst into the hospital room where his sister and friends were being kept. The mane six were each seated at various point in the room, nursing their respective wounds. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie both had their hooves in a tub of hot water, covered in blankets and shivering. Applejack had rope burn on her legs and was applying an ointment to help alleviate the pain. Rarity had a hood over her head and refused to look anypony in the eye. Fluttershy was staring blankly at the wall, seemingly lost in her thoughts. Shining Armor's eyes then rested on his sister.
"Twilight, are you alright? I came down with some of the Royal Guards as soon as I got your letter. Why didn't you contact us before going after that...thing?" When she turned to look at him, Shining was shocked to see defeat in his sister's eyes.
"Am I alright?" she asked, rage slowly building, "No, I'm not alright! We were humiliated by the bat! Do you hear me HUMILIATED! It took us down as if we were foals and barely broke a sweat doing it!"
"It's alright. You're all safe now."
"Safe?! Until that bat is caught, nopony is safe! We need guards, patrols; I should be out there trying to find it!"
When she stopped to breathe, Shining took a moment to give her an update. "Well, we have nearly fifty guards searching the forest for it. It won't be long before it's caught. Also, Princess Luna asked me to tell you she will be arriving late for Nightmare Night tonight." When she failed to respond, Shining got really worried.
"Twi, what happened?"
"What happened? The spell I've been practicing for months with Celestia, the one that could bring down a hydra, failed me! You hear that? I used my most powerful spell ever, designed to bring down creatures like Discord and you know what happened? The bat shrugged it off! All my practicing, all my studying and for what? NOTHING!" With a groan, Twilight walked over to the window and started to stare out of it. Shining Armor looked at the rest of the girls. Each seemed as depressed as Twilight. Turning to face Nurse Redheart, Shining asked, "What happened to them."
"From what I can tell Applejack got tied up in her own rope, pretty embarrassing for somepony like her. Rainbow and Pinkie were frozen solid. We had to chisel out Rainbow, but Pinkie apparently ate her icy prison. Rarity, well, let's just say she had a bad hair day. Your sister is, as far as I can tell, having another one of her episode. Fluttershy's the one I'm most worried about. All she's done since she came here is stare at the wall, but as far as I can tell, their all healthy." The nurse paused before continuing. "Try talking to Fluttershy, she needs it."
"Alright, I'll talk to her."
Walking over to Fluttershy, Shining sat down next to her.
"Fluttershy, are you okay?"
After a minute, Fluttershy snapped out of her trance.
"Oh, I'm fine, just a little shook up. Don’t worry about me."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure. Thank you."
With a nod, Shining got up and made a decision.
"Alright everypony, listen. Tonight I want you all to go out and enjoy yourselves. Dress up, get some treats and have fun. That's an order." Pinkie was, naturally, the first to recover.
Jumping to her hooves and racing to the door, she exclaimed, "Oh right, tonight's Nightmare Night! I've got to get a costume."
"Yeah, and I’ve got some scaring to do," Rainbow said with a chuckle while following her friend, regaining her spirits.
"Well, it is custom for the Apple family to give out caramel apples tonight. Guess ah'll go as well." Applejack picked herself up and left.
"I already look like a monster, might as well go out on a night designed for them." Rarity sighed as she left the room.
"Come on Twilight," Shining begged his sister, "You've got to get the bat off your mind." After a minute of thinking it over, Twilight surrendered with a sigh.
"Fine, I’ll go out, but only because you asked."
She and Shining turned to leave, but Shining stopped at the door and turned to look at Fluttershy, still staring at the corner.
"Fluttershy, are you coming?"
"Oh, yes, I'll be there in a minute."
As he left, Fluttershy went back to her thoughts. She was thinking about what she had seen in the bat's eyes. The pain, suffering and the loneliness, how could a creature live with so much agony? Yes, it was as dangerous as Celestia had said and it could have killed them all with ease, but one question still botherd her. If the bat was so evil, then why did it let them live?
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Night, later that day.
"Spike if you don't come down right now, I'm leaving without you!" Twilight called up at her assistant. The two of them were going out together and she had even decided to try collecting candy, even without a costume. Anything to take her mind off what had happened earlier. The door to her bedroom swung open, with Spike standing there in his costume. The suit was blue, with a red cape and an s emblazoned on his chest. He stood there with both fist on his hips, sticking his chest out triumphantly.
"Spike, what are you wearing?" Twilight asked, after a moment of silence.
"I'm Super-Spike!" he yelled, jumping down the stairs and landing on his feet.
"Super-Spike?"
"Yeah, I'm based off of Superman from my book. I call fly, shoot lasers; all that cool stuff."
"Let's just go," Twilight said with a small sigh. His obsession with heroes was getting out of hand.
As the two of them left the library, ponies everywhere were already out having fun. It was only just starting to get dark, but the Nightmare night vibe was still in the air. The decorations were the right level of spooky; not too spooky, but not lame. Some of the activities for ponies to enjoy were bobbing for apples, the spider toss; fun games for ponies of every age. The CMC had even been allowed to go out, even if they were still grounded. All around Twilight and Spike, ponies were enjoying the night. Twilight spotted her friends and headed over.
The two of them walked over to where their friends had gathered, along with a massive crowd. Applejack was dressed as a samurai, with a white robe and sword. Rarity had one long black cloak, which covered her missing mane. Fluttershy was a cat. Rainbow was a zombie, with a hat to make it look like her brain was falling out. Pinkie was...a strawberry flavored iceberg.
"Happy Nightmare Night, girls," Twilight greeted her friends, who returned the greeting, "So, what's up?"
"We're about to start the costume contest. Everypony with an awesome costume is ready to be judged." Rainbow explained.
"So are all of you entering the contest?"
"Yep, well 'cept for Fluttershy. Poor girl's still upset about earlier," Applejack said, shaking her head at Fluttershy, who was staring off into space.
"Spike, darling, what are you wearing?" Rarity asked, giving his outfit a questioning glance.
"I'm Super-Spike, defender of ponies!" He puffed out his chest as he said this, until he lost his balance and fell backwards. The six ponies laughed at him for a moment before a voice cut through the laughter.
"Everypony gather round! We will now begin judging the costume contest!" Mayor Mare yelled into the microphone from atop the stage. As everypony waited, she began scanning the crowd for the best costumes. She called up a pony dressed as a steed in armor. A pony that looked like a ninja was called up as well. Pinkie and her iceberg was somehow selected, as well as Applejack's samurai outfit. These four stood up on the stage, waiting for the judges to decide the winner. After a few minutes of the judges discussing off stage, Mayor Mare came back on stage to announce the results.
"Mare's and gentlecolt's, we have the results," she said, opening an envelope, "And the winner is..."
"Hey what about that costume?" A pony in the crowd interrupted, pointing to the right of the stage. Everypony turned to look at where she was pointing. There stood a giant zombie, eight feet tall, with grey skin and scars all over its body. It had white hair and yellow eyes.
"Now that's a zombie!" somepony shouted.
"Quite the impressive costume," Mayor Mare agreed.
Ponies began to gather around the costume, congratulating whoever was inside on an amazing job. Twilight and her friends stayed back, eyeing the "costume" suspiciously. It looked way too real to be a costume, but what worried them the most was that it was similar in size and shape to the bat. They watched as it took a few shambling steps forward, turning its head to look around at all the ponies. It groaned and raised one arm into the air, its hand clenched into a fist.
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Everfree Forest outskirts.
Batman had been having a terrible night. After his little brawl with the horses, he lost Morgaine's trail. He had tried to head back to his cave to regroup, but when he arrived he found the place overrun by guard horses. One of them had spotted him and he was forced to flee into the forest. Batman had run headlong into a patrol and had to incapacitate them. That little skirmish attracted more attention to him and eventually he decided it was best to leave the forest. He was pretty sure the extra guards were a response to the horses he had battled earlier.
'One of them must have had friends in high places,' he mused to himself, reaching the forest exit, 'The forest is no longer safe for me. I may have to sneak onto another train and find a different town. Maybe then I cou-'
A roar pierced the night, making Batman and a whole lot of birds jump. The roar was immediately followed by screaming, a lot of screaming. Batman turned to look at Ponyville, realizing that was were the screaming was coming from. Pegasi guards were flying towards the town, followed closely by the others. Something very serious was going on. Should he help? There were plenty of guards already on the way, was he really needed? Another scream answered his question. Leaving the forest in a dead sprint, he headed for the town. He was just outside Ponyville when he spotted an injured horse laying in the road, bleeding from a cut on her leg. She had a gray coat with a yellow mane and her eyes were skewed, but both had a look of terror in them. Kneeling down next to her, Batman asked,
"What happened? Who did this?"
She didn't answer his question directly. In fact, he was pretty sure she hadn't heard him at all. Instead, she slowly whispered a nursery rhyme to herself, a nursery rhyme Batman was all too familiar with.
"Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday."